BTS: The Tatooine Lightsaw Massacre

Welcome to the delightful world of Star Wars fan films! Er... Horror film homages! Uh... let's try that again:


Welcome to the world of Star Wars horror films. Awful, awful horror films:




The video today is a fun trip through the past. It marks almost two years since filming.

In the fancy days of May 2011, a group of friends and I set out to film a scene from a feature film called The Gilliam Effect. It was going to be directed by my co-writer Spencer and I. We both synced in what we wanted and it was a team effort from the beginning.

The scene was a small cutaway that would serve as a joke to the type of campy films that the filmmakers in the movie would make. It was only intended to be a 15-20 second spot in the whole feature-length film.

After traveling up to Utah, we gathered a small cast and crew. Spencer's co-worker Eric provided the costumes - and also played the menacing Tusken Raider.

We drove everyone out to the Little Sahara sand dune national park in Western Utah. After several hours of affixing the complex costumes to our actors, and after losing a lot of light, we were able to get the few shots that were needed to complete the video.

Because of the difficulty from the loss of light, both Spencer and I had to direct two different actions at the same time to finish up the last few shots. I directed the screams of the hopeless innocents. Spencer directed the terrible wrath of the lightsaw wielding menace.

We shot a majority of the footage on a Canon T2I that we borrowed from our good friend Anthony Ambriz, but when our battery ran out we had to resort to filming with a crappy Canon PowerShot camera I had brought along to take stills. When placed together, it's obvious which camera was better, but since it was supposed to look crappy (with a VHS filter) anyway, we didn't really care.

After the sun went down and we couldn't film any longer, we went through the process of taking off the complicated costume and wrapping everything up. We were all starving by this point. The few crackers and veggies we had for craft services didn't cut it. We all headed to a local diner to relax and enjoy the fun day. The owner of the diner was really cool and the food was super fantastic.

This was seriously the most fun I have had shooting a video since film school and unfortunately it didn't continue on like my initial filmmaking dreams (more of that story to come later). Hopefully this sort of magic can happen again soon, and I have now made a commitment to post at least one video each week on my YouTube page.

With the development of my YouTube channel, and all the exciting stuff that we've been filming lately, it looks like we'll have a lot more goodies for you in the near future.

Stay tuned, and hit subscribe on my YouTube channel :)

(Behind The Scenes photos and video below!)

BTS Photo Slideshow:

BTS Video:

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Demons and Goblins and Ghouls

Paranormal Activity

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Written by: Oren Peli
Directed by: Oren Peli
Produced by:

Synopsis
Katie and Micah (pronounced Mee-kah) have been engaged to get engaged for three years. He is a daytrader and she is going to school to be an English teacher.

After a series of paranormal experiences, Micah buys a pricey camera to try and capture the events on tape. This will prove without a doubt that either there is some sort of entity in their home, or it's just a bunch of kids messing with them.

The experiment becomes darker and darker as the couple discovers that what they may be dealing with is much more evil than a haunting from a friendly ghost.

As the nights go on, the trouble begins to surmount to the point that Katie and Micah need to do drastic things to try and stop it.

Thoughts
I'll have to admit, this one has gotten to me a little bit.

I remember after watching The Blair Witch Project I was a bit spooked walking to my car, but I don't remember any lasting effects.

This paranormal stuff was not terrifying in a serial killer or monster sort of way, but it creeped in like a dank cold. It chilled every time my thoughts wandered to the more evil and spooky parts of the film.

A member of the audience was so extremely frightened that she kept screaming out loud during the most terrifying parts. It made me love the whole experience of it because nearly the entire audience was either screaming or laughing nervously (probably because they didn't want to look stupid screaming - which is what they really wanted to do.)

This is a film that I'm not sure I could watch again. Well, maybe in a few years. It was an amazing experience that I don't want to ruin, so watching it at home would probably not have the same effect. If I were you I would go watch the movie on a Friday night with a large audience. It will spook the pants off you.

Did You Know?
The director Oren Peli filmed the movie with his own money ($11,000) and shot it within a week?
The film has gone on to gross nearly $85 million in the domestic box-office?

