BAD ACID
We've all heard the urban legends; the man who thought he was an orange and tried to peel himself, the girl who tried to fly out of a window. This is a story of a stage hypnotist who conjures something terrible. But is it the LSD, is it hypnotic suggestion or is it a demonic apparition? If you want a full synopsis - scroll to the bottom of this page.
Who the hell is David Chaudoir and why should I give him my hard earned cash?
Hi I'm David Chaudoir and I've been working in television for twenty five years - basically making stuff for other people:
- Promos for The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and The Wire
- Designing TV channels like ITV2 and BBC HD
- Music videos for bands like Athlete and Starsailor
As a kid I grew up watching the Saturday night double bill on BBC2 and developed a deep love of the horror genre especially British films.
Who's in it?
Here's some of our cast....
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Marvyn Maskelyn - To Be Announced We are in pre-production/casting and will soon announce all our wonderful stars.... Stay tuned.
Who's helping make it?
Some Key people involved in the making of the film
Producer - Sukey Richardson - is a short film and online content producer and freelance production manager. She honed her skills working for two years at Homecorp, a busy commercial production company. She has production managed a range of high, medium and low budget features, documentaries and commercials for clients as diverse as Nike and Halfords. She has recently produced her 4th short film through the BFI London Calling.
Director of Photography - Andy Horner. Andy has been a lighting cameraman for commercials, tv promos and short films for over two decades. He is cool calm and collected under fire - a prerequisite on any low budget production!
More key people will be announced throughout the campaign - stay tuned.
What's this for?
Your money is vital to get this film shot but you won't come away empty handed:
- We have a production budget of £12,000 - cameras, lights and all the equipment, the props, the food, transport etc but more importantly the crew: cameraman, focus puller, sound recordist, art department that we need to pay for.
What do you get in return?
DVD's/digital downloads, signed artwork, signed scripts, a prop from the film, credits on the film, an invitation to the premier in London. Read on:
- A copy of your very own Bad Acid exclusive movie poster by horror film artist supremo Graham Humphreys.
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©Hammer Films/The Flicker Club/Graham Humpreys 2013
- A prop from the film - made by prop maker extraordinaire - Darren Longthorne.
- If we don't reach the entire goal we will still go ahead and shoot a key scene from the film and use that as teaser / trailer to come back and fundraise again!
What will this mean to me?
Why you should help:
- Making this film would be a validation of my screenwriting for the last four years. It will prove that I can create interresting characters, a sense of suspense on the page and on camera. I had a table read with actors at the London Screen Writer's festival and the script really worked.
- I have written and directed for record companies, ad agencies and broadcasters and have always been on schedule and on budget.
- You will be helping a new British horror film to be made that will be released onto the festival circuit, go online and of course be available to you - before anybody else - as a digital download.
How hard can it be?
This film is a contemporary tale and not a costly costume drama or a green screen CGI megaproduction. The only challenges are motivation and the will to succeed!
- I also have enough industry contacts to get the film up to a professional standard and ready for a festival audience.
- Sukey Richardson, the producer, has experience in commercials and short film production, she will be making sure the film gets shot and finished.
Other Ways You Can Help
I know what it's like to be broke! I have four kids, a mortgage and I am a freelancer who quite often has tumbleweed blowing through my studio or clients who are slow paying - if you can't help just now - forward a link to somebody who might be able to or comeback when you are flush or drunk or both!
- If you have a Twitter/Intagram/Ello/Facebook account please copy and send a link to the campaign.
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Share this Indiegogo link by clicking on the icon above.
Story Synopsis (Warning contains spoilers ie the whole story!)
Marvin Maskelyn is a
hypnotist and magician whose success has come and gone leaving him a bitter
divorcee with nothing in the bank and a penchant forgetting stoned. After a
performance that went from bad to bloody awful, Marvin acquired a black eye but
lost his beloved prop of a genie lamp. Visiting an antique dealer friend
who pities him, Marvin is given an antique lamp with a chequered past and a
secret stash of LSD blotters within. With nothing left to lose, he takes
one.
In Marvin’s trip, he
sees himself on stage receiving applause, adulation and a bouquet but in the
wings a girl is trying to get his attention and something dark is shifting. Asked by an unknown figure what he wants. Marvin replies “fame”.
At Marvin’s next
performance, given in a seedy pub, a girl called Bella, is plucked from the
audience. As she reaches the stage Marvin is convinced he has met her before. She is the same girl from the stage hallucination. The performance is terrible. The girl has an abnormal reaction to Marvin’s comedy hypnotic suggestion
routine. Marvin rubs his brass “Genii” lamp but instead of a comedy genii
popping out the girl sees a terrifying being, it’s dark and writhing. She screams,
the show stops and Marvin doesn’t get paid. He gets a lift home with his driver,
manager and friend Amanda. When he arrives he starts getting
stoned. He has a nightmare and in it he’s back on the pub stage attempting to
conjure the comedy Genii from the but lamp is bucking as if it’s alive. Black
smoke spews from it. His words are fragmented. Behind him in the smoke a pair
of eyes and a black tentacle emerges and drags him under.
The next day the police interview Marvin. Bella is dead. The last time she was seen alive was at the pub. In one of the crime scene photos Marvin notices the brass lamp but says nothing
to the police. He gets home and in a panic rummages through his props hoping to
find it. He tips open one of his bags. The last thing that lands of
the floor with a clang is the lamp. He carefully examines it to discover there’s
a dried blood stain on it. He rinses it in the sink.
Then sitting down he
dries the lamp with a cloth. He commands the Genii to “show thyself”. He laughs
at himself for being so foolish but suddenly the lamp comes alive in
his hand. Unseen to everyone except Marvin something is emerging from the lamp
and coming for him. The final scene has the dealer buying a newspaper with a
lurid headline “Faded TV star in grisly suicide mystery”.
©David Chaudoir
