More Lord of Tears news

 I got an email from Lawrie Brewster about his Kickstarter campaign for Lord of Tears and from the sounds of it, it's going incredibly well for him - and so it should, the movie looks really good and a nice change from the T&A-fest, failed-Tarantino-style-dialog with  cheap, lazy production values, kind of horror movies being cranked out by what seems like every other indie filmmaker out there - myself sort of included, but please don't ever compare anything I've ever done to Tarantino, that's just mean and hurtful.

Rather than attempt to rewrite all the updates he summarized for me, I'm going just plagiarize it (like some other lazy indie filmmakers do with their scripts) and copy & paste it for you:

* We reached our first goal on Kickstarter - the new goal is £10k ($15k) and we'd really appreciate if you like the film, any encouragement for folks to pre-order. Mainly because the film may not be available through traditional distro until next year, and so we're really trying to get $$$ for a bigger batch order this year so more people can see the film. So any encouragement for folks to check out and consider pre-ordering the DVD's despite us reaching our first goal would be mightily appreciated.

* Lord of Tears has been accepted into the San Diego Comic Fest to be screened in October

* Lord of Tears has been available on pre-order through Kickstarter, it met its goal after 10 days (hooray)

* The kickstarter page features a new trailer for the film that has won some acclaim, being tweeted by Jim Parrack (True Blood) and Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, From Beyond) Elizabeth Fies (The Commune) and Signe Olynyk (Below Zero)

* We have a viral style video of the Owlman stalking teenagers on Omegle/chat roulette

* Exclusive stills taken of our antagonist (the Owlman) from a Victorian Childrens Hospital.

As a fun point of note, his Highness Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki became an Executive Producer for our film.

The Kickstarter page is the only way to pre-order and view the film at present. As we said before we'll be delighted to post a screener to you for review when available.

Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawriebrewster/lord-of-tears

The Viral Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENT_i_L3bGc

New Monster Photos - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29968604/Bloody-Disgusting.zip

Comic Festival Announcement - http://www.sdcomicfest.org/lawrie-brewster/

Film Photos https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29968604/Lord%20of%20Tears%20-%20Screenshots%20and%20Key%20Art.zip

Artwork - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29968604/owlman_horror_signed.JPG

Trailer Link - https://vimeo.com/60118572



So if you like actual horror movie and not thinly disguised porn with even more thinly disguised acting and writing - you might want to check this out and support the project.
 

Painted Zombie Head Prop

There's only so many variations on this title I can do before I start repeating. In any case, I finally got to painting one of the Severed Zombie Head props I'm making for Moonshine of the Damned - and the funding campaign. It was my first time using the airbrush on a prop and using the Latex Paint Base to do this sort of thing, and I'm pretty happy overall with the results.

I didn't have a huge array of paint colours to use, I think I just had 5 different ones to do this. I wanted to go with a dried out look, nothing too spectacular or anything, for my first attempt. I'll probably get more creative as I go.

And since they're latex and polyfoam, I was thinking to make some variations I could cut out certain parts and rebuild them here and there to alter the overall shape and appearance of each head. Some might have some stringy bits from the neck, some might have severe shotgun wounds taking off a huge chunk of the side of their head. Who knows?

So here's a couple pictures, here's an unpainted one next to the painted one.

Some closeups. I did a slight dried splatter look on him. A technique I'll admit to having never really tried before.

Got some major spatter on this side.

And a nice one here. I didn't want to do too much more, thought it might start looking too silly. Although, I do enjoy it when things look a little silly.

So there you have it. A fully finished and painted Severed Zombie Head prop. I will definitely be offering these up for a limited, reduced price pre-sale sort of deal for the fund raiser. As I've mentioned, probably numerous times, I'll only be doing up 10 for the fund raiser and then I'll be only be making several for the web series - but I will put them up for sale on the website around September I think, the price will be slightly more than they were for the fund raiser - so if you're thinking about, better act now or it'll be costing you more and you'll be helping out a (sort of ) good cause.

If you're not sure what fundraiser I'm referring to, click here. And if you're too impatient to go the to website and simply must have one of these bad boys right now, email me.

Leprechaun Toe Earrings

I originally made the Leprechaun Toes as keychains, but I was worried about the durability of the silicone part of it holding up against the wear and tear of being in a purse or pocket and rubbing against the sharp edges of some keys, so I eventually went with this idea - Leprechaun Toe Earrings. Although I am still selling them as keychains, just with a warning.

Sure, they're odd, but that's the point. I felt some folks might like to show them off a little more than just having one on a keychain, what better way than dangling from your ears?

They're really lightweight, the silicone weighs next to nothing as does the resin center to which the hardware is attached. Since they're made of mostly silicone they're also quite soft and disturbingly squishy - much like you might imagine a real severed Leprechaun toe to be.

