90 pages

That's the goal. Another 90 pages. Last full length feature script I wrote was in July. It was Bobby's Closet. And I know that will need another re-write before it actually gets shot next year. Also in the middle of a Monster Cops episode and Redd re-writes, but those are less than 30 pages.

I'm about to embark on another feature length script, this one is my no-budget venture. Bobby's Closet has a budget of about 63,000 depending on what camera package I'm going to use. This new script is one we can start shooting as soon as I finish writing it and whenever I can get the new camera in.

As I've written before, alot of the writing process doesn't actually involve any physical writing. The real and first writing starts in your head. My brain has been scrambling around all the ideas and plot lines trying to piece it together like a puzzle. I'm putting pressure on myself to make this one truly great, but when am I not?

When my brain is doing all the writing it's important for me to create an atmosphere that is optimal for inspiration and creative thinking. That means everything around me has to help feed my mind. Sights, sounds, even smells and flavors. I've got an apple pie flavored candle burning, it matches the holiday feel lately and I find it rather relaxing. I've been drinking alot of coffee, not only to feed my caffeine headache, but also because something about the flavor helps my brain. I always try to keep the house clean, because I'm sort of a neat freak of course, but also because I can't think if there is a mess around me.

This brings me to what I've been listening to and watching.

Movie scores always help. I always write to music. Here's part of my huge movie score playlist. The tracks I keep repeating over and over. The sounds that help bring me to where I need to be to write.

- Beowulf Slays the Beast by Alan Silvestri from Beowulf
- Chiun Walks On Water by Craig Safan from Remo Williams The Adventure Begins
- Enterprising Young Men by Michael Giacchino from Star Trek
- A Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard from The Dark Knight
- Panda Po by Hans Zimmer from Kung Fu Panda
- Overture by Michael Kamen from Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
- August's Rhapsody by Mark Mancina from August Rush
- Roll Tide by Hans Zimmer from Crimson Tide
- My Day So Far by John Powell from Jumper
- Escape From Torture by Jerry Goldsmith from Rambo: First Blood Part II

There's plenty more but these are the tracks I keep gravitating to.

I've been digesting and re-digesting much TV as well. My wife just got into DEXTER and has decided to get me into it as well. Already watched the first season. It's a really great show and luckily it's been helping my creative atmosphere. Good writing, great performances. It's a show that has alot of episodes that write the same way I think.

Been re-watching alot of HOUSE episodes as well, since it's sort of a detective movie I'm writing I need my Sherlock Holmes fix, and HOUSE is the closest to a modern day Sherlock Holmes we'll get nowadays (Love the guy, but Robert Downey Jr. doesn't count.).

I've read a few rants about the show recently. Some people have lost interest because they feel they show may have jumped the shark a few times. Me personally I don't care. As long as the characters stay true to themselves, keep the mysteries coming, and let House continue to be a wise ass medical detective, I'm perfectly fine with jumping whatever type of shark they want.


Slipping in the occasional THE WEST WING episode as well as SEINFELD to round out the comedy.



Ooh, my music player just went into Kung Fu Panda, SUCH A GREAT SCORE!!!!

Anyhoo.

And of course watching Movies always helps. Can't go wrong with PIXAR. THE INCREDIBLES and TOY STORY 2. Pixar in general is one of the great movie making and story telling companies in existence. They really know how to make a really great movie and know how to capture the essence of amazing cinema.

ROUNDERS is always one of my favorites, such a cool and smooth flick. I put it right up there with GOODFELLAS as far as voice over flicks are concerned. Great direction and performances and Damon does so well with the narration. Love the way it's written, such slick dialogue. Also, I'll watch anything with Famke Jansen in it.

Just re-watched THE PAPER, a highly underrated Ron Howard movie and one of David Koepp's best scripts. Every bit of that movie was entertaining. I love ticking clock movies and this one gets almost every beat right. A pre-cursor to SPORTS NIGHT and THE WEST WING, filled with walk and talk, wit, intellect, and street smarts, funny as hell. Captures the chaos of a newspaper news room. Great cast, and man, do I miss watching Michael Keaton take control of the screen.










This should give you some sense of what I'm working on. Ticking Clock, Voice Overs, Ensemble Casts, and a Detective Story. Throw in a murder, smart comedy, and a few thrills and you've got whatever the heck it is my brain is trying to piece together.

