Bad Journalism

Y'know sometimes how a story or a situation can just sit in the back of your mind all week? Well, it's been one of those weeks. In this case, the thing that's been pinging around my cranium for the last few days has been this article from the Guardian.

It's the worst piece of journalism I've seen in a while, and whilst two of those comics who have been misrepresented have been afforded a right-of-reply (Richard Herring's can be read here and Brendon Burns' can be read here) this is still too little too late in my book.

I've long been troubled by the idea of how the press can deliberately misrepresent a person, and to take an avowedly and outspokenly anti-racist such as Herring and use out of context quotes to portray him as the opposite is fundamentally depressing but nothing new.

Here's a fun game to play. Take a look around your house, and see what items could be misrepresented in some way by the tabloids were you ever to stand accused of a crime. Granted, my own house is full of a great deal of amassed paraphernalia from years of shooting straight-to-DVD splatter movies, so I have a head start. I've got an awful lot of bloodstained wedding dresses, gimp masks, surgical tools, cheerleader outfits and chainsaws sitting in my loft, which would pretty much mean that the tabloids would hang me without trial if they ever found the need to. But what about beyond that? Ok, let's have a rummage through a typical loft.

What do we have here?

"Films feature full-frontal footage of naked children, and real-life death and mutilation"

That'd be Superman: The Movie, Good Morning Vietnam and JFK..

"Publications featuring underage sexualised nudity"

That'd be back-issues of the tabloid newspapers themselves (!) from a few years ago before they raised the minimum age for Page 3 from 16 to 18.

"Audio recordings detailing mutilation, rape and murder"

That'd be the Eminem albums.

"Books detailing black magic rituals"

Harry Potter stand up and take a bow.

It sounds like I'm exaggerating for comic effect here, but I'm really not. The cumalative effect of listing a whole bunch of stuff completely out of context is a very powerful thing. If I'd never heard of Richard Herring prior to that article on Monday I would, frankly, have assumed that he was at best an idiot and at worst a fascist. The fact that he's actually one of the best stand-ups in the country and has strongly held and frequently articulated anti-racist views makes the article both incredibly irritating and also rather dangerous.

I still can't work out Brian Logan's motives, and in a way I'm past caring. If it was an article in the Daily Mail I'd be able to shrug it off easier (frankly, if you read that piece of shit and expect it to be anything other than incoherent lies then you deserve everything you get), but The Guardian turns up on my mat most mornings, and I'd credited them with a little more. Not a lot, just a little.

As Beck once so beautifully put it..

"Don't believe everything that you read,
You get.."

(Coughs.. Squints at lyrics sheet)

"..a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve"

The Devil's Music Release

We're delighted to announce that The Devil's Music has signed with the excellent Lono Entertainment for US DVD release. Check out Lono's homepage at http://lonoentertainment.com/ and, while you're over there, order yourself a copy of James Eaves' fantastic movie Bane which Lono are also distributing.

We're hoping that the DVD will hit in time for Halloween, so I'd best stop typing this blog and get back to preparing our delivery list.

Hopefully we'll be making an announcement regarding a rather unconventional UK release in the next few weeks.

Colin and the BDT rough assembly

It's been a pretty amazing few weeks for our buddy Marc Price, who headed out to Cannes to promote his fantastic £45 epic Colin and ended up everywhere from CNN to The Sun. He was also all over TV that weekend. It's a fantastic example of what can happen in this crazy world of tiny budgets and big ideas..
Back at Jinx, we had the pleasure of sitting and watching the rough assembly of Bordello Death Tales last week. It was a cool experience and a really unusual one; it's not often that a filmmaker gets to sit down and watch a movie that he's directed a third of, yet hasn't seen the rest. I love the flick to bits. It's got a real energy to it, and hopefully delivers more or less everything genre fans are looking for. I can't wait to see it with a festival audience.

Hellbride Release Hits..

..and it's great. The DVD came through my door last week, and Midnight have done a terrific job on it. The movie has been remastered from the HD source and looks brighter and cleaner than any of the screeners. The extras are all good fun, including a commentary with myself and my esteemed DoP Al Ronald. It also hasn't been region locked, so it'll play in more or less any player that you put it into. This one's a must-buy, kids, so point your browser to;

THIS AMAZON LINK RIGHT HERE!!

..and pick up a copy now!

Elsewhere on the web, there's a new interview with me over at;

I LIKE HORROR MOVIES INTERVIEW

which is the first one I've done in a little while. Any other horror sites or blogs wanting to run interviews in support of Hellbride, get in touch and I'll be happy to help.

I've been trying to sort of the remastering of KillerKiller for a potential BluRay release.. It'll hopefully happen, but there just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment..

Release Strategies

As I've blogged about previously, the industry is in a state of flux and release strategies are changing all the time. New business models are cropping up all over the place; I humbly direct your attention through to Indie Movies Online who are offering free, streamed flicks (including Jake West's wonderfully splattery Evil Aliens) whenever you want them. Other folks have been grabbing the digital bull by the horns, and offering flicks in varied digital formats as well as burn-on-demand DVD.. (invest a few quid in Rob Pratten's MindFlesh or Al Ronald's Jesus vs the Messiah to check out cutting edge indie distribution).

Soooo.. Where does that leave us?

Well, Hellbride's going the traditional route to DVD but will also be avaailable for download within the US at least.. (URL to follow next update). We've been looking at the possibilities of initially launching The Devil's Music in a download format, but.. but..

To be honest, it's kind of scary. There's a comfort zone with DVD. It's an established format and we kind of know what to expect from it. The idea of taking the leap of a download/burn-on-demand release for a movie like TDM is slightly daunting; it's a great flick and we don't want to compromise the release in any way. We won't need to make a decision for another few months regardless; we want to give the Hellbride release room to breathe before unleashing TDM on a home format. But the decision will have to be made. And how long are tangible formats actually going to stick around for?

