THIS IS THE END: Day 2 of 31

I know what you're thinking.  "Jesus Dave, it's the second day, and you're already breaking the formula!"  Well, first off, cut the blasphemy.  There's no need for that.  And second.  It's my blog, and I'll do what I want.  And third, cool your jets man.  Really.

Okay, I doubt anyone was really that upset. 

So, night two of Dave's Horror-a-thon, and I'm watching a comedy.  And generally, I'm not a huge comedy fan.  So what's the deal?

Well, This is the End is a comedy with a horror premise.  So I'm counting it.  I like most of the cast. Seth Rogan. James Franco. Jonah Hill.  Jay whatever his name is (the skinny Canadian one).  And a slew of other comedians.  All the players that have made a name for themselves by playing themselves in pretty much every movie they're in.  So, what are they doing in this movie?  Well... playing themselves, actually.  But literally playing themselves. As in, Seth Rogan is playing Seth Rogan.  Not Seth Rogan is playing the Green Hornet, as imagined by Seth Rogan.  Or Seth Rogan is playing Precious, based on the novel Push, by Sapphire.  Make sense?  No? Alright, lets move on.

The story is, Seth Rogan picks up his buddy Jay from the airport.  They both play themselves, as actors and friends who haven't hung out in a while.  Seth has made all kinds of new celebrity friends in LA, and Jay feels a little left out, so they're having a weekend of just bros hanging out.  Video games. Beer. Pot.  The usual Seth Rogan fair.  I don't know, maybe it's because I was never a big druggie (shit, is that what you call it?  Every term I'm thinking sounds like something a cop would say) but I never got that big a laugh out of the extended pot gags that frequent these movies.  I don't want to be a wet blanket or anything, but it seems like all the humor revolves around people just smoking pot.  Like, not really even doing anything funny.  They're just smoking pot and having a good time.  That's the punch line.  Hmm.  Must be funnier if you're stoned. 

Anyway, they get that out of the way quick, and then Seth convinces his buddy to visit James Franco's new house for a housewarming party.  Jay isn't a big fan of Seth's new Hollywood friends, and he gets dragged along complaining the entire way.  Once they arrive at the party, we're treated to a lot of familiar faces, all playing themselves, either playing up their stereotypical media image, or doing a complete 180 on their public perception.  Michael Cera falls into the latter category, and it's the funniest Cera has been in quite some time. 

From there, shit starts to go down, and the story kicks into gear.  I don't want to spoil too much since this is a pretty new movie, but I think the previews have pretty much revealed the main storyline.  Suddenly, the Rapture happens. As in, the Christian Rapture.  All the good souls are beamed up to Heaven, and all the rest of us are left on Earth.  Which is now Hell on Earth.  At first everyone thinks it's just an earthquake, but things get more and more sinister as it goes on.  At first, I was a little worried about lumping this into the horror-comedy category, but by the end of the movie, it definitely earns the "horror" status, so I don't feel too bad including it.  Jesus, the things I lose sleep over...

The surviving party goers barricade themselves inside Franco's house and try to survive the Apocalypse.  That's essentially the plot.  It's never boring though, because all of these actors have a great resume of films that they constantly reference and use to mock themselves.  The movie also doesn't overstay it's welcome, which is something that can't be said for a lot of comedies in the last couple years.  Like This is 40.  Hilarious first 30 minutes.  Overly long and dramatic remaining 2 hours.  This Is The End keeps it at a pretty brisk 90 minutes, and just when it seems to be getting a little stale, they throw in a twist or two to change the plot up a little and turn the movie in a new direction.  Again, I was surprised how much of a horror angle they took at times.  Something I never would've guessed from the previews.  However, I didn't think the previews looked that good anyway; I just gave it a shot from hearing an onslaught of overwhelmingly positive word of mouth.  Right on mouths. You called it.

I could go into more detail, but that would be like someone explaining a joke, which kind of sucks all the humor out.  Maybe that's why I'm not normally a big comedy movie guy.  As someone who really enjoys analyzing and discussing movies, comedies really don't lend themselves to that thorough of an examination.  If you get too involved in it, you just end up giving away the jokes, and being as I went into this pretty fresh, I thought it was hilarious.  If I'd have known some of the gags beforehand, I don't know if I would've laughed as much.  And if you're not laughing at a comedy, then what the hell is the point?  I've always been more a fan of the really dry comedies, like Wes Anderson's films, or something like Shaun of the Dead or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.  The comedy elements are terrific, and the reason is because the story is great first and foremost, so the comedic elements feel real and well-earned.  It's not just people falling down stairs or getting kicked in the balls.  Nail down a good story, that would be worth watching even without the laughs... then add the laughs.  Holy shit, do I sound pretentious or what?  And I wrote Murder Party! What the hell am I talking about?

