Monday, November 13, 2006

Heather Storm



Thanks to a tip-off from my buddy John Bowker, I just found out that Heather Storm, one of the actresses from my flick UNDERBELLY, is in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S DORM DAZE 2! Just a few years back she was a college student acting in a shot-on-video b-movie in some guy's mother-in-law's house, and now look at her!





You can pick up UNDERBELLY on DVD from me at THE STORE or WATCH IT RIGHT NOW VIA VIDEO ON DEMAND.

UPDATE: Heather Storm is also the new co-host of GARAGE SQUAD on the VELOCITY channel!

Underbelly from Joe Sherlock on Vimeo.



Sunday, November 12, 2006

Bit o' Script Work

Finished the rewrite on the TREESPIRIT segment of DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES and sent it over to Tom Shaffer. While I still have several proejcts to edit before I'd even get to that one, it feels good to have it back in Tom's court.

I also worked more on a script for a segment about a guy who turns into a fly monster while on a blind date. Thinking this will go in instead of the vampire story. Have talked to an actor and actress about it and they we interested, but need to get the script finished to follow-up.

Saw a local theatrical production of Dracula tonight. Frequent F&C actor and effect man Rob Merickel did the make-up and special effects. It was way cool including some hot Dracula's brides and a great-looking cross that bursts into flame.

Back to the grind tomorrow...


On to music

Finished editing and "The New Neighbor" clocks in at 15:38. Have dropped in some music I'd made in Garage Band for the DEADLY PREMONITIONS trailer, but need to create some more specifically for this.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

14:04:05

Up to 14:04:05 on The New Neighbor....

I'm Back.

I'm back. The Dr. Squid site is back up. There are still a few pages that need work and there are a few sections I hope to add in the future, but for now, I'm back on the web.


Here are a few updates:

TWISTED FATES: I'm just a few minutes' worth of running time away from finishing the initial edit on the "New Neighbor" segment. Next up will be sound effects and music.

Robert J. Olin, who has acted in a number of f&c Productions like Underbelly and Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires, is set to direct the "Welcome Sister" segment in the spring of 2007. Robert reports that he already has three of the needed five actresses committed.

Judging from the near-15-minute runing time of "New Neighbor" and looking at the script length of my other segments, I may need to add one morre story. I have the plot worked out and will be working on the script in the coming months. I would likely be next summer before I'd be able to shoot it.

DEADLY PREMONITIONS: I cut a trailer together a few weeks back for Tough Tom Stedham to show at an event in Alabama. Speaking of Tom, check him out at http://www.myspace.com/tomstedham

DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES: I'm just about done with a rewrite on the Treespirit script for Tom Shaffer to shoot. The vampire segment I'd hired someone to shoot fell apart in ways I could never have imagined (the girl I hired to direct it and play the "hot vampire chick" didn't do a thing with it for six months. Oh, and she also decided she wanted to live as a man. I'm not kidding) and frankly, I'm thinking that vampires are just not monsterous enough to include in the project anyway.

STILL AVAILABLE: Don't forget - Trailer Park Double Wide Trilogy of Terror - Six Schlocky Tales of Terror is available on DVD-R from www.drsquid.net.

NETFLIX: You can currently rent BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES there as well as these flix that I shot for writer/director John Bowker: ABOMINATION: THE EVILMAKER 2, THE SEEKERS, HOUSEBOUND and TWISTED ILLUSIONS 2.

More updates soon.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Coming Soon...

A whole lotta crap has been going on since the end of July, but I am coming back shortly. Thanks to those who have been concerned. The new and improved Dr. Squid site goes live in a few days. Stay tuned...

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Back in a while...

Going to be away from the blog for a bit. Play nice while I'm away...

Friday, July 21, 2006

10-4, Good Buddy

I'm just about at 10 minutes on the NEW NEIGHBOR segment for TWISTED FATES. I'm at 9:59:02.

Talked to my wife about my concept for making a mummy costume. She seems to think it will work and will sew the underlying bodysuit in the next few weeks.

Fangoria Weekend of Horrors - San Jose, California, January 5-7. I'm going to try and go.

The editor who has had the footage for ALWAYS MIDNIGHT, including my TAINTED BLOOD short, for about a year, finally has given up on it. This after stalling the producer for about a year with all kinds of excuses, and now the guy is boasting about how during this time, he was really working on other projects that were "more worthy" of his efforts and how he made $10,000 working on a "real" movie. If the guy felt this project was so far beneath him and was doing other "worthy" projects anyway, I'm not sure why it took him so long to step aside. In any case, they producers are working on finding a new team to put the thing together. Once I have official news to report, I'll do so.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Eight is Great

Just passed 8 minutes of footage edited for the NEW NEIGHBOR segment of TWISTED FATES.

Hoping to get some work in on a couple of monster costumes on Monday.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

3 Minutes and Counting...

I have just about 3 minutes of the NEW NEIGHBOR segment for TWISTED FATES edited together. One step at a time...

Monday, July 10, 2006

FEED ME!!!!

Thanks to my buddy Victor (http://journals.aol.com/vixaudioshow/vix) I've gotten the ol' blog set up with an RSS feed and an Atom feed. I'm still a bit wobbly on all the terminology, but now those who want to subscribe to this humble blog may do so. Let the feeding begin!

Speaking of which I've been on vacation for a week or so and have been eating like a pig! In particular, I devoured a XXX burger and XXX root beer at XXX Root Beer in Issaquah, Washington (http://issaquahhistory.org/sites/xxxdrivein.htm). Mmmmmmmmm... Due to all the travelling and eating, movie work has been slim, but I'm gearing back up to make some headway on all of the various projects I'm juggling. Why just last night I added some broken valentine's candy teeth to the mummy head for DR PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

More soon...

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Happy Birthday to Me...and Eric Spudic!

