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Much like Night of the Living Ted, The Evil Ted was a toy movie taking a classic low budget zombie horror movie and making it even more low budget. This short however, I worked on entirely alone. In my youth I was exceptionally controlling (I still am somewhat, but then it was an obsession) and I felt the old expression of �If you want something done right, do it yourself� coming into play. So I stuck by that and made the short by myself.
I took the original �set� from Night of the Living Ted and adapted it from a farmhouse to a decrepit cabin � I also extended it by adding two bedrooms and changed the entire layout within the actual main �set� of the living room, attempting to emulate the cabin from Evil Dead 2. I even painted the interior of the set and provided a series of props such as a bookshelf adorned with a whole series of �books� which all had titles. This prop would end up strewn around the cabin by the end of the short, the detail being lost amidst the toy movie carnage.
To try and construct a more solid movie, I even scripted the entire short and worked from during filming. I also created title sheets on the computer in Power Point and printed them off, filming them from my desk, carefully framing each piece with a tripod and using the �negative art� picture effect to get as close to white text on a black background as possible.
I emulated Sam Raimi�s style and re-created certain camera angles, provided lighting (simply using a torch and a series of reflective pie case lids with wire frames to hold them in place) and as a not-so-subtle poke at the BBFC, cut out the majority of �gore and violence� scenes by crudely censoring my own film (my hand was over the lense). At the time, my copy of The Evil Dead had been butchered by the BBFC, missing several minutes of footage as a result of the film�s early 1990�s release after its mid-1980�s ban during the Video Nasty era. Social commentary and satire it could be called, but on the other hand, a quick jab at a government board I often questioned the use of pre-1999.
To secure an Evil Dead look, a faked a woodland background, recreated a �workshed� for the attempted decapitation sequence and even did my version of the famous �shaky-cam�. Finally, after transferring the finished film to VHS (it was again edited �in camera�) I used the �audio dub� feature to place a soundtrack from the original movie�s score by Joe Loduca, into my short.
Although it lacked some of the spontaneity of Night of the Living Ted, the film was superior in terms of aesthetic. It looked more like a shot movie rather than a bit of fun. I did take it quite seriously after all (despite many of my �voice artistry� descending into Eric Cartman spoofing � �South Park� was all the rage at the time in the summer of 2000 � and is still one of my favourite shows by the way).
After this point however, I found myself hanging up my camera to be replaced by entering the Sixth Form at High School, where I continued my obsession with film as much as possible in my Art classes. It wouldn�t be until my second semester at University that I would pick my camera back up again.
I returned to this short in December 2003 to make a �re-dux� version with a full soundtrack, colour adjustment and professional credits.
