Richard Silvius

This quarter has been mad as I have been working on two films at the same time.

One of them is an abstract bio-pic about the relationship between Charles Manson and his followers.  I’ve been lucky enough to do the character design, storyboards and animatics for this film.  I’ve really enjoyed working on it, even though I’ve had to start over again four or five times now — as my team and I have honed the story.

Originally, we had wanted to use “Helter Skelter” by the Beatles, or something very similar to it — our idea evolved though, and when we discovered that Manson’s own music was available under the creative commons license, we decided to try that. I think the new music selection makes the film a lot creepier. Especially the lyrics in the beginning, when the title is revealed “A little bit will go a long way, I’m sure… and I’m here to reassure you…”

Just the thought of Manson reassuring someone is…. chilling, really.

Here’s the animatic:

Please check out the website for our film at http://www.thefollowershort.wordpress.com