OK, I turned 39 yesterday so I have one year left to plan my mid-life crisis!

Got a free ice cream sundae at lunch thanks to my boss, my wife made me a dinner of lasagna and chocolate cake, I rocked out to some KISS cds and my son and I watched a b-movie about giant ants!

Life could be worse.

I share my birthday with Captain Kangaroo, Tobey Maquire, Hellen Keller, H. Ross Perot and Eric Spudic (http://www.ericspudic.com)!

Friday, June 23, 2006

NACHO LIBRE!!!

Saw NACHO LIBRE the other night with my son and we laughed and laughed and laughed.

Got some stamps, stamped the Dr. Squid mailers mailed 100 of them out on Wednesday. Hope it generates some funding for a deal I'm trying to make.

Going to send a new master of TAINTED BLOOD to the editor for the ALWAYS MIDNIGHT anthology. He said the timing is good as he's hoping to get it wrapped up by the end of the summer.

SASQUATCH HORROR COLLECTION DVD was GREAT!

Got Brett Kelly's new address so I could send off the check for the Dr. Squid ad in his upcoming BONESETTER comic book.

Have all of the NEW NEIGHBOR footage imported into the iMac. Have started trimming down to good takes and have first two shots dropped in to the timeline. Baby steps...

Created a photo collage web graphic for John (Pipedreams Entertainment) Bowker last night. Waiting to hear if he likes it.

Been a bit of delay in getting the news graphics put over the Link Masters footage, but should be ready in a few weeks.

Have gotten myself involved with a zine cooperative thing called SPAZ. Have to get 4 pages together to contribute, then a central guy assembles everyone's contributions, prints it up as a magazine and sends it out to everyone. Kind of like an APA I guess, but I'm woefully unfamiliar with a lot of zine terminology and history - I just make make 'em. My buddies Mike Hegg and Robert Sumner are the men behind it so I had to take them up on their invitation. I see it as a way to ease into getting a full issue of Dr. Squid published by the end of the year.

More later...

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Time Flies

Wow - it's been a couple of weeks since my last post.

Never did get back to the mummy outfit. Hope springs eternal - there's always this weekend!

Finally got that Dr. Squid mailer printed up, then folded. Distilled my mailing list down, printed labels and labelled the mailers. Now I need to get some stamps and get 'em off in the mail.

Got a back-up mater of TAINTED BLOOD made, trashed the files from my computer and just finished importing all of Ron Ford's footage for the "new neighbor" segment of TWISTED FATES. Going to get that cut, exported to master & back-up tapes, then move on to DEADLY PREMONITIONS.

Never managed to get going on the 14-day screenplay contest, however, I did talk to my wife about one sci-fi movie idea I'd had rolling around in my head for a while, but had trouble getting from the big plot twist to the ending I wanted. As usual, she made the perfect suggestion which then made the path to the ending logical and smooth and now I can't wait to start writing it!!

Ordered SASQUATCH HORROR COLLECTION the other day and told my wife that can be her birthday present to me. I'll post more about why I ordered it later...

Gotta run.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Score!

They were cleaning things out at work today and I scored several large cardboard tubes that I can use for the spaceship/spacestation set I eventually plan to build in my garage for the VIDEODRONE segment of TWISTED FATES. Two of the tubes may be too tall to fit in my car! But the price was right: FREE!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Inch by Inch

Managed to hook up the cables correctly and made 2 cast copies of ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE tonight.

Also finally wrote up the WELCOME SISTER segment of TWISTED FATES in a script format.

Movie Music

Here's the tape sleeve.

Your Strange Technology Frightens Me!

So I added some trailers to the ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE dub I made the other night, hooked two VCRs together and made a cast copy...or so I thought. When I checked the copy, I found that I'd just recorded an hour of TV snow! Aaarrgh. Will have to check all my connections, cables and settings and try again tonight.

Planning on getting another Dr. Squid sale flier mailed out this week. Last night I finished the design for an audio cassette sleeve for BEAUTY AND THE EYEBALL (you'll understand once I post the cover image) which will be a collection of songs I made for UNDERBELLY plus a bunch of unused tracks and experimental stuff.

Hope to post a few pics of the mummy costume progress in a day or two.

I think I'm going to try and write a screenplay in 14 days. There is a competition going on - details at http://www.14dayscreenplay.com - but I think rather than officially join, I'm just going to use it as a challenge to myself to get one of my many scripts to a first draft stage. I just counted and I literally have 15 ideas right now - some are only concepts, some are collections of notes and sketches, a few are scripts I've written anywhere from 10 to 30 pages on. The competition is June 3-17, so I guess I have a little over a week to decide what I'm going to tackle.

More news soon...

Monday, May 22, 2006

Snazzy

Bought a firewire cable the other night with the correct connectors to hook my old iMac and my new iMac together to get the TAINTED BLOOD movie project off of the old computer and onto the new one. A few audio files were missing and moved when I opened the files into the new version of iMovie, but fixed part one and hope to fix part two this week sometime. Then hope it all outputs to tape without any hiccups.

I think the VCR that is a part of my 3/4" editing set-up is going south. Damn.

I managed to get a decent miniDV dub of ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE made and plan to start making some VHS copies for the cast soon.

Worked a bit with the four-track audio recorder this weekend. I had an old tape of a song that some friends and I recorded about 10 year ago (holy crap time flies!). It was just drums, guitar and keyboards, though and the keyboards were rather hard to hear (it was just recorded with the built-in microphone on an old tape recorder sitting in the center of the room). Now all these years later, I added a bass track (using my keyboard) plus doubled the hard-to-hear keyboard track and topped it of with a bright shiny new keyboard track. Snazzy.

Don't forget: http://www.proaxis.com/~sherlockfam/postersforsale.html

Hope to have some better progress reports on stuff later this week...

