They say filmmaking is problem solving. Never has this been more true than this adventure that I’ve found myself on during the past year.

INT. PARENT’S BASEMENT – NIGHT

Last summer I began work on the short film that I planned on shooting this spring. I happened upon an idea while brainstorming, an idea that would be everything I wanted in a short – humor, action, visual effects – and got to writing immediately. And I realized I hated it.

So I came up with another idea. I had a great story, plenty of action, and maybe even viral potential. I got to writing immediately. And I realized that it wasn’t funny. I wanted to make something funny.

We were at square one again, until we returned to an idea my co-producer had… back when we were freshman in college. This idea was the one. Funny, action-packed, mind-blowing, heartfelt– the list goes on. We spent weeks meticulously plotting it, and with a grant deadline days away, I wrote the entire 15-page script in one weekend.

Wait, I Thought It Was a Horror Movie?

It is. And in a way, so was my life, when we found out TWO WEEKS BEFORE SHOOTING that our main, critical location tripled their cost, effectively canceling our production. But filmmaking is problem solving. The problem?

What do you do with a full crew, rented equipment, seven shooting days, and no script?

The answer? Kill yourself– churning out a script, that is. We wanted to make something funny, but when the joke was on us, we returned to the first good idea we had: the great story, with plenty of action, and maybe even viral potential. The horror movie, now called Wake.

On-set Instagram photo of Wake, courtesy of our co-producer.

We just wrapped principal photography. I’ll tell you all about it when I have more to show.

TL;DR

1. I wrote a short comedy.
2. Murphy’s Law.
3. Dramatic turn!
4. I’m making a horror movie.

– Kyle