Dead Run - A Short Horror/Action/Thriller Film
Sometimes, your fears are real.
Dead Run Official Trailer
Synopsis
In the impending darkness of a remote Alaskan forest, a young girl is pursued by something unseen, but not unheard. Determined, terrified, and alone, she runs for her life. With darkness closing in, she struggles to outpace both the demons of the forest and those within and finds that, sometimes, your fears are real.
Where to See Dead Run
You can watch the film now on this web site on the Films Page.
Also, be sure to check out the official trailer at right. We recommend you listen on a home theater system (with sub-woofer), or high-quality, full-coverage headphones to enjoy the full effect of this immersive soundtrack.
Project Concept & Initial Development
My name is Shane Taylor, and I am the writer, producer, director, cinematographer, post-production supervisor, sound designer, Sherpa and snack provider on Dead Run. The project began for me in the Summer of 2014. It was as hot as Summers get in Alaska that year, and I found myself with the urge to make a horror film. Thus launched a 3-year journey of self-discovery.
I knew I wanted a story that was unique (no zombies), fast-paced right out of the gate, with non-stop action and minimal dialog, and high production value, but which could be realistically produced with minimal cast and crew, and include a character with whom the audience could empathize. After developing the initial story, I set out looking for just the right teenage girl for the protagonist and found her in the daughter of a friend. She was 14 (at the time), athletic, a dancer, and an actor who had some stage experience... and was eager to participate. I scouted locations that fit my vision, which turned out to be my own back yard, the Chugach Mountains in Alaska. I fleshed out the script with final details, created a shooting script, decided on wardrobe, and set dates for production. Getting the footage was, by far, the most memorable part of the project, and something I'll never forget. That three days of shooting set me off on a collision course with an exhilarating, almost 3-year experience in filmmaking. I delve into the details of the entire filmmaking process a little later on this page under Film-making Process & BTS.
August 2024 Re-Release
We re-released Dead Run in August 2024 with an new, built-from-scratch stereo soundtrack that captures much of the immersion delivered by the original 5.1 soundtrack, but which is accessible to all. This new release provides a better sonic experience for a much wider audience, and is optimized for headphones and home theater sound systems. You can read more about that project below.
Cast & Crew
Paisley Wanamaker
Protagonist
Paisley is the talented young actor who plays the protagonist in Dead Run. She was an absolute joy to work with, dedicated to the story and the entire project.
She was a real trooper during the strenuous shooting schedule. Just getting to the location each day was a 1.5 mile hike, one way, and then she had to do a lot of running during the shoot, on uneven, unfamiliar ground... through the woods, for several hours. Then there was the hike out. With gear.
Later, during post-production, she endured 2 days of ADR recording to re-record every shot. I was fortunate to have such a talented young woman star in Dead Run. Thank you Paisley. Well done!
Leeann C Taylor
Makeup FX, Location Sound, Wardrobe
Leeann provided the makeup FX for Paisley, and tested and mixed the blood used on set. Her work was perfect! While on location, we were passed by a couple of hikers and one took a look at Paisley and said "Honey, are you OK?!"
Leeann provided a valuable second pair of eyes and ears on set to ensure we maintained continuity between shots and days, and served as a sounding board throughout the entire project.
She also served as location sound recorder, wiring Paisley for sound before each shoot, and carried the field mixer and recorder for our wireless mic and shotgun, and operated the boom on various shots.
She also handled Paisley's wardrobe.
Leeann is also my wife and soul-mate and was a true believer in me and this movie and a tireless supporter throughout the entire process. Thank you for all your love and support.
Amanda Piatt
Production Assistant
Amanda is a dear friend and has always been willing to lend a helping hand in any of my artistic endeavors.
She often served as muse to me as a photographer, modeling for my photo shoots on more than a few occasions.
I'm very grateful she agreed to help with the production of Dead Run.
Thank you Amanda.
Ella Wanamaker
Production Assistant
Ella is Paisley's younger sister (by two years). She was the stand-in model for Paisley when Leeann was working out her makeup FX.