Sunday, May 07, 2006

That's a Wrap

Shot the remaining two scenes for DEADLY PREMONITIONS today, in a little town about 40 minutes north in the bar at a Chinese restaurant. Robert J. Olin set up the location and cast his co-star and all the extras. What a guy! Here are some pics:







Monday, May 01, 2006

Sounding Off

Well, the weekend was nearly a complete washout for movie work due to a whole bunch of home and family junk that cropped up.

About 10:30 Sunday night, I did manage to get to something I've been trying to get to since December. With some upgraded software I was finally able to fix the audio glitches in the TAINTED BLOOD short. Woo hoo! Actually, last I heard the editor still hadn't finished putting the anthology together that TAINTED BLOOD will be a part of, so I might see if I can send them this fixed-up version to include instead.

Scheduled to shoot Robert J. Olin's remaining DEADLY PREMONITIONS scenes this Sunday. Hoping is all goes well.

More later...

Friday, April 28, 2006

Link Masters...SENT!

I finally got the Link Masters anchorman footage sent off yesterday to my buddy Eric who is going to put some newsy graphics on top of it.

Contacted an actress about a role in TWISTED FATES. She got back to me with some questions that I need to research the answers to...

Hoping to work more on the mummy costume this weekend. We'll see...

Thursday, April 20, 2006

No Dough Fango No Go

Well, I finally came to my senses the other day after running the numbers on driving vs. flying down to Burbank, CA for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors and the bottom line is: I just can't afford it right now. I had grand plans back in January to save up for it, but a few family things cropped up that I had to use the money for and I couldn't just charge the whole trip on a credit card as I'm in the midst of trying to pay them off!

So, it will have to wait for another year.

Meanwhile, I can concentrate on TWISTED FATES, DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES and DEADLY PREMONITIONS.

In other news, Tarpo may rise again - the styrofoam & plastic tarp creature that I deemed a bit too goofy-looking for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES may star in a short my son and I brainstormed about the other day. It will be just something fun for he and I to do together, but I may throw it onto a future release as an extra or something.

Lots to do...

Monday, April 10, 2006

Paper Mache Madness

Here's a few screen caps from a few weeks ago of the paper mache work I did with my son on a skull-ish looking mummy head for the DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES project.



I started with some cardboard strips, which I sized around my head and taped together with packing tape. I only had small water balloons on hand, so I blew up a bunch and stuffed them inside the form to give it some strength.



Note the straws which are forming the basis for the brow and the nose



Paper mache is fun!



And messy!



Here it is after the first few layers, which gave me a fairly solid base to start adding more elements on to.



Here's the next day - eye sockets, bridge of the nose, brow, etc. are taking shape. Just out of view is a seperate jaw piece that I'll eventually attach.

That's it for now. Eventually thiswill be painted and details with all kinds of lumpy junk to make it look rotten, then wrapped with a lot of "mummy wrappings."

Sunday, April 09, 2006

DP Logging Finished

FInished scene-logging all of the DEADLY PREMONITIONS footage I have shot so far tonight. Also went through and made note of scenes/segments I want to slo-mo. Plan to import those bits into iMovie, slo-no and export back to tape before bumping everything to the old editing system.

Got a voicemail from Robert J. Olin the other day - he's got some time and found an actress interested in playing a bit part for two remaining scenes for DEADLY PREMONITIONS. Not only that, he found a Chinese restaurant we can shoot at. I went over the scenes today and fine-tuned them a bit and e-mailed them to Robert. I plan to call him tomorrow and see when we can schedule the shoot.

Lots of family stuff over the weekend, so that's all the movie progress to report.

Bit by bit...

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Loggy

Scene logging DEADLY PREMONITIONS bit by bit, trying to do at least 15 minutes' worth each evening. Baby steps...

Heading up to Seattle area this weekend and plan to shoot Link Masters newscaster footage for DEADLY PREMONITIONS and DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

Have some vacation days next week and hope to make more progress on mummy story, mummy costume and DEADLY PREMONITIONS scene log. We'll see...

Holy crap, my son is 9 years old today! I decorated his cake with Jedi Knight Kit Fisto for his party last Saturday. Here's a pic.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Tom and Tom

The movie posters/comics/magazines/videos for sale page is up at:

http://www.proaxis.com/~sherlockfam/postersforsale.html

Last night I got a call from Tough Tom Stedham from Alabama - he was checking up on DEADLY PREMONITIONS and it just so happened that earlier in the day I'd made plans to shoot Tom Shaffer's remaining two scenes that night. Tom (Shaffer) showed up about 9:30 and we shot a bit up in my office and down in the garage. I needed Tom to be really worked up as his character had just found his girlfriend murdered and he did a great job. I can't wait to start putting this thing together!

Tom has found a couple of actresses who are interested in being in some of his short movies. I need to check them out and see if they might be interested in a TWISTED FATES role...

Sad news around Dr. Squid's lab - my son's fish died last week. It was his first pet, bought when he was in first grade, so it was quite a tragedy. "Oshin" is now buried in the backyard with a little tombstone. He will be missed.

I went with my BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES partner Mike Hegg to the Portland Comic Book show last Sunday. Talked with Brinke Stevens a little bit and picked up a few DVDs from her. Also picked up a DVD of the BATMAN: DEAD END fanfilm, along with several PREDATOR fan films. Cool stuff. Talked to Mike about my desire to get an issue of Dr. Squid out this year. He'd previously said he had the itch to do some publishing - I might see if I can talk him into writing something for me...

More later...

Monday, February 20, 2006

Slow Progress...

Worked on the movie posters for sale webpage - need to finish up and post, then send out a Dr. Squid Lab Report e-mail to get the word out to folks.

A bunch of family stuff came up over the weekend and I had to cancel my shoot with Tom Shaffer for DEADLY PREMONITIONS. Good news is I cleaned up a lot of my office intending to shoot in there - if I can manage to keep it somewhat cleared out it will be ready when I can reschedule with Tom.

