Thursday, July 10, 2008

"ATW: Bloodline" - A case study in indie horror, short form...

Once again, here's an exclusive Dead Harvey interview... this time around, we talk with J. Michael Lewis and Jerod Brennen of Tempered Zealot Productions, who just ran the festival circuit with their short film, "ATW: Bloodline". If you're thinking of making a short film for the festivals, this interview is a must read for you. In fact, they had so much great insight to offer, that we're going to offer up the entire interview as a pdf. You can find it HERE, I really encourage you to take a look. Also, there's a brief summary of the film below.

Film: ATW: Bloodline
Written By: J. Michael Lewis & Jerod Brennen
Directed By: J. Michael Lewis & Jerod Brennen
Released By: Tempered Zealot Productions (self)

About: "ATW: Bloodline" is an award winning short film that has screened at various festivals. It's the sequel to a previous short, called "A Thousand Words" and continues the story Ian, who is a voyeuristic serial killer with a penchant for photographing his victims. The film runs 26 minutes

Getting it made: It was on Mini DV using a Panasonic DVX100-A, the shoot was about a week and it was done on a very minimal budget. They employed the 'beg, borrow and steal' theory on filmmaking, although they do claim they didn't have to steal anything this time around.

Distributing the film: They're distributing their films themselves, as they didn't go into it with the intent to distribute the film commercially. They had a "terrific run on the festival circuit, and it's continuing to get them press and publicity. (They're) developing distributing connections, but (they're) not going to push (their) shorts... it's all about the features".

I was intentionally brief, as I really encourage you to read the full interview, which, like I said, is a great read for anyone who's thinking of making a short for the film festival circuit. Here's a link to the pdf.

Further, you can go to the ATW Myspace page here or go to the official website of the film here.

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