El Nagual Short film

Going back to school

‍

In the middle of 2021, I wanted to branch out a bit and connect with more creative types. On the advice of friends and family, I decided to go back to college to study film and theater. In my first semester, I met an aspiring screenwriter named Irene Tulloch, and we set to work making a short horror film. I wanted to make something I hadn't heard of before, and my writer had just the thing; a Nagual. Irene was born in Belize, and she told me about this creature from South American folklore. We started reaching out to other students and faculty, and after 8 months of work we had our movie.

We were lucky enough to get access to a pizza place to shoot a scene. (Dan's Pizza, which by the way has phenomenal pizza.) For most people there, it was their first experience making any kind of film. That meant in addition to directing, I was doing a lot of teaching on the fly. The students did a great job, and they really threw themselves in everything from running cameras, sound, lights, acting, and even stunts.

‍

We were lucky enough to connect to a lot of talented people that were happy to volunteer their time and talents. Rene Fernandez, a young man with a talent for mask making, designed a built our creature mask. Chloe Revis was an accomplished dancer. Elsie Bura was a talented stage actor. Frank Vela, a theater professor, bent over backwards to help us get this produced. The list goes on and on, everyone brought everything they had to the production. It was fantastic working with people that loved movies, and were excited to be making one!