Gathering The Troops...

So that's what it's about right now. Gathering the team and prepping websites and fan pages for a movie that hasn't even been shot. Fortunately my friend Brian Erzen is going to be heading up most of our online presence so I can focus on crewing, money, casting, directing and all that other fun stuff of making a movie.

So, if you know anyone who would like to join in, most notably a producer / upm who's hungry and eager to work on an exciting feature film with a fun crew and no douche bags, send em this way!

It's amazing how much time is spent in front of a computer and talking on the phone at this stage of the game. Even when you're not working a regular job, it's still all about computers... :)

The Shining -- Part 3

Ahh Obsession,

How it is when you're a kid and all you can think about are your favorite movies over and over again. (No I don't talk about "Aliens" or the "Terminator" like that. I don't!).

So here we took the Shining to a whole NEW LEVEL! Yep...Jack chasing his "wife" and son (who for some reason we call "Sammy" and not "danny"). Yep, chasing. Chasing, and more chasing. The beautiful POV shots, the ghosts, random reincarnation. This one has it all. Including breathtaking reviews from some real movie critics!

Jason Distel is in this one. A fun addition. As is the crew of David, Tom, Borden and Me. (sometime soon, I promise, we'll be onto a different location...well, maybe not). Jason's actually better at improv than the rest of us were. That's for sure.

Now you might ask yourself: Guys, how many times did you watch the Shining back then? And I'll tell you, only once for me. And it was in two parts. We were watching in the game room at my old house and had to stop halfway through to take Lolly home for her curfew (but that begs the point, could we drive? And this was 9th grade, so definitely not. Oh shit...maybe we watched it more times than I remember! Ahhh! Obsession! Obsession!)

As any of you who have seen The Shining know (especially as a kid) that movie is scary as hell. Those damn kids. Jack Torrance. Overlook hotel. I had nightmares.

"come play with us, forever, and ever".

I'm sure you'll have nightmares after watching this one...you can count on it.

Adopting A Child

So yesterday Neal (writer of "Straight On Till Morning") and I met and chatted about making this sucker. He and I get along well, and both are very passionate about the project.

During the meeting Neal said to me that it was time for me to take over the film. He's been writing it, and working on it for quite some time. Both of us have been tweaking and rewriting for the last 9 months, and the baby has been born. But like any good writer, it's time to hand the baby over to the director. So I've officially adopted the child. Yikes. Being a parent is scary, and exciting.

The joke Neal said was "Eventually a writer has to let the Director adopt the baby...so they can rape the writers child." Because a lot of times Producers and Directors will then go off into left field and lose track of what the movie was to begin with. I hope not to do that. My goal is to make the best horror movie I possibly can, and to keep Neal involved as writer and sounding board. I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about SOTM, and am always a big fan of having smart, creative, passionate people around to help things be the best they can be.

So now I've officially got a baby...

It sure is cute, all covered in blood and fear (and love too).

Commercials: Acme Brick & Memorex

So team,

We're still hanging out in the living room. (Not mine, but my buddy Tom's) Yep, we're doing commercial parodies. Like any good kid does with a video camera. We bring our skills to bear on the legendary ACME brick and of course Memorex Tapes. The smooth jazz is particularly nice, as is the ode to classical composer Schubert.

There's not much to say here. It's been a bit delayed in the posting because I've been out of town on a cruise Raging it up in the Bahamas. :)

And damn...that hair is sure looking good here. Mean's it's still ninth grade. Like seriously, did I really think it was a good idea to go for hair like this? I wanted my hair to look like Michael J. Fox's on "Family Ties" (The TV show, not my short film), and I think...I think I was really close. Just a few more perms and I'd have it.

A Bloody Good Photo Shoot

So tonight we did a photo shoot for
"Straight On Till Morning". We were
shooting the poster for a movie that hasn't been made yet. The goal is to make a captivating image that we can use to drum up excitement as well as get investors interested by using it as part of the website and business kit. Hopefully the image will turn out great enough to use as the actual poster so it will become a very familiar "branding" for the film.

We shot at good old Feet First, home of many (many!) of the www.TrespassingOnTheLot.com shorts. Natalie Young was the fantastic photographer. I highly recommend her for professional images of all sorts. She's super cool and has a great eye and I can't wait to see the images. Katie Chandler and Alysha Marcoantonio did the bloody good blood. I'd never worked with them, but they came highly recommended from the Blood Queen herself. So we took a chance and they were great. And for our models we had the ever awesome Laurel Marlantes and Scott Tompkins. One to loom, the other to be beautifully bathed in blood. (Okay, we didn't get to crazy, there is romance in the movie too).

It was a new experience for me. Even though I've taken photos since I was like 9 years old, and I did professional headshots for a couple years, I've never actually done a shoot like this. Where it was all designed and planned out. It took 5 hours from set up to tear down, but I thought it was really fun. Everyone seemed in a good mood and up for the creativity.

So will it work? Will it be the image that helps drum up excitement for "Straight On Till Morning"?

We shall see -- But I feel pretty excited about it!

Super Ginormouse Jeopardy

Wow...Wow...

I'm really sorry about this one. Boy we thought we'd be clever making fun of a gameshow, but what we quickly discovered is we have absolutely no ability to improv WHAT-SO-EVER! I mean Jesus, we even LOOK bored doing this one. Is David asleep?

I admit, this has actually been "edited". No kidding. The raw footage of this one was like 15 minutes long. And when I made a collection of all these high school and Jr. high videos for my friends a few years ago I trimmed this up...but really, a pile of poo is still just a pile of poo.

But damn, my hair looks good. That close up is incredible.

When Zombies Attack!

Hey Team,

Just wanted to let you know that Craig Ouellette's web series "When Zombies Attack!" is up online at

www.ZombiePSA.com

It's here that you can find out all you need to to stay alive in the current zombie crisis. Long before Zombieland, we put tips on screen, mixed in with the action, so that you wouldn't succumb to the horror infested un-life of the un-dead.

So check it out, let us know what you think. And thanks for watching

The Shining -- Part 2

The Terror, The Horror, The ...Rip off.

So we called this "The Shining Part 2" but it's pretty much just us making a parody of "The Shining" Part 1, you know, the Stephen King one. For whatever reason I'm the mom (again). Dave plays a very scary Jack Torrence. I'm quite impressed with our clever play on REDRUM with EDICIMOH. And for some reason the big chase scene isn't in this one... I don't know where it went. So it's a cliffhanger.

Tom's brother Mark makes a cameo here, as the genuinely creepy little boy in the doorway. And it has one of the best lines of dialogue ever, delivered by Tom on the porch.

And yes, my hair is still awesome.