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It's exciting to see your movies get added to IMDb, and it's cool that now they can be added to this site. The list will be updated when more projects are undertaken.
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Completed Movies
Plot: After being betrayed by his gang and left for dead after a heist, an enforcer named Dwight sets out to exact revenge, tracking down those who wronged him.
Trailer
Full Movie
Production Notes & Trivia
- The movie is an expansion of a couple of short animated movies I produced for University in 2011. Said animated movies were essentially Act III of an unseen movie. Rather than using the same plot, I recycled a few elements and re-used the characters, placing them within an all-new story.
- Shot across four filming days in total.
- I produced a DVD and a Blu-ray, both of which I continue to sell to those interested. The releases contains two audio commentaries, a 45-minute production diary documentary, several featurettes, alternate scenes, a gag reel, the original animated movies, and a trailer.
Plot: During a night of drinking and partying, five college students decide to play with a Ouija board. In the process, however, the invite malevolent spirits, unleashing a brand of terror that none of them are prepared to deal with.
Trailer
Full Movie
Production Notes & Trivia
- The movie was intended to be a constituent of a horror omnibus, entitled The Midnight Anthology. The original plan was to shoot three horror shorts simultaneously and release them together as a feature, stitched together. But when this movie was completed and the other movies weren't even ready for pre-production, the decision was made to release each movie as they are produced. However, plans for further movies were ultimately scrapped.
- Four nights of principal photography were undertaken, with an additional night to shoot B-roll for the driving montage, and the final scene with Derek.
- The original work-print cut ran an additional two minutes. Most of the additional material involved Derek telling the gang a long joke, but the beat was ultimately cut for timing.
- For Betrayals & Bullets: Hard Retribution, I created the DVD and all the extras. When this movie was released, I called upon a third party to document the shoot and edit a documentary. But the third party did not follow through, and the movie never received a physical media release. However, with my newfound ability to create Blu-rays, I finally went back and created a whole heap of extras; the DVD/BD release contains an 80-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, 30 minutes of cast & crew interviews, two audio commentaries, and the teaser trailer. (The extended work-print cut was also included as a Blu-ray exclusive.)
Plot: In the seedy bowls of Lead City, an enforcer named Dwight is shaken by the brutal murder of his girlfriend Leonora, and becomes determined to solve the mystery. Dwight works for one of the city's criminal gangs, overseen by a certain Walter McCarthy. When a shipment of drugs and money is stolen from one of McCarthy's personal couriers, the boss assigns his two best gunmen - Dwight and Shep - to retrieve the stuff and eliminate the perpetrators.
Trailer
Behind the Scenes
Full Movie Is Available On Vimeo On Demand!
vimeo.com/ondemand/betrayalsbulletsthedame
Production Notes & Trivia
- A prequel to Hard Retribution was in pre-production in early 2013, with ideas first being brainstormed as soon as two months after Hard Retribution was released. Creative differences led to it falling through. Other ideas were workshopped in the interim. The finished movie makes heavy use of many elements from the various abandoned script drafts and treatments from 2013.
- My longest shoot to date. The majority of the movie was shot over ten days, with three other shoot days outside of principal photography.
- My first movie for which an original score was written for it.
- My largest budget to date, with up to AUD $1500 being spent on transport, catering, hard-drives for footage, and costumes, not counting the many thousands spent on equipment and props. The entire project was self-funded.
- Officially entered pre-production in June 2015, with principal photography taking place mid-late August.
- The two primary influences for the movie, narratively, are Brick (2005) and Killing Them Softly (2012).
Plot: After the murder of her brother, federal agent Ashlynn Brindle travels to a small town to look into the matter herself. Uncovering evidence that an unsavoury drug cartel are operating in the town unabated and may have been responsible for her brother's killing, Ash teams up with the mysterious Jimmy Ross to dig into the mystery and seek revenge.
Behind the Scenes
vimeo.com/164057183
Teaser Trailer
vimeo.com/176273504
Full Movie Available To Watch On Vimeo!
vimeo.com/expendablefilm/nightfall
Production Notes & Trivia
- Originally written in late 2013. Four complete drafts were written by April 2014. After the completion of Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame, the project was eventually revived, rewritten, and put into production.
- Inspired by Only God Forgives, Drive and Bullet to the Head, while Sicario served as an influence for all 2016 drafts.
- In excess of AUD $2,000 was spent on the production, for petrol, catering, footage storage, graphic design, poster printing, and other things. The budget figure does not include the cost of film equipment or props.
- Shot in April and May 2016, but not released until October to allow for maximum post-production time. This allowed a third-party colorist to work on the movie, and the composer to create a full original soundtrack.
- Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame director of photography James Huynh was recruited for additional photography & reshoots in June 2016. He also assisted in the editing process and digital effects compositing.