Still working on compiling all of my movie-related "to do" lists into one list, adding what I need to, then prioritizing and attacking everything.

Saw Mike Potter AKA newscaster Link Masters (from VAMPIRISA'S VELVET VAULT OF HORROR and ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE) on Saturday. Plan to visit him up in the Seattle area in late March and shoot his news bits for DEADLY PREMONITIONS and DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

Right now, though, need to get several Dark Gallery interview e-mails sent out so I'm not scrambling at the end of the month to get them together for March....

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Gears Slowly Starting Up Again...

Two orders for DVDs and zines have come in so far from the Dr. Squid mailing I did several weeks back. Not enough to pay for the whole mailing yet, but I'm hoping a couple more come in.

I have had a stash of movie posters for years that I finally took digital pictures of several months ago. Need to get those priced and listed on the next mailer and see if I can't sell a few to help fund all these movie projects.

Just mailed off a package to someone today who will be shooting a vampire segment for the DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES project. So, for those keeping score, UNDERBUG is all shot, DONNA THE NURSE (need to think of a new title for that segment) is all shot, TREESPIRIT is out to a director to shoot, as is the VAMPIRE segment.

I've searched high and low and cannot find the scene log I started for DEADLY PREMONITIONS, so finally decided last night I'd just start over. Just as well as I think I'd forgotten to note good bits for a bloopers segment, which I might as well grab at the same time I'm grabbing good takes.

Tentatively have shooting scheduled with Tom Shaffer on Feb. 20 to finish up his scenes for DEADLY PREMONITIONS.

Asked a b-movie actress if she'd be game to play a role in one of the TWISTED FATES segments, but she said she "really doesn't do that type of work anymore." Oh well. On to the next one.

I've been asked to write a zombie script for a low-budget filmaker in Canada. Spent my lunch hour the other day writing notes. Hope to get an outline nailed down by the weekend.

More to come...

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Little Bit O' Work

A new Producer has come on board TWISTED FATES through the "Producers Package" deal: Tony Masiello of http://www.numbersignproductions.com!

Spent some time the other night fine-tuning a list of scenes to shoot and things to do for moving ahead with DEADLY PREMONITIONS.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Fuck You, Andrew "Linguica" Stine

Fuck you, Andrew "Linguica" Stine.

Here's some of what this "reviewer" had to say on somethingawful.com. By the way, BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES got quite off easy compared to many other flicks this guy has written about.

"I don't even particularly like horror movies."

That's a really great background to have for writing reviews of horror movies, Andrew.

"BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES" is not the worst horror film I have been forced to watch thus far, but this is about as much of a consolation as being told that my newly contracted thyroid cancer isn't a concern because I'll be dead of ebola within a week.

If we could only be so lucky! Andrew, you tease.

The name "BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES" immediately bodes poorly for the work..."Redneck Vampires" would have sufficed for this movie's title, and even "Bloodsucking Rednecks" could be considered adequately descriptive in a pinch.

The title was given to us by the film's distributor, who hired us to make it.

But by extending the title to "BLOODSUCKING RECNECK VAMPIRES," the film's makers are doing nothing more than prolong my embarrassment when my roommate wanders through the room and asks what the fuck I am watching.

Let me get this straight:

  • You don't like horror movies
  • You seem to hate most of what you review with such passion that you spend hours writing reviews that brutally rip them to shreads
  • You are embarassed when your roommate walks by and sees what you are watching

Why exactly do you continue to do this?

The movie opens at some sort of house party where a chubby vampirella sips on a snifter of what I assume to be blood.

Well, it's supposed to be wine, but here is the "chubby" actress you referred to.




Oh yeah, chub city, dude.

The vampirella rolls her eyes and spits out some hackneyed dialogue...

And good luck with your novel, Andrew.

He eventually gets home and collapses on a couch. I assume it's his home, although one of the many lessons about white trash this movie has taught he is that hicks live in a Shaker-esque communal society where letting yourself into other people's houses and sleeping in their beds is as common an occurrence as, say, sex with siblings.

When in this movie do people let themselves into other people's houses and sleep in their beds? Without permission or knowledge, as you imply, that is - admitedly there is a sleepover scene, but everyone involved knows they're sleeping over.

Get it, because that's all hicks do, is have sex with their brothers and/or sisters! Man, I am on fire today.

Then why haven't you burned to death, yet?! And what about the thyroid cancer and the ebola? You keep threatening to die, but yet you are still here writing reviews!

The movie cuts to another house where a girl who doesn't look a day over fourteen...

Just for the record, she was 16...and she had her Mom's permission to be in the movie.

While the image of a semi-sentient mound of flab sitting on a vampire's horribly crushed skull seared itself into my retinas I was too busy ripping the top off the DVD player and vomiting upon the electronics inside to even consider finishing the rest of the movie.

What? You didn't even finish the movie? Andrew "Linguica" Stine, you are a fucking prick! I'm sure that folks seeking out reviews to help them decide if they want to buy or rent a particular movie really just think to themselves, "You know what would be useful? A review by someone who didn't bother to actually watch the whole movie. Now that would be something I could rely on to make an informed decision. Oh, and it would be even better if he reviewed the genre of movies that he professed to not even like in the first place."

"Reviewing" movies without watching the whole thing is a cop out, you dick.


So this all may seem trivial thus far, the ramblings of some dork who thinks he can be clever and funny by ripping on other folks.

To get a better idea of what an asshole Andrew Stine is consider this: he wrote a "review" of a recent low-budget horror flick, saying, "This is the worst movie I have ever seen," calling it "utterly devoid of merit on any level imaginable," "cinematic bullshit" with a "worthless plot" and "worthless characters." He went on to call the writer/director/actor "hideously ugly," "amazingly unattractive," "an idiot,"and "a disgusting oaf." Andrew even made fun of the production company's name.

