CEMETERY MAN: Day 3 of 31

God I love this movie.

Cemetery Man is such a bizarre mash-up of weirdness, humor and horror, it brings to mind some of the greatest slapstick horror films in the genre like Evil Dead 2 and Re-Animator.  The sad thing is, I don't think too many people know about this one.  Or if they do, chances are they caught it randomly and dismissed it, not prepared to embrace the full extent of its awesomeness.

Originally titled "Dellamorte Dellamore," (which I think is a badass title in itself, and translates from Italian to something along the lines of "Of Death of Love") this is a film that was made in '94, but somehow feels like it was done much, much earlier.  It's definitely low-budget (as the best horror films generally are), but that doesn't refrain the movie from having some amazing make-up and set pieces.  It's also shot in Italy, but most of the actors speak English, and has a couple of that good-old-terrible dubbing for some of the supporting cast.  This is really something I've come to expect with most Italian horror flicks, and watching anything by Fulci or Argento just wouldn't be the same without it.

The plot is pretty simple, but never boring, and it always strikes me as a movie that is made up of several parts.  I would almost compare it to American Psycho, where it's kind of a character study.  We follow the protagonist through his life and the different things he encounters.  The story focuses on a Cemetery watchmen named Francesco Dellamorte (played by Rupert Everett- weird I know) and his mute man-child assistant as they do their best to keep up with a wave of resurrection that seems to be plaguing the graveyard.  For some reason, the dead begin to arise 7 days after they've been buried, and Francesco takes it upon himself to return them to the earth.  Usually by way of bullet, shovel, or spade.  The charm of this movie lies in it's just matter-of-fact weirdness.  For example, no one else seems to notice or care about the zombies.  Francesco attempts to report it to his supervisor's at the city, but he doesn't have the time or ambition to file all the necessary paper work and decides it's "easier just to shoot them."  He goes about his disposal of the undead just as if it were any other part of his job.  Just a cog in he wheel that doesn't have the ambition to find any deeper meaning in what he does.  And that's pretty much how his character views his life.

After a couple minutes into the movie, he meets a beautiful young widow mourning over the loss of her (strangely ancient) looking husband.  She's turned off by Francesco's advances until he shows her to the cemetery's ossuary (which apparently is a dank, mold crypt for scattered bones and remains).  That apparently is all it takes, because now she's all over him and ready to get it on.  (again, it's the charm of these weird foreign flicks like this)  

So, they're banging on the grave of her recently deceased husband, and sure enough, what happens?  Boom zombie.  I think we all saw that one coming.  Let that be a lesson to everyone.  Don't be a whore.  And if you do, don't be one on the grave of your freshly dead spouse. It can only lead to trouble.  

So, zombie husband bites her, she dies, and Francesco is down in the dumps again.  He has some more, strange little adventures over the next couple of days, but then, wouldn't you know it- his love returns from the dead... only to, um... get killed again.  It gets really strange when Francesco starts seeing her again, around town as different characters, each one becoming attracted to him, but each one ending in heartbreak.  And to make matters even more bizarre, Francesco starts seeing Death, as in, Mr. Death, around the graveyard.  And he's not just stopping by to chat, he's calling him out, saying, "Why are you killing my undead?  Wouldn't it just be easier to kill the living?"  Strange philosophy, but Francesco decides to dip his toe into the murder pool and take him up on his offer.  So, he goes around town and has a little shooting spree.  And murders a ton of hospital staff. And maybe indirectly burns some college co-eds.  Alive.  

So, you'd think he's a pretty despicable guy. But strangely, you never really dislike him, and you're rooting for him through the whole film.  Partly because of the bizarre surreal nature of the world this movie takes place in, where you're not quite sure what is real or not.  The story is following Francesco, and we all took English classes where they drill us on the idea of the "unreliable narrator."  Does he fit the bill?  Maybe.  Probably, actually.  But the movie doesn't beat us over the head with notions like this.  Rather than throw a big twist and say, "Oops- he's imagining it the whole time," it just exists in its weird little universe where you're not quite sure what the hell to think.  He runs the cemetery, and most of the movie takes place in the cemetery, so essentially, we're in his world.  His element.  And he's really good at his job.  He blasts zombies away without giving them a second glance.  Mows down approaching hoards while talking on the phone.  You never once get the impression that he feels like he's in any danger.  And that's another reason you kind of root for him.  He has this philosophy that "life, death, it's all the same. You live, you die, you wind up here, you live again, then you die again..."  It's just a part of the daily grind for him.  He's definitely a bit of a sad-sack, but not the whiney, annoying emo bitch Tobey McGuire plays in Spider-Man 3.  He's more of a blue-collar James Bond who just doesn't give a shit, bangs hot chicks, kills zombies, and then has a smoke.  He sometimes wonders what exists outside the town limits, outside of the graveyard he feels at home at, but it's much easier for him to continue cleaning up this never ending slew of zombie returners, than it is to go explore a different career path.

