NIGHT LIFE
The short film follows Det. John Merrill, a paranormal investigator for the police, who gets attacked in his own home by a vampire. Caring less about how and why it found him and more about where he can sleep for the night (in case more come and keep him up all night), John ventures to his young partners abode, but more may be going on than John understands.
MAJOR CHARACTERS
JOHN MERRILL is an eccentric, self-centered cop. Despite being a total idiot, he somehow always wins in the end. Inspired by Martin Riggs from the Lethal Weapon franchise, Ash Williams from the Evil Dead franchise, and superhero The Tick, John is a man to be reckoned with. Not only is he dumb, but he's also crazy.
CAPTAIN MURPHY is often referred to as "Murph" or "Boss" by John. He's John's anchor to reality, constantly reminding him to think about what he's doing before he does it. John rarely listens.
CRAIG OWEN is John's young rookie partner. John's partners never seem to last very long.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
NIGHT LIFE relies heavily on special effects. Our makeup and effects artist Cody Ruch is a self-taught master, but he comes with a price tag. Take a look at some of his work on Youtube.
HISTORY AND FUTURE OF JOHN MERRILL
This project began almost a year ago, when co-writer Mike Farron wrote a short film screenplay entitled Stalker which followed John as he mysteriously follows a man through the city of Pittsburgh one night. He corners the man and it's discovered that the man is a vampire and has been following a young couple all evening, waiting for his chance to strike. John reveals himself as a cop, and the man as "Jerry" a vampire breaking the rules of his assimilation program into human society.
From there changes were made, and John became more reckless and foolish. And today we have Night Life.
As for the future; should this Kickstarter be a success, and Night Life see a good festival turnout. We plan to continue the many cases of the detective in subsequent films featuring a wide array of plots and creatures, two of which are currently being penned (the first including a succubus, the second a yeti).
CAST
Aaron Frankel-John Merrill
Aaron is an accomplished actor in the Pittsburgh area, and we're very excited to have him as our lead.
David Minniefield-Captain Murphy
David is an accomplished theatre, film, and commercial actor in Pittsburgh. He's more than capable of bringing great things to the character of Murph.
Josh Devett-Craig Owen
Josh is a young actor with a lot of comedic theatre experience. We hope to help get his film career going.
MORE ABOUT STUFF
CREW is made up of many brilliant artists from the Pittsburgh area.
BUDGET Our budget has dropped dramatically, but that's OK! Even $1200 is more than many of us have worked with before. Cody is willing to work on a smaller budget himself, which will help us out a lot. We're well on our way to making this a reality!
EXTRA BUDGET and anything funding over our goal will be donated to the Hollywood Theater in Dormont, PA, a wonderful non-profit theater in need of new equipment.