Danielle Motley

Actress Danielle Motley has a nifty new video up which just happens to have scenes from our newest feature film Saturday Night Special. Check it out to see our Danielle shine, and also to catch a glimpse of our newest feature film.

Danielle needed something of a sizzle reel. Just a minute that showcased some of the new footage she was in. So I threw this together. Danielle's an old friend, she's very talented and I'm always willing to help her. Also this gave me the opportunity to play with my own footage.

Filmmakers! Learn To Kill Your Baby.

No I'm not actually talking about killing a real baby.

It's the trap that many indies fall into, as well as most any artist starting out. You become so attached to your project that you don't see what needs to be cut out, or you refuse to cut something out because you worked so hard on it, or because you think it's just to awesome to omit.

But you have to.

You have to learn to really look at your work through your viewers eyes and understand that what they're seeing may not match what you are seeing. Sure you may think that long 22 second shot of the horizon you worked so hard to get is just so amazingly beautiful you have to leave it in. But through the audience POV it's a long as 22 second shot that's boring as hell.

You have to consider what moves the story forward. Everything within your movie has got to move the story forward. If it doesn't, cut it out.  Learn to understand what may be a potential dealbreaker with the audience. I don't care how beautiful the footage is, how funny, neat, or spectacular YOU think the scene may be, if it's not moving the story along chances are it's boring the hell out of us all.

I bring this up because as I go through what's left to shoot of the script for my feature REDD, I'm noticing things that could be combined, shortened, and tightened up. At the same time I'm going over scenes in editing trying to tighten things up there as well. There is one particular scene that just doesn't work. It's a scene between 3 main characters that is absolutely necessary to the plot. It's exposition that the audience needs to know. It's necessary. And it's boring me to death.

So I cut it and have come up with a new and simpler way to get the info to the audience without them having to stare at three people talking for an eternity (really just 2 minutes, but it felt like so so much longer.)

But there was a time, years ago, when I would have left it just the way it was. I would've thought about how I couldn't possibly cut this out because we worked so hard to shoot this. All the setups, the struggle to deal with the camera  overheating, us dealing with the heat, the long trek up and down hill to the location, the actors working hard to remember there lines and perform under heat and pressure. To cut this scene would mean all that work would have been a big waste.

But you have to find a way to push all that aside and stick to that one rule.

IF IT DOESN'T SERVE THE BEST INTEREST OF THE MOVIE, CUT IT.

But too many moviemakers starting out are too afraid to kill their baby.

"It's my creation, my masterpiece, my baby. I couldn't possibly butcher it."

Get over it. You have to.

Ok, so let's not refer to it as killing. You're sculpting. You're molding.

Like an artist chipping away at stone, you're chiseling away all the excess bits to get to the statue underneath. Does that artist pine and sob over every bit of rock he knocks away? No, and neather should you.

If your movie was really a baby, then you as the director have to learn to be a better parent. You're movie in it's earliest stages is just growing. You have to raise it. Mold it, guide it into the fully grown matured movie that it was born to be. Sure it's adorable when the kid runs around in it's diaper holding it's Cabbage Patch Doll (Wow, that's an old reference). Eventually your movie has to grow up.

It's your job to make sure your movie heads out into the real world fully formed minus the diaper and doll. You don't want to put your film out as an unprepared baby movie. What you want is to put out a fully erect adult film.

I mean, um. You know what I mean.

Patrick A. Prejusa

http://reddmovie.com

http://patrickprejusa.info

Shine a Light

The second feature film I've ever made is also the first installment of the MONSTER COPS franchise.

MONSTER COPS: THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is back on DVD.

You can buy it on DVD for $12 or you can download or rent it to watch on your PC, HDTV, Bluray, XBOX, or Roku through Amazon Instant Watch.

And remember, $1 from every DVD sold will go to the American Cancer Society.

Click here to find out more about THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL.




It was originally on DVD back in 2007. In 2009 I pulled it off shelves because I intended to re-edit it and put out a newer version. Then I realized that I was being a bit too George Lucasy. The movie is perfectly fine the way it is. Recently I had been messaged by a few folks about how they could get a copy.  So here it is back on DVD. In all it's No-Budget glory.