Hellbride Artwork

As the release date for Hellbride draws closer (May 5th, or May 12th depending on where you read it. I have no inside information either way), I thought you might dig a look at the artwork..




Don't forget you can preorder over at Amazon by following this funky link right here.

Hellbride BTS

He shoots, he scores..

The 'he' in question being the mighty Phil Sheldon, who has worked on the scores of all my movies since KillerKiller. This evening, I sat down with Phil and listened to his work thus far on Vice Day, (which, for those who haven't been paying attention, is my chapter of the forthcoming Bordello Death Tales).

It's a weird, dark art; the ability to accentuate, compliment and bring to life the images onscreen with sound palettes and music. Many times, I've gone on about how much I like scores that are a little counter-intuitive (the aforementioned KK score being my favourite example; instead of going for doom-laden bass, Phil opted for sparse acoustic guitar and completely changed the feel of the movie in a way that I absolutely loved). For Vice Day, Phil's opted for stabs of accentuation and some recurring motifs for the two main characters, along with the occasional wig-out for when onscreen action demands it. Watching the segment through with his rough work was a joy.. It brought a couple of moments that had felt a bit flat vividly back to life, and has filled me with a fire to raise my game on the final edit to wring every ounce of tension, sexiness and horror out of the final segment that I possibly can.

Music and sound is so vital. It's an area that I've been guilty of neglecting at times during shoots, leaving sound crew to work with twitchy equipment and insufficient set-up times, or simply hoping for the best under impossible conditions, (the KK shoot, with wildly varying dialogue volumes from different directions in an impossibly echoey environment, must have left our long-suffering sound man Magic weeping into his cans). Tonight was a vivid reminder as to how the audio is every bit as vital as the onscreen images, and I'm determined never to let the area go neglected again.

Can't wait to hear Phil's final version, and I'm itching to get back to the edit suite with a renewed enthusiasm for the project as a whole.

A great evening, all told.

Running up to Christmas..

Having a fun last couple of weeks before Christmas, mixing festive preparations with post-production on BDT. I delivered the mid-cut of my story over to our composer Phil last week, which is always an exciting turning-point in post. I love seeing what he comes up with; sometimes he ends up heading in a fairly counter-intuitive direction. Innumerable lesser talents would have scored KillerKiller with doomy chords, but Phil opted for a fragile acoustic melody which utterly altered the vibe of the flick for the better. We've chatted a little about possible directions for the BDT chapter, but now it's really a case of waiting to see what he comes up with whilst I sit and tweak shots here and there and gently edge the mid cut towards being a fine cut.
I think the other guys are at around the same point as me with their own respective post-production schedules. Can't wait to see the three fine cuts assembled as a movie sometime early in 2009. Be weird sitting down to watch a flick that I've only been a third responsible for.
Had another great review for The Devil's Music over at HorrorNews.Net (click 'reviews' and we're in there).
Fairly well prepped for Christmas, I reckon. We've got a good number of family heading over this year, and we've been trying to work out how to actually fit everybody in. Festive vibes definitely kicking in. And on that note, I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas. Although knowing me that'll probably mean that I'll end up doing another blog entry this week and then have to do it all over again.

Peace n love,
Pat

Photos and Chainsaws

What you are looking at is the official image of the three directors from Bordello Death Tales. Handsome bunch, aren't we? (Left to Right: Al Ronald, myself, Jim Eaves). Weird to have 'official' photos, which seem to end up getting used over and over again for ages.

The black & white photo that's probably at the top of this blog, for example, (although may not be if you're reading a reskinned version within another site) is bloody ancient. It was actually a publicity photo from back when I was doing stand-up rather than directing horror movies. I was thinking of getting a new one but, frankly, who the hell do I think I am? I haven't stuck a photo onto my IMDB page either, and can't quite work out whether I should or not. On the 'not' side.. I'm a writer/director, so why the fuck should anybody actually care what I look like? On the 'should' side, most of the directors that I like best have carefully cultivated a public image, complete with wardrobe gimmics, and so I sort of feel like I can get away with it. Plus, let's be honest, I'm an attention junkie. If I wasn't an attention junkie I'd have never got involved in movies, let alone my prior stint in stand-up.

One of the reasons I've been thinking about photos.. The chainsaw from TrashHouse finally made its way back home to the Jinx office the other week. And it's almost impossible to resist the urge to pose with it. It's a hulking great thing, damn heavy and really looks like it means business. And I keep thinking, hey, maybe I can find an excuse to pose for a publicity photo with that sucker. I know it's pathetic and sad. But I make horror movies, for God's sake, so of course I want to pose with chainsaws. Maybe a chainsaw in one hand and a camera in the other. In an urban wasteland. Like I'm in Mad Max.

Please note; I think I'm safely into the realms of self-parody now. But when I look at the chainsaw I'm not too sure. The other odd thing, of course, is that I'm terrified of it. As an object. Even though it doesn't work any more, there's a part of me that feels like it's going to splutter into very real and dangerous life at any minute (hence the amusing 'trivia' that someone added to my aforementioned IMDB page) and start ripping up everything in the house. I'm not an outdoorsy kind of guy, and my only frame of reference for chainsaws is from my own and other people's horror movies. I don't associate them with gardening. I associate them with unpleasantness, so much so that it actually feels oddly transgressive to have one in the house.

Oh, and before I sign off, I was rather pleased last week to notice this blog quoted extensively over on The Melon-Farmers anti-censorship site. I've read that site for years, and is was strange to be reading it and suddenly realising that I was reading my own ramblings.

Rock on,
Pat

The industry

Hmm.. How do I dance around this subject? Is this something I even want to address? At the end of the day, what is the purpose of this blog? Am I basically just here to plug stuff, and say that everything's great? Because sometimes it ain't that great.

