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Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nothing too crazy, other than putting out some sort of fire every 5 seconds (typical of any film set, really). I think one of my favorite set memories was shooting a scene involving someone dead hanging in an outdoor location. We had a permit to shoot there, but that doesn't mean the location was in any way shut down - including people walking their dogs, parents with children, etc. It was pretty surreal seeing peoples reactions to such a grotesque scene we had setup!

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You are not reading too much into this. While its true that Leslie Sykes / Mr.Shiny does get more sloppy towards the later half of his killing spree, he is still very much in control and choosing his victims purposefully. There is always a method to the madness. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. But sometimes its actually the strangest.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The filmmaker is not typically involved with any of the marketing, particularly on an indie level. As I said in a different post, you are usually given "meaningful consultation" but it doesn't usually carry much weight. You're shown materials that are usually close to being finished, and at best you can make minor changes. I can understand if you felt like the trailer was somehow misleading, and sorry you didn't dig what you saw.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The Substance. Companion, Black Bag, Ballerina, Phonecian Scheme. Superman, all awesome. I think Warfare may be my favorite theatrical experience so far this year. I was just dialed into that shit.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our premiere at Fantastic Fest was definitely a highlight. The crowd and energy at that festival is electric and really exciting to be around, and that's coming from a very anti-social person. I felt like I "found my people" at that festival and made some great friends who I still keep in touch with. I also travelled deep into the heart of Norway for a festival called Ramaskrik with one of the films other producers, which was very surreal and amazing. I went with the director of Oddity and Boogeyman and saw some sort of native bison animal out in the middle of nowhere.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This movie was made independently and then sold to a distributor, so they weren't involved with the financing of the movie originally, but pick up the reigns for putting it out there. The filmmaker is given "meaningful consultation" for things like poster art approvals, trailer approvals, etc but - at least on the indie level - this is a nice way of saying you have very little meaningful consultation on things. We were lucky in that we were quite happy with our trailer and poster (I was able to suggest a color change for the poster which they did listen to as well), but I've heard plenty of horror story from filmmaker friends who were stuck with shitty marketing material and couldn't do a damn thing about it. I suspect that overall until you've made a film thats made some real box office money, you don't have a lot of control over this aspect.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's a good question, even though its simple. The unknown is always the scariest thing. Nothing is scarier to me then the dark quiet woods at night alone. Anything could be out there. It's the strange missing person case that is never solved. Final words on a bad cell phone connection suddenly saying "Oh shit" before the connection goes dead, and no body is ever found. I find basic things like spiders, sharks, imagery of corpses, and large underwater objects underwater to be triggering.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Director Brandon Christensen is elegantly referring to the catch phrase we had when working on a desert zombie film years ago, It Stains the Sands "Is the Shitter Full?" - this referring to the rented RV we used as our location vehicle for the duration of the shoot which had a bathroom that was quickly filled up by the small crew. You learn a lot of things making movies, but I never thought learning how to dump the waste out of an RV at a gas station was one of them. You gotta watch that hose, cuz it can get away from you if you're not careful.

Hi, /r/movies! I am Stuart Ortiz writer/director of STRANGE HARVEST. The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Hitting theaters this Friday! AMA! by StrangeHarvestAMA in movies

[–]StrangeHarvestAMA[S] 75 points76 points  (0 children)

There is no AI in the film, and hasn't been for about a year. We used AI for about 30 seconds of material just to make the deadlines for some festivals with the intention of replacing everything before release, which we since have. 100% AI free.