His assistant, Ghnagi is almost his polar opposite.  While Francesco is tall, skinny, good looking and well spoken.  Ghnagi is short, fat, ugly and mute.  He only responds with a child-like "Gna!" to every conversation.  He's essentially the ying to Francesco's yang, because he balances him out.  He's generally happy, optimistic, and while Francesco spends the majority of his free time crossing the names of the newly deceased out of the phone book, Ghnagi allows himself the simple pleasures of life, like watching TV, gorging on spaghetti, playing in leaves and, um... kissing a resurrected pre-teens' severed head.  Yeah, that happens.  

There's a strange twist at the ending AND I'M GOING TO SPOIL IT NOW, SO QUIT READING IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING THIS where Francesco has enough and he drives off with Ghnagi to start anew.  They leave the town, travel under a bridge, but then crash their car just inches from a steep cliff that looks like the end of the world.  Ghnagi is injurred and almost appears to be dead, but he suddenly gets up and then starts speaking in perfect English.  Francesco's response is only, "Gna."  Then it's over.  So what the hell happened?  Throughout the movie, everyone outside of the Cemetery kind of looks down on Francesco and they don't really give him a whole lot of credit to follow through with anything.  In fact, when the police are looking for the mass murderer of the killings he is responsible for him, they pass by him without a second glance, even though he's leaving the site of the slaughter, holding the murder weapon.  The cop even says something hilarious like, "Oh good! You've got a gun; that means you can defend yourself!"  It really brings to mind the ending of American Psycho, which I likened it to earlier.  But what is up with the sudden role reversal?  Has Francesco really been the mute handicapped dude the whole time, and once he left his kingdom of the cemetery, he didn't know how to function in the outside world?  Was Ghnagi the leader of the duo the whole time, but since the story focuses on Francesco, we're just seeing the world through his eyes, where he's King Shit Zombie Exterminator?  Who knows?  It's a good twist, but it doesn't really give you a clear answer, and you could argue a couple different theories, but I don't think there's one definitive way to interpret the ending.  I like it though.  It fits the strange, surreal tone of the rest of the movie.
 
OKAY- YOU CAN RESUME READING AGAIN. SPOILERS OVER.

Overall, this is one of my favorite horror movies.  The main character is just a cool motherfucker.  It has some really great lines.  Awesome zombie effects, and also some of the coolest photography I've ever seen.  They are definitely restricted by the budget in some areas, but man, they come up with some beautifully ingenious cinematography.  The movie opens with a shot pulling back from inside a skull, through the eye socket, then between a phone cord and finally into the establishing shot of Francesco's living room.  There's plenty more as well, really making full use of the meticulously designed cemetery set.  And as much as I'm against remaking classic movies like this, I feel this is a rare case where a more financially stable remake could be even cooler.  As long as they get the right creative team and didn't mess with all of the goofy, original elements that makes this a standout.  Before Tim Burton went all Hot Topic, this would've been the perfect project for him and Depp.  Now a days, that concept is about as exciting sounding as driving to Wal Mart, but when Burton was in his prime, this would've been right up his alley.  He could definitely do the material justice if he took the Ed Wood or Big Fish approach and just went all out weird, with little regard for box office revenue.  But with the most recent en devours he's produced lately, there's not a lot of hope there.  And trust me, if you're going to remake something like this, you have to keep the offbeat tone, and the dark, dark humor. The R rating is a necessity.  So, maybe it's good to just leave it as is.  

Anyway, one last bit of background: this movie is based on an Italian comic book called Dylan Dog.  They made a really shitty adaptation of it starring Brandon Routh a couple years ago, (so maybe it's best to just leave this alone; or use it as an example of what NOT to do... this is what happens when you go for that general audience PG-13 rating).  Francesco apparently pops up in a couple of issues of the comic, but the character of Francesco in Cemetery Man is pretty much based and modeled on the Dylan Dog character in the comic.  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Either way, I have an omnibus collection of the comic and it's a good read.  This might also explain why the movie has so many good "parts."  It definitely feels like an adaptation of multiple story lines from a comic book, but it doesn't feel jumbled; it actually flows perfectly, and the strange shifts to different story arcs make for a really great viewing experience.  You never know where the hell this movie is going, or how it could end (unless you just read my spoiler filled breakdown of the end.)

Final verdict: Cemetery Man is a standout gem.  It has so many great moments I can't even begin to cover them all in this column, and frankly I shouldn't, you should just check it out for yourself.  See how creative and weird the Italians can be when they are free to make a movie virtually no one will watch.  

One weird note about the trailer: It's all in Italian. But the movie is in English. So don't let that turn you off, you uncultured swine.

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part V: Murder Party)

Murder Party

 

 

Holy hell, what a fun time this was. 

 

 

As soon as I had the idea for filming a horror anthology, I knew that I wanted to have the final short film be a cheesy spoof on classic black and white horror films from the '50s and '60s.  I was thinking really old school, Ed Wood and Vincent Price-type of fair, which are a blast in themselves.  The important part was I wanted to end the movie with an over-the-top throwback to horror nostalgia.  I didn't expect it to be half the running time of the entire movie, but I feel it's a great way to end the film.  After all, you want the audience to leave on a high note, so we saved the most action-packed, ridiculousness for the end.  And if you were chuckling through the beginning of the film, you should be rolling by the end (you know, when we actually intended on it being funny...).

