A lot of people think they need all of the money in the world to do any sort of film production, but you really don’t, not in today’s age. With that said, if you’re starting with your first short film, write something simple and easy to do that will barely cost you anything. So we wouldn’t recommend starting out asking for money. Spence: We luckily had a portfolio and track record people could check out to see that we would use the funds wisely. What tips would you give to someone wanting to crowdfund their first short? It has to feel personal.Ĭredit: Midnight Video NFS: You self-funded your previous films but are currently crowdfunding your next project. But more than just camera tricks, if the audience doesn’t feel for the character, if they don’t put themselves in the character’s shoes, the tension will feel forced and artificial. And misdirection, you want your audience to look left while you’re setting up the scare to the right. The only difference is a scream instead of a laugh. White: Just like in comedy, it’s all about setup and punchline. Also, we didn’t ever want to see the front door, which would give the audience that immediate idea of “Dude, just run out of there!” So really tunnel vision for our lead and keeping his POV on the light from the flashlight was really I think what delivered the tension.īut generally speaking, it’s setting up “the game” of the short so to speak here are the rules of the game and you’re about to see how not fun this game is about to be. So instead of sitting on a couch, we wanted to give him a chair with arms as if he had no choice but to stay locked in and deal with the situation. For Fear Wish, we wanted Nathan to feel a bit trapped. All we can do is think the tension will be there, but in the end, it’s the audience who tells us if it worked or not, so that’s awesome you felt that. Spence: Thank you so much for saying that. What are some of your tricks, both during development and in post, for creating that kind of ominous atmosphere? NFS: All of your shorts build amazing tension. It’s that feeling of walking alone at night, and your brain starts to play tricks on you and freak you out. It’s good to have a payoff of some kind in your story, but letting the audience imagine what we’re not letting them see really gets the imagination going, and imagination is why we love horror in the first place. Spence: In general with horror we appreciate the less-is-more factor, real theater-of-the-mind stuff. Can you give us some examples of getting creative while having basically no money? NFS: You typically work on very small budgets, which tends to mesh well with horror projects. Make it something you care about getting good at. It will take you a very long time to get good at something. In most cases, it will take you a very long time to get good at something. What’s gonna make you get out of bed and create? Try to find a community that feels the same. White: As Todd said, follow your passion. Your love of it, whatever it is, will guide your instincts. A lot of people seem to shift to horror because horror is really popular right now, and you can tell in the work that the love of it isn’t quite there. Spence: First of all, do the genre you love. Some of our favorite horror has plenty of comedy in it and vice versa.Ĭredit: Midnight Video NFS: What advice would you give to a creator trying to shift genres? And the great thing is that both genres are so intertwined that we never had to shift all that far. Once we dug into it and discovered how fun it could be, and how similar the storytelling mechanics were to comedy, it all felt very kismet. As Todd said, we were always horror fans, and although our comedy skewed dark, horror was an itch that we hadn’t fully scratched yet. Zak White: It wasn’t all for strategic reasons, though. So that had a bigger chance of breaking through. People just want good horror, not caring who made it or who’s in it. Horror, which we both loved, for me possibly before loving comedy, was something that was way more easily appreciated without having to have an established audience or some surprise cameo. On top of that, it seemed like no one really cared about comedy videos or sketches unless you were an already established comedic brand like Funny or Die, or you had celebrities in your videos. First of all, with the number of people in improv or comedians on Instagram, Snapchat, Vine (at the time), and so on, it’s just a sea of people working in comedy. Todd Spence: I think we both realized that working in comedy was a massive uphill battle.
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