A director lying shirtless on the ground of his basement

I hope all of the freelancers reading this have snuck their way into a holiday party and indulged in free drinks. 

I talked to filmmaker Manny Gumina for today’s Work In Progress feature. Manny just picture locked his “unhinged Wisconsin horror” microbudget Creature Fear. (CONGRATULATIONS!!!)

The movie follows an adrift musician who leaves his bandmate for the weekend to record music with a mysterious local singer. Manny shares the traps most first time features directors fall into, navigating unexpected pickups and why he set a shoot date before he had any money.

BUT BEFORE WE GET TO THE HORROR…

Oscar noms shortlist comes out next Tuesdays, let’s see how the truly indie space does. I moderated a panel for the Alliance of Women Directors FYC campaign, and am impressed by all the hustle these directors are putting into this. 

This week I finished a beta of a Microbudget Mindset mini-course, two 3-hour workshops on how to think about microbudget filmmaking in a personally sustainable way. Details on the workshop coming next week. 

THE STATE OF SHORTS

Had a conversation with filmmakers and programmers on the state of shorts during last week’s No Film School. Erin, one of our guests, got into Sundance. This woman hustles so hard for the film community I can’t think of someone who deserves it more. Look at this reaction video, it made my day.

I finally released my micro interview with Georg Csarmann, programmer at Short of the Week. Georg liked my short Rescue, which I submitted to SOTW a few years (didn’t get in). We stayed in touch though, and when my fiance’s brother got married there last month, Georg met us at Café Diglas im Schottenstift. We talked shorts, Vimeo removing staff picks in all of Europe (disturbing in my opinion) and the Austrian film industry. I asked Georg what Austrian films we need to know and here’s what he said: 

I’m going down this film rabbit hole, see you later.

Work In Progres: Manny Gumina Picture Locks

Where are you currently in the process of making Creature Fear? What milestones have you hit, and what’s the next big hurdle on the horizon?

We locked on picture today (😱). Development started in earnest in December 2022, but I caught the idea in May 2020 and wrote iterations of the script during that period. Principal photography was 11 days in Spring 2024. After editing a rough cut, we decided to shoot three more pickup days in November 2024. It took some time to raise for the pickup since it was unexpected. Now, we’re working to finish score, sound, and color by January. One step at a time.

The story combines music, isolation, and suspense — how have these elements influenced your approach to the tone and pacing of the film? Are there specific inspirations or references you’ve leaned on?

Man, so much to unpack with this question. I’m a huge podcast and audiobook person. I listen so much I hardly know where I hear things half the time. But a piece of advice that really resonated with me was the trap many first time filmmakers fall into of slapping everything they’ve ever loved into their first feature. Those films tend to get tonally inconsistent and lose track of their message. I REALLY wanted to avoid that. With this movie, I wanted to show that we can hit all the markers of the horror genre while being true to the characters. For instance, I love comedy, and this movie has things I find funny, but we never played it or edited it for comedy timing. Dread, tragedy, suspense, spiraling were the words I tried to stick to when giving direction.

As far as inspirations go, I was highly influenced by Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago and Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Both albums were recorded in isolation by the artists. Both deal with themes of tragedy and horrific events and heartbreak. Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) is from Wisconsin and he recorded For Emma alone in a hunting cabin after a break from his band, a story that was publicized in the late 2000s. He became somewhat of a legend in Wisconsin after that album and subsequent albums went platinum. This story might be a little personal, but it speaks to the emotions of the characters in CF. When I was in high school I hastily broke up with my girlfriend after a night of self loathing. The next morning, it dawned on me that I had made a major mistake. I laid shirtless on the ground of my basement bawling to Skinny Love by Bon Iver. That girlfriend is now my wife and we have two beautiful children. But I’ll always remember the emotion of that day. What would have happened if I didn’t channel that feeling into making it right and rekindling our love? What if it led to a negative spiral?

Can you speak about funding, and how you made it happen?

Funding, funding, funding. Of the many challenges of filmmaking, is this the biggest challenge? There's a case to be made. Two-thirds of our budget was private investment from family and friends, and one-third was self-funded. We received a very generous first money in check that got the ball rolling in earnest. It wasn't enough for us to take the project from start to finish, but it was a feather in our cap for subsequent pitches. I spent countless hours on a pitch deck, budget, and revenue projections to use as a pitch to high net worth individuals, but ultimately, it came down to making phone calls and giving a one minute elevator pitch. I doubt anyone looked at any of that work. Although, making the pitch deck did help clarify for myself why this movie needed to be made. 

