Irish Director, Zoe Kavanagh on the tough journey to bring ‘Demon Hunter’ to the screen

Zoe Kavanagh is the Writer and Director of “Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter”

My story began in 2008, when I was in the Manchester, UK on a trip to one of the societies from IADT college and I was coming up with the first early concepts of the character. I had developed a short story about Taryn on a mission to exorcise a demonic doctor from an old hospital plagued with murders. I made it into a not-so-good short film.

I stepped away from it and went back to the drawing board to re-think what works and what doesn’t work with the original idea. So, in 2009 I started thinking about Taryn at her darkest moment. She quit hunting demons, she became suicidal and obsessed with grief and rage. Drama unfolded and she got her revenge whilst it all ended in tragedy in a feature script called ‘Demon Hunter: Retribution’ now retitled ‘The Last Demon Hunter’. It was too ambitious to make so I worked backwards and collaborated with Tony Flynn on the first feature.

Production on ‘Demon Hunter’ began in 2012 as a short 12 minute film to interest investors. No luck so I saved up and shot half of the film in 2013. It wasn’t the smoothest but we went to finish in 2014 but we ended up restarting and remaking through September until October with pickups in March 2015.

Taryn Baker: The Demon Hunter is available on digital & VOD

I launched the Facebook, Twitter and Youtube in 2011 and started building an audience. In 2016 I travelled to film festivals to promote the film. We won 9 awards at the Fright Night Film Fest in Kentucky, Best Director at Horrorhound and then a bunch of other fests. We had some amazing screenings, the biggest was at the Dublin Horrorthon where we packed out the biggest screen! Leading up to its home video release in the UK & Ireland, I decided to hire a publicist to help me market and land the release by getting the film a limited theatrical release to coincide with DVD & VOD. I think it did well!

indieactivity: Did you start writing with a cast (You or any) in mind?
Zoe: I never had thought about the casting during the writing stage but I had a few influences and inspirations that would’ve inspired my casting choices during the script development process.

indieactivity: How long did you take to complete the script? (Do you have a writing process?)
Zoe: We began the script in 2011 as a six episode web series. Me and Tony Flynn had basically wrote it as a prequel to a different ‘Demon Hunter’ script. Then I decided after shooting 12 pages of the script as an episode to go back and scrap the web series and turn the script into a feature. So I did another draft and then Tony did another draft and so on. The script process was off and on all the way up to 2014.

Niamh Hogan as Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter

indieactivity: Do you have a production company? When did you form your production company – and what was the original motivation for its formation?
Zoe: I do a lot of music videos, short films and commercials and all under the banner Ill Eagle films. I used the name in 2011 and right up until now as to place a stamp on projects I make independent of other production companies. I needed to create a production company to open up doors to more freelance work. The original motivation as to truly be independent of others and showcase the things I can deliver on low budgets.

indieactivity: What was the first project out of the gate?
Zoe: Well I was in college at the time and I hadn’t really put a stamp on anything with it until I made the short film ‘Taryn Barker’, which was a twelve minute film that was an excerpt form the feature script ‘Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter’ (aka Demon Hunter). Aside from that mountain climb of a feature made there was music videos for The Birthday Massacre, Irish rap group Veritaz, Dutch gothic band Clan of Xymox and others.

indieactivity: During production, what scene (that made the cut) was the hardest to shoot?
Zoe: We were out in Charleville Castle filming the sequence where Taryn fights all of Falstaff’s demonic cultists and like most productions, we ran behind schedule. So makeup and prosthetics was eating into filming time. I had scheduled the filming for 10pm – 6am, right just before sun came up. The cast and crew were staying in and around the castle. But that night one of the crew members was really tired, he began to fall asleep and so the producers and AD’s were on me to wrap up filming for the night.

I walked into the center of the room and made a big motivational speech about getting this far and seeing it through. So basically the crew stayed and we got as much of the camera shots we could get before the sun came up. On low budget films you never have the amount of time you need to get everything you want so you just make the best with what you got.

indieactivity: What works better in this latest production that mightn’t have worked so well in the last one?
Zoe: Organisation and planning is key for a feature. Usually making shorts or music videos you can usually get away without having a shot list or storyboards and there’s more of a fluidity to that process but making a feature, I believe, it’s best to have storyboards, shot lists and countless rehearsals if you wanna deliver one hundred percent of what you envision.

indieactivity: You wrote and directed the film, what measure of input did it take to don these two hats?
Zoe: I knew what I was doing and what film I wanted to make. The concept of Taryn Barker and her adventures of Demon Hunting and her pursuit for revenge have been with me for years. When writing the script for this story I collaborated with writer Tony Flynn to make it tight and polished as possible. However, it was only during production did I fully understand Taryn and her personality and how she can be dark and blunt one moment and immature the other.

