tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84238782024-03-06T22:07:07.549-08:00The Dog PileAn independent film e-zine dedicated to publishing articles, essays, and reviews written about filmmakers who aren’t afraid to tell it like it is.Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1159234841788130602006-09-25T18:34:00.000-07:002006-09-25T19:59:44.956-07:00This Is One SHIVER You Don't Want Running Down Your Spine<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1foc2-postr1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1foc2-postr1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Tis the season for sequels. <em>The Grudge 2, Crank </em>(Come on, it's really just <em>The Transporter 3), </em>utility companies crying for rate increases and most of the crap on the fall schedule for network television.<br /><br />And <em>Fear Of Clowns 2. </em>Yup, Shivers is clawing his way back to a DVD player near you. For those of you who have no idea what the first film was like, go rent or buy it. Scary clown, severed head, naked blonde and big axes. Good for an afternoon of thrills. But the sequel offers more violence, more action, and, well, just more.<br /><br />Kevin Kangas, the director/writer of both of these films, is currently wrapping up the editing and polishing on <em>Fear Of Clowns 2. </em>As much as I'd like to say that we here at The Dog Pile ran into him at the local Supercenter as he was buying large amounts of cold medicine and sulfur matches in a bid to finance his next project, it just wouldn't be true. He's at home working around the clock (the man doesn't even have the time to watch an episode of <em>Family Guy</em>). So, we pestered him through emails until he threatened lawsuits to get this interview. Thankfully, he has dropped the lawsuits, but he did mumble something about still having that huge axe Shivers used in the first film.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Dog Pile</strong>: What prompted you to revisit the <em>Fear Of Clowns</em> concept? I mean, I know Lion's Gate asked, but beyond the simple answer, what do you want to achieve in this film that you didn't in the first one?<br /><br /><strong>Kevin Kangas</strong>: Well, when they indicated they were interested in a sequel, it was the furthest thing from my mind. So at first I balked -- I didn't really want to jump back in, especially since the entire experience wasn't exactly a good one. But then an idea hit me, and I got excited. I thought it was something I could get behind, and, at the same time, I could answer some of the unanswered questions from the first movie -- things that got cut out of the final version of the movie. I started writing the script, and things fell together. I was pretty happy with the final script -- after the set up it's pretty fast paced.<br /><br /><strong>D. P.</strong>: You seem to have Shivers and the leading lady from the first film back. But Rick Ganz is absent. Why is that? Are you saving him back for that sequel to <em>Hunting Humans</em>? Since he doesn't seem to be on screen, is he on the crew? What did you do with his body, man?!? We know what you did last summer!!!!!!<br /><br /><strong>K.K.:</strong>Well, I don't want to go into the specifics of why Rick's not in the film. I haven't talked to him in about eight months. Eventually I'd love to get him back for a <em>Hunting Humans</em> sequel, but for now I'm done on the sequels. From a story vantage though, this is actually Detective Peters' story now -- it's not even Lynn's anymore. So Tuck(Rick's character) didn't really fit into the picture anyway.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1foc2-p1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1foc2-p1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>D.P.</strong> : From what I've been able to figure out from the message board postings and from your casting, this film sounds like it will be less suggested horror and more action horror. Is this the direction the film is going, or do you have something sneaky in mind using a group of beefy guys going after Shivers? <em>Brokeback Carnival</em>, maybe?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>Damn -- you leaked the subtitle of <em>FOC2: Brokeback Carnival</em>--well, I guess it's out there now. But seriously, yes, this is a faster horror film -- more killing. There's burning cars, gunfights, action scenes, stunts and, oh yeah, CLOWNS.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>What can you tell me about the story without ruining things for anyone who stumbles across the interview on my blog site?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>It's two years later, and Shivers has escaped from the asylum with two other psychopaths -- and he's once again on the hunt for Lynn Blodgett. Frank Lama returns as Detective Peters, the sarcastic cop with an attitude. He's diagnosed with a rare disease that's going to kill him within a year (not a spoiler -- it's the first scene of the movie), and he decides that rather than try to catch Shivers and put him away again, he's going to kill him. Only problem: Shivers is not that easy to kill.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>You torched a car in this film. Is this the one you mentioned on your message board (<a href="http://kangaskahnfilms.com/phpBB/">http://kangaskahnfilms.com/phpBB/</a>) you were saving back for just such an event? What history does this vehicle have? Why sacrifice the poor thing? And what was up with the freaky clip of the torching on YouTube? Anyone get hurt?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>Yes, it's the car I was saving for this event. It was my old car whose engine died. It still looked great, so I never got rid of it. I knew I'd either burn it or blow it up or crash it, and it would look like I'd ruined a perfectly good car. So it sat in my driveway for three years -- neighbors offered to buy it from me because it looked so nice. But I knew one day it would come in handy. The Youtube clip ( <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caP9X-1_6HA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caP9X-1_6HA</a>) shows Johnny, the pyrotechnics guy, lighting the car. It was supposed to be a small, controlled fire, but you can see from the clip that all that went out the window. The car blew up, and the fire burned out of control. Johnny got some pretty bad burns and then, later got arrested. All in all, another perfect day of low-budget filmmaking.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>How did the production go this time? I mean, no hurricanes or tropical storms got in your way. And this is your third film. Did it go smoother? Do you feel more confident as director? Any new challenges (don't ya just hate those damn Yuppie buzz words?) this time around? Anything happen that honestly made you want to throw your hands up and walk away?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>It didn't go any smoother. We were denied permission to shoot in a park that originally gave us permission, and it was too late to change the schedule. So I found another hole in the fence, like I did in the first movie, and we snuck in. We had to post crew to watch for the security trucks -- every time one came by, we'd all hit the ground. And this was the first day of the shoot -- and I'm using an actor who appears regularly on <em>One Tree Hill</em> and was on <em>Dawson's Creek</em>. I was completely embarrassed. And also that day Mark had problems with the contacts -- he couldn't get one of them in. So all day long I have to shoot a movie about a black-eyed clown when he only has one black eye. We're shooting all sorts of weird angles so we don't show that eye. Another day we had police shut us down because we had two fake police cars with real police light racks driving around, lights blazing. Without permission or permits, I found out -- I thought our producer had all that stuff. Then the police tell us there's a local ordinance that says no one over the age of 12 can wear a mask or costume within the city limits. And I'm shooting a movie there with three clowns. The good news is that we had a behind-the-scenes guy shooting during this movie, and he got some great footage of all that stuff (including the cop shutting us down), so even if you don't like the movie you're gonna LOVE the Making Of. As far as directing, I get more confident after each movie. It used to be that if things went wrong I wondered whether I'd be able to make the scene work -- now I'm not so worried. I can always make it work. The question now is: How well can I make it work? But there were plenty of problems, believe me.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>You openly said you weren't completely happy with the last FOC film. Did this one give you a better feeling? Any one thing in this film that made you think, "This is why I got into filmmaking."?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>Yes -- this is going to be a much better movie than the first. I had more time to devote exclusively to the script, and I designed it from the get-go to be faster, much more action and killing. I set out to write the kind of script that I would have loved when I was twenty, and I think I got close. How close the script comes to the movie is still to be seen...<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>Not to get into the budget, but did you bring this film in on the money? Have you discovered ways to cut corners without cutting yourself or the film short? Any one scene or event in the film that you can point at and say, "That is the most expensive thing in the film."<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>This film went over budget by about twenty percent. I didn't try to cut too many corners on this one; I really wanted to make sure this didn't suffer from sequel-itis. I wanted better than the first movie -- and for the most part, it is. It still has a few problems -- indy shooting is all about compromise, but I hate compromise. As for the most expensive thing -- I spent a lot on FX this time around. There's thirteen deaths in this movie that involve FX as opposed to the four or so from the first movie. And then props and costuming cost a fortune. One of the new clowns is 6'8" and that costume had to be specially designed. They just don't make them that big. Then we had to get duplicates made of the other costumes since they're vintage, and you can't find them anymore.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>Are you done with <em>Fear Of Clowns</em> for the time being, or is Shivers going to be your trademark character, like Craven's Freddy or Paul Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky (a German/Polish name for a latino character in a series of Spanish films -- now THAT takes balls)? What is next for you as far as films go?<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>I am DONE with Shivers--DONE with clowns. My crew tried to get me to commit to a third movie, but I've had enough. Even thinking about doing a third one sends images of the word "SELLOUT" through my mind. <em>FOC2</em> is a self-contained movie. If I never revisited it, the story stands, and as it is, I feel like I've completely told the story. That said, a writer buddy of mine did advance a story idea that interested me, but I wouldn't do it until I had another movie or two under my belt. That said, I'm thinking about doing a <em>Fear Of Clowns</em> comic book. As for my next movie, I'm mulling over a few things right now. I have to finish the <em>FOC2</em> stuff before moving on to anything else.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>Totally off the wall, but have you EVER considered a gothic story reworked for a modern setting? I think something like that could work. Like <em>Blood-Spattered Bride</em> with Renee Zellweger as the young bride and Sharon Stone as Carmilla. But on a far smaller budget. Just throwing the idea out there.<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>No. Gothic to me screams of women in castles. But as far as remakes go I had a chance to see <em>Brigadoon</em> again for the first time in years, and I gotta tell you: I'd love to do a horror remake and call it <em>Brigadoom</em>. And yeah, I'd probably still keep it a musical, but it would have music by Rob Zombie and Nine Inch Nails. It would rock. And I'm not even joking.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>Not to have you trash other filmmakers, but what is the WORST film you've seen in the last year or so. I mean, one that makes you want to physically hurt people.<br /><br /><strong>K.K.:</strong><em> X-men 3</em>. This movie sucks so hard, especially coming after a good sequel in <em>X-men 2</em>. I don't think I've been this offended by a movie since I saw <em>Tomb Raider</em>.<br /><br /><strong>D.P.: </strong>Thanks for the interview!<br /><br /><strong>K.K.: </strong>Anyone in the New Jersey/New York area is welcome to come meet me and see the first footage to <em>FOC2</em> at Fango's Weekend of Horrors at the end of September. The details are below: <a href="http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=2753">http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=2753</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>(As always, The Dog Pile would like to thank Kevin Kangas for being a good sport. And we'd love to be on the list for a screener for </em>Fear Of Clowns 2, <em>but suggesting such a thing would be rude. Hint, hint. Show your support by visiting Kevin at his web site: <a href="http://kangaskahnfilms.com">http://kangaskahnfilms.com</a>.)</em></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1foc2-p4.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1foc2-p4.jpg" border="0" /></a>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1155089890834473492006-08-08T19:12:00.000-07:002006-08-08T20:09:28.300-07:00Back Into The Bloodbath<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1nightmareworld.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1nightmareworld.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Those folks at Mill Creek Entertainment are at it again. Well, they will be in a week or so. More new releases. More horror. More Science Fiction. More weirdness. More cheese.</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">I know, I know. I'm starting to sound like the self-appointed cheerleader for this company. Okay, I guess I am. But I gotta tell you, it isn't often that I find anything in the video stores that makes me feel like it's Christmas morning when I get my purchase home. These 50 and 20 and 10 movie sets leave me half-crazed with which title I want to sit down and watch first. But you should have no pity for a fan with a deep love of cheap movies in vast quantities. No. You should pity my poor girlfriend. She is often kind enough to grin and bear through these films. (I think <em>Terror Of Tiny Town</em> damn near killed her, though I found the second half to be a tolerable cheapy Western tale.) </span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">So, now we have another 50 movie set called "Nightmare Worlds". There are a good number of titles fresh to Mill Creek's line up. <em>Alien Contamination. Atomic Rulers Of The World. Embryo. Radio Ranch (The Phantom Empire). Nightmare Never Ends </em>(seen in a drastically cut version in <em>Night Train To Terror</em>). <em>Terror At The Red Wolf Inn. UFO: Target Earth. Werewolf Woman. Eternal Evil. Ring Of Terror.</em> That's just a few. With forty more movies, you'll be burning up almost 67 hours. So take a week off work. The boss will understand.</span></strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1everlasting.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1everlasting.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">And if you prefer your horror a touch more modern and often more bloody, then definitely check out the new releases from Mill Creek's Pendulum Pictures. 3 titles: "Everlasting Evils", "Demented Deviants", and "Brutal Bloodsuckers".</span></strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1dementedd.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1dementedd.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Each collection has six films on two disks. If you are a die-hard fan of Brain Damage Films, a direct-to-video film company, then you may have some of these titles, so check the title listings. For those of you who have never heard of Brain Damage Films, prepare for movies that push the limits of gore, good taste and, on occasion, logic. Still, if you like your violence without sugarcoating and your savagery shown in full color, these releases from Pendulum Pictures will keep you busy for a weekend of gruesome entertainment.</span></strong><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1brutalblood.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1brutalblood.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>(As always, we like to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for the kind use of their graphics. Check out their site at <a href="http://www.millcreekent.com">www.millcreekent.com</a>)</em></span></strong>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1150773009168155832006-06-19T18:21:00.000-07:002006-07-31T08:02:52.736-07:00Mostly Indie Films, Cheap and Plentiful<span style="font-size:130%;">I can understand how someone could log onto this blog and wonder why I am talking up companies selling collections of films on DVD. This blog is, by its own definition, about indie films and the people who make them. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Films don't stand on their own. Long gone are the days of Herschell Gordon Lewis and filmmakers promoting their own films at local drive-ins. These days, it doesn't matter if you have the greatest thing since the discovery of Lycra -- no distributor, no one is gonna see your films. Part of the whole is the distributor. The people at Mill Creek Entertainment are dredging up mostly indie films that, in some cases, time has forgotten. Of course, opinions may lean in the direction that some of these films <em>should</em> be forgotten, but the point is they are compiling collections for those who enjoy the old stuff and/or for those who want to do their homework before tackling the new stuff.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Four new releases should be hitting your entertainment stores around June 27:</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"Tales Of Terror"</span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1talesofterror.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1talesofterror.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">This is a 50 film collection that covers a lot of ground as far as film history. Throughout the 12 discs, you will find classics with Bela Lugosi ("The Bat," "Bowery At Midnight," and "The Ape Man") as well as oddities from the 70s ("Curse Of The Headless Horseman," "The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave," and "Werewolf Of Washington"). They took the time to track down some of the Skid Row horror films aimed at black audiences in the 30s and 40s ("The Devil's Daughter" and "Midnight Shadow"). You can have your own Todd Slaughter film festival with four of his films. If you tire of that, check out the various Italian horror films ("Terror Creatures From The Grave," "The She-Beast," and "The Long Hair Of Death"). </span><span style="font-size:130%;">This collection lists at $29.98, but you should be able to find it for considerably less, around $19.99 or so. At almost 62 hours of material, you'll stay busy.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"Strange Tales"</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1strangetales.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1strangetales.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">A 20 movie set that leans towards the science fiction film. Some of the more notable selections are: "Idaho Transfer" -- directed by Peter Fonda, a tale of time travel and ecological disaster; "The Doomsday Machine" -- an early 70s oddity with Casey Kasem (Shaggy from the original "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" series on Saturday mornings from the same era); "Warriors Of The Wasteland" -- one of the dozens of cheap Italian sci-fi action films we were assaulted (and insulted) with in the 80s. The set lists at $14.98, but don't be surprised to see it for 10 or 11 bucks. Expect almost 29 hours to cheap thrills.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"Cult Classics"</span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1cultclassics.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1cultclassics.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Another 20 movie set, this time featuring some lovely grindhouse nightmares that dwell in mostly realistic subject matter even if the presentation is absurd. Drug-crazed people run the streets, corrupting all they touch in such heartwarming fare as "Cocaine Fiends," "Reefer Madness," and "The Marijuana Menace." Learn how to avoid moral decay by absorbing the lessons presented in "Delinquent Daughters," "Slaves In Bondage," "Escort Girl," and "The Wild And The Wicked," sometimes known as "The Flesh Merchant". Then you have films that defy rationale, such as "Child Bride," "Terror In Tiny Town," and "Chained For Life," which starred real Siamese twins. Lists for $14.98, but you are likely to do better price-wise. Almost 24 hours of some of the most insane films collected. Show it at your next frat party.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"Vampires And More"</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1vampiresmore.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1vampiresmore.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">A 20 film set that brings together the various vampire films from most of the other collections Mill Creek has out. A great way to sample the range of films the company has to offer as well as being a easy way for those who like their wine red and their meat rare to have a collection of bloodsuckers and flesheaters to entertain them until the dawn. "Devil Bat," "Atomic Age Vampire," "Last Man On Earth," "Nosferatu," "Revolt Of The Zombies," and "Voodoo Black Exorcist" (a personal favorite) are just a taste of the titles in the collection. Listing at $14.98, but -- well, you know the drill by now. Expect nearly 28 hours of bloodletting, bloodsucking and gut-munching fun.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Do your history lessons, folks. Check out the origins of your current favorite horror and exploitation genres. You might just find a few hidden gems.</span><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">We would like to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for the permission to use their cover art. To visit Mill Creek Entertainment's website for more information, go to <a href="http://www.millcreekent.com/">http://www.millcreekent.com/</a></span></em>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1146017484600367522006-04-25T19:10:00.000-07:002006-05-02T20:38:17.853-07:00Bargain Bin Battle<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1curseofthedead.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1curseofthedead.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">People love a bargain. Everyone knows this. Wal-Mart has made billions utilizing this information about the American consumer. Maximize the goods while minimizing the price, and even if you are pushing stale bread, a good number of people will do some quick math and fill their carts with bread on the verge of being tossed. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Entertainment is rarely the place you find bargains. Video games and game consoles are more complex and expensive. Movie ticket prices keep crawling upwards even in the face of more and more commercials running before the feature. Forget about the cost of going to see a major league ball game of any type; you'll be spending your kid's college fund if you take the family. Look at your cable bills over the last year, and you'll find that unless you drop services, you are paying more. And let's not forget that the price of new DVD releases have been slipping upwards a dollar or so every now and then.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">So, do we hang our heads and weep? Is there no hope for a touch of sanity when it comes to entertainment? Can't someone do something to ease the burden?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Oh my, yes, there are voices of sanity out there, so take a moment to breathe deep, blink your eyes clear and look at the potential for cheap thrills in your local video stores. Welcome to the world of bargain-priced DVD sales.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">There are many companies out there with an idea to get movies in your hands at prices starting as low as $1.99. On DVD. Think of the possibilities. Think of these companies. BCI Eclipse. Mill Creek Entertainment. Madacy. St. Clair Entertainment. East West DVD Entertainment. Some of these companies package multiple films per disk and/or multiple disks per package. The collections can be as large as 50 films per set for roughly 20 dollars.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"These films must be crap," you may be thinking. "No one can afford to release good movies for prices like that."</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">You won't be finding Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson starring in the films released at these prices. You can't expect them to make mega-millions by letting their films sell at a couple of bucks per DVD. But we are talking about entertainment. You want something to pop into your player and have some fun for an hour and a half. You will find a stunning array of titles, ranging from horror to crime to comedy to action. You'll see classics and cult nightmares. You can go from Lou Gossett Jr. to Yvonne Michaels. You'll see the spectrum of black and white to stunning color. You'll also see films that will leave you bewildered by their mere existence if you dig deep enough into this niche market.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1drivein.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1drivein.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"We determine themes or genres with broad appeal and attempt to gather the most appealing mix within the available content universe. We utilize a variety of resources for content masters, but focus on suppliers that are renowned in the industry for quality and diversity," says Ian Warfield, president of Mill Creek Entertainment. His company releases a large variety of content, from double feature disks all the way up to 50 movie megapacks. The collections are built around themes. A couple of examples are "Chilling Classics", which showcases enough horror and suspense films to keep you awake for weeks, and "Drive-In Classics", which puts together 50 films that will remind you of family outings to the local drive-in and will give those who never had a chance to go to a drive-in a glimpse of what their parents might have seen in their teenage years.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1fleshfeast.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1fleshfeast.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">BCI Eclipse has been releasing collections of various themes for a number of years. The most visually arresting are the four movie sets which usually use a theme for the films, such as "Flesh Feast", which contained films about cannibalism, and "Horror Rises From the Grave", running with the theme of ghouls and zombies. The bulk of their releases lean more specifically toward the exploitation areas of horror, science fiction, action and urban thrillers.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Still, four films, even if they aren't blockbusters, at six dollars? How do they make money? Simple. They make use of public domain films (films that have fallen out of their ownership rights over the years or have had their ownership rights relinquished for various reasons) and special arrangements with various distribution companies.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">"We used to release a good deal of public domain or unregistered films. We have begun to move away from this line of product and are now focusing solely on licensed/exclusive content...Our new multi-film sets that are made up of all licensed content come from sources that are willing to license content at a very competitive rate." That is the word from Jeff Hayne, Director of Acquisitions at BCI Eclipse. His company has long made use of direct-to-video films and recently have been re-releasing films from companies like Sub Rosa, known for their catalog of horror and erotic horror films made exclusively for video distribution, as well as Brain Damage Films, which tends to release extreme horror films. "We do have license agreements in place with both of these companies -- both of these companies provide films that are good examples of multi-film collection material."</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/1mentalmaniacs.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/1mentalmaniacs.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Recently, Mill Creek joined with Maxim Media Group, a sister company of Brain Damage Films, to form Pendulum Pictures. This company will be releasing six-film sets under themed titles like "Savage Sickos", "Hostile Hauntings" and "Fatal Femmes". The bulk of these films tend to older and hard-to-find direct-to-video films. They will carry a very low price of $9.98 per collection.</span><br /><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;">The companies offer entertainment in pretty much whatever size you are willing to commit yourself to. They do so at prices that make you feel like there has got to be something wrong with what you are buying. Who cares if you get ten, twenty or fifty movies for less than you'd pay for a couple of mega-sized meals at some happy fast food joint? Well, people may want a bargain, but it isn't much of a bargain if you're getting something useless, no matter how low the price.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">The bottom line is: Are they worth your time? </span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">BCI Eclipse, under their Brentwood imprint, has a deep catalog of various collections. The packaging is often inventive to allow them to secure up to ten disks in a specially-designed DVD box. Every disk has at least one movie on each side. The DVDs sport at least a "Play" and "Scene" selection on the main menu, but some have trailers. Special features and audio commentaries are not to be found on any that have been previewed. No close captioning, so unless you are a dedicated lip reader, hearing impaired people won't get much from these collections. The films themselves usually look very good, though they are limited by the source material BCI is presented with. In some of the older films, the quality can be on the level of a VHS tape from a rental store, but it is definitely watchable. The product is occasionally edited, but not by BCI. On average, you are seeing the film uncut on all of their product.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Mill Creek Entertainment utilizes a variety of packaging, depending on what you are buying. The smaller collections are packaged in the usual plastic DVD cases, but when you get to the mega-packs, the films are placed in their own paper sleeves with the disk's contents, along with a description, printed on the outside. These sleeves are boxed in a Velcro-sealed heavy paper stock box. Again, the disks contain at least one (usually two) films on each side of the dual-sided disks. There are "Play" and "Scene" selections for each film as well as an image of the film's title screen. No special features, commentaries or close captioning. The films vary in quality, but never worse than VHS quality of image. In Mill Creek's defense, most of their releases are older films that haven't seen the inside of a remastering suite and never will. A number of these films are lucky to find anyone to give them a new lease on life. The films are occasionally edited versions (not edited by Mill Creek, though), but the bulk are as uncut as you can hope to find.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">East West DVD Entertainment releases primarily single disks with two features on one side of the disk. They use slim-line plastic cases. There are "Play" and "Scene" selections for each movie. No extras, commentaries or close captioning. The versions they release are similar to the quality of the previous companies. Very few of their product were previewed, so it could only be assumed the versions they release are not edited anymore than the product from the other companies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Emson USA releases 50 film sets on five double-sided disks. Packaged in a plastic DVD case designed to hold the multiple disks. The menus are just lists of the films on that side of the disk. No extras, no commentaries and no captioning. The films are packaged five per side on the disks. They use compression technology to do this. The downside is that the compression is so intense that the films become pixelated nightmares when there is any action on the screen. Aside from that, their selections can be had, at much high quality, from almost any other company mentioned in this article.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Product from other companies mentioned in this article were not available for preview.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Low prices. A wealth of films and a variety of genres. Quality of film sources that ranges from okay to excellent. As long as the buyer is aware of what to expect, there are plenty of bargains to be had from many sources. Consider these collections to be launching pads that might introduce you to new films, new filmmakers, old favorites and forgotten classics, as well as inspire you to seek out some of the higher-priced, remastered versions of some of these films that small, niche distributors are making available. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">At the very least, you can never claim to be unable to afford to entertain yourself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Links to some of the companies mentioned:</span></p><p><a href="https://www.thpsales.com/store/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=5">Emson USA</a></p><p><a href="http://www.millcreekent.com/index.html">Mill Creek Entertainment - Changing the Face of Value entertainment</a></p><p><a href="http://www.navarre.com/bci.aspx">Welcome to Navarre Corporation</a> (BCI Eclipse)</p><p><a href="http://www.stclairent.com/dvd.php?id=10&series_name=Mega-sets">St Clair Entertainment's DVDs</a></p><p><em><span style="font-size:85%;">(Many thanks to Ian Warfield from Mill Creek Entertainment and to Jeff Hayne from BCI Eclipse. They took time to respond to my questions about their companies and gave permission to use images from their web sites. There will be future short postings on upcoming releases from both companies.)</span></em></p>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1145415419505750972006-04-18T18:36:00.000-07:002006-04-18T19:56:59.590-07:00REVIEW: Fear Of Clowns<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/focposterd.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/focposterd.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Hunting Humans </em>was the first feature by Kevin Kangas and crew. I was fortunate enough to snag that DVD from a bargain bin. I did so because a filmmaker friend of mine had an idea to do a film about two serial killers in competition with each other. <em>Hunting Humans </em>was nothing like what my friend had in mind, but was entertaining as hell. It had all the basics of the serial killer films, but threw so many twists and turns at the viewer that it never skated by on cliches.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">So then the big question is: Can Kevin Kangas live up to a very solid first feature with his second feature?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Fear Of Clowns </em>gives us a lead character haunted by some childhood trauma that left her with coulrophobia, which is a fear of clowns. She does the whole intensive therapy routine by way of splattering her mental demons onto canvas, creating an artistic resume littered with paintings of distorted, mutilated and just pain disturbing clown imagery. Her life is slipping down the toilet, her finances are fading, and, damn it all, a hideous clown seems to be stalking her. People around her die, often and in various grisly ways.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The film does a number of things rather well. The opening sequences are truly disturbing. Frankly, I would have been happy with a whole movie about a young girl haunted by a gruesome clown. The actors are very appealing, and there are no distracting performances. <em>Fear Of Clowns</em> also tends to avoid the "stalk and kill" format with small twists to the story that keep diverting your attention. And the single greatest thing is that Kevin Kangas knows how to actually put together a low budget film that looks like it was made on a far larger budget. Thanks in this area also goes to his Cinematographer, David Mun. It is a great looking film.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">With the good also comes a couple of bad things. The least of the two problems is the opening of the film is so strong that it sets up some images that seem to go nowhere. It seems as if the main character's fear of clowns is merely hinted at and then takes a backseat to hitting the story points. A bit more development of this part of the film and the main character's fear would have made for considerable emotional tension as the story continued.</span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/2.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/2.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The biggest problem I had with <em>Fear Of Clowns </em>is the final third of the film. The whole film trips along with great pacing and action. Suddenly, everything grinds to a halt. The film seems to lose its focus and becomes the "stalk and kill" film it had so carefully avoided being. To be honest, Kevin Kangas said he had some misgivings about parts of the film. I assume it is the final third of the movie that he is referring to. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Does that soft final act of the film ruin the whole thing? No. Sure, it's frustrating, but I still sat through the rolling credits feeling as though I'd gotten my money's worth. The main thing is that the film is entertaining and worth investing your time in the hour and a half or so that the movie lasts.</span><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Another nice bonus is the "Making Of" documentary included on the DVD. It is as fun to watch as the actual movie. It makes you realize the strain a production like this puts on everyone. Watch Kevin Kangas slowly deteriorate as the documentary progresses. Marvel at the hurricane that put a crimp on the crew's very limited filming schedule. Cringe as Shivers the clown puts in some very uncomfortable-looking contacts.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Rent or buy <em>Fear Of Clowns</em>. Consider it an investment in the sequel that Kangas is supposed to start filming soon. You'll feel good about doing so.</span></p><p><em><span style="font-size:85%;">(Images are used with the kind permission of Kevin Kangas. I just hope he's as kind after he reads this review.)</span></em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1143686695315004452006-03-29T18:01:00.000-08:002006-03-30T20:37:49.080-08:00Clowning About (Or, How I Beat Down A Slag At Wal-Mart For A Bargain)<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/hunting-humans.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 153px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px" height="287" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/hunting-humans.jpg" width="153" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart. I think everyone does. Cheap crap and lots of it, but it does tend to attract the dwellers of the Nether Realms from Trailer Park Limbo. Sadly, much like myself, they seem drawn to the dump bins of DVDs for three bucks or so. And such a situation came to pass when I paused to scan the jumbled mass of cases one day.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Instantly, a bovine-inclined lady awash in a heady fragrance of cigarettes, body funk and spoiled food decided I shouldn't have freedom of choice, but that I could have what she deemed "beneath" her refined taste. Wherever my hand went, hers beat mine there. She pretended to be intent on making her selection when I tried to see the evil in her face. Nah, she was just ugly as a turd. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my buried treasure<em>. Hunting Humans</em></span><em> </em><span style="font-size:130%;">sat<em> </em>unsullied by her nicotine-stained fingers. I focused on some Pauly Shore tripe, muttered a happy "Oooh!" and reached for it. Sensing I might snap up something wonderful, the heifer yanked it up as my fingers touched Pauly's image on the cover. I swiftly snagged <em>Hunting Humans </em>and muttered, "Bitch" as I walked away. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Was my showdown worth it? Hell, yes.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kevin Kangas wrote, directed and produced <em>Hunting Humans, </em>a great example of what can be done with a minimal budget and a cast and crew who will see the project to the end. It deals with a slick and likeable guy who happens to be a serial killer. No stalk and kill crap here, though a few folks do bite the dust. Kangas opted for suspense and mystery by having our anti-hero be the target of someone hunting him for their own purposes. A refreshing change in the indie horror world full of slasher clones.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">On the DVD, released by Mti Home Video (out of print as far as I can tell, but check eBay and Amazon, or if you want a copy with an autograph, go to <a href="http://www.marauderproductions.com/order.htm">www.marauderproductions.com/order.htm</a>), I found a mention of their next film buried in the "Biographies" area of the disc<em>. Fear Of Clowns</em> (kangaskahnfilms.com/foc) had an interesting title. And I went on about my life, silently waiting for the movie.</span><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/focposter1-st.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 169px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 243px" height="275" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/focposter1-st.jpg" width="200" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Fear Of </em>Clowns is now out. Does it stack up to<em> Hunting Humans</em>? Well, check out the review to be posted soon. But it did inspire me enough to use those cyber-stalker skills to track down the director/writer/producer Kevin Kangas. Okay, he has an email address on his web site. I have no Internet kung fu skills. But I did convince him to answer a few questions. I have people skills. Okay, Kevin Kangas is really just a nice guy who enjoys talking about movies, so it wasn't that hard to convince him.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">At the risk of appearing lazy, I'll present my short interview with him in the question and answer format. I could pretend we met at some hotel restaurant, and I could pepper the give and take conversation with little details of the wallpaper and the food and the odd looks from the other diners. This isn't <em>Vanity Fair</em>. In the time it'll take you to peel those damn security seals off your copy of <em>Fear Of Clowns, </em>you can just read the more direct questions and answers.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: One thing I've noticed about <em>Hunting Humans</em> and <em>FOC</em> is how professional they both look, though <em>FOC</em> does seem to be a stronger film as far as visual presentation. Most low-budget, direct-to-video features look cheap and are impossible to hear. Your films have such a strong element as far as how the shots are framed and structured. Do you take the extra effort to storyboard your shots in advance, or do you just work within the confines of the locations you have available to you?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Thanks! We love compliments! And truthfully, a large chunk of that should go to my DPs (Director of Photography)--David Gil on <em>HH</em> and David Mun on <em>FOC</em>(he'll be returning for <em>FOC2</em>). To answer your question--I don't do any storyboarding, but my shooting scripts are extremely detailed. The only problem comes when I haven't actually SEEN the location before we get there to shoot. (Hard to believe, but this happens a LOT on low-budget flicks.) Then it's a matter of looking for interesting compositions given the layout. David Mun in particular has a phenomenal eye--he's working on big, real-budget projects out in Los Angeles, so he knows what he's doing. I trust him a lot, so if he tells me what I'm thinking of shooting is gonna come out like crap--well, we shoot it anyway, but then we get the shot he wants just in case.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: I noticed <em>FOC</em> had the camera moving for a wide variety of angles, whereas <em>Hunting Humans</em> seemed to have fewer cuts within any given scene.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Hahahaha. Yeah. For <em>HH</em> we had almost NO money, and we shot entirely on 16mm film. So we shot a total of 5.5 hours of footage to make a 90 minute film. If you know anything about shooting ratios you know that's RIDICULOUSLY low. There were times we only had one-take shots--get it or you don't get it at all. For <em>FOC,</em> we shot a combo of digital and Super16, and we had a crane (small) and a steadicam. Makes all the difference in the world. You can do a LOT more, the more toys you get. But those toys cost money.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: Do you work with one camera?</span> <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/focposter1-st.jpg"></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Yes, though <em>FOC2</em> may employ 2 cameras.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: How do you and the cast handle the time involved shooting the same scene from different angles? I mean, you have a fairly small window of time in which to shoot your films, so anything that slows forward progression would have to be a bit nerve-wracking, though the multiple angles do improve the movement of the scenes.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: It's tedious, obviously. But most of the actors--if they've done ANYTHING--know to expect it. So you just get it done, as well and as quickly as you can. When stuff goes wrong, you curse and wish you'd picked another career. So there's a lot of cursing and wishing going on. But you try to have fun too.