They're made to order, a single pair can take about 2 days - although I do usually make more than one pair at a time so you might luck out.

Shipping is decently cheap, I can ship them as a letter, for right now I'm assuming that I can ship worldwide for a flat rate of $5. You can order by emailing me at foxhenderson@themonkeyrodeo.com or you can head over to the website and see what else might interest you.

More Zombie Heads

A small pile of unpainted, latex skinned, polyfoam Zombie Heads made for Moonshine of the Damned. I'm tying to get some of the FX prepped early for the series using what little materials I have lying around. In this case I ran out of polyfoam - didn't have that much to begin with, but what little I had went  decently long way. This was about 1/4 of a $40 kit, maybe a 1/3 at best - so I should be able to get quite a few more from a new kit, especially since I now know the exact amount needed to fill the heads without wasting very much of the foam.

I'm looking into some new zombie prosthetics this week as well, I normally like to master mould them so I can reuse them for the shop later, but in this case I'll just be making them and setting them aside for now until I can master mould them down the road some time.

Still looking to raise money for the series as well, we're still hovering around the 1/4 mark - got a very long way to go yet.  If you're interested in helping out, check out the page I've got set up: http://www.themonkeyrodeo.com/BZK3/

Making a Severed Zombie Head

For the upcoming Moonshine of the Damned, I need to make several zombie heads - so the easiest, cheapest way was to sculpt one. Rather than starting from scratch I use an already made silicone mould from the first attempt at the series, this here was the final product from that mould, a foam backed Vytaflex head. It didn't look the way I wanted it to, so resculpting was necessary.

 I filled the silicone mould with melted clay and resculpted it. I was using Monster Makers clay, that stuff is awesome.

Since it'll have to be a 2-sided mould, so next a dividing wall was built up. I also sculpted in where the pour hole will be - you can kind of see it at the base of the neck here.

First layer of Ultracal 30, first it was brushed on and then anount coat dripped over that.

And then some layers of burlap.

And another thickened coat of Ultracal 30 to give it a better finish, this picture was before I smoothed it all out.

With the first half all done, I started work on the 2nd by cleaning off all the clay.

I added several little chunks of clay to create holes to assist in prying the two halves apart afterwards. I also applied a coating of vaseline to the Ultrcal to make sure the two halves didn't just fuse together.

A mould wall for the 2nd half is built, as well as the 2nd half of the pour hole - it's a little more obvious here.

First thin brushed on coating of UltraCal 30.

Drip coating.

And I missed taking a picture - not that it matters though, it just looks like a huge chunk of gypsum. After a long while of very carefully prying the two halves apart, this is what it looked like. I use wooden stir sticks hammered in around the seam to slowly pry it apart. It worked pretty well as using hard, metal tools can just break the Ultracal sometimes and ruin the whole thing.

Luckily I was actually somewhat smart about it. Because I only had so much clay and not enough to totally fill the original silicone mould, I added in a bunch of old small silicone moulds to add some bulk - this made it easier to remove it from the mould as well since it wasn't a solid chunk of clay.

After a very long cleaning process, the mould was ready for it's first casting.

The intention is to make several cheap, light, easy to paint zombie heads. The best method I could think of was a polyfoam head with a latex skin. Since I was using latex I went with the Ultracal 30 mould - which was awesome since I already have a decent amount onhand anyway.

If you're not familiar with how Ultrcal (or really any gypsum material) and latex work together, the Ultracal actually sucks the water out of the latex, enabling you to create a thin skin. The longer you leave the latex dwelling in the mould the thicker this skin will be. I my case I  need just a thin enough skin to protect the Ultracal from the polyfoam, normally you'd want enough latex to totally fill the mould to create something thicker.

I only have a little onhand so I just did a quick brush on coating to ensure it was evenly coating the deeper recesses on the front of the face, joined the halves together and sloshed around more latex, probably about 500 ml at this point. The latex was drained and I usually paint on more around the opening of the pour hole (again to prevent the expanding polyfoam from biting into the outside of the mould).

The polyfoam will normally adhere and lock into the Ultracal and it's a bugger to paint as well, hence the whole latex skin. I was using a very quick expanding and curing polyfoam (from Monster Makers) so I had to be quick about it, I made the pourhole larger than normal to make sure I could pour the foam in fast enough. It worked perfectly.

And here's the result, fresh from the mould.

I cut off the excess latex/foam from the pourhole and here's the pretty much final piece ready to be cleaned up and painted.

