mancinipicturesltd-blog

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

New logo (designed by Gary Mancini), new paths forward. News as soon as we have it!

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

"We were never quite dead to begin with"

Well how about that? We are kinda back... kinda.

Mancini Pictures had been in some kind of hyper-sleep for what seemed like forever.

We stopped the flow of short horror movies that we had been working on since 2005, due to Gary's disappointment in how Don't Fear The Reaper had turned out. DFTR was a great script, and one that Gary was sure to move us into the next phase of Mancini Pictures. However, there were certain behaviours on set, from people that were not even part of the main crew, that caused scenes to be reshot, rushed, and cut altogether from the final film. In the end Gary just wanted to get to the finish line, and DFTR is what it is, the weakest of Mancini Pictures short films. (We started off so strong too!).

Needing a break from fictional film making, we ploughed our energies into a feature length documentary about Star Wars fans entitled Binding The Galaxy Together. Across three years we travelled across the country, and across the Atlantic to many Star Wars events interviewing fans, and actors from the Star Wars movies. A lot of footage was gathered during this time. It was to launch before the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, to ride the Star Wars excitement for the release of that film.

However, we took on a cameraman during this period, who also began managing our first website, the now defunct Mancini Pictures (dotcom). This cameraman unfortunately thought that this was his project and that he was the director, issuing orders and challenging Gary's decisions on the direction of the documentary, to the point where he was becoming unbearable to work with. The footage that he turned in of Star Wars collectable items was unusable. It looked like he was trying to follow a fly across a table. Unfocussed and wavering. He also lost us an entire interview with a guest due to not pressing record.

Things reached boiling point and this "cameraman" was let go. So in retaliation, he took down the Mancini Pictures website, and sold the domain name to someone we had no idea of. And that's why the website was suddenly closed down - despite the fact that he was paid to create and maintain it.

Gary closed the documentary down completely after this.

In 2014 Gary went on to work on other people's movies as an actor, some of them big name studio movies and television shows, with major Hollywood stars. However, there was always a desire to return to his own written and directed work.

During the unspeakable days of 2020/2021, while we were all imprisoned in our homes, Gary returned to the feature length drafts of a trilogy that he had been working on, on and off, since 2014. This was the feature film version of his own short film (and personal favourite) October 31st: It's My Party. (Party forms the core of the second movie). It would have a name change (to be revealed in the future), but it would see the return of masked killer Bonehead over three movies. Gary is very happy with the first two scripts and is currently redrafting the third.

He has also written many more short films, in both full script and outline form, and has been active in getting a film crew together in order to get these into production as soon as we can. (We will find a decent camera man this time too!).

It was while this was happening that Fiona (Gary's wife), suggested putting the old films up on YouTube. They had been on Vimeo for sometime, but maybe they would reach a wider audience on YouTube. So Gary thought "Why not?", and uploaded the first of these, his 2007 movie Guilty Conscience - winner of the Best Short at the 28 Hours Later/Horror UK 2009 festival.

It was uploaded and Gary thought nothing more of it. But then it snowballed, It was getting views, and it just seemed to keep going. Guilty was pretty popular. Then the praise and comments started coming in, and people started subscribing to the channel from all over the world. This might help us - if people liked and are aware of Guilty Conscience, maybe they would spread the word if we decided to try to fund the new movies?

Gary uploaded October 31st: Alone on the following Monday - a film he shot over 3 days and was considering throwing away because he didn't think that it turned out great. Back then in 2007, our composer, Patrick Moore, added a score, and it gave Alone a whole new dimension. Gary premiered the film in Queen Elizabeth Country Park to a sold out audience. Now Alone is also gathering many views and likes on YouTube.

The very first film that Mancini Pictures shot, Suspicious Mind (2005), will launch on Monday 25th March 2024. That is a 46 minute long film, so we will see how that fares.

Due to the disappointment in October 31st: Don't Fear The Reaper, that movie will not go to YouTube (unless there is demand for it!). And Gary is holding October 31st: It's My Party back from YouTube until workis completed on the feature film version, as it contains elements of plot that will be in the feature version.

But for now a whole new audience are enjoying these "old" Mancini Pictures movies, and it encourages us to get back out there and deliver some more.

We will update on news of new Mancini Pictures productions as soon as these enter production.

