Exclusive Film Blog – Week 2 with Spirit World Films’ Creature Feature
Welcome to Week 2 of Dread Central’s exclusive on-set coverage from Atlanta for Creature Feature. In this blog Spirit World Films will be giving us glimpses of what goes into making movies on the fly, including first looks at the monsters soon to be taking over theaters.
Spirit World is the brainchild of three talented indie trendsetters: Chase Smith, Lance Paul and Edward Boss. These Southerners are turning the game upside down on what the true meaning of indie global films is.
With films budgeted at less than 20k, their combined multi “hat-wearing” skills are proving that you don’t need a giant budget nor a Hollywood soundstage to create cult classics.
Creature Feature is comprised of four short vignettes and one overall story that connects them all, similar to classics such as Creepshow and Trick ‘r Treat.
Do clowns scare you? Have you ever looked at a scarecrow and wondered, “What if?” Are zombies or naked witches your thing? Or what about a good ole classic such as a werewolf? Have you ever heard of Gentleman “Springed Heel” Jack? If not, you will come October 2015!
Making Low Budget Films look HUGE! AKA Balling on a Budget
According to the boys at Spirit World Films the key for every indie filmmaker should always be how to make the biggest looking film you can do on only only the budget you can raise. One problem with indie filmmakers is that they have Louis the fourteenth goals on beer money. The film world is littered with the creative who thinks his or her film should have millions of dollars for budget. So if they even start filming by the end of production they have either run out of money, given up, or spend the next five years trying to raise more and do more reshoots. A stigma low budget films have is that they wont go anywhere or ever be seen. The percentage of indie films that actually get distributed compared to ones that start production is vey low. Keep in mind though that the term indie film has a wide overlapping definition, an indie film could be a 10k film shot in your back yard and it can also be Hunger Games staring Jennifer Lawrence.
“The key to making no budget films look “big budget” is not to think that you can’t do what the so called big boys do because you don’t have the money, its about being creative and figuring out a way to do the same things they do with what you have and remembering that there is always a way to get it done” – Chase Smith (Writer, Director, Creator)
This is something Lance, Chase and Ed always take in to consideration when designing a new story and shoot layouts. At times they will have three different working budgets with always the thought in mind on “what if”. What if they can only raise a part of the budget? What if they get more money than they expected? Good indie management should always be one part fiscal and one part creative. Being too much on either side, especially in the low budget world, can be any films downfall. Both Chase and Lance come from strong fiscal backgrounds as well as creative. The boys come from a mixed background in schooling: Chase Smith not only has an MBA but also a masters in fine arts, Lance Paul majored in Finance but was also excepted into numerous Art schools off of his early portfolios, and Ed Boss came from Full Sail where he majored in Film. This combined grouping is one of Spirit Worlds strong points, by not only approaching a project on a creative aspect but also through a budget mind set is one reason SW has shot one feature a year and finished every project they start.
This also plays a huge part in the boys always successfully raising their budgets. By showing a proven track record of not only making movies but also finishing them on time and within budget proves to their investors that they are a sound investment. Many of their investors are what Partner Lance Paul calls “continued investors’ meaning you didn’t burn your bridge and your funders believed in you even more for the next time. This is the goal that every filmmaker should shoot for, otherwise you will end up being a one film wonder.
The Zombie
The creation of the Zombie story in Creature Feature drew a ton from the creepiest of stories in Creepshow written by Stephen King, the miserly patriarch that comes back for his Fathers day cake. Early in the writing process Chase wanted to take the concept and add a more southern hillbilly vibe to it. Seven years ago the world’s best father was slaughtered by his gold digging wife and his incestral demon worshipping off-spring. Lance and Chase’s vignette takes place on their yearly Halloween sexual ceremony celebrating daddy’s death.
Casting for this vignette was the most time consuming and in the end the most stressful, with recasts and talent dropping out for extra work (I know tell me about it) and for bigger roles in other projects.