She was on-hand during a 2-day workshop I held to rehearse particular parts of the script with Paisley. She was also with us during the grueling 2-day ADR re-recording sessions. On both occasions, she provided valuable insight and encouragement to her sister, as only sisters can do.
I'm both thankful and grateful that she was with us.
Thank you Ella.
Official Selections
Awards
Freesound.org Contributors
There are quite a few individuals I don't know, and whom I'll probably never meet, who lent their talents to the production of the incredible soundtrack for Dead Run. Although some of them required no attribution for use of the sounds they've contributed to the world on www.freesound.org, I would be remiss if I didn't give credit where due. Below, I list the user names and the sounds (sound #) they created that ultimately found their way into the Dead Run sound-field. Thanks to all of you for the incredible work you do, and for sharing it with the world. They are, in alphabetical order:
Baxuvis - 276567
Benboncan - 81970
Blu3hand - 188161
BrainClaim - 267067, 267197, 273805, 274123
cargio0003 - 205902
ceich93 - 266413
CosmicEmbers - 160688
csengeri - 38228
D DJ Chronos - 33413
Dredile - 164272
Erdie - 23222, 24524
HerbertBoland - 76948
horseyfootage - 280202
jobro - 123075
Jovica - 3863, 16503, 74595, 123053, 177016
JuliusMabe - 263669
Kamyarbb - 146328
klankbeeld - 170387, 205186
nick121087 - 333832
Sonicfreak - 174450
strongheartbeat - 52651
studiorat - 22350
thanvannispen - 38100
waveplay - 193028
xDimebagx - 202239
yewbic - 31904, 33796
ZeSoundResearchinc. - 147874
Film-making Process and Behind The Scenes
Film making Process
Here I outline the process I used to produce Dead Run, including challenges I encountered along the way, and provide details about the film found nowhere else; a personal diary of sorts, a record of the process followed for my own use and benefit. Perhaps other beginning filmmakers may find some of this information helpful.
As this was, from the outset, a project specifically designed for learning as much about filmmaking as possible, much of the time developing this ~9 minute film was spent researching, studying, reading text books, watching tutorials on YouTube, reading software manuals, getting neck deep in NLEs and DAWs, experimenting, talking to other filmmakers on professional forums, and in developing a work-flow that would allow me to not only complete this film, but which would also be repeatable. I will provide links and references to many of the resources I found most helpful in hopes that it might be useful to others.
Pre-Production
In developing this project, I had to be realistic in what could be accomplished given I would, by design, be doing practically everything myself. With the exception of a few key pieces of HW added to my existing photographic inventory, the only cost in making this film was some awesome stage blood and paying the actress. I was focused on the technical aspects of filmmaking, not the scale. The story is presented visually and aurally through exposition, rather than through dialog. In fact, there are exactly five words of dialog in the film, four more than I scripted.
Once I'd established what I wanted to shoot, I set out looking for locations. Living in the Chugach Mountains provided many options for shooting in various terrain, and it was our back yard. We spent many hours hiking and exploring, noting all the areas suitable for telling a story intimately connected to the terrain. I knew I wanted a lot of running, so the area had to accommodate that, as well as the ability to shoot it handheld. The area was in a valley, providing us an extended shooting time each evening out of direct sunlight, in order to facilitate the final dusk look I wanted. As an experienced studio photographer, I knew how to light a scene, but I really had no desire to light any of this movie artificially. So I relied on available light.
The antagonist is not only within and after the protagonist, but is also the terrain itself. By this time I had decided on Paisley for the protagonist. She was fit, athletic, and had years of dance and stage experience. I did not write a formal script since I had the entire story in my head. We decided to do a rehearsal shoot with Paisley, not only to give her the opportunity to get a feel for what we were asking of her, but also for me to see what she was capable of and to figure out how I was going to shoot it.
We spent several hours one drizzly afternoon shooting on location, trying out ideas, and working out details. I used a Glidecam 4000 HD steadicam with my DSLR and shot entirely hand-held, and decided that it would be the best (and most efficient) way to shoot the film. I could rest it on the ground for slower shots, and even shoot inverted for low angle shots. I edited the raw footage together and we all watched it, taking note of what worked and what didn't, and what shots we would need to rehearse and pay special attention to during production. Some of this footage is provided in the BTS Rehearsal video below.
