FEMALE SWORDFIGHTS! - ZFA INTERVIEWS THE CRIMSON BOUNDER CREATORS PARKER RAWLINS AND WILLIAM COWSER

Zepstone Film Awards loves it when creators can take classic themes and give them a unique spin. We had the opportunity to interview The Crimson Bounder directors Parker Rawlins and William Cowser about the inspiration behind the film, challenges they faced, and the ultimate message they hope to spread with this swashbucking tale. This well-done epic won the following awards at the September edition of ZFA: Best LGBTQ+ Film, Best Action/Adventure Film, Best Actress, Best Sound Design, and Best Producer.

ZFA: What got you started in this industry?

Parker & William: We both developed our interests in film at a very young age. We later met in college at SUU, and after bonding over our shared love and passion for the art form, we decided to start making our films together as creative partners under the moniker of "The Aud Brothers". Since then, we’ve made more than a dozen shorts together and have written a handful of features we hope to get produced in the near future.

ZFA: Who/what was your biggest influence?

Parker & William: Our biggest influence on The Crimson Bounder was definitely swashbuckler films across all of Hollywood history, ranging from The Adventures of Robin Hood to The Princess Bride. One specific star that we drew a ton of inspiration from was Maureen O’Hara - specifically her work in At Sword’s Point and Against All Flags. She was one of the few prominent female sword fighters in Hollywood history and served as the primary prototype for our lead character.

ZFA: Where did you film this project? How long did it take?

Parker & William: We shot at the Utah State Hospital - not in the hospital itself, but they own an amphitheater on the mountain with a cool medieval kind of look to it. It has this small interior space that was perfect for what we needed. Principal photography took 3 days, but that was after about 6 months of pre-production and fundraising.

ZFA: What was your biggest challenge during the creation of The Crimson Bounder?

Arguably the biggest challenge we faced was trying to make a period piece sword fighting film as a pair of grad students. Conventional wisdom is to make films about what you know and what’s available to you, but we both sat down and just said “what would we really love to make?”. The answer we landed on was that it would be a ton of fun to make a swashbuckler. Once we decided on that, we quickly realized just how many hurdles we’d created for ourselves.

ZFA: What was the most memorable moment on set?

There were so many great memories on set, but the one that stands out the most was a moment between set-ups when a tiny little mouse peeked his head up through a crack in the floor to see what all the commotion was. Everyone instantly fawned over it, offering him pieces of snacks to nibble on and snapping pictures. Our DP even grabbed the camera and got some footage of him before he scurried off (which unfortunately didn’t make the final cut, much to the dismay of our cast and crew).

ZFA: What would you like this message to accomplish?

We just hope that our film can spread the message that everything and everyone we love has a place in cinema. For us, The Crimson Bounder was a chance to work with a bygone genre we love so much, while also challenging the era’s harmful and limited ideologies around gender and sexuality. We want our film to promote inclusivity, old-school genre film, and sword fights!!

ZFA: Where can we find you? How can we follow your work?

You can find us at our official Instagram profile @audbros or at our personal pages @parkerrawlins and @williamcowser, as well as our film’s official page at @thecrimsonbounder.