In 2010, I went down to Portugal to film my final project for school.
I met up with the Algarve Film Commission and pitched them my undead western, Abigail, and luckily, I got full support.
I just remember being so tired, after driving up and down the east coast of Portugal for a few days, trying to find a location that I could maybe, just maybe, get a film crew in somewhere to make this film happen.
I will forever be grateful to Paulo Pereira and Ruie Marques at the AFC. They were so supportive from day one, and it was an amazing experience to film in southern Portugal.
At that time, the RED One just came out, and we were all super excited to film on that camera for the first time. But being that it was the first round of that camera, it had its bugs and issues, but we made it work, and the film looked great thanks to Ben Barber, Alberto Cerrillo, and Corin Taylor. These guys were my film battle buddies on this project.
Film synopsis // “West Texas, 1858. After being burned, stabbed, and lynched, a lone cowboy returns to the living. He begins his journey of revenge with the company of his daughter, Abigail.”
This whole thing started with just the image of a man coming back from the dead and cutting himself down after being lynched.
I was heavily into Valhalla Rising and The Proposition at that time, which you can see hints of in this short student film. Being the color and feel of the film. My lead, Alfred Camp, just had this great look to him that was just perfect. For his body language, I would tell him to imagine that he was made out of wood. I also wanted the same language for the camera; I wanted everything to feel as if there was a weight to it. As if the years had worn everyone down in the hot sun.
And for the audio design, I kept telling the sound designer to think about what it would sound like if a small wave of liquid aluminum was pushing its way over the hot hills of Texas. Slow rolling and crushing as it lurches forward.
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One of my favorite films is The Unforgiven. I remember seeing the film with a close friend at the theatre by my house when I was a kid. The idea of a repressed monster and killer was just so interesting to me. Like you never really know the capacity of someone. Nor do you want to see it. This folded into this idea I had when I was younger, which was, ‘when do I become an adult? Is it when I get my first job? First fight? First time I have sex? And the conclusion I came to was, you become an adult when you see your parents as people. People who make mistakes, have hopes and desires, and at times, fuck up.
The story in the full version of Abigail is about a man who doesn’t want his daughter to see what a horrible person he is, but because things get so bad, he needs to become this monster to protect her, and she eventually sees him for what he is.
I wrote out a feature script of this film and shopped it around for a bit, but could never get traction. And by shop around, I mean I had a few meetings where I would get really excited, but it never led to anything.
This experience would later shape how I go about making my own films. // Write and make films within your own capacity and without any gatekeepers.
At some point, I need to go back to the original footage and make a 4k version of the film.
But I dream of going back to Portugal one day.
