Tiffany's After Hours Podcast
Urban Legend, Paranormal talk, Interviews, and more!
Join me as I have some interesting talks with some very interesting people!
Tiffany's After Hours Podcast
CHATTING WITH TARYN BARKER: DEMON HUNTER DIRECTOR ZOE KAVANAGH 🦇
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🦇In this new After Hours Chat, I sit down with filmmaker Zoe Kavanagh, director of the Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter films.
The Demon Hunter films are a really cool mix of sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal/supernatural, superhero movie, with some nice horror elements mixed in and I enjoyed talking to Zoe about the making of the films and some of the challenges faced while making them.
FULL EPISODE ON YOUTUBE, SPOTIFY, APPLE, AND IHEARTRADIO
Check out more and give Zoe a follow
@ZoeKavanagh (YOUTUBE)
@ZoeKavanaghfilmmaker (IG)
And my own review of Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter:
https://youtube.com/shorts/8pX3d6wKPyM?is=31Uw9_3F3P4JTq3u
#horrorpodcast #tarynbarkerdemonhunter #darkfantasy #supernaturalthriller #paranormalpodcast
Well, hey there, and welcome to another after hours chat. Tiffany here, and I am super excited about this next guest because we've had some amazing uh male film uh guy filmmakers um on this uh on this podcast the last couple of times and you know but it's great to I I love seeing some real kick-ass uh female and uh you know women uh filmmakers out there too. And we have such uh filmmaker director uh here with us today. And um would you like to introduce yourself and uh what it is that you do?
SPEAKER_04Hi, um yeah, I'm Zoe Kavanaugh. I am uh I guess a film director, writer uh based in Ireland. Uh I've done loads of music videos for bands, and now I have my second feature film, which just came out Demon Hunter Time to Kill. And so I've done two Demon Hunter movies, and uh yeah, and I've you know, outside directing, I've also done music and uh you know post-production editing and stuff, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00Very cool, very cool. And um your most recent uh production is actually was the is the second Demon Hunter movie as well as um the uh the first Demon Hunter film. Yeah, so so tell like tell a little bit about um how the Demon Hunter films came about, because I I did watch the first one, and by the time this recording comes up, I'll definitely have my review up on it. But um, but yeah, but I would love to hear about what inspired Demon Hunter. Was there any particular films or filmmakers that inspired you to uh make it? Yeah, so definitely tell us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so so it's quite an interesting story. So uh I mean now the Force Movies has been retitled Tower and Barford Demon Hunter because that would that's what was it was the original name, but the distributor back then wants to call it Demon Hunter for uh markable reasons, and I wasn't gonna argue just to get the movie out, so I said fine, just call it that. And then when the rights came back, I was like, no, I'm giving it the original name, that's what the character is, whatever. But going back longer than that was the character was created in 2008. I was just listening to like uh music, I was listening to the Resident Evil Apocalypse soundtrack, and a track by a band called Demon Hunter came on. My heart seems come undone. I was this and that, and I was like drawn, I was trying to like I need to create a character. And I bought a drew badass woman like in an alleyway, and I was like, okay, what's the worst thing that could happen? Maybe your little sister, you know, some horrible acts, and then I was like, she's gonna fight demons, and then I was like, okay, so I came up with that, and then um I tried, you know, I forced initially, it's not online, but I I made a really bad short film with the character, but I I learned from that shit, not offense to the people that worked on it, but I didn't know like it didn't work out, you know. But it was from that I was able to um learn what worked with the character and whatnot. And so when I was studying in IDT in 2008 to 2012, the bachelor I did a bachelor of honours degree in uh the National Film School of Ireland, and I decided from my um grad film I would take origin story of of the section of when our little sister gets abducted, and uh you know she goes searching for She Dyson Arms, and I made that short initially in 2012. I was doing a lot of music videos at the time, but I knew when I made that my my grandfilm was like me and Tony Flynn who covered that movie. We're watching