Fine. He hated the flick and thinks the guy who made it is unattractive. Everyone has a right to their opinions.

Then Andrew e-mails the writer/director/actor to give him the link to his "review."

What a jerk!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

El Cheapo Camera Prop

I promised a few folks I'd post pictures of a camera prop I made so here it is. I'm having someone shoot some footage for me and it involves a semi-professional photographer character. The person shooting said they didn't have a fancy camera so I figured I'd make a fake one to send them and it would look good enough on video.



So, I started with a cheapo film camera (A) I got at the Dollar Tree.

Yes, it was $1.00.

In hindsight, I couldn've started with just a rectangular box. I had gone to the store hoping to find a toy camera and was about to give up after not finding one, then saw these real cameras and for some reason figured I'd get it and build on to it.

For the flash, I used a pancake syrup container (B) - in the photo, you are seeing the bottom of it: the peel-off lid was on the backside. It was attached with some strips of duct tape and some model glue.

For kind of a handle/battery pack kind of thingee, I used a small plastic box (C) that used to hold the suntanning goggles that "Tulsa" from BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES wore. This was just attached with duct tape.

The lens was built up with some circular plastic rings leftover from some of my son's toys (D). Not sure what exact toys they are from, but you know when you get plastic models and the small parts come on a kind of plastic grid and you wiggle and snap off the small parts? Well these rings had small parts on them and they'd been wiggled and snapped off. Anyhow, I put three of them together with duct tape, then taped the whole thing onto the front of the camera.

I painted the whole thing with a few coats of black latex paint - the thicknes of the paint actualy helped to hide some of the seams and tape edges. Then I painted the whole thing with flat black spray paint. Why flat? Just what I had on hand.

I'd taped off a rectangle for the "flashbulb" but when I peeled the gaffer's tape I'd used of, it left a bunch of glue behind. Not much I could do about it, so I just left it.

I cut up a rectangular piece and a round piece of clear plastic from some packaging from one of my son's toys. I used model glue to put the rectangular piece over the "flashbulb" and the round piece over the lens area. The model glue dried clear. My hope is that light will reflect of of these plastic pieces and push the illusion further on video.

The final touches were using a liquid paper pen, black marker and red marker to make some little dots, squares and such on the camera. I'm hoping that the lines and stuff on the lens look like all those focus marks on a real camera. You can see the lines better in the photo below, but when I took this photo, the flash really shows the fakeness of this thing. Again, on video, while being held by someone, with lights reflecting off of it, it should fool the audience.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Dark Days

It's been a little over a week since I got a phone call from my mom telling me that my dad had a heart attack. He went to the hospital, had several hours of surgery and is thankfully home recovering. I was sick all last week with some sort of cold/flu/cough thing. My grandmother's funeral was about a month ago. I've been wrestling with computer problems for what seems like 2 weeks now. I'm trying to lose weight so not enjoying food as much as I did last year. Haven't slept well in a while.

Hope to report some fun movie-related stuff sometime soon.

Tell your loved ones you love them.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

New Year's Resolutions 2006

As I mostly stick to movie-related stuff on this blog, I'll stick mostly to movie-related resolutions for 2006.

1) Finish TWISTED FATES, DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES and DEADLY PREMONITIONS

2) Publish an issue of Dr. Squid

3) Go to the June Fango Con in Burbank

4) Finish my CREATURE FROM BEYOND script as well as at least one of the other scripts I have half-started all over the place

I've got other hopes for the year, including losing 50 pounds, paying off my credit cards, and other stuff, but if I can manage the above 4, my movie-making side will feel pretty good.

- Joe

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Happy Almost New Year

As expected, life has been filled with holiday and home-commitments as of late, but I have managed a few movie-related things...

There was some confusion with the release forms for TAINTED BLOOD, but after I found my copies, copied them and mailed them off, I heard that the originals had been found after all. Oh well, at least things are moving ahead on the anthology it will be a part of.

I printed up 100 direct-mail pieces to mail out to the ol' Dr. Squid mailing list of past buyers and interested folks. It's an 11 x 17 piece folded over, then folded in thirds, tabbed, labelld and stamped, so ti's taken a couple of days to get it all together. Hoping that since TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR will be new to most of these folks (I did a small postcard mailing over the summer, but this is a much bigger mailing) and this time I will be directed them to buy BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRS from me instead of from b-movie.com directly, it will result in some sales, which will help offset various productions and post-production costs on current projects. Oh, I also updated, added to and repriced (as is discounted) my list of comic books, magazines and assorted videos for sale and included that as well. We'll see if anyone is interested...

I've been working on a prop for a vampire short I'm going to have someone shoot for me. I originally went to the Dollar Tree to see if I could find a toy camera that would look halfway professional. All I could find was a boxy instamatic type on, but picked it up anyway. In hindsight I didn't even need the camera, I could've just started with a box, but it's only a dollar. Over the last couple of days, I duct taped a few round rings leftover from one of my son's toys (they had plastic parts on them and you pulled them off like parts of a model kit, leaving the plastic rings to be discarded) to the front to create a decent-looking lens portion. I also taped on a small plasic box (that previously held the suntanning goggles that "Tulsa" wore in BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES) to the side as sort of a handle/battery pack kind of thing. Additionally, I found an empty individual serving pancake syrup comtainer, like the ones you get at restaurants, and attached it to the top to use as the "flash" portion. I painted the whole thing with black laytex paint, which helped hide the tape lines a tad and today plan to finish it off by plainting it with black spray paint (to get int he nooks and crannies and give it a nice shine) and adding a plastic container lid "lens" to the very front. I'm hoping that as long as there are no cloe-ups of the prop in the short, the audience will never really think that the camera isn't real. Man, am I cheap!