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: You've said <em>Fear Of Clowns</em> fell short of your expectations. In what ways? </span><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: As a filmmaker who started as a writer I'm constantly fighting an internal battle: Story versus Marketability. The writer wants to tell the filmmaker, "Fuck your marketability--the story is all that counts! Write the best story you can and the movie will sell itself." This, unfortunately, is a lie. Especially in the low-budget market. So I wrote <em>Fear of Clowns</em> knowing that there really aren't that many good horror movies featuring clowns. I had in mind a kind of homage to <em>Halloween</em>--with the strong, silent killer pursuing the woman in distress.But things happened and the first draft took longer than I expected (my wife got pregnant--she delivered the child about 2 months before we started filming--right in the middle of MAJOR preproduction). I should have spent another three months on the script, but if I had done that we would have had to wait another eight months for the weather to change again. So it was either: Film now and do the best you can, or wait. I went forward. The result was that the ending was completely unusable, and since the clown's entire motivation was based on that ending--there I was in the editing room trying to come up with new motivation. We also lost the rationale behind the lead character's coulrophobia, which was a MAJOR part of the story. My bad. I take responsibility for it. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: How do you intend to address these elements in the sequel?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: The sequel will avoid those problems for two reasons: I've spent more time on it, and I've gone back to basics. It's more of a mainstream horror, where the original became more of a suspense movie. For those die-hard horror fans who were bored by the first movie--that's not gonna happen in the sequel. Believe me.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: How do you feel about doing sequels? Did you originally intend a sequel to <em>FOC</em>, or are you attempting to make the movie you hoped the original would be? Do you see sequels as being a likelihood in your future, or do you prefer to focus on fresh topics for each feature?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Sellout! I see it already! But no, sequels were not something I was planning on doing. As far as <em>FOC</em> I had no plans for a sequel even though I left it open, but when Lionsgate mentioned they were interested...well, how stupid would I be to say no? Still, I gave it some thought, because I wasn't going to just crank out a film to crank it out. When I commit to a movie, I'm committing about 2 years of my life to it, so I have to be invested. And I came up with something that interested me a LOT. Then another idea popped up and I started writing. As for the future...who knows? I wrote a sequel to <em>Hunting Humans</em> and am actually writing a third, but that's more because I really find Aric Blue (the main character) fascinating. Neither script could be shot on the budgets I work at. I may shoot another feature at the end of the year that's not a sequel. In general I would say I won't do too many sequels (for instance--the likelihood of me doing <em>FOC3</em> is almost nil).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: What kind of budget to you have for your films?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: <em>HH</em>'s total budget was about $24,000--and it was shot entirely on film. That is MINISCULE for film. Anyone who knows anything about it knows that about half of that went to film/developing/transfer to video. So for those douchebags online who like to act like they know something when they say "God, when are filmmakers gonna learn not to shoot on video, it looks like shit" when they talk about <em>HH</em>--clearly you don't know the difference between film and video.The reason <em>HH</em> looks so muddy is not because it was shot on video. It's because it was shot on film and then one-light transferred (which is like $300/hour) instead of best-light transferred(which is like $500/hour). That per hour fee is not per hour of your footage--it's per hour of the transfer house's time.Not that I'm bitter about know-it-all online critics or anything... As for <em>FOC</em>'s budget I'm not supposed to say. Not that much more than <em>HH</em>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: Do you still have to pound the pavement to round up investors, or is it easier now that you have a couple of features to back you up?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: One of the producers from <em>HH</em> came back for <em>FOC</em>, but we needed someone else so a long-time friend came in, plus I put my money back in. Now I'm pretty much footing the bill on <em>FOC2</em>, but when I step up to the half-million range, I'm going to have to have investors. No way can I come up with that kind of cash.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: What kind of contract do you have with Liongate Films? By that, I'd like to know if you have a set number of films you will be doing for them, or are they working with you on a film-by-film basis?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Film by film. I'm an unproven commodity right now (even though <em>FOC</em> has made almost a half million dollars in rental fees alone in the two weeks it's been out). Who knows what will happen after <em>FOC2</em>. My master plan is to finish <em>FOC2</em> and one more ultra-low budget, and then I'm hoping to step up to something more in the half million dollar range. Which is still ultra-low budget for most films, but will be a major step up for me.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: I remember reading that you have a different type of film coming up, or at least, that is what I remember from a recent Fangoria article. What do you have in the works other than the <em>FOC</em> sequel?</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: The thing I'm going to try to shoot isn't exactly horror, but I'm not talking about it yet. Until I finish the script I'm not exactly sure what it's going to be. And with all the preproduction going on right now for <em>FOC2,</em> I haven't had much time for <em>PE, </em>which are the initials of the script's name.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: Any plans to do a frat house comedy? Just kidding.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: No, but my interests are broad. I like horror, suspense, fantasy, thriller, westerns (yeah, I know) and more. The only thing you won't ever see me doing is romance, and probably comedy, unless it's very black comedy.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: Last one. What horror movie freaked you out the most when you saw it? I don't mean your favorite movie, unless it happens to be the same.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: Well...I'd have to say <em>Giant Spider Invasion</em> and <em>The Giant Leeches</em> were two that scared the shit out of me. I was 5 when I saw <em>GSI</em> and not much older when I saw <em>GL </em>(it was on an afternoon Creature Feature) and they REALLY scared me. If you watch them now, they are hilariously bad. Later on <em>Nightmare On Elm Street</em> did scare me (I had to walk home from a friend's house that night, and I walked in the middle of the road so if anyone jumped out at me I'd see them coming), but that always had the "It's not real" rationalization.Which <em>Friday the 13th</em> and <em>Halloween</em> did not--those killers felt like they were real. Those two scared me probably more than <em>Nightmare</em>.My favorite horror movie is <em>John Carpenter's The Thing</em>. It scared me and grossed me out at the same time, but it also played with the theme of identity which is something that really resonates with me. Philip Kaufman's <em>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</em> wigged me out a little for the same reason. Like, maybe one day people I knew would start acting different because they weren't THEMSELVES anymore...THAT'S scary stuff, especially for a kid.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Dog Pile: Thank you for your time.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Kangas: No problem. I think it's great when people enjoy the low budget stuff. There are a lot of people who rent the films and expect to see <em>Star Wars</em> and are naturally disappointed. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><em>(Kevin Kangas appears here of his own free will, and The Dog Pile thanks him. All images were "borrowed" from his web site <a href="http://www.marauderproductions.com">www.marauderproductions.com</a>. Please visit the site and find out more about him, Rick Ganz (the star of both of Kevin's features), as well as order goodies. I would also like to thank Lionsgate Films and Mti Home Video for releasing these films. For the love of God, please, no one sue me!)</em>Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1139973415869116672006-02-14T19:13:00.000-08:002006-03-06T20:03:35.060-08:00Being of Unsound Mind<span style="font-size:130%;">I tend towards obsessive behaviors. Get a bug up my butt about something, and I'm a gone Daddy-rabbit. One of my recent obsessions? Brentwood Video. You've seen this stuff in your favorite place to buy DVDs. You know, the mega-compilations of mostly horror movies going for bargain-basement prices? Well, I've started buying these silly things any time I find them. Why? Mostly, it's my Wal-Mart mentality -- Cheap is good. Not "quality", but like most guys are by breasts, I'm a quantity over quality guy when it comes to movies. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">So I snag this collection called "A Night To Dismember". Ah, the wit! But 12 movies for 17 bucks? Sure, I can be had, especially when one of those movies is "Bloodletting," a classic indie made a number of years back. So I get the thing home and decide to start from the beginning. "Insaniac" was the title of the first film. I rolled my eyes, and prepared to be cheesed to death. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The sound, well, sucked, which doesn't work well for me. See, I watch these things late night when my girlfriend, who has enough sense to avoid most of these movies, is conked out on the couch. If you turn up most of these "made-on-video" flicks to a volume that enables understandable dialogue, then the music or sound effects will cause the dog down the street to convulse and bite small children. But I stick with it, right through the barest story setup, and I'm wondering when the movie is going to take off.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Next thing I know, the film has slipped into this slightly Goth chick's mental Circles of Hell as she tries to come to terms with her past and what happened that apparently landed her in a psych ward. Rough made? Yes. Polished in every area? Ha ha -- no. Yet, even with half of the dialogue unintelligible, I was stunned and pleased that someone out there tried to do <em>something </em>different. The main character grows on you as you realize she is either very screwed up or very heavily drugged. Just so wonderful to see something other than the usual "let's copy anything that will allow spraying blood" mentality.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Still enamored of the film, I went to imdb.com to check out the filmmakers. I discovered the lead actress did work behind the camera as well. So I used those all-important cyber stalker skills and tracked her down. Ain't the Internet the greatest thing? </span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/PDVD_008.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/PDVD_008.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;">Yup, that's her. Please meet Robin Garrels. She wrote "Insaniac". She starred in it. However, in spite of, or because of, her direct involvement, she seems to have her own reservations about the film. In one of my first emails from her, she thanked me for sitting through "Insaniac" and "Last House On Hell Street", another film she wrote as well as doing a small role. Odd behavior. Well, I can somewhat understand in relation to "Last House On Hell Street", which apparently was trimmed down to a short film later and will be added as an extra on another of Robin's films, "Buzz Saw". </span>"Yeah, Last House was a nice experiment, and actually, it's an extra feature on the Buzz Saw DVD, it's edited down to a 17-minute short, which I think is MUCH better<span style="font-size:130%;">," she told me. </span><p><span style="font-size:130%;">But what do we really know about Robin Garrels? Not much. She lives in Missouri. She seems to be in her twenties. She was, at the time I exchanged emails with her, running in 18 different directions with twice as many projects -- a play/film called "Fourth Dimension" with 8 handheld cameras filming and choreographed in sync with the actors, helping a friend with a film he was trying to wrap up, holding down an office-type job, writing another script and mainlining pure sugar and high-octane java. The woman should be ashamed of having so much energy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Influences? The theater. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"I played a prostitute in <em>Madwoman of Chaillot</em> in high school (a walk-on part) because I had a crush on one of the boys in the play. The next year I got the lead in <em>Skin of </em>Our<em> Teeth</em>. Senior year I wrote this HORRIBLE play that the school kindly put on, and I realized that this was in fact what I wanted to do...write scripts...so I majored in Lit in College, got a writing internship in L.A. at a theatre company my senior year, then came back to St. Louis, Missouri and started the 'shoestring' theatre company The Tin Ceiling, with some friends." </span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">She takes her theater background with her when she writes and when she watches other people's work. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"I love me some over-the-top pretentiousness. I don't know why, but I've always found theatrical films and t.v. to be so funny! Maybe not intentionally so...but there's this weird undercurrent when someone seems to be taking themselves too seriously that I just LOVE, and find HILARIOUS. I think David Lynch (my Yoda) does this extremely well...using...or rather, requiring over-the-top performances in certain situations to create a sort of (should I laugh?) state of mind."</span></p><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/PDVD_006.jpg"><span style="font-size:130%;"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/PDVD_006.jpg" border="0" /></span></a></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"></p></span><p><span style="font-size:130%;">What label can we throw at Robin Garrels to define her? Actor? Writer? Director? Being a member of the low-to-no-budget school of filmmaking, she clearly does all of them, but how does she see herself?</span> <span style="font-size:100%;">"I have to say, that as far as an expression to product ratio is concerned, with WRITING, I feel like I've got about a 95%. In other words, I feel that on paper, I'm saying almost exactly what I want to say, in the way I want to say it." </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Robin feels less confident when it comes to directing her own material. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"...I can't get outside of it enough. So that's what I'm working on</span><span style="font-size:130%;">." By her own admission, collaboration is more her thing at this point in her film career. She has co-written and co-directed "Buzz Saw" (with David Burnett, who has worked on "Insaniac" and "Last House On Hell Street"), and done the same thing on "China White Serpentine" (with Eric Stanze, director of the indie cult hit "Ice From The Sun"). Her next big step? </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"Directing someone else's work just hasn't really been something I've ever made time to do yet, although some day it'd be a great experiment." </span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><p>Sadly, Robin is frightfully busy these days, and I have little else of interest to relate about her and her current work. I do intend to follow up and write a second piece about her and the films she has worked on as well as any new projects. Perhaps I can convince her to slip me a few photos of better quality than the ones I used here. In any event, I hope what little I have presented here will serve as an incentive to track down some of her films and see the beginning of what appears to be a long and innovative career for Robin Garrels.<br /></span></p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/PDVD_003.jpg"><span style="font-size:130%;"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/PDVD_003.jpg" border="0" /></span></a>(All screen shots were lifted from the Brentwood DVD version of "Insaniac" using using CyberLink PowerDVD. Just a word of warning, the Brentwood version of "Insaniac" appears to be edited, according to my conversations with Ms. Garrels. Go to <a href="http://www.amazon.com">www.amazon.com</a> to see about ordering her films. Sub Rosa Films used to have a site, but I have had little luck in tracking it down. You might also try <a href="http://www.wickedpixel.com/">http://www.wickedpixel.com/</a> as it is related to the people behind Sub Rosa.)Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1125538385071092812005-08-31T18:25:00.000-07:002006-07-27T15:51:09.193-07:00Night of the Vampire Hunter<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/1600/NOTVH_Poster.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2761/820/320/NOTVH_Poster.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />(This is a repost of a film review from the old Dog Pile site. If you read this review and think you would like to see this film, do two things: 1. Go to www.coffeebeans-entertainment.de and poke around on the official web site for the film; 2. Contact American film distributors of horror films and badger them to pick this film up and release it in the United States. Go on and do it now.)<br /><br /><br />You know, I really don't care for Superman. He's like this all-powerful character with precious few weaknesses, so they have to keep bringing out more and more powerful enemies and more and more complicated schemes to hurt him. Oh, sure, he has his emotional weaknesses that have been played with in the last few years, but who wants Alan Alda as Superman?<br /><br />Give me Batman any day. Not because he's dark and hip and got that Gothic thing going (although there is something to be said about Goth girls with their frightfully pale skin). I prefer Batman because he has nothing going for him except himself. Yeah, he's got gadgets, but he doesn't have x-ray vision or high-tech blades that shoot out of his hands when he wants to slice people up. He's human, just human, and a single bullet or miscalculation could end his life. That makes the man himself more interesting; the character IS the focal point, not his mutant/alien powers.<br /><br />I know, I know, the question here is why am I talking about superheroes when I am supposed to be reviewing a movie? The movie in question here is "Night of the Vampire Hunter," also known as "Night Shade". It's a German film shot over three years as the production company gathered money to continue filming. And as you can tell from the Americanized title, the movie deals with vampires.<br /><br />You know, I really don't like vampires. Here is where the superhero thing comes in. Vampires are the Superman-type of your basic roster of monster. They can shapeshift, turn into vapor, move with superhuman speed, there's only a precious few ways to kill them, blah blah blah. And they sleep ALL DAY! (Lucky bastards.) They have this supposed sexual attractiveness that wows the opposite sex. (How sexy can someone with rotted, clotted blood breath be?) They just have too much going for them; they are too much like Superman.<br /><br />But there has been a recent trend to bring the image of the vampire down to earth, to make them more human. In essence, they are turning Superman into Batman. Kevin Lindenmuth has put a few spins on the vampire myth, turning vampires into supernaturally advanced humans in his "Addicted to Murder" series of films. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has paraded so many vampires past our eyes that by sheer volume they have become demystified and have taken on the image of people afflicted with some rampant disease.<br /><br />"Night of the Vampire Hunter" continues this line of thought, only using traditional vampire myth where it helps to enhance the story. In fact, the story doesn't depend too much on the fact it is about vampires. With just a little tinkering, it could almost become a revenge flick of any genre. So you are really working with normal characters that happen to be vampires and WHO they are becomes more important than WHAT they are.<br /><br />Jens Feldner(Stefan "Cheesy" Keseberg)writes under the name of Henry Gloom. He churns out a novel a week in an on-going series about vampires. His books have become a big hit. Yet he lives a simple life with his girlfriend Selin(Nicole Müller), who works nights at a photo-processing shop. The city is living in fear of a serial killer who has been racking up a hefty body count. Nothing too unusual. Except that Jens knows his subject matter so well because Selin IS a vampire. And Selin isn't too worried about the serial killer because she IS the killer. But that is just your set-up in this movie. The story itself doesn't really come into its own until Arnold (Alex Kaese) comes to Selin's aid after she is nearly killed during a fight with another vampire. Creepy Arnold wants nothing more than to be turned into a vampire, and he thinks Selin is his gateway to the dark side.<br /><br />The acting is pretty solid from just about everyone. Only a couple of people ham it up, like Alex Kaese, but it tends to keep things from getting too serious and intense and maintains an air of fun escapism, which, I think, was the aim of the filmmakers. That is not to say that it is a family film. Ample blood splatters the scenery, nudity pops up occasionally, and there are a few truly tense scenes to remind the viewer that this is a horror film.<br /><br />One minor complaint I have is the film quality. It is kind of muddy and dark. That may have been caused by the fact that the tape I watched may have been a copy of a copy. I tend to think the original film would look better, but then a lot of small budget films seem to look rough, and personally, I feel it adds to their charm as long as it doesn't get in the way of following the film's story and action.<br /><br />The only other complaint I have is that the characters are interesting enough to support a couple more films, but to get a second film out of this, the filmmakers would have to pull the American bullshit of basically repeating the same story or popping the characters into a ridiculously contrived story.<br /><br />No matter, though. "Night of the Vampire Hunter" is good bloody vampire fun. Crack open a couple of beers or a bottle of your favorite red wine and enjoy it. Now, where do I sign up for the Nicole Müller fan club?Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1124448259779525592005-08-19T03:44:00.000-07:002005-08-19T03:44:19.813-07:00Triple Threat reviewTRIPLE THREAT
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<br />Starring Lorin Becker, Curt Bonnem, Kay West and Stephany Sterans. Produced, Photographhed, Written and Directed by Mark Vasconcellos.