Of course still working on props and script for REDD. Got most of Redd's weapons established and I'm back on the Werewolf in a few weeks. The top of that pic you'll see the double barrel shotgun I built. I wanted Redd to have a primary weapon and I wanted it to be a big ass gun. I figured a double barrel sawed off would look great with her outfit. The other guns are props from Monster Cops I've had to re-paint and fix, note the tape job on that bottom handgun.

I think I should probably eat at some point this week.

Mark Wahlberg Talks To A Necronomicon

I couldn't help it. The title of this post sounded so absurd I had to use it. Anyways.
There's no better way to celebrate Halloween then perusing or participating in Instructables. Don't know about Instructables? Then check it out for yourself. http://www.instructables.com

It's simply a place to see and post How to and DIY projects of all kinds. From "How To Bake a Cake" to "How To Blow Up a Cake" people have submitted projects of all kinds. So Halloween is a great time to see what people are doing, or to post your very own instructable.

I decided to submit my Prop Necronomicon How To Vid as my very first Instructable, and I'm proud to say it's being FEATURED on the Instructables home page. How nifty is that?



I've been a longtime lurker on Instructables and it's pretty cool to have my first submission be featured. Glad so many are enjoying the project and I appreciate all the feedback, comments, and messages I've gotten. Feel free to take a look at the step by step instructions as well as the posted video there.

INSTRUCTABLES: Necronomicon: Book Of The Dead

This will certainly be a neat addition to the Halloween Video this year. So exciting.

In other news. I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY DID WHAT THEY DID ON SNL.

My wife and I joked about what they should do next to follow up Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals skit, and as I was watching SNL this passed weekend they actually did exactly what we were joking about.



I'm still laughing my ass off. So this makes Mark Wahlberg pretty cool in my book and almost redeems him for doing the movie Fear.

DIY NECRONOMICON The Video

I can't believe this took me two weeks to put together. Anyways, here it is in all it's Evil Dead glory. How to make your very own Evil Dead Necronomicon Ex Mortis Book Of The Frickin Dead.

What else is a blog for ...

but to post randomly at 3:30 in the AM.

Once again, using the blog as a break from editing video. Currently working on the Necronomicon Tutorial which I hope those of you who have been searching for a DIY Propmaking solution for your very own Necronomicon will find handy. I'm trying to get down every single step possible, and cut it together in as short of form as possible.

Also have to cut together videos for Monstercops.com. Reorganize all the project folders for Monster Cops episodes, Archangel, and The Long Halloween. The Long Halloween is now the official title for this years Halloween Tribute Video. And I'm starting on the next prop on the list which is a giant mini-gun sorta kinda. It's a huge gun prop I've been working on in my head for months now, and then low and behold, here come the folks over at Indy Mogul putting up their very own video tutorial on making a mini (or gatling) gun. Here it is:





And here's the test film, as usual:




They came up with a few things I did not, so I shall be borrowing some of those techniques. We'll see how it turns out. Again, Indy Mogul kicks ass.

Back to editing the Necronomicon Tutorial. Plus I think it may be time for an actual Video Blog from me.

Necronomicon: Book Of The Dead. The DIY Version.

I can comfortably say that I've gotten at least one thing done on my list. I made my very own Necronomicon. Or to be exact, Necronomicon Ex Mortis. The horror geek in me has to specify that if I say Necronomicon then I'm refrencing H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon. When I'm actually leaning more towards the Book Of The Dead featured in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy.

Legend has it that it was written by the Dark Ones. Necronomicon ex
Mortis, roughly translated, "Book of the Dead". The book served as a passageway to the evil worlds beyond. It was written long ago. When the seas ran red with blood. It was this blood that was used to ink the book. In the year 1300 AD, the book disappeared.

For the current Monster Cops Episode I wanted to refrence Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, seeing as how I love the Evil Dead movies and this particular episode is titled Monster Cops: Dead By Dawn. The plot itself doesn't actually have much to do with the Evil Dead mythos, but I wanted to make a nod to it. The Monster Cops breach a very evil vampire lair and I wanted them to come across some evil objects. So why not have one of those objects be a Necronomicon? Plus I though it would be fun to build one.

The Necronomicon has actually changed appearance throughout each Evil Dead film. Here's what some of them look liked.

The Necronomicon Ex Mortis from the very first low budget film Evil Dead. This lower budget version looks pretty creepy to me, but I was always much fonder of the look they used in the sequel.


Here's a frame from Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn.


A closer look at the version from Evil Dead 2. The budget obviously went up on the prop making. I do love this look quite a bit and is the look I was leaning towards when creating my own.


