Airport Confessional -- SRQ International

It’s 6:49 in the morning. The sun is just beginning its ascent in the east, midnight blue giving way to the delicate orange, yellow, and pink of the rising ball of fire some 93 million miles away. The airport is nearly deserted now, two full hours before my flight is scheduled to depart and there’s a nice sense of calm about the place that will soon be broken by wailing infants, wailing businesspeople, and wailing travelers. I can understand why the ticket agent at the desk was annoyed that myself and one other traveler were here so early; its so peaceful.

I’m on my way to a film festival in Cleveland, Ohio, which is roughly an hour north of the place of my birth, North Canton. I haven’t been back to the Motherland in 17 years. I haven’t even been to this airport since I returned from my untriumphant move to New York back in 1997.

Out on the tarmac, the airport workers are connecting what I hope is our plane to their cart so they can move it into position near the gangway. I hope I have a window seat, I forgot to check when I checked in.

I love to fly. It’s utterly terrifying to think about logistically, but none of that seems to matter when they open the throttle and you’re rocketing down the runway and then up up up into the sky. It’s so wonderful to look at the world from a different perspective; I think more people need to fly and to be seated at the window, so they can look at the world on which we live and how it’s really not that bad a place and could be better if we’d all just get over ourselves.

*****

“Bad Moon Rising” just started on the airport radio station. Is it bad that the only thing that comes to mind when I hear this song is Kevin Kline and Tom Berenger zooming down the road with the top down on a Jeep? No, I don’t think about An American Werewolf in London, I think of The Big Chill. I used to watch that film over and over when I was a kid, even though I really didn’t understand most of it until I was older. I never understood that the opening credits, and the body and the stitches, was the Alex they were talking about, though I understood that Alex was dead. I always thought that the girl who was dressing the guy was really nice to be dressing him, maybe it was his mom. And that he had strange wrists. I probably thought that was Glenn Close dressing Kevin Kline or something.

*****

It’s twenty minutes later and I’m thinking that soon I’m going to regret choosing this particular seat, right in front of the east-facing windows. But for now, I’m happy. I took some really nice pictures of the sun lifting up over the horizon that I’ll post when I get to the hotel in a few hours. Man, ain’t that a killer thought? Here I am, on the gulf coast of Florida about to board a plane (and then another one) that will take me to Ohio within four hours. It takes almost that long just to drive to Orlando from here.

I have a friend who gets all existential when she does laundry...I suppose that airports do that to me. I don’t think it’s the fact that I’m going to strap myself into a seat on a jet-fueled airplane and more the fact that I’m leaving everything I know and the people I love and heading to a place completely unknown to me (I’ve never been to Cleveland, at least not that I remember) and be surrounded by people that are, for all intents and purposes, completely unfamiliar.

I’m not a big fan of crowds, or attention for that matter. I have a hard time talking up my work. I do what I do and wish that my work, and how hard I work to bring that work to life, could speak for itself, but in this business I’ve become a part of, you need to be able to talk yourself up, to promote yourself. These film festivals are good exercise, but I wonder if I’ll have to almost split into two Loris, the me I know and the me I have to be so I can do what I love.

See? Existential. And I’m so low in the echelon as a filmmaker that it’s probably not a real question anyway.

Yup...regretting this seat now. Sun’s in my eyeballs...I’m a Goth, why in the world did I choose to get up this early?!

Film Festival business!

Whew! Gotta get out my Swiffer, this place is all dusty! It's tough to try and keep a blog when you work every shift by yourself and are pretty exhausted by the time your days off roll around. In fact, this will be my ninth day in a row without a day off, but with good reason: I'm heading to the Indie Gathering the day after tomorrow! I'll try to post more both during and after the festival...I'll have so much to say and so much I'll want to remember! It is, after all, the first trip back to the homeland in 17 years and my first trip to Cleveland ever! What a way to go back!

In other news, I've got my trailer in a contest at the Vampire Film Festival in New Orleans! The film isn't about vampires, but they accept all dark materials and this film is certainly that. In their categories, I would classify it as Goth which works out because on the IMDb, the film is listed in the top thirteen Goth shorts! How that works, I don't know, but it's there and I'll take it. :D Maybe it's based on the use of keywords...whatever.

Anyway, the contest is on the festival's youTube channel. To vote, simply click on the stars and, if you feel so inclined, leave a comment as to why you feel that way. You can access my trailer's page directly by clicking on this sentence. I DON'T want ANYONE to click one star on any other trailer just to give anyone a boost! Please be honest! I know I can't expect the same from others in the contest, but I can hope for it! Besides, how are we to learn how to make stuff better without honesty?

In other news, I have made up a few DVDs to give away at the festival so if anyone reading this is actually going to Indie Gathering, or CenFlo or any festival for that matter, and wants a copy, come on up and find me after the screening ('cause, you know, you should see it before wanting it! ;D) They're homemade so a little rough, but made with heart and that's what counts when you don't have cash.

I think that's enough of this for now. I'll try to not be so absent in the future...I can't promise much when the bill-paying job is so tiring, but I can try!!

Fantastic A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema news!

My newest short film, A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema, has won an award at the Indie Gathering in Cleveland, Ohio! The indie Gathering takes place in mid-August.

EDITED TO ADD: We've got a screening! August 15, which is a Saturday, at 7:10 pm in Screening Room C!

http://theindiegathering.com/2009winners.htm

The film is also an Official Selection of the Central Florida Film Festival which takes place in September!

From Fangoria.com: Nightbreed: The Director's Cut?

