The Top Three Lessons I Learned While Filming ‘The Pumpkin Man’
You never know how much goes into producing a movie until you’ve made one yourself.
After seven years of creating short films about a pumpkin-headed antagonist, my husband’s dream finally started coming to fruition. We won an award at the Spooky Empire Film Festival for ‘The Pumpkin Man: Demon of Fall’ in October 2021.
In his acceptance speech, he promised the audience that we would be back at the film festival 2022 with a full-length feature film to premiere. I remember thinking he was crazy. I knew a feature was always the end goal, but we had not even finished the script when he made this promise and both of us work full-time jobs. Yet somehow, we managed to deliver on his promise.
So How Did We Pull It Off?
The answer is a combination of no sleep, sheer determination, a little luck, and a lot of favors from people we know.
This process taught us a lot about the world of film, which is why I wanted to share the top three lessons I learned to help the next independent filmmaker or content creator turn their dream into a reality.
1. Always Ask…
When we started writing our 91-page script, we were writing it under the impression that we had no funding to put behind this movie. Luckily, Ryan was in the right place at the right time when he met our executive producer, Jason P. Herman. Jason used to work at the same corporation as Ryan and shares our love for horror. He once asked Ryan why he hadn’t made a feature film. When Ryan told him it was a matter of money, Jason expressed interest in funding the film. That was a big win, but we were just getting started. There were plenty more favors to ask.
Once the script was written, our next big push was casting. Initially, Ryan wanted me to play the main character. Although we had a small budget, we were unable to dedicate any of it to paying for actors. I was an easy and reliable option with absolutely no acting experience. My hesitation to let the quality of this movie ride on my acting skills led us to Backstage, where we put out some unpaid casting calls. The interest we received surprised us. In total, we cast a total of four roles through Backstage auditions and ultimately secured our lead, Barbara Desa, who introduced us to several of her acting and film friends interested in joining the project.
With a full cast, it was time for one of the hardest parts of filmmaking: securing locations. Shooting a horror movie comes with the promise of gruesome scenes and slasher demons, which are usually a turn-off for most people. However, there’s always one person who will be open to lending a hand.
Local haunts are a good place to start. That’s how we were able to incorporate Sir Henry’s Haunted Trail as an integral setting for the film. All we did was ask.
We also asked various Airbnb owners if we could use their properties in our film as long as we paid for a one-night stay. Two of the owners we reached out to were more than happy to help us.
Even the University of Central Florida let us use their campus library as a backdrop in some of our scenes. This was more difficult to secure and involved lots of paperwork for a strict two-hour window of time, but it was worth it.
Remember, all of the above started with a conversation that led to a question. Don’t be afraid to ask and to keep asking no matter how many people say no. You never know what one “yes” could lead to.
2. Never Settle
Remember when I said we delivered on our promise to complete this feature in less than a year?
Well, we extended that timeline by an additional year.
The great thing about film festivals is having a live audience who provides you with real-time feedback. Our film was fortunate enough to get accepted into multiple film festivals across the country, but the more we watched the film in these settings, the longer our list of edits grew.
Luckily, we still had a year until our distributor agreed to release the movie. Any guesses about what we did during that year?
We reshot several scenes and added an entirely new one. This was our chance to correct some of our mistakes and incorporate the feedback we received.
One of the best decisions we made was reshooting the climax. The first few attempts at filming this scene were rushed and the overall concept contained some flaws. It was crucial for us to have a strong ending, especially since we intend to build off the story for future projects. Now the story has a more cohesive and suspenseful ending that we are content with at the end of the day.
Plus, we would not have won the title of ‘Best Kill’ from The Independent Horror Movie Awards Film Festival if we had not taken the time to perfect our practical effects. The end result was a series of shots seamlessly edited together to disguise the three different locations we utilized in a single scene.
3. Market with the End in Mind
After we won the ‘Florida Fear’ Award at Spooky Empire Film Festival in 2022, we had a chance to talk with the festival director. She praised us for the overall marketability of our film from the title, the iconic character, the movie poster, and our desire to unleash The Pumpkin Man throughout the convention hall to promote our screening. This is a side of the filmmaking process that not many filmmakers consider. Luckily, Ryan thought about this from day one knowing that people would associate the character to a pumpkin man, hence the title.
While we could not predict a distribution deal, which delayed our initial release by a year, we could pivot our marketing techniques.
When brainstorming ways to keep excitement and engagement up throughout 2023, we came up with a monthly short film series, titled “Tales from the Book of Kurbis,” to countdown to Halfway to Halloween. Each tale featured a different creature referenced in the incantation responsible for summoning The Pumpkin Man. These shorts averaged 616 views per episode allowing us to boost awareness through additional followers on our social media platforms. The last short film of the series even gave viewers a little insight into the first scene of the movie. You can see for yourself below.
As we wrapped up production on these short films, we decided to tie them all together with a narrator. The result was a 45-minute feature film, which will be screened at Spooky Empire on Saturday, October 28th at 7:00 p.m. Believe it or not, for the third year in a row, we are up for an award at the film festival that started this journey. This time instead of being nominated for the Florida Spotlight award, we were nominated for Best Feature Film.
If you are interested in learning more about the film, you can follow us on Instagram or purchase your copy at screamteamreleasing.com.