House on Bloodbath Hill

A couple of movies I worked on for John Bowker are coming out in a double feature "grindhouse" package called HOUSE ON BLOODBATH HILL.

On THE SEEKERS, I was Director of Photography and also handled lighting and sound. In HOUSEBOUND, I played Gordon, one of the "men in black." I was also Director of Photography, handled lighting, assisted with sound effects, was in charge of practical special effects and assisted with costuming.

Busy Busy Busy

Have been juggling a lot of work, family and movie stuff over the past few weeks and will be very busy over the next month or so. Posting may be light for a bit...

Beetle Maniac!

Here it is - the final bugman mask. I hot-glued the wig on the back, filled in some spots with black paint and painted some grey veins on the eyeballs!

Bug Man Mask

This was my initial concept sketch. I had already thought of using the plastic easter eggs for eyes as well as having the two mandibles and using hair to accent it.


I took a foam wig head and wrapped it tightly in a brown paper bag. I attached a few wads of paper bag with duct tape as well as two rolled-up pieces of cardboard for the mandibles. As I was tracing the easter eggs onto a piece of cardboard I got the idea to have THREE eyes to make it even weirder. After I traced the open end of the plastic egg halves, I cut the holes out and then cut a border around the holes, wrapped duct tape around it and attached it to the front.


Here is the first layer of paper mache.


I painted it but then felt like there wasn't enough 'face' to the mask, so decided to tape on these two halves of plastic jelly beans. It kind of looked like more mandible/mouth stuff. Note the three white (they are actually a light speckled blue) plastic eggs for eyes - they look a little plain so I think I'll add some veins or something to them - but no pupils.


More paper mache


I stapled a strip of elastic to the back, then paper mache'd over where I'd stapled the ends. Eventually, I will cut the band in half and put some velcro on it so it can work as an adjustable strap.


More black paint plus some white & gray on the mandible things in the front. I took an old black rubber snake toy I've had since I was a kid and sacrificed it, cutting it in half and using epoxy to glue each half into the ends off the cardboard tubes. I also cut some groupings of hair off of the wig I had and just used more black paint to "glue" it on to the edges of the face.


Here you can see it a little better. The rubber snake halves wiggle greatly whenever there is movement. I tucked it into the mask for this shot, but I also attached a black t-shirt around the back of the mask with staples and duct tape. I'd cut straight across the shirt at the armpits to remove the sleeves and neck so I basically was left with a tube of fabric that will cover the rest of the actor's face and neck.

Next is using some more black paint to cover where the rubber snake halves go in, doing some more detailing on the mandibles and eyes, and figuring a way to attach the rest of the shaggy black wig to the back of the mask.

Dr. Squid Egg!

Behold the Dr. Squid Easter Egg!

Mailed off footage I shot recently for WAVE Video's Sleepwalker Strangler, Luc Bernier's Cold As Soul and Falcon Video's Into The Woods projects. Also mailed off a copy of Housebound to the Mid Valley Video Fest folks for possible inclusion in their Friday Monster Madness Series (director John Bowker said his copies were buried under boxes somewhere and I had some copies within easy reach). Now back to my own stuff!

Death Nurse for Truly Dreadful Tales is done - just need to export to tape.

Worked on the bugman monster mask some more, adding mandible thingees and doing some more painting.

Worked a bit on a few scripts.

Many balls in the air...

War of the Monsters birthday cake

This year my son wanted a birthday cake based on the War of the Monsters video game. In the game you play one of a dozen or so giant monsters who beat the snot out of each other while smashing the city around them. The game is a lot of fun. So here is the cake:



I started with a plain white cake, then added a couple of icing roads, pushed a couple of toy cars into it and then created some fires and a whole bunch of girders and debris with icing. The idea was to create a bunch of demolition for the monsters to tower over.

My son picked out the two monsters from the game that he wanted to have fighting. I penciled them out on paper and inked with a magic marker. Then I scanned the drawings so I could resize them and printed each out on card stock. I colored them with colored pencil. I put the rock monster guy on the wall and rubbed a black pencil over it to get some texture. Then I cut the monsters out, taped several wooden skewers to the back of each one and stuck 'em into the cake!

Toni Draggon: Trooper

Have been busy with family stuff for a bit and then down with the flu for several days.

Shot scenes with Toni Draggon last Sunday for three different projects: one of mine and two by other filmmakers. Shot at the wonderful Atomic Bonfire Art Studio and everyone had a swell time. Toni not only endured multiple costume changes and having to convey a wide range of emotions in short order, but having her hands tied with rope and even a bathtub death scene! She's a trooper!


Death Nurse segment of TRULY DREADFUL TALES is pretty much done. Just need to check some sound issues and master to tape. Put together this title card for it.