Normally latex can be a bugger to paint, you need to make a toxic concoction to make sure the paint adheres to the latex surface, however Monster Makers has a Latex Paint Base which works beautifully, you can even just mix it with regular acrylic paint to tint it. I've done a small amount of airbrushing with it, but need to experiment further - which I'll probably do with these since they don't have to look perfect, they are just rotting heads after all.

Also, since it has a very thin surface of latex, which keeps it really flexible and tough, and the expanding polyfoam is really low density, these heads are incredibly light and pretty squishy as well, so you can throw them at people without hurting them - if you ever feel the need to throw a severed zombie at someone.

So that's pretty much it. I can make several dozen heads from this, possibly more if I'm careful with the mould so the polyfoam doesn't ruin the moulding surface.

While only about a dozen are needed for a couple scenes in the series and this mould should last for awhile, I'm planning on making these available through the Funding Campaign for about $40, I'll only be making 10 of these for the campaign - more on that later.

Severed Zombie Head WIP

I finally got started on some of the FX for Moonshine of the Damned, right now I'm just working on smaller stuff that I can do with the limited supplies that I already have on hand. I don't have too much, but I have enough to start working on this prop, a Severed Zombie Head.

Using a silicone mould I'd made the Uncle Jesse Corpse Head prop from the previous version of the series, I filled it with melted clay so I could start from a nearly completed sculpt instead of from scratch - just to save several hours of getting the form just right. The original head was character specific with certain wounds and marks (and a closed mouth) that would've made reproducing it for several heads a little troublesome since it would be obvious clones.

These pictures here represent about 3 or 4 hours work of sculpting - most of the was removing the lower jaw, cleaning up the obvious original wounds and fixing the nose and eye areas. Ears were added and the lower jaw re-attached after cleaning up the area inside the mouth - which will be left rough.

This is a full sized head as well. Over the weekend I'll be creating a 2 part Ultracal 30 Mould and hopefully crank out the very first copy of the head. It'll be made with a thin skin of latex, filled with expanding polyfoam. It should be nice and light and pretty durable too.

My plan is, once I get one completed and have a better idea of the work involved overall - I'll be adding these to the Funding Campaign as the 3rd phase. Not sure of the price, could be $40 with a limited number, mostly likely 10 to be made for now. If it turns out well, I will also be adding these as a regular item to the website, for sale at a somewhat higher cost - so if you're interested in a Severed Zombie Head, best to keep track of the blog to get one cheap.

2nd Phase of Fund Raiser - Limited Edition Latex Zombie Mask

Limited Edition Latex Zombie Mask - the 2nd Phase of the Moonshine of the Damned Fund Raiser.

This mask will be used as a background zombie in the series and I'm selling only 25 of them, for $25 each. I'll point out that this is NOT foam latex, prosthetic makeup, it's a simple, Halloween-type, reusuable latex mask with an elastic strap.

Same deal as the Brain Keychains, everyone who orders one will be getting a thanks in the final credits of the series and a chance to win something awesome.

Payments can be made through Email Interact, Paypal orders add $0.50 per item. Shipping is $5 Flat Rate.

Orders can be directed to: brains@themonkeyrodeo.com.

Lucky Leprechaun Toe

Need a little extra luck? How about a wee little Leprechaun Toe for only $10?

A little known fact about Leprechauns, there are many magical creatures whose magic comes from certain body parts, in the case of Leprechauns their power is contained with in one, sometimes both, of their big toes. And when a Leprechaun passes away, their bodies decompose into a bed of clover, their magically imbued toe becomes a 4 leaf clover - hence why they're so rare and considered lucky.

So you can imagine, it's not too easy to collect these, you have to wait to find a dead Leprechaun and hope you get to it before it begins to decompose and the digit loses its power.

Actually, it's a silicone sleeve over a resin nub into which the hardware is embedded and the silicone is bonded to. I was originally selling them as keychains, however I have doubts about the longevity of the silicone to stand up to the wear and tear of being rubbed against keys - however they can be used for whatever you want really, even a pendant. Earring versions will be coming soon!

They're pretty small and should be able to sent as a letter just fine, so shipping on these bad boys should be pretty cheap. If you're interested, you can contact me at foxhenderson@themonkeyrodeo.com.

Latex Zombie Mask

I've tried this before and wasn't thrilled with the results, or I was hesitant to get into painting latex masks...or whatever the reason was. In any case, it's done now. This also reminds be why I don't (and often discourage others from doing so) use the term "mask" to refer to prosthetics, it seems to make people think I'd be gluing something like this to their face - which would utterly suck.

This week I've started work on the 2nd Phase of the Moonshine of the Damned Funding Campaign. So far the Brains have been selling pretty well, but I'm worried I might not make the goal in time, so I thought I'd add to it by selling these bad boys: 

This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the paint job was done - and to be perfectly honest this was my first attempt at actually "painting" something like this, I've done a couple other pieces but they were more like shading or highlighting than actually painting. It's not too bad and I actually intend to use it as a background zombie in the series - although since it is a mask and would be pretty obvious, the actor will be wearing a hoodie to hide the out edges and makeup around the eyes to blend it in a bit better.

