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You've only very recently made your first movie, Devil's
Idol, which is a bit of an hommage to cult horror in general - so
what were your inspirations behind making the movie? First
off, I have always been a crazy fan of horror films, right
from a kid who stayed up to watch Hammer
horrors on late night
TV. I have collected films from the old days of Super 8mm, to
VHS, to laserdisc, DVD and now Blu-ray, and I never tire of
finding new titles to add, or memorabilia to display. Over the
years I have followed the collector festivals, and met fellow
horror fans. The wonders of the internet, now mean that so
many horror groups exist, and fans can chat together, or meet
at conventions and festivals, and it has really brought so
many people together who would normally never get the chance
to share their love of this genre. The other great thing of
course, is that you can also get to meet the stars of these
films too, as well as people involved in the production side.
You also get to chat with creative folk who are interested in
making their own movies, and I have had inspiration from some
cool people like Emma Dark [Emma
Dark interview - click here] and Jason Read, through the
wonderful Misty Moon organisation. In fact, it was through
them that I got to fulfill a lifetime ambition of appearing in
a horror movie in the first place, when I helped crowdfund
their production of Ripper
Tour. Acting opposite the legend
that is Lynn Lowry was a treasured experience I can tell you,
and I struck lucky a second time with a fun cameo part in
another film they made called Ready For My
Close Up, which of course you, Michael, wrote for them [Michael
Haberfelner interview - click here]. So with my interest reaching such
levels to now go from fan to actor in these kind of films, I
then started toying with the idea of actually making one
myself. To be honest, I had tried a few abortive attempts at a
horror film during the Super 8mm days when I was a teenager,
but they came to nothing. I tried again in the 80's with a VHS
camera to get some friends involved in a little horror opus
that was going to see a mad killer running through a house at
night, but that fell flat when people dropped out and lost
interest. So the idea of actually making a film has always
been lingering in my mind, but a mixture of lack of
opportunity, or time, or money, or inspiration, all stopped
anything from happening.
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What's rather
remarkable is that you made this, your first, movie while the country was
under lockdown - so what triggered you to take the plunge exactly then? It was after speaking with Emma Dark
a few weeks ago when she mentioned the isolation film makers
project that she was involved with, that set the idea off in
my head. She
really inspired me to have a go, and with so much free time on
my hands due to the lockdown, and the technology contained in
a mobile phone, plus the fact that I have video editing
software on my PC already, made me stir myself into action. What
were your sources of inspiration when dreaming up the plot for Devil's
Idol?
Obviously, you have to have a basic idea, and I always thought
that old TV movie called Trilogy of Terror from 1975 with
Karen Black, had that wonderful third act called Amelia, where
she buys an African Zuni doll that is supposed to have the
spirit of a dead warrior inside it, which inevitably is
released to cause mayhem for 20 minutes. It terrified me as a
kid seeing this film, and I thought the concept was well
suited for a one man show to try to come up with something
similar. Do talk about the titular idol itself
for a bit, and how did you bring it to life?
Luckily,
I had recently met Eileen Dietz [Eileen
Dietz interview - click here] of The Exorcist fame at the
Darkfest 3 event in London, and she was selling these resin
based Pazuzu statues, so naturally, I couldn't resist but buy
one, and he has been resting proudly on my DVD shelf ever
since, waiting for his moment of stardom. So, armed with the
basic idea of this little devil somehow being alive, and
roaming the grounds outside the apartment where I live, I
started filming on 10th April, around 2am in the garden,
looking for a perfect full moon shot. I had foolishly missed
the Super moon of the previous night, but I managed to get
some great shots through the branches of an enormous oak tree,
and once I had filmed the statue amongst the grass and
flowers, and saw how clear and good the footage looked on the
PC, it really set me off to try and make the whole thing look
as professional as possible.
Having done the movie entirely on your own, how did you actually film
it?
Necessity
is the Mother of Invention as the old saying goes, and before
I knew it, I had come up with a sort of makeshift selfie stick
made from a piece of plumbing pipe I had lying around, and
with the phone mounted at floor level, it served perfectly as
a Devil's eye view of the world, roaming around as though he
was on Steadicam. The story then kind of evolved in my head as
I thought about how the demon would get into the building,
find a suitable lost soul to corrupt, and spend 20 minutes
chasing and torturing. It really was fun deciding on camera
angles for each shot. Putting the phone on the floor at a
tilted upward angle, or standing it on a chair. Holding it in
selfie mode, and turning it round to face me so I could get a
medium shot whilst still having the camera in my hand. I got
stuff wrong obviously, but the beauty of shooting digitally is
that you just delete the bits that went wrong, and do it
again. I found big chunks of the dialogue where I am on the
phone to my ex-partner, just came out as improvised and
natural. I did a single take on that 2 minute phone scene, and
luckily I never fluffed any of the dialogue.
So what can you tell us about the shoot as such, and post
production?
I
think the most fun I had was with playing around with the stop
motion animation and the green screen stuff. All this is
pretty standard on video editing software nowadays, and the
shot I made of the idol running towards me were simply staged
by setting the camera on the floor, and taking a still
picture, then moving the model an inch, then another picture,
and once they were put in sequence, it all looks like flowing
movement. I found the flow of the story just developed
naturally, and I pretty much shot each evening in the sequence
that you see in the finished film. It's amazing how a few day
for night filters, and some mood music, can create atmosphere.
I found I was scaring myself when watching the playback of
some of the scenes, once everything had been put together.
Again, with the wonders of technology, you can even find free
music online to add to your films, so anyone can make a movie,
provided you have a basic outline plot, and a little sense of
how a film is edited and put together. I'd thoroughly
recommend others give it a try. This film cost me nothing but
time really. I used stuff around the home for props and
lighting, I visualised how I wanted it to look on screen, and
I then went about how I'd achieve that with only a camera
phone to capture it.
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The $64-question of course, where can your movie be seen?
I hope as many people get to see the
film as possible, and I hope to enter it into future
festivals, probably in a trimmed down, tighter edit, since 24
minutes is a bit long for holding people's attention span
these days. But feel free to watch the movie here:
https://vimeo.com/410557237
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