Short

About the Director

René Ashton is a woman of multiple talents and interests. Her passion for acting has landed her more than 100 commercials dozens of network television shows including RAY DONOVAN, SHOOTER, NCIS, SUPERGIRL, JANE THE VIRGIN... (See IMDB for a full list of credits.)
Not only does René act, she writes her own material. Her first film, the romantic comedy, “Be My Baby,” starring herself and Lacey Chabert is available on DVD and television worldwide. In 2010 she had three features optioned which lead her to form her own production company, Abundant Media, LLC. René has joined the WGA and written and produced three television pilots that have all swept the festival circuit with numerous wins for either best pilot or best actress.
Directing seemed to be the next natural course for René with the web series she wrote, 40'S AND FAILING and the short/proof of concept,a psychological horror, THE CANDLE.
She is currently working on securing funding for her next features, THE CANDLE, and the comedy, AMY GETS HER MAN, set in 1976.

About the Director

Daniel is a villainous knave who grew up in the jungles of Africa and the mountains of Nepal before attending Brown University and launching his New England-based film studio, Skyship Films. With a penchant for adventure and environmental action, he's tracked cartels along the rivers of Honduras, chased the elusive snow leopard through the mountains of Afghanistan, and rafted through the icebergs on unstable glacial lakes in the shadow of Everest. His documentary films have been featured at numerous international festival screenings including the Banff Mountain Film Festival and International Wildlife Film Festival.

When not in the field, Daniel has a love for crafting dark fantasy films with his narrative film studio, Dark Tower films. This includes everything from zombies in the French & Indian War (in the recently completed short film "Bloodyback") to pioneering the revolutionary new genre "Drunk Fantasy" in his web series, "DungeonBros." He also plies his directorial skills in other such abominable fashions as running Dungeons and Dragons games and giving tarot readings.

Daniel is based in Somerville, MA.

About the Director

Eric earned his bachelors degree in Communications with a minor in film production at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016. He held numerous development internships in the industry, having worked at Sony Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Valhalla Entertainment, and Bona Fide Productions. Currently, Eric works as a creative coordinator at BH Tilt, a marketing and distribution division of Blumhouse Productions.

During high school, Eric wrote, directed, and edited four short films, each in the horror/thriller genre. Eric’s college horror film DESCENSION premiered in November of 2014 at the International Student Film Festival- Hollywood. Since then, he has spent his time developing numerous horror and sci-fi projects, one of which evolved into his latest sci-fi short MAINLINE.

About the Director

Simon started his career shooting documentaries, including the flagship series, Cutting Edge, on UK’s Channel 4. During this period he also edited Hollywood movie trailers for iTunes. This mix of shooting and editing, along with his developed interest in CGI and VFX combined with live action work, led to directing opportunities on promos and commercials.

Living and working in London, he is now working on getting his first feature made.

Simon graduated with an MA in Film and Television Production from Bristol University, after completing an MA in Politics at the University of Edinburgh.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT:
I’ve always been fascinated with serial killers… the notion that they are living amongst us, camouflaged beneath a veil of manufactured normality is truly terrifying to me - and as such it was important that my serial killer lived in a highly populated area: an apartment block surrounded by unsuspecting neighbours, going about their lives. It was reading about notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer that possibly sparked the idea for Dead Cool, although the idea came some weeks later. I was struck by his reply when they asked him why he kept parts of his victims: “everyone always left”. People know that psychopaths cannot feel fear and don’t have empathy - all the usual Hollywood cliches… but do they get lonely? And, more importantly... can they fall in love?

Scanning the Psychiatric Times, I came across an academic article called “The Hidden suffering of the Psychopath”, which postulated that the limitations in lacking a core emotional compass meant the psychopath’s ability to have “normal” relationships was quite limited - a fact that was very distressing to them. In my mind’s eye, the notion of a horrific killer struggling to find their emotional compass was fertile territory for black comedy - and so, Maurice was born. A cuddly clown, who struggles with insecurities and social awkwardness like the rest of us.

Focusing on the poor serial killer can obscure an important fact: they are horrific people. As a filmmaker I thought it would be fun to try and exploit this myopia, taking the audience abruptly between worlds of sympathy and disgust - and ultimately reminding them that there’s no way round it: our friend Maurice is a complete monster.

One other aspect of serial killers also interested me: why do they proliferate their killing up to a time when they get caught? I decided (completely unfounded by anything I read) it might have something to do with their growing obsession as to what might happen when they were caught. For Maurice, he was the serial killer that just couldn’t get caught - no matter how brazen he was. He had to actually tell the police where he was for his capture fantasies to come true!

At a genre level, I was torn in two directions: if I was going to make a film about a serial killer, I wanted it to be thriller as those are the films I love. But every time I thought of Maurice he led me down the black comedy path… could the two genres co-exist? In a sense, that was the experiment in Dead Cool, and I felt it would rely heavily on a series of obvious gear changes to make it work. As it turned out, I think the genres live pretty happily side by side in our film… and I’m proud of the monster we created!

About the Director

Drew Macdonald is a Brisbane based filmmaker whose work crosses over from narrative film and television to documentary. He Produced The Wanderers; a documentary series for ABC & Ovation Networks which will air in 2017 and Associate Produced the AACTA award-winning and Emmy Nominated feature Documentary; Only The Dead.
His graduation short film Heart’s Atlantis screened at dozens of film festivals across the globe; including Byron Bay Film Festival and he has written and Directed a wide range of content - including music videos and online content. In 2016, he was selected by Screen Queensland to work with the emmy award winning Hoodlum Entertainment to develop a one hour television show and he has Directed E.P.K content for a number of feature films including; Jungle, The Nest, and Australia Day. As a Screenwriter, he has a number of feature projects in development and also teaches Screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, Gold Coast campus.