Night People (2015 film)
Night People
 insert a caption here | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gerard Lough |
| Produced by | Tanya McLaughlin |
| Screenplay by | |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Cian Furlong |
| Cinematography | Greg Rouladh |
| Edited by |
|
Release dates | TBC |
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
Night People is an Irish horror / science fiction film which marks the feature film debut of director Gerard Lough and stars Michael Parle, Jack Dean-Shepherd and Claire Blennerhassett. The film is divided up into three stories which gradually intertwine with each other. One of them focuses on a pair of professional but badly mismatched criminals as they break into a vacant house to carry out an insurance scam.
Development
After finishing his promotional duties on the Sci-Fi short film Ninety Seconds, Lough decided it was now the right time to make his feature film debut. He was inspired by the "Horror / Sci-Fi anthology films of the ’80s such as Creepshow, The Twilight Zone and Cat's Eye but with the goal of having each story blend together to make one big story and then bring it stylistically up to date for a modern audience." The screenplay went through close to a dozen drafts and the original idea of four interconnecting stories was eventually changed to three. Many of the same cast and crew he previously worked with on his short films returned for this film.
Production
Principal photography began in Co Donegal, Ireland on Aug 1st 2013 with a series of demanding night shoots. Because the film is divided up into three different stories, the unusual production had to be treated as three different films as each tale had a completely different cast, look, locations, etc., which necessitated a prep / shoot / post process that would repeat itself with each tale and take shooting well into 2014. The film started shooting on Canon HD cameras which Lough had worked with before on his short film Ninety Seconds and had found to be very sensitive to low light conditions and night shoots. The shoot took in many visually striking locations as diverse as Fanad Lighthouse, Barnesmore Gap and Grianan of Aileach. The shoot moved to Dublin for two days to use locations such as The Marker Hotel. Principal photography ended on August 23, 2014.
Post Production
Over a six month period, composer Cian Furlong created over an hour's worth of densely layered, completely electronic music. His score was made entirely on Mulab while also using orchestral samples such as brass and strings. The score included a new electronic version of The Flower Duet from the opera Lakme. It's inclusion was intended by Lough as a homage to director Tony Scott who used the same music in his feature debut The Hunger, a film that influenced Night People. Musically the rest of the film included seven different synthesizer tracks from various up and coming bands and artists such as Electro Kill Machine (who contributed two songs). All of the film's visual effects were produced solely by Paul Barret.
Marketing
The first of three teaser posters appeared on the Irish film website Scannain on August 18, 2014. A second poster made its debut on The Movie Bit on August 28. The final teaser poster appeared on British film website Horror Cult Films soon after.
The teaser trailer was released on September 1 and focused on a group of men uncovering a mysterious item buried in the grounds of Grianan of Aileach. It also introduced all the main characters and an explanation of the term "Night People" as depicted in the fictional world of the film. A slightly longer version of the teaser was screened at Dublin's Horrorthon Film Festival a month later.
On February 9, 2015, a music video for a single also called Night People by Voynich was released. It featured six of the cast members, was directed by Lough and was shot on location in Dublin and Donegal. The song was an E.D.M. track that sampled dialogue from the film.
Connection to Ninety Seconds
Two characters from Lough's 2012 short film Ninety Seconds appear in the film. Mark (a cynical surveillance expert) and The Administrator (an office manager bully), with the same actors reprising their roles. Apart from some of the same locations being used again (Dublin's Convention Centre, Donegal's Letterkenny Cathedral) the short shares no other similarities with Night People.
Music
The film's mainly synthesizer score was composed by Cian Furlong. In addition to this the following tracks appear in the film.
- "Warped" by Electro Kill Machine
- "Skyline" by 1977
- "Electric Blue" by Electro Kill Machine
- "Moonlight" by Labstrakt
- "Calling Me" by Voice Controller Kristi
- "Talaimon" by Ciaran McCann
- "The Key" (Lasso d'Amore Remix) by Riot Tapes
- "The Flower Duet" by Leo Delibes (performed by Cian Furlong)
- "Night People" by Voynich