Summation
Place: Arclight Hollywood (11pm Showing)
Price: Free (Thanks Tim!)
Atmosphere: Pretty good, the crowd was mostly into it
Verdict: Very good, but don't see it if you're sensitive to this sort of thing

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It's the End of the World as We Know It

Shelter

by Karl Mueller

The director Xavier Gens has recently been tapped to direct the spec film The Fallout which, from what I gather is a rewrite and retooling of Shelter by Karl Mueller. The new version was written by Mueller and Eron Sheean who are both going to be co-producers on the film.

Ross Dinerstein (“Powder Blue”), Darren Welch (“The Bang Bang Club”) and Tony Krantz (“Mulholland Drive”) are producing.

You might recognize Xavier Gens from his film The Hitman based on the popular video game franchise. I cannot vouch for his directing ability, though I've heard bad things.

Synopsis
A group of tenants in a New York apartment building are forced down to the basement apartment of their landlord because of a nuclear fallout that has leveled most of the city.

They are soon beset with hunger for food other than beans and a little more excitement than watching three nerds play a game similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

Things really get out of hand when the group starts to turn on each other, making it more of a question of survival of wits than a survival from starvation.

Thoughts
When I read the synopsis for this film my heart instantly sank. I had just barely come up with and was working on the exact same idea (with the exact same tentative title).

After reading, I'm not so scared anymore about my own idea. This is a far-removed concept from my own. It just sounded like the same thing at the beginning.

I mostly liked this story. It was fun and spooky and a bit thrilling at times. At one moment in the script I was so on edge that when someone opened a door I jumped in my seat about five feet.

The best I can describe it is a survivalist, entrapped horror/thriller. It combines elements of the trapped within confined spaces (like in Cube or The Descent) with the idea that given time and enough hatred for one another, a small community would utterly waste each other for control (the best examples of this are zombie films like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead - originals or remakes).

Unfortunately it did not live completely up to my expectations and left me rather wanting. There were times when the script became ridiculous and hard to ingest, especially when dealing with characters that go over the edge with power or greed.

Either way though, I will be excited to go see this in the theaters, hopefully they can do it justice and not take away from it's suspense.

Excerpt
This is a small snippet from the beginning, right after the introduction of characters. It sets an eerie tone for the desperate situation that they are all in.
[scrippet]
INT. CENTRAL CHAMBER - DAY

Someone SOBS LOUDLY.

It's not Marilyn; she stares blankly at the ground. It's not Julie, either; she does the same.

It's Delvin. He covers his face and cries.

The light from the lantern begins to die. The eight faces gradually fade into DARKNESS.

INT. CENTRAL CHAMBER - DAY
A loud WHIRRING SOUND.

Slowly, slowly, LIGHT returns, illuminating Delvin as he holds his head in despair.

The light grows. Josh rocks back and forth, nearly catatonic. Mike stares forward in shock.

The WHIRRING continues. Finally, Mike looks up the source of the sound. Mickey sits peddling on a rickety EXERCISE BIKE, huffing and puffing with a strange grin on his face and a BANDANA wrapped around his already-sweaty brow.

Mike slowly looks down the bike. He sees that it's jerry-rigged into a crude GENERATOR. Mike follows a cable from the generator to a small LANTERN that's providing the light.

INT. CENTRAL CHAMBER - NIGHT
RADIO STATIC. Mickey turns a HAND-CRANKED RADIO TRANSMITTER to different frequencies.

All static. Mike and Josh lock eyes. Mike slowly shakes his head and lowers it to the ground.

INT. CENTRAL CHAMBER - NIGHT
The eight sit in their original positions amidst the LOOSE BRICKS and PAINTING EQUIPMENT of the unfinished basement.
[/scrippet]

Title: Shelter
Writer: Karl Mueller
Pages: 107 (undated draft)
Status: Pre-Production
Opinion: Thrilling, but a bit too overindulgent at times

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Frightfully Fortnightly

A friend of mine from the film school days - Jacob Floyd has a remarkable blog where he writes truly insightful (and grammatically correct) reviews on Independent Music, Rare Films, and current Media Culture.

I suggest everyone take a trip down to his blog The Fortnightly to learn a thing or two about the world around them.

He is featuring a series of October-appropriate movies this month by watching a Horror Film each day and reviewing it. The latest have been films like Pandorum, Antichrist and Paranormal Activity. He also has a great glossary of Horror Film term that are spot on.

Truly engaging and intellectual. Check it out!

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