Create Horror Films for Under $10,000 With These Tips

No Film School: As an intro, can you tell us a bit about yourselves and how you began as a father and son filmmaking duo?

Sean King: After high school, I went to the London Film School in 1985 and left after the first year, returning to Los Angeles, determined to make my first feature film. It was the era of Clerks, Stranger than Paradise, and The Brothers McMullen, so I knew it was possible. Two years later Highways was finished and after two bad distribution deals, we finally sold our film to HBO in 1991.

In 2015, when my son Taylor finished high school, he also wanted to become a writer/director. So much had changed in the 30 years since my 16mm indie film days, I decided to try another path over traditional film school for him. My idea was to have him make his first film, a six half-hour series and put it on YouTube. We spent $10,000 and shot the series over the next six months. I knew dealing with real actors, locations, and all the other normal challenges would give Taylor a much better idea of what filmmaking was all about.

As we finished our first project together Private Sales, Amazon opened up its platform to independent projects. What started as Taylor’s six-month film school was licensed and was watched by millions of people. Eight years later, we’re about to start our 20th project together.

NFS: What cameras have you used on your projects (and why)?

We’re currently shooting our 20th project. Our first two projects in 2016 used a Canon 5d MII. Then we switched to the Blackmagic Ursa 4.6K in early 2017. We shot five limited series and a feature film on that camera and with each show, our rig got bigger and bigger. When the Blackmagic pocket 6K came out in late 2019, we bought one right away. We loved the look of the camera and it allowed us to have it fully build out, but still have a very mobile camera rig.

From 2019-2024 we shot ten feature films with the pocket 6K and it never let us down from freezing cold nights in the mid-west to insane heat and humidity in Florida. Then when we heard about the Blackmagic PYXIS, we knew we wanted it for our 20th project, a ten episode series called “The Salem Sisters”. The PYXIS for us, is the perfect blend of what we liked about the Ursa 4.6K is a smaller form factor like the Pocket 6k. We’re fifteen days into a hundred day shoot and so the PYXIS is what we hoped for.

For us, it’s not just the Blackmagic cameras that help us create the look of our films. It’s the entire workflow, from shooting B-RAW and then using the color management pipeline in Davinci Resolve Studio. On the last few projects, Blackmagic cloud has made collaboration super simple and now fully part of our post-production.

NFS: With your motto of "don't wait for someone to say yes," can you tell us a bit more about your approach to diving into projects over the years?

Sean King: As Taylor and I continued to make films, we met so many filmmakers who were waiting on a studio, producer, or some other entity to say “yes” to their project. While they waited, we moved on to another project, then another, and another. As a “two-man film crew,” we could green-light ourselves. We became a micro-micro studio and we found that if you are continuously creating content, doors would open.

After we put four films on Amazon in 18 months, they offered us the ability to distribute worldwide versus the four-country option that most filmmakers had available. At the pace we were going, they must have thought we were much bigger than we were.

Over the next few years, we stayed with the $10,000 budget and the “two-man film crew” model and it saved up. Amazon started lowering its royalty rates and purging films from its platform. With every film we did, our quality was getting better, technology was making production easier and we were becoming better filmmakers.

The secret to “green lighting yourself” isn’t that you get to make a film, it’s that you get to make a body of work and develop your unique style.

NFS: New Zealand Son Films has released not one, but two, horror films this year with Taylor's Alien Weekend and The Vampire Next Door, can you tell us a bit about the inspiration for each project?

Sean King: After a handful of successes and as many flops, we’ve realized you can’t predict what the audience wants to see. Rick Rubin has a great quote, “the audience doesn’t know what they want until you show it to them”. Now we approach each project with a simple idea “What film do I want to see?” and make that film.

This year, Taylor’s Alien Weekend and my Vampire Next Door, were the films we would watch if we were looking to stream a movie.

We’ve also changed how we approach production. Knowing we have no way of controlling how the audience will receive a film, we can control the on-set environment and overall experience for everyone involved. We try to create a month-long bubble where we come together, create, and hopefully end up with a story that entertains.

NFS: As part of this DIY-filmmaking style, can you share your production budgets with us for these projects and how you were able to bring them together so quickly?

Sean King: There’s a framework we stick to on every film; We don’t spend more than $10,000 cash per project and shoot it in 30 days or less. We work hard during pre-production, so everything runs smoothly during production. We always have a plan B, knowing locations will fall through, the weather will be unpredictable and we need to become referees to actors who may not get along through the process.

With every production, we develop systems, casting, wardrobe, scheduling, etc. It allows us to spend more time during each production day, focusing on what’s going to end up on screen.

NFS: What are you all working on next? Are you looking to double down on horror genre films or explore elsewhere?

Sean King: We’re about to start a series called The Salem Sisters. It’s our biggest undertaking to date but doesn’t stray from the lessons we’ve learned so far. Although The Salem Sisters would be considered horror, it’s also a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old girl deciding to become a witch like her mother or avoiding it like her two older sisters.

NFS: Over your 19 features together what tips would you share with other aspiring filmmakers on how to DIY their own projects together?

Sean King:

1. Make sure you have a good story. A beginning, middle, and end, where your characters go through some sort of challenge.
2. Keep your budget as small as possible, because making it back won’t be easy. If you make money on your first film, making your second will be much easier.
3. Don’t think your first feature will be your Scorsese moment. There will be a ton of problems completely out of your control that will challenge you to even get to the finish line. So plan, prepare, and double-check everything and most importantly get the film done. Even if you realize it’s not the film you set out to make. Having the first film as a calling card will make the next one easier.
4. Cast the best actors you can afford and don’t over-promise and try to fake it until you make it. The best way to put a group of talented people around you is to be honest about your experience backed up with passion.
5. When scouting locations, be honest about how long you’ll need to use it, and don’t underestimate it. It sounds fun a lot of times to a business or homeowner but after a half day. It loses its novelty. Most importantly, leave the location as good or better than you found it.
6. Don’t wait for the right time or a Yes. Make your film! Making a low-budget indie feature film is a train wreck waiting to happen, but every day I wake up and get on the train. It’s doable if you have an honest love for filmmaking, there’s nothing more fulfilling.