So there was desire to make a movie. And I’ve got the land and resources and the time to do something I wanted to do for a long ass time. So the question became what did I want to do? I’ve alreay talked about that a bit previously, at least in terms of doing something that was more than talking heads in an apartment or a house or a convenience store. I eventually settled on doing a horror that takes advantage of the woods and other locals that are available right in my literal backyard. For a time I weighed that choice against other options.
For a brief (very brief) moment I contemplated a rather straightforward drama with modern day farming and farmers at the center of the story. Equipment land and locations are all right there and ready to use. No real need to think about production design, when or how to shoot it (just anytime something wasn’t being used it would be available), and cost would be low. It would have been a pretty indie feeling flick. I couldn’t get myself interested in a particular story and through-line for that type of film though. Young struggling small farmers in the 21st century could be an interesting film, but not one I was or am interested in telling now.
A second, more involved idea was a post apocalyptic comedy. Rough, rural and dilapidated locals I had aplenty and could dress them up a bit to sell a dystopian future. And then sorta do an anti Mad Max, like the world has gone to shit, but it ain’t all that bad for our characters. I never really liked the various conflicts I tried to implant into that setting. I might revisit that idea someday though.
Another heavy genre idea came to mind also. It would have technically fallen into the high-fantasy category. Not exactly Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, but in a world like that. It would be much smaller in scope (obviously), sort of what is going on in the backwater areas while heroes are saving the world and shit elsewhere. Two things cut out my desire to do it. First is that even if I wrote the story in a doable way it would be costlier across the board than the horror idea it was competing with in my mind. And secondly it felt more like a short form series than a film. And for this immediate notion of taking a shot at making something, I felt a feature would be the most sensible idea in terms of ROI (I don’t mean that monetarily, more effort to fulfillment).