that film, it was originally supposed to be a web series, and then we started it against it. So the first half of Demon Hunter, Townworth Demon Hunter starts off with the comic partition stuff that was um episodic, and then I then I just said nah, let's not do a web series because that gets forgotten. That's a bit of the past, let's just make this a proper movie. So yeah, and and it was a tough movie to shoot because it was self-financed, we couldn't get any finance, no one's gonna trust the no name, you know. So I just yeah, I just saved and saved and saved, and we tried to shoot it in 2013 and ran out of money, and a lot of things happened. So 2014 came to shoot the movie, and um our lead quit the movie a week before shooting the book of the movie. Uh so we had auditions really close to we we were already building sets, we had like uh studio space two months in advance. All our art were b busy and all that, and and we got their lead, and I was like, Oh my god, how am I gonna reshoot all this? Where's the money coming? Oh my gosh, oh yeah. So we ran a casting call, and by just the look, Neve Hogan, you know, she showed up, and I knew right then there, like she's Taran Barker, and um and she just put everything in our whole heart and soul, and you know, she even sings uh on the funeral song. Uh no, we we just got on great and um in the end we we made a great movie. Like we we initially when we shot the film 2014, and I was I had a cut of it by December, and I said, Oh, you know, there isn't enough action in this movie. So in 2015 we put another week and a half into shooting more action scenes, and uh then became yeah, it became the movie that was, and then I went then we did festivals uh from there until 2016, and then found distribution and won a bunch of awards at Horror Fests, and uh yeah. So that was the history of the force film, uh, and then there uh there's so much to say. I mean, especially about the um exploitation of what happened to the movie after it got released. Oh you wanna know that?
SPEAKER_00Sure, yeah, yeah, spill the tea.
SPEAKER_04So I mean I was quite naive at the time. It was my first film, like I didn't know how the business worked. And if you if you go online today, say you go to Facebook and you look at say the Facebook group, distributors to stay away from, yeah, you learn the hard truth of the reality of independence distribution. So initially, at the time we'd gotten a sales agent, and uh uh they had released it in the UK, but then uh all of a sudden around the same day it got released, it got pirated on all these websites, all these other countries had already dubbed the movie, and I'm like, who paid them to do that? There was Russian With all these professional things done, and uh you go on the sites and there's casino ads before, and people are making there are millions of views of the film and all these other countries ad revenue. People made in the back end lots of ad revenue off that movie. The film made so much money for so many other people but me. I made some money. But I knew at that point that like when millions of people had pirated the film, yeah, there wasn't an audience for it, you know. Even though I didn't make a lot of money off it, I knew that I felt like Tarum could get uh in our shop. But what happened as well in the film was we got review bombs on IMDB. If you check, like for example, well our box that has like a 2.7, 2.805, or you check on average, it's usually 305, the reviews are. Yeah, I I remember I clamped down a few pirate sites and straight away uh they sent their bots to do like 50 or 61 out of 10s. And so I naively asked on the Facebook page for people if you like the film, got to IMDB.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04IMDB blocked anyone, uh anyone if you give the four Steam Under IMDb a seven or eight or a nine out of ten, yeah, they refuse to count it. So it's uh three point five. I mean it's like rated like the room. But if you look at the re actual critic reviews of that film, it's not between 305, 205, 305. I you know, so it isn't a three out of ten movie, you know, but you know, it's a that's kind of a shame because they worked their asses off in that in that film. But I did feel like um I did listen though, though I did I listened to all of the um the people that didn't like the movie, you know, like I looked at some negative reviews and that's where the second movie came into conception was like okay, how do I make a film for people that did not like the force movie? Well, also getting the people that like the first movie to like the second movie.