 

 

The idea came from an actual Murder Party that my wife and I threw a couple years prior.  We'd do these theme parties a couple times a year, where everyone would dress up and then just stand around getting hammered at our place.  For the Murder Party, we instructed everyone to come as a character of their own creation, and bring along their weapon of choice, then every half hour we drew a name out of a hat and that person became the next victim.  This was part of the inspiration for the movie, and as you can see in the picture, the first time Leonard "Whiskers" St. Elliott found his way into our lives and our hearts. Chelsea Harris' character in the film, Gwendolyn Trundlebunk also originated from this evening, and even though I didn't have the Black Swan costume yet, I still went as a chick; a french-maid/runaway Nazi war-criminal named Alexandra Macedonia. I guess you could say that was part of the inspiration for Nicole Koester's character in the movie, and I suppose its debatable that she looked better in a dress than I did. Neil also crafted a unique character that will be popping up in a movie soon; a traveling Tonic Salesman by the name of Charlie Arnold.  He might even have some ties to Whiskers and -ah, I've already said too much.

 

Anyway, this script came together pretty quick, the only problem was, how much of it came together.  I think the finished script was about 22 pages, which ended up being twice as long as anything else we shot. (and I use small font so I can fit more per page).  Either, way, it was going to be a bit of a stretch to film all in one night, which was pretty essential.  In the end, we ended up having to go back and shoot the opening about a week later, but we got the majority of the film done over an 8 hour period, which was pretty astounding.

 

I think the first thing that stands out about Murder Party is the fantastic cast of characters.  As I mentioned in part 1 of this blog, the whole point of this blog was to get away from using these inside jokes that we all had and make something that everyone could enjoy.  And despite the fact that a couple of the characters in this had originated before we filmed the movie, we were able to introduce them to a brand new audience, and they really connected with them.  Everyone in the movie did a fantastic job, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out a couple obvious scene-stealers.

 

-Troy Potter as Leonard St. Elliott is, what I believe to be one of the greatest creations Troy has ever gifted to the world.  His first child will have a tough act to follow, unless of course it is birthed with a full mustache, in which case, I suppose it would be equal to the crowning achievement of Whiskers.  As I mentioned, Whiskers had already graced our presence about a year prior, so I got a good feel for the character and everything Troy brought with it, so I wrote his part with that in mind, knowing Troy could fill in the rest.  And boy did he ever.  He actually came to set with a list of strange facts that he had prepared for Whiskers to share with the group during takes.  The story of the Hindenburg crash, along with the sinking book depository and the last full moon were all Troy, and they were marvelous.  Same goes for the parasol, the mustache comb, and all the snappy attire.  I've grown quite fond of Mr. St. Elliott, and I think audiences are in for a long journey with him.  A surreal moment happened on the night of the premiere when we overheard a little kid telling his parents he wanted to be Whiskers for Halloween.  My heart melted and exploded at the same time.

 

-Paul Gothard as Ron Jacuzzi. Wow. Just wow.  Another fantastic performance, that Paul had created completely on his own a couple years before we shot this.  I've been trying to fit Cooze into a movie for a while now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for him to pop in and do his shtick.  I think Cooze is really the fan favorite of this movie, and Paul has everything about him just figured out and nailed down to a "T."  The majority of his lines were things that he already came up with an has been running with for a while, I just threw them in.  I also love that Cooze really contributes very little to the actual story, usually just leaning in for a non-sequitor, then backing out and accidentally killing a good guy.  While most of Cooze was all Paul, I take great pride in the scene where he unwittingly shoots Sarah in the face while trying to save her from the villain.  That scene, along with Whiskers' nonchalantly-snapping of Nicole's neck got some of the biggest laughs in the premiere, and they're too of my favorite things we've ever shot.  And no, I don't have an animosity towards women, I just think it's funny when they unexpectedly die.  (I kid, I kid.)

 

-Scott Goedert as Dr. Weisenkompf.  Another great find.  Scott played a badass zombie earlier in the film, as well as one of the hunters in Haunted, but man, he killed it as the effeminate German doctor in this.  Every delivery was hilarious, and he had the accent nailed (fun fact, apparently Scott took German in high school- or that's what he told me anyway).  Amongst a slew of hilarity, my favorite line is when he tries to conceal his secret meeting with his fellow villains and tells Cooze that he's just singing a traditional German folk song in the room by himself.  That was all I had written in the script; but then he goes on to break into 99 Red Balloons, very briefly, before just trailing off and resuming their conversation.  One of the best moments in the movie.

 

There's so many other great performances, many of which I was disappointed in how much screen time they received.  Both Alex Finch and Collins Eboh, were amazing, and brought so much to their characters (whom I gave them very little direction on), I wish we could've had them in it more.  Hopefully we'll be able to rectify this in future endeavours. Another well-deserved shout out for PK, as his character: Colonel Urban.  This is another character Paul created from his Man Vs. Kinda' Wild web series, but viewers don't need to know that going in; he's just a great Southern Military guy whom Paul has a hard on for playing.  I think he's going to be popping up again.  Col Urban, not Paul's boner.  Although I suppose it could be both.
 