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<br />Just to prove that not all micro-budget movies have to be either horror movies or sex movies (preferably both, in the opinions of most of the producers I've worked for), Mark Vasconcellos has made this entertaining little tease of an action picture, sort of a La Femme Nikita meets Bond, played appropriately light and fast.
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<br />The plot tells of ex-assassin Dina LoBianca, a motorcycle riding super-spy played appealingly by Lorin Becker, who is brought back for "one last job" by her slick and slimy boss, played by writer/director/DP Mark Vasconcellos. She is partnered with an even more sexy side-kick/protégé (Stephany Stearns), who steals most of her scenes. Through the course of the mission she uncovers plots within plots and thwarts planned violence against innocents. She also gains a boyfriend along the way in a straight-laced-but-not-stuffy character played with good humor by Curt Bonnem.
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<br />We've seen this plot before, and this is really low budget stuff, so most of the action is of the one-on-one sort. No big stunts, explosions or car chases. So director/writer Vasconcellos was wise to keep the proceedings frothy, light and fun all the way. It never bogs down with pretenses subplots. It tries only to be popcorn fluff, and succeeds at it's goal admirably.
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<br />Also, it has a very slick look that appears more expensive than the picture's budget. And the performances are all of a professional caliber. Another thing not usually seen in a micro-budget movie.
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<br />For more information, check out www.bigbask.com
<br />Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1117037327021289792005-05-25T08:40:00.000-07:002005-05-25T09:30:27.810-07:00My Favorite CameosI have died many times.<br /><br />That's what most of my cameo appearances in cheap horror movies have consisted of. I have been shredded by a werewolf, beheaded by a clown, shot by cops (twice), vampire bitten, vampire staked and had my head blowed up. But two new movies have just arrived, and I have cameos in both. Even though I only die in one of them, they are easily the two cameos that I have done which have pleased me the most. And they are both movies that are a cut above the usual.<br /><br />Ted Newsom's THE NAKED MONSTER was released years ago in a less-polished form as ATTACK OF THE B-MOVIE MONSTER. Since then, Ted (who played the serial killer in my movie DEAD SEASON) has shot a multitude of new material, completely re-edited it, and put in entirely new monster shots. And I am so glad he did, becuase what was once a cute but crude experiment is now a gloriously silly and heartfelt valentine to the movies we monster boomers grew up on.<br /><br />The silly three-eyed monster is a rubber suit, just right for this goofy comedy. The script is a dizzying pastiche of puns and gags, like the AIRPLANE of monster movies. Some are gags funny, some make you groan, but it's all in the spirit of fun. But the real attraction here is the amazing assemblage of B-movie talent, headlined by the late Kenneth Tobey from THE THING (he is just marvelous; when handed a box containing a flight suit just like the one he wore in THE THING, Tobey exclaims with appropriate awe "my old monster-fightin' suit!"). The late John Agar is equally grand as a scientist who first realizes that the creature is pregnant female ("Your monster is a mother -- A big, uuugggglllyyy mother."). A partial list of the cast is as follows: Jeanne Carmen, Les Tremayne, Gloria Talbot, Robert Shayne, Daniel Roebuck, Ann Robinson, Lori Nelson, Paul Marco, John Harmon, Robert Cornthwaite, Robert Clarke, Michelle Bauer, Brinke Stevens, Linea Quigley, Bob Burns, Forry Ackerman, Tim Sullivan... Whew! Is that enough to pique your interest, you monster fans you?<br /><br />Ted is looking for a distributor, so hopefully THE NAKED MONSTER will soon be available to all.<br /><br />Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. My cameo? I am passing out torches to angry villagers singing (or rather, lipsynching) The Festival of the New Wine from FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (Fa Ro La Fa Ro Liiii!). Does life get any more fun than that? I don't hink so!<br /><br />CAMP UTOPIA - I wrote about this movie in my first article for the old Dog Pile site, but I thought it was time to mention it again since it has just seen a DVD release via Texas Trouble Entertainment. It was produced by Duane Whitaker, an artist of great talent and integrity who I am proud to call a freind. He's most known as the guy who played Maynard in PULP FICTION, but his work behind the camera has been just as exciting, though has yet to be noticed and appreciated in a big way. This, his first "dead teenagers movie," (though to be fair the kids/victims in this slasher film are college age, not really teenagers), is his concession to the commercial (after the brilliant but non-commercial EDDIE PRESLEY and TOGEHTER AND ALONE, it seems a wise choice if he wants to continue getting financing to make films), but one done with Duane's usual intelligence and sense of humor. This slasher movie contrasts the young people of the sixties with those of today. Hippies vs. Yuppies, if you will, and it says a lot about the integrity (or lack there of) of the values from both generations. This one tells about a group of yuppie college students camping out in an area notorious for a hippie massacre occuring thirty years earlier. Flashbacks show Timothy Bach, a Manson-like mad-hippie guru (played by former Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy) going on a rampage and slaughtering dozens of hippies gathered for a Woodstock-like festival of peace, music and love. Not much love was had that day, though.<br /><br />Now, thirty years later, kids are being slaughtered again. Has Timothy Bach returned from the grave, or is there a new killer at Camp Utopia? I ain't tellin'!<br /><br />CAMP UTOPIA is one of the smartest and funniest slasher films I have ever seen. Gore hounds stay at home, the blood is pretty minimal. This one is about people and ideas, and with some real smart laughs thrown in for... well, for laughs. But for horror fans looking for a little more than the normal thrills, this may be just the ticket.<br /><br />Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My cameo. I am the farmer who owns the land where the hippies frolic. Sort of the Old Man Metzger of Camp Utopia. I am seen early on with a large pig and two youg topless hippie girls. If that weren't fun enough, later I give Tim (Pearcy) a peace sign and get my had whacked off by his machete for the trouble. The funny thing is, I never got to meet Pearcy. We were shot on different days in entirely different locations. You will never tell when you watch the movie though.<br /><br />Until next time...Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1114480975838207292005-04-25T19:00:00.000-07:002005-04-27T18:53:23.196-07:00Review of ACTRESS APOCALYPSE<img src="http://hometown.aol.com/smegthat/images/aa_cover_sml.bmp"><br /><br />Rating: 7 out of 10<br /><br />When I was in second grade, I wrote a little skit that we (three friends and myself) performed for the class. A simple scene. Carla and I played the two children, and Gary and Renea played our parents. Scene opens on Carla and I arguing about what we want to watch on the television. We were loud, rude and hyper. In an effort to shut us up, our poor parents asked if we would be quiet if they gave us each a lollipop. Hushed, we nodded. Of course, candy will sooth all ills; this is a universal truth. And so they handed us each a sucker. But hers was bigger than mine. More screaming and wailing from the naughty siblings. End scene. <br /><br />Simple, but perfect in design. Or so I thought. The teacher, in my first and most stinging bit of critical evaluation (so painful because I had urges for her that I didn't understand at that age -- well, actually unnatural for my tender age, but that is a can of worms we ain't opening in this review), explained that while she understood the humor, she felt that there was entirely too much shouting and arguing. It made for a trying experience.<br /><br />So why go to great pains to elaborate on a seminal event in my dysfunction as a writer? Well, this IS a review of "Actress Apocalypse". But, you wonder, what the hell does that have to do with anything? I'll explain.<br /><br />"Actress Apocalypse", written and directed by Richard Anasky, is, if you didn't know better, a behind-the-scenes film of the making of "Clearwater Canyon". Never heard of "Clearwater Canyon"? No one of any note has either. It was a no-budget film about a big, gay killer Indian (Native American, I assume) who slaughters women who all hope the Army men will come save them. Unfortunately, the film never got past the audition stage. In-fighting, inept crew, no-show actresses, disorganization and an accidentally-on-purpose killing or two kinda derails things.<br /><br />Confused? It's okay if you are. You've been dropped into the mockumentary world of "Actress Apocalypse". All bets are off, as are the clothes of the young actresses who audition for the film within the film. You are in the hands of David Lincoln, the director of "Clearwater Canyon", his psychotic brother Vance, and the two crew memebers, all who operate at about 180 decibels for the bulk of the "documentary". The rest of the time, you are confronted by a brain-bending onslaught of subliminal images that will disturb you more than anything on the market. You will see what the world of truly independent no-budget filmmaking is like (I had a taste of it from playing a detective in a student short film in college). And you will also see a couple of very beautiful young actresses who will never show up at your house if you decide to make your own crap film, so don't even ask.<br /><br />So why the trip to my second grade class at the beginning of this review? Simple. Most of this film reminds me of the comments handed to me by my teacher. Too loud, too much shouting and arguing, too shrill. I swear, every time an actress insults the on-screen filmmakers, you'll be wanting to back them up. Actually, you'll be wanting to backhand the shit out of both David and Vance Lincoln. The thought of these guys still makes me tense. I finally GOT what my teacher tried to tell me in second grade.<br /><br />But, that does not make this a bad movie. I found myself, though annoyed, laughing at some of the insane moments of the film. I believe that there is more truth to what you see in this behind-the-scenes film than you can imagine. Oh, I hope every production isn't a screamfest, but the weird power struggles and last-minute reworking of everything is no doubt accurate. So the intention and basic content of the film makes for worthwhile viewing.<br /><br />Add in the fact that this film is a 90-minute tribute to visual overkill, and you have enough to keep you busy with your "pause" and "slow" buttons on your DVD remote for the next month. Honestly, I was constantly stunned by the bombardment of flashing images, most so fleeting that "pause" buttons have trouble capturing these "blip-vert" (sorry for the Max Headroom reference) moments. I can only assume that the editing of this film must have been fueled by buckets of coffee and crank.<br /><br />In the end, I have to ask myself if I liked "Actress Apocalypse". Yeah, I did. It wore me out and wore me down. It gave me a mild headache. But it never failed to leave me shaking my head trying to figure out how in hell anyone could cram so much stuff from so many different directions and keep it focused and almost convincing. If you are fine with massive nudity and non-stop visual and audio assaults and want to see something most unlike anything else out there, order yourself a copy of "Actress Apocalypse".<br /><br />Just don't blame me if you have seizures from the strobe-like editing. Really. Don't blame me.Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1110944645636926372005-03-15T19:39:00.000-08:002005-03-15T19:49:21.023-08:00Review of DEAD SEASON<img src="http://hometown.aol.com/smegthat/images/deadseason.jpg"><br />Rating: 7 out of 10<br /><br />Oh, my, but I do love a nice taste of Italian <em>giallo</em> film. "Bird With the Crystal Plummage," "What Have They Done to Solange?", "Autopsy" and the like all have a warm place in my heart. The atmosphere of unpredictable violence, the threat that one of the main characters may indeed be the killer and the total aura of a nightmare gone horribly wrong make each of these films thrilling. And, as a testosterone-enabled person, I can never find fault in the many lush women featured in these films.<br /><br />Sadly, these films have faded from the public eye. Yes, they are still out there on DVD, but you don't hear about these things unless you look for them. It's not as if you'll find J.Lo in a big-budget modern version of this genre (Thank the heavens!). Fans of the genre have to be happy with the efforts from the past, and just try to get through the day.<br /><br />Here's where Ron Ford enters the picture. I've had the pleasure of reviewing a few of Ron's other films. From these films, I know that he is a lifetime fan of horror cinema. His "Hollywood Mortuary" is a tribute to the classic Universal horrors of the 30's and 40's. "The Crawling Brain" delves into the dopey Fifties monster films while mixing in the early Seventies Al Adamson sleaze factor. Each uses the old styles as a base on which to weave demented films of modern humor and weirdness.<br /><br />Now, "Dead Season" uses the themes that Mario Bava and Dario Argento built their legends upon and runs in a new direction.<br /><br />Lucas Swan is a one-hit wonder in the publishing field, having written an account of a series of murders that took place in a seaside town a number of years ago. He has crawled into a hole of his own creation and prays inspiration does not strike again. Into his closed universe drops an adoring fan who feels she will be Swan's personal Muse. Oddly enough, inspiration strikes Swan again, and a whole new series of murders begin.<br /><br />Ford's style often has an air of camp about it. This time around, he has toned that down. Oh, sure, there is the goofy retarded groundskeeper, played by Mr. Ford himself, and Randal Malone's trademark star performance that weaves from mostly serious to calling down the spirit of Divine (John Waters' favorite cross-dresser, for those who don't know). But the overall tone is darker than his other homages, and the story, though occasionally stretching the limits of credibility, sticks to the mystery.<br /><br />It may seem as though I am picking at "Dead Season". I'm not. I have never considered Ron Ford's films as intended to run against the slick, over-polished Hollywood product out there. He makes the film happen on the amount of money I probably piss away on Starbuck's drinks each year. And while that is enough money that I'm embarrassed to admit I spend, it seems an insanely small amount to use to make a film, yet that is what Mr. Ford does. He does it well enough that you tend to forget the quibbles you might have with acting in a scene or two or the lucky coincidences in the script. You find yourself wondering how the hell is this whole thing gonna work out, or hoping a certain character gets out of a tight spot. He makes loopy fun out of next to nothing. In the end, even if you didn't really like it much, you have to admit you were entertained. You can't help it. And that is what makes me look forward to the next Ron Ford film.<br /><br />Put your brain in a comfy chair, count the oddball old-school film riffs and see if you don't find youself smiling at least once during the <em>giallo</em>-tinged insanity of "Dead Season".Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1108808974550491942005-02-19T02:29:00.000-08:002005-02-19T02:33:14.800-08:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/288/3668/640/INEXCHANGE-%20Cover%20Art.jpg"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid; MARGIN: 2px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/288/3668/320/INEXCHANGE-%20Cover%20Art.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />cover art <a href="http://www.hello.com/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px" alt="Posted by Hello" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbh.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" /></a>Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1108807417758530462005-02-19T00:03:00.000-08:002005-02-19T02:03:37.760-08:00Review INEXCHANGE by Ron Ford<br /><br />INEXCHANGE - Written and directed by Zack Parker. Starring Sean Blodgett, Tiffany Wilson and Todd Richard Lewis.<br /><br />There is a lot to recommend about this serious and atmospheric horror movie. It is lit professionally, the sound is good, and, amazingly, every performance is as good as those seen in bigger budgeted union pictures. That is saying a lot for a micro budget movie shot on video. Zack Parker is obviously a very serious film maker, and somebody I will be watching.<br /><br />The story is slim on plot, but rich in subtext and characterization. College freshman Maury (Todd Blodgett) is introverted to the point of being nearly a shut-in. He rarely leaves his dorm room, except for class, and when he is forced to wander the campus at night because his dorm room mate has a girl over. When an attractive girl starts paying attention to him, Maury begins to open up. But when he learns she is just being nice because she feels sorry for him, all hell breaks loose. Add to this a mysterious specter who may or may not exist outside of Maury's head, urging him deeper and deeper into his private inner darkness. The specter is never named, but he is unique-looking. A man, blindfolded (and yet he has no trouble seeing) and dressed in a fur-trimmed, floor-length pimp coat.<br /><br />This movie tries to emulate the atmosphere of a European horror film. The pace is slow, snail slow, but intentionally so, as it takes its time building characters and atmosphere before turning on the horror. And when it finally does so, the filmmakers do not wallow in the gore. What blood scenes there are are handled with style and taste, milking plenty of raw power out of them.<br /><br />The major problem, however, is that the payoff of the movie is stale and predictable, story-wise (though visually well-handled). This is a big problem, after having invested so much patience into it by this point. However, that I made it that far without being bored is a worthy feat in itself. The characters are all interesting and well-played, and hold our attention throughout. None of them is a two dimensional cookie-cutter character.<br /><br />It's nice to see a micro budget film maker who takes the time and care to plan and execute his shoots so well. This is one of the slickest micro-budget movies I have ever seen, and one of the most promising young directors to come out of that arena in a long time.