the STELLA BUIO trailer!

I finished cutting the trailer for Stella Buio the day before yesterday and posted it to YouTube, then decided to take yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow off from the post process. I wrote the film, I produced the film, I cast it, directed it, shot it, am doing any computer based visual effects I need to, I'm editing it, and I'm promoting it. It's a lot and I'm feeling a bit toasty, but that's what you do on no-to-low budget movies - length doesn't matter.

So, here it is! The trailer for Stella Buio! The film stars Chris Cline, Lance Flint, Laura D'Anieri, Shawn McBee, Melanie Robel, and Linnea Quigley.

Days of the Dead; or Thank God This is About a Convention Because I’m Droppin’ Names!

While most people were getting ready to fire up their bar-be-ques, drink copious amounts of alcohol, and set fire to colourful explosives in celebration of America’s freedom from the tyranny of British rule, I and thousands of others descended on the Wyndham Indianapolis West in Indiana for the very first Days of the Dead convention which boasted one of the most impressive guest lists this side of a Weekend of Horrors with genre luminaries such as Reggie Bannister and his wife Gigi, FX guru John Carl Buechler, P.J. Soles, Linnea Quigley, and Heather Langenkamp.

I was there to see I Am Nancy with the fans for whom it was made. I’ve seen it by myself. I had the honour of co-presenting the West Coast premiere at BleedFest so I got to see it at a film festival, and I showed it to friends of mine who weren’t fans before (and they loved it), but there’s just nothing like the energy of watching it with other fans. I’m getting slightly ahead of myself, however.

I arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday, the day before the festival. The hotel is within walking distance of five other hotels...and nothing else. Well, almost nothing else. I was given a room on the first floor which I didn’t think anything of because I did a quick walkthrough and discovered that it was far enough away from the majority of the action to not be a bother. So then I realize that I hadn’t eaten since a granola bar that morning so I order room service. No answer. Huh. Okay, so I go to the restaurant. No one’s there. Apparently, one needs to be a semaphore to get food in this joint. I go back to my room and try to call room service one more time. No dice.

The Wi-Fi in my room was brilliant, though, so I was able to find a restaurant near by that received some pretty good reviews on Yelp. After some troubles with GPS, I found the proper directions to get to the restaurant, a car race-themed greasy spoon that I don’t want to name. The food was...okay. Very greasy, surprisingly enough (or not at all if you could hear the sarcastic voice in my head), and the chocolate shake wasn’t nearly chocolatey enough.

After an unsatisfying dinner, I went across the street to the gas station and bought some water and went back to my room where I almost promptly passed out and slept solidly until 8 the next morning.

Friday, the first day of the con. Doors didn’t open until 6, 5 o’clock for VIP pass holders (of which I was one of 100) and eventually, I discovered that you could pick up your VIP badge at 3 pm. I went to the restaurant for breakfast where I ordered Belgian waffles and orange juice. There was a buffet, but I’m not a big fan of communal food. The orange juice was so tart I thought my face was going to fall off (and I love tart / sour stuff!)

With HOURS of time to kill, I went back to my room and watched some Death Proof (but actually stopped before the best parts because I have this habit of picking up accents and didn’t want to pick up Zoe Bell’s accent in advance of meeting her...)

Finally, three o’clock rolled around and I got my VIP badge and swag bag, took them back to my room, and went into the lounge / bar thingie for lunch. I grabbed a corner seat and order fish and chips which, on the face of it, doesn’t sound like a great idea considering Indiana is, for all intents and purposes, landlocked, but whatever. I live on the edge.

I was joined soon thereafter by a nice, talkative gentleman named Jewell. It turns out I hijacked his spot, but we got on well and decided to hang out during the con. After a surprisingly delicious lunch and great conversation, I went back to my room to retrieve my bookbag and a surprise to show Heather Langenkamp and I met back up with Jewell and we headed into the convention.

Our first order of business was to walk around to see who all had arrived. Some folks were late due to weather or buggered up flights and the vendors were still setting up. Once the reconnaissance was done, I got ready to see Heather, but the line was a bit strange. For whatever reason, it was in front of Amanda Wyss and Thommy Hutson. I actually stood back because I didn’t get that that was where the line was, but I was able to help a few fellow fans out by taking photos of them with Heather.

