Video diary

New Hellbride video diary clip at;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMnM7mMngY

Second Assembly

After my somewhat vague entry last week about finding solutions for Hellbride's structural problems, I called a member of cast back at the end of last week for some dialogue looping, which has done the job fantastically. Sometimes simple solutions are all that's required; I must admit I'd been panicking that we might need another reshoot. Funny old business.

Still being trying to sort out certain leads on distribution for KK, but it's getting increasingly futile as everything winds down for Christmas, and come Wednesday I'm chucking in the towel for the rest of the year and taking a couple of weeks off.

Hellbride is looking pretty damn good in Second Assembly actually. I'm getting this cut over to our composer over the next couple of days, so that he can start putting together some score for it. Funny how music brings things to life so much. I can't imagine KK without the score and the soundscapes.

Solving problems

Still trying to suss out exactly how my brain works.

Either way, the Hellbride issues are now considered sorted. The solution came to me fully formed yesterday, and I've been babbling about it ever since.

We might even hit our deadline.

Woo, and hoo.

And another...

http://www.horrortalk.com/reviews/KK/KK.html

Been spending my time sorting out various enquiries from sales agents and distribution companies. Hit a bit of a bummer earlier in the week with the news that my 'ideal option' isn't dealing in horror any more. This is not only a pity from a KK angle, but also as a customer; they did some of the best horror releases out there. Won't name the company as they don't seem to have made the change of direction public yet.

Watched the current assembly of Hellbride straight through again this morning, and it needs... Goddammit, I'm not entirely sure what it needs. It's got a whole bunch of brilliant stuff but doesn't quite seem to be heading the way I want it to as a whole. I've been very eager for it to be done and dusted by January so that it stands a chance of getting premiered at a certain festival, but I think hand-on-heart that we're probably going to miss that date because I want to get the sucker perfect. I'm still scratching my head about it, to be honest...

Another good KK review

Can be found over here...

http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/killerkiller.html

Good to know that folks are enjoying the flick!

New Forum

Just spent the last few hours tweaking around trying to get a new forum for Jinx Media. I've set one up and there's a link to it at the bottom of http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk

Go, sign up and start talking, otherwise it's just me talking to myself and what fun's that? Well, other than this blog, obviously, which is a whole ton of fun with a slice of lime. As a special incentive, there's a video clip linked to in the TrashHouse thread that was removed from the Behind-The-Scenes documentary due to a very high swear-count. So go and join up, watch the clip and then talk about it. Go on, otherwise I've wasted a whole fucking afternoon when I should have been editing Hellbride.

Screenings, screeners, screaming...

A good few folk have seen KillerKiller now. There's a review over on the IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848551/ from a chap who was at the HorrorFest screening, and there will be more going up online over the next few days, I should imagine. A couple of other reviewers also now have screener DVDs, and I'm sure they'll be letting the world know their thoughts before too long.

Oh, we had a Fangoria News item go up last week, too. You can find that over at http://fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=3200 if you fancy checking it out.

'Crazy Man Michael' also posted a nice review of TrashHouse on the British Horror Films boards... You can find that at http://britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/board/index.php?act=ST&f=25&t=7438&s=2104f51d27390b30851fabfa47bea956

I've been having trouble staying focused over the last few days. Trying to juggle screenings, sending out screeners, keep KK's profile high whilst actually working on Hellbride to ensure that we make the delivery date. I wish there was more than one of me; I wish the company was bringing in enough money to have more than just me as an employee! Hey, maybe you can help. Go and buy copies of TrashHouse for everyone you know, seeing as it's under a fiver. Go on... I'll wait. Just click here...

http://tinyurl.com/y24mob

Oh, you're back already? How many did you buy? Really? That many? Maybe you should go back and buy one more for luck. Even if you fucking hate the film, the special features are really good. Honest.

Ok, now that you've helped me on my path to world domination, maybe I'll share a secret with you. I'm probably having the most difficulty focusing because I've got a project rattling around inside my head that's just desperate to be produced. I've been working on the treatment for BrainBath for a little while now, and it's something very very special. But it's going to take money. More than the last three flicks combined, to be honest. But, my God, it's going to be worth it.

I don't want to be in post-production. I want to be back in pre-production on a new one. But I guess that's always the way of things...

KillerKiller is locked

All done and dusted. In the bag. A finished feature film, all shiny and ready for its first ever official screening tomorrow.

The screening at HorrorFest is apparently at around 5pm on Saturday, for anyone who was planning on making the trip just for us. There's loads of other brilliant stuff on that day, mind you, so you might want to turn up for the whole thing regardless, (apparently, that day's screenings now start at 12.30 rather than the advertised 2pm). Going to be great to see it with a horror crowd, and I'm interested as to what they make of it!

A bit torn as to how best to spend my day, to be honest. Cutting KK meant that every day had a structure. I'm torn between badgering more industry types to come to next Thursday's screening and doing a few casual passes at cutting the new Hellbride scenes that we shot last week. Hmm. It's nice not to feel like the clock's ticking away quite so hard!