After the characters, I think the second thing that really stands out about Murder Party is the awesome location.  This was one of the hardest locals to lock down because we basically needed a large building for us to have free reign in for a night.  And frankly, not a lot of businesses will be willing to do that for a group of young adults shooting a movie they've never heard of.  We were close to running out of options when PK someone stumbled upon the Kirby Building, and after a quick talk with the owner, we got the okay to film in there. The owner, Tony Pfol, was nothing but great to us, letting us in for multiple nights, and even giving the okay for future projects as well.  Hell of a guy who didn't mind helping out local artists, and we couldn't have made the movie without his help.  I mean, the building was just perfect.  And there were so many great finds that we stumbled across and were able to work into the script (ie: the strangle collection of tubs that Cooze is afraid will run him out of business).  Also, it's a creepy place. It doesn't really hit you until you're packing up to leave and you have to hit the lights on the second floor and then make your way back downstairs to the exit.  It would make a great setting for a crappy found-footage horror flick that could linger in a redbox for a couple months before being replaced by something almost identical two weeks later. 

 

God, there's so much to talk about on this one, but I'll try not to get too wordy with it.  The general plot line was always: Get a bunch of crazy characters together in a building and have them start getting killed off one by one.  Upon writing the script, I tried to think up something original, yet very familiar in the horror tropes.  I liked the idea of incorporating the Nazi war criminals (1. I'm a huge Hellboy fan, and those are Hellboy staples, and 2. because it gives it the nostalgic, retro feel that I wanted this to have.)  We wanted to have the color black and white and over and under saturated, full of grain and scratches (I'm also a huge Grindhouse fan, if you couldn't tell).  It was also a conscious decision to never really say the time period.  I wanted it to have that timeless quality, with the Nazis and Whiskers, but still show people on their cell phones, giving it this weird feeling of not knowing when the hell this is supposed to take place.  After all, it's supposed to come off as a bad movie, so I assure you, that was intentional. 

Another question, one which we got at the premiere during the Q&A after the film: Why frogs?  Again, in Hellboy, there's a famous story arc involving a plague of frog creatures, so that was an instant nod to that.  And on top of that, because Frog zombies just seemed so retarded, we had to do it.  We already had a whole segment in the film around zombies, so the villains couldn't just be zombies.  I tried to think what would be the least intimidating animal for a crazed dictator to want to rule the world... Toads seemed like a safe bet.  Plus we could throw that cheesy "ribbit" sound effect in as much as we wanted.   (a funny side note to that- every time someone gets bit and becomes a frog monster, they all took it upon themselves to ribbit in their characters native accent.  Col Urban ribbits with a southern drawl, and Collin's character utters a very heavy French "ribet'".  What makes it even funnier is, we never told them to do that, planning all along to add all the ribbits in later when we were in post production.  Oh well, happy accidents and dedication to their characters.)

 

This movie also climaxes in typical PK fashion.  Everything else we filmed in The Cutting Room Floor was very different from movies we have made in the past.  We got to expand our horizons, try different styles, show restraint, etc.  Murder Party was our chance to let loose and just make something that was an all-out blast.  It's like we had been holding back the entire shoot, and this was our excuse to just get it all out.  From the stumbling upon a cache of automatic weapons, to a big shoot out and drag-out brawl, this is PK's bread and butter.  After everything else we've done I figured Paul would never want to edit another muzzle-flash, but we threw it all in anyway.  It's always funny how as soon as Paul breaks out all of his fake guns, immediately, the entire cast gravitates toward them to start posing and playing with.  I think as soon as we got to the building the first hour was taken up by getting into costume and make up and playing with guns.

 

Looking back, Murder Party was one of the favorite things we've filmed to date.  Partly because of the freedom you have in making an "intentionally-cheesy" movie, so you can just go all out with it, but also in the fact that it was really just getting together with a  group of friends who are all very funny, and seeing how they interact with each other on camera.  I feel like Tagged is what I would put on a resume, you know, to show that we're capable of making a taut, well-made thriller (jesus god, did I just say "taut?"), but then after getting the job, I'd be like, "Hey, you wanna grab a couple beers and watch Murder Party?"
 

 

Good times indeed.  I'm gonna do one more blog in this series, focusing on wrapping up the whole experience, and then we're done with the look back at The Cutting Room Floor.  And while we're still on the topic, and since I don't think a whole lot of people are actually reading this, might as well drop a bit of a bombshell...

 

Whiskers, Cooze, and Swan will return for THE AFTER PARTY: MURDER PARTY 2.  2013.



Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part IV: Haunted)

Haunted

So, two movies down, two to go.  At this point, we finished Tagged, and it was about mid-November. I remember, because it was freezing when we shot the alley scene in Tagged and I was still sick from parading around Halloween night dressed as a ballerina. (in hindsight, not the best idea.)

We took a little break over the winter, and then reconvened in January to film... Murder Party.  -But wait- isn't this blog about Haunted?  Why yes, yes it is.  But at that point, Haunted was a very different story.  