Anyway- that's all I've got.  Check out the movie.  You won't be disappointed.  Everyone in it is great and it's a lot of laughs.  And you can even throw it into a Halloween rotation if you want, I think it's close enough, as long as you watch some really putrid, disturbing shit as well to even it out. 

And for anyone who is really, really dying for a straight up horror review- here you go: This is my monster retrospective of the entire SAW franchise.  I stumbled upon it today and re-read it.  It's one of the funniest things I've ever written, and I still agree with everything I said.  Give it a read, but make sure you free up an afternoon first cause Jesus, I just go unplugged on this thing.

WAXWORK: Day 1 of 31

To kick off my long-awaited (by me, not really anyone else) horror movie-a-day through the month of October, I selected a movie I remember watching frequently as a kid. And like most movies from childhood, you always tend to remember them as being much better than they are in actuality.

Waxwork is no exception.

However, it's not a bad movie.  In fact, a lot of it's faults are fairly intentional, as it wears it's B-movie heart on it's sleeve proudly.  It's definitely a tongue-in-the-cheek throwback to the horror genre, containing pretty much everything under the sun.




The plot goes like this:  A group of college kids are invited to a late-night showing at a mysterious Wax Museum.  Just how mysterious?  Well, when two of the female characters are walking to school, chatting about boys in traditional horror movie fashion (it's even filmed in one long take, which I'm guessing was a nod to that scene in Halloween), they stumble across a "creepy old Waxwork" that apparently materialized out of nowhere.  Then, to make it even more mysterious, the owner of the Waxwork suddenly appears, also apparently materializing out of nowhere, and dressed like Willy Wonka for some reason.  It's a funny scene because the girls are looking at the building, then when it cuts to a new angle, the owner is suddenly just there.  Like they just didn't notice him standing right beside them.  The owner, or "Waxwork Man," as he is listed in the credits, is played by the always great, and always sinister, David Warner.  I don't know him by name, but he's definitely "one of those guys" that you always see in movies.  He's popped up in The Omen, Titanic, Tron, Twin Peaks, etc, so he's got a pretty thick filmography.  Trust me, you've seen him before.  And he's always evil.  Or at least a little slimy.

Anyway, he invites the girls to the Waxwork (for some reason, they constantly call the Wax Museum a "Waxwork." I would think most people would refer to it as a Wax Museum. It's just the common phrasing. They were obviously trying to get the mileage out of the title I guess). The girls invite their friends, which are all just a punch of scumbag college pukes who don't seem to get along or even particularly like each other, so it makes you wonder why they're hanging out in the first place.  Probably because no one else can stand them.  Oh well, off to the Wax Mus-ahem- Waxwork.

At the building, they're greeted by the creepiest midget I've ever seen, along with an equally creepy giant butler with the mind of a child.  They direct them to the gallery, where they encounter wax figures of over a dozen famous horror icons.  Wolf Man, Dracula, Invisible Man, etc.  They focus on some classics, but they even throw in some shout outs to other great genre monsters; I caught The Thing, Pod people, Phantom of the Opera, and a couple others. Obviously, a love letter to the genre.  I read online that they originally wanted to have Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th films included as well, but due to rights issues, they couldn't do it.  That sparked an interesting idea in my mind, because while I'm not a huge supporter of remakes, I think this would be a cool formula to revisit in future movies.  They could really focus on the more current slasher villains, like Jason, Freddy, Pinhead, etc.  Obviously, they couldn't do the actual characters, unless they got permissions from all the studios, but they could at least create a cool facsimile of the icons. Although, upon further thought, I guess that was pretty close to what Cabin in the Woods did.  Only much better.  So maybe my point is moot.


Anyway, the kids are perusing the Museum, and kids being kids, they start wandering into the Wax tableaus, which transport them into the scene that is being enacted.  The first punk asshole winds up in the woods, where he runs into a grizzly lumberjack seconds away from turning into a werewolf.  The kid immediately questions how he got from the Wax Mus- Waxwork to the middle of the forest, but quickly decides it had to be hypnotism.  Yeah, hypnotism.  That's the only logical answer.  The hypnotism kicks in really bad when he gets bit by the werewolf and chased around the cabin. It's funny because a lot of this scene is done from the werewolf's Point of View, and it reminded me of that Saturday Night Live skit where Christopher Walken plays that pervy romance-guy, trying to seduce the woman in his apartment.

As the story goes on, it feels the need to explain how the "Waxwork Man" is able to bring his sculptures to life, and the remaining kids go on an investigative search to track down what is really going on.  Turns out, it has to do with a deal with the devil, and the evil owner's obligation to release 18 souls from hell to wreak havoc on the earth, by supplying the Wax sculptures with human victims, which gives them power. Or something.  That part of the movie is unimportant.  We don't really care why the Waxworks are coming to life, we just want to see people getting killed by famous monsters.