Bit by bit...

Almost done with editing on Death Nurse segment of TRULY DREADFUL TALES. Composed a scary little piece of music for it. That was fun.

Shot some DVD extras footage last night with Darla Doom and Amanda Bounds for PLATOON OF THE DEAD. They were hilarious.

Shooting scenes on Sunday for a couple of projects being made by other directors. Going to be working with Toni Draggon again - should be fun.

Tom Stedham (whom I was lucky enough to work with on DEADLY PREMONITIONS and PLATOON OF THE DEAD) will be appearing at OmegaCon next weekend, March 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama. Tom rocks!

John Polonia - Rest in Peace

The news of John Polonia's passing hit me hard. John was a few years younger than I am, and like me had a wife and young son. Seeing the subject of that first e-mail was just shocking - my heart sank and I just felt so sad for John's family. I went right upstairs and hugged my son.

I'd e-mailed with his brother Mark a few times, but unfortunately I can't say I knew John personally - I knew the kind of person he was from watching his work and from what others had told me about him.

My friend Co once wrote of me that he admired me because I "made movies because no one told me I couldn't." I take that as a compliment - that sometimes you just have to plow ahead and make what you want, as best you can, with what you have. I feel like Mark and John Polonia were like that.

I am reminded of how I felt when Don Dohler passed away. Don made movies as best he could, with what he had. Don was always kind and helpful to fans, and his passing was a great loss for our moviemaking community.

The Polonia's inspired so many of us - from having made one of the early shot-on-video movies picked up by rental chains to being so prolific, making gobs of movies that always had a particular homemade charm.

I pray for Mark and for John's family.

Dreadful

TreeSpirit is done! Currently editing the Death Nurse short starring Laura G of W.A.V.E. fame. About halfway done building a three-eyed mutant bug-man mask for the next segment for TRULY DREADFUL TALES (formerly Nigel Cheeseball's Monster Files).

Finished editing an interview segment and behind-the-scenes segment for PLATOON OF THE DEAD, as well as a couple of title screens.

Good Times

Had a swell visit with my BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES partner Mike Hegg over the weekend. He captured all of the segments of DEADLY PREMONITIONS into his system and we did a little bit of fixing up here and there. I'll need to schedule another visit and hopefully we can fix some sound stuff and author a DVD!

Did a little work for John Bowker's PLATOON OF THE DEAD tonight. Waiting to hear if he likes it.

Met with Robert J. Olin and Rob Merickel to go over plans for shooting the Welcome Sister segment for TWISTED FATES. Robert has some ambitious iddeas and wants to make this really intense. We agreed to plan for an early June shoot so the weather is nice for scenes in the water. I'll be trying to shoot the VideoDrone segment before that.

Onward....

Monster Movies!

Check it out! Here's the entertainment section of the Salem Statesman-Journal and BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES (and specifically William Bradford as Cletus) made the cover! The story can be found online right here:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802070305

TreeSpirit Title

Made the title screen for the TreeSpirit short tonight and have started working on music and sound. Comes in around 17 minutes or so.

Who is the Guy in the Red Shirt?

I found a picture of me, Lloyd Kaufman and a couple of Salem directors in an article about the upcoming Mid-Valley Video Festival on the Salem-News.com

The Salem Statesman-Journal interviewed me last week for an article scheduled for this Friday about the Monster Madness Fridays film series. Hope it turns out well!

I have the initial edit of the TreeSpirit short done. Tons of sound work and color correction to do.

Heading up to meet with Mike Hegg this weekend and work on final post and dvd work for Deadly Premonitions. Speaking of which I put up a new bunch of photos on that page, pulled from the dvd photo gallery file.

Lloyd Kaufman - Troma-rific!

So this was the flyer that went up at the Northern Lights Theater Pub in Salem, Oregon. BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES was screening again, to be followed by a new Troma release about killer racoons and then a midnight appearance by Lloyd Kaufman. So long story short, there were some problems with Lloyd doing his patented head-crush demonstration, so the Mid-Valley Video Festival guys asked if I would do it between movies and I said I'd be happy to. After all, we did a Lloyd Kaufman-inspired melon-head-crush in BRV anyway so it seems a perfect fit.



After a killer dinner at Buster's Barbecue and some beer at a nearby bar, we headed over to the theater and got our tickets. "RBV?" Hell, I don't care if the letters are jumbled on the ticket - they're still showing my movie!



My BRV co-writer, co-producer, editor, etc. Mike Hegg and I. We are so excited!