I'm hoping to get it online for sale next week and get things going on the 2nd Phase. There will only be 25 of these sold (I will be making at least one or to to be used in the series though, so there might be an couple extra floating around out there) and they'll be going for $25 each, which just like the Brains will include a thanks in the credits and a chance to win something more awesome once it's all over.

The downside here is that I need more supplies to start my run of these, so I'll be taking a few pre-orders, and by that I  mean actually collecting money in order to afford the materials to do a run of 25. If you're interested, same rules as the Brains - email me at brains@themonkeyrodeo.com and ask about the Zombie Mask.

They will officially be going online next week, expect a 5 day turnaround at the longest on orders of these.

Moonshine of the Damned Update #1

I'll start labeling these with numbers, just because it makes sense since I plan on doing more.

For starters, I'm officially changing the name from Bimbo Zombie Killers! Moonshine of the Damned to simply Moonshine of the Damned. Not only to simplfy it, but as a reference to the naming scheme of Evil Dead - so it's a vague reference, but one nonetheless. It went from Evil Dead, to Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, and of course, Army of Darkness, so I'm doing the same thing.

And I've been giving some thought to a poster - not that I really need one, or ever do really, but it's part of the process that I enjoy. This time around instead of doing a photo of the girls or something like that, I'm actually going to paint it - not digitally, but regular old, acrylic on canvas, paint. I'll be using this design:

And this will be, sort of, yet another reference, this time to the movie House, which featured a painted, slightly stylized zombie hand ringing a doorbell. I'll be scanning the painting and digitally touching it up a bit, but that's it.

This painting will also be the prize I'll be giving away for the funding campaign. Not sure of the size yet, but I'll be picking up the canvas next week and start working on it.

Speaking of the funding campaign, I'll be launching the 2nd phase of it next week - more about that then.

Finally have the first draft of the script, it's a little rough but it's all there. Casting is pretty much sewn up for all the new parts. So far the zombie casting process is going pretty well, not fantastic, although I haven't really been pushing it too hard just yet. I've broken up the zombie parts as actual roles that are being cast, rather than just making a random call for extras and hoping for the best.

And I've been working away trying to get a more accurate gauge on the FX budgets now that I know the needs of the script. That will be going on for the next couple weeks, finding out all the little bits I wrote and now have to create somehow. Should be fun.

That's it so far, we'll see how next week goes.

Brain and a Finger!

Brain and a Finger for $12.

Limited supply. I have 10 of these sets for sale on a first come, first serve basis (orders must be paid for within 2 weeks of ordering or it will be offered up to the next person who requests). The partially eaten Brain Keychains are normally $10, but this set is being sold for $12 - the Brain would normally retail at $8 and the Severed Finger at $7, you might be only getting a few dollars in a discount, but this is for a fundraiser not a direct retail sale - so that's a pretty decent deal.

The Severed Finger will be chosen at random from a batch already made. All orders can be made here, brains@themonkeyrodeo.com and mention "Brain and a Finger" as the subject - should they be all sold you, I'll let you know right away. Shipping is the same as usual, $15 in Canada, $25 in the US. Contact me for overseas rates, but be warned it won't be cheap, so best to find a couple other folks who might be interested in reduce the shipping costs.

Lord of Tears Kickstarter

This is the first time I've every really promoted someone else's work  here and I'll admit it's probably only because no one's every asked, but also because I think I'm pretty hard to impress. UK filmmaker, Lawrie Brewster recently contacted me to help promote his Kickstarter campaign for a film he's working on called Lord of Tears.

He sent me a pile of links to check out, so I'm just going to repost them all here because I feel like it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2367066/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3879509/

The Kickstarter below includes our trailer, and a video in which I describe more about the film.
Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawriebrewster/lord-of-tears
Direct Trailer Link - https://vimeo.com/60118572
Direct Trailer Download - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29968604/LORD%20OF%20TEARS%20OFFICIAL%20TRAILER%20v6.zip

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lordoftearsmovie?ref=ts&fref=ts

Tumblr - http://lordoftears.tumblr.com/

Key Art and BTS Stills - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29968604/Lord%20of%20Tears%20-%20Screenshots%20and%20Key%20Art.zip

Official Website www.lordoftears.com

I highly recommend you check it out, it looks pretty funky, if you  can't be bothered following all the links, here's some stuff right here. Here's some stills he sent me:

This is one thing about the UK I love, the locations.

Look at this, it's damned awesome.