It was the first step towards what I wanted Monster Cops to be. It lacked the kind of FX we have now, and it really could've used more Monsters. But I think it's good nonetheless. It's endearing, it's creative, and I'm very proud of the writing and the performances. And it still cracks me up how frickin funny it is.

With the newer episodes I had created (Shadow Company and Monsters Vs. Cops) I would get closer and closer to that full vision of what I wanted Monster Cops to be.  I'm hoping by late this year I can fully execute that vision with the newer episodes of Monster cops, and put that out on DVD in a Series 1 volume of episodes.

Redd is our other production, as you may know. Plugging along nicely I might add, but with my schedule getting fuller, we may need to extend shooting into Fall.

A winter release will probably be more likely.

I really can't wait to finish this one. It's going to be a great one.

If you haven't yet, check out the fight clip below.


April Crum as Redd fighting Bryan Sloyer as The Monk.



I'm extremely impressed with everyone's performances so far. It's been a blast to shoot. Still need to do a bit more fundraising for it, but I think we'll be fine.

I'm proud to say that the first 4 minutes of REDD on Youtube have reached well over 50,000 views. Hey, maybe it's not 1 million like I wanted, but at least it's alot, and the majority of the comments are positive, so YAY!

If you get a chance check out the front page at REDDMOVIE.COM, look for the comment box towards the bottom, and leave a nice comment about how excited you are to see the movie. Go on, DO IT!

The Yamaha Ad I made, NO ORDINARY PAPER BOAT, was top ten finalist for Yamaha. Earned me a Poptent medal. Quite proud.

Aside from the occasional breakdowns (ala last post) things are good.  And now I work to make them better and even better.

Today's lesson boys and girls? Keep moving forward. Don't dwell on your past accomplishments, move on to bigger and better ones.

Just keep swimming.

REDD Test Cut

First cut of some of the footage we've shot for REDD. Trying out some cuts, some color grading, and experimenting with the score. April Crum is our title character, our bad ass Red Riding Hood. Also features Richard Gaither, Amanda Elizabeth, and Ron Rice throws the knife. Nice shot Ron.



Canon T2i
Canon EFS 18-55mm Lens
Nikon 180mm Lens
Fotodiox Adapter
DIY Slider
Sony Vegas Pro 9
Pro Scores and Sony Acid

Much more footage to shoot. Finishing up April's stuff Monday. And as soon as we get the Werewolf finished we may have one more day with her. Still have the other leads and supporting cast to shoot, a Werewolf transformation, some Vampires, Zombies, and then some explosions to work out. This short should be done by December and will be about 8 minutes long. May do a 15 minute version for festivals, and I've worked out a script for a feature length version, if we somehow get the money for it.

Quick Reel 2010

Been working on a site for WTW Productions. Wanted to have some sort of demo available, so I threw this together. It will of course improve and lengthen the more footage we get in with the T2i. But a neat little start so far.

Monster Cops Vlog: The Office Part 2

And The Hits Just Keep On Comin

From my experience I've come to learn that the following is so very true.

When you become clear about what you want to accomplish, when you decide for sure what goal you want to reach. As you begin your journey towards that goal, everything that is the exact opposite of that goal will come into your existence.

I had a moment of clarity about Monster Cops. What was going to be accomplished and what needed to be done. Not only that, but I understood exactly what needed to follow after those certain goals for Monster Cops were reached. It was time for me to make another feature film, but only after I was able to put out Monster Cops Series 1 DVD this Fall.

And of course there is the fundraising, which is going slow, but it is going. See the widget and if you can please click on it and make a pledge.



Right now as far as income, I take what ever commercial work, ad work, video editing work I can. So it's already a roller coaster, not really sure where the next check will come from, but it's something.

I picked up a job today. Editing a reel for an actor. It looks to pay pretty good, and the material I would work with seems fun. It's always good to get a job that pays and you can get excited about.

