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| The set from first day of shooting Follow The Crows (by JWatts Video & Photography) |
So, with that in mind, we're taking some time out of our behind-the-scenes updates to bring you a little about the inspirations and influences that have helped bring Follow The Crows to life. We're not ashamed to admit that we have drawn ideas and points from lots of different sources, and we'd like to show our gratitude by listing of the ones that have been the most influential. There are lots of different places we have drawn from when it comes to crafting this story, from movies to books, comics and even music, so much so that it would be impossible to mention them all, but let's take a moment to celebrate the most important of those wonderful creations.
1. 2000AD & Judge Dredd
For those of you who don't know (why not?), 2000AD is a weekly British comic publication that has been releasing "progs" since 1977. Between it's pages you'll find a whole host of iconic, brilliant, hilarious and shocking stories, but most people will know it's most infamous creation, the satirical Judge Dredd, who services the law in the future city on Mega-City One.2. Sergio Leone & The Dollars Trilogy
Dredd himself has played a large part in the creation of one of the lead characters in Follow The Crows, but it's not just the lawman who has served as inspiration. We've drawn from many of the twisted tales that feature in the "zarjaz" publication. Mostly this has been in a tonal sense, as 2000AD has a very unique and interesting tone, as it covers topics ranging from politics, racism, technology and, of course, the justice system.
Writer/Director Alex Secker and co-writer/producer/star Marcus Starr are both huge fans of the weekly magazine and spent long portions of the writing process discussing the latest stories to feature. It was inevitable, then, that the tone and style would find its way bleeding into the script for Follow The Crows, and it's fair to say that it has served as one of the largest inspiration in terms of character and plot. You can follow 2000AD on Twitter, here.
The influence of the Spaghetti Western, and more specifically the work Sergio Leone did on A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, can be felt many of the scenes in Follow The Crows. The uncertainty of characters' motivations and the uncompromising, brutal nature of the world the Clint Eastwood's The Man With No Name inhabits has been invaluable to the creation of the post-apocalyptic world the filmmakers have been creating.3. Cormac McCarthy, The Road & No Country For Old Men
They drew much inspiration from the "lived-in" feel that Leone and Eastwood generated, and often spoke of specific sequences when talking about how our film would look and feel.
Clint Eastwood's anti-hero was also a big influence of the lead character in Follow The Crows, as Secker and Starr took bit of the character to build their own, mostly in his lone-wolf attitude and moral code, as well as many of the lines of dialogue spoken by Eastwood throughout the trilogy.
Initially it was the two movies based on the Cormac McCarthy novels that served as inspiration. But shortly before writing the first draft of the script, Secker decided to read both the books to get a better understand of what the narratives were saying and how the characters thought and existed within their individual stories.4. David Fincher & Se7en
The tone of McCarthy's work on No Country For Old Men has been important to the tone of Follow The Crows, in it's existential musings of life, death, chance and fate. But it's in The Road that Follow The Crows found real inspiration. While our movie is set many, many years after the "event", the filmmakers drew from the book and the movie when creating their supporting cast.
Many of the ideas that McCarthy created in both The Road and No Country For Old Men are also explored in Follow The Crows, as well as many characters being inspired directly by characters that feature in both of those outstanding works. You can learn more about the excellent Cormac McCarthy by heading to the official website, here.
The works of director David Fincher have been a heavy inspiration on Follow The Crows writer/director Alex Secker since the beginning of his career. Fincher's dark, brooding tone and visuals are often a reference point for Secker when designing shots and speaking with actors about their performances.5. Mad Max
Secker has often cited Fincher as one of his favorite modern filmmakers, and Fincher's work and director on films like Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network, The Game, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and, most recently Gone Girl have been integral in the formation of may of Secker's own works and projects.
As is so often the case, David Fincher has come up in conversation many times during pre-production. The Fincher movie to serve as the biggest reference on Follow The Crows has undoubtedly been Se7en. Both in terms of visual style and atmosphere, the Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman starring film, with it's slick, yet real, grit and dark tone, has been used as a blueprint on several sequences.
Surely it's impossible to make a post-apocalyptic movie and not call Mad Max up as inspiration? The original trilogy, featuring Mel Gibson in the titular role, has often been a source of ideas during pre-production, but oddly enough in a "what not to do" capacity.6. Friday the 13th/Halloween/The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
While working on the script, Secker and Starr were very aware of the franchise, the mega-successful Fury Road has recently been released in theaters, and one of the key points in the evolution of Follow The Crows was to create a post-apocalyptic movie that was almost the anti-Mad Max. It's because the films are so good that this became a major point in the creation of our narrative.
Mad Max's influence will undoubtedly be felt across the movie, but the filmmakers have a deliberate point to avoid referencing the Australian mega-franchise because of it's success and brilliance. If you've not seen Mad Max: Fury Road, we strongly recommend that you do, and you can learn more about it, here.
Having three of the most successful slasher movie franchises on a list of inspirations and influences for a post-apocalyptic drama may seem odd, but Friday the 13th, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre have all been invaluable to the writing and creation of Follow The Crows.
One of Secker's original pitches for the movie was, in fact, a "post-apocalyptic slasher", and while the plot evolved and grew into something far more complex and dramatic than that three word pitch, strong elements of that original idea have remained throughout each subsequent draft of the script. Indeed the final draft does feature some very slasher-esque moments, and although the tone may have been brought down a bit, the influence can most certainly still be felt.
Each of those three behemoths of the slasher movie genre have been brought up, but name, more than once. Not just on costume, make-up or sequences, but in actual discussions about plot development and direction. Their input into the film is so important that it would be an insult to not honor them by placing them on this list.
Of course you'll have to wait to see the movie to see how all of these pieces fit together, but for now, if you want an idea of what Follow The Crows might be like, then take your pick of any one of the wonderful works listed above. We thank all of them for their "help" in creating this story and we hope to do them justice when production resumes next year.
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