My Last Movie...more like fake movie trailer really.

I've been thinking about this off and on over the last few months, and nearly every time it came to mind I always thought an interview with Patton Oswalt I once heard., he was discussing his thoughts on being a successful comedian. I'll admit I don't recall some exact points, but the basic idea was that he believed in order to be a success in his business (and I think it translates to any creative business) you actually have to enjoy the work of your peers and allow yourself to appreciate their success in order to become inspired by it. I think I agree with that idea, which is why I don't think I'll ever be successful, even if I wanted to, as a filmmaker  but feel I will find success in doing special effects.

This might offend a few folks, I can't say I really care anymore - because some folks look to be offended in everything anyway, so why bother tiptoeing around the point. What it comes down to is this, I don't care about indie/amateur movies overall. I don't enjoy watching them, I can't stand people going on and on about their "awesome script". I just don't give a big, fat, wobbly ass about them. I think I did at one point, but because of so many negative experiences I've grown to kind of hate the whole idea.

There are a small select few, locally speaking, whose talent and dedication to what they do, that I respect and actually enjoy working with. And let me say it again for the cheap seats...A SMALL SELECT FEW.  I think about 4 or so, they should know who they are.

And this has nothing to do my own abilities as a filmmaker vs someone else's,  I make bad movies on purpose because it allows me to cut corners with a justification of "it's supposed to be that way", so don't read this and think this is some personal slam of my movies vs yours (or theirs), I AM NOT AND WILL NEVER BE A FILMMAKER - so let's leave it at and don't worry about it.

So the actual point of all this is why I feel I might find success doing SPFX, because I do see things being made by my peers (albeit online only since I'm the only one locally that I'm aware of) that I enjoy and find inspiring, I'm happy for their successes (even when I'm in a constant state of disappoint about my lack thereof), I enjoy talking to some of them even when we don't agree on something - to me it's a dialog about something we both love, not an argument about who sucks and why - although they do happen, but it's usually a pretty one sided conversation about an individual, or group, bent on ripping people off with crap quality. There are those who are negative and just want to tear things down, they exist everywhere and I've learned to suss them out and just sidestep or ignore them.

And even to elaborate a touch more on my whole anti-FaceOff seeming rant, I never intended it to come off like that - it's something I do enjoy watching and talking about and there are definitely some works being made on that show I find to be just amazing to look at and have even seen a few concepts here and there I've wanted to steal to incorporate into my own designs, I just don't like the idea of televised/heavily edited competition in a field I don't feel I'm into.

I'm friends on Facebook with more random makeup artists than filmmakers, and most of them added me because they somehow found my work - again, in special effects, not as a filmmaker. I've never had a random filmmaker see my work and actually comment about how they appreciated it or anything really like that, with makeup artists, it happens quite often.

I've gotten more work as an makeup artist, I've made more money, I'm less stressed (and oddly enough I enjoy the stress of it), I enjoy the collaboration with the few folks I've done with for - to be perfectly honest, I never really had any of that as a filmmaker.

So, because of all this I'm done making movies. I always said I did it for fun and when it wasn't fun anymore, there was no point in doing it. Now I've got 3 movies all shot and mostly edited that need audio work I'll probably turn out over the next year, first being Moonshine of the Damned lined up for early October, but I've one last project that's been gnawing away at me that I'd really love to do and then just drop the whole thing.

I've had this idea for an HP Lovecraft/Alfred Hitchcock movie, the concept is continually changing, but visually I can already see it in my head. I want to create an epic looking, almost Lord of the Rings Lovecraft movie with Hitchcock cinematography and plot. It's a bit of a tall order, but I think the two can actually blend together brilliantly since both heavily feature paranoia as an overall theme in their works.

The new title to the project is The Thief of Innsmouth (tentatively, it's changed so many times already). Originally the lead was to be a Demon, as I seem to love putting Demons into movies for no good reason, I'm changing that to have a lead who's a human in order to play up the horrific elements of the good townsfolks of the mob controlled town of Innsmouth. I'll borrow a lot from The Shadow Over Innsmouth story for the setting and throw in a more of a Hitchcock twist of a case of mistaken identity as a man is hired to do something (I've no idea yet what the motivation is here) to the crime lord of Innsmouth, Cthulhu himself and weird shit like that.

