Video update on SUBMISSION

More Source Material...

Not much new to report in terms of the film production. The storyboards are still being finished, which really needs to be done before we take any more steps forward. One of the storyboard artists is coming by this weekend for Halloween so I'm sure we'll talk about the progress, though I'm not exceptionally worried about it at this moment. In a perfect world we would get everything filmed before it gets cold enough to snow, because once it starts you always have that threat of Mother Nature deciding to blanket you and then you're stuck filming only interior shots until the ground outside resembles what it did when you began shooting. I've seen way too many films with continuity problems to do something like that myself, I don't think I could forgive myself for that. There is already one small mistake in my film RUNNING OUT OF TIME that still bothers me to this day, but I'm not telling if you've not noticed... shhh...

Ronay and I did make it to the movies over the weekend though. We watched PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, which was a decent enough film, though it broke no new ground what so ever. If not for the extremely clever tie-in to the first movie I wouldn't be recommending it to people, but the way the explained the first movie with this one was really quite brilliant and wasn't anything I saw coming. Ronay and I both kinda looked at each other in the theater with our jaws dropped and had that "ooooooh, man..." moment. It was quite nice. One thing I will say though, is for a movie like this, ESPECIALLY one that has an infant/toddler in the movie and so much depends on the child's reaction, it is IMPERATIVE that no dumbass parent decides it a good idea to bring along their own 4 year old. Yeah, not cool.

So anyway, this actually has me inspired to put together another short film, only this time one of the "paranormal" kind. I've had the idea for quite awhile... actually I think I first had it when we saw the first PA in theaters last year but apparently procrastinated it long enough for the sequel to come out. Its a simple idea and will be another like RUNNING OUT OF TIME, where I'll shoot and edit alone and will only have me in it. Exciting stuff, I know. Stay tuned for that!

Other than that, not a lot to report really. The TorC Halloween Horror Film Festival is this weekend and my entry BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY is showing at 3pm on Saturday. I was told originally that the winners would be announced on Halloween Sunday but the actual schedule shows that the winning films will be awarded at 8pm on Saturday. I'm hoping that this means that they'll post the winner to their Facebook page if nothing else... so wish me luck and rest assured that as soon as I hear something I'll post all about it... unless of course I don't even place in which you'll probably get about four words out of me.

A Little Seasonal Inspiration

What better time of year to film a horror movie than Halloween? I can't think of any. Okay, so SUBMISSION isn't technically a horror film, but it's a close relative. If I wasn't so obsessed with making sure all of my DVDs at home were in alphabetical order and instead were arranged by genre, I would have THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE in close proximity to my super-mega-ultra-platinum edition of OLDBOY (one the best Korean drama/suspense/dark films of all time).

So anyways, this is my first Halloween season having Netflix, so as you can imagine my queue is flooded with movies full of blood, guts, and gore (as opposed to what??). Recently we've watched THE CRAZIES, the original STEPFATHER, the remake of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and the film DEADLINE. I can't say that all of these were inspiring for me, but I did like elements of each and will be drawing on some of that when we start shooting. Growing up, the original STEPFATHER film was one of my favorites, and really to this day I still think it was way better than a good majority of the dark suspenseful films of that decade. It really shows that with a little more attention put on the acting rather than the special effects, you can get a far creepier environment. When it comes to horror you can't go wrong with massive amounts of blood and gore, but what your brain comes up with is by far worse than anything that Tom Savini can throw together with some tubes and liquid latex... no offense Tom.

I dropped THE STEPFATHER back in the mailbox today and will be getting STIR OF ECHOES next, which I'm pretty excited about. I've not seen it since it probably came out, but I think that it'll be a good refresher to some more modern-day dark suspense... which I guess is really what SUBMISSION is all about. My queue has drifted away from the slasher films I typically watch during this time of year and is now (probably subconsciously for the most part) leaning more toward the "make you actually think" movies that I've either heard so much about or know that I liked in the past and am brave enough to give another viewing after ten or twenty years... something that isn't always a good idea (the DARK CRYSTAL, for example).

More accomplished...

It's been awhile since the last update, but progress has actually been made. It seems now that there are just a few roles that still need to be filled, but the majority are spoken for. The main two roles, Sam and "Beauty", have been filled. Montford is going to be playing the role of Sam, and adult webmistress Tara of TaraTaintonXXX.com will be playing the role of "Beauty." We may have the role of Father Fenton filled as well, and I'm please to announce that two previous actors I've worked with will be reprising their roles as detectives for this film. Dave Sorrell and Jazz Burks, who both played detectives in my my first short film ("By Any Means Necessary", which is competing at the Halloween Horror Film Festival in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico this year. See below), are returning to play detectives in "Submission." I couldn't be happier about this. Additionally, Christopher Martinez is now storyboarding some of our scenes, so definitely taking steps forward.

Other bit parts have been spoken for, a few cameos, etc... but really we're still looking for our main police officer that spends the film looking for Sam. If anyone is interested in this role, send me an email at evlved@gmail.com and let me know. We're planning to shoot on weekends but we can definitely accommodate any schedule and am definitely willing to do so.

That's where we are now, so stay tuned! With any luck we should be shooting in another month or so.

Up Next...

So last night Monte and I met with Burrow for the first time. We chose to meet at the always classy establishment known as Denny's to look over our contract and sort out all the last details. Everything was in order and Burrow as actually nothing like I expected. All we had to go by up until now was his writing, which was very well written and intelligent, so of course I'm half expecting him to be some fairly arrogant intellectual. I sat down and asked him how it was going, to which he replied: "eh, same shit, different pile." I was instantly no longer worried.

So yeah, everything went extremely well. I actually learned that it's equally as difficult in the writer-world, because Monte and I meeting him last night was the farthest he's ever actually came to having something he's written produced. He said that he has a really hard time convincing anyone to even read what he writes, which is absolutely insane because the guy can write. He sent us samples of his older work, which were all brilliant but not the style we were looking for so he offered to write something completely original and new that would fit with what we had in mind so he cranked out this psychological/dark script that blew Monte and I both away. It's sad/reassuring to learn that it's really the same across the board, whether you're a musician or videographer or writer, getting anyone to take you seriously can be a real challenge.

Regardless, names were signed, hands were shook, and breakfast slamwiches were eaten... and now we move forward yet again. Now it's time to cast SUBMISSION.

First Meeting

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Step 1: Complete

I received the finished copy of our script for this film this morning. It clocks in at 82 pages, so it's a beast for sure. I've yet to finish it so I can't offer my opinion, but from what I have read it's going to be quite an interesting piece of work. I've been assured that it lends itself to some stylistic opportunities, so I am anxious to see what Burrow was able to put together. I'll be posting again in a day or two after I've had a chance to finish reading.

Once we finish reading this, we'll have to start thinking about casting. I know I've had some interest from some people, so if you've gotten ahold of me and are still interested, keep in mind that we're getting close to looking for people to play these roles. We're also going to be scheduling a meeting with Burrow in the next few weeks to discuss this, so it'd be nice to be able to run some casting/location ideas past him at that time.

The whole process is exciting, and it's really great to finally be adding some video work to my list of projects. I'm pretty well stocked on print and web work, this will be a really great chance for me to expand that on the screen again... and even better, once this is shot we get to think about the score and soundtrack!