The Dracula segment is pretty good too, and a majority of the time is spent in a basement where this poor bastard is chained to a table where the vampires have been nibbling his leg down to the bone as if it was corn on the cob.  It gets almost ludicrous with how many things happen to his leg after that.  A rat starts chewing on it, then a vampire tears off a hunk and eats it.  Then I think they stick a knife in it.  And then the damn vampire just leans over, right on top of it, trying to grab a girl on the other side of the table.  The poor guy.  I expected a piano to land on it or it to just simply start on fire by the end of the scene.

By the end of the movie, all the creatures claim a victim, which allows them to come to life and start tearing shit up.  However, a secret society of old timers kick in the door, ready to take them on in battle.  I guess they've been waiting for this moment... for a while?  Who knows.  What follows is a really poorly choreographed fight scene with a couple stand out moments, along with some of the sloppiest editing I've ever seen.  Just really shitty. Then the muse-Waxwork burns down and we're treated to the most jarring end credits to a horror movie- blaring the song "It's My Party (And I'll Cry if I Want To).  Strange artistic choice.

So, is it a good movie?  No. Not really.  I got a kick out of it as a kid, and watched the hell out of it with all my friends though. And the throwback feel of it makes it a perfect candidate for Halloween viewing, just as long as you know what you're getting into.

A couple stand out moments:

-Vampire woman getting impaled on wine bottles in the wine cellar.

-Asshole detective who constantly disregards everything the main characters say to him

-The main characters strange obsession with Caffine.  "But mom, I need the caffine. Badly."  And even stranger, his mom's refusal to let him drink coffee, because he's not a big boy yet.  And he's in college.  Luckily, his butler, Jenkins (of course) supplies him with his "caffine, his nicotine, and his wheels."  And that's how they refer to them.  Like they thought saying coffee or cigarettes would be too close to product placement, so they went the bare minimum approach to referring to these things.

-Opening sequence where a guy gets his face pushed into a fire place. While lit.  Nasty way to go.

-Vampire goes to bite the girl and she ducks, causing him to bite the neck of a marble bust.  Ouch. That hurts my teeth just watching.  No wonder he wanted her dead after that.

-The decision to include the Marquis deSade as the primary Waxwork villain.  Odd choice, considering deSade was just a French writer with a penchant for immoral literature.  I guess the term "sadist" was coined from his name, so having him whipping girls in a lust-filled torture chamber is kind of fitting.  Points for originality I suppose.

-The decision to make the mousy, bookworm girl secretly turned on by the writings of the Marquis deSade, even so much as her practically fondling herself in an attic when she comes across a book of his writings.  Okay, now I see why they included him.

-The black and white zombie sequence.  Very cool.  And a severed zombie hand that brings to mind better movies, like Evil Dead 2.

-"Would you like a closer look?"  This is what the Waxwork man says to his victims before he pushes them into the tableau.  He tries it with the Detective, who catches himself before he falls in, then brushes himself off and says, "No, I'm good,"  and walks away.  Nothing suspicious about that.  God, this guys a terrible police man.  I'm glad he gets sealed in a sarcophagus by a head-stomping Mummy.

Overall, not a bad way to kick of a horror marathon.  It's always cool to see famous monsters together in one movie, and even though this is far from perfect, it's pretty enjoyable, with a healthy dose of gore and great make up effects.  It's a movie to enjoy with friends, and you can spend most of the night making fun of it as it goes.  There was a sequel made a couple years after called "Waxwork 2: Trapped in Time" or something like that.  I only saw it once, and it was slightly better than expected.  They even manage to have a really funny Bruce Campbell cameo with reference to the old black and white The Haunting movie.  Worth a watch if you've made it through this one.  If not, hey, let's see what else is on.

31 Days of Halloween...

Something I've always wanted to do was the whole horror-movie-a-day thing through the entire month of October.  It's no secret that I'm a die-hard horror fan, and like the rest of my kind, October is my favorite month out of the year. 
Great weather. Scary movies take over the television networks. Candy everywhere. And it's socially acceptable to hang mutilated body parts in your lawn, and for women to walk around looking like prostitutes. Themed prostitutes (the best kind!)

I look forward to this every year, and this time, it's even bookended with two more extra helpings of awesome.  For one, the Breaking Bad finale airs two days before October first.  And two, my birthday is two days after Halloween.  So, yes, I will have an extra bite of that awesome sandwich, thank you.  In fact, I think I have enough to share.  Oh, and throw in a side of Skull and Bones Sweet-Tarts (the best kind!)

What am I doing to enjoy the shit out of October this year?  Well, for starters, I want to do that whole horror marathon. Last year, I ambitiously picked 31 movies and planned to watch one a night leading up to Halloween.  Here's a link if you fact-checkers need verification.  All the ducks should be in a row.  Go ahead and give it a read too, while you're there.  I thought it was kinda funny. 

