Hi r/Filmmakers! This is Theodore Salisbury, taking over the official Happy Sisyphus Productions account today. I’m an SFX Prosthetics and Creature Designer (CEO of Exilian Studios), and I’ve spent my career working with molds, foam, and silicone to bring characters to life.

While I've spent time as a prosthetic technician and makeup artist in the massive department machines of studio blockbusters like Dune: Part One, Dune: Part Two, Marvel's Moon Knight, and Covenant—as well as serving as designing on features like Last Man Down and Stand Your Ground—my true creative passion is independent genre cinema.

Most recently, I stepped up to design, sculpt, and physically fabricate the core creature—The Guardian—for u/MattTibby's upcoming elevated horror feature, Follow the Dark.

In an era dominated by generic, weightless CGI, we chose to do this the hard way: 100% practical. We engineered a massive, stretching physical entity that the actors could actually stand in a room with and react to.

I've put together two comprehensive behind-the-scenes videos breaking down exactly how we pulled this off logistically on an indie budget:

Part 1: From Concept to Creation https://www.reddit.com/r/Filmmakers/comments/1tiwh6f/bts_creating_the_creature_for_our_indie_horror/

Part 2: Bringing the Guardian to Life https://www.reddit.com/r/Filmmakers/comments/1tjmenv/bts_part_2_how_we_engineered_a_stretching/

The Reality: The movie is 90% shot, and the footage looks unbelievable. But we are currently in our final 4 days on Kickstarter trying to secure finishing funds for the final pickup scenes and high-end post-production. We are exactly 83% funded and need around 22 more backers to cross the finish line.

I'm here today to be completely transparent about foam fabrication, mold making, working with actors in intense prosthetics, the structural differences between studio background work vs. designing your own indie monster, and how to build nightmare fuel without a $100M studio budget.

Our Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/happy-sisyphus/follow-the-dark/

Verification Photo: https://postimg.cc/qtsfqwpg

AMA! I'll be answering questions live at 2PM BST all afternoon!

Hey r/horror!

To kick off a week of AMAs about my journey from studio horror to indie filmmaking and XR, today I’m diving deep into my years working on Hollywood Horror Films.

For nearly two years, I was Scott Derrickson’s right hand. On Sinister (2012), my official credit was Director’s Assistant and B Cam Supervisor (really the Second Unit Director with around 150 shots in the film), but I also wore another few secret hats: I edited four of the five Super 8 movies (everything except the opening hanging sequence) and I was in charge of all the computer technology in the film (creating all the screen recordings in the film where Ethan Hawke’s character investigates the murders, along with a graphic designer).

After Sinister, I worked as Scott’s Assistant in LA, eventually working on another film – Sony Screen Gems’ and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Deliver Us From Evil, and finally, helped organize and assemble the massive, interactive 1,000+ slide presentation and sizzle reels Scott used to land Marvel’s Doctor Strange. 

More recently (2022-2024), I spent two years at Supermassive Games as a Narrative Designer (contributing to the writing and performance direction) on the newly released Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game. Standard post-employment confidentiality means I can't take questions on the game itself, but I'm happy to discuss my wider games, VR, and film work. (But I’m very proud of my writing and performance directing work there so please go buy it and support Supermassive’s latest game!)

Why am I doing this now?

I’m pouring everything I learned about building cinematic dread from Scott and the studio system into my own upcoming independent horror feature, Follow the Dark. I’ve been trying to get it made since I was Scott’s assistant. In 2023, we shot 90% of the film, and we are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to finish it. But that is very much in the background, and for today, let’s focus on Sinister and Big Budget Hollywood Studio Horror! 

I’m an open book on my experience on Sinister, building tension, the reality of the studio assistant grind, editing horror, and more.

Proof: https://postimg.cc/Kk57X9Vr

The "15 Years of Horror and Narrative" AMA Series

Four days, four themes. Drop questions any time; I'll be live in the windows below.

Mon 18 May — The Studio Years & Sinister r/horror · r/IAmA Live: 2–5pm BST / 9am–12pm EST, then 10pm BST–12am BST / 5–7pm EST

Tue 19 May — VR, XR & Immersive Narrative - Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom r/virtualreality · r/PeakyBlinders Live: 3–6pm BST / 10am–1pm EST, then 10pm BST–12am BST / 5–7pm EST

Wed 20 May — The Indie Filmmaker: Making Follow the Dark r/filmmaking · r/indiefilm · r/Kickstarter Live: 2–6pm BST / 9am–1pm EST, then 10pm BST–12am BST / 5–7pm EST

Thu 21 May — [Topic TBC] Subreddits TBC Live: 2–6pm BST / 9am–1pm EST

Kickstarter live now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/happy-sisyphus/follow-the-dark

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this AMA are entirely my own and do not represent Blumhouse, Sony, Marvel, Disney, Scott Derrickson, or Supermassive Games.

Let's talk horror. Ask Me Anything!