SPEAKER_00Like the second one, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So far, I don't know if you've checked the reviews on the second movie, but it seems that people really like the second movie.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, exciting. Yeah, well, that's that that's good. Well, because you know, because sometimes with the first movie, it's like you know, okay, it's kind of like you know, with the book series. It's like the that first movie is kind of like setting the tone and building the world and the character, so it may not be as action-packed as say like the subsequent movies or stories or books or whatever. Um, but but no, but that's but that's a thing though, too. And um, I was talking uh with uh with Jason, uh he he was uh in the last episode, he's another filmmaker, and like we were kind of talking about how you have to in order to really do something and get good at it, you kind of have to willing to suck at something at first, and then that's how you learn from it, and not that the first demon hunter sucked, I actually enjoyed it. But but you know, but you even said like the the very first short film that you did, uh Demon Hunter, you didn't know, but you know what? But you learn from it, and that's what makes that experience valuable, and then you know, and and that's the thing too, you have to accept, you know, well, you're not gonna please everybody, so you just gotta make the best movie, the best book, but the best whatever you're making that that you can, and you and just and know who you're marketing to as well. I think that's speaking of that.
SPEAKER_04I want to get into that. So horse movie, I'm very proud of the horse movie. I think it's a great film, it's a great character film. When we went to make uh Demon Hunter, um me and Tony were more inspired by the superhero movies at the time. We were also inspired by Highlander and Terminator. Uh, we were not making a horror movie, it was never the intention. We were making a dark superhero movie, and um unfortunately, when I got picked up for Wild Eye releasing in the States, they mismarketed the movie. They made a terrible poster in America and they made an awful trailer to end up on job on movie trails where everyone just warned the movie shreds with the comments. And that that wasn't the film that it is. Like you look at the trade, that awful chaotic editing that they have on it, and yeah, they just put the film out there and they sold it as a as like I we I you know, wild eye releasing do a lot of like shark attack movies or goofy, you know, and it's not one of those movies, you know. So it was set to fail basically in the States. Because we made like a dark superhero origins movie, we weren't making a silly shloky movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Second movie we did make silly slocky movies. But you know, but you know, I am really proud of Force Made. I think it's a great movie, and I think I'm hoping it's the second film that we gave the people that taught you were getting that with the first movie, they'll come around to the forced movie again. You know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And plus I think, you know, maybe when you like because you're continuing on with the story of Demon Hunter, you know, they'll come back to the first one and you know, maybe like make the connections and be like, oh, you know, that that was actually uh, you know, a good movie. So yeah, which which it is. But uh it it's unfortunate how though sometimes if you get like the wrong PR people, the wrong it's it can it can mess up like even like the best movie. I mean, you can make like um what is it like Silence of the Lambs, and if it's marketed the wrong way, it's probably not gonna do too well, you know. So it's so it's it's one of those things too where it's almost like do you trust a PR team or do you just do the marketing yourself? Yeah, yeah, because sometimes you know your product better than anybody. And you know, and yeah, it might take some research and some work, but sometimes it's worth doing that as opposed to, you know, okay, maybe this we have this PR team, but they might have like an idea of how they do things. And yeah, it might work for some people, but it may not work for say, you know, your project or my project or or you know, a project that maybe they normally don't mess with, you know, they normally don't promote. So yeah, but um, but I uh what were some challenges with the filmmaking process of the demon hunter movies?
SPEAKER_04Well, um with the first film that I mean we shot in a lot of locations uh around Ireland. You saw we got some great ones, uh castles and all Cheroplo Castle, which they shot uh season two of Wednesday in Giraffe Castle. Um and uh yeah, no, no, I think that the challenges mostly came from um we had tight schedules, you know, and and trying to pull off a lot of things in short turn turnarounds was was hard, you know. You can't uh it actually applies to both films. On the second movie, I'll give an example. So you know there's an opening fight scene in the film where she fights uh a vampire and some shadow demon guy, and I had gotten bitten by a spider, and my leg was in bits, and it was a boss and we had to shoot that scene, and Yon our producer is like you have 30 minutes to shoot the scene, my god. I was like, so dumb guy. So uh Larry was one of the fight coordinators, he had to take over on the camera to shoot the scene, and luckily we're able to pull off on the time that we had, yeah. You know, if only we had more time to shoot the fight scenes, this it would be it would be perfect. But we we ran against the clock on that movie, but we we we ended with a good film in the end. But the first movie there was there was a lot of things. There was having to deal with some actors was you know, there was a challenge with that, you know, trying to locate some people. Uh you know, with the cauchy, sometimes some people didn't read the cautio correctly, and then you're just on a on a quest to make sure that they're on time for Zephyr to shoot, and you're just like, right. Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, yeah, yeah. But um, but yeah, it's um it's always fascinating to hear like you know, just behind the scenes stuff uh going on on films because yeah, I mean I've been on some film sets and you know and so it's it's really amazing how when you present that finished product, you know, people like like the audience did they they only see the finished product, they don't see all of the stuff that goes on behind the camera and all of the you know things that could possibly go wrong, all of the you know.
