Please tell us about the projects you worked on before making ‘Ravager’. How did you start, and how did you learn to make films?
I started writing very young, inspired by the films and shows that became my window to the world and the way I could connect with others. My film learning process started properly at college, where I got my Film Degree in Peru, and later a Film Masters in America.
During my time in Peru, I worked extensively in the industry, mostly in music videos as PA, AC and Script Supervisor. I did several short films in that time, all of them of student quality, and of very different genres, like action, horror, documentary and a very personal experimental film that got into a local Film Festival, Provisional Title.
In America, I started a production company - Aurum Creative Studios - with two very close friends, and we have made a large amount of short films in the year that we have been active. I personally directed a folk horror short film based on Peruvian myth, Nakaq; a horror comedy adaptation of The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, The Haunting of Canterville; and this film, Ravager. I have also collaborated in co-writing and producing several other short films in this company, as well as non-fiction content and behind-the-scenes videos.
It has been a very fun road, and I would not have it any other way. Film, and stories in general, are still my bridge to the world, the way I connect and share with others, and my passion.
Tell us about ‘Ravager’. How do you describe it?
Ravager is a found footage horror short film that is meant to evoke the atmosphere of old analog horror videos, like Marble Hornets. In its simple presentation, its camcorder texture, its lack of any non-diegetic sound and its imperfect cinematography, it attempts to create a sense of verisimilitude, like if it truly was the recording of the last minutes of someone’s life.
It is a vampire film, inspired by A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Let the Right One In. It sets a group of unlikable/flawed main characters as the “predators” of the night, preying on who they believe is a vulnerable individual; only for them to become the prey, and get ravaged, one by one, by the vampire.
It is a personal film, like every film I have directed. It is the horror of the vampire, the power fantasy of being able to lash out against aggressors, the horror of the ambiguous horror videos that plague the internet asking the question of “what if this is real, somewhere, at some moment”. And it was a way for me to challenge myself into doing found-footage, improv dialogue and effective minimalist scares.
It is a fun film, and I hope you like it!
Please tell us about your favorite filmmakers.
Some of my favorite filmmakers of all time are Guillermo Del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard and Denis Villeneuve.
Kubrick and Villeneuve are very visual directors, and I am inspired by how every single one of their frames is a masterpiece in its own right. Each in very different styles and very different eras, the styles and aesthetics that they wield truly encapsulate the magic of cinematography, and transmit everything even before words are said - and even then, words may be too much, according to Villeneuve, and I tend to agree.
Godard and Gerwig are, in my opinion, very similar in their styles, despite their tremendous differences. Both approach stories through character, and are preoccupied with telling human tales first, and the trappings of the plot second. They understand the human heart, and put the rest of the filmmaking machine - stylized editing, non-conventional cinematography, and more - to the service of this heart. I am inspired by their comprehension of the human condition, and I aspire to learn more from them.
About Del Toro, I like his understanding of magic, fantasy, folklore, mythology and monsters. I believe he understands what a fairy tale is more than anyone else alive, and uses it to effectively wield its atemporal attribute. His stories are gothic tales of magical realism that are not afraid of getting into niche genres, and transcend the conventionalisms of storytelling to transmit very sincere human narratives. Pinocchio and Pan’s Labyrinth are, in my opinion, his greatest masterpieces. I would consider him my favorite filmmaker of all time.
If you were given a good budget, what would be your ideal project?
There is a project that has been in my mind for a few years now. It is a semi-biographical, semi-historical and semi-fictional epic about my family before I came to exist. They are all migrants that got to the Andes Mountains, in my home country of Peru, early in the 20th Century; and the story of my family is deeply tied with the foundation and development of my hometown of Chimbote, in the Coast of Peru.
I have always wanted to make a project - I do not know if it would be a film or a miniseries - that tells the story of my family, as well as the story of Chimbote as a form of microcosm for the recent history of Peru. I am inspired by One Hundred Years of Solitude and by what I consider the greatest Peruvian novel of all time, Broad and Alien is the World by Ciro Alegria, both of which tell epics of small communities in Latin American countries, as they deal with progress, modernity, the advent of globalization, and the socioeconomic chaos that ensues for them.
It is a deeply personal project, and I hope I am able to make it a reality in the future.
Describe how you would ensure that production is on schedule. What steps would you take?
I would follow the regular production process of Pre, Pro and Post that is standard in the industry. I would film it in Peru, as a non-negotiable, and with Peruvian actors (preferably from Chimbote itself). I have extensive notes that I took in long conversations with grandparents, as well as research in local libraries that I did years ago, and would use them to write the script as the very first step in the process. Moreover, I would employ both of my teams in the USA and in Peru to ensure everyone in this production is someone I have worked with before, and everyone understands the personal importance of this project.
What was the hardest part of making ‘Ravager’.
Ravager was my first and only found footage film ever (as of now). The challenge was to make it minimalistic and almost improvised, as we were doing something low-budget and within a limited time frame for the production schedule of our company. During its shooting, I learned to leave a lot of in-the-moment decisions to the actors and the Camera, and basically let the Camera “act” for most of the shots. I think the greatest strength of Ravager is how organic it feels, because that is pretty much how it was filmed: following the flow of the moment, and the emotions that arose spontaneously in the scenes.
Besides that, the hardest part was editing the improvised dialogues together. It took a while, but we made it work - and the fact that most of the film is made of long, uninterrupted takes helped a lot.
If possible, tell us about your next work. What plans do you have for your future work?
Currently I’m working on another vampire short film, this time a comedy - specifically, a Twilight parody about the first date of a naive woman and her bloodsucking boyfriend. It is already in Pre-Production, with actors and location locked, and a shooting date scheduled. I’m really excited for this one!
Besides that, I have plans for several more short films and a miniseries based on folk horror and lovecraftian mythology, that adapts myths of my home country of Peru as the threat of an eldritch cosmic horror tale. A few unlucky investigators encounter forces beyond their comprehension that appear to hail from the deep past of the Andean Mountains, and must now do their best to survive.
And many other short films, narrative podcasts and short story ideas that are in development as well, ranging from horror, to fantasy, to drama, comedy and even documentaries.
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