Because, as far as independents are concerned, the industry is broken.

A quick look around the shelves of my local Blockbuster (which, as a chain, has its own problems), reveals that very nearly all the straight-to-DVD horror on their shelves is put out by Sony or Lionsgate (oh, those tiny independents). Two years ago, when TrashHouse hit those shelves, there were at least a dozen distribution companies regularly putting out indie horror and getting decent distribution for it. Nowadays, they all seem to have either gone out of business or, at very best, gone into a kind of suspended animation whilst hoping to weather the storm. Companies are folding left and right; some of them, like Tartan, make headlines. Countless others have just quietly stopped putting out product and expired.

There will be a new system. It's not all doom and gloom. But the new major distribution system, which I presume will be some kind of complete video-on-demand package which will enable folks to watch any movie from any period straight onto their telly for either a monthly subscription or a per-movie charge, isn't here yet. It might be years away, and God knows whether it'll be indie-friendly or a totally closed loop.

So we're in a kind of limbo at the moment. The day a movie hits the shelves in a single territory it also hits the torrents worldwide, which can be fatal for an indie with no simultaneous worldwide release. There seems to be no way of making money on smaller movies. Obviously, the BBFC have done their very best to turn the knife by tightening their restrictions on things like commentaries, (which now have to be rated as a whole new work, thus adding vast amounts of money to the BBFC costs) and Behind The Scenes materials. Thus when an indie flick does manage to get out onto DVD in the current climate, it can't even afford to have the full extras on the UK disc which might actually persuade people to buy it. And without economies of scale working in it's favour, it's gonna end up costing the consumer twice as much as a 2-disc set of a blockbuster. For a vanilla disc. And the consumer, understandably, will vote with their wallet.

I've seen awesome movies that would have been snapped up two years ago fail to find even basic distribution. There are, of course, other options to be explored. There's a terrific blog over at Zen Films about their decision to self-distribute the movie MINDFLESH which is a really interesting read.. Tragically, though, the BBFC requirements as they currently stand would make a UK version of the Amazon Unbox scheme mentioned in the article completely non-viable. Thus driving yet more of our independent film business out of the country.

The whole thing's a total bummer for those who make and those who enjoy watching independent cinema.

Dammit, I've depressed myself.

Back to endlessly plugging my stuff next time, I promise.

Rock on,
Pat

Good Morning America

And thankyou.

Not one for going wildly off topic on this blog, but watching the US election last night was a pretty amazing experience. Pip & I finally turned in at about 7am, after a bottle of bubbly and a couple of cigars. Here's to a bright and fantastic future.

Oh, and just to keep this post on topic, there's a new interview with me over on indieflicks.co.uk..

More Bordello..

More coverage over at Fangoria (where their new site seems to sometimes glitch in IE for some reason; try Firefox if you have problems) where they also have some exclusive stills, including the first glimpse of Al's Stitchgirl chapter, which isn't actually seen in the teaser trailer..

Bordello Death Tales

So, you may have heard that BDT is Bordello Death Tales.

The project went public over the weekend, with a teaser trailer, teaser poster and everything. You can check them over at our good friends at HorrorTalk. It's a really exciting project and it's great to see the way that it's coming together; three very different stories all kind of bound up together as one movie. I think Jim, Al and I have come up with something really interesting, and I can't wait to see the film all together.

In other news..

The Devil's Music won Best Independent Feature at the Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester over the weekend. We're chuffed to bits.. Our first UK screening and we end up with a great award like that. Thanks to everyone involved!

Hellbride signs

Hellbride has signed with those lovely folks over at Maxim Media/Brain Damage Films and should be hitting the US DVD shelves at the beginning of 2009, unless I miss my guess.

I've been insanely busy all week sorting out both the HB deal (completing a delivery list is always fun) and also dealing with post-production on the secret project, which I'm going to call BDT but can't quite tell you why yet. BDT was shooting last week, and is now wrapped apart from a couple of cutaways. I'm very excited about it; it's a very different project than I'm used to, but horror fans should certainly find it something to get excited about. It also gave me the chance to work with a few wonderful old friends again..

More soon. Sssshhhhh.

Secret projects again..

See, I'm spending a fair bit of my time at the moment working on a secret project. Again. Last time around, this was The Devil's Music. This time around, it's not. It's.. Ah, no, can't tell you yet. But soon. Very soon.

We had a Jinx Gathering last week, when 40-odd folks from Jinx's ten year history (that's not ten years of moviemaking, but ten years of doing stuff with the brand identity of 'Jinx'. Years before TrashHouse, I was above a pub in Essex compereing the Jinx Comedy Club). It was bloody brilliant to see folks we hadn't seen in years and share a pint or two with them, and I hope we get to do it again before long. It's always good to touch base. I set out with the clear objective of alternating pints of lager with pints of shandy, and succeeded except for the 'pints of shandy' bit. Despite that, I managed to avoid getting utterly bladdered (although I realise these things are relative) and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

On a non-Jinx front, the weekend before the gathering we went to see The Faint playing in a tiny little venue called Cargo. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that The Faint are one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and to encourage everyone to run off and check their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/thefaint and check out new single The Geeks Were Right. That's my plug for the day..

Oh, and we've got a final contract for Hellbride sitting on the office table, which we expect to be signing in the next day or so. I'll keep you posted.

Rock on,
Pat

A review from Kim Newman

I've been a fan of Kim Newman's writing for a long time.. His book Nightmare Movies was one of the first overviews of the horror genre that I ever purchased, and I read it cover to cover more times than I can imagine.

A couple of years back, Kim Newman reviewed my first movie TrashHouse in this straight-to-DVD column for Empire. It was a brief but positive review, and felt like a real milestone.