I created a detailed shot list that included much of the information that a script would have contained (i.e., the actor's business), given there was no dialog. The film was broken into 7 scenes, which consisted of nearly 80 different shots, some of which were tagged as optional. This did not include the pick-up point-of-view (POV) shots that would be needed in the edit which I could do after the shoot with Paisley. The shot list included Scene/Shot/Take number, type of shot (WS, MS, CU, etc.), any continuity concerns, location GPS coordinates, the action to be shot, which mics were used (lavalier, shotgun, or both), FPS, camera position, height, direction, and angle, focal length, shutter angle and apertures expected. Each shot also contained additional descriptive language for Paisley to guide her acting.
Having defined the shots we needed, we focused on any areas that needed special attention, or additional rehearsal time with Paisley. I scheduled a 2-day workshop with Paisley where we rehearsed several of the more important, tougher shots. We also tested lav placement options that would be effective while running through the woods, as well as testing out our field recorder, boom, and shotgun mic. We took this opportunity to perfect our makeup and artificial blood FX as well. Behind the scenes footage from this workshop is provided below in the BTS Workshop video. It was also during this workshop that the title Dead Run finally came to me.
confident in the shot list, and seeing how well Paisley performed and adapted during the Workshop, we planned for a 3-day shoot in the following weeks. All throughout this time, and long before I began planning for Dead Run, I had already begun my study, research, and reading on every aspect of filmmaking including directing, cinematography, lighting, production sound recording, using microphones, editing, dialog replacement and editing, sound design and mixing, re-recording, Foley, creating sound FX, surround sound, and continuity. These texts gave me a glimpse into what was in store for us and was a list of resources often revisited during Post-Production.
Production
With a shot list and equipment list in hand, including both bear and bug spray, we were finally ready to start shooting. Getting to location was a 1.5 mile hike in, so we packed light with minimal gear. This included a Nikon D810 DSLR with 24-120 f/4 lens, Glidecam, batteries, lav and shotgun mics, boom, wireless system, sound bag with headphones, mixer, recorder, and snacks, water, a few tools, and first aid kit.
I decided to shoot in chronological order, which made the most sense given our short shooting schedule and continuity concerns with the introduction of blood midway and wardrobe degradation. I knew Day 1 would be slow going as we all settled into our roles, and may not produce much usable footage, which was accurate. That evening we reviewed the footage and made necessary changes to our shooting plans.
Over the following two days, we worked hard and efficiently to get the shots we needed for each of the planned scenes, and were able to do so with some shots requiring only a single take, others a few more for safety. Once wardrobe, makeup, and sound was set each day, we moved efficiently from shot to shot, location to location, working through each shot on our list. We used a simple clap from Paisley as our slate, which degraded into shenanigans as the shoot progressed, much of which is captured in the BTS Mark video below. As we shot, I was already editing the film in my head.
A few days following the shoot with Paisley, I went back out on location alone with camera and Glidecam to capture the various POV shots I knew I would want (and need) for the edit, retracing our steps from scene to scene. With that done, I now had a host of image files, sound files, and B-roll to sort through to start building my story. Some behind the scenes footage from production is captured in the BTS Production video below as well.
Post-Production
Post production is where the real work began. I needed to assess the picture and sound assets accumulated over the final 2 days of shooting, along with the B-roll footage captured later. I was pleased with the footage captured and the options it would provide for the picture edit. We had collected enough takes, angles, and shots, for me to tell the story appropriately.
A quick assessment of the sound, however, told me that although acceptable for most shots, Paisley's actual breathing didn't fit what I imagined in my head, and wanted for the film, and I'm not sure it ever could have under shooting conditions on location. In addition, I hadn't anticipated the sheer persistence of the nearby river in adding an annoying background drone that varied in volume from scene to scene as we shot. Although needed in the final cut, the sound of the river in many shots would greatly hinder my efforts to edit the synced sound together into a consistent, believable sound. Next up was cutting the individual shots together into a movie.
