The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Network: www.youtube.com/user/hauntedsunshinegirl
Legendary Entertainment’s YouTube site: www.youtube.com/user/legendarychannel
More information about the contest: http://youtube.com/yt/space/houseofhorrors.html
The Halloween goodies came early for the folks behind Vancouver’s Haunting of Sunshine Girl Network on YouTube.
The network, run by Coat Tale Productions’ Nick Hagen, Paige McKenzie and Mercedes Rose, recently crested a landmark 100 million video views, with 190,000 subscribers. But that’s not all.
The group just finished filming a 15-minute horror short for Halloween. It will be part a Legendary Entertainment competition that could lead to a film development deal and a chance to work with renowned director Guillermo del Toro.
The short, “Crescendo,” is part of the “YouTube Space House of Horrors: A Legendary Halloween” contest and is free to view online. It tells a creepy tale of ancient creatures facing off against hungry zombies, Rose explained.
“The idea is that the plague has returned, but instead of just killing people, it turns them into the walking dead,” Rose said. “There are people who have always been able to fight off this plague, and they’re the blood suckers. There’s an interesting conflict. It’s not a ‘Sunshine Girl’ story, but Paige is the lead. Her character’s name is ‘Ella,’ but you’ll have to watch to know the rest.”
McKenzie, who is Rose’s daughter, also plays the lead character in the “Haunting of Sunshine Girl” Web series, which is filmed in Vancouver. The stories are about a girl who moves into a haunted house.
The three Coat Tale Productions owners are also working on a film and book deal with Hollywood’s Weinstein Company, based on “Sunshine Girl.” McKenzie will star in the film, and the first book, aimed at the young adult market, is set for release on March 24.
The YouTube Space House project in Los Angeles was a great learning experience — with professional sets and a chance to work with expensive, high-quality equipment, sets and cameras for free, Hagen said.
The group filmed the short on Oct. 21-22 and Hagen had a limited amount of time to edit the project, he said.
“I learned that I might be a little overly ambitious,” Hagen said with a laugh. “It was really nice equipment, a soundstage, lighting, but all that also slows things down. The way we film (with small hand-held cameras) is generally faster. But this was a great experience.”
The YouTube Space site in Los Angeles is open to YouTube creators with 10,000 or more subscribers. The company also has studios available in New York, London and Tokyo. Creators can use the spaces for free for a certain amount of time each month.
“YouTube Space L.A. is really putting their money where their mouth is,” Hagen said. “The sets are fantastic. I’m sure we’ll be down there again.”
All the filmmakers who went to the Los Angeles studios for the Legendary Entertainment competition worked on the same five professional soundstages, built to resemble parts of a Gothic mansion. The competition will be judged by the company, and the top video makers will have a chance to expand their ideas into a full-length film with Legendary.
Some of the actors and crew recruited for “Crescendo,” including actors Rhyan Schwartz and Dan Considine, have worked with the Coat Tale group before, but moved to Hollywood from the Pacific Northwest to pursue more film opportunities, Hagen said.
It cost Hagen, Rose and McKenzie about $3,000 to travel to L.A. and produce the short, but the experience was more than worth the cost, Hagen said.
“Even if we don’t win, it’s amazingly great exposure for us,” Hagen said.
Rose said she hopes people will enjoy watching it, and the other videos in the competition, over Halloween weekend.
“If you like creepy with a side of fun, you’ll love this,” Rose said. “There’s definitely some laughs in there. I think my favorite line in the short is when Paige says, ‘Does this blood make me look fat?'”
