2012 Year-End Wrap-Up

Well, 2012 was not the best year, but it wasn't the worst, either.

I started off the year by sliding across an icy road and smashing my wife's car into the curb.

Yay.

I did order DVDs of the just-finished-up TWISTED FATES and TRULY DREADFUL TALES in January so that was cool.


In February the Mid-Valley Video Festival honored me as their ‘featured filmmaker’ so in addition to the bigfoot short SCENT OF THE SASQUATCH, they screened TWISTED FATES!

I was even interviewed by the local paper, which was fun!

Also in February, I got to see Michael Schenker Group and Anvil in Portland. It was awesome!

Several of my titles became available from the W.A.V.E. Video site: UNDERBELLY, DEADLY PREMONITIONS and TRULY DREADFUL TALES.

I was interviewed for "SOV: The True Independents," a pair of documentaries on the shot-on-video horror of the 80s and 90s.


Also in March, I was asked to make a movie for Warlock Home Video and set about getting a cheeseball, shot-on-VHS horror comedy written up. The result was BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, which was shot in the spring and early summer.

At one of the BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD shoots, I also held a photoshoot to create a snazzy and suitably schlocky photo to go at the top of my drquid.net site. Chicks and monsters - what's not to like?
 

After remastering the werewolf short Dark Bite from an old 3/4" master the distributor had, the director found the original Hi-8 tapes after all! So I re-edited from scratch, worked in some additional footage and did all new sound effects and music.

It's the last piece of my anthology BENEATH A DEAD MOON. As soon as I can connect with one of the actors for a needed voiceover, I can get it all finished up, get some copies and plan a screening!


In April, Steve Sessions' horror anthology ABERRATIONS was released. I was a producer on this one.


Also in April, TWISTED FATES got reviewed on Ain't It Cool News! I got a great pull quote: "...Every scene and every minute of TWISTED FATES oozes a love for all things horror," which was pretty damn cool.
 

The director of the film festival for Crypticon Seattle contacted me and said they wanted to screen TWISTED FATES as a "friends of Crypticon" type of thing at this year's convention. Cool!

I started off the month of May attending Jell-O Wrestling fundraiser for local roller derby team. Needless to say, that was entertaining.

Memorial Day weekend rolled around and my buddies and I once again headed to the Crypticon Seattle horror convention. Great guests and panels and lots of fun times. On the down side, all of Sunday afternoon's events (including my screening) were left out of the printed program thanks to some lame volunteers - and boy were the organizers pissed! A bunch of free promotional posters I was promised by someone didn't materialize, either. However, I had some posters of my own and we had a swell screening. Did some Q&A afterward and even sold a few DVDs!


You can check out the whole Crypticon Seattle 2012 Trip Report here: http://skullfaceastronaut.com/drsquid/crypticon2012/


About three years after the initial shooting for BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN, the project was unfortunately still waiting in line with the editor, who was busy with finishing up previous projects. Mike Hegg got a hold of us in June and said he would like to help out, so I began a series of trips up to Portland to work with him on cutting this bloody body count movie together. By the end of the year, we'd finished the rough cut and are currently working on all sorts of fine-tuning. So excited to see this come together in 2013!

Got to see some great local indie movies this year, including Henry Weintraub's Killing Me and Jason Freeman's The Weather Outside. I am bummed I never was able to make it to see his brother Todd Freeman's Cell Count (as everyone tells me I'd love it), but it's out on VOD now, so I'll have to check it out.

 I took my son to see Iron Maiden play in Auburn, Washington at the end of July - first time seeing them for both of us and they were fantastic!
 

Then, in August, we went to see Motley Crue and KISS in Ridgefield, Washington. Incredible show! We had great seats near the front and were enveloped with the confetti cloud at the end as the confetti cannons were just to the side of our seats.

Did a few freelance video projects for people this year, and some freelance drawing and graphic design as well. I designed not only BRLOB dvd sleeve for Warlock but also their Warlock Warrior certificate, Phantom of the Grindhouse and Paranormal web series logo AND the TeenApe: Balls Deep logo. Crazy stuff!

Online network BlackFlag.TV began airing some of my stuff this year - the short SUPERSTAR is played all the time (recently it played four times in one day!) and my features TWISTED FATES and TRULY DREADFUL TALES have played as well!

Finished the remastering work on three of my earliest efforts and will shortly be releasing a DIMENSION OF BLOOD / MONSTER IN THE GARAGE / CRIMSON HEATHER triple feature DVD.



Also this year, I won four DVDs in online contests, won free tickets to the roller derby and KISS came out with a new album! Not bad!

