About Compound

What happens when a family goes too far off the grid? Constructed from hundreds of hours of leaked security footage, Compound documents the Williams family in the months leading up to the violent incident of June 10, 2025. Isolation becomes paranoia as the family fractures over their way of life — but when the outside world shows up to question their values, they are ready for battle.

01.
The Hook
Compound was filmed primarily on home surveillance cameras - the same off-the-shelf hardware sitting in millions of American homes - with supplemental footage from body cameras and cellphones.
02.
the Details
93 minutes / Found-Footage Action Thriller / USA / English
03.
The Tagline
Protect Our Own

In 2025, there was a violent incident at an isolated family compound. This thriller goes inside the massacre, using never-before-seen surveillance footage obtained as evidence during the investigation.

Synopsis

Constructed from a leaked police archive containing hundreds of hours of security footage, Compound documents life on the Williams family’s remote property leading up to the massacre on June 10th, 2025.
A year after his wife Sarah's death, Noel Williams maintains her legacy by raising his four children away from society at the family's fortified homestead. Clara, 17, is ready to move on from her mother's paranoid and militaristic ways, while 15-year-old Amelia - deeply scarred by her mother's passing - is committed to living by the family code: assume harm, invite de-escalation, protect our own.
When Child Protective Services arrives for a welfare check on the family- which includes younger siblings Avery, 11, and Livvy, 8 - it becomes clear that life on the compound may have to change. For Amelia, outside encroachment is a betrayal of her mother's vision and she’s not about to let that happen, regardless of what other family members think.
When one member of the family is shot during a hunt, the others execute a cover-up and begin a Lord of the Flies-style battle for the compound's future. They are not left alone for long. When the outside world comes for them, they are ready to fight for their way of life.

Compound

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In the US today, there's an omnipresent ecosystem of found footage: home security cameras. Compound is the first found-footage thriller filmed on off-the-shelf home-security cameras. The approach - raw, gritty, authentic- immerses the viewer in the world of the Williams family. In a moment where security cameras are everywhere,Compound asks the question:

‍Do they actually keep us safe, or just make us more paranoid?

The "Surveillance Space" Approach

PRODUCTION

Shot at a location in Bastrop, Texas, the film was captured using 20+ actual security cameras (Lorex bullet and PTZ models).These were hardwired across the property and run into a central NVR (network video recorder) that was hidden away on set.
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During scenes, the production took an immersive approach: theproduction team was hidden away and actors ran their scenes on360-degree sets with no visible crew.

The security footage was supplemented with evidence from other in-story sources: cell phones, trail cams, police body cams, a handicam. All of this was captured using low-fi tech faithful to what the Williams family would have actually used while living inisolation - in an age of 4K+, the film was shot in 1080p. The goal was to create a product that felt authentic at a time when audiences are craving more than over-produced CGI.
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Post PRODUCTION

The editing approach also seeks to re-invigorate found footage. One of the key questions asked during any found footage film is who edited this?

The answer is usually 'a sympathetic FBI guy or documentarian.' For Compound, the answer was 'that person's younger cousin who has been editing videos since they've were 11 and has a following on Youtube' - you can actually get a glimpse of him in the trailer. This editor understands how filmmaking creates sympathy and keeps an audience's attention, and weren't shy about showcasing their artistry to better tell the family's story.

The result is a more dynamic, stylized edit than found footage has traditionally allowed. Compound filmmakers believe this once subversive genre has become too restricted by its own rules and audience expectations — and this was their attempt to do something new.

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Development

To build out a story world that would support this filmmaking approach, the writer and producers went backward: the full script was only written and delivered weeks before filming.

In the months leading up to the shoot, characters were developed, a location was secured, and test shoots helped determine what kind of scenes would work with this non-traditional camera approach.This live-development process allowed the filmmakers to be nimble and craft a story that could be told within the surveillance space. 
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Another question that is always in a found footage film: why are there cameras in this world? The Compound filmmakers knew their answer would center around Sarah Williams, the military veteran, increasingly paranoid leader of the family.

The push was always for authenticity, so Compound brought in Brian Scheel, a veteran, author and grad student in psychology as its Military Advisor. He helped define the ins and outs of security on the compound, but also created a professional narrative and mentalhealth profile for Sarah that would ring true and motivate both the story and the means of capturing it.

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COMPS

UNDERTONE
IAN TUSCON / a24
searching
Aneesh Chaganty / Sony
captain fantastic
Matt Ross / Bleecker Street
Creative Team

Running Five Late

Compound is the first narrative feature from Running Five Late, a production company that  brings a tech-driven ethos to traditional filmmaking with the goal of making narrative work cheaper, faster, and better.

For Compound, RFL partnered with Maxwell Perkins & William Magunson of Wrong Brother Productions, two younger filmmakers with deep roots in the Austin indie filmmaking community.

James Mulcahy
Writer, Director & Producer
James Mulcahy has over a decade of video experience from his time working as producer for one of the world's biggest tech companies. His work has won James has four Emmys, a Webby, and two James Beard nominations for his video work.
Vince Grimes
Producer
Vince is a former tech-world executive producer turned serial media founder and the host ofFilmmakers & Fans, a podcast with a 150k+ weekly followers reach, co- hosted with famed director and DP Steven Bernstein (who is also a mentor on Compound).
William Magunsson & Max Perkins
Writers & Producers
Will & Max have been making films since they've been in high school. Will has acted in films like Man Finds Tape, and Max did double-duty as editor of Compound. Their recently released action-packed short film The Busboy garnered over 170K views on YouTube.

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