In a live Q&A at the Slash Night Shorts event, host Kelly interviews former IT professional JZ Murdock about his transition to filmmaking. Murdock explains that after two decades in IT he retired, bought equipment, and began writing books and short stories, notably the novel Death of Heaven. He adapted material from that book into his first short film, a dramatized true‑story about a serial murderer, and discusses the ongoing final edit. Kelly recounts re‑cutting the film to offer a fresh perspective, emphasizing the value of collaboration over the typical solitary indie‑filmmaker approach. The conversation expands to the Bremerton (Bramerton) horror‑film community, highlighting mutual support, crew sharing, and networking at local festivals. Murdock reveals his next venture: a screenplay based on the real Fulmer crime he witnessed at 17, currently in development with a Hollywood producer and slated for a short‑form shoot. Both speakers stress the importance of community, mentorship, and proactive collaboration for emerging filmmakers.
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Casey Murdock up here. Woo! The man and the future legend. I think after this you're going to be on a Bremerton police blotter, so this could be your last public appearance. Get up here. All right, Jay-Z Morning. So you wrote this, you directed this, Gumdrop. I know Jay-Z, so I can kid with him a little bit. But, uh, the thing with Jay-Z, I want you to tell your little story. You, uh, retired a couple years ago, and your dream was to become a filmmaker, and this is putting you on that path.
Yeah, I worked IT for like 20 years and got tired of it, and so retired, bought some equipment, and I've written some books and a bunch of short stories and stuff. I wanted to turn some of those into film, so this is the first one I chose that I produced something from what I've written. It's based on a true story about a serial murderer, and I just added in some, some other stuff. It kind of like it Russian nesting doll of the story. And this too, because Kelly repented.
I did. We kind of collaborated a little bit. Jay-Z, and you're still working on a final edit that's going to be totally different, but we decided to just— it's like when you're a filmmaker, which some of you local filmmakers know here, is when you work by yourself and you never surround yourself with other filmmakers, you're kind of like operating in this vacuum. And so I said, as an experiment, hey, let me recut this just so you can see another point of view. Not that you had to change it to that, but just see another person's point of view. And I don't know if you're gonna even, you know, take any of that inspiration, but I just thought it was cool you're open to do that. And I think when you know other filmmakers and you feel, you know, confident that you can do that and not feel like, oh, you know, that's the wrong way, my way is only the right way. 'Cause I learned a lot by watching your footage too. And again, I think you are so bold to pick this subject matter. So we're gonna wrap up here for a bit, but I just wanna tell people out in the lobby, your book Death of Heaven is out there, which was part of your inspiration, one of your short stories for this. And I just want you to fold with what's your next project and what have you really gotten out of seeing your work on the big screen here tonight.
This is awesome, seeing your stuff on screen.
If you've shot anything, I'm sure you know what it's like.
Uh, my next— the next thing I'm working on, I wrote a screenplay about when I was 17. It's a true story about the crime of the Fulmer.
I worked with a producer in Hollywood on that, so that's moving along. And then I got a film project.
We're looking at shooting like maybe one act or like a minute or 5-minute thing. This is about 50 minutes, what I'm working on right now, when it's done. So I'm getting pretty close to that.
So that's what I'm doing.
And thanks for doing that. And Kelly's got something where he's kind of a little brave, took something he wrote. He's got a filmmaker over in South Carolina that's shooting it this weekend, right?
Finishing it up. Yeah, someone who was in one of the other festivals I curate. So that kind of spurred me, like, I keep going back to we want local filmmakers to come here, but not just to meet each other and have beer together, which is a must, but to actually say, hey, you know, do you need crew? I'll crew for you. Or, hey, you know, you're a good editor, you have a good point of view, maybe you'll do that. Or who's, uh, is Mr. Shepard in the audience? See, and I'm just in the, um, lobby earlier, I've got someone who is proficient with, uh, Adobe After Effects. And I said, you know, you got to talk to each other, find out what your strengths are, because everyone wants to make a horror movie. Every single person on this planet wants to make one, but you need some help, and you got to be a little pushy. But you also need people who are going to show up, show up on time, and really support your vision, not stand around and bitch all the time. But so you want really supportive people. So I think Bramerton is going to be known as a supportive horror film town. Give it up for JZ Modar.
I was on his set either making the act in them or just working as through on his set to get up to the point where I thought, okay, maybe I'll take a chance and do this myself.
So, and he coached my actors. Okay, thank you, Jay-Z. Coaching is good. Let's get Bobby and Bobby up here for 3 more raffles. Get your tickets ready.