Then, it was my turn! I got an I Am Nancy poster which I asked her to sign with her line, “I’m into survival!” and took out the surprise to show her: my St. Auggies’ sweater. Her face seeing it was priceless! She asked me if I wanted her to sign it, but I demurred because I actually wear it! I’m afraid of losing her signature in the wash! I know, I know...that’s supremely geeky of me. I embrace it. It’s a really comfy sweater!

After Jewell got to meet Heather, we went and got into line to see Reggie Bannister. I wanted to meet him because I got to see / ran a film he was in at my festival called Walking Distance (the film has since been picked up by Lionsgate and is now known as Psychic Experiment) and wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance. We met a few more people like the lovely P.J. Soles and Ginger Lynn and then, when Jewell got into like for Roddy Piper, I went over and met the amazing Zoe Bell, a Kiwi stunt performer who doubled Lucy Lawless in Xena, Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill flicks, and herself in Death Proof among others.

I admire stunt people intensely. They’re willing to do the crazy things I and other writers dream up that most Stars are unwilling (or unable) to do. Stunties do NOT get paid enough and absolutely do not get enough recognition for their efforts (think I’m joking?)

/ soapbox

We had a nice, but quick, conversation and then I met up with Jewell again. He decided to get out of the Roddy Piper line because the other VIPs kept using their line cutting perk. He was a VIP, too, but neither he nor I took advantage of that particular perk during the weekend (actually, I think he did for Ace Frehley, but I can’t blame him for that...)

That night was the midwest premiere of I Am Nancy so we went in early (now that's a VIP perk I can get behind!) and grabbed seats in the second row from the front on the aisle. Superfan and Nancy cosplayer Diandra introduced the film and Heather, who sat in the chair in front of me to watch it with the rest of us.

It was so fantastic to see the film with the fans, with the people who understand. The energy was wonderful! At the end, we gave her a standing ovation, then she thanked us all for coming and headed out pretty quickly so she could personally thank everyone as they walked out.

If I didn’t already adore her before that, I certainly did after.

After the movie, Jewell and I headed over to Quincy’s (it’s a bar inside the hotel) for An Evening with Roddy Piper which was billed as a stand up act, but was really more like a stream-of-consciousness recitation of his early years in wrestling. Think of An Evening with Kevin Smith, but less scripted and well-rehearsed. You can’t fit all that on a poster so stand up act it is. I’m not a fan of wrestling, but when I was a kid, I did watch the show every once in a while. Plus, They Live is one of my favourite John Carpenter flicks.

It was HILARIOUS. I’m so glad I didn’t miss that! He was refreshingly up front in the stories he told and I think there were quite a few minds blown wide open by the stories he was telling. There were a few rude people in the audience who kept shouting names out to him, hoping for stories about these people and other than veering off the story he was currently telling, he handled that pretty well. If he were to release an autobiography, I’d most likely pick it up. Considering I have no interest in wrestling, I think that says a lot.

The party was over at that point so I went back to my room and went to sleep. Well, tried to, anyway. It turns out that Quincy’s backdoor was across the hall from my room. Yeah, I didn’t sleep very well that night. People kept running up and down the hall and shouting and all that great stuff. The next morning, Heather was kind enough to ask me how I slept and promptly admonished me for not getting a room higher up... I’ve learned my lesson, Heather!

The next day was the Big Day, the one most people show up for. Saturday. I got in line for Heather first, of course, adding a Just the Ten of Us photo to my increasingly excessive collection of autographs. My current count is now ten (two of which were not attained in person) including one I got from her on the last day of the con. But, but, but...Just the Ten of Us!

Anyway, I roamed a lot on Saturday and got more autographs than I normally have any interest in...says the girl with ten autographs from one person (but two don’t count!) I also walked the vendor room and thought about what I wanted to get, if anything. I had to keep in mind that I was flying home. Of course, I didn’t think about that when I bought the I Am Nancy poster. Thankfully, I was able to carry it onto the plane and home without damaging it, but it was dicy for a while as I thought about actually *gasp* folding it.

Saturday featured the panel I was super excited for: Scream Queens! With P.J. Soles, Linnea Quigley, Heather Langenkamp, and Mark Patton. I can hear the cliche record screech now. Mark Patton played Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, a role which would be, stereotypically, played by a girl. There are so many good ideas in Freddy’s Revenge that, for me, simply didn’t work in execution, not to mention how it simply doesn’t fit in the canon. The make-up and score, in particular, are fantastic. And the actors are better than the material they’re given. The film just didn’t work.

