TPDWTOT AVAILABLE!!!

The horror schlockfest TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR is now available on a snazzy DVD-R complete with uncut feature, a bloopers segment and cast interviews featurette! Get yours now for $11.95 plus $3.95 s&h (USA orders only) - check or money orders to Joe Sherlock, PO Box 856, Corvallis, Oregon 97339.











More pics at http://www.proaxis.com/~sherlockfam/tpdwtot.html

The Crawling Hand

Well, work has been a killer this week so pretty much all of my plans for any movie-related stuff were screwed. Damn. Going to do more scriptwriting this weekend.

Tom called and said that the rubber monster gloves arrived in the mail and that they looked really great.

Looks like we have a place to hold a TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR cast & friends screening. Now to pick a date...

Mason Jars

Did you know that those jars used for home canning are named "Mason" after John L. Mason, the inventor of the first common canning jar? Neither did I. Oh, the wonders of the internet!

Was working today at lunch on that script I shouldn't be working on (reminds me of 'The Thing That Should Not Be!') and came up with a nifty little plot device centered around mason jars. I say "shouldn't be working on" because I should be working on DEADLY PREMONITIONS instead. See my earlier "Man of A Thousand Ideas" posting.

Gotta get moving on TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR - need to get sleeves printed, pick a price point and try and sell as many as I can before the VISA bill for the DVD-R duplication comes in!

10 Pages Walk Into a Bar...

Didn't make as much headway as I'd wanted to on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script over the weekend, but got about 10 pages done and feel like I'm really on a roll with it.

Spent today creating the DVD sleeve for TRAILER PARK TRILOGY OF TERROR. Check it out:

Bit by Bit

Finished the end credits for ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE tonight via 3 formats of videotape plus iMovie and Photoshop.

Worked on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script as well.

Watched THE ALIEN FACTOR for the zillionth time with my son tonight. It was an early inspiration and continues to be to this day.

Don't Answer the Phone

I'm very excited about DEADLY PREMONITIONS - I had a basic plot outline written up as well as about 30 pages of the script, but knew that a) I needed to figure out the mechanics of some of the last several sequences as well as b) fill in some plot holes. One of those was exactly how the killer knew who to kill (the victims are all people the main character had recently called). Today over lunch, I came up with this: show an "employee of the month award" from the phone company at the killer's home and hopefully the audience will just accept that they somehow were able to access phone records. Also managed to weave the detective character in and out of the existing main story and the "filler killer" scenes.

On the DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES front, I dropped off the TreeSpirit script, a contract and a check to cover some production costs at Tom's house last night. Later he came by and picked up the creature head I'd made. Now that's off my plate and onto his. Next up - finishing the pool monster outfit for Kimberly Lynn Cole's segment.

So many balls in the air...what else is new?

Different Day, Different Story

The new issue of Draculina (#49) is at the printers, so I'd expect it out in a few weeks. It's contains my latest "Ladies in the Biz" column as well as an extensive bunch of interviews about the upcoming horror flick BLOOD LEGEND.

The TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR DVD-Rs showed up yesterday! I checked one out last night and the whole thing played just fine. Whew! Now I need to finish up the sleeve design, get them printed and package a bunch up for cast & crew. That, plus see about scheduling a premiere party.

Need to get cracking on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script as it's looking like "the stars are aligning" for me to shoot a bunch of it in early August. More as that develops...

Man of a Thousand Ideas

Worked on the end credits for ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE a bit last night.

I also, dare I say it, have been working on another script. What can I say? I just cannot change - I am resigned to the fact that however much I try to stay on task and finish one project before starting the next, I will always have multiple projects going on at the same time.

This is one that I've recently had a couple of rough, but funny scene ideas for and after working on notes for it over my last several lunch hours, my brain is on fire with plot points, funny lines, sight gags and the like.

And so it goes...

Work Work Work

Not as productive a weekend as I had hoped for, but what else is new? Actually between a literal box of work I brought home from the day job and laying on a heating pad due to a sore back all day Sunday, it's amazing I got anything done at all.

In an odd sort of round-about fashion, I did dub off some bits of my VHS ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE tape, itself dubbed from the 3/4" master, to miniDV. I plan to import the miniDV footage into iMovie on my iMac, use the shots to create the end credits, then dub the finished credits back to miniDV, bump it to 3/4", edit it to the 3/4" master tape, eventually dubbing the 3/4" master tape to miniDV to give to whomever will be making copies for me. Believe it or not, this is probably the best was to get this thing finished.

I also did a bit of work on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script.

I got a call from someone who was in TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR who might have a place we can hold a premiere party and has a friend who offered to show her short Star Trek fan film beforehand. Works for me! Waiting to hear back...

