We recently connected with David Mankey and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, David thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
I came up with the idea for my first film due to a bad experience with LSD. I took what I learned from a bad trip, and tried to portray the feelings and thoughts of the experience into the mind of a large mill worker who had been dosed with the same substance. I thought that a killer, with only revenge on what little mind he had left after the drugging would be the most terrifying thing imaginable. Honestly, I had no idea if it was a worthwhile endeavor. I just knew that horror had been my life since the ripe old age of 4 and I had access to a camera and friends that were willing and excited to be part of the project. So with that, things just progressed. The entire summer into early autumn that year was pretty much dedicated to making the film that turned out to be Dark Shade Creek.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I got into filmmaking basically by accident. After making my first film as a way to pass a summer, YouTube was about the only outlet I had access to to get people to see it. The movie went fairly viral, and today it has almost 16,000,000 views. Along with those views came an unexpected number of compliments and fans of the picture, a lot of whom requested more films be made. I honestly would have been happy with 1000 views and was completely blown away watching the hit count climb consistently. I listened to the positive feedback and decided to continue making independent horror pictures any time I was able and right now I am working on my 10th feature. I’m also a full-time wedding/elopement videographer which I love.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The main goal in making my films is memories. Time moves very fast and at the end of each project it’s almost like having a custom home movie to look back on that you will have access to for the rest of your life. Although sometimes filmmaking can be a long drawn out process, usually at the end of a project, the people involved are ready to start the next movie as soon as possible. The good far outweighs the bad and the memories are valuable to everyone involved..
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn listening to people. When 16 million people have seen your film and it only cost a few hundred dollars to make, people are going to have opinions. I still to this day get random comments and random emails or messages about opinions on what I could have or should have done in certain parts of the movie, blah blah blah. I simply block those people or I ask them to send me a link to the film that they have made so I can see what they mean. I’ve never heard back from one person showing me the projects they have done. I made my movie on what was available at the time and I made my movie the way I wanted to make it for me. You can’t please everyone so it’s best to move on from any negativity that isn’t constructive.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=143802&PP=1
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/dark_shade_films?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cujokatana