<br /><br />INEXCHANGE will be released later this summer from Brain Damage Films, and is definitely worth looking for.Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1108322366965594312005-02-13T11:19:00.000-08:002005-02-13T11:19:26.970-08:00Shot ListsORGANIZATION PART I<br />Shot Lists: From Pre-Production through Post Production<br /><br />By Peter John Ross<br /><br /><br /> Like so many of us with a desire to eventually make movies for a living, I like to view my little DV shorts (aka Microcinema) as a training ground. Even when making a 5 minute camcorder short, the kind where you are the writer/director/producer/cameraman/editor, you can still prep for bigger shoots, and develop good habits. One of these habits is creating and maintaining a shot list. <br /><br /> A shot list is a list of all the camera angles for a shoot, including coverage and cutaways. This can be done from the script, on the fly during a shoot, or even AFTER the shoot, using the footage and just naming the shots that were obtained. <br /><br /> Shot lists in pre-production usually only blueprint a shoot. A basic shot list of MASTER SHOT, CLOSE-UPS (aka CU’s), et al help plan for time & basically outline what the shoot will consist of. Part of directing is deciding what shots best tell your story and elicit the emotional reaction from a viewer. Storyboards are a great second step for a shot list, but not everyone can draw or get storyboards, so a written list of shots can still achieve the real goal (which is organization). <br /><br />Making a list of those shots from the script usually winds up being different than when you get there on the day and do the shoot. New shots can come up, two shots get fused into one, or you just don’t have time to get them all. During a shoot, LOGGING the shots can be a valuable tool for post-production (thinking ahead). <br />A “script supervisor”, the person watching the shot list and the script verifying everything from the script got shot, can scratch off each shot as they are completed, and take notes about each take and each shot. Details like which take the director liked, merged or changed shots, audio problems, time code, and as much as possible for notes for post production. Having a person doing this function can greatly increase the speed and organization of post-production.<br /><br />Now after the shoot, and either the editor or the person who is doing it all need to be able to take all these shots and make editing choices from them. Again, if this is a small, simple shoot with the same person writing/directing/shooting/editing, you may not have made a shot list, but now that you have a tape full of shots that now have to be captured to the hard drive – you have to name the files and the shots in the computer in order to edit them. So, no matter what you still have a “shot list”. <br /><br />Now, if you had created a shot list from the script, you can carry the same names through pre-production all the way through post-production. It can be any way you feel like organizing. I can’t tell you how to best organize your shoot, but the only thing that matters is that everyone understands it from writer to cameraman to editor. A basic shot list can consist of just saying “scene 04, take 02 Camera A” and abbreviated “S04T02A”, or any variation therein. Make up your own systems, whatever ways seem best to you.<br /> The reason to be so detailed and to make consistent notes is because as your projects get bigger and more people get involved, there is a system in place for everyone to know what everything is in every department. You can find out where you are in the screenplay based on a shot list, or if one shot needs a title, or there was a slightly different angle – all of that information is systematically (and subsequently anally) organized and easily found. <br /><br /> Having worked as a post-production supervisor and lead editor on a feature film, I was dealing with a director who was the only person who had the notes and shot lists, but they existed in his memory. When capturing & trying to synch audio to his 16mm film transfers, I was trying to find shots like “George gets in car” or “Jenny at apartment”. So where in the script does that happen? How many times is George in a car? It became impossible to do anything without the director present at all times. We then devised a system and naming and assigned scene numbers, and shot lists after the fact and we were able to synch audio for the entire movie.<br /><br /> On the big movies & TV shows, the whole production team synchronizes by a shot list and all the way to the end. Even when you’re doing it all yourself, you can prep for eventually delegating to people like a different editor or cameraman by being organized with a shot list, and making it something everyone can understand. It makes it possible for everyone to be on the same page.sonnyboohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01752459235214344618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1108157494501645692005-02-11T13:27:00.000-08:002005-02-11T13:31:34.506-08:00Review ATLANTIC CITY EXPRESSWAYReview ATLANTIC CITY EXPRESSWAY - Written, directed by and starring Jeff Profitt. <a href="http://www.856Films.com">www.856Films.com</a><br /><br />This 38 minute would-be "inspirational thriller" was sent to me for review, so here goes. That is to say, you asked for it:<br /><br />In this bore-fest director Profitt plays Andrew, a basically good boy who was raised by his bible readin' granny (Sylvia Hockenberry). Meanwhile, Andrew works for his bad Uncle Ray (Bernard Fiscus), who works in "Organized crime." Granny begs Andrew to stop working for Uncle Ray, but Andrew is too big a chump to tell his uncle he wants to quit. So he is torn morally, and soon is followed by FBI agents. What to do? What to do? Well, we all pretty much know Andrew will do the "right thing," but just to make sure, his Guardian Angel and Satan himself pay Andrew a visit to facilitate things.<br /><br />I like all kinds of movies and, being a micro-budget movie-maker myself, I am very forgiving of the kinds of compromises we filmmakers sometimes need to make with our limited resources. But this is just numbingly bad. These amateur-hour filmmakers make every mistake that amateur filmmakers make. Eyelines are mismatched throughout. Lighting is mismatched in close-ups. Bad sound. The acting is beyond wooden. The direction is lifeless, devoid of passion or style. The script is sentimental, lumbering and just plain idiotic. It's black and white, old school morality is pedantic and annoyingly naive. This is, in fact, not a movie at all but a sermon disguised as something palatable to the "masses." And badly disguised at that. It is the cinematic equivalent of those repellent little comic books they always handed out at Sunday school. Or of lame-ass Christian rock.<br /><br />Give me a good religious movie once in a while, but make it one with some passion. Mr. Gibson's PASSION... may be questionable in terms of <em>my </em>own belief system, but I do admire his ability as an artist to put the depth of <em>his</em> passion so agonizingly onto film. This dumbass piece of drivel, ATLANTIC CITY EXPRESSWAY, inspires nothing but yawns.Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1107998713920960662005-02-09T17:11:00.000-08:002005-02-09T17:25:13.920-08:00Not the Same Dog Pile?!For those of you who have cruised by to look at the site, thank you. For those who remember the old site and still cruise by, we love you.
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<br />Yes, the Dog Pile has changed. Time moves forward; change is good; blah blah blah -- you know the routine. Doesn't change the fact that this is a different breed of dog. We've gone from the beautiful lounging canine to something akin to a street mutt, at least in how we look. We are leaner, and, once we get some more people working for table scraps, we'll be more active. Give us some time, and we hope to win over the old friends as well as new ones. Heck, given enough time and support, we'll even try to hop through a few burning hoops.
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<br />So click on the comment lines of the front page items. Tell us what you think, what you like or don't like, tell us what you want to see and read. We may not use any of your comments, but at least we'll know that people are out there, and they are reading.
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<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1106891813311917182005-01-27T21:49:00.000-08:002005-01-27T21:56:53.310-08:00Minds of Terror - mini reviewMINDS OF TERROR
<br />Starring Randy Allen, Mark Adams and Nicole Crawford. With Joe Estevez and Conrad Brooks. Written and directed by Mark Adams.
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<br />A little BLAIR WITCH, a little SESSION 9, this meandering, cerebral and budgetless horror movie is smarter than most budgetless horror movies. Great locations enhance the unease and claustrophobia that the film makers are at least trying for. The stuff with Conrad Brooks makes no sense at all, and the gore scenes are clumsy and infrequent. Forget that, though. The focus here is an attempt at building and sustaining atmosphere, and that is laudable, even if it is not quite up to the task. Worth your time.
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<br />Ron Ford
<br />Ron Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07475312732632055362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1105073825816485472005-01-06T20:55:00.000-08:002006-07-27T15:52:07.576-07:00DVD Film SchoolDVD Film School
<br />By Peter John Ross (www.sonnyboo.com)
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<br />What a world we live in today, originating with the laserdisc, supplemental material with a movie has become a standard as DVD's made their way into virtually every home. Filmmakers have benefited greatly from this, especially for the astute observers. Not a lot of us can afford film school, but I can help you make a curriculum from your own DVD collection and from discs available from the public library for free. A lot can be learned from DVDs in the form of commentary tracks, documentaries, as well as the obvious just viewing the movie for it's own value.
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<br />You can create your own "curriculum" from many of your favorite movies on DVD. If there are commentary tracks and extras, they usually contain a lot of valued information on how something was done. Not everything has techie, scary guys on how they did the special FX.
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<br />Commentary tracks have some of the best lessons to learn from. For example, Rob Reiner & Cameron Crowe commentaries are almost exclusively on performance and nothing on camera, and others are too much about camera tricks; they neglect to say anything about actors in the movie. And there's an all-new category of commentary tracks for people, like Tim Burton, who don't talk for 20 minutes at a time and teach us nothing.
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<br />My Best DVD commentary Tracks (for filmmakers)
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<br />ROAD TO PERDITION with director Sam Mendes. This isn't even one of my favorite movies, but it's, by far, my number 1 commentary track. Sam Mendes understands and has the perfect balance between actor's performance & directing the camera. A lot of commentaries are too skewed towards one & not the other.
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<br />STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN with director and uncredited writer Nicholas Meyer. It features the essence of storytelling from a formerly young up & coming director looking back after years of experience.
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<br />TRUE ROMANCE with Quentin Tarantino writer's commentary track.
<br />A great story of how the kid from a video store worked several angles to become the "Quentin" that we know as a pop culture icon. More sedate than usual, and at his most endearing, Tarantino's storytelling is at its best with the commentary. Also an explanation of why he does his stories non-linearly is priceless.
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<br />THE USUAL SUSPECTS from Bryan Singer director, & writer Christopher McQuarrie discuss the beginnings of the story and again, the balance between story and acting plus the great cinematography of this movie.
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<br />SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (Criterion collection edition) from director Jonathan Demme, Jodie Foster, and Anthony Hopkins. Not available on the "special edition" disc widely available, the commentary track has many insights into the actor's process and the director anecdotes and trivia make for interesting examination of a landmark film.
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<br />SLACKER (Criterion collection DVD) - the "crew" commentary with Rick Linklater & Lee Daniel has many cost-saving tips and other seeds that can grow in the minds of many young filmmakers.
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<br />CHASING AMY (Criterion collection DVD/Laserdisc) - Although it's the usual comedy & antics of a large group of buddies, in between the jibes mocking Ben Affleck's movie Phantoms, there are some insights into the creative process of Kevin Smith. A few, and it's selective but the few nuggets of info are worth the banter.
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<br />LORD OF THE RINGS (all 3 movies from the 4 disc special edition DVD sets) - all 4 commentaries on all 3 movies can mine many great ideas and information on filmmaking in general. That's over 40 hours of viewing/listening right there.
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<br />FIREFLY: THE COMPLETE TV SERIES - disc four, the last episode commentary by Joss Whedon. By his own admission, creator/writer/director/producer Joss Whedon does a somewhat less trivial commentary and tries to describe the origin of the concepts behind the ideas for an episode of phenomenal television. Getting philosophical and still maintaining his wit and humor, Joss' revelations and gratitude to everyone around him make this commentary special.
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<br />EL MARIACHI (all DVD versions & originated on Laserdisc) when the opening words of the commentary tell you it's more like "how to make a movie for $7,000 or less", how bad can it be? It has a lot of great information delivered as you watch the inexpensive action movie.
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<br />The BMW Films series "THE HIRE" has all 8 films made for the web, plus their commentary tracks. Hearing insights from directors John Frankenheimer, War Kong Wai, Ang Lee, Tony Scott, Joe Carnahan, Guy Ritchie, and more make this a riveting and educational tool on telling stories in the short form. Not many will have $1million per 6 minute short, but the style and motives are priceless if you can learn to adapt the knowledge to match your budget.
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<br />THIS IS SPINAL TAP (Criterion version DVD and Laserdisc long out of print) - the commentary track by the three lead actors Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest is very very different than the one on the commonly available "Special Edition DVD". On the Special Edition, they do a commentary as the characters. On the hard to find Criterion version, they do a commentary as actors, writers, and filmmakers. Lesson learned? It really boggled my mind to learn they never set foot out of Los Angeles County to make the movie. The power of suggestion of putting a title that says "Atlanta, Georgia" whilst showing a hotel can really effect perception in the viewer's mind.
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<br />Honorable mentions -
<br />RUSHMORE (Criterion collection DVD) for Wes Anderson on his second movie features many great cinematic advice.
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<br />GOOD WILL HUNTING with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Gus Van Zandt carry on about the experience working on this Academy Award-winning "indie" film.
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<br />GLADIATOR with Ridley Scott lets go a lot of epic filmmaking nuggets
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<br />MADE with the "action commentary" by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley aka Ralphy from "A Christmas Story" where they use the same technology from football games to literally point out things on screen. MADE was an indie film shot in New York and features a lot of Soprano's cameos but also has some indie film techniques.
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<br />YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN/BLAZING SADDLES DVDs with commentary track from Mel Brooks let loose some comedy genius and methods of old from a guy who's been funnier longer than most indie filmmaker's grandparents have been fornicating.
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<br />SEVEN SAMURAI, Criterion Collection DVD, whose commentary has the sole distinction of being done by a film critic as opposed to a filmmaker, one of the cinemas greatest films ever made teaches a lot about the genius of Kurasawa from a unique, outsiders perspective.
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<br />My Favorite DVD EXTRA's
<br />Documentaries & Extras offer up a lot of fluff and sometimes some of the best reality of the film business. Here are the most educational in my humble opinion
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<br />EL MARIACHI DVD (all editions)
<br />TEN-MINUTE FILM SCHOOL from Robert Rodriguez is one of the most common denominators between new filmmakers in this, funnily enough 13 minute DVD extra. It's not as obvious why this is inspirational. After you've made several DV movies, and done 200 hours of editing, you can start to understand how genius Robert's shooting & editorial style was and what he's really demonstrating.
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<br />JAWS 25th anniversary DVD (actually the 20th anniversary Laserdisc set transferred to DVD) in the documentary "On Location" features one segment where Steven Spielberg describes how he wanted to do the Kinter boys death scene on the beach, he wanted to do it in one shot, and it wasn't possible with 180 degrees. Spielberg's solution is genius and every filmmaker should see why he is a master filmmaker at age 29.
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<br />ENGLISH PATIENT (Miramax Collector's Edition) - MASTER CLASSES EDITING with Anthony Minghella. A lot of DVDs have deleted scenes, so rarely are they accompanied with such a great explanation as to why & how they get left on the cutting room floor. Sadly, the great Walter Murch, Academy Award-winning editor of English Patient, gets missed in this session.
