Boom, about a week ago we wrapped shooting on my new feature length horror film – ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ – which is based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft. This is the second film (after ‘Markham’ released August 2020) in a trilogy of micro budget Lovecraft adaptations.
Unlike Markham, we had a pretty solid script for this production although my actors Tony Coughlan, Ashe Russell and Gary Geeson still had plenty of room to improvise and play with their characters.
The main shoot was completed in two intense weeks, where at times, we had to be really creative to get the scares and required atmosphere on a tiny budget.
ATMOM had exteriors shot in Greenland and Alaska, but the majority of the film was done on custom built sets in a studio environment. Like Markham, ATMOM will be black and white and some of the film is shot on Super 8mm. The most fun I had on the shoot involved fake snow and a snow machine – which resulted in me nearly breaking ankle – but hey, the shots looked great.
I’m looking forward to diving head first into post production, and the film will hopefully be released online in April 2021.
Obviously, Covid-19 made shooting the film a challenge and at all times we stuck to the Covid-19 film industry guidelines.
Keep checking back over the next few months as I detail the post production process and start releasing a few images and trailers from the film.
My debut as a director Markham has been selling well on DVD and on demand on Vimeo and its slowly picking up interest from bloggers and critics (spoiler alert – big review coming soon from one of the foremost critics in the UK).
This week, the first official review came in from prominent horror blogger David Dent across on his website – Dark Eyes of London.
David really got what we were trying to do with Markham and gave us a great review which does the film, and how we made it a lot of justice. Quotes for the poster include;
‘…amusing, baffling, often incomprehensible, and inventive as hell…’
‘You can keep your multiplex blockbusters or your costume dramas, this is inventive, nuts guerilla filmmaking…’
The review ends with one word – ‘Brilliant’.
We’ll take that.
Pop over to Dark Eyes of London and have a read of the full review yourself.
As my feature film debut as a director, the horror film Markham is now available to buy or stream, I thought I’d discuss a few horror directors who have influenced me.
John Carpenter
Horror is a broad church as a genre and some director’s dip and out. Other filmmakers are more out than in – John Carpenter is a director who is firmly ‘in’ and he’s my favourite director in the horror genre.
Halloween, The Fog, Prince of Darkness, Escape from New York and They Live (to an extent) and of course – The Thing (probably the best horror movie of all time). I even enjoy the lesser works like Vampires and Ghosts of Mars.
Lucio Fulci
Another director who is firmly ‘in’ the horror genre is the late Italian maestro Lucio Fulci – Lucio worked for years in all kinds of genres but spawned a massive hit with Zombi 2 (known under various names) which is a brilliant, rousing rip off of George Romero. But, given a massive hit in the horror genre let Fulci loose to create a masterful trilogy with City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and House by the Cemetery – known as the Gates of Hell trilogy.
Lucio drifted back off into the career doldrums after these films, but they stand the test of time.
David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg is another director who stuck to his horror guns for a long period – for Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly and Dead Zone he will always be regarded as one of the most celebrated genre filmmakers – his career outside of horror too has some classics including History of Violence and Eastern Promises in particular.
The horror bunch
Then, there are a bunch of American filmmakers who have dipped in and out of the genre over the years – guys such as – Brian De Palma, Sam Raimi, John Landis and Tobe Hooper. Between these filmmakers are some genuine horror classics – from The Evil Dead through Body Double, the cult favourite Texas Chainsaw, and up to the best werewolf film of all time (from Landis) An American Werewolf in London.
Stuart Gordon
The late Stuart Gordon also made two masterful low budget classics – Re-Animator and From Beyond. His career included other good low budget horrors, but nothing to match the quality of these two films.
Matthew Cooper Director – For the love of Super 8mm – big name directors first films on the shoestring medium
My feature film debut as a director Markham featured a lot of super 8mm film, and I thought it would be nice to write a blogpost today, about super 8mm and its role in the careers of lots and lots of big name Hollywood directors.
The kids don’t know, but back in the day, directors starting out didn’t have mobile phones that record hi-def video or editing software that is pretty high spec (and often free).
In-fact, directors starting out didn’t have phones or DSLRs and in most cases couldn’t even shoot on video because it was too expensive to buy the kit.