It's an odd twist on the whole thing. It's an incredibly expensive endeavor - which is why this project will only be a trailer. A roughly 2 - 3 minute trailer of the most awesome, epic, mutant fish people gangster/horror movie ever. And I'm not really a Gangster movie fan, it just feels like the right element to throw in there.

I'm only looking at a 2 - 3 day shoot, as many makeup FX as I can possibly muster, which will be easy since I'm already embarking on a slowly growing line of Lovecraft inspired prosthetics - so this trailer will in fact also be a commercial for all that awesomeness as well. I'll try to do some location shooting, but possibly a lot of studio/greenscreen stuff as well since we're pretty limited for really great locations for this sort of thing.

And that's it. I'm done making movies. Next spring I'm planning on one last fake movie trailer - there's always the possibility of collaborations, but only where I'm not the one pushing the project forward on my own, I'll just be following someone else's lead.

However, there is always the slightest possibility that if the trailer turns out and I can create a brilliant script, I might try the grant thing again and that is the only way I'd ever attempt to do a movie again, none of this out of pocket shit anymore. It's just not worth it.

Moonshine of the Damned, Production Journal #20

Seems like there should have been more than just 20 of these. We just had our very last day of shooting on Moonshine of the Damned - I was calling last week the last, but that was our last day with the leads and extras and all that stuff. This was the final fight sequence involving the Zombie Eater, so it was just two actors. The Zombie Eater, Steve Marchbank and Heather Panton's stunt double, Kinza Mae Baker. Normally I don't do stunt doubles and, quite honestly, while Heather and Kinza are vaguely similar in size, there's still some major differences - however, those differences don't matter at all. You'll see once you see the final movie.

First thing we shot was a couple little cutaway shots involving the very first zombie appearing in the movie and of course I shot it last. It was pretty short and simple, while we were out coming up with ideas for the fight scene I brought the actor along and got his shots. We when went back home and I did a blue screen shot as well.

The Zombie Banjo Boy.

Our only real Deliverance reference left from last year.

After I got done of the Banjo Boy stuff I began a very long makeup process on Kinza, it's something I'm not showing off at all until the movie is release. Normally I'm pretty open to showing stuff off, but I've held back a little on this, but not too much.

That sort of reminds me, at some point I'm actually going to write my own review of the movie. Seems a little pointless and possibly even pandering to myself somehow, but I have a lot of thoughts on it that I'd like to address. I'll probably do a Director's Commentary for the DVD even to explain a few things. Mostly, I feel a little sad that I might actually have to explain the joke that the whole movie is. About 98% of what you'll see what done intentionally - I might've said that before.

Every bad line, awkward delivery, bad camera angle, rough editing, goofy FX - I planned it all. Or at least designed how I would plan it to force myself to do those things through no other option. It's easy to go over the top camping up a bad movie, but this was an attempt to seriously make a movie that might seems like it was done with the utmost of sincere intentions only to sort of fail a bit in places. I've said this time and time again. I love bad 80s horror movies, they were just so much fun. You don't see them anymore and I really wanted to capture that 80s mentality of almost nonsensical plot, where some things you have to suss out for yourself or fill in the blanks on your own.

In all seriousness, if you the sort of person who feels everything needs to be properly explained, needs to nitpick continuity and plot points - you really shouldn't watch this. It wasn't made for the likes of you. It's made for people who really enjoy bad movies that are so bad they're good. It's the kind of movie you're supposed to make fun of - trust me, I do all the time when we talk about it.

One thing I've always had a difficult time with in making movies is fight scenes. They're just to hard to do and do right and even slightly believable. Now this time around I won't brag that it's totally believable, but you can see there was no holding back with the actors. They went for it, risking seriously injuring themselves I'd say - but we tried to be as safe as possible and there was not one injury, aside from being incredibly sore afterwards.

