Hell in Bmore: An Indie Film Maker's Undead Creation
Walaika Haskins |
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
For some making movies is their life's calling. Others, however, aren't bitten by the bug until they've take their first step on to a movie set. Josh Davidson, a Baltimore-based independent film maker, never thought of himself as anything other than a moviegoer until a walk on roll three years ago with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in "The Invasion" changed his life.
"I didn't get into movies until I was 30. And then, I fell into it on accident and next thing you know I was holding Nicole Kidman in my arms. I had a scene in Invasion that was filmed in Baltimore. I was eating lunch with Daniel Craig, and I had never thought of acting before that. I just loved being on the set," Davidson said.
A Lucky Break
Picked out of a crowd of extras, Davidson suddenly had a small role in the movie that required him to pick up and carry Nicole Kidman -- hard work, right, but somehow he managed despite the freezing temperatures. While the Baltimore scenes were eventually reshot in Los Angeles, the experience awoke Davidson's inner director and it's been full steam ahead with one project after another.
"That was a bummer, but it was the experience that was really important. And, that sparked me and three months later I started a film company. I've been busting my butt ever since trying to do something. I've been a part of 13 or 14 shorts, editing or producing or directing," he explains.
Now, Davidson and his Be More Films partner, Todd Broadwater, have set their sights on a larger project -- a full length feature film.
"I work 40 to 50 hours a week at my day job and then I spend up to 100 hours or more doing movie stuff. I don't sleep much," Davidson says about his double life as a government network administrator and a film maker.
Lights, Camera, Moola
Baltimore is home to a thriving film industry. Both studio-financed and independent films have a significant impact on the local economy.
For the 2009 fiscal year, the Maryland Film Office reports that the state will see an economic impact of nearly $68 million as a result of film productions throughout the state, with a majority of that work taking place in Baltimore, explains Debbie Dorsey, director of the Baltimore Film Office.
"Baltimore has a long history of filmmaking, starting with Barry Levinson, John Waters and more recently David Simon. Filmmakers are drawn to Baltimore for it's variety of locations, talented crew, cooperative City agencies and communities," she says.
Zombie Streets
"Why zombies? I like zombies and I've been in about five zombie movies. Everybody makes them because they're cheap and they have a huge fan base. You can make a zombie movie for $5,000 and make $1,000,000 from it, even if it's bad because people love them," he explains.
Though he'd sworn off the zombie genre after completing a year-long shoot for "Deadlands 2: Trapped," Davidson couldn't resist the lure of the sci-fi/horror film.
"I had this idea for a different zombie movie. Most of them have innocent people where a zombie outbreak happens for whatever reason. The innocent people run around and hide in some secluded place. The zombies get in and some of (the innocents) live and some of them die, then they go off to some even more isolated placed without zombies and give hope to the human race. That's how 99 percent of zombie movies happen."
Davidson's flipping the script and in his film, "Hell on Earth," the protagonists are "very bad criminals."
"The movie centers on how the bad guys flourish in that environment. They can handle the zombies because they have the guns and are used to living on the run. They also prey on the innocent people who have to worry about the criminals and the zombies," he says.
And, with its industrial background Baltimore, says Davidson, is the perfect location for a zombie film.
"Baltimore is an interesting looking city. This movie will be filmed a lot in the city's rundown areas. But, honestly a lot of the reason we're filming in Baltimore is because we're here. It's also because Baltimore is so unique in its look and feel," Davidson notes.
Any movie filmed in Baltimore looks great and benefits from the varied locales available throughout the city.
Davidson has some local financing for the film, but is looking for more, naturally.
"We're doing casting and everything for a five minute fundraising video. Crew members have largely volunteered their time so we can film three scenes that will embody the look, feel and tone of the full length feature to kick-off the movie," he explains.
That video along with the poster and other promotional materials will be packaged and sent to local investors as well as representatives at Lions Gate, After Dark and others. Davidson hopes he'll raise $5 million.
"We're prepared to do it for less, but with $5 million dollars we could do something really great," he says.
Walaika Haskins is a Baltimore-based freelance journalist and managing editor of Bmore Media.