Picture Edit
For the initial release, I used Premiere Pro as NLE, Audition as my DAW for sound design and editing, After Effects for special effects and title design, and Speedgrade for color correction and grading. I spent several weeks editing the footage in Premiere, starting by just placing all the footage onto a timeline in (basically) chronological order, including multiple takes. After carefully reviewing each clip for how it met the needs of the story, and how well it integrated with the others, I started cutting and rearranging until I had a first assembly, which included the raw sound recorded by the camera attached to each clip. I continued to refine this edit, adding stereo sound clips from the field recorder, where the Lav appeared on the left channel and the Shotgun on the right. With the footage I had acquired, I found I could change the story fairly significantly as desired, to add tension, or to speed things up, or slow them down. The sound, although raw and unedited, provided a little more stimulation during the edit process. After many iterations, I arrived at a cut that I felt told the story I wanted to tell, and locked the timeline of camera shots.
Intermingled with my editing sessions, I was also (re)reading books by the masters, like In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch, a small but powerful text and a must read. Other texts I found helpful were: Between The Scenes, by Jeffrey Michael Bays; The Innocence of the Eye, A Filmmaker's Guide, by Ed Spiegel; An Introduction to Film Analysis, by Michael Ryan and Melissa Lenos; Storytelling Techniques for Digital Filmmakers, buy Ross Hockrow; and The Eye is Quicker, by Richard D. Pepperman. There were others, which are listed at the bottom of this page, but these provided the most insight for me.
Special Visual FX
Before moving on to sound, there were a few shots that required some special visual effects. For example, a key scene in Dead Run is when our young protagonist falls and loses consciousness. Upon awakening, she discovers that she has fallen on, and impelled herself with, a staub (a small, sharp stick). Of course, Paisley would not have appreciated us having her actually fall on the staub during Production, so this was added later using After Effects (AE). After we filmed her falling and then getting up off of the staub (which wasn't there), we did an insert shot of the (actual) staub once it was placed in the scene with the proper blood effects added. Following production, while I was out shooting additional POV footage, I also took some additional hi-res stills of the staub with blood effects added to use in AE. In Photoshop, I extracted the staub from the rest of the image and processed it to fit (visually consistent) within the scene. I then added the image of the staub to a layer above the footage of the shot in AE and created a tracked mask, frame-by-frame, so it became visible in the shot as she lifted herself off of it. It is a subtle, but important detail, given the insert of the staub closeup in the following shot.
Another visual effect I added in AE was the only glimpse we get of the girl's predator. This is only a dark form in the woods, one that was carefully crafted to be invisible, that is, until it moves... and changes shape. This effect was created with a complex mask and color layer above the footage. However, in order to have the shadow appear both behind some trees that were between it and the girl and in front of trees more distant, the mask used had to be created frame-by-frame (no tracking, unfortunately) given the changing perspective in the shot from camera movement. I added it as a separate layer in Premiere above the footage to blend it within the scene.
Two other key visual effects in Dead Run were created in Speedgrade. The first was the change in the look of the film when seen through the predator's eyes. This look is different from the overall look of the film to call out the predator's POV being seen by the audience. The context makes it clear what we're experiencing. These shots were then rendered separately and imported back into Premiere as a separate layer above the footage. This kept the POV separate and independently controllable from the overall film's look, and easy to adjust downstream as needed.
The other special effect I produced in Speedgrade was the lightning that appears late in the film. I did a bit of testing to find the right combination of tint, brightness, contrast, and highlight and shadow detail, that I felt looked realistic. This appeared as a separate color grade layer affecting just those few frames where I wanted the lightning flashes to occur. Once the look was created, I could place the flashes wherever I desired in the frame, and add the thunder sound effects to match.
Audio Post-Production
Satisfied with the visuals, I began designing the soundtrack. Post audio was by far the most complex, frustrating, time consuming and, surprisingly, most enjoyable part of this project for me. You may have heard the oft-used phrase, we'll fix it in post, being murmured by directors. However, I admit that I fixed all of my audio in post and, in fact, we created 99.9% of it from scratch. Chalk this up to inexperience, or zero budget, or designing a project with minimal crew or, ultimately, just to the fact that I wanted more than what I heard in our production sound recordings (plus it forced me to perform ADR and Foley). I had a vision (sonically) of what this film should be, and it wasn't there to capture during production.