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<br />PULP FICTION (Miramax Collector's Edition & Criterion laserdisc) EXTRA, Quentin Tarantino on the Charlie Rose show. At the zenith of the Quentin era, his history, perspectives, and ideals get put through the passionate mouth of Quentin unfiltered.
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<br />FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (Miramax Collector's Edition), there are two extra's worthy of note... the entire feature film documentary "FULL TILT BOOGIE" on an extra disc, and one snippet from the "Hollywood Goes to Hell" featurette where Quentin's mom describes his beginnings, and Robert Rodriguez' family recounting his early years.
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<br />CLERKS X: TENTH ANNIVERSARY - The "SNOWBALL EFFECT" documentary is a fine example, and an exhilarating story on how a schmoe not unlike us gets catapulted to stardom & a career in film. It's a great manual on the selling of an independent film.
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<br />SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (original DVD release) - On the documentary "Into the Breach", Spielberg's father recounts, with additional stories from the man himself, several stories (including priceless clips) of his first super 8 and 16mm forays into war movies. Lesson Learned? At age 13, Spielberg was a better director & innovative filmmaker than 99% of the DV camcorder jockey's out there. Some people just have filmmaking in their blood and can be Mozart at birth; others have to work at it.
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<br />DIE HARD (2 disc edition) - On disc two there is a great supplemental on EDITING 2 scenes from the raw footage and also a cool 3 minute clip on "to letterbox or not to letterbox" which should be required viewing for anyone who needs to convince the idiots who think they get "less" picture with the black bars
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<br />AMERICAN MOVIE - The movie itself needs to be viewed by anyone who thinks his or her idea for a movie is so good it needs to be made. Mark Borchardt is a tragic hero. This is the guy we're all terrified to be. Lesson Learned? Whether we want to admit it or not, every filmmaker of any genre could very easily be perceived as wacked as him, but not all of us are as passionate.
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<br />THE GODFATHER COLLECTION (disc 4, the BONUS MATERIAL), the HBO documentary "A Look Inside the Godfather Family" is the antithesis of AMERICAN MOVIE. It's the same type of story except of a successful filmmaker with tons o' vision & talent. I don't think too many people can think that Francis Ford Coppola is not passionate. Unlike Mark Borchardt, though it's pretty clear he can get his vision on a movie screen and it exceeds expectations... whenever he doesn't cast Sofia Coppola in a leading role. Also the value of rehearsals and quality of script differ from Mark Borchardt. Lessons learned? Rehearsals and passion and teamwork and emotion and Al Pacino combined can make a good movie or two. Seriously, it's about how someone's passion & vision utilized in a collaborative environment can synergize a masterpiece. Tack on the business end of things & it's too rich to be passed up. For most filmmakers, we want to land somewhere in between Francis Ford Coppola and Mark Borchardt.
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<br />Walt Disney's FANTASIA, uncut version from boxed set DVD. The documentary and the commentary track, pieced together from archived radio & television interviews, demonstrate a lot of creativity and the innovative thoughts behind one of the 20th centuries greatest cinematic genius', long before it got raped by Michael Eisner for a few bucks at a theme park. How he conceived and executed so many radical ideas from nothing staggers the mind.
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<br />THE SHINING (from Kubrick Collection) - The documentary, on set material from Vivian Kubrick, shows a very real, not pretty at all look at Stanley Kubrick & his really evil directorial style. For all of us who hailed Kubrick as a genius needs to see what he could be like on set. Lesson Learned? I think you can get a good movie without resorting to this kind of anger and violence. In many ways this is great to see because unless your last name is "Kubrick", you will probably never get to treat people like this and ever make a movie again.
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<br />STAR WARS EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE - On the topic of deleted scenes, the documentary preceding the deleted scenes section features Walter Murch, Francis Ford Coppola, and Phillip Kaufman explaining how & why scenes get deleted. The priceless story of Walter Murch excising a moment from film "Julia" and the director saying that the scene being cut from the film was the very scene that got him to do the project to begin with. Lesson Learned? Say what you like about the movie, all of the documentaries and behind the scenes on this DVD draw a pretty clear blueprint on how to tackle an epic in the new world of CGI, blue/green screen, and special effects.
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<br />THX1138 (2 disc version) - 2nd Disc the "Legacy of Filmmakers" doc on the early foundations of American Zoetrope is relevant to filmmaking not only for it's historical significance as it is the warning of being frivolous with money & opportunities as Francis Ford Coppola was, compared to the frugal nature of George Lucas. Then seeing the original short film "Electric Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB" has many redeeming qualities.
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<br />HIDDEN FORTRESS Criterion edition DVD - George Lucas' interview on the disc is indicative of ALL the 1970's filmmaking rebels and the influence Akira Kurasawa had on them.
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<br />BRAM STOKER's DRACULA (special edition laserdisc) the Featurette showcases the lengthy rehearsal process. Everyone was there from Anthony Hopkins to Keanu to Gary Oldman and how everyone worked long before cameras rolled. Again, the vision of the cast & crew living at the Coppola house & having dinner together makes me seek that sense of surrogate family (IE teamwork) that at least makes the work feel less like work & more like fun. Lesson learned? Rehearsals are important as is bonding between cast & crew.
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<br />LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS Special Edition, on disc four of this impressive set, the recounting of many stories of the fun of shooting the movie made this seem like the ultimate love fest of respect and antics. Lesson learned? Have fun and create an environment where people want to be there by allowing participation in the creative process and also mutual respect for every aspect of making a film.
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<br />SUPERMAN (special edition) - One word... "Verisimilitude". Watch the documentary on the disc & you'll understand. I refuse to say more.
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<br />ALIEN QUADRILOGY (as well as original Laserdisc sets) - the interview with Ridley Scott on why he deleted the "cocoon" scene in the original Alien, and James Cameron's idea to make an army of Aliens editorial by re-using the same alien suits make this another great catch for people making do with what they got and making the tough choices for reasons of "pacing".
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<br />1941 (collector's edition DVD and laserdisc set). The documentary features a very extensive history of the writing of the screenplay by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and their involvement with John Milius. Lesson learned? Being a USC film school grad used to be quite an "in" to Hollywood via alumni. Read between the lines - When you get famous, never forget to help someone out who needs it. Francis Ford Coppola took in John Milius who took in Robert Zemeckis who took in Peter Jackson.
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<br />Some of the movies listed are big budget Hollywood movies, so learn to adapt some of the information to your own style & even budget. A lot of the information is creative in nature, or even business related and can benefit the savvy filmmaker that can infer relevant info for them.
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<br />If your favorite movies have extras or commentary tracks, listen and learn. Take something from the creation of the movies you love. Knowing a bit about how a movie was made possible gets you closer to figuring out how to make your own visions. Deductive reasoning is the key. Adapt & overcome any obstacle.
<br />sonnyboohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01752459235214344618noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097088882112678452004-08-28T11:53:00.000-07:002004-10-06T11:54:42.113-07:00Hey, you behind the camera…Submitted by by Conrad Angel Corral
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<br />We’re people too
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<br />The other day, I received two good audition calls: One stated they wanted to cast me directly for a small role, and the other from an advanced Film School director. Both had the personal touch, so it made the calls all the more interesting.
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<br />However, all hell soon broke loose:
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<br />After several phone messages and emails, the “direct book” became a call for an audition. When I received the script, the character name I was to audition for was nowhere to be found. Between trying to set up an audition, and trying to find an answer to the character questions, I finally took it upon myself to choose which character was mine and after several calls/emails an audition time was tentatively set.
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<br />Moving from “direct book” to an audition, inability to speak with someone about the character and the unorganized feeling associated with this production was quickly dropped my interest in this project. Besides, I had friends come from out of town the weekend of their shoot. When the tentative audition date came and went, with a call later stating the casting person was going out of town and I should call with another time for the following week, I decided to walk away from the project. However, the following week I got a call stating the actor/director would call me to set up an audition directly. So, I continued.
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<br />When we finally did meet, it ended up being the night and exact time Presidential Candidate John Kerry was going to speak at the convention. I don’t know about you, but I want Bush out and Kerry in, so driving around town to some audition where the crew couldn’t get their stuff together was not high on my priority list. But, I’m and actor and it took it as a test in keeping my skills strong in the face of diversity! When I arrived at the apartment of the director, I grew more concerned. As I sat in this half-apartment facing a makeshift small stove, frig and sink and two dogs scratching at the back bedroom door, I couldn’t help but wonder how could this person afford a good final product? When I did audition, my limited seven lines (it was a small role to start with) were cut to five for auditioning purposes. After a couple of quick reads, I was out the door scratching my head why?
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<br />As for my audition with the Film School director, that too took a sudden turn for the worse:
<br />When the director initially called, a lot of time was spent not only talking about his film and my role, but about how hard it is to work 9-5 and make a film and how we all need to make our own products to move a head. In the brief time we spent on the phone, I felt a nice bond with this person.
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<br />The evening of the audition, which was actually prior to the experience I mentioned above, I found myself running behind so I called and left a message. When I arrived (only minutes late), I came face to face with two other actors who had a look in their eyes like they had been there for quite sometime. After signing in and obtaining my sides, I went to sit down and look over the script only to be informed I should go in. When I mentioned I had just arrived and hadn’t had a chance to look over the sides, and suggested the other actors could go ahead of me, everyone looked at me like I was some kind of nut job. The director, now standing in front of me and the other actors, insisted 6:40pm was my time and we better getting in because my time was quickly passing.
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<br />As we approached the audition room, I took one more opportunity to inform the director I hadn’t had a chance to look over the script. However, he was to have nothing to do with it. Once in the room, he sat behind a desk with several other guys and started telling me about the role. Somewhere in the middle of his speech, he cut himself short saying we were running out of time and he began deciding which of his partners would read with me. As I was introduce to those I would be reading with, I quickly scanned the script for my dialogue and character intention, all the while a cameraperson began film me with a large camera that was literally about a foot from my face. Within a moment, I was informed we were running out of time, the first of two scenes would be dropped, and I had three minutes to possibly read the second piece twice. And, we started.
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<br />While my first read was reserved and a bit confusing (the behind the scenes folks couldn’t decide who was reading with me), it went pretty well. As adjustments were discussed for the second read, and I learned who I was suppose to be mad at and who I was allies with, I scanned the script for more info on my character and I decided my second read would include some Improv. Within moments, we began and I was up and out of my seat. I moved around the small room, I walked over to and talked at and with the other readers while delivering lines, all the while the camera followed closely. I don’t really remember what took place this second time around, but at the end there were smiles all around. As quickly as I was in, I was out the door. As I passed the guys still waiting in the lobby, I wished them good luck, only to have mean stares cut through my person.
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<br />As I proceeded to my next audition, and later rushed home to catch the final night of the Democratic Presidential speeches, all I could think of was “Hey, you behind the camera, us actors are people too”. We have lives that are just as busy as yours. We have hopes and desire to make it in this thing called acting, just like you. How can we (actors) be expected to give you (directors) our best work when the world you welcome us into is hell? If your project isn’t ready for auditions or you’re rushed to get folks in and out, why not just back off a little until all you ducks are in a row and/or you have more time? And, if you want a decent read, why rush an actor who isn’t ready? I hear so much about the folks behind the scenes wanting the folks in front of the camera to do well, however, the two cases I just described were far from that fairytale description.
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<br />When the whole evening was over, I found myself very humbled. I have a nice car, a 9-5 job that pays well and let’s me come and go to auditions and filming. I have a nice house that I can afford, a spouse that supports me when I’m down and out, and I have two films I made last year should be coming out in the coming weeks with guaranteed strong production value. Who am I to complain!
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<br />Maybe I’ll get callbacks, maybe I won’t. And, if I should get a callback what will I do? Hell, I’ll call them back, inquire more about the project and hope they offer me the role. Why? Because, I’M AN ACTOR AND I WANT TO WORK! If I don’t get a callback (which I didn’t to this point), I’ll chalk the experience up to yet another day in the life of this actor!
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097176323689904092004-03-02T12:05:00.000-08:002004-10-07T12:12:03.690-07:00Ghosts of Saint HelensSubmitted by Wayne Spitzer
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<br />I don’t know about other filmmakers, but for me, stories can take months, years, even decades to complete. Sometimes, obviously, they never get completed, and for a good reason: they weren’t ready. Other times -- like the clever little antigens they are -- they mutate, becoming something utterly unrecognizable from that which you had originally envisioned. Still other times – as is often the case with my own work – they get cannibalized, like all those battleship models at ILM, the minutia of which have provided high-relief detail to so many star destroyers.
<br />And sometimes – sometimes they get co-opted. Taken over. Now, this may not be a hostile takeover (indeed, if it involves, say, a fellow filmmaker or writer, it rarely is), but a takeover is a takeover, be it invasion or seduction. Often times this takeover begins when something you have said about a personal work-in-progress inspires or otherwise lights a fire in the eyes of a creative compatriot: it may be a certain narrative premise, a singular but striking image, a compelling sub-text, anything – but it lights up their eyes, and you just know that you’re onto something. Because you just saw the evidence.
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<br />The takeover matures when, “inspired” by your idea, this creative brother-in-arms suggests changes -- experience has taught me that it is here, at the skin, at the body’s first line of defense, where one must exercise caution: most likely, the friend is just doing what friends do; that is, they are captivated by your idea and want to help you focus it, they want to offer insights on how this or that might be amplified, or this or that might be condensed, or some other might be enlarged upon. You know, shop talk.
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<br />But this might also be the start of the takeover, hombre, and you better mind your borders. You’ll know right away if said friend begins making wacky suggestions like, “why not, and this would be just nutty, if instead of a two-eyed creature pursuing her, it’s – a 50-eyed creature! How ‘bout that? Or none? A none-eyed creature! Wouldn’t that be better? Wouldn’t that be more – well, more something?”
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<br />“More eyes,” you might concede.
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<br />You’ll want to pay very close attention to what they say and do next. Phase Two of the invasion will usually commence with your friend expressing a sudden disinterest, more often by finding some fatal flaw by which your project must surely fail. This will usually sound something like, “I watched Sasquatch the other night and it had a cave-painting hominid, too. It also had a crashed plane, which was instrumental to the plot. And this thing about a ‘rogue male’ bigfoot? Hmmph.
<br />Sounds like a line of clothing.”
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<br />There’s an old saying, “God sees the truth, but waits.”
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<br />Well, some filmmaking companions are like God: they see the truth -- and wait.
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<br />Having thus contributed to your own invasion -- and, if you’re like me, you are your own Benedict Arnold, every time – you may be tempted (again, if you are like me) to put aside your stacks of notepads, your sketches and your overdue library books, your newspaper clippings, your storyboards, your bloody friend you have been carrying about in your head for perhaps the last 12 years -- Your Project, and just say: “Fuck it. Nobody wants to see a sasquatch movie, anyway. Certainly not one that isn’t so much about sasquatch as it is about being human, about being lonely, about feeling as though you’ve lost family, friends, lovers, your youth -- your whimsy and your hope and your trust -- your faith -- along the way. One that’s about finding some of those things again, or ghosts of them – including a species of Northwest hominid, all but one of whom may have been wiped out by the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980. Nobody wants to see your ode to 1970s America and creepy documentaries narrated by Peter Graves (The Mysterious Monsters). Nobody wants to see a fucking horror movie in the tradition of Bill Forsyth (Local Hero). Go get drunk or something. Forgetaboutit.”
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<br />And so you do. Forget about it, that is. If you’re a bonehead like me you’ll even announce it, perhaps to Said Friend: “I … (just imagine John Cleese in all his clipped, English glory) have decided not to pursue Ghosts of Saint Helens at this time. Thank you.”
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<br />Months go by. The leaves fly from the calendar. Perhaps you tinker with an adaptation of a story you found during your research.
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<br />Then one day it comes: Said Friend has a great idea. He is on fire; he has never been surer of anything in his life. This thing is going to be huge. Said Friend is going to bust down the walls of Hollywood. He, the Alpha Male, is going to break the back of the opposition, leading us -- the timid and the unsure -- to victory. Said Friend is rabid. A storm is coming; Said Friend’s storm.
<br />Said Friend wants to make a sasquatch movie.
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<br />Now, I want to be perfectly clear about this: One cannot expect to copyright, patent, trademark or otherwise own a mere idea. Same goes for titles, and – though I may be going out on a limb here -- giant hominids who’s existence remains un-proven. And yes, though I'd expended a considerable amount of research toward my movie -- one shouldn't even consider it until they've read all the literature; the John Greene catalog, Peter Byrne, Doris Lessing's "The Thoughts of a Near Human", Scott Sander's Bad Man Ballad, Robert Michael Pyle's Where Bigfoot Walks (which, at one point, touchingly describes sasquatch trackers as "men who don't so much want to find bigfoot, as be bigfoot.") -- one still cannot hope for any exclusive right to the material, much less expect it.
