An Interview with The Schuyler Sisters of The Wizard Rockumentary

A Movie About Rocking and Rowling http://www.wizardrockumentary.com/

Faith McKay

The following interview is about the The Wizard Rockumentary, and is mainly done with the assumption that you know what Wizard Rock is. Wizard Rock is music inspired by the Harry Potter series. The music varies in genre and subject matter, but all somehow applies to the wizarding (Harry Potter) world. For more information on Wizard Rock, please check out http://wizrocklopedia.com/

FantasyIsLove.com:
To get us started, maybe you could give a brief explanation of who you are, and what “The Wizard Rockumentary” is.

Mallory and Megan:
Could you have started with anything broader? j/k
We are 21 year old sisters (twins, incidently) living in Spokane, Washington. Megan works for a video production company as a producer and editor, so she brings all of the technical, movie-making knowledge to our partnership. I (Mallory) am an aspiring writer and artist and am currently managing an art gallery/bookstore, so I bring additional creative storytelling skills. We are both major Harry Potter fans, as well as fantasy in general, and we discovered Wizard Rock back in 2004. Like so many, we have been very empowered by the HP books and wanted to contribute something to the fandom. This past summer The Wizard Rockumentary presented itself when we realized that Wizard Rock was still relatively unknown and had the potential to bring a lot of joy to the vast population of Harry Potter fans.Through the Wizard Rockumentary we are documenting the exciting and inspiring stories of a diverse group of young musicians/HP fans who perform music from the perspectives of a myriad of characters: from the Whomping Willow, to Moaning Myrtle, various magical creatures and baddies, and of course the trio themselves. We are also documenting other manifestations of HP-inspired creativity, including fan fic, fan art, etc.

FantasyIsLove.com says:
So what did you film as part of this documentary?

Mallory and Megan:
We've interviewed and filmed performances of about 16 WR bands, ranging in age from 4 years old to 30-something, as well as librarians, published HP-supplemental authors, the founder of the HP lexicon, Emerson of Mugglenet and Melissa and John Noe of the Leaky Cauldron, as well as fan fic writers, fan artists, and the good ol' WR fans from across the country and around the world

FantasyIsLove.com:
So you traveled to interview all of these people? That must have been fun, any favorite filming moments?

Mallory and Megan
Getting lost in New Jersey, driving into NYC with Liz from wizrocklopedia.com during rush hour (all of us wearing WR t-shirts. We're trendsetters, oh yeah.), seeing a Chamber of Secrets poster that was signed by the cast and crew in Drama of Switchblade Kittens' apartment, meeting so many great HP fans at the Lumos symposium in Vegas (amazing costumes) Grace from Snidget had to finally reveal to her family that she had a WR band because we were flying to Virginia to interview her Megan taping the WR concert at Lumos from on stage, going to our first Ren Faire to interview The Parselmouths (dressed as fairies), catching our first water quidditch game, Mallory getting bribed by Lucius Malfoy to stop asking questions about Draco's suspicious relationship with Moaning Myrtle... we have a lot of favorites... the whole process has been a blast and we've met so many incredible people and visited places we'd have never made an excuse to go to otherwise.

FantasyIsLove.com:
I suppose I should have asked this first, but how long did you guys spend filming?

Mallory and Megan
Our fist shoot was July 1st 2006, with Molly from Roonil Wazlib. We never looked back from there, and the trips just kept coming.... We traveled more in the 5 months of off and on shooting than we have in the rest of our lives! The challenge has been scheduling as much as we can into every trip, and only traveling on weekends as much as possible, due to the fact that we both work full time. It seemed to work out though! We have captured over 40 hours of footage, and except for a few possible pick-up shots, we are wrapped and heavy into editing mode.

FantasyIsLove.com
What do people generally say when you tell them you're making this documentary and all that you're doing for it?

Mallory and Megan
It depends on if they are Harry Potter fans or not! Fans usually think it's cool and ask when we'll be selling T-shirts, but most people get a chuckle out of it. It's kind of a joke where I (Megan) work... everyone asks how the "Harry Potter-thing" is going, and tease me just cause its such a quirky topic, but they are slowly coming around and we've successfully converted a number of muggles into wizards-in-training! One of my coworkers even started his own WR band! Our family and friends are very supportive though.
Shout out to Jonelle, Hannah and the rest of our peeps!

FantasyIsLove.com
That's so great! Maybe you'll have to rope some of them into helping you edit.

Mallory and Megan
That'd be great, I like your thinking

FantasyIsLove.com
It must be rough, deciding what stays and what goes. How long do you expect the finished product to be?

Mallory and Megan
We are shooting for feature length, so it'll be somewhere between 85 - 120 minutes... it IS tough to cut stuff out, but it only makes the finished piece stronger.

FantasyIsLove.com
How are you going to distribute the film? Or really, how are we going to be able to see it?

Mallory and Megan
We plan to debut the film through a film festival-that-must-not-be-named. That COULD lead to a distribution deal, but at the very least it will be available on DVD through our website. WE PROMISE it will be available upon completion... this stuff is too good to keep to ourselves hee hee hee!

FantasyIsLove.com
So any idea on when it will be completed?

Mallory and Megan
We hope to have a rough cut by May, and all of the finishing touches (color treatment, graphics, audio mix) completed by September. Which means we could have a DVD by the end of the year

FantasyIsLove.com
I look forward to it!
In closing, would you like to give a quick "Why you should be listening to Wizard Rock!" shoutout?

Mallory and Megan
If you're an uber HP freak like us you want Harry to inundate every corner of your life, including the music you listen to. But really, there's something for everyone. The WR community houses wizard rappers, folk singers, rockers, metalheads, and virtually every other type of music known to man- and wizardkind. There is a range in musical experience, but there is a lot of talent out there being exhibited by a lot of really super cool people, and the lyrics will make any HP fan remember why they liked the books in the first place. Music has a way of exemplifying the emotions you feel for the characters, so it is a powerful new way to experience your love for this story.

FantasyIsLove.com
Nicely put! It was fun talking with you, and I really am excited to see the finished product. Do you have anything else you'd like to have said?

Mallory and Megan
Just that these young musicians are simply amazing. They are gaining so much through this community that they've created, many of them writing and performing original music for the first time, learning new technology, promoting literacy, and just having one heck of a good time. It's very inspiring. I think that's all. Thanks so much for chatting... Wizard Rock on!!!

For more information on The Wizard Rockumentary, visit the WizardRockumentary.com http://www.wizardrockumentary.com/