Plot: Derek is released from a mental health ward back into society, five years after his friends all mysteriously died in a matter of hours. Moving in with his cousin April, Derek is convinced that he is possessed by something sinister, and with each passing day, a terrified April begins to believe it.
Trailer
Available on DVD and digital in the United States!
Streaming on Amazon Prime in Australia.
For those of you in the U.K./Ireland, the film can be streamed on Google Play and Amazon Prime video here
Production Notes & Trivia
- Influences include The Exorcist III, Sam Raimi horror films, James Wan horror films, '80s horror, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and more.
- The originally-planned 2013 "sequel" was a radical change from what Unleashing the Demons will be. It was an entirely different story, tangentially related to Inviting the Demons via a Derek cameo, and it was going to lead into another movie. All of these ideas have been scrapped. Unleashing the Demons is brand new, and a true sequel.
- After being picked up for distribution, the movie was re-edited and re-jigged to make it a standalone movie. However, Inviting the Demons can still be viewed as a prologue.
- Much like its predecessor, it will be pitched as a horror-comedy.
- Initially planned as a 15-20 minute short like the first movie. During scripting, however, we kept beefing up the runtime to concentrate on characters and plot, leading to a 40-page script. In post-production we again re-assessed the movie and decided to take more time to shoot more material, expanding the film to 86 minutes.
- All told, over AUD $5,500 was spent on the movie. Expenses include hard-drives, graphic design, printing, props, catering, make-up supplies, costumes, a drone shoot, music, and more. A significant portion of the expenses is also derived from flying director of photography James Huynh to the shoot location in Sydney for each block of shooting. This will be my longest and most expensive movie to date. (The budget does not count the cost for the cameras and other technical equipment, the combined value of which exceeds $10,000.)
- Five blocks of shooting occured. Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame had one block, while Nightfall had two blocks. Each block of shooting is several months apart. This is to facilitate busy schedules and allow suitable planning.
- Reshoots occurred in October 2019 to get the movie into better shape for distribution.
- Completed in March 2020, over 18 months after principal photography wrapped.
Plot: A behind-the-scenes documentary about the two-year production of Unleashing the Demons, featuring interviews and extensive on-set footage.
Trailer
Available to stream on Vimeo On Demand now: vimeo.com/ondemand/demonicodyssey
Production Notes & Trivia
- I know it seems odd to include a "making-of" documentary here, but the truth is that this was a film project to me - I spent a lot of time and money making it, and I polished it within an inch of its life. I treated it like a theatrical documentary.
- The first interview for this documentary was filmed in November 2019, with actor Keiron McDonald. The final interview that was shot, with Kate Budrodeen, was recorded in September 2020.
- Editing started in March 2020, after post-production work on Unleashing the Demons was completed. The majority of the documentary was edited during the Sydney COVID-19 lockdown. Editing was my happy place during the lockdown.
- Although Pierre Duyker's original score is used throughout the documentary, many additional music tracks were licensed from Kevin MacLeod and Pond5.
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Future Project Ideas
What's It About?
After learning of the sudden death of his elderly mother, Eric and his brother Barry organise to congregate and spend Christmas with their father, Ronald. It's an optimistic meeting, but Eric soon realises he forgot to bring all of his teenage son's presents, and is determined to make the long drive home to pick them up. Accompanied by Barry and Ronald, Eric sets out, while the remaining wives try to keep themselves occupied and Eric's son battles sheer boredom.
Production Notes & Trivia
- The idea was sprung from the disappointment of the film A Merry Friggin' Christmas, which had a great idea and a great cast... But wound up being banal and mostly laughless. I didn't want to simply rip off the same idea, so the whole thing is set in Australia, the tone and content is vastly different, and the story also takes influence from the 2009 movie Charlie & Boots.
- The first draft was started in December 2014 and completed in February 2015. Work soon began on the second draft, but it was put on the backburner to allow for work on Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame. In late 2015, the script was given a rewrite and a spruce up, with several collaborators throwing in their suggestions and helping to enhance the story and comedy.
- Many people feel I should make this a priority since it's such a radical change of pace compared to my previous movies. Besides the (off-screen) death in the family, nobody is killed, there are no guns, and above all, it would not feature myself. It would also be very low-tech.
- I wanted to shoot it straight after Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame, but felt I should spend more time improving the script.
- In 2020, the script (previously 50 pages) started being rewritten to become a full feature film.
Will We Ever See It?
More than likely, but it's a matter of timing. With the cast consisting of adults and a grandfather, casting will be tricky, and filming would mostly have to take place at night. Rather than a set amount of shoot nights, it would need to be a continuous production, and since it could run 90 minutes, it would take some doing. Then again, it's just dialogue.
I want to get it made. I've put too much effort into the writing process, and I like the script too much, it makes me laugh and feel. A lot of the jokes by third parties are too funny not to use. And hey, I lost my father in 2016, so a sweet drama-comedy could be a nice tribute to him.
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