Daniel B. Iske Interview

Daniel B. Iske is one of the co-creators of "The Dead Hour".

What inspired you to create The Dead Hour?

Well, we had done an indie horror film before that, and that was my first kind of foray into the horror genre. I did a couple other genres before that. And I just found it to be a very rewarding genre filming wise. So, after we finished the film, I knew I wanted to do horror again, but we knew we didn't want to do another movie. So, we thought, “Let's do a horror anthology series,” because we wanted to tell a bunch of different different kinds of stories. So, we came up with this idea of a kind of mysterious late night radio DJ, who was telling her audiences these kind of unique horror, dark stories, and then we would delve into each one for each episode.

What were the main challenges of creating such a series?

Well, we filmed this in Omaha, Nebraska, which is the middle of the United States. So, we're not on the coasts. It was low budget. It was our first kind of venture into a series format. So, there were a lot of production obstacles there, filming different episodes with different cast members for each episode. Melissa Holder, who plays DJ Raven, is the only consistent character. Each episode has its own cast. So, that was unique and challenging, in and of itself.

Do you like directing, and what do you like about it?

Oh, I love directing. I love telling stories, and I love being able to work with the crew and the actors and share my vision and have people add to that vision. We kind of had a Dead Hour family, with all the cast and crew. I kind of just loved love that dynamic of bringing stories to life with other creative people.

What are the main challenges of being a director?

I think it's being able to communicate your vision with the actors. You want to be able to be a leader and to guide them to where you want to go, but also to listen to them, and to allow them their opportunity to bring what they want to the character. So, it's that balance of needing to kind of guide actors there, but also being able to listen to them, and to respect their choices and what they want out of it and to be able to find that right balance between what you want as a director and what they're kind of coming to you with as an actor.

Were any scenes difficult to film?

Oh, so many, so many scenes that were difficult. I think a lot of the episodes kind of have small casts. So, it's more intimate; it's more under control. But one of the episodes called “Fright Fest,” it takes place in a movie theater; it's like an all-night lock in, and it was our first time where we had like, a ton of extras. We had a full movie theater full of extras, and that was just really challenging for me, because I had never been as an indie, kind of low budget filmmaker. I've never done that before. And so having to have, or kind of when we had a big crew that day, too, having all those extras and trying to navigate all of that, I think was the craziest challenge I had ever had.

Do you have a favorite moment from the show?

Favorite moment? Let's see. Yeah, there's this moment. That is a good question. So, at the finale of one of the last episodes, “Hunted,” in season three, at the very end, I don't want to give too much away, but there's this moment between kind of the villain and the hero, and I remember filming that in the moment and just their interaction between each other, and even when I watched the episode still today, it kind of gives me chills a little bit, because that was a cool moment between two actors that just it felt like magic almost. That really sticks with me.

As a writer, how did you come up with ideas for the series?

So, me and my co creator, Scott Coleman, who wrote a lot of the episodes, when we were first starting out, we just had notebooks just full of one line ideas. I remember one of them was a man is digging a hole in his backyard late at night, why? And we just kind of would throw out things that were just kind of random, and we just have pages and pages and pages of ideas. Then we would try to expand on them. Some went nowhere. Some were like, “Okay, we're getting somewhere with this.” And, basically, the twelve episodes kind of came from that, that we thought were the best and progressed in the way that we wanted them to, that we really liked.

What would you say the hardest part of writing a horror series is?

Oh, I think, for us, we weren't going to be like, “Oh, it's just going to be gore and scares.” We knew that doing shorter episodes we were going to have to figure out how to get kind of psychologically into people's minds. And not all the episodes are disturbing and intense. There're a couple episodes that are kind of absurd and fun. But it's kind of playing on the genre, and also, you know, being able to just hit something inside people that goes, “Oh!” I mean, that's what we really wanted, not to just gross them out or have a jump scare, but really get into people, and to have episodes that when you got done watching, you're like, “That just leaves a weird kind of feel inside me.” So, that was kind of our challenge, to approach the series in that way and find ways to be able to do that.

Do you plan on filming more episodes after the current release?