Unfortunately, I my eyes were bigger than my... well, I guess eyes would be the best analogy in this case, because I didn't get a chance to watch them all.  Between working my ass off with my cohort, Paul Kurutsides on getting our movie finished in time for our Halloween premiere, and managing work and family, I just didn't have time to enjoy all 31 of them.  I think I got through 12 of them.  Not a great ratio, I know.

This year, I feel like my odds are a little better.  I'm not guaranteeing I'll make it through 31 movies, because let's face it, things come up. However, I really want to try to post a blog update every day, on something Halloween or horror movie related.  Whether it's my thoughts on a particular movie I just watched or re-watched, or a favorite book or short story, or even a TV series.  There's lots I can talk about. 

I was originally toying with the idea of doing a video blog for each movie review- but quickly side-tabled that for a possible future project.  I'd love to do it, but I don't have the time or the resources at the moment, and frankly, there's already so many of those out on the net already, I don't know if I really need to re-invent the wheel.  Speaking of which, I figured I'd keep this short, and end it with one of my favorite Horror-retrospectives.  Every year, Cinemassacre does something similar to this- where James Rolfe tells a little about the most influential horror films of the genre.  He's an incredibly knowledgeable dude on the subject- and I can't recommend his videos enough.  If you're looking for a fantastic timeline through the most genre-defining films from the silent era up to now, I'd give this a watch; The History of Horror. Other years cover Godzilla, Sequels, Cult films, and 80's trash.  Like I said, he does such a good job with these, I don't know if I could really bring anything new to the table.  So, if you were into the idea I teased earlier of me doing a video blog over important horror films, just watch this instead- it's essentially the same thing.  If you didn't give a shit, you should be fine.

-Oh, and one more thing-  the flicks I have in mind for this marathon- they're not all Oscar-caliber material.  Some of them are brilliant, others are a little wonky, but they've all got their charm.  I selected the upcoming films based purely on the idea that these are movies I think of when I think of "Halloween."  There's plenty of great horror films I'm not including (in fact, if you want a list of great horror to watch, again, check out Cinemassacre's site- they go right down the list, and in my opinion, they get it right-)  I'm just picking out movies that give me that good old fashioned fun, Halloween atmosphere.  Bats, cemeteries, castles, witches.  That type of thing*  We've got all year for chainsaw wielding psychopaths-  these films should really encompass the holiday.  Yay paganism! 

See you in a couple days! 

*No, I'm not going to be watching Hocus Pocus. (even if it is the most attractive Sarah Jessica Parker has looked.)

The last pictureshow...

Murder Party Dos

Hello internet.  It's been a while. 

Last April, I posted a series of blogs about my experience filming our feature horror film, The Cutting Room Floor.  It covered just about everything there was to say about the movie, and it was a good way to shut the door on it and prepare for future endeavors. 

And what endeavors would those be you ask?  Well, none other than the follow up to one of the short films-within-the film.  The last half of The Cutting Room Floor was comprised of a horror-comedy called Murder Party.  It was a lot of fun, and we filmed it in that intentionally-cheesy style that has become so popular over the last couple years.  I was a huge fan of Tarantino and Rodriguez's double-feature: Grindhouse-  so that's where a lot of the inspiration came from.  Well, that and a slew of other (probably less-intentional but still enjoyable cheesy) horror films from the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

The plan was to take a break from the year-long ordeal of filming our "legitimate" feature film, and follow it up with a fun, breezy sequel to Murder Party, since that was a blast to make, and it didn't require the same attention to detail that the rest of the movie did.  What actually happened, was we got everyone together, and made something even more strenuous than most of what we filmed during The Cutting Room Floor. 

What I didn't really think ahead to, was that Murder Party had, by far, the biggest cast and crew.  Most of the other shorts in The Cutting Room Floor were pretty small scale, involving only a handful of actors.  Murder Party, was mostly filmed in one night, in one location, with about 15-20 actors/crew members.  And, as I always do, I decided if we were going to follow that up, we had to go bigger, so this time, I added a couple more locations, and quite a few more people.  Which meant even more fun trying to organize the shooting around everyone's schedules.  And of course, that's a sarcastic "fun," because if you've ever had to deal with this, you know it fucking sucks.

Anyway, long story short.  Murder Party 2 was supposed to be a fun, quick palate-cleanser.  We'd shoot it quick, edit it, and move on to something bigger.  However, my film-making partner, Paul Kurutsides wasn't setting for anything but the best, and I can say with utmost certainty, he brought his A-game to this shoot.  From the footage I've seen, I can say this is one of the best looking projects we have ever done, and most of that has to do with the labor-intensive set preparation.  Setting up lights, churning out multiple takes, and wheeling around crane cams.  Not the level of production value I was anticipating when I wrote the script, but you know what, the finished product is going to be worth the hassle.

