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Quiroz Brothers: It’s great and it works for us. We don’t really argue or fight when it comes to filmmaking. We’re pretty much on the same wavelength. We tend to think a lot alike. As far as we’re concerned, two heads are better than one. During production, it helps to have another person who thinks like you because when we run into any kind of obstacle on set, one of us will think of a solution. No matter what the problem is on set, we fix it and move on. When on set, there is no time to halt production. It also helps during script writing and pre-production for the same reasons. If we get writer’s block or hit a creative wall, one of us will think of a solution. We just vibe off each other very well. We’ve always been really good storytellers since we were kids and that’s how we’ve always worked. We damn near finish each other’s sentences sometimes. Kind of weird since we’re years apart, but that’s how we work. It’s been over 10 years and 15 features and we still work that way.

HYB: And I see that you are both listed in crew positions other than director like as the cinematographer or editor. Do you prefer to work solo or will you be branching out and hiring new people?

QB: We’d love to not have to do EVERYTHING. We’d like to hire people, but at the moment we do it all. The reason for that is because we are 100% independent. We don’t have millions of dollars and a huge studio behind us, so we literally do everything. We write, direct and produce every film completely. And we love it. Obviously if we could afford to pay more people to do things, we would. But, we will always write, direct, produce, and edit our own stuff. One of us HAS to be there when we edit. We don’t like leaving our work in other peoples hands. Filmmaking is an absolute passion for us. We love it and it’s great to make a living doing what we love to do.

HYB: Ed, You were also listed as Composer on a few of the films. What type of music can you create?

QB: I don’t consider myself much of a composer. I do the best I can within the time frame I have to complete a film. But I can create a few different sounds from Electronic to hip-hop/rap beats.

HYB: I noticed that a lot of your films involve gangs and penitentiaries such as Penitentiary Chances (1998) and Drug Lordz (2003). Do you draw the stories from your own personal experiences?

QB: We grew up on welfare in a low-income community being surrounded by gangs, drugs, homicides, prostitutes, dope fiends, drug dealers and all that madness that plagues poor communities. So I guess some of that is reflected in some of our work. But, out of 15 features, it’s really only a handful of our films that deal with anything of that matter. In reality the first film we ever did was a comedy with an all punk rock soundtrack. We also shot some test footage (about two rolls of 16mm film) for a horror movie that we never did. Also, we were in the middle of a gangster movie similar to “Reservoir Dogs” when we got the offer to do “Penitentiary Chances.” So it’s really only 4 films out of 15 that has any kind of gang/penitentiary themes. Most have been action/gangster flicks. But we’ve gone back to comedy with the pot-head comedy “I Got Five On It.” After that, we started with the horror movies because horror has always been our first love and a distributor finally gave us the opportunity to make horror movies.

HYB: At a certain point you switched from doing Action to Horror movies with vampires, zombies, and serial killers. Why the transition?

QB: The transition was going to happen eventually. I wouldn’t even call it a transition because we’re filmmakers. We can make any genre of film. We’ve seen everything from “Halloween” to “Goonies” to “Dirty Harry” to “Porky’s” and we’ve made dramas, comedies, action and horror. We have favorites in every genre.

HYB: Which genre do you prefer?

QB: Horror wins by a landslide. We’ve been life-long horror fans since we were kids. We grew up on everything from the original “Night Of The Living Dead” to the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Our favorite horror movies are “The Return Of The Living Dead” and “Black Christmas.” If you look through our collection of movies you’ll find a hell of a lot more horror movies than you will any other genre. Our favorite horror films range from “The Thing” to “Deep Red.” To us, horror is the perfect genre of film. It contains every genre within it. We grew up on Fangoria and Gorezone. Once, on a trip through the East Coast, we took a detour just to visit the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania just because the original “Dawn Of The Dead” was filmed there. We’ve gone to Salem, Massachusetts for Halloween several times. We love getting spooked. Halloween has always been our favorite holiday. That’s why we named our company Pumpkin Patch Pictures. Everything about horror has always appealed to us.