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<br />But one can, and should, expect friends to respect their borders, their privacy -- their sovereignty over their own brainchildren. No one else has to; it’s a free country, er, sort of. But your friends, if they be true, must.
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<br />Because they know what you’ve been working on, whether you’re working on it right now or not. They know that you’ve been daydreaming – and night-dreaming too – this thing into shape, that you’ve been combining this inspiration with that aspiration; and that personal experience with this fabled lore – and overall trying to organize chaos into something which, hopefully, not only entertains but works for you on some personal level. Something which may, if you keep revising and polishing and working it over, and if you’re lucky – gulp -- touch the universal.
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<br />They know this. Said Friend knows this. But he’s going to sell a sasquatch movie, by god. And you need to just let go of your ego and “go along for the ride.” You don’t ask Said Friend: “Er, if it’s not about ego, why don’t we just produce my Ghosts of Saint Helens? I’ve only been developing it off and on for over a decade.” You don’t say: “Ah, now come on, bud, you know that’s not cool.” You don’t say what you really need to say, because you value Said Friend’s friendship, and you admire his determination, and your fate really does seem to be tied up with his more often than not, and you just don’t know how to tell him that that’s your girlfriend and you’re not interested in a threesome.
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<br />And here, if you are like me, is your darkest hour. Here is your night in Gethsemane. For, if Said Friend, who is more motivated than you, who is a better salesman than you, who works faster than you and who will stop at nothing to get that big budget unlike you (a budget you just might want to be a part of, considering that it was, er, your project once?) is going to make Said Sasquatch Movie, well, you’ve got just one option left.
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<br />Collaboration.
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<br />I mean, really, that’s your option. This is microcinema, gang, not the big leagues. Whatever project is being made by whomever, the whole gang’s going to be in on it, and nobody wants to do the same thing twice. Now, you can let Said Friend make his movie and still do yours at a much later date, but, sheesh, what the hell is the point in that? So Said Friend can give you one of his patented smirks when some 15-year-old Internet critic accuses you of being un-original?
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<br />Is filmmaking tough on friendships? I dunno. It doesn’t have to be. But collaborations can be hell, that’s for sure. Especially if you feel – rightly or wrongly – that you’ve been forced into it.
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<br />Here is where we end up selling the farm. We, the Rogue Male, as opposed to the Alpha. See, I had envisioned my sasquatch as what the late professor and part-time cryptozoologist Grover Krantz called a “rogue male”. That is, a solitary bigfoot (Krantz believed the monster to be a species of Gigantopithecus blacki, which roamed southeast Asia some 400,000 years ago and may have crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America) who is the last of his kind and is searching for a clan of like-animals; a clan, unfortunately, he will never find. I envisioned him as a wanderer and a moon-gazer, a sentient creature burdened with the ultimate loneliness. A creature that, after terrifying the hell out of an RV full of searchers, ends up revealing himself to be more evolved than anyone had ever imagined. A creature who’s learned fire, and who’s cave is adorned with primitive frescos.
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<br />In short, a creature that feels a lot like the protagonist, and yes, a little like the author … at the time. It wasn’t going to be some grand statement; I wasn’t trying to express myself. If your sole goal is to express yourself, start a diary, and leave filmmaking to people who want to tell great stories (filmmaking is tough; poets need not apply). I only knew that I felt comfortable with those characters (including a big Indian guy who was about as svelte as Rush Limbaugh and played against every stereotype imaginable) and the situations I’d put them in, and that eventually they’d start to walk and talk on their own. And I felt comfortable with my lone sasquatch, Atatilla – after an Indian legend. I envisioned him as something not so different from Rick Baker’s King Kong (yes, a lot smaller) -- badass yet bedroom-eyed.
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<br />But the thing with collaboration is that your unique vision goes in one end, intact, but comes out the other – transformed. Your rogue male becomes an alpha. And that’s a whole different animal. Said Friend’s animal. And what you end up with is two very different primates occupying the same clan (though usually the rogue is invading the alpha's territory, not the other way around). What you end up with is two very different philosophies butting heads. And there’s bound to be some blood.
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<br />How do you tell Said Friend, for example, that -- in your opinion – part of his current approach is trite at best and offensive at worst? How do you tell him that parts of it risk squandering all the mystery -- all the terror -- inherent in the sasquatch phenomenon? How do you tell him that Dog Soldiers and Sasquatch have already been made, and that little will be gained by combining them; i.e., swapping monsters?
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<br />Above all, how the hell do you tell him that, while you are charmed by his devotion to your evolved bigfoot, Ewoks were not what you had in mind?
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<br />Your friend just might take issue and lob what he thinks are subtle barbs at you on a filmmaking website.
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<br />Because they’re assuming that you think like they do, and that you’re as driven by ego as they are.
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<br />It’s a conundrum, and it leads to a kind of paralysis. It’s the age old question of choosing between two goods: Do I tough it out myself, knowing that without Said Friend’s near pathological drive nothing may ever come of it? Or do I take the plunge, knowing I’ve lost my girl right there because Said Friend’s ego and temper will make a true collaboration impossible?
<br />Ah, hell. If you’re like me, you’re so beaten down by life anyway that you’ll take the plunge. I mean, you’ll really take the plunge: you’ll congratulate Said Friend on his panache and bluster, you’ll assure him that it’s about time someone made a rip-roarin’ sasquatch movie, you’ll offer your support, your 12 years of research and development, your texts and subtexts, your dramatic defining moments, your title – hell, you’ll insist on the title. In short, you’ll do and say all those things Said Friend maybe should have said so many years ago, during so many endless conversations, when you talked and talked your vision away, and he believed in it even if you did not.
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<br />You want to make movies, by god, and Said Friend does have a knack for making things happen. And now you’re in the back seat of a “SAID FRIEND and you” production. Now your razed temple has been rebuilt, but in someone else's image.
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<br />Now your sasquatch is an Alpha Male, which really is a fucking line of clothing.
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<br />And you’ve only got yourself to blame.
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<br />Look, I’ve gone on and on elsewhere about how much I admire and respect Said Friend. Nothing has changed since then. I may have introduced him to this filmmaking thing, and I’ve taught him a good deal over the years (as he has taught me, for sure), and I know I’ve inspired and influenced him, but at the end of the day -- Said Friend stands or falls by his own wits. His determination, his adaptability, and his talent have carried him far. They will carry him further. Believe me: one does not underestimate Said Friend. Because he'll prove you wrong -- er -- almost every time.
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<br />It should also be noted that I truly love Said Friend, though not, of course, in a Biblical sense. And I believe this feeling to be reciprocated. Moreover, as irritating as Said Friend can be in certain categories -- he’s been one helluvu a true friend in others. And there's more: If Said Friend wasn’t an Alpha, for example, there may never have been a completed Shadows in the Garden, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be in Monstersdotcom.
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<br />Finally, I think much of Said Friend’s treatment of what we are now both calling Ghosts of Saint Helens is excellent (though it may owe a bit much to Frankenheimer's Prophecy, a favorite, admittedly, to both of us). We’ll play it by ear. See how it goes. I’m damn sure going to have some input, I’ll tell you that.
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<br />That said, I’ve a few things to say about we rogues. I’ve got a few answers for Said Friend and anyone else who thinks they are always right, all the time. These are just non-specific responses to various comments, quips, barbs, and accusations leveled at me over time by Said Friend and others.
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<br />You’ll pardon me if this all seems a bit scatter shot.
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<br />My trigger finger’s been itching for a long while.
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<br />Ego.
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<br />People, mostly alpha males, who over-use this word are usually just projecting. They’re projecting onto others what is already in their hearts. In fact, they are the ones in a state of competition, in what Hobbes called a state of “every man against every other man for limited resources.” Oftentimes their ambition involves an active suppression or censorship of other's ideas and accomplishments.
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<br />Why? Because those just might make a shadow big enough for them to get lost in. And that pisses alpha males off. It’s all about them, baby.
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<br />Listen: You can be great without having to be greater than someone else.
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<br />Vision.
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<br />“Vision” sounds so pretentious and vainglorious, but all vision is is what you see, either with your own two eyes or your mind’s eye or your fifty fucking eyes. That’s all. And we all see things differently. Half the fun of watching a great director’s work is seeing the world through their eyes for awhile. It's not about one seeing better than the other, it's about seeing things differently. It's about a singular, unified vision which can take you to the strangest new world of all, another human soul’s perception.
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<br />Self-Doubt.
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<br />Hey, when it comes to being an artist, self-doubt is part and parcel to the territory. Sauce for the Goose. I don’t think you can be an artist without having self-doubt. I don’t think you should be an artist without having self-doubt. And you sure as hell will never be a great artist without having some measure of it; that’s what propels an artist to greatness. It’s what makes you try harder – not some demonic, fated obsession which came to you in a fevered dream, like Hitler, that you’ve just got to be better than everyone else.
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<br />Self-doubt lies at the very core of who we are – as artists and as human beings. An artist who never doubts himself is no artist at all. He’s a motivational speaker.
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<br />Cynicism.
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<br />We rogue males may rail at the world for its indifference, and we may seem cynical, but in fact it's a false cynicism, and it stems from the same source as all cynicism. Like poor Ivan Karamazov, we’re just mad as hell about the unfairness of things and furious that things can’t be better. Old Ivan is really just a bleeding humanist. In the end, false cynicism stems from an eternal hope and optimism – we know it is all useless and yet fight anyway!
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<br />True cynics -- whose ranks do not include Said Friend -- don’t care either way. They live, they make some flicks (usually bad ones), and they die. They never question the meaning of their, er, product, no more than they question the meaning of Life (there is none, by the way, but at least I ask). Isn’t that the ultimate cynicism?
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<br />Futility. With Grace.
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<br />What makes an artist sympathetic is the same thing that makes his or her characters sympathetic. Empathy. Our hours of doubt. It's about rolling that rock up a hill like Sisyphus even though you know it's just gonna roll back down again. It's about doing your best in the face of utter futility.
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<br />It isn’t about delusion.
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<br />It isn’t about chanting a mantra until it becomes true.
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<br />Optimism.
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<br />Said Friend would probably say that he stands for optimism while I stand for cynicism. Yet Shadows in the Garden ends on an optimistic note in which the story has gone somewhere, something irreversible has happened, has been accomplished, that can never happen again. Something has been transcended.
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<br />By contrast, Said Friend’s short (which is excellent by anyone's standard and probably better than mine), one version of it anyway, ends on a note of complete and total futility. Everything is lost, nothing gained.
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<br />Significant? I doubt it. But it’s something to think about, you!
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<br />Delay.
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<br />Said Friend’s spiel: “So, are you going to wait until you're sixty-years-old to do it?”
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<br />Hey, I’m doing it now. I’m thinking it and working it and envisioning it now. All the time. Am I going to wait until I’m sixty to film it?
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<br />Yep. If that’s what it takes.
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<br />Education.
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<br />Sometimes Said Friend and others make fun of my long education. But education means realizing your Big Idea maybe ain’t that big, and has probably been done a thousand times before. Education means knowing that while “So what am I really trying to say here?” is, technically, a rhetorical question, it’s the stupidest one ever uttered.
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<br />Collaboration.
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<br />Collaboration is, indeed, the sine qua non of filmmaking. But if you’re going to collaborate, and expect others to be thick-skinned, you better fucking grow one, too.
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<br />Friendship.
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<br />Friends listen and encourage; they don’t plunder. They aren’t carpetbaggers. You are always at liberty to indulge your fancy with friends. Like being able to talk about your work freely, and have it remain your work. Then again, if a friend is inspired by something you said or wrote, and yes, even wants to expand upon it – maybe you should just feel bloody flattered and encourage him (hey, I’m agonizing over these things -- I’m the self doubt guy, remember?).
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<br />I think the main thing is when you’re at this point is to remember that you are, first and foremost, friends. The friendship goes on; the work goes on. One way -- or the other.
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<br />I placed a phone call to Said Friend before allowing this piece to go forward. It was a nice conversation, and yes, I felt guilty as hell for the things I'd written. And while I was irked a little at his occasional minimizing of my contributions to his -- yes, pretty much his now, it seemed, though I may have read him all wrong -- I was also startled by how many things he'd forgotten, things I'd told him about my ongoing sasquatch project, things he truly believed were his own invention. Hell, I was startled by how much I'd forgotten. Those things in the cave, for example (Indian artifacts in Said Friend's version) -- weren't those the shiny trinkets that, in yours, would connect the protagonist to his past? And this idea of the creature's facial expressions, of his ancient, ancient eyes -- wasn't that how you'd described (and written) Atatilla, when he'd rescued your hero from the chasm? When, staring at him through the rain, your hero finally learns just how wrong he's been about, well, everything?
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<br />And it made me wonder about how wrong I might be, fancying Said Friend, even in jest, a bandit. (Said Friend will surely pardon my metaphorizing him with bigfoot, commonly considered an animal. But don't you see, S.F.? That's precisely my point about the Indian/smallpox thing. Sure, it could be powerful. But I suggested it without realizing how offensive it could be!)
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<br />And yes, it made me wonder about how many of the things I've been ranting about here were ever on-purpose in Said Friend's mind -- or ever real outside my own.
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<br />Hypothetical Reader, I don't know. He is my friend, as I've made abundantly clear. Yet if he is genuinely unaware of what I've perceived over the years as a sort of carpet bagging; or if I am unaware of some delusory condition of my own -- that can only lead to a downer of a conclusion.
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<br />Which is that maybe one shouldn't discuss their works-in-progress with friends. Maybe that renders a disservice to you both.
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<br />And man, that sucks. For in my friend's own words: If you can't talk to a fellow filmmakers about filmmaking -- whom the hell can you talk to?
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<br />Ultimately, it boils down to people having different perceptions and different approaches to the creative process. I'm a private kind of person and my writing technique reflects that. I don't usually see the conception and/or the writing of something as collaborative; such collaborations usually result in a discombobulated mess. I like to save collaboration for where it is always needed most: Production.
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<br />In contrast, Said Friend sees everything as collaboration, and always has. I am not making fun of him for this; indeed, it is this very spirit which can make things happen, and often has. It's just that, again, we've got unique approaches.
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<br />Above all, once in collaboration, always try to recognize the value of the other's contribution. Equally important, you must try to make him see the value of your own. If you feel, for example (as I do regarding Ghosts of Saint Helens), that the monster needs remain mysterious for as long as possible, say so. If you feel that the aim of the middle act should be to terrify the viewer more than anything else (for we only fear what we do not understand, and understanding needs wait for Act Three, when the mask, so to speak, is torn off -- and we realize things aren't so unfathomable after all), say so. And if you ardently believe that, while the subtext is vital to the overall hegemony of the piece, its denouement must wait until the very end, like a cherry placed atop a summit of cream -- dude, you better say so.
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<br />The edit bay will be too late.
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<br />I reckon that, in the future, I'll just be more assertive about what's acceptable regarding collaborations and what's not. I reckon I'll be more succinct about which projects I'm willing to donate to the cause, and which ones I want bloody left alone (whether I ever complete them or not). And yes, I'll be extremely careful in what I say.
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<br />Again, it isn't about being petty and thwarting someone else. It's about securing a future for your own vision by pre-empting a take-over today.
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<br />It's about preventing your vision from becoming a ghost: lost, like mighty Atatilla, in time.
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<br />Post Script.
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<br />Said friend does not exist. He is a literary device I cooked up in order to unify my thesis. He is not based in whole or in part on any real person, living or dead.
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097374335426793272004-02-24T19:10:00.000-08:002004-10-09T19:12:15.426-07:00The Art of Negotiating NuditySubmitted by Brad Paulson
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<br />This is not so much an article on how to get nudity for your low-budget movie as it is an article on how to completely fail on getting nudity for your low-budget movie.
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<br />As an example, I’ll go over all the mistakes I made on our last flick. If you do the opposite of everything I did, your chances of getting those luscious undergarments to hit the floor will increase significantly.
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<br />Before the casting began, my partners and I got together and formulated a tightly scripted verbal argument on how our nudity would only be for the sake of art, essential for the character and completely non-gratuitous. Of course, this was all bullshit. Using nudity was never intended to increase the artistic value of our movie. It was intended to get people to watch our movie. No one wants to admit that they just simply enjoy looking at cans. But let‘s face it, nudity and horror movies go together like peanut butter and chocolate. And it’s a hell of a lot better bang for your buck than any of those pricey computer generated shots that flood the movies nowadays. Besides, like some famous director once said and many others less famous have taken credit for, “a woman’s breasts are the best and cheapest special effect.”
