Robert Bowen

He is the filmmaker of E is for Expiation Dollar Baby film.

SKSM: Could you start with telling me a little bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?

Robert Bowen: Sure thing. First off, thank you so much for the interview and highlight of our film! So excited to dive in. I would say I was a former Army brat who, at an early stage of my life, developed a love of storytelling. So I guess, at my core, I would say I am a storyteller. I tell stories.

That presents itself in a number of ways in my life, and through my pen. I started as a poet and writer of short stories, before my pen and sights grew towards the stage and eventually the screen. And for the last almost 13 years, I have been an independent filmmaker leading a brand and production companies called Whatsabudget Films and Permanent Marker Productions.

I also do freelance videography and editing work, as well as teaching a random film related college class from time to time. And I am currently enrolled in a Masters program for Applied Media Studies pursuing a goal of developing strategies and  courses for media literacy curriculum aimed at primary education-aged students.

SKSM: When did you know you wanted to become a filmmaker?

Robert Bowen: I think I followed my pen first and foremost, which also stoked and stirred a desire to act as well. I liked performing. I did stage acting and went to college the first time on an acting scholarship for theatre. As such, I started writing plays. And as I started getting more interested in acting in film, I started writing scripts too. It was in the early 2000’s that I started leaning more towards the screen for my storytelling. But after writing multiple scripts and having no one show any interest in producing them, I decided to dive into those waters and start producing my own work for myself in the Spring of 2012.

I made my first short that Summer, and instantly fell in love with the form. I was sold on it then and there, and I wanted to learn all I could about this magically collaborative medium.

SKSM: When did you make E is for Expiation? Can you tell me a little about the production? How much did it cost? How long did it take to film it?

Robert Bowen: We shot the film over the course of six days in May of 2024. And then I immediately took it into post and began editing it. So we had the final cut of the film ready and shared with cast and crew and all our crowdfunding supporters by early June. We started a crowdfunding campaign to raise a very modest budget of $20,000. Unfortunately, we only got about a quarter of that. But we were luckey in so many ways, mostly in that what we raised was enough to cover those costs that we could not offset, or beg/borrow our way around like we tend to do on our shorts for Whatsabudget.

And like with most of our shorts, all of our amazing cast/crew came to the project passionately dedicated and knowing about our budgetary limitations and that we would not be able to compensate them as we should. But they were there, and they gave it their all each and every day on set. We attempted to gain access to any of the casinos we have in the area (Cripple Creek, CO being an hour away) to film much of the main story’s action, but after many promising initial contacts, none actually came through with a green light. Which ended up being a small blessing budget/logistics wise, as the amount of resources it would have taken to pull that off, with full control of lighting and sound just wasn’t at our disposal.

But with a stroke of luck, and with the aid of the indie film gods, we did end up getting into one of the casinos down there (thank you, Johnny Nolon’s) for several b-roll and establishing shots we absolutely needed. All owing to the awesomeness of one of their bartenders, Angelica, who saw us filming other scenes in the alley across the street and curiously inquired about our film crew. She was the one who ended up setting it all up for us to get in there later that evening to get the gold! She really came through for us, and I cannot thank her enough.

SKSM: Why did you changed the original title from Luckey Quarter into E is for Expiation?

Robert Bowen: Like with all deviations I made from the source material, I really agonized over and struggled with them. In the end, the title change amounted to half nodding to a favorite of King adaptations I have long been a fan of (The Mist), and half acknowledging the magicks I saw as being at play in the original story. That, mixed with a desire to have an answer for the purposeful misspelling of “luckey” in the short story. I wanted there to be a deeper meaning as to why the extraneous “e” was there in the first place. Given the brevity of King’s original, that was never something that he explored.

The meaning behind the “e” ended up being a major aspect to our adaptation, so I decided I would name the film after that study, or deep dive into its meaning/reason for being included. Hence the title.

SKSM: How come you picked Luckey Quarter to develop into a movie? What is it in the story that you like so much?