This week...

KillerKiller leaves the comfort of the Jinx Media office and gets seen by people. Actual, genuine people.
First up, we have a tiny cast & crew screening on Friday, followed by the public premiere in Portsmouth this Saturday at HorrorFest, ( http://www.horrorfest.co.uk ), and then a couple of industry screenings for press, distribution companies and so on next week.
Is it finally finished? Neeeeeeeearly. I need to tweak 12 different things, (mostly sound levels), before I consider it finished. Only a day's work, and by tomorrow the sucker should be locked.
So, has anyone seen it yet? Other than those working very very closely with it, (Phil Sheldon, for example, who has produced a wonderful score to accompany the spectacular soundscapes of Crystal Plumage Musics), the only person to have seen it is M, (who you can find out about at http://www.jinxm.co.uk ), who saw a very nearly final fine cut last week and really dug it. Which is good.
We had reshoots for Hellbride last week, too. One scene was being reshot because the lighting on the original shoot for that particular scene was awful, (my fault entirely; it was a second unit thing and our DP wasn't even there), and another brand new scene with a brand new character was filmed to help expand a section of the film that felt a little rushed in the first assembly. I'm chuffed with how it all went, and it was great to see the cast and crew again. Bless 'em, they all rock.
Now, time to get these 12 things sorted out!

Good couple of weeks

Things have been great, and the lack of updates has been due to... (Drumroll) Me forgetting my Blogger password. And username. I am an idiot.

OK, first things first. The first public screening of KillerKiller is happening on Saturday 18th November at the HorrorFest festival in Portsmouth. The cost of a ticket? Simply a donation to Children In Need. More info is appearing slowly but surely at http://www.horrorfest.co.uk

Other great and groovy stuff; the final sound mix is approaching. The extraordinarily talented Phil Sheldon has been putting together some score elements to compliment the lush soundscapes that we already have in the flick, and we're very much hoping to be able to use a song by the wonderful and mighty Jim Bob, (http://www.jim-bob.co.uk), over the end credits.

We're also hoping to have an industry screening in London for reviewers/potential distributors, so folks fitting that general description can feel free to drop a line to killer@jinxmedia.co.uk for more information.

Had an interview with a rather large and long-running magazine last week, (which I won't name just on the offchance they don't run the article!), which was good fun.

Press

From today's Brentwood Gazette, a nice article about Cy Henty's role in KK.

Mid-Cut

Blazing through post for KK at a million miles an hour. Pip and I sat and watched the Mid-Cut yesterday. Working fantastically in most respects, with only a couple of sound problems, (largely echo related), some edits on the cheerleader sequence and some score elements stopping it from classing as a borderline Fine Cut. In other words, we're on schedule for delivering the Final Cut by the second week of November.

Hellbride is taking a little longer. I've enlisted another fine editor, Mike Borland, to do some additional work on it to stop it from falling behind schedule whilst I busy myself with KillerKiller, and we've got a couple of days of reshoots and additional scenes scheduled for next month just to get it perfect.

I'm hoping to be able to announce the first KK public screening within the next few weeks, which will certainly be one for your calendar.

We rock fairly often

Had a 'we rock' day yesterday, where I felt unstoppable. KK was cutting like a dream and all was well with the world. I've been playing around with some of the soundscapes which have been kindly provided for the movie by a chap called Patrick who works with a team calling themselves Crystal Plumage Musics. You can hear some of Patrick's work on the trailers, and its fitting the KK vibe very nicely indeed. Scenes that were merely 'working' are suddenly 'rocking' and it's a pretty damn good feeling.

Been putting together a press release for the local papers this afternoon. They were always nice to us last time around, so hopefully they'll run a little something for these flicks too. Oh, and that reminds me... If any folks out there happen to run websites or magazines and want to interview any of us Jinxy folks... You only have to ask!

How far is too far?

See, I'm presented with interesting choices when cutting these movies. I can't explain many of these situations without blowing scenes from the movies, which I have no desire whatsoever to do, but every day I'm faced with the question of how far is too far.

That's not to imply that these flicks are ground-breakingly horrible, or anything like that. It's just a matter of keeping the mood at the right pitch. It's a really fine line, especially when dealing with violence in a horror-comedy, because nothing can make a laugh die quicker than hoding a shot of someone suffering for too long. Unless, strangely enough, you hold it for MUCH too long, after which it starts to become funny again.

I recut the opening scene of KK today, substantially changing it from the first assembly. In the course of these alterations, it lost one extremely nasty shot but gained another that seems edgier somehow even though it involves no actual violence.. Ah, it's tough to explain this stuff without actual examples. Maybe in a few months time I'll get to waffle on about it at length in a director's commentary.

I'm still getting that impatient feeling in my gut where I want these movies to be finished so that I can watch them with other people. Ridiculous, considering we only finished shooting last month, but I've been licving with them for a lot longer than that now and I kind of want them to be done. The fun stuff is pretty much over, and the post schedule is, actually, bloody hard work. You get a few good bits each day; making something flow that didn't previously, getting just the right sound sting on something, but it's all a bit of a grind compared to shooting.

