Exclusive Set Visit and Stills: Dread Central Takes on Gemini
Sean Decker
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“It’s torture porn, minus the porn,” said Special FX Supervisor Juli Hapney on the set of feature film Gemini the day of our visit. “There’s not a lot of porn. But if torturing people gets you off, then yeah, it’s that!”
Revolving around a serial killer who kidnaps a seemingly innocent man and ties him up in a basement, forcing the man to reenact the serial killer’s capture and execution by portraying the roles of those responsible, the recently wrapped Gemini is co-written, directed, and produced by Brian Conley and Nathan Ives. Mark Heidelberger produces with Kenneth Stipe serving as director of photography, Julian Brown as production designer, and Brady Hallongren as editor.
Jackson Davis (“Lonelygirl15”), Cayleb Long, Bailey Anne Borders (The 5th Wave), Tracie Thoms (Death Proof), and Mischa Barton (pictured below; The Sixth Sense, LA Slasher) star.
During our May 27th visit (Day 10 of a 15-day shoot) to a soundstage in Burbank, CA, Hapney was busily prepping to decapitate a character with an actual blowtorch (which is basically why we showed up, because Dread Central, guys), and she said of the ambitious effect, which she only had a small window of time to prep, “We have three different ways [to deliver the gag]. One is practical and is essentially a decapitation prosthetic with blood tubing so that we can get the actor’s reaction. And then we’ll get him out of makeup and bring in a prop head, which will continue to squirt the blood, and that one will actually pull away from the prop torso, and from there we have a gelatin head, which won’t have any facial hair on it because that’s the one we are actually blowtorching, and if it did, it would literally catch on fire! And for his torso we’re going to put a green hood on the actor, and that will be VFX, and later a green suit on him, so we can see his decapitated head on the floor [sans body].”
We interviewed at length co-directors Conley and Ives, although as those interviews give away a bit too much in regards to what we feel is a rather interesting narrative, we’re holding back on them for now, although we will give you this from Hapney:
“One thing I can say about this film,” said the FX artist, “is that I don’t really know whom to root for, whether it’s the serial killer or the victim; but at the end of the day, neither are innocent, and both are kinda guilty. In everything we’ve shot, it just looks awesome, and this is a film I’m really going to want to watch.”
More to come.
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