NFS: All of your shorts build amazing tension. When space is limited for equipment, a quick go-to is to just wrap the light in diffusion (light grid being a personal favorite). Small LED lights have gotten versatile, but still too punchy to be used alone. Rather than throwing light everywhere, we lit just what we wanted the audience to see. You still need to retain the information, but you can get away with more shadows in this genre. Jacobsen: As for the lighting, less is more when it comes to horror. Can you talk about how you lit this short? NFS: You shot a lot of Fear Wish in near-darkness. The new Sony cameras do really well in low light, which allows us to keep the gear to a minimum.Īs for the lighting, less is more when it comes to horror. ![]() To stay within the small budget, we decided to go with the equipment we already owned. NFS: What gear were you working with on Fear Wish?ĭave Jacobsen (DP on Fear Wish): Sony a7iii, Sony 24-70 GM lens, 2 1x1 LED light panels, and 1 LED light stick. There’s something more tangible on the screen. I think blending it with practical elements can be a really useful tool, but we also love love love using practical effects. We’d love to learn a little more about VFX. So far, for all of our shorts, what you see is what you get. Thankfully, our DP Dave made everything look beautiful and equally atmospheric.Ĭredit: Midnight Video NFS: How did you achieve the VFX shots in Fear Wish on no budget? White: Luckily Scott Whyte is a super talented professional who nailed it right away, but before we landed on him, there were some versions we tried that were, let's just say, “different.” Just technically speaking, one of our challenges that took some thinking was figuring out how to make the fireplace as dark as possible in order to hide the wish, while also having enough light on our actor so the entire short wasn’t an underlit mess. 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. 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. ![]() Louis, moved to LA, and were originally working in the comedic space. ![]() NFS: You guys went to school together in St. They made this particular short while working out some kinks on a separate, bigger-budget project, and kindly agreed to give No Film School a behind-the-scenes look at their development process and how they work with basically no money. I was super excited when they released their latest short film, Fear Wish, this month. For instance, 2017's Your Date Is Here was a Fantastic Fest pick and a viral hit, and is one of my favorite horror shorts ever. Their work is atmospheric and creepy and always packs a good, punchy scare. And I've been following LA-based filmmakers Todd Spence and Zak White (who release movies under their Midnight Video banner) for a few years now. If you know me, then you know I'm all about horror.
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