SPEAKER_04That's the thing, like it's a miracle the first movie came out as a good movie, in my opinion. Because uh so so some of the stuff in the movie in the flashback stuff is the previous actress, but you don't know because uh you see the back of her or the side of her, or or when uh Taryn goes into the factory and you know to look for her sister, that's a different actress, right up until she sees her. You know, and that was the older footage, that was it was crazy. There were things like that where like we were so lucky that we were able to kind of make the movie work, and it all it's all down to Neve, who was incredible in the movie, and uh all the other great ensemble like characters, Kevin O'Malley's brilliant as Eton, and the and and the Demon Hunter crew, the K A I C in the second half, they were all amazing, you know. No, absolutely great time with that movie.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Yeah, so what about like the second movie? Were there any uh major challenges uh with that?
SPEAKER_04That went it went a lot smoother than the first film in regards to the production itself. Now we shot that film in we shot a bulk of it in Kentucky in September 2022, and then we shot more of it in Ireland in 2023.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um and uh there wasn't really any issues except for time, you know. Like I think the biggest one was the cinematographer I wanted to work with couldn't get to America. Oh, okay, and I couldn't find a cinematographer on time that I could trust, like the one I have over here. You know, Izzy, he did work with me on the Viking flight scene, the the time flight scenes in in in the towards the climax of the sex film. Uh Izzy he worked with me on that. But in America, I decided to be the DP on it. I did a lot of music videos as a DP, and I felt um I don't I couldn't I couldn't have trusted anyone to pull off the time schedule we had and the crazy camera angles that was gonna do because it was a run and gun type camera work. I was like, I need to go full on crazy Zoe Kavanaugh camera angles for all these things to run over here, get a weird angle, one over here, get a weird angle, move, move, move, move. Yeah, you know, and yeah, and I just felt I yeah, and and I think what's interesting about the second movie, it's full on my brain, I guess, you know, so much of that. But um, you know, if we had more time, see there's two compromises, right? So with the first movie, it looks gorgeous, it's cinematography is really nice, it is, yeah. And uh, but the action scenes are not as good as the second movie, you know, it'd be we they're too fast cuddy, um, but that's because it was the time came out in, but it's all the fact that um the you know, they're different style of DP compared to the way I shoot action scenes, but you know, me and Neve uh Neve Hogan and Lara uh fight coordinators on the second movie. Yeah, I worked with them together to make sure that we we show everything in the wide shots in part two. But there was also a situation as well, the final bottle in part one, you have such a set where you're like, Oh, if we move the frame here, we're gonna see the camera, we're gonna see the lighting thing, you know. So you're like, how do you frame around all these things? So in love with the filmmaking, there's the challenge, you know. But the most important thing at the end day is it and shining and does it tell a good story and is softer? And I think it works with the first movie. But yeah, and then I'll end on on that section here by saying, Yo, it the second movie could have looked as good as the fourth movie if we had double the amount of time to shoot it, but we we we're running against the clock non-stop, non-stop. So shooting the black magic, shooting a gimbal, go, go, go, go, you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, yeah. So do you think there'll be like a Demon Hunter 3, or are you gonna stick it at two movies?