Of course, after the meeting, I get home to turn on my desktop, and it will not boot up. Nothing, it sits there and hums. It was working perfectly fine just a few hours before, but here there was no functionality, no process beeps, just the quiet hum of the fans cooling a processor that wasn't doing anything.

So a dilemma. Not just because I can't do my job, but also I can't work on Monster Cops, the project I'm trying to turn into my job. I do have my wife's laptop and I have all my files backed up to a hard drive. The down side, my normal software is all on the desktop, and none of it will install properly on my wife's laptop.

It's disconcerting, yes, but on some level I saw it coming. After my moment of clarity, I knew something was bound to happen. That something that tries to deter you. That tests you. That makes things fall apart. The opposite of your goal has to happen so you can better experience what it the goal itself. Up cannot exist without down, nor right without left, nor having without the feeling of not having.

Very Zen, I know. And it does put me in somewhat of a positive mood. But it still sucks ass.

But it's ok. I'll figure it all out like I always do. I'll get the job done, I'll get my desktop fixed, and hopefully we can get some support for our little indie web series. So if you please, and if you can, make a pledge, tell a friend about monstercops.com. And please watch the episodes. I think they are quite good and I am very proud of them.

Other things have transpired today. Other things that are the opposite of my goal. Other things that are better left unblogged about, except to say, this is getting harder. And all indications say that things aren't going well, that things will fail, that things are not going in a positive direction.

But I don't care. Because I've been here before. Because if you can hold out past all that is the opposite of your goal, eventually you will reach your goal. You just have to believe, you have to hold on, you have to not give up.

Is this me giving myself a pep talk? You bet your ass.

It's opposite day, and I'm holding out til its over.

Gotta go solve some software problems, log some footage, and figure out how I can Macgyver my way through one editing job, two commercials, and eventually get back to working on Monster Cops. We only have a few pledgers, but we have pledgers nonetheless, which means we owe them a decent product in this Monster Cops DVD, which I fully intend to deliver and then some.

You want a Monster Cops DVD, then please, click the widget above, and make a pledge.

WIlford Brimley is staring at me

My wife randomly cut out a picture of him from a diabetes ad and stuck to my bulletin board next to my desk. I didn't realize it was there for a while. When I finally noticed it it kinda scared me. I jumped a little bit. Nothing like Wilford Brimley staring you down to start your day.

Happy Father's Day to all you Father's out there. And to those that have lost your Dad's too soon, I'm so very sorry and hope today passes with a bit of ease. I know how Mother's Day is for my wife since she lost her mom, and it makes me feel for anyone who has to go through such pain. I'm very thankful my parents are still alive, although I haven't seen them in years. One of these days I'll be able to make the trek to go see them and the rest of my family.

It's been an adventurous few days. There was the PeeWee Herman incident. If you haven't seen the last few posts, I will break it down. I tweeted I was going to make a ball of foil (this is for an ad for Poptent.net). Molly Bendall (twitter friend and fellow blogger) re-tweeted it to PeeWee. PeeWee re-tweeted it and posted it on his Facebook. Then my inbox, Twitter, and Facebook exploded with messages about the coolness of making a giant foil ball. Then I made the foil ball with pictures and Blogged and Vlogged about it, after which PeeWee retweeted and reposted on Facebook. My site immediately got over 700 hits (which is way more than the normal 30) and it's still going today.

So thank you Molly and PeeWee for the attention. Please see the previous Blog post, and take a gander at that Vlog Here.

And by all means, check out Molly's Blog as well.

And of course the site of the great supercool PeeWee Herman.

Rest assured I will be adding to the foil ball to make it super gigantic. And YES I will use recycled foil as well as recycle it once I have no use for it.

Speaking of Vlogs (was I?)

Here's the latest one for Monster Cops. Yes it is indeed more of me begging for money for our kick ass Horror Comedy Web Series.




Currently I am editing a new Minisode, prepping for the next Episode, and trying to get more pledges into our FUNDRAISER, so we can cover some costs including the fees and what not to get our submission into the New York TV Fest. I am submitting the episode Monsters Vs. Cops as a pilot to display that our series would indeed be great on TV. You can watch that episode HERE.

