FEATURE: Epitaph: Bread and Salt Feature film

Nathyn

Nathyn

Low Budget Ninja

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Log Line: Demon hunters form an alliance to take down a powerful cult seeking to plunge the world into Darkness.

Tagline: Let the Undead Bury their Dead.

Story: The Defenders of Eden, a family of Estrie hunters, take on The Reign of Chaos, a union of dark cults with one goal, to drive the world into darkness and to rise to godhood. As the world falls further away from light, Chicago becomes a battleground, where evil spirits gain the power to become flesh and enter our world. Rabbi Benjamin Hassan's visions showed him Victor Locke, a man with the power to fight these supernatural creatures. The Hassan family now seek to enlist Victor in their struggle. The tide may turn in their secret war...if he chooses to join their fight. This film stands as a prequel to the comic series.

First 32 Pages

Based on Characters from the Upcoming Night Phoenix Press comic books "Epitaph" and "Victor Locke Demon Hunter".

Goals:
The goals for this film are generally modest and I believe they can be accomplished

1. Make an Exciting Action horror film based on comic book
2. Do the film on a small budget, under $10,000
3. Shoot on an HD camera
4. Work with and enhance common but Sci-Fi effects
5. Cast local talent for most or all of the parts
6. As I talk abut in my "Action Filmmaking" book create an overall slick product
7. Get some form of Distribution beyond self distribution
8. Document everything on my production diary


Main Actors
Nathyn Brendan Masters.........................Victor Locke
Marissa Joy.........................Sarah
Leena Kurishingal................Rebecca
Vahan Artin........................Adam
Anita Nicole Brown...............Atraria
Yohanni Liman..................Ashen Yu
Rachel Stubbs.........................Siren
Ben Albovias........................Rick Yu
........................................Susan
Jack Guasta..............Fixmaster
Cristin McAlister........................Jennifer
Joseph Canales....................Demonic Assassin
Valerie Meachum Kessler.......Gerri
Christian Dior Creasy............Arcus Fallen
Jenna Ambien Halvorson.......Cassie/Zombie Girl
Chenique Charmaine............Tammy
Leah MacDonald.........................Sandra
David Wilhelm.............................Damious
Kelsey Zukowski......................Hanover Blake

Vampires and other Characters
Kevin LaRosa
Tina Renee Grace
Jéssica Beligni
Carissa Lynelle
Latoya Glaves

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A Word on the Whip

A Word on the Whip

A Word on the Whip​

My friends are big video gamers and they bought it to my attention my character is not the first vampire/demon hunter to carry a whip. The whip came from Indiana Jones. While I'm not a huge Indy J. fan I do like the movies and liked how he used to use the whip. It was an odd weapon to carry, but what he did with it just worked real well.

When I had finalized the Locke character back in the 90's, (before he became part of NPP) he was a character I was going to novelize. I had a complete novel written about him. He was a black vampire hunter that used swords, guns, a whip and martial arts. Everyone liked the concept. Then something horrible happened: Blade. While people may say a lot of vampire hunters use swords, there were no black vampire hunters in mainstream media before Blade. And while I realize he was created before mine, he was a C list character that popped up in old Tomb of Dracula, Dr. Strange and Spiderman stories.

What I created seemed to have been usurped by Hollywood and the mighty money machine so there I was, lost and depressed. And for the record Blade was a surprise because everyone was told Snipes was doing Black Panther. Another slap in the face was that "Crosses didn't do diddly" in the film, but everything else did. The Locke story was based in Christianity and also Jewish folklore (Don't get me started on Twilight and their "Esterie") and crosses/faith in God was everything to "Locke" and "The Defenders of Eden" and loss of that faith could mean loss of their very lives. And we still had action and adventure with the faith element intact. Keep in mind I knew of Blade but nothing of his origins and had only seen him in passing mentions. (I have a whole talk on depowering the cross in modern vampire films and what it means but I won't go into it here, but my film touches on it slightly). Blade's power came from his mom getting bit by a vampire while he was in the womb, Locke was blessed with his power from birth. (Originally it came from Locke being blessed while in the womb but again, thanks to Blade I scrapped that too).