Anyway, the scream queen panel was fantastic! There were thoughtful questions asked and some really insightful answers from the panelists. YouTube has some video of the panel. (Just so you know, I’m the one who asked about the panelists’ favourite/least favourite practical effects.)

At the end of the panel, the participants were good sports and screamed for the crowd, even in spite of having just said to everyone that you really need to prepare your voice before doing the scream queen thing. By the time they did that, I was already on the way out. I had my VIP pass and was able to sit up front (and without a camera other than the one on my phone), it was time for those who didn’t have one to come up and get photos and stuff.

After an incredible lunch with a surprise guest, it was time for photo ops. Originally, I’d planned on using my VIP voucher for a free photo op with Tom Savini. I mean, he’s Tom Savini for crying out loud! My point n’ shoot had crapped out before I went to the con and I’ve since replaced it with a camera that has a viewfinder on the front as well so I didn’t get any photos with anyone at the tables. My next con or event, whenever that will be, I can take photos and not worry that most people really don’t know how to take pictures (not to mention that I’m pretty picky.) I found out for sure that Savini had to cancel due to car troubles which was a bummer...maybe the third time our paths cross will be a charm.

I used my photo voucher to get a picture with Heather Langenkamp. She’s one of the very few people I get really geeky over so it’s hard to walk that line between fan and filmmaker. However, I recently heard a quote from Guillermo del Toro from when he was at the San Diego Comic Con that makes me feel a little better about loving this genre and the people in it: “I don’t know how many years I’ll direct or be able to produce but I know one thing. The one thing I can finance is I’ll be a fan my whole fucking life.”

I love him.

The photo op line ran a bit long (which makes me incredibly happy for Heather! Her lines all weekend were really long which means a lot of work for her, but at the same time, how awesome is that?!) so I thought I’d missed the Return of the Living Dead announcement that was supposed to happen before a short film package that I wanted to see. Luckily, they hadn’t started yet and while I had guessed what the announcement was going to be about thanks to a few clues that were dropped, I was still incredibly excited to see the trailer.

Thommy Hutson and some of the crew behind the incredible Never Sleep Again documentary are putting together a retrospective on The Return of the Living Dead 1-3! The trailer they showed was amazing and I can’t WAIT to see it! The trailer’s been pulled from the official website, but definitely keep your eye on it for more information.

I stayed for the short film package and then roamed some more before heading back to my room to put my stuff down and then head to the VIP party. Luckily for me, I found a seat with Jewell and two awesome people he met that day, Nikki and Randall. There were a hundred VIP passes sold for the weekend and the majority of them were, for lack of a better term, camped out by the door. Plus, there were mountains of muscle men standing at the table behind me so I couldn’t see a bloody thing.

The VIP party seemlessly transitioned into the Girls and Corpses Beauty Pageant which was totally not my thing so I headed out of there around ten thirty or eleven to try and get some sleep.

Sunday was the most chill day. In fact, most of the guests arrived late or had left early and the vendors were packing up by four. I saw Heather Langenkamp again (big shock) and asked her to sign the photo op picture of us with "Be Nancy," the slogan from I Am Nancy. I'm a fairly introverted person and I've been working really hard on that because you can't be introverted and make movies, especially when you're the one doing everything and you have to prove yourself worthy the trust required to work with actors. I haven't had to pursue funds yet, it'll be fun when I go to get money for the feature. I always have to remind myself that if someone says no to a question or request, I'm no worse off than before I asked so I just have to jump in with both feet and hope I land without spraining something.

I also got to meet Mark Patton. I may not like Freddy’s Revenge, but I started to really admire him after seeing Never Sleep Again and I like him even more after the Scream Queen panel. I didn’t meet Amanda Wyss...she’d had shoulder surgery fairly recently and I didn’t want to bother her or make her sign anything. I thought it was incredibly awesome (and brave) of her to come anyway, but I just couldn’t put her in any more pain than a weekend of signing and photos and accidental brushings had already. I will meet her at some point! Besides, I have to tell her how awesome she was in CSI (as Donna Marks AND as Tina Vincent!)