Ah, pay no attention to me. When I'm shooting I usually claim that editing's my favourite bit.

Trailers

They're officially out. You can find them via the links on http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk or via the news page of http://www.horrortalk.com and I very much hope that you like them.

Sat and watched the first assembly of Hellbride last Friday, and it's the funniest of the three movies that we've shot so far. Hands down. KK might have the nastier gore and the cooler location, but Hellbride has the laughs covered. I sat throughout the screening frantically scribbling down ideas to tighten it; things that need to be done, things that could be done, just so the final product is as tight as we can possibly get it. I'm hoping to gather folks for a couple of days of pick-ups in the not-too-distant future, but it might prove tricky, and I might have to swap my plans around a little depending on who is available and who isn't. We'll see.

Every now and again, an old project and forgotten project starts calling to me. The WitchPit script, which had been sitting on my hard-drive for about four years, started calling to me earlier in the year and we've plonked it firmly into our development slate. Suddenly, last week, however, a treatment that I had for a film called BrainBath also started calling. The call is getting louder and louder...

On that too, we'll see. Always fun to find out how things turn out...

Leaking

Gonna be honest here, because it's what you folks expect. I've been leaking. Just a bit, just a little. Just enough to get people interested.

Christ, that sounded disgusting. I'd really best clarify. The last thing in the world that any independent producer wants is for folks to be bored of hearing about the product by the time the product hits the market. Similarly, the other last thing would be for nobody to have heard of the thing at all. So it's a balance.

It's probably a bit early in the day to be releasing too much stuff from these flicks, but sitting on brilliant trailers and cool promo artwork gets to be difficult. So occasionally, I leak. Somewhere on the internet, on a message board or forum, I leaked the URL for the trailers for both movies. And now, of course I've just leaked the KK promo poster. All over this blog.

I'm sure at some point I'll stop finding the word 'leak' amusing, but it hasn't happened yet.

Oh, and the wrap party was great. It was terrific seeing so many folks again, and I was a very drunk bunny indeed by the time I crashed into bed.

Back to the edit suite. I might as well save that as my automatic signature from now on...



,

Promo posters, postcards and possibilities

I've been wanting to get promo posters done and dusted for a while now, so that I can get postcards printed. Postcards are fantastic for low-budget movies; spend a couple hundred quid and you can get 5,000 full colour postcards with loads of info and a cool looking poster on each one. We've still got a few of the TrashHouse ones. They were the best investment ever. The idea is simple; every time you send correspondence to anyone regarding the movies, stick some postcards in the envelope. Every time you need to publicise a screening, send out postcards. Postcards, postcards, postcards, so that everyone knows the name, the slogan and the poster image. Postcards rock, but before I can get the postcards printed, I need to decide on a poster image.

And that's what I'm having trouble with.

Several of the guys who used to write for http://www.jinx.co.uk with me have been helping me by coming up with designs, and I've been messing around with a couple of my own. I just can't make up my mind at the moment. And until I can make up my mind, I can't get the postcards.

I'm going to look through the options one more time.

Doing the trailer tango

First up, I claimed at the end of the Hellbride shoot that my lovely cast and crew drenched me in fake blood. Many might believe that such a wonderful bunch of folks wouldn't be capable of such a dirty deed, so I thought you might like evidence.

Second up is the matter of trailers. I've been editing like crazy to try and get a trailer for each flick ready for next Friday's combined wrap party. I wish I could post these efforts online, but my marketing gurus advise me 'not yet, not yet, you impatient youngling'. Because marketing gurus all talk like rejects from The Dark Crystal.

Spent last week in Italy, relaxing and recuperating before the real meat of post-production begins. Italy was gorgeous; first time I've been, and I don't think it'll be the last. Been sorting out a few bits of paperwork that have accrued in my absence, but I'd really better get back to that pesky edit now.

Wrapped up

Like a Christmas present.

Digital technology being what it is, I've already been able to cobble together and view a first assembly of KK. First assemblies, for those who've never seen one, are the part of the filmmaking process where the director claps his hands over his mouth, screams silently and weeps that he's made a piece of shit. It is the worst a movie can look; cobbled together with no care or attention, no sound mixing, no special effects, just one scene after another - Bang, bang, bang. It's really just meant to give an idea of how the thing is shaping up in terms of running time and pacing, and it's usually horribly depressing. I barely spoke for days after the TrashHouse first assembly. I just couldn't believe that there was a film in that wreckage.

The KK first assembly played better than I could have dared hoped. It actually made me happy rather than making me depressed. If Hellbride slots together even a fraction as well, then the next few months might be rather more fun than they have any right to be.

Redesigned http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk today, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Tomorrow we wrap...

The asylum's already a distant memory, the footage has mostly been digitised and tomorrow we wrap. How bizarre. Got nice and drunk last night on the basis that I could lie in today, but didn't manage to lie in because my body is still geared for getting up by 5am.