After BRV was over, Ross set up a tarp and I got out the melon I'd bought on the way to the theater. This crazy thing cost almost $9! Remind me not to do a demonstration with a melon in the middle of winter. Anyhow, here's Rob Merickel slicing a bit out of the rind to make sure the insides spew out towards the audience.



Getting ready to smash with a big rubber mallet!



Here I am making a point about something after the smash.



Hey, I at least wanted to get a bite! After the demo, we found out that the movie they were going to show next was actually WITH Lloyd. Not only that, but he was over an hour away in another town.



So the guys asked if they could make the evening a Joe Sherlock double feature by showing UNDERBELLY. I said that would rock! They broke the news to the audience, showed a great comedy/blaxploitation short called BLACK SANTA'S REVENGE and then, after I did a short intro, played UNDERBELLY. People seemed to dig it OK even if it didn't really fit "Monster Madness Fridays." There was so more downtime before Lloyd finally showed up sometime after 1 a.m.



Lloyd was entertaining, dropping one-liners here and there, but overall was passionate about his work, about independence, and about how the world is consolidating left and right, squeezing out the little guy.



After the Q&A, Lloyd cracked open a box of DVDs and posed for photos.



I'm all out of BRV copies for sale, but sacrificed one of the three personal copies I usually keep to give one to Lloyd. Unfortunately, this one got melon juice on the cover. But Lloyd gave it a thumbs up anyway!



Robert J. Olin had Lloyd sign a script he had with him that I had written. Lloyd initially said, "I can't sign this, I didn't write it." But then he said, "What the hell." Crazy!



Here is Lloyd and I with Salem filmmakers Josh Dent and Scott Hartmann.

I managed to crawl into bed sometime close to 4 in the morning, but it was a great night! Thanks to the MVVFest guys, Northern Lights, Lloyd and everyone who showed up!!

Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires Screening with Special Guest Lloyd Kaufman!

It's on! BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES shows on the big screen at the Northern Lights Theater Pub this Friday, Feb. 1 around 9 p.m.

BRV shows, followed by COONS (a b-movie about rednecks and killer racoons) followed by special guest Lloyd Kaufman, the man behind Troma films and such classics as The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke'em High. Lloyd plans to demonstrate no-budget fx like the head smash and the arm rip!

Did I mention the theater is a bar, too?!

Two crazy movies plus Lloyd Kaufman for $5. Such a deal. Let's pack the place and get rowdy!

Northern Lights Theater Pub, 3893 Commercial St. SE in Salem, Oregon. Directions, menu and beer & wine list at www.northernlightstheaterpub.com

10:24

Well, I have 10:24 of TreeSpirit edited together so far. It continues to be rough as Tom deviated many times from the script and a few sections I don't feel work at all so I'm doing my best with what is left.

Busy week ahead so not sure how much editing I will get in, but plugging away...

Deconstruction

Looking at February to meet up with Mike about getting the DEADLY PREMONITIONS pieces put together for DVD.

Started importing the footage Tom Shaffer shot of my short script TREESPIRIT. After some consideration, I'm going to deconstruct the NIGEL PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES project. The UNDERBUG segment has always been rather tame, esp. since it was written around my young son (8 or so when I shot it), and doesn't quite fit with the themes of the other segments shot so far. I'm going to put UNDERBUG as an extra on the EATER dvd when I put that together later this year. Meanwhile, I'm going to edit TREESPIRIT and the GHOST NURSE short that Laura G. shot for me. I've got two other segments I am lining people up to shoot. Just need to do some finish work on the monster masks and if everything else lines up I can get those productions off and running. Making plans for a new narrator, but no news to report as of yet.

And so it goes...

Preggers!

Finished photoshop work on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS photo gallery - imported the pics into iMovie, reordered them and dropped them into a timeline. Added a title and a montage of music from the movie and exported it out to tape. Have been e-mailing with Mike Hegg about the final post/dvd work.

Also exported the PLATOON OF THE DEAD cast interviews and behind the scenes imovie files to tape.

Worked a bit on a couple of horror scripts I have underway and came up with some new ideas for one of the TWISTED FATES stories - just ways to add a little visual interest to one of the scenes in the "VideoDrone" segment.

Have been e-mailing with Robert J. Olin about shooting the "Welcome Sister" segment of TWISTED FATES. His February is full so we are zeroing in on a weekend in March.

Found out that an actress I'd worked with before is pregnant. I'd written a werewolf short designed for her to star in, but it looks now like it will have to wait a while or I may need to recast it.

5 Left

Last night I went through the 100 photos that Tom Stedham took of the DEADLY PREMONITIONS shoot, picked out the ones I wanted to include in the DP photo gallery dvd extra, cropped/resized/photoshopped all but 5. Definitely on track to have it finished by the weekend.