ZOE KAVANAGH- DEMON HUNTER

Zoe Kavanagh brings short film creation Taryn Barker, Demon Hunter, to feature length film terrain! Demon Hunter, out this week from Wild Eye Releasing, is the chronicle a young woman, half demon/half human who helps a detective rescue his daughter from a demonic cult.

After she is captured by police for questioning in the slaying of a man she claimed was a demon, Taryn Barker must prove her innocence, and the existence of demons. But when a cult captures the daughter of one of the detectives on the case, the police must trust, and unleash, this warrior on the Satantic group who are intent on bringing an ancient evil force into the world.

Tell me how this came to be, Zoe?

I made a short film with the character in 2008 and shortly after I wanted to re-envision the idea of Taryn Barker and her search for vengeance. So in 2009 I wrote the script Demon Hunter: Retribution (now retitled The Last Demon Hunter) and it dealt with Taryn giving up demon hunting and trying to find solace in normality, eventually as things go bad and demons prevail Taryn searches and finds some sinister answers into who killed her sister.

This script was too big to make as a film at the time so I worked backwards and wrote with Tony Flynn an origins prequel to that script entitled Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter.

Originally what happened was that this was supposed to be a web series in 2011 but I loved the concept so much I developed it into my first feature which I eventually made.

What was the initial appeal for you?

Making my first feature film about a broken and conflicted Demon Hunter who is flawed, immature and still a strong character in a great big world filled with all sorts of demons was certainly an appeal to make it my first feature. I love 80s films and to have strong colours and a tool-up montage is kind of a signature thing I wanna do to showcase my visual and editing capabilities.

Did the project change, if even slightly, due to budget or other creative decisions, as the shooting date approached?

We never removed scenes but they were scaled down. The script was crazy ambitious with the villain at the end forming into a HP Lovecraft-like demon. More extras and more gore but we still made the script, just scaled things down.

The climax was going to take place in a big hotel owned by the cult leader but we got a castle instead! There’s a scene where a priest is crucified to a cross. That was originally supposed to be a church and then that fell through so we planned to film on a hillside near a beach but it was protected land so we filmed it in a forest outside the grounds of Charleville Castle.

How long of a shoot was it?

We shot a 12-page flashback sequence in 2012 to entice investors. In September 2012 I shot an action scene from the script and still no interest. So I saved up cash and shot half the film in 2013 with plans to finish it in 2014, but our lead dropped out two weeks before filming in September 2014. So we recast the lead and planned to extend the shoot to five weeks from September to October.

In March 2015 we did pickups and additional action scenes to make the film more engaging and as tight as possible.

Was it local? Or were parts of it filmed all over?

We filmed the majority of it all over Dublin City, some great locations like Guiness Storehouse and the Pigeon House Power Station. The castle stuff was done in Ardgillen Castle and Charleville Castle in County Offaly.

How different a project do you think this would have been if it were filmed 20 years ago?

I don’t think I could have made it in 1997. You would need at least a million budget to make it. It certainly would of had a name attached and maybe have really dated special effects but the soundtrack would probably be the same type of music.

We certainly wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we achieved with the advancements of technology.

I would love to see the 90s version though!

It would undoubtedly have been marketed a lot differently then, too. Tell us about some of the marketing activities conducted to promote it.

Well, we ran the social media Facebook and Twitter pages for years to update people on production. Over time we built a bit of a following online who were interested in the development of it.

When we promoted Demon Hunter in the UK & Ireland I hired a publicist to help with the marketing. I made a trailer that played in cinemas to promote the release. My plan was to release it in cinemas for two days before it hit DVD so we could reach as wide an audience as possible. We got into major tabloids and TV shows. I think it did quite well in getting out there. The European trailer went down well and most critics seem to have enjoyed the film.

How important is a social media presence for a film?

In this day and age its very important to be up to date on your social media presence. Everyone uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube, and for the specific target demographic that’s where you hone the marketing.

For independent filmmakers its been beneficial particularly on small budget to be able to reach a large audience in such a way. You also need to figure out trends online and understand the pattern of how people engage with ads, promos, or any sort of promotion. You look at similar films and see what works and what doesn’t work.

What’s one thing people probably don’t realize about making movies?

How hard it is to make one. The battle from script to release. This has been a long journey and a costly one. I kept going because I believed in it. Problems always came my way but I pushed on and made sure I reached the end goal. We couldn’t get funding, but understandably it was my first feature so nobody would take a chance on that. I worked full-time regular jobs and just saved and saved up my cash until I had a reasonable amount. I was going to go the crowd funding route but I didn’t like the stress of opening up shop in advance. It was better to just do it without that stress. We had to re-shoot nearly half of the film because of recasting. Things would happen but we got through it and filming this film was one of the best experiences of my life. I want to go back to that time and do it again.

Then after you finish filming and you assemble it you see it for what it is and assess what works and what doesn’t. You save up more cash and go back and add more action scenes and then spend quite some time in post production staring at the film for a year editing, sound mixing, vfx, and finalising. I believed in it and this is my character and world. You make this film out of love and passion and just hope other people connect and enjoy it.

You deal with countless rejections along the way and it motivates you to push harder no matter what. It’s tough but coming from nothing and trying to make your stamp along the way you’re going to get bitter and vitriolic people who want to put it down. Believe in your art.

What was the initial goal of the project, for you? Has it succeeded, in terms of that goal, or is it too early to tell?

The goal was to make Taryn Barker a living breathing character that escaped the cells of my brain and exposed herself in all forms of media. I think about the world everyday and if I can expand on it I would in a heartbeat.

In a way it has succeeded despite the hate online. It’s hard to tell right now how it has done regarding business but it has gotten out there and people are discovering it.

I’ve been a videographer for over ten years doing music videos. I do believe in what I am doing and I think I did the best I could on what I had.

What’s the future hold for you?

Right now I’m doing commercials and music videos but I do have some feature projects in development. I have a sequel in development called The Demon Hunters, a horror film called Inexorable, and a Viking revenge fantasy called The Blade of Hilde. Hopefully I get to move ahead on one or all of them!