Finding it slightly difficult to contain my enthusiasm regarding KK and HB, and am trying to keep my ego in check. I'm not used to feeling quite this proud of myself, and I hope it doesn't keep spilling out of my mouth sounding like ego-wanking. I'm trying to resist the temptation to post any more images up at the moment too, so that I can offer exclusives to sites and magazines, but dammit it's tough.

Dozens of hours of HD footage mean that my ass-kicking editing m0nster of a Mac is filling up alarmingly quickly..

Asylum time

And, after all that, we finally made it to our disused mental hospital location today. The location has cost me an arm and a leg, (half the budget of the movie for THREE DAYS filming), and the paperwork elements have been extremely frustrating at times. But, this morning at 6.30, our happy band rolled up to our fog-shrouded location and shot an absurd perecntage of a movie in just one day.

See, I'm getting that feeling that things are going too well again. I really don't want to get another avalanche of bad luck like that miserable Thursday on Hellbride, but dammit if today wasn't one of the very best days' shooting I've ever had. We got a huge amount done and it looked great.

I'd best get some sleep, though...

Sen-fucking-sational

Here's the God's honest truth. For all the occasional spills and heartaches, for all the broken mains connections and irritating location paperwork, this is proving to be an absolutely amazing summer. The KK footage that we've got in the can thus far feels alarmingly like it's come straight from my brain and onto the screen, thanks to the tireless work of the folks on the project. I have such hopes for KillerKiller and Hellbride; I want them to kick the hinges off the doors that TrashHouse edged open. If folks don't like them, then I think it's fair to say that they'll probably never dig my movies.

We're off to the asylum location tomorrow. It's finally time for the bit of the shoot that everyone has been looking forward to. The bit that's going to set the mood for the whole movie. The bit that's costing half the bloody budget.

The picture at the top of this entry is the first image from KK to be made available. It's of Danielle Laws, who is proving to be absolutely fantastic in this flick; alternately sexy as hell and utterly terrifying.

KillerKiller is go...

Although our weird, weekend-heavy schedule meant that today consisted largely of the cast working together on tightening up various scenes, followed by a tiny bit of actual filming at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is straight into two major kill sequences, though... Not sure whether we'll be posting photos from either of those just yet. We shall see.

One last Hellbride image for the moment...

Before everything goes all KillerKiller around these parts, thought I'd post one final image from the Hellbride set. This one was snapped by Debbie Attwell, (http://www.debbieattwell.com), and features the wonderful Eleanor James as Josephine Stewart...

KillerKiller on the horizon...

OK, so KK finally hits the lens on Monday. The biggest deal of the shoot, however, is the days that we're spending at our mental hospital location next weekend. They're going to be looooong days, and we need to get so much footage in the can. Going to be somewhat terrifying.

Having finally digitised all of the Hellbride footage, I threw together a crash edit of the first twenty five minutes yesterday. Damn, the film moves fast. TrashHouse takes over half an hour to hit high gear. Hellbride takes, like, 7 minutes. Might try to ease off the throttle just a tad when I come to edit properly, otherwise it's likely to leave folks with sore heads. Still loving the footage.

Hellbride footage and KillerKiller prep

I've been digitising the Hellbride footage on and off, in between sorting out final arrangements for KillerKiller. Still chuffed to bits with how HB has turned out, and looking forward to chopping together a first assembly and seeing how long it's coming in at roughly. It'll end up at 82 minutes, of course. I believe that every horror comedy ever made should run for 82 minutes. Any less and people feel shortchanged, any more and they start to fidget.

As a rough indicator of my mood; on Monday I bought two new albums. I bough the Thom Yorke solo album, and the debut from The Pipettes ( http://www.myspace.com/thepipettes ). I never make it much past the halfway mark of the Thom Yorke one, because I keep wanting to put The Pipettes on instead. I suspect this means that I'm pretty happy in general.

Nobody has dismantled the wedding set yet. It's rather gross, and absolutely saturated in fake blood and bits of body parts. The unit needs to be transformed into a hospital set by a week next Wednesday, but that seems very far away indeed.

Still picking up the odd costume for KK. Got our main characters' boiler suits yesterday. I love using boiler suits as costumes. They're SO easy...

And that's a wrap.

Hard to believe, but HB just wrapped principal photography. We cracked open the bubbly, and my beloved cast and crew showered me in fake blood, bless 'em.

Other than yesterday, that was a fantastic shoot. Fun, upbeat, fast and with a positive vibe. I reckon the film is going to be pretty fucking spot-on for anyone who enjoyed TrashHouse at all. And possibly even for a few folks who didn't.

One week until KillerKiller. No rest for the bloody wicked.

Luck, and the end of it

I don't know if I believe in luck, fate, karma or anything like that. But prior to 5pm yesterday Hellbride had an utterly charmed shoot, and after 5pm yesterday every single bit of bad luck that could possibly drop on our heads did, to such a degree that if it had happened in a TV show you'd have complained at how unrealistic it was.