I kept meaning to work on the Pool Monster head for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES, but other things kept getting in my way. Speaking of which, my son got his red belt in TaeKwonDo this weekend. He so impresses me. He is literally less than a year from being a black belt. An 8-year-old kid and he'll be a black belt. Wow. He already tells kids at school that he's a movie star (rationalizing that he DID have a role in BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES and it DID play in a theater - Sabala's in Portland), so I need to make sure I work some cool martial arts action into my next project for him!

Bloopers

Edited together 6 minutes worth of bloopers and behind-the-scenes stuff for ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE last night. I think perhaps they are even funnier than the movie itself!

Talked a bit with Tom yesterday about him shooting the TreeSpirit segment for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

Better news on the PREHISTORICUS front - Tom said that he'll be getting the computer fixed up soon so will be set up to edit again shortly. The bad news is that the hard drive was unrecoverable so he will have to capture and edit the footage all over again.

Productive Weekend

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Your Lack of Faith Disturbs Me...

A cool opportunity arose in the last week and a half that pretty much took all of my spare time so all other movie projects went to the back burner. If something comes of it, I'll note it here. Now back to everything else.

I did work a bit more on the plot structure of DEADLY PREMONITIONS last night: came up with a few more sequences, tied some parts together, make notes about when/where certain things had to happen so that events & motivations made sense in later scenes, etc.

Bad news on the PREHISTORICUS front (my friend Tom's astronauts and dinosaurs movie I was in) - Tom called me yesterday to tell me that his computer died, so all of his edited files are gone. Once he can afford to get a new set-up he'll have to import & edit the footage all over again. Bummer - I was really looking forward to that one.

Meanwhile, Tom has bid online on a pair of monster gloves that he plans to use for the TreeSpirit segment for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES.

ZANSKY!

Getting over the stomach flu; trying to catch up at work and home.

TreeSpirit head is done. Decided I will buy rubber monster hands instead of making ones out of tree branches as originally planned.

Added a scene to DEADY PREMONITIONS script to further bridge some scenes as well as add some creepiness: girl goes jogging, stalked by unseen person (several POV shots), gets freaked, runs back to car, turns out it's just another jogger who picked up the watch the girl had dropped. Yeah, so it's a fake-out, but it does what it needs to mechanically for the script.

Tim Davis' last shoot for the ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE opening was again postponed. I told him to just forget about it. I need to get that project done and off my plate. Expect more details soon.

Still need to do that DVD artwork so I can get those TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY DVD-Rs ordered...

Ordered and watched this bizarro DVD over the weekend: THE NAKED COSMOS - it grows on you...like a fungus!!! I mean that in the best way possible. How cosmic that I was recently in Las Vegas and it turns out that this video was made there. I knew of creator Gilbert Hernandez from his work on LOVE and ROCKETS and BIRDLAND comics.

More soon...

Total Barf-O-Rama

Two words: stomach flu.

Be back later.

Cyber Silence

I duct-taped a couple of fake vines I'd bought at the Dollar Tree to the back of the TreeSpirit head so they'll come around the sides of the head and down the shoulders. Painted over the tape and dabbed a bunch of paint on the black fabric neck to help it blend in a bit with the head. I'd previously planned to make some big hands out of actual tree branches and glue. Seriously thinking of just buying some rubber monster hands and letting Tom get started on his preproduction (I didn't want him to start until the monster outfit was done).

Worked a tiny bit on the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script last night on the laptop while my son was settling down to sleep. Switched a birthday dinner opening to a birthday breakfast-in-bed opening to allow the movie to take place over just a few days. Plus it starts the lead actress off in lingerie or some such nightwear. Clever, no?

Last I heard from Tim Davis, he'd rescheduled his shoot for the ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE opening sequence for May 1. I've e-mailed him twice this week to get a status report and have been met with cyber silence. Not good.

Not Much Goin' On

Have been out of town for about a week so not much has ben going on movie-wise. I did work some more on the TreeSpirit head last week. Added some red gels behind the eyes and started attaching a black collar at the bottom of the mask to hide the wearer's neck. Once it's all attached, I'll sponge paint parts of it with the same brown/black painting scheme as the head.

Here are a couple of pics from the PREHISTORICUS shoot I was in.





The one directly above was a cool forced perspective shot, which we ruined for this photo by walking up to the spaceship model. Still neat, in a b-movie cheeseball way though.

Tim Davis reports that he is now scheduled to shoot the opening to ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE on May 1. We'll see...

May be news soon of a DVD release of a movie I worked on a few years ago. Can't say anything quite yet.