HYB: And what is What Wee Man Did Next: Going To Hell (2004)? I couldn’t locate this on IMDB, but I saw some things floating around…

QB: That’s actually the UK title. In the USA the title is simply: “GOING TO HELL.” It’s a prank video we did for one of our distributors. It’s similar to JACKASS but with more unrated stuff that MTV would never allow. We hired Wee-Man and put together several pranks featuring him. Basically a bunch of friends goofing off, pranking people, and pranking each other with some skating and a bad ass punk rock soundtrack. We had shot something similar to this in 1995 called: “Stupid Things That People Do.” It was featured in our first full-length movie that made the festival rounds way back then, way before Jackass or any prank stuff you might see today. Small bits of it made it onto “Going To Hell.”

HYB: You started working with Todd Bridges in I Got Five on It (2005) and he has been in your films since then. How did you meet him and decide to work together?

QB: We called him up through some people that know him. We sent him the script; he liked it and agreed to do it. We hit it off really well and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s met our wives and our kids and we’ve met his wife and his kid. We hang out whenever we’re in the Hollywood area. We call each other all the time and poke fun at each other’s favorite sports teams. He’s a really fun guy. Very down to earth and really fun to work with. He comes to the set very prepared. He knows his lines and he’s just a fun person to work with. We’ve worked with his brother James on “DEATH ROW” and we’re friends with him as well. James is a really good actor by the way. You’ll see his abilities on “DEATH ROW.”

HYB: Some other reoccurring actors are Chris Angelo, Jose Rosete, and Joe Estevez…

QB: Yes. We like to have fun and laugh on set all the time and we like to work with the same people that we vibe well with. These people understand our humor, know how we shoot and obviously like working with us as well. A lot of filmmakers use a lot of the same people in a lot of their movies. From Adam Sandler to John Carpenter to Quentin Tarantino. Even Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez use a lot of the same people. I’m sure for the same reasons that we do as well. They simply get along great with them and they know what each other can bring to the table.

HYB: You shot Hood of the Living Dead (2002) mostly in Oakland, correct? Did you have instances where you had to shoot on the streets guerilla-style?

QB: We shot in Oakland and Hayward and a tiny bit in San Leandro as well and…I know I’m forgetting another place…I just can’t think of it at the moment. We shoot a lot of stuff guerilla-style in all of our movies. We get permission when we can. But when we can’t, we shoot anyway. That’s how you get things done in the independent film world.

HYB: This is a zombie film with heart mainly due to Ricky being a surrogate parent to his younger brother who is later killer in a drive by shooting. Where did this idea come from?

QB: It was just a simple and fast way of turning the younger brother into a zombie. It’s set in the “hood” but it’s not a “hood” movie. It’s a simple zombie film that happens to take place in Oakland. We had to put some kind of “hood” into the movie because of the title. And that idea is a reality to some people in the streets. There are several households without parents.

HYB: Some viewers complained of the lack of gore in this zombie film. Is there a reason you limited the make-up for the zombies?

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QB: I don’t think we limited the make-up at all. The zombies in our film weren’t long-time-dead bodies that were resurrected. They were freshly killed and freshly-turned zombies, so in reality they wouldn’t be rotting and falling apart. The movie actually got several good reviews. Fangoria gave it a good review. Rue Morgue gave it a good review. Sci-Fi Channel gave it a good review. I can e-mail you links to the positive reviews it received. The only negativity it received was from internet posters who nitpicked the stupidest things. I remember reading stuff like “the zombies growls weren’t realistic.” Well, I’d like to know what zombies this guy’s referring to since zombies don’t exist in real life. Another guy said something about a character eating a granola bar right next to a Biohazard container not being “realistic.” Well, obviously this guy’s never been to a doctor’s office before since a used tongue depressor or a used kleenex would be tossed into a “biohazard” container and in real life, one could eat a whole box of granola bars next to a used tongue depressor and it wouldn’t kill you. If any one out there was expecting to see a Romero-like zombie film from the title “HOOD OF THE LIVING DEAD” then something’s wrong with their heads. Those same people should devote that energy into making their own films rather than nitpicking an independent film online. But you know what they say: “Those that CAN, DO, those that CAN’T, CRITICIZE.”

