Exclusive Interview: Writer T.W. Burgess And Animator Jed Segovia Talk Animated Series SCREENS OF DEATH
Comic writer T.W. Burgess has teamed up with animator Jed Segovia to create a new animated YouTube series called Screens of Death, which will focus on haunted games. Each episode will be released on the Manoghosts TV YouTube channel, and the first entry is already in production. The trailer for the series has also been released online, and it shows off the incredibly creepy animation style.
We’ve already been following Burgess’ projects for a number of years, so our readers should already be familiar with his work. On the other hand, Jed Segovia has also been creating various animated horror videos over the years, which can be viewed online. Both of the creators have been hard at work on Screens of Death for a while now, and their work clearly speaks for itself. Since the series will soon be arriving on YouTube, we decided to get in touch with the pair to discuss Screens of Death, and you can read our exclusive interview below.
Dread Central: How did this project come about?
T.W. Burgess: So I reached out to Jed earlier this year after seeing his fan video which recreated the ending of Junji Ito’s legendary ‘Enigma of Amigara Fault.’ I really loved the tone of the piece and the fact it gave off the feel of a retro Saturday morning cartoon but with that added element of twisted horror.
After the success of mine and Teebowah Games computer game ‘Pylons’ last year, I’d been mulling over a concept for a while about some sort of retrospective on forgotten horror games with haunted lore around them and it seemed the perfect opportunity to collaborate.
Jed Segovia: Thom DM-ed me on Twitter back in May, asking if I wanted to collaborate on an animation project of some kind. I was interested because I was familiar with his work by then. Back in March I animated the final scene of Junji Ito’s “Enigma of Amigara Fault” for fun. I had just started learning how to animate and thought it’d be a fun little project. To my shock the animation not only blew up online, it even got Ito’s attention. I didn’t expect it to get the attention it did. It definitely got Thom’s attention and he retweeted it. I checked out his work and was surprised to see I got a follow from a real horror industry guy, a published writer. Thom has a really cool Instagram account of haunted game screens and photos called “Photoghasts.” I thought it would be cool to animate a story around a haunted game, just showing the fate of whatever poor soul encountered what cursed game came from Thom’s imagination. We talked about classic 90s horror games and animation, and came upon the idea of an animated horror anthology, in the vein of classics like Trilogy of Terror and Creepshow. Hairy Henry is the first installment of what we envision to be a three-episode anthology.
DC: Why did you choose haunted video games as the premise?
T – I was an avid gamer growing up and it seemed such a fantastic opportunity to delve into a style of gaming which seems so foreign by today’s gaming standards. But at the same time it’s been great to see that retro nostalgia for vintage gaming come back into fashion. I’ve also always loved haunted objects from classic ghost stories, the cursed item which causes a haunting. To me it’s such an alluring contrast between the modernity of technology against the archaic nature of something dark and forgotten reaching out from the past. I’m a huge fan too of horror films like Pulse and Ring where spirits start to invade everyday tech. I’ve also always loved Creepypasta and the ambiguity of these kind of stories, they’re our modern day folktales. So its fun taking these kinds of stories and adapting them into something you might have watched as a kid in bed on a Saturday morning.
JS: Well, Thom and I grew up with video games! And we wanted to tap into that nostalgia and make something good and scary. As video games matured as an art form they took on new properties in society and culture. Ghost stories traditionally center on haunted objects or places, like haunted books, or houses, or such. Video games are a new kind of artifact, as they’ve been around long enough to acquire their own horror canon. They’re the foundation for the creepypasta genre, which blew up in the 2000s. All these stories of haunted video games, cursed cartridges, stuff like “Sonic.EXE”, “Ben Drowned”, and how every copy of Mario 64 is personalized. We grew up when games were emerging, and to see the next generation see these tech relics as somehow haunted, and come up with scary stories, the same way we’d see an abandoned factory and come up with stories of how it’s haunted, was fascinating. Haunted video games have taken off too as a plot device in recent horror films, and I don’t think we’ve yet seen an animated series even centered on haunted video games, so to be able to possibly do it first was a real draw!
DC: Can you talk about the animation style and the animation process?