Yesterday, we had a lengthy review, from Kim Newman himself, turn up for The Devil's Music. It's a really positive review, and scheduled to run in Empire as soon as we've got a UK release date. I obviously can't reproduce the whole review here, but he's kindly allowed us to run a quote from it over on the main site's page for The Devil's Music. It's over here.

Argentina...

Found out that KillerKiller was released in Argentina last month too. Had no idea whatsoever. The title has been changed to the rather funky if slightly unoriginal...



Can't work out how to use the Argentinian order sites yet (they don't seem to have an Amazon) so haven't successfully ordered it to add to my 'international copies of my movies' collection yet. Anyone feels like pointing me in the right direction I'd be extremely grateful.

I've also been working on a project that hasn't been announced properly, so I'm never sure how much I'm meant to say about it. I'm sure I'll just blurt it out myself before too long; I've never been too good with secrets. Except The Devil's Music, which I was very proud of myself for how long I kept it to myself.

Oh, and there are apparently more midnight screenings of KillerKiller in certain UCI cinemas in Germany this coming weekend, so keep an eye out if you're in the country.

I'm sure I'll get round to doing a proper detailed blog again soon. But I'm sure you love these little updates in the meantime!

German Cinema Release

KillerKiller somewhat unexpectedly hit German cinemas for midnight showing across the country at selected UCI theatres last weekend, which we were delighted about.

Oh, and the second part of the Micro Budget guide on Zone Horror is over here.

Lost Tales of Erika Spawn part 3

Lost Tales of Erika Spawn part 2

Lost Tales of Erika Spawn

Too Far Back..

Can't really regale you with many more tales from Cannes after all, since it's all a bit of a jumble without my notes to go from. Some of the memories are very pleasant (meeting up for the first time in years with our very own Lucy Sweet, Amber Moelter), some slightly less so (slogging around the Marche du Film for the umpteenth time) but I'm buggered if I can get them into any sort of coherent order so I'd probably best abandon the effort. It was a hell of an experience, though, and I'm sure I'll end up back there before too long.

Since returning, I've been hammering away on various projects. Some personal ones (my brother Colin got married the other week, and I cut them together a wedding video) some freelance ones (filming stand-ups and music videos.. Drop me a line if you're interested in my services for this sort of thing) and some company ones (sorting through our various distribution options for Hellbride and The Devil's Music.. There are certainly decisions to be made in the next couple of weeks). Also went to Glastonbury last weekend, which is kind of traditional for me (I think that was my 13th one).

I'm in the office all alone this week, since Pip's out on a shoot at Elstree. Well, I say alone. There are still the cats, who pop in and bother me whenever I'm doing something important that really doesn't benefit from loud mewing. Phone interview? George decides that it's time for a spot of loud mewing. Contract stuff? Buffy decides to howl like she's had vital parts of her reproductive system removed. Which, of course, she has. But that was ages ago, and she can't still be upset about it.

Oh, and the Zone Horror website are running my four-part guide to making micro-budget movies. The first chunk is over here.

Cannes and back again..

Hi folks; sorry for the delay in posting about our Cannes adventures. I'm sure you've all been burning up with anticipation.

We drove to Cannes rather than flying; a jaunt across on the ferry, then a straight drive down to Lyon accompanied by various George Carlin albums. We crashed out in Lyon overnight, and then made the last leg of the journey into Cannes to arrive on Saturday 17th. Soon after arriving at our campsite (yes, we stayed at a campsite. Because we are indie filmmakers and thus poor. We were not the only folks emerging from tents in tuxedos, I can tell you..), we got a text from our friends Jim & Laura (who have just completed an absolutely cracking flick called BANE, which I demand that you check out as soon as you get the opportunity), suggesting that we meet them over by the accreditation booth. After duly picking up our passes we headed off to meet them; we stopped for some grub and a few beers and then headed off towards a beach party thrown in association with South African filmmakers. It was a lovely party that had obviously been carefully planned, but the torrential rain that evening kind of ruined the beach vibe a bit. I got cheerfully smashed on the free booze and chatted to filmmakers from all around the globe. We somehow made it back to the campsite at around 2am, (meeting a very chatty German editor en route, who helped us get the right bus stop!)

On Sunday, we met up with a UK screenwriter called Neth Knowles and went for a recce around the Marche as the bullshit levels in the air at the UK pavilion were hurting our ears. Made the decision to spend the day getting a feel for the place rather than approaching distribs/sales agents. At least sleeping in a tent had minimised my hangover.. We wandered into a buyers' screening of Reeker 2, (despite not actually being buyers), and I can happily report that its far, far better than the original. In the evening, we attended a little function at the Canadian Pavilion before heading out to meet the guys who made The Zombie Diaries, who were out drinking with our old buddy James Fisher from Hellbride. We all ended up at the Petit Majestic (merely a bar, but the main hangout for an awful lot of UK industry folks) where we met the team behind forthcoming Britflick Hotel Caledonia, who were extremely nice guys to chat to. The film sounds like it's going to be storming, too.

Monday rolled around, and it became apparent that it was time to hit the Marche proper. We'd got a list of companies that we were hoping to approach, and we made our way around all three floors of stands selling product from all over the world. The key word, of course, being selling.. Not all of them had the slightest interest in acquiring new stuff. We got some good reactions regardless; mainly from companies who were extremely tired of people coming up and pitching ideas or presales, and were relieved to see a finished film for once. I'll keep the companies that we had the most productive meetings with to myself, if you don't mind; never a good idea to discuss 'might happen' deals in public. There were certainly a couple of companies that impressed us a lot, though, and I hope we get the chance to deal with them in the future.

Cleverly, my notes regarding exactly what we did on a day-to-day basis run out at that point. I'll see if I can break down the rest and fill you in with the rest of our adventures on my next post!

