New Horror Project
We've been working on a short horror film over the last week, trying out fake blood recipes, shooting bits of test video, developing a script, building characters, working out the nuts and bolts and all because I watched the first two Hellraiser movies and decided I want in. Yep, I want to be involved in the process of screening tales of disturbed people doing bad things.
So far what I've got is a story of identical twin brothers, which is brilliant because I can play both of them. A genius solution to the problem of not knowing how to do this yet and not wanting to expose anyone else to my learning process or to my no-budget approach to doing everything, which some might find confrontingly loser-adjacent.
We're doing it all in this flat because there's going to be a lot of blood. All the blood is happening in the bathroom and kitchen area because red food dye is probably hard to get out of the walls and carpet of a rental property. We've been shooting video of blood recipe tests by pouring it over me in the shower, which harks back to the terrible Australian movie, Thirst.
I fixated first up on blood because it's a high impact but inexpensive special effect. Every decision about the story is also about solving the problem of how we can make it happen. I want body parts in a garbage bag? Cool, but I can only think of expensive ways to do that, so what if I just get in a bag? Cool, but how about a laundry bag to show off the horrible bloodstains? And while I'm writing this it occurs to me that the body in the bag could also be talking, which would be horrible. Cool.
I'm finding that going over one detail like this always results in helpful ideas about the story. It's brilliant. Not everything that comes up seems brilliant. I wanted the disturbed main dude to be doing zombie like aerobics to an 80's VHS tape, so we did a test and what came out looked like it had a creepy sex guy edge, which is not what I'm going for, but something will come out of that. I did stand up comedy, which is all about going through a process to come up with (very) short stories. You have to just push through the moments that feel dodgy or you'll never do anything.
I am seeing that horror is just normality taken to an extreme. The disturbed main character is just an extreme version of a shut-in. A reclusive creative type who won't talk to anyone else about what he's doing and is in a downward spiral of becoming convinced he is a god. So the dude is a collection of all the worst tendencies of me and all my artist friends.
My partner helps me with all this shit and is right into it, despite not being a big fan of horror. Amen.
So far what I've got is a story of identical twin brothers, which is brilliant because I can play both of them. A genius solution to the problem of not knowing how to do this yet and not wanting to expose anyone else to my learning process or to my no-budget approach to doing everything, which some might find confrontingly loser-adjacent.
We're doing it all in this flat because there's going to be a lot of blood. All the blood is happening in the bathroom and kitchen area because red food dye is probably hard to get out of the walls and carpet of a rental property. We've been shooting video of blood recipe tests by pouring it over me in the shower, which harks back to the terrible Australian movie, Thirst.
I fixated first up on blood because it's a high impact but inexpensive special effect. Every decision about the story is also about solving the problem of how we can make it happen. I want body parts in a garbage bag? Cool, but I can only think of expensive ways to do that, so what if I just get in a bag? Cool, but how about a laundry bag to show off the horrible bloodstains? And while I'm writing this it occurs to me that the body in the bag could also be talking, which would be horrible. Cool.
I'm finding that going over one detail like this always results in helpful ideas about the story. It's brilliant. Not everything that comes up seems brilliant. I wanted the disturbed main dude to be doing zombie like aerobics to an 80's VHS tape, so we did a test and what came out looked like it had a creepy sex guy edge, which is not what I'm going for, but something will come out of that. I did stand up comedy, which is all about going through a process to come up with (very) short stories. You have to just push through the moments that feel dodgy or you'll never do anything.
I am seeing that horror is just normality taken to an extreme. The disturbed main character is just an extreme version of a shut-in. A reclusive creative type who won't talk to anyone else about what he's doing and is in a downward spiral of becoming convinced he is a god. So the dude is a collection of all the worst tendencies of me and all my artist friends.
My partner helps me with all this shit and is right into it, despite not being a big fan of horror. Amen.
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