T.W.B: Jed’s the real talent here, it’s been phenomenal watching him working his magic in adapting the script and bringing these horrors back to life. His passion and enthusiasm is great and it’s been amazing to see him turnaround the animations so quickly. In terms of the gaming screens I went back to my animation style used on my Photoghasts range of haunted games to bring each of our titles to life. It’s been fun revisiting games of the era in order to achieve those aesthetics to ensure each is as convincing as possible. All the game screens and titles I created using After Effects and Photoshop. Retrograding graphics has been a fun contrast against my day job where I’m usually upping pixels and resolutions!
JS: We talked about which time periods these haunted game stories would be set in. That made me think of the ’90s Tales from the Crypt animated series, which had some really scary episodes. I also thought of gnarly and disturbing 90s games like Brain Dead 13, where the main character could go through many disturbing death animations. He could get cut in half or have his head eaten by a spider, all in a typical kid-friendly animation style! So I researched a lot of stuff I grew up with, like Goosebumps books covers, video game art, 80s and 90s animation, Don Bluth cartoons, and tried to channel them.
Thom came up with the story and initial script, which I worked into a screenplay, which we then both refined. Then I used that screenplay to imagine scenes, and create storyboards. I started storyboarding, making backgrounds, and animating before ManlyBadassHero sent in his performance, but when he did, it was great. Hearing voice performance changes a lot about how I perceive a scene, so I ended up animating segments of the script to send to Thom, with Manly’s voiceover, before working on the next segment. Animation is very laborious and I’m still learning a lot about it!
I use Adobe Animate to animate, and Photoshop to create the backgrounds and animation sketches. I started working on my trusty old Wacom Intuos Pro, but upgraded to a Cintiq, a really heavy-duty, industry standard device. I wanted to make this animation the best I can, so I really invested in my craft here!
DC: How long did it take to create each episode?
T.W.B: we’re currently just finalising Episode 1, which has taken around two months. It’s been something we’ve been working on around our work though and we’re keeping scheduling relaxed for now. The plan is to make it as effective and creepy as possible so it’s worth taking the time to do that.
JS: I’m currently in the processing of finishing the first episode. In all, I’d say this has taken two months, give or take a week. I’m new to animating and it’s a very laborious process, especially since I want it to look really polished and not just match, but heighten Thom’s writing. Depending on the length of the next episodes, the time it takes to produce them should change!
DC: And how did you get big name YouTubers like ManlyBadassHero to come onboard?
T.W.B: So I launched a retro game myself last year with game developers Teebowah Games called Pylons. It was such fun revisiting that style of game delving back into my influences of unsettling public information films from my youth. I was blown away when the legendary Youtuber Manlybadasshero picked up on the release and did a play through. Manly’s one of the most professional gaming Youtubers out there and his narration was exceptional. So when me and Jed started throwing ideas around for a VoiceOver artist for the launch episode we felt it a no-brainer. Manly’s been great and offered a fantastic array of options for the style of the tone of voice. We’ve also got some other very exciting narrators lined up, which you’ll just have to wait to find out about.
JS: Thom and I both shared a love for the work of horror video gamers. I’d seen Manly’s Youtube video on Pylons. This guy’s voice is amazing. He has this very soothing, relaxed, dulcet voice that almost sounds like horror ASMR. Read all the comments on his videos, you’ll definitely encounter at least five comments saying how his voice is so comforting for a horror game. Very different from the typical panic-stricken screeching from other YouTubers. So I asked Thom, why don’t we get him to voice this animation? They already have an existing relationship and Manly has such a good potential for narrating a horror story. I also like the in-joke of a horror YouTuber who plays horror games, voicing a horror animation about a haunted game. Getting horror game YouTubers to voice animation stories about haunted video games just seems fitting.
DC: If the series does well, can we expect a second season?
T.W.B: Right now we’re just focusing on Episode 1. But we’ve discussed so many ideas that there’s definitely scope for a series 2. I’m really excited for people to check out Ep 2 and 3, I think they’re going to be something very different from what people are expecting.
JS: Good question! It’s been a very rewarding collaborative process. For now we’re focused on making this run of episodes the best we can. We’re just having fun with the story and the creative process.
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