I also finished dubbing off the DEADLY PREMONITIONS raw footage from miniDV to VHS for scene logging.

Also have done some work trying to get articles/interviews together for www.b-movie.com's DARK GALLERY e-zine. I think everyone is out of town for the holidays, though!

Hoping to begin on the mummy mask & costume for a DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES segment today, but will have to see how the day unfolds.

Didn't get much sleep last night. I need some aspirin. See you next year.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Half and Half

Well, even after spending bits of my evenings for a few weeks clearing off a whole bunch of files in preparation for a system upgrade (which itself was necesitated by a new printer purchase), I couldn't get TAINTED BLOOD to output to tape without lots of "hiccups" as it played into the last 5 or 6 minutes of the 20 minute short. I think I just didn't have enough processing power to keep up with the file when outputting it.

So I duplicated the whole thing, then took the last 10 minutes off of the first file and the first 10 minutes off of the second file. The result was having 2 10-minute files (Tainted Blood part one; Tainted Blood part two) that I could output to tape just fine. Taking the front half off was problematic and at times I felt like I was re-doing all of the sound and music, but I finally got the video and audio timelines all back in synch. While I don't claim to be an expert and certainly have a pedetrian machine that not really set-up for video editing, at least I have it backed up so I can clear it off of my machine and move on to other projects.

We have a couple of the new iMac G5s at the office. Man those are sweeeeeeeeet. Now if I could just find $1200 in my couch cushions...

As expected all manner of holiday-related and family-related chores have cropped up so movement on anything movie-wise has been next to nil.

Here's to 2006!

Friday, December 16, 2005

Saw III

My grandmother passed away last Friday after a battle with cancer. Sad, sad times. She had a number of hobbies and talents and was always ready with a joke. She also played the saw. Sometime earlier this year, I asked her to play for my 8-year-old son and I. Always having movie ideas floating around in the back of my head, I thought it would be cool to feature her and her saw-playing in a movie sometime. Maybe some kids are on a road trip and stop one night to stay with someone's grandmom, who tells a hilarous off-color joke and then later plays the saw for them. I envisioned the characters laughing under their breath at the notion, but then being stunned at the otherwordly and kind of creepy sounds she could produce. Perhaps the music would reappear later in the movie or become an underlying theme for a number of melodies as the movie progressed.

But now I'll never be able to do that.

Damn.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Dr. Squid's Year In Review

It may be a tad premature for a Dr. Squid 2005 wrap-up, but it's already mid-November and soon Thanksgiving will be over and before you know it, it's Christmas and New Year's time with all of the family and friend obligations and then it's 2006. While I'm sure to fall short of my hope to "get everything shot that I have on my plate by the end of the year," I didn't do too badly.

DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES: With my son's help, I made the Underbug and TreeSpirit creatures: UnderBug is shot and Tom Shaffer has everything to shoot the TreeSpirit segment but time. Laura Giglio sent me all of the footage for the "Nurse/Ghost" segment. I still haven't finished the "swimming pool creature" for a segment I'd hoped to have Kimberly Lyn Cole shoot for me. My current plan is to write up a different short for her to do and I have a lead on someone else to shoot a segment for me as well.

TWISTED FATES: Shot the last bits for this anthology's wraparound at the beginning of the year. Came close to casting for the VideoDrone segment in the spring, but things fell through. The wraparound and one segment is shot.

BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES: the wacked-out comedy horror flick is out on DVD from Sub Rosa Studios and it was so cool to be able to add it to my Netflix list this year!

UNDERBELLY: This started streaming on VistaStreetVOD.com.

DEADLY PREMONITIONS: This backburner project came to the forefront for a number of reasons: back in February I was faced with having split the bus & hotel costs with another moviemaker to bring an actress to town (we would shoot for one day each with her) and having my project fall through at the last moment. I pulled this partially-written script up, fleshed out a few scenes and shot some stuff for it. Later, when Tom Stedham offered to fly out to be in a project, the only thing I had anywhere close to being shootable was this. I finished up the script in a few weeks and shot mostly in August and September with only a few scenes remaining to be shot right now.

PREHISTORICUS: I reprised my role as Frank the Astronaut in more shoots for my friend Tom Shaffer's "dinosaur planet" flick, having donned the orange jumpsuit for many weekend shoots over the last several years. Unfortunately Tom had some major computer problems and this project's current status is: needs to be edited...again.

HOUSEBOUND 2: John Bowker and I collaborated on this project which we'd hoped to shoot in June with John directing. The script was done, the major casting was in place and I had a fair amount of preproduction done (shooting schedule, creature designs, etc.) but for a number of reasons, the project had to be cancelled.

SEXY HORROR SCRIPT: I sold a sexy horror script along the lines of WITCHHOUSE 3 and the later WITCHCRAFT sequels to a midwest production company. Hoping it gets made!

ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE: After a few years of waiting for Tim Davis to shoot an opening sequence I finally told him to forget it and moved ahead with editing. Finally got it wrapped up and now just have to figure out what to do with it (27 minutes long).

TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR: With a lot of post-production and DVD authoring help from Mike Hegg, this comedic horror project shot way back in 1997-1999-or-so finally saw it's way to a DVD-R release in June.

TAINTED BLOOD: Even though I was in the midst of trying to wrap up several projects, I accepted an invitation to contribute a short to a vampire anthology. John Bowker wrote the script and I shot it over a weekend in August. Finally finished it up and sent it off a few weeks ago. Expect it to be a part of ALWAYS MIDNIGHT from Falcon Video.

As I mentioned, the holidays tend to get hectic so it's hard to say if much movement will happen on anything until next year. If anything this blog makes it easy for me to take a look back at what a crazy and busy year it's been.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Old Friends

Mike Hegg, my partner on BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES plans to come down for a visit this weekend and John Bowker, all of whose movies I've worked on, is going to be in town for a couple of days next week. John's anxious to see TAINTED BLOOD, which he wrote for me. I hope he likes it!

