not so random thoughts about shooting a film

So hello once again faithful reader. Figured I'd jabber a little bit about my latest project. I decided that I would shoot a film. The idea stemmed from a larger idea of a comic book series that I've been kicking around for quite a while.

In a nutshell, I wanted to shoot some footage, basically to say I've done it, throw some blood and maybe, just maybe the odd boob or two. In those three respects, I can honestly say that I've succeeded. Other than one fairly insignificant continuity error (which in hindsight won't be so insignificant) I'm happy with how things have come out. The camera wasn't too wobbly. The shots are pretty cool (in my humble opinion). And I don't have any regrets. The little continuity error will not really be noticed until a second viewing, and those who watch it once will prob not need to watch it twice. Besides, schlock cinema is full of continuity errors, so I'll just go with it.....

The idea for the film is I wanted to focus on two people and the aftermath of a killing. I didn't want to get bogged down in the who, what, why or how of the plot and leave questions purposely unanswered. I like the thought of letting a viewer make their own assumptions. Not once do I answer who either of the people are, what has happened or why. It doesn't matter. I want the focus to be on the visuals and how they blend with the audio.

I am a big fan of juxtaposition of beautiful music and dark images. There's something really creepy about watching unsettling footage with beautiful music to accompany it. Think the Memphis jail cell scene in Silence of the Lambs. The song I've picked is Ave Maria as sung by Leontyne Price back in the 70's. It happens to be on the Timelife Treasury of Christmas, in case you were looking for it. Every time I hear her start singing, it sends chills up my spine and by the end I am very near tears, almost without fail.

SOOOO, in listening to this very moving piece of music, I decided that it would be fun to use it for the background of a short horror film. It seemed like a logical transition to me.....

Anyhow, we shot last Friday night and I have to say the shoot went very well (aside from said continuity error by yours truly). Both of my actors did GREAT! The crew was phenomenal and by crew I mean the one man wrecking crew that was my brother from another mother. Without the help from Chad, Renee and Shane, this wouldn't have been able to happen, so a BIG shout out to them. Holla!

Now comes the tough part of trying to tie all of the visual and audio footage together. Editing has been one of my main concerns. Shooting was always important, but I thought that if I could shoot at least passable footage I'd be able to work things out. Now that I have that, I've got to make things coherent and make it flow.

I guess it all boils down to time and patience. I always said that if I could translate half of what I saw in my head to the finished product I'd be happy. Now that I've got the footage, it's time to make the magic happen.

It's been a while since I've posted and I figured that this is as good a start back as any, so until next time my minions,

keep on livin the dream.

random halloween survey stolen blatantly from J. Astro

*****Stolen with absolutely no shame from J. Astro, who in turn stole (ahem) had it forwarded from Jay Amabile.*****

*** The always-fresh & dry, never-let-'em-see-ya-sweat Zen master himself, Jay Amabile, recently forwarded this meme on his own excellent blog, The Sexy Armpit, and if you haven't checked out his blog for some time (or ever!?) shame on you. Click on his sweet LOST BOYS-inspired banner up there to go look at his armpit right now, seriously. Meantime, allow me to take this opportunity to answer some questions about two of my favorite topics: Halloween... and, of course, my own glorious self.

☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
HALLOWEEN meme:

1. What is the worst treat to get when trick-or-treating?
Gotta be a tie between Werther's Originals and fruit with razor blades in it.

2. What character from any horror film would you most like to play?

I would love to play a maniacal, needless surgery obsessed doctor ala Dr Vannacutt in the remake of the House on Haunted Hill (played brilliantly by the one and only Jeffrey Combs).

3. Would you rather be a zombie, alien, or psycho? (& why)

I pose the possible alternative to picking one of the three and say that I'd rather be a psychotic zombie alien. Think Jack Torrance from "The Shining" meets the villain from "I Come in Peace" meets "Night of the Living Dead". Then you get the best of all three worlds.

4. How many Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movies combined do you have on DVD?

Sadly, not enough. I think that I only own about 6 or 7 actually.
 5. What is the scariest movie you have ever seen?

The Shining is still the epitome of scary for me.

6. Lamest costume you have worn on Halloween?

Neo from "The Matrix". There's a reason that Neo was cool and when I donned the duds, it was apparent why I wasn't. Generally for the savior, you aren't looking for fat, loud and abrasive, but I sure tried my hardest to make it work.........It just wasn't hard enough.

7. Favorite Halloween treat?

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Period. End of Story.

8. Friendly-faced jack o’lantern or scary one?

Scary, although the funny ones are pretty cool too. Just google "barfing pumpkin" for one of many examples that for some reason makes me chuckle every time.

9. Have you ever had nightmares about a scary movie character chasing you?

If you consider spiders a scary movie character, then yes. F*** I hate those things.

