The short OLD NUMBER SEVEN (read my production diary here) started off with writer/director Gonzalo Lopez and I getting inspired by way of a bottle of Jack Daniels, some early Argento movies and Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album. We wrote the film in 2 days, we got ace DP Javier Rueda on board and we eventually shot the film on a shoe string budget. The film premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in 2009 to a so-so response and based off of that screening we re-cut the film (for the better). It screened at 5 more International Festivals after that and then vanished – and pretty much everybody involved was content with that. It had vanished. It was over.

On a personal level; this film happened pretty much around the time where my whole life went downhill. So for me, on top of not performing as well as I had hoped, the short had a “bad times” connotation tagged to it, one that I wanted to leave behind me. Over the years though, every single time I’d go to Spain, Gonzalo and I would watch the film, and all depending on the amount of beers we’d have, it was either a piece of shit or a masterpiece. Either way, we’d always fun with it – in a Rocky Horror Picture Show kind of way!

On my last trip to Spain, we watched it yet again, and although flawed, I did recognize some very solid elements within it (the opening, the abortion, the kill, Saida’s fine performance, some of the imagery) and I convinced director Gonzalo Lopez to slap the short online and fully close the book on the film if you will.

So there ya have it! You curious about OLD NUMBER SEVEN? You can watch it below! Some aspects I love, some I hate, it didn’t have the end result or life I wanted it to have… but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I’ve made peace with all of it and I now look at it fondly as it does come with its far share of good memories. I’m happy it’s now online. Cheers! JF PS: Yes Iron Maiden gave us the permission to use the opening song 🙂

Old Number Seven (Short Film) from John Fallon on Vimeo.

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