I received an interesting post here the other day which I was going to reply to but thought it might make a good basis for a larger discussion – here’s what DrakerKOS said:

In the book she have brown skin, why to change that? really, her origins are important, the color of her skin in important, this change a piece of the author´s idea… how ever, Edward is awesome, just how i imagined and the project look really good, i wish you all the best and luck with this, i wait to see the final result.

Firstly – thanks to the poster for sharing his (her?) thoughts – we’re not making Arkham just for ourselves – we’re making it for fans of Lovecraft everywhere so they can finally have a faithful adaptation of HPL’s stories that brings the characters to life the way they’ve always imagined them.

Feedback like this is much appreciated – and whilst the film has largely completed shooting now it’s really rewarding to know when we’ve met the fans’ expectations. Getting Arkham finished is a huge undertaking and it’s posts like these that keep us motivated even when things aren’t necessarily progressing as quickly as we’d like.

It also brings up a good point about Asenath (and changes in general that needed to to made in order to make the film possible) – did I get it wrong? Is she markedly different to how most fans perceived her character to be? Here’s an extract from ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’:

Edward was thirty-eight when he met Asenath Waite. She was, I judge, about twenty-three at the time; and was taking a special course in mediaeval metaphysics at Miskatonic. The daughter of a friend of mine had met her before – in the Hall School at Kingsport – and had been inclined to shun her because of her odd reputation. She was dark, smallish, and very good-looking except for overprotuberant eyes; but something in her expression alienated extremely sensitive people. It was, however, largely her origin and conversation which caused average folk to avoid her. H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’

Lovecraft’s description of Asenath is pretty vague – certainly as a native of Innsmouth I’d always considered her to be a white New-Englander – his mention of her being ‘dark, smallish and very good-looking’ I attributed to her dress and her hair – not to the colour of her skin. Her look was also heavily inspired by artwork created for Chaosium’s Mythos CCG:

Note however that I deliberately ignored the references to her ‘overprotuberant eyes‘ – I made this omission because in making Arkham Sanitarium we’re trying to make these stories accessible to horror fans that may not have read the original stories – whilst Asenath should display signs of ‘The Innsmouth Look’, in Lovecraft’s story that was used solely as a link to his other works and plays no significant part in the events of ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ – faced with leaving something in and having to find a way to explain it or simply removing it because it didn’t serve the story I chose the latter.

Which I guess nicely illustrates some of the thought processes that go into making a film like this – you’re always walking a fine line between making something that truly reflects the source material and something that works as a stand-alone movie in its own right. Did I make the right choice? I’ll leave it to the fans to decide that when they’ve had a chance to see the finished film

Andrew.

On Saturday 2nd June Andrew met with OnFM’s David Michaels to talk about Survivor Films, Arkham Sanitarium and future projects we’re working on.

David has kindly provided us with the interview which you can listen to here.

For more information on OnFM, visit www.onfmradio.com or, (if you’re in London) tune into 101.4 FM

“About this time Edward brought the girl to call on me, and I at once saw that his interest was by no means one-sided. She eyed him continually with an almost predatory air, and I perceived that their intimacy was beyond untangling.” H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’

One of the biggest challenges in writing Arkham Sanitarium was expanding on Lovecraft’s writing whilst remaining faithful to the story and characters. The passage above is the only time it’s mentioned in ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ that Daniel Upton actually meets with Asenath – and the only point where we can explore her character at any length.

This scene existed in my head – in one form or another – long before I thought of making Arkham Sanitarium - before even I thought of adapting ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’. Reading the story I imagined to myself what that meeting was like – Asenath is a complex and duplicitous character – meeting Edward Derby’s friends – in particular, his closest friend is completely beneath her – but in order to endear Edward to her, she reluctantly agrees to it.

As Lovecraft’s only notable female character, it was important we get Asenath just right – I’m thrilled with the performance we got from the very talented Lexi Wolfe and we hope you enjoy watching her bring Asenath to life as much as we have – Andrew.

Scene from ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ featuring Paul Maclaine as Daniel Upton, Lexi Wolfe as Asenath Waite and Edward Lewis French as Edward Pickman Derby.

