Directed by Markus Meedt
Written & Produced by Alex Gibbons and Howard Perret
In a world where ghosts and ghouls aren't a matter of folklore and legend but more everyday pests in need of control, we follow Abi as she embarks on her first day as an intern with the British Paranormal Investigation Team.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MARKUS
Welcome back to our Short of the Week series. What have you been up to since we showcased your last short Werewolf?
Right after Werewolf I got busy with Paranormal Investigators, which we wanted to function as a Proof Of Concept short, to develop into series. I also re-teamed with the lovely team from Werewolf to do another short and a series of sketches, which I hope to be sharing with you soon. And I also got to work with the Royal School of Speech And Drama on a series of short films for the graduation students. But mostly I have tried to do more script writing and bible development, to try and tell more ambitious stories than our short film budgets can handle.
Tell us about the genesis of Paranormal Investigators. How did the project come about?
One of my best friends, Alex Gibbons, who I have worked with on multiple projects introduced me to Howard Perret, who came up with the concept of the short. We all really fell in love with the characters and the world. So Howard and Alex went off and wrote a short that could also work as a condensed version of a pilot episode.
How did you find the crowdfunding process and what tips/tricks could you provide to filmmakers looking to do the same?
Crowdfunding is haaaaard and awkward. Admittedly, Alex and Howard did most of the leg work on getting the crowd funding. Obviously there is the video to entice an audience and the perks. But people don't organically stumble across your crowdfunding page, take the time to watch and read everything and then generously open their wallet. The truth is that mostly people will give you financial support because they know you, or because you successfully managed to talk them into your cause. So Alex and Howard (and the rest of the team) went out and directly approached people, rather than just post about it online. So, the horrible truth is, you can't just plonk it on social and hope for people to interact. You have to interact with the people, and then hope they see whatever you plonked on your socials.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
I love the film we ended up with. And I love the whole team. But holy smokes we ran into a lot of trouble on this one.
Alex Gibbons, who not only wrote and produced the film, was also our gaffer (he is a great Spark and Gaffer FYI). Before the shoot he went to pick up some props, including a large shelf, which fell apart while he was carrying it, slicing through his hand and sending him straight to the ER. So he became a one handed gaffer.
On shoot day 2 I received a call from home with some very sad news. This call came through before we went off to shoot the big comedy scene with Joshua McGuire.
Our Production Designer nearly got impaled by a curtain rod.
Howard had to sort out some location issues while also playing our male lead and doing dialogue re-writes with Alex on the fly.
So in short, most of the challenges we faced this time around, just somehow felt a little cursed at times. I guess the take away lesson here is that sometimes the hardest part about film making isn't the actual process of making the film, but trying to not let the unpredictable chaos of the "outside world" push you off course on your journey. And truly, now we are looking back and are laughing about it.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
Well one way of course is to have KINO shorts talk about the film. Our festival run wasn't as far reaching as we hoped, as the film was finalized in the peak of covid bonanza. But we managed to have a great Cast/Crew/Friends screening at a spectacular London location. The film went down well and just by sheer word of mouth we were invited by some more local film festivals. (Big Shout Out to Leighton Buzzard) Film Festival). The film has literally just gone live on the World Wide Web, so we are excited to see if, how, and where it finds its audience.
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face trying to break into the industry?
I think I personally haven't broken into the industry properly. So I can only confirm that it is really challenging to break into the industry. I can't really say what it takes, though, to make it work (yet! If I find out, I will let you know fo sho!). But I would say in the current environment, the biggest challenge is to stay on top of the costs of living while also chasing a dream that requires you to spend a lot of your personal time and money to "create" the tools you need to break in. So while talent does go a long way, there is a certain amount of living costs you need to uphold while you are waiting for your right place at the right time moment.
What are you working on now?
We are in post on our series of sketches at the moment, which need to be delivered by end of November. I am co-writing a YA TV Pilot and developing an R-Rated animated Peppa Pig type series as well as a workplace dramedy. So a very mixed bag of joyful things.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I just saw The Banshees of Inisherin, which is great (and horrendous) fun.