Every day during October, the Department of Tangents presents a different short film for the Daily Horror Film Fest. It can be flat-out scary, funny horror, or just plain creepy. And every Monday during the DHFF, we’ll be featuring the films of Andrew J.D. Robinson of WORKOBEY Films. Today is the last in that series, a culmination of the last three entries, Sightings, A Walk Home Alone, and Placebo.
There’s a lot more story here, and it is by far the longest of the series, and the longest we’ll present as part of the DHFF. We get to meet the real Becky Carmichael and her brother, and get a glimpse into their dark past. And into Carmichael’s dark future. She keeps getting strange friend requests. Annoying at first, but they soon become disturbing.
Since Robinson’s answers to my questions about this installment are a bit more involved than the past several entries, I present them here in a Q&A format. Read it after the film.
This is a considerable step forward, in terms of length and development. Why the jump here? Why such a deep dive into the story after the smaller, more enigmatic chunks?
I felt, as I continue to grow my ability to communicate and share to the audience, I’m becoming more excited about allowing myself to be vulnerable, sensitive, and express empathy on screen. I must say, after my cousin lost his private battle to depression in the summer of 2015, it changed me as an artist. Before, I yes had ideas to go into drama etc, but I was predominately a B-movie or a surrealist.
For a year and a half, I had produced a few fifteen second horror films but I was considerably under the radar otherwise. It wasn’t until I made some leaps in my grieving that I got ‘that bug’ to start exercising, exorcising, and reach out to people in my own weird way through the arts, and go deeper. I turned thirty that year and suddenly it clicked that ‘this is what I want to do’– I’m a filmmaker, win, lose or draw. With my time here, I want to feed that passion and pay it forward along the way with anyone who may feel anything from the percent I put out– and there’s movies for everyone, which is why I strive to show different shades.
Where does the story go from here? Do we see these characters again or does it pick up somewhere else?
There’s a few ideas on paper that are taking shape. So far they aren’t my main priority because I feel I’m going to let them live on in The Becky Carmichael Fan Club for awhile, but I hinted to some of the actors that we will get a wink to give a hint as to what may had happened to them. In the long-term, there’s always rooms for surprises.
What’s next after this? What should people look for in the next installment, and when should they look for it?
I have the odd few short films which are still on my queue — particularly a Halloween themed short “We Know You Are Home” — but they have one or two film shoots each– not enough to take my entire focus away from the next horizon I’m working towards: a feature-length. There’s two that I’m meditating on– a mockumentary and a straight ‘film’, but they’re essentially the same story. They might assimilate each other quite honestly. It’s going to be the most head-on with the mysterious disappearances and the steps into the fantastical supernatural aspects of Sightings.
The shorts have been and will continue to be great low-risk ways to work with different people, to build an eventual ensemble towards future projects– especially features. This will essentially be my ‘main’ project that I’m focusing wholeheartedly on with the pen and pad and I have my eyes set on starting things off next year for sure. There’ll be updates on my social media for sure as 2019 rolls along with definite shoots being won at http://facebook.com/workobeyfilms