Just *Fkn* Do It: An Interview With Killer Shorts Finalists Travis Jones & Rob Pilkington

Now that submissions for Season 3 of the Killer Shorts Contest has come to a close, we love being able to highlight our Killer Alum and the success they have found after being finalists in our contest and coming together to form creative partnerships. We are really happy to bring you a new interview with Season 2 finalist Travis Jones & Semifinalist Rob Pilkington on their short film Baby, and the process of going from Killer Shorts to producing this short. Rob and Travis have worked together for about ten years, having only met in person once, but their collaboration just works. In February 2022, Travis & Rob are planning to launch a Kickstarter to raise completion funds for Baby, specifically for color, SFX, and VFX. Baby is a Semifinalist script written by Rob Pilkington, and with Travis Jones as director, they successfully brought this script to the screen:

When two millennial women catch up over a glass of wine, one begins to suspect that the other — a harried new mother — has really seen some sh*t during her maternity leave… just as unearthly noises start to come over the nearby baby monitor.

The process of shooting your own short can be daunting but as Travis says, “Just ‘fkn’ do it.” They definitely put this into practice as Travis hopes to get his finalist script Savage soon into production. Check out the interview below with Travis Jones & Rob Pilkington on how they brought this film from script to screen.

Baby on Coverfly.

Conversations with Travis Jones & Rob Pilkington

Where did you grow up and where do you currently reside? Do your surroundings influence your writing?

TJ: I grew up half in Cleveland and half in Hampton, VA. I’m currently living in a tiny box in Brooklyn with three strangers. I normally wouldn’t say that my surroundings influence writing, but Savage is a direct result of living in Brooklyn, so I’d say yes it does.

RP: I grew up in Rhode Island and then spent most of college and my 20s in Boston. I’m in Los Angeles now, but still set a lot of my writing in New England. It lends itself well to a lot of genres and, I dunno, I feel like it’s better and easier to poke and prod at a place and all its wrinkles when you have some ownership of them.

How did you two meet and decide to start up a creative partnership?

TJ: It’ll be ten years in March. I think we’ve only met in person once. I found a short script Robert wrote titled JUST KILL CHARLIE on Stage32 or his blog “Heroes are Boring”. I dug the vibe he laid out, a very Martin McDonagh feel to it. 

I tried to get it going into production. Failed miserably, about five times, and Robert and I have been arguing like an old married couple ever since. 

RP: I was still living in Boston at the time when I’d written “Just Kill Charlie” and had hosted online somewhere. I don’t know what Travis Googled to find it, but he did and reached out via a screenwriting blog I was trying to maintain at the time. And yeah, he very much flattered me with the Martin McDonagh comparison. Still undeserved, but I’ll take the compliment.

Travis, can you give a brief synopsis of your Killer Shorts finalist script SAVAGE?

TJ: Savage follows a black woman in gentrifying Brooklyn as she searches for a new apartment.

What was the inspiration behind SAVAGE? After placing as a finalist in the contest, did you learn anything new about your script or yourself as a writer?

TJ: I wrote Savage right before the lockdown. I was in New York sleeping on friend’s couches…basically a vagabond…I can’t even say if I was looking for a place to stay. It was a pretty vampiric time for me. 

Writing Savage exposed dark parts of myself. I think it’s necessary that creating art makes you confront darker parts of yourself. I’m sure I’d have a hard time writing or directing something now that doesn’t revel in the shit that people don’t want to talk about.

Rob, can you give a brief description of your Killer Shorts Semifinalist script BABY?

RP: Sure. Our logline is: “When two millennial women catch up over a glass of wine, one begins to suspect that the other—a harried new mother—has really seen some sh*t during her maternity leave… just as unearthly noises start to come over the nearby baby monitor.”

What was the inspiration behind BABY?