Audio Post-Production - Dialog
I opened Audition, added my picture file to the top line as reference, and stared at a blank timeline for quite some time, before realizing that I had a lot to do. I needed dialog, or in my case, my 5 words, and nearly 9 minutes of heavy breathing, startles, grunts, falls, and screams. Unfortunately, this has to be recorded just like dialog does. So I scheduled 2 days with Paisley to do ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement). To prepare for an intense two-day session, I converted a spare bedroom adjacent to my office into a recording studio. This involved converting the existing bed into mattress soundproofing, with the help of numerous blankets, quilts, and comforters used as sound baffles to suppress reverberation during recording. I placed a spare monitor in the room, along with my Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic on a stand, and a Lav mic, to record Paisley.
I Premiere, I created separate cuts for each shot to be re-recorded and added the standard two white vertical bars, one of which moved toward the other, as a cue for Paisley when recording would begin. This setup allowed me to play video on the monitor for Paisley to view while recording her performing the shot synced to picture. This proved highly effective.
After a few practice runs, Paisley was all over it. Over those two days, we recorded nearly 400 takes of all the shots in the final cut. I then had to review, sync, dissect, clean up, and edit together a suitable "dialog" track from those takes.
Before doing so, I took a break and read numerous textbooks on audio post-production, books on editing dialog, mixing, mastering, sound effects, sound reproduction, and surround sound. One of the most valuable texts was Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures, 2nd ed., by John Purcell. His excellent treatment goes far beyond just editing, and is highly recommended for any independent filmmaker involved in his/her own sound design.
I also spent a lot of time on several of the best audio post-production forums on the Internet, with my favorite being the Post Production Forum on Gearspace. I communicated regularly with very skilled professionals making a living in Post Production on every issue imaginable. This group was invaluable.
Back in Audition, I inserted a render of the cued picture timeline from Premiere Pro as picture reference, and inserted all the ADR takes we recorded onto the timeline, synced to the picture. Although time consuming, this was not difficult. I then auditioned each take against the others for each clip, marking the ones that had the best performance and feel, even marking multiple takes which, if combined, could be edited into an even better (or even different) performance.
Once I had each shot's audio edited and selected, I replaced the picture reference with the original locked picture and edited the audio clips together onto a new track. It wasn't quite that simple, since there was more editing, syncing, and various track and clip effects added, to end up with a dialog track that felt right, was consistent from shot to shot, and accurately synced to picture.
Audio Post-Production - Foley
Named after its pioneer, Jack Foley, Foley is all of the sound in a movie added in post to make the picture believable. Foley artists produce those sounds while watching the action to reproduce the sound after the fact. For Dead Run, this included all the sounds of footsteps, clothes rustle, hands on trees and rocks, and other sound effects, etc., i.e., all the sounds Paisley would make in her environment, which I had to perform and record, synced to picture, just as we did ADR. Foley is all the sounds we take for granted, but recognize immediately when missing.
I first needed to go through the film multiple times to create a spotting list, where I noted various Foley elements that I needed for each shot, listing shot, brief description, sounds needed, materials making those sounds, notes, and what Foley pass (steps, cloth, body) each would belong to. According to legend, Ben Burtt created the laser blaster sounds of Star Wars by hitting an antenna guy wire with a hammer. In my first Foley attempt, however, I chose instead to use the actual materials making the sounds (since they actually existed in my universe). So I strapped on an empty backpack and headed out to location and collected samples of moss, twigs, dry & damp leaves, both dry and green spruce branches, and lichen-covered rock. I collected some pea gravel, birch bark, a pair of jeans, shirt, and tennis shoes.
