Port Colborne filmmaker focused on horror
37% Pure Evil being shot locally this month
Being a filmmaker has been a dream of Port Colborne’s Christopher Darton since he was 18 years old, but it’s taken him well into his adulthood to start living that dream.
Now 51, he’s had a hand in a number of productions — documentaries about Canadian musicians and more creative endeavours such as horror films, including a new horror short coming out later this year.
“By the end of the year, I’ll have three feature films under my belt,” he says of the documentaries he’s worked on, including an upcoming one titled Hard Working Man: The Music and Miracles of Danny Brooks.
“It’s not very glamorous, but I’m living the dream.”
He describes being a filmmaker as non-stop and always on the go — especially because he also has a day job as a factory worker. He says when he comes home from his job for the day, he gets to work on his film projects, whether that means tracking down people to interview, carting his equipment somewhere to film or finding festivals to show the films.
Darton says his projects are all low-budget, but don’t lack quality. Over the past several years of really making his way into the filmmaking industry, he’s been able to accumulate his own equipment and network with a large number of talented folks, which cuts down on cost.
He does his own productions under Blues Harp Productions, but also has another production company,Skeleton Crew Entertainment, which he started with Welland resident Frank Popp Jr. after the two met a couple of years ago while they were both laid off from Welded Tube — although they had never crossed paths on the work site.
Darton says he and Popp have a good chemistry, with Popp doing directorial work while he himself handles production. They also have on their team Scott Patterson, who works on the PBS series The Odd
Squad, and Justin Peeler, a special effects guru who also works at TSN.
Skeleton Crew Entertainment’s first project was a music video called Halloween Baby for the band Bobnoxious, and it’s about to embark on its second project called
37% Pure Evil this weekend. A short film, running between 12 and 15 minutes long, 37% Pure Evil will cost the group about $2,000 to make, Darton says.
There are four scheduled shooting dates, starting Friday. Darton anticipates needing a few more to get additional footage. The film will be shot locally, including a few scenes in Darton’s own backyard, and will feature local actors.
He says working with Popp and the others on the project is great because they’re all “equally passionate and crazy” about the horror genre.
The goal is to do a few more short films and work their way up to a feature film.
One day he’s hoping he can make films with grant funding because that would open up the doors more to what can be accomplished. In the meantime, he knows his crew knows can get the work done with what they have.
“I’ve got it down to an art form almost,” he says of setting up and taking down sets, especially by himself for his documentary work.
He says 37% Pure Evil should be wrapped up filming by the end of August. He’s working on setting up a November premiere date, hoping to have the first showing at Frightmare in the Falls, a horror expo taking place at Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls on Nov. 11 and 12.
More information about the project can be found periodically on the Skeleton Crew Entertainment Facebook page and Darton has a number of videos on his YouTube channel under his own name.