The Brian Yuzna Film Academy
Internationally renowned cult filmmaker Brian Yuzna, director of Society and writer of Honey I Shrunk The Kids visited Birmingham City University between 26-29 October 2015, to outline plans for a new graduate horror film training academy that he intends to develop with the School of Media at the University.
Yuzna’s plan for an international horror academy is the latest innovation in a long career that has seen him occupy the roles of director, producer and studio head, while his influential back catalogue has also helped to redefine the boundaries of the modern international horror film.
Yuzna has developed his career as a cult director and producer for over a quarter of a century. He first came to public prominence in the 1980s, as part of the creative duo behind the hit American film Re-Animator (1985). Here, he and director Stuart Gordon transposed H.P. Lovecraft’s gothic horror tale of a mad scientist reviving the dead into the contemporary American landscape. His own directorial debut was Society (1989), a dark political horror film which exposed the consumerist excesses of the Reagan years.
Following this release, he went on to work as both a director and producer on a variety of genre productions that included Re-Animator (2003), Romasanta (2004) and most recently Amphibious 3-D in 2010. He set up Fiction Factory studio in Spain, which saw him mentor a range of young creative talent who are now filmmakers in their own right.
Yuzna’s plan for an international horror academy is the latest innovation in a long career that has seen him occupy the roles of director, producer and studio head, while his influential back catalogue has also helped to redefine the boundaries of the modern international horror film.
Yuzna has developed his career as a cult director and producer for over a quarter of a century. He first came to public prominence in the 1980s, as part of the creative duo behind the hit American film Re-Animator (1985). Here, he and director Stuart Gordon transposed H.P. Lovecraft’s gothic horror tale of a mad scientist reviving the dead into the contemporary American landscape. His own directorial debut was Society (1989), a dark political horror film which exposed the consumerist excesses of the Reagan years.
Following this release, he went on to work as both a director and producer on a variety of genre productions that included Re-Animator (2003), Romasanta (2004) and most recently Amphibious 3-D in 2010. He set up Fiction Factory studio in Spain, which saw him mentor a range of young creative talent who are now filmmakers in their own right.
Old Masters, Young Talent: Brian Yuzna mentors BCU students in the creation of the short film Playtime
The director’s plans for a graduate horror academy at Birmingham City University were trialled during his visit through the Brian Yuzna’s Cutting Edge short challenge, which saw over 45 students from across the institute given 24 hours to collaborate on a short piece of fiction that evoked contemporary social fears. The final completed short entitled Playtime employed gothic themes of female doubling, and was complimented by a ‘making of’ featurette and marketing campaign that students completed.