Q&A with Rory Lowe, director of The Midge

An atmospheric Horror, where nature is the horror. Specifically the scourge of the Scottish wilderness, the tiniest of Vampires... The Midge!

A sexually-inexperienced country boy is lured into the woods by the girl of his dreams… and nightmares. But it is not her he should be scared of.

Where did the idea of the movie come from?

After thinking folk were hugely exaggerating the Midge problem I got pretty much eaten alive whilst camping out at Lock Awe. I was fascinated by the idea of make a film about the tiniest of Vampires too, something you can early see, yet enough of them could suck you dry!

Thinking about the issues around Global Warming too and seeing genuine news reports about species of insect becoming acclimatised to the Britain as the temperature rises, there was one piece on the top ten nasties, including the Malaria carrying Mosquito and the Dengy fly, both not very nice at all. That made me think about our attempts to counter act these phenomenon. Irradiating mosquito's for example, which they are doing today, that just sounds like a B-Movie waiting to happen doesn't it! Looking into this I found Mosquito larvae that they have genetically mixed with glow worms to make glow in the dark Mosquito too, that just doesn't look right... Be nice to see them coming in the dark but you can't help but get some feeling of dread that we've made a terrible mistake!

I made a title sequence for the film based around these news reports and the Lab where the Midge in my film has escaped from, but felt in the end it wasn't really needed and the moody opening gives a really nice sense of spooky nature. I made it into a trailer for the film in the end (see below.)

The Midge trailer from Once Were Farmers on Vimeo.

What influences did you use while making the film?

Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line was a big influence as was David Lynch, generally for the use of the surrounding environment as a brooding onlooker and making the everyday and normal seems very weird and sinister.

How did your advertising experience come in handy while making it?

It was really invaluable, the crew I used came almost exclusively from connections I'd made working in advertising, for Example it gave me a great opportunity to develop a great creative relationship with my Cinematographer Bob Williams. Also you never have enough time on short films so have the experience of working to advert time constraints actually came in really handy.

What are you most proud of in making the film?

Making the film and particularly finishing it has been such a labour of love that its really difficult to pinpoint the thing I'm most proud of. The fact that it genuinely seems to make folk squirm when watching then end, that was the aim from the outset so that has to be up there. Convincingly taking people inside someone else's body, making the leading lady seem as dangerous as the Monster itself... The Macro sex scene I love! Maybe just the overall mood of discord and the insect sex at the beginning... It's been a huge learning process and its by no means perfect but overall I'm extremely proud of what I managed to achieve.

The Midge will be screened at The Gate Films office in Edinburgh on Thursday 28 October from 7pm alongside three other short horror movies, as part of the 'Eat Our Shorts' event.

To attend email eirian@thegatefilms.com