Niamh Hogan as Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter

These are traits that would lead her to wisecrack here and there because I feel she never grew up after her sister’s death. She remains sixteen forever because she missed that boat when the Demon Hunters took her in. Directing the film was done differently than usual for me. For years I would be a cinematographer and director on my own shorts and music videos but I was advised to get someone else to DoP ‘Demon Hunter’ because that’s how it’s done in the industry.

I felt I had my hands tied behind my back when I wasn’t on the camera on that film. I put focus on the actors and making sure all of the shots were getting done. When you direct a film and your on of the main producers, the line begins to blur on the difference of positions when your hand is in every pie from conception to release.

indieactivity: Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business you still struggle with?
Zoe: I have been somewhat lucky this year regarding projects but you do want more work that can fill out that calendar in advance! I would love to be doing it non stop full time. It’s a struggle because I have to find my own work and you really feel the lack of opportunities for indie filmmakers in such a competitive profession. It’s hard to make a living out of filmmaking in a small country like Ireland with such a large number of filmmakers living there. It’s dog eat dog but there’s Europe also and I guess that’s the adventure, to find exciting and decently paid film work!

indieactivity: Where do you think your strengths line as a writer-director?
Zoe: I think my strengths line in the structure, pace and beats of a story. As a musician also, I feel beats, structure and rhythm is essential into hitting all the points that people like in stories and making sure there is never a dull moment in it whilst at the same time doing something new or paying tribute to the classics that inspired you. A lot of the times I come up with the ending first and then build the body of the script around that.

As a director it’s all in the style of the visuals. I have a fascination with strong colours they really attract me about strong images. Framing of course and taste in composition really helps you build a signature style. I never intended for my visual style to be overly saturated and almost surreal looking, it kinda just happens and when you look at it all in a showreel you realise how it all has specific feel and tone.

indieactivity: Let’s talk finance, How did you finance the film?
Zoe: Was going to do a crowd funder but scrapped it because I’m not too much a fan of opening up a shop to sell merch to raise money. I think its too much stress and too much responsibility. I just want to make a film and tell a story and not open up a shop.

So I self financed the film by working full time hours. I used to work a regular job in a cinema and would just save and save until it all grew in my account. I compared budgets of other Indie films being made at the time and then built out the budget on those comparisons. The production company Constant Motion Pictures also invested into it alongside our Exec Producers.

A shot from the indie film, Taryn Barker: Demon Hunter

indieactivity: How much did you go over budget? How did you manage it?
Zoe: We went over budget by 18k because we had to remake almost half of the film because we had no choice to recast the lead after our previous lead dropped out. The show must go on, since it was mostly my money I took the hit and just rallied through it. Part of my marketing budget had to go into the pickups a few months after.

indieactivity: How important is marketing? Do you think a project can make any dent without it these days?
Zoe: You need it otherwise people will not know that your film exists at all. There’s no point financing a film and not having money to afford a publicist, deliverables, adverts, gala screenings and so forth. Its just as essential as making the film. If you don’t have a marketing budget, well then, I wish you the best of luck. There’s a high chance that without marketing your film will sink into obscurity.

indieactivity: Can you tell us about your marketing activities on the project – and how it’s gone for you?
Zoe: When you have such a small budget indie film you really need to plan, focus and know who your target demographic is and make sure you reach as many of them as possible. I did a lot of major radio stations and showed up on Channel 3 alongside Niamh Hogan, doing an extensive interview on the production. It was on Virgin Media for quite some time during the films release.

I got the trailer into major cinemas in front of Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy. So much more and some great interviews and glowing reviews from The Irish Times and RTE Guide. I think I kicked ass in the marketing department and especially for a low budget film!

indieactivity: What do you hope audiences get from Demon Hunter?
Zoe: I hope they enjoy the ride of the film. Its low budget but the imagination and ambition of the world is there. The film is an origins story that really sets everything up by giving you a taster of what may come. I hope they connect with Taryn and really understand her motivations. She is a unique, blunt, broken and strong character who will look fear and evil right in the eye and then headbutt em! She has an unravelling back story and a deeper relationship with the team that I would love to explore. So many different adventures and so many different monsters!

indieactivity: What else have you got in the works?
Zoe: I have a few other features in development. I’ve got a Viking dark fantasy thriller called ‘The Blade of Hilde’ about a young woman who must kill a clan of Vikings that burned down her village. I have a horror script called ‘Inexorable’ which is like a cross between a Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Silent Hill. I also have a script called ‘THE DEMON HUNTERS’ which would be great to make!