Haunted was the last thing we filmed, primarily because up until about a month before we shot it, it was a completely different script and story.  The original story was about a young girl that grew up in a haunted house.  The hauntings weren't malevolent or anything, and the girl almost saw them as a reassurance, or security blanket that had followed her over her entire life.  As a young adult, she now lives in the house, alone, but the occasional flickering of lights or creak of the door reminds her that she's always got this "presence" with her.  Eventually, she meets a guy, and upon bringing him back to her house, the ghostly activity gets more severe.  The guy gets injured in an incident involving breaking glass, and he storms off.  For the first time, she fears the supernatural presence that she had always came to rely on growing up, and under the insistence of her new boyfriend, they ask a pastor to bless the house.  The pastor shows up, and we have this increasingly, out of nowhere-intense sequence where the house freaks out at we go into some wild poltergeist activity.  Eventually, the house is cleansed, and the pastor leaves, shaken.  The girl and boy continue their romance, but she can't help but feel like she betrayed whatever presence has been with her her entire life.  Things get out of hand when the boyfriend increases his sexual advances and she has to fight him off, sobbing as he walks out of her life.  She then lies in bed, watching the door, waiting for the reassuring creak shut that it used to do, but it never happens.

So, that was the original idea in a nutshell. I like it, and I feel like it might make a better short story than a movie, so I'm filing it away for later.  The problem is, this story isn't very cinematic.  Not in a negative way, but this was supposed to be very low-key, without much spectacle.  It was a haunted house story but I didn't want to ever show any ghosts, or spell out what exactly was causing the haunting.  It was supposed to be a more emotional haunted house flick, and I feel like we couldn't have pulled it off at the time, so we switched gears completely, and went with a vampire flick.

However, I didn't want to just do a straight forward vampire flick either. I had the idea that a girl would meet this strange gentleman on the town and he'd essentially turn her into a vampire like himself, then use her to lure other unsuspecting guys as prey. On the flip side, the guys she lures, are onto her, believing her to be responsible for their friend's death, and are setting their own trap.  And to make it even more twisty-turny, we have the timeline broken up so it doesn't play in chronological order.  As I wrote this, I was really excited, because the story structure was so different, taking a page out of  the Christopher Nolan or Tarantino playbook.  The viewer never gets the whole story until the end, and it's not clear who the protagonists are, or what the plan was until the last few minutes. 

I think this movie definitely holds up more on the second viewing.  The strange story structure might've turned some people off, but it's intended to make the viewer work a little and question where it is going.  Haunted isn't as straightforward as Tagged, and isn't as entertaining as Murder Party, but I feel like it is the perfect "middle movie" of the anthology.  It's a little slower, more experimental, and focuses a little more on emotion.  

There are a couple flaws with this one though, and if I could go back and change anything, the first would be to fix the damn audio in the cafe.  It kills me that the ice-maker was running intermittently as we filmed, so it drowns out a lot of the audio.  Paul did a terrific job with the cinematography during their coffee date, but the botched audio kill the mood.  We even went back there the night before we were set to premiere the movie and attempted to redub the lines.  After about five minutes we decided that was absolutely not feasible, and had to settle with what we had.  It's not terrible, but it hurts the opening.  And the ghost story Sarah tells about her family home was a bit of a nod to the original story idea.  It also brings up the title, "Haunted."  Why keep the same title?  It's funny; when we switched to the vampire story, I was going to call it "Hunted," which wasn't a huge change, and made sense in the context, but I really liked the title "Haunted," and I felt it still fit the movie, and also gave it a more ambiguous title, much like the tone of the entire short.

The cast expanded a little from Tagged.  Sarah and Neil were the leads, and both did great. It gets a little "meta" here, because essentially, Neil is the same character from the zombie film, but playing an actor, playing a vampire.  Does that make sense?  No?  Let me spin it another way.  Neil's character in the zombie film, is an actor who plays a vampire in this.  So his character in the zombie film watches his own movie that he starred in as part of a local film festival.  Does that make sense?  No?  Then I'm sorry, I don't know how else to describe it.  It's also fitting that in Haunted, he takes Sarah to be his mate (or whatever), and in the zombie movie, it appears he has had a secret affinity for her, which he admits to her before finding out she has become a zombie and he has to lock her in the stairwell.  Layers upon layers, huh?

Also in the short: Myself, another part that I wasn't originally going to play, but ended up doing because of convenience. We're also joined by the two Scotts (Goedert and Reuber).  Goedert played the ticket booth zombie earlier and did a fantastic job, so we brought him back, and Reuber gave the most intense performance of the movie, as the friend distraught over the death of his buddy.  It was a conscious decision not to give any characters in this movie an official name, but man, it makes it tough to write about it afterwards.

This movie also featured some cool locals, beginning with Paul's family owned cafe and the ice machine of doom, and ending at Potter farm, home and breeding ground of the Potter family.  Haunted has some really nicely composed shots; it's just a shame it wasn't more consistent.  No one's fault really, we just had various things working against us on this one (time, daylight, and that damn ice machine.)  Overall, a good time to shoot, and we were able to expand on some of our film making techniques.

Join us tomorrow, because you've just been invited to... The MURDER PARTY!