In October, we held a BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD premiere screening at the f/Stop Fitzgerald's in Salem, Oregon. I brought along the bug monster puppet and a swell time was had by all. Warlock Home Video released the movie on DVD in October as well.


Also in October, I started posting a series of sharable squares/memes and they were a big hit! By the time I was done I'd made and posted 50 of them! I need to do some more in 2013. In the meantime, you can check them all out here: https://picasaweb.google.com/fandcproductions/Squares 


I wrapped up 2012 by taking part in the "Holiday Horror Bazaar" as part of the Grindhouse Theater series in Tacoma, Washington. Sold some stuff, got to see a 35mm screening of Silent Night Deadly Night and even won a Fangoria magazine!

Just put the opening credits to BENEATH A DEAD MOON together the other day and getting them done was a great way to finish off the year!

Goodbye 2012.

Hello 2013.

Not much...

Not much going on right now - been swamped with the day job, family commitments and holiday social stuff. Running the DIMENSION OF BLOOD/MONSTER IN THE GARAGE/CRIMSON HEATHER pre-order promotion until Dec. 15.   Did a small video project for a friend Cleaned a few things off of the hard drive. Working on a couple of script ideas. End of the year always gets hectic for me. Hope to have some new on actual progress on current projects soon....

VHS and DVD Preorder Specials for Dimension of Blood / Monster in the Garage / Crimson Heather Triple Feature!!!

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Stuff Goin' On...

Have been working on fleshing out a couple of script ideas… Just about ready to announce a big promotion for a reissue of some of my very first horror projects…stay tuned…. Made a quantum leap this weekend, including a 9-hour-straight editing session, and am very happy that rough cut of BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN is about 97% done! There is still a lot of work to do - audio work, tightening up the edit, etc. - but it's getting closer… And a bunch of other stuff….

Bloody Red Lips of Blood Now Available from Warlock Home Video

BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, the crazy schlockfest I shot on VHS (no, I am not kidding) earlier this year is now for sale over at http://www.warlockhomevideo.com/flics.html

Two hot lesbian vampires are picking up victims at a local rock club and having a bloody good time. Meanwhile, Professor Bartel is mourning the mysterious death of his daughter bugging local detectives about the case. He may be angry about their lack of progress, but he's really a MAD scientist?? Check out this deliciously sleazy shot on video gem!! DVD features a Blooper Reel and Photo Gallery.

Check out the cheese-tastic trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fkpt0yzGuM

Bloody Red Lips of Blood - Review

First review...and they dig it!

 http://wildsidecinema.com/2012/10/31-days-of-halloween-bloody-red-lips-of-blood-19892012/

Still waiting for Warlock Home Video to get this up on their website for sale...

Bloody Red Lips of Blood Premiere Screening Photos!

Boy howdy what a swell time we all had at the BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD premiere screening at the f/Stop Fitzgerald's in Salem, Oregon. The screening room was packed and everyone seemed to get a kick out of this cheeseball horror comedy.
Sabrina and I with the bug monster

Natalie helps the bug monster snack on Floyd!
Riley and Alex in front of the big screen!

The bug monster prop gets around!

Rob, Dale and their friend...the bug monster!

Alex wore her silver disco pants...and her wonder woman underwear!

Alex and her co-star

Bob couldn't escape the bug monster!

Joe and Crystal got all gussied up for the premiere.

Floyd is the BUGMAN!

Kurt, Dale, Rob, Mike and Dave...and the bug monster.

Soon....

The BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD screening is tomorrow night (see previous blog post) and I managed to pull together a trailer for BENEATH A DEAD MOON to show beforehand. It's a "red band" trailer, which is fine since it'll be showing in a bar where you've got to be of age to be there anyway. But I'll have to figure out what to do for a youtube trailer - do I start over or take what I have put together and somehow run black bars over things or do I just cut out the r-rated stuff and see what I am left with?

In any case, I am hoping to get the trailer up sometime in the next month or so. Need to finish the cover art (front is done, need to do the back) and get the final dvd authoring done and copies made. Then, another screening! YAY!

 

BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD SCREENING, SATURDAY, OCT. 13

A cast and friends (and anyone else who wants to show up) screening of BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD will be held on Saturday, October 13 at 9 p.m. at the f/Stop Fitzgerald's Public House, 335 Grove St. in Salem Oregon.

A whole mess o' the cast will be there and the f/Stop serves beers, ales, wines and ciders from around the northwest.

