Video: THE SKY is a Short Horror Film About the End of the World
Josh Millican
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The Sky is a cosmic, short horror film about the end of the world, told from the perspective of two friends who decide to spend their final moments together. Give it a spin embedded at the top of the article and read more about the film below.
Directed by Matt Sears from a script penned by Ryan Grundy, The SKy stars Chloe Fox and Charlotte Christof.
Director’s Statement:
We started shooting the film a year ago, it was around 5 days of filming spread over several weekends. Then the editing and post-production took up the majority of the time until it was finally finished at the end of March this year.
One of the ideas Ryan (the writer) and I wanted to explore was telling a story of such a massive global event, but from quite an intimate perspective. End of the world stories tend to be quite impersonal and focus on the event as opposed to the people. We wanted to focus on the story of the characters and set that against the end of the world to add that sense of urgency and dread.
One of the other ideas that we thought would be really interesting was what this event would look like through the lens of hallucinogenic drugs. We’d never seen that before and it’d give us the opportunity to do something really cool with the visuals. We came up with the idea of making the characters play a game of ‘I have never’ as they talk about all the things they’ll never get to do. We both loved the film Annihilation and that was a massive inspiration for the look of The Sky.
I didn’t have any budget to make the film, but I was lucky enough to have some talented friends willing to give up their time. I just made sure that I fed everyone well.
Making this film I really wanted to see how far you could go with nothing. Raising money for short films is incredibly difficult and can often provide a barrier for filmmakers. I wanted to show that budget shouldn’t stop you. If you are willing to work hard and have people around you willing to help then you can make it!
The post-production side of the film was a huge challenge. The look of The Sky is obviously massively important, if that looks bad then the film will fall apart. I spent a long time trying to find that look, I really wanted to make sure that when the viewer finally gets to see the full effects of the sky then they wouldn’t be disappointed. Nothing pulls you out of the story more than a bad effect.
I finally got the film finished end of March, and it’s the first time I’ve ever shed a tear of joy and relief when finishing a project. This one really took its toll.
It’s a strange time to launch the film, but it’s ended up being quite appropriate. Exploring end of the world themes against a backdrop of a global pandemic. I’m hoping that it just emphasizes the key messages of the film.
What do you think of The Sky? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