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part III: Tagged)

Tagged

    The first of the three movies within the movie that made up our anthology was a short film called Tagged.  I remember brainstorming with Paul Kurutsides and Scott Goedert one evening, sitting around my kitchen table.  The zombie "book-ends" were taken care of, and I had ideas for two of the three shorts (Murder Party came together right away, and Haunted, although completely different from what we inevitably filmed, was already in the planning stages too.)  Originally, we were even considering offering some of our other filmmaker friends the opportunity to write/direct their own short and include it with ours, making it an ensemble piece.  Paul would've loved this, because it would've freed up an insane amount of time, but in the end, I'm glad that we did the entire thing ourselves.  That's not to say, there couldn't be a Cutting Room Floor 2 that could follow that path, but considering we're already about 5 projects ahead of ourselves, we'll put that on the back burner for now.

Anway, we needed one more short film to round out the anthology.  No one had any killer ideas, so we were just kind of shooting the shit, when I received a Facebook notification that someone tagged me in a photo.  I thought, hey, wouldn't it be crazy if you got notified that someone tagged a photo of you doing something horrible that you know you didn't do, like killing someone?  I immediately started to explain the idea, and about half way through the sentence I stopped and said, "Actually, holy shit, that would make a great movie- that can be the other short film," or something to that effect.  Probably with more swearing.  As soon as the idea popped into my head, the whole thing was immediately figured out.  Tagged was the quickest, easiest, and according to most of the viewer feedback we received, the best thing we filmed.

Out of everything, Tagged felt like it could stand on its own, as a tight, self-contained story that puts the viewer in the protagonist's shoes and keeps you guessing up until the end, in the vein of a good Twilight Zone episode or something. It's short on characters, which helps keep the run-time low, and the fact that it all takes place in a couple hours over the course of a night keeps the pace in check too.  There's little touches of humor, which seem natural but don't detract from the gravity of the plot, and I feel like everything in this movie works really well.  If I could go back and fix anything on this one, there isn't a lot I'd change.  Maybe just shoot it on a higher definition.  Or cut the scene where I take my shirt off.  (I don't know why I do that in so many movies...)

I wasn't originally going to play the lead, but due to time constraints, and how much easier it would be to shoot around myself, that's what happened.  I don't go as dynamic as some of our other cast members, but everyone has been pretty kind about my on-screen abilities in this one, so to that I say, "ah-thank-you."

With that in mind, I might as well address why the same folks continually pop up throughout all the parts of the Cutting Room Floor.  It wasn't intentional, but as we shot it, there were certain, principle cast and crew members that were always with us.  Paul and myself were present for every scene in the movie (obviously), and Neil and Sarah were pretty frequent as well.  As a result, we all pop up more than others.  It works, I guess, considering the short movies are supposed to be local films, so it's not too far fetched that the same actors might appear across the board.  I like to think of it as a Monty Python-type of scenario, where the same cast members can just come and go in different rolls as they're needed.

This was the first of the shorts we filmed, and after the ordeal of filming the zombie stuff, this seemed like a breeze by comparison.  We shot it over a couple nights, starting with me and my cousin Paul Gothard's scene at the beginning of the movie, sharing some beers and watching TV.  That went about as smooth as could go, and we had plenty of time to do multiple takes to get the lines right and make the conversations seem a little more natural.  Then Paul bolted and we shot the ending, where my character returns to the house and confronts this evil doppleganger.  Maybe it was the fact that we had been drinking for most of the shoot, but the whole finale went smooth, without any hiccups or unforeseen problems. Neil and Sarah even swung by at the end, both of them lending a hand as a body double for me occasionally.  One stand out thing I remember from the shoot: to achieve the teary-eyed effect at the end, I was constantly yanking out my nose hairs between takes. I think we have some footage of that on the deleted scenes. Give it a shot, I guarantee you'll tear up.)


We went downtown and filmed the rest, cajoling one of PK's cafe employees to join us outside and crawl into the dumpster to play the corpse.  I don't think I ever got his name, and I'm guessing he has no idea that this movie ever released or wound up on DVD.  Oh well, he signed the release; we're all good.  Then we shot some more at 365 Ink, the local advertiser/magazine.  Then we took a break between shooting over Halloween.  I died my hair black for the Black Swan costume, so that's why I have my hood up for the remainder of the shooting we did.  I think we have a little bit of the black hair in there, but it's during dream sequence, so who gives a shit, it's supposed to be trippy. I also asked one of my buddies from my Blockbuster days to play the thug that roughs me up in the alley.  He had never acted before, but did a pretty good job on the spot.  He was less than willing to put the sharp knife in his mouth, more so because it looked dirty than because it was dangerous.  When I told him it wasn't dirty, it was just covered in "old food," he about stormed off (another good moment to check out on the deleted scenes that had us laughing our asses off all night).

 

I feel like I should address the whole doppleganger thing.  What is it?  Who is the character that is going around wrecking people's lives and framing them for murders?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I was inspired by a short story by one of my favorite authors, Clive Barker, called "Human Remains."  There's some very obvious nods to the story, which also involves a doppleganger that pretty much overtakes and assumes the lead character's life.  If you're a literary buff, check it out.  If you're not, check it out anyway; it's only like 50 pages and it would do you good to expand your vocabulary.  There's also a line that paraphrases a quote from Philp K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," another favorite of mine. "...we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”  I always thought it was a cool quote, and it seemed to fit.  The doppleganger pretty much tells the protagonist, whatever is going on here, is above your head; do you really want to spend your last few moments dwelling on something you can't even begin to comprehend?  Then boom, dead, and onto the next one.  The kicker at the end where the doppleganger has now taken on the neighbor's form cements the ending.  Without it, you're left thinking, "what the hell?" but upon seeing that, I think it gives the impression that this is just some weird, fucked up creature that gets its kicks out of screwing up people's lives and driving them to murder/suicide.  Good times.




