El Director
Veteran
Howdy all, El Director back at it again! Derek is feature film number four from STARS Pictures/El Director Entertainment. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on the DVD for Leap: Rise of the Beast so I've also started writing hardcore my next film. Having found success at doing the controversial subjects of Christianity, this film takes that motivation and runs with it.
While shooting Leap 2, my lead actor came to be and challenged me to do a character piece for my next film. Less effects, less action, something more story oriented. We started brainstorming and came up with Derek. The basis for this film actually came out of Leap 2. There's a shot in the movie where Luke can't sleep and goes to splash water on his face in the bathroom. He looks into the mirror and is surprised to see Shane standing there. Due to the low light candle-lit look, and to the black hoodie Shane wears, all you see is this floating head. It was pretty creepy. As we were brainstorming, this shot was referenced and we thought about doing a ghost story of sorts. But since I do Christian films, how does that work out? Well, we take the stand the ghost is a demon.
The shot that inspired this movie
The original idea revolved around mother, daughter and son (Derek). Derek dies in an accident of some sort and the daughter, having lost her dad the year before, has a breakdown and turns to spiritualism. She buys a spirit board and makes contact with what she thinks is her brother. This entity turns out to be a demon that possess her and the mother must exercise her own daughter. I knew we could have the mother become a Christian during the film and that the daughter could repent at the end. Then there's all the truth behind ouija boards, as time after time using them leads to possession. I also knew I could take this chance to educate other Christians about what the Bible really says happens when you die. Yep, if Leap 2 was dubbed my attack on Catholics, Sunday and Left Behind, then Derek is my attack on typical Christian views regarding death.
With the idea in the back of my mind, I continued to shoot Leap 2. Any time I tried to write an outline, I just kept drawing a blank. The film was looking like just another demon possessed child movie and that's not what I wanted to do. I'm done with horror films.
While at church one Sabbath, we had a woman give her testimony in lieu of hearing a sermon. It was about how her mother was into Ouija boards and how she had to exercise her mother when the lady was a teenager and still a new Christian. Hmm... There's a twist. I meshed this with my initial idea and made the girl be the hero. Still couldn't get past the logline though. The final piece of the puzzle was during the last day of filming Leap 2. My friend Kim, who was an extra, came up to me after and said she'd like to be involved with whatever I do next. She used to work on a ranch and is an expert with horses. Knowing this, I suddenly had an idea to move the setting out onto a ranch. Now we had isolation, which would add to the creep factor and would also allow me to do something cool. Outdoors, during the day, the film could almost feel like a western, then you go inside where the bad stuff happens and it's a thriller. A few days later I sat down and wrote the treatment in under six hours.
I haven't done much in the way of writing the script from then until now, as I've been busy with moving to Montana and finishing the DVD for Leap 2. I just recently was able to write again and am 32 pages into it. So that's where I'm at. The film will be shot on my T2i with Magic Lantern, this time using all the L lenses I have access to at work.
Last edited:
