Old Henry director Potsy Ponciroli and cinematographer John Matysiak

Director and writer Potsy Ponciroli was scouting a location for
another movie in the countryside just outside Nashville, Tennessee
when he saw a historic old house built in the early 1900's at the
bottom of a valley. He began thinking about how lonely and isolated
a person living in that house might be, and it planted the seed of
an idea to write Old Henry. Potsy ended up using that exact
location, shooting in that house and the surrounding area. He and
cinematographer John Matysiak set out to capture the feel of a
classic western- a simple story taking place in the old west,
showing how hard life was at that time. Old Henry is an action
western starring Tim Blake Nelson as a farmer with a teen son
living alone on their farm. Against his better judgement, Henry
takes in a wounded stranger with a bag full of cash. Soon enough, a
posse comes looking for the wanted man and Henry and his son must
defend their homestead. Potsy approached Tim Blake Nelson to star
in the film, and the two met several times over Zoom to discuss
ideas from their favorite westerns. Soon, Nelson was also on board
as an executive producer. During preproduction, Potsy and DP John
Matysiak walked around the location, reading the scenes from the
script, checking out different angles and shotlisting each moment.
Shooting in a real homestead built in the 1900's was very
challenging due to the small rooms with low ceilings and small
windows that didn't let in much natural light. To keep the look
fresh in such a limited space, they carefully figured out what
scenes would be in what rooms and made sure they weren't shot
back-to-back. John first met Potsy when they were working on a
television show in Nashville together. When Potsy showed him the
Old Henry script, John liked the ideas he had for keeping the film
small and plot driven until it builds to the finale. John is
passionate about finding a visual language for the world he's
creating with the art of cinematography. He did as much research as
he could for that time period, looking at old photographs and
paintings from the early 1900's Old West to get a feel for how
people lived at that time. He was influenced by more recent
westerns such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford and Hostiles. John Matysiak and Ben Rock actually met
through the group Filmmakers Alliance and John worked on Ben's
short film, Conversations as a gaffer back in 2003. Find Potsy
Ponciroli: Instagram @getpotsy Find John Matysiak: Instagram
@john_matysiak Old Henry premiered at the Venice Film Festival and
is currently playing in theaters and will be on demand on October
15th. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show
notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep143/ Sponsored by Hot Rod
Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Assemble: Assemble has
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