If I sound a little bitter during this blog, it's due to the fact that when we prepare for a shoot, we always go into it with an idealistic naiveté.  The movie you picture in your head is a completely different animal than what you seem to be filming when the camera starts rolling.  It's a little shocking.  Not everything turns out how you expect it to.  In fact, few things do.  I'm sure this is common around all film sets, not just no-budget movies from guys who do this in their spare time.  It just happens.  However, the cool thing is, things start to happen organically on set; actors interact and build off each other in ways you never anticipated.  Serendipitous events happen involving lighting, framing shots, practical effects, and just random things you never could try to plan for or recreate.  You start laughing and losing yourself in the moment, and before you know it, what you've just filmed is better than you hoped it would be when you first envisioned it.

 

I'm gonna wrap this up soon, because I know I tend to lose people when I get too long-winded.  There's a couple things I still wanted to cover though...

The original plan was to update this blog in conjunction with the filming.  However, after the first night of shooting (August 3rd - from 7 pm - 6 am) I was so burned out, and things were going differently than I expected, so I figured I just needed to concentrate of the picture, and cut everything else out of my focus.  I'm like that on set too-  everyone is having a good time, chilling and enjoying the experience, while Paul and I are running around like fucking madmen, planning our next eight moves ahead of us.  I shit you not, there isn't a minute of time to relax when we're shooting.  Especially on the first night we filmed.  We had an ambitious shot list, and I think we got about 40% of it filmed.  Not great results.  I felt bad because a lot of the crew had to stand around waiting while we tried to rush through scene after scene.  By the time I got home that morning, I was exhausted, but too pumped to sleep.  I felt like I still had a mountain to climb in front of me, and what was supposed to just be a fun time with friends became a long, long fucking project. 

But... we kept on going.  We shot again the next week.  And then the next.  And the next.  I think we've filmed about 5 or 6 separate times by now.  A couple 8-9 hour shoots.  A couple 2-5 hour ones.  So much for a quick, fun sequel. 

I complain, but the thing is, I love doing this.  I just discovered with this last film, that I just can't do it anymore.  Full time job.  Wife and kid.  Plus, everyone else has there own things, and I'm sure there's going to be quite a few more families springing up before too long as well.  I love making movies.  I think we all do.  The only problem is the time.  That's the one thing we just don't have enough of.  So, I think it's safe to say, this will be the last big movie out of me.  Kind of sad, but kind of freeing too.  Over the summer I got a nasty case of strep throat, and I remember laying on the floor in a medicine-induced daze just fucking dreading having to make this movie.  Granted, I was doped out of my mind and wasn't moving around much, but I couldn't even begin to fathom the amount of preparation I was going to have to do to get ready for the shoots.  But, we'd been talking it up- we had people committed to coming to Dubuque from out of the state to film again with us- I've had the script written and re-written, and adjusted, and the re-re-written for months.  I had already spent way too much time on this bastard to stop before we even pressed record.  So, I got my shit together, kind of already knowing this was gonna be the last one, and we dove in, head first. 

So shit Dave, it sounds like you had a real fucking blast making this you sun-shiney piece of shit asshole.  Well, it's been fun when it hasn't been a pain in the ass.  It just seems like this shoot has been a lot more stressful than others.  Maybe it's the scale.  This wasn't supposed to be Cutting Room Floor-style scale, but sure enough- I think it managed to be.  Again, the time is the biggest factor.  If we had all the time in the world, it would be nothing.  But unfortunately, we all have other things to do, and I can't write short scripts, so here we are.  Will we ever film anything again?  Oh shit, yeah.  Will I write anything again.  Most definitely.  Will it be another hour and a half epic involving tons of people and locations.  Nope.  I envision a pretty long break after this, and then maybe, down the road, a couple short things, like the Ghost Hunter Dave series.  Fun, easy stuff like that.  Things that don't involve multiple lights and camera operators.  In fact, I have an idea for something, but I'm so not even wanting to go there until I've had a break, so it's just hanging out in the grey matter for now. 

So, there's that.  At the time of writing this, we have one more day of shooting.  And it's going to be a piece of cake.  Maybe that's why I feel confident enough to start talking about the production now.  The worst of it is behind us.  The beast has been slain, gutted, and hung in the trophy room.  One more couple-hour evening of shooting, and then the editing stage begins.  That's when the movie really takes shape.  It's weird. I described above how different the filming is from what you picture when you write the script.  Well, that same feeling extends into the editing, and that's when your final re-write happens.  It's like everything you've written was just a rough draft, and all the footage you filmed, that's your finished thesis- you just have to figure out how to arrange it and clean it up a little.  This is the fun part.  And partly because it involves sitting in front of a computer; the final reward to sweating your ass off in an abandoned warehouse for multiple hours a day.  (I lost 10 pounds from the first day of shooting till the last.  That's insane.  I guess there went the baby weight.)

