To celebrate the art of the close-up, MobileMovieMaking ran an Instagram competition. The challenge was to post a video that included at least one knockout close-up. Coming from eight countries, entries represented a wide variety of genres including documentary, music video, travelogue, and fashion. The winning video was “Vacant,” a horror trailer directed by Oliver Richards.
An English filmmaker residing in Cork, Ireland, Richards is the master of one-man-band production. A few weeks ago, we featured his “Thirsty,” which he wrote, starred in, filmed, and edited. His discusses his outside-the-box method in an interview below.
Interview with Oliver Richards
MMM: How did you come up with the idea for “Vacant”?
Richards: The concept is actually based on the place that I live, and that’s where the trailer is filmed. I live in a top floor apartment and the apartment below is unoccupied and has been for a long time. I have often walked past that place and wondered what’s on the other side. Especially at night it’s pretty creepy and so the concept came very naturally.
MMM: How did you plan the shoot?
Richards: I blocked the shots in the hallways where I was to shoot and then drew out the shots as a messy collection of storyboard pictures.
MMM: What gear did you use?
Richards: I used my slider for quite a few of the shots, and I tried to rely on natural lighting as much as possible. But I also had a single Samtian LED light to brighten up the space for a couple of the shots. The closeup of the eye at the end was the most complex shot to film as I was filming my own eye using a macro lens made by Beastgrip and I couldn’t see what I was doing.
MMM: Could you talk about directing yourself?
Richards: This is another film I’ve done where I’ve appeared in it myself because it’s a short project and easier to just get on and start making rather than look around to find an actor. I ended up shooting way more than I ever used because I was experimenting with movements and timing of everything. But that’s the great thing about a self-produced film like this: you have time to experiment.
MMM: How long did the shoot take?
Richards: Two days overall. But the two days were about a week apart, and the second day was more like re-shoots and extra stuff I realised I needed while editing.
MMM: Could you tell us about the creation of the monster?
Richards: The monster was created by filming myself doing the action in front of the camera and then digitally painting over myself in Photoshop and then layering that into After Effects where I added some more texturing and lighting effects.
MMM: Where did you get the music?
Richards: AudioJungle is where I go for all music and sound effect I use. It has a great range of excellent quality music from every genre.
MMM: How did you produce the wonderful scream?
Richards: That too came from Audio jungle.
MMM: What was your approach to the editing?
Richards: When editing on my phone I use KineMaster, but because there were special effects for this project I edited the film on Adobe Premiere.
MMM: The trailer ends with “Coming Soon.” Shall we expect to see the actual movie?
Richards: Yes, I hope so. Around the time I made the trailer I also began writing a feature length screenplay based on the concept. I’m working on the script’s second draft now and will be taking it forward to make a feature film in the future.
MMM: We’re eager to see it.
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The editors of MobileMovieMaking Magazine have chosen “Vacant” as the Mobile Movie of the Week.
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