Teen Filmmakers Tom and Zach Parrish Create Movie about Post-Pandemic World
Zach and Tom Parrish star as orphaned brothers fighting for survival in 75 Degrees West. The brothers co-directed the film, with Tom taking lead, and provided scene direction and writing on the script.
Mosquitos carry a novel virus that infects humans, killing them slowly. It spreads too far, too fast, laying waste to Singapore, New York, Berlin before decimating rural communities the world over. In the North Carolina woods, we find two of the very few survivors—orphaned teenage brothers scavenging an abandoned landscape. They make their way on foot to transport coordinates. If they can make it on time, they’ll be airlifted from this lawless nightmare. But it’s unlikely they’ll survive, much less be saved.
Zach Parrish, who co-directed the film, in a promotional shot for 75 Degrees West
Therein lies the premise of the Parrish family film 75 Degrees West, which—we must note—the Parrish boys Tom and Zach conceived in 2019, a year before COVID-19. They were well underway with the story concept when the real pandemic struck, ironically giving them a golden opportunity to shoot the film as the world went quiet. With mother Valerie on the boom mike, hair, and makeup; Dad Thomas IV behind the camera; and sons Zach (now 13) and Tom (now 16) acting, writing, and directing, the foursome traipsed the North Carolina countryside filming scenes in some of the beautiful, remote wildernesses in the eastern part of the state.
Their father, Thomas Parrish IV, films Zach and Tom in a scene from 75 Degrees West. The movie was shot over several months at multiple locations in eastern North Carolina.
The family’s roots run deep in the eastern Carolina landscape. Thomas IV grew up in Roanoke Rapids, Valerie’s ties bind to Nashville, and both boys were born and raised in Rocky Mount, coming up through the public school system. Their grandfather’s native knowledge about eastern North Carolina served as their biggest asset to knowing the best locations for the scenes. “We’d tell him what we needed and he’d say, ‘go to this place’ or ‘go down there,’ “ says Valerie. “He knows every nook and cranny of this county.” When the end credits roll, you’ll see him listed as the location scout for the movie.
The Parrishes discuss potential locations in Rocky Mount, North Carolina as scenes for the film.
I saw the film at a special screening at Rocky Mount’s Power House space, located in the historically renovated Battle family’s old cotton mill. I will confess I was not expecting much more than a digital age home movie, something a few steps up from the backyard hijinks we used to get into as kids with 10-pound camcorders.
However, from the opening credits of the Parrish’s pre-movie trailer for a concept film titled B1: The Awakening, I knew that my expectations were about to explode.
Still shot from the making of B1: The Awakening, starring Zach and featuring complex, Star Wars-like special effects.
Probably the only thing the Parrish family’s movies have in common with the ones we were “making” in the 80s is all of our infatuations with Star Wars. But while we had the analog IRL tech of “pew! pew!” mouth effects and pantomiming light sabers, Thomas, Zach, and Tom have Blender and After Effects, two outstanding editing software platforms available to anyone with the patience to learn how to use them.
The B1: The Awakening trailer’s sophistication as a compressed story teaser along with the entirely unexpected special effects made this movie junkie’s ears perk up—who were these people? How did they know how to do this? Was 75 Degrees West actually going to be good?
I’m here to tell you, as a jaded screenwriting coach and as someone who has suffered through some film festival stink bombs, this 100-minute movie is worth a watch. It’s not perfect, but it is a very impressive first feature-length film produced with budding talent on an almost nonexistent budget.
Noah Cary, a friend and classmate of Zach and Tom, stars as an injured lone traveler whose appearance forces the boys to make choices between life and death.
Making a movie is hard. Making a movie that works is exceptionally difficult. Pacing and cinematic storycraft take a particular skill set, one that combines the art of storytelling with an understanding of how perspective, B-roll, and what the camera’s “eye” chooses to show us affect our understanding of the characters’ journeys and the motifs of the film as a piece of art. Good filmmakers consciously deploy these skills simultaneously. Frankly, I didn’t expect to see them when I sat down to watch 75 Degrees West, but they were there. How?
“We were looking at different genres of films,” says Tom, who considers the work of visionary director Jordan Peele to be his greatest influence. “We were studying how they made the shots, the angles … we patterned our film after what we thought worked best. Our style has a sci-fi feel in the camera shots and angles and writing style. Although, there were scenes that just happened while we were on certain locations.”
“Yes, we had storyboards,” says dad Thomas, who minored in film at North Carolina Central University. “But sometimes things happened on site that we didn’t expect—like the gas station scene.” The scene occurs early in the film; the boys walk upon a dilapidated, abandoned gas station and lift the pump handles to smell if any gas might remain for them to use as fuel or barter. It’s an eerie scene that captures both the collapse of the modern world and the hopeless desperation of their days.
“We had the scripts three weeks in advance,” Zach says. “We rehearsed every day and again two hours prior to shooting.” Zach, who has modeled and auditioned for acting gigs with Nickelodeon, developed a love of editing and creating special effects while working on this film and B1: The Awakening. Zach cites Ryan Coogler, who directed Black Panther and Fruitvale Station, as his biggest influence on the way he approached scene direction in 75 Degrees West.
Tom and Zach goofing around with the unpaid extra.
SPOILER ALERT but fun, geeky technical info:
The Parrishes—despite a local rumor that they filmed the movie on iPhones—shot the script with three different cameras: a Sony A-7iii, a Sony A-6500, and drones. The varied cameras allowed them to get the high quality and overhead shots for the more sophisticated storytelling.
The final scene, when transport arrives, includes a nod to the Parrishes’ sci-fi roots. Thomas bought models and rendered the rescue spaceship in After Effects using background footage he’d previously filmed in the North Carolina mountains. The three to four seconds we see at the end of the movie took them upwards of 30 person hours to complete in post-production.
The live scene was filmed on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Thomas IV and Zach spent hours adding the spaceship to the movie using After Effects editing software.
As of this blog, their production company, Skyworks Media, has a new film in the works for 2022, but they are keeping it close to the chest for now. “All we can tell you is that will be an adventure movie,” says Tom. The company also has commercial projects lined up as the family prepares for Tom to finish high school while Zach isn’t too far behind.
The family will continue developing Skyworks Media, and Tom and Zach have visions for what happens next for them. “I want to go to NC A&T and major in engineering,” says Tom, “to study robotics. Once I get out of college I’ll work for Skyworks Media and implement robotics and film, developing equipment that can get shots beyond what a human and a camera can do. Working on shots like that will be really cool in the future.”
“When he takes off in the robotics part of the business,” says Zach, “I’ll hopefully take off in the special effects part of the business.”
“One thing we want to mention is that we have our Amazon distributor account,” says Tom. “That’s how we were able to get our movie on Amazon, so anybody who’s interested, if they’ve been working on a film, they can reach out to us. We can distribute their film on Amazon.”
Thomas IV and Valerie also have a clear path forward. “Our plan is just to support Tom and Zach,” says Thomas. “I’m making an effort to educate them on what I learned in college and what I’ve learned in the film industry. This is their initiative, and we want to see them grow and be able to add value and good work to the industry.”
If you want to keep up with 75 Degrees West, check out the app Thomas developed, available on Google Play. The film is available on Prime video for 2.99. You can also follow Skyworks Media on their Insta account.