I again use the spare bedroom adjacent to my office as a studio, this time as a Foley pit (see photos below). It was there that I tested, experimented with, and ultimately recorded the sounds that gave life to my character as she moved through her environment. I used the same cued shots I created for ADR sessions and began with the steps pass by recording, on my knees with sneakers on hands, multiple takes of each and every footstep on screen, in every shot, using the various materials as appropriate: damp leaves, lichen, moss, dry leaves/twigs, and gravel. Wherever you could not see her feet, there still had to be sounds of steps, so I had to watch the legs and upper body motion to anticipate when steps would fall and create them, and the timing ultimately had to work out to sync later when the feet once again became visible. There was a rhythm that you could see and feel. This was especially important for the running shots. Yes, I tried it with the shoes on my feet, but on the hands worked better for me.
I repeated this process in two additional passes: Cloth and Body. The cloth pass captured sounds of her clothes rubbing against spruce branches, or lichen-covered rocks, or sliding across the ground covered with leaves and moss. The body pass captured sounds her body made in the environment, like when she put her hands on birch bark, or slid them across lichen-covered rocks, when she leaned back to rest her head against a tree, or fell to the ground. All of these sounds might seem trivial, but when you turn off these tracks, you notice immediately that something just isn't right in the world. Listen for these details in the final movie.
After recording nearly 700 takes of Foley performed synced to picture, I inserted them into Audition in a new session in the same fashion I did for ADR. After much auditioning, editing, and difficult decisions, I ended up with a proper Foley track, well, actually 22 of them. I decided to keep major things separated on individual tracks in the final master mix to allow for additional control over individual Foley levels in the final mix.
Audio Post-Production - Preparing for the Mix
With a picture edit, ADR, and Foley completed, Dead Run was beginning to take shape. I knew I wanted a 5.1 soundtrack, which some might say is overkill for a 9 minute short film destined for the festival circuit (many of which can't even play 5.1), but this was a learning project. Even though I had a consumer level 5.1 stereo system attached to my HP, I knew it was insufficient for designing a 5.1 soundtrack for theatrical presentation. Mixing in 5.1 is far more complex than mixing in stereo, which can effectively be done using a good pair of headphones. I knew I needed a proper way to monitor and a calibrated room.
Floyd Toole's book, Sound Reproduction, Loudspeakers and Rooms, was an invaluable resource, as was he on more than a few occasions when he graciously provided direct advice to me. Tomlinson Holman's (THX's namesake) book, Surround Sound, Up and Running, 2nd ed., is great for anyone wishing to work in surround sound. These and other texts helped me understand what I needed to adequately monitor and mix my film in my particular room. Small rooms are not ideal, which is why most professional dub stages are the size of small to medium movie theaters, with large, full-range speakers behind real cinema screens. All that makes a real difference in the sound. If you are interested in the gory details of what this involves, you can read them here.
Audio Post-Production - The 5.1 Mix
With a properly calibrated mix room, I jumped back into Audition. I did another spotting session, making notes of sound effects (SFX), background/atmosphere sounds, LFE sounds, music, and drones I wanted to fill out my mix. Once I knew where I needed certain types of sounds, I set out to determine which sounds I could create myself and which were already in existence that I could use. Audition comes with some royalty-free SFX, a couple of which I used.
I ended up recording the river myself on another hike out to location that I could control in the mix. I also used some blood squishing sounds and twig snaps recorded during my Foley sessions. The final sounds I created myself were the sounds made by the predator. For this, I recorded my own voice in numerous takes, and pitched it down and processed it using a free SSL plug-in called X-Orcism. With the exception of a couple of drones provided by Adobe, I sourced the remainder of my SFX from Freesound. A list of the sounds used, along with their creators, are included on this page.
Color Correction and Grading
This part of post production was by far the most difficult for me, not only because I lacked experience doing it, but also because there are so very many ways things can go terribly wrong in the process of getting your raw footage to the theater screen. This was principally because I chose to create a DCP, which has strict requirements for color management and file format. I chose to use Adobe's Speedgrade, since I could create a Speedgrade project directly from Premiere Pro. Speedgrade then launched with a timeline already in place, cut up by shot, and ready for color correction and grading. It took some time for me to get the final dusk look I envisioned for the film, and in grading the individual clips to match from shot to shot, as the lighting shifted during the shoot. If you are interested in reading more about the process I followed, you can find that here.