I can honestly say I've never been more excited to show off something I've shot before than this scene. The whole movie is pretty awesome and has some great moments and moves along at a pretty decent pace. But this one sequence turned out just how I wanted. It's really fun to watch and even a little silly in places. All thanks to Kinza and Steve's hard work.

These are the only photos I can show you of what we did for now. Neither of them looked even close to this when I got done with makeup either.

It was a long day too. Started at 9am and finished by 4pm. I had three makeup applications - which took a huge part of the day and I'm so glad I got a couple extra airbrushes, it made the work so much quicker and the make on Kinza was so awesome looking. I even glued down the Zombie Eater prosthetic this time, up until now I let it flap around lose, but knowing the paces we were about to put it through I felt I had to glue it down to prevent it ripping and ruining shots. Worked awesomely and came off intact, if not a little sweaty.

I got it all edited last night as well, in total we got one minute, 30 seconds worth of a fight scene. Not too bad at all, I expected one minute at the very most.

I've been whittling away at the re-recording of everyone's lines. It's a long process that can be a little tiresome, but it's the way I chose to do it. The video itself is about 90% done, it needs colour correcting and whatnot. A few FX shots that I don't need anyone else for. Possible a small sequence with a couple zombies might need to be shot if I can't get the footage in from someone else I was planing on. But even that's not a problem, I'm kind of looking forward to that if it happens.

Otherwise, we're on the downhill stretch of it all now.

Posters! I've got posters done too. First up the official poster for the movie:

And I wanted this time around to do a series of character posters for the Bimbos.

And finally, all of them in one.

Someone had asked about T-shirts and I think even getting prints of posters. Right now I'm busy trying to get the movie done and get a lot of other projects off the ground as well as trying to get shop stuff done. So while the answer is yes, they will be available, don't expect it for another couple weeks until I get my scheduled cleared up

And finally, the trailer:

And that's it. I'm pretty glad it's over with, not because it was a shitty experience, but because it was just so much on my mind this whole summer and I really need to clear my head for the Halloween season as well as for the upcoming Hal-Con in November.

For now, we're pretty close. Hope to do a rough cut screening for the actors and even do a private screening at City Cinema. We'll see how all that goes.

Web Series Funding

We're slowly stumbling towards our goal. Thing is, I was really hoping to get more by now - not to dismiss what we've already received. So far it's been awesome. We've received enough to actually start filming.

I've got 10 zombie prosthetics made, various smaller pieces. A couple latex masks made - which I'm not really sure we'll be using aside from a couple scenes. I'm hoping to get to some other pieces this week, but scheduling has proved to be a huge task that's taking up a lot of my time.

I've got the whole script broken down now. Everything's cross referenced based on who we need, where we're shooting and what needs to be done before those sequences can be shot. Out of 12 shoots, I've got about 6 lined up. So far so good. But we're not out of the woods yet folks, we still need assistance.

We've already received a couple big donations, which put us over the top and got on on track. A huge thanks to everyone who has donated, regardless of the amount. While this might not seems like the most lofty of artistic endeavors - it's fun. If you like cheesy, campy zombie movies that has some respect by not insulting it's audience by just throwing crap at them (I think it's obvious we actually give a shit about what we're doing), you will more than likely enjoy this.

Here's the first two movies in case this is your first time here and you've no idea what I'm talking about. Both these movies were made with less than $500 each. We've got an opportunity to show that PEI isn't just about fart jokes, it's not an intelligent movie by any means, but at least it's different from the rest.
And I have a feeling I might insult some people with the "PEI isn't just about fart jokes" line, I'm not referring to anything or anyone in specific, so if you're offended - that's really too bad. If that's your style of comedy, good for you - but you really should have thicker skin if that's the case.

Zombie Concept Sketches

Just a couple of the concept sketches for the zombie prosthetics being made for the web series.

Help us fund this web series!

Call for International Zombies

I've briefly posted about this before, but I thought I should do a proper outline on it so people are aware of exactly what I'm talking about.

In regards to the upcoming web series, Bimbo Zombie Killers! Undead in the Water, we are looking for folks all over the world (currently have people as far as Scotland participating) in shooting some zombie footage that will be used in the series.

