Horror Red Velvet turned out to be a very successful first directing experience for New York Film Academy BFA Filmmaking student Valerio Mazzarella. His thriller, about recovering ambiguously addicted couple who struggle to adapt and live a normal life, recently won Best Short, Best Actor for Klemen Novak, Best Director for Valerio Mazzarella and Best Supporting Role for Jean-Paul Barjon at the Independent Horror Movie Awards (April, 2016).
“The main idea of this movie is that madness is always close to you,” said Mazzarella. “People hide behind masks and you never even really know who your neighbors are and what they do behind their doors.”
To create this project Valerio Mazzarella teamed up with NYFA alumni producers, Keline Kanoui and Konstantin Frolov. They say that if you have a clear idea of what you would like to shoot, NYFA gives you all the needed resources. The rest depends on your true desire to be a filmmaker — you can’t get lazy in this very competitive business.
“What is also very important is knowing how the equipment works and you can’t learn it once you’re on a real set,” stated Mazzarella. “At NYFA we have very intensive hands-on training. Each Filmmaking student tries different roles in the crew.”
Red Velvet team is planning to screen their movie at several other festivals this year, including Russian International Horror Film Award, Independent Horror Movie Awards (January 2017), Move Me Productions Belgium Short Film Festival. And currently the same team is working together on a new horror called Big Bad Beast.