Short version, (although the long version and extended disco remix will play in my nightmares until my dying day), runs like this; with all cast in full, blood-drenched wedding clothing, we still had an awful lot of the wedding to shoot and limited time. Because my cast and crew are, as I believe I might have previously mentioned, wonderful, they agree to stay for as long as it takes to get the sequence finished. We hunker down for a long evening, but know that we're getting great stuff in the can.

Suddenly, a mains lead gets pulled taut and snaps out of the back of the HD camera. We don't realise for several minutes that it has actually broken the connector in the back of the camera, meaning that the camera cannot take power. The battery only has five minutes life left, and cannot be recharged because it charges via the camera, which, in case you missed it, cannot take power. Various options are discussed. Phone calls are made, but we're into the evening and EVERYWHERE is closed. The nearest stockist of external chargers for our battery type turns out to be several hours away. And here's the kicker; cast availability after tonight is a huge problem, meaning that we can't even scrap the shoot and pick up again, because one of our main characters is seriously unavailable from this point on, and tonight was due to be his last one on set.

We have five minutes battery charge left to play with. I can't even see what our DP Al is framing, because to power the extra screen would use power we can't afford to lose. And we have to shoot a main character's final scene as a one-take wonder.

I haven't even been able to watch the footage back. The camera lies inert, waiting for a charged battery. Our Line Producer Nick is at this very moment making the drive to pick up the external charger, and we've delayed the start of this morning's shooting by three hours.

There was a load more crap besides, but you can wait for the sobbing director's commentary. And that's why too much good luck makes me nervous.

Shooting a Wedding Massacre

Involving ghost, guns, mobsters, slime and blood isn't quite as easy as you'd initially suspect. We've been working flat out for the last three days on the climactic sequence, (the longest I've ever spent on a single scene), and our shots-per-day rate is tiny. It all looks fantastic, though, thanks to my ever tireless cast and crew and our frankly rather wonderful make-up and hair artist Beverley Chorlton.
In an ideal world we'd finish the sequence today. I'm going to give it my very very best shot, but I wouldn't put any money on it...
Wish me luck.

Photos

In addition to the two below, there are three more photos up on the news page of Horror Talk:
http://www.horrortalk.com/news.htm
Check 'em out!

Getting married in the morning

Wow, can't believe we've gotten to the wedding already, but we have. Our mammoth climactic scene starts shooting tomorrow, and will take up the lion's share of the rest of the week. My tireless crew have been working flat out to get the scene dressed and ready for the wedding of the year, when Nicole Meadows and Lee Parker will finally tie the knot. Expect ghouls, mobsters and shitloads of bloodshed.

The wedding venue is draped in lemon yellow fabric. Once the blood starts flowing, that place is going to look like an abattoir.

Heh heh.

Baddies

This is Somebody.

I know it's a dark image.

He's a dark kind of guy.

Goodies

James Fisher and Rebecca Herod as Lee Parker and Nicole Meadows. You gotta love 'em.

Two days in...

And everything is fantastic.

I don't think I've ever experienced two days on the trot of looking at that days' rushes and being delighted with every scene prior to this shoot, but dammit if that's not what's happened since Monday. My cast is bloody brilliant and my crew rock the house.

We shot a scene yesterday which we'll call 'The Octopus Scene' despite the fact that it hasn't got an octopus in it. It's always been one of my favourite scenes in the script, but I knew that it was likely to be a tricky one for the actors involved and was probably going to take a lot of time. Rebecca Herod and James Fisher absolutely knocked it out of the park, and it's exactly as I wanted it. It was designed to be shot outside on a gloriously sunny day, and a gloriously sunny day appeared. And we were finished on the scene by lunchtime. I'm a very happy bunny.

Largely romantic stuff so far. Tomorrow's all blood and needles, though.

I love my job.

Over the top...

Here we go, folks.

Game on.

All the small things...

Of course I shouldn't be writing this blog right now. Makes no sense. Far too much to do.

I need to take a minute every so often, though, so this seems as good a way as any.

Inhale. Exhale. Too much to do, man, and TOO LITTLE TIME.

Suddenly, everything's got a time limit. A prop that we want needs to be shipped over, and won't get here on time. We run out of cheques in the chequebook, and the replacement won't get here in time. I want a haircut, but there isn't a SINGLE SECOND between now and August 9th when I'm going to be able to get one.

No time, and the small things just keep getting bigger.

Inhale.

Exhale.

[Grosse Point Blank] This is me breathing. [/Grosse Point Blank]

One week to go...

And things are starting to get a bit nuts. My brain is at the point where it won't shut down. Sleep is becoming difficult, as I panic about minor details.

We had a cast readthrough for Hellbride on Friday, and I'm delighted with how it went. My cast are going to rock, and I couldn't be happier.

On the KK side of things, we're still holding a handful of auditions for some of the smaller parts.

I keep forgetting who's involved with which movie, and talking to HB people about KK things. I wonder how long before this starts to annoy people. All the set-dressing fabric for our wedding venue turned up today; a delicated shade of lemon drape that we're going to end up showering in gallons of fake blood just because that's the kind of people we are.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to organise a remastering of TrashHouse prior to US release, to allow me to do some colour-correcting that never happened before the UK one. Don't know if it's going to happen, but it might.

