Film director Cody Blue Snider is following up on the success of his short film with another locally-filmed project, "Fool's Day."
Co-written by Snider and his brother Shane, "Fool's Day" is a dark comedy that tells the story of a class of third graders who attempt to play an April Fool's joke on their teacher – and wind up accidentally killing her. The kids are scared of going to jail, so they decide to hide the body before their D.A.R.E. officer arrives for a classroom visit.
Snider spent last week filming at – the very same school he attended as a student in the Three Village Central School District.
"Getting the school was huge because they wrote the script with this place in mind. This made it more successful to actually shoot the film," said Jennifer Kachler, who is co-producing the film along with Alex Kurze.
Snider turned to Kickstarter.com to fund the film, with the goal of raising $8,000. They raised close to $11,000. His production company, Snider Than Thou Productions, paid the school district about $3,786 for use of the facilities.
The principal cast includes 16 members, including eight kids with speaking roles. A total of 30 kids, many of them local students, appear in the film.
Without giving too much away, special effects included exploding cantaloupe "heads" filled with fake blood – similar to the technique used in the making of "Psycho."
According to his Kickstarter project description, Snider plans to submit the film to the Sundance Film Festival.
"It’s a good story that I know I can tell in a unique and creative way. I have long wanted to make a film centered on kids and shot from their eye level," Snider wrote. "I want to make the audience feel like they are children again, transport them back to the third grade for 15 minutes. And although the film does have a lot of gore in it, it is not my intention to play to the horror element of the story, but rather focus on the comedy and tension the predicament divulges."