SPEAKER_04I hope so. I'm really hoping so. I would love to come back to make it like I feel when you see the second movie, a lot of people the reviews are great, and a few people have compared Neve to Bruce Campbell, Ash Williams in the sequel, and if if people get on that train, because there's no other voice cracking, badass live-action demon hunter right now, like or you know, like Ash or ever. And I think you know, you know, Taryn is the only one right now, and she's in the indie scene, you know, she's in it small, you know. If people discover this movie, check it out. It's a it's a wild rhyme to kill because we I do have um I would like to make a toward one. I mean, the second movie only costs like well it costs a hundred and forty grand. Yeah. So if we do, we would love to make Tord. I said it'll be a trilogy. I'd love to make four, but I don't think that's realistic. But yeah, we can say, you know, I want to make other movies.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But you know, okay, that's that's that's Let's do a toward, but hopefully we can make a toward. People just need to discover the movie, you know. Um, and uh yeah, if you like Army of Darkness, like Friday 13th, Day Live, you know, Little China, yeah, second movie gives you everything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that is awesome. Yeah, yeah. But um, but who are some of your um influences as far as filmmakers go?
SPEAKER_04Um, influences, uh, I would say John Carpenter would be a huge one. You know, like I just I always his films are comfort watches to me. Just be times when I like look at my collection, like my stick on Big Trouble or Escape from New York, you know, chill out, you know. I just and the thing, you know, it you can never go wrong with that. Um other influences would be um, I mean, I've said before, as I I said James Cameron, Sam Raimi, I suppose, you know, Sam Raimi definitely uh the early work, it just the chaotic, you know, run and go and low budget filmmaking uh and pulling that off. Obviously, uh you know, Sam's films are a lot different nowadays. Um and uh I guess also video games and music, you know. Uh so so I guess a huge influence on these films is the Devil May Cry video games.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so a huge fan of those. And um one of my favorite bands, I guess, is the Birthday Massacre. And I was able to I got them on the soundtrack to the second film.
SPEAKER_00Oh cool! Yeah, that was that was that was great.
SPEAKER_04That was that was like a book of this for me. I need to get them on the soundtrack. That kind of I'd done some videos for them years ago, but I remember when we were rapping the second film, they were playing they were playing a concert in Kentucky the day we rapped. So I had to go and I I met them, you know, and then I was like I was already friends with a different band on Metropolis Records, Clan of Zymox, who I've done music for okay, yeah, uh music videos for, and uh because you were on the same label, I was able to negotiate because I was getting Clan of Zymox on the soundtracks and negotiated with Metropolis because J Massacre.
SPEAKER_00That is awesome, yeah. Yeah, so it has like a really good soundtrack on it, the um the second movie.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, and there's a lot of guitar solos in the score as well. The score is very epic as well. Um, yeah, probably influences video games, uh classic cult horror movies and action movies and uh music, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow, that is so cool. I love it, I love it. And since obviously there is a big supernatural element to uh the demon hunter movies, um what are your thoughts on the supernatural and the paranormal? Um, do you think that um it exists in different realms? Uh do you think that um it's residual energy, human spirits, um something demonic, all of the above, depending on um on the situation? Um what are your thoughts on it?
SPEAKER_04Um okay, so I don't I don't I don't fully know what's real, what's not out there? I know that a lot of people um have experiences, you know, with with the supernatural. I remember being on the set the second movie we shot in Waverly Hills Sanitarium, yeah, and some of the casting crew felt presences in in that sanitarium. They maybe it could have been because the history of the place. And you know, but I I I could I've I've even as a teen, I've broken into like the Magdalene Laundries, which was an abandoned Covenant where a lot of women were buried in unmarked graves. I've gone in there and just filmed for college, you know, with myself. Like, but I've never been like I've been kind of fearless going to these places, you know, because I just think to myself, look, it if there was a thing of things, you know, they can't physically touch me, so I don't care. Yeah, but um I mean I don't know. I mean, I I would say I I have the mindset of I believe it when I see it. Okay, yeah. But um I guess I'm a skeptic, uh you know, but I do I do think it's great for storytelling, and I I don't uh dis like any anyone that believes it, because who knows? I I would go who knows, like I don't know, but I just I guess like there's something great in telling stories with the supernatural, the occultism. There's always something you can always pull from, you know, because there's so much lower mythology, all the culture around uh this stuff, you know, always makes us fascinating about the unknown, you know, because we no one no none of us know what's out there, and I guess we always just blow from the dark hoping you know, for answers, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Now, with you like being based out of Ireland, you know, there's a lot of uh myth and lore and all of that out there. Do you have a favorite uh folk tale or a piece of mythology uh from Ireland?
