About

Excerpt from an article originally appearing in DETROIT ROCK CITY magazine, October 2005

Extreme Movie Making Robert Rodriguez burst the independent movie barrier with his 1992 debut, "El Mariachi." Making the film at a cost of $7000, he proved that with a lot of skill and a little money, it is possible to carve a spot in the highly competitive motion picture market.
That’s something Birmingham native Sam Raimi realized more than 10 years earlier with the first chapter of his "Evil Dead" saga.
Rodriguez’s rapid climb and legendary creativity has spawned not only the two follow up films to El Mariachi; Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico; but the monster hit "Spy Kids" series and has kept his services in great demand.
The cult success of both filmmakers’ first, full-length attempts provided them a large foot in the door with major studios and distributors that seriously paid off. This in turn, has inspired a whole new generation of would-be Kubricks.
With the introduction of digital video (DV), practiced skill and innovative creativity comes into play far more than a fat budget, in the contemporary moviemaker’s attempt to put together a respectable picture.
Making a statement that not everyone needs to be a film school graduate to enter the medium, the producing team of Douglas Akers and Terry McDonnell of Conniption Studios have released (just in time for Halloween) some hilariously evil fun, in the form of a 55 minute short feature called, "Above Ground."
Personally taking on every aspect involved in creating a movie, in true "Rodriguez" style, Akers wore the hat of director, writer, cameraman, editor, musical scoring, special effects creator and hands on laborer. With a minimal crew and handling task such as graphics, DVD authoring and developing promotional items themselves, Akers and McDonnell reduced the cost associated with production significantly.
McDonnell, a professional automotive clay modeler, has a family background in the arts. A genuine horror aficionado with a dementedly imaginative approach, he co-wrote and co-produced the movie as well as filling the role of creative development, coming up with some of the more outrageous ideas.
Akers, an experienced musician/engineer, considers his entrance into mainstream filmmaking a natural progression. After doing music video work, he bought a PXL2000 Pixelvision camera and began to experiment. This ultimately led to a continual upgrade in equipment.
"While working on my last music project, I decided to shoot everything to use as a promotional tool once completed. During that time a coworker asked me to film an audition video for a reality television show. That short movie turned out better than anyone expected, especially me. Terry saw it and began suggesting that we make a horror movie. At that point, the music project had fizzled and I was ready for something new. "
After a number of conversations about their artistic endeavors and aspirations, the two began work on script concepts.
"Our first script was strong, but as we soon found, making it happen was way out of our budget." Akers continued; " We were determined to complete our first venture out of pocket, without investors."
With a simplified script and themselves as crew, filming began in June of 2004.
In the grand tradition of Michigan based film makers, a cabin in the woods was to be the setting for a classic zombie movie scenario.
“When Terry first suggested a horror movie I said OK but the story has to be something other than people in a cabin get taken out by zombies. Well, that’s exactly what we ended up doing. It’s no coincidence that’s such a popular template for a no budget movie. It’s the simplest way to have control of your surroundings during filming and it makes the script a no brainer.”
The wise choice of having all the actors together for a full week of shooting meant that the majority of the film could be shot in a relatively short time. However, this presented a staggering physical challenge for the film makers and actors.
“The ten of us were staying in the cottage that was the main location” says Akers, “The shooting schedule was both night and day for 7 days straight. The first 4 days Terry and I got about 8 hours of sleep, total. It was insane, but we just kept up the pace as long as we could, then pass out for a few hours and start again. By the time it was all over, Terry and I had each lost nearly ten pounds!”
After the cottage scenes were in the can, production took an unintended hiatus. Akers acknowledges that everyone involved needed a break.
“Everybody was burned out by the compressed schedule of the cottage shoot. Terry and I still had a lot of preproduction work to do for the other locations so the pace slowed a bit until September.”
When preparations at the other locations were completed, filming resumed and by mid November the film makers could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“All we had left to do was a couple of green screen shots, a few inserts and some dialogue re recording. That took most of the winter and then I finally got down to editing and scoring the movie in the spring.”
Akers says the editing process for Above Ground was different than what most other film makers may experience.
“Most film makers edit based on artistic choices like pacing and mood, I was just trying to make scenes coherent and watch-able and in the end, I think we were very successful.”
The maverick film makers debuted their creation on Devils night 2005 to a packed house in Ypsilantis’ Depot Town district. These denizen artists are putting a new face on an already Hydra-like film community. So assist the personality growth and support our resident musicians, authors, and painters, ect.
And most certainly, drop some change and check out these locally created cinematic works.

Name: Douglas Akers

Role: Writer, Producer, Director, Editor, Composer, Camera Operator

Name: Terry McDonnell

Role: Writer, Producer, Make up Effects, Creative Development

Douglas Akers, left, and Terry McDonnell

On location while filming Above Ground

June, 2004