That is our hope. That is our goal. We've been kind of in a holding pattern for the last couple years. COVID hit, and then we've been in this deal with Terror Films to finally get this released. So, we've been kind of focused on that part of it now. But as we get closer, obviously, we would love to have the show have a good reception, to find an audience, and one way or another move forward with more episodes, because I know everybody that works on it, and all the actors and everything, have really loved it. Like I said, we're kind of one big family, and yeah, we would love to do that, but that's kind of to be determined at this point.

What kind of budget were you operating on per episode?

Oh, pretty small; we were very low budget. I'm not even sure if I can tell you a number, but, I mean, especially the first season, it was very low. We had a small crew, probably less than ten people. We were kind of just getting the show off the ground and finding our legs. After that, for seasons two and three, we did finally have a little bit of a budget. We had more equipment. We had a bigger crew, like, fifteen to twenty people. We were able to have extras and get into locations that we wanted. For “Fright Fest,” we loved the idea of of this episode taking place where a guy and a girl on a date, their first date, and it's like an overnight movie marathon, horror movie marathon lock-in. And at the beginning, we were like, “We can't do this yet,” but when we got to season two, we're like, “Okay, we can rent this theater; we can figure it out. We can have the budget and the crew and extras to pull this off.” And that was really cool to be able to do something later on that we weren't able to do in season one.

What are the main ways the series is being promoted?

We're doing press interviews. We're doing press releases, reviews. It's been a while since I've done a press thing like this. Working with Terror Films, some of this is even new to me. We got a Facebook page. You can find The Dead Hour series on Facebook. We're kind of trying to push it out to people that have been kind of following along as we were doing production and stuff a while back. So, yeah, just a bunch of different things.

How do you generally get funding for your projects?

Mostly just out of our own pockets. We did have some fundraisers after season one, but yeah, that's pretty much it. I mean, really, out of pocket, some fundraisers, some people being generous in donating to us and kind of being a part of it. Then, a lot of people, the actors and crew, basically giving up their time, not being on salary or paid and stuff and just wanting to be a part of it when we started, because it was just kind of a grassroots independent low budget series, and here we are now.

How did you get into creating screen productions?

Just as a kid, I had a VHS camera when I was, you know, ten, eleven, twelve years old, and me and my brother would just make films where we grew up, and that just continued into high school. I just fell in love with filmmaking. I loved creating stories; I loved working with brands and people that were interested in being creative too. Then, I went to film school and just continued to dabble in different genres and make low budget indie films. Then, when we had our Fields of the Dead horror film that got out, and then The Dead Hour now, we've finally had some some success that it produced some some things that we think people are going to enjoy.

Aside from The Dead Hour, what screen production that you've done are you most pleased with?

Well, we had Fields of the Dead, which was a low budget or movie that we did a while back, and that was a super fun film to make. We had a cast of like seven people, very small crew, but we filmed over about three months during the summer, and it was hot and miserable. But, you know, it was such a close knit, cast and crew. Then, we were able to be distributed after that, and that was a cool experience, to be on Redbox and on demand; it was pretty crazy. I never even thought when we were filming it that we would ever be in that kind of position. But that's kind of what the new kind of streaming platforms has allowed, indie filmmakers like me, no matter where they are, in our country or the world, to be able to have an outlet to see their work.

Are you thinking about doing other productions in future? And what would they look like?

Another good question. I've been so wrapped up in this at the moment. I think we're waiting to see what happens here with The Dead Hour, to see if we're going to be able to continue and go somewhere with that, or if there's going to be a reset. This has been kind of so overwhelming lately. I haven't given that too much thought yet, but I'm sure maybe later on this year, I will.

Where can people watch The Dead Hour?

So The Dead Hour is being released on streaming platforms on May 12. There's a whole long list of ones, but off the top of my head, I think Tubi, Amazon, Kings of Horror, Watch Movies Now, and a bunch of other ones, but yeah, it's out there on several different platforms.

Where can people follow you?

I'm on Instagram, omahadan We got a Facebook page for The Dead Hour that people can follow along with all the all the articles and press and all the news on our Facebook page.