Backstory from The Curse of El Charro - Expressionist Horror

This is the "Backstory" sequence from the ultra low budget horror feature film I directed called The Curse of El Charro. It was my first feature, and Paramount (!) bought it and distributed it on DVD. (you can go over to amazon and pick it up if you feel generous). I didn't know what the hell I was doing but it has some cool bits in it, hot chicks covered in blood, lemmy, and is lots of fun if you dig slasher films.

The backstory is excerpted here in short film form, and was screened as an experimental film in festivals.

This is a surreal flashback-ish scene where the curse on her bloodline is revealed to Maria, the heroine of the film.

The idea was to make it look like an old, lost expressionist film - maybe culled together from several old nitrate prints which are damaged to various degrees.

It references german expressionist silent cinema, as well as russian propaganda and has a strong spanish catholic iconography. It features a variety of techniques, stop motion (of the pixilation variety) shot on 3200 speed film with a 35mm slr, 24p dv up res-ed to HD, computer generated animation, scanned antique photos, some hand done artwork, snapshots, and polaroid.
We were actually supposed to shoot this during production, but the film was so low budget that we didn't have time, so I decided to do it as an animation, which was all for the better, because stylistically, it was the section most closely related to my own aesthetic.

I recorded my score with a full orchestra. I am very fond of the music for this sequence.

I hope you guys dig it.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• expressionist
• horror
• silent
• film
• stop-motion
• curse
• of
• el
• charro
• evil
• bloodline
• dead
• chicks

[SickThing9]

Is this the movie that Calico Cooper was in?

[richragsdale]

it sho nuff is

[screamwriter1]

how did you do this? Create this old film look?

[richragsdale]

it was a very tedious process

i used a variety of media

(too much to list here - see the more info box)

it was a very experimental thing - i didn't really know what i was doing at the time - so it was done a frame at a time really - there isn't a plug in or a button in final cut that does a realistic "old film look" if that is what you are asking- those things are so lame

I have gotten much better and faster at these techniques

check out my short THE SANDMAN

[screamwriter1]

yeah im with ya. I did an old film effect a few years ago with AE as well as frame by frame animation but I was wondering if there was some filters that work better as a starting off point. thanks

[richragsdale]

not that I know of. I watch a ton of silent films so I have a pretty high standard for damaged film looks. as far as I'm concerned doing "by hand" is really the best way

[FuzzboxVoodoo94]

you got hot chicks, Lemmy, and old grainy-style film footage. What more do you need in a movie, really? (And no, that's NOT sarcasm.)

[edcordova1]

Very Low budget, I just finished watching this on cable. Why did it take them a hour to get to their destination? I don't understand the concept of the bar scene. The last 10 mins everyone dies um ok I hope you get better in time Good luck!

[humanwarnings]

The Greatest Movie Of All Time!

Check out my youtube channel, for several trailers :)

A feature length film made for under $5000

[wayfaringstranger420]

Hey do you have Lemmy's speech ?I thought that was the best part of the movie ,Where he starts preaching about the devil

[oncempct]

Spectacular music, great pictures, Rich Ragsdale definetely has a great potential.

[oncempct]

If you were able to understand symbolism, you would probably give more credits to this movie. :)

[nickkabuletmior]

I have seen it. The worst movie ever... It is not a horror movie, but it can be a comedy movie.

[monstersitophil]

dark style... a new hero :)

El charro... hurra

[maninwhitedress]

Wow I'm taken back. It's like a super hero movie but more and hardcore and dramatic. And alive! Living in an unjust world of extreme violence and undertaking. Three cheers of enlightenment to the darkness and highspeed magnetic editing.

[saturnia85]

i saw this movie on show time too. and it was oaky. i didn't like it ever much.