Friday Night Thrills

Here's my first attempt at writing, directing and editing a short horror film for the first time since university. It was for the Raindance Film Festival and it was a fun experience. I filmed it using my iPhone and edited it on Final Cut Pro X.


Times have changed since school when I had to use analogue editing equipment to edit violent scenes together from Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, Reservoir Dogs, Carlito's Way, Goodfellas, Usual Suspects and Under Siege into something I called "3 Minutes of Pure Violence". Most of my teachers understood what I was going for. I wanted to show that the more movie violence you saw, the less shocked you would be by it. However, my maths teacher hated it. But I digress...


It's great how far technology has come where you can use your phone to record quality footage. I really enjoyed editing this short film together, finding scenes that match, using the blade option to splice frames off and playing with different sound effects and colour. Writing screenplays is fun but seeing it acted out is a great way of finding out what works and what doesn't.


This has given me the confidence to move forward and tackle some of the other short scripts I have written. Besides, what's better than working with friends and family on the weekend making horror films and having a bit of a laugh?

David Fincher Makes The Inside Of Fridges Look Real Pretty

I watched Gone Girl last night. After reading the book and then finding out David Fincher was directing it - I became almost obsessive about all details of the film from who was starring it to imagining what certain bits in the book would look like on the big screen. 


There was no need to be obsessive about it. In the hands of David Fincher, the film looks amazing and is amazing.


I came across this interesting video from Tony Zhou about David Fincher's style of directing and its absolutely fascinating. As I'm about to direct my first short film this weekend (it's only a 15 second horror for a film competition), this analytical look at David Fincher's directing nuances and preferences has really helped me in storyboarding the short film I will be shooting.


So here's how you can make your film more Fincher-esque? Or Finchify your film? Finchification!