Film Courage: Which came first Where Blood Lies
the short film or Where Blood Lies the feature screenplay?
Byron Q., Filmmaker: I wrote the short film screenplay first
and then as I was planning to make the short film. The feature screenplay was being developed and so
I guess at the same time maybe. The funny thing with that movie was originally I wanted to make a
short film as a proof of concept but the original short film that I wrote there was a backstory to
one of these characters it was about on these two kids who find a hidden abandoned bunker
and they go in there and they find out there's this creature but there was a whole backstory to
how this experiment came about and I scrapped the entire movie but I the backstory so I
made that into Where Blood Lies how much time did you put into shopping the feature script
I put a lot of effort into it I reached out to everybody that I knew in terms of
executives or whoever yeah I did everything I could but the feedback that I kept getting was
they just didn't know they're it's gonna be expensive or
vampires we see a bunch of stuff with vampires already that was the general feedback
plus you have the bunker was there a cost the thought of this creating this well
well and it ended up being just a cave so the bunker thing that was from the original idea I
scrapped that but I did have a script actually that I wrote called The Lost Bunker so yeah I
have a bunch of scripts where were you shopping the script and why didn't anyone want to make it
I don't know I was saying in terms of shopping the script I just submitted through my own contacts
this was before I got my manager and just through my own contacts and I don't know why I
didn't want people just don't really they didn't really see the vision that I was trying to make
they saw it as one of those I don't know can't be Nazi vampire or Nazi Zombie thing which I wasn't
trying to really do and the vampire genre people I think they felt it was outdone already but yeah
do you remember when you stopped shopping the script and you said
I'm just gonna make this proof of concept remember the moment or series of events
I think I always had the idea that I would make a short film for a proof of concept
but
yeah I've always wanted to make the short film because even if it wasn't
I'm gonna sell the script it was just something that I can direct and be a calling card because
if I want to direct horror films I have to make something within that genre and this was
going to be it and and I wanted to just make something I was getting that creative bug so
yeah and that's why I went and but I wanted to have the short film and the script ready at the
same time so that you have both things to present to people Oh you mean the feature screenplay yeah
oh yeah okay interesting so you want to be ready to go if they say can I see what else
do you have well I have a feature version yeah how long did it take you to make this short film
planning it took a while because originally I wanted to make it in Norway I even went out there
and met with a buddy of mine and a producer and we were scouting abandoned Nazi bunkers
which was fun but but we ended up saying okay no it's too expensive over there
but the actual production was only three days and then post-production maybe a month or so
and and leading up to it maybe a month of prep
because you had stayed two days in Norway when you went to Germany or this is different it seems
a different time this is when I was already about to move back to America before I moved
back I was thinking I could make it in Norway because at this time I was living in Germany
so it was pretty close I just go over there but everything's so expensive over there it was no way
when you release the short film online how did it do the first day
the first day I think it got over a thousand views yeah I had posted on Reddit
and just asking people to comment or for feedback on it and and then obviously my own social media
but yeah it got all it ended up getting a lot of views about a thousand sorry yeah the first day it
was probably a thousand I can't really recall but as every day went on the views started coming in
and after I think it was well now it's been two years it's got 2.3 million and all that
is organic views besides Reddit and maybe some social media I never paid for ads or anything that
is it was a surprise to me as well I was what the heck but that goes to show because I always
knew that that that concept would do well but nobody believed it but once I put it out there
the audience is there everybody was interested in seeing it do you remember the length of time
from the Thousand to just a million not even though it's not just a million but
I don't know maybe a few months it had to be at least a few months yeah it's great that's not easy
to do with the success of the short film did you have producers reaching out to you yeah I actually
well it got licensed by Gunpowder & Sky which is a production company
that does alter so that's great and the funny thing is they put it on their channel and it
only got 60,000 views so I already yeah I'm not sure how the algorithms work but I think
because I had already posted it maybe they couldn't get that many views but besides them
another producer slash writer group they reached out and they actually wanted an option the short
film but it ended up not working out because because Gunpowder & Sky had the license ready so
we had to wait for it to expire and then by that time they had some other projects that they were
working on which they got hired to do some other projects so they didn't have time to work on their
own thing so they said they'll come back to me at one point which you don't know if that'll happen
or not but just having that interest from them I think was a big a boost in morale for me because
because they told me that hey their agents are the ones that were saying hey
go out and we'll get a short film and option it and then develop that short film as an IP
so there's people out there actively looking for short films to acquire their rights for
so that's what got me interested in oh well if they got interested in this maybe I can
do the again with another short film because by creating a short film you're creating IP
as long as you create a specific world and characters right
and then from there either you make it or somebody else can make it but you have a piece of Ip now
did you think of possibly a video game that that's a possibility yeah video game only recently that
I really get interested in video games with Unreal Engine so yeah and you see now with
video game companies they're making movies now too so there's a definitely a big cross between
the two industries and I think we're going to see a lot more of that in the future years why
isn't the success of the short enough to get a feature made I think it really depends on
the their circumstance or who is willing or interested in making something
so we've seen so many instances where a short film did get make made into a feature film and um
and mine almost got made that's the thing which doesn't mean it won't be so there's there's
that card is still in play and that's why I I'm somebody who would say to filmmakers yeah go and
make a short film because I know some people say oh don't waste your time on a short film because
it's not going to make money and nobody cares about short films that's not true people will
watch a short film over your feature film because of feature film they have to spend an hour and a
half to watch it with a short film if it's short enough they'll watch it because it only takes less
than 10 minutes and I've had more people watch my short film than they've watched my feature films
and I'm talking about the showrunner for Walking Dead watch my short film and said he loved it
agents at CAA it got passed around to a lot of different people because of the interest
from these producers their reps was taking this film around showing it around to see if there was
interest already now I know we used to hear that a lot that you can't make money but now there's
there's also channels I know you said Gunpowder & Sky put it on theirs but Omeleto they have
fantastic sort of films I could binge watch that all day and I wasn't necessarily always a short
person but some of the stories that they have are amazing so yeah I think this become more prevalent
now it seems yeah and you can use that short film in many ways really as a portfolio piece
and a calling card but if you're trying to be a a director you got to have something to show that's
recent right I can't show people something I made 10 years ago and be oh yeah hire me to direct
a horror movie when the film I made was a drama and it was 10 years old and they're not going to
watch the movie anyway because they don't want to spend an hour and a half watching it but I'm
oh hire me to direct this script oh what have you directed oh here's check out this short film and
with a short film you can really put all your resources into a very short and just make that
a super high quality right so it won't cost as much as making a feature film but
you can still get the same achievement result which is to prove to someone you can direct
why do you ever have a tough time trying to get
a good Arc story arc for a short or no you you can thrive in that environment
no it's pretty difficult for me and that's why I haven't really made that many shorts before
Where Blood Lies I made maybe four shorts all in film school that nobody should probably watch but
that was something that was difficult because with short film structure is different from a feature
film right it's it has to be sort of how you tell a joke you set it up and there's a punch line
but if you try to approach it as a feature film it just ends up being
too much information or too much story but I think now I'm starting to understand it more but
it's probably more difficult actually for me to come up with a short film.