- Why/how did the film come about?
It was originally shot for Universal/NBC's Dare2Direct2 for their channel chillertv. I didn't win that competition but it did get an honorable mention as well as a lot of people afterwards saying it was robbed. Clips from the film did appear on chillertv's halloween special last year including the wolf, Red morphing as well as Granny.
- How long was production and where was the location?
Being the case with most film contests I found out the deadline about halfway through making the wolf costume. I knew there was a contest I just didn't know the deadline was only a month away. So that gave us the month to make the costumes, shoot and edit the film to make the submission. It was filmed in the same town Stephen King lives in Bangor, Maine! We have all these nice paths going through the woods that were perfect for the film. Plus, Granny's house is actually a shed attached to the back of my brother's house. So, we had to film in such a way that you couldn't see a giant house behind her little cabin.
- What did you shoot it on?
I have since upgraded to HD but for this film I only had a 5 year old panasonic mini DV camcorder. I really worked the color correction in adobe after effects to get the sharpest image I possibly could.
The costume design in your film was really excellent, particularly the wolf. How were the costumes made and did you have any experience in this before? I can honestly say I have never made a costume in my life. I had no idea how I was going to pull this film off without a decent looking wolf costume. I searched online and found nothing but a couple hundred dollar fur jumpsuit complete with rubber mask. So, I decided I was going to make it myself. The face is a plaster mold of my head and jaw connected with wires on the side so my mouth can move. I built the mask up with wires and foam. I built the mask up with celluclay and dremeled it into the shape I needed. I was lucky enough to get all the fur I needed at walmart for 11 dollars. The body is a jumpsuit with a lot of foam padding to beef up the wolfs body and hunch. Then i covered the whole thing with fur. I think it came out pretty well for my first attempt. On a side note, I wore the costume that halloween as well and got a lot of compliments! The wolfs head is currently sitting on a place of honor on my shelf.
- There's a lot of really nice post-effects in this film, is this something that you have a lot of experience in or was it a learn as you go process? Where/how did you learn to do this?
Some of the stuff I knew and others were learn as you go. Videocopilot has a lot of great tips for effects but they should be used as a launching point to get what you want. Keeping just the color Red was quite a headache. Some scenes color keyed perfectly others, I had to go frame by frame and draw masks around the cape. Granny's makeup was also done completely in after effects. That was a little more difficult than the demon morph because she is crawling toward the camera and the size of her face is getting larger and larger. In the end it made for quite a creepy effect.
- What compositing/effects software was used?
For the bulk of the editing I used Adobe Premiere and for the After Effects and color correcting I used Adobe After Effects.
- Do you/your crew have any formal film training?
I've never had any film school training. I just love movies. I've always been a learn as you go type of person. I believe you learn more with hands on training. I learn more from my mistakes than anything really. So, every film that I work on is always a challenge. For me once it's not a challenge it's not fun anymore.
- Have you made many other films and can you view them online?
I have a few other films on youtube that I made for other competitions under the name Reacher23. Red is definitely my favorite so far though.
- Has it won any other prizes?
Other than clips of Red appearing on tv I've never won a competion. I'm very proud to say this is the first competition that i've won.
- What's in store for future productions?
I've got some new HD equipment as well as DOF adapters that I'm itching to try out. I'm just going to keep making the films that I enjoy making and hope everyone else enjoys them as well. I want to thank everyone again for voting. It really means the world to me.