 How's this for creepy?

Even if I were to just judge it by the stills, I'd say it's pretty cool. How about a trailer?
So if your pockets are feeling heavy and you're in need of some good karma, head on over to to his Kickstarter page and get to donating.

Need Zombies this summer on PEI for web series.

The title pretty much explains it.

If you've been following this blog you might recall I tried shooting a web series last summer, Bimbo Zombie Killers! Undead in the Water - well, it didn't work out since we were late starting and ran out of time. We're trying it again, now under the title Moonshine of the Damned.

We need zombie extras in order to do all this though. We're looking for reliable folks who can commit to just one day of shooting - there'll be several involving zombies, but most people will only be needed for one day for a specific scene.

Anyone interested in being an extra can email me at casting@themonkeyrodeo.com or send me a message on The Monkey Rodeo page on Facebook.. We're looking for adults only, no children please. Must be able to commit to at least one day of shooting, schedule will be available for this summer very soon - so no excuses there. We'll be starting in June and shooting on weekends throughout the summer on Prince Edward Island.

We supply the makeup as well, it will be foam latex prosthetic appliances - so if you're allergic to latex, you might want to let me know. We will be doing some simple face painting makeup as well from time to time. Zombies will be asked to show up 2-3 hours before shooting times to get done up.

Costumes can be any ratty old clothes (you can check to see if we have any zombie wardrobe though), no logos - no brand names at least, bands and stuff like that are fine. We're also accepting clothing donations for our zombie wardrobe - the more torn up the better and all sizes welcome, send me an email about that as well (same address as above), I'll even thank you in the credits.

That's more or less it, you can email me with any questions as well.

Demon Photo Services

While I'm continuing to do my own shoots, I am no longer really looking for new models - but that doesn't mean you still can't get demonized as I'm planning on offering up a Demon Photoshoot Service. Here's the details:

If you’re not a resident of PEI and you don’t live here, well that’s a problem. However, should you plan to be on the Island at a certain time and are interested, let me know – but 2 weeks notice minimum would be appreciated as I am busy and this is not a last minute thing.

Since every shoot will be, most likely, totally different, it’s hard to pin down all the finer details – such as locations, travel, costumes and whatever. I can say, I don’t have a car so travel is up to you. I don’t have a stock of costumes, so if you wanted something special or specific, you’d have to supply that yourself unless it’s so special (and you’re willing to pay extra) I’d have to make it. As for locations, anywhere you’re willing to drive to is fine by me.

Cost Breakdown:

For example, this here picture, should someone wish to recreate this, would be expensive – and that’s not even thinking of the costume, which was mostly custom made for this shoot. The makeup was a full face piece ($50), a pair of ears ($20) and 4 pairs of horns($40), plus application ($20) would run $130, plus $20 for the shoot itself – you’d be looking at $150 for that kind of photo shoot.

Another example

Forehead ($20) – and for this shoot I did make some custom fangs and had a pair of contacts leftover from another shoot with the same model.  This would run you $40.

However, if you wanted fangs, custom made ones are pretty pricey and a bit of a pain to do a right now (working on that however), my suggestion would be to find yourself some cheap Halloween ones for yourself. I think Repeats in Charlottetown actually has some all year round, but I could be wrong.

Some other important stuff to know:

The more people, the more time it'll all take and the more it'll cost - there's no discount for multiple people since it's way more work time for me. Also, multiple people at night can be tricky since it's harder to focus on multiple subjects unless there's good light.

Children...Nope. I DO NOT recommend this for children because there's a lot of things that can go wrong and some adults even have issues with it. I am not interested in dealing with these issues nor is a simple explanation enough to waive this - unless you yourself have gone through it and totally understand the entire process and are willing to convey that to your child and are willing to accept the consequences should there be a reaction to the makeup or something in the whole process, I refuse to do a shoot with anyone of age 12 - and there's no wiggle room on this, and they must be accompanied by a parent. Also, most of the larger pieces I have will most likely not fit children anyway.

Sometimes, in certain conditions - like nighttime - pictures can not to turn out very well, no problem there at all. Should you want to do a night shoot and the bulk of the pictures just turn out blurry and out of focus, I've no problem redoing the shoot at no extra cost. However, the makeup must be identical to the previous shoot.

I'm sure there's a lot more things that could be covered, but there's just too many variables - so feel free to send me an email foxhenderson@themonkeyrodeo.com, and asked away. Can't hurt.

Remaking Malice

As the title would suggest, I am remaking the never finished movie that started me on all this demon stuff, Malice.

I have no idea what prompted this, but the idea just popped into my head this morning and I debated doing it or not. So I sent a message to the original lead actress, Heather, and gave her the rundown on my idea. It's not that I wanted to let the project go, but I just couldn't see it be completed to a point where I'd really have been happy with it.

