Ravenmocker Just Wrapped: 6 Things We Learned From the Set of Screamify's Vertical Witch Series

Principal photography has wrapped on Ravenmocker, Screamify's 20-episode Micro Horror(tm) series about 1971 Tennessee teenagers who break down on the wrong backroad and cross into the hunting ground of a heart-stealing Cherokee witch, bound to the land by an 1860s love story that ended in blood. Post is underway now, no release date yet, but the behind-the-scenes footage already answers the only question that matters: what does it take to shoot a two-minute vertical cliffhanger twenty times over. Turns out: a lot. Here's what we learned.

1. The heart is real, and it's supposed to beat. No CG stand-in here. Special-effects makeup artist Jazlyn Adams built the Ravenmocker's stolen heart as a practical prop. "I sculpted it, molded it, cast it in silicone," she said. "The end goal is to core it out so it'll beat. And bleed."

2. The person who built it also eats it. Adams isn't just crew, she's on screen too, as one of the witches. "I'm one of the Raven Mockers," she said. "I have to eat the heart to stay alive." Same hands that sculpted it, now putting it to use.

3. They lit a barn with zero power. Grip Joseph Machosky described the location problem in the most matter-of-fact way possible: "We're shooting in a barn that has no power. That challenge falls on the grips — find a power source, figure out how to light the scene."

4. The Civil War timeline came with a wardrobe tax. The story splits between the 1860s and 1971, and director Gabe McCauley knew exactly what the period half was costing his cast. "Those Civil War outfits are three pounds of wool," he said. "And it's going to be 95 today. So I'm looking forward to it."

5. Vertical video breaks the classic over-the-shoulder shot. Two people talking to each other gets complicated fast in a vertical frame. Director of photography Chris Haggerty laid it out: "The problem with vertical is over-the-shoulders. You have to stack people that close together." And that's before the schedule. "The ask of crews is to still bring quality, but in half the time and half the budget," he said. "That's the reality the industry is in right now."

6. Three days of screaming led straight into an 1857 ballad. Actor Darby Cappillino, who plays Grace/Young Antoinette, performs the Civil War-era song "Lorena" on camera after days of the opposite kind of vocal work. "I've been screaming the past three days, so my voice is a little raspy," she said. "Hopefully I can get all the notes."

Ravenmocker comes from writer John White and director Gabe McCauley, produced by Soul Feather Studios (the two-time National Daytime Emmy-winning Nashville company behind PBS's Reconnecting Roots) with producer Joel McAfee, executive produced by Laryssa Goodlad for Screamify and Oh Gosh Yeah Entertainment, LLC. It joins Autonomous and Game Night: Survive the Night on the same Micro Horror slate. Post-production is happening now, with no release date announced.