Thank you so much to our recent backers it is a huge help, but of course we still need more. So please if you can CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR INDIEGOGO FUNDRAISING PAGE. You make a pledge, you get great rewards, including the Monster Cops DVD coming this Fall.

Other than that, I am working on doing some guest blogging for the International Trailer Festival. I blog about moviemaking all the time, but of course now that I need to, I'm running dry. It's cool, I've got a few things I hope they'll like. I mean, if I'm going to be a geek about moviemaking might as well share it with everyone right.

Other than that, I've been doing camera research. For the longest time I've been pulling for the Canon HV40, but now I'm thinking about DSLR's. The HV40 price has gone up, so I might as well go DSLR and get a Rebel. The Rebel has really been impressing me. If I want more affordable then I could get the Olympus Pen E-PL1, but the video I'm seeing is only impressive in diorama mode. The jelloing effect is bad even in slow pans. Still pictures look great, but I'm looking for HD Video. So right now, I'm all about the Canon Rebel T2i.

Of course, this is me day dreaming. I have a decent camera to work on my web series. First things first, get Monster Cops going and as much content produced as possible, get that DVD out, then we can worry about cinematic cameras and my next feature film.

Again, it comes back to pledges. We need the funding to supplement production costs, setup screenings, screen at fests, and market the heck out of this series. So please check out MONSTER COPS, and if you like what you see, help us out, pledge and or spread the word.

Ok, I swear, Wilford Brimley just winked at me.

Lessons In CREEP

First off I'd like to say how very flattered and still greatly overwhelmed I am by the response I'm still getting from my Indy Mogul Audition. Over a thousand comments on YouTube and the majority of them very positive. I've also gotten alot of messages from people with their support for me being the new host of BFX. Thank you all for that. It means alot. It's huge boost to my confidence in my own abilities.

My wife asked me if I was nervous about this whole Indy Mogul business. Honestly, I'm not. I think I've gotten pretty good at not expecting much anytime I submit to any kind of contest, or job interview for that matter. I'd love to be the new host, but in the end, they will pick who ever they're going to pick and I'll be fine with it. It's not the only thing I've got going on right now anyhow. Although I'd love to be the new host of BFX and I know I could do a great job, the only thing I can do is be proactive in my own goals. If it happens it happens. If not, hey, I'm still alive and I'm still on a mission.

That mission in question is.... Ok, well if by mission I actually mean project in which case I should say mission(s) as their are a few projects. The main thing on my mind right now is CREEP. I do need to work on REDD, but I had to push the Werewolf Costume fitting to next week, so right now I'm all about CREEP. Yes of course I need to work on Monster Cops so I can make that May deadline, but right now my head is on this feature film, specifically crowd-funding, more specifically producer rewards.

What are these words you use Patrick? Crowd-funding? Producer Rewards? Lemme splain.

I need to raise 12 grand to make CREEP. In order to do so I'm going to use every method in the book. I'm saving up much of my own money. I will be working extra hard and extra hours to earn the extra cash I need. I'm going to sell almost everything I have, including all my DVD's, my entire poster and banner collection, I'm even considering selling my car. I'm also going to make a big sign that says "TRYING TO MAKE A MOVIE, PLEASE HELP" and wear it around town while holding out a coffee can. No seriously. But one of the main ways I will raise this money is through a little something called CROWD FUNDING.

It's exactly what it sounds like. Instead of the usual approaching of a few investors to contribute large amounts of money, I will approach a large amount of people (everyone I know, and do not know) and get them to contribute small amounts of money. This method is called Crowd Funding and is being used by several different filmmakers to make their movies. I feel that this is possible if you can do the following:

1) Be clear about what you need the money for. Transparency is key. I will post the budget, how much we need, and what we need to spend it on.
2) Keep the budget low. Alot of moviemakers have been successful in raising 50,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I only need $12,000.
3) Properly communicate the vision. Really let people know what it is you're trying to make. I'll post the plot, script pages, art work, vlogs, we will even shoot some scenes to communicate what kind of movie this is.
4) Create an experience. Get people excited about this movie. Get them to WANT to help you make this movie happen. Don't just sell the movie, sell the experience of making a movie, and the experience of the movie itself.
5) Producer Rewards.

AHA! There it is. There's that other phrase. What indeed IS Producer Rewards?

That's what I'm working out right now. If I'm going to ask you for $20 I want to be able to give you something for it. A copy of the movie on DVD? Of course. How about a Special Thanks credit in the movie? Why not? Producer Rewards is providing unique incentives to people that contribute money to your movie. Anybody will be able to buy this DVD or download it digitally when we distribute it. But if you contribute to the Crowd Fund, you'll get something no ordinary customer will get. Perhaps it's an autographed poster along with your DVD.

Right now I'm working out a list of different incentives matched with specific dollar amounts. The higher the contribution, the bigger the incentives. And I've been busting my ass on it for a few days now. I'm running out of unique incentives. Right now if you gave me 12 grand I think I would straight up just be your personal man whore.

I'm in the middle of working on the script for CREEP, and I'm so very excited about this. It's just one outrageous scene after another and really CANNOT WAIT for you to see this.

Already we're hitting some stumbling blocks. The make up artist I wanted to use has moved away (but is considering coming back for the shoot, so Yay!) My lead actress maybe moving as well. This might all work out if I can raise the shooting budget before summer. If not I'll be holding a casting call. Cest la vie.

I hope to have a script done in the next few weeks, along with the budget, the crowd funding plan, and full list of producer rewards.

I Write Big

Can't help it. I started with a cast list of 7 and now it has grown to 20. Yes, yes, of course I'm going to cut it down. No choice. I'm only going to have a budget of around 7 grand. Although now I'm contemplating going for 10. I mean the key here is to make it look HUGE with an immensely small budget.

Whatever it is, be it 7 or 10 grand, it's gotta look like it's somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.

Yeah, I'm in it right now. That place where I have to somewhat stifle the high concept creativity so I can keep it to no to low budget logistics.

This will be easier if I had an office. Literally, it would be my location, my studio, a place for rehearsals and then a place we would shoot at. And I've only budgeted around 2 grand for it. Wait no $1,500. I went on a budget cutting spree and that's what I ended up with.

Ahhhhhh. I'm driving myself nuts. Mainly with these scenes. Right now I'm trying to achieve these specific scenes, in the right pacing, so I can execute proper character arch, and all under budget.

So I'll cut out the cast completely and I'll use sock puppets. Not that the cast is actually getting paid much up front. This is all about deferred payment baby! But I wouldn't have to feed sock puppets.

Also, I hate pitching the script to everyone before it's done. I know many of you in this production want to know what it's all about, so I'll just say that it's a murder mystery comedy injected with action and horror. And it's got Vampires.

So yeah, it's pretty typical of me.

What is this epic no budget flick called? CREEP

It's called CREEP.

So yeah, it better be a horror movie, right? Well not to worry, it is. Now I go back to finishing this script so we can raise the $15,000. SEE! It went up again.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ok so if I go through and cut out the gold toilet in my trailer, I think we'll be fine.

Round 2

Feb 1st peeps. So how did round 1 go?

January was hell. But I'm glad to say I was able to knock out one project on the list. Unfortunately noone will be able to see it for a few months. It has gone to where it needs to go and sits with who it needs to sit with, as I await the results of all that hard work.

So I have until February 28th to finish this next one on the list, and then a I have to get moving on this Monster Cops episode so it'll be done before April. Well, actually May, but I always aim to finish far ahead of any deadline.

The next video involves a scene from REDD, and I will be immensely happy to finally get some movement on that. Which means I need to complete the Werewolf soon, and organize a Saturday shoot in mid February. And hopefully this winter weather will let up, because I need a nice sunny day shoot.

On the Monster Cops front. I'm going to try to get some funding for it, which would mean completion of this episode and finishing the full proposal. The money men love that kinda stuff. But also I know I have people asking about new stuff, so I'm going to try to throw up some short webisodes to appease the (not so) masses.

But the big picture for this year is to make that movie. Maybe it'll be Bobby's Closet, of which I'm still trying to raise money for. But the budget is still big even though it is low budget. So I'm working on a script for a movie that's budget is around $3000 to $5000. Raising that will get started once I get a few concept pieces done as well as finish that script and that business plan. This movie will utilize much of what I've talked about in the past. A full indie package including self distribution on a special edition DVD with plenty of extras and merchandise items.

I'll also utilize torrent sites. Try to generate some buzz through free downloads and supposed "pirating" of the film. Trying to stick with the concept of "Giveaway the movie, sell the show."

This will also take on some transmedia elements transcending just the movie and going into viral videos, comic books, short stories, and whatever else I can come up with like games, board games, video games. Transmedia means telling your story beyond just your initial low budget indie movie. Creating a universe instead of just one story. Much like what I've aimed to do with Monster Cops. One day I'll complete that Universe with MC, but it's just too big what I have in my head right now.

This all comes back to the one thing that has always stayed true in entertainment. Make a GREAT product. Create a truly great movie. Hollywood wonders why it loses money to pirates. The key is to not make CRAP and over charge people for it. Make something so great that it makes people want to pay you for it. As I've stated previously, make it an EVENT.

Like my hero Harry Anderson says, "Give em a good enough show, and people will be more than happy to pay the price of admission."

Those old street performing rules apply. Perform your heart out, stick out your hat, and get paid. So many opportunities coming up to make some great things happen. Gotta fight for it, make something AMAZING, stick my hat out and see what happens.

Welcome To The Party Pal!

It's been a rough week, no doubt, but to look to the positive side, there have been fun moments. Besides, as an experienced human being of nearly 35 years on this planet and existence, I should already know that with the bad comes the good, and so on and so on and ....

So we've gotten past some of the bad and hopefully heading into some good, possibly even into some great. Personal matters seem to be correcting themselves, and I'm finally getting back into some production work. Trying to beat that late February deadline for this one video project of which I will continue to be vague about. I mean, ya know, if I talk about it then it won't come, true right?

Anyhoo.

Forces Of Geek reports this: AC/DC Sets The Tone For IRON MAN 2

Today, Marvel Studios and Columbia Records have announced plans to release the CD compilation AC/DC: IRON MAN 2 on April 19, 2010. The album features 15 AC/DC tracks, many of which will be used in this summer's Iron Man 2. The songs include:

Shoot to Thrill, Rock 'N' Roll Damnation, Guns for Hire, Cold Hearted Man, Back in Black, Thunderstruck, If You Want Blood (You've Got It), Evil Walks, T.N.T., Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be, Have a Drink on Me, The Razor's Edge, Let There Be Rock, War Machine, and Highway to Hell.

Here's a promo video for AC/DC and Iron Man 2.




This put a smile on my face. I really enjoyed Iron Man and I think Jon Favreau has a good sense about moviemaking, much of which seems to harken back to the marketing sensibilities of the 80's.

As I've talked about with much glee before, I do love the 80's and movies from the 80's. I'm sure much of it is because I was an impressionable kid from back then, but I always felt like there was this sense of fun for movies back then, even in the marketing.

Putting out an AC/DC compilation CD that ties in with a summer blockbuster reminds me of Prince recording pop songs for the Batman soundtrack, or Billy Ocean doing a music video for Jewel Of The Nile and Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, and Danny Devito making an appearance. Or even Tina Turner singing "We Don't Need Another Hero" for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

All the cross over music and movie marketing still goes on today, of course, but back then it felt much cooler and much more fun. Like everyone who performed or made movies back then were all just having one big party. I sense alot of that in Iron Man 2. Kinda makes me feel like a kid again.

Makes me long for something from back then to surface now in something new. The Ghostbusters had Ray Parker Jr. Back To The Future had Huey Lewis and The News. And now Iron Man 2 has AC/DC. I'd love to see more marketing like this from more movies in the future. Where it's not just about telling people about a movie premiere. It's about announcing that a MOVIE EVENT is about to happen. It should make you feel like if you miss this movie, then you're missing the party.

I think that's something Indie Moviemakers need to keep in mind, even before you start working on that script. Think about the marketing. How can I make this into something more than just an indie movie? How can I make this into an EVENT? How can I make this so people will WANT to see it?