“One of the biggest issues you will deal with on indie low budget projects is holding onto exceptional talent.” Edward Boss (Partner, Casting)
Two huge roles needed for this vignette went to the grieving good southern daughter and oldest son who orchestrated the father’s death. Unfortunately and fortunately for Spirit World Films these were both roles that had to be recast last minute. Due to partner Lance being based in Los Angeles and having the good fortune to be friends with some exceptional talent on the west coast he was able to call in a huge favor with Tenille Houston. Tenille had just finished her world tour with the film The Canyons starring Lindsey Lohan and written by Brett Easton Ellis (American Psycho) where Tenille stole the show and now wanted to take a stab at her favorite genre, Horror. Tenille sprung at the chance and flew herself to Atlanta to work with Spirit World. Also last minute SW lost their lead role in the vignette due to aviation delays with a talent flying in from Mexico city, with only hours to spare the boys relied heavily on an actor they had already cast. Jason Veil a classically trained, talented actor who had been working for years on the east coast jumped at the chance to portray not only the most memorable monster in CF but also this newer role.
With the huge successes of Zombie films and obviously The Walking Dead in recent years the boys at SWF wanted to pay homage to the Undead greats of the past, yet still add their own personal flair. Both Chase and Lance grew up on the zombie classics such as Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead so when Lance went about creating the original concept sketches he drew a ton from those early works. Including their less is more attitude and a more mummified appearance.
“The Walking Dead approach is great if your dead have been decomposing in the Georgia Sun, but for dead buried for seven years a body decomposes and mummifies more in the Georgia clay. Almost having the clay have a peat bog effect.” – Lance Paul (Producer, Artist, Creator)
Once the initial concepts were completed the process of creating the zombie began. This fell on to their SFX head Alex-Michael Petty, lead makeup artist on Australia’s Bunyip filmed in Sydney, and his talented department of Southern MUA’s to take the deadhead from page to film. Working through some of the best prosthetic shops in London and through Alex’s own fabrication shop they were really able to bring the dead daddy to life. Every detail was taken into effect when creating him too. From the aged worn suit to the sunken in eye sockets.
“So the first thing we did was we looked at our concept designs that were drawn up for us. We had three different variations to choose from. We went with the design that was more skull, he’s been dead for 7 years. So with that in mind I told my team that ‘everything about this film is so old school, so lets make this look like something you would see right out of a Romero film.’ They took that and ran with it and in my opinion hit a home run. I think this film gave us a chance to revisit what is scary about zombies in the first place, and that is that they literally rise from their own graves to eat the flesh of the living. Why not pay homage to the great directors and artists that paved the way for us while throwing your own spin on things? I hope we did them and the fans of the genre proud, and I can’t wait until you see him in action!” – Alex-Michael Petty (Head SFX Makeup Artist and Fabricator)
Through the vignette the goal was to not only show the zombies return from the grave but also his retribution against his “loved” ones. Fortunately for SW they were able to find a great location that also doubled as the Demon Clowns house. Behind this multi-million dollar house on Lake Lanier was a great setting for the boys to create their own family graveyard with the lake in the background. Using a local prop shop in Atlanta called All About Props, who also do props for both Vampire Diaries and Constantine, they were able to bring to life a family grave site full of numerous run down headstones and gating. No zombie story is complete though without a proper realistic coming out of the ground gag. With hours to spare and through two monsoon rainstorms and limited crew, Producer Lance Paul dug a 5 ft hole into the ground through lime and Georgia Clay. Hours later and after one torrential downpour actor Aaron Simmons in full zombie prosthetics dug him self out of one of the most realistic low budget undead returns in years.
For behind-the-scenes pictures by Producer and Creator Lance Paul, visit Lance Paul on Instagram, also “like” Creature Feature on Facebook, and follow Spirit World Films on Twitter.
Chase Smith directs. Libby Blanton, Tenille Houston, Lance Paul, Stephanie Davis, Michael Maponga and Jason Vail star.
Synopsis:
Creature Feature is comprised of five interwoven tales of terror that occur one foggy Halloween night in Georgia. A babysitter learns a new appreciation for fine art and a hard lesson about the consequences of being irresponsible… and naughty! A group of college kids stumble on the mother of all scarecrows. Two teenagers are forced to steal from the wrong cantankerous old hermit who has been known to occasionally howl at the moon. A murdered father comes back for vengeance against his gold-digging wife and traitorous children. All of this Halloween fun is made possible by a London gentleman known only as… “Jack.”
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