A new music video!

Hey all!

I know, I need to write up my trip to LA last weekend. Almost as soon as I got off the plane, I was practically consumed by projects. One of which was the music video to promote the DVD World Collision and I made of the original 1922 Nosferatu with their score (also a Hallowscreen-related piece.)

Without further ado, I present "Sine" by World Collision (if you want to watch it in high def, please watch the video here!):



I'm so busy with projects to pay the bills and projects to further my skills, a lot of which I can't talk about at the moment, but I'm still around! As soon as I can spill them thar beans, I'll tell you all fourth! (cuz, seriously, my mom would be first, then a mass text to family and friends, then Twitter...all about ease of communications. I almost wish I had a brain implant that would allow me to automatically upload my thoughts when I want to blog, but then this would be waaay too stream-of-consciousness and have a lot of random Python sketches...which ain't a bad thing.)

More from the World Music and Independent Film Festival

I was interviewed recently by Laura Hartman of the World Music and Independent Film Festival where this past year, the music video I made for World Collision was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Alternative Rock Video. The interview can be found by clicking here.

I have something exciting to announce, too, that does tie in to my interview in a round about way. Hallowscreen was an amazing experience and I met some truly fantastic people because of it. Among those I met are Sage Hall and Jesse Kozel who made the short film Candy. They're making another short film next week and I've volunteered my services for pretty much whatever they need. It's been a long time since I was on someone else's set so I'm really looking forward to, well, everything! I volunteered to do whatever they need. I have no problem with going from the captain of the ship to being a deckhand. All positions are necessary and if I can help in anyway to make their dreams come true, then I'll be happy!

I believe in supporting the community, of helping each other when and if possible. I know that film is a business and that it's very competitive, but like they say in Second City: if the other guy looks good then everyone looks good. I heard that twice this week (once on the Ghostbusters commentary from Harold Ramis and once on a random interview with Bill Murray that was on TCM) and I really like that philosophy.

In other news, I finished the second draft of a new feature script the other day. This one is one I've been trying to write for years, but it just didn't want to come out. I'm very happy with it and want to start on the third draft, but I need to do this short film first since I plan on shooting it early next year. On that front, I re-started the storyboards last night. I was using a computer program to hand draw them (don't ask) and it was okay at first, but the program locked up on the fourth page and wouldn't let me erase or edit so I had to restart it. It's all good, I'm a terrible artist, but I think I prefer to be terrible on physical media anyway.

I may have more to announce soon, but I'll wait until I have confirmation. For now, keep screaming!

Hallowscreen: Seven Days Later.

I've written up a quick round up of the Hallowscreen Film Festival over on the festival blog: http://hallowscreen.blogspot.com/2010/11/seven-days-later.html

I had an emotional shock on Tuesday when I was already mentally and physically exhausted from the festival so for my own health, I took the past two days off. Today is errand day and we'll see what the weekend holds, but my project plans are as follows: I have a 30 second commercial to make for a local business in exchange for them letting us into their parking lot early to set up for Nosferatu, I am doing pre-production on a music video for World Collision, and I want to make another short film. In between all of that, I want to write, write, write. I haven't written for most of this year and that makes my head go all splodey... :D

Downloadable versions of the Hallowscreen Film Festival schedule.

In an effort to reduce how much paper is used at Hallowscreen, I've created two more ways of getting our schedule in addition to the physical, printed brochure and the web-based version of the schedule.

Click here to download our schedule as an epub document hosted by MediaFire.

Click here to download the inside of our brochure as a PDF, also hosted by MediaFire.

If I'd remembered about QR codes earlier, I would've put them on the posters...ah well, next year!!

Chatting up the Hallowscreen on local access TV!

Here's the video of me on local access television talking up the Hallowscreen! I excised my parts from the whole show because of YouTube's length restrictions. You should definitely check out the Sarasota Chalk Festival's Denise Kowal in the video at the bottom of this post for the rest of the episode!

Lori chatting up Hallowscreen:


Denise Kowal chatting up the Sarasota Chalk Festival:


Y'all know that I'm really not that big a fan of crowds and attention and stuff. I get really nervous when I do Q&A for my own films. I've done live TV before - closed circuit stuff at school and that sort of thing - and I've been interviewed before. I really prefer to be behind the cameras as opposed to in front of them. Last night, I received an email from Denise asking me if I would go with her to be on At the Movies. I may feel uncomfortable with that stuff, but I am in the film business. No one can promote my stuff but me, right?, so it's a good opportunity to get used to it so I said yes. Well, first I said EGADS, and then I said yes.

