Up next: Film Festival Time
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- Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:42:04 -0400
Sight Unseen Pictures
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Up next: Film Festival Time
By Joe Monks
Thursday Oct. 11 3:38 a.m.
With Chiller behind me, I'm focused like a laser beam on the Halloween Horror
Picture Show, which will mark the world festival premiere of The Bunker. The
media full court press is on, and in order to facilitate that, I've brought
Jessie Lilley on board to help us blitz the press. A lot of you are probably
already familiar with Jessie, either from her days running Scarlet Street, from
her work on Mondo Cult, or any number of her freelance writing gigs, articles,
etc. Jessie knows the horror biz and the scene as inside-and-out as a hemmrhoid
knows the colon. Well, maybe that isn't the best of examples, but she wouldn't
let me live it down if I didn't make this announcement at least *somewhat*
amusing.
So Jessie is in the fold, Hart is pitching in with some of the local Tampa Bay
media outlets, Rick Danford of Enigma Films-the man in charge at the
festival-is putting the word out.the propaganda machine is rolling along in
high gear.
Today I worked the phones, rang some distribs that have had The Bunker in hand
for a while. I figured I would do the touching-base thing. Plus, I have had a
feeler or two come in from overseas/foreign distributors, and I wanted to make
sure that if I got an offer that I wanted to take, it wouldn't impact selling
North American rights to the companies who have been interested since the
official movie site went live. One distrib is out of town, in France, at a
festival there. Two are so busy prepping for the American Film Market at
month's end that they have the film, but haven't been able to see the final
product (they had, already, seen our rough cut with the crappy sound and
without film look and all the spiffy new improvements we made.). I found out
that at one distrib, the guy who has been in touch with me for a while, and to
whom I sent screener copies, apparently doesn't exist, which was a bit
startling to me, but a *lot* more startling to the person who they put me thro
ugh to to sort this all out. So I sent that person the e-mail exchange, the
headers, etc. Now I gotta start all over again with that company, but the
person I spoke to on the phone today was way cool, and eager to help, so I'm
not sweating it. All it means is a little more time until the right person has
my movie on his/her/their desk. Hart has been the main contact on one
distributor (whose company also produces films) so he is going to stay on top
of that contact. Now, I am getting a whole stack of packages ready to hit up a
number of contacts that I have been digging up. The postage this month is gonna
be killer, but if we get a deal? Worth every penny.
I'm also hard at work on another script, one I think I could pull off on a
truly low budget. I am going to be sending out pitch packages to a number of
producers that I have been lining up while trying to sell The Bunker. The film
is entitled SKIN FLICK, and it is based on the story p0rn from my anthology,
Stuff Out'a My Head. I am psyched to be working on something creative while
doing the rounds with The Bunker. It has been a while since I was able to jump
onto something creative. The last thing that I took time out to do was a comic
script for Frank Forte's Asylum of Horrors anthology, due out in '08, so
throwing myself into something I feel strongly about has got all the juices
flowing again. Only so many cover letters and porno mag freelances and press
releases you can churn out before you start feeling rusty. My buddy Alex is
still formatting Visions of Sarah for me, and that should be done shortly; I
have my Everglades slasher script ready and waiting for a pitch meeti
ng; and I've got some other pitch outlines prepped and ready to go if those
two properties (my top two choices) don't excite the money men. So while the
film festival coming up still seems to be racing towards me, I do feel for the
first time in a long while that I am finally ahead in the count. I am ready for
the next pitch that's thrown to me. The count is finally in my favor, or at
worst even, and I can sit on the fastball if I want to. If somebody called me
at 7:30 this morning, I would be ready. I have a completed film and a ton of
bonus features to round out a very appealing DVD release for a distributor. A
film production company responds to me? I have two finished scripts that I
think would win over a studio, I have pitches for other possible projects that
I am confident in, and I have several other fiction pieces that I think would
translate well to the big screen or for straight-to-DVD release, and right now
I could pitch *any* of these in my sleep. I have budgets
worked out-rough, but definitely workable-for any of these projects. I could
do a film for $50,000, or go for the works and ask for a mil and a half and
turn out a film that would have people jumping out of their seats in a theatre.
Recently, The Exorcist was on again. So I sat there and listened to it. I've
seen it so many times, that listening is just like watching it, I remember it
that vividly. But something struck me. In the whole film, there are only about
6 legitimately scary moments. I mean, the film is a masterpiece, don't
misconstrue what I am getting at. But think back, and tell me how many times
you jumped out of your seat. When Regan pees on the carpet and says, "You're
all going to die up there," that is a creepy moment. But it isn't her head
turning all the way around or the terrifying moment when Father Karras begs for
the demon to take him and spare her. It isn't the flash of the white face on
the screen, or the words 'help me' appearing on Linda Blair's skin right before
the quick cut to Jason Miller's face. Those are the moments, those are the
scares; when the tingles go up your spine. But really, the film amps up the
tension for a significant amount of time without springing the jack
in the box. And as much as I love the flick, when I broke it down afterward,
so much of it is lead-up and atmosphere, that you have a lot of dread and the
sense of impending doom, but not a whole lot of frights. You're rooted to your
seat, not jumping out of it very often.
I went back through my script for Visions of Sarah. I packed it with more than
20 such moments, going from just baseline creepy (like Regan peeing on the
floor) to head-revolving "Holy shit!" moments. If I got a mil and a half, I
could frighten some folks, no question about it. For a deuce, I think I could
convince some name talent to want to be a part of it. Even if only for
supporting roles. That's one of the things I've got. That is one I have in the
bank that I think would get a studio, serious about putting out a genuine
creepfest, excited.
The Halloween Horror Picture Show is being held at the Channelside Cinemas,
October 19-20. I introduce my film, The Bunker, at 9:30 (or thereabouts) on
Friday night, and there will be a Q&A session immediately following. If you're
in the Tampa area, sate your curiosity and come on by. The festival has a lot
of great films to offer, like Alan Rowe Kelly's The Blood Shed, Zombies!
Zombies! Zombies! and 100 Tears, which Grindstone Entertainment just scooped up.
Hey-don't kid yourself. You're curious. Who wouldn't be curious about a movie
they can see, but the director can't?
******
Currently listening to: Sehnsucht by Rammstein
Posted in The Bunker
http://sightunseenpictures.com/blog/?cat=2
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