Making ‘The Claw’
'The Claw' is a comedy/horror short film that was released in mid-2017, but the project began as a very different beast. Originally written in early 2015 as a no-budget feature that paid homage to both the slasher films of the 1980s and the creature features of the 50s, the project was planned, cast and rehearsed throughout the year until filming began in December 2015. Production got off to a good start, and by shooting once or twice a week on weekends, we had 30 minutes of the film completed by February 2016.
Unfortunately, due to the many demands of feature film production and our relative inexperience at the time, the project was abandoned soon after. During a brief hiatus, the script was cut from 90 to 25 pages, and the number of characters from 20 to just 6. The final showdown of the film is the only sequence that remains untouched from the original feature script, while the first twenty minutes went through radical repurposing in an attempt to maintain a sense of continuity without losing what had already been filmed.
While the project was finished at one third of its intended length, it served as an invaluable lesson in the importance of preparation, creative compromise, and stretching a non-existent budget. (And I still love that bloody fight scene!)
Pete Redhead
August 2017