We Made Demon Squad. AMA.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in last night. We had a lot of fun and it was great having Joel back in the SOL. We’ve gotten a ton of questions about the movie and Erin and I thought it might be easier to answer everybody in one thread. So, we’re here to answer any burning questions you have about Demon Squad. Ask away!

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You said that MST3K edited a sizeable chunk of the movie for time, particularly the bits explaining Daisy’s power. Were there other edits you felt hurt the film? And the reverse: were there edits you noticed and now think “oh duh, why did we leave that in at all?”

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Yeah, what Chris just said. I was wondering about where the teleportation suddenly came from in the climax. I felt that must have been cut for time somewhere.

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I thought the eye effects (black, green, white, etc) were striking and well done.

Howdja do that?

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Nick and Daisy both have supernatural powers. Is there a backstory on why they have them?

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Hollywood writes a check saying “We will give you crazy money to remake Demon Squad, but we need stars.” Who plays Nick, Daisy, and Lilah?

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I think the explanation of Daisy’s white eyes might have been lost (psychic flashes). A big scene with a green troll madame helped explain some plot and tied some of the following scenes together better but it was also kinda talky, so I get why it was trimmed. The vampire interrogation was trimmed a great deal – rightly so, honestly – but it foreshadowed the big portal bit at the end. There are definitely some shots, scenes, and transitions I’d alter now, but hindsight is 20/20.

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Thanks! One of our many vfx artists. I believe they tracked the eye sockets in after effects and replaced them with the green cloud effect. I likely way oversimplified it, but layman’s gonna layman.

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Erin mentioned in the live thread that the audio we heard on the episode may have been the fault of a distributor, or at least a fault in the final stages of post.

Can you shed any light on the first time you personally noticed something may have seemed different from your original mix? And, to echo a MSTie in the live thread, is your original audio mix available in your raw files?

(Your efforts are highly appreciated! I’ve been on enough local film productions to appreciate the work that goes into all phases of production. Throw acting into the mix and my respect practically doubles. The effort and dedication is apparent, and the VFX was awesome, especially considering your budget. Respect all around.)

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Daisy not so much - just born with it and trying to figure it all out.

Moon, yep. He trained at the Ministry of ParaScience. There’s even a certificate framed in his office.

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Whoever they want!!! Beggars can’t be choosers.

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Why weren’t there more Van Pattens in it?

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Her flashing white eyes… perfect place for a Mentat riff…

and also, the two dead bodies on the rugs. Had me jonesing for some Roomba quips.

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So did you have a lot of written worldbuilding material that you built on top of, or was it just kind of assembled on the fly as your wrote the script?

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Some reviews mentioned some audio issues upon release. Others didn’t seem to have any trouble. I’m wondering if it’s something with the surround sound mix and encoding. Watching in an actual movie theater via DCP at festivals, no real problems. It’s puzzling. We do have the original files still, so it may be fixable down the road.

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There’s a roughly sketched out backstory, but it’s maleable and not set in stone 100%.

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Maybe next time!

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I know that some scenes were cut that explained more of what’s going on, but even without that I felt like this movie did a good job of suggesting that there was more history to these characters and their world. As a writer myself, I always try to throw enough bits in to make the reader think there’s a whole series going on outside this one book, but that they don’t need to know the details to enjoy it. I definitely got a bit of that vibe here. Dr. Mordrid managed the same thing, almost making it feel like we’ve got two episodes of different supernatural shows in this season.

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What was the best part of making this for you two? The writing, finishing the last edit, the first screening, casting the museum guy…what stands out as a really good moment in the story of making this thing go from concept to finished movie to MST canon?

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