Towards the end of the City & Guilds course, I attempted another short film. This one was a vampire film. I got my cast and crew together, but made a conscious decision to not have lots of make-up FX in it. I was going for something very low key. Plus I just couldn't afford it. I managed to get the Whitby Dracula Society involved and gained permission to film in Whitby Abbey and St. Mary's Church, beside the abbey. I was all set to go, when the day before, I was told by my college teacher that the equipment was broken and would take two weeks to get fixed, so no one could use it. So I lost my 'window' to get this film shot. I later found out that the equipment was not broken. The teacher had got himself a paid gig in Scotland shooting an advertisement and wanted to use the college equipment for this. I also heard that I was annoying people there at the college because I was using the equipment too much and it was getting in the way of their dodgy side hustles.
After I'd completed the City & Guilds course, I was wanting to move on to something a little more advanced. I got a place on a HND Film course at Cleveland College of Art and Design. I learned so much more about screenwriting, digital editing, and I even got to work a little using 16mm film. After the first year when it was the break for the summer holidays, I bought myself a video camera and started to shoot the Vampire film that I'd previously planned. I re-wrote it a little to suit some different locations as I'd chosen to film it locally instead of at Whitby.
However, it became yet another uncompleted project as the actors lost interest and what I'd got filmed didn't really look so great either.
I didn't have the time to start something else as after the summer holidays were over, I was struggling to keep up with the other college work. I was also working at a cinema and I was taking care of my father as my mother's death had taken a big toll on him. So in the second year of the course I just kind of drifted away. I'd gotten a bit disillusioned with 'college life' and film making. It felt like there were no opportunities or support in this area for what I wanted to make. The sculpting and make-up work had gone nowhere after many years of trying. When I applied for funding for my film projects I was refused, with someone even saying that "We could not be involved with funding any film projects of yours as they could potentially bring our company into disrepute." How about that...? At college I'd hoped to learn about the business side of film making, especially funding. But it felt to me that the course was only focused on pushing you to the next level course. Many of the questions that I had were unanswered, and no one could point me in the right direction.
Below are some photographs of the vampire film. I know, a vampire film shot in the daylight... but I'd planned to use some filters and FX in editing to make it look like night time.
These are some storyboards that I did for a scene involving a crucified vampire being brought back to life. However, I was unsure of how to work this scene into the film. I was thinking of doing it as a small model. These were badly damaged as I'd kept them in a box in the attic and they'd gotten wet thanks to a leaky roof...
A few pictures of the skull mask worn by the Priest. The mask was made by me. I took these photos recently as I still have the mask. It's a favourite of mine.