Have recently had two orders for DIMENSION OF BLOOD/MONSTER IN THE GARAGE double feature video, even though I've been out of copies for years! Managed to output a few more sleeves today and have one copies dubbed out from the master - plan to do another over the weekend.

Noticed that it was way back on June 8 that I gave Tom Shaffer the script, contract and some funding for the TreeSpirit short for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES. The contract said he had 6 months to do it, but I haven't progressed much on what will be the other parts of the movie, though, so in the end it's probably not a big deal.

As it's almost mid-November, my plan to have everything shot for all of the projects on my plate doesn't seem like it will pan out, but if I can get the remaining tidbits for DEADLY PREMONITIONS shot, I'll still feel pretty good about how much I was able to get done this year.

More soon...

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Dr. Squid's California Adventure


Three big scary mouths!


One of these guys is made from legos!


It's Mickey!


Leaving Disneyland at midnight, waiting for the shuttle. Note Son of Squid wearing the infamous red shirt as the poor lad was cold


LOOK AT THIS!!! It's the HANNIBAL 8 - Professor Fate's awesome car from "The Great Race!" This and many other supercool cars were at the Peterson Auto Museum. Holy moley it was cool seeing this in person!

Finally got a dub of TAINTED BLOOD mailed off to Falcon Video this week.

More soon...

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The Happiest Place on Earth

I've been out of touch for a bit as I've been out of town on a week-long trip to Disneyland! I'll post a few photos when I get a chance. Have been scrambling to catch up on some work and home stuff ever since. Need to get the TAINTED BLOOD tape mailed off and see if I can schedule the last remaining bits of DEADLY PREMONITIONS sometime over the next few weeks.

More soon...

Monday, October 17, 2005

Almost There

Life has been keeping me extra busy as of late, but I did manage to squeeze in an afternoon of shooting for DEADLY PREMONITIONS yesterday. Took care of the last bit between Robert J. Olin (Detective Newman) and Toni Draggon (Lisa) as well as scenes between Robert and Amira (Carrie).

I had asked at least three guys about playing the role of the jogger in a sequence with Amira, but no one could make it yesterday and since most everyone else is already in the movie, I had to play the part myself.

All that remains is a bit with Amira and a small reshoot of one scene with Amira and Barb (Eva the scary psychic chick), some insert shots (a sign here, a building exterior there), and a couple of scenes with Robert chatting about the case with his bartending buddy. Hope to take care of all that in November after a trip next week.

Oh, and I think I have TAINTED BLOOD done - dropped in the last of the music, sound and credits - need to dub out a copy from iMovie and check the sound levels on a regular TV to make sure it sounds balanced.

Believe it or not, I've also put in an hour or so on ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE, finally dropping in those insert shots of the park and working on a tiny bit of music and a whole bunch of zombie-chomping sound effects.

More later...

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Starroid Raiders!!!



Here are my STARROID RAIDERS a set of Star Wars knock-offs my parents got me for Christmas from a catalog. They came packed in a small, plain cardboard box. No fancy packaging - no names, even! I loved them more than some toys perhaps because since no one I knew had them, they seemed almost made for me! I made up names for them and they had many grand adventures alongside micronauts, Hammerhead and an assortment of small rubber monsters. It wasn't until about a year ago that I did some searching online and discovered their true identities: (left to right) Wag, Tanco, Aton, Tior, Newt and Yazu.

Is the Water Warm Enough? Yes, Lisa...

Spent several hours today shooting scenes for DEADLY PREMONITIONS with Toni Draggon as Lisa, Lacey
Brassiere as Wendy and Rob Merickel again playing the masked killer in addition to doing make-up, holding the boom, helping with lights, etc. Great, great performances and everyone seemed to have a swell time.



Look at the SIZE of those things! This was my first time working with Lacey
Brassiere and she was terrific and a real trooper letting us dump a half a bottle of karo syrup blood on her copius cleavage!

Several unexpected things cropped up over the weekend, so still music and sound to work on for TAINTED BLOOD.

Time is flying...

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Joe's Movie Studio

I have the next DEADLY PREMONITIONS shoot scheduled for this coming Sunday. Once again my house will stand in for another location - this time I'll be shooting in the playroom/bonus room above the garage and one of the bathrooms, all standing in as two girls' apartment.

So far, I've used the entryway, front door, hallway and living room for "Eva's house," the family room, kitchen, bedroom, exterior/driveway and 2 bathrooms for "Carrie's house," and the area by my computer for "Eric's office." This weekend will add one of the bathrooms and the playroom/bonus room as the "apartment." I plan to use my office as "Josh's office." Not much of my house left! Amazingly, I have yet to use my garage for DEADLY PREMONITIONS, which has found it's way into most of my movies. Heck I even shot UNDER my house for the UnderBug segment of DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES. Crazy!

Finished the video edit for TAINTED BLOOD last night. Runs a few seconds shy of 20 minutes. Looks cool. Now on to fixing some sound and adding sound effects & music.

Busy busy busy...

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Deadly Premonitions Casting News

I have "Lacey
Brassiere
" cast as Wendy:



And Toni Draggon cast as Lisa:



Now to try and get a shoot scheduled...

Monday, September 12, 2005

One Step at a Time

Spent yesterday shooting pick-ups with Amira for DEADLY PREMONTIONS. All went well and she more than qualifies as a real trooper for having to flip flop between stressed, relaxed, happy, worried and frantic since we were shooting out of sequence.

Have a deadline for TAINTED BLOOD coming up so will need to concentrate on that for a bit to get it done and out.

Meeting with a potential actress this Wendesday for a small role in DEADLY PREMONTIONS.