Here is the Facebook event page for the screening - http://www.facebook.com/events/343383955751337/

I'll have copies of Twisted Fates, Truly Dreadful Tales, Underbelly, Deadly Premonitions, Inbred Redneck Vampires, Trailer Park Double Wide Trilogy of Terror, The Seekers, Housebound, The Evilmaker, Vampirisa's Velvet Vault of Horror and We Need Earth Women for sale if anyone is interested.

Bloody Red Lips of Blood Coming From Warlock Home Video in October!

BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, a "new retro" slab of cheese shot on VHS will be available starting at the 2012 Cinema Wasteland convention in Cleveland, Ohio this October and then on the Warlock Home Video website. Check out the trailer and cover below!

Progress!!!

Finished up music for the re-edit of the "Dark Bite" segment for the BENEATH A DEAD MOON anthology. Burned a test dvd of it and will have to see if there are any other tweaks to be made, aside from a bit of narration, plus the opening and ending credits.

Finally took care of the last remaining shots for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, dropped them into the movie, finished the extras and burned a master DVD. Here is the theme song:



Next up - working on a dvd sleeve for the distributor.

Spent the weekend up at Mike's editing more on BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN. Have reached what we think is the halfway point!

Working on a script for a short video for hire project.

Gotta keep on plowing ahead!

Almost Done

OK, long story short, the remaining last two scenes that Tom needed to shoot for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD was postponed for the zillionth time last Friday when Tom called to tell me that one of his actors was in the hospital with a heart attack. I am coming up on deadline and after waiting since April I couldn't wait any longer!!! I had to take over to get this thing done. I managed to find someone who could jump in and play the role with no notice - Floyd! - and I was on the road to make the 90 minute drive to pick him up and bring him to town.

As it turns out the guy playing the other detective (whom I'd already shot scenes with the last time I took over for Tom's half of the shoot) was unreachable all day! So I rewrote the two characters into one and we shot the two remaining scenes and reshot the one I'd already done before. After a quick dinner of hot dogs, I drove Floyd back up to Salem, then drove back home. What a crazy whirlwind, but the bottom line was that all of Tom's scenes were DONE!

I worked the rest of the weekend uploading footage, editing and doing sound effects and music, some stuff I'd done previously as well as a few new bits including a funky theme song.

I made the logo below for some stuff seen on a TV screen in the movie. It is an homage to KPTV Channel 12 out of Portland, Oregon - I saw so much great stuff on good ol' channel 12 - Silent Running, Dark Star, Green Slime, The Alien Factor, Planet of the Apes, Phase IV, Fantastic Voyage. Good times.


Just finished burning a test DVD so I can check the sound levels and such on TV. One tiny shot left to get in the next couple of days. Once that is dropped in, the thing is FINISHED!

So much...

So much craziness happened with the BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD project over the weekend, I can't even bring myself to talk about it right now. Geez louise.

Good news is it is almost done.

Beneath A Blood Creek Tonjia Lips of Blood!!!

Postponed an editing session for BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN due to work scheduling issues, but hope to get back at it towards the end of the month.

Finished shooting a freelance video project and am just about done editing - hope to deliver by this weekend. Made some good contacts, too.

Was able to borrow a digital8 camera (THANKS, WARREN!) and get Tonjia Atomic's footage for BLOOD RED LIPS OF BLOOD into the computer. Her scene is going to be a nice throwback exploitation movie snippet in this crazy cheese ball movie. Tom hopes to finish shooting his remaining two scenes this Saturday so keeping my fingers crossed for that.
Above: Tonjia goofing around in a behind-the-scenes shot

Have been going through my comic book collection to pick out some things to try and sell to raise a little cash for the next DVD-r duplication run.

Finished the sound work for the "Dark Bite" segment of BENEATH A DEAD MOON and have started on the music!

 Friends from out of town coming this weekend, so probably no movie work for a bit.

 Onward!!!

Mike, The Casual Coroner

Shot another one of the few remaining segments for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD last night. My buddy Rob Merickel came over, put on a pair of my old glasses, a funky shirt and lab coat and handled a tape recorder, sandwich, phone and beef heart for the coroner's office scene.

Got the tapes of footage from Tonjia Atomic, but unfortunately they were shot on a Digital8 camera and I can't play the tapes on my Hi8 camera. Bravo to the internet as once I posted a plea on facebook for someone to help, I got several responses, so should be able to rectify the situation before too long.

Tom Shaffer dropped off a tape of the latest scene that he was able to shoot. Two more left for him and he'll be done.


I also put in a bunch of time working on audio for the "Dark Bite" segment of BENEATH A DEAD MOON. Finished doing work in iMovie then shared the file to GarageBand where I've been playing with audio levels and adding all manner of sound effects. I've been re-doing most of them, but was able to re-use the werewolf sounds from the first time I did the audio work. Much more to do, but feel good that things are moving ahead with it.