10. Best thing about Halloween?

The great decorations. I wish my apartment could be all decked out like a badass graveyard year round, but then the landlord might get concerned......

11. Strangest Halloween custom you’ve heard of?

I have no idea. I normally stay inside and cry myself to sleep around Halloween, so I don't see or hear about many customs.

12. Person in your family who most likes Halloween (not counting yourself)?

um, my second personality? Most of my family can take or leave Halloween.

13. Are you superstitious? If so, name at least one superstition of yours.

Yes. Can't talk about them though, bad luck.


Later peeps.

So you remember the time you watched a movie and were incredibly let down?

I wish there were a way to recreate a movie that you love but for some reason it doesn't pay off. You are into a film, it's captured your imagination in one way, shape or form and you're along for the ride.

Then it happens.

Something so cheesy or implausible or goofy or whatever that instantly you are back to reality and the film has lost you. Because all you can think of is what the fuck just happened to screw up the movie.

The 1999 edition of The House on Haunted Hill is a great example of this for me. I was hooked right from the beginning. Great music and mood established in the first 5 minutes. The depiction of the ghosts was something that I'd never seen before. Great acting had you believing that the characters were actually in distress.

All is going well until the last 10 minutes of the movie. For some reason they decided to create this spectre of evil that was a cool idea but not too effectively depicted. The split image of evil is cool and I like the possibilities, but it's a bit of a reach to bring that kind of element into a film where it's not been the center of the film until the climax. Yes they mention that the house is alive and it's haunted, but the focus is a lot of times on the sub plots and interplay between the characters and trying to discover if the ghost of the good doctor is real. The real killer of the film for me though is some of the worst script writing ever put to film.

"I had nothing to do with it, I was adopted".

When I first saw this I was shocked at how bad the writing was and how clumsy it came across on the screen. It's just comical now because I still love the movie, but many times I will stop the film right before the climax and imagine what might have been.

Why not have a scene like they do at the end of the credits with a scene of the ghosts getting revenge on two of the party goers? If they would've scrapped the actual ending used and used the epilogue shot and tied the two together, it would've been far better in my opinion.

What films have made you feel this way and what would you have done to correct the error(s)?

PS-I do know the character and actor names, but I hedge my bets on not everybody knowing the film as well as I do, so I don't want to give too much away.

Why do I do what I do?

So as I was at my best buddy Justin's (aka Red in J. Astro's blog The Cheap Bin) wedding reception last weekend and this question was posed to me:

"Why don't you draw little pink hearts in the eyes?"

My response was that I don't do happy artwork. Nevermind that the art being created was in celebration of Justin and Susie's just complete vows. They had the idea that they wanted to have all of the party goers create a piece of art to commemorate the occasion. Being the movie nerds that Justin and Susie are, they had the great idea (with some assistance from Justin's brother) of creating spoof movie posters as keepsakes for attendees. One of the posters was Friday the 3rd. In keeping with that theme, I decided to do my own variant of that, doing a 3 color painting of a goalie mask (a la Friday the 13th). The colors were contrasting, a muted yellowish brown for the base color, crimson for the v design on the forehead of the mask and black to force a feel of lighting and frame the picture. As I was finishing, the pink hearts question was asked of me and I provided my response. The thing is, I don't know why I don't do happy art.

Maybe it's my love of contrast. I REALLY dig light and shadow and how they interact. I like moody art. I like graphic art. Scary art. My theory on art is kind of like my theory on movies. I like the rush that a good scary movie can bring you. The rush of adrenaline pumping when a movie has sufficiently scared the shit out of you. I want my art to create the same sort of impact and feeling. Takashi Miike is able to do put images on film hat are incredibly disturbing, yet they are very hard to look away from. Tarantino is also adept at bringing his point home through visuals as well as words (see the Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves portion of Kill Bill vol. 1 or the animated O-Ren Ishii segment for examples that really strike me).

Some of my favorite artists have been able to do this in one way or another for me at some point. Of course Frazetta is in there with his seminal depictions of Conan the Cimmerian. Along with Frazetta is his modern day counterpart Cary Nord who I think has done a great job of capturing a lot of the older feel while modernizing the techniques and approach to Conan. Johnny Craig is another one of my favorite artists (along with the whole stable of EC talent frankly), with his work from EC Comics in the 50's breaking a lot of boundaries and bringing a new level of detail and graphic depiction to artwork. Some others I would like to mention without belaboring the point are Wrightson, Geiger and Jim Lee.

I guess I still don't have a sufficient explanation for why I create what I do. Maybe it's my way of coping with my darker side in a healthy way without lashing out. Maybe I'm just demented. I don't know. Let me know what you think.

Catch you later,

Mongo