Don't just make a movie. Make an EVENT!

80's Influence and Bobby's Closet

Archangel, Reupload

I decided to add one small bit to the Archangel teaser. Just wanted to add a small explosion to give it a bigger feel. Once again, all done on Vegas.

Teaser trailer for a movie that doesn't exist. Fake trailer for a movie about a hit man battling other assassins. Just an excuse to try out some filters, visual fx, and editing techniques.

Shot on Panasonic GS320
Edited on Sony Vegas
Rendered to 24p in HD format

Features Chris Plouffe as the main hit man. Also features Brandon White, Richard Gaither, Sarah Vroom.

Music is "Grounds For Divorce" performed by ELBOW and the BBC ORCHESTRA

The Back Lot

Come on help this guy out. He's got charisma.



This is fairly close to some of the same routes we'll be taking when we start fundraising. His budget is way lower than ours. His is $3,500. And I have every confidence he can make that happen. If the script and story is good and he keeps this kind of drive, he'll do it.

Check out this guy on indiegogo http://www.indiegogo.com/thebacklot

As for OUR current estimated budget for the feature, we're pretty much at $100,000. We MIGHT be able to pull it off for $73,000. I'm going through the script right now to see what we can cut or modify to get it back down to about 60 to 50,000. But that's later.

Right now I gotta make sure we're prepped for the reading Saturday, and I need to figure out just how many commercials we'll be shooting in the next few weeks. We probably won't get back to shooting Monster Cops til closer to August, but we will see. And I am still working on getting a new Vlog up for http://monstercops.com as well as getting the first segment done on HHM. I don't know how that project will go now that I'm hip deep in the feature.

Monster Cops HorrorFest Screening

 

MONSTER COPS: SHADOW COMPANY

Screening at StarFest/HorrorFest

Sunday

April 19th

11:00 am

Denver Colorado

MORE INFO HERE

Vampire Brides, Take 1

The Dead By Dawn episode requires three Vampire Brides. 2 of which I had cast for sure. The third, I'm still looking for actually. I wanted to stick with the traditional look of the Vampire Brides (aka Dracula's Brides) each girl very beatiful but with different looks. Normally each girl has different hair color, dark, red, and blonde. I have a few choices right now for a blonde, but I have yet to actually talk to those choices. We'll see how it works out.

Let's focus on the two we've got. Kelsey Granger, our dark haired vamp. And Cat Degroot, our red head. I was going to wait til I had found the blonde and shoot the three altogether, but Kelsey had to head back to school soon, so I decided to go ahead and shoot Kelsey and Cat together. Now I didn't have the location I wanted yet so I had to do something I was trying to avoid. Green screen.

Green screen means shooting your actors in front of a green (sometimes blue) screen, and then do composite work in editing. Meaning I remove the green screen from behind the actors, and then place any background I need behind them. I've seen it done very well, and I've seen it done badly, and I've done it both well and badly. Either way, for a project like monster cops where I'm trying to get the most realistic feel possible, using a green screen wasn't something I wanted to do (you never see any bad cg fx on Cops now do ya?). I was already rolling my eyes at the crappy cg'd gun fire I put in The Midnight Special. This time around, I was determined to keep any cg or compositing to a minimum, and try to do every single effect practical and on set.

But in some cases you are left with no choice but to do the best with what you've got. So some cg and compositing would now be required. The thing about The Midnight Special was, I didn't have the best computer resources in the world. I was using a somewhat satisfactory program for my fx work, and I'm quite surprised I was able to edit a 90 minute movie on that frickin computer (80 gigs/256 ram, I pushed it to it's limits.) Now I'm blessed with a computer that is entirely too powerful to exist, oh, and a little something called Adobe After Effects CS3. So now I'm ok with doing a bit of CG and composting if I can do it well and only where it's needed.

Did you hear that Hollywood? WHERE IT'S NEEDED!!!!

Majority of the FX would be done on set. Any monster fx, most of the blood squibs, any gore, etc. would be done live. CG would be used if absolutely necessary, and only as a tool to help tell the story or achieve the scene if we couldn't achieve it any other way, and not just for the holy hell of it (see Van Helsing 2004).

