Carrion Screaming! for latest updates

With a new short ‘Borley Rectory‘ ( a Glass Eye Pix / Carrion Film joint venture) in production and the ambitious feature ‘Spring Heel Jack‘  deep in development, Carrion Film has launched two alternative platforms to satiate those hungry for updates.

Apart from this site (and a presence on Facebook), regular updates will now also be posted via Carrion Screaming on tumblr and director Ashley Thorpe’s account on twitter. Visitors can expect unseen artwork from  the previous animations aswell as exclusive concept art and storyboards for films currently in production or development. There will also be occasional ‘video updates’ – wryly christened by the crew ‘Carrion at your convenience‘ – wherein the Carrion Film team will give insights into production and the challenges a true independent faces getting  material ‘on screen’.

Carrion: So how did the ‘Carrion at your convenience’ thing come about?

Director Ashley Thorpe: “We , Ed and myself, were filming a series of introductions for Fearnet and between takes  took the opportunity to just give a brief update on what was going on with ‘Borley Rectory‘ and reflect upon the making of ‘Hairy Hands‘. Well, that was the plan..of course it collapsed into a sort of ‘Pete and Dud’ thing about Tom, ha ha, but it was fun to actually  talk, even briefly about what was going on.

Carrion: It’s been a while since you’ve been involved in anything ‘public’…

Ashley Thorpe: “I’ve been writing first and foremost but yeah you’re right…though it’s been a busy couple of years since ‘Hairy Hands’. Although we had ‘The Demon Huntsman‘ out last year, to the outsider it must seem a very barren period in terms of material. Long term prep work. There’s been a lot of writing – the feature for a start  (Spring Heel Jack) – which was – is – the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. On top of that there’s been a couple of commissioned short scripts for other production companies so…can’t really discuss them but it’s all out there…waiting in the wings.”

Carrion: ‘Borley Rectory’ was initially intended to be a very modest ‘found footage’ thing to be shot very quickly last year wasn’t it? Now ironically it looks to be the most ambitious short yet…what changed?

Ashley Thorpe: “Yes, it was originally going to be something very simple, experimental actually, looking at the relationship between perception and expectation in ghost photography. Ghost photographs are almost always of a very poor quality and I wanted to play with those textures. Regardless, our pitch for local funding failed so I took it away and completely re-wrote it as something of a beginners guide to the haunting whilst utilising the look of classic ghost photography. Then of course Julian Sands became aware of what we were doing and then we have Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid behind it at Glass Eye Pix. Not a bad position to be in launching into production…”

Carrion: So initially funding was the main issue…

Ashley Thorpe: “Funding is always the issue. ‘Hairy Hands‘ was originally going to be part of ‘Hell-Tor‘ – the proposed Dartmoor portmanteau…”

Carrion: Is that still a possibility?

Ashley Thorpe: “Oh yeah. In fact I recently wrote another story for it called ‘Crows Mere‘…  The point is that I lifted the story out of it because funding became available and it seemed like a good little piece  to adapt within their perameters. I think you have to be like that. Constantly spinning the plates, coming up with stories so when something comes along, you’ll have something ready or at least available to adapt. The arts grants are shrinking or vanishing completely and there’s precious little public money around. Crowd funding seems to be the way the industry is gravitating. I’m certainly not resistant to it. I’m resistant to the ‘access all areas’ things that go hand in hand with crowd funding. That sort of access is fine retrospectively. But I do think mystery and anticipation are very important too. Carrion Film has, without sounding pretentious,  always had a certain mystique to our productions…once locked into a production we pretty much lock down, and whilst I believe that its very important to maintain that sense of mystery… “

Carrion: The new platforms…

Ashley Thorpe: I simultaneously also think that it’s very important to recognise and appreciate your audience and the fact that they are genuinely  interested in the process as much as the final result. It’s a nice excuse to open the vault a little, not give the whole game away but open the lab and hint what’s on the slab, right?. I have a lot of artwork, especially for Spring Heel’ that I’m looking forward to getting out there.”