My name is Maggie Brown (owner of Purple Magnet Productions).
I Co-Produced this film with Jordan Henderson. Of course, I am giving it 10 stars.
Words to describe it: Indie, Weird, Campy, Spiritual. It gives you a new perspective.
We made this film for $50K, which is INCREDIBLE when you consider most films are made for millions of dollars.
We released during Coronavirus 2020, so my producing partner and I did not get a chance to speak out on the film at festivals or theater Q&As.
Here are some fun things about the film.
To me, the script was honestly so good. I love the way it plays on death and how different people view death. In college, I took a class on "Death, Dying, and Bereavement," and this film touches on so many important "end-of-life" themes. I think there is a lot of symbolism and audience interpretation allowed.
As a feminist, I do NOT love the ending. As a Horror and Romance film lover, I DO.
The set design, by Bijan Souri, was crazy good for us having such a low budget. Annabel Barrett, who played Miranda Veil, gave us her ALL. Our drone operator, Eric Algorri, at the time, was a law student/friend that just "happened to own a drone."
There was a rumor the shack in the desert we filmed at was haunted. No one wanted to be there alone at night.
There was no wardrobe department. The Director, Levin Garbisch, and I took Annabel to Forever21 and had her try on "brand-less" clothes. We bought like eight of the same shirts for all of the kill scenes.
Our Art Director, Bijan Souri, used a watermelon as Annabel's head for the ax kill scene.
We made sandbags to hold down pop-up tents by filling Target grocery bags with sand. We made them as heavy as possible and placed them on the corners of the tents, so the wind would not blow our film set away.
The gas station scene was tricky. We had to physically turn around every single item that had a label. The actor in the gas station scene was the gas station manager, not a professional actor. We bartered giving him a role in the film to use the location.
The cast/crew started the project camping on a rented plot in the desert, where we filmed the campfire scene. We thought it would be cheaper for the budget to camp for housing. (Many of us were experienced campers.) Little did we know, this was a terrible idea. Through the next days of shooting, we ended up moving the cast/crew into small, cheap AirBnbs, and finally one big AirBnb.
Once we all got into one big AirBnb, we did not have enough rooms or beds. Many of us ended up sharing beds. Our AD, Alex Taylor, made himself a "proper" bedroom in a small walk-in closet.
We filmed day and night. Suzan Jones ran ALL of special effects makeup, hair, and general makeup; except for the few days she was unavailable. Her husband, Kelton Jones (who also plays Miranda's father), stepped up as our substitute makeup artist.
Bijan Souri, who oversaw all things ART, made numerous molds of Annabel's fingers and arm. I drove around with one of Annabel's bloody finger molds in my car dashboard for about a year after filming.
Zach Steffey, who plays Soren, is actually a comedy actor. We all agreed that he was an interesting choice for the role because comedy and horror are closely linked.
Annabel Barrett, who plays Miranda, is adopted from Russia. She has a very strange personal history. The actress grew up with a politician mom, spent time in her young adult life homeless, and then rediscovered herself at a Buddhist temple. She is now following her dream of embodying different characters as her career and art.
Levin Garbisch, the Director, grew up with "hippy/art" parents. If you think our film is weird, that is because Levin has watched every horror film you have NEVER seen, and then used those films as his inspiration. Levin lives in Echo Park in LA. He has a pet bunny and loves to go for long drives in the middle of the night. He really loves weird things and we love being around him because of it.
Josh Andersen, the Cinematographer, brought me this project. Josh is a painter and artist. This is his second film with Levin. He brought a lot of fun to shoot days with his childlike wonder, and determination to get every shot we needed.
Jordan Henderson, my producing partner, owns a production company called "Planet Froth." I met Jordan at a friend's concert. He was Salsa dancing and I wanted to learn how to Salsa dance. Next thing I knew, I was introducing him to Levin, driving to Burning Man with him, and then Producing this film! Jordan was an amazing Co-Producer for me. He took over leadership of keeping track of the budget, and I am still grateful.
Alex Taylor, the Assistant Director, was a friend I met on a DGA union shoot. He has very cool British accent. Alex has the ability to drink more than anyone, then wake up "fresh as a daisy." Both of his parents are ADs; he was literally trained from birth for the role. One of his parents ADed on the movie "The Titanic."
We used Alex's car as Soren's car, because he bought it off of a film set. It is painted with a non-reflective, film friendly, paint.
Overall, I am so proud of the way this film turned out. Considering it was made for $50K it is phenomenal. I am excited to see what we can do with even more money!
Hint hint, find me and give us more money to make the next one! :)
18 out of 26 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
