Producer Josephina Sykes, one half of L.A’s Nightfall Pictures, a full-service development and production company that makes some of today’s most popular independent horror and sci-fi films pulls up a seat to chat on why “the revenue is weak” right now in the industry, the writer’s strike, and her company’s new film Hi-Fear, the final installment in the popular ‘Hi’ franchise.
Where are you writing from, Josephina?
Josephina Sykes: Hello to everyone from Los Angeles, where we live, work and shoot our movies!
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How long ago did you shoot HI-FEAR – and was it impacted all due to the pandemic, as I know a lot of film releases were either shut down because of how bad things got or delayed?
How long ago did you shoot HI-FEAR – and was it impacted all due to the pandemic, as I know a lot of film releases were either shut down because of how bad things got or delayed?JS: We started shooting HI- FEAR in 2019, so we did have many complications and delays along the way, but we were never shut down, we kept going one way or another. Luckily, by 2020, Todd Sheets finished his ‘80s-style horror comedy segment “Losing It At The Devil’s Whorehouse”, including post-production and he delivered it to us. Tim Ritter also wrapped principal photography on “When Shadows Come Alive”, a cannibals in the woods satire and we were editing “Day Out of Days”, a sci-fi tale of a film crew on a movie location invaded by an alien force that we shot in Frazier Park, a small mountain town an hour and a half away from Los Angeles.
We had one segment left to film and the wraparound. Of course, the pandemic delayed those shoots and prolonged the post production on the entire movie. HI-FEAR was completed in 2022, in the same year we started the festival circuit and it will be released by Wild Eye Releasing on July 11th, so despite many obstacles we feel thrilled to reach the finish line and share our movie with the world!
Did the pandemic affect you in any other ways?
JS: The pandemic affected us a lot, both personally and professionally. On a personal level, some of our team members lost their parents due to Covid so it was tragic to see your friends go through terrible times in their lives. Other people we work with got sick with Covid so you worry and you hope they will be OK. So, very stressful times. Professionally, the pandemic delayed the filming and prolonged the entire post-production process.
We usually shoot the wraparound on these horror anthologies (HI-FEAR is the 3rd installment after HI-8 and HI-DEATH, we have a trilogy here!) last after everyone finishes their segments so that we can see them and create a link between them and this connecting piece. Initially, we wanted to shoot the wraparound in downtown Los Angeles with extras with Special FX Make-up. Because of the pandemic, we changed the location with other urban spaces in the city, outdoors for safety, but in our area of North Hollywood so we can go out anytime we could to do more 2nd unit shots ourselves (the principal photography was done in 1 day), which we kept doing for a few days with no crew. We also used VFX instead of practical FX Make-up, which we prefer but it was safer to go with VFX. No extras, just whoever was passing by and Brad and I playing joggers (we’re not hams but it was hard to get extras during the pandemic in Nov. 2020, we shot between lockdowns) and got VFX added on us later on. So, a bit of fun trivia, you will see us in the movie.
We were trying to find a safe way to shoot the story of a female comic book artist creating four terrifying tales (an homage to CREEPSHOW) without changing or compromising our vision. Luckily, as indie filmmakers we are used with various challenges so we got creative and made it work well! Afterwards, Anthony Catanese shot “The Streets are Watching” in February 2021 in New Jersey when there were less cases over there. He also shot a lot of exteriors, which works well for his scary urban tale a la Abel Ferrara.
We had more VFX work this time around for our segment and our VFX artist got very busy during the pandemic with more work than usual (due to remote work everyone needed more VFX shots in their projects) and it took longer to finish our shots since we had more and we are indies and our budgets are lower. So, lots of delays and up and downs but we had some nice, rewarding moments along the way that kept our creative juices going.
By the same token, has the writer’s strike affected your current work?
JS: Not at all since we are not Union members. Both Brad and I qualify for WGA and PGA but their fees to join and to maintain your membership are too high for an indie filmmaker to afford. Sometimes, joining a Union is for the studio, affluent filmmakers that work here in Hollywood, it looks good on the credits to add the affiliation for some folks who join it for that reason. It shouldn’t be like that, unions should be accessible to everyone and protect everyone’s rights. As indie filmmakers, we could use more protections also!
Can I ask, from the perspective of multihyphenates who do essentially everything on their films, what your take on the writer’s strike is?
JS: Streaming doesn’t generate enough revenue for indie filmmakers, distributors, etc. so it is an issue within the industry. Streaming doesn’t replace brick and mortar video rental and retail revenue, so it is tough for us, so we hope maybe this strike will improve things. Don’t know. We are against AI as a replacement for anyone working in our industry (and in general).
On the other hand, this time period is hard for people below the line, in production or post production. We have friends who lost their jobs in the industry since the strike. It is concerning and we hope it won’t continue for too long and encourage more filming out of state or increase reality show production as it happened in the past during other strikes.
Has the streaming world and the increasing amount of channels, like Tubi and so on, opened up doors for a lot of filmmakers like yourselves?
JS: Not from a financial point of view or job offerings. It might allow more people to see our movies, maybe. But as I said, the revenue is weak and these platforms don’t hire production companies like ours to create content for them, so no, there are no doors being opened. Actually, Netflix closed their doors to filmmakers like us many, many years ago. They used to buy our movies, like PLAGUERS, when they first started out. When they got bigger and pushed video stores out of business, they closed their doors to indie movies and started their own production, not a lot of people address this issue so here I go. Ever since, we lost revenue and our budgets got smaller.
What interested you specifically about tackling Hi-Fear?
JS: We offer various genres and subgenres in one movie, a bit for everyone! “What Are You Afraid Of?” was our starting point, the question we send the filmmakers to start with, our unifying link this time around and our theme- FEAR (we always have a theme on these series of anthologies). We encouraged our directors to explore their inner fears, go beyond their limits, try something different. Every segment has a different style and look and that’s what Brad and I were hoping to achieve, a variety of storytelling and visual filmmaking. We have a bit of everything fear wise!
Hard to beat that last film in the series. Did you feel you accomplished that?
JS: I don’t know if we beat our last film, that is for the fans to decide and debate, as usual, we welcome the conversation. We delivered what we intended: a true independent horror movie! The stories are very original and unique, the tone is different. It is diverse, edgy, envelope pushing – on a story level and on the gory side!
HI-FEAR – on Digital June 13 and DVD July 11 from Wild Eye Releasing.