We chat to the brothers about their fantastic, subversive film...
Tell us about Spooky Bastard, and where the inspiration came from…
The original idea was just ‘someone who knows they’re in a film, but the only way to get through it is to play along/let it play out’. We thought of a rom-com-style scene where two people meet in a park and the music becomes all passionate and the two hit it off, then he has to call his real-life partner to let them know he’s found himself in a rom-com. Something about this frustration in a character having to play along to film tropes despite their real life not being anything like that really stuck with us.
While we enjoyed that concept of the rom-com, we didn’t really have a story out of it. Then we tried these characters in a bunch of different film scenarios and fell on horror as being our most achievable with our budget, and it was something we found we could make a story out of and that ultimately motivated us.
How does your experience as actors differ from your experience of the filmmaking process when you're behind the camera?
I think it helped make us realise that every aspect of the film is a character. The way a scene is lit paints the image in a certain way and with a certain tone. How the camera moves primes you to find something funny or romantic - should it be static or should it move? The composition of the shot is so important - are the characters super close or is there distance between them? And with sound, do we want a realistic sound effect for this moment or something over-the-top? All these decisions tell the audience something and build the character of the film.
As an actor, your job is to tell the story truthfully with every aspect of your body and voice; making a film is exactly the same. Every aspect of the film should tell the story and be truthful to the theme and vibe of the film.
We would discuss scenes in (probably obsessive) detail for days
The production value is really impressive, with some quality cinematography. How did you manage to maintain a high quality with a micro budget?
Thank you for saying so! It started in the writing, really, and was a matter of asking ourselves, “How can we come up with the most effective shot, or scene, or sequence with this very minimal set of resources?” We knew not to extend our reach beyond our grasp, because if we did that, the cracks could really start to show.
The biggest advantage we had was using our own equipment and location (our home!). It meant we could meticulously plan blocking, angles and lighting, do test shoots in advance and, if we needed to, reshoot things that didn’t turn out so well - all without having to pay for potentially expensive location or gear hire days.
We would discuss scenes in (probably obsessive) detail for days, then storyboard them and potentially test the lighting and blocking by roughly shooting a ‘demo’ of the scene with just the two of us. When it came time to shoot, we were pretty prepared for the set-up of shots, so we could focus more on getting performances and being creative. After that, we’d do a rush edit to see how it was flowing and see if we needed to do any reshoots at a later date.
Finally, and perhaps the most important factor, was the handful of friends who kindly got involved for nothing but the fun of it. Nobody was getting paid, but they all turned up to make it the best it could be. It wouldn’t have been possible without them, so a big thanks to them for helping to carry our whacky idea to completion.
If we were to explore this concept any further it would require us to explain it, which might take some of the absurdity out of it
And how did you go about balancing the horror and comedy elements of the short, to ensure it was never either too heavy or too light?
We just followed our guts and did what made us laugh, really. The 'meta' nature of the premise meant that we had free rein to break any horror tension at any moment for comedic effect, so we could just interweave them wherever it felt natural.
An aspect of balance we did consider was that, beyond the tropes and parody, we wanted the story to have an arc and forward momentum. This meant sticking to a horror movie-esque structure for the core of the narrative, but peppering it with subverted expectations here and there to keep the comedy element present.
Are you planning to do anything more with Spooky Bastard? Festivals, a feature, a follow-up?
One of our favourite things about it is the absurdity of the fact he wakes up in a horror film. If we were to explore this concept any further it would require us to explain it, which might take some of the absurdity out of it. So I think Spooky Bastard’s story is done there for us.
We are currently doing a local/regional festival run which began with Spooky Bastard's premiere at the incredible Beeston International Film Festival, which was shown alongside a whole load of wonderful shorts. We also just found out it’ll be shown at the new Mansfield Town Film Festival, which is really exciting and we'll definitely be going along to that!
You can watch Spooky Bastard for free on YouTube or down below...
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