KillerKiller International Releases

Another new interview up at Cinescare, which should hopefully satisy your need to hear me go on about The Devil's Music for a while.

Been checking out the details of some of the international releases for KillerKiller. The Russian version is already out. The title has been translated to (roughly) Prison of those Doomed, and the slightly insane cover art doesn't have an awful lot to do with the movie but I kind of dig it regardless..



I'm dying to hear the Russian dub, I truly am. My copy should be turning up in the next few days, so I'll keep you posted. The German release, however, has gone for the slightly more traditional approach..



I've no idea how the DVDs will shape up otherwise (whether either of them are the widescreen version rather than the 4:3 crop, whether either of them have any good extras), but I shall keep you posted nonetheless.

As far as pre-production goes, I'm officially juggling three projects (BrainBath, House on the Witchpit and Strippers vs Werewolves). That should be enough to keep me occupied but isn't, however, the whole story.. There's another project that I can't really discuss yet because other directors are involved and its not my place to blurt things out before official announcements. And there's also the fact that I keep getting these crazy ideas for a Hellbride 2 which I can't seem to shift. Considering that Hellbride hasn't actually been released yet other than festival screenings, I should probably wait until the DVD is actually out before making any decisions about sequels.

I love sequels. Just because I haven't shot one so far does not mean that I might not do so in the future...

Reviews and brochures

A big box of our Cannes brochures turned up from the printers last week. We're trying to get a Flash version online, but we're having a few technical hitches. Hopefully I'll be able to give you a link next entry.
We've been getting lots of great coverage and reviews... Check out the coverage at;
Cinescare Review
SexGoreMutants Review
SexGoreMutants Interview
Horrorview Review
Horror Asylum Review
Fatally Yours Review
Best Horror Movies Review
The MJ Simpson Review that I already posted
I've heard tell that there should be reviews going up fairly shortly on both Fangoria.com and Horrortalk.com as well. I should perhaps mention that some of the above reviews are a bit spoilerish, so if you want to check out the flick 'clean' you might want to click with care...

Getting ready for Cannes

We've never been to the Cannes Festival before. We've had folks out there representing our movies, sure, but during the actual festival I've always been hunched over an edit suite or a word-processing package in our office.
This year, however, we're finally going. Our accreditation came through the other week and we've got our accomodation sorted, so all that remains is an endless list of things not to forget. We've been sorting out our publicity materials first and foremost, as I imagine we're in a fairly unique position as far as small UK companies go in terms of quantity of projects (four complete, three in development or preproduction) so we need to make sure that we're representing ourselves in the best way. We've been putting together a brochure that has a similar layout to the main Jinx Media website, but we'll need to get it to the printers fairly soon which seems a shame whilst we've still got great quotes for The Devil's Music coming in all the time.
It's a really weird time at Jinx Media; like whatever happens next is going to be different somehow. Bigger, quite possibly, but certainly different from what's gone before... Hey, without change life would get pretty boring.

First Review

Always incredibly, incredibly tense reading the first review...

On MJ Simpson's website

And exhale ;)

The Devil's Music Cast & Crew Screening

Last Friday we had the cast and crew screening for The Devil's Music at the BFI in Stephen St, central London.

Cast & Crew screenings are always slightly odd beasts. It's a room full of people who are a bit nervous. For most of the cast and crew, they're nervous to see how something that they invested loads of time and energy into, ages ago, has turned out. For them, it's like spending two months mixing the ingredients for a cake, then having to spend 8 months waiting for it to cook without being able to peek into the oven to see how its doing. For those involved in post-production, however, it's a different matter.

Take me, for example. Whereas other folk in the audience might have entirely forgotten about certain scenes, be unaware of other bits that were added as pick-ups and so on, I'm painfully aware of everything. And it's all so familiar, from months of editing and polishing, that I've completely lost perspective on the whole damn thing. I can't even hear the dialogue being spoken, let alone process it; all I hear is background noises, edit glitches and so on.

So there's all different kinds of nervous in the room. But its good nervous. Happy nervous. And Friday rocked the house in all kinds of ways. To watch the movie in a nice full screening room is exactly what I needed right now; this flick delivers the goods and our hard work has paid off handsomely.

The aftershow party is always a blur, and it's always tough to try and get to speak to and thank everyone. I woke up the next morning with a bit of a sore throat (3 cigars) and a bit of a sore head (an indeterminate amount of beers), trying to work out whether I'd managed to thank everyone. I hadn't, so if anyone I didn't manage to get to during those couple of hours is reading this, thankyou so much for making this flick happen.

Now to work out what happens next...

Locking/Not Locking

The Devil's Music is close to locking. We're still missing some score elements and sound mixing, but the movie itself is perilously close to completion. So close, in fact, that a 'nearly done' copy left the office yesterday, heading out so as to sneak in under a festival deadline. Which festival, however, is something that I shall keep close to my chest; if they don't want us, I'm not going to give them free publicity!

Knowing when to stop tinkering on a movie is a real art. There are a couple of minor things I did to KillerKiller in the week before delivery that I really wish I could go back and undo; there comes a point where you lose perspective as an editor. You've seen the film so many times that you start to see any and all alterations as being positive just because they provide something new to look at. And I'm damn sure that I don't want that to happen with The Devil's Music.

When it gets to this point in post, I start chomping at the bit to get the movie seen. We've got our usual low-key cast and crew screening scheduled for next month, and I'm looking forward to people's reactions. It's a cracking flick, in my humble opinion.

First Teaser Poster

FBOTL Video Blog

If I were better organised, I do one of these every day. I'm not, so I don't. Here's one, anyway.