Afterward, I went to the Fango Film Festival to see the film Dead Genesis. This was a flick that I’ve been waiting patiently for since I saw a clip which turned out to be the first five minutes of the film. The first five minutes were the best of the entire run. It was pretty good, not the game changer a lot of people seem to be touting it as, and it’s very clear that the director doesn’t understand found-footage or mockumentary-style filmmaking.

After the film, I went to the vendor room and was disappointed to see that the vendors were packing up so early, but I was able to buy a couple of prints from Chris Kuchta - a beautiful print of his painting of Bub from Romero’s Day of the Dead, a print of Hellraiser’s cenobites for my friend Rickey, and this amazing print of this Night of the Living Dead painting which I then had signed by John Russo (producer), Russell Streiner (he plays Johnny in the original film), and George Kosana (who plays the Sheriff in the original.)

With the convention winding down, I went to say good-bye to Heather, but she was already gone, and then I went to my room to relax for the rest of the night and came home the next day! A weekend later, I shot my short film JustUs, the trailer for which you can see here. The weekend after that was Viscera (which is two entries before this one...) Just trying to put everything in context since this post is so bloody late.

This was an amazing festival and, unless you knew beforehand that it was their first time out, you wouldn’t have been able to tell. They did a fantastic job and I hope that maybe I can return someday! The hotel was a little too isolated, I suppose, but if I do get to go back, I'll know that ahead of time!

More festival news!

It's officially official! My newest short film, A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: and be at rest will be making its World Premiere during BleedFest's June festival! I made the film as an exercise, I had just gotten some new equipment and didn't want to start making World Collision's "Sine" cold. I was so happy with the results that I decided to throw it out there just to see what happens. This film takes place a few years before the events of A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema, but I don't feel that one needs to have seen Anathema to watch and be at rest. I'll be uploading the short to OpenFilm.com late next month.

The main attraction for June, however, is the West Coast premiere of I Am Nancy, directed by Arlene Marechal and Heather Langenkamp! Yes, one of my films will be in the same festival as a film featuring my favourite actress! I am a flailing ball of squee over here!

Also appearing will be filmmaker Lucky McKee (Masters of Horror episode "Sick Girl", May, The Woods, The Woman, etc, etc, etc) who will be receiving the Inanna Partnership Award!

This month's charity is Impact Personal Safety!

If you can, please donate to BleedFest's IndieGoGo campaign. Festival directors Elisabeth and Brenda Fies don't charge entry fees and need help to cover the cost of the venue every month. They're two brilliant female directors trying to help out other female directors by showcasing and talking about their work! And they're two of the nicest people I've ever met! Whatever you can donate is appreciated and a huge help!

Film festival announcement!

I received an email a few minutes ago that I've been waiting for. It was the go ahead to announce that the Viscera Film Festival in L.A. has chosen "aftershock" as an Official Selection for their Los Angeles event and for their tour! They're planning on updating the website tonight or tomorrow so you may still see some of last year's information up.

It's a fantastic festival and I'm so honoured to be counted amongst such talented women in this genre! The event will happen on July 17 at the Silent Movie Theatre in L.A. I'll be there for that one, but I will not be touring with my flick to whichever festivals it plays as part of the tour. Too much strain on Ye Olde Finances.

Apparently, it's unprofessional or something to be so excited when one is lucky enough to receive an acceptance letter for their flick...but I can't help it! *chairdances*

L.A.: Trip the Second (April 2011)

L.A.: Trip the Second

I visited L.A. again over the first week of April for another edition of the ever-so-wonderful BleedFest! I didn’t have anything in the festival this time, but I was listed as co-presenter for a shorts package because they showed a few films that I recommended to them from my festival last year (they showed Lisa Hunter’s You’re So Undead, Ashley Maria’s Friday Night Fright, and Sage Hall’s Candy.) Plus, they were showing a rough cut of I Hate L.A. which let me know kind of what they were looking for in the content for I Hate L.A. Too in which I will be participating.

I only went for three days, but they were awesomely jam-packed! My first full day in L.A., I met up with a friend who took me sight seeing at Lake Balboa. She’s someone I’ve looked up to for a long time and it was great to walk around this beautiful man-made lake just outside the insanity of L.A. with her! Our conversation veered from industry talk to ducks and everywhere in between and I loved every single second of it! Afterward, we went to lunch at a nice little Japanese place called Hanabichi where we had teriyaki salmon and more wonderfully insightful talk. It was an absolutely lovely way to start my weekend in LA!



My friend had meetings and things she had to tend to so she dropped me back at my hotel. I had a meet and greet later in the day with the ladies of BleedFest, but I had hours to go so I decided to hop on the bus and spend some time at Universal Studios: Hollywood (I’m always daunted by public transportation in big cities I don’t know thing one about, but I like to try them out.) They have a few of the same attractions that we do at the Universal Studios in Orlando, however, Orlando certainly doesn’t have the same amazing views.


(A view of the Warner Brothers campus from Universal Studios.)

The great thing was that Universal was running a deal where you could buy a general admission pass and it would get you in like an annual pass for the rest of the year and it wasn’t just for SoCal residents so I have an annual (‘til December anyway) pass to US:H. :D This worked out because while I had hours to spend there, I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, but I’ll be back in June and July so yippee!!

The main reason I wanted to go to Universal was to see the King Kong attraction that Peter Jackson and weta dreamed up. What I didn’t know was that it was part of the studio tour ride so I wandered around like an idiot for a minute, then figured out what was up and got on the second to last tram. The tour is about an hour long and it takes you through their famous backlots and sound stages. Here, I totally got touristy...I mean, they were filming CSI whilst we rode past! I didn’t see any of the actors (it was a Saturday so it was probably B unit stuff), but still...CSI!



Here are the rest of the photos from Universal Studios: Hollywood:


The tram ride was pretty awesome at points and sucky at others (I don’t care about the Desperate Housewives and I’m STILL freakin’ sick of that stupid Earthquake ride and, up until that point, I hadn’t ridden it in years!) The King Kong attraction was pretty amazing, though I think one of the eyes was slightly out of phase or something.

If there’s one thing that the tram made me truly appreciate, it’s location shooting (well, being indie, really, but we’ll stick with location shooting.) How sucky it must be for these production companies that come in to shoot a scene and have to deal with the tourist bus...especially if you get some stupid people on board who won’t shut up when asked to (everyone on my trip was well behaved, though I did want to shout “I MISS BILLY PETERSEN!” toward the CSI crew...)

I still had some time before I wanted to head out to the BleedFest meet and greet so I hung out at CityWalk for a minute then hopped into a cab and went to Spot 5750. As is my habit and a countermeasure for persnickety LA traffic, I was very early. First one to arrive in point of fact.

Spot 5750 is a swanky, hip Hollywood pool hall on swank, hip Hollywood Boulevard filled with swank, hip Hollywood youngsters. I am neither swank or hip nor am I Hollywood, but soon the BleedFest ladies arrived and it was like we’d never parted company! Our hosts for the no-host meet and greet were the festival directors, the Fies sisters. Maude Michaud and her family flew in from Canada for the festival, which was running a retrospective of her amazing work. Director Katt Shea, Alisha Rayne from Bzzzline.com, actress Melanie Leanne Miller and a whole bunch of other women showed up for the event! It was so fantastic to be surrounded by all these strong horror folks, y’know? Very energizing!

After the meet and greet, I went back to my hotel and got some sleep! The next day was the festival after all!

I didn’t have any wardrobe malfunctions this time, but I decided to wear a t-shirt and jeans for a multitude of reasons. I’m not one of those people who put a lot of importance on what others wear and while I’m aware that appearances are important in Hollywood, I’ve been to a lot of festivals and most of them are “just be comfortable” affairs where you dress up for the awards part. I suppose I’m still sussing out my place in all of these festivals...

Anyway, I arrived at the venue early specifically to offer them some help if they wanted it so I put out postcards and candies and set up the awards and such. I really like the CAP Theatre in Sherman Oaks. It’s a really nice, intimate little venue. Soon, people started pouring in and the day started off with Maude’s incredible work, then we got to the shorts package which I introduced since I was already well acquainted with two of them (the third was give the screenwriting award and played just before the shorts package), we took a break where I got to talk to the ever awesome Heidi Honeycutt from FanGIRLtastic.com and the lovely Miss Tara Cardinal.