Had another good day of editing BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN up at Mike's place yesterday. Started in on the Markum Inn scenes!

Heavy Metal Kitty in the Heavy Metal Dungeon!

I would watch this show every week if it were real!!!

This is just something that will be seen by a character watching TV in BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD!

Even More Progress!

I tell ya, I should go out of town more often. While I was away, not only did Kendra Redd and Tonjia Atomic get their scenes shot for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, but Tom Shaffer got half of one more of his scenes taken care of, leaving just 2 and a half scenes for him to finish. I still need one more shot with an actress and then some establishing shots and then I'll be wrapped on my footage as well.

Sweet.

METAL KITTY! RAWR!!!!

Check out red hot VJ "Metal Kitty!" Kendra Redd plays this sexy role in new footage shot for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD! I should be getting the footage later this week and can't wait to cut it into the stuff I have together already. Thanks to Tim for getting it shot and making the great set!

Atomic Awesomeness!

Seattle's own TONJIA ATOMIC shot some scenes for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD tonight! Here is a sneak peek at the bloody goodness! So happy to be able to have her be a part of this crazy horror movie!

Check out Tonjia Atomic's website at www.tonjiaatomic.com and read about her various movies like Raw Meat, Plain Devil,  The Prosaic Life of Stasha and Ada, Companion, Shoes! The Musical and Awesome Ouija Board, plus her music, jewelry and general awesomeness.

Forward Momentum

Editing session for BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN was cancelled this weekend and it'll be a few more weeks before Mike and my schedules align.

Managed to pull together and shoot 5 of the 8 scenes that Tom was supposed to shoot for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD last Friday. Still three left - might happen this Friday, but it depends on people's schedules. Seattle's own Tonjia Atomic is going to be shooting a few scenes next week that will be incorporated into the movie as well!

Finished trimming clips and got a whole bunch of editing done on the Dark Bite segment for BENEATH A DEAD MOON over the weekend. Great being able to access the raw footage - even found a shot or two that weren't used at all in the original edit, so have been able to incorporate them. Still a lot left to edit and then redoing sound effects and music, but it's nice to make some headway on it.

Gotta keep on pushing ahead...

BLOOD CREEK DARK BITE BLOODY RED SMASH OR TRASH

Robert over at Smash or Trash Indie Filmmaking posted a nifty update on my recently completed and in-the-works projects at http://smashortrashindiefilmmaking.com/?p=1496
 

Making slow progress on the re-edit of the DARK BITE segment for BENEATH A DEAD MOON. After looking at the raw footage Hi8 tapes that were discovered in the director's attic, I decided to go with my original plan of re-editing the short from scratch. It sucks that I'd already done a done of tweaking/fixing/sprucing-up on what I thought was going to be the best original I'd have access to (an edited version on 3/4" tape), including doing all new music. But, truthfully, this way the footage will look better and I'll be able to change a few things I had hoped to change about the edit. Plus the soundtrack will just have to be massaged a bit to conform to the ned edit. At the tail end of trimming clips.

 

Meanwhile, I am just about done with my scenes for BLOODY RED LIPS OF BLOOD, the shot-on-VHS 'old school' feature. However, Tom has run into a bunch of roadblocks trying to get his half of the movie done. I'm jumping in and trying to see if I can manage to pull the people and schedules together to get this crazy, sleazy, ridiculous, throw-back monster schlockfest finished!
Had another great editing session on BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN with Mike and we've made it through the opening sequences. Great bloody kills so far and I'm really excited to see this thing coming together.

 

Bit by bit...

Ain't It Cool News Reviews Twisted Fates

 
Aintitcoolnews.com's Mark Miller reviewed TWISTED FATES! Here are a few choice quotes:

"Filmed with a budget as low as they come, there’s something quite charming about this low fi anthology. I shouldn’t like it...But despite it all, every scene and every minute of TWISTED FATES oozes a love for all things horror and I can’t help but get behind it for that fact alone."

"If anything, the folks behind this film should be proud they have a horror anthology completed and able to present...Again, TWISTED FATES is low, low, low budget, but redeems itself with some decent takes on age old tales and a palpable sense that this is one of those bare bones budgeteers where everyone involved had a great time making it. I am interested in seeing what the filmmakers have in store next and if you don’t mind overlooking the low fi production, TWISTED FATES has a lot going for it."
 
Pick up your copy here!

 

Bob's Burgers!