So yeah, in hindsight, Tagged it one of our best efforts.  It works well as a standalone piece, and I think it's a great way to kick off the short films in the movie.  It doesn't overstay its welcome, and even though it has some cool effects, it doesn't overdo them, or rely on them too much.  I guess there's some foul language that prevents it from being show at children's birthday parties, but what are they doing watching movies about murderous dopplegangers anyway?  Shouldn't they be bumper bowling or something?

Check back tomorrow for a look back at "Haunted."

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part II: The Zombie film)

 

 

The Zombie Film

 

    So, yesterday I took a look back at some of the earlier movies that we all had a hand in.  It was nice.  It even made me a bit nostalgic and prompted me to consider revisiting some of them, either in a DVD release, a wider web release, or even following them up with something new.  But, that'll be later, because right now, the focus is what I've been building up to... a look back at our most recent project "The Cutting Room Floor."

 

 

 

 

Ryan and I had made movies under our Monster Club Productions title, and Paul and I had done work under his PK Films production company, but everything we made always had that kind of "inside joke" vibe.  By that I mean, they were all movies that we found funny, and our close friends found funny, and sure even a couple random strangers on youtube found funny, but they were never really made with a wide audience in mind.  And that seemed like kind of a shame, because together, we had so much talent and prospect at our disposal.  So, I got the itch to make something that could appeal to a wider audience.  You know, people who might be asking, "Who the hell is Troy Potter?"  (if you're asking this as you're reading, shame on you.)

 

 

How did we settle on a horror film?  Well, it's simple.  Horror films are easier to make, and they have the luxury of even if you failed at it, you can still fail successfully.  Some of the greatest horror films of all time have that very cheesy, B-movie quality, yet they're still a blast.  If you make a horror movie and people laugh, it can still be enjoyable, whereas, if you make a comedy, and no one laughs, you've just subjected your audience to an hour and a half of torture.  It was also a logical movie because I'm a massive horror fan.  Seriously.  Quiz me. I know it all.  Paul is more of a sci-fi guy, but try making a sci-fi movie with no budget... (which, at some point we hope to, because I'm writing something as we speak for one...)

 

 

Okay; so horror film it is.  What will it be about?  Right off the bat, I wanted to make it an anthology piece.  Something of a throw-back to classics like Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow, where there's one unifying story with several short, unrelated stories sprinkled throughout.  This afforded us a chance to really experiment with different techniques, actors, and themes.  I'll get to the individual shorts later next week, but the first order of business was establishing what the central storyline to hold everything together would be.

 

Well, everyone loves a good zombie flick.  Now more than ever (although some may argue that the zombie fad has worn out its welcome. Not me personally; I mean, we're living in a time when the number one show on television is a ultra-gory zombie drama... what a time to be alive!).  Anyway, we're all big zombie fans, and a zombie invasion is something everyone can relate to.  Who hasn't envisioned that post-apocalyptic scenario where you're hunkering down, fending off the undead and trying to survive from day to day?  Especially when you're really bored at work.  However, between all the zombie flicks I've seen, I didn't recall ever seeing one where the main character gets bit and is slowly becoming a zombie himself.  At least none that I recall.  So, for an original take on a familiar subject, we figured that was a pretty unique idea. 

 

We cast Neil Potter; brother of local legend Troy Potter, as the lead.  For one, he's a pretty entertaining guy, with lots of improve work. Two, he's skeletally thin and would look good in zombie make up.  With the lead cast, we needed a place for him to hide out, gradually transform, and still somehow be able to incorporate other stories.  We had always intended on premiering the finished film at Mindframe Theaters, so we decided, why not film it there too?  The owners obliged, and we had our location.  A creepy, nostalgic cinema.  Perfect place to hide out from the zombie invasion.

 

 

 

The script came together pretty quickly from there, and in August of 2011, we began preparations to shoot the first scenes of the movie.  I don't think we had all of the individual short films scripted at that point, but we had the gist of everything worked out.  Paul created a hastily thrown-together facebook group asking if any local Dubuque-ians (?) wanted to swing out and be a zombie extra in our movie.  That day, we got together early, preparing the shoot list, mixing fake blood, and helping Troy Potter (make-up effects maestro) assemble facial prosthetics.  Then, at about 11:30, we started arriving at the theater, and holy shit, were there a ton of people there ready to help out.

  

 

We were blown away by the turn out.  Close to 45 people arrived, half of them already dressed in full undead attire.  We set up a table and Troy got to work on prepping extras while Paul and I scrambled around trying to get our shots set up.  It was an experience.  All these people came out, excited to play a zombie in a little movie they had never heard anything about.  They entrusted us that we knew what we were doing, and quite frankly, that was a sobering realization.  At that moment, I told Paul, "Okay, we seriously, have to finish this film."  There was so much invested in it before we filmed the first shot.  But what a great way to start filming.  Our first real movie, and we were working with a full crew of extras, in an awesome location, with a gang of friends helping with production. 