Creative Director for hire
So, directors such as Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter and Jim Cameron made films on Super 8mm.
Super 8mm was (and is again) a film stock; it was made by companies like Kodak and Agfa. Super 8mm film was designed to be played back through a projector, on a big screen at home. It was a very cut down, small format (often called shoelace or bootlace because it was so thin – 8mm- compared to 35mm film, the standard film format for Hollywood films at the time). Super 8mm was designed as a format that could be used by amateurs to record vacations and holidays, or weddings and other family events.
Super 8mm film, came in a cartridge (sound or silent). The cartridge was an easy load design and manufacturers all over the world made cameras that could shoot this film – from low spec point and shoot super 8 cameras- to very high spec semi-pro cameras.
Once you’d shot the film, it was posted back to the company who processed it into a positive print and then returned it to the users – the processing times could be anything from 3 weeks or longer, from time to time, the film you’d shot could go missing in the mail, or even lost at the lab! You were given a unique processing number for each roll of film. In the unfortunate event that the film got lost – all you received was a free blank cartridge.
Each cartridge held about 50 metres of film, which shot at 18 frames per second, would last about 3 and a half minutes, shot on 24 frames per second the film would last just under three minutes.
Matt Cooper Director
For all the faults of Super 8mm filmmaking, it was the best medium to learn the skills a director needs, from the 60s right up to the mid 90s lots and lots of directors and wannabe filmmakers shot on Super 8mm. Gradually video and digital video got more affordable, and Super 8mm died temporarily – it’s back now, and available again form Kodak as part of the analogue resistance. It’s now much more expensive and harder to get hold of, but its making a steady return (Kodak have even promised a new camera – but this has gone on for years, without a firm release date yet).
Many of the old Super8mm cameras are still in fine working order, and can be purchased on eBay. Models by firms such as Bauer and Nizo can be quite pricey still – but a good Bell and Howell or Eumig model (from the 80s) are still affordable for most people.
Editing these days will be done on software – back in the day, if you wanted to edit your super 8mm film it was done by cutting and splicing the film by hand – frame by frame. A real skill that lots of young directors cut their teeth doing (me included).
So, here’s a fun thing – a few big name directors’ Super 8mm productions are available online to see.
Let’s start with James Cameron – his short ‘Xenogenesis’ shot on Super 8mm and made in 1978:
How about Richard Stanley? – Director of ‘Dust Devil’ and the recent ‘Color out of Space’ – his film “Incidents In An Expanding Universe” is below, and feels like a very 80s UK art school student type project:
Sam Raimi made ‘Within the Woods’ a Super 8mm version of ‘The Evil Dead’ was he was in his teens. He used to go from investor to investor and project the film on their office walls.
Below is my little short showreel on Super 8mm – ‘Point Blank 1990’ made in 1990 when I was 16. The film took nearly 6 months to put together in the end.
I’m really pleased that Super 8mm is back available and being used again – I shot a short funky film recently – it’s below.
The best cinematographers are German, or were Dutch and worked in the new German cinema of the 70s.
As a freelance film director for hire, I think I’ve been influenced by cinematographers almost as much as I have been influenced by directors.
Certainly two cameraman had a very big impact on my visual style – these guys both started their careers in the new German cinema of the 70s and 80s and both guys finished their careers working in or around Hollywood.
Muller, to me, had a style so cinematic it taught me to see – his German films with Wim Wenders are famous for their imagery. But later in his career, his work with directors like Alex Cox, William Freidkin and Jim Jarmusch showed he could fit into American films, and see America like no other cameraman.
Ballhause started his career with Fassbinder in Germany, working fast, on low budgets with strong visual ideas, but he ended his career in the USA, and added amazing cinematic style and imagery to the worlds of Martin Scorsese – certainly Ballhause’s work on Goodfellas, and The Color of Money showcase some of the most stylistic camerawork from that era in American films.
When I took on the camera work in my own low budget film debut as director Markham , the work of Ballhause and Muller was always on my mind.
We finished and released our first micro budget feature film last month – Markham which is getting decent DVD sales and on demand screenings on Vimeo. Almost straight away I’m moving onto my next low budget feature – the slightly more ambitious Sci-Fi/Horror Deal of the Dead.