Cut to today: Denise picked me up at 6:20 and we headed over to the Comcast broadcast studio where we met Gus Mollasis, the host of the program we were going to be on: At the Movies. As befitting public access, it was a small studio with a cramped green room, but cozy and personable all at the same time. We sat and went over what we were going to talk about in brief so we wouldn't go on completely cold. We trudged into the studio and chatted some more as we donned our lavaliers and got comfortable. They had a quarter of a wall covered with old 3/4" decks that they don't use anymore and are just sitting there for storage. I haven't seen a 3/4" deck since I graduated from high school, so that was pretty neat. Another couple of minutes and we were off and running!

The broadcast went smoothly and I'm pretty happy with everything I was able to say. My Nancy Hair was totally in effect, too! (you'll notice that I am wearing an I Am Nancy pin...in fact, it's the one that Heather Langenkamp gave me at Spooky Empire. :D ) He put me on the spot with that "what films should I see" thing, but I think I handled it pretty well. lol

Gus Mollasis is a great guy and I'm so glad that we was able to fit me in without any notice. I'm also glad I thought to bring a brochure with me so he could look it over to have fodder for questions.

Eight days until the festival starts! Whoa!! And five until my birthday!! Hahaha!

At the Movies with Gus Mollasis

Hey everyone (who lives in Sarasota anyway...) Tune in to BlabTV (Comcast 189) at 7 tomorrow night to see Sarasota Chalk Festival director Denise Kowal and myself talk about our events with Gus Mollasis, host of At the Movies!

The Hallowscreen Film Festival is looking for volunteers!

The Hallowscreen Film Festival is looking for responsible volunteers (read: no pay, except in gum and gratitude!) for our Halloween weekend event! The film festival is being put on in conjunction with the Sarasota Chalk Festival, an event to raise money (via donations) and awareness for the Avenida de Colores, a Sarasota-based 501(c)3. There is no charge for admission to either the film festival or the Chalk Festival. The festivals will take place in downtown Sarasota, in the area where South Pineapple Avenue and South Orange Avenue converge.

We request that all volunteers are 18 or older as this film festival shows mostly rated R films and as one of the functions of the volunteers will be to check IDs at the door, it doesn't seem right for the volunteer to not be able to see the movies they're carding for!

We need volunteers for the following days:
Friday, October 29, 2010, from 6pm-midnight. 6pm-9pm is the VIP party and 9 pm-midnight is the open to the public portion. The opening night film will be shown during both sections. The volunteer may be called upon to change discs as well as card attendees to verify that they are 17 or older for our films.

Saturday, October 30, 2010, from noon-midnight. Obviously, we don't expect volunteers to stay all twelve hours, but we're running films that entire time. Switching discs and checking IDs will be the main jobs for the volunteers. There is also an outdoor portion to this event, from 6:30 until 8, featuring local band World Collision playing a brand new, original score live to the silent film Nosferatu.

Sunday, October 31, 2010, from noon-midnight. Obviously, we don't expect volunteers to stay all twelve hours, but we're running films that entire time. Again, switching discs and checking IDs will be the main jobs for the volunteers.

Other functions that may be asked of the volunteers: help tearing down / putting up A/V equipment if the tech crew so asks, go-fer / errand runner, sell t-shirts that help to raise money for the Chalk Festival / Avenida de Colores.

There are no paid positions on the Hallowscreen staff. In fact, the entire staff is one person.

To apply, please send your name, availability, and contact information to Hallowscreen@gmail.com . Please use: "Volunteer for Hallowscreen" in your subject so the email doesn't end up in Spam. Volunteers are responsible for getting themselves to and from the event, which is in downtown Sarasota. Finally, serious applicants only, please. Please don't volunteer your time only to not show up and not even let us know that you're not showing up.

To learn more about the Chalk Festival, please go to their website: www.chalkfestival.com .
To learn more about the Hallowscreen Film Festival, please visit our blog: hallowscreen.blogspot.com .

Hallowscreen news and other things...

Whew! Things have been crazy around these parts. I've been working feverishly on the Hallowscreen Film Festival (the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival is no longer a part of the name or the organizational team, they're sponsors.) My workload has pretty much tripled and none of it is paid...thankfully, I love what I'm doing and it'll put my name out there in the community so it's a matter of balance...or rationalization. I'm not picky. ;D

I'm still working on the schedule, but you can check out what we'll be screening by heading over to the new website: hallowscreen.blogspot.com. It's going to be so much fun!! Like I said in the blog, I'm not too proud to put my own movies in the festival so aftershock and Without/Within will be shown! (But I'll also pull them if I need time or something. One never knows!)