HYB: So tell us about the vampire flick The Damned (2006).

QB: “The Damned” is about three roommates who discover that a small clan of vampires has moved down the street and they try to kill the vampires before the vampires get to them. It’s got a good soundtrack by this bad ass punk group from Virginia called “Ghosts Run Wild.” It’s got some practical effects (blood, ripped open flesh/necks, wooden stakes) and some digital effects as well. That was fun, but torture to film. We had a lot of problems during that shoot. It ended up taking almost twice as long as we planned to complete filming and we had some re-shoots as well.

HYB: The main characters are roommates debating vampires with one being a skeptic. What were the arguments for and against the existence of vampires?

QB: Well, the one roommate was a horror fan. We made him quote lines from horror movies and stuff. So he was the first one to believe. Just as a true horror fan probably would. The one roommate that was a skeptic, well, that was the attitude we wanted to give him. He was sort of the mean one, kind of bully, of the bunch. We just wanted to have some difference between the characters and in reality, as horror fans, we’re more inclined to believe everything we’ve seen in horror movies. You know, where everything we know about vampires is from the countless vampire movies we’ve seen. So we wanted to show the argument that an average person would have, where they would separate fact from fiction because vampires don’t exist in real life.

HYB: In San Franpsycho (2006), your serial killer is stalking women and sending cryptic letters to a reporter in San Francisco. Was this inspired by the Zodiac Killer?

QB: Yes it was. We were originally going to do a Zodiac Killer film, but when we started to work on the story and script, we found out that there were two or three other Zodiac Killer films going into production. So, we ended up making it our own story. It was our first time working with Joe Estevez and he ended up being a great addition to the cast. He’s very easy to get along with and a hell of a talented guy. He can chew scenery with the best of ‘em. He knows his stuff real well. We loved working with him and we hired him again for “DEATH ROW.”

HYB: Speaking of which, tell us about your newest project Death Row (2007).

QB: “DEATH ROW” is a faster-paced slasher film. It’s about 8 inmates who are part of a work-release program that are being stalked and murdered, along with the prison guards, by an unknown killer in and abandoned prison. All the F/X shots are practical. No digital effects. Just good old-fashioned blood and guts (provided by Ed Martinez).

We filmed in a real abandoned prison over a period of about 14 days. It was a hell of a lot of fun to shoot and we all had a blast. We actually miss going to that set every day and it is probably our favorite project that we’ve done so far.

HYB: How did you gain access to a real prison?

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Todd Bridges in Death Row

QB: We actually got that place at the last minute. The original prison we were going to shoot in fell through like 8 days before filming, so we had to find a replacement prison literally a week before shooting began. My wife and I went and visited the prison. I took a digital camera and we sent the pictures through e-mail to our cinematographer and we ended up liking it a lot. We got permits to shoot there a few days before filming began and so we ended up filming the majority of the movie there. It was great. We had the whole place to ourselves for 14 days. We filmed all over the place. We also filmed on a haunted ship for a few scenes. “DEATH ROW” will be released on DVD on January 30th, 2007.

HYB: Will we be seeing you at the Fangoria Convention in San Jose this month?

QB: Yes. We’ll be doing a world premiere screening of “DEATH ROW” at the convention as well as a Q & A panel on stage with some of the cast and crew including Joe Estevez.

HYB: So is next for Pumpkin Patch Pictures?

QB: We can’t really say much, but we’re currently working on two horror scripts and a comedy script for a major player in the film world. We’ll just leave it at that.