It suffered a massive amount of issues because of the length of time it took to make it. Continuity errors were everywhere, nearly everyone's hair changed at one point or another, some very dramatically at that. Just so much changed as we shot it that I just can't see salvaging anything really worthwhile out of it all.

The only people who would even enjoy it where those who were in it, I couldn't see myself being comfortable posting it online (and it would've been unfair not to) because of the barrage of insults and comments that would've come flooding in regarding all the problems with it.

It was fullscreen, standard def, some video glitches as well. The number of reasons not to finish it just piled up and got worse with every year it wasn't completed. So today, I decided to just let it go.

Now, the remake isn't going to be a direct remake of the original story. I'm taking a queue from the reshoot of BZK! Moonshine of the Damned, taking the best parts of the story and reworking everything into an entirely new story. The idea came from working on the grant for another project called "Conversations with Demons", which is about a world in which we've discovered that Demons exist, it deals with the social implications, not the military fighting large hordes of murderous creatures, but the simple notion of how we would welcome a race of creatures we previously only believed to be fictional and have for hundreds of years just passed off as evil anyway.

The remake of Malice will be a much simpler, and much more peculiar story - I'm planning parts of it to have no dialog for very long stretches, leaving the audience to figure out what's going on for themselves at first and finally revealing as much as possible by the end.

Malice will no longer be a human girl with an eyepatch and super strength, but a full blown Demon. I'm hoping that will remove any issues with hair continuity that might arise should it take awhile. At this point, I'm still talking (more or less) with Heather about being involved as Malice again - time commitments are obviously a consideration. So I'm hoping she's willing to wait to see an almost final script before making a definite choice.

We'll see how it all goes. I'm planning on writing over the course of the next year, planning it out as much as possible so when time comes to shoot, the bulk of the work will already be done and we can just focus on shooting instead of struggling with making things work and juggling schedules last minute.

And, the footage from the original will not just vanish, but I've decided that from now on, anytime I shoot something involving a TV screen, we'll be showing part of Malice randomly.

Brains, brains and more brains...

We're approaching the 1/4 mark sold of the Brain Keychains, not too bad - but I'm pretty sure we can do better. It'd be nice to have them all sold by April, if not sooner. So here's hoping - with a little help - we can get the word out there.

They're $10 each ($10.50 if you're using Paypal) + shipping 15 in Canada and $25 in the US. If you want one but you're not too keen on the shipping costs, than find a few friends who might want one and split the costs, it's as simple as that. And, if you're on PEI, you can arrange a pickup or delivery, so it's even cheaper that way.

All the funds are going towards the FX budget for the (hopefully) upcoming web series, Bimbo Zombie Killers! Moonshine of the Damned. The FX in this will easily be the most impressive of anything done on PEI - although, that's not really saying too much since I'm the only person doing FX like this locally at the moment.

For every person who places an order, their name will go into a draw to win one of the larger props be specifically made for this series, and there's going to be some awesome one. Could be worth well over $100 retail. And, you'll also get a thanks in the final credits of the series - so snag one of these bad boys before they're all gone, only 200 are ever going to be made and the moulds will be destroyed once I make all 200.

If you've any questions or want to order one, send an email to brains@themonkeyrodeo.com.

10 Things I Hate About Movies - Part 10.

10. Continuity Errors.

Now, you might think I’m going to bitch about movies with continuity errors. You would be so damned wrong. I’m going to bitch about assholes who think they “win” at movies by constantly pointing them out.

Look people, continuity errors happen. They’ve always been there and they always will be. Do you realize the monumental task it is to make a movie? Why do you think they cost millions of dollars to make? Do you see all those names in the credits? Think of it this way.  Take a huge empty room and place a donut on the table. Tell 1000 people who are about to walk through the room to not touch the donut. Without a doubt not one person will admit to it, but the damned thing will move or just have vanished. It’s just the way it works.

Now, multiply this idea by a thousand and you’ll just begin to understand the shitstorm that is movie continuity. I hate continuity, so when I make it movie there’s a line of what I will and won’t worry about – because (and I’ve said this before) making good movies is really hard work, which is why I don’t make them. You’ve got a single set, filled with hundreds  of little props and dozens, upon dozens of people walking through it between each take. Do you really expect that one little prop will never move between shots?

Glasses of water being full one second,  half full the next.  Clothing articles missing or partially removed or unbuttoned. Food, cigarettes, background extras, the list is unending. It’s just a near impossible task to make a movie without this happening. Everyone should know this my now. EVERYONE. So why do some people feel the need to sit on their little throne of “I watch the movie good!” and point out continuity errors? Sure it might be fun when you notice it the first time and it’s kind of a funny error, but you move one and continue to watch. You don’t sit and make lists and expect the world to be in awe that you’re pointing out someone else's mistakes – let’s face it, it’s like pointing out there’s weather today, we all know, we just care to talk about it sometimes because we’re too busy enjoying it.

