The rise of the small budget horror is something that has kept cinema, and streaming services for that matter, fresh and exciting.
Away from the bright lights and big budgets of franchises like Halloween and The Conjuring, there are a number of small production companies, indie directors and up-and-coming actors and actresses all busying themselves in creating exciting films free from the restraints brought about by the big studios.
To that end, I interviewed Dillon Brown from Horror Nerd Productions about what it took to start up the company, and their latest fan film – a Jurassic World short that bridges the gap between 2018’s Fallen Kingdom and next year’s Dominion.
How did Horror Nerd Productions get started?
It really all started after a production company I was 1/4 founder and owner of disbanded and I wanted to keep making films. Problem was: I had no prior training past picking up what the other 3 guys in our group had. I was the writer of the bunch, and I didn’t have any film schooling behind me, so deciding to just go for it and start making my own films with no idea what I was doing was terrifying.
But, I knew I could write a good story, so I figured I’d just start running cameras and see what happened. Thus, Horror Nerd Productions was born.
How do you manage to create films on such a small budget?
We started out with a mantra: no film will cost more than $300 total to make. And it’s worked, for the most part. I utilize everything I can find online. There are a ton of free assets online and YouTube that really help indie filmmakers out. You can do a lot with a little when you’re forced to work on a budget. I could always self-finance something, or take out a loan, but I wasn’t going to put myself in a bad money situation just to make a film. Not until I can get a good group together and do a real crowdfunding operation. Then we’ll seek out investors.
But for now, since I’m just having fun, I do what I can with what I have. Another huge part of that is finding people who will allow you to borrow their stuff in exchange for a little exposure. If I can showcase a makeup artist’s work in my film, with a lot of free advertisement of their work, I can usually get some free work from them in exchange. It’s all about being determined. Determination gets a lot done.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start out making movies?
My best advice would be: just go for it. Just start working on it. Don’t worry about making any money off of it, because the harsh reality is, you won’t. It’ll struggle to even find an audience past friends and family. That’s just the hard truth. But it doesn’t mean don’t do it. And it doesn’t mean it can’t go big.
The internet allows things to go viral now and a lot of new filmmakers who are successful now were the result of going viral with something. But you can’t worry about any of that. You just have to get to work. You have to have a great script and you have to find people willing to work with you, probably for free, and that’s a really hard thing to come by. People’s time is precious, so getting them to donate some of it to your project takes a lot of convincing. A solid screenplay can aid in that, though.
What has been your favourite project to work on to date?
This is a hard question for me to answer because it was supposed to be The Keeper, a film I originally planned as a feature-length project. The problem was, I couldn’t find a crew to stick around long enough to make anything happen and it was just way too big for me to take on myself. Eventually The Keeper was made, but it was drastically changed so it could be done with a skeleton crew. I still enjoy what I was able to do with it, but it wasn’t what I expected it to be.
The contrary happened on my short, Vessel, where I went in with really no idea what I was going to get done, with just three of us, and suddenly we put together a great little science-fiction monster flick in about 5 hours. It was the easiest thing to film because for some reason, everything was just working that day. Nothing threw us for a loop and we created a really fun little 10 minute creature-feature.
Tell us more about your latest Jurassic World fan film.
So this was a really cool project. I wanted to bridge the gap between the last film in the Jurassic World franchise, Fallen Kingdom, and the upcoming Dominion. I figured: since dinosaurs are out running around in public now after the last movie, what better way than to show the public’s encounters with them than to do a found-footage style film with mobile phone clips? So I asked a bunch of the Jurassic fandom on Twitter to be a part of this and people responded by sending me some great videos. It was all improvised and I just had to figure out how to piece it all together once I saw what everyone shot.
I filmed my own wraparound piece whenever I could – sometimes just stopping on the side of the road to shoot a quick scene or even running around my apartment complex at night and filming anything that I could use. I used this amazing free app on the iPhone called eFexio, and it had these dinosaur renders by Phil Tippett on there, so I bought the HD versions, inserted them into my footage the best I could, and just started self-teaching myself how to work with VFX on Adobe Premiere Pro. It was a total experiment that just came together really well.
What made you want to create a Jurassic World short film?
I’ve been a huge Jurassic Park fan since the first film came out in ’93. I even have a half-sleeve tattoo on my left arm commemorating my love for Jurassic Park. I had to find a way to play around in that universe.
If budget was no object, what franchise would you like to work on, and why?
I would definitely go with Jurassic Park if I was afforded some opportunity to maybe create a spinoff show or something. But I’m also hard-pressed to say I’d probably focus on something original if budget was no object. I have a ton of original stories and ideas I’d love to put out there. I’m a horror guy for the most part, so I’d love to put my own unique spin on a slasher or something. Maybe create the next ‘Jason’ or ‘Freddy’ or ‘Michael Myers.’
Who would be a dream casting choice for you, and why?
I’d absolutely love to work with Kurt Russell. I’m a huge John Carpenter fan and Kurt is a big part of a lot of my favorite 80’s horror films. And I also love western films, and his performance as ‘Wyatt Earp’ in Tombstone is legendary to me.
One we ask everyone, what’s your favourite film?
Favorite film would be Jurassic Park. Hands down. I’ve seen it so many times I can’t even count anymore.
And another, what’s your favourite cinema snack?
I’m definitely a candy guy. And make it a sour candy. I’m still a little kid when it comes to tastebuds. Ha!
Can you share with us any details of future projects?
Well, I’m working on something right now that I truly hope to make into my first feature film. I’ve decided to do everything the opposite of what I did on The Keeper and that’s to not have a timeframe for completion. I’ll just shoot the scenes I can shoot as I have the cast and crew available and I’ll just be willing to take it really slow. My problem is moving too fast.
The plan is to make my first truly polished and sleek looking film that doesn’t have the amateur DIY feel to it. This one is going to be hefty, and it deals with religious horror. I wanted to do a take on the demonic possession story, but instead of possessing someone ala The Exorcist, I decided to couple it with a traditional slasher film. Our demon doesn’t need to inhabit a person to kill. It’s a really cool story so far, with a very scary villain. I’m excited to step into that realm.
I’d like to thank Dillon for taking the time to conduct this interview. Make sure you check out Horror Nerd Productions’ YouTube channel for all their latest content.
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