The indie movie life

So, we've leaked the trailer for The Devil's Music, and we should be finished in post by around Christmas and hopefully hitting festivals shortly afterwards. I don't want to say a vast amount more about the movie just yet; there will be plenty of time for that later, (although those itching for a bit more Erika might wish to hit http://www.myspace.com/erikaspawnband ).

Heard recently that KillerKiller has been sold to Germany and Russia. Personally, I'm hoping for a dub rather than a sub, because I'd love to hear Richard Collins' already out-there portrayal of Perry dubbed into Russian.

A couple of folks have been asking when Hellbride is likely to hit DVD.. The answer is that we're planning to hang onto the rights until Cannes next year, where we can hopefully sign several different territories at once. So things might take a little longer, but it'll be worth it in the long run! As for TDM's release.. It's not flat-out horror, so we're looking at getting it shown in a few places that we've never approached with more straightforward genre fare. We've shown the mid-cut to a handful of test subjects and its getting big thumbs-ups. Which is always nice.

Secret Project Isn't Secret Anymore..

Shock release of a teaser trailer!

Welcome to The Devil's Music.

TrashHouse US and public speaking...

A little while back, we reclaimed the US rights for TrashHouse as the company that owned them had hit distribution problems in that territory. Thus, for the first time in a couple of years, the US rights for TrashHouse are actually up for grabs at just the point that the flick is getting a bit of coverage again due to the KillerKiller US release and the UK TrashHouse rerelease. In theory, the timing couldn't be better. In actuality, however, we're so madly busy with the various other stuff on our plate that we haven't really got the time to go pimping the flick to potential distribs, (although Pip has managed to make a few inroads this week). So if any decent horror distribs who deal with the US DVD market happen to be reading this, feel free to get in touch.
We made delivery on the Jim Bob video for his new single Battling The Bottle last week; it should hopefully be turning up on the music channels in the next month. Everyone's very happy with how the shoot went and how the video turned out, so as an experiment into music videos it was very much a success.
Since I've been asked to speak at a couple of places at the beginning of next year, I've put together an hour-long spoken word show about low-budget film production. I've called it Fake Blood on the Lens. Should be fun, although I haven't really spoken in public since quitting stand-up many years ago. I'll run dates once they're confirmed; if you're interested in booking the show for your college/film club/witches coven or whatever then drop a line through to Tim James at tj@jinxmedia.co.uk and he'll sort something out.
And, even despite all that, I somehow managed to drag the secret project through to first assembly. We sat and watched it twice through yesterday. Got another long afternoon at Final Cut Pro ahead of me...

Shooting Movie #4

Principal photography for movie #4 (the secret project, as mentioned in the rather nice Fangoria article over at http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=4810 ) has been running for the last two weeks. We've been moving around aaaaaaaall over the shop this time. Sunday we were shooting in Dartford, yesterday in Portsmouth, today in Southend, tomorrow in Lewisham and so on. It's a far cry from just being able to plonk our asses down in the Seedbed Centre in Southend for three weeks and shoot there, but it means an awful lot of varied and interesting locations hitting the lens.

Jesus, it's tiring, though. Feel like we haven't stopped for ages; even though we did theoretically get two days off last week, we ended up spending those two days tidying up loose ands and so didn't really get to relax.

The flick is still staying secret for the moment, though. It's not a straightforward deal like the others; we've got to work out how best to approach releasing it into the wild.

Pre-Prod, sly filming and zorbing...

Went zorbing on Saturday, thanks to the generosity of the mighty Richard Collins, (Perry in KK, James in TrashHouse). Pip & I opted for the water based version, where they put you inside a great big ball, chuck a few buckets of water in with you and push you down a hill. It was utterly magnificent and I'd love to have another go some time; maybe trying the 'harness' version which looks a bit more intense. We did it via http://www.spheremania.co.uk/ in case the description has piqued anyone's curiosity enough to want to give it a go.

Pre-prod on the mysterious movie #4 is drawing to a close, and we've got rehearsals this week from Wednesday onwards. Just like last year, I find myself sitting in a room full of props and strange objects. We've got a final location expedition this afternoon, and then it's going to be all systems go until the end of the month.

We've already got a few sly scenes in the can, though, and I think it's going to work out nicely. This one's quite music intensive, and our old collaborator Phil Sheldon has been working himself like crazy to get all of our tunes in place.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

(Oh, and don't forget to order KK on DVD. It hits the shops in the US tomorrow)

Keeping secrets

Dammit, secrets are ruining this blog.

They're making it impossible for me to be open and honest about what I'm up to, and therefore taking away the fun of regular posts. It'll all make sense later in the year, I promise, but at the moment I've got to keep schtum.

I got an email asking whether the secret project is a feature, a short or what. Well, the answer is that it's...

..Drumroll..

A feature. But not a feature that's anything like what we've done before. Very, very different indeed, and I think (hope) that it's going to surprise a lot of people.

Just don't give up on the blog, guys. I'll unglue my mouth and normal service will resume.

KillerKiller on Amazon

Just a quickie, (running about like crazy today), to let you guys know that KillerKiller has appeared for pre-order on amazon.com if you fancy getting your order in early. It's the US version, (thus Region 1), but it might be a little wait for the R2 and surely everyone's multi-region nowadays, aren't they? August 7th is the street date.

http://www.amazon.com/Killer/dp/B000RO8UBK/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1801306-5647828?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1183041683&sr=1-1

We've also just got our first images from pre-production for the Secret Project in. I'm dying to show you, but I can't.

Rock on,
Pat

Releases, rereleases and that pesky secret project

After a week's delay, the UK rerelease of TrashHouse is actually in the shops today. It's got a funky red cover, all the same special features as the last release but is only £5.99 (or even less if you're lucky). Go and buy it, because it's great.