Crane

We have a crane. Every time I look at it, my mind plays a fragment of the They Might Be Giants song 'They'll Need A Crane'. If my mind doesn't stop doing that soon, I might go nuts.

The crane, as you'll probably have guessed, usually has an obscenely expensive camera mounted on the end of it, and therefore also makes me nervous that its about to break or fall over and scupper both shoots by destroying our one and only camera. So the crane makes me nervous, and also makes my mind sing songs. I approach the crane with caution.

We also have a proper boom pole, and the mic even has a baffle. A baffle is one of those things that looks like part of a sheepdog and covers up the microphone. It eliminates wind-pops and serves to make the shoot look more professional than it probably is. The TrashHouse shoot didn't have proper boom poles or baffles. Although if I remember rightly, we did have a really cheap home microphone gaffer-taped to a wooden stick at one point.

Keys tomorrow

Tomorrow we get the keys to our filming units, which pretty much marks the end of pre-production and the beginning of production. I've been running numerous tests on our new kit over the last few days. We've got a load of new sound equipment that I didn't want to end up using untested, the drawback being that sound is not my strong point and therefore I'm not the best guy to test such stuff. My tests concluded that noises that go into the mic end up getting recorded. Hopefully this is sufficient. I'm sure when our sound recordist turns up he'll be able to look at the matter in even more detail.

We had a gimp mask turn up last week, which features in one of the death scenes in KillerKiller. I have learnt that gimp masks exert a strange pull to people in the room, just begging to be put on. I have also learnt that everyone looks terrifying in a gimp mask. It's not a sexual kink I've ever understood in the slightest, to be honest, but seeing the effect that thing has on people's features I understand it even less. Gimp masks are scary folks. And I'm now obviously delighted to have one on my Ebay history. Right next to the cheerleader outift, just so nobody thinks I'm fucking weird or anything.

Heard from Screen Entertainment that apparently TrashHouse is going to be put up as a legal download in both the US and the UK some time soon. I'll keep you posted on that as I hear anything.

Casting complete

More or less. The last couple of major roles have finally been offered and accepted, after a final auditioning day on Tuesday.

Props have also been getting sourced at a rapid rate of knots. My Ebay history used to look so tame and respectable, (early 90s indie CDs, mainly), but now it's chock to the brim with nasty-looking surgical equipment, sinister masks and so on. God knows what I look like. Ordering a wedding dress later in the week will probably make the history look worse rather than better at this point...

Breather

Take a breath time. I always seem to end up writing pretty generic stuff in this blog, (auditions going well/I am tired/writing going well/I am tired, etc.), but don't often scratch below that surface. Usually this is because I'm operating in something of a blind panic, and if I'm blogging I pretty much always feel that there's something else I should be doing.

This afternoon, however, I have elected to work out in my garden. It's a glorious day, I'm sitting under the shade of a tree and tapping on my laptop. My laptop has no internet connection. No wireless clever stuff, just an old laptop from about 2001 that I can write on. This means no distractions; the chiming of email arriving is another thing that usually breaks the blog spell, especially if it's the sort of email that actually requires attention. Sod 'em. They can chime all they like in my office, because I can't hear them in the garden.

See, back when I set up Jinx Media and elected to work for myself a couple of years back, this was the sort of thing I always pictured. Laptop, nice day, outside working at my own speed and doing what I felt like. It never seems to work out like that, though. Turns out that rather than the hippy rebel I always thought he'd be, the boss side of my psyche is actually a slave driving bastard.

Shit. I lied by omission. I forgot to tell you that I'd brought the phone out with me. It has rung, it is important and I need to leave.

What a piss-take.

Maybe next time.

One more batch of auditions...

...and we're done. Couldn't drag it out any longer than that even if I wanted to; we've got costumes that need to be made, and to get made they need measurements, and to get measurements we need to know who'll be wearing the costumes. So I need to quit stalling and make a couple more final decisions.

Our designer Lisa sent me through the wardrobe breakdown yesterday. Lot of outfits to source, (although I've already got several dozen to sort through, also courtesy of Lisa). We'll get there, but as I mentioned in the first bit, measurements would probably help!

The screenplays are officially locked, and some have been sent out to cast members, (if any cast members are reading this and haven't got them yet, they'll be there soon!). The screenplays being locked means that now every time I drastically change something I have to apologise to a whole load of people. Doesn't stop me doing it, of course. Just makes me apologise.

It's my wife's birthday today, which means we'll go out for a nice meal this evening and I can finally stop thinking about these movies for a few hours...

Too much, too many, too few

Trying to gather together 'To Do' lists at this stage in post-production is borderline impossible. Too many things. The old line about how to eat an elephant, ("a little bit at a time"), has never felt more appropriate.

Casting has been going fairly well. We've made a couple of decisions that we're absolutely delighted with, but we've still got some holes in the cast list that we just haven't been able to fill to our satisfaction. Journey's end for a few roles, but the quest continues for many more.

Been getting to grips with a whole new bunch of technology, too. Since we're shooting both flicks in High Definition, our trusty old edit suite is set to gather dust and I'm left looking at a bunch of new hardware and software and praying that the learning curves don't prove too steep... When it comes to Non-Linear editing packages there are always quite a few familiar elements, but it's the little things that trip you up.

Had a chance to play around shooting some test footage, though, and it looks pretty damn remarkable. Ain't technology grand?

Preparing for launch

Been an incredibly busy week in the Hellbride/KillerKiller camp. Auditions, location recces, first soundtrack elements, budgeting, costume design decisions and even, (yes!), more rewrites.

Our shooting schedules have been locked, (Hellbride is first out of the gate, and starts shooting on July 3rd, folks...), and we're firing on all cylinders. These babies are going to be fantastic, and I'm extremely excited about everything.

The shooting schedule is going to be pretty punishing, but I hope my wonderful casts and crews are going to be up to it.

Gotta run.

Peace and love,
Pat

TMWLTGR

I find that I don't go to the cinema quite as often as I used to. I think there are a million and one reasons for this, one of which is the ever-decreasing window between cinema release and DVD release. Anyway, I got into a discussion on a forum that I sometimes hang out on regarding nutters in cinemas. I remembered the following incident, and might as well share it with you guys too.

My favourite lunatic recently was The Man Who Liked To Go 'Raaaggghhh' who attended a first-weekend screening of King Kong at the Odeon Southend Victoria.

Upon entering the cinema, we heard someone go 'Raaaggghhh'. We expected this to be a teenager, and hoped it was a single incident. Moments later, we heard another 'Raaaggghhh' from the same source, and realised that this was likely to be a theme for the evening. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we realised that The Man Who Liked To Go 'Raaaggghhh' was in fact bespectacled, in his fifties and sitting with someone who was presumably his wife.

A few Raaaggghhhs down the line, (when it comes to Raaaggghhhs, a little goes a long way), and a guy in the row in front of us wandered over to The Man Who Liked To Go 'Raaaggghhh' and asked him fairly politely if he wouldn't mind ceasing any and all roaring activity for the following three hours or so. TMWLTGR clearly sat and thought about this for some time, then wandered back over to the guy in question and asked if he could discuss the matter further with him. Both men went out into the lobby for five minutes or so. When they returned, the guy in front of us was shaking his head sadly. TMWLTGR returned to his seat and recommenced going 'Raaaggghhh' at fairly regular intervals.

At this point, (around the time that the film was starting), two ushers decided that now was a good time to confront TMWLTGR regarding his roaring activities and the potention cessation thereof. At this point, TMWLTGR began to protest very loudly indeed that his wife had been 'looking forward to this for weeks'. Whether she had been looking forward solely to the movie or specifically to her husband going 'Raaaggghhh' throughout said movie was unclear.

But something wonderful happened. The ushers told him that if he couldn't bring himself to stop roaring he'd have to leave the cinema. And without another word, he left. Taking his wife, (despite the fact that she'd been 'looking forward to this for weeks'), with him.

Perhaps it was only the roaring that she'd been looking forward to, and at the end of the day the movie was largely irrelevant and their evening was unspoiled. The romantic part of me rather hopes so.



I should probably point out, (in case folks feel that I'm being somewhat unkind to TMWLTGR in the telling of this tale), that the Raaaggghhhs were clearly not a 'tic' or something that TMWLTGR couldn't actually help doing. They were pre-meditated, targeted at specific patrons and seemed to bring TMWLTGR great joy. He seemed genuinely hurt that others didn't share his enthusiasm.

Here comes the bride...

Here's some more good news. HellBride is happening after all, and more or less on the original schedule.

For a month or so there, the project got suspended. We'd had a few difficulties with the screenplay, and these had a knock-on effect meaning that HB was falling so far behind KillerKiller in the readiness stakes that the odds of shooting them back-to-back were getting smaller by the day. I had, to be brutally honest, almost given up hope that everything would be ready in time.

As luck would have it, it is and will be. The screenplay's extremely strong, and the locations, cast and crew are falling into place one by one. We're holding a few more casting sessions between now and the end of the month, and I hope to be able to announce some cast for both movies at the beginning of April. I'm actually very excited indeed.

It's out there.

Ten years ago, I used to work in a branch of Blockbuster video in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. God knows how many countless thousand hours I must have spent in that store; lugging videos around, cleaning, filing, banking and advising customers not to rent films like 'Tough & Deadly'. Oh, and trying not to laugh when they rented 'The Amazing Panda Adventure' and I had to read the title back to them. It wasn't the best job I ever had. Wasn't the worst either.

Last week, I stood in that same branch of Blockbuster and saw my movie sitting on the shelf. I think it's a safe bet that out of all those thousands of hours, I'd never previously had a single moment in that shop that had felt quite so good.

Yes, TrashHouse is out and about with the general public. I've been getting a few reviews by email, and some have been cropping up on websites. The target audience seem to like it. Seems to be shifting quite well on both rental and retail. All is well with the world.