But for now, here are the links to the older films on YouTube:

Guilty Conscience: https://youtu.be/yNvMZfKBi_Y?si=MCk-EjvT09oiVAfz

October 31st: Alone: https://youtu.be/U7BVpEgW3ic?si=ESqWarHwG8YiPAIP

Suspicious Mind: https://youtu.be/kw5jV94Jv5Y?si=8TP0lIx46xMzn9FO

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Out with the old, and in with the new. A new logo, for a new era. Things have been quiet, but we have been working hard to bring Mancini Pictures back into the light after a few years in the darkness. Gary is working hard writing two new features that will eventually form part of new horror trilogy that we are very excited about. Each film will have a unique style and story, but do form one whole story when complete. A lot of location scouting for film one has taken place already, and we are so ready to go. He has also just conceived a brand new short film. The outline is done, and scripting on that will start during a break from writing the features. It is hoped that we can form a crew and cast to get shooting on this later in the year. All Gary will say at the moment is that it's another car based short in the style of, but not a sequel to, Guilty Conscience. There also remains three finished scripts that we hope to shoot as soon as we have a decent reliable professional crew in place. Casting notices will go out on here, on our Facebook page and on Twitter. There may still be a bit of a wait, but rest assured Mancini Pictures are returning!

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

October 31st: Don’t Fear The Reaper (2012) added!

Gary’s own least favourite of his own films. This had major problems from the start with the lead actor leaving just before production was about to shoot, location issues, a visual effect issue... it all went wrong on this one, the film that saw the end of the Mancini Pictures short films for a while.

But we hope that you can see that the intentions were good, and that much better is to come. 

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Gary Mancini's October 31st: DON'T FEAR THE REAPER from Gary Mancini on Vimeo.

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Gary Mancini's October 31st: ALONE (2007)

Here’s the final one for today. The first chapter shot, (our third film) but the second chapter in the October 31st trilogy.

Apologies - this one is a bit dark in places.

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Anyone following Gary’s personal account on Facebook recently will have seen live broadcasts coming from various woodland locations. 

The Director isn't giving any clues away, aside from the fact that he is making two new FEATURES, has used these locations before, and that he may ask an actress from a previous film if she would be interested in a role in these new mysterious projects.

Keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter and here, and he may reveal more as time goes on.

He did leave us with one quote; “I’m very happy, and excited to be working on these new projects. It will be gruelling to film, but worth it!”.

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Gary Mancini's October 31st: It's My Party (2010) 20 mins.

Gary’s own personal favourite of his short films. 

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Gary Mancini's GUILTY CONSCIENCE (2006)

As our website is still down, thanks to the saboteur, we will start to upload some of our videos of previous movies here.

This is our second ever short film - GUILTY CONSCIENCE. 

We will be uploading more over the coming week, plus news on our new features.

MANCINI PICTURES is fighting back! :)

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Mancini Pictures Tumblr Returns!

While we wait for the resurrection of the Mancini Pictures website, we’ll be updating all our latest news here, and on our Twitter account.

New stuff is coming. Thank you for your patience and support.

GM 

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

BONEHEAD!

Could 'BONEHEAD' be on his way back???

If you know anything about the history of the OCTOBER 31st chapter, IT’S MY PARTY, (which has just premiered over at www.mancinipictures.com), you’ll know that Writer/Director Gary Mancini wasn’t particularly proud of the way it came about.

“We had submitted GUILTY CONSCIENCE into a film festival and felt that it was original enough that it would get noticed. It wasn’t. So we attended this festival to see which films they chose. 

Well it seemed that limbs being hacked off left, right and centre was the order of the day. But none of them had an actual story. It was just ‘Here’s the gore’, which, to me, was pointless.

With that in mind, I thought I would deliver what they wanted with a Friday the 13th type tale of a killer in the woods. The only difference being, ours would have a plot!

So the script was written, but I felt that it wasn’t really a 'Gary Mancini’ story. So it sat on the shelf for three years, until we finally shot it in 2009.” It seems, that since then though, that the writer/director has had a change of heart about the film.

“Strangely when the film was completed, and the score was done, I sat down and watched the film and found that I actually really enjoyed it. The performances are great, there is humor, and the story really worked. But the thing that sold me was 'Bonehead’ and… (SPOILERS!!!!!!) … his relationship with his Daughter, The Clown.

