Hey out there horror film fans! It’s that time again! Time for another Film Race!
We here at Barigord Studios really enjoy taking on these crazy challenges, and this will be our 6th consecutive race! We started with the 24hr race 2020, moved on to the 100hr race 2020-2021, and then the 72hr horror race 2021, before repeating the first two again this past year. We’ve been finalists twice (100hr 2020-2021 and 72hr horror 2021) and are always really really proud of the films we’ve produced. Here’s last year’s finalist and Best VFX winner, ‘Head Case.’
For those who don’t know the format, you are given a designated start and end time, and at the start, you’ll receive a Theme, Action and Prop, all of which must be incorporated into the film. These ‘required elements’ are mainly there to make sure the films are entirely created within the time window, but they’re also a huge inspirational boost to the filmmakers.
We’ve tried to keep up with posting here and on social media, and will try again. You can follow us on Twitter as @barigord. Ideally we’ll get a proper behind-the-scenes video done this time.
Challenges
While making a film in 3 days is a huge challenge, we’ve gone through it enough times now that we know we’ll produce something. And while it’s a necessity to leave most of the creative process to when the required elements arrive, there are a few things we’re looking at now to help us out in a week.
Very few of the Barigord Studios extended family is into horror movies. More than anything, that’s our biggest challenge. We don’t have a lot to draw from, including the social media angle on horror. Knowing what the fans think of the state of the genre would be a big help, so I’ve been asking anyone and everyone I know for general thoughts on horror.
Something that’s very clear is that the amount of sub-genres for horror films are vast and varied. And there are degrees of how much of things are actually presented: gore, violence, cruelty, etc. There’s a world of difference between a muppet zombie and a George Romero zombie, and those are just 2 tiny slices of the massive zombie pie. And zombies are just a tiny slice of the horror pie.
Another thing for this Film Race specifically is figuring out limitations and what things we just don’t want to do. My number one thing I don’t want to do is clean up fake blood from everywhere. I’ve been in films where that was somebody’s horrible end of day job, and lucky me, I was the actor so I got to go home. Big gore is just beyond us for so many reasons.
Approach
Last year we leveraged two things to make our horror movie: my experience watching Law & Order-style shows, and our ability to work with green screen tech. The true crime shows gave me the angle of a serial killer as a kind of monster, which also tied in well to our use of podcasters as main characters. Green screen allowed us to do the heads, and provided our set. We had some ideas on how to do other kinds of gore with green screen, like spraying blood, but those were never too grounded in reality.
This year I’m hoping to do something a little less cerebral/heady, and something more atmospheric. Less talking, more visual development. I’m interested in jump scares and slow-burn dread, but who knows, maybe we’ll do something else entirely.
Two dark horse possibilities are doing horror comedy (or camp, or a musical), and doing stop-motion. We use Lego a lot, and I have some horror characters, including a zombie horde. I’d prefer to make something legitimately scary, because that’s really the challenge, but sometimes you just have to go with what can actually be accomplished.
Why Film Race at All?
We’re not getting paid, this is a ton of work, and there’s not much resulting exposure or prize weight to bank on if a film does well. Plus they’re really hard. So why?
Well, making any film is hard. And a real accomplishment. We want to be paid to make films in future, and we want to demonstrate that we can, under some of the toughest circumstances.
One of the reasons films are so tough to make is getting all the required people together in a timely manner to get all the jobs done. If it’s a small operation with people who do multiple jobs, like ours, the biggest issues become time and energy. But if those can be met, you come out the other side with a completed film. Not a script that needs the next step, not footage that needs post, and not just a proof of concept or first draft (though it can be both of those too).
These films can be submitted to festivals, and be seen on our social media and content channels. They go onto resumes and reels. They sometimes get remastered or remade, and sometimes are good enough to have a life of their own.
Check us out starting next Thursday, March 3rd at 5:00pm PST. We will be tweeting and posting here. We’ve been starting with our teams’ guesses on what the required elements will be. Nobody’s been close so far, but we’ll keep trying! Thanks for reading!