Busy weekend with lots of housework, yardwork and family stuff going on. Poor outlook for movie progress...

Electric Boogaloo

HOUSEBOUND 2 is being postponed.

John Bowker wrote and directed the original Housebound. I shot and lit it, acted in it and did a bunch of effects for it. For the sequel, John Bowker and I collaborated on the storyline, John wrote the script and I've been working on the shooting schedule, budgeting and productions sketches. Well, long story short, it's all about money - or the lack of it, and so the project is currently ebing filed under "postponed." It's not going to happen this summer, but may happen someday.

With that off of my plate, I'm going to move ahead with getting DVD-r copies of TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR made, as well as getting on with finishing TWISTED FATES, and working on DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES and finishing the DEADLY PREMONITIONS script.

Stay tuned...

Frank the Astronaut

Spent a few hours Saturday playing "Frank the Astronaut" in what I hope will be the last shoots for my friend Tom's PREHISTORICUS project. Pretty much running around in an orange jumpsuit with two other survivors of a spaceship explosion (we all "beamed" down before the explosion). We ran from pretend dinosaurs, blew up a calculator with a smokebomb and did a cool forced-perspective shot finding the rescue ship, which was played by some sort of plastic water pump (but it did look like a spaceship, too). It was actually fun as we didn't have to hike too far to the woodsy location and I only had to fall down once.

Meanwhile I got the pick-up shots from Laura Giglio for her ghost short for DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES. They look good and should help make the sequence run smoother.

Had dinner with Mike Hegg, my partner in crime on BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES, on Saturday night - I hadn't seen him in probably three months! He's been busy with shooting & editing productions in Portland (Oregon).

Have a few days off at the end of the week so hoping to get a ton of stuff done on all fo these movie projects. We shall see...

Actor Reports Orange Jumpsuit Too Tight in Crotch

Spent Saturday and Sunday sitting at a vendor table at the "Just A Game Con" con at the local fairgrounds, sponsored by a local comic and game shop. It's not the ideal place for selling microcinema fare but I did sell a handful of items and had a swell time chatting with some old friends from the comic & game shop days.
Perhaps the best part was that I had long stretches of uninterrupted time away from any internet, TV or family distractions, which enabled me to work on the HOUSEBOUND 2 shooting schedule I've been trying to eek out for weeks! I really made a quantum leap on it so I'm psyched. John Bowker and I collaborated on the story, John wrote the script and is coming up to Oregon this summer to direct the 10-day shoot. I'll be camera/lights/sound guy as well as doing a lot of effects work and a tiny bit of acting as well.

Heard back from an actress who was game to be in my VIDEODRONE short, but alas, she is moving to LA in one month and I have enough commitments this month to keep me from getting the shoot together before she leaves. Bummer. I do have a back-up actress, though, so hopefully I can pull something together for May or June.

Laura Giglio e-mailed me to say she'd completed the pick-up shots I'd asked her to do for the ghost short she shot most of last fall. Watching for her tape in the mail.

Despite having previously told my friend Tom Shaffer that I was never going to get into the too-small orange jumpsuit that was my costume playing an astronaut stranded on a planet of dinosaurs again, I will be once again squeezing into that too-small orange jumpsuit for more scenes for his flick PREHISTORICUS this coming Saturday. More running around in the woods, ad-libbing and pretending to see dinasaurs just off-screen. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to hike so far to get to the prime locations Tom finds. Well, that, and if the jump suit wasn't so small.

Productive Evening Last Night

DR. PUDDING'S MONSTER FILES: Worked on the "pool monster" head a bit on Sunday night - it's all plastic milk jugs & duct tape right now. Bought some spray foam insulation and spray paint last night. Hope to work more on this tonight. Also got word from Laura Giglio that she's going to be able to shoot the pick-ups for DONNA THE NURSE (I gotta make up a creepier name for that segment) in the next couple of weeks. Last week I picked up some fake vines with leaves on them at the Dollar Tree to add to the paper mache head I've made for the "Tree Spirit," the titular character in a segment I'm writing that is kind of like Pumpkinhead if Pumpkinhead was made from a tree. Photos soon...

Sent a PDF of the VideoDrone segment of TWISTED FATES to a local actress recommended by an actor I've worked with a lot. We'll see if she's interested.

No word from Tim Davis on the status of the ZOMBIE LOVE SLAVE opening sequence.

Got a quote from an area replicator on getting DVD-R copies of TRAILER PARK DOUBLE WIDE TRILOGY OF TERROR. Need to whip up some art for the discs and the sleeves and get them ordered.

Heading out of town for a bit of a Spring Break/Easter vacation. Plan to take the laptop and work on some scripts/shooting schedules.