Savage Night promo shoot with Tim Maguire & author Allan Guthrie

Allan Guthrie

A few days ago I was lucky enough to attend the filming of the the promo short for Allan Guthrie's new book, Savage Night, by director Tim Maguire.

Tim has been doing a series of trailers for books, however they differ from film trailers in the sense that you get to learn a bit about the author as well as about the book. They draw you in and are quite a bit more engaging than reading the back leaf of the book cover.

One aspect I particularly appreaciated about what Tim did with Allan whilst filming the promo for Savage Night, was to get Alan involved wherever and whenever possible. When the final edit rolls out, the viewer shouldn't know from looking that the actor playing the character(s), is, in deed, the author Allan Guthrie, but get that feeling, that it could just be. Is it his alter ego? Was the vegetarian author finally craving some blood?

Directors do what they have to for the shot.

Just as with photoshoots, film shoots involve just about the same amounts of surrealism. Take over someones house, tie people up in chains whilst wearing a ski mask and wielding a sword, and send some lovely volunteers out to knock on cabin doors. Sounds like we were filming a bad horror movie! That might be right up Allan's street!

Crime Equipment

This is Allan's 5th book, which launched tonight in Edinburgh and will be released later this year in the states. He has already won several awards and being the young buck that he is, I'm sure will be winning several more. I've been warned that his books aren't for the faint of heart, which makes me all the more excited to pick one up. They can be purchased from Birlinn publishers, who are some lovely people I meet on the shoot.

Cameraman Dave Tim has put together a few of these now and can been seen on his website, along with his other work, and hopefully on every book selling site in the near future.

For more photos from the day, check out the flickr set: