Human Cartooning

Cougars - Production Diary #1, Life Casting

2011-03-22T06:34:00.000-04:00

'Women's Studies' Available to Watch Online via Amazon!

2010-12-30T09:22:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to let you know that Women's Studies, Ningen Manga Productions' independent horror feature about homicidal feminists, is available to watch online via Amazon's On Demand service.

Only $1.99! We get like three cents of that!

Check it out at the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Studies/dp/B00444M6RI

Happy New Year from all of us at NMP!

In DC? Come see Helena LIVE on Tues. 10/12!!

2010-10-07T13:55:00.002-04:00

DIAMOND DEAD's 2010 DEADSCAPADE

9:00 Show
8:30 Doors

$10
www.deadrockproductions.com
www.landlesstheatrecompany.com

LIVE at the DC9!

They're baaaack! The infamous undead band Diamond Dead presents their 2010 HALLOWEEN DEADSCAPADE, hosted by the Vivacious Vixen of Doom herself: Helena Hussy of Horror (www. hussyofhorror.com). Prepare to have your face rocked off and eaten for dinner by these zombies with their signature fusion of rock, metal, punk and interactive theatricality. They've been blown up; they've been reanimated; they've battled Death and eaten the former Governor of Alaska... but can they survive a Tuesday night at 9th and U Street NW?

Winner of the 2008 Best Musical Pick of the Capital Fringe Festival
and 2009 DC Theatre Scene Audience Favorite Musical.

Time Out New York calls Diamond Dead "a blast," and Joan Wendell of the Washington City Paper writes "surely this rock and roll is worth going to Hell for." Nyctheare.com writes "the songs by Emmy Award-winning composer Richard Hartley induce legitimate toe-tapping, taking inspiration from the shock-rock theatrics of Alice Cooper and KISS, and the band deliver nice harmonies all around."

Diamond Dead also welcomes the special guest opening act EVA BRONTOSAURUS, described as "like Weird Al if he were three hot mammas with potty mouths who sing dirty ditties and bust Romy and Michelle dance moves."

'Women's Studies' Needs YOUR Help

2010-08-07T12:45:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend of Ningen Manga Productions. I'm writing to ask for your assistance. Don't worry. You don't have to help me move.

As you likely know, Women's Studies, NMP's movie about a school run by homicidal feminists, was recently released to DVD. While it has been listed on Netflix, it's currently not available to rent or watch via their "Instant Watch" program. My understanding is that there's a magic number of "saves" the movie has to reach before Netflix will commit. Apparently, there's something called "supply and demand" that the world economy is based on. I think math is involved but I got involved in filmmaking to avoid that kind of thing.

What I need from you is pretty simple: If you're a Netflix member, go to the link below and save Women's Studies to your queue.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Women_s_Studies/70141559

That's pretty much it. You don't have to shell out any money. Heck, you don't even have to watch the movie once it becomes available if you don't want to, though I recommend it. It's actually a pretty good flick. But hey, don't take my word for it. See for yourself.

If you're like, "Hey! that was easy!" and want to help more, you can send a brief message to your friends, family, and co-workers also encouraging them to add Women's Studies to their Netflix queue. OR if you've already seen the movie, you can post a brief review on the site and/or give it a rating through their star system.

For those of you who aren't Netflix subscribers, I'm afraid the only help you can give is telling folks who do have Netflix to add Women's Studies. That or when the time comes you can help me move.

Thanks for your support.

Recent Interviews & Reviews

2010-06-04T14:43:00.003-04:00

As we get closer to the JUNE 8th release of Women's Studies, there's been a bit of press popping up all over Al Gore's interwebs.

Here's the latest:

Judith O'Dea & Lonnie Martin Interview - 'The Graveyard Show' #70

Lonnie Martin Interview - The Rogers Revue

Horror Society Live Interviews 'Helena, Hussy of Horror' and Lonnie Martin

Anything Horror Reviews Women's Studies

Also, be sure to check out the one-page piece on Women's Studies in issue #294 of Fangoria Magazine, on newsstands now!

There's more interviews and reviews on the way. Stay tuned!

Helena Takes 'Women's Studies'

2010-06-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

Cross-Promotion, baby! (I never said I wasn't a whore.)

WOMEN'S STUDIES releases in one week on JUNE 8. ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!

Three Preview Clips from 'Women's Studies!' Another DVD Sneak Peek!

2010-05-25T07:42:00.000-04:00

For the third of four (4) weeks of sneak previews of WOMEN'S STUDIES, the soon to be released feature-length horror film about The Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy where female empowerment is taken to murderous extremes, Ningen Manga Productions is releasing three clips from the movie, as well as a sneak peeks of a DVD extra!

First up is a clip of Mary (Cindy Marie Martin) expressing her frustration with some young women's disinterest in women's rights to Senator Gayle Hamlin (Judith O'Dea, Barabra from Night of the Living Dead).

Watch it here:

Then there's a clip of Beth (Melisa Breiner-Sanders) being confronted by Ross-Prentiss students Judith (Tara Grawood) and Diane (Kelley Slagle).

Watch it here:

The final clip shows Iris (Laura Bloechl) and the ladies of Ross-Prentiss including Melissa (Tiffany James) at the home of Iris' parents to right the wrongs of her father.

Watch it here:

Also this week is a two-and-a-half minute excerpt from the "Lady Killers on Women's Studies" featurette, a conversation about themes and characters in Women's Studies. The clip features footage from a deleted scene, as well as interviews with writer/director Lonnie Martin, producer/actor Cindy Marie Martin, and actors Tara Garwood, Kelley Slagle, and Melisa Breiner-Sanders.

Check out an excerpt from the "Lady Killers on Women's Studies" featurette here:

WOMEN'S STUDIES will be released on DVD JUNE 8. 2010 through the Big Bite Entertainment label at R-Squared Films, and is currently available for pre-order via Amazon. Look for a final special feature to be released next Tuesday leading up to the DVD release.

Another DVD Sneak Peek from Women's Studies!

2010-05-19T18:35:00.000-04:00

Ningen Manga Productions has released the second of four (4) sneak peeks of DVD extras for WOMEN'S STUDIES, it's soon to be released feature about a women's academy where female empowerment is something to kill for.

This week it's a two-and-a-half minute excerpt from the "Duel of the Goddesses" featurette, a behind-the-scenes look at the fight scenes featured in Women's Studies. The featurette features fight rehearsal and audition footage, production photos, alternates takes, and interviews with writer/director Lonnie Martin, producer/actor Cindy Marie Martin, actors Tara Garwood and Kelley Slagle, and fight choreographer Shanna Beauchamp.

Check out an excerpt from the Women's Studies "Duel of the Goddesses" featurette here:

WOMEN'S STUDIES will be released on DVD JUNE 8. 2010 through the Big Bite Entertainment label at R-Squared Films, and is currently available for pre-order via Amazon. Look for other special features to be released every Tuesday in the weeks leading up to the DVD release.

DVD Sneak Peek - Watch the Women's Studies "Prequel"

2010-05-12T18:00:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the June 8th DVD release of Women's Studies, Ningen Manga Productions' feature length movie about a women's academy where female empowerment is something to kill for, the filmmakers are giving audiences an early look at some of the special features included on the DVD.

First up is a deleted scene introduced by writer/director Lonnie Martin, The Black Widow "Prequel," the sequence that originally opened the movie. It chronicles the tale of three frat boys who think they're in for a night of strippers and fun, but end up having a party that's far more sinister. See, the nightclub they go to is run by the ladies of the Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy, so the last thing these boys are getting out of tonight is a good time.

Check out The Black Widow "Prequel" from Women's Studies here:

Ningen Manga Productions will release a total of four (4) sneak peeks of DVD extras every Tuesday in the month leading up to the June 8th DVD release. Be sure to check the official site, www.AreYouALadyKiller.com , to get the latest information. And don't forget to pre-order your copy of Women's Studies via Amazon.

My Inteview with 'Ax Wound' Zine

2010-05-09T16:48:00.000-04:00

Last fall, I did an interview with Hannah Neurotica from the 'Ax Wound' zine regarding Women's Studies. It's now available online.

Read Hannah Neurotica's interview with Women's Studies writer/director, Lonnie Martin.

Also have you pre-ordered your DVD copy of Women's Studies yet?

WOMEN'S STUDIES Available NOW on PPV/VOD!!

2010-05-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Women's Studies is up on the following Cable/Sat operators in their Video-On Demand/Pay-Per-View sections and will run from May 1st through July 31st.

Charter
Verizon FiOS
Mediacom
Rogers Cable (Canada)
Insight Communications
DISH Network (VOD)
RCN
Armstrong Cable
Bend Cable
Blue Ridge Cable
Buckeye Cable Systems
Cameron Communications
Cincinnati Bell
CL Tel
Click
Community Television Company
D&E Communications
Duo County Telecom
EPB of Chattanooga
Guadalupe Valley
Hotwire
HTC Conway Telco
INS (Des Moines)
Massilon
MUS Fiber Net
NTELOS
NuLInk
One Source
San Bruno Municipal Cable
Service Electric Cable
VTMS
Wave Broadband Cable
Wilkes Barre Cable
Wilson Cable

New WOMEN'S STUDIES trailer & DVD artwork!

2010-04-06T16:43:00.000-04:00

Fangoria has the third and final trailer for Women's Studies as well as details on the DVD. Check it out!

Also take a look at the final DVD artwork!

Women’s Studies Date Changes

2010-03-14T15:32:00.000-04:00

Below is the latest Women's Studies press release with information on both our Pay-Per-View/Video-On-Demand release on May 1, 2010 as well as our NEW DVD release date which has been bumped up to June 8, 2010.

Women’s Studies finally on it’s Way to Audiences

VOD/Pay-Per-View Release May 1st, 2010

DVD Release June 8th, 2010

It’s a new year with new distribution for Northern VA based Ningen Manga Productions first feature film, Women’s Studies. Personifying the phrase “never give up”, they recently inked a deal to distribute the film. Who’s distributing? R-Squared Films, an Arizona based company who launched their first titles last year with a focus on new media, VOD, pay-per-download, and broadcast as well as traditional DVD release.

Not only do they have a new distributor, it’s also a new version of the film. The cut that R-Squared will be releasing May 1st and June 8th is streamlined: 10 minutes shorter than the initial cut of Women’s Studies, though footage and scenes have been added back in. Additionally, a voice over by the character of Mary, runs throughout the film, telling the story in a different perspective.

Director, Lonnie Martin, and his post-production crew went back and re-edited the film in August of 2009. “We were back at square one. The indie market faltered. Our first distributor pulled out. Needing to search for distribution all over again, we figured having a new product to show couldn’t hurt,” says Martin. “We’d all had a year to think about how the movie could be made better, so it was a blessing really, to be able to go back in and make some of the adjustments. I think the new cut is closer to my original vision. I’m pleased.”

And Ningen Manga Productions couldn’t be more pleased with R-Squared Films. “I’m excited to work with the team at R-Squared”, says Cindy Marie Martin who plays Mary in the film and co-produces with Lonnie. “They are very communicative, and their excitement about the film is contagious. Of course we’re excited about it, it’s our first baby and we know how much love and sweat went into it by all the cast and crew. With R2, we feel like they share our excitement about the film and we really feel like they believe in it. It’s in good hands.”

Cindy is also the marketing director for Ningen Manga Productions. What does she have in store for the lead up to the long anticipated Women’s Studies release? “We’re going to do some conventions, of course”, says Martin. “Our first convention is HorrorHound Weekend March 26-28 in Indianapolis. I’m already set to attend the convention as Helena, Hussy of Horror and take part in the Vampira Tribute they’re having, so we’ll take some Women’s Studies material with us. More convention appearances will be posted on the website as we confirm them. We also have some giveaways and contests up our sleeve that we’ll run in conjunction with various press outlets.”

“I get a lot of emails about when the movie is coming out,” adds Lonnie. “It’s really awesome that audiences are finally going to get a chance to see Women’s Studies.” Check your local cable/satellite provider for Pay-Per-View listings.

'WOMEN'S STUDIES' to be released on JUNE 15th.

2010-03-01T17:49:00.000-05:00

So says Fangoria!

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged. I'm in the process of revamping the Ningen Manga Productions website which is going to incorporate a blog of some sort.

That said, you WILL be able to get all the Women's Studies release news here. Fear you not.

For now, save the date: June 15th.

New Helena - Jaws 3 and Hellraiser

2009-08-17T00:24:00.003-04:00

I know. I've been awful about updating the blog. There's been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in cluding Women's Studies news. It hopefully won't be too much longer before I can spill some secrets.

In the meantime, tide yourself over with Helena, Hussy of Horror's July Jaws 3 video as well the teaser for next week's Hellraiser one.

New Helena! Crystal Lake's Girl Friday (the 13th)

2009-06-23T01:01:00.001-04:00

Helena, Hussy of Horror has a new summer job at this camp they're reopening. If only she could find the place.

New 'Helena' Coming Next Week

2009-06-15T22:02:00.001-04:00

Helena, Hussy of Horror is heading out to this camp they're reopening. Apparently some bad stuff happened there opnce . . .

Helena, Hussy of Horror Launches New Web Series

2009-06-03T08:42:00.003-04:00

Helena, your local Hussy of Horror, launched her spanky new website last week with “Drinks with Swamp Thing”. You can view her new digs at www.HussyofHorror.com.

She’ll be hosting a new 80’s Horror video each month in conjunction with the www.ILikethe80s.com blog. If you like the 80’s, this is the collection of pop culture for you. Began by local legend Joey Cabrera, you can find everything from Pac Man energy drinks to Marky Mark to She-Ra.

Helena is also Caretaker’s guest of honor on The Graveyard Show this week, Thursday, June 4th. The podcast will post around midnight on Thursday and can be accessed on the Graveyard Show website: www.GraveyardShow.com.

Watch "Drinks With Swamp Thing" below:

Accolades & Screenings

2009-05-19T00:31:00.003-04:00

I've been getting a lot of notice recently for various work I've done. It's been quite nice actually.

--Deadlands: The Rising, a zombie script I co-wrote with Gary Ugarek, was chosen as one of eight finalists out of 700 entries into the Bridge International Screenplay Competition.

--Motivation, a short film I co-wrote with Kelly "Diane" Slagle's Cavegirl Productions for the 2009 DC 48 Hour Film Project, was chosen for the "Best Of" screening which occurs this Thursday, May 21 at 7:00pm. Click here for screening details and to purchase tickets.

--Finally, my short film Under the Bed which I wrote all by my lonesome will screen at the A Nightmare to Remember Film Festival in San Francisco, CA on June 20th. Click the link above for details.

Women's Studies Screening in Chicago, IL - April 25, 2009

2009-03-27T20:11:00.008-04:00

WOMEN'S STUDIES will screen in Chicago, Illinois ONE NIGHT ONLY as part of Horror Society's "Women in Horror" Film Festival.

The screening of WS and other films will take place from 5pm to 12am on Saturday, April 25 at the Portage Theater on 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave in Portage Park, Chicago.

For more information, check out the festival website.

Maynard Gordon Website Live

2009-03-17T17:47:00.003-04:00

The website for Ningen Manga's new project, The Curse of Maynard Gordon, is now live. Look for additional information including concept art and a plot synopsis to be added later this spring.

www.MaynardCameBack.com

Conceptualizing

2009-03-05T15:42:00.011-05:00

Spring is almost here! I'm definitely glad to see this winter say "au revoir." It's been a rough one.

Things at Ningen Manga HQ have been busy as Cindy and I get ready for a jam packed 2009. Women's Studies inches ever close to it's fall DVD release. I'm hoping to have some announcements about that within the next few months. We've also got some exciting things brewing with NMP's new mascot, Helena, Hussy of Horror.

The big project we've been working on is preparation on our second feature film. While we're still not ready to make an official announcement, a lot has been happening behind the scenes. Personally, I'm very excited about this new script. It's a great step forward from Women's Studies, and I think it's going to really challenge NMP's production crew.

Over the past couple months, I've had the great pleasure of working once again with Rich Aidley, an artist based in the UK. Rich worked on the concept art for Women's Studies which was a big part of helping to get the film on it's feet from both a production and design point of view.

How's the process work?

We start out with script pages. I send Rich a copy of a sequence from the script I'd like to see conceptualized. After some back and forth, we settle on a part of the scene which we think will make the best art piece. (Click on the page to actually read the text.)

Then Rich draws up a series of thumbnail sketches for me to choose which "shot" I like best.

I choose shot #1.

Based on that thumbnail, Rich draws up a larger version of the shot in pencils, then inks and colors it. (For details on that process, check out this great video on his blog.) When all is said and done, we end up with the below picture. Click on it for a bigger version!

And what is this mysterious scene about? To find that out, you're simply going to have to come back for a future blog . . . though if you dig around Ningen Manga's various websites, you may find some clues.

(All content on this page is (c) 2009, Ningen Manga Productions.)

Don't Believe Everything You Read On the Internet

2009-01-24T00:53:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year from NMP!

2009-01-01T09:42:00.006-05:00

Whew! I made it through 2008 intact, albeit frazzled.

It was an up and down year for me personally with lots of challenges. Of course, it was also the year that Women's Studies saw completion, so I'm not feeling bad at all. As tough as 2008 was at some points, it was also very rewarding. The times that test us are the times that make us who we are.

2009 looks to be promising. Women's Studies will finally be released! I'm working on a couple of events/screenings to coincide with that. Keep checking back here for the latest news.

Also, regular blog postings are out the window from here on out. I could post Tuesday or I could post on Saturday. I could post once a week, three times a week, or once a month. You'll just have to keep checking back to see what I do.

To all of the faithful Ningen Mangaloids (and everyone else too), have a great, fulfilling, and hopeful 2009. Cindy and I send our best to you.

Oh, and Maynard too. I hear he's coming back.

Fall 2009 DVD Release for Women's Studies

2008-12-03T15:41:00.002-05:00

Just got the word today.

I'll announce further details in 2009, but look for various events to take place in the months ahead as we build-up to the release.

(I'm giddy as a Ross-Prentiss schoolgirl after her first kill.)

Transitional Period

2008-11-18T13:42:00.006-05:00

For those individuals who badger me weekly about the blog and are always like, "Why is there no new blog? I hate my job and I need something to read to pass the time. PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" know that you're loved.

I've been thinking recently about a way to transition this from a Women's Studies only blog to a general Ningen Manga Productions one. Most of what I've been working on recently have been projects other than Women's Studies. With what's in the NMP pipeline, that looks to be the case for the considerable future.

"And what IS in the pipeline?" you may well ask. Basically, NMP is laying the groundwork for 2009.

New Script
I've spent the past month working on a script with my old and dear friend, San Francisco based writer Jason Headley. It's my first true collaboration with another writer where we've built a story and script from the ground up. The experience has been both rewarding and a learning experience and I'm pretty excited to see how the final product ends up. (Before anybody asks, the script isn't intended to be produced by Cindy and I. Jason and I are hoping to sell it on spec.)

Helena, Hussy of Horror
Cindy has been doing some legal/business planning in order to take Helena to the next level. She and I produced a Helena introduction for Gary Ugarek's Deadlands 2: Trapped which recently played at the Queens International Film Festival in New York City where DL2 was nominated for "Best Horror Film." Helena's short will also play with DL2 at Cinequest in L.A. in March of '09. You can watch it below.

Women's Studies DVD Release
2009 will see the North American DVD release of Women's Studies. An announcement with details could come at any time. (I'm not being coy here. I simply don't know.)

NMP's Next Project?
Some preliminary steps have been taken towards getting Ningen Manga's next feature project off the ground. Some recent developments have put into question just exactly what the project may be, but truth be told these are good problems to have. Lots of issues are still up in the air, but early 2009 will hopefully bring an official announcement.

Blog
Look for the blog to start morphing into it's next iteration as we approach the New Year as well. Don't worry. It'll still be me doing it, just with fancier clothes.

VOTE!!!

2008-11-04T12:15:00.002-05:00

"The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it."

--Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

Hussies, Zombies, & Lady Killers

2008-10-14T12:31:00.008-04:00

It's been a busy month since my last blog posting. Aside from working on some scripts as well as distribution for Women's Studies, I've had a couple other projects taking up my time.

First off, co-producer and Women's Studies actor Cindy Marie Martin has entered the 2008 Miss Horrorfest Contest and has until THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17th at MIDNIGHT to accumulate “viewings” and “ratings" and hopefully qualify as a finalist.

Simply view the video below then go to YouTube and rate it. Seriously, check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Fun, eh? By the way, the video was written and directed by yours truly and shot and edited by Deadlands creator Gary Ugarek.

Speaking of Deadlands, I spent a recent weekend working as First Assistant Director on the final shoot of Gary's Deadlands 2: Trapped. (Sick as a dog I might add.) You may remember from previous blogs that the movie premieres on Saturday, October 25 in Hagerstown, Maryland. (Directions and ticket information can be found here.)

There's a couple of pictures below. More pictures can be found here.

Me setting up a shot on the set of Deadlands 2: Trapped.

"Zombies . . . creep me out."

And Women's Studies? It's inching closer to a release date. "Inching" being the operative word. One thing I've learned in the past year is that the movie business has two speeds: "snail" and "stop."

That aside, there's some exciting news coming soon. Keep checking back.

Something on the Horizon?

2008-09-16T23:01:00.003-04:00

Wow. Has it really been almost a month since I've blogged? Time flies when you're never home.

Over the past ten weeks, I've basically spent every weekend travelling somewhere or another. This coming weekend is the first where I have nowhere to be, and you can bet your ass I'll go nowhere too. (Actually that's probably not true, but it's a nice dream.)

So what's up with Women's Studies? Well, before long there may be LOTS up with it. Unfortunately, I can't go into details quite yet. Soon though. I promise. However, let's just say that steps have been taken, interest has been shown, and Women's Studies inches ever closer toward the hands and hearts of an eagerly awaiting audience.

That's all I can say. And for those of you who have my contact information, hassling me about it won't get you any additional details. In fact, don't be surprised if you automatically get my voicemail, so let's hope there's no sort of life threatening emergency where you need me right at that moment.

In the meantime, I've been helping Gary Ugarek finish up his latest zombie epic, Deadlands 2: Trapped.

("Isn't that the one you wrote?" I hear you ask. No, it isn't. A deal is starting to move forward with that script as well, but again, things aren't quite to the point where details can be revealed. Plus, that'll be Gary's announcement to make, not mine.)

I don't really have an official title on DL2 though I'll be acting as Assistant Director on an upcoming shoot he has planned. (And if you have my contact info and want to help out, leave me one of those emergency voice/e-mails.) I've been acting as a consultant more than anything, being a second pair of eyes and ears for rough cuts, polishing a few script pages, and acting as a sounding board for different ideas. I've seen lots of clips and the movie is a vast improvement over Gary's first film, Deadlands: The Rising.

A première has been set for October 25th in Hagerstown, MD which since there's still stuff to be shot, makes me kind of nervous. But hey, it isn't my show, is it?

More on Deadlands 2: Trapped, including a trailer and screening information can be found at www.playingwithdeadthings.com .

Things Are Brewing

2008-08-26T16:38:00.001-04:00

Got some Women's Studies related things in the works. Patience, young padawan.

The Waiting Game

2008-08-12T12:13:00.001-04:00

Someone left a comment on a recent blog asking 1) Has Women's Studies been released. 2) Where is it going to show? 3) Any festivals that you can list yet?

The answers to those questions are 1) No, but it's finished. 2) Still unknown. 3) Not yet.

It seems strange to have put so much work and effort into Women's Studies for the past couple years, yet now have all this "down time" while waiting to hear from festivals. Should we be being more pro-active? Well, we are being pro-active in some arenas. However, our festival strategy requires we use a little bit of patience before more actively seeking distribution.

Do festivals work? Since this is my first feature, I have no idea. I do know that the number of festivals that actual distribution deals come out of is small. The point is more to get exposure, generate interest, and make the project more marketable to therefore (hopefully) make a better deal. Remember, we have a responsibility to investors to keep.

The wait sucks a bit, because otherwise I'd be on the phone hassling every industry contact I have about getting WS in front of a distributor. I've actually been contacted by a few sales agents, some recently, who are interested in helping Cindy and I sell the film. Right now, I'm keeping communication and my options open. Again though, we'll see what happens with festivals.

I am excited about getting Women's Studies in front of audiences. And as soon as I have information to pass on, I will.

Uncle Harlan is a God Among Men

2008-08-05T13:52:00.005-04:00

In light of recent events and my first real exposure to creative decision making on large(r) budget films over the past few weeks, I'll let the great Harlan Ellison do my blog for me.

The "No Update" Update

2008-07-29T11:38:00.001-04:00

Ah, remember the days when every week was filled with musings from a young director, high on the excitement of producing his first film? Me neither.

Okay, so I went on vacation outside Vancouver, British Columbia which I believe is where I'd like to live out my days on this earth. Perfect weather. Nice people. Lovely landscape. Fantastic public transportation. Biker friendly. Groovy vibe. Mountains, beach, and city all within reach of each other. Yeah, I'll see you on the west coast.

Since I've been back, my writing time has been taken up by another project and I haven't really wanted to pull energy away from it. I can't talk about it quite yet, but I will say that there are some "industry eyes" waiting to look at it, which is kind of new and exciting. Hopefully, I'll be able to spill some details about it here in the next month or so, but not quite yet.

Besides, as far as Women's Studies goes, there's nothing to blog about anyway. The waiting game continues and probably will for a few more weeks. I will say that the same industry eyes looking at the script I'm working on may also get to take a look at Women's Studies which can be nothing but good. We'll see.

I know this is a horrible update. Sorry about that, but it's better than no blog at all, right?

The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

2008-07-08T14:36:00.006-04:00

As you've likely noticed, the past few blogs have been done on a bi-weekly basis.

The reason for this is that we here at Women's Studies HQ are basically in a "sit and wait" period until we hear back from all the various festivals and press outlets we've sent copies of the film to. In all likelihood, it'll be August before most of these folks even think about getting back to us. My WS workload has decreased dramatically, and it's actually been quite nice not to have to deal with it on a daily basis.

I haven't done any kind of "retrospective" blog because I'd rather look forward than backwards, and I don't want to throw off my chi.

What I have done is look towards the future beyond Women's Studies and done work on some possible future projects. I know, I know. The running joke has been that asking me what I'm doing next could get you killed. The problem is that I'm something of a workaholic. With Women's Studies done and six weeks of lag time before I have to get out and heavily promote it, I'm itchy to work on something. Plus, if opportunity should knock I want to be ready to open the door.

First I brushed off a screenplay I wrote ten years ago called Strangling Desdemona. It's about a hit man who wants out of the business and his corporate boss who gets him in WAY deeper. If you're a long time Ningen Manga-loid, you'll know that I self-published the first pages of the script as a comic book at the end of the millennium. (Buy a copy! Only one dollar! It actually costs more for me to send it to you than it does for you to purchase it.)

The Strangling Desdemona script is for sale, by they way. Hey, and the first few pages are already storyboarded! Amazingly enough, it's in pretty good shape after ten years. I just had to do a touch up here and a clean-up there. Then it was ready to send out to whoever might want to see it. (Agents? Studios? Investors? Send me an email.)

For the past couple of months, I've stewed on both a brand new idea and revisiting another old script that I really like a lot, but could use a serious rewrite. As time went by, I decided the new idea was good enough that it would keep and that my heart was really into the old script. (Which by the way, was the full length horror script I wrote right before the original Women's Studies script. . . the one I told you about in the last blog.) It's about a possibly cursed corn farm, the family who owns it, and the town surrounding it. Earlier this week I started working on a rewrite. What I want to do with it is such an overhaul, that it's almost like working on a brand new script. Or maybe it just feels that good to be writing again. And while I'm not settling on anything for my "next project" right now, this feels pretty right.

But who knows? Creatively speaking I have a lot of open space in front of me at this point in time. I want to explore it up and down before I really settle into anything. Besides, I have a feeling that come August, Women's Studies, fickle needy mistress that she is will once again show up on my doorstep with some crazy demand. Frankly, I'll be really happy to see her.

# # #

No blog next week, as I'm going to stay on the bi-weekly schedule for just a wee bit longer. Look for the next one on Tuesday, July 22.

The Void

2008-06-24T23:01:00.004-04:00

I didn't do a blog last week because I honestly had nothing to say. Lately, I've just been laying low, kind of enjoying not having to do much.

Women's Studies is in a bit of a holding pattern until Cindy and I hear back from festivals, press, and a few other key folks who are getting copies of the finished film for one reason or another. It's been kind of nice to experience this strange thing which has been eluding me for the past two years. I think it's called "free time."

Yet there's also "The Void" to deal with. "What's that?" you ask. Allow me to explain . . .

I've been writing "seriously" for about twelve years now. In that time, I've written eight full length screenplays and more short scripts than I can even count. After the first draft of each full length, I've always experienced what I call "The Void." It's the space in my conscious (and subconscious) mind that was once filled with the energy devoted to whatever project I've been working on. The idea is that I put so much thought, emotion, and work into a story (or in this case, a movie) that when I stop working on it, the lack of energy and forward motion is slient, a little cold, and empty. I call that empty space "The Void."

Eventually, The Void gets filled up with everyday life; work, friends, hobbies, etc.

A lot of the time, I'll take the space left by a big project and fill it with a different smaller project. It's like there's so much energy left that even when the brunt of it leaves, there's still a little bit of power bouncing around. A lot of short scripts have been written in the wake of the big ones. Women's Studies was actually conceived in one of those Voids. I had written a different full length horror script and had some energy left over. The right combination of influences came together and the original short script for Women's Studies came to be.

The Void has it's dark side too. It's kind of like a break up after a long term relationship. There's a certain level of depression that comes with it. You've put all this effort, work, and love, so much love into this one thing that it's hard to believe it's over. But you can't hang on. That's an exercise in denial and stepping backwards. Once it's over, it's over. You can't go back. You can fix that which can't be fixed. You can't unlearn.

Mostly though, The Void is a great teacher of self. My self-image is always clearer after a big project. It's as if I've spent so much time in an imaginary world, my appreciation for the real world is heightened dramatically. I find myself looking in the mirror a lot . . . trying to see if the deep places I've been are visible on the surface.

Since Women's Studies is hands down the biggest, most ambitious thing I've ever done in my life, The Void is pretty huge on it. What's been good is that there's a a lot of left over energy that I've focused on things like exercise, diet, and remembering that Cindy was my wife long before she was my co-producer.

I thought this Void might be really tough, but it's actually been pretty easy. Maybe some things are so big that the energy never leaves you. It just changes into something else, something new. All I know is I feel like I 'm ready for anything.

# # #

My dear Lady Killers: I can't wait to show you what we did together.

Looking Ahead

2008-06-10T08:12:00.005-04:00

Women's Studies is still finished.

Oh, Fear not. There's still work to do. Most of it has to do with marketing and promotion of the film. My and Cindy's major focus is film festivals, though we're getting some other gears moving as well. There's still a lot of work to do, but it's a much less intense work flow. Frankly, I'm okay with that.

So what's up?

On the technical side, Aaron Shirley and I are working with another video engineer on getting an HD master made for the film. I'll let you know how that goes. Right now, all I know is that it's an expensive undertaking.

Women's Studies has been sent off for it's first batch of "pre-festival" reviews which could start rolling in as soon as this week. The point of doing so is to get some blurbs to pad our press kit with. You know, things like "This guy makes Ed Wood look like Stanley Kubrick."

Joking aside, I'm actually pretty excited about getting some reviews because it'll be the first time someone completely objective will be taking a look at the movie. Up to this point everyone who's watched it has either worked on it or been a friend. All I know is that after looking at it for over a year, my ability to be objective is severely compromised, so it'll be interesting to see how the movie REALLY plays.

Speaking of press kits, the one for Women's Studies looks frakin' awesome. Co-Producer and Marketing genius Cindy has really outdone herself this time. We have an electronic version you can look at, but it really doesn't come close to the hard copy she's sending out.

And what about film festivals? I'm actually working on the first submissions today. I'm only to going to announce acceptances so as to where we're submitting, you'll just have to wonder. I imagine it'll be mid-summer at best before there's any première news.

I'm still going to try and update the blog every week, though much of it will be links to reviews and the like. I'll see if I get it in to me to reflect and pontificate on the whole experience though honestly, I'd rather just focus that energy into writing something else, maybe even a new script.

Stay tuned. Lots to come!

Cocked, Locked, & Ready to Rock

2008-06-03T23:59:00.004-04:00

So, I had posted this cool picture to celebrate the completion of Women's Studies, but I realized it's a spoiler, so I took it down.

It's done though. The DVD is mastering as we speak.

I don't know what to say except: Holy shit! I made a feature length film!

A big thanks to cast and crew and everybody else who made it happen. Special kudos go to Aaron Shirley and Sean Russell. Other than Cindy Marie Martin and I, they were the first crew to come on to the project and the last to work on it.

After two years(!) the Lady Killers are ready for you.

The question is: Are you ready for them?

Nearing the End

2008-05-27T16:34:00.004-04:00

Five days until final output/mastering of Women's Studies.

Post Sound Super Sean Russell and Composer Ryan Sayward turned in their final audio mix early Monday morning. Colorist Aaron Shirley is the last stop and he has just a few more color tweaks and some VFX work to do. Friday, we'll meet to watch it on a big screen to catch any nagging color issues. Also, Sean and Ryan will get a disk tomorrow to check for any last minute audio notes.

It's crazy to think the movie is this close to being finished. It seems like I've been working on it forever. Cast and crew started shooting almost a year ago. (May 29, 2007) Preparations and pre-production had been going on for well over a year before that. For the past two-and-a-half years, my single minded goal has been to get this film completed.

And now it's almost over.

I hear somebody saying, "Don't jinx it!" Really though, even if there was some cataclysmic act of god like Aaron Shirley's hard drive getting obliterated, the film's completion would only be delayed by a few weeks. (Fear not. Aaron, along with everyone else working post, has extensive back-ups.)

My role of late has been largely administrative. There's been a lot of approving things or asking for changes. Sean, Ryan, Aaron, and Editor Jim McGivney have been the soldiers in the trenches getting it done for you and me. They've been exceptional.

If all goes well, and it looks like it will, next week's blog will be the first with Women's Studies completed*.

# # #

(*Keep your fingers crossed. Just in case.)

Rally Caps Are On

2008-05-20T08:38:00.002-04:00

12 days until final output/mastering of Women's Studies.

Meetings, meetings, meetings.

I've had meetings with various post-production crew members almost every day since late last week. Music mostly, but color got Sunday night out of me. And sound gets some more love today before I head back to hopefully wrap up that fickle mistress music tonight.

It's been a stressful week for multiple reasons. A lot of difficulties, disputes, and delays popped up late in the week. For a couple days I thought that the crew and I were going to have to postpone the final mastering. However, this fantastic crew rose to the occasion and rallied around the project. In fact, they pretty much carried me through the weekend which is rather awesome. Despite my best efforts, these guys just won't let me fuck this movie up.

Where do things stand?

According to an email I received when I woke up this morning, Post Sound Supervisor Sean Russell pulled a seventeen hour shift yesterday "seeding" (putting in place) the first half of the music for Women's Studies in the timeline with his Foley, ADR, SFX, and production audio tracks. Over 120 tracks in all. (!) At the time of this writing, he's catching a few Zzzs before heading back in to continue mixing everything down.

Tonight is my final spot check of Composer Ryan Sayward's music. There were a couple sequences that we both wanted to play with some more. I'll see those tonight and sign off on them. Then, Ryan will head over to studio with Sean and seed the music for the last half of the movie.

I saw the first pass of Aaron Shirley's color correction on Sunday night and it's looking really good. Most of the coloring in Women's Studies consists of simply color matching and balancing, making sure the colors are consistent form shot to shot. There are a couple scenes where we'll use color for effect. Aaron actually worked those out first and it's quite nice. This week is digital Visual FX week. Don't worry. Han still shoots first. Almost all of the VFX in Women's Studies is color based and correctional.

I'm growing old before your very eyes! Less than two more weeks and I can relax . . . a little bit. Okay, no. That's not true. When the film is done, a whole new world opens up.

Soothing the Savage Beast

2008-05-13T21:18:00.001-04:00

19 days until final output/mastering of Women's Studies.

Early this morning, I picked up the "master" DV file of the entire film from Colorist/VFX Artist Aaron Shirley and delivered it to Post Sound Supervisor Sean Russell. Up to this point, Sean has been working on the film in eight separate "reels," nine if you count the end credits. Though still in the middle of recording Foley, Sean can now pull his eight separate ProTools sessions into one master session in preparation for mixing which begins next week.

Look! Here's Natalie Apuzzo, our Foley Walker/Artist stabbing melons. Why on earth would she be doing that?

On Saturday, Cindy and I met with Composer Ryan Sayward and for the very first time watched Women's Studies in it's entirety with music. It was a pretty exciting and fulfilling, yet surreal experience. For the first time in a very long time, I felt like I was watching a movie I hadn't worked on. It was a pretty good feeling to get swept up in the mood of the scenes again. After seeing the film more times than I care to count, I've become a little numb to the emotional impact it can have. If you can't tell, I'm really happy with the music.

Ryan has also picked out some "needle drop" songs from local music artists to use as background music in parts of Women's Studies. "Not Alone" by Redshift will be featured at the beginning of the film. "Barcelona" by Soft Complex as well as a remix of their song "Beat the Chill" will also be included.

I feel good about where we're at. Sure, we've still got six weeks of work to do in less than three, but if this was easy everybody would be doing it, right?

The Speed of Sound

2008-05-06T17:02:00.002-04:00

26 days until final output/mastering of Women's Studies.

Sound has been the name of the game recently. As mentioned before, Post Sound Supervisor Sean Russell and I have been recording ADR pretty much every night for the past two weeks. Yesterday was the last session, though we'll likely have to bring Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) back in for one more night of catch-up.

This week, Sean is editing all the ADR and production dialogue while also adding background ambiance to give verisimilitude to the scenes. Today, he's finishing his Foley spotting session, and will then begin recording Foley and adding sound effects which will take up the better part of the next ten days.

Over the weekend, I'll visit Composer Ryan Sayward and hear the Women's Studies soundtrack for the first time with the movie. I'll give notes and Ryan will spend another week making any creative adjustments needed. Then, Sean and Ryan will get together in the studio and add in the music. Once we all agree that the music, Foley, sound FX, and dialogue are all what we want, Sean will begin the final mixdown.

The energy is high because 26 days is a ridiculously short time to try and get all this done, especially with two people doing all the work. While everyone is a wee bit nervous, we're also very excited. It's starting to come together and isn't half bad either. The end is near, and that's the fuel keeping everyone moving.

One Month Away . . .

2008-04-30T18:11:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow is May 1, meaning the post-production crew and I are basically one month away from our deadline for having Women's Studies completely done.

The past two weeks have been almost as busy as the shooting schedule. I've split my time between recording ADR in the studio with Post Sound Super Sean Russell, meeting with Colorist Aaron Shirley about color correction and VFX, and trading emails with Composer Ryan Sayward about music.

Next week Co-Producer Cindy Marie Martin and I start planning for the "post June 2" schedule of festival and review submissions. Cindy will focus on that more than me as I'll be once again splitting my time between Sean, Aaron and Ryan as we near the finish line.

It's exciting, but also a whirlwind. I hardly have time to sleep. Then again, so what? I can sleep in June . . . snuggling a finished movie.

ADR Scripts + Melisa Breiner-Sanders = Hell

2008-04-16T21:11:00.009-04:00

If there's a hell, it's an eternity of writing ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) scripts while Melisa Breiner-Sanders stands next to me yelling in a shrill voice, "Where's the blog? Where's the blog? Where's the blog? Where's the blog? Where's the blog?"

Why does Melisa get mentioned so much on the blog? Because she hounds me like she's Ahab and I'm a big white whale. Seriously. She makes Dave Letterman's stalker look as normal as Donna Reed. I'd have her IP address banned from my email, but I'm afraid she'll show up at my house.

(And really, all my mentioning her does is feed the fire of her (self)obsession. I keep telling her that my beastly sexual prowess she finds so irresistible is merely a freak genetic accident and she's going to have to learn to resist it. But you know, she's totally fucking psycho.)

Anyway . . . what is an ADR script, you ask? Well, it looks like this:

(Click to enlarge.)

Basically, the actor uses this script to loop lines that had something goofy in the production audio like airplanes or air conditioners. Or maybe the dialogue didn't come through loud enough because the sound guy was forced to put his mic a hundred yards away to keep it out of the shot. Or maybe I just want to alter the delivery because on set the actor was too busy trying to sleep with everyone regardless of gender instead of focusing on their performance, though I won't mention names. *coughMelisacough*

ADR scripts are pretty tedious to write, especially at this point in production when I've literally seen Women's Studies almost a hundred times. I hope I don't sound like I'm bitching. (Though I'm sure I do.) I actually like posting sound quite a bit. Writing ADR scripts is just more busy work than creative expression.

They're vitally important though. Having scripts with proper time code and scenes makes the process go so much quicker. We don't have to waste time figuring out where the right cue we need is. We can instead focus on picking a drunk Melisa up off the floor and trying to get her to say, "You can't make men into the enemy," without slurring.

# # #

A quick side note:

I read a great piece recently by Lexi Alexander, director of the upcoming Punisher 2 in which she talks about how all her blogs have to go through studio approval. Basically, she doesn't post them very often because she "writes like shit when [she's] being censored."

While I'm sure any studio that might think about hiring me will look at this blog and run in the other direction, I'd like to make two points.

First, I would never publicly talk shit about anybody I worked with unless I was joking. I'm not that stupid, and I wouldn't want six ugly cheerleaders to kidnap and beat the shit out of me. (Melisa of course is the exception. I'm deadly serious that she's crazy and she scares me. I can't prove it, but when I'm dead you'll know I was right.)

Secondly, People don't just want a rosy view of filmmaking or the world for that matter. I went through a brief period when I tried to make everything on the blog happy and wonderful. But you know, sometimes life isn't that way. Sometimes, you're stuck doing tedious work that you don't really enjoy. Sometimes, you even get confused and forget why you're doing something and think you want to quit.

It doesn't mean you don't love what you do OR believe in the project you're working on. I refer you back to my mantra: Nothing worth doing is easy. I think it's the hard stuff people want to hear about. It reminds them that there are other people out there who deal with life's little hiccups.

And crazy stalker actresses.

Persistence of Vision

2008-04-08T22:54:00.007-04:00

Wow.

The past week has been a level of intensity I can't even begin to describe. I had always said that the recent Horrorfind Weekend would be the coming out party for Women's Studies. However, I had no idea that things would rev up as they had.

It's good though. The light at the end of the tunnel, once just a faint glimmer, gets brighter and brighter with each passing day. Well, that might be an overstatement, but at least I can see the end ahead of me.

First off, the big news: As of earlier today, Women's Studies is picture-locked, which means the video is as it will always be. Hats off to Editor Jim McGivney who has spent the past four months (Nine if you count the "rushes" he edited while we were shooting) putting this thing together for me. He's worked his ass off and I'm damn proud of him. Special mention goes to Cindy Marie Martin who was really a driving force behind the last few editing sessions.

The specs? Women's Studies clocks in at almost exactly 100 minutes, not counting the end credits. (Those will probably add about two minutes to the running time.) That was our target length all along and while Jim and I had to cut a couple of my favorite scenes to get there, I think the right choices were made. The eventual DVD will have eleven deleted scenes ranging from ten seconds to three minutes.

Next up is sound editing and music. I'm not going to spend any time talking about it right now. (Trust me. You'll hear more about it than you ever dreamed over the next seven weeks.)

We've basically got 53 days from the time of this writing to finish the film. That's a ridiculously short amount of time to color-correct and post sound for a feature length film. Should be fun, right? Right?!?

You've seen the new trailer for Women's Studies, haven't you?

We premiered it at Horrorfind Weekend last weekend to a pretty enthusiastic crowd. At least they seemed to ask all the right questions, so I got the impression they were interested. The response to the online trailer has been pretty positive. We even got a couple film festival invites out of it. (No, I'm not saying where. More on festivals come June.) I have high hopes this film will find it's audience.

Once we get it finished, of course. Let's not put the cart before the horse.

# # #

Just about everybody who knows me knows that George A. Romero is pretty much my filmmaking hero. I'm not exactly sure when it happened. I rediscovered his zombie "trilogy" about ten years ago. (That's back when it was still a trilogy.) That was right around the same time that my mind really started to shift from just writing scripts to actually making movies.

The admirable thing about Romero that has always struck me is his fierce individuality and independence. He makes the movies he wants to make. Yet, it's not out of stubbornness, but rather a persistence of vision which is awe-inspiring. He gets what he's doing, and I think a lot of filmmakers don't. They just feel their way through the process hoping to make the "big time," whatever the hell that is. Hell, I might even be one of them as much as I like to think otherwise.

Romero's persistence of vision and ability to be present is what I aspire to. His indefinable type of filmmaker is the kind I want to be.

Anyway, I got to meet Romero in the flesh during Horrorfind Weekend. We didn't talk long, only about five minutes, but he was present the entire time. We talked about his Season of the Witch a film I think is highly underrated and one he would like to remake. We talked about Women's Studies and working with Judith O'Dea. We even for the briefest of moments talked about our worldviews which was pretty cool. The whole time, he was present. He was talking not just to me but with me.

It was a pretty huge moment for me, one that's going to see me through to the end of the Women's Studies process. Hell, I might even find me some big assed trademark glasses to wear when it's all said and done.

New Women's Studies Trailer Online!

2008-04-01T12:46:00.005-04:00

You don't care what I have to say, do you? It's the new Women's Studies trailer!

(***I know. I've missed a bunch of blogs. Getting this movie where it needs to be has been absolutely insane. Next week, I'll catch you folks up on the trailer, the movie, Horrorfind Weekend, and meeting George A. Romero!***)

The Past Two Weeks

2008-03-11T16:00:00.007-04:00

Sorry about the missed blog. There was so much going on last week, I completely forgot about writing one. It was Friday before anybody even reminded me that I’d missed a week. By that point, I figured I would just wait until Tuesday.

It’s been an eventful two weeks both personally and professionally.

First off, Cindy and I had a small house fire. Fear not. All is well. The house is still standing. In a nutshell, a surge protector failed to do what it was supposed to, though the fact it had gotten wedged under a couch probably didn’t help. Thankfully, I was home and had the presence of mind to zap it with a fire extinguisher. We were really lucky. It could have been far worse than it was.

The fire burned up a couch and some curtains, singed the floor and did a good amount of smoke damage. While there was more dirt and soot than actual fire damage, it was about a week of dealing with insurance, housecleaning, and getting all the soot out of cat fur. (The cats are fine.)

The lessons: Make sure you have smoke alarms on all levels of your house, test your fire extinguisher(s) regularly, and don’t skimp out and buy cheap surge protectors to save a few bucks.

Anybody who wants to make a joke about me burning down the house to finish paying for Women’s Studies should do so now.

I also spent the past two weekends working as an associate producer with Women’s Studies Director of Photography Aaron Shirley on his long gestating short film project which bears no relationship to the Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe film but is still tentatively titled American Gangsters. We were actually supposed to shoot American Gangsters in the spring as a test for a lot of the techniques and workflow we intended to use on Women’s Studies, but there were only twenty-four hours in each day and something had to give.

Aaron’s Untitled Gangster Short (There, better?) should be finished by mid-April. I’ll post info on where and how it can be seen as it becomes available.

What else? Oh yeah, Women’s Studies!

On Sunday, the chip cooling fan on my computer’s motherboard said “sayonara.” While neither the motherboard or hard drive were damaged, my machine had to go into the pooter shop which has pretty much left me without the means to do much but hope all the department heads are on task AND finally write a blog that’s more than just “Work! Chaos! More soon!”

So where are we?

The past couple weeks have really seen Women’s Studies start to blossom into the movie I’ve always hoped it could be. Make no mistake, there’s still a ton of work to do. However, Instead of worrying about big broad patches on the film that didn’t seem to be working right, Editor Jim McGivney and I have gotten to a point where the tweaks and fixes are only needed on very specific areas.

(Oh yeah, both Jim and I got hit with some Captain Trips level flu/cold over the past couple weeks.)

It used to be I’d watch a reel and see a bunch of footage trying to be something. Now, with each passing day I get a sense of a story, a glimpse of lives unfolding before me. I get wrapped in drama, comedy, conflict and horror. More and more, I feel like I’m watching the beautiful amazing thing we call a movie.

It’s pretty exciting actually.

Next week, I’ll spend some time talking about music, sound, and the first eight minutes of the movie (and the new trailer) we’ll be premiering during Horrorfind Weekend taking place at the end of the month.

Radio Interview - Thurs. - 2/28 - 7:00pm EST

2008-02-26T00:01:00.003-05:00

The League of Extraordinary Paranormal Women, an internet radio show covering women in all areas on the paranormal, will be interviewing co-producer/actor Cindy Marie Martin and myself about Women's Studies this Thursday, February 28 at 7:00pm EST.

Click the link above to tune in. Be sure to tune in and tell your friends.

# # #

(Production is staying super busy. I'll update next week with all the latest.)

ADR & the Men Who Love It

2008-02-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

I honestly have no time to write a blog. TRUST ME when I tell you that everyone is busy as hell on Women's Studies.

Below is a pic of Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer) recording her ADR.

I love doing ADR. It's like making the movie all over again except all I have to do is sit on a couch and tell actors how to say lines. If that makes me sound lazy then . . . Well, yeah, I guess I'm friggin' lazy.

Various Updates

2008-02-12T23:59:00.003-05:00

Look it's a picture from my vacation!

Two friends and I biked a hundred miles from Key Largo down to Key West. Then I drank myself silly for three days before flying back home with an upper respiratory infection. Awesome times.

But you don't care about that, do you? It's all "Movie! Movie! Movie!" with you people. Bolsheviks, all of you.

What's new with Women's Studies?

--Our own Senator Hamlin, Judith O'Dea, was Pretty-Scary.net's Gal of the Day on Monday. She did this little fright flick back in the late sixties that they're fans of.

--I got the official word on Monday that there will be a Women's Studies panel at Horrorfind Weekend on Saturday, March 29. Time is still TBA, but I'll pass on that information as well as other details when they come in.

--After a multitude of delays, Sound Guru Sean Russell is hard at work sweetening up the first finished scenes of the movie. We'll be scheduling our first round of ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to getting in the studio with him and seeing how long it takes us to kill each other.

--Editor Jim McGivney is working on the new trailer. I got a sneak peek earlier this week, and I'm pretty excited about where it's headed.

--Aaron Shirley spent last week perfecting an animation of the Women's Studies logo which will be featured in the final film.

--I've heard a good deal of Ryan Sayward's music over the past few weeks, and it's really something special. Maybe I'll give you a taste in an upcoming blog.

I've got about eight thousand things I need to be doing, so that's all you get.

Jimmy Buffet Was Right

2008-02-05T16:06:00.001-05:00

I'm on island time . . . . dude.

Talk to you next week . . .

Staying Upright

2008-01-29T00:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry there was no blog last week. There likely won't be one next week either. Criminal, I know.

Women's Studies has really become a full time job again over the past couple of weeks. I feel a little like I'm skiing ahead of an avalanche. No thoughts of fancy tricks or reaching the end of the slope. All energy is focused on simply staying upright.

There's not a whole lot I really feel like talking about. It's all minutia, technical hiccups, and trying to stay on deadlines that seem to be constantly shifting. Things I thought were figured out aren't. Things I though were set in stone turn fluid in an instant.

A movie is a fickle thing. You think you have it and then you step away and all of sudden, it's not right. Then you think you get it right again and send out for someone else to work on, and that someone else goes, "Are you sure?" Then you remind yourself, "Doubt is the enemy." But so is over-confidence. It's a high wire act on a very thin line.

I feel a little too close to the movie these days, but I don't really feel like I have the time or luxury to step away. Of course, next week I'm being forced to step away. I'm leaving to bike a hundred miles down Key West come Saturday. Plans for the trip were made months ago, but I feel like the timing is just awful. My baby needs me, and I'm basically going on vacation.

Right now, I'm trying to get everything to a point where I can leave and the project won't implode, or worse, stop.

No fancy tricks. Don't even think about the end. Just stay upright.

A Turning Point

2008-01-15T23:48:00.000-05:00

I've been working on this movie all day today. I'm talking the whole friggin' day. I got up at 7:30am, took a bike ride, ran a couple errands, and by 11:00am was sitting in my office doing all I can to get Women's Studies to the people.

It was a good day. I got a lot done. In fact, once I get through this blog, I'll have hit everything on my "to-do" list for today. That's good too, because I have a feeling the next couple weeks are going to bring A LOT of new items for that list.

See, production reached a turning point today. Our first "picture-lock" scene was released to sound, music, and color about an hour before I wrote this. It's a nice little milestone. I took a moment to sit back and enjoy the accomplishment.

Only a moment, mind you.

Up until now, post has been almost exclusively editor Jim McGivney and I. Ours were the only schedules I needed to be concerned with, and the only needs I had to be aware of. Oh, sure I was fielding music from Ryan Sayward, talking process with Sound Guru Sean Russell, and discussing color balance/correction with DP Aaron Shirley. However, as of today they're down in the trenches with Jim and I.

It's taken a lot of willpower to make this movie happen and it'll take more before all is said and done. The journey to finishing this film is VERY far from over. I'm sure parts of it won't be pretty either.

But hey, at least Jim and I aren't alone anymore.

Chaos Precedes Transformation

2008-01-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

The blog is late because of Melisa Breiner-Sanders. It is 100% her fault that I didn't get it done on time. I encourage you to go to www.melisabs.com, watch her demo reel, and then flood her email with complaints about how her behavior is jeopardizing the production of Women's Studies.

Jim McGivney on the other hand is a rock star. Right now, he's chest deep in the scary world of frame rate conversion, Panasonic's proprietary 24p bullshit, and hard drive space finagling. To boot, He's flying solo on all of this. We unfortunately don't have the resources to get him a proper assistant to help with not only the crazy HD workflow, but also handle all the administrative paperwork as well as the dozens of tiny little things I keep asking of him. Jim's a pro though, so all is good.

I've made it a point not to bother him this week unless absolutely necessary. Oh sure, we BS-ed about Joe Gibbs retiring from the Redskins and the primaries. That aside, I've tried to leave him to work through it in his own way. I've been there, in that place where no one can do anything but offer encouragement. His time of chaos will be a bit shorter than mine was, but I imagine it's just as intense if not more. Jim's frustrations with the the process mirror my own during production. There were times while shooting when I was so caught up in the minutia and technical details of the process, I lost sight of what I was working towards.

Looking back on it, I realize that moment of confusion is a necessary part of the creative process. It's kind of a cliché, but "chaos precedes transformation." I believe you have to lose yourself in the journey to the point where you can't see the path. And once you're lost, you have to dig deep into yourself and find what it takes within you to make it through.

Jim, if you're reading this, I'm very positive about the work you've done so far. Hang in there, buddy. You're almost to the good part.

Out With the Old, In With The New

2008-01-01T11:37:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

While I'd rather look forward to the year ahead than the one that was, I've thought a lot recently about 2007. It's been a life-altering year. This time last year, I was wondering if Women's Studies was even going to be able to happen. A year later, the film is in the can being edited. It's crazy. Deacades from now, when I look back on 2007, it will ALWAYS be the year I made "that crazy horror movie." And I'll look back on it with fondness, laughter, and a great sense of accomplishment.

I have a lot of good memories of the production, the people, and the even the problems. In recent weeks, I've found myself laughing at situations and events that at the time they were occurring, I never dreamed I would EVER find funny. "Distance lends perspective," the prolific but mysterious "they" say. It gives you the ability to see the whys and wherefores of the chaos.

While 2007 was the year cast and crew shot Women's Studies, 2008 is the year we'll finish and release the movie. I'm very excited about the opportunity to show people what we've done. There's still a great amount of work to be completed in order to get there, but this will be the year it happens. There's a real joy to that thought, that after what will be almost two years of work, we'll finally be able to show people what we've done.

2008 is here! The year of Women's Studies! May it bring happiness, success, and growth to everyone.

Horrorfind Weekend 9 - Save the Date

2007-12-25T13:15:00.000-05:00

Merry X-Mas! Or Solstice, or Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, or maybe you just sacrifice a goat to Chuthlu this time of year. Happy whatever it is you're celebrating.

Since I'm in my pajamas and have no intention of getting out of them until tomorrow morning, I'm just going to make a quick appearance announcement then go back to my cats and wine.

Cast and crew of Women's Studies will be appearing at Horrorfind Weekend 9 in Adelphi, Maryland (outside Baltimore) on March 28 - 30, 2008. It looks to be an amazing weekend with an awesome guest list. There will be events/panels commemorating both the 40th Anniversary of Night of the Living Dead (Our own "Senator Hamlin," Judith O'Dea, will be in attendence.) and the 30th Anniversary of Dawn of the Dead.

More information can be found at www.horrorfindweekend.com.

Exactly how Women's Studies will be represented at the con is unknown as we're still working out the details with organizers. However, at this point we do know we'll be premiering the final trailer for WS at the convention. (It'll be posted online Monday, March 31.)

As more information becomes available, I'll release it here.

Brown Spots

2007-12-19T22:10:00.000-05:00

(Can you hear that in the wind? It's the echo of a sad voice crying, "The blog is late! The blog is late!")

We're in the middle of a "break" from Women's Studies until after X-Mas. Break is a relative term as Jim McGivney and I are both down in the trenches doing file maintenance and organization in preparation for the big "footage replacement" phase of editing.

I've lost count as to how many times I've watched the various "rough cuts:" at this point around a dozen. (We're on the second iteration, which reminds me that I need to come up with a good naming system for all the different cuts we'll have.) Sometimes I take notes, but mostly I just watch, trying to forget I know every single nuance of the film. The trick is to get sucked in and carried away. That way the things which are a bit wonky or off jump out at me. I'm still focused on the big picture rather than minute details. (I've heard I'll find both God and the Devil hidden in those.)

Is it good? Well, I think it rocks but I made it so you can't really trust me. See, being the director of a movie is like being a parent. The movie is like my kid and because it's mine, I think it's smart, talented, and beautiful. The truth is that a lot of kids aren't any of those things. Most of them are self-centered, clumsy, and smell like urine. I have to look at the film not as a parent who loves it, but just as any old person on the street. I have to be able to see it for the awkward, piss-smelling brat it is so I can knock some sense into it, show it some manners, and teach it not to piss itself. (Can you see why Cindy and I should never have children?)

And I can. Self-criticism is one thing I've always prided myself on. If something isn't working, I'll let it go. That's really where I'm at in the process now. Taking all the stuff that doesn't matter, isn't necessary, or just any good and getting it out of there. I wrote before about looking at whole scenes to cut, but that's kind of like throwing out an apple because of one brown spot. You just cut the brown spot out is all. The rest of the apple is a tasty treat. Even so, I'm sure there will be a few apples that just can't be saved.

In Women's Studies, most of those "brown spots" are pieces of dialogue that are either unnecessary, redundant, or just plain don't work. It's five seconds here and ten seconds there. It's looking at a scene that's three minutes long and saying, "This really could be cut in half." It's catching the places where the movie seems to gear down just a little too much. Women's Studies is something of a throwback to classic, slower paced horror movies. (I showed a close friend the rough cut and he said that if it was 1970s and I lived in Italy I'd make millions.) That said, there's a fine line between "slow build" and "slow and boring."

I call the process "trimming the fat." What I want is the leanest, meanest movie I can get. Once I have that, then Jim and I can go in and dress it up.

Cutter

2007-12-11T00:05:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of months, the blog has been filled with offhand comments like “Jim this,” and “The editor that.” However, I realized recently that I haven’t yet taken the time to properly introduce you to our erstwhile cutter in residence, Jim McGivney, or as he’s known in certain circles, “The Irish Whiskey.” (Okay, I just made that up, but it would be a cool codename.)

Though he had been editing “rush cuts” of the film since the summer, Jim came into the post-production process relatively fresh. That’s to say that he had months to work at a leisurely pace without any deadlines or supervision and now, having lost that luxury, has me up his ass fortnightly.

In all seriousness, Jim was something of a lifeline during those hazy weeks towards the end when I started to lose myself in the process. He was close enough to the project to understand and sympathize, but distant enough to offer perspective. Jim talked me off a couple metaphoric ledges, helped remind me why I’m making Women’s Studies, and just gave me an outlet to bitch.

Not only that, but he gets my love of once great but now mediocre football teams (He’s a fan of both a Washington Redskins and Notre Dame. Tragic, I know.) as well as my appreciation of cheap beer and cheaper bar food.

If I have to spend the next few months figuring this movie out, I couldn’t have better company.

# # #

Lonnie Martin:
All right, man. Give me Jim McGivney: The E! Hollywood Story.

Jim McGivney:
“My story? Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' in Mississippi...”

Let's see...I was born August 12, 1977 in Indianapolis, IN, after 24 hours of labor and the deft use of a pair of forecepts. The oldest of three, I've been more into television and music than most people for as long as I remember, though I didn't start to create until high school. I still remember the conversation that set me on my way to becoming a filmmaker: my Dad had read about a new film made by some first-time director that was getting rave reviews and that I could do as good a job, if not better, than that guy (the film was Reservoir Dogs, "that guy," Quentin Tarantino). Then I saw a great little movie called Clerks, made for next to nothing by a guy with even less experience than that Tarantino fella. Making movies suddenly seemed accessible and from then on I took a more active interest in my high school TV class and the movies I watched daily at my job as a video store clerk. After graduating from James Madison University, I got a job as a corporate video producer and first laid my hands on an Avid non-linear editing system. I also directed my first film; a short comedy called, cyber sex?, which marked the first collaboration between myself and a younger but equally hirsute Lonnie Martin. I've since worked with him on First Session and the award-winning 48 Hour Film Project entry, Under the Bed, and have spent every day praying that our wives don't find out about our thinly-veiled homosexual affair (though I suspect they know but just don't care).

LM:
Hirsute? You're not exactly folicly challenged these days yourself. What's that all about?

JMc:
Oh, this old thing? *Strokes chin* Well, after visiting the set in October I realized that I cannot call myself a Women's Studies crew member if didn't have wild hair sprouting from every pore north of my neckline. No, I'm actually growing this for a charity called Beards BeCAUSE, which benefits the Battered Women's Shelter of Charlotte. We grow our beards unhindered for two months, looking like hobos for our holiday photos and, in return, people pledge money which goes to benefit the Shelter. The idea is to take something commonly thought of as "manly" and associate it with helping those women who've been victims of a cowardly act. We're only halfway through the "growing season" but the response has been amazing.

LM:
Wow. So you're like the only crew member of Women's Studies who's actually walking the women's rights walk, not just talking the talk.

JMc:
Only from a facial-hair-growth standpoint - those other furry fellas are strictly recreational - besides, my beloved director and producer did throw a donation my way.

LM:
So, they say that and editor and a director develop a "special, one of a kind bond" during Post. Are you feeling it yet?

JMc:
If by that you mean, "Do you hate the sight, smell or thought of Lonnie Martin?" then, "No. Not yet."

No, I know the bond you're referring to, but I don't think we're there yet. The start and stop nature of our WS work together so far hasn't really allowed for it, nor has it been necessary. That'll start to develop after a couple rounds of rough cuts and notes are exchanged. Besides, this is our third project as director/editor so I'm sure it'll be quick to return - the relationship equivalent of the "shampoo effect" after a good bender, I'd say.

LM:
It's fitting that you use a hangover metaphor to describe our relationship. Okay then. Influences, both cinematic and non.

JMc:
God I hate these...they're too hard for me to narrow down, but it's your dime so...

Cinematic (aside from the aforementioned Miramax alum): Michael Mann, Tim Burton, David Fincher, Simon Pegg, John Carpenter. Non-cinematic: my wife, my family, Bill Hicks, Maynard James Keenan/TOOL, music of all varieties, a Catholic-upbringing, a lonely, tormented adolescence, comic books, Eliza Dushku.

LM:
Jim, we're one cut in. How's it feel?

JMc:
Oddly freeing. What's been made apparent by this first cut is that there is in fact a movie here; that, at the most basic level, we now know that those chunks of audio and video that you, the cast and the crew have spent the last few months collecting will tell the story we want to tell when strung together. It's still a long way from being watchable, but it is definitely in there.

Also, it's freeing for me because all the pieces of the puzzle are now at our disposal, whereas before there was always something missing. Be it a shot, a line of dialog or an entire scene, some part of Women's Studies simply did not exist and even if I didn't need it, it was unsettling. Now I literally have 10 hard drives full of puzzle pieces to choose from and, though it might take some digging, I know I'm going to be able to find the size and shape piece that I need at any given moment and that's a credit to the talent and hard work of everyone involved in production.

LM:
You seem to be enjoying yourself.

JMc:
So far I am... though we should do a follow up in February, when I hate the sight, smell or thought of you.

LM:
You mean when I ask you to burn all the footage, so we can become paper pushers?

JMc:
I'm already prepping the Strayer application, my man.

LM:
All this joking around and people are going to think we don't take this seriously. Filmmaking however (editing in particular) is supposed to be fun. How do you find the right balance?

JMc:
Jokes are the only thing that drown out the anguished cries of my soul, Lonnie.

Actually, that whole idea that "filmmaking is fun" is a misnomer; a god-damned filthy lie, if you will. It's a passion, true, and one that I enjoy, but it's not "fun." Does agonizing over whether or not your artistic vision will drive you to greatness or financial ruin sound like fun? Sitting alone in a dark room listening to the same three lines of dialogue loop for ten hours sound like a real hoot? Is spending thirty-six sleepless hours with a cast of beautiful, blood-soaked actresses your idea of a good weekend? Well then, let...wait, where was I going with this?

LM:
See? It is fun! I get what you're saying though. It's worthwhile, but it isn't exactly easy.

JMc:
Exactly. It certainly can be fun, but more often it is exhausting, frustrating WORK. What makes it worth enduring is the end result, watching that final product with friends, family, colleagues and complete strangers; seeing their reactions, hearing that first scream/laugh/gasp (the intentional ones), feeling the validation of time and effort spent. For all it's glitz and glamour, film makers do what they do for the same reason anyone produces anything: passion.

That and those beautiful, blood-soaked actresses.

The Running (Time) Man

2007-12-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

As the director of Women's Studies, my dilemma during post-production is this: I have to be both the film's worst critic and biggest fan. Trust me. I'm going to be as harsh on the film, if not more so, than any audience member who sees it. At the same time, I'm going to love it more than anyone else ever could.

The key to making Women's Studies a good film is finding the very fine line between unwarranted discrimination and blind devotion. I have to see all the faults of the film in order for them to be fixed. (If indeed they can be fixed.) Yet I can't be so focused on what's wrong, that I forget about what's good about it.

So how do I approach the editing process and not goof myself up? Easy. I work from the big picture down to the little details.

Right now, that entails simply making sure all the elements are there so the story being told makes sense. That doesn't necessarily mean it's being told in the quickest or most efficient way. In fact, right now Women's Studies is a really long story. The first cut clocks in at over two hours.

"What's wrong with that?" I hear you ask. "Lots of movies are over two hours. Lots of good movies. Jaws? 125 minutes. Citizen Kane? 119 minutes. Friggin' Star Wars? 121 minutes. Hell, those Lord of the Rings movies are three hours long. Each!"

Oh yeah? You want to play that game? Try this: Psycho, 105 minutes. Night of the Living Dead, 96 minutes. Carpenter's Halloween, 91 minutes. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 80 minutes.

What? You don't like old horror films? Fine. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, 100 minutes. The Ring, 105 minutes. Hostel, 95 minutes. Saw, 102 minutes.

You see a trend here? When it comes to horror films, right around the hundred minute mark is where these pictures tend to max out. Sure, 28 Days Later (113 minutes) and Alien (117 minutes) walk pretty close to the two hour mark and Romero's Dawn of the Dead (125 minutes) as well as The Exorcist (122 minutes) go over it, but those are exceptions made by brilliant directors that prove the rule. For us mere mortals, short and sweet really seems the better bet.

Why? Well first off, horror movies require a bit of suspension of disbelief in order to to their job. Some poor souls can't even heft up enough of it to allow themselves to watch a horror film. While the rest of us can, we can only hold it up so high for so long. If a fright flick draws out too long we start to see through the plot holes, and try to figure out how all the magic tricks are done.

Secondly, it's a horror movie! The whole point of the film is to scare and/or disturb the audience. I don't care if you're the Marquis de Sade. After about ninety minutes of watching people in nightmare situations, you're ready to come back to the real world. Not only that, but fear is an emotion we're hardwired to conquer. Too much distress for too long and the brain starts to shut it out. The audience numbs to the situation, and stops caring. They just want it to end.

Finally, as a filmmaker, isn't the whole point to leave the audience wanting more? Especially in this age of DVD extras, deleted scenes and director's cuts (and sequels) are there for the people who truly do wish the movie was over two hours long.

And hey, I'm one of those people. What I'm likely to do is pretty up a Director's cut first. Then from that I'll decide which scenes are a lean beef that must be served, and which ones are gravy that while tasty, isn't to everybody's taste. If enough folks want to see the "Extended Director's Cut," I'll happily get that version out there.

In writing (and editing), the motto is "Kill your darlings." Invariably, it'll be the scenes I like best that will end up on the cutting room floor. A sad truth in storytelling. There's only so much time to follow the lives of these characters. And while I'd like to think that Women's Studies is one of those brilliant movies in a class with Alien, Dawn of the Dead, and The Exorcist, ultimately it's not for me to decide.

That's your job.

"Smokin' Hot"

2007-11-28T23:52:00.000-05:00

Since the blog is late for no good reason this week, I'm going to try and make up for it by posting a bunch of pictures of "smokin' hot," half-dressed women.

The pictures below are all from the "Strip Club scenes." You might find it ironic that a film dealing with feminism has scenes that take place in a strip club. My defense is that it's not stripping but burlesque dancing these ladies are doing. Closed-minded people might scoff at that but believe me my friends, there is a difference. In fact, I'm about as proud of these scenes as I am of any in the movie.

Besides, a little over a year ago, Arrow in the Head did a short piece on Women's Studies in which the author referred to our cast as "smokin' hot." During the shoot, the Lady Killers wore that label like a badge of honor. We even put the quote in our press kit it became such a motif. Now, I don't want to sound superficial, but he had a point. If Women's Studies offers nothing else, it easily has one of the most attractive casts of any independent film out there.

My co-producer, Cindy Marie Martin, doesn't like it when I boil the concept of Women's Studies down to "hot chicks with knives," but I don't mean it in any sexist way. This film is about sex and death, and both are presented in ways that are thoughtful and intelligent if that's what you're after. However, if you just want to look at pretty girls do ultra-violent things to dudes (and other ladies) with sharp objects, this movie will work for you too.

I guess that sounds kind of base, but in many ways isn't that the whole point of a horror film? To appeal to the baser instincts? Throughout a lot of this production, various people involved (myself included) have done a lot to try and convince themselves they're working on some socially important critique on extremism and modern society. On one level it is. It has to be, because I'm not sure it's in me to make somethng that doesn't work on multiple levels. That said, let's be honest: Many people probably aren't going to want to see this film on a purely intellectual level. So lets call it what on another level it is: Exploitation.

"There, I said it! I said the dreaded "E" word! Fuck art! Fuck meaning! Hot chicks with knives! What's Women's Studies about? It's a comic book movie about hot chicks with knives."

And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. I've spent a great deal of time feeling ashamed of myself for making this movie. I've listened to people tell me about how I need to "be careful what I put out into the world." "You've got to be careful of offending this group or that group or this other group." Because I've heard these things, I've worked very hard to try and make sure people understand the film isn't anti-feminist, anti-woman, or anti-pagan. (Another irony, if the film is anything? It's anti-violence. Sure, it's from the Natural Born Killers school of anti-violence film, but that shouldn't matter. Should it?)

In the end though, it doesn't matter what I tell people because they're going to draw their own conclusions anyway.

You want to know the truth? The secret truth folks? If when this film is done, somebody comes up to me and says, "You're the dude who made that movie about the smokin' hot chicks with knives." As long as they're not pissed off with me, I'm just fine with that. Even if they are pissed off at me, there's probably not a whole lot I can do about it, so I guess I'm fine with that too.

# # #

Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp (Black Widow Waitress) and Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer) take a rest between shots.

Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer) strikes an "Oh! how did this happen?" pose.

Amber Connors (Black Widow Bartender/Dancer) looks on as Tara Garwood (Judith) works out her dance with Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer).

Director Lonnie Martin talks over an intimate scene with Taisha Cameron (Amy) and Kevin Finklestein (Keith).

"Lonnie, do these scratches make my box look fat?"

This picture pretty much sums up the Women's Studies experience for Co-Producers Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Lonnie Martin.

Ryan Mulkay (Cop #1) really doesn't seem as concerned as he should about Amber Connors (Black Widow Bartender/Dancer) and the knife she's holding.

Shanna Beauchamp (Black Widow Waitress) is ready to @#$% you up!

"It's okay. You can trust me."

Ryan Mulkay (Cop #1) in a scene from Women's Studies.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Tara Garwood (Judith) in a scene from Women's Studies.

And finally, four "smokin' hot" portraits or four "smokin' hot" ladies:

Stef Williams as the Black Widow Burlesque Dancer.

Amber Connors as the Black Widow Bartender/Dancer.

Cindy Marie Martin as Mary.

Tara Garwood as Judith.

Stasis

2007-11-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

I always thought when I got to this stage of the Women's Studies game that I would just have tons to blog about. However, that doesn't really seem to be the case. There's very little to report or pontificate on, though there's a lot of important (yet dreadfully boring) work being done. In a weird way, it's like it was back in the earliest days of pre-production: all paper work, phone calls, and planning for things to come.

Part of the strange stasis is the holidays, I think. Don't get me wrong. I actually like the holidays, but it seems there's an awful lot of impending travel, parties, and events to attend. My calendar is filed with places I have to be, but it seems very few of them have to do with the movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes it hard to get motivated sometimes. I do my best when I get my work engine cranked up for a long stretch. When every few days I have to stall and hitch and switch gears to something else, I feel like I have to get warmed up all over again. Right now, I'm simply trying to get as much of my life on auto-pilot as possible, simply so I can leave it behind for a few days.

Also, there's a lot of "catch-up" to do as far as the "business" side of show business is concerned. My co-producer, Cindy Marie Martin, has spent a goodly portion of the past few weeks paying invoices and trying to balance the books. (I want to help. Really I do. However, I've realized that the best way to help is to simply stay out of her way unless she asks otherwise.) That need to catch-up also reaches into our personal lives. Things like my environment, my pets, and my personal relationships have suffered a bit during the past few months of struggling to get everything shot. Taking the time to give those aspects attention has been important.

Another larger part of it is waiting for the first rough cut which is scheduled to be delivered in my hot little hands five days from the time of this writing. There's not much I can do until I can see the footage all slammed together as something that resembles a movie. It's going to be extremely exciting to see it for the first time, and I'm sure next week's blog with be filled with all my positive energy over what the movie can be. But right now, it's kind of like a long Christmas Eve. In the back of my head is the constant mantra of "Going to see the rough cut. Going to see the rough cut." It makes it kind of hard to focus on anything else.

And let's face it, part of it is pure simple "burn out." That's not to say I'm sick of Women's Studies, but after the past six months of near constant work, worry, and will, it's nice to have nothing immediate to worry about. Frankly, I need to recharge my batteries a little bit. Cindy and I will get a very long overdue vacation here in a few weeks where I plan to do just that.

Stasis is a nice change though. There's a feeling of accomplishment that's been nice to ride out. Hard roads are ahead, make no mistake, but that's for the future. For this brief moment, everything is as it should be.

P-A-R-T . . .Y? Because We're Done!

2007-11-13T15:53:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday the cast and crew shot our sole reshoot for Women's Studies. Afterwards, we got a bunch of food and booze and proceeded to consume, imbibe, and release.

As of this writing, it's Tuesday and my hangover is just today gone. I don't know if that's telling as to how hard I threw down, or as to how much my body can't take the revelry it once took fine in my early twenties. If you know the answer, please don't tell me.

It was quite a shindig. Joey Cabrera made his famous "donkey punch" which I was smart enough to turn down. I had a Dominican cigar, which I smoked with aplomb though no one else seemed inclined to join me. We had a bonfire which burned through the night. Food was everywhere. At certain points, we watched rush edits, raw footage, and even some of the cast's original auditions. It was a fantastic party.

And hey, we earned it.

It was a fine group of people who came together to shoot Women's Studies. I'll miss them all terribly. Sure, we'll see each other again, and rather soon I imagine. However, as a lot of the cast noted on Saturday, it'll never be in this way, to do what we did. But oh, the memories we'll have. I have a feeling we'll all be hard pressed to forget the adventure of the past five months.

So, raise a glass. Here's to the past, present, and future of Women's Studies, to fair acquaintances who became good friends, to all we've done together, and to everything we still may yet do.

(Pictures from the party are below. I'm honestly frightened and confused by what's going on in most of them.)

# # #

Joey Cabrera doesn't trust Tara Garwood's wild, "donkey punch" laden eyes.

Oh Iris! What would your dad think?

Forget partying. After five months of shooting, James A. Radack just wants to take a nap.

Director of Photography Aaron "Don't Call Me" Shirley and Composer Ryan Sayward Whittier share a "special" moment.

Dear God/dess, keep Tara away from the donkey punch!!!!

9:30? Tiffany James doesn't care what time it is. (Though note she drinks no donkey punch.)

I really have no idea what's going on in this picture.

Sound Guru Sean Russell and Mundy Spears are not as sober as they look.

Joey Cabrera achieves his lifelong dream: to be surrounded by hot women with his head in my crotch.

See? Cindy and Tara actually really like each other!

Nothing like a rousing game of "Vagina Ball" to clear out a party. (Laura Bloechl will show everyone at work this one.)

The Cast's Last Hurrah.

The Little Things

2007-11-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

I gave Fangoria.com exclusive pics for their piece about wrapping Women's Studies because I'm a shameless brownnoser. Go see Tara Garwood's Judith get all gory and Kelley Slagle as Naughty Nazi Nurse Diane. Also featured are is a pic of Mundy Spears (Sharon) as well as a shot of Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and James A. Radack (Zack).

# # #

Things have been all over the place with Women's Studies this week. In fact, I've had a hard time focusing because instead of having a few big issues to think about I have a whole lot of little ones. Little is a relative term that doesn't mean unimportant. In fact, one could argue that all the items on the current Women's Studies agenda are vital in setting the tone for the next few months.

A sampler:

--Editor Jim McGivney and I met this weekend and drank a lot a beer. While doing so we hashed out a two month plan for sculpting the Women's Studies footage into something that resembles a movie. Jim's first order of business is just getting the footage slapped together in approximately the right order. I've seen various scenes and while they look great, it's difficult to gauge how everything fits together as a story. Once that's done, Jim and I will attack the whole film for issues of pacing and rhythm, which I'll argue is one of the most important aspects of this film. Too fast and folks get confused. Too slow and they go to sleep. From there, the real work starts with us getting into specific scenes and sequences. I'll also be able to set dates for sound, music,and color to be able to work with the footage.

--We have a reshoot this weekend for a scene that had a few issues the first time around. "What? Reshoot?!? Disaster!" No, not really. Reshoots are a part of the process. Even the big boys do it once they start to see the big picture. Frankly, I'm delighted that there's only one scene that needs to be redone.

--Cindy and I are also trying to wrap up a lot of the unfinished paperwork from production. That means paying our bills and getting our books in order both financial and production-wise.

--Part of wrangling post-production is setting deadlines. Most of our deadlines will revolve around festival entry deadlines. I've spent some time looking at festivals and trying to find ones that would be a good fit for Women's Studies.

--I've also rested which has been well earned. This past week especially, I made a conscious effort to eat well, take timeout for myself,and get in bed early. I've also rediscovered the nap who was a wonderful friend I don't want to lose touch with again.

--Finally, I've tried to get reorganized on the blog again. I've got some some cool stuff planned, and I'm once again going to have the time to give it the love I want to. Stay tuned. While the next few months aren't going to be the breakneck, wild times we had during production, there's lots of excitement regarding Women's Studies. You don't want to miss it.

Wrapped!

2007-10-30T20:49:00.001-04:00

Short & Late

2007-10-24T22:37:00.001-04:00

I must be giving everyone the impression that the Zack blog is some sort of Magnum Opus the way it keeps getting delayed. The simple truth is that I haven't had the time this week to give it the care I feel it deserves. It'll be here eventually . . . just not this week.

Last night was Women's Studies Shoot Day #48. Despite some unforeseen set dressing delays, it was quite an enjoyable evening. We have two more days of shooting scheduled. Plus there's one reshoot, so I guess that's three days. So close to the end . . .

It's funny. I've always wanted to be a filmmaker. I've dreamed for years about making a movie. Now that I'm almost done shooting one, I just want to be a regular dude for a little while. I've spent the past couple weeks dreaming about nothing more than sitting by some water for a spell. No computer, no cell phone, no TV, maybe a book that I pick up in between naps.

I love my Lady Killers, make no mistake. They're funny, sexy, and always entertaining. However, they're also very high maintenance ladies. Distance lends perspective, they say. A little time off from each other is going to do us wonders when I finally get a break.

And after? Oh, the things we'll do together.

Almost to Post

2007-10-16T23:54:00.000-04:00

There's no real Women's Studies blog this week. It's been a bit of a struggle for me to really enjoy the project recently. In fact, I actually wrote a very long, vitriolic, and venomous blog which I smartly deleted. It was, as they say in the military, "counter-productive."

Don't get me wrong. I'm still in it to win it. It's just that we started shooting this thing on May 29th. As of this writing, it's October 16. Last night was shoot day number 47. That's one more day than it took Hitchcock to shoot Psycho. Many members of the cast and crew feel a bit frustrated. Compared to Cindy and I, however, they really don't know the meaning of the word. I'm trying to stay positive. I'm sure the worst is now over.

We have three more days of shooting. Principle photography will be complete by Halloween though we do have one reshoot we need to schedule for early November.

About half of the film is edited as "rushes:" Quickly edited, very rough scenes that give me an idea of what footage we have and possible ways to throw it all together. Women's Studies is one of those films that really functions best as whole, so it's tough to get a sense of tone and rhythm from individual scenes but many of them look quite nice. Very soon I'll introduce you to our editor, Jim McGivney, who has been a bright spot and an anchor over the past couple of difficult weeks.

Look how sexy he is when he tells me he's basing his editing choices off old episodes of Barney & Friends:

Next week, I'll get into James A. Radack's Zack, who has the difficult role of being of the only male character in Women's Studies. After that, we'll start digging into the film's post process, which I'm really excited about.

Since I've been pretty cranky lately, I'll apologize to anybody who was on the receiving end of my bullshit. Cindy says all is fine, and if she's not worried, I'm not worried.

Blargh

2007-10-09T23:34:00.000-04:00

I'm exhausted. I'm sick with Laura Bloechl's (Or was it Tara Garwood's?) Captain Trips/death flu. I still don't have any pictures. I'm not doing a blog this week.

If that's a problem, take it up with my friend below.

Changing Leaves

2007-10-02T23:50:00.000-04:00

***Remember in last week's blog when I promised there would be pictures from the "strip club" shoots in this week's blog? Well, I'm a big fat liar. I forgot to get the pictures off Gaffer Jim Housell's camera which has since gone back to New Jersey with him. And you can't get mad at Jim because he tried (twice) to make me get him a flash drive so he could turn over the pics. So, no strip club pictures. You're just going to have wait for the movie to see just how ridiculously hot all those scantily clad ladies were. Alas and alack. Somehow, we're just all going to have to move on.***

# # #

Autumn is my favorite time of year. The weather creates its own contradiction, cool enough to sleep with the windows open yet also have to throw an extra blanket on the bed to stay warm. Colors change and the world seems to slow down just a bit. It's a good time for reflection.

As of this writing, we've shot all but approximately eight pages of the Women's Studies script. Four of those eight pages will get knocked out this Sunday. Excepting one scene which may have to be reshot, Judith O'Dea (Hamlin), Melisa Breiner Sanders (Beth), Mundy Spears (Sharon), James A. Radack (Zack), and Kelley Slagle (Diane) have all been wrapped.

As the production cast and crew wind down and begin to move on, the post crew is just starting to ramp up. Jim McGivney has roughly half of the movie edited as "rush cuts." Sean Russell is organizing his sound clips and pre-planning the sound design. Ryan Sayward Whittier is waiting for me to call him back so he can try out some incidental music on me.

Me? I'm in this weird place were I'm still planning shoots, but pulling together schedules and attack plans for post. It's strange and almost sad not to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I tried to take this whole past weekend off and really didn't know what to do with myself. I spent most of Sunday going through footage and typing up shot lists so the post guys can organize their video and sound files. I thought a weekend away from the movie would be awesome, but it was just kind of depressing.

Melisa Breiner Sanders called me yesterday as she was waiting for a rehearsal to start, just to say "hi." We talked, caught up, told inside set jokes, and laughed. It was good. I got off the phone missing not only her, but the magic that comes with all of us on set and doing what we love. I knew that's why she had called. Not to check in on the movie, but just to feel a bit of that old on set magic. (That, and I'm totally friggin' hot and she needed to hear the sexy tambour of my voice to calm the itch in her loins. Yeah! No fake bitches here!)

In one of the older blogs, I equated filmmaking to a disease or an addiction, and it is, but not in the bad, sick way we think of diseases. It just fills you up,like a drug or food does. The people, the shared ideas, the laughter, the hardships, the difficult act of creating, of doing it together . . . All these things fill you up and as you slowly start to withdraw those elements, there's an empty space. It'll fill up with something else eventually. I know this. All things must pass.

But as the leaves change, they pass more slowly. Things are less busy. I have time on my hands to reflect and remember. In the autumn, letting go is somehow that much harder.

I Went to Bed Instead of Writing Yesterday's Blog.

2007-09-26T17:37:00.000-04:00

Horrifyingly unacceptable, isn't it?

I was beat though. The Women's Studies cast, crew, and I shot all day yesterday and the day before. Due to the time constraints set by the location and actors' schedules, we had to work at a breakneck pace that kept me moving constantly. By the time I wound down with dinner and a couple of beers, exhaustion hit me like a freight train and I had to run some REM cycles.

I thought I'd make up for it for by posting a ton of pictures from the shoots, but "Ha!" The joke was on me. It turns out all the good pictures were taken on the camera owned by our Gaffer, Jim Housell. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get them from him. Therefore, you'll have to settle for the few pictures I managed to drum up from my personal camera.

I know, I know. Late Blog. Sub-par pictures. Somebody fire this guy.

Next week I'll post some of the good pictures. Plus I'll be able to report not only on this shoot, but the one we're doing tomorrow with Tara Garwood (Judith) and Cindy Marie Martin (Mary). It's a humdinger.

Until then . . .

# # #

Mundy Spears (Sharon), Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), and Tara Garwood (Judith) out of costume at a friend's wedding. Yes, we have actual lives outside of this movie. Well, some of us do.

The camera department works with the steadicam. From L to R: Director of Photography Aaron Shirley, Camera Assistant Laurel Keller, Camera Operator Thomas Fant.

Tears for the dead.

"I went out the desert and I killed this guy." Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer) tells her tale.

Jack of all trades Joey Cabrera rummages through his make-up kit.

Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp (Black Widow Waitress) exudes total hotness while a blurry Joey Cabrera throws gang signs in the background.

Josh Davidson (Revels) touches up a tattoo for Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer).

"All right, what have I told people about playing around with props? It's all fun and games until Josh takes a knife to the chest."

Backyard Movies

2007-09-18T23:49:00.000-04:00

***SPOILER ALERT! MEGA, GIANT, HUGE, "OH MY GOD! HOW COULD THE BASTARDS GIVE THAT AWAY?" SPOILER ALERT****

(Seriously, a pretty big Women's Studies plot point is revealed in the pictures below, so if you're avoiding that sort of thing, don't read any further. I know. I know. the curiousity is killing you, and how could I put you in this position. You know something? Self-control. Try using some.)

# # #

Back in the late seventies, many low-budget, indie horror films in the Women's Studies vein were referred to as "backyard movies." The definition is a film with no studio backing, made by a bunch of dedicated filmmakers with no promise of distribution, only a hope. The idea is that the films were "shot in somebody's backyard." (Stephen King credits mystery/film critic Chris Steinbrenner as coining the term, so I will too.)

Whether or not many of these films actually were shot in a backyard depends on the film. Rest assured, one shot of Women's Studies was indeed shot in my back yard. Well, side yard.

It's not entirely uncommon. Hell, even the big boys do it. Spielberg shot pick-ups for Jaws in a friend's backyard swimming pool.

Below are some pictures from what was an incredibly inventive and fun pick-up shoot featuring Kelley "Diane" Slagle.

# # #

"What'd you put dirt in my hole for, boy?!?"

It's not a bomb. We swear. No really.

Get a piece of the rock.

You know what they say about girls who wear black bras, don't you? And have tattoos? And let happy Joeys paint blood all over them?

"Is she dead? Kick her! See if she's dead!"

Lick The Slagle. You'll totally trip balls.

Fall Preview

2007-09-11T18:11:00.000-04:00

Oh god/dess, I'm going to have to start actually writing blogs again.

See, we've only got a few more shoots until principle photography on Women's Studies is wrapped. That means I can't be lazy and rely on having pictures be the meat of my blogs. I actually have to, you know, write and think and stuff.

So what will this fall season bring to the Women's Studies blog? In addition to regular production updates, I have a few things in the hopper, including:

--A character analysis on the character of Zack, Mary's boyfriend and the sole major male character of Women's Studies who was so wonderfully brought to life by James A. Radack.

--Interviews with the Women's Studies post-production team: editor Jim McGivney, music composer Ryan Sayward Whittier, and sound editor/mixer/deity Sean Russell.

--A retrospective chat with WS Art Director/Costumer Stephanie Petagno about the hell I put her through to create the visual look of the film.

--You'll also hear from the amazing Lady Killers and Interlopers of Ross-Prentiss about their experiences shooting the film and why they'll never work with me again.

All this and more. Stay tuned.

"Baby, You Can Drive My Car"

2007-09-04T23:51:00.000-04:00

Another weekend, another Women's Studies shoot. We spent a lot of time in the car this past weekend . . . not driving, but filming.

Below are some pictures from those car shoots as well as a few from the weekend before where Ziggy, the babydoll from hell, came on set to creep everybody out.

Also, Fangoria Magazine released a short version of their Women's Studies set report. Look for the full article to appear in print in a future Fango issue.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) shows off her gaffer's tape "shoes."

Laura Bloechl (Iris) watches as Tiffany James (Melissa) shows us what a great mom she'd be.

Director Lonnie Martin and DP Aaron Shirley try to catch a quick catnap. The snuggle pictures will be used for blackmail later.

Lighting Assitant Joey Cabrera shows off his fantastic parenting skills.

The Lady Killers, from L to R: Laura Bloechl (Iris), Tara Garwood (Judith), Tiffany James (Melissa), Kelley Slagle (Diane)

Prepping the van for the car shoots.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Lighting Assistant Joey Cabrera work the light helicopter.

Taisha Cameron (Amy) smiles for the camera while Kevin Finkelstein (Keith) looks on.

Filming a car shot from Women's Studies.

"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."

Lonnie & the Lady Killers

2007-08-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

Since today's my birthday, I thought I'd post a picture that pretty much sums up my thirty-two years of existence on this earth.

Damn Lady Killers . . . always out to get me.

The Hump at Dead Ebb

2007-08-21T21:03:00.001-04:00

We're at Dead Ebb . . . and The Hump is chasing me.

We've got another big Women's Studies shoot this weekend. Lately they've all felt like big shoots. For weeks, I've been telling the cast and crew (and myself) "This next shoot gets us over the hump. Once we're done here, it's smooth sailing."

Yet somehow, each subsequent shoot brings it's own difficulties. We're all exhausted. Nerves are frayed. The money is getting tapped. The Ningen Manga technical gremlins have returned for an encore. Dead Ebb, man; the darkest part of the night where the tide comes right up to the edge of the dunes.

All I really want to do is just sit back and watch old Twilight Zone episodes. And why not? We're into our third month of shooting, and will definitely have a fourth. I'd say at this point that we've got a little over two-thirds of the film in the can. The light at the end of the tunnel is visible, but there's still dark chasms to cross in order to get there.

No time for rest though. There's still lots of movie to make. The tide hasn't gone out yet, nor has the sun risen . . . and the hump is hungry.

Below are various shots form various shoots over the past few weeks. Some of these pics could easily be considered "spoilers" so consider yourself warned.

# # #

Tara Garwood (Judith) and Kelley Slagle (Diane) share a tender moment.

Shooting a scene at Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy.

L to R: Tiffany James (Melissa), Art Director Stephanie Petagno, Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) in the green room during the "Initiation Scene."

The Ross-Prentiss Altar.

Kelley Slagle (Diane) does her best Michael Myers impression.

Extras look on in disbelief that Kelley Slagle (Diane) might actually have maternal instincts.

Tattoo You.

Tara Garwood (Judith) and extras prepare for an intense scene.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) touches up her hair before a shot.

The Lady Killers from L to R: Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), Tara Garwood (Judith), Kelley Slagle (Diane), Laura Bloechl (Iris), Tiffany James (Melissa)

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), Santa Fe Writer's Project Director Andrew Gifford, and Tara Garwood (Judith) pose by the Ningen Manga Productions booth at Horrorfind Weekend 8.

Melisa Breiner-Sanders skips directly to the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Don't ask.

Again, just don't ask.

"Lady of the Moon, Lord of the Sun, protect me and mine now day is done. Allow me to live each day in the light, and give me the strength to do what is right."

Tease

2007-08-14T00:06:00.000-04:00

You don't want to hear me babble do you? Not when you can watch the kickin' rad Women's Studies teaser trailer edited by Jim McGivney with Music by Rev 9.

Dramatis Personae

2007-08-07T14:02:00.000-04:00

We're smack dab in the middle of a big shoot, so I only have time to offer one little goodie today: a full cast portrait of the main players of Women's Studies. (Click the picture for a larger verison.)

# # #

Left to Right: Melisa Breiner Sanders (Beth), Tara Garwood (Judith), Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), James A.Radack (Zack), Judith O'Dea (Senator Hamlin), Kelley Slagle (Diane), Mundy Spears (Sharon), Tiffany James (Melissa), Laura Bloechl (Iris)

# # #

You won't want to miss next week's blog, as you'll get first look at actual footage from the film when we feature our brand new teaser trailer which is making it's debut at this coming weekend's Horrorfind Weekend 8 in Baltimore MD.

Lastly, this blog celebrates one year of the Tuesday Women's Studies production blog. I was only late once. Not bad, eh?

Secrets & Lies

2007-07-31T00:42:00.000-04:00

We got a lot of great pictures from this past week's shoot with Judith O'Dea (Senator Hamlin). However, I realized while going through them that I can't post most of them without giving away some major plot points of Women's Studies. Hopefully, you'll get some sense of how the three days with her went.

They were emotionally charged scenes, but Judith and Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) were up the the task. The crew fed off of the actors emotional intensity, and the actors seemed to draw energy from the crew's enthusiasm for the scene. Again, I can't really talk about it in detail, but trust me . . . it'll be something worth waiting for.

We're also officially halfway through principle photography at this point which is pretty awesome. Granted,we have a lot of film to shoot, but it's nice to look in my script and see as many pages marked out as not. We're on target to finish up sometime in September though I imagine we'll be shooting pick-ups through the autumn months. Still, the end of the tunnel, while not quite visible is there. I celebrated the milestone by sleeping at least eight hours a night for multiple nights.

The next blog could likely be short as Tuesday falls right in the middle of a major shoot. I'll try to have something though. Until Then . . .

Left to Right: Greg Pass, Director Lonnie Martin, Unit Production Manager Kurt Gustafson

Judith O'Dea (Senator Hamlin) poses for a publicity photo.

Lonnie Martin works through a scene.

L to R: Boom Operator Kevin Nowak, Lonnie Martin, Camera Operator Thomas Fant, Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), 1st AC Laurel Keller

Joey Cabrera applies make-up to James A. Radack (Zack).

Lonnie Martin rehearses a scene with Judith O'Dea and Cindy Marie Martin as the cast and crew look on.

Martha Huggins grabs a quick snack in betwen shots.

The green room just gets stranger and stranger.

Cindy Marie Martin and Judith O'Dea relax for a moment.

Art Director Stephanie Petagno and Assistant Joey Cabrera prepare a scene with Judith O'Dea.

Helter Skelter

2007-07-26T08:27:00.000-04:00

The shoot at Iris's Parents House was the longest, most intense,and most difficult Women's Studies shoot so far. Yet even with only two weeks hindsight, I flash more on how much fun we had than anything else. We had the honor of working with Emmy nominated FX Make-Up artist Jim Choate and his awesome assistant, Buddy "Captain Dammit" Garrett. They turned out some effects which are just bang-up. In addition Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp outdid herself. I don't want to give too much away, but this scene should definitely be exciting to behold.

Women's Studies is at the halfway point in it's shooting schedule and we have almost two weeks of relative downtime with only one small shoot before gearing up for August's BIG shoots. I'll be using the time to get the second half of production organized and start pre-planning for autumn and winter's long post-production process. In addition, Producer Cindy Marie Martin will be getting everything ready for the Women's Studies teaser trailer premiere at Horrorfind Weekend 8 on August 10 - 12.

So, enjoy the ton of pictures. I have to get back to work.

Director Lonnie Martin makes some announcements at the beginning of the shoot.

Laura Bloechl (Iris) getting ready for a scene.

FX Make-Up Artist Jim Choate consults with Art Director Stephanie Petagno.

Shooting an exterior scene.

DP Aaron Shirley catches a catnap during fight rehearsal.

Lonnie Martin talks to Camera Operator Thomas Fant.

Tiffany James (Melissa) works with Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp while Bruce Allen Dawson (Chair Man) looks on.

Phil Piruzzi Filsoof (Iris's Father) and Kelley Slagle (Diane) prep for a combat scene.

Lonnie Martin gives direction to Laura Bloechl (Iris) and Tara Garwood (Judith).

Jim Choate applies FX make-up for a blood effect.

DP Aaron Shirley checking the monitor.

The "Iris's Parents House" set.

Keith Haller (Bathroom Man), you've never looked better!

Things are looking up for the Lady Killers.

Art Director Stephanie Petagno helps Tiffany James (Melissa) get her face on.

Sound Engineer Sean Russell looks so serene, doesn't he?

Clockwise from Left: Tiffany James (Melissa), Kelley Slagle (Diane), Tara Garwood (Judith), Laura Bloechl (Iris)

The final minutes before rolling.

Lunchtime.

1st AC Jim Housell slates a scene.

Who ordered the bloody knife?

Lonnie Martin and Jim Housell look on while Stephanie Petagno takes the shine off Bruce Allen Dawson (Chair Man).

Shanna Beauchamp rehearses with Bruce Allen Dawson (Chair Man) and Tiffany James (Melissa).

Boom Op Kevin Nowak enjoys a moment of down time.

Tiffany James (Melissa) channeling Anne Bonny. (And if you get that reference, I'll give you a cookie.)

FX Make-Up Assistant Buddy "Captain Dammit" Garrett checks out David Crosby (Couch Man).

Tiffany James (Melissa) is far too happy and must be eliminated.

Sean Russell ensures that a scene with Tara Garwood ( Judith), Phil Piruzzi Filsoof (Iris' Father), and David Crosby (Couch Man) will be properly heard.

Tiffany James (Melissa) and Boom Op Kevin Nowak take direction.

From Left to Right: Sound Engineer Sean Russell, Camera Operator Thomas Fant, DP Aaron Shirley. (Shanna Beauchamp is obscured by Sean's shoulder. Jared Lidd is in the background stealing the script.)

Lonnie Martin is far too happy and must be eliminated.

Keith Haller (Bathroom Man), Jim Choate, and Captain Dammit in Make-Up Central.

Kelley Slagle pleads with producer Cindy Marie Martin, "Laura and Tara are eating all the olives!"

Even heartless killers must eat.

The Avon visit from Hell.

"It's okay David. This won't hurt. Trust us."

Laura Bloechl (Iris) and Tara Garwood (Judith) caught in the act of hoarding olives.

A brief moment of calm.

Bruce Allen Dawson rehearses some more with Shanna Beauchamp.

"I just can't figure out why boys don't like me."

Late Blog

2007-07-25T23:00:00.001-04:00

I know. I missed a blog. It's sad.

No excuses, but the truth is that the Women's Studies crew has been shooting almost non-stop since Sunday morning. I've clocked in a total of about sixteen hours of sleep since then, so rather than fight through exhaustion for lame captions, I'm going to break tradition and post more than one blog a week.

This week's blog will go up sometime tomorrow. (Thursday,7/26/07) There will be forty, count 'em FORTY, pictures from last week's "Iris's Parent's House" shoot.

We'll return to your regularly scheduled blog on Tuesday, July 31 with pictures and a report from our shoot with Judith O'Dea.

Excuse me while I go comatose for the next sixteen hours.

A Brief Interlude (10,000 Days)

2007-07-17T23:55:00.000-04:00

***Tomorrow night, Wednesday, July 18, at 10pm (EST), I'll be doing a live interview with Women's Studies co-stars Judith O'Dea (Senator Hamlin), Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), and Tara Garwood (Judith) on Blog Talk Radio's Movie Geeks United! broadcast. The show can be accessed in live or archived format.***

***There are no pictures from our shoot on this week's blog, not because we didn't take a ridiculous amount of them this weekend, but because I can't find the USB cable to my digital camera. Next week we'll have pictures from this weekend's shoot.***

# # #

We shot a big scene this past weekend.It was one of the toughest and most complex, and also one of the most important. I really can't tell you much about it with out giving anything away, so I guess this blog is more for the cast and crew than anybody else. The scene has to do with Iris, her parents, and the Ross-Prentiss academy girls, as well as change, death, resurrection, and love. More than anything, it's about love. The cast and crew might have some kind of apoplexy reading that, but if they search deep, they'll see I'm right. Horrible things have been done in the name of love. At it's worst, it can be a selfish, cruel emotion.

I tried to play the following Tool song while we were rehearsing a big moment in the scene but with the chaos of the shoot, it was a rushed harried time. So much of shooting a film is like that. You want to stop, connect with the people on set, and savor the moment, but most of the time you just rush to get the shot and try, which is often futile, to stay on schedule. However, there are those moments of true wonder that occur, and despite the very long hours my wonderful cast and crew spent shooting this weekend, there were many.

Anyway, I just wanted to post the lyrics to "10,000 Days" by Tool because it always makes me think of this scene and change, and love, and how sometimes the only thing we can do for someone we love is to spare them anymore pain.

10,000 Days
lyrics by Maynard James Keenan

Listen to the tales and romanticize,
How we'd follow the path of the hero.
Boast about the day when the rivers overrun.
How we rise to the height of our halo.

Listen to the tales as we all rationalize
Our way into the arms of the savior,
Feigning all the trials and the tribulations;
None of us have actually been there.
Not like you.

Ignorant siblings in the congregation
Gather around spewing sympathy,
Spare me.
None of them can even hold a candle up to you.
Blinded by choice, these hypocrites won't see.

But, enough about the collective Judas.
Who could deny you were the one who
Illuminated your little piece of the divine?

And this little light of mine, a gift you passed on to me;
I'm gonna let it shine to guide you safely on your way,
Your way home ...

Oh, what are they going to do when the lights go down
Without you to guide them all to Zion?
What are they going to do when the rivers overrun
Other than tremble incessantly?

High is the way, but all eyes are upon the ground.
You were the light and the way they'll only read about.
I only pray, Heaven knows when to lift you out.
Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough;
You're going home.

You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fists at the gates saying:
"I've come home now!
Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father.
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now!
My time now!
Give me my, give me my wings!"

You are the light and way that they will only read about.

Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance,
(With the) burden of proof tossed upon the believers.
You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence,
Judith Marie, unconditional one.

Daylight dims leaving cold fluorescents.
Difficult to see you in this light.
Please forgive this bold suggestion, but
Should you see your Maker's face tonight,
Look Him in the eye, look Him in the eye, and tell Him:
"I never lived a lie, never took a life, but surely saved one.
Hallelujah, it's time for you to bring me home."

School Daze

2007-07-10T02:00:00.001-04:00

It was just like being back in college, except I wasn't drunk.

We shot more of the "dorm room" dialogue scenes for Women's Studies this past weekend. Things went quite well. The dynamic of the characters is really developing nicely. Also, we got some spectacular footage. The HD looks absolutely beautiful.

I'm being extremely lazy on the blog this week due to the fact that we have one of our biggest shoots coming up this weekend. Hey, but pictures are worth a thousand words, so I wrote a 12,000 word blog this week. That's got to be some kind of record, huh? Right?

Hello?

Mundy Spears (Sharon), Tiffany James (Melissa), and Art Director Stephanie Petagno along with a crapload of make-up.

Sound Engineer Sean Russell and Boom Operator Kevin Nowak wait while the scene is set.

Tiffany James (Melissa), Camera Operator Thomas Fant, and Laura Bloechl (Iris) take direction.

Kelley Slagle (Diane) gets into character.

Laura Bloechl (Iris) and Mundy Spears (Sharon).

Boom Operator Kevin Nowak is tempted by the heathen devil tobacco of Tiffany James (Melissa). Just say "NO," Kevin!

Laura Bloechl (Iris) rehearses a scene as Director Lonnie Martin looks on.

Camera Assistant Laurel Keller and Director of Photography Aaron Shirley are caught by surprise.

From L to R: Tara Garwood (Judith), Lonnie Martin, Unit Production Manager Kurt Gustafson, Kelley Slagle (Diane)

Mundy Spears (Sharon) looks on while Sound Engineer Sean Russell makes sound adjustments.

Laura Bloechl (Iris) and Tara Garwood (Judith) clown around on set.

Herr Direcktor at the end of the shoot, exhausted but pleased.

Your Mom is an Enormous Nun Who Can't Play Tennis

2007-07-03T22:24:00.000-04:00

My forehead is sun burnt and my hair smelled of bad Chinese food before I washed it.

I'm a bit tired and loopy, so this blog will probably seem pretty random.

The Women's Studies cast and crew had some good times over the past three days. I think it was because we were all just glad to be doing dialogue scenes instead of scenes that involved combat, hiking up a mountain, or stopping traffic on a blind hill at midnight, which we did this past Friday night . . . or Saturday morning . . . You know what I mean.

Melisa Breiner Sanders (Beth) was around to do some of her scenes. She's short and makes fun of your mom. After eight hours of working with her, EVERYBODY was making fun of everybody else's mom. It kept things light though.

We have schizophrenic Production Assistants. I mean, the PAs themselves are not actually schizophrenic, but the scheduling of them is. One day we'll have like five of them, and the next day we'll have none. On Monday we had none and we could have used five. Today, we had four and could have used two.

We could use more PAs on this film in case you're interested. There's no pay and we'll probably make fun of you and/or your mom. However, you'll be well fed and caffeinated, and I'll guarantee you'll laugh your ass off at least once. Trust me on this.

All right. That's all I have to say. The only thing saving this blog from being filed under "lamest ever" is that fact that there are pictures from the various shoots. They're not the pictures I took of Melisa's mom, but they'll have to do.

Everyone gets ready for a big outdoor shot.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) has make-up applied by Art Director Stephanie Petagno.

DP Aaron Shirley and Zhibo Lai set up some lights.

Director Lonnie Martin explains a low angle shot.

Cindy Marie Martin and Carlyn Paschall wait patiently for the shot to roll.

Lonnie Martin and Aaron Shirley set up for "Zack's Apartment."

Melisa Breiner Sanders (Beth) is ready for her close-up.

Aaron Shirley readies the camera.

From left to right: Lonnie Martin, James A.Radack (Zack), Melisa Briener Sanders (Beth), and Camera Operator Thomas Fant.

The camera crew is ready to roll.

Melisa Breiner Sanders brings the crew some water.

Your mom is a lonely mike stand.

Gearing Down to Gear Up

2007-06-26T09:33:00.000-04:00

***MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Ningen Manga Productions will be in attendance at Horrorfind Weekend 8 being held in Baltimore, Maryland on August 10 - 12, 2007.

Members of the Women's Studies cast and crew will be on hand. Also, attendees will get their first look at the film as we'll be premiering the Women's Studies teaser trailer. Details and tickets for the event can be found at www.horrorfindweekend.com .***

# # #

Though we've been shooting Women's Studies for almost a month now, this week begins what is essentially two months of non-stop production on the film. At this point, we've got about 80% of the movie's scenes scheduled and hope to have the remaining 20% done so by month's end. (Knock on wood.)

Up until now, we've been shooting outdoors and during the day which from a lighting set-up point of view, isn't too hard. Basically, all we have to do is pray it doesn't rain and bring some bounce cards to throw light in the right direction. As we get into some of our interiors though, the size and scope of the production grows a little bit. Having the month of "warm-up" to work out the kinks of production has been extremely beneficial. I'm very excited about this weekend's "church shoot" of a pivotal and rather involved scene from an Art Direction point of view.

This past Saturday, we were lucky enough to have a very lazy day of shooting elements for a montage sequence at the Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy. One of the joys of filmmaking is finding those moments where you can slow down and take your time instead of having to worry about getting all your day's shots in. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors, and the cast and crew was happy to have the slower pace.

That same evening we shot two short indoor scenes with Mary which help to establish her character. Again, it was nice to have two small lighting set-ups to help us prep for this weekend's much larger one. Yet it's the smaller details and smaller scenes which often add the most texture to a story, so I'm very jazzed about the footage we shot.

The day was so lazy that not many pictures were taken, but here's a few snapshots.

The cast relaxes in between shots. From left to right: Laura Bloechl (Iris), Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), Tara Garwood (Judith), Mundy Spears (Sharon), Tiffany James (Melissa).

Tiffany James checks to see what's cooking in Mundy Spears' oven.

Camera Operator Thomas Fant and DP Aaron Shirley setting up a yet another jib shot.

"Free me!" Laura Bloechl, Tara Garwood, and Tiffany James work to remove the pregnancy belly from Mundy Spears.

Thomas Fant and Kurt Gustafson work on a shot of "Mary's Altar."

Hostel Territory

2007-06-19T12:09:00.000-04:00

(***Women's Studies update: Last weekend and this weekend are B-Roll shoots. Our next big scene will be shot on June 30/July 1.***)

Hostel II tanked and everybody keeps asking me what I think about it. Since I haven't seen the movie, I'm not sure why my opinion matters. Rest assured that I want to see it and probably will see it. Anyway, here goes:

Director Eli Roth posted this blog in response to Hostel II's poor box office showing.

Hey Everyone,

I'm in Paris, doing press for the French release of Hostel Part II, and tonight I'm off to Rome for the last leg of the press tour. After that I'm going to take a long overdue break, since I've gone from one film to the next without stopping, just to recharge my brain a bit.

I want to thank all of you for your kind e-mails and incredible support for the film. However, piracy has become worse than ever now, and a stolen workprint (with uninished music, no sound effects, and no VFX) leaked out on line before the release, and is really hurting us, especially internationally. Piracy will be the death of the film industry, as it killed the music industry, and while it makes a smaller dent in huge movies like Spider Man 3, it really hurts films like mine, which have far less of an advertising and production budget. Not only that, critics have actually been REVIEWING the film based off the pirated copy, which is inexcusable. Some of these critics I have actually known for a few years, and while I wouldn't dignify them by mentioning them by name, I know who they are, as do the studios, and other filmmakers, and they will no longer have any access to any of my films.

What I'm saying is, this is your last chance to see one of my films for a while. If you haven't seen it, go now, because after next weekend the film will be gone from theaters. There are too many other summer movies coming in, so basically we get two weeks in cinemas, and then the film will live on DVD. I am not directing CELL any time soon, and I most likely will take the rest of the year to write my other projects. Which means I wouldn't shoot until the spring, and you wouldn't see a film directed by me in the cinemas until at least next fall. If everyone on my friends list went to see the film this weekend and brought a friend, it would make a huge difference. Bring a non-horror fan - try to convert them. It's the only way these films will live. But right now the R rated horror film is in serious jeopardy. Studios feel the public doesn't want them any more, and so they are only putting PG-13 films into production. The only way to counter this perception is to get out there and support R rated horror. It's the only message they'll hear. People love the movie, and even though it only cost $10 million dollars (as opposed to the other summer tentpoles which cost $300 million), and has already earned its money back, if it's not a massive money earner then they'll just continue to make the same PG-13 films everyone complained about a few years ago.

To counter piracy, fans can flood file sharing services with fake Hostel II downloads just so no one can ever actually get the movie, but the only thing that really makes a difference is supporting the movie in the theaters. Also - the theater OWNERS know this as well. If horror movies aren't bringing in customers, they're not going to program them. If we are going to send them a message, we have to do it with our wallets, and we have to do it now. I've done all I can to make a great film for the fans, as violent and bloody and fun as possible. The rest is up to you guys...

Thanks again for all your support,

Eli

I undertand your disappointment, Mr. Roth. We all hope our film will be huge. However, may I put this in perspective for you?

First off, Hostel II tanking supports my argument that horror, true horror, is still a fringe genre that only a small percentage of the population seek out. People try to argue me on this all the time with shit like, "But The Ring . . ." "But The Exorcist . . . "But Scream . . ." Yes, all three of those are both good horror films and made oodles of money. That said, it's a big jump away from watching Heather Matarazzo get strung up and gutted while some other chick masturbates in her blood . . . which I hear happens in Hostel II.

For months, Eli Roth has been out and about touting how Hostel II would be one of the most disturbing, goriest movies ever made, and why not? The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre made a small fortune on such a reputation. The problem is that your average moviegoer who likes horror probably doesn't shine to all that. They like to get sacred, and a little blood and a little horror, but not the gobs of it that the old 80s low-budget films offered. They want (and I hate to use this term) "Horror Lite," those PG-13 horror movies that Hollywood is so in love with right now. (It allows them to advertise to a wider audience.)

Are there exceptions? Sure there are. The original Friday the 13th made it's money because of the gore effects, but that was 1980 and no one had really seen effects like this before. Make no mistake. The star of that film was Tom Savini's make-up, not Adrienne King as Alice.

When you look at the horror movies that make big money, they do so on concept not gross-outs.

This is why the original Hostel and the Saw movies were such big successes. They came out when the nightly news was filled with stories about Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and "Holy Shit, are we torturing people?" Torture was "in the ether" so to speak, and people used those movies to work out their discomfort with the fact that torture was something very real in the world. (It still is, but for better or for worse, it shocks us less than it did two years ago.)

Finally, and most importantly, let's take a look at the numbers. The original Hostel was made for $4.5 million. It pulled in about $20 million on it's opening weekend in the U.S. and levelled off theatrically with a total of around $50 million. Throw in another $30 million for DVD rentals and sales and you're looking at $80 million .

Not bad, right? In fact, pretty damned good especially when this isn't accounting for overseas theatre and DVD business. Certainly enough to warrant production of a sequel.

Lion's Gate gives Roth $10.2 million to make a sequel. But after two weeks in the theatre, Hostel II has brought in $14 million WORLDWIDE. It's a drop off to be sure and definitely one the producers can't have anticipated. Even with the traditional 50% box office drop off sequels often get, they had to be expecting around $40 million in gross receipts. But then again, if you go back and look at those original numbers, you see that while for it's budget the original Hostel was a hit, it was only gathering up a small percentage of the movie going audience.

No one could have anticipated Hostel II tanking especially after Saw III made more money than each of the two previous installments last fall. That said, there was no reason to expect a huge hit either, especially after Grindhouse had also tanked with marquee directors Rodriguez and Tarantino attached. Both Hostel II and Grindhouse will make their money back over the long haul on DVD because that's how horror movies make their money. They get a following, friends tell friends. Tobe Hooper is still collecting royalty checks for the original Chainsaw.

Piracy shot down Hostel II? Bullshit. Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3 made a shitload and they were pirated to hell and back. The fact remains that the gory type of horror film Roth makes (And makes well, I might add. I loved the first Hostel.) appeals to a niche audience. Horror may seem mainstream, but it isn't.

KA-THUMP*

(*Sound of me hopping off my soapbox.)

Sex is Violence

2007-06-12T10:17:00.000-04:00

***BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD!***

Towards the end of Women's Studies, Mary (Cindy Marie Martin) becomes aware of the deadly agenda of Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy. Soon, she realizes escape is only possible if she makes a stand and fights against the Academy Girls including Diane (Kelley Slagle) and Judith (Tara Garwood).

The "Duel of the Goddesses" as I've come to call it is the climax of Women's Studies on most levels. For Mary, it's the time where she finds her own inner strength, her resolution, and her will to truly stand on her own.

Yet it's also the physical culmination of Mary's relationship with Judith. Throughout the film, their friendship has undertones of something much deeper, and despite that fact that fate has turned them into rivals, that emotional and sexual energy finds an outlet in their physical confrontation. The idea I've always reiterated was while it looks like a fight scene, the Duel of the Goddesses is really a sex scene.

Cindy Marie Martin and Tara Garwood rehearsed for weeks under the tutelage of Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp to perfect the elegant yet brutal fight moves for the scene. Once at the location, they endured unforgiving mountain terrain including sharp rocks and embedded roots. Despite those obstacles they, along with Kelley Slagle, gave nothing less than their all.

The Ningen Manga gremlins have finally started to give up and production ran the smoothest it has yet. Our biggest issue was being about thirty miles from an airport and having to wait for planes to pass so they wouldn't interfere with sound. Being a weekend, planes would come by at five and sometimes even two minute intervals. Our windows were short, but we managed.

Stephanie Petagno's costume and make-up designs were also on full display during this shoot. Though I think the actors did part of her job for her with the various cuts, scrapes and bruises they got while shooting. The combination of real and fake injuries is going to make this scene something really special.

Since we shot for three days, I've including sixteen pics taken over the course of the weekend. Enjoy.

Director Lonnie Martin, Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp, and Sound Engineer Sean Russell survey the location.

Camera Operator Thomas Fant stalks Kelley Slagle (Diane) as she touches up her make-up.

Boom Operator Kevin Nowak sets up.

Joey Cabrera applies FX make-up to Kelley Slagle (Diane) while Shanna Beauchamp looks on.

Lonnie Martin and Art Director Stephanie Petagno discuss the look of the scene.

Stephanie Petagno's make-up arsenal.

DP Aaron Shirley and Thomas Fant work out how to shoot Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) with Lonnie Martin.

Sean Russell listens as another plane flies through.

Breaking for Lunch.

Shanna Beauchamp, Stephanie Petagno, and Tara Garwood (Judith) share a joke in between shots.

Weapons of choice?

Lonnie Martin and Aaron Shirley work with Cindy Marie Martin and Tara Garwood on a zip-line shot.

Cast and Crew watch a shot on playback.

Tara Garwood and Shanna Beauchamp talk over choreography.

Getting ready to shoot a scene.

Cindy Marie Martin, Shanna Beauchamp, and Tara Garwood celebrate the payoff for weeks of hard work.

Graveyard of the Goddess

2007-06-05T00:03:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, we shot one of my favorite scenes in Women's Studies, the "Graveyard of the Goddess" scene.

It's an intimate scene in which Judith (Tara Garwood) introduces Mary (Cindy Marie Martin) to a sacred place on the campus of Ross-Prentiss Women's Academy, a stone circle where centuries before women were burned as witches. To Judith, it's a place to seek guidance, something she senses Mary could use. Once there, Judith explains her theory of why the sexes will never be equal and Mary opens up about her troubles with her boyfriend Zack (James A. Radack).

It was a good day. For the first time, I got to see Art Director Stephanie Petagno's Academy Girl uniform in action. Plus, after threatening to dump rain on us all week, we were gifted with "just right" temperatures and sunshine. We got some great footage, and Cindy and Tara did a couple of "one-take wonders" which was awesome to behold.

Some of the Ningen Manga technical gremlins still plagued us, but these particular problems helped us figure out solutions for some long standing bugs we hope to implement on this Friday's shoot. So I guess everything happens for a reason.

Below are some pics from the shoot. Enjoy

First AC Jim Housell and Camera Operator Thomas Fant prep the jib for the day's first shot.

Director Lonnie Martin gives some final direction before a shot rolls.

Adam Schreck gets ready to slate as Boom Operator Kevin Nowak and Actors Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Tara Garwood (Judith) look on.

Lonnie Martin consults with Sound Engineer Sean Russell.

Kurt Gustafson keeps everyone on schedule.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Tara Garwood (Judith) take direction for the scene.

Lonnie Martin and DP Aaron Shirley make sure the shot is right before rolling.

Shooting a scene from Women's Studies.

First Session

2007-05-29T23:44:00.000-04:00

Today we kicked off the first day of production on Women's Studies, which if I may be allowed a brief moment of self-congratulation was a great success.

Don't get me wrong, conditions were less than optimal. The Ningen Manga gremlins indeed showed their ugly faces. We were shorthanded on crew. Lighting conditions weren't the most ideal. (Director of Photography Aaron Shirley commented that he felt like he was shooting underwater.) Yet none of that is what defined the day. In fact, the day was defined by how we overcame the obstacles put in front of us.

Plus, it was just a blast to be shooting on location. This is what all the lead up has been for . . . to get out there and create something.

I'm going to go ahead and let some of the pictures we took speak for the day, but a big shout out to the cast, crew, and extras who showed up and gave 110% today.

Here's to the beginning . . .

DP Aaron Shirley and Camera Operator Thomas Fant set up the jib for "Mary's Reveal."

Sound crew Sean Russell and Kevin Nowak always get the best spots to hang out in.

Director Lonnie Martin and DP Aaron Shirley review a shot on playback.

Adam Schreck slates a shot.

Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) prepares for the scene.

Director Lonnie Martin works with actors Cindy Marie Martin, Danielle Dike, and Sami Bashore.

Shooting a scene from Women's Studies.

Penultimate

2007-05-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Exactly one week from today is the first shooting day of Women's Studies.

An endorphin rush raced up my spine writing that.

Most of June will be spent shooting what I've been referring to as "second unit footage" though it will be done by the "first unit" crew. (There is no second unit crew on Women's Studies. It's all of us doing everything.) Many of the shoots will be to get one or two shots which are either transitional footage, MOS ("without sound" for the layman), or simply short, quarter or half page scenes that don't involve a whole lot of crazy camera moves, special effects, or long set-up time. The logic was to try and get some of this "smaller" stuff taken care of at the beginning of the shoot while everyone is still fresh.

That said, there are two MAJOR scenes being shot in June. One is a scene involving our heroine, Mary, near the end of the film. The other . . . Well, lets' just say I'm hoping it's going to "kick ass" in more ways than one.

While the past few weeks have been hectic with tons of choices needing to be made, there's also been a slow excitement building as well. Every cast and crew member I talk to seems to have an electricity running through them. All conversations have the subtext of "This is going to be so COOL!" It a pretty great feeling.

I'm a little nervous, but it's a good nervous; the nervous I'd get before opening night of a show back in my theater days. Everything seems louder, brighter, and alive as if everything is happening all at once. Yet my mind is more focused, less scattered, even though one minute I'm thinking about light equipment and the next about what color bloomers the academy girls should be wearing.

In last week's blog that wasn't, (Hey, I didn't miss one . . . technically.) I mentioned that we'd begun having rehearsals, and in a lot of ways I think that's what has made things click into place. There's something about exploring the realm of ideas and working with actors to figure out to bring those ideas to life that's totally invigorating.

I keep coming to back to imagery involving making something live, and that's what it feels like . . . that something well-rested is waking up and ready to take on the world.

Summer is here, my friends. Let's make a movie.

Casting & Rehearsals

2007-05-15T23:25:00.000-04:00

Did some additional casting this week as well as started rehearsals. First day of shooting is only TWO WEEKS away.

More to come.

48 Hours of Madness

2007-05-08T23:29:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Ningen Manga Productions participated in the Washington DC 48 Hour Film Project, a competition where filmmaking teams are given a genre, prop, character, and line of dialogue and have to make a film containing those elements in a 48 hour period. Sounds like madness? It is.

Because of Women's Studies, I hadn't intended on NMP doing the 48HFP this year. However, Cindy convinced me that a) It would be a good chance to field test the Women's Studies gear and crew in a time sensitive situation and b) that it would be a good creative outlet that would be a hell of a lot of fun, and notch up our enthusiasm for Women's Studies. I'm happy to report she was correct on both counts.

I have to say, it really is a fantastic crew of creative individuals Cindy and I have assembled. This weekend wasn't easy by any means, but it was never problematic. The personalities mix well and any obstacle was met head on and dealt with quickly and smoothly. We all seem to communicate well and are on the way to building the kind of trust that's integral to a project the size of Women's Studies.

Anyway, the 48 Hour Film Project . . . So our genre was drama, which is good because it's really open ended, but also bad because, well, it's really open ended. The night before when brainstorming more difficult genres like sci-fi, I had come up with this idea about a guy who buys a robot and wants it to love him. I told Cindy about it and she really liked it. The next night after we drew drama, she was like, "We should do that robot thing."

So, I did. Friday night, I wrote a thirteen page script which was great, the problem being, your 48HFP film can be no longer than seven minutes long. Following the "one page of script = one minute of film" rule, we were six minutes over. So, we chopped. A group of mass murderers (Aaron Shirley, Kurt Gustafson, Jim Housell, and my own wife) proceeded to kill my darlings and got the script down to a leaner eight-and-a-half pages.

Deadline was 7:30pm, Sunday evening. The clock was ticking. We slept for about four hours. The next morning, we got up bright and early, caffeinated heavily, and drove to our first location, an office building.

A quick word about the the Ningen Manga gremlins. They like to make their presence felt. It's not a Ningen Manga Production unless there's some weird unexplainable technical snafu during the first set-up. This time, it was a weird audio issue with the DV Rack monitoring system we were using. We worked it out, but I'm getting gremlin repellent before the first Women's Studies shoot.

After we finished the office shoot, we headed back to our second location, the basement of my house, shoveled down some pizza, and began to shoot the core of the movie. Around this time, we hit a strange sort of serenity that was magical. For whatever reason, any pressure from the time crunch I felt disappeared and we started moving at a steady pace yet still had time to explore the ideas we wanted as well as get the shots and sound right. It was pretty cool.

Around 1:00am we wrapped inside and headed outside to shoot our big emotional climax. It was chilly, even with the lights, but we got the best shots we could considering how dog tired we were. At 4:00am, we headed over to my brother-in-law's house, woke him up. (He had no idea we were coming.), and shot our final scene.

If you think we then started editing, you're crazy. We had BEEN editing since we started shooting. Aaron Shirley had been working in tandem with us. We'd shoot some footage, dump it to him to edit, and then shoot some more. The rough cut of the film was finished about thirty minutes after we shot the last scene.

Aaron and I spent the next four hours tweaking and shaving, as well as finding the right rhythms and tone. It was a lot of ideas we were trying to shove into a short film, maybe too much, but it was too late for such considerations now. We were less than twelve hours away from the deadline.

Around 11:00am, we got the final picture lock FTPed to the sound and music guys. (Our Composer, Ryan Sayward Whittier, had been working on music since Friday.) They scrambled to match up the recorded sound, put in sound FX, sweeten the mix, and set it all down.

At 5:00pm, we left with the sound mix, raced back to the editor and slapped it together. There was a moment of panic when we had trouble burning out the whole thing to DVD. It worked out, finally, and Cindy drove us into DC at a speed of roughly a trillion miles per hour.

Thankfully we got our film in on time, with eighteen minutes to spare.

The film is called Posi+ive. It takes place in a not-so-distant future where a ban on sex and marriage is placed on HIV positive individuals. In response, a biotech industry selling life-like robot "Companions" has arisen. The story follows Ian, a positive, who purchases a Companion and tries to love her, hoping she will have the capability to love him back. We'll have it online to view after the official screenings.

It was a fun weekend. I'm still recovering from the effects of sleep deprivation, but I wouldn't think of taking it back for a second. Otherwise, I wouldn't have this picture of Women Studies's own "Judith," Tara Garwood, pinching the mystical nipple of Venus.

(A big thanks to Kirk Lambert for not only being part of our 48HFP team this year, but taking all the great pictures you see in this blog.)

Maternal Evolution

2007-05-01T13:56:00.000-04:00

*WARNING: Minor spoilers ahead.*

Though I'm making a film called Women's Studies, the issue of motherhood is one I've sort of avoided. There's "sisters" and "daughters" aplenty, but the mothers get a bit of the short shrift.

I'm not in any way implying that motherhood and womanhood have anything to do with each other, but from a purely Darwinian, biological point of view, giving birth is what a woman's body is designed to do. Before any ladies out there get offended, keep in mind that from a physical standpoint, the importance of males drops far more considerably. At least women are biological incubators with intricate layers of child-bearing hardware. Dudes are the evolutionary equivalent of a garden hose.

The human infant isn't well designed for survival on it's own. Spiders are all but abandoned by their mother days after they're born. Snakes hatch from eggs and never meet Mom. Even kittens and horses are pretty much ready to do what they need to survive after a few weeks. Yet even a year after it's born, a human child can't do more than walk around (poorly) and shit itself. (I'll admit they do that pretty well.)

To increase the chances of survival, humans have evolved in a behavioral sense to be able to rear and care for human children. You see this in the higher primates as well as elephants and other large mammals as well. The babies are reared for a considerable period of time by at least one individual or animal, but often two parents or even in a group situation before going off by themselves to make more babies.

Evolutionary Psychology (EP) is a discipline which theorizes that much of our behavior is hardwired into us instinctually. For example, one theory states that for partners, women tend to seek out men who are attractive and intelligent because on a sub-conscious, instinctual level, they want the highest genetic material to pass on to offspring. The same theory states that men are attracted to women with larger breasts and wider hips because those are physical attributes that lead to successful bearing of a healthy child. Other evolutionary theories attempt to explain why men are more prone to infidelity than women, (Males are physically designed to disseminate their genetic material as widely as possible. Think of cats.) as well as why women tend to initiate most divorces. (If a male can't adequately provide food and protection, what good is he? Think of a pride of lions.)

Evolutionary psychologists theorize that early civilization's social structures evolved from these instinctual needs. Men and women chose each other on the merits that would allow the fragile human infant the chance to survive long enough where it could continue the genetic line. Leagues of royal families continued the same blood lines for centuries to a similar end. Was it due to ego or instinct?

(What does all this blather have to do with the weird feminist horror film I'm making? Hang on, I'm getting there.)

Gender roles and social structure also evolved this way, according to EP. Early civilizations worshipped female deities for woman's "magical" ability to create life. Males quickly realized that due to the biological requirements to bear children, women were physically weaker. Males also realized that while a male counterpoint was often better to assist the women in directing the child's life, it wasn't necessary for the woman. Remember, males are hardwired to keep their blood line going, not only in the physcial sense, but in the social sense.

Therefore, they invented male gods and myths to relegate woman to a subservient "mother" role for thousands of years in order to control the fates of their children. Yet even when these later civilizations banished woman's role in matters of politics and religion, she was still revered for her role as a child-bearer. In fact, for centuries that was considered her only role. After all, he didn't want her to use her evolutionary instinct for sniffing out a man who has outlived his usefulness.

The thing about evolution is it always continues. Here in the twenty-first century, strength is measured in different ways, and that whole idea of the "delicate child-bearer" who needs to be protected by her male companion is about current as hoop skirts. (Though sadly, there's still a great deal of that cro-magnon mentality swirling around in the ether.) The idea of the strong, independent mother has gained a lot of currency in the past few decades, mostly because a lot of males are too deadbeat to take responsibility for the kid they helped create. The term "Single Mom" used to be a mark of shame. Now it's a badge of honor.

Which brings us back around to Women's Studies and the character of Sharon, a Ross-Prentiss academy girl who is nine-months pregnant with a male baby. But as I said, "pregnant" doesn't equal "delicate." Sharon is tough and street smart. She could take care of this kid by herself without any problem, if only her "peers" would let her. Remember, Women's Studies is all about sisters, daughters, and even mothers. Sons however . . . Well, let's just say that the concept of "late term abortion" isn't one these ladies shy away from.

Sharon's plight mirrors Mary's. Both are pregnant with a child that they don't particularly want though each have different reasons for not doing do. Sharon's, we find out, are far more dire than Mary's. Sharon is afraid of going through what she has to alone. However, it's not someone else Sharon needs to find, but rather the strength in herself, which somehow the academy girls of Ross-Prentiss have managed to suck out of her, the same way they're trying to do to Mary.

Mundy Spears, the actor playing Sharon, has electric eyes that can convey the strength, fear, and confusion Sharon is supposed to be feeling. She comes off tough and resolute even when weeping with despair. It'll be a challenging role for her, so thank god/dess she has years of evolution on her side.

(If you're interested in reading more about Evolutionary Psychology, I highly recommend Robert Wright's The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology.)

A Day in the Life

2007-04-24T23:38:00.000-04:00

"I read the news today, Oh Boy . . ."

(What Beatles album is that from? Oh my God/dess, I'm only 31 and going senile! Is it Sgt. Peppers? It is, right?)

Saturday marks the first big "all hands" meeting for the Women's Studies cast and crew, and Cindy and I are scrambling to get as much done as we can.

Things are going quite well. So well, in fact, that I wish Cindy and I could hire a third co-producer to take some of the workload off our shoulders. For the record, we don't have the funds, so unless you're willing to do a lot of unceremonious grunt work for free, don't even bother sending a resume. Besides, we have a pretty good system in place. Lots of work, but we're getting things done.

It's late and if I don't hurry this up, Tuesday will be over and it'll be the Wednesday blog which would make me sad since I've prided myself on not missing one so far. To that end, I'm simply listing off my to-do list for tomorrow which in a verite, "slice of life" manner, might be sort of interesting to the layman (or woman).

Then again, maybe I'm making excuses for not having much of a blog this week. The fact is simply that everything is pretty "nuts and bolts" right now, and not the glamorous filmmaking life that everybody keeps telling me independent filmmaking is. And really, by writing a blog about the things I have to do tomorrow, I'm killing two birds with one stone.

In the morning I have six phone calls to make: Four to potential locations, one to a potential script supervisor, the last to the insurance company who's covering the Women's Studies production. Depending on how these phone calls go could define the rest of my day, but let's assume that nothing from them needs any immediate action.

Afterwards, it's off to two locations we've already secured; one for the "initiation scene," the other a very cool field of flowers for a Melissa/Iris scene. Once there, I'll take pictures for our location photo log. On the way back, I'll check the company mailbox to see if the editing software and/or hardware pieces we ordered last week have arrived.

The afternoon will get me back to "the office" where I'll answer email and dig into various items of busywork including dealing with anything from the morning's phone calls. I'm also in the midst of prepping invites and schedule for a day player audition being held in two weeks. After I've had enough of that for awhile, I'll call Aaron the DP and we'll hopefully come to a consensus on a lighting kit we're wanting to order.

By that point, it'll be the evening and I'll take a bit of a break before coming back to "the office" before bed to maybe play around with storyboards or character notes for Saturday's meeting. Or maybe I'll just watch the new Harry Potter trailer over and over until I pass out from excitement.

If I actually get all that done, it'll be a good day. Hell, if I get half of it done, it'll be all right. Rereading it all just makes me want to go to bed, which I'm going to go do now.

Sound Garden

2007-04-17T12:23:00.000-04:00

I learned the hard way that sound can make or break a film. On my first short film, First Session, my original sound guy kind of flaked out on me, and I was left with a fast approaching deadline and virtually no soundtrack.

Thankfully, I got introduced to Sean Russell who's not only an expert at putting out audio fires, but a creative mind and sincere professional who has been a blessing to work with. He's the sound master of Women's Studies, and understands the importance of audio to the cinematic experience. Not only that, his post-audio skills are, to coin a phrase, mad.

On a production full of PC/Avid technicians, Sean is also our lone Mac operator, for which he catches a lot of good natured flak, though sometimes I think he often gets the last laugh.

As the Women's Studies shoot dates roll closer, Sean has been busy prepping his sound recording gear as well as preparing for the eventual post process. I took some time recently and talked with him about his gear, work methods, and philosophy.

# # #

Lonnie:
Sean, what drew you to sound work?

Sean Russell:
I first got into sound at a young age visiting my uncle Steve's studio at the age of eleven. I was into playing drums, and he recorded a small solo to tape for me and right there I was hooked. Some Years Later, I was playing in bands and handing tapes to sound guys every night asking them to tape our show from the board feed. Usually, those tapes sounded horrible, and I thought I could make a better sounding recording. That's how I slowly moved from making music to recording music, and later, my passion for post developed. And here I am.

Lonnie:
A lot of independent filmmakers make the mistake of shortchanging their sound in both recording and post, why do you suppose that is?

Sean:
I've always been taught that video with poor audio might as well be surveillance!

I guess mostly because the conscious focus of any film is the visual. I think most people always think of movies that way - the visual judgment of how they looked may have been more immediate then how they sounded. I would also suppose that with days, weeks, months of shooting a project (and trying to make it look as good as possible) you end up with no time (and budget) to get the film properly posted to a standard we're all used to. Most gear budgets are a lot like casting budgets - you spend the big money on the biggest feature. In gear terms, that might mean a really cool camera. With casting, it might mean spending a chunk of the budget to get a big celebrity. After you've spent a good amount of budget on the camera and associated peripherals, the sound department gets 'what's left over,' meaning, usually the location audio suffers, both in equipment and quality.

In big productions, the location audio recorded isn't as big a deal, with 90% of most audio being replaced after principal photography is over. In post, the usual culprit is the timeline - too many projects hit post past deadline, need the audio yesterday, and don't have time to take time! I've been in this position many times - perhaps more times than not. Proper audio is the difference between a well-shot film with a good plot going over well, or just being well-shot with a good plot. So much of the audio for film is subconscious, and it's amazing what the human ear can perceive as being 'false' or 'fake' if the audio isn't up to par. It's my job to make it seem like there almost wasn't a 'sound guy' or 'post tech' tweaking stuff, as most people are pretty fuzzy about the process anyway.

Lonnie:
A lot of films which could have failed, succeed because of fantastic audio. Lucas's THX-1138 is one that comes to mind.

Sean:
Yes, films which 'could have failed' ...hmmm, there are so many that come to mind... anyone remember Armageddon? Man that was a bad movie, but the soundtrack - whew! The audio in general was top-notch. It's amazing sometimes what the Re-Recording mixers on a movie can do. You mentioned THX-1138 - I would even go so far as the first Star Wars movie. Have you seen cuts without audio? Complete Velveeta. Even the people making the movie thought it would tank - but then they saw it with all of Ben's audio behind it, John's music on it, and - WOW! What a great film! It's the subconscious element of sound to work almost behind the scenes on our senses while our eyes process the film itself. I think good sound makes the film believable - and allows the suspension of disbelief we all must experience to walk out of the film saying to each other 'that was a good movie.'

Lonnie:
I agree wholeheartedly. The aural experience enhances the visual one, and is just as important in making the audience lose themselves in the movie. What are some of the things you like to do to heighten that experience?

Sean:
Secret tips, eh? OK, well, there are general rules, 'see a sound, hear a sound,' that kind of thing. A lot of sounds that we typically hear on movies aren't actually realistic - but most of the time, our brain agrees with the delivery and there's no argument that would give pause. The easiest example in modern cinema is probably gun effects. On TV, when the bad guy cocks his 9-mil, you're usually hearing a 12-gauge shotgun sample. There might be other samples layered with that, but you almost never actually hear the 9-mil itself, it's just not believable. The same can be said for the firings of the guns - many guns in real life make more of a 'pop' sound then a 'boom' sound - but you rarely hear that, because it doesn't build the same way. It's not what we're 'used' to hearing on a movie.

I think it's mostly trying to make sure that the layers that make up an effect or sequence don't stick out independently enough to defeat the stack. It's also about the timing of the sequence, and build up musically coming in or going out.

Lonnie:
Give the gear heads a little taste of what your rig is like, for both production and post.

Sean:
Production audio is mostly Sennheiser shotgun mics feeding Lunatecs recorded 24-bit / 48 kHz to Compact Flash. It's usually a simple chain to get the clearest idea of dialog, location room tones/background loops, and general other sound gathering techniques that might comprise of 15%-20% of the actual audio in the movie.

When you get to Post, everything moves into ProTools and you begin 're-cutting' the film from the ground up - before music and final dialog mixing. Once you get the main beds down, you begin all the obvious effects, and things like the SPL transient designer are a must for making things 'bigger.' Much of the actual effects and editing is handled strictly in the DAW now, with the integration of ProTools and Avid.

Lonnie:
Last question: What does your world sound like?

Sean:
Good question. That's a question I've always wanted to ask those that came before me. I've always been fascinated with the human perception of sound and how people hear differently. I suppose my world sounds not unlike everyone else's. I am forever trying to be more conscientious about what I am perceiving, and how much I'm hearing something as opposed to how much I'm feeling it - or perceiving that I'm feeling it.

Connecting to the undercurrent of emotion that a piece is portraying and supporting that feeling is my main goal. It's my connection with that feeling that allows direction to the technical aspect of my job to come up with something that will enhance rather than distract the point of the story, whether it be in song or film.

Script Doctor

2007-04-10T09:04:00.000-04:00

The "how, when, who, what, and where" of the Women's Studies production is really coming together nicely. We've got a lot of elements in place and have started to bang out something that resembles a shooting schedule. This weekend will be the big design meeting with Art Director Stephanie Petagno to finalize some costume designs and the like. At the end of the month I'll kick off the first rehearsal with the actors, a true milestone.

To that end, I spent part of the weekend working on what will be my final revision of the Women's Studies script, the "blue" script. (Once we started production, the script went from being the fourth draft to the "white" script. Since this is a production draft, it's gotten upgraded to "blue.") There will be other minor rewrites as location needs or storyboards require changes to be made. Still, from a certain point of view this is my last chance as a writer to craft the story before I hand it off for the actors and allow them to turn my words into their words.

I like to think I'm not one of "those" writer/directors. You know, the type that has to micro-manage every line delivery because the actor "just isn't capturing the vibe I intended." To me, a script is a blueprint. The actors, camera and sound crew, and art director are like the carpenters, electricians and pipe-fitters. The director is the foreman, and in this case, the foreman just happens to also be the guy who drew up the floor plans. But the foreman doesn't tell the carpenters every detail of how to put up the walls. He lets them use their own method and is just there to make sure evrything comes together as intended.

I come from an acting background, so my attitude towards actors is to give them enough space to discover their own countries, yet give them enough guidence so they don't get lost. I want them to find aspects of the script to claim for themsleves. If they need to take the words I've written and alter them slightly to make them their own, I'm down with that.

I like working with actors. A lot of directors have troubles with actors because their main tool is emotion, and to really get down and dig deep with them requires everyone to look inside their hearts and reveal truths they might not ordinarily want to share. It takes a lot of trust between actors and a director to really make the emotional discoveries, and trust just can't be given. It has to be earned.

Writing is like that too. I have respect for anyone who writes something and puts it out there for others to see. It takes a great deal of courage to expose your inner thoughts in that way, be it a poem, a novel, or a script. What if people don't like it? Or even worse, don't get it? That's the biggest fear I have, I think; a fear that people will read or see what I've written and just look at me in that queer way that says, "I don't understand what you're trying to say?" And yet there are times when I'm in the midst of creation that I myself don't quite understand what I'm trying to say. I only know I have to say it.

Another part of me feels a bit of loss at letting the Women's Studies script go into the arms of others because I've spent the better part of the last two years with it, constantly turning it over in my head. I still will of course, though once we start shooting, I'll lose the option to change anything. Film is immortal. Once an image is captured, it's always captured. You can only have so many takes before you simply have to choose one and live with it.

The consolation to it all is that I really like this script, and can't wait to share it. As great a blueprint I think it is, I think it's going to make an even better movie. And it'll do so not because of my singular voice, but the varied tones and tambours of the cast and crew's voices, singing together in harmony.

"You Don't Want No Drama"

2007-04-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

I was sent this video of Alanis Morrisette singing "My Humps" and I'm totally obsessed with her version of the song.

And it's crazily apt because that fickle mistress Women's Studies, she's got me spending all my money on her, and spending time on her. (She's make making me work. Making me work, work. Making me work.)

A few points of interest:

--Crew: We hired our editor, Jim McGivney, who will be in charge of piecing together this crazy vision of mine. In addition to cutting together Ningen Manga Productions' short films First Session and Under the Bed, Jim's a filmmaker in his own right. More on his sweet Irish arse can be found at his MySpace page. (He's the one who sent me the above video. Damn him.) In addition, we've been interviewing other crew members and trying to work it all out.

--Gear, gear, and more gear . . . We're talking through and purchasing the various HD systems that will be working on the Women's Studies set, which I hope to keep as paperless as possible. Tapeless too, since the camera we're shooting with uses P2 capture technology. Therefore ours will be a set full of laptops. One for capturing, one for tweaking scopes, exposure, time-code, and monitoring, and one for all our production documentation. That doesn't include Sound Master Sean Russell's audio rig which is a totally different, yet awesome, beast. (More on Sean and sound will be featured in a blog later this month.) In the middle of the month we're having a big, long studio test of the production gear to work out any bugs.

--Locations: We've got a few locked in, are in talks for others, and the search goes on for others still. The progress here has been amazing, especially after I put out a semi-public call for some of our harder to find locales. The lesson? Never try to do it all yourself.

--Casting: We've had some private auditions for the remaining roles of "Zack" and "Sharon." (Not "private" like that. Get your head out the gutter.) We're having more in the next couple weeks. May will see our last big audition to fill out supporting and day player roles.

Some small "second-unit" shooting will begin in June and we're currently on target for principal photography to start in July.

Well, as long as I stop babbling and get back to work.

San Francisco Values

2007-03-27T21:11:00.000-04:00

No blog this week.

I just got back from a five day vacation in San Francisco, California, which is likely to be the last I'll have in quite a while. Fear not. Good times were had, and I'm refreshed and renewed. We'll return to your regularly scheduleed blog next week.

Carry on as you were.

"Let's All Go to the Lobby"

2007-03-20T22:21:00.000-04:00

There's so many different things going on this week, I don't even know what to write a blog about, so I'm going to write about two awesome movies I've seen.

Things are moving well with Women's Studies. Some may say the good vibes are due to the official greenlight and the big casting announcement we made last week. Me? I think it's because I've gotten back to the movie theatre. I've seen two movies in the theatre in as many weeks.

There was time in my life when I hit the movie theatre every weekend. It didn't matter what was playing, I went to see something. Double features were more the norm than not. A Saturday triple feature while it didn't happen often, happened quite a lot. Then a couple years ago, something changed. I stopped going to the cinema. You could chalk it up to getting married or turning thirty. I think part of it was that I started making movies myself which is a pretty time consuming process.

Another part of it was the movies. Where I live, the multiplex is all I really got. If I want to get to the art theatres showing the groovy independent and foreign stuff, I have to drive thirty miles. So, if I want the theatre experience, I have to take what the studios give me, and for a couple of years there, the studio offerings got to be pretty bad. Last fall, they started to get better and I found myself wishing I had a little more time to get to the theatre. (I'm trying to catch up with stuff on DVD. Hollywoodland, The Prestige, and The Departed are all currently on my short list.)

Anyway, the last two movies I've seen in the theater have been absolutely fantastic, and it's making want to pick back up my old movie theatre habit. Those films were 300 and Behind the Mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon.

300, in case you've been off the planet, is the tale of three hundred Spartans who hold off what seems to be millions of of Persian soldiers. It's supposedly based off a real event, but forget about historical accuracy. This film is pure fantasy, and to me, it's the best part of it. It's a ride form beginning to end, visually stunning, action packed, and totally viscerally engaging. I think some critics were put off by the fact that the filmmakers made it look a lot like the Frank Miler graphic novel it's based on, but I think that was the point. All I know is that I had an absolute blast. I walked away from that movie wanting to learn to swordfight and do three trillion crunches.

The other movie I saw was Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and maybe I only loved it because in my youth, I was obsessed with 80s slasher films. Long story short, a documentary filmmaker follows a killer in the mold of Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers as he prepares for his slaughter. It's hilarious as the killer talks about his exercise program, his methodology, and basically deconstructs the elements of the slasher film. Then in the film's final third as the killer's rampage begins, the filmmakers become characters in the film. At that point, the film switches visual formats and becomes a true slasher film. I might add it's a damned scary one at that. Somebody called the Behind the Mask "a gift to horror fans" and it is. Boy is it.

Okay, that's all. Back to work.

Senatorial Debate

2007-03-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

First, the big news:

Judith O’Dea, who played the iconic role of “Barbara” in George A. Romero’s 1968 horror classic, Night of the Living Dead, has signed on to play Senator Gayle Hamlin in Women’s Studies.

Allow me to take a moment and totally geek out.

. . .

There. Much better.

O'Dea's character, Gayle Hamlin, is A U.S. senator whose party affiliation has conveniently been made ambiguous. (Who wrote this movie?) She's strong willed, a fighter who's passionate and believes that the world can be made a better place.

"Kind of like Hillary, right?"

Well, not exactly, though that's the comparison everybody wants to make. I don't want to get too political here. I like Hillary a lot. I think she exhibited class, dignity, and poise during Bill's embarrassing "interlude." I also think she has the ideas, drive, and thick skin it takes to lead this crazy, beautiful nation I call home. Plus, I'm of the mind that some positive feminine energy in our leadership is exactly what the world needs. However, there's something mildly androgynous and a little fake about Hillary that rubs me the wrong the way. Like she's a Stepford Wife programmed in 1994, except instead of being the perfect housewife, she's the perfect mouthpiece for her (male) political and (male) corporate overlords. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. Only time will tell though, right?

I liken the character of Hamlin more to someone like Ralph Nader, who's been down in the trenches trying to clean the system up. Politically, Hamlin is championing causes that a lot of her fellow politicians simply could care less about. In Hamlin's case, they are issues of women's rights. Also, Hamlin has been diagnosed with breast cancer and a lot of her colleagues think she's washed up politically.

Additionally, Hamlin is also mentor to the heroine of Women’s Studies, Mary (Cindy Marie Martin). Mary has been interning under Hamlin while getting her Masters degree and is prepped to join her staff full time. However, though Mary believes in Hamlin's ideals, she has some fear that her alignment with Hamlin may jeopardize her own burgeoning political career.

You'll remember from previous blogs that at the beginning of the film, Mary is caught between wanting to continue her political work for Hamlin and acquiescing to the desire of her boyfriend, Zack, to settle down and start a family. Hamlin is one of Mary's possible futures, and the first one the audience is exposed to in the film. She's everything Mary wants to be and is afraid of being.

It's a vital role in that Hamlin's presence is felt even when she's not on screen. So it seemed appropriate that we cast someone with a commanding presence. Judith O'Dea fits the role perfectly.

I could rattle on about Night of the Living Dead, Barbara, and the influence that character has on not just the women of Women's Studies but ALL horror movie heroines, but I think it's simply an understood part of the equation at this point. That we still talk about it today is all the proof you need that O'Dea's performance in that film was of the highest caliber.

O'Dea is still an amazing actress. If you don't believe me, pick up a copy of Jason Paul Collum's October Moon in which O'Dea plays the conservative matriarch of a married man who suddenly realizes he's gay. She only has a few scenes but they're gripping, with all the intensity, vigor and passion she had in her twenties, perhaps even more so because those traits are tempered with experience and wisdom.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara?" I think these days Barbara is ready.

Greenlight!

2007-03-06T12:36:00.000-05:00

No real blog this week because so much is happening all at once right now.

Women's Studies has the official greenlight to begin principal photography in July of 2007. We at Ningen Manga Productions are extremely excited to be able to make this announcement. Productions details as well as casting and location news will be eeking out over the next few weeks and months, some here in the blog, some over at our webiste, www.WomensStudiesMovie.com. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of me and "Jason" himself, Kane Hodder, that was taken this past weekend at the Horrorfind Covention in Baltimore, Maryland. Some of you may find the fact that the Friday the 13th movies are such a huge influence on me kind of scary and sad, but I wear my love of those films as a badge of honor. Still, meeting the guy who scared the hell out of me when I was a kid was a wild experience. I almost wet myself. In fact, I think I did a little.

Budgeting for Booze

2007-02-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Slowly and surely, the engine of Women's Studies is starting to burn faster and cleaner. Full-fledged pre-production is starting to rev up. If all stays on course, we should be making some major announcements soon.

There's been a shifting of focus here at Ningen Manga HQ from the business/legal aspects of production to more practical filmmaking concerns. I for one am happy that we're finding the ability to move into this direction. To me, the place where business and actual production start to marry is in the budget.

In independent film, the usual response when asked about budget is "What budget?" Trust me, I understand that sentiment. I've worked on and produced my fair share of "no-budget" films. However, with a feature, a budget starts to become a necessary evil. Really, there's nothing evil about it. It's just that most filmmakers hate dealing with budgets, present company included. Still, though it's usually a producer's job to keep track of the budget, the director is almost universally the one to get blamed if a film goes over budget. Therefore, it's a good idea for a director to know how to deal with them.

It could be said that film is recorded theatre. At it's most basic level, theatre is composed of four elements, actors, ideas, a place to perform, and audience. If you have these things, you can create theatre. Film can be similarly broken down, and when you're looking at budget it's good to consider four basic groups: personnel, equipment, locations, and script. Basically, to create a budget, you split these four groups down into smaller and smaller sub groups, all along the way figuring out a) what things are going to cost and b) how long you're going to need to use it.

I'll run through a quick, vague example.

Since I wrote the script, that one's pretty easy. Cost of script: $0. Wow, isn't making a budget easy?

Equipment. Let's see. I'll need a camera to shoot it on. And I'll need some stuff to record sound on. You know, microphones, maybe a mixer, definitely a boom pole. Editing equipment! I need that too.

Wait, let's just focus on one thing. How about that camera? We'll need lenses. And a tri-pod. Ooo, and I want a crane shot so we'll need a crane. Oh my god, I almost forgot media to record to! Does this camera use tapes or some weird new digital capture thingy? How much are those again? Hey, we're going to need cables and stuff to plug all this shit in. Wait, there's outdoor shots so we're going to need batteries, maybe even a generator. Oh shit, we'll need lights so we can see what we're shooting. And a gel kit for the lights to add color, also a dimmer board so we can control the lights. Gaffer tape! I always forget gaffer tape

Does anybody know how much all this stuff costs? What? I have to look it up myself? Shit. Well, I better get this list organized then.

CAMERA DEPT.
Camera
Lens kit
Tri-Pod
Crane
Media (tapes or digital capture)
*Incidentals

LIGHTING
Basic lighting kit
Specialty lights
Gel Kit
Dimmer Board
*Incidentals

ELECTRIC
Cables
Generator
Batteries
Gaffer tape
*Incidentals

(*Always have a little extra money ready for shit you've forgotten about. Trust me. You've forgotten something.)

Now, I took equipment and broke it down into three basic categories: Camera, Sound, and Editing. Then I broke Camera Dept. down into three more categories: Camera, Lighting, and Electric. From there, I listed things that would be needed that will probably cost money. Each of those items could be broken down even further if I wanted. For example, I could list off each cable type and how many I'll need. Does that seem anal retentive? Take a look at a budget for a big Hollywood film. (Actually don't, there's probably some pretty interesting bookkeeping going on with some of these films, though I'm sure very penny spent on every cable is accounted for somewhere.)

To figure out what things cost, you have to do the research. You're either going to rent or buy. If you're buying, you budget in only the purchase cost. If you're renting, you need to know the rental cost (either per day or per hour) and how long you're going to need it for?

How do figure out how long you'll need it for? Funny you should ask since that's just the cluster-fuckery of shite I'm currently buried in.

It's in that script. You know, the only thing that costs $0. First you have to break it down. (See this blog.)

Once the script is broken down, you and your DP decide exactly what the specific needs for an individual scene may be. For example, you may decide that you need to shoot three days in one location, but only need the crane for one. However, you need the tri-pod for two and the dolly for two, but on two different days. Wait though, that's scheduling, not budgeting . . . though it is sort of is budgeting too. Isn't it?

Booze. We budgeted for booze, right?

Live Nude Girls!

2007-02-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I was talking to some friends about Women's Studies. One of them who, yes, was male asked, "Is there going to be any T&A in this movie?" (In case you were raised on an asteroid, T&A is an acronym for "tits and ass.")

It's not the first time I've been asked the question. Far from it. In fact as soon as I tell most males I'm making a film about killer feminists, the nudity question is usually the first one out of their mouths. How's that for thousands of years of evolution, ladies? The mere mention of "hot chicks with knives" sends us into a tizzy of ecstasy.

The issue of nudity in horror films is one that's been debated by fans and critics alike for years. The general consensus is that there's too much gratuitous nudity in horror. Even fans of the genre admit it's so. The problem is that for horror's target audience (18 to 35-year-old males), sometimes the fact that there's a bit of T&A is the only consolation for sitting through a particularly bad and not very scary movie. The attitude is often "Well, the effects were childish, the acting horrendous, and the story non-existent, but at least I got to see a few nice racks."

Again ladies: How far we've come.

Remember though, horror is more popular now than it ever has been. In past years, the selling point for these films were that they crossed the taboo lines set by "normal" social values. People went to see the things that they didn't see in everyday life, sex and death being the two biggest draws throughout history. Also, horror films were (and still are) targeted at teenagers, who while pretty much thinking about sex all the time, are dissuaded by just about everyone around them from doing it.

(And despite sexuality being a much larger part of mainstream American culture today than in the 1960s and 1970s, stats will support my saying that most American teenagers aren't engaging in actual sexual intercourse until the age of seventeen or beyond.)

Women's Studies deals with sexuality on a lot of different levels, from infidelity to the personal ethics of abortion to not so vague hints of lesbianism between various characters. In fact, I'd even go as far to say that sex is always just below the surface in the story. There's sex a plenty in Women's Studies, though how titillating it all may be will be up for debate. Among cast and crew the big nudity debate has revolved around the opening scene where three guys visit a strip club and get a little bit more than they bargained for.

First, a point I think is relevant: I'm making this film in America where the views on sex are much more conservative than in many other parts of the world. (Remember, we're a country founded by Puritans.) If this film was being made in Europe, where attitudes toward sex are far more liberal, there would be in all likelihood no discussion about nudity. However, many American audiences and actors aren't as comfortable with it.

Personally, I'm not prudish at all when it comes to sex and nudity on film. My philosophy towards it is that if graphic sexuality is necessary to the integrity of the scene and/or film, then it's imperative that it's there. On the flip side, where both sex and violence are concerned, in many cases I'm from the "less is more" school of thought. Sometimes, what you don't see is made sexier or more horrifying by the imagination.

The question then becomes one of when is nudity and sex is necessary and when it's simply gratuitous. In all likelihood, the answer is one dependant upon personal taste, but let's look at a few examples that illustrate different degrees anyway.

I could pick any number of films to show nudity being used gratuitously , but let's look at a scene from Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning since most Friday fans feel the entire movie is gratuitous. (I actually think there are a few admirable aspects to the film, though I'm very aware that I'm in the minority among horror fans.) In this scene, a woman is in a diner bathroom getting ready for a date. For no discernable reason, she turns to the mirror, exposes her breasts to herself and yells, "It's Showtime." While she has a fine pair of breasts, her exposing them does nothing to tell us anything deeper about her character. (At this point, we've already seen enough to tell us she's a self-centered airhead.) Nor does it move the story forward in any way. The breast flash is only there for pure titillation.

Here's one open for interpretation: In the film version of Cold Mountain, the two main characters, played by Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, have been pining for each other while Law has been off fighting in the Civil War. When they're finally reunited, director Anthony Minghella decided to give us a fairly long, explicit scene of the two making love. While I thought the sex scene was hot as hell, I also felt it was gratuitous and ill-conceived. I feel this way because throughout the film, Law and Kidman have spoken of of a deep, resounding love for each other and the emphasis on the sex seems to strip that love of some of it's power by reducing their desire to one more lustful than truly intimate. Secondly, what does Law's hand shoved up Kidman's pussy tell me about their relationship that I didn't know before?

I'm sorry, was that language a little too gratuitous?

Now, I don't think the explicit love scene between Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair is gratuitous at all. It illustrates that these two people are thrilled by the prospect of danger and control. (He's an art stealing billionaire. She's the investigator hired to figure out who's stealing priceless works of art. Oh, and they just met.) Also, it's brief and shot in a manner that makes your mind do much of the sexual heavy lifting. (Russo stands in the foreground as her dress drops to the floor with Brosnan looking on in the background. Their sex on a staircase is shown from an overhead wide shot.) One could try to argue that the scene isn't needed to tell the story. However, I feel the scene is important to the character's relationship as the story unfolds. The fact that they've slept together is what complicates their motives later in the film. (He wants to steal more art. She's supposed to stop him.)

Have I dodged the question of whether or not there will be nudity in Women's Studies? I haven't meant to. However, I will say that since the film is dealing with sexual politics, I'm vary aware of the ways I will or will not use nudity. So, rather than answer, I'll leave you with a related question to ponder:

Does it truly matter whether or not there is nudity in Women's Studies?