What's been going on?

Well, first - ACADEMY OF DOOM!... there was a good turnout at the KC premiere. Quite a few of the guys from Mizzou came over - Chip, the director couldn't make it, due to being in Southern MO with a class, but we did hear him via phone just prior to the screening.

So, how was it? Happily, I can say that I was thoroughly entertained - I did get to see a very early and rough assembly of it about a year and a half ago, and though you could tell there was a movie there, it was going to require a lot of shaping - and Robert Swope, the editor, was up to the challenge. The movie was a lot of fun to watch (definitely 2/5ths of whiskey -- 3 bong hit movie), and it'll be interesting what the luchador crowd will make of it. The film should be making the festival rounds later in the year, along with its companion film MIL MASCARAS: RESURRECTION. (Both will debut at the RioFan festival in Rio DeJaneiro that starts next week - playing with SONG OF THE DEAD!)

more SUSPENSION activity - especially if you're in the L.A. area June 1 [per co-director Ethan Shaftel]:

At 7:30pm on Sunday, June 1st, to kick off the DVD release, 
SUSPENSION will have its public LA premiere at Norris Theater on USC 
campus.  This is a special treat for many of us involved with the 
movie that attended USC Cinema.  And to top it off, we'll be having a 
nice Q and A session afterwards with our local USC alumi (and our 
lead actress and co-director thrown in for good measure!) available 
to answer questions: star Annie Tedesco, writer/producer Aris 
Blevins, producer Kevin Obsatz, Director of Photography Ben Van 
Cleave, Editors Hillel Aron and Meg Decker, sound designer/mixer 
Kevin Roache, and co-directors Alec Joler and myself.

Tickets are FREE to everyone, and there should be ample seating to 
bring whomever you like!  Also, Norris Theater has AMAZING picture 
and sound and ridiculously comfortable seats. Make reservations here.

We got probably our best review yet the other day at 
eFilmCritic.com. ; I'm sure you'll be seeing 
quotes from this review on our future posters!  And finally, If you 
have a chance, check out our slick new website, designed by Team A
Design.  Our DVD Presale will start in two weeks, where 
you can pre-order your special SIGNED copy!  More info soon...


If you have a chance to go, I highly recommend it.

Currently, I'm working on articles for the next MICRO-FILM issue, and slowly
tweaking a documentary on my desktop, while waiting around for word of the next job.
Which is... well, who knows? Last year at this time, I was on one film, and looking
at having 3 projects to keep me busy and solvent - of those, TOGI was the only one
of the three that actually shot -- NEVER SUBMIT (or as I know it, NEVER COMMIT) kept
getting pushed back, and eventually bit the dust in the summer; the other film is
still in limbo, and may possibly shoot this summer - or it may not.

As much as I love what I do, it's an extremely inconstant line of work - at least in NE KS.
You might take a peek to the right to see a new link - SCRIPT GODDESS, a blog
I recently discovered by a script supervisor who writes a lot more elequently
about the job we do.

I still plan to do that last print zine issue, about my adventures in film...
maybe sooner than I think.

ACADEMY OF DOOM! Unleashed on April 18 at KC Filmmakers Jubilee


Mil Mascaras taking care of business

The time is ripe for KS/MO indies to finally see the light of day... just got word that this film (originally titled WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE BRAINIAC) will debut at this year's KC Jubilee on Friday, April 18. You can check the Jubilee site for more info, once it's posted - the screening time is 11pm at the Tivoli theatre.

Here's the blub:

ACADEMY OF DOOM weaves a complex storyline involving mysterious characters and stolen brains. Shot in the psychotronic style of the no-budget Mexican “lucha” films of the early 1970s, this film tells the story of a series of bizarre murders at a famous wrestling women's academy. Appearing in a featured role is the legendary luchador, Mil Mascaras. The film was produced as an exercise in the use of technology for filmmaking by the Department of Computer Science, in the College of Engineering, at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Many of the supporting actors are MU students--who also participated in varied crew and post-production capacities.

