S A R C O P H A G E
The Movie
About SARCOPHAGE
SARCOPHAGE is a comedy based in a diseased future where carelessness and lack of knowledge can be deadly (like any other time with dangerous disease, including today...) To the left is information about the extra features received with the SARCOPHAGE Special Edition. which includes :
*Soundtrack CD developed by Jerkwater Pulpit / Extra features on the DVD which include : *Conversations with the artist/producer, MFA Jesse English and Biologist, PHD James English *Basic and advanced levels of step by step video instructions that demonstrate very inexpensive, fast and effective forms of Sarcophagic makeup production.
A peek at these projects is found Here. Below is more information about the film and the closing rap by Derelle Dove at the bottom.
Above, view a trailer for the SARCOPHAGE film. SARCOPHAGE was made over several months during 2010-1011. I developed it with the intent of extending my experience with traditional filmmaking and all that entails. I usually work alone or with one other person, creating less conventional films.
Throughout the endeavor of SARCOPHAGE, one thing I have been struggling with is allowing others to help manage aspects of the process. The actors in this film are students, friends and fellow instructors. Many of them also took on other roles. They were writers, musicians, makeup artists, talent scouts, and camera-persons. As I brought myself to dole out duties, I was continuously encouraged by their generous contributions which exponentially enhanced the project. I thank them.
Another reason I wanted to create this film was to use the more traditional story-form and theatrical makeup. Though these are quite different from my normal materials and methods, I am always trying new things. Therefore these experimental changes are actually continuing a common thread through all my work.
If you would like to see my more typical work, visit my WEBSITE. Below is a song produced by JerkWater Pulpit, the musician behind the soundtrack/film.
I began looking more closely at zombie and monster films when I decided that this plot would be written around a contagious illness. I am not sure that I learned much in this research; yet much of what we already know was reinforced. We know that monster films tend to be formed within a limited range of expectations. These storys are developed under an agreement between the creators and the audience, whereas the audience knows, for the most part, what to expect. We just do not know exactly when. We can even predict who will die and in what order. The arc of the story works so closely with a punchcard set of criteria, that some viewers will feel disappointed when a creator veers from these rigid expectations. Though we enjoy anticipation before an attack, and we are excited by the surprise of a 'twist' in the end, neither the twist nor attack is a veer from the punchcard.
While developing the story, I was not apposed to filling some of the preconceived expectations of what should be in a horror movie. You will get your attacks and twists. Yet, for me, there was an underlying goal to the project of having an atypical journey; one that for the most part, burns the punchcard of expectations. The characters in SARCOPHAGE are also nonconforming to the genre. Whereas the typical American monster film will have an obvious protagonist that has some level of success after extreme adversity, my story is a bit more Eastern. The antagonist and protagonist relationships are not so clearly defined. It is a monster film which asks a simple, yet vital question.
What is the question? It seems like it rarely come up in most monster films; yet it is one of the first item we will need to resolve when an infection or mass attack such as these occurs. It is right in front of the writers, the audience, and everyone involved. No one seems to acknowledge that the question hasn't been asked- or that the answer comes as an assumption as though there is no other possibility. Yet I am sure that many of us would put forth more nuanced resolutions when that day comes. In fact, it is the persistence of the absence of the question for four generations of storytellers that keeps the single outdated resolution viable. The comfort of the punchcard obscures the thought to ask - possibly until we live it ourselves. I won't be stating the question; but for now, know that another solution exists today in SARCOPHAGE.