KK's release, on the other hand, has been confirmed as August 7th in the US. You can preview the artwork, (and pre-order if you live in the USA) over at;
http://www.yorkentertainment.com/cgi/searchvideos.cgi?Action=lookup&Key=YPD+1416

And the secret project is progressing at a fantastic rate. We've sorted a lot of casting, we're deep in pre-production and we're shooting in August. Pippa's fully producing this time, freeing me up to concentrate on writing and directing, which is a real relief. I only wish that I could say more, but it wouldn't be wise at this stage.

In other news, I've also been taken on to direct the video for Jim Bob's next single, Battling the Bottle. It's the former Carter USM frontman's first single from his new album A Humpty Dumpty Thing, out later this year.

All good stuff...

Secret Project

TrashHouse is getting rereleased on UK DVD on June 11th on the Shriek label. It's got nice new red packaging and you can pre-order it for the frankly obscenely cheap price of £3.99 including delivery from HMV. So what are you waiting for? Get your arse over to HMV..
http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=652691

York Entertainment tell me that KillerKiller is set for US DVD release in September, and I should get a firm date for that within the next week or so.

Hellbride is currently heading out to various critics and festivals; we'll keep you updated when it crops up somewhere near you.

BrainBath is set to be the biggest budget, most brain-mashingly dark, surreal and funny Jinx Media movie yet. We're putting together the funding as we speak, (potential investors feel free to get in touch at bbath@jinxmedia.co.uk ) so things might take a little bit longer as the various elements fall into place.

This therefore frees me up for...

The Secret Project.

Can't say a word yet. I just thought I best explain why I'm still so bloody busy all the time...

Hellbride Screening Aftermath

Been a hell of a couple of weeks, culminating in last Friday's double whammy of;

1) Hellbride having two evening screenings at the london BFI office, (cast and crew/invite only), which went fantastically well.
2) The conclusion of the KillerKiller delivery list saga, meaning that all of the masters are now winging their way over to York Entertainment in California and the movie is now officially 'out of our hands'

The screenings were great. My favourites of the cast/crew premieres of all three flicks, by quite a long chalk. The latter screening in particular was extremely lively and loud, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting cheerfully drunk and smoking a large cigar at the aftershow, (I quit the ciggies over two years ago, but allow myself the occasional celebratory cigar; this one came courtesy of Dutch Dore-Boise). We had a couple of guests from Gorezone and Horrortalk in attendance, (Rosie and Dan; hi guys if you're reading), and hopefully they didn't have to put up with too much drunken bollocks from us all.

The start of this week has been somewhat quieter, naturally; we've been sorting out some publicity and reviews whilst I've largely been working on the Brainbath screenplay, which I'm jazzed as hell about, (I keep reading sections of it out to Pip whilst she's trying to work on other stuff, which must drive her insane. I'm lucky I find my own jokes so funny).

Good times. And more to come.

First Hellbride Screening Tonight

Yup, it's that time. The cast and crew screening of Hellbride is happening tonight, which is something I've been really looking forward to... Less than half a dozen people have seen the movie thus far, and tonight around 80-odd folks will get to check it out. Hope they like it!

I've been so madly busy with the KillerKiller delivery list that I haven't had time to draw breath or blog lately, so apologies for that. Delivery lists, for those who don't know, are the fun lists of items that a producer has to deliver to a distribution company when their film gets signed. Certain things are pretty standard, but some stuff varies from contract to contract and there are usually some surprises. Much as we've had to run around like mad to get the list crossed off, I'm extremely glad that we didn't have to deliver an item that I saw on a delivery list for one of the companies that we didn't sign with; a digibeta of an 'airline version' with no sexual content, nudity, violence or bad language at all, yet the same running time. Trying to get that together for KillerKiller might have been sort of fun but I doubt if the result would have been watchable...

KillerKiller signs

We're proud to announce that KillerKiller has signed an all-media worldwide sales and distribution deal with the fine folks at York Entertainment ( http://www.yorkinternationalinc.com/ ). As soon as territories and release dates are confirmed we shall, of course, let you know.

Hellbride locks

Well, as much as any of my flicks lock until the day they get delivered to the distributors. It's done and dusted, and I hope folks agree that it's a cracking little flick.

Of course, only four people have actually seen it yet. I'll be booking the cast and crew screening over the next few days, and can't wait to see what other folks make of it. It's certainly a quirky one; probably the funniest of the three flicks, it somehow feels both a bit more mainstream than KK yet also somehow weirder. I guess we'll see how folks respond soon enough.

The main priority right now becomes sorting out the distribution for 'em, since movies ain't nothing without people actually getting to see them. Details once we've nailed 'em down, folks...

Avoiding Oscars

Sitting here trying to work out what sites are actually safe to visit during the day; I'm trying to avoid finding out the Oscar results, since time-delays and work requirements meant that Pip and I were unable to watch 'em live, (as if often the case), and I've got to muddle through to 7.30pm without finding out the results if we're going to enjoy watching the show through this evening. The oscar show is one of our rituals; a few years back, we used to take it extremely seriously, and watch every flick nommed in every category just so we could have an educated opinion. A few years' worth of worthless shit like A Beautiful Mind picking up every award under the sun kind of beat the fun out of doing that, though, (shit, there goes my chance of ever working with Ron Howard), but the tradition of watching the ceremony straight through with a bunch of good snack food and a bottle of bubbly still holds true. But where is safe today? Where can I actually visit, in the real world or the virtual one? I have BBC News set as my homepage, so everytime I open a browser I now have to avert my eyes. And i know some bugger will get me with a scrolling tickertape somewhere.

Gave the current cut of Hellbride over to Phil and Richard, our scoring guys, at the weekend. They've done some amazing work thus far, and I can't wait to see it all coming together. Pip sat down and watched the current cut yesterday, which is the first time she's seen it since first assembly. It's all very exciting. I should probably start looking into booking a venue for the cast and crew prem pretty soon.