So a green screening we went. Sadly I had to use the same green material I used back in the days of Living Dead Girls. Does anybody remember my Living Dead Girls series? Either of the 2 of you reading this? No? Me neither. Thankfully the creases in the sheets won't matter much. The solid green background is going to be helpful enough in compositing. Also most of the pitfalls you get when green screening on a low budget can be avoided since many of the Vampire Brides scenes are fairly short, and also take place in deep dark hallways and tunnels. Hopefully you won't even be able to tell the difference when I actually start editing.

Here come the pics. Including a few frames where I decided to play with the compositing software a bit.

Two of the three Vampire Brides in front of our amazing green screen. Cat on the left, Kelsey on the right. Aren't they adorable?

Arlanda doing the make up thang.

Me directing Kelsey

I think I made some kind of joke about Vampires making bunny ears.

Could our green screen have anymore creases?

Not only does Arlanda do make up but she knows how to fix costuming issues as well. She rocks.

Still messing with the costume.

Cat is trying to seduce the camera.

Arlanda applying more make up to Kelsey's arms. Because a Vampire with a sun tan just isn't very realistic.

She had a very even tan.

Cell Phone Camera Pics.
The fangs are great, but ya gotta hold em in place forever.

If you didn't know already, there's always alot of waiting around on set. Brandon and Chris on set as well.

Cat being Cat.

Kelsey minus the green.


Threw in a bit of a glow here.

Cat minus the green. Although I do notice some of it, but that's me being picky.
Horrible edge work here, something you won't see in the final cut.

Did a color correction just to see if I could bring out her hair color. Make it pop.

Just a little test to see what you can do with a green screen. Here are the two girls in front of our crease filled green sheets. Let's take out the green. You can see a bit of an outline of the green, especially around the hair, but it's fine.
Let's throw in a public domain photo of a cemetary.
And let's smooth it all out with a few filters. Black and white, with a blue tint. Went for that old, old, antique film look. Really we could have done much more, but you get the idea behind using a green screen.



A few more shots.






Overall I had a good time shooting that day. Hopefully the girls had fun too. They were wonderful to work with. I'm confident we got some great shots, and the footage should look fine in the final product. Ah the final product, can't wait to see what that looks like.

And if you haven't yet please help us out by registering at project breakout and voting for the monster cops WOLF HUNT short. Everyone get's 15 votes a day, so feel free to vote for us 15 times every day. Click the banner below.

Waiting

Waiting. It's a necessity in movie production.

I'm on set for Monster Cops: Dead By Dawn. I am currently waiting for the costumes and the make up stuff to get done. All the lights and electrical is ready to go, just waiting on the Vampires to get done with make up and for costume issues to get fixed, then we can knock this stuff out.

I'm posting just to kill some time. Here are a few pics I just took.

Building The MKX300

Finally got this segment done. Only took me 2 days, but somehow it felt like forever. Editing this video seemed to be more complicated than editing the actual episode. I think it was just due to trying to put all the right pics in order.

This gun was fun to make. It's amazing what you can do with what you've got or can get for cheap. The most expensive things on the gun is the camera, which I already had, and then the spotlight, which was about 30 bucks. Aside from that this gun cost about 30 bucks to make. Put a second one together minus the camera and spotlight for about 20 bucks more. And I'm putting together some new weapons using these same techniques for the next Monster Cops webisode.

Monster Cops: Shadow Company update

The short/episode that we've been working on for the past few months, Monster Cops: Shadow Company is finally completed. Edited to a final cut, QC'd (quality control, that's what that means. ;)) and is ready to be burned to DVD and submitted to screenings and fests. I hope to get copies to those involved. The overall short/episode is 24 minutes.

I'll be taking a small break from shooting, but then we go right into the next Monster Cops project, a 5 to 6 minute short called Monster Cops: Dead By Dawn. This one I hope to have monster filled as you may have geussed if you read previous postings on One Spartan.

Ooh I'm excited for people to see this last one. Even more excited to show you this next one.