During the break before the shorts package, the fabulous Kristin Mellian (who was in my first short film Without/Within) and her husband Aaron showed up to the festival! I hadn’t seen her in a few years so it was great that she was able to come out and we could chat for a bit! (She’s a dream to work with, Casting People Who May Or May Not Be Reading This Right Now.)

After the shorts package, they showed partnership award winner Drew Daywalt’s work. If you keep up with indie horror, you know this guy’s name and even if you don’t, you should absolutely see his work. Fabulous stuff, y’all!

Afterwards was the screening of the rough cut of I Hate LA, an anthology of shorts linked together via a thread the Fies sisters created about a runner who has to go to various neighbourhoods in LA, neighbourhoods that are portrayed by the meat of the project which are the short films from directors like Barbara Stepansky, Maude Michaud, and Tyrrell Shaffner.

After the awards part, the festival ended and I went to dinner with the Fies sisters and Ray McDermott from Film Radar.com, then I went back to my hotel to get some rest before my early-ass flight home the next morning.

It was a fabulous weekend that I didn’t have time to write about until now because almost as soon as I stepped off the plane, I was consumed with projects! I love being so busy. I just need to make sure to not wait so long to blog about things! hahaha!

My next trip to LA is in June, again for BleedFest with a special surprise event that I don’t want to announce just yet. I have more news that I can’t wait to share, but I have to wait for the official announcements before I can squee about anything. :D Whew! I'm exhausted just from writing about all of this and thinking about everything that's coming up, but it's a good exhausted!

An announcement!

Well, y'all...three posts in two days. Ain't that a kick in the pants? But a good one as I have come bearing a Very Cool Announcement.

Elisabeth and Brenda Fies, the lovely sisters behind the extraordinary BleedFest that I may have mentioned a time or two, have an anthology film called I Hate LA that will be premiering during April's BleedFest and they've put up the official site for the collection at www.ihatelamovie.com. In that anthology are some of the most exciting films from women in horror and with the website comes information about I Hate LA, Too. If you've already gone to the website and clicked on I Hate LA, Too, you're skipping ahead in my carefully woven tale and you've spoiled the surprise.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'll be involved in I Hate LA, Too!

With it comes the addition of another short film to make this year so I should update yesterday's post, but I won't as I'm mentioning it here. I'm so excited!!

"Don't care if it's not the way you find the truth..."

Okay, so it’s been about a year since the Big Chain Theatre’s fateful decision to reject my application for Projection Manager and since the Sarasota Film Festival rejected A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema. Around this point last year, I had refocused my energies toward my true career and I’d gotten a paying job working for the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival as an editor on not one but three documentaries. I say “paying” instead of “paid” because, well...they’re still working on paying me what I’m owed and since it’s been a year, I feel that I can mention it.

Anyway, in that year of refocusing, I’ve been to New York City, Alexandria, VA, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, LA, Los Angeles, CA, and Orlando, FL, with one or more of my films. Some of these festivals have been so kind as to nominate my work for awards and even give me two of them. It’s been fantastic, I’m not complaining at all, though the next sentence may seem to contradict that. The only problem for me with this past year is that I didn’t get to make any more films than the music video I did for World Collision. I was busy getting Kimyoo Films out there which is vital, but between traveling and doing the job of four people at the theatre, I couldn’t film anything. (yeah, yeah...I know.../whitewhine.)

Four isn’t an arbitrary number, by the way. While I was away on vacation and in New York for NewFilmmakers, I discovered later through emails that were fired back and forth that four people couldn’t pick up my slack. Technically, one of them shouldn’t have had to pitch in at all, but still...FOUR PEOPLE.

The relative dry spell in filming ended late last month when I shot a very short film which fits into my beloved A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem universe called “and be at rest.” It’s vague enough that it can stand on its own, but it is obviously a part of the universe as Chris Cline was kind enough to don the dog collar once more. After it has its premiere, I’ll be posting it on OpenFilm.com and of course, I’ll link to it here. I may already have a premiere lined up, but I always get too excited and ahead of myself and I want to wait for confirmation before I say anything for sure.

The main thing about doing this short was to help me get familiar with some new stuff I bought before I leap in to not one or two, but four more short films this year (I count music videos as shorts.) Chris Cline and I are teaming up to bring one of his scripts to life with him behind the camera. Chris is one of the best writers I know and he knows more about the genre than I do! Once his film is complete, I’m stepping back behind the camera for one of my shorts. After that, I have possibly two music videos for World Collision! There are two more projects on the horizon, but it’s too early to talk about those just yet. They’re moving forward, though, and that’s good!

