About a year after beginning the process, a Lynchburg filmmaker is preparing to send his latest short off for national and international film festivals.
Sam Van Fossen, a 2014 theater graduate of Liberty University, is not new to writing, directing, starring in, and producing short films, but his latest project, “Fleeced,” is the longest film he has done to date, coming in at about 22 minutes. The milestone endeavor was fully funded by his TikTok followers.
The production, shot at several locations in Lynchburg within a six-day span and featuring a small but dedicated cast and crew of about a dozen people, was made possible by Van Fossen’s roughly 900,000 TikTok followers. The online community raised more than $15,000, with an additional $3,000 in direct donations, surpassing the initial fundraising goal of $10,000.
Written, directed by, and starring Van Fossen, the story centers on a child star-turned-serial killer haunted by his past. Fitting perfectly into Van Fossen’s primary film genre of thriller/horror, it explores the psychological, traumatic results of a person exploited by the producers, agents, and other authority figures who controlled and raised a child celebrity.
“The only thing I tried to make different with this was, it wasn’t just a typical thriller, but there is kind of a message of mental illness in it,” Van Fossen said.
“Not saying that everyone with a mental illness is going to become a serial killer or anything like that,” he quickly added.
This was a film Van Fossen had been wanting to make for some time, and it was heavily inspired by stories of former child stars who shared their stories of exploitation in the industry. The #MeToo movement also provided inspiration.
“I remember watching an interview with Corey Feldman, who was a child actor who had been in several different films — ‘The Goonies’ and whatnot — and growing up seeing him in these films, you always think ‘being a child star I bet is awesome. You get to deal with some cool stuff!’ But his interview was very dark,” he said.
Feldman spoke up about experiencing, and surviving, sexual abuse and exploitation in the Hollywood industry as a child star during the late 1980s and early 1990s. His testimony highlighted the plight many child stars face.
Horror/thriller is not Van Fossen’s limit: His TikTok account is for comedy. While his short films are thriller/horror, the comedy genre features heavily in his resume of other theater productions and TikTok.
Acting and film were things Van Fossen ultimately fell into. Van Fossen was a self-described class clown in high school, and a drama teacher constantly encouraged him to join the high school drama club. Van Fossen always responded he was too shy and reserved to do so. It all seemed fated to be, though. After a professor in his Acting I class at LU saw his potential and encouraged him to switch majors and pursue a career in the industry, the Ohio transplant realized he truly loved film production, theater, and everything related.
At first, Van Fossen had not planned on joining TikTok.
“So many of my friends before that were like, ‘Sam, you really should get on TikTok.’ I was like, ‘No. Vine was the only thing, and it’s not the new Vine. I hate it already. I don’t want to be a part of it,’” the 31-year-old said, referring to a former video-based platform.
“But when COVID started and we were all in quarantine, I downloaded it. I was like, ‘Let me see what’s going on.’ At first you see all these dancing videos. It’s all these tweens dancing and stuff, and it’s just like, ‘Why? Who wants to watch this stuff?’ But the more I was on there looking, I see other people are doing comedy sketches, and stories, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I can get into that!’ That’s where my platform really took off.”
Van Fossen ultimately established his TikTok following based on comedy, so when he informed his growing community that he was interested in creating another short film in the horror genre, the dark theme was a bit of a shock — but it was met with great support.
Starting production of “Fleeced” one year ago with about 725,000 TikTok followers, Van Fossen’s community has since grown to about 900,000.
“I’d say for the most part, I have a very supportive community that follows me. I’m just very amazed at how uplifting strangers can be,” Van Fossen said.
The Lynchburg community was immensely hospitable when it came to finding filming locations, Van Fossen said. The businesses he approached with requests to film on their property opened their doors wide, offering enthusiastic support and sometimes asking if they could observe the filming process, or help in some way.
From a downtown parking garage, to a coffee shop, to Liberty University and the Academy Center of the Arts, to the halls of the Kirkley Hotel, the Lynchburg community was supportive and generous, and Van Fossen is grateful.
“All sorts of places opened their doors to us. We didn’t have to pay for everything,” he said.
Some additional scenes were filmed in Van Fossen’s home state of Ohio, in Pennsylvania, and in Richmond.
Although there were some hiccups, and a nearly heart-stopping incident of data corruption that made Van Fossen fear significant amounts of footage could not be salvaged, the team on “Fleeced” made everything come together. Hours of painstaking editing were poured into fixing corrupted data, courtesy of the film’s editor Bobby Orme, a professional freelance, award-winning film editor.
“He literally was able to take the frames that had the data corruption, these little pixelated things in the footage, and put it into Photoshop and literally edit out each pixilation to where the footage was perfect. That’s taken him months, but he’s finally done with it,” Van Fossen said.
Correcting the data corruption, which occurred during the transfer of footage from camera to computer, took up at least half the editing time, Orme said. However, it was not the first time he had encountered such an issue, so he was equipped to handle the situation.
A major focus of Orme’s career in film editing is the psychology behind it. This specialization is part of why he fit the role of editor for “Fleeced” so well, given its heavily psychological nature
“There’s a whole science behind it that a lot of people aren’t aware of,” Orme said. “You can change the different times and the different beats. The body picks up on beats and rhythms, and you can make somebody feel happy, or sad, or angry… you can get the emotion out of your audience by the way you cut the film.”
Van Fossen plans on sending “Fleeced” to some national and international film festivals. Although he has entered about eight smaller independent film competitions since 2015, “Fleeced” was a production he and his team put extra effort into, and he wants to aim higher and become more intentional about networking within the industry. Bigger film festivals are the way to do that, he said.
A trailer for “Fleeced” is expected this fall, and after the film has been submitted to and screened at major film festivals, it will become available for the public to view.
“You can make a film and put it up online anytime you want, but I just wanted something we were super proud of. Show people what we’re capable of,” Van Fossen said.