SPEAKER_04Well, I know that like there's one that people have always talked about. There's there's there's a lot of history over here, but there's a place up um up in the mountains called the Hellfire Club. And there's a story about I think they they did poker up there, gambling. It's a it's like this burnt-out building, it's kind of a tourist attraction, it's like a cottage-type building on top of a hill, and there was like people that were doing gambling there, and they say that the they looked down, they saw one of the guys had hose, he was like actually like the devil playing gambling with them, and so playing with fires and something like that. Yeah, that's been an interesting one because people always tell you that story. Um I've been there a few times, but it it is kind of a tourist thing, but there's there is even more. I think the more real ones though is stuff like the Mantel and Laundries, and it's really tragic, you know, where they'd send in the 60s they sent women to if they're promiscuous wherever to this convent, basically in non-prison. And make them then it they found I'm sorry, I'm going to have very dark hair, they found like what a hundred babies in a septic tank that the nurses um hid and just threw all the babies in a septic tank and found like a whole tank of yeah, so it's really dark, yeah. So, I mean, if there is such a thing as the supernatural, it would definitely be in those places.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Where did you get the idea for the um antagonist in uh Demon Hunter?
SPEAKER_04The first one, um yeah, uh Esker and Falsa. Um so he was kind of I like I mean, I'm a huge fan of Hellraiser, and I mean Barker's in terms of name. So there is an element of that kind of eloquence, aristocracy to Esker and Falstaff, where he's like this really smart, hi IQ, um you know, rich billionaire, and I I kind of got inspired by you know, I guess Pinhead, uh you know, uh I can't remember his name in Torp Twerp movie, they think they call him Elliot Spencer, I think. But anyway, yeah, the Bradley the character is that was the thing. I love the idea of having a villain that isn't that was kind of like he wants kind of room or he kind of seducer and all this. And obviously, two of you are like, why would you make such a bad deal? Why would you go? Which I guess that kind of I've seen in other films. I guess the idea of like the only person that was gonna give her the answer option she was gonna get was the bad guy. And maybe she was hoping that she could probably betray the bad guy after she got what she got, but you know, it's but um yeah, I mean I love uh I love a good villain. I suppose a bit of bond as well, you know, like James Bond, you know, I love good villain where you know there's a lot more meat to the character, you know, where you get to flesh them out and know a bit more about them and their own thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's always I mean, it's always interesting when the villain gets fleshed out more and you and you learn more about their backstory. And and especially if, like, say they maybe were at first kind of like a sympathetic person, um, or who somebody might perceive as somebody who might have been like the good guy or what have you, but something happened to where, you know, kind of like how um with Star Wars with Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader, you know, it's like it's kind of like there's it's always interesting to see kind of like that sort of evolution with the villain, I always think.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, totally. Now, in both films, the the villains also represent the 1% billionaire that controlled the planet. Uh so there's whole there's a classism in the two films where I like to me the real message of these films is the lower class person giving the middle finger to the big rich person who controls and impresses everything. Yeah, and you think about it, he has his castle, he has his coercion with the um police, he has the they control the news, they control everything. We go, we double down on that in the next movie, but yeah, that like that if you look at the demon hunters in them, they're kind of in like a warehousey bait base base thing, and the bad guys are in castles and they're in everything like that, you know, and so it's sort of there is there's a lot lot more of like touching all these things, and it's funny because that film came out before all these like you know, before like people went on their mad conspiracy theory rabbit holes, like I remember I came out the screening a hard time in 2016, and someone came up to me and was like, Oh no, that film touched on everything of I was like, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00It's like you just got it downloaded to you and then you put out the film.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, and it was kind of yeah, exactly. Like I didn't understand about all the conspiracy theories and all these other things that people talked about, and it's all kind of those elements are kind of in the movie, not intentionally, but then when we made the second movie, I made complete parody of all that because like I read all Q Anna and stuff, I read all the blood young blood stuff, and you know, all the right-wing stuff, and there's a yeah, the demons section where they hack into Fox News that's run by demons. Oh wow. Second movie, it's just the second movie is me like taking all the bunker stuff over the last few years and just making you know, it just taking all the satire even to a next level, but that's me on a reflection of like you know, observing the years go by. But um, yeah, the fourth movie is also, you know, I mean you look at the story, she's you know, it is a kind of like simple classical story as well of rescued girl in the castle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, awesome. But um what advice would you have for maybe an aspiring filmmaker or somebody who may want to make you know, make a film that's similar to Demon Hunter or maybe even completely different uh from Demon Hunter. Um, yeah, like what advice would you have for somebody uh looking to make a film?