We’ve learned a hell of a lot of things from the making of Markham, and these lessons are all being ploughed into Deal of the Dead, the biggest lesson being most of Deal of the Dead is being shot in one location, in Leeds (the location is being kept under wraps for now). The location covers just about all the exterior shots we need, and is available for night and day shoots without much hassle.
Markham, in contrast was shot in Staithes, Whitby, Liverpool, Morecambe, Leeds and Kefalonia (and that’s not even the complete list). So much time was spent moving from one location to another – we’re not doing that again, on a low budget.
While Markham had some gory special effects, Deal of the Dead is hugely effects heavy, from practical make-up effects to stop motion animation, and we’re doing all of this in-house. This is the bit that alongside working with the actors excites me most as a director. We’re setting up a kind of old school mini ILM- it’s fun.
As well as directing I’ll also be operating as the main director of photography.
We’re hoping that on Deal of the Dead we’ll be able to secure a slightly wider release and distribution deal once the film is completed – so watch this space.
As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.
As afreelance film director for hire,script consultant and script writer for hire I thought it was interesting that this week the number one movie on Netflix was Frozen Ground which was made in 2013 and went quickly to DVD at the time it was released. Not a big hit, not really well known, yet it was the number one movie on Netflix and is still high in the charts as I write this. The question I guess is why?
I actually saw Frozen Ground in 2013, and I remember it. Based on a true story, it was gritty, had some good location photography and decent low key performances from Nic Cage and John Cusack. This true story of a serial rapist and killer was disturbing and unpleasant – but the film tried to keep things real and have some semblance of taste out of respect for the real victims (or at least I felt it did, and I felt it on the second viewing too – that the film kept a level of distance from some of the killings as these were real people).
Was the film memorable? I remember the cold location photography, and it was unusual to see Cusack playing a really bad guy – an evil man. Apart from that, it was an okay, very watchable film based on a very unpleasant real case. The film is well made, but it’s not some sort of undiscovered gem (or is it?).
So, why did it fly in at number one? Was it the presence of Cage and Cusack? Was it the trailer? Was the thumbnail picture on the Netflix glallery? Was it the subject material – let’s face it Netflix loves a serial killer true story? Was it a mix of all this? Was it a film that suddenly, out of nowhere suddenly found its audience on a streaming platform in the middle of a pandemic? I think yes, to all of these, and I think we might see more of these ‘breakout’ older, lesser known films suddenly smash Netflix.
The director of this film Scott Walker has only one feature film credit – this film, and back in 2013 Frozen Ground was due for a wide cinema release after testing well with audiences and receiving pretty decent critical feedback. But for various reasons the film never had the release (two studios merged) and the film was dumped. Leaving director Walker kind of stranded, he would have become a footnote if not for Netflix, and now seven years later, director Walker is suddenly a hot property and his phone is ringing off the hook.
It’s estimated that 100 million people have now seen Frozen Ground in the last few weeks. That’s a huge, gigantic audience for a film, an unexpected bonus and manna from heaven for Walker. But, the key take away here, is that Netflix should take note of this. Frozen Ground is old content, a good film, not seen by many, and there are a lot of undiscovered films (often made by major studios) that never got the attention they deserved (stuff like Miracle Mile and Sorcerer) these films, presented to new audiences on a platform that didn’t exist when the films were made could become huge hits for Netflix if treated in the correct manner. Netflix must take note.
As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.
Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020
Now that the film is finished and released, I’m hungry to start work on my next project asap. I’ve already been working on some test SFX shots.
My next project will be another zero budget horror film (part of what I’m lazily referring to as the Covid Trilogy).
Also, in the last week, almost by coincidence I’ve had a few fairly nice jobs come in as a script writer for hire and script consultant – scriptwriting pays my bills and helps to fund the low budget films I’m working on at the moment.
We haven’t as yet, done much PR for Markham. But there’s some coverage in the pipeline hopefully, at the moment we’re testing the sales and fulfilment of the DVD, we’re literally learning about indie distribution as we go along.
Hopefully, these lessons might pay dividends with the next film.
Keep checking back on this website, as we move into production on the next film I’m going to start a regular blog that actually follows the production, so people can see the process, the problems and some of the fun we have with making a low budget movie.
As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.