We're not looking for random footage or for you to submit you own ideas. What we're looking for is very specific and will be outlined further once the script is finalized. It has to match our own footage as well. Nor are we looking for folks to design their own makeup, I myself do prosthetic makeup and I'm creating all the makeup used in the movie, so a batch of prosthetics will be sent out to keep our undead looking consistent.

To further break it down in bullet points:

1. We will send you a list of shots needed.
2. We will send you stills from our footage in order to make it match in look and location.
3. Must be shot in full HD (1920x1080, 30fps - progressive, non-interlaced)
4. We're not looking for "character" zombies, must be simple in order to blend in. So no Mexican Fiesta Zombie or Polka Zombies please, the footage will just be unusable.
5. We will send you a batch of pre-painted prosthetics, you will need to only apply and blend them in on your own. Some makeup ability and supplies of your own will be necessary.
6. Method of delivery, or format, of final shots has yet to be determined
7. If you're concerned about your camera handling matching our own, we'll be shooting in a similar style to BZK2!. Mostly handheld and no camera zooms, it just doesn't look at all that good.
8. Footage can be shot over the course of the summer and submitted no later then mid-September.

Overall we're looking for probably 4-5 shots from everyone. Should you decide to shoot more just for fun and submit it, go right ahead - we might even do a gag reel or compilation of all the extra footage (with your names and locations even) just to do it as maybe an extra episode if we get enough.

That should answer most questions. If not, feel free to email me and ask anything else.

BZK! Undead in the Water Indiegogo Campaign.

While the movies might look cheap, they're not, especially this one. We've got a massive pile of FX planned and we can't do it without funding. We can do a lot with a little though, so every little bit helps folks.

You might notice the perks don't go that high up in amount, but there's more to come as things progress. So if your pockets are feeling heavy but you're just not seeing what you'd like there, check back later.Or, if you'd like to help out but aren't feeling so rich, please share, repost, or whatever to wherever. We need to get the word out as far and wide a possible.

Home Sweet Hell DVDs!

I've been in a slump as far as being self motivated lately, ever since Halloween actually (which was exhaustively busy for 2 months straight), but this last week has been incredibly productive.

I finally got the Home Sweet Hell DVDs all done, there's not much to them, just the episodes and some pictures. I wanted to do outtakes, but as I noticed finishing up the BZK2! DVDs, there weren't any. The folks I work with have gotten really used to the way I work and are very well prepared  - so they deserve a huge thanks from me.

These are up for sale too, but since the audio isn't awesome, I'm reducing the price a bit to $8 on these - any more and it's just not worth selling them really.

Otherwise, I've got a small pile of new prosthetics done and a few more on the way. I've got a few new photo shoots lined up and got some work done on a few other projects I have going on. So far so good, I'm hoping the trend keeps up.

Up next are the Man-Eating Hookers from Hell DVDs.

Holy crap I'm busy

Yes, I am busy these days. That's not a complaint, far from it. With the fake movie trailer project I'm working on and the pile of photo shoots I've planned to finally the massive orders coming in for prosthetics, I'm a little swamped these days.

The trailer is coming along, we have 2 more days scheduled, the next is pretty shot and the 2nd is going to be another huge day of blood and gore and demons in lingerie - and yes, I am aware how awesome it is that this is now pretty much my job.

The photo shoots are coming along well, I have 3 (?) lined up, maybe more, I can't even remember specifics anymore sometimes. A couple are going to be pretty awesome, some a little more understated but definitely cool.

And in shop news, I am busy, the business is doing really well. I'm almost surprised in a way - but I guess I shouldn't be since I was hoping I'd be this busy. It's been a great learning experience and I've definitely sussed out some weaknesses in my production methods and whatnot. Ones that are easily corrected for next year so I'm not rushing to fill orders as soon as they come in.

My next big plans are for an industry trade show in May in Toronto, not my favourite city but it should be a decent experience. And the Bimbo Zombie Killers! web series which starts shooting in July with a hopefully release date of Halloween Day 2012.

That's it for now, I have to go make more little resin spikes and start working on a master mould, then make more prosthetics and probably other stuff I've already forgotten about.