 

We filmed well into the morning. I think we left the theater at about 5:30 am.  Even more amazing was most of the extras stayed with us until we told them there was nothing left we needed to film.  It was dedication.  There's no way we could have made the movie without everyone who lended a hand that night; it was amazing. 

 

 

The zombie portion of the film took three separate shoots.  The first night at Mindframe with all the extras.  Then a couple weeks later, we started at the crack of dawn to film the downtown scenes before traffic picked up on a Saturday morning.  Everyone met at my house and we headed down to the Port of Dubuque area to haunt the alleys of local business.  We were about an hour in when the police showed up. You know, right when two characters dressed in camo were holding fake guns.  Real looking fake guns. Thankfully, Paul had called the city the day before and alerted them that we'd be filming, and using fake guns.  The cop was cool with everything; even came over and chatted with us a bit (although I think he had to just double check that the guns were fake).  He said they had gotten like 4 calls from concerned citizens that a group of people were downtown with guns.  I can't imagine what would happen if we tried this today. 

Anyway, we knocked that scene out.  Some standout moments were Andy Rang (soldier #1)'s excruciatingly long death scene, where he screams and complains about his friend leaving him to die for about a minute and a half.  All while being eaten by zombies.  His fake intestines were constructed by the Potter family by filling sausage casings with died oatmeal.  Apparently they sat around the kitchen table and did it as a family the night before. I think even their grandma was there.  I hope a photo of this exists somewhere. 

 

We finished that shoot by wandering around the deserted downtown trying to avoid getting cars in the shot while Neil journeyed to Mindframe.  A couple of us doubled as various zombies over the course of the trek, and Paul had food poisoning all morning, so the shoot ended with him rushing to the Mall to shit his brains out.  Then we all got Pancheros.

 

The last zombie portion we filmed was some reshoots inside Mindframe. We had gotten all the zombie footage we needed.  More than enough actually.  There's seriously, like 3 hours of zombies wandering around the theater on Paul's computer.  However, we didn't have time to get all of Neil's lines as he sits in the projection booth and plays DJ to the crowd of undead patrons.  So, we went back and spend another night filming Neil inching his way through the script.  In his defense, my scripts can get pretty wordy.  As we edited this, Paul told me he had to turn the volume down because Neil's blaring voice was giving him a migraine.  The Potter brothers are a loud bunch.  And very excitable.  This was also a key moment in the grand scheme of things, because it was the night Neil and Sarah first hit it off.  She was new to the group; just some girl that showed up to the first zombie shoot, but she seemed cool, so we asked her to come back and we added another part for her as a chick Neil had a crush on.  Who would've guessed they would still be together?  (well, us, since that was the plan all along.  That's two Potter's I've had a hand in setting up.  Both over the course of making movies.  (I had introduced Troy to his fiance, Chelsea back in high school while filming a movie (but that's a story for a different day (holy shit, do I have four open parenthesis going? ))))

 

 

Soon enough, we got the zombie stuff done.  Which was good, because it was by far, the most taxing to shoot.  And it was the framework for the entire film, so it was nice to have that done and over with so we could concentrate on the other three movies.  Never would've guessed that this would be the biggest pain in the ass to edit either, but it sure was.  Most of the movie Paul and I edited together in his basement, and by that I mean, I sat over his shoulder and confused him by saying, "No, move that clip over there... no before that part..."  However, over the summer Paul hit the road to film the Colts documentary, so I borrowed a computer and pieced together the entire theater sequence in my basement.  I still feel like the beginning of the movie isn't our strongest work, but it was some of the first footage we shot, and we were on a pretty tight schedule, so it's understandable.  If I could go back, I'd change Neil's encounter with the soldiers, but oh well, what's done is done... it only gets better from there.

 

One last thing to mention; the music in the movie.  Since we wanted to show this and essentially make some money for our hard work, we made sure to avoid using any copyrighted music.  Which left us having to scower royalty free sites for scores and themes.  I'm actually really happy with everything we used, but it took some time.  I would search through sites at home, jotting down title tracks and where I thought they could be used in the movie, then I'd go to Paul's and we'd start fitting them in.  One standout, is the song "Fixing My Brain," by the Canadian artist, Brad Sucks.  Brad Sucks is a one-man band who has a bit of a following.  He's released 3 albums, all of which, rock.  Seriously, check him out.  He's also s huge supporter of independent artists, so I emailed him and asked if we could use a couple of his tracks in our movie.  He responded with "Yeah, no problem."  Awesome guy.  I feel like the song really sets the tone for the whole movie, and as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted it for the opening credits.  I was originally going to have it resume again at the end once Neil goes full-zombie, but we ended up going with a badass version of the classic funeral march, which I think was a better choice. 

 

Overall, what a project. And this was just part one of four.  We still had three full short films to shoot.  And edit.  Stay tuned, because next up, we're talking about the first short: Tagged.