He is such a great character, created in body by Sean Howard - who also created his skull mask. I really wanted to know more about him (Bonehead). And it turns out that Sean feels the same way too.”

So when and how will the Skull faced mass murderer make his return to the screen?

Gary Mancini: “At the moment there is just a germ of an idea, but it’s one that I’m going to explore, make a few notes and write a few scenes. Then we’ll see where that takes us, but we’re aiming for a feature - a one off with no sequels in mind, called simply 'BONEHEAD’. 

I can reveal that it WILL feature the plot of IT’S MY PARTY within the feature, but that it will be mostly re-cast, with original cast members retained only in a few roles. It will be a slasher film, and follow those conventions, but it will also have a highly original slant, and that’s what excites me the most - it will finally have the 'Gary Mancini’ original touch!”

Although this is still in the very, very, early stages of development, are you excited to revisit Bonehead’s woods?

Keep it here for all developments on Bonehead (and Clown?)’s return.

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

More Mancini History

OCTOBER 31st: DON'T FEAR THE REAPER - First Edit!

I won’t write up a detailed filming report at the moment, as that will take too long, and the important thing is to get to the edit at this stage of the game. What I will say is that, aside a few cutaway shots, which can practically be done a few feet from my house, Principal Photography on the last in the October 31st series - DON’T FEAR THE REAPER, which started photography back in September of last year, has finally wrapped.

We had an extensive shot list drawn up to complete this past weekend, but the terrible torrential weather that we have been having paid shot to that, so we prioritised and got the major scenes completed.

I have to say a huge thank you to the following people, who literally worked their hearts out in all kinds of horrendous conditions to bring this film to wrap.

FIONA MANCINI - Always the heart of Mancini Pictures. Fiona really works hard, and her love and support makes these films happen. I just write stuff, and then film it.

DANI THOMPSON - For taking a chance on a small independent film group from Portsmouth, and proving she is an amazing actress. Even our spiders love you!

LAUREN JORDAN BUSHBY -A fine actress and awesome make up artist - you brought the GORE, the laughs and saved our film! Thank you!

CLAIRE DIANA SMITH - An awesome actress who we are so proud stuck by us when the film was having difficulties, and proved to be the huge star we all knew you were.

JAMES LEATE - Our hardworking camera dude. It’s always a pleasure to work with you. As I said on the day, you’re my wing man. You always work hard under pressure and we’re proud to work with you.

GAVIN WILLIAMS - Who is not only an amazing superb actor, but has also become somewhat family around here. i love working with this guy. He delivers what is in my head, and nails it every time. So happy to work with you again!

The following also deserve ourt huge thanks: Tim & Becky at QECP for trusting us with your woodland again - see, we didn’t burn it down! David Tarrant for his great assistance on set. Ben Archer and Rachael Holmes for bringing Max and Laurie back to life again! Terrie Howey for your help on set and for the loan of your home - has the blood come out yet? Neil Sanderson - We had great fun working with you, we hope you’ll join us again in a future project. To all of the other cast and crew that have worked so hard on this film - and also to our great friend Alexandra Kelly for stepping in at the last minute once again to bring the character of Annie to life.

Well - that’s the Academy Awards bit out of the way. Onto the edit. The film currently weighs in at 21minutes, minus the main and end credits. The first edit is just so I can judge the film and how it’s looking. There are a couple of shots that I need to get, and I will get those over the next few days. I will also need to do some foley work, but I expect that the film will be complete within the first two weeks of May. I will then contact Patrick about scoring, and it will leave my hands and my mind for the first time in 2 years!

So far, it’s looking pretty good, and the pick ups that we did shoot on the weekend have made it look even better.

Next up for O31: Reaper is the trailer - which Patrick has and which will give you your first look at the movie. I think possibly June for that. But keep your eyes on www.mancinipictures.com in case that changes. That’s all for the moment. Got to get back to the edit! Peace! GM

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

‘BONEHEAD’ meets original 'Jason’ survivor Adrienne King!

This past Saturday, April 21st, Lewisham hosted a double bill of Friday the 13th parts one and two attended by the original scream queen, and Jason (and his Mom!) survivor Adrienne King.

Adrienne was there to display her Dark Art and to welcome guests to the horror double bill.

Our very own director was there to meet her, and took along one of Mancini Picture’s own famous artifacts - the Bonehead mask.