As well as being a script writer for hire, UK Script editor and UK script consultant for over 20 years, it now appears that I’m in the feature motion picture business, as my debut as a director – the horror film Markham is now locked, finished and set for release at the end of August. It’s been quite a journey.
Markham is an experimental, rubber reality horror feature that was shot for a zero budget, and used improvisation in nearly every scene.
As well as being the director, and DOP, I also act in the film under the name Thomas Cody, I did this because of the way the film was shot, and the lack of budget. It meant that the actor ‘Thomas’ was always available when Matthew Cooper the director was… It helps with scheduling!
As an actor, I try to do as little as possible and be as naturalistic as I can. I’ve been around and worked with some great actors in my career as a script writer for hire, so I picked up a few things from people like Ewan McGregor, Brian Bovell, Dean Smith, Tom Gibbons and writing for some soap actors like Dominic Brunt (in Emmerdale, he’s an amazing actor and very underrated) has taught me the odd thing about acting and performance. So, I can get by as actor, but what people don’t recognise is that acting can be, physically and mentally exhausting.
So, the strain of acting, coupled with being THE DIRECTOR of the film is double whammy. I also, don’t particularly enjoy being in front of the camera, which I was a lot in Markham. I like to be behind the lens to check the shots (and often make last minute adjustments). And again, to save money I also acted as the director of photography (DOP) so that’s three roles I was often doing in each shot. All three require terrific concentration. It was miles tougher than I expected or even considered.
The film, so far has had good feedback and a warm response, especially from fans of the horror genre. My performance even got a few mentions, but gladly I’m dwarfed by the pro actors we used such as Ashe Russell, Tony Coughlan, Dan Martin and Gareth Parry. All these guys knew what they were doing (thank god).
I won’t be in a rush to act again, but it’s always useful to know that while I’m not comfortable in front of the camera, I can serve up some prime ham if needed.
As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.
My feature debut as a director Markham is all but finished as of today. It’s been around two years in the making. With no budget and no script Markham has been an experiment to see if we could actually pull of a film of any worth, starting from scratch.
Well we did. Markham is a tight, arty, experimental little horror film, with a cool look, cool music, some very good acting and some great locations.
It’s Grindhouse in a way as well, parts where shot on film, it’s experimental, and wouldn’t be out of place alongside a lot of Shameless films or Arrow films releases.
But what have I learned from making a zero budget horror film?
Okay, when Peter Jackson made Bad Taste, he did it, in a style similar to how we made Markham. Shooting on a part-time basis as and when cast and crew where available, without much of a script to go along with – it took Peter Jackson FOUR years to complete the film, and now I know why (it’s taken nearly two years to complete Markham).
When I started shooting Markham I thought it might take six months.
Working without a script is a crackers idea, especially in low to zero budget filmmaking. Initially when we started out, me and the actors just shot scenes that were interesting visually and we improvised the characters, and narrative, eventually a fitting plot emerged. This is an interesting and creative way to work (Kubrick worked like this sometimes). But, it means it will take years to finish and you never know (as a director) what you’ll need – from a simple coverage POV – right up to major scenes that are required that only become apparent later.
The first lesson for next time, is to write a script and stick to what’s written. There’s always room for experimentation but have the blueprint in script form first.
Another thing I’ve learned never to ignore is sound, especially when shooting on location. A lot of ADR work was required in post production that would have been better avoided with more attention to paid to the sound recording on location, although admittedly recording dialogue on the open sea, in a raging storm is always going to be hard.
Difficult locations is another point of learning. We picked some spectacular coastal locations to use in Markham. But we didn’t consider how difficult they were going to be to get there, or actually shoot in these out of the way, and often dangerous places.
The locations look great, but I should have considered the impact on production of where we shot. We filmed in places never used in productions before – these were startling virgin locations for UK film. But there were reasons why nobody had shot there, and they became clear to us as we used the often dangerous locations ourselves…
Finally one of the main things I’d say I learned at this stage is that IT’S COMPLETELY feasible to now shoot a low budget film, post produce it and edit for very little money and have an end product that’s completely serviceable. The film is going to be released on DVD and on VIMEO at the end of August, but I could easily in future put the film on AMAZON PRIME myself.
The whole process has been a massive learning experience for me. And I can’t wait to do it all again…
As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.
