Former Gazette paperboy turned film director realises Hollywood dream
From Barum to Tinsel Town - Paranormal Hollywood Haunting is the latest movie from Barnstaple native and film director Carl Medland, blending real lives, a love story and chills...
When a Barnstaple teacher gave his class a cine camera to use, one youngster knew he had found his calling - and almost 50 years later, that director’s latest movie is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Paranormal Hollywood Haunting by Carl Medland and Taz Yildirimlar offers an intriguing mix of fact and fiction, featuring real people, their lives and their Tinsel Town love story, as well as eerie suspense, history and survival.
The film sees British paranormal investigators Carl and Taz investigate reports of unexplained activity inside a Hollywood mansion. They become immersed in the extraordinary lives of a real-life married couple whose journey spans homelessness, struggle and Hollywood history.
Known for their ‘Paranormal Farm’ series in the ‘found footage’ vein, the duo have a global fan base, but for 55-year-old Carl it all began that day in the Yeo Valley Primary School playground, when their teacher, Mr Thompson, introduced his class to the magic of film.
Today, he is a regular at film festivals such as Cannes and Berlin, and his list of films includes The Cost of Love, Aiden, The Adored, The Spiritualist and the Paranormal Farm series, which has a global fan following. His films are also well known in the LGBTQ community.
The Gazette caught up with Carl to chat about the new movie and his roots in Barnstaple, where his family still lives. He told us about his introduction to the cine camera and said: “That really excited me about film from a very young age.
“I went to Pilton School. I used to deliver the Gazette as a paper boy for my first job and then went to Clarks Shoe Factory and had a few jobs around the area.
“I used to deliver rental videos for a company in Barnstaple, where I loved discussing the films with my customers, and in my spare time I hired a video camera from Knights on Barnstaple High Street, where I used to enjoy making short films with my friends and family members.”
As a young person, he was also a member of Barnstaple and Braunton amateur dramatic societies, appearing on stage at the Queen’s Theatre in Oliver Twist, plus productions of Guys and Dolls and Calamity Jane.
A BTEC in performing arts at North Devon College followed, and then university in London, where he was diagnosed with dyslexia, not the best news for a writer, especially in those days.
Carl said: “It almost stopped me from doing what I wanted to do, but I had powerful stories to tell.
“I said it would not hinder my life and my screenplay for The Spiritualist won Best Screenplay at the New York Film Festival. My biggest challenge, dyslexia, became my superpower, which was telling stories.
“I always wanted to do a Hollywood movie. That was the dream.”
Paranormal Hollywood Haunting follows Carl as he returns to the screen as himself, investigating one of the most unusual cases of his career.
He and Taz meet Daniel P Lopez, 49 and his husband Arthur Porter, aged 92, who appear as themselves and whose extraordinary lives transcend fiction.
In the film, as the investigation unfolds, an unsettling mystery emerges surrounding a forgotten soul whose voice was silenced decades earlier.
The movie is now available to stream on Amazon Prime and early reviewers have already been struck by the intriguing blend of reality and drama, played out in Arthur and Daniel’s impressive Hollywood mansion, set literally below the famous Hollywood sign.
Spanning almost a century of history, Arthur’s career is impressive, with countless famous film credits, including Sleepless in Seattle, Groundhog Day, Independence Day and Terminator 2. At the request of Disney, he also digitally restored its animated classic Fantasia and the company loved it so much that they asked him to do the same for another 20 films, providing the versions audiences still watch today.
Daniel’s journey is no less striking and in the film he talks openly about living with paranoid schizophrenia and the challenges he has faced throughout his life.
He shares his remarkable journey from homelessness and surviving through sex work on the streets of Santa Monica to becoming a published author and an advocate working in sexual health.
The couple met on the streets of Santa Monica while Daniel was homeless and hustling to survive and they are still together 26 years later.
Of the film, Carl said: “What started as a paranormal investigation became a journey into the lives of two remarkable men whose story deserved to be heard.
“Paranormal Hollywood Haunting is a story about identity, visibility and misrepresentation. The best ghost stories do not ask whether ghosts exist. They ask us to understand how easily people disappear when society refuses to see them for who they truly are.”
Speaking to the Gazette, he added: “This film, Hollywood Haunting, does actually cover real themes and it is all about identity. I believe it’s important that stories for our community should be told by members of it, bringing authenticity and purpose, while making it accessible for everyone. My mission statement is to challenge people’s common beliefs and complacencies.
“The house definitely has a past and it is surrounded by Hollywood history. The film captures real people with real stories and real history.
“Some true events are more improbable than some of the things that get scripted in horror. Capturing truthful stories with real people and real locations can be much scarier than something that isn’t real.
“I’d like people to know they’re going to experience something genuinely different with Paranormal Hollywood Haunting. This isn’t simply another horror film.”
Carl’s next project is close to home. He is working on a feature film based on the writing of Elizabeth Revill, who was his voice teacher when he studied at North Devon College.
It will focus on Liz’s work centred around the notorious Rose West case, but from the angle of West’s time in prison and Carl describes it as a psychological drama.
Reflecting on his career so far, Carl concluded: “To now find myself standing beneath the Hollywood sign, directing and starring in an 85-minute feature documentary thriller, is something I could never have imagined as that young boy in Barnstaple.
“It reminds me that where you begin never limits where you finish.
“One of the biggest messages I'd love young people in North Devon to hear is don't wait for permission. You don't need expensive cameras. You don't need to live in London or Los Angeles. You need imagination, determination and persistence. If you've got a story worth telling, start telling it.”
Paranormal Hollywood Haunting can be streamed now on Prime.