Film crews have been in town all week shooting Black Veil, a six-part horror anthology that could stream online as early as September.
If all goes according to script, Black Veil will scare a lot of people when it starts streaming. But the minds behind the horror series want other filmmakers to know that, when it comes to working in Florida, there’s nothing to be scared of.
The Power Station Studio’s commitment to making it work in Florida, as opposed to more popular locations in California, Georgia and North Carolina, is as real as it gets. The studio itself is based in Ybor City. Producers Doug Fox and Kristian Krempel, as well as writer Danny McBride, grew up in Florida and know the state has some hidden gems for filming. They want to make a Florida-based, locally-funded production that will blow people away and draw filmmakers back to the state.
“We live here in Tampa, so we’re trying to bring film production back here to where we live,” Fox said. “We’re having fun.”
The allure of filming in Plant City, for example, was too good to pass on. Hillsborough County film commissioner Tyler Martinolich strongly recommended working here, Fox said, and that’s why they’ve been here since Monday. Power Station has been filming in and around the Plant City area all week, indoors and outdoors, and will continue through tomorrow.
“We’re just out of the gates,” Fox said. “We’re just getting started in Plant City. This is our launching pad, so it’s kind of fun. The town’s been really friendly and welcoming, too, so it’s kind of nice to be here and getting to know everybody.”
If you’ve ever dreamed of being an extra in a TV show or movie, this is your lucky day: if you’re downtown at 6 p.m., you can walk over to their open set at the train depot and get on camera as the crew films an outdoor scene with a live performance by Michael Trella and his band, which came to Plant City from Los Angeles for filming. Fox joked that it’ll be more of a “Milli Vanilli” thing where the band is “lip syncing” and its music will be added to the shot later, but if you can act like you’re vibing to the band’s folksy sound during an event styled like an art fair, you’ll probably be just fine.
“If anyone in town wants to come, walk around set, have fun, we have it open for extras to be there,” Fox said. “We thought it would be fun for the town. We start setting up at 4, rolling cameras at 6 and we should be done by 9 or 10 at the very latest.”
If downtown businesses are open, Fox said, filming won’t get in the way of their ability to do business and set extras are welcome to go shop, eat and drink at them as they wish.
Black Veil is a series of scary stories that aren’t directly connected to each other, but share similar themes and Easter eggs for devoted, eagle-eyed viewers. Each episode will have a runtime of 15 to 18 minutes so the series can have “binge-watch” potential without becoming a massive time sink like many popular shows on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other major streaming services.
“Six episodes tied together with a ‘black veil’ theme,” Krempel said. “Six different directors. The stories are not continuous, they’re independent, but they’ll have a thread that ties it in. Down the road, we’ll come up with something for those at home that follow it on the web and are able to make that connection. Maybe we’ll have some bonus footage or something. We’re not gonna make it overt for you to find it — it’s kind of like the Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones — but there will be a black veil theme… and if you can connect all six, we’ll unlock some bonus footage down the road to keep people engaged.”
It’s an anthology inspired by the classic Tales from the Crypt series, created by Blair Witch Project director Dan Myrick and Final Destination series creator Jeffrey Reddick. McBride, who is best-known for writing the first three Underworld movies, wrote the series and is also directing an episode. It features Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, who will be in Plant City tomorrow for the last day of filming.
Krempel said the goal is to have the show streaming online by Sept. 1. They’re marketing to all of the major streaming services as well as horror websites.
“We’re talking to a number of the bigger horror websites about making it available,” Krempel said. “Not exclusive to anybody. We want eyeballs and we’ve got parallel marketing efforts going on with influencers and personalities. So I think collectively, together, they’re all gonna support each other.”
Fox said the show’s creators want to make a fan-friendly product without having to worry about any major studios altering the final product with their own input, which could totally change what Black Veil is and what it’s all about.
“When you have Dan, Jeffrey and Danny, everybody wants it,” Fox said. “We’re gonna make it first. We’re gonna show them what we’ve made and blow them away, then we’ll decide where it goes. But our concern is, and this is one of the reasons Kristian liked (Myrick) so much, is he really wants to make it for the fans and not for the studios to control. So we want to venture out and figure out how we can best get his content to fans in a way that they enjoy.”
