The Franklinsteins

Franklin-based scriptwriter and film director Darren Swanson entered the 48-hour Tasploitation Challenge again this year (after this awesome entry two years ago) and when he asked David and I if we'd like to help out, we jumped at the chance. In a nutshell, teams have to produce a short horror film over a weekend. On Friday night, you are given three 'prompts': a sub-genre of horror for your film, a line of dialogue and a prop that must be used in the film. You then have two days to make and edit a film of up to six minutes and get it in to the judges on Sunday night, for screening on Monday night. Phew!

The sub-genre we got was 'paranoia and madness' and the film had to include a line from a David Bowie song and a paintbrush. We filmed at night. Darren had roped in a fantastic cast and crew, including a director of photography and lighting, camera operator, editor, boom operator and make up artist. David played the main character, a baker who wanted to catch a repeat burglar in the act. I helped out with props and anything else that needed doing on the set (a.k.a. the Franklin Post Office). It involved (shaving) cream pies, fake blood and synthetic drool. While our fantastic actors got their scary on, the most frightening thing I did all weekend was put contact lenses in another woman's eyes! It's one thing putting my own lenses in, quite another poking around in someone else's eyes... but I think you'll agree the effect was totally worth it (see below).

It was exciting going to the screening of all 26 entries in the Tasploitation Challenge last night and getting to see the result of everyone's creativity and hard work on the big screen. Thanks for the opportunity to be involved, Darren!