The last piece of advice that really helped was something I actually heard on your podcast about setting a shoot date and sticking to it. Before we had any money in hand, I set a date for the shoot. Whether it was hiring crew or getting funding that was so helpful for driving conversation. It made the negotiations real and not hypothetical.

What drew you to this story, and why did you feel it was the right fit for a micro-budget feature? How has the micro-budget approach shaped the creative decisions you’ve made so far?

The lockdown period of Spring 2020 awakened a lot of dormant creativity in me. I watched so many classic movies and read so many books that I started to get the urge to storytell. I wrote a novel first. Then, I started writing screenplays. I wrote six screenplays in 2020 and 2021. Creature Fear was written with production in mind though. I started with this lake town setting and built a story around it because I knew I would have access to these locations. Who lives in this setting? Who doesn't and might be a fish out of water in it? What type of Wisconsin lore can I pull from?

That exploration of setting drew me into this story. I really wanted to create drama from the stark difference in values and lifestyle between urban and rural populations. I think I mentioned it in the press notes, but I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, and to a lot of rural people, I would be considered a "city boy." One day in that Spring 2020 time period when my family traveled to our lake home for lockdown, we were on a walk when a local resident rolled down his pickup truck window and yelled "Go home!" to us. That sparked a lot of creativity. He knew just by looking at us that we didn't live there full time and he didn't want us spreading COVID.

You’re working with such an intimate setting and a small cast. What opportunities and challenges has that presented? Have there been any moments where limitations sparked unexpected creativity?

The first iterations of the Creature Fear script were a lot bigger - more set pieces, bigger cast, more locations. I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to raise the funds for that scale and I started to peel it back, which was really a blessing in disguise because it gave more definition and depth to the three main characters: Paul, Miriam, and Charlie. It became a character driven horror story.

During principal photography, I wouldn't say the limitations sparked creativity. I meticulously shot listed everything and I knew what I wanted to get. There were small things like taking coverage out and making it one camera move in order to save time, but I wouldn't say that was a creative choice but rather a necessity for getting the movie finished.

From an intimate setting perspective, we all slept at the location where we were shooting so we had to become friends really quick. That's where leadership is so important. I needed everyone to feel safe. And the only way they were going to feel safe is with a strong and decisive leader who set clear expectations prior to coming on set. My DP was also instrumental in that. I told people to keep the drama in front of the camera, not behind it, and for the most part, I believe we came out of the experience relatively unscathed and hopefully with a newfound appreciation for filmmaking.

What’s been the most surprising or rewarding part of the process so far? Any discoveries about the story, the characters, or yourself as a filmmaker?

I've discovered that I can do hard things and live to tell about them. This was a formative experience for me as a leader, collaborator, and creative. We didn't have an assistant director on the principal shoot so we would wrap on a 12 to 14 hour day and I would start shot listing in my bed for the next day with a call time in five hours. It was absolutely wild and I would never schedule a movie the way I did this one again, but I learned so much about myself and about the power of art. Everyone was falling in love with the characters and the story as it was coming off the page so that really drove the enthusiasm.

What are the biggest challenges you’re facing at this point in production? How are you navigating these hurdles, and what’s keeping you motivated?

The past five days have been a ton of work in the editing room, and so the next hurdle is color and sound, but I'm optimistic those departments are going to crush it and make this movie so much better.

What do you hope audiences will take away from Creature Fear? How do you want them to feel as they leave the theater or finish the film?

I hope they think this is a damn good thriller first and foremost. I want them squirming in their seats. Maybe not as they leave the theater, but in contemplating the film, I hope audiences, particularly astute cinephiles, believe this is a worthwhile gory, modern homage to the taut Hitchcock thrillers of the '30s and '40s. I love those movies. I also think there's plenty here if you want to read into it deeper, but I prefer to let audiences draw their own conclusions.

Thank you, Manny! What a generous guy, I can’t wait to see the final film and keep us posted.

xGG