We’ve spent many years working separately and together in film and television – for some truly awesome employers and some shockingly bad ones. But for all the disillusionment we’ve felt at one point or another there’s always been something we’ve done or been a part of that we were proud to contribute to.

And there’s always been the dream of finally, someday calling the shots ourselves – taking everything we’d learnt over the years and using it to tell our own stories. Arkham Sanitarium is a product of that dream – the first of many.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe a year has passed since we shot Arkham. Those twelve months have gone by both incredibly quickly and also at times agonizingly slowly. 2011 was a year where we’ve both celebrated personal triumphs and both suffered the most painful of personal losses.

I can’t think of another year in my life where I was so happy and equally so depressed within the space of a few short months.

Arkham came to vivid life during those crazy weeks of filming – not just through the efforts of Crystal and myself but also thanks to our wonderful cast and crew. Our film was truly blessed by having such talented and dedicated people drawn to it – and we’re eternally grateful for their support.

And for the support of our followers and friends and especially our IndieGoGo contributors. The encouragement they’ve shown has touched us both and kept us moving forward, however slowly during the difficult times – and there’s been many of those.

But it’s not all been bad – Arkham has generated interest from both film festivals and also distributors. It’s also had some very favorable things said about it by Brian Lumley, Dejan at Twitch, MJ Simpson, The Lovecraftsman, Propnomicon and others – we’re very appreciative of their kind words.

Like ourselves, Arkham’s survived the bleakest moments of the last twelve months – there’s been times when it seemed we were attempting the impossible. But we’re still here – and still striving to deliver the very best film we can.

We look forward to sharing it with you.

Andrew.

“I had more or less given up hope of ever seeing a good Lovecraft-inspired movie … until someone sent me the script for Arkham Sanitarium and a clip or two from the forthcoming film. My hopes renewed, this is one I’ll just have to see…” Brian Lumley, bestselling author of Necroscope®

Thank you for your interest and support Mr. Lumley! The makers of Arkham Sanitarium are big fans of your Titus Crow stories!

Finally got around to doing some 3D modeling today on the Cthulhu bust – all very much work-in-progress at the moment. Got to finish the modeling and do some proper shaders and lighting. When finished, these statues will flank the staircase leading to the monolith where dead Cthulhu dreams…

More to come soon!

*edit* I’m toying with the idea of using 3D printing to make some 6″ models of this statue once it’s finished – if anyone’s interested in buying one of these limited edition, hand-painted statues please register your interest by voting in our poll in the sidebar on the right – thanks! Andrew.

Hey! What’s this? Concept art?? Normally I don’t like to post my concept stuff for the film – why? ‘Cause it’s usually rushed and intended to give artists just an idea of what I want (i.e. stickmen ) – in this case, I spent a little time working on some ideas for everyone’s favourite cephalopod and I’m pretty happy with it so I thought I’d share. Yeah – I know it’s not finished – doesn’t need to be – I’ve got enough ideas to start modeling it in 3D so that’ll be up next – stay tuned! Andrew.

*edit* OK, did a little more to it – can’t help it, ArtRage is sooo much fun to paint with incidentally, I guess this is a good case of ‘less is more’ – I think the pencil and ink version is a lot more menacing – ah well…

I’ve been absent for a while working on the VFX for the film and also putting together some actor showreel footage which I thought I’d share with you – below you can see a number of Dan McSherry’s (Robert Harrison Blake) scenes from the movie:

It’s not finished footage but hopefully you’ll agree it has a suitably Lovecraftian feel…

(Oh, and I know the lip-sync drifts a little at the end – that’s an MP4 thing I’m trying to fix…)

From the initial idea of Arkham Sanitarium all the way up to filming (and beyond) I’ve kept a journal which has all my story notes, character bios, sketches etc.

It’s an interesting record of the development of the script and the film – here’s a glimpse inside:

Contributors donating $10 or more to our IndieGoGo campaign will be entered into a draw to win the actual journal – we’re also making the entire scanned journal available on our IndieGoGo contributors page right here at survivorfilms.com!