A Comfortable Grave
Written and shot in 2017, this short horror film can be viewed on my Video portfolio page. The idea struck me when I realised that not all short films have to be five, ten or even twenty minutes long. Why can’t I just create a micro short - one that’s only two minutes long?
The idea came about after watching a collection of short horror films directed by David F. Sandberg. One of his shorts, Lights Out went viral and was picked up by Hollywood a few months later. This allowed Sandberg to direct his debut feature with James Wan producing. Pretty magnificent right? Sandberg’s concept for that horror movie was what really brought the film to light (no pun intended). He had made a whole bunch of other short horror films that also appear on his YouTube page and all are shot in his own apartment, using whatever kit he had laying around and using either himself, or his wife Lotta as the main actor.
This sparked crazy amounts of inspiration for me. So I set about the idea of doing the same thing myself. I wanted to make something so simple that I could do it at home, with whatever kit I had laying about using either myself or one other actor. I actually turned to a friend of mine, Steve Pierce, who had a fair amount of filming equipment himself and was very keen on lending a hand. My wife was then the lead actress in it, and she’s not even an actress herself - a nurse in fact. Anyway, that’s besides the point. She was willing to star in the short which meant I could concentrate on directing it.
After the first night’s filming I began to edit the film. I realised then that I needed another shoot to fill in some of the blanks that I had in the short. Sometimes you only realise in the edit that you’re missing vital shots. We set up one more night of filming and managed to capture everything I needed. It was at this time I discovered the Annabelle Creation short film competition, hosted by none other than David F Sandberg himself! He wanted filmmakers to upload a 90 second short horror film as this represented exactly how he made it in Hollywood himself.
The film didn’t actually win but was a close Runner Up. I then decided to enter the film into a bunch of other competitions - London Short Film, Birmingham Horror Fest and Oxford Short Film Festival, all of which landed a viewing spot and another Runner’s Up prize. I was happy with the end product and it lead me to make my second micro short horror film - Exit To Hell, which can also be viewer on my Video portfolio page.
