Horses for Moths: The Making of Sodium Party
Weird Pretty Pictures are proud to announce the VOD release of Horses for Moths: The Making of Sodium Party.
Go behind the scenes of one of the most unique films to ever come out of Ireland and discover what it takes to make a low budget film outside of Hollywood. The documentary recollects the production of the experimental thriller Sodium Party, as seen through the eyes of director Michael McCudden and producers Alison Scarff and Richard Waters. The surreal 2013 film starred Slaine Kelly (Rise of the Footsoldier 2, The Tudors) and James Corscadden (Brooklyn).
Horses for Moths exposes the harsh realities of making a non-Hollywood film on a shoestring budget, going through all the cut corners, the run-ins with the authorities, the blood and stitches, hangings, horses, the months (or in Sodium Party’s case, years) of hard work to finish the film, only to have it be rejected on its initial run, and the eventual aligning of stars for the film to premiere, hit the festival circuit, and win awards.
Writer/director Michael McCudden talks about what drove him to do the film the way he did:
“There’s quite a standard way of doing things and what we set out to do was something different from that and to do something that didn’t make sense but still felt like a cinema experience”.
Outlining what it was like trying to get a feature funded before and after the economic bubble burst:
“At that stage there was quite a lot of money around and everybody could afford to be quite indulgent. Maybe like, you know, a hundred thousand, and then all the money disappeared. And then you know… At least we could definitely maybe bring it in for twenty five thousand, and then that disappeared. There was one person who gave me advice; ‘If you have little money, find people who are just in to the idea and that’s all that will matter’. So we met (executive producer) Mick Berry (and) everything was sort of set up. And we lost a little more money”.
And the life-threatening accidents that can happen in pursuit of a film:
“Everybody watched in slow motion horror as Ally (Scarff, producer) eventually fell, and the shard of the broken cup went straight in to her artery and then she started pissing blood everywhere, but going ‘I’m ok. I’m ok. I might need a little bit of hospital’”.
“I ended up that day having to go to the Accident and Emergency because I split my wrist open quite violently”, Alison adds.
