The first focus of early April’s Blumhouse Productions panel at WonderCon 2015, The Gallows, arrives from the writing and directing team of Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff, two Hollywood newcomers who turned a shoestring budget into a new feature film in the “found footage” subgenre. Set twenty years after an accident that caused the death of the lead actor during a high school play, The Gallows follows a group of students at the same small town school some time later who resurrect the failed stage production in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy.
Shock Till You Drop caught up with Lofing and Cluff backstage just before the panel and learned about the strange series events that led to The Gallows becoming a reality. Check out their story below and catch the film in theaters July 10…
Shock Till You Drop: How did “The Gallows” begin for you guys?
Travis Cluff: It’s kind of a crazy story. We keep hearing that more and more. Our manager at 360, Dan Schneider, keeps saying, “I don’t know if you realize how much of an anomaly this really is.” We started out with this idea. We had just formed our production company, or at least what we hoped would become a production company. I think we were still applying for an LLC.
Chris Lofing: We did the Legal Zoom thing, basically asking, “How can we cover ourselves?”
Cluff: Basically we had this idea for a movie and no idea how to fund it or get it made. We had a dream, though, that it would one day compete with “Paranormal Activity” and all the other big, scary movies.
Lofing: It was so funny. We wrote out this business plan. We really went gung-ho. We said, “We want to compete with Paranormal Activity and Chronicle and all these big movies!” We went and found some folk locally in Fresno, California who somehow believed that two guys could actually go worldwide with this movie. They claim to this day that they actually believed us from the beginning, probably because we believed it ourselves. Now, though, it all seems so unbelievable just because it has gone through so many different channels and ended up where it is. From meeting everyone at Management 360 to Blumhouse to the distributor screening where several people wanted it. We wound up with New Line and Warner Bros. for distribution and wide release. We don’t understand it [laughs]!
Shock: So how did the two of you come together creatively?
Cluff: I was not anywhere near film. I had done drama and stuff growing up and in high school, but I had separated myself from it. I was married and had a couple of kids. The economy tanked and things changed for me. I was the victim of a Ponzi scheme, so I ended up losing a ton of money and was deeply in debt. I had this idea when my wife and I were watching the first season of Wipeout. I said, “I could do that! That’s 50 grand!” She said, “I think you could!” So I applied, went on and I won my episode. It was crazy. “Super Shorts” Travis Cluff was my nickname on the show. When I was there, though, I saw how much fun everyone was having on the crew and behind the scenes. I thought, “Man, I want to get back into this stuff!” I’m up in Fresno and no one is doing that there. No one is doing anything there. I heard about some guy shooting a thesis film for his school. That was Chris. He was going to the New York Film Academy in LA.
Lofing: Yeah, I’m from Nebraska originally. I did have dreams of being a filmmaker one day in Hollywood. I moved out to LA after high school and it was a big culture shock. I went to school for a year and had this big, ambitious thesis film that I wanted to do. I had no money and no idea how to find the locations I needed. A classmate of mine lived near Fresno. He said, “Why don’t you go shoot up in Frenso? You’ll probably be able to get all your locations for free and your permits for free.” I went up there and that’s exactly what happened. I was looking for stunt guys and Travis and I met at a boxing gym. All the guys who were coming were hoping to do stunts in my film and Travis was one of them.
Cluff: I actually coordinated the gym so I could stand out as someone who was helping out a lot. I wanted to figure out who these guys were. He comes walking in the door and my first question was, “How old are you?!” He looked really young. He said, “I’m 19.” He looked like he was 12 or 13. But it was not so much his age that I was impressed by, but his drive and determination. I thought, “I don’t know where I am right now! This guy knows exactly what he wants to do with the rest of his life.” From there, I was just helping him out a lot. A lot of my ideas were just working to help some of the things he wanted to accomplish on his thesis film and it turned out amazing! I knew I had to do some things with this guy. We both kind of realized that and we came up with this idea for a movie that would take place at a high school at night with kids breaking in. It would be scary. From there, that’s where The Gallows came from.
Shock: So you guys came up with the idea for the film and you’ve written a screenplay. What did it take to find interest from these backers in Fresno?
Lofing: We had been shooting some small things here and there and we found out that there was some potential interest in this project. We shot a tiny trailer. We used this building and, honestly, it was like $250 we spent on the trailer. Mostly for costuming.
Cluff: I actually built a gallows. We didn’t have to pay for it because there was this fence that was getting torn down. I made a mini gallows. I went to the home owner’s association and asked if I could use this fence they were tearing down.
Lofing: We made this less-than-two-minute trailer and we had this business plan all laid out. What we wanted to do and what we hoped to achieve, showing examples like Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity. We really believed we could make movie and compete with the big dogs.
Cluff: After they saw the trailer, they were just like, “Okay! I was thinking about it before and now I’m thinking about how I can get you more money.” It was incredible. The first guy we showed it to was suddenly offering us more money than we’ve ever had on anything. It doesn’t really matter, but I think this is the least expensive movie ever to go straight to a wide theatrical release. Once we completed the first full-length trailer, we put it on a couple blogs. That’s when we started getting calls from folks. The Weinstein Company contacted us and Management 360. They wanted to see the movie and then have us come back and talk about it. They asked us basically the same thing you’re asking, “How did this come about? What money did you do this with? Who are you guys that you can pull off something like this?” It worked out!
CS: Are you both particularly horror guys or is this just where it begins for you?
Lofing: Not really. I mean, I was a fan of a lot of the classic horror movies like Wes Craven’s stuff and John Carpenter’s stuff. Travis is kind of a fan of all movies.
Cluff: Yeah, I like all entertainment. If it’s good, it doesn’t matter what genre it is. But horror was a great starting genre because it’s easier to do on no budget.