SPEAKER_04Um okay, so there's a few avenues this person should take. Like, I mean, when when I made this film, uh we couldn't get finance for it. I had to self-finance it. And I think um if you if you're thinking of directing a film like this, I would say first, you know, do shorts or do music videos, learn your style, be very comfortable to make a feature because it you know it's a big task to do it. Um work with a team that you can trust. Uh make sure it's an affordable budget, but you know, don't make a film if you don't think you can pull it off and make good. Um let me see. Uh you could try and go the other route of trying to get financing, but then you know, if there's a lot of like you're making film for them as well as yourself, and you know, you could be waiting years before they green light your movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So there's there's that avenue, but if you're gonna self-finance it, you'll also have to learn to become a producer as well. So you'd have to educate yourself on production because you're gonna work, you could work for a production company, but you also have to learn the ends and outs of pre-production, production, and post-production. You know, you need to understand all these elements of the pie because making a film is not just going on set, you know, you have to understand everything: insurance, legalities, copyright, um post-production, getting a sold, getting to festivals. One thing I one hard lesson I learned on the second movie, like by the way, yeah, I just want to slightly sidetrack the second movie says 2024 and IMDB when it's not 2024, it's a nightmare of how to deal with them in the fixed year because a work in progress screen uh uh print played in in October 2024. But anyway, the get if when you wrap your movie up, get a sales agent uh in advance before you go to festivals. There's a lesson I learned of the second movie, is I talk uh maybe I should go get a sales agent after the festivals because I was still in post-production, I was still meeting the VFX artists are still working on CGI right up to January this year. There was some R2, so it's it's more frustrating that IMDB says 2024 in that film, they refused to change it, and actually hoard the second movies um certain horror websites, you know. But there's there's a lesson there as well, there's another lesson. Um do not send work in progress versions of your film to festivals. I would not advise it because I'd have to deal with IMDB. Yeah, you do not want to deal with IMDB, it's like talking to a brick wall. Right. So when the film's finished, then get a sales age to send the festivals because otherwise you're gonna run into those things. But yeah, prep everything and get yourself the best producer, partner, learn all you have to just have to learn everything.
SPEAKER_00You have to be careful about yeah, yeah, definitely learn everything. It's like, yeah, if you take nothing else from that advice, learn, just make sure you're learning everything because you may find yourself having to do everything. Because you might have somebody who say, Oh, yeah, I'll do effects for you, and then it the day comes, and for whatever reason they can't do it or what have you. So then you have to step in and do it. So yeah, you kind of have to learn how to do a little bit of everything, and in a way it's daunting, but in a way, it's also good too, because I kind of like knowing how to do a little bit of everything with like artistic projects because I at least have that assurance that if all else fails, I can just do it.
