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July 2008
Stuart Evans (Founding Member of Conflict Scripts & Head of CSUK):
�This is a very exciting time for both me and the team. We have written some good scripts over the years most of which at one point or another have been tied up in various option agreements. Unfortunately that seemed to spell the end of the scripts progression in a tough and demanding industry. So you can imagine our joy when we hooked up with independent production company Smokin Gnome Productions� in an effort to gatecrash the big budget Hollywood party.
When Duane first pitched the concept of CRUEL to me I knew what he had in mind regarding the scripts long term future. He was clearly going to write an extremely low budget script with very few locations. It would prove a test for Duane, a test on his vision if not his writing skills. When SGP joined the fold Duane grew in confidence. He now had the tools needed to go hand in hand with his twisted, brilliant mind.�
Script To Film:
Duane P. Craig (Writer/Director):
�CRUEL ended up having to go through some pretty substantial changes to work as a film. I mean, the first thing that we writers are told to do in creating our script is not to make things too location specific or write it to where it sounds like you are telling the director how to film it. In this case, yes, I am the director, but even still, I had no exact idea how my eventual location to film in would work with what I had envisioned.
Scene one met the first change. I found that my location for the shoot had all of these great hallways and so many rooms. I let the first victim open the film in a wandering sense of uneasiness. I like making an audience feel what the character feels if at all possible, and with the first pieces of suspense in the film supposed to be, �what is this place�where is this place�how big is this place?� It felt just right to open the film differently with the opening character expressing all of those same questions emotionally. Also, though, in the opening scene is that we found not a single threshold to a doorway in the building was made of wood. They were all made of steel � something that our axe wasn�t going to stick into very well. The death scene had to change, but I think it�s a more memorable opening death sequence, now.
Another complicated thing to film is when you want to capture computer screens and such. You have to worry so much about what system you are using, what IP you use, if there are logos everywhere you need to hide, etc. We had to cut the film perfectly to keep the computer screens just off-screen as much as possible. The ability to use caption screens for reading the intended email messages for the audience ended up helping immensely. I picked the perfect film style to tell my story, especially for a micro-budget.
There are other subtle changes throughout the film, but the last and most dramatic change ends up being the final scene. The final characters in the park do not meet up. Instead, you see one character in one location while reading a letter from the other character, hidden away watching from afar. Again, for the letter, the use of caption screens was golden to us. I was also able to add two short scenes to the end. These scenes come across as memories, and I think they add a little more emotion and disturbance to the film. �Disturbing� may very well be the final tone to the film, anyway. I�m just fine with that.�
Scoring A Silent Horror Film:
C.M. Byerly (Producer/Composer):
�Duane and I had been talking about doing a silent film for a while. We thought it a great idea since it had not been done in a while. As a composer, of course, I definitely wanted to try one. I welcomed the challenge of writing about an hour and a half worth of music for a film. The music would be exactly half of the driving force of the film. Add, then, the task of writing that much music via a micro budget, we had a limit on affordable software that would match my standards.
I chose to upgrade my music libraries from Garritan Personal Orchestra to Kontakt 3. There is nothing wrong with Garritan by itself, but Kontakt offered much more in the way of synthesizers and other stringed instruments that I prefer to use. The performance of the libraries is excellent. It plays well into offering us the instrumentation and getting what we wanted in more of an organic film score. With sound effects and other Foley work being incorporated into the heavily layered score, it is definitely achieving the disturbing tone we�re after.�
Duane P. Craig (Writer/Director):
�I just remember from doing several short films, with Chris scoring those, too, that we�d get the same consistent compliments. People would talk well of Chris� original compositions and how well they fit and sounded. People would also talk well of my ability to visually tell a story, despite my having no formal training. It seemed fitting that we should put our best attributes together, and a silent film offered the most reasonable style.
I�ve long had a love for horror, but until I started watching and really studying my favorite horror films, I wasn�t completely sure what genre to tackle. It was the fact that all of my favorite scenes in those horror films contained little or no dialogue at all � they were these perfectly suspenseful and intense scenes that would build and build and build with mostly just the music driving them until they came to a brutal and often, quick climax. That pretty much solidified it for me. I realized that what made old, silent horror films such classics and feel so atmospheric had still been working in films ever since, really. It no longer felt like a stretch to pull off. That�s when I felt ready and confident in taking the challenge.�
To Conclude:
Stuart Evans (Founding Member of Conflict Scripts & Head of CSUK):
�Conflict Scripts have come a long way and have met a lot of decent folk since its conception back in 2003 and it will be a privilege to take the next step with these guys.
CRUEL deserves to be met with interest and I�m sure it will be a wake up call to a lot of filmmakers and producers as it premiers at various horror festivals throughout the US in the near future. More than anything we wish Duane, Chris and everyone at SGP and Knight Entertainment all the best with their venture, fingers crossed for success.
What a way to celebrate Conflict Scripts 5th birthday!!�
Copyright � Conflict Scripts 2008
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