When I was in high school and college I loved Bob's Burgers. They were cheap and had awesome sauce! Sadly, all the Bob's locations have been closed for a long time now, BUT the family still makes the sauce and sells it in a few places in Eugene. My buddy Dale picked up a couple of bottles for me recently and we planned to recreate the good ol' Bob's cheeseburger.


I had done this last summer, but made the burgers way too thick and used real cheese. They were good, but not like those good ol' cheap fast food Bob's cheeseburgers.

This time, I had an inside track, though. Lisa, a girl that I went out with in high school, had worked at Bob's when I was in college and she had recently friended me on Facebook. I knew I had to make the burgers thinner and planned to cook them on a big griddle to get close to that fast food grilltop method. I asked her what else I should do. She told me to not only make really thin patties, but to freeze them! Of course! Then, cook them and flip only once, salting after the flip.

I needed to use that plastic-y cheese like Kraft Singles, which I had planned on. She also said to butter the buns and toast them on the cooktop. Slather the bottom bun with sauce, stack the burger with melted cheese on top, then the top bun and I'd be done!

 
It was amazing how much my kitchen smelled like a fast food place once I slapped those frozen patties onto the griddle!

One interesting tidbit - Lisa said that they used to put the sauce on with a flattened out spoon, but that they had to replace it every once in a while as the sauce would eventually start to eat away at the spoon! Yikes! Well, the first ingredient is vinegar after all.


 

They were nearly perfect! Even though I tried, the patties were still a little too thick, so the meat to sauce to cheese ratio was off. But they were still DELICIOUS!!!

My next plan is to just go buy some McDonald's cheeseburgers, PLAIN, and then add the Bob's sauce.

I'll let ya know how that goes...

Happy Birthday To Me!

I celebrated by birthday the other night doing what I love to do - shooting scenes for a cheeseball horror movie!
 
More info and pics as this project wraps up.

Meanwhile, I finally had a chance to look at the tapes that were thought to contain the werewolf short footage. And guess what? THEY DID! One tape was damaged to an extent that I can't use the footage (the tapes were in an attic in an area of the state where it is desert-hot in the summer and lots-of-snow cold in the winter, so that may have had something to do with it, who knows?) and one tape turned out to be the director's vacation footage, but one tape had werewolf footage on it.

I dubbed it from Hi8 to miniDV and the next step will be to import it into my mac and see how much I want to re-edit - perhaps a few scenes, perhaps the whole thing. We'll see. Step by step...

Blood Creek Woodsman - The Editing Begins!

So excited that the editing on BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN has begun. I spent last weekend sitting next to Mike Hegg as we slogged through take after take, angle after angle and managed to get the first 6 or so minutes together.

Even in that short bit, there is amazing stuff. And Mike and I do seem to be of one mind with a lot of this stuff, so that's even better. Many more trips up to his place in my near future but I am so psyched about this phase beginning!

Meanwhile, I have a shoot tomorrow night for the vampire chicks project I've been working on, and just lined up someone yesterday to shoot a small part for the project as well. Details later...

Worked on a script for a new short.

Many irons in the fire...as usual...

And The Lycanthrope Turns...

So a few months back I posted about the long and winding road that a certain werewolf short had taken to get done. After all of that, I just found out that the original footage tapes may have been found after all...in an attic of all places. Since the owner's camera is broken and the tapes unlabeled, he can't tell me if they are indeed the tapes. I've asked him to mail them to me so I can check them out.

If they turn out to be the tapes of raw footage for this short, I plan to go in and re-edit a few sections, which will mean I'll need to rework some of the sound effects and soundtrack as well. With my summer calendar getting jam-packed already, I am not sure how much delay this puts on BENEATH A DEAD MOON, but I'd gladly take the time to make these improvements if the tapes turn out to be what he thinks they are. Of course, if they turn out to be more vacation videos, then I am right back where I am right now: almost done!

Meanwhile, I am excited as all get out because editing on BLOOD CREEK WOODSMAN has begun! This thing is jam-packed with b-movie horror goodies and I can't wait to see it come together!

Meanwhile, I've been trying for the last three weeks to schedule the last bits of a campy vampire feature I've been working on with Tom Shaffer, but everyone's schedules have yet to align. Maybe this week? And so it goes...

Crypticon Seattle 2012 Trip Diary

Had such a great time this year! Check out the photo-filled trip diary here: http://skullfaceastronaut.com/drsquid/crypticon2012/

Back from Crypticon 2012...And Tired...

Had a fantastic time at this year's Crypticon Seattle convention, including a screening of my TWISTED FATES flick! Slogging through close to 300 photos to create my annual photo-filled trip diary. For now, here is a shot just outside the screening room. We had a great Q&A afterwards and I sold some DVDs. Not too shabby!