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Your movie Deadly
Presence - in a few words, what is it about?
Deadly
Presence
is about three
friends who stay at a supposedly haunted house. Days later one of
the girls finds out she is the midst of strange happenings. She calls on
her friends for help ... What
were your initial inspirations when writing Deadly
Presence? Honestly,
we just really wanted to make a horror/thriller movie together. After
shooting some promo trailers for other projects, I wanted to tackle
another micro-budget feature film. You wrote the screenplay for
Deadly
Presence together - so what can you tell us about the writing
process, and how hard did you butt heads? Oh, and how did you two first
hook up by the way?
Megan and Shane |
The writing process was a pretty
smooth process, for the most part. Since we both work full time
jobs, we would work on the script on nights and weekends. We had
our writer friend David Fite come aboard and help out with some scenes,
dialog and to help finish the final draft of the script. I don’t
recall butting heads too much during the writing process, but there were
the occasional disagreements while filming (just like any other producer-director
relationship, haha). We actually met over 5 years ago in
Western, NY (we’re both from NY originally). Since we were both
from the East Coast and shared a passion for horror films and
filmmaking, we had a lot to talk about!
Shane, how would you describe your
directorial approach to your story at hand? It seemed a lot of films were going the 'found footage' route when it comes to
ghost/paranormal stories back when we started shooting Deadly
Presence. Since the beginning of the writing process, I wanted Deadly
Presence
to be shot with a locked down camera, meaning the camera was to be on a
tripod, dolly or jib. I also wanted the film to have an overall sense of
mystery and fear within Andie's character. Her character is
constantly trying to figure out what happened to her best friend after
staying at the haunted house.
Megan, what
can you tell us about your character, what did you draw upon to bring her
to life, and how much of Megan Lynn can we find in Andie? Because
we went into this knowing that it was going to be incredibly low budget,
we really wanted to focus on the characters. My biggest concern with
portraying Andi, was that I wanted people to feel for her, I wanted
people to root for her. I’ve seen so many movies where you just
have no concern for the characters because there’s no attachment.
I wanted people to think of Andie as their best friend. Do
talk about the rest of a cast for a bit, and why exactly these people? Due
to the fact that it was just the two of us handling the entire production,
we definitely wanted to cast some people that we had worked with in the
past (knowing you already work well together is always a plus).
Sabrina Carmichael who played Julie in the film, was also in The
Mutilation Man, and we really love working with her – she’s a blast!
For the role of Candace, we actually put out an ad because her character
was a bit more specific in regards to what we were looking for, and Kathy
Sue Holtorf absolutely nailed the audition! A few of the other cast
members were friends of friends as well, so we really tried to keep it
much more personal. We would definitely work with this cast again,
for sure!
Kathy Sue Holtorf |
Much
of the movie is restricted to just one location - so what kind of a
challenge (and maybe also advantage) was this, and what can you tell us
about the shoot as such?
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Sabrina Carmichael |
Shooting in one location was a real
challenge for us. Mostly because it was an apartment, which is
limited space to begin with, but also keeping the audience entertained
when you’re constantly in the same setting can be really difficult.
The hardest part about shooting in
the apartment was the fact that we had zero control over outside noise
(neighbors, traffic, air conditioners, etc.). Another issue we ran into was when we were writing the script,
we had so many ideas for the
story, but would then have to change it due to the fact that we were
shooting in an apartment and not a house or several different locations.
The DVD will have a bonus feature -
a behind-the-scenes clip. You will be able to see how we shot most of
the film from shooting, to lighting, to doing post audio work.
What can you tell us about
critical and audience reception of your movie so far?
It’s been pretty good so far!
We’ve had people reach out to us and tell us how much they appreciate
the indie aspect of the movie and how they like the fact that we focused
on a story and characters instead of blood and guts. However,
we’ve also had reviews that didn’t care for the film for those same
reasons. Being that it’s a “slow-burn” movie, it tends to be
an acquired taste – it’s not for everyone.
Reviews on our website here: http://www.maskedfilms.com/reviews
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Any
future projects you'd like to share?
We recently shot a music video back
in October for a friend of ours from Western, NY and we are currently
discussing the possibility of another music video. You can see the
video here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMYlrTsNLfw
(preview)
We're also working on other feature
film projects that are in the writing stages (from writer David Fite)
such as Infectus and The Face Garden.
Your/your movie's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
Website: www.maskedfilms.com/deadly-presence
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/maskedfilms
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Deadly-Presence/419639848075519
Twitter: @Deadly_Presence
Thanks
for the interview!
Thank
you!
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