I was thinking about making a new movie when I received a catalogue from the Wellington Aro St. video store, which couriers videos around the country at a reasonable price. This is necessary if you live in Dunedin since none of the local video stores carry a wide selection of less orthodox movies. In it I noticed Mr Vampire, one of the classics of Hong Kong cinema. Although I'd already seen it, I got it out again. It's the most fascinating blend of horror, comedy and Kung Fu.

I had a plot in mind for the new movie when I began work on the script. It concerned a spunky girl DJ who made avant-garde sound montages to a dance floor beat. She would be roped into a job making a sound recording for a master crim by her no good boyfriend who made a living by persuading people to by his avant-garde ikebana works (collections of twigs and rubbish that looked like crap but were sold persuasively). It would all end in tears and Kung Fu, as the DJ would also be a kick-ass Kung Fu expert.

I would apply to the Screen Innovation Production fund, a fund for less predictable, risky but low cost movies, usually short films. But, discovering that the funding application deadline I was working to was only seven days away, I soon realised that there was still a lot of work to be done on it to get the plot straightened out, let alone fleshing in the dialogue. This story would never be ready by the deadline. I put it aside and tried to think of a simpler plot to write.

One of the Screen Innovation Fund's guidelines is that the script should be achievable. If you write something that looks expensive they'll fund someone else's script. Betaville, my previous film, had lots of locations,; but all of them were free. I knew I could shoot a story with as many locations as I could find for free (you have to use your head, but if you have a small crew and don't make a fuss you can easily find plenty of places to shoot for free). However convincing the Fund that this was so might be another matter. So this meant that I would base the location in a single location, at least mostly.

The obvious set would be a house. If I wrote for something else I might not be able to find it in time, and if I wrote for a castle no one would believe that I could get one in budget. Houses are easy, there're lots of them and they are easy to rent, especially in Dunedin during the summer when the students are away.

Making Betaville, which is set in a post-apocalyptic future (that resembles Auckland at night), made me keen to shoot this movie with things that were available. In Betaville I had to go to great lengths to avoid accidentally shooting trees or foliage, avoiding greenery gave a good urban wasteland feel. This time I wanted to shoot using what was already here. What does Dunedin have, it has Gothic architecture and lots of pretty young students. These two ingredients are the stuff horror films are made of. My characters would be students in a student flat.

Mr Vampire was fresh in my mind. Let's bring a Chinese vampire to Dunedin, I thought.

Also the good thing about a house is that it brings to mind two classic horror movies that are set, also for reasons of economy, in one house: The Night of the Living Dead and The Evil Dead. Since I like to create by collaging things together I though I would see what I could steal from these movies

Steal is such a nasty word lets call it reference, or homage.

The Evil dead has two couples spending the weekend in an isolated shack. I still liked my Kung Fu DJ so I would put her in. Since a nightclub scene seemed expensive she wouldn't get to DJ. OK, she's just a student. What should I call her? Since this would be a vampire movie, I thought ‘what do heroines in Vampire movies get called?' I thought of three vampire movies, the heroine in each was Mina, all variations on the woman from Bram Stoker's novel. So Mina had a name.

The other three flatmates would be a hot tempered woman who would cause all the problems, a pedantic, bossy guy, and the last guy would be a wisecracking weedy nerd. Since Mina was the heroine, the other girl would have to be Lucy, a good name for a pedant would be Charles. What would I call the wiseass? A Maceo Parker CD was on the stereo at the time so his name became Maceo.

If I was going to have a Chinese vampire I would also need a Chinese character who could explain the rules of the Asian variety of monster. Ok let's have another flatmate, a Chinese guy. Five is a good asymmetrical number for a core cast, not too much cuddly two couple stuff. I thought of Chinese stereotypes, one was the nerdy kid at school who was brilliant at maths but useless at rugby. At the school the I went to rugby was all that counted so the Chinese kid didn't have a very good time (neither did I, since I also was useless at rugby). Another stereotype was tough guy Bruce lee or Jet Li. I thought let's just make him a nice guy. Let's make him the best of the lot. I knew a young Chinese man called Jonathan, so I called the character Jonathan.

Now, The Night Of the Living Dead has a strong sub-plot involving one black guy stuck in a house with a white family. The house is surrounded by Zombies. Racial tensions flare. Therefore Lucy will hate Jonathan, but hide it as best she can, while Mina and Jonathan will good friends.

The next character that I wanted was someone for myself to play. Now I know my limitations as an actor (and they are legion) so I wanted to write myself a part that had few lines, and not too much screen time. Since I have some martial arts skill this would help in stunting the climactic fight. You’re thinking I hadn't got to the end yet, but isn't this movie shaping up like one that has the big fight at the end? So I invented a priest who had recently returned from the missions in China. He doesn't talk much. He's a bit crazy. Doesn't he sound like Father Merrin from the Exorcist? Ok, lets call him Merrin Van Helsing and get the best of both worlds. He has a sidekick called Damien.

Somewhere around here I noticed that I had stolen most of Stoker's characters, but not all of them, I had a Mina, Jonathan, Lucy, and Van Helsing, but no Arthur, Quincey or jack Seward. To make the reference to the novel more complete I changed Charles' name to Quincey, sneaked Arthur in, and made the Catholic Bishop (Merrin's boss) Jack Seward. In the novel Seward runs a lunatic asylum, in my film he's a Bishop, read into that what you will. Quincey, in the novel, is a Texan with a big knife. I hoped to dress my character in a University of Texas T shirt (but we ran out of funds and time), and gave him a big knife (in the back).

Form here the story more or less writes itself,

Prologue with Merrin refusing to talk about his time in China.

Act One. The first section introduces the five flatmates at dinner and sets out some good reasons to dig up a Chinese corpse. Has to be something with DNA research. Therefore samples that haven't come from China. Lucy will be the cause of it all, so it's for her thesis. The point where the central character accepts the conflict is the end of the first act, according to conventional wisdom.

Act Two. The second section starts at the graveyard. Jonathan explains about Chinese vampires. Nothing convincing happens at the graveyard and they all go home. They are stalked by the vampire and picked off one by one until the last few are confronted by the vampire. The situation is hopeless. Therefore it must be the end of the second act.

Act Three. At last Father Merrin shows up and we have the final conflict.

Not that I would recommend the exclusive following of the Hollywood three act formula, but this is a movie with genre expectations. Or perhaps a movie that works against its genre expectations. It would be foolish to ignore the main structural points of the genre.

All materials © 2006 Phil Davison
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