Robert Bowen: When I first started making films under the Whatsabudget banner, being an artist living simply, and of little means, I had to make sure I could adapt my script writing style into the achievable. Meaning I shifted towards penning stories that our lack of budget could still effectively navigate/manage. Aside from being set outside of Colorado, most of the story felt so accessible and easily achievable. Not to mention the themes of family, class, and more that the story had in it, really spoke to me. Proving the perfect vehicle for some of our usual brand of cinematic social commentary. All of that made Luckey Quarter an easy choice to adapt.

SKSM: Why did you decide to shoot the entire film in black and white?

Robert Bowen: That was all the brilliant idea of our producer/cinematographer Travis Eckland. He came to me early on with that pitch, and being that I am such a sucker for B&W visuals and storytelling, I was immediately like “YES!!” And I loved the way it served the narrative, as typically when one thinks of casinos and gaming you think of lights and bright colors. But if one were to look at it all from the perspective of someone who works in it, whose daily grind was steeped in all of that, like the character Darlene, it could be easy to see how one might view it differently. See it devoid of all that glitz and glamour. So the black and white made perfect sense to me, thematically speaking.

SKSM: Can you tell us about your experience on this Dollar Baby film? Was everything planned ahead or did some things change during filming?

Robert Bowen: As with all films, planning is vital for a lot of the production to happen on time and within budget. But as with all indie films, a certain amount of adaptation is always to be expected. And so no matter how well you think you have all your ducks in a row, there are some things you just won’t see coming. For example, due to some communication errors, we had to recast the role of Jane the day before we filmed those scenes. All props to Kala for coming in so last minute and still just nailing it! But she should have had more time than that.

Same for Lilliana, I need to throw some props to her as well for the scenes in the hotel lobby between her character, Patsy (Darlene’s daughter), and Erynn (who plays Darlene). As well as the bit with Bob’s Old Man character too. Originally Paul was supposed to appear in those scenes along with his sister, and even have some lines of dialogue too. However, there were issues that day with getting Anthony to set during our window of availability to shoot in the hotel’s lobby due to some things that had come up with his family. So we had to adapt those sequences at the last minute, and give that extra bit of dialogue to Lilli (which she handled like an absolute champ).

SKSM: You wear a lot of hats in the film. What were your greatest satisfactions and challenges in these roles?

Robert Bowen: Indeed. In typical Whatsabudget fashion, I do tend to fill quite a few roles behind the scenes. As the writer, getting permission to adapt an actual story by the great Stephen King was a dream come true. Penning the script was the first bit of satisfaction that really landed, as well as one of the biggest challenges. Adapting someone else’s work and staying true to the source material and its heart can be quite a daunting task.

From a producer’s standpoint, it was so great to be able to assemble such an amazing team of collaborators (so many of whom I had worked with time and again on previous productions). But with so many moving pieces and extras involved in our biggest shoot day (shooting the roulette room sequence), the sheer amount of coordination involved in pulling that together and off, was one the most challenging days to arrange/organize.

That day was also quite the challenge as a director too. I had to manage over 30 individuals on set at once during the course of that day, which was the most I had ever worked with at any one time. Again, the key to which was having the right team assembled. But when we wrapped that evening, and on time to boot, I was epically proud of our team and all we had managed to accomplish.

SKSM: Were there unexpected moments or difficulties during the making of the film that have become a new point of view?

Robert Bowen: I think we were luckey in that regard as well. Given that we had made dozens of short films prior to this one, there were not too many unexpected hurdles that presented themselves at all, and most we were able to adapt to with ease, and without having to really compromise too much. Other than the aforementioned casino difficulties, which did prove fortuitous in their ways. For as I had not considered until we were having those issues, that our ability to have 100% control of the environment (sound, lighting, etc) would have been extremely limited in those circumstances. So we did have to “build” our own casino floor in a location that afforded us the control we needed. Which was a perspective I had not been focused on while initially penning/planning the shoot.

SKSM: You say that locations have been the biggest challenge. What was the reason for this?