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<br />Sorry about that. Got a little sidetracked there. Back to the article.
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<br />Our plan of attempting to negotiate for nudity failed miserably. All we got is a vague promise of partial nudity through a see through nightie. We were way too wishy-washy. If we just explained that the part required nudity up front, we would have been much better off. Lloyd Kaufman executes this technique perfectly in his Troma flicks. But no, we had to try and be all politically correct and look where that got us. Don’t even bother using the lame argument of how your subjects will be getting naked for the sake of art. This may have worked on a short film for your performance experiment class during those drunken days in college, but once everyone sobers up, it’s an entirely different story. Just be upfront about it. Embrace your sleaze.
<br />I suppose it didn’t help that we cast at the local Starbucks either. This went over about as well as a greasy fart in church. Along with making us look completely unprofessional, we also revealed our true low-budget natures by casting at a place that only required a dollar ninety-nine cup of coffee as a deposit. People are much more likely to follow your lead if they think you have money. The trick is to never reveal how low-budget you are right away. If you‘re as low-budget as I am (and that‘s pretty low, I‘m telling you), do it the Hollywood way. Rent an expensive car, see if you can find a friend in the business, and ask them if they’re really getting treated fairly as the peons they are. After they agree to take the risk of getting fired, work out a deal to shoot at their glamorous locale when their bosses are out to lunch. Then, roll up in style to greet the ladies in your hip and trendy, yet very temporary vehicle. In other words, lie, lie, lie.
<br />It’s a damn sad truth, but as far as getting what you want goes when you’re super low-budget, you’ll more often than not get cornholed for telling the truth. Let everyone slowly realize how broke you really are. Hopefully, they won’t piece everything together until the end of the shoot. By then, it’ll be too late. Heh-heh (insert your own evil laughter here).
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<br />When things came around to shooting the nudity, I fucked that up too. Things started off great. Everyone was drinking and having a good time. Our actress was damn near ready to give us full exposure. Then, what happened? We were all tired and rushed the scene. Fatigue took precedence over skin! If everyone would have kept partying who knows what would have happened? But, I had to go and wussy out. As a result, the scene turned out to be the exact kind I always protest in movies, the ones with the clothes on. We could have easily avoided this error by simply allowing enough time to shoot the scene. This would have let us milk the production value for all it’s worth (for the lack of a more tasteful term). But no, like dumb-asses we scheduled the scene as the very last one in the shoot. And on an independent movie this works out to be right around five thirty in the morning. Not a good idea. When you’re going for nudity, it must be treated with as much care and precision as an elaborate action sequence. Take the whole fraggin’ day if you have to. Hell, take a whole fraggin’ week! That’s what all those horny teens will be renting the movie for anyway.
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<br />Don’t hesitate to convey to your potential nude subject how much easier it will be to sell the movie once they’ve gotten naked. If they protest and call you a sleaze, ask if they’ll accept any money. If that changes their mind, ask them if it‘s a moral or a financial issue. If they say it‘s a financial one, ask them why they responded to an ad that said “no pay, copy and credit, meals provided?” Damn, I wish I would have thought of that argument when we were casting.
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<br />Okay, kiddies, let’s sum up all the mistakes I made.
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<br />Attempting to negotiate for nudity.
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<br />Not embracing my own sleaze (see above mistake).
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<br />Casting at Starbucks.
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<br />Telling the truth about my financial situation.
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<br />Not partying long enough.
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<br />Making sleep a priority over smut.
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<br />Okay, there it is. Your best bet at achieving nudity without a budget is to do exactly the opposite of what I did. Best of luck and may your casting couches feel the warmth of bare flesh, and hopefully not just yours.
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097376553066594542003-12-03T19:47:00.000-08:002004-10-09T19:49:13.066-07:00The Ins and Outs of Short EndsSubmitted by Scott Spears
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<br />So you’ve scraped together a few extra dollars to shoot film, but you’re still a bit tight on cash and somebody says, “Buy short ends!” Now, you’ve heard about them but aren’t sure you want to buy somebody else’s leftovers. Well, here’s the scoop on short ends. It’s film that was bought by a production that never got used, and to make some money it is being sold. It comes in four types; short ends, long ends, re-cans, and buy-backs.
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<br />Before we get into the details on these different categories you should first know where to buy short ends. My recommendation is to buy from a reputable dealer that deals in short ends and new film. There are many companies that sell short ends like; Dr. Rawstock, Media Distributors, and Short Endz, to name a few. Please note, I do not work for these companies, but have had good dealings with them. The advantage to going with an established company is they test the film they sell before it goes out the door. If you buy from somebody you don’t know, or from somebody on eBay, you don’t know if the film has been tested. For all your know it could have spent two long summer months baking in the trunk of some production assistant’s car who now wants to make some beer money by selling leftover film. Now, I’m not saying that all the film on eBay is bad film, but by going with a company that does this everyday and that lives by their long term reputation, you’ll most likely get good film stock.
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<br />Short Ends
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<br />Here’s where you save the big bucks, but there are always drawbacks to going the cheap route. Short ends are usually 250 feet and under. They are the cheapest derivative because they plentiful, but there’s less to them. On 16mm that’s about seven minutes of film which isn’t that bad, but on 35mm that’s three minutes which after a color chart, head slate, and regular slate isn’t a lot of film. If you go with a lot of short ends on 35mm, you better have a couple loaders ready to load magazines constantly. Short ends can be had for under twenty cents a foot. I once picked up some for six cents a foot.
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<br />I should add this, 16mm short ends are hard to come by because 16mm is the staple of independent filmmakers who tend to not buy more film than they need and use every inch of their film. 35mm is much more plentiful because studios and medium sized companies dump a lot of film on the market after principal photography has wrapped.
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<br />Long Ends
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<br />Long ends aren’t all that different than short ends except they are usually over 300 feet and in 35mm can be up to 980 feet. They are more expensive because they are rarer and have a longer running time, thus saving time by having less magazine changes. I like them, especially when shooting 35mm. These long loads are usually film that had been loaded and had a color chart and head slate shot on it, but never made it on set. They can run twenty-five cents a foot and up.
<br />Re-cans
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<br />Re-cans are one of my favorites because they are usually full loads that were put in the camera, but were never exposed except maybe a foot or so for threading up. It’s almost like buying new film. They typically cost twenty cents a foot and up.
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<br />Buy-backs
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<br />These babies are rare and aren’t discounted a lot, but can save you a few pennies here and there. Buy-backs are film that was bought and never got out of the can. Often it’s the last batch of film ordered for a big picture or sometimes somebody gets excited and buys a batch of film, but then never gets anymore money to make the movie, so they are forced to call Kodak or Fuji saying they need to return the film. Usually the manufacturers say tough luck, but sometimes if it’s less than forty-eight hours or a long time client, they buy it back for a few dollars less than it was sold for in the first place. I shot a large part of feature with buy-backs with good results. Expect to pay ten to twenty percent off standard rates.
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<br />Under buy-backs, I also put just barely out of date film. Again, this is rare because the manufacturers don’t usually let film expire, but it does happen. When you start your search for film, you could call Kodak or Fuji directly and see of they have out of date film laying around.
<br />An advantage of buy-backs is they will most likely come from the same emulsion batch which will make your cinematographer happy because they’ll be less variation in the stock. I should say, this isn’t that much of a problem today because the film manufacturing process is very consistent.
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<br />Closing Points
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<br />If you decide to try for short ends you should start buying them as soon as possible because assembling enough film, especially for a feature, will take some time. You never want to run out of film or be forced to pay through the nose for film at the last minute. If you need to though, Kodak does offer a last minute film ordering service, but you better be ready to break out the Visa gold card.
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<br />I’ve shot two features on 35mm with lots of short ends and one short on 16mm with primarily short ends, all with good results. On each of the features we did have one incident on each shoot even when dealing with reputable dealers. One time we had one roll that turned out to be two rolls that had been badly masking taped together in the middle. My guess is some tired loader was spooling up some film and didn’t even notice that he had one roll attach to another. The other incident was a mislabeled can and this is where having a good, heads up assistant camera person on crew can save you. My first AC noticed that a bit of film that was hanging out of a film magazine wasn’t the right color. Yes, unexposed film stocks of different ASA ratings have different colors. Some are lighter in color and others are darker. My AC caught this, told me, and I saw the problem. We put that roll aside.
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<br />If you do find a problem, contact the company that sold it to you as soon as possible and let them know. Most of the time they’ll replace the film immediately. Heck, sometimes if you gripe enough, you might get an extra roll or two.
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<br />The big thing to remember is short ends are a great way to save a few bucks, but if there are any questions about the film you’re using, don’t cheap out because for most occasions it will be far more costly to assemble all of the crew, cast, locations, and gear than the few dollars you saved with questionable short ends. Saying that, I’ve used short ends with great results and have helped the production values on some movies by upping the shooting ratio or getting a name actor in the cast with the savings. Final words of advice, do your research, have good a assistant cameraperson, and start buying film early.
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097376159127144692003-12-03T19:41:00.000-08:002004-10-09T19:42:39.126-07:00Screenwriting BooksSubmitted by Richard Hogg
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<br />Looking up at my bookshelves recently I noticed how many books on screenwriting I had. A dozen at least. Cursing not only my stupidity at wasting over £100 (that’s a good four or five nights out after all) I ended up with a few sobering thoughts.
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<br />How much of the thousands of pages I had read had I actually digested and more importantly been able to use in my writing. Act structure. Climax. Peaks and troughs. Pacing. Tone. Characters versus Characterization. This is not a rant denouncing help books. I don’t believe they’re all useless. The usual suspects, i.e. Story and Screenwriters Bible are and were most useful when going back over those early drafts when I had, quite frankly, written novels in a script format.
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<br />The main point I came away with is actually the central message of this whole piece. Just write. Yes I know you’ve read it before and even if you haven’t, of course you’ve got to write. How bloody obvious can you get. But it isn’t. Recently I found myself looking back over the last week. I had been to screenwriting class on the Thursday night and had been given a assignment and I had several rough ideas for a short story or short script. What did I do? Turn on my PlayStation and play a few hours of football (soccer to our American friends, though really our sport came first). Why? I have come to realize that I work in fits and starts. Other writers seem to churn out work on a regular basis with a routine at the heart of it. One hour on a morning or between half nine and ten at night, but gradually it all builds up. Instead I find myself writing ten to twenty pages of script a day for a few weeks then nothing for a month. I’m not blocked. It’s just lethargy. Have I tired myself out? I doubt it. I just suddenly seemed to prioritize watching those West Wing episodes I taped.
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<br />Anyway back to the point. Do write regularly. It’s been said before and will be said countless times again but I can’t reinforce it enough. If you really want to do it, sitting down and thinking about the rewards at the end won’t do anything. It has to be practiced.
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<br />My second point is to read a lot. Not just scripts. Writing is writing. I know there’s a whole different craft when comparing prose and scripts but at the heart is story. You do have to think visually. You can’t have a inner monologue to reveal character but you still have to have a feel for that character. They must be real to you. You must be able to make the reader care for them, empathize with them. The plot must excite. It must be something that you would want to read or watch.
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<br />Stephen King in his book on writing says he’s a slow reader but gets through about eighty books a year. Do you read more than one a week? And no, large print or children’s books don’t count. I read fifty, maybe sixty. And I thought I read a lot. But why is it so important? It’s all to do with that little thing that all the books bang on about, your subconscious. That part of you brain that is supposedly ticking away, filing away ideas, which it decides to let you in on whenever you don’t have a pen and paper handy. I’m wasn’t sure about the whole notion but as I read more I began coming up with ideas that had a hint of a character from one novel, a plot strand from a film, along with ideas from other sources mixed in.
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<br />On top of all this, King is right when he says if you want to be a writer so you have to study writing. He’s renowned as being able to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. How does he do it? How much does he show? Is it because we like the character and don’t want anything bad to happen to them? Is it the language? The pacing? The only way you’ll ever know is to read. And make it varied. Harry Potter one week followed by a history book on the down fall of Berlin the next, followed the week after by a Booker Prize winner.
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<br />Stick to what you’re interested in sure, I tried to improve my scientific knowledge with a few popular books on black holes. It took me four weeks to get through a hundred pages. I actually found myself volunteering to do the house work rather than read this monster.
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<br />Looking back over this I’ve ranted on a bit (nothing new there) but back to the original premise. All the time I’ve spent reading how-to books, playing games, and watching reruns could have been better spent. I want to write for film and TV so I will watch film and TV, obviously. But the other activities I find myself engaging in, let’s face it, they’re not that important. If I want to be a writer, I have to read a lot and write a lot. Even if the vast majority of what I write is crap.
<br />If it’s what you really want to do, then don’t put it off or come up with a list of excuses like I used to. Do it. A few years down the line the benefits will be obvious.
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423878.post-1097175185064849722003-12-03T11:51:00.000-08:002004-10-07T11:53:05.066-07:00Should You Edit Your Own Movies?Submitted by Peter John Ross
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<br />Very rarely in the film industry does the filmmaker get to edit their own pieces. There are exceptions. The obvious ones are Robert Rodriguez and the Coen Brothers, who use the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes. But then there are the director’s who co-edit their movies with another editor, like Kevin Smith and his producer Scott Mosier, or James Cameron who always edits alongside other editors.
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<br />On the micro-budget level, where the funding for the DV short is in the tens of dollars, there is the mythology that you should edit your own movie. Hell anyone with a ten dollar firewire card and a home computer five years out of date can now edit, so obviously all you need to do is learn what button to push. And this is why most DV shorts suffer, especially in the editing.
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<br />I guess for newbies, which we all were at some point, it’s hard to hand over such a crucial part of the moviemaking process to someone else. And since the technology is so readily available, the newbie often does not. Now, some people have a natural knack for editing and this is not always bad. Then there are those who cannot separate the objectivity of the big picture and the minutiae of the script when it comes time to do the editing.
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<br />If you are one of those directors that can look at the raw footage, or even edit a scene together, look at it in the context of the movie and make a decision to cut out one of the best moments the actor gave because you realize that the scene is erroneous, then skip this article. Or if you have what you thought was one of the funniest jokes on paper, and even if it’s not a one-hundred percent great delivery, but you choose to use it anyway because it might be good, then please read on.
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<br />There exists a misconception that you just hand the movie over to the editor and then you sit and wait to see if they made it the way you want. The editor’s job is to work with the director and producer to shape the movie with the NLE chisel. An editor brings objectivity and a fresh perspective to the table that isn’t there with a one-man show.
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<br />Since this article is geared more towards the extremely low budget movie, the first concern is money. An option for us no-budget moviemakers is to help each other out. Find another no-budget filmmaker and edit each other’s movies, rather than taking it all on by yourself. Give each other that new opinion or fresh idea that might enhance the movie. Creating movies in a vacuum can hamper the outcome for the best possible movie.
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<br />Much like working with an actor to help shape a character, collaborating with an editor can help make a better movie. It may not be what you, the director, exactly intended, but movies are a team effort. It’s less about the director’s singular vision, and more about the story and the finished movie. Much like a character, the movie can take on a life of it’s own. I say let it breathe and give it some freedom, rather than choke on the ego of one individual.
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<br />Objectivity is difficult for a director when they go to edit. The director was on the set. He knows the actors and he remembers what happened on those days. This jades the viewing of the raw footage. An editor will look at the raw material and try to build something and not see it as the shoot, but rather the pieces of the puzzle that need to fit just right. Another, more basic concept is the job of the editor to orient the viewer. A director may not realize that the edit they did does not reveal the location or the positions of the characters, because the director was there. Whereas the editor was not there and will more easily recognize that you need an establishing shot or a wide angle to give the audience a sense of spatial relations.
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<br />Now some people learn through time and effort that they can be objective. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are two of the most brutal editors of their own work. They will chop scenes out that do not stand up in the editing room. James Cameron also attacks his movies with fervor. To bring a movie down to its essence, he will cut out whole subplots in the editing room, even ones that cost several million dollars to produce. Just take a look at The Abyss: Special Edition, if you don’t believe me. Please take note though, that on the big movies, even though a director supervises the edit, if there is a fight between the editor and director, the producer is the boss that has to settle the dispute.
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<br />Everyone should at least attempt to work with a separate editor once. You can find that a different approach or a new idea will only serve to enhance the story, which is all a movie is supposed to do, tell a story.
<br />Matt Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00681620104311790043noreply@blogger.com0