Inspirational Practitioners

Wes Craven
Rising out of the mid-western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions since the release of his first feature film, The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited in 1972. Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film he wrote and directed. And though he did not direct any of its five sequels, he deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing the audacious Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which was nominated as Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards, and introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world. In 1996 Craven reached a new level of success with the release of Scream. The film, which sparked the phenomenal trilogy, was the winner of MTV's 1996 Best Movie Award and grossed more than $100 million domestically, as did Scream 2. Between Scream 2 and Scream 3, Craven, offered the opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, helmed Music of the Heart (1999), a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year, in the midst of directing, Craven completed his first novel, "The Fountain Society," published by Simon & Shuster. Recent works include the 2005 psychological thriller, Red Eye, and a short rom-com segment for the ensemble product, Paris Je T'aime. Over the last few years, Craven has also produced remakes of two of his earlier films for his genre fans, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven has always had an eye for discovering fresh talent, something that contributes to the success of his films. While casting A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven discovered the then unknown Johnny Depp. Craven later cast Sharon Stone in her first starring role for his film Deadly Blessing. He even gave Bruce Willis his first featured role in an episode of TV's mid-80's edition of The Twilight Zone. In 2010's My Soul To Take, Craven once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming young teens, including Max Thieriot, in whom he saw the spark of stardom. The film marked Craven's first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced with him the highly anticipated production of Scream 4. Craven's most recent film, Scream 4 (2011) reunites the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, to re-boot the beloved franchise. Craven again exhibits his knack for spotting important talent, with a cast of young actors bringing us a totally new breed of Woodsboro high schoolers, including Emma Robert and Hayden Pannetierre.

Wes Craven is inspriartional to me as he has created some of the most credited horror films of all time and also appeals to the same target audience I am aiming my film at. He uses extreme and clever story lines that I feel make some of the most scariest horror films so I feel it is important to take inspiration from Craven for my teaser trailer and film idea. I especially like the idea of "The Hills Have Eyes", the story of a group of people trapped in the middle of nowhere that then get tormented and tortured my deformed cannibals. A gruesome story, but entertaining. I feel that his writing and directing of this film will be good to take inspiration from and incorporate in to my own work.

Daniel Myrick and Edward Sanchez

Eduardo Sanchez was born in Cuba in 1968. It was at a young age he gained an interest in film making. At Wheaton High School Ed made school movie projects such as Shrimp Fried Vice and Pride (in the name of Love) all of which starred his friends and family, as well as Ed himself.After High School Ed studied at Montgomery College where he continued to make movies like Star Trek Demented. He later got accepted to the University of Central Florida where he made Gabriel's Dream, a film which he thought was going to be his big break, but that didn't come for almost another decade. In 1997 he and a close friend Daniel Myrick got together and started production on the most successful movie (budget to gross) ever, the The Blair Witch Project (1999). It was a world-wide hit and has become one of the most spoofed films of all time.

Daniel Myrick (born November 30, 1962) is an American director most famous for co-directing and writing the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project with Eduardo Sánchez, for which they won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.

Myrick was born in Sarasota, Florida. He graduated from University of Central Florida School of Film in 1994. Along with collaborating with future Blair Witch cohorts Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale on a trilogy of short films, Myrick supported himself by working as an editor and cinematographer on a number of Florida-based music videos and commercials. After he wrote and directed the promo for the Florida Film Festival in 1997, Myrick's work caught the eye of independent film guru John Pierson, helping to set the stage for the eventual 1999 debut of Myrick and Sanchez's first feature as co-writers and directors.

In 2006, he co-founded Raw Feed, a direct to DVD division of Warner Home Video that specializes in horror films, with The X-Files executive producer John Shiban and 24 executive producer Tony Krantz.

From this research you can see how Sanchez and Myrick are inspirational to my chosen genre. The Blair Witch Project was extremely successful and set the trend for hand filmed films, which is what I plan to do for my film. I take a lot of inspiration from their writing and directing of the Blair Witch and will incorporate their ideas for my film ideas as theirs was such a success.