The best text I found on Color Grading was Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook, second ed., which includes comparisons of all the latest professional grading applications, including Speedgrade. Although I was familiar with monitor profiling and calibration, and owned both a spectrometer and a photometer for that purpose from my photography work, there were other things involved that I had not dealt with in photography, such as video levels, vectorscopes and waveform monitors used to assess video signal levels and color saturation.
I spent a lot of time on Lift Gamma Gain which calls itself The Colorist and Color Grading Forum. There I found working industry professionals who were very knowledgeable, sometimes opinionated, but always graciously helpful and informative. I gained much insight into how to properly calibrate my monitor so that my color correction and grading, just like with sound, would translate to the theater screen standards set by SMPTE and DCI for DCPs. Just like with sound, nearly every movie in the world that is digital is transmitted on a hard drive and shown as a DCP, defined by a set of standards that specify how these digital files are to be constructed for both picture and sound.
Creating the Digital Cinema Package (DCP)
Now that I had my movie finished, the only thing remaining was creating a DCP for theatrical presentation. There are a lot of commercial entities willing to create your DCP for you from a digital file you provide them straight from your NLE, for a fee. Some as low as $40-50 per minute of run time. So I could have had this done professionally for around $500, but what fun would that be? For the DIYer, there are a few ways to go about creating your own DCP, and I researched them all. At the time, none of the Adobe products output a DCP directly, which complicated things considerably. But in the end, I was successful and was able to view my own movie as a DCP in multiple theaters.
If you are interested in more details of the process I followed in successfully creating and testing my DCP, you can read about them here. A lot has changed since then, and many of the mainstream NLEs now have the capability to export proper DCP assets directly, which is a boon for independent filmmakers.
August 2024 Re-Release
Some film festivals require that DCPs be submitted by the filmmaker. For those that don't, you typically provide a digital file, usually in stereo. I spent much of my audio-related effort on the 5.1 soundtrack, but for this stereo digital file, I used a basic 2.0 mix-down. There are general guidelines for doing such a mix-down if you are given a 5.1 file and need to create a stereo file from it. This process is a compromise and typically does not provide the best stereo experience possible.
Since the film's festival run, I have advanced my study of sound design, mixing and mastering, and have upgraded both my tools and my software. Therefore, I ultimately decided to build a better stereo soundtrack for Dead Run than the original 2.0 mix-down Currently, I use Reaper as my DAW of choice for its shear power and flexibility, and I now use DaVinci Resolve Studio for my NLE, motion effects, and finishing SW. Having originally used Adobe's apps, rebuilding Dead Run in these apps required a substantial amount of effort, basically rebuilding the project from scratch in the new applications using original source materials. But this would also provide me the greatest flexibility. The source sound material (i.e., individual clips and their location on the timeline, any FX, etc.), had to be duplicated or replaced in Reaper. I used AATranslator to translate my Audition Session file to a Reaper Project file. It took several iterations with the SW, while working with the developer, to get it right, but it did the hard work of placing the right clips at exactly the right timecode on the timeline for every track. None of the clip or track FX came over, though. That had to be recreated manually, which was OK, as I had many more tools, FX plugins, and more experience than I did when developing the original release.
Similarly, transferring the picture from Premiere to Resolve was done manually, and required a lot of time and effort. Once I had the original color-graded footage (the DPX files for each frame from Speedgrade) in Resolve, I rendered out a copy and placed it into Reaper as a reference while editing the sound, and to confirm that my clips were still in sync. Since the DPX files were the finished film, I had to go back to Premiere and render out some of the ungraded footage to pull into Resolve in order to reproduced the film in its entirety there.
I spent many months of effort in Reaper remixing the soundtrack for the best possible stereo image, one that would maximally immerse the listener in the movie. I used all new Audio FX to mold the sound of each track, whether dialog, Foley, FX, background, or music. Once I was satisfied, I rendered out the stereo track and placed it on the timeline in Resolve.