Alright- that's it for now.  Since I covered all the fun stuff in this one (ie: me bitching and complaining), look forward to the next couple posts, where I go into some detail on the actual filming process, and what to look forward to in the sequel.  I didn't even get a chance to talk about the cast (which is fantastic) and the story.  One thing, I'm exceptionally proud of, is that I feel nothing was held back on this one.  Everything we film, there's always a couple things I was really attached to that don't make it into the finished product.  Sometime its money.  A lot of time, it's time.  Well, all those little things I've wanted to put in a movie... they've found their home in Murder Party 2.  It's essentially a catch all for every fucked up idea I've wanted to film but haven't been able to yet.  So, believe me when I say, you haven't seen anything yet.

And- credit where credit is due-  all the photos in this blog are courtesy of the wonderfully talented, Jasmine Rodgers.  And she even says photographing people isn't her strong suit.  She's been documenting a huge chunk of the shoots- which is something we've always wanted to do- but like I said, when we're filming, we aint got time for anything else- so it's much appreciated.  Check out everything she's snapped here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/96487370@N04/ 

And- last but not least- for more up-to-date coverage on the filmmaking process, and all things PKP- check out Paul's blog and podcast- http://www.wearepkp.com/index.html

Reflections from The Cutting Room Floor (Part VI: The Wrap)

EPILOGUE

We started in August of 2011 and we ended in October 2012.  For some reason I can't even begin to comprehend, we were saying that we'd finish this in October of 2011, which I had to actually count the months on my hand to make sure I wasn't completely out of my mind.  Three months.  What the hell were we thinking?  No. Way. In. Hell.  So, while we told everyone that we would release the movie in time for Halloween, we joked later on that we never specified which Halloween. Jesus... three months.  My mind is still blown.

The one thing we've learned from working on numerous movies is that it will never, ever, take less time than you originally expect, and will almost certainly always, take twice as much, if not more. The Cutting Room Floor took a while.  About a year and 3 month, not counting the time it took to write and do any pre-production time.  Of course, it's not like we worked on it every day, but it was always there, kind of hanging over our heads; you can imagine the wave of relief that washed over us after the premiere.  However, there was definitely a feeling of nervous anxiety, because, holy shit, we've just spent over a year of our life working on this thing, and now we're ready to show it... what if it sucks? 

Well, I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I don't think it sucked.  And I haven't heard anyone else think it did either.  So that was a relief. 

While we filmed sporadically over the year, finishing Haunted in Spring of 2012, we tried to keep up on editing it as we went.  That kind of worked.  Paul and I worked on it as much as he could tolerate me sitting over his shoulder.  We trimmed everything down to a rough cut together, but over the summer he took off to film a documentary, and I borrowed a computer and started fine tuning various sequences in my basement.  One of which, was the damn zombie footage that we were having a hard time cutting together coherently.  I think I worked on most of Haunted as well.  Then PK returned in August and I remember sitting down with him and saying, "Paul, I think if we're going to premiere this at Mindframe, we almost have to do it over Halloween weekend."  Paul nodded his head calmly and said, "I agree."  I was kind of shocked that Paul was going along with this, because it would mean a TON of work for him.  "Do you think we can do it in time?" I asked him.  Paul thought about it for a moment and said, "Yeah, I think we can do it."  This was, without a doubt, the most ambitious Paul has ever gotten about the project, so I ran with it.  We set up a schedule of what we needed done, and by what dates and we worked harder on it in the last three months than we did in the first year.  It was insane.  Paul fine tuned the editing, and I would drop in to give feedback and help out.  Then he added sound effects and digital special effects, while I was scouring the net looking for royalty free music we could use, and jotting down websites, track names, and where I thought they'd fit in the movie. 

Somehow, we got it done.  But it went right up to the wire.  In fact, if Mindframe, or anyone else knew how close it came, chances are they wouldn't have agreed to the premiere.  But it worked out, so forget I said anything.

While we were getting the finished cut perfected, we started creating some promotional material.  Graphic artist extraordinaire, and star of the movie, Neil Potter worked with me on creating posters.  I basically drew up some thumbnails and he made them happen.  We got some really great posters too.  Other graphic artists extraordinaire, Scott Reuber printed out a pile of them for us to give away during the premiere, as well as to hang around town and distribute among cast and crew.  They were really great looking.  Neil and Scott would also go on to create the DVD cover and inserts; also amazing looking.  Extremely professional.  I couldn't be happier with the turn out.

