In this episode, I'm joined by Jesse Korman, director of Yellow Eyes, the possession horror feature now streaming on Screambox. Jesse has produced over 30 films, directed a long list of music videos, and fronts the band The Number Twelve Looks Like You.
Yellow Eyes is his feature directorial debut, made as part of Joe Swanberg's five-film horror slate shot back to back in Chicago, all on the same budget.Jesse got the offer right before leaving on tour, which left him about six weeks to build a script from scratch with writer Mickey Solis (often over the phone between soundchecks) and get to set.
Instead of writing first and budgeting later, they reverse engineered the story from the money and the schedule: one location, minimal cast, and spending concentrated on the moments that would really land on screen. The result was a 12-day shoot that never fell behind schedule.
Throughout the episode we dig into the prep that made that possible, from shot listing and timing every scene with his DP to pre-rigging the entire house so every room was camera ready the moment they walked in.
Topics covered include:
How Jesse landed a spot on Joe Swanberg's five-film Chicago horror slate
Writing and prepping a feature in six weeks while on tour
Why a crew rolling from one film to the next becomes a well-oiled machine
Letting the budget and schedule dictate the script, not the other way around
Shot listing and timing every scene to never fall behind
Pre-rigging a single location so every room is always lit
Lighting through windows and a last-minute day-for-night pivot
Why a two-person art department moves faster than a 50-person crew
What a $10M set taught him about wasted time and money
Casting non-SAG actors and why the union label doesn't matter to audiences
Landing distribution through Cineverse and Screambox
What Joe Swanberg told him on the last night of the shoot
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