Chicago studio Popcorn Island ‘s disturbing trailer will front the online buzz campaign for Stephen King’s new short story collection, “Just After Sunset”.
The accolade is all the more impressive considering that Popcorn Island – AKA Red Clark, Ross Gerbasi, and Josh Tallo – pulled together the 90-second shocker in less than a week.
Popcorn Island receives a signed copy of the book from King, and great exposure across the web through the author’s massive fan base. The legendary horror author picked the winning trailer himself.
In announcing the competition winner, book publisher Hodder and Staughton stated that the compelling and high-quality visuals “captured the story perfectly.”
“Not all of the images came from the story itself, but were inspired by King’s themes. We wanted to set it up but not give away the whole story,” says Clark .
“The main motivation for entering was knowing that Stephen King would be entertained for a couple of minutes by something we did,” says Clark .
“We found out about the contest late in the game,” says Clark . “I told Josh and Ross, let’s just try and get it done this week. We made time around other work and stayed up all night editing.”
Clark had girlfriend Christene Iversen take the lead role and “run around like crazy for a whole day” in Saugatuck , Michigan . The location doubled for the Florida coast, with Clark matting in sunsets in editing to get the right tropical feel.
Tallo, shooting in HD on a Panasonic HVX-200, enlisted his own visiting family members to play bit parts, and Popcorn Island ‘s own apartment/studio provided the interior locations.
Clark rerecorded dialog from an audio version of the story “The Gingerbread Girl” from the collection, sharing voiceover duties with actor Lawrence Grimm of A Red Orchid Theatre.? He and Gerbasi then created a soundtrack from downloaded samples of the Philarmonia Orchestra and their own original compositions.
Formed in 2006, Popcorn Island is looking to continue with a mixture of short films and commercial projects, with a horror feature film a major long-term goal.
“We bonded together as a company in a loose agreement to help each other out in getting freelance projects,” says Clark . “We’re all pulling each other along and helping each other improve.”
All three Popcorn Islanders share creative control and have directed their own projects, but have certain specialties. Clark works primarily as a director/editor, Tallo is a cinematographer, Gerbasi a graphics and equipment expert. “He’s invented scripts just to experiment with after effects or building a new dolly. He’s like MacGyver,” jokes Clark .
The group’s goodwill extends beyond their own company, with Gerbasi also providing technical tutorials and labs via their website, a feature that they hope to extend as their success grows.
“We want to share cool ideas and show what we’re doing,” says Clark . “It’s less of a promotional tool than a tool to engage and entertain other people who are as passionate about filmmaking as we are.”
See www.popcornisland.com and www.myspace.com/justaftersunset for the winning video.