Finished up a DVD cover design job - need to get on a CD and mail it off.

Watched PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR last week. Saw it originally on the CBS Late Movie and it sure was creepy. I saw PHANTASM on the CBS Late Movie, too.

More soon...

Monday, August 29, 2005

Crappy soda!

Just pulled in from Seattle after a looooong drive as we had to take a detour to get around an overturned tanker trunk on the freeway. Tired...very tired, but had to update on a couple of things from the previous post:

Peach NeHi - super-fake tasting peach, like little peach hard candies. Too fake for me.

Moxie's Original Elixer - Holy crap this was terrible!! At first when it's in your mouth it kind of tastes like root beer, but quickly becomes bitter and very medicinal. The aftertaste was 1000 times worse! I guess I should've known, since it's called 'Elixer,' but I can't believe ANYONE enjoys this stuff. Wow.

Off to bed...

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Meatballs and Twikki

On vacation in Seattle. Have spent a little time watching a VHS dub of the DEADLY PREMONITIONS footage from a couple of weeks back, making a scene log and notes. Lots of great stuff.

Watched THE ALIEN FACTOR with the kids the other morning. Love that movie.

Tried the new FRAWG slurpee - mild green apple taste. Good stuff.

Went to IKEA last night and enjoyed 20 sweedish meatballs with all of the fixings plus a peach soda that was quite awesome.

Went to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame today. I could've spent hours there if not for the kids. Awesome, awesome place full of great props, models and all kinds of stuff. Including the Twikki suit from Buck Rogers!

On the way home, we stopped to get sodas for the kids. I picked up some Peach NeHi and Mixie Original Elixer, which I have yet to try. Also got some Birch Beer, which tastes kind of like those peppermint losenges that taste kind of like Pepto Bismol. A bit too medicinal for me.

More later...

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Tainted Blood, etc.

Busy busy busy...

Two weekends back was my 20th high school reunion. I had reluctantly stepped in to help plan it at the last minute and by some miracle it actually came together and people seemed to have a good time. I even had a couple of people really interested in being in some of my movies as well as someone offer his house as a location. Of course, it could've been the beer talking...

Worked some more on the pool monster head for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

Last weekend, I spent Friday and Saturday night at a location about an hour north shooting a vampire-themed short called TAINTED BLOOD.While the story is set against a World War III of humans vs vampires, the short, written by John Bowker, is really a character study of a husband and wife...with cool plot twists and of course a nice amount of blood and slime! Robert J. Olin delivered another intense performance as did newcomer Toni Draggon. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I've ever had a more enjoyable shoot! They were so prepared, not only with lines, but body language, blocking ideas, costumes, props, etc. that frankly, I barely had to direct them at all! Looking forward to putting this one together. It will show up as part of an upcoming anthology from Falcon Video. Tentatively lining Toni up to be in some remaining DEADLY PREMONTIONS scenes.




But first, I'm off for about a week and a half for some sorely-needed vacation.

See ya in a bit...

- Joe

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Mr. Fantastic

I wish I could post a detailed production diary complete with kick-ass photos of the incredible DEADLY PREMONITIONS shoot I had over the last jam-packed 3 days, but there is just not enough time. I'm back to work after a few days off and have projects piled up to my eyeballs, plus my 20th high school class reunion is this weekend complete with out-of-town friends flying in and our house hosting a visiting family of five. Between cleaning up the wreckage of shooting in my house and preparing for the weekend guests and visitors, I'll barely have time to breathe!

However, let me say this: Tough Tom Stedham is one fantastic guy - a terrific actor who knew his lines, took direction well, knows more movie quotes than I do, is a laugh riot, doesn't mind moving a light stand or two and takes fantastic pictures (I'll be getting a CD of the hundred or so he took during the shoot in a week or so). Note to any moviemakers out there: work with this guy.

Everyone else was just awesome! Amira not only pulled off playing everything from coy & sexy to scared out of her mind to mad as hell, but looks pretty damned good in skimpy lingerie to boot. Barb creeped the hell out of us with her disturbing portrayal of the disturbed psycho lady and might I say she puts the 'BUST' in bustier. For his portrayal of Detective Newman, Robert J. Olin came complete woith gun, holster, handcuffs, badge and even a handcuffs tie clip! And Rob Merickel gave the greatest maniac killer face I have ever seen - and I mean it.

So many stories to tell! They'll have to wait, but the good news is next time I'll post pictures.

Stay tuned...

Friday, August 05, 2005

Down to the wire

Had a last-minute change to the schedule - Tom's flight gets in about four hours later than originally planned, so the dinner/cast meet & greet is again cancelled. Also, he leaves about 4 hours earlier than originally planned on Monday so we'll have to take care of things earlier in the day, but that should work out fine.

I'm in the midst of getting last-minute items, finishing storyboards and cleaning/decorating my house to serve as the main shooting location. Feeling excited and a tad nervous.

Here we goooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Things Are Looking Up

Was in the midst of reworking the DEADLY PREMONITIONS shooting schedule due to an actor not being available Sunday when I heard from one of the actresses - she had a big commitment for most of Saturday afternoon! That's when I had scheduled most of her scenes! Not a huge deal, I just had to flip-flop the stuff without her and the stuff with her, all still on Saturday.

The better news was that it turns out the actor who can't make it Sunday has Monday off from work. So now I don't have to cram his stuff with Ton into Friday night and what's more, I can shoot a bunch of additional things on Monday with him. Cool.

Could things get any better? Yes! I had lunch at a place in town for the first time today (the place has been there for years, I just never got around to eating there) and they had a tuna melt on the menu. Still mourning over the loss of the Elmer's tuna melt (see earlier post), I decided to try it. And it was GOOD! And the potato salad was excellent as well. Worked a bit on storyboards and prop sketches and enjoyed a good meal.

Fingers crossed that good things continue...
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