Murmur - A Short Horror Film

What was your first experience of the horror genre growing up?

Conner – Friday the 13^th and Nightmare on Elm Street marathons at 1 am with my grandpa when I was 9. He had this collection of VHS tapes with like 4 movies on each and he had this book that catalogued them all by numbers. We would watch a ton of movies. Arachnophobia scared the shit out of me. I remember feeling like spiders were always on me. IT too. And this really crappy sci-fi horror film Mosquitos. Those are some of the earlier ones. I also remember watching X-Files with him and would be terrified by some episodes.

Taylor – The earliest encounter with horror that I can remember was when I was still pretty young. In Cleveland we used to have this local late night show called Big Chuck and Little John. They’d show a movie and have little skits and stuff between breaks. They’d show edgier films, b movies and cult stuff that would never play in the afternoon or primetime. But one night I remember they showed the original Elm Street on there and I found it absolutely terrifying. I don’t know if I even made it all the way through the movie but do know that Amanda Wyss’ death scene (spoilers!) scared the hell out of me. For months I would think of that movie while going to sleep and it was awful. Way too much for a kid as young as I was. Little did I know that what seemed like a totally traumatic experience was my first brush with a genre that id grow to love and now actually work in myself. Is that too long of an answer?

Nick – My first encounter with the genre of horror came later on in life, I never found myself enjoying it at first as I enjoyed more comedic and action type films. The first horror film I saw in theatres was Mama, which I viewed more messed up that anything. As I grew older I grew to enjoy the horror genre more and I have wanted to create movies involving it.

 

What experience do you have working on short films, and why do you think they work so well in the horror genre?

Conner – This is my first time directing anything. I have a couple short film scripts completed and working on a couple more. But I think short form horror works the best because we can avoid all the garbage that floods mainstream horror in theatres.

Taylor – I’ve written a few short film scripts but this is the first one being brought fully to production. I’m really excited about that. I think horror works great in short films because you can really get straight to the terror and excitement in it. Why is this scary? You don’t have to wait to find out. You see a lot of Hollywood features based on shorts and there tends to be all this extra padding and exposition that sort of buries whatever make the story compelling. Ironically Murmur was originally conceived as a feature that we cut down to a 17 page short. I think its really tight. Maybe we’ll do a feature version someday. Who knows? But you’re getting all killer no filler here.

Nick – I have worked on a few short films prior to this, I believe the idea of a horror short works better because of the vast amount of sub genres of horror making it easier to create something shorter.

 

How did you all meet or was it more of a class project that brought you together?

Conner – I met Taylor randomly through a friend when we all went to a Neighbourhood show and then we found out we had classes together and that’s where we met Nick about a year and a half ago and have had classes and have been collaborating since.

Taylor – Conner and I have been friends for a few years and actually sort of unknowingly wanted to do the same things in life: make films, entertain, tell stories… we both showed up on the first day of class and were like “oh you’ve got this class too?” We always seem to be on the same wavelength without even trying. It can get really weird sometimes! And then we met Nick in the program and he brings a lot of the technical expertise to the table. We worked on some projects together and we all seemed to just naturally click. I’ve had a blast working with these guys.

Conner – Yeah, our first project we worked on was this really weird spoof of like ancient aliens but about Lizard People and Taylor and I asked Nick if he wanted to join and at first we though “Oh god this kid is gonna think we are the weirdest people.” And then he said “Now I’m not weird but what if we tried this…” and it was such an off the wall weird idea that we loved and we knew we had a team on our hands.

Nick – I met Conner and Taylor in our Intro to Video class and instantly we clicked making our style of comedy. Soon after that we started taking more classes together and have grown stronger as friends.

 

So why Murmur, what appeals to you about the story?

Conner – I believe in Taylor as a story teller and will direct anything he writes.

Taylor – So there’s this sort of oversaturation of paranormal/ghost movies right now… I feel like I just roll my eyes whenever a new trailer for one pops up. Though with the risk of sounding self-righteous; this is a different kind of ghost story. This isn’t a “jump out and say boo!” ghost story. Murmur is psychological. I think it’s a more subtle horror story. What happens to the people that we leave behind? What if they were convinced they could bring you back? How does someone deal with this immense desperation? It’s not about a haunted house but haunted people. Haunted by a life that they can’t have anymore. I think it’s a fresh take and that makes it interesting to me.

Nick – Taylor has shown his true colors through the story of Murmur. I enjoy the idea of exploring the sanity of a person also.

How did the story come about?

Taylor – I’m almost ashamed to admit this because I feel like it gives people the wrong impression about our story… but I actually came up with the idea while watching one of those ghost hunting reality shows. It’s the last place I expected to find inspiration. But they always work with those EVP recorders and I thought the idea of using those to contact someone specific and personal (rather than some supposed demon in an abandoned hospital) was actually really sad and I wanted to explore that some. What if the ghost hunter isn’t just some guy and a camera crew but a grieving father? And it grew from there.

 

Do you personally believe in the phenomenon know as EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon)?

Conner – I think anything is possible. But I also think if desperate enough and looking, you can find voices and messages in anything.

Taylor –  I’ve never personally used one and I can’t say the reality shows have made a believer out of me yet. I’m the skeptical type. I actually used a ouija board for the first time the other night and it moved and everything but I was still like… hmm, I don’t think this is really happening. I guess I’m more of a Scully than a Mulder

Nick – I can’t say I do believe in an EVP device per say, the only encounter I have seen them in is the ridiculous ghost hunting TV shows they were shown on.

 

Have you had any personal experiences of this phenomenon or any other supernatural experiences?

Conner – I have not.

 

What was the casting process like for you?

Conner – We had combined casting calls. Every project casted on the same day. But John who plays Ryan really stood out to us. He really delivered some of the scarier lines, Jeff who plays the therapist was just so natural and Julie who’s Carol was a natural.

Taylor – Casting was great! The school helped us set it up and we actually had a surprising number of auditions considering it’s our first film and all. We had a couple of options for our characters and we ended up with three really strong talents. I’m astonished by the work and dedication they’re bringing to our little student film. I think they’re as enthusiastic about the project as we are and it’s wonderful.

Nick – I found the casting process to be very interesting and fun. Growing up I acted in musicals, but nothing compared to actually seeing real actors come and audition. We knew right from the bat that we had our actors and actress and they have been wonderful

Building interest on is always a tricky thing to do, I noticed however that you thank everyone personally on your Facebook page. Was that just an off the cuff idea or was that planned from the start? 

Conner – We had the idea to thank everyone from the start. You’re giving us your money so we can make a film and accomplish our dreams, we are incredibly thankful for every penny that is donated.

Nick – I think thanking the people who are donating is a great way to go about things. It is amazing how generous people can be and I cant personally thank them enough for helping us in the process.

Taylor – I think that we just sort of threw that in from the jump. We want everyone to know how thankful and lucky we are to have their support. It’s tough putting a production like this together at our level and contributions of any size are incredibly helpful. When this thing gets funded we also plan on specifically thanking everyone in the credits.

 

Speaking of your Facebook page, is this is best place to our readers to go for more behind the scenes videos and photos?

Conner – at the moment, yes. We also update the kickstarter on a regular basis. Right now our website redirects to the kickstarter, but after it ends we will have murmurfilm.org be a regular site for update and videos and photos.

Nick – So far Facebook and the Kickstarter itself have been our best means of updating, I have been taking a lot of behind the scenes photos and even some video since our first table read that eventually will be uploaded to the pages.

Taylor – Yep! Not only is that where we thank all of our backers but will also keep everyone updated as we bring Murmur to life: behind the scenes stuff, production stills, release info, etc.

 

Are there any tropes or tricks within the horror genre that you wish would remain banished to the cutting room floor?

Conner – I feel like some tropes or tricks can be reinvented if done with a fresh take. I’d like to see less obnoxious gore and sex. I want to see fresh ideas and ways to make me really scared and nervous. It Follows uses a lot of tricks and tropes but in a fresh way and it scares the living shit out of me.

Nick –  I cant really say so. I really do enjoy all techniques of film, though the typical jump-scare can be kind of overused.

Taylor–  Hm, not so much tropes that I’d like banished but rather the abundance of sequels. It feels like anything horror that gets a widespread release and even just a mediocre response is guaranteed a sequel. It’s just the nature of the industry right now. Original ideas are risky, I get it. But eventually you get to stuff like the latest Paranormal Activity and it’s like… we’re still doing this? Is this self-parody now?

 

Is there any stand out short horror films that you recommend our readers check out?

Nick – Though its not a horror movie or short, in the movie Enemy Jake Gyllenhaal’s character’s emotional breakdown really represents our Ryan character.

Conner – Yeah I’m not too familiar with short horror films, I plan on checking some out to draw some knowledge and what not. But a couple of horror films that I’ve drawn inspiration from are It Follows and The Innkeepers.

Taylor – There are so many interesting and well-done horror shorts all over the internet that it’s actually hard to mentally sift through them all. There’s this Canadian one called There Are Monsters that I found on a message board a few years ago that I still really like. A few years ago there was this creepypasta-based one called The Smiling Man that I think is a lot of fun. There’s of course Mama which Guillermo del Toro eventually turned into a feature. I still really think that initial run of Marble Hornets videos is really original and effective if there’s anyone on the internet who still hasn’t seen that yet. There’s SO much great short horror out there now. Once you drop into that late night binge-watching rabbit hole you may never come back.

 

Thank you for your time and good luck with the Kickstarter project.

Nick – Thank you very much for taking the opportunity to interview us and promote our Kickstarter. We really appreciate it!

Conner – Thank you! This has been awesome and its so cool getting messages about an interview out of the blue. We are really happy that people are finding our ideas interesting.

Taylor – Thanks for featuring us! We’re super fortunate and really appreciate the opportunity. Every bit helps, we’re finding that out. I can’t wait for you and everyone else to see MURMUR later this year!

 

Murmur is a that is aiming to raise $8,500 and ends on the 22nd February.

For more details you can head over to the Official Facebook page . The team also hopes to have the short film out by May 2016 and backing $10 will get you a digital copy of the finished film.