The return of Midnight Pictures

A couple of years ago, Andrew Harrison and I drew Midnight Pictures to a close. We’ve done no filmmaking since summer 2005. Well, no serious filmmaking; we’ve made a few mini-movies as part of children’s workshops in conjuction with Ballycastle Film Club. If you thought Don’t Look in the Attic was going to be the sixth and final film from Midnight Pictures, I’m delighted to change your expectations.

It began on Saturday night, with my friend Earl sharing a creepy idea for a short story. Imagine yourself looking out of your bedroom window late at night, seeing a figure standing across the road on the footpath, in the glow of the streetlights. He’s not moving, and he appears to be staring straight at you, although it’s hard to tell with the shadows. The next night, the figure is there again, except this time he’s standing about ten metres closer, again staring. The following night he’s right outside your garden gate. We bounced ideas off each other and made some progress with where this story could lead.

On Sunday evening, Andrew and I got together for our weekly DVD watching session, and I shared the idea with him. I knew he’d like it, because he digs David Lynchian weirdness. We ended up talking for quite a while, attempting to develop the story. And the old magic started to flow. We figured it all out: who this strange character was, what he was up to. We came up with some cool cliche-breakers and an ending that will give children nightmares!

It’s only Tuesday, and I’ve already written the entire script: 3,300 words. I’m guessing it will translate to about 30 minutes. It’s been a long time since I got this enthused about a project, and it feels great. The only thing lacking is a good title. I’ve often said to Andrew that it would be great to have several short films that we could eventually join into a single feature film in the style of Creepshow. Perhaps this will be the first. Rest assured, we won’t be keeping our short feature under wraps for several years while we accrue 90 minutes worth. We’ll be too excited to show it to you.

The next stage is to get the right people on board, both behind and in front of the camera, and to make the necessary arrangements regarding locations and effects, etc. Because of the amount of night-time footage the film requires, it’s not likely we’ll commence filming until around September. But you should consider this blogpost my official statement green-lighting the project. For the past two years, I’ve been concentrating solely on writing fiction. It’s time to put the pen down for a spell and pick up the camera. Midnight Pictures is back!