Robert Bowen: I think it was just in finding a location that we could construct a casino inside of. That was probably the biggest challenge. Being able to capture that vibe and sense of space was not easy. But also, I think, like in relation to getting approval to film inside the casinos, there are just so many layers of approval needed when you go through the proper channels. Everyone at each link in the leadership chain that the notion gets sent up has to sign off and send it forward up to the next. So there are lots of opportunities for balls to get dropped. And for differences of opinion to complicate the process. So while the initial event managers that I spoke with in attempts to arrange our shoots all seemed to love the idea and see no issues with us getting approval, when those requests were passed off to their bosses, things got derailed and no one ever got back to us.

SKSM: You made some changes from the original story. I personally loved it, but how do you think (or would you like) the audience to react?

Robert Bowen: I did. I would hope that the audience would recieve those changes in the loving and respectful spirit with which they were included in the first place, but changes can certainly throw people off. I would hope that they know nothing changed was in anyway meant as a flex or sparked from a notion of “needs improvement” because that certainly was not why anything got altered from the original. There was nothing about the story that needed anything, nor do I think myself in any way qualified to address it if there were.

Truly, it was all stemming from a personal moment of crisis wherein, I knew this was likely my only legitimate chance to ever get to work with the King’s words and worlds. And while Luckey Quarter spoke to me on a level of capability of achievement, as a fan and horror junkie, I just couldn’t bring myself to make a King story without injecting a little bit of horror into a story that lacked that element to begin with. So hopefully it surprises them, and catches them off guard, but not in a way that takes them out of the story or incites them to anger over the alterations.

SKSM: You add a character to your film that I loved, I mean The Old Man character. Tell us about him, how did you come up with the idea of ​​including him in the story?

Robert Bowen: Yeah, exactly. So from the previous answer, knowing that I wanted to add some horror elements to the story, that was the first thread that led me to the Old Man. That coupled with my desire to have a reason for the misspelling of lucky in the note that was left with the “tip” gave rise to the figure who seems to be representing and gaurding over the dispersement of luck that the quarter has to give. An avatar of the magicks at work. And that’s what brought about that addition and change to the story. Along with the King universe easter egg I played with and dropped in with the leaver of the “tip”, I wanted the avatar to stand apart from the character who starts this whole journey for Darlene. To more be an agent of them than anything else.

And I originally was envisioning a character like the Reverend Henry Kane from Poltergeist II when I first introduced the Old Man on the page, but Bob did such amazing vocal work on his own to come up with the voice for the character, and it just worked so perfectly. The voice was so creepy and effective that we steered into Bob’s interpretation of the character and it just carried such weight and unsettled me in such a way that I was instantly on board with. I knew we had made the right choice for the Old Man.

SKSM: What has this experience left you from a professional and human point of view?

Robert Bowen: Growing up and cutting my proverbial teeth on the works of Stephen King, and having him be one of the writers who helped shape my own creative voice from (perhaps too early) an age, getting the chance to adapt his work and create a film that “exists” in his canon, is just an absolute dream come true. Beyond anything I could have imagined. To see the film as a finished work, and to know that I had a hand in that, just professionally and personally means more than I can express in words. Maybe with interpretive dance, but this is hardly the medium for that.

I love to tell stories with a large lens focused on the human condition and the humanity (or lack thereof) of the characters. And Luckey Quarter really gives one the opportunity to do just that. There’s so much heart and truth in Darlene’s struggles as a single mother, and in the class system like we have in the United States, so from a human point of view, the experience was extremely fulfilling too. It certainly scratched that itch for me as well as the more creative ones it satisfied.

SKSM: Were any movie fragments cut out that you now miss?

Robert Bowen: No, not really. As one of my friends and frequent collaborators, Ian Brander, likes to say about my work style, I have a very developed and locked in idea of how the story will all flow and cut together in the edit when I am writing and shooting it. Meaning I don’t tend to end up with a lot of extra coverage, or things of that nature. So pretty much everything we shot, we used in the film.