This was directed by Chip Gubera, who did SONG OF THE DEAD - I'd worked with Chip several times before, and I was familiar with Mexican Lucha films... it was irresistible. I'm curious how the finished product will play, but if you like your movies with girls in wrestling masks, wrestling action, brain-sucking monsters, girls with flamethrowers, ninjas and dwarf assassins with jetpacks, you'll more than likely have a good time with it.

Alcohol and other substances are strictly optional.

I have to admit the jetpack assassin is what made me sign on... and the flamethrower girls were icing on the cake.

Coming VERY soon, according to rumors along the grapevine...

SORRY

I did promise that piece about the film... due to some factors that came up, that piece won't be up anytime soon.

Why, you may ask? Because some pot-stirring already has had effect... I had made a posting to a message board that had a previous thread regarding Mil Mascaras films, and in that posting I made an unkind (but true - remember kids, it ain't libel or slander if it's true!) remark regarding some personnel on some project, which apparently got back to a certain person and caused some tension with people involved with WW.

I hope that's specifically vague enough to explain things... when people get a burr in their britches, there's not much one can do about it. So no fun anecdotes about set hijinks, at least for a few months.

Pictures and pages

Working on that posting about WRESTLING WOMEN... it should be up before the weekend.
If you're interested in more, there are plenty of pictures to see... I've uploaded a batch to my online albums (with some other photos); I also recommend Em Hemeyer's (she was one of the wardrobe designers) photo site; and for a day-by-day account with some cool photos, there's art director Justin Powers' MySite blog "diary of a low budget film" (17 parts) .

Local film reporter Dan Lybarger came out for a night of shooting to interview some of the cast and crew - his story, 'BRAINIAC' OFF THE ROPES IN COLUMBIA, is now on-line on the Kansas City Star site.

The rest of the summer appears to be quiet so far - nothing major so far. Barring any other work that comes up, I'll be working away on a documentary based on footage I shot during the production of JMM's SUPERSTARLET A.D. and helping with getting SONG OF THE DEAD out to the waiting public.

I'll be updating some links on the blogs and the home site as well, and adding some more content there by summer's end, as well as working on the next batch of MICRO-FILM articles & reviews. So things will be busy - just at my procrastinating pace.

If you're wondering why movies today seem so shitty, two books related to screenwriting and writers help shed some light: BACKSTORY 4, is a collection of interviews with screenwriters of the 70's and 80's. I have the previous volume which features writers of the 60's, and the fourth volume is a good companion to that - featuring interviews with Larry Cohen (the whole reason it caught my attention), Paul Mazursky, Walter Hill, John Milius, Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, Robert Benton, Blake Edwards and more... (if the names aren't familar, IMDB 'em)

David Kipen's THE SCHREIBER THEORY is an entertaining manifesto that fires a warning shot over the bow of the auteur theory... you know, the theory that a bunch of French critics (who later became directors, it must be noted), came up with that stated that the director was the author and main visionary when it came to filmmaking. Kipen's half-mocking take on this (but half-serious, too) is the above, where the writer of a film is a far more consistent marker on the quality of a movie. I think that goes out the window when one considers THE FLINTSTONES (32 writers and the experience of watching it is so horrible, a tooth extraction is more preferable); but he has a point, and he has a lot of fun making it.

Home again...

I have returned, alive, from the rigors of luchador filming in Central MO... as difficult as it was, I got to work again with friends and made some new friends in the process to work and play with again in the near future. There still are some minor things to attend to, like the AZTEC MUMMY reshoot notes, but those won't take up a lot of time.

More time has been expended on reentering 'normal' life - I go back to work at the Archive tomorrow, and the past couple of days have been spent on getting the house in order... yard mowed, dishes washed, clothes laundered. Then I'll get back into my regimen of reading/writing/watching.

