Lifelong believer in the paranormal Dodds, and hardwired skeptic Boldsworth went head to head in The ParaPod Podcast...
In 2015, Ian Boldsworth and Barry Dodds decided to start recording their arguments about the existence of ghosts. Lifelong believer in the paranormal Dodds, and hardwired skeptic Boldsworth went head to head in The ParaPod Podcast, and the results were staggering. With Dodds making claims about cursed elevators, flaming monks, and floating children, Boldsworth countered ruthlessly with stoic logic and disbelief. Aided by Boldsworth’s existing podcast audience, the show hit the ground running and garnered a huge interactive fan base immediately. Three series’ later, with millions of downloads, sold out live shows and specials, Boldsworth decided to make this the first podcast to be turned into a feature length film, and in 2020 THE PARAPOD MOVIE will be unleashed.
What follows is a journey of true discovery, of shocks and emotional turmoil...
Taking to the roads of the UK in the PARA-1 (a modified Hearse), under Dodds’ instruction they visit the most haunted village in the world, the home of the world’s most violent poltergeist, the underground labyrinths of Edinburgh, and everywhere in between, as Barry tries with increasing desperation to find some proof to convince his cynical friend that ghosts are real. What follows is a journey of true discovery, of shocks and emotional turmoil, peppered with The ParaPod’s trademark conflict and hilarity, leading to a bewildering climax that’s sure to spark debate and discussion in all who take the ridiculous journey with them. You won’t believe it… but he will.
The first ever advance screening will be held in London on Tue 7th Jan and sold out...
Documentary-filmed completely on location over a three-year period, The ParaPod Movie is produced by Bil Bungay (Moon, Diego Maradona, When The Lights Went Out) and directed by award-winning podcast pioneer Ian Boldsworth (Peacock & Gamble Podcast, The ParaPod, The Mental Podcast). Initially funded with a campaign on the original podcast where listeners paid for a movie credit, against all odds this truly unique independent movie came to fruition.
The first ever advance screening will be held in London on Tue 7th Jan and sold out the Prince Charles cinema within three hours, the movie will subsequently be on a UK tour (TBA), where the 1hr 45min film will be shown followed by a Q&A.
Ian Boldsworth comments:
“I hadn’t the first clue about how to make a film, but the idea arrived when we were filming a speculative TV pilot in a haunted house. I’d been setting stuff up, and pretending things were moving and that I could feel ghosts and Barry (Dodds) was utterly terrified. The most frightened I’d ever seen him up to that point. I was actually panicking about how to bring him out of it, so far gone was he. At the end of the evening, stood outside that house, I had the realisation that we weren’t making a TV show. It would have been impossible to carry on that way across episodes, as the game would all be given away in the first one.
I decided we should make a film instead. Like with podcasts, back when I taught myself Audacity editing and took a punt on a couple of mics that plugged into a laptop, I knew nothing of what it would entail. However, I’ve applied my ignorance in the same way, unfettered by the reality of the industry, in favour of just getting it made and throwing it out there. I knew we would be able to raise some sort of budget from the fan base. They’d already donated for incentives on each series, so I figured if they could buy a credit on the film, that would give us a chunk of money to get started. On the back of this we got a producer who has further financed the shooting, and it’s all – miraculously – come in on budget.
Now it’s a 105min Documentary tale of myself and Barry touring haunted locations in the UK, with him trying to prove to me that ghosts exists. It’s funny, stupid, melancholic, spooky, tense, depressing and inspiring. I think it’s also rather unpredictable, given the lay of the land the audience are used to on the podcast, but that’s in line with the journey overall. Dodds is as daft as ever in his beliefs, and as half-arsed as always on the research and application front, and I continue to take no prisoners in the face of all this idiocy. This is far from an open and shut case though… but folk can make their own minds up. The ParaPod Movie is a hugely unlikely project, that on paper was impossible, but aren’t they just the best ones?
We are now at a stage where the movie is complete, and I’ve that wealth of enforced experience so can move on to how this is going to get in front of people’s eyes. The first screening in January 2020 has already sold out the Prince Charles Cinema, and beyond that, rather than the traditional cinema routes, we are in the process of organising taking this film out on the road. It may as well be a road movie in every sense, not just the adventure on screen.”
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