We also had a 45 minute time limit as per the contract, so that was really the only concern I had at first. That we might have to make cuts for time if the pacing I was envisioning drew things out too long. But luckily, that was not the case either, and we landed just at the 45 minute mark credits and all. So very little outside of extra takes ended up on the cutting room floor as they say.

SKSM: Can you share with us any significant moment or memories that happened on set?

Robert Bowen: For one, I got to work with Alex Fahl for the first time on one of my sets versus us working together on other people’s films. This won’t mean a lot to most people, but to me, it was everything. Alex is such a talented professional, and an icon here in the Colorado independent film scene, that Travis arranging for him to be there on our most critical of days, was a phenomenal boon and get for the project. It really upped our game, so to speak, as far as the production value and mood that Travis and Alex were able to capture.

Seeing how much Lilli and Erynn bonded on set, and how close they became in such a short time was really special too. It really added to their on-screen chemistry as mother and daughter. Lilli also mentioned on her last day being sad that she wasn’t going to be filming with us anymore, and that she wished we could just keep filming forever. That was extremely moving too.

Beyond that, working on the project with Ralph Giordano, a longtime friend and someone else who is widely known in the scene, being dubbed “the Godfather of Colorado indie film” was huge. Ralph was on one of the very first teams of filmmakers to get to make a Dollar Baby film when the program first opened over 30 years ago. He was there at the very start of it all. And so, especially once we found out the program had been officially closed at the end of 2023, getting to have him on set, and to work with us on one of the last Dollar Baby films to be made, meant a lot. It was so special to get to be a small part of that history anyway, but to have Ralph come on board and close that circle with us for Colorado indie film was very significant for me.

SKSM: Mr. King’s original short story was set in Nevada, but you moved the setting to Colorado. Is there a special reason?

Robert Bowen: That’s where we are all based, aside from Erynn who is in L.A. now and had to fly herself out to be in the film. So setting it in CO made sense for us, especially with our budget limitations. Plus since it was set outside of Las Vegas, which we knew we couldn’t compete with locally, in terms of matching the amenities and more expectations wise, Cripple Creek seemed perfect to match a smaller Nevada town. And it didn’t feel like it would be a choice that took away from the story at all, so I was further okay narratively making the switch.

SKSM: Do you plan to screen the movie at a particular festival?

Robert Bowen: We are still eyeing out the festival run for the film, so while we know we will try to get it out to multiple festivals, at the moment, we don’t have any specific plans or trajectories mapped.

SKSM: Tell us about your other films. What project are you most proud of with the final result?

Thanks! Yeah, with over 60 shorts in our ouevre (and closing in on 70) it is always hard to pick favorites out of the bunch. Typically, what I am working on currently, or my last finished project tends to be the ones that stick out in my mind the most, but that’s just because they are the most current. And so when I say that Takers (2024) is one I am most proud of, with it being our next one up for release online, it seems like I am just following that trend. But really, with the scope and scale of it too, being an homage to Guy Ritchie’s british gangster films, and landing at just over 30 minutes in length, I am really proud of that story with its various twists and turns.

It screened recently at a local event for indie filmmakers to showcase their work, and was received really well. It even landed me an interview with a local arts and entertainment reporter who was at the event and really loved the film. They highlighted and touched on so many aspects of the story that I was really proud of and happy with, so to know that those elements resonated like I wanted, was very nice to hear. So I am extremely proud of Takers.

SKSM: How did you find out that King sold the movie rights to some of his stories for just $1? Was it just a wild guess or did you know it before you sent him the check?

Robert Bowen: Yeah, I had heard of the Dollar Baby program before, but it never really registered with me. However, as 2023 got underway, luckily, it landed once more on my radar with a much more determined and distinct “ping” to grab my attention. And since it would be the final year of the program, I am really glad that it did. And so when you went to the website it laid out the whole program, and provided a list of short stories that were open for the program participants to choose from.

SKSM: Are you a Stephen King fan? If so, which are your favorite works and adaptations?