A couple weeks before the premiere, which we had locked down, despite the finished film not being... well, finished, was Dubuque's Fall Into Art gallery tour.  This is something Dubuque does every Autumn, where a handful of local businesses downtown host art gallery showings over the weekend.  Paul had some connections, and got us a venue in the Warehouse Art Gallery, where we displayed our promotional posters, flyers, and we even had a couple of cast members dressed in full, disgusting zombie make up.  They wandered the nearby venues handing out flyers for the movie and posing for photos, while me and Paul dressed nice and acted like big shots.  It was awesome.  However, we decided that we needed a trailer to have playing at the gallery, so, we had to take a week out of our already extremely cramped editing schedule to shoot a promo piece of us at Mindframe talking about the movie, and then also a short teaser trailer with highlights of the film itself.  If anything was going to break Paul, it would be this, but he kicked it out on time, and it looked great.  He's got a knack for this kind of thing. 

So, with the gallery tour done, next up, we got featured in the local paper and had some radio ads going.  The telegraph herald interviewed Paul and I and ran a front page story (in the community section) about the movie, then a week before the showing, a local radio station aired a couple 30 second spots for us, and the morning of the premiere Paul and I were guests on the show, giving us a chance to talk about the movie and get the word out even further.  It was all pretty cool.  After we left the radio station, I followed Paul back home and we continued work on the movie that would be premiering in about 12 hours.  The only thing we had left to do was burn the finished film to a disc, which ended up being about the most aggravating challenge of the whole project.  You can have everything perfect, but sometimes, the DVD burner just wants to be an asshole and not burn it correctly.  I remember we went through about 15 DVDs, each one with problems ranging from small skipping or split seconds of scrambled picture, to full-on-nightmares with audio cutting out or pieces of footage looping over and over again.  At one point we had to run out to Best Buy to purchase more blank DVDs because we had used up everything we had trying to burn a perfect copy.  We even had a couple "maybe" DVDs that we were okay with using if we couldn't burn a better copy.  It was one of these Maybe DVDs that I took to Mindframe and did a quick test screening of about 2 hours before the premiere.  It worked pretty well, and most of the audience wouldn't catch the issues, but we would know it wasn't perfect and it would always bug us.  So, while I was getting the theater set up and making sure the projector would work, Paul was back at home, trying one final time to get a final copy burned.  (I should mention too, that you can't really tell if it's a perfect copy or not until you watch the entire disc.  So not only did we have to burn it, we'd have to watch it and keep an eye out for any problems- then mark when they happened and look for the same errors (or new ones) to occur in the next burning.  So we were generally burning another DVD right away, as soon as we started previewing the previous one. It was a nightmare, and if Paul wasn't able to quote the entire movie by heart after editing it for a year, he certainly was after the DVD burning process.  I think he was up until about 4 am the night before the premiere, fighting with the computer and trying to get a perfect copy) I remember while I was testing the DVD, I went down to the theater to get a ground-view look to make sure everything looked how it was supposed to.  I took a moment to just enjoy the fact that here I was, in a soon-to-be full theater, where my movie was about to play.  I sat down and just let it sink in for a moment.  This is what we were waiting for.  I hoped to God everything went according to plan, but for a minute, I didn't care.  I just sat there, by myself in the darkened theater and enjoyed seeing the movie we spent a year filming on the big screen.  Then I got my shit together and continued freaking out.

Well, somehow, fate smiled on us, because about an hour before the premiere, Paul arrived with a new disc.  He handed it to me and said, "This one should work." I asked him how much faith he had in that, and he didn't have a very confident answer.  I tested it out quick in the projection room and it seemed okay, but we didn't have time to give it a full preview, because people were beginning to arrive for the show.  So, we threw it in the DVD player and crossed our fingers, then went downstairs to see the turnout.

It was amazing; and I'm sure Paul can attest to this; as someone who has studied films, and made movies for a large chunk of his life, this was as close to an official movie premiere as we could have asked for.  The lobby was packed.  And I mean, packed.  People were buying tickets and getting popcorn; to such an extent that they had to open up an extra register and Scott Goedert, cast and crew member (and Mindframe Theater employee) had to jump on and help sell tickets.  We had Troy there, dressed as his character "Whiskers," talking with the crowd and posing for photos.  We had red carpet photo area, and everyone was excited to be there and to see the movie.  Tons of people were in the movie, appearing as zombies, so they brought their friends and family to see it too.  We sold a shit load of tickets.  It was very, very cool.  Soon enough, we began funneling them into the theater, and when the place was full, we dimmed the lights and Paul, myself, and a couple other cast and crew members got on stage and introduced the movie.  The audience applauded, and boom, we began. 