And this is the version in Army Of Darkness (Evil Dead 3). The prop making budget went all the way up this time around thanks to Universal Studios. Still holding to eerieness but looked alot more subtle with much better quality.


The limited edition DVD's of Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 came in really cool looking Necronomicon covers. But even they somewhat differ from any of the above designs of the book.



And here's the first pic of mine.

Wasn't going for exactness, but I wanted to stay with the same feel as the Evil Dead trilogy. I wanted the eyes on mine to be much angrier. This didn't actually cost me much to make since I had all the materials already. The base of it is a cardboard box duct taped together to form the actual cover and spine. The wrinkles in the skin were made from masking tape and duct tape. The eyes, nose, and mouth were formed with long rolled up pieces of duct tape then sealed down with masking tape. Then I painted it with acrylic, using black for the inside of the eyes and mouth, and the rest painted with brown mixed in with some cadium red.

Right now I'm sealing the whole thing down with Mod Podge sealer to give it some strength and so the paint won't run, just in case it ever gets wet (have you ever been on one of our sets?) I'm going to finish the back, and then fill the middle in with actual pages of monster drawings and images just as soon as Mr. Brandon White finishes them.

I'll post a video tutorial as soon as it's finished. This will actually only make an appearance in the current episode for about 10 seconds, but I think it will lend alot to the feel of this episode.

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.

Weapons Training

Here are pics and freezes from the MKX 300 Weapons Training scene.

First a few action figure poses.

Agent Windows.

Agent Weir.

The Vampire Keels.

The Vampire Keels again.

The MKX weapon prop, nights before. I had just purchased some led tap lights and had glued them on using welder glue (amazing glue). The gun itself is a mix of Simply Orange bottles, gray cable, bolts and washers, great stuff, red and white led lights, and an old video camera, all spray painted with black and silver.

The fully finished weapons prop. Although I realize now that it was missing a few lights that day.

Getting ready to shoot the MKX 300 scene. Aaron Plouffe is our test zombie.

Weapons Training Graphic.

Nigel.

Nigel introducing the MKX Weapon.

Windows about to demonstrate the weapon on a test zombie.

The test zombie.

After the zombie has been killed.

The Vampire Keels.

The Vampire Fangs.

Holding the vampire back

The vampire in restraints as Windows explains how to kill a vampire.

The MKX 300 lcd screen.

The Vampire Keels hit with an MK 9mm Silver and Garlic Bullet

The Vampire Keels hitting the bloody wall.

Always follow up your bullet hit. Weir with the wooden stake. Windows with the sunlight emitter.

Working it.

Figured I'd post some pics of what's been going down for the past month or so. Next I'll post the first Monster Cops Video Blog.

I'm still in the middle of casting, but below are pics of some of the actors that have for sure been cast.

Brandon White, showing off in one of the new costume pieces.


The Adorable Nicole Nastazzio


Comedian Greg Romeo


Doug Hanks, who is also loaning us the use of his guns as well as gun expertise and a location to fire these guns at. Thank you so much Doug.


Danielle Motley has been cast in the much sought after role of Greenly. Yes Danielle I'm using your headshot, and yes I stole it off your myspace, get over it.

And if you're one of the many actors who were looking to audition for the role of Greenly I'm sorry, but I am still actively looking to fill other female roles and will continue to keep in contact with all of the actors who have been emailing me.

Others cast but not pictured:
John Burcham
Lisa Molenda
Will Atwood
Jamie Bertman
more to come.

Secured almost all of the locations. Special thanks to Kelly Emerson for giving us her ranch to shoot at, which has an amazing backwoods area. She also put me in touch with the person who can get us in to shoot at this massive warehouse in downtown Winston.


Kelly's been a real Godsend, she's also contributing some possible props/costumes as well as giving us an in to a Helicopter.

I've been hard at work at creating one of the prop guns for the movie. I felt the Monster Cops needed a specialized weapon, not unlike the Ghostbusters proton pack, or the Plasma Rifle from Aliens. I took my inspiration from Indy Mogul. Everytime I see empty bottles now, I just see gun parts. A full video on how I'm making this will be done later.



Here it is with a final paint job, but still without the final parts and accessories added.


Here's our Special FX guy William Stine working on the Werewolf FX. I'm not going to post too many photos of it just yet, don't want to completely give it away. William you're doing an amazing job.





Still going through casting, still looking at locations, alot is still up in the air, but so much has fallen into place. Can't wait to shoot this one.