Robert Bowen: I am indeed. Have been for a long time. And nowadays it is absolutely any of the Mike Flanagan adaptations of his stories. Those would absolutely rank as some of my favorites. But even though he himself is not a fan, the Kubrick adaptation of The Shining also ranks still very high on my list (my wife and I even stayed at the famed Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO, the inspiration for the overlook hotel for our anniversary years ago). Frank Darabont’s The Mist adaptation is another that holds a high position on my list as well. If just for the pacing and intensity that it maintains throughout the film.

Those are some of my favorite adapted works today, but I grew up as a huge fan of Creepshow and Maximum Overdrive, Firestarter and more. The original TV mini-series they did of his works were always great in my mind as well. Loved and watched them all. It, Rose Red, The Tommyknockers, The Stand, and even The Langoliers. So the adaptations were always a part of my days.

But as far as favorite works, definitely the short stories of Four Past Midnight remain as some of my most cherished of his works/words. I don’t know why they have stuck with me the way they have, but their hold is strong. “The Library Policeman” bothers me still to this day. “The Langoliers” is such an amazing tale too, but “The Sun Dog” is by far, my top, well dog. Lol Such a gripping and tense story, perfectly penned. Truly, if I had open reign to adapt any of his works myself, it would be that one. Especially now that “The Long Walk” is already being done (high hopes for that one too, as I’ve long loved that story).

SKSM: Did you have any personal contact with King during the making of the movie? Has he seen it (and if so, what did he think about it)?

Robert Bowen: Not with him personally. As part of the contract, you agree to send a DVD copy of the finished film to King, to be part of his storied library of adapted works, which according to the legend, he watches them all. So he either has seen it by now, or perhaps will in the future? But we did send the DVD, so fingers crossed! Ralph mentioned that they got a small handwritten note back from King after they sent in their film, but that was at the start of the program, so not sure if that was something he typically does for all the entrants, or maybe just something he did in the beginning. Or if their film moved him to make the comment and send the note. Either way, we hope that he will see the film, and that he won’t be too bothered or upset by the changes that we made.

SKSM: What are you working on nowadays?

Robert Bowen: I am currently editing a new horror short film we wrapped up in November called Sleep Tight, and planning for a new horror short we are filming in January titled What They Do In the Shadows. While also putting pieces in place to shoot both a new poetry short film and a new film noir short in Spring of ’25. I also have two friends who I am assisting with their upcoming short films in January. So it is already shaping up to be a busy New Year of indie projects, which I am always stoked about. I love to see the community here keep growing and producing new work. We have a very active community here in CO overall, but the Springs (as we refer to them locally) are churning out some very impressive, consistent films too. Both short and feature, narrative and documentary. So it’s an awesome community to be immersed in.

SKSM: What one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Robert Bowen: I’m not really sure. I don’t think I am that surprising a chap. Perhaps, even bordering on boring. So maybe that would be a shock to some? Though, probably not if they knew me. Lol

I feel like, as a filmmaker and a poet, I am pretty transparent in my takes on life, the universe and everything. I try to be pretty straightforward, so what you get from the films (and even my socials), probably paints a pretty accurate portrait of Rob. My stories may have twists, but alas, I am likely less twisty. More twisted, yes, but less surprise turns.

SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything you want to say to the fans that read this interview?

Robert Bowen: Again, thank you for the interview and highlighting of our work. It’s means so much. As does anyone taking the time to read through my rambling answers here. Lol Truly, I appreciate any and everyone’s time and consideration that are given to any of our work. I know there is a lot of content out there competing with our little YouTube channel, and Whatsabudget‘s presence on the web, so always grateful for what we get.

SKSM: Would you like to add anything else?

Robert Bowen: Again, we are no-budget outfit producing shorts with a range of talented people all dedicated and devoted to the craft and highlighting the talent in our area of Colorado, so we appreciate the word of mouth, and anyone who would like to follow and subscribe to what we are doing. We welcome it, and it warms our hearts. From Whatsabudget’s channel on YouTube, to our website (whatsabudget.com) where we share our latest with Director’s notes and further insights into the films. So please check us out, and keep an eye on the CO indie film scene!