The End. I'm sure there's more thing about movies that annoy me, but I can't be bothered anymore.

Re: Your Brains

So the title was a bit of a lure, but yes, this is about Brains, just not Jonathan Coulton.

In case you missed it, I'm selling only 200 of these custom made, partially eaten Brain Keychains. They're made of resin with a hard gloss coating, hardware included as you can see here. They're probably just slightly larger than the average male thumb, if you needed to know that.

Why am I selling them? I'm trying to raise money for the Bimbo Zombie Killers! Moonshine of the Damned web series I'm hoping to shoot this summer. The funds are going towards the special effects needed for the series.

The details: for only $10 you get one of these bad boys and a thanks in the final credits of the series. Plus once it's all over and done with, I'll be picking a name from those who purchased one, and they'll be winning one of the larger props being made for the series. No idea what it'll be yet, but there's a lot of awesome stuff designed and it'll probably retail for well over $100 or could even be a one of a kind. Who knows. But it will be unique.

To date, 30 have been sold. 170 remaining.

Payment details: Canadians can use Email Interact, everyone else Paypal (Paypal users need to add $0.50 for each brain). Shipping in Canada is $15 on average and $25 to the US. Residents of PEI can just arrange a pickup or delivery.

Questions or Order can be sent to brains@themonkeyrodeo.com

Just let me know the amount of brains you want. If you need shipping or not, and if you do need it shipped, let me know your address. Pickup and shipments will be made every Tuesday. That's pretty much it.

Bulk orders are definitely welcome and encouraged for anyone looking to cut their shipping costs. And please feel free to share this, any help is good help.

10 Things I Hate About Movies - Part 9.

9 POV Movies (or Found Footage)

This style is very, very tricky to pull off. I mean in reality, imagine you’re out with your friends videotaping them doing something stupid and the end of the world happens.  Are you really going to run around filming stuff, screaming “Someone has to see this!” as your friends are being eaten by giant ancient squids from space? Just so you know, YouTube is probably down at that point, so no one really cares.

The hardest part is coming up with that thing that makes people believe that someone might continually film this incident. “Quarantine” did a decent job of that – and no, I don’t believe “Rec” did. I’m not a huge fan of American remakes of foreign films, but “Rec” just wasn’t that great and the lead actress was utterly atrocious.

“Cloverfield” I have mixed feelings about. There’s nothing more fun that a giant monster movie, but when you push your monster into the background and focus on these pretty white people trying to survive, I felt a little lost. I get the idea, and I respect the idea – take something that’s a well known genre and do something different, I was complaining about people not doing that earlier – so for that fact I appreciate the movie. I like it didn’t explain too much, but I didn’t care for the overhype promotional campaign. Like I said, very mixed feelings. Good on the one hand, and literally bad on the backside of that same hand and one the other, the opposite – or something like that.

“Diary of the Dead” an example why this style should be shot in the head. What an undead turd of a movie. From the clichéd (and badly acted) characters to the way they conveniently placed the “real” camera to catch those scary zombie moments cinematically. This movie should never have been made, if you remove the POV element this was an incredibly sad, tired and just unnecessary attempt at a zombie movie by a man who should have known better.

“V/H/S” was kind of amusing, I think only because it was several short POV movies instead of one long movie – this is the only reason this movie worked, because instead of trying to set up a scenario and continue it for 90 minutes or more, it was like “Tale of the Unexpected” or “The Twilight Zone” in a series of pretty much unrelated freaky ideas that didn’t have enough time to wear themselves out. It also did a decent job of justifying the filming and even simulating video noise and tape or digital courruption.

“The Last Exorcism” is a good example of a good premise gone horribly lame. It started off kind of interesting, got into somewhat promising territory and then suddenly absolutely nothing really interesting at all happened until it was finally over – thankfully. A pretty dull movie in retrospect, although they did that typical best justification of it being filmed possible, until the very last shot which really was pandering and probably would never have actually happened.

I’ll only mention “Paranormal Activity” to say how much I hate those movies. Unscary and boring as fuck on a stick. Ooh, look at the scary floating pool cleaner!!! Fuck you to those who made those movies – you’ve just made other assholes think they can do it too. Thanks. These movies are a good example of how “found footage” movies don’t work when you think of the logic behind them. There was a horrible incident and people died and there’s footage, let’s creatively edit it like a horror movie since we’re doing this for commercial purposes instead of, in reality of the logic of movie, for an investigation into the incident, they’ll enjoy that. 6 seconds of black footage and a jump scare? That should really help those government officials figure out what happened. Piss off. These movies are just terribly made and should stop now.

