The Story of the Story

We've spoken about the cast and crew and we've spoken about our inspirations, we've even spoken about our first day of shooting, but we've have spoken a lot about the actual process of writing Follow The Crows. It's an interesting topic (if you play fast and loose with the term "interesting"), and it's one that certainly warrants at least a little bit of discussion. So, that's what we're here for, a little bit of discussion.

As most of you know already, I'm sure, Follow The Crows is an ambitious independent feature film production, set in a post-apocalyptic world, long after a catastrophic event has wiped most of humanity off of the face of the Earth. That's the brief synopsis. Genre wise it's a drama with some very strong horror and thriller elements. But none of that really tells you much about where the story came from or what went in to writing it. So...

The story was pitched, oddly enough, as three entirely separate stories, each with their own issues, obstacles and plot holes. None of them were fully fleshed out ideas, and none of them had definitive points. Although one of them had a very clear beginning and one of them had a very clear end. These stories were the creations of Alex Secker, who serves as writer/director on Follow The Crows. They were unconnected at the point when they were pitched, and none of them featured the post-apocalyptic setting that Follow The Crows is firmly based in.

So, how did these three completely separate stories, with unconnected narratives and contemporary settings, merge into the post-apocalyptic feature that would become Follow The Crows?

Well, to understand this you need to understand a little about each of the individual stories. For a long time Secker had been trying to piece together a way to shoot a feature film for as little money as possible, this is one of the issues that face low-budget, independent film-makers day in and day out. Budget (sigh). Even the word conjures fear into their hearts and minds. So, with that mindset it became the idea that one would need a story that could be shot around people's day-jobs.

One such idea was to create a story that no only could be shot as several short films with lengthy periods of time between shooting, but to create a story where that method would actually enhance the narrative and therefore should be shot in that way.

Another idea was to create several different stories that would somehow feed into a larger narrative, thus meaning that people could come and go as their "section" of the story finished, while the overall plot of the film continued to move forward, with momentum.

Yet another idea was to have more than one story taking place at any one time, in a kind of ensemble type way (much in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson films like Boogie Nights or Magnolia). But all of these ideas quickly created their own issues. How do you keep the pace moving if you're cutting between different plots? Who cares about these characters if the other characters are having a more interesting time? How do you bring these stories together as a satisfying whole without it feeling tacked on and cheap? Where the hell do you shoot all these stories?

Needless to say the task was becoming a daunting one, and yet there were these three stories that Secker kept coming back to, over and over again. Three of the most simple stories, but ones that just didn't quite work, somehow.

One was the story of a man who, having finally wrought his vengeance on those who wronged him, began to wonder what to do with his life. One was the story of a man haunted by a mysterious figure from his past. And one was the story of two men caught in a terrible game of cat and mouse.

Finally Secker gave in and turned to frequent collaborator Marcus Starr (who had appeared in both The Silent Assassin and Online, two of Secker's short films, as well as collaborated with Secker on a script) for advice. He pitched the ideas to Starr, who instantly saw a way to combined the three stories together into one story.

What's more, a pitch that Secker had given to Starr about  year previous (namely the desire to make a "post-apocalyptic Slasher movie") sprang to the foreground and helped in merging the narratives into one, epic saga. Within fifteen minutes Secker and Starr had the basic outline of their film, which matched the desires that Secker had to meet in order to shoot a low-budget, independent feature, and whats more they knew exactly who would play their lead character, and they knew exactly where they planned to shoot it.

From then on the story becomes a fairly basic one. After breaking the outline into scenes, scripting began and meetings with potential cast and crew began. But that's the story of how Follow The Crows was brought to life within fifteen minutes of back and forth.

We're not sure if you found that interesting (we have played it fast and loose, after all), and frankly we don't really care, but if you did then please don't hesitate to Follow The Crows on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube.

When you have nothing, something is everything.