So I had a choice, scrap the character or rebuild him. The first thing to do was scrap the sword. This was upsetting for me because I wanted him to have a Samurai sword. (Which I have several now thanks to my friend who left me his when he moved). So the only thing left was the gun and the whip. This worked out in a way because I had to create new weapons for him and the Defenders of Eden. Specific kinds of guns and stake (which you'll see later as I done some new weapon builds and transferred some of the weapons from Divinity to this project). Also costume, had to change, we moved away from the traditional trench coat and went with a cotton hoodie and a hooded trenches and shirts.

We have a Jewish character called "The Fist of God" who has the Strength of Samson, the Faith of David and the Wisdom of Solomon. She had gauntlets that fired energy blast that could disintegrate demons. I took those away and gave her the sword (she still has the gauntlets but just uses them to parry attacks). This allows for more martial arts.

I felt I should mention this because one of my friends said the whip was a nice nod to Simon Belmont. I was like, "Great. Whose Simon Belmont?" Another friend was shocked I didn't know who he was. Apparently Simon Belmont is the great vampire hunter from the videogame Castlevania, (ironically my producer loves this game and Indiana Jones and has yet to chime in on the whip discussion). And on the other forum someone mentioned the movie sounding or being like a video game which I took to mean maybe they were on the Castlevania tip too.

I'm not a video game guy. My last videogame system before my N64 was an Atrari computer back in the 80's and the only reason I play video games now is because my friends usually give me their old systems when they buy new ones. Now I have a PS2 (which still has the most games as of now from what I'm told), an original Xbox and had the N64 all which were given to me, so I wasn't up on Simon Belmont. I Googled him and indeed he had a whip and a sword. I won't comment on his leather biking shorts, but he does have a whip. They were going to do a Castlvania movie but it seems that's a no go now, so maybe I'll get out there first. But whatever, now you know the deal.

-Nate
 
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Name change: I changed it from "Ascension Fall" to Bread and Salt considering it fit what the film was about a lot more. The cult is in the background and we only see their characters a few times. Most of them aren't active enough to base the story around save for the assassins that work with the group.

-Nate
 
We're looking at August to start shooting. Once I cast some specific roles I may get the camera rolling early. Plus I have to practice certain things because they're new to me considering I'm creating some basic movements for vampire combat. Locke and Fist of God have powers, but the normals don't they all of them we're taught to fight in a certain way. Locke is new to it and has to be trained in it.

-Nate
 
Prop and weapons building 101

Prop and weapons building 101

When making low budget films one has to push aside the consumerism mindset and think on a different level. Low budget to no budget. The low budget mindset is "Let's cruise eBay/Craigslist/Thrift Store and see what I can get for cheap." The no budget mindset is "Let me see what I can pull together before I go looking to spend money."



This is a handbo. When pulled about it becomes a stake. It's made with two pieces of aluminum piping an old piece of wood dowel and capped of with metal and plastic pieces I found lying around. The fun part of this is it's actually functional.



The Locke shotgun scabbard. This is was created from an old sai case and an old belt. I cut out the inner pockets that held the sais. I cut the belt into pieces and Krazy glued them on to the back in three places so I could adjust the holster. Both Krazy Glue and Super Glue are strong and glue leather. I use them like Red Green uses duct tape. But Super glue is $1 for two tubes at the $1 store. In fact in the film Locke is known for making his weapons, because he's a working class demon hunter. LOL. This case is also functional. I also like this because it has that Mad Max feel to it.



These were made from some old airsoft spring guns I ordered. This is a nitro weapon. Silver bullets are softer and lighter and don't fly as far or as fast as normal bullets. A flesh wound with a silver bullet is still a flesh wound. The way this was solved was by creating a weapon that fired nitro propelled silver bullets. The bullets flew further and faster, so there's a bit of real science to this sci-fi weapon. I may remake the silencers if they don't look good on camera.



This a nitro rifle with the same concept as the pistols. I created this from parts of various airsoft guns I had lying around and just Krazy glued them together. The silencer is homemade and from various things I found in the kitchen and this one also has a lazer sight.



This is Locke's pistol from the "Victor Locke: Demon Hunter" cover. I noticed
I didn't have that one up yet. It's got battery powered blowback so it will save me
some trouble in AE.

