If you’ve already watched Chris McInroy’s short Bad Guy #2, then like me you were probably left with a whole heap of questions, most notably…how did you make that guy’s face melt? Hoping to answer all of those questions, Short of the Week sat down with the director to discuss being inspired by Jackie Chan movies, working with practical FX and the progress on production for his latest short Death Metal

Bad Guy #2 has one of those concepts where it seems such a great angle for a story, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been done before – had did you first come-up with the idea of basing your narrative around a henchman’s job progression?

Yeah trying to think of ideas that haven’t been done before is hard for sure. But I was trying. I started looking at my DVD collection trying to see if there was anything that would spark an idea based on stuff I like. Or any angles from things I like that could be like a spin-off story. There were a couple Jackie Chan movies in there, specifically the one called Who Am I, and it got me remembering how many generic bad guys Jackie has to fight and they just keep coming and they basically have no identity besides somebody who is there to be pummeled. So I thought maybe a story about a generic henchman could work. And then weeks later I watched the MacGruber movie and Batman in a row and in both of those I noticed Cunth and Joker kill their own henchmen and I thought “oh man what about the guy who has to take the place of the guy they just saw get murdered by the boss?” Those guys are not gonna be looking forward to a promotion where the boss may kill them as well. And is there a way to get past that position to continue the career path? So the idea was there. And I had to make the Kingpin super bloodthirsty so I could have a bunch of gory effects. Cuz my DVD collection is full of 80’s horror movies and that means I like that stuff.

With your concept now in place, what were you looking to achieve with the film

I hadn’t made a short film or something for myself in 7 years. I really wanted to get back into the movie scene because my ultimate goal is to make features. So I thought my first step back in would be to do a new short, as a way to start some momentum and keep it going. My thing is I want to make things that are fun to watch and fun to make. I want to make an audience laugh or cringe or be scared. Or in a perfect world all 3. Or in a perfect perfect world all 3 plus a free pizza.

“Hey rich person, look at this movie I made that’s full of blood and guts”

My first feature I want to make is full of practical effects and comedy and horror so I wanted to make something on a smaller scale that hopefully would show that I can do similar things. So when the time comes I can say “Hey rich person, look at this movie I made that’s full of blood and guts and says butthole a lot. Can I have some of your money?” Perfect plan.

And one of the best things for me about short films is playing in film festivals where I can sit with an audience and hear and feel their reactions. It’s super gratifying when the movie works. I’ve had people walk out of this one and even that is gratifying. I mean I don’t want to say I made it so I can have people tell me they like me but basically I made this movie to have people tell me they like me.

How was the film made?

We ran a Kickstarter campaign for $10,000 to make Bad Guy #2. We shot it for 3 days in Austin. Half of day 1 is cut out so what you see was really shot in 2 1/2 days. All cast and crew are local. Most of the cast are friends of mine I knew before I wrote the movie. I was actually Bad Guy #2 and Bad Guy #3’s TA in film school. The producers at The Bear are friends of mine from school as well.

We scheduled the day mostly around the effects and the amount of blood on Bad Guy #2

We had around 30 crew members on set. Not having a big budget means we are limited in the number of days we can shoot. And the script calls for quite a few locations. So we had to get creative to find a location that could serve as multiple locations. Because picking up and moving everyone and all the gear to new spots takes a lot of time out of the day. We found one space that we were able to use as the kingpin lair, the chainsaw room, the torture room and the 2 exterior scenes. It helped save a lot of time and money.

We scheduled the day mostly around the effects and the amount of blood on Bad Guy #2. Having an actor covered in blood the entire movie brought up lots of continuity discussions. Mostly regarding the freshness of it. “Well it should be wet now cuz he just chainsawed that dog” or “It should be dry now cuz he hasn’t gotten sprayed in a while.” And for example the acid melt scene, we planned that in 3 stages of make-up. While Will was getting in the different stages we kept filming shots that he wasn’t in with Kirk so we could make sure we got all our shots in. Stage 1 is the red skin irritation and boils stage. Stage 2 is the half melted face and puss shooting eye stage. And Stage 3 is the rip the skin off the face stage.

Post went very quick because I was trying to make Fantastic Fest deadline. We had 2 weeks basically. We made the deadline and only had some music tweaks, the final mix and final color to do after.

What’s the appeal of practical FX and what challenges did you face with all the blood & guts featured in the film?

The appeal has to stem from the movies I watched growing up and continue to watch. Horror movies from the 1980’s. Practical effects just look fucking cool. I’m a fan of real blood over digital blood. I feel like you can usually tell the difference and the real stuff just feels better to my soul. Another reason why I like to use practical effects is its super fun to shoot and to work with artists who can create them. Its cool seeing it going from script to happening in front of you in real life. Getting that immediate gratification. Seeing it and capturing it in the moment instead of shooting green screen or something and waiting months to see how it looks. But yeah being on set and having everyone gathering around to watch a head explode makes the whole movie making experience that much more enjoyable. It’s important to me to have a fun set cuz I think it shows through in the final product.

I think the biggest challenge of shooting with effects and tons of blood is the reset time. Starting a shot where there is no blood and then soaking the scene and then needing to do it again means you gotta clean up all that blood before you can go again. That stuff takes time. We used lot of tarps. Also needing to reset actors. “We need to shoot again and you can’t be covered in blood so go wash up somehow, and get it out of your hair but don’t make your hair wet cuz we need to shoot right away and don’t have time for your hair to dry” Luckily for Bad Guy #2 he’s bloody the entire movie so that helped a lot. Also wardrobe resets. We had to buy multiple copies of all the clothes so when they got destroyed with blood and guts we could reset with new clothes and shoot it again. We were still able to get the whole thing shot in 3 days on schedule. But yeah there are challenges for sure but it’s all totally worth it.

“One of my dreams in life is to film a head explosion that is as good or better than the Scanners“

You’re now working on a new short Death Metal – a film about a young metalhead who gets passed down a satanic guitar from his metalhead dad – what can you tell us about how production is progressing with your latest project?

The Kickstarter for Death Metal was successful. We got $7964 which leaves us around $7000 once fees are taken out. We had to find some more money after to make sure we can do all the blood and gore that is necessary! We kicked off production on November 10th for a 2 day shoot in mid December. So right now we are in heavy pre-pro mode. Putting the team together, finding actors, securing locations, building the guitar, making some music and prepping the effects. We just locked in our special effects wizard, Eric Zapata. He was on season 4 and 5 of Face-Off and used to work with Robert Kurtzman (EVIL DEAD!) I’m crazy excited to be working with him. We have a lot of carnage planned. It’s gonna be fun! We have the same actor (Kirk Johnson) that played Bad Guy #2 as the lead in this. Last time we had him in a fake ponytail this time its gonna be some real long fake hair so he can bang that head while playing that Satanic guitar. And one of my dreams in life is to film a head explosion that is as good or better than the Scanners one. We are going to achieve that dream in Death Metal.

Besides Death Metal, I’m also writing a new feature length script I’d like to be the first feature I make. It’s a horror comedy with werewolves. Werewolves are my favorite monster. An American Werewolf in London is my favorite movie. It’s gonna be full of practical effect greatness that we all love. And creature effects! And jump scares! And lol’s! It’s in the early stages but Ive been thinking about it for years.