Since I had the entire movie rebuilt from scratch in Resolve and Reaper, I could, and did, make changes to the movie, especially the sound edit where I improved sounds in some areas, and replaced it in others. Similarly, I took the opportunity to color grade a principal element in a key scene of the picture in Resolve.
Once this was completed, I needed to create a new Trailer that took advantage of the new sound, so that was again built from scratch in Resolve, wherein I also mixed sound elements imported into the trailer timeline using individual exports from Reaper, as needed, for the shots used in the trailer.
Both these efforts were finally completed in August 2024, and a new version of both the movie and trailer were re-released. This website has been updated with these latest versions.
Behind the Scenes (BTS)
Here are four videos I created using BTS footage from both pre-production and production of Dead Run. I hope you find them informative and entertaining. There was never a dull moment on this film, and it was a blast to shoot.
Two-Day Pre-Production Workshop
Pre-Production Rehearsal Shoot
Production Days
Mark?, WHO IS MARK!?
Photos of Paisley's makeup taken for continuity between shooting days.
The Dead Run Foley Pit.
Views of a portion of the 100+ track Dead Run audio timeline and color grading suite.
Film Stills
Useful Resources
Text Books
An Introduction to Film Analysis, by Michael Ryan and Melissa Lenos
Anatomy of Horror, The Masters of Occult Fiction, by Glen St. John Barclay
Audio Post Production In Your Project Studio, by Casey Kim
Audio Production & Post Production, by Woody Woodhall
Between The Scenes, by Jeffrey Michael Bays
Cinematic Storytelling, by Jennifer Van Sijill
Cinematography, by MIke Goodridge & Tim Grierson
Cinematography Screencraft, by Peter Ettedgui
Cinematography: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed, by Blain Brown
Color Correction Handbook, 2nd ed, by Alexis Van Hurkman
Continuity in Film and Video, 2nd ed, by Avril Rowlands
Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, by Michael Rabiger & Mick Hurbis-Cherrier
Directors Close Up, 2nd ed, by Jeremy Kagan
Film Directing: Shot by Shot, Visualizing from Concept to Screen, by Steven D. Katz
Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker & Movie Lover Must Know, by Gael Chandler
How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck, by Steve Stockman
In The Blink Of An Eye, by Walter Murch
Lighting for Digital Video & Television, 2nd ed, by John Jackman
Master Shots, Vol. 3, by Christopher Kenworthy
Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, 3rd ed, by Bob Katz
Mixing & Mastering, by Bill Gibson
Motion Picture and Video Lighting, 2nd ed, by Blain Brown
My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film, edited by Stephen Lowenstein
Practical Recording Techniques, 4th ed, by Bruce and Jenny Bartlett
Producing & Directing The Short Film & Video, 5th ed, by David K. Irving & Peter W. Rea
Producing Great Sound for Film & Video, 4th ed, by Jay Rose
Rebel Without A Crew, by Robert Rodriguez
Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know, 2nd ed, by Jeremy Vineyard
Sound Reproduction, Loudspeakers and Rooms, by Floyd Toole
Storytelling Techniques for Digital Filmmakers, by Ross Hockrow
Surround Sound, Up and Running, 2nd ed, by Tomlinson Holman
The Art of Mixing, 2nd ed, by David Gibson
The Art of Short Form Content: From Concept to Color Correction, by Bryan Cook
The Beginning Filmmaker's Guide to Directing, by Renée Harmon
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje
The DSLR Filmmaker's Handbook, by Barry Anderson & Janie L. Geyen
The Eye is Quicker, by Richard D. Pepperman
The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition, by Gustavo Mercado
The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age, 3rd ed, by Steven Ascher & Edward Pincus
The Indie Producer's Handbook: Creative Producing from A to Z, by Myrl A. Schreibman
The Innocence of the Eye: A Filmmaker's Guide, by Ed Spiegel
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, 3rd ed, by Bobby Owsinski
The Sound Effects Bible, by Ric Viers
Total Directing: Integrating Camera & Performance in Film & Television, by Tom Kingdon
Web Resources
"Only in the hottest years do we find our men dead... and this year it grows hot. Sometimes we find our men without their skin..." wait, WHAT? GET TO THE CHOPPA!!
