Nine Ways to Hell Interview Six: Derek Silvers - Writer/Director/Digital Effects, ​"Fraud"

Derek Silvers is the writer/director of "Fraud." 

I was born in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, though I live in Los Angeles now.

To make a living, I read scripts for various screenplay contests.

I enjoy skiing and playing video games. I mostly just want to continue making short films and web series on my own, and to make studio films once in a while, if I'm given that opportunity.

Nowadays, I'm inspired by the fact that Blender, an incredible tool for 3D [three-dimensional] modeling, texturing, animating, compositing, and editing, is completely free and open-source.

I enjoy finding creative ways to work within budget limitations, and tools like Blender make it easier.

I wrote, directed, edited, and did most of the digital effects for ​"Fraud​."

At right:   Shelly Skandrani, Caesar James & Varda Appleton

I don’t remember any direct inspirations, but I wanted to make the segment about a “good” form of fraud. In this case, acting is the “good” fraud, because actors pretend to be other people. The main character in my segment is an actress who is punished by apparently being put in someone else’s body. Everyone thinks she is someone else, even though she knows she is herself. I hope that this shows a gray area in Dante’s ideas of divine punishment, since the character is punished for fraud without actually hurting anyone.

Joe Castro did an amazing job with the gore effects, like the broken bone that sticks out of the main character’s leg. I asked for a purple broken bone, and Joe delivered.

Interview by Derek Silvers

Edited by William Mortensen Vaughan