Nefarious Films

Bad Juju is the Nefarious Films entry in Budget Filmmaker's Halloween Horror Competition. Made with the as-ever amazing involvement and support of the OTT FILMS group Bad Juju has to be written, shot and edited in just under a month.

POST-PRODUCTION

After a frantic week and a half I have just finished post-production work on this and it is ready to be sent off to the good people at Budget Filmmaker who are running this competition.

It's been an intense time and I've definitely benefitted from having the last week off work (benefits of working in a school - half-term).

As ever the whole thing has been a massive learning experience. I really don't know how some directors can not edit their films themselves - it is only in the editing process that you really realise what you've got and how well what you've shot sticks together and forms the whole narrative you're trying to get across.

For instance on this shoot I've really had it hammered home to me just how valuable adequate preparation is. It's not that this wasn't well-prepared but it was hurriedly prepared (by neccessity given the month-long time frame we had to produce it). This meant that I wasn't able to storyboard it and plan out all the shots as I would on a film I had more time on. For the most part this turned out okay and we got some footage which was more or less improvised at the time as well as stuff that was completely planned. A good mix which adds to the energy of both the film and the shooting of it.

Still - there were a couple of sequences which just didn't quite hang together as they were supposed to due to hiccups in the way they were staged. There are also a couple of continuity errors which I just can't really solve without disrupting the narrative. I'm just gonna have to accept them and hope they're not too intrusive. Perhaps nobody will even notice!

Overall though, I think it's a very nice quirky little gorefest of a short with bundles of atmosphere and some lovely performances. I'm very proud of Bad Juju and just hope that the judges like it too. I'll update you with news on how it fares soon...

The wonderful and talented cast.

From left - Jaqui adams, Karl Best, Rob and Gill Pryce (who also co-produced)

Centre and covered in blood is Leilani Holmes.

Leilani Holmes (playing the character of Mel) has a bad day.

Our demons in the dark make a rare appearance much to Karl's misfortune.

This is what happens to cast members who disagree with my direction.

Hell yeah.

That's me in the black doing a spot of candle direction. Closest to camera is Director of Photography, Hugh Macdonald.