The Hallowscreen Film Festival is now a completely free event - it costs nothing to submit and there's no admission fee. We'll have donation boxes set up at the venues with the money going to the Avenida de Colores, a 501(c)3 arts education program here in Sarasota. Hallowscreen is part of the Sarasota Chalk Festival, a HUGE, international performance / street art event that's happening over Halloween weekend. Seriously, it's going to be amazing! Amazingly amazing! Edgar Mueller will be here, for pete's sakes, and it's his first American installation!

I know this is pretty last minute, but I'll be at the GreenHome WamaLama Green Business Expo tomorrow at Robarts to promote the event. If you're at the expo, stop by and say hi!

Hallowscreen presents: Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama!

Yes, you read that right! Thanks to the generous folks at Full Moon Features, I have been able to wrangle up Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama to show as a tribute to actress Brinke Stevens, our first Queen of Hallowscreen!

With a title like that, who can refuse seeing it?! Well, to be honest, me, up until a few years ago. I wish I hadn't waited so long! It's freakin' hilarious and fun, everything one would expect from a B-movie with such a title and where the director publicly admits to being sloshed pretty much the entire time.

Ms. Stevens, with whom I've kept contact after I met her at Shockerfest '08, was kind enough to provide me with three titles from her filmography that she's particularly proud of. After the event's over, I'll reveal the other titles and what happened (assuming I can't track them down), but even if this is all we get, I'm still happy with this much! And how awesome of Full Moon to let us show it!!

Sarasota Fringe Hallowscreen Film Festival presents: NOSFERATU (1922)

O hai guyz!

So, going along with my post about being the Program Director for the Fringe Hallowscreen this year, I'm finally able to announce one of the things I've planned for the festival. Feast your eyes upon the poster I made whilst I lay out the details. That way, when you're done feasting, you can read the rest of the post. See? I'm thinking ahead.



That's right! We're hosting a screening of F.W. Murnau's original, classic Nosferatu from 1922 with a new soundtrack performed LIVE by World Collision, my brother's band. Since this is my blog, I can be completely honest. I chose my brother's band for three reasons: (one) They really are freakin' good. I'm not just saying that as a sister, I'm saying that as a person with ears. (two) I don't know the local music scene any more. Once Neurotica hit back in the day, I no longer went to events. (three) Because I don't want to have to worry about the band. I know my brother will get it done, I know where he lives, I know how to track him down. I don't have to rely on a friend of a friend to get me information or anything like that.

I hope that Hallowscreen (or whatever they want to call it next year if I'm not involved - I like my wordplay) is a yearly festival and that they run a silent film every year scored by a local band. If no rock bands step up (right), maybe get the orchestra from a high school or something. Get more community involvement.

I'll have another sidebar-type event to announce soon, too! Something that's wonderfully goofy and that honours one of my favourite Scream Queens. OHNO! I've said too much... :D

Keep an eye on THIS SPACE RIGHT HERE for more announcements. :D

The Sarasota Fringe Hallowscreen Film Festival!

If I thought I was busy before I left for New York, that idea pales in comparison to what's been happening lately. The most important thing I can currently announce is that I was made Program Director for the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival's first weekend-long mini-fest, which just so happens to be taking place over Halloween weekend this year!



I'm working on some exciting side-bar programming, but original content is, of course, of the highest priority so c'mon filmmakers! Give me your horrors! There's no entry fee and all entries are automatically in the Fringe festival's main event which will take place in April of next year!

As for the mini-fest itself, it's being put on in conjunction with the Avenida de Colores street art festival in beautiful, historic Burns Square in Sarasota, Florida. Right now, we're not planning on charging for either our outdoor venue, which will be PG-13 or under, or our indoor venue, for the more adult-oriented horror flicks. We've also partnered up with the New Orleans-based Vampire Film Festival to offer up some frightfully delicious content!

Mark it on your calendar! The film fun starts at 9 am on Saturday, October 30, and runs until midnight, then starts up again on Sunday at 9 am and goes until around 3 when we'll have an awards ceremony and closing party! We'll also have an opening night film on Friday starting around 6 or 6:30. So join us...and just keep telling yourself...it isn't REEL!