RP: It must’ve been late 2019 or so, I was invited over to a friend’s place for beers, but it was the first time we’d done so since he and his wife had had their first kid. So they were very much re-emerging into society after hunkering down for a while. And this was all alien to me, I don’t have kids. And there was a moment where my friend excused himself to go check on the crib. So I’m sitting there, alone in this apartment while he goes and does this—disappearing down this dark hall—and it just occurs to me how eerie and weird it’d be if he just never came back.

What would I do then? What should I do? And how was that anxiety tangled up feelings I might have about being a bit of an invader in that space. Everything was new there now, routines were new, priorities were new, and I was just a single dude shuffling around and sorta thankful I hadn’t reckoned with parenthood yet. So yeah, the idea of having to go down that hall myself felt scary and stayed with me long enough to get the script started.

Rob, what was it like having Travis direct your short? Did he bring anything to the film that you hadn’t considered when writing the script?

RP: Travis and I share a lot of the same sensibilities when it comes to storytelling, I think, and we’d been waiting for a long time to finally do something together. He made it pretty clear that he thought the script was there, after a polish or two, so there were no real debates about the story. 

One thing we did discover is that he and I have different opinions about who the “main character” is. To me, it’s Pris, because I’ve been Pris before—impatient, dismissive, a little too cool for school—and to Travis, it was Nadine, the new parent. Going into production, I was fine with that perspective and, in retrospect, I’m glad he had it. All of the biggest emotional swings are with Nadine and I think Travis seized on those moments with Ricki Lynée (our actor) so they pull the audience in and really anchor the film. 

Do you recommend writers, or filmmakers in general, should find a solid crew, or partnership, to work on projects the way you both have done?

RP: I feel like the only people I know who get shorts made are those who already have a network of people around them they can trust and call in favors with and so on. Or they just have a lot of money. I’m fortunate that Travis brought all his talent and perspective to this project, but also wrangled a team of talented creatives around him, as well. 

What perspectives do you think you gain by working with a fellow writer?

RP: I think writers are good at sussing out when fellow writers are being too precious about a certain line or story element or whatever. Because I think we all have our little pet moments we protect on the page—some of which serve the story and some that don’t—and it’s easy to diagnose that same protectiveness in others and gently lend that big picture perspective. 

Does producing your scripts help you grow, and learn more about yourself, as a writer overall?

RP: I think so. As soon as you realize that “wow, someone’s actually going to shoot this,” there are so many considerations you have to tackle on the page that you didn’t have to account for when you were writing purely on spec. I’m lucky that those considerations were pretty minimal for “Baby,” but there were some location details that we wanted to address in the script once Travis was scouting and there’s always the process of fitting the words into actors’ mouths. Also, just hearing actors speak your dialogue is hugely instructive in and of itself and you quickly catch yourself being verbose or flat. There’s definitely one monologue in the film I’ve encouraged Travis to reduce by more than half because I hear it and it just sounds like me not knowing when to shut up.

When all of this stuff happens, you can’t be too precious, you have to let go of certain things and accept the film is not going to be a 1:1 replica of what you had in your mind—or even what you wrote down. I think there’s growth in anticipating that and knowing that you gotta choose when to fight for something on the page because it’s truly important to the larger picture.

TJ: I don’t know if I’ve grown but I have learned more about how I handle certain managerial and creative aspects of directing. I asked the DP after shooting if we had more money and time would the quality of the story increase commensurately…it’s a (fantasy) question…but it is a valuable thought process to explore. 

I didn’t write Baby, but I have had short scripts that I’ve written produced. The substantial takeaway from seeing your writing on-screen or being on-set and seeing it come to life is that every weakness you impart in the screenplay will be boiled out and laid bare during production.

What was the process like submitting to Killer Shorts? What advice might you give someone who is looking to submit their horror short scripts to a contest for the first time?

RP: Submitting to Killer Shorts was great. I love the community and the enthusiasm that comes with a well-run genre contest or festival like this. I’d submit again in a heartbeat. 

