Written & Directed by David Yorke
After discovering a USB port in her wrist, Kate uncovers a world where she has the ability to change herself for the better. But she will slowly discover that greed will come at a cost.
EJECT was featured in our Grindhouse section of The People’s Film Festival 2020 and recently won Best Short Film at Dead Northern. With over 30 festival selections, including the prestigious Sitges and Leeds Film Festivals, Eject is a great short to kick off this Halloween season.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKER
Welcome back to our Short of the Week series! What have you been up to since we last interviewed you for WE?:
Thanks for having me again, it mean’s a lot that you continue to spotlight myself and my work. Since WE I have been making more short films and submitting them to festivals, I have been fortunate to have my films play at alot, including Leeds and Sitges, which meant a great deal to me.
I have also been writing my feature scripts and building towards making one of them.
What is your inspiration and influences behind Eject? Have you ever found a USB port in your arm?
My inspirations stem from my love of John Carpenter films and just horror in general, many people think I’m influenced by David Cronenberg when truth be told I hadn’t seen many of his films until recently, so I didn’t grow up watching a lot of body horror, I’m much more of a drama director but I tend to add a horror spin to some of my stories.
Not just yet, I keep waking up and hoping that a USB port will appear. I will update you should anything change.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
It was a film I had been trying to make for over 10 years, so location was the biggest obstacle, but I managed to find the perfect place and really increase the production value of my whole film. There were many other obstacles along the way, but all my films tend to come with their fair share of problems to overcome. I think that’s what makes the process more interesting and it also keeps you on your toes.
Any hacks or tips for filmmakers working within the psychological thriller / horror genre?
Yes, watch as many horror films as possible, even the really bad ones, learn from their mistakes, figure out what’s been done and find your own new take. I tend to take something personal from my own life and inject it with a little horror. Also earn your jump scares, don’t just throw one in to scare an audience.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
It’s still a battle that I and many other filmmakers are facing, do you go the festival or online route? do viewing numbers or awards mean more to you? I think ultimately it’s about exposure, I make my films to be seen on a big screen and with an audience, so the festival route is really important to me and so far I have had some great experiences showcasing my work and meeting new people.
It’s not an easy journey though that’s for sure. A lot of rejection and mostly without feedback and also due to a little thing called the pandemic our work mostly has been viewed online, more people see it but audience engagement is missing and I’m excited for festivals now reopening the doors and audiences returning.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist for this Halloween season?
Halloween Kills is out soon which I’m excited for and I have to recommend Censor and Saint Maud, I thought both of them were fantastic. There’s also a show coming out on Netflix called Midnight Mass by Mike Flanagan, I think he’s one of the best and most interesting directors working in horror at the moment. I also recommend everyone subscribe to Shudder, it’s essentially if Netflix only showed horror films, there are two amazing 4 hour documentary’s called In Search of Darkness Part I and Part II. They cover the best of 80’s horror. I have no doubt I will give them both a rewatch in October.
Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?