Like the aforementioned “Monster” if you’re not bringing something new, don’t do it. You can’t outdo “Cloverfield” so why bother? This genre/style is already near dead, there’s only so many “things” that can be done POV style.  So far we’ve had (and this is going way back kids) Cannibals, Witches, Zombies, Outbreaks, Dinosaurs, Giant Monsters, Trolls and I’m sure a who slew I can’t think of offhand. Hell, there’s a Japanese movie (I haven’t seen it) called “P.O.V. – A Cursed Movie”.

There’s so much to complain about this style, and nearly everyone does. “Video cameras don’t do that” and blah, blah, blah – and they’re right. Take a camera, record something and shake the shit out of the camera. Shut it off, turn it back on and record again. Throw it at a wall…Now watch the footage, I guarantee none of those little glitches and artifacts you see in movies will show up. How hard is it to replicate that accurately? Not at all, do what I just said and make note of it, there…your work is done. To be fair, one or two movies have done it right – congratulations to them.

I have yet to really see a POV movie that I really felt worked and I never once questioned “why is this person still filming?” It’s a great idea, I understand the psychology of it. It makes you feel like it’s happening to you, “ooh, much more scary”. It’s a nice tool – unfortunately it’s a simple seeming style. So simple that shitty little indie studios try to do it to pull it off focusing too much on their annoying, poorly written characters and not enough on the actual “scary” stuff. When all you have is a handful of shots involving your horror element or “bad guy” you’ve failed, you’ve failed so miserably you should have the camera ripped from your pathetic little hands and be beaten with it – while it’s being filmed with said camera. That would be an awesome movie.

UPDATE: Since I originally wrote that last paragraph I finally got to watch “Troll Hunter” and god-damn, what an awesome movie. Now this was a movie about three students doing a documentary, so it’s kind of like “Quarantine”  and “The Last Exorcism” in that it justifies its need to be POV (even though it would’ve worked as a normal movie) and it did it well. I felt like I was watching a documentary, actual footage that might have been shot. There were no sloppy cuts for action or pauses like those retarded “Paranormal Activity” movies (man, did I mention those things suck shit?), there were no weird “glitches” to hide stuff – you want documentary style footage about trolls? Here it is. However I’m not sure how the footage was supposed to have been “found” and ultimately “released” but who the hell cares after seeing a guy take on a 200ft troll with nothing more than a glorified flashlight. This was a POV or “found footage” movie done well, and done VERY well at that. Very rarely do I see a movie I’m jealous of and “Troll Hunter” was one of them.

10 Things I Hate About Movies - Part 8.

8. Bad Casting I’m starting to run out of steam here and need to really dig deep to think of what else I hate about movies. Bad casting isn’t something I would call pervasive and the bringer of ultimate doom to movies, but it can ruin a potentially decent movie.

Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” had some wonky casting that didn’t really work for me. I don’t mind Adrian Brody and I’ve gotten used to Jack Black, but neither of them really felt like they belonged in that movie. They just didn’t mesh with the rest of it for me. This is another subjective, it’s just your own damned opinion kind of thing, but that’s the point of all this. It’s my opinion.

The Asylum has issues with this as well, although in their defense (for a change) they don’t have access to big names, but it feels like they just grab whoever and draw the part from a hat. Sometimes it works and other times it’s just this weird awkward mess.

Uwe Boll is pretty guilty of this by times. Burt Reynolds as a king? Burt’s amusing and all, but seriously? He used to be a great actor actually (Deliverance anyone?) but now he’s just wandering through the script waiting to take a nap. Boll casts otherwise unlikely, and sometimes unlikeable, actors in roles that just don’t fit them. It’s really hard to call things out on this because it’s really a matter of taste.

People bitched back in the day about “Total Recall” and how Quaid, in the original novel, was described more like Woody Allen that Arnold. I’ve recently heard the same mutterings about “Jack Reacher” and the casting of Tom Cruise.

Casting really is an art and the issues here are more towards studios or directors playing favorites. Like when David O’Russell was doing “Uncharted” and wanted Mark Wahlberg for Nathan Drake. No one was happy about that, and nor should they. Video game adaptations get more scrutiny here I think than book adaptations. Mainly because the fans feel a little more connected to a character, especially in the case of Nathan Drake – who everyone wants Nathan Fillion to play. I love Fillion, but he’s getting a little too old to really fit that character (and Nathan’s the same age as me, so that’s not an insult, it’s just the way it is).

This post was a little weak maybe. I might’ve been premature in calling this “10” things, we’ll see how 9 goes.