SPEAKER_04Exactly, exactly. You know, like like the thing was, and like I remember James Cameron, a lot of people hated him on set, however, because he always would walk up to different cr casts or crew or crew, particularly, and he'd tell them exactly how to do their job. Yeah, that's a good thing, you know. If you know that is good aspect of every part, that's a really good asset and skill to have, you know. Yes, like I learned F FX on the second movie. I did it to cut costs because like we had like 15, I think, FFX artists, but to cut to save costs, I learned Roloscope and all these other things because I you know I it also happened because some VFX delivery was not good to my standards, and I was like, well, I could do a better job than that, and I would replace it, you know, like I hear this how it's done, you know. And so it's it's really good to just, you know, and unfortunately, doing being that is it is time consuming. Like, I mean, it takes longer to get your movie out there, but you know what? I'd rather take my time with each film I make than thorn out film every uh five films a year, like certain you know, C movie directors who just throw crap out with a home video camera and throw a shark on a 2D clip art shark on and like vs rhino uh shark versus leprechaun, I don't know, but still shark. Um yeah, no, no, I'd rather like because these films stick with you, you know, when you're dead and gone, like, and then rather have something important, you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, absolutely. And um, where can people see Demon Hunter and Demon Hunter too?
SPEAKER_04Oh, Townberger Demon Hunter and Demon Hunter Time to Kill are now available in the US on uh Fandango, uh Google Play, YouTube Movies, and all these other things. I think if you just uh Google films there, you'll find them. There's also physical media, they're also available on DVD and Blu-ray in the States. You can get that on Amazon or other things. Um I'd say uh yeah, check them out. They're both great movies. And if you do like them, please rate them on IMDB and Letterboxd because I like to snoop in and read everything.
SPEAKER_00Well, like I said, I mean, by the time this goes up, I'll have uh my own review on it and I'll make sure I review it on Letterbox as well. So yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, and so like what's what's next for you um as far as filmmaking and any type of other artistic project goes?
SPEAKER_04Hey, so does a few things. Um, so in terms of filmmaking, obviously, I mean there could be a tour demon hunter, but there's I'm working on a nurs called A Reason to Live, which is basically uh it's it's basically like a Salton precinct tortine we're in a gender clinic. So basically, in America, I've taken what's going on in the news, is basically it's about a trans person that is in America, is about to get the surgery in the clinic and gets the surgery, but at the same time it's now become illegal to be trans in America. So a militia comes in to kill everybody in this the patients and the the staff in the clinic and it becomes a survival horror movie in a gender clinic. So I'm halfway through that script, and I just feel I guess I guess you know it's just crazy to see how Mad America's gotten with that, and same with the UK. So working on that mom's kind of like Green Room or something pretty thin to our Dean. It's a much darker drama, it's not the fun that Demon Hunter is. Um and outside of that, I've I'm I'm doing keyboards in a black metal band called Horranded. It's a nice they're they're playing um uh they're I think they're touring at the end this year, so it but that's around the UK and Ireland. But I think in 2027 they're gonna tour other places, but they're yeah, if you like black metal, uh yeah, I guess I'll be in I'll be popping around the keyboards on that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Awesome. So and um where can people find you and your work?
SPEAKER_04So I'm on Instagram. Uh if you just look for Zoe Kavanaugh Film, I'll be there. And you can find me on TikTok as well. I'm mostly just shown clips of Time to Kill and uh Facebook. You'll find me on all these three platforms on there. Um, yo, anyone message me, I'll reply, you know. Always active.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so awesome. Well, cool. Well, thank you so much for uh coming on the show. It was really it was a pleasure having you and um being able to talk a little bit more about uh Taryn Barker Demon Hunter, as well as what you what's coming up next for the Demon Hunter series. So yeah, but um but anything else you want to add really quick?
SPEAKER_03No, uh have a good time, rock and roll. And uh hell yes.
SPEAKER_00All right, well, thank you so much, Zoe. It was a real pleasure having you and um always, always great talking to other artistic types. I always love it. So, but um, but yes, but thank you uh everybody that's been tuning in and listening. There's a new episode that drops every Friday, unless I note otherwise, but you can always expect a new episode every Friday, like I said, unless otherwise noted. But um but again, thank you so much to uh Zoe for coming on and uh sharing your experience with filmmaking um and really uh dropping some valuable nuggets there as far as advice for um maybe aspiring filmmakers, because you know that's always great to hear um people who have been through the ringer and and have the experience there. And again, just thank you everybody for listening and stay tuned for the next episode and especially in September when we're gonna be starting some spooky season stuff. So we're gonna have a lot of fun. But until then, as always, stay safe, stay fierce, but of course, stay spooky.
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