Also on the horizon is a feature which will obviously be my first. I don’t want to say much more than that, but it’s very exciting!

I’m not your typical filmmaker. I didn't pick up my first camera until I was in middle school and didn't own my own equipment until a couple of years ago. I had four years of Booker High School of the Visual and Performing Arts and one semester of film classes at Manatee Community College (which has since turned into the State College of Florida.) I've always wanted to do this, though. And be an astronaut, but that's beside the point. I learn by doing. I’ll still be learning while I make movies sixty years down the line (I don’t plan on retiring, obviously.) There’s really no right or wrong way so long as you’re learning and putting out what’s in your heart.

BleedFest February 2011!

Elisabeth and Brenda Fies have posted the schedule for the February 6 edition of BleedFest! Not only are aftershock and "Essenger" considered winning shorts for being selected for the festival, but they're both up for an audience award at the event!

I'm so excited! My brother and I are going for the weekend. It's a loooong flight from Florida, but we might try to sneak in some touristy things, it being my first time in LA after all!

In other, more local, news, I'm working on pre-production for a micro-short, but that won't be shot until after I get back from LA. Still working on pre-production for a new music video for World Collision and two other short films!

I've also been working pretty intensely on the A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem novel. A full length novel is between 70,000 and 150,000 words and my current word count is just shy of 30,000 so I still have a ways to go to get there, but I have a lot to tell. It's interesting going from short fiction to novel length, realizing the strengths and weaknesses of both forms. It's not unlike going from writing short films to writing features though so far, I'd say that writing a feature length script is "easier" than writing a novel, though no writing is truly easy.

This has been an intensely creative and fulfilling first month to the new year and I know I can carry that energy throughout the remaining eleven!!

An announcement about "Essenger" and aftershock

I received word just the other day that my very short zombie film aftershock and the music video I made for World Collision were accepted to Bleedfest for their February 6 edition! Bleedfest, which I've blathered on about before, is a female-centric genre film festival, but more than that, their horror edition is in February which is Women in Horror month! I'm so honoured and excited to be a part of this event! Hopefully, I'll be able to go! Thank you Elisabeth and Brenda Fies!

The festival takes place on the first Sunday of every month at CAP Theatres in Sherman Oaks, California, which is half an hour outside of Los Angeles (an hour in traffic, according to Google Maps.)

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!

BleedFest

Now is a pretty exciting time to be a woman in horror, by the looks of things. We've got FangirlTastic, formerly Pretty/Scary, which seems to be kicking thing up a notch, and the wonderful Viscera Film Festival. Now, there's BleedFest, a monthly festival for female genre filmmakers! How great is THAT?! Both Viscera and BleedFest are free to submit and they're both in California and 2011 will mark the second year of the Women in Horror movement started by Hannah Neurotica of AxWound Magazine!

Hmm...I'm not sure I have enough links in this post yet so here's one more for good measure: I Am Nancy because, duh, I'm super excited for this documentary and it totally fits in with my previous topic since the creative team locked picture and have started that torturous process: festival submission!

I'm seeing a lot more women being recognized for their work in the genre and even more coming out of the woodwork, as it were, to make genre pictures. Our work is never done, but at least I, and others like me, won't feel so alone now!

In other news, I'm in pre-production on another short film! I plan on shooting it early next year, depending on funding and all of that. I've got the script locked, which is always a good thing, and I plan on starting the storyboards tomorrow! I also just finished the first draft of a new script. It's almost feature length, but I know the areas I need to address in the next draft which will put it into feature length territory. This particular story is one I've been trying to write for years and I'd love for it to be my first feature. If I were to have my way, I already know who I would cast for the four major roles, but I'm getting ahead of myself, which I tend to do when I get overly excited. :D

I've also got two more music videos to work on for World Collision, one to promote the Nosferatu soundtrack they recorded and one for their next album! I'm very excited for both of them! I've gotten to listen to bits and pieces of the studio version of the Nosferatu soundtrack and, I've gotta tell you, it's pretty fabulous!

Hopefully, I'll be back to my babbling self on this blog soon! Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was fantastic!!