Made a couple trips to the library and have a huge stack of material that I'll be commenting upon in the next few weeks, as well as catching up on DVD/movie recommendations.

I did promise a big piece on BRAINIAC... it's brewing. We did find out that the school gave them the go ahead for next year, so it seems we'll meet again (quoting Vera Lynn) some sunny day next April... actually, make that a more overcast day, if we do end up shooting in April '07.

I did promise a picture or two, so...

A brief respite from the rigeurs of luchador filming...

Well, I did manage to get back on, for a least a few words about the film I'm working on, WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE BRAINIAC - had I the chance to jump on earlier, I would have been a lot harsher in my words, suffering from the lack of good sleep. We started out of the gate rough, due mainly to the beauracracy of the University and due to rainstorms on our first exterior night shoot and the first Brainiac fight with some of the principal cast members. We're still on schedule, but normally I expect to hit this point later in the schedule. That we are still on schedule is a credit to the crew and to Chip, the director.

Next time around (probably after filming), I'll have some photos from the production up - and perhaps some 'making-of' clips up at my main site.

Heading out...

Gone to meet some Wresting Women and a few Brainiacs and hopefully will help get it all onto film... well, technically, digital video. I hope to blog a couple of times from location, but my online access will be limited while I'm away.

I'll be back in early May...

Issues, Issues...

There's been recent issues, hence the somewhat slow posting here - due to the storms that moved through the area over a week ago, internet access from the home is down, due to a lightning strike in a neighbor's yard frying out the modem.

The other thing has been preparations for an upcoming shoot in Columbia, Mo. It's under the aegis of Project IT, and the film is WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE BRAINIAC, directed by Chip Gubera (SONG OF THE DEAD). It was intended to be a follow-up to MIL MASCARAS VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, which was shot in Central Missouri in early 2005.

There's a long and involved story that I can't go into at the moment regarding that production - suffice it to say that it will probably see the light of day at some point.

Anyhow, WWvs.B will also star Mil Mascaras - production will start next week, so I will more than likely not blog anything until after it wraps early in May. By then, I should be able to have some stories to tell!

Currently on a Lars VonTrier viewing mood... I've finished up with THE KINGDOM, SERIES ONE on Netflix recently - I've seen KINGDOM before and loved it (even tolerated the Americanized Stephen King version KINGDOM HOSPITAL, which just doesn't hold a candle to the original, try though as it might), but wanted to see what commentary would be added... actually, not a lot, but it really doesn't need that much (although it's quite funny when VonTrier makes a remark about the 'Stephen King' elements, not knowing that King would exec. produce the American version at the time.) For those not familar with THE KINGDOM, the best way to describe it is a Danish cross between ER and TWIN PEAKS - it's an adroit balancing of humor, horror and satire. The only thing better than THE KINGDOM would be for an R1 release of THE KINGDOM II, which continues the storyline from the - well, cliffhanger isn't quite an adequate word to describe it, but it definitely makes you want to see how things turn out.

Also just received EPIDEMIC, the second feature from VonTrier (the first, an interesting but muddled futuristic thriller called THE ELEMENT OF CRIME, is available on Criterion.)
It's billed in the Netflix synopsis as a horror film, but it's not -- or rather, it's a horror film done in the mode of ADAPTATION.

All being early VonTrier, they're worth a look, even if you hate his current work.

One more thing of note - SINGAPORE SLING

Coming May 30 is Synapse’s disc of SLING, the cult-fave shocker that has won notoriety at genre festivals. Directed by Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis and never before available in North America, the movie is about a detective who goes searching for his lost love, and winds up taken in by a mother and daughter in a remote villa. Unfortunately for him, they’re a twisted duo who soon subject him to bondage and all sorts of deranged “games.” The unrated and very explicit film will be presented in anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound (in English and Greek with occasional subtitles), accompanied by a still gallery and theatrical trailer. Retail price is $29.95.