Over on Fango.com, there's a news story about the possibility of a Nightbreed director's cut, but only if the studio sees that there is enough call for it. The film was written and directed by Clive Barker from his own novella, Cabal.

From the Wikipedia entry:

The movie centers around Aaron Boone (portrayed by Craig Sheffer), a young man plagued by dreams of a city called Midian, populated by bizarre creatures and deviants of all types who refer to themselves as the "Nightbreed". Aaron is framed for several murders by his psychopathic therapist, subsequently killed by police and resurrected by the magic of Midian. Boone joins forces with the other monsters to defend themselves from the true monsters of the story: humankind.

If you haven't seen it yet, go rent it or borrow it from a friend. After you've seen it and said "WTF?", read the article to find out how you can help get Clive Barker's original vision out to the masses. And, after you've done that, go read the novella if you haven't already.

The goings on!

Hey everyone!

Geez, it's been forever since I posted last. The day job is practically taking over my life right now as I'm the only full time night shift projectionist we have. Also, trying to do something other than work all the time has meant that I've had very little time to sit down and post. The fact that I've had very little news to post has added to the lack of things to say; however, I now have some great news! A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema is now an Official Selection of the Central Florida Film Festival in Ocoee, Florida! The festival runs September 4-6, Labour Day Weekend, and myself and co-worker Chris Cline (who plays the Priest in the flick) have already asked for it off. Bad timing for the theatre, great timing for us!

I've completed a couple of scripts, too. I'm just trying to transcribe them, make them feature length, and keep writing. That's the main thing, just keep writing.

The issue of Morpheus Tales that my story "Warm Body in a Cold World" is in is coming out this Summer in the UK. It's available for pre-order on their website.

That's it for the moment. I've hooked my phone up to the blog so I can blog more, especially from festivals. Thanks for hanging in there!!

My mommy.

To my mom, who puts up with her baby girl's love of the horror genre with a brave face (if not a strong stomach) and never tried to make me be anyone other than who I am, I say happy birthday (on Friday) and happy mother's day (today.)

I love you, mom!

Red, The Bird People in China, Return to Sleepaway Camp, City on Fire

RED is a film based on Jack Ketchum's book by the same name. It was adapted Stephen Susco (The Grudge, The Grudge 2) and directed by Trygve Allister Diesen and Lucky McKee. It stars Brian Cox as Avery Ludlow, a man who's dog Red is senseless murdered by the town hothead Danny (Noel Fisher.) Avery is thwarted at every pass in his journey to get justice because Danny is the eldest son in a rich family, headed by another hothead (played by Tom Sizemore.) Eventually, things get out of control, as things often do, and blood is spilt from both sides of the argument.

It started out well enough, and had a great trailer, but was severely brought down by too much exposition and a truly terrible performance from Tom Sizemore. He was bad and I mean really, really bad. Thankfully, the leads, Brian Cox and Noel Fisher, were excellent. There were also appearances by Amanda Plummer playing Robert Englund's screen wife and Ashley Lawrence played Tom Sizemore's character's wife. That was distracting, the stunt casting of Englund and Lawrence. Their characters were pointless in the movie. They could have easily been played by anyone at all. Ah well.

The script could have been a lot better. It needed a little bit of work before going before the cameras, i think. Cutting down the exposition would have helped. That's better suited to a novel than a movie.

The direction was okay. I'd love to know why there were two directors. Lucky McKee is big enough to be able to direct by himself and he's pretty good at it. So why the other dude with the really cool name?

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it. I'd recommend watching the trailer. That was some good stuff.

*****

The Bird People in China was directed by Takashi Miike from an adapted screenplay by Masa Nakamura. It's about a business man and a yakuza who are sent to a remote part of China to investigate a vein of jade and are changed forever. A plot description from the IMDb, posted by Danny Leary, says it better:

A young Japanese salaryman is sent by his company to a remote Chinese village to evaluate precious Jade that is found there, but before he arrives meets the yakuza who was sent to tail him to protect his bosses interest in the company. When the men finally arrive their mission become sidetracked by their interest in a mysterious young village girl, her haunting English language song and the secret that makes men fly like birds.

It's a wonderfully imaginative little flick, very sweet and only slightly strange. Everything about it was wonderful. I did find the colours to be a little muted, a little untrue, but that could just be my teevee getting ready to die. This is nothing like Audition or The Happiness of the Katakuris or Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, and Sukiyaki Western Django. Miike-san's films are all very unique, even if he's making something to capitalize on a current trend (One Missed Call, for example.)

Everything about it was superb and I highly recommend it.

*****

Return to Sleepaway Camp.

I'm not going to bother with all the cast and crew stuff like I normally do. This was easily among the worst films I've ever seen and I've seen some real stinkers. I liked Sleepaway Camp, but I've never watched any of the sequels, not that you need to in order to see this flick.

Bah...don't bother unless you're really into the Sleepaway Camp movies.

*****

City on Fire.

I'd like to have a review of this for you, I really would. The problem is that Netflix only has the Dimension release. I watched it up until the characters started speaking, then kicked the DVD out of my house. It was dubbed and there was no option to turn off the dubbing.

Dimension ruins Asian films when they release them. I'd purchased The Heroic Trio when Dimension released it unaware of how miserable they were and took it back immediately after watching half of the flick so I could purchase a real copy (I got the Tai Seng release and it was a fantastic purchase.) The Supercop they released here is nothing like the original version, known in China as Police Story 3: Supercop.

So, eventually I'll have a review of this flick for you, which is basically the original version of Reservoir Dogs once I track down a better copy.