-Nate
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Pity you are not shooting in the UK - my daughter teaches Wing Chun Kung Fu here and has been involved in other martial arts too.

I know how you feel about your material as I've ditched several elements from my own low budget movie because they cropped up in mainstream films.

Good luck with the project.
 
Wish there was some way I could help, but I'm in Northern VA.
Chicago will always be my second home (used to live there).
 
El Director said:
Dude, love the "handbo" weapon. Sweet!
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Thanks. I had that hanging around for about a year or more now and just decided to finish making it. For the longest it was just a stick in a metal tube. LOL.

PaulWM said:
Pity you are not shooting in the UK - my daughter teaches Wing Chun Kung Fu here and has been involved in other martial arts too.
Click to expand...
That would be cool. The UK has some great scenery. And I've seen Wing Chun in action on YouTube. The "Ip Man" movies are showcasing it too.

PaulWM said:
I know how you feel about your material as I've ditched several elements from my own low budget movie because they cropped up in mainstream films.
Click to expand...
Yea, that does suck. I had the whole thing set up too. Crazy vampires, teleporting demons (which you may still see), mystics with a bad attitude, all up to no good and Locke had to stop them.

Mike Conway said:
This is some cool shi*! :laugh:
Click to expand...
Thanks. We're trying real hard. LOL. When I get the new machine I need to run some effects test. We're going to try to make it really awesome on the budget we have using effects that a lot of people are doing on their home computers just for show, but we want to make it really look hot. We're using After Effects CS3 Professional.

And my boom stick (the Sawed off Shotgun) broke last night. I glued it back together after finding an important piece to it, but it works fine now. I the meantime I discovered the 24 inch pump shotgun will fit the scabbard too. I'm walking around the house with that scabbard on to get used to moving around with it.

zeke said:
Wish there was some way I could help, but I'm in Northern VA.
Chicago will always be my second home (used to live there).
Click to expand...
How's Northern VA treating you?

-Nate
 
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Yes, but I'm going to put my own twist on it and I'll be using a lot of other effects too. I have a different way of doing the disintegration (or vampire dusting in this case) that's less intensive and looks really good and a little more supernatural. People used to do the dusting the Buffy way, but Andrew Kramer's disintegration looks real nice. Everyone still does the Buffy dusting because it's easier but somewhat generic now, so I want to do something a little different. Dusting still, but with a little something extra.

-Nate
 
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Full Locke costume in the works. I have the trench coat and I'm testing various hoodies he may wear, you've seen the hoodie jacket already. I'm going with a shirt so he can keep the hood even when he's not wearing the trench, but the effect will be the same. I also learning to maneuver with both the pistol and shotgun holsters on. I also have another stake weapon, but I'm a fan of the handbo stake too. There is a place for it in the other stake in the bag.

The whole costume cost me aronud $13.00 (For the trench coat and hoodie). The store clerk at Ragstock told me they only had a certain kind of hoodie and a I stayed up until 4:00 AM searching online for the kind I wanted. But something kept pushing me to go to Ragstock anyway, so I went and I found the exact kind of hoodie I wanted for about $5.00 and the new trench coat cost me $7.00 and it's kind of a blueish black and looks a lot like the one on the cover. The hoodie is dark blue and can be tucked into my pants so it doesn't cover the holsters. This hoodie was with the T-shirts and not the other hoodies and it was the only one of it's type they had.

The coat is a large, my other black trench is a medium and doesn't fit too well. (It looks good but it's tight. I'll probably give it away now as I only used it for costuming really). The costume is complete. I may add another wide belt so both belts will be about the same width.

-Nate
 
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Locke: Full Costume

Front view with short stake



Leftside view with short stake and .45 auto-pistol.


Back view with holster


Rightside view with holster shotgun and long stake.

I may dye the hoodie black, but it's a keeper. Do you know how hard
it is to find a basic black hoodie for under $10 and with the hood
that fits all the way over the head. And, as an indy action/sci-fi
filmmaker, you can never have too many dark trench coats. And
check the dual belts. I liked that little extra added touch. I may add
more little extras later but this is basically it. Since he gets the
whip later, that will probably go inside the coat.

-Nate​
 
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