Your upcoming movie One Drop - in a few words, what is it
about?
One Drop is an elevated genre horror film about a single mother who wakes up in a
medical facility to find that everyone is dead and she's nine months
pregnant.
How did the project fall together in the first
place, and what was your collaboration with your writer and long-time
partner in crime Corey Brown like during writing and pre-production? Corey
first pitched this idea to me about three years ago. The above pitch
never changed from day one. He went off an wrote the script and I
worked closely with him to develop it through many drafts. After I
finished shoot my last film Silent
Retreat, I put on my producer's hat and
started learning about how to raise private financing for a film. It
took 2.5 years, and I spent most of that time writing business plans and
pitch decks! As One Drop is about a highly pregnant woman living through a
nightmare - to what extent can you relate to the story personally?
Well, I have never been pregnant before, but the idea of
waking up with something inside your body that you didn't put there is
pretty scary. And on top of that, to have no one to answer your
questions, or anyone else alive to tell you how to get out of this place
... that's a nightmare I would never want to wake up in!
With
One Drop being a creature feature - is that a genre at all
dear to you, and what can you tell us about your approach to the genre?
It does seem like creature features are my thing! However, I think
two may be enough for me. What I love about the genre is that I
get to play with a lot of scares and tension with an antagonist
that is really there. These creatures were all practical effects,
so the actors get to react to the monsters on set.
I'm personally terrified of ghost movies and many times ghosts
are created with visual effects. I think it's very different
making a scary movie where the thing you're scared of is not really
there.
And then there's the opposite, when other humans are the villains.
I don't like torture porn films. I can't handle terrible things
humans can do to other humans. I think creatures are a great way
to play in the genre and get in lots of gore!
You
of course also have to talk about the creatures in your movie for a bit! Well,
I don't want to give too much away about them, but I will say that they
are hitchhikers from the afterlife. In this film science bumps up
against religion. These creatures aren't exactly created by science
- there is no scientific explanation for them, so does that leave some
sort of religious or supernatural reasoning for them? You'll have to
watch to movie to find out.
DOP Ryan Knight and Tricia caged |
What
can you tell us about One Drop's approach to horror
(as in suspense vs sudden shocks, atmosphere vs all-out gore and the
like)?
I like to play with a variety of genre conventions. I think
a lot of scares are created by creating the right amount of tension and
suspense. When we relate to the charaters and care about them, an
audience feels scared for them, and that's where that suspense comes
from. I like to have a couple of different jump scares. And
of course there's some great gore. I'm finding that the gore shots
are my favourite part of making these horror films!
A few words about the film's overall look and
feel?
It's a very dark film. In this medical facility, the power has
been shut off. The place is lit only by emergency lights,
flashlights, and candles ... and sometimes no light at all. I
wanted to play with the colour of the emergency lights, moving from a
cold colour temperature at the beginning of the film to a warmer feel by
the end.
What can you tell us about your cast, and why
exactly these people?
Lara Gilchrist being made up |
Lara Gilchrist (Battlestar Galactica) brought an amazing performance to
her audition. I could really believe that she was a mother trying
to get back to her son and that won me over. Benjamin Arthur's
previous comedic performances made me laugh and I felt he really
embodied the character of Henry while keeping the character grounded in
some real emotions. Julian Richings is someone I've always wanted
to work with and I'm so excited he decided to join us on this film,
bringing a sense of humanity to a priest character who could easily be
construed as evil or crazy. And Torri Higginson played a really
great kick ass woman who is a techy in a man's world - she showed us,
don't mess with her, while still being very real and vulnerable.
As far as I know, you're in the
middle of shooting One Drop presently - so what can you tell
us about the shoot so far, and the on-set atmosphere?
I'm writing this about a week after we finished shooting. It was
an amazing set to work on. The long hours and crazy ambition of
this film was fuelled by the team's passion, dedication and creativity.
It was very collaborative and people stepped up to overcome any
challenges. The biggest challenge was trying to get everything done with
the time and budget limitations, but we used out-of-the-box ideas to
make sure we had a story to tell at the end of the 19 day shoot.
You're
currently raising finishing funds for One Drop - please do
talk about your fundraising efforts? We have an IndieGoGo
campaign to raise money for post production. We are currently 50% of
the way to our $20,000 goal and need your help to make sure we have good
post sound, VFX and music composition, which is super important in a
horror film. igg.me/at/one-drop
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
Any idea
when and where the film will be released onto the general public yet (and
I know it's probably waaay too early to ask)?
I'm hoping to have the film completed by the end of 2015 and enter the
film festival circuit in 2016.
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
IndieGoGo: igg.me/at/one-drop
Facebook: onedropmovie
Twitter: @onedropmovie
Thanks
for the interview!
|