By now most people understand that online creators hold power and influence — but that doesn’t always mean they can transfer their skills to other modes of entertainment. For creators KallMeKris and Celina Spooky Boo — given names Kris Collins and Celina Myers — they’ve taken a major jump from creating online to making a feature film set to hit theaters this week.
Collins, Myers, and editor Jason-Christopher Mayer are the driving forces (and cast) behind House on Eden, a found-footage horror flick hitting theaters on Friday. Though they have massive TikTok audiences, writer/director Collins (51 million followers) and Myers (29 million) know that doesn’t guarantee a platform or audience for a movie — but that built-in base certainly doesn’t hurt. The trio shot the film in just seven days, relied on their backgrounds as creators, and now have a major film. They talked with Mashable over Zoom for our Creator Playbook series to talk about the transition from creating to filmmaking. (The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and brevity.)
How did you decide to go from online creation to making a feature film?
Collins: We all became friends through the creator space. Celina and I met, like, five years ago, when we both started. Jay and I, it was like four years ago, that he started editing for me. But he’s done stuff in the traditional space as well. So when we started working together, it was just kind of a natural segue. We were like, “Okay, we really love making videos, but we almost take a cinematic approach to our paranormal videos already.” So we’re like, what if we could actually control the narrative of these. So that kind of, it kind of just went from there.
Myers: I think our goal was always to do something like this.
Mayer: Yeah, agreed. [Laughs.] We were doing ghost-type videos and then one thing turned into another. And here we are.
What did your movie-making process look like?
Collins: We had talked about it for like, at least a year or two, just passively. And then we actually announced that we would be making a horror movie at, I think it was VidCon 2023, almost to just keep us accountable. We had no plans at that point. But we’re just like, “If we say it, then we have to do it.” So it was a few months after that where I was just like, hanging out, like 2-3 a.m., and I had an idea for a movie. So I just started sending voice memos, manically, to both of these guys. And I was like, “OK, it opens on a Venus flytrap, and it goes from here to there.” So it started with that, and then we wrote an outline, like a rough outline….We tried to film at some point, but then we had to push it back, but then we ended up shooting almost this time last year. It kind of all happened within a year, which is crazy to think about. And the movie itself, the shooting happened within a week.”
That must have been one heck of a week.
Myers: It was really, really cool. We met together in Texas before shooting it and we kind of went over it all. And there’s this moment where everyone’s kind of like, “Do you think we can bang it out in a week?” And I think everyone was just kind of like, “Bet.”
As creators, how did those skills transfer to making a feature film?
Collins: I think [those skills] lent to making a found footage film — not easy by any means — but it definitely helped. The videos we already post, the paranormal ones, we kind of just followed that formula. And then we were able to [make it more cinematic] by using timing, and sounds, and framing, and all that kind of stuff. That’s why we did found footage. Also, because [it’s a] lower budget. We could have a smaller team. We could film the whole thing ourselves, essentially. So it really was just a YouTube video that we could control.
Myers: We were talking about just getting our toes wet and trying this the first time. Going into found footage, it just felt familiar.
Moving into this space, how has the response been from your audience?
Collins: I know our followers always have wanted us to do something bigger and better…. Audiences like seeing creators grow…I think it’s expected for creators to keep raising the bar for themselves. There’s kind of a glass ceiling with digital creation. So breaking through that and going into traditional [media] was something that was really cool to do. I think the audience appreciates that.
How do you try to convert that digital audience into people going to the theater?
Myers: I think what’s fun is because we are, you know, influencers, we do have this platform that we created. So it was really interesting to try and figure out the way to market [the film] and look at what we think would reach our audience the best. Was that something like using trending sounds? Or, you know, doing content that we know people are familiar with?
Mashable Trend Report
It’s fun to advertise [House on Eden] in funny ways, because we’re known for a lot for comedy.
How does it feel with the film coming out Friday?
Collins: It’s been crazy waiting, because as digital creators, we can just make something [one] day and then post it the next day. So that has been horrible for anxiety. But it’s good. I’m to the point where I’m just like, “Let’s just get it out there.” I care, obviously, about what people think, but I’m also like, “I don’t even care, just put it out there, let people see it.”
Myers: [In a deep, raspy tone] Get ‘er out, baby!
Mayer: It’s really rare to get an independent movie that was made for like, you know, $10,000 to now be distributed to over 1,500 screens in America alone.
I’m curious to see what the horror community thinks of it, because they’re a very, very loyal and dedicated fan base. And, you know, Kris and Celina have such a massive audience themselves, but the horror world is a whole other entity. So I’m excited.
I’m curious to hear more about the difference between creating something and bam, it’s out, and creating something that takes months to come out.
Collins: Yeah, it’s, um…it’s horrible for a digital creator. When I make something, I’m obviously proud of it. It’s something I want to put on the internet. But as soon as it’s out, I’m like, “I don’t need to ever watch that again.” I’m good. I don’t watch myself.
So watching myself hundreds of times over and over again in the same film is horrible. Because I’m just picking at it and being like: I hate that. I wish I could have changed that. This should be like this. We should have added this. It gave me so much time to just pick myself apart, which I think is good in a lot of ways because I know — if I ever do a project like this again — what I’d change. But it’s like sitting in boiling water for over a year. Love it. Grateful. But also awful.
Mayer: It’s such an extreme analogy, but it’s like having a baby and now you’re giving this baby out to the world for everybody to see it. Hopefully my baby is pretty!
The speed of the process for your digital projects, did that help when you’re trying to film a movie in seven days?
Collins: It absolutely helped. It helped that we came in with a good plan. We didn’t have a hard script. I wrote a decently detailed outline that we could follow and do improv.
Myers: We had a really small team. Not having too many cooks in the kitchen made things a lot smoother.
Mayer: Technically, when they go ghost hunting, that’s literally filming a movie in one night. It’s an hour-and-a-half to two hours, getting different angles, getting b-roll and we have like 4-6 hours to do it.
You said there’s a rough script and a detailed plan, did your working relationship help make the improv process easier?
Myers: Kris and I have worked together for five years. We improv really well together. So I think her having this really tight beat sheet, it was really cool, because we knew where we wanted to start and we knew where we wanted to end. But there were funny moments in there, too.
The bloopers reel could be so long for this, because at the end of the day, we are all friends.
What do you feel like you all learned from doing this film?
Collins: Oh my gosh. Patience. And just doing it. We were talking about it for almost two years. And then one day we were just like, “Hey, I have an idea.” Let’s write an outline. Let’s put a date down to film. I think that’s what a lot of people struggle with — creators have seen the movie and asked us, “How did you do this?” It’s like…we just did it. And we did it without any expensive gear, it was very low budget.
Myers: I learned that we are so capable. To anyone out there: You can do it. … I think I learned not to have so much fear about things.
What will you take from movie-making and apply it to digital creation?
Collins: Maybe giving more time to projects in the digital space, like everything’s so go, go, go, and everybody’s attention span is so short. It’s not that I don’t put heart into what I put out. I try to as much as I can. But I’m leaning more towards quality over quantity these days and I think [the film] has a lot to do with it.