Oh, and I'd also like to point you fine folks over towards http://www.cinescare.com/index.php?page=stories&family=discoveries where the Cinescare folks ran an interview with me, along with reviews of KK and TrashHouse.

Rock on,
Pat

James Kavaz

Went to a funeral yesterday.

Less than two weeks ago, our friend and colleague James Kavaz, who played Harris in KillerKiller and Lesley Meadows in Hellbride, died. He was only in his mid-forties, and had only been diagnosed with cancer about a week beforehand. What can you say about something like that? All the words become obvious and trite.

Having said that, here are my own trite ones for the record. James was a fucking superb actor and a great bloke to have a pint with. I cast him for Hellbride, then watched his audition tape again and offered him KK too without another audition, (despite the characters being vastly different). He had a way of nailing a character down; of bringing them kicking and screaming off the page and onto the screen.

I have no doubt that I would have kept casting James Kavaz in each of my movies from now until retirement, but things don't always work out the way they should. It's strange to be surrounded by his face on everything from the KK poster to the Hellbride footage that I'm still editing; all the while being painfully aware that we're never going to actually see him again.

Words fail.

Sleep well, mate.

And BrainBath joins the party...

Anyone who has visited http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk in the last six months or so might have noticed a mysterious banner for BrainBath which when clicked goes... Dum dum DUUUUUUMMM... Precisely nowhere. Thing is, it's always tricky with things in pre-production to know exactly when to announce them and make them official. One or two of the Jinx Media projects that I mentioned in interviews between the completion of TrashHouse and the commencement of production on KillerKiller and Hellbride have yet to solidify, but it's always difficult to keep your mouth shut when things are at that exciting time when the project is coming together.

So fuck it, I might as well beanspill now and repent at leisure.

The next Jinx Media flick to hit the lens will be BrainBath: a futuristic comedy/horror with far and away our most insane script yet. We're in the process of sorting out finance at the moment, (had a very positive meeting on that very subject yesterday), but it's all looking good for us to get together a significantly higher budget than our movies thus far. The script isn't finished yet, (Jesus, we work hard here, but there are limits... ), but a certain popular character from one of our other flicks makes a return appearance in the current draft. And there are an awful lot of brains in it. Beyond that, we're keeping quiet.

I know it's probably odd to be talking about this, seeing as most readers of this blog are still waiting patiently for KillerKiller and Hellbride. Rest assured, however, we'll have some distribution details on those two bad boys before long, and good things come to those who wait.

Still not sure if I'm going to make it out to Cannes this year, although it's looking altogether more possible than it has done most other years, (I won't be chained to an edit suite in that particular month, at least). Be good to finally meet up with a few international contacts and hopefully make a few new ones; we shall see.

In Love With Hellbride Again

Funny old business, creating stuff.

In order to get something from the starting point to the finish line, you've got to stick with it through the good times and the bad. This is something that I've seen an awful lot of folks fail at; they have a brilliant idea, they start to make it and then when things hit a difficult stretch, (and they will... Of course they will), they abandon it. They never say they're abandoning it, it's just that they've been so busy lately and there just hasn't been time and so on and so on.

Of course, if they were still in that first flush of love for the project they'd make time, but once that's gone you don't often get it back again. And sometimes the bad times can suck, and to stick at it takes real determination. Which is all a way of saying that Hellbride and I have recently found our way out of a really big rocky patch.

Looking back through this blog, I realise that I've sometimes been guilty of treating Hellbride as a bit of an also-ran to KillerKiller. Considering that the two movies were shot back-to-back, it was KillerKiller that got the expensive location. It was KillerKiller that got edited and premiered first, despite being shot second. And KK has probably been the one I've pushed hardest in terms of publicity.

HellBride has always been a bit more fiddly, a bit more awkward, needing a bit more love. KK edited together like a dream, but Hellbride has needed massaging to get it into fighting shape. We've had reshoots, additional scenes added, more special effects. We were due to be at final cut this very week, (sorry for those waiting for screeners), but we're only at mid-cut. Another month of extremely hard work, I reckon.

But here's the thing. I sat an watched the mid-cut through for the first time yesterday and I fucking love it. I haven't felt this 'up' about the flick since we were shooting, and on that run of insanely good luck that we had for the first half of the shoot. It's actually working, and somehow the movie seems more personal to me than KK. I'm not sure why, exactly; maybe because it's got a soft heart where KK's got a little dark lump of coal. It just feels more 'me' somehow.

God knows how that will translate commercially; I always figured that KK was a fearsomely commercial proposition, and didn't really realise how wordy it was until people started pointing it out in reviews. I always thought that Hellbride would be the less commercial of the two, but looking at them both now I'm really not sure.

Sod it, I love 'em both. And I still love that weird older sibling that is TrashHouse, too.

I enjoy doing this job more than anything else I've ever done. All I want to do is tell stories and get them out there, and have some folks love them and some folks hate them. Because it's the folks that hate them that make you appreciate the ones on your wavelength all the more.

Right now, I want to keep doing this until they put me in the ground.

Peace n love,
Pat

Christmas and New Year

Back at work today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Had a rather lovely Christmas off, and am revitalised and refreshed and looking forward to kicking arse in 2007.
The multitalented genius known as Cy Henty has been producing some artwork for Hellbride's new opening sequence, which I should get to see later this week. He's got a great eye for such stuff, and you can see some of his work over at http://www.cyhenty.co.uk/gallery.htm
Speaking of Hellbride, there was also a nice little bit of coverage about it in this month's SFX magazine, (the one with Dr Who on the front, we're on page 27), which was a nice little early Christmas present. While I push the edit towards fine cut, Phil Sheldon (who scored KillerKiller)is also hard at work on the score. It's all coming together very nicely indeed.
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year and all that. Now it's back to work...

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...