top of page
Acrylic Paints

A hit-man derails the plot of his own film so that he can become an artist... But he finds he can only create by destroying.

Acrylic Paints
Horribly Wrong Thumbnail.jpg
A hitman derails the plot of his own film so that he can become an artist... But he finds he can only create by destroying. "Horribly Wrong" is first in the Desperation Trilogy by Tyler Templeton... Followed by "Somewhere in Between" and "Omnibus".
This film came at the tail end of a prolific year for DSME... in which the group had completed the 43 minute epic "Rip N' Run" and participated in 5 film competitions where a movie had to be made within 24 to 100 hours. Through this time, Dulvlu Spa Media Entertainment had completed its transmogrification in output from YouTube Sketches to dramatic stories that were more fit for film festival fare. However, there was still this angst-laden struggle for meaning in each creative effort. And my constant failure to properly manage productions was starting to wear me so thin that I could fully fit inside the shadow cast by doubt.From this double-breasted feeling of inauthenticity and incompetence came a drive to "make things right" with one short film to prove ourselves. This drive would shuttle us into the middle of a desert - with not toilets, electricity or decency - to make "Horribly Wrong". After about ten rewrites, that is.
Here is a film meant to capitalize on what we learned and what we wanted. The last properly sized film project we had done was "Rip n' Run". While creatively being a more significant landmark... Rip n' Run was an utter sh*tshow that demanded too much of its creators, especially when considering the movie had a rudimentary theme indistinguishable from that of the multitude of DSME's four-minute sketches that took a day to shoot. Rip n' Run took 9 months and $10,000 to shoot... when it was originally supposed to take four weeks and a single warehouse worker's paycheck. But that was 2018. In 2019, I wanted to make a film just as difficult - if not moreso - to pull off. But this time I would ensure we'd stay within budget and on schedule. Per my usual virtues, the strategy to do this would detour from the easy route at every fork.
As the production moved on, the film became more and more autobiographical. Tyler, myself and a few other key players were starting to resonate with our own work beyond grasping into the creative ether for something that looks "cool" or sounds "serious". This was a film that captured a "mood", saturated with introspection. It asks if just anyone can make art - and if so, are you even able to turn your life around enough to be dedicated to its creation? We were asking this same thing of ourselves as we were living out of our family's trailers, working in warehouses while dreaming of filmmaking after having just barely graduated from a fine arts degree for nothing but debt.
The amount of trivia we have for the three day shoot that got this film made is worthy of a documentary thrice the runtime of the film itself. We had so many opportunities for the movie to go "Horribly Wrong"... yet somehow we got everything right whist flirting with failure. The movie isn't a masterpiece, but this was the first time that we had accomplished what we set out to do. And no amount of dead cars, blinded actors, missing shots, misfiring explosives, loaded guns, undercooked food, 15 hour days, sleeping in tents, whisky/coffee/bang energy elixirs served on set, heatstroke-induced panic attacks, and Rap Music Karaoke Nights could stop us. But like I said... that's for the documentary.
This film legitimized a whole new mindset for DSME - we finally figured out how to plan a movie. Bar none, this was the most pre-production ever done. We had a first for many things: scheduling 2 months in advance, storyboarding, insurance, government cooperation, screentests, rehearsals, upfront financing... all formerly useless gestures now festooned in standard practice for what would eventually be an actual company. What we learned here would later make us able to produce multiple features in the following decade. But there was still the issue of post - we had handily finished the film, but had no idea how to do the "headsplosion special effect". Two years later in 2021, we would learn how to shoot it. And in 2023, I would learn how to edit it. Some things never change, but they do get better.

Even after fermenting for four years before its eventual release, I've seen Horribly Wrong received as if it had come out in the intended 2020 release date... Before the coronavirus lockdowns shut down most festivals for two years... delaying what we hoped would be a "festival darling" indefinitely. There were a few years, where Tyler grew to hate the film. But like during the shoot, the miracle crackpot team we assembled put a sparkle back in his eye. The festival run has been stunted... But as I age, I've found the worst thing to do is make a "timely film". The evergreen engagement - most of all from the loved ones that put this film together - has been a greater badge of honor than any festival award.

Additional Credits: Poster -- Eleen Bayat

Acrylic Paints

DSME Newsletter

See it First

Operation

Thanks for submitting!

DSME Contact

© 2035 By Dulvlu Spa Media Entertainment.

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
bottom of page