As for advice, so many horror shorts I see are clearly a proof of concept for some big feature idea, but the ones that really shine for me feel like their own, complete thing. I think that’s a result of leaning into the storytelling and bringing character and structure and pacing to it. There’s no one, single scare that can save a short from being an obvious demo reel for a killer location or makeup effects or what have you, audiences are too savvy, they’re bored by that. So even if you are trying to launch something bigger or showcase some technique, bring some story to the table. That’s what’s gonna hook audiences—including readers and contest judges.

TJ: I submitted it at the last minute and then forgot about it. I didn’t intend to submit Savage to contests because I wanted to get it into production, then COVID paved over 2020 and here we are. Throughout the lockdown, I wrote and drank whiskey and wrote some more. Savage did get a rewrite and I think that’s where it got its biggest boost. 

I’ve used Coverfly often for peer notes. It’s a valuable resource to share your work with fellow writers. There can be some wild comments coming back to you, especially if your work isn’t about white people or certain Western cultures, but I’ve found it to be a useful barometer for the writing process.

Lastly, I’d encourage writers to let friends read their scripts—particularly friends who aren’t screenwriters or filmmakers. In my experience, they approach the feedback process in a truer state, not in an “I’m a filmmaker” state, which can be very beneficial in understanding how an audience will interpret your story.

Savage on Coverfly.

What advice might you give a finalist or horror short writer who is thinking of shooting their script?

TJ: Fkn do it. Use your phone. Use a Hi8 camera. Horror is a genre that requires an audience. There are horror films that don’t need an audience to gauge the intended result, but I think those are closer to drama. Certain horror requires visceral reaction—jump scares, et cetera—so you’ve got to shoot it, cut it, and present it. 

I’d encourage anyone interested in writing and/or directing horror to take a look at David Sandberg’s channels *and* please please please read Danse Macabre by Stephen King.

Were you always interested in the horror genre? Do you plan on continuing in this genre as your career progresses?

RP: I watched zero horror growing up and it wasn’t until my 20s I jumped in and watched everything I could get my hands on. I’m not sure what flipped that switch, but I still watch as much as I can, it’s my go-to genre when I want to rent something or head out to the theater. I’ve been writing a lot of sci-fi lately, but I don’t see myself moving away from writing horror any time soon.

TJ: I didn’t seek horror growing up. But, I did find a love for horror once I saw Kwaidan, a Japanese horror anthology.

One of the most terrifying movies I’ve ever seen is Fallen. The dread is mostly contextual—my family is very religious and the idea of a demon possessing you at will really fucked with me when I was 13. I still remember how the demon would sing when it changed bodies. It still scares me to this day.  

I definitely plan to continue working in the genre. I’m very interested in existential horror. I like the physical exploration of death. There are a couple of stories I’m very interested in telling. One specifically is a gothic fable set in Jersey City.  

What do you think is most beneficial, to a writer’s career, about also producing a short horror script?

TJ: I think it is important to get your story up on its legs in any manner you can. Storyboard. Previz. Dry-run shooting. Find an approach to create images and see them cut together. 

It’s essential to view horror with an audience so you’re not caught in a vacuum. Writing or directing horror requires a distinct awareness of where the audience might break from your world. You run right up to the line and hold it there. Every piece of horror is a tightrope walk attempting to establish new logic for the audience. It’s difficult and you’ve got to practice.

Final Thoughts

We hope Travis & Rob’s production journey inspires you to consider shooting your own short. As you can see there are several approaches one can take with their short screenplays, that can work for some but not others. As Travis puts it, just get out there, find a network that is willing to help, and you might never know what you’ll learn about yourself in the process. Rob’s advice really resonated as he found having someone else direct his script allowed him the opportunity to look at his script in a different way, or let go of things, by having another set of eyes on it. The long-standing collaboration between Travis Jones & Rob Pilkington is a great example of what it looks like to bring your short script to reality.

Make sure to keep a look out for the Baby Kickstarter campaign projected to launch in February 2022.

Travis Jones on Twitter.

Travis Jones on Instagram.

Rob Pilkington on Twitter.

Rob Pilkington’s website.

Killer Shorts on Twitter.

Killer Shorts on Instagram.

Featured Image by Ieva Berzina.