If any of you folks out there check it out, feel free to let me know what you make of it. It feels oddly like I've had an offspring leave home.

TrashHouse Released!

After all that, TrashHouse is released to rent or buy on Special Edition Region 2 DVD today.

Don't sit here reading this... Go buy it!!!

Killers, Queens, Brides and hopefully less about Pies...

Let's get the pie stuff out of the way first, because people keep asking. Yes, the pies turned up in the end, (6pm!!!), and yes, they were fantastic and worth the wait. I find it slightly disconcerting that more people have asked me about the fucking pies than anything in any other blog entry.

Onto the slightly more relevant stuff. KillerKiller is finally hitting the starting blocks, and we're aiming for a shooting start date in mid-May. Still got some decisions to make, but as soon as anything gets signed I'll blabber on about it here. Don't mind admitting that we're still puzzling over that main female role, since it would seem ideally suited to an established scream queen but they're a bit of an endangered species in the UK. Heartbreaking, really... Where did all the scream queens go? Where's this generation's Ingrid Pitt? It's a simple wishlist really... Startlingly beautiful, excellent actress, unafraid of partial nudity or vast quantities of fake blood. Only about three names readily pop to mind, and for one reason or another none of them have happened as yet. Our search continues.

The more astute of you will have noticed that I've given a rough shooting schedule for KillerKiller yet absolutely nothing as yet for HellBride. There's a simple reason for this; we're still having script problems, and I don't know if it's going to be ready to go in time to do the back-to-back thing. I suspect, in my heart of hearts, it's going to end up getting delayed for a while. Be nice if it didn't, but that's life sometimes...

Props, locations and Pies

Just been running through the KillerKiller prop-list whilst waiting for pies. I'd like to go and get some lunch, but I'm scared to miss the pies. The pies are from http://www.pieminister.co.uk and look lovely, but the buggers haven't turned up yet and I really want to leave my office.

The props list is mercifully shorter than the TrashHouse one was, but still includes such wonders as 'Bladed Pom-Poms'...

Went on another location-scouting expedition on Monday. Still undecided about where we're going to shoot the location stuff. The two main contenders have such different looks that it would greatly affect the feel of the movie, and I can't quite decide which way to jump. One is incredibly gothic and extremely atmospheric, whereas the other feels more 'correct' but is less visually interesting. Although it is more varied. I'm torn.

There was a nice article about TrashHouse over on Fangoria;
http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5505
I was particularly pleased with that one, since I can remember reading Fangoria at school and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Nice to be in it!

Still no sign of the pies, in case you were wondering.

Four Weeks to DVD Release

Been engrossed in the KK and HB scripts, and trying to work out this here cashflow situation which has been stopping me from setting cast, crew and shooting dates for both upcoming films.

Four weeks to the TrashHouse DVD launch, of course. The artwork's all set, ( and you can now see the cover over at http://www.trashhouse.co.uk ), but I still haven't seen the final version of the DVD itself. That'll probably arrive towards the end of next week.

Got a lot of CVs to sift through for the next two projects. Just wish I was able to set a shoot date, but it's still not possible. Looks like there's a chance that I won't be able to manage shooting entirely back-to-back, and that KillerKiller might end up getting shot a few months before HellBride. We shall see.

TrashHouse gets rated

My first ever experience with a politician was about the BBFC. I was 12 years old, and a local Lib Dem candidate came knocking on my parents' door and chatted to them. At some point I wandered into the lounge, and he asked me if I had any questions about the way the country was run. My response was along the lines of;

"Yeah. How come I can watch The Karate Kid, Big Trouble In Little China, Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone and films like that at the cinema, where they are PGs, but then I can't rent them on video because they go up to 15s?"

This particular local candidate was the most efficient politician I've ever met, (and therefore, naturally, lost the election). As a non-voting 12 year old offspring of two non-Lib Dem parents, I got written responses from both David Puttnam and James Ferman, (who was head of the BBFC at the time).

As I got older, I used to enjoy toying with the BBFC from time to time. I'd book a place on their 'discussion afternoons' and point out flaws in the system, ("If you're only allowed to say 'fuck' once on a 12 rated video, and you put two 12 rated movies on one double-bill tape with one 'fuck' in each, does that make the double-bill a 15?").

I've always had a fascination with them, and yesterday we stopped the flirting and got serious. One thing led to another, and they rated my movie.

TrashHouse gets rated

I'd been looking forward to getting our certificate, but now I feel rather like I've been told off by a prudish aunt.

"Language: Frequent, strong" - 8 or so 'fucks' doesn't count as 'frequent', surely? If 8 counts as 'frequent', then what do they call The Devil's Rejects, which has got 550+?

(Goes and checks)

Oh, that counts as "Frequent" as well, apparently.

And despite the fact we got a 15 in the end, our trailer got an 18. So the disc as a whole probably will.

After 20 years of foreplay, I just feel rather used. Did they really care about SpaceHunter all those years ago?

It was in 3D, you know.