Paul and I sat in the back, taking it all in.  We'd seen it so many times, so we just watched the crowd.  Took notes on their reactions, and also just enjoyed seeing so many packed theater seats.  I don't think I'd ever seen Mindframe as full as it was that night, and I heard later from one of the employees that it was one of the most tickets sold to a midnight show ever.  Eat it, Lord of the Rings.  The crowd reaction was phenomenal.  Everyone laughed and had a good time.  They applauded after Tagged, they gasped during some of our special effects gags, and cringed during others, and then as the movie ended, we got another round of applause as the theater emptied into the bathrooms. (it was, after all, a 2 hour movie.)  Thankfully, the majority of the patrons returned from the restroom, and Paul, Neil and I resumed our place on the stage for a fairly lengthy Q&A session.  Again, so cool to hear an audience's reaction and response to something that you literally created from nothing.  We had tons of interesting questions, ranging on how we came up with certain elements (the idea for Tagged, the ideas for frog-zombies) to whether or not I was wearing underwear under the tutu I wore in Murder Party.  It proved people were watching closely.  We concluded the evening by signing posters that we had, and that was another surreal experience.  All kinds of people were asking for our autograph and asking us what we had planned next.  Definitely one of the great moments of our filmmaking career, because while all of us have had fun making short movies and sharing them on the net, this was by far the most personal and intimate reaction we've ever had, with a crowd that just ate it up.  I can't thank enough people, from everyone involved in the production of the movie, (especially Paul, with whom, none of this would've been possible (and I'd like to think he'd feel the same about me), along with Mindframe for letting us film and premiere the movie at their fine establishment, and finally, all the fans that came out and saw it at midnight on Halloween weekend.  Like I said, we didn't kid ourselves, this wasn't going to get picked up and distributed by Lionsgate or anything, but we just wanted to have a cool little indie premiere at the local theater, and we ended up with a bigger turnout than we ever could've imagined.  We worked so hard on this, for over a year, and it was such a relief to hear overwhelmingly positive feedback on it.  It was like validation.  We knew it was good.  But then as the premiere loomed closer and closer, nerved kicked in and we started second-guessing, like maybe it's really not that great, or maybe people won't think it's as funny as we do.  Luckily, that wasn't the case.  As I mentioned in last week's look back at Murder Party, we overheard a small child leaving the theater telling his mom he wanted to be Whiskers for Halloween.  Maybe he was joking, but damn it if I wasn't touched.

Oh yeah, and the DVD that Paul hastily burned, just hours before the premiere... it played perfectly. 

 

We had originally planned to have DVDs for sale at the premiere too, but as things piled up, we decided that just wasn't going to happen, and put that on the back burner, opting for a DVD sign up sheet instead.  Then, over Christmas we got the DVDs finishes, using a great company called "Blank Media Printing" to burn all the discs and create professional looking labels.  They looked great, and the finished product could sit proudly on any DVD shelf, never hinting that it was a independent film made for under $500.  Hopefully everyone that wanted a copy has got one by now. We printed 100, and I think we were left with about 12...  if anyone else wants one, just let us know. 

Premiere done.  DVD done.  What's next?  Why not enter it in a festival?  Why not?  Dubuque has begun to hold a yearly International Film Festival, so we submitted it.  While the festival is still very new, it's attracted a lot of press and recognition.  Movies from all across the world are featured, so imagine how thrilled we were when our two shorts: Tagged and Murder Party were picked as official selections.  We didn't win anything, but it was amazing to be included.  They played all weekend at a variety of locals around downtown Dubuque, along with a handful of other local shorts.  Another awesome experience that really made us strive to do even better with our next project.

Okay... so... that was done.  Wow.  The biggest, most ambitious film we ever did was finished.  It was a sigh of relief, and with the DVD done, and all the special features and behind the scenes footage cataloged and included, we felt like we could close the door on The Cutting Room Floor and never look back.  It was an experience that I'll treasure forever.  I mean, we made a full movie.  And not just one, but like 4 full movies.  I wrote it, we filmed it, we edited it, and we have a finished product that we can show people and say, "Hey, look what we did." It's dedication.  I mean, how many people can say that.  My entire life, I've loved creating.  I was never big on sports, or cars, or anything like that.  When I was young, I'd sit in my room and draw, or write.  I'd make books to share with people.  Then I got into movies, and found another way to tell a story.  So, all these years later, I'm still doing it.  I've just found other people that like to do the same thing, and we've gotten better at it.  This movie was such a learning experience, for everyone.  We discovered great actors, amazing resources that we can utilize in the future.  We learned what works, what doesn't work.  Things we do well, things we need to improve on.  Way to manage time.  How reliable we are under deadlines (pretty damn reliable it turns out).  But most of all, I think everyone can say, it was fun.  Sure, staying up till 5 am covered in fake blood isn't always the most fun (but sometimes it is).  We did stuff like this before, and we'll continue to do stuff like this after.  And it's not for money, or any recognition.  It's because we like to create something and share it with others. 

I told myself after the DVD was done, I was done with The Cutting Room Floor.  I had spent over a year thinking about it non-stop.  And yet, here I am, almost a year later, writing an (overly) lengthy blog about my experience on it.  I'm glad I got to make it, and I hope everyone else had as good a time with it as I did.  Now, I feel like I've said all there is to say about it.  So with that in mind... we move forward... onto the next one.



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!