Gary said “Adrienne was absolutely charming, such a lovely, lovely person who took time to sign autographs, and take photographs with her fans and share not only her amazing dark art, but some great stories from behind the scenes of the Friday the 13th movies. It was an absolute honour to meet her”.

It would seem that Adrienne also took a shine to old 'Bonehead’ too.

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

WHEN IT’S MY PARTY DEBUTED ONLINE ON THE OLD (DEAD) WEBSITE  

BONEHEAD IS BACK!!

The first chapter of the OCTOBER 31st trilogy premieres on (Unfortunately our previous web host took it upon himself to delete our official website. We are working to bring a new site to you soon). tomorrow,FRIDAY APRIL 13th. Be sure to let us know what you think.

More reports on the final chapter OCTOBER 31st: DON’T FEAR THE REAPER, will follow after the next round of shooting. GM

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

More Reaper report

Back to filming on O31: DON’T FEAR THE REAPER!

Wow, what a busy few days it has been. It’s Thursday now (22nd March) and we literally have not stopped working onOCTOBER 31st DON’T FEAR THE REAPERsince Saturday!

This was to be our biggest section of the shoot. It required no less than 5 crew members (Myself, Fiona, James, David & Terrie), and 7 cast members (Lauren, Claire Diana - who has finally had her first shoot with us!, Gavin, Neil, Luke, and returning fromOCTOBER 31st: IT’s MY PARTY, Ben Archer and Rachael Holmes).

So not only did we have to schedule everybody to be free on the same date, we had to arrange transport, and manage everyone on set too. The first part of this was relatively easy. We were shooting the scene where Samantha (Claire), explains why the town of Russelville does not celebrate Halloween. For this we were kindly loaned the use of a pub before opening hours, from 7.30 am until 9.30 am, so we were still under pressure to shoot against our time limit.

Luckily the light in the pub was good enough for us not to need to set up studio lighting. We did have to remove all of the St Patrick’s Day flags that adorned the bar first though, you know…seeing as this is set over Halloween! This shoot went by really fast, but with a tight shot list we managed to achieve everything that we wanted, only just going over the time limit we had set ourselves of finishing at 9.30 am, (we wrapped here at 9.45 am).

So, with no problems here we packed up and set off over to Petersfield for the more complicated part of the shoot. Complicated in that it required everybody there, was in an open environment, and we were at the mercy of the weather! Setting up in Petersfield Town Square we were set to film the scene where Lauren’s character of Jane Carpenter first arrives in Russelville. For this scene I wanted to reintroduce a couple of characters fromOCTOBER 31st: IT’s MY PARTY, just to link the three films together, and so it was that Ben Archer and Rachael Holmes made their return to the set as Max and Laurie (respectively). We did want to bring back Emily Swatton as Jenna, but unfortunately she was unable to get to the shoot, and so the script was hastily re-written. We love working with Ben and Rachael, they are always a great laugh, and you should see Ben’s scenes with both Lauren and Rachael in this film. It’s a really great moment.

So we set up and filmed this cameo scene first as Ben had to get away as soon as possible, and then set about filming the rest of the scene. Jane’s confrontation with Charley Bowles (Gavin Williams), and her initial arrival on the scene.

We were filming at a leisurely pace, but getting everything done, when a community police officer arrived on set and asked us what we were doing. She wanted to make sure we were not filming children (we weren’t), licence plates (nope), nor invading peoples privacy (again, no). She then decided to take down my details and would contact the council to see if we were allowed to film, and then get back to me. So I dutifully gave my details and she went on her way. This kind of ruined the shoot as a few people got edgy and wanted us to cut our losses and just leave there and then. But I couldn’t do that as it would mean scrapping the entire shoot and starting again, and we’d worked far too hard to make this happen in the first place to give up now. So we just continued, but shot faster. In some circumstances, missing our ‘safety’ shots, the back up extra shots which are used in case the sound is bad, or angles wrong etc. We wrapped in the town about 2.30pm. We then all went across to the pub for a meal and a drink, before setting off home.

So at the start of this week I was uploading and logging the footage from the weekend’s shoot. I absolutely hate this part of the job. It takes ages, especially when you have two full 60 minute tapes and so many shots to go through. The entire uploading took over 5 hours!

I broke for lunch and then started looking at the edit.

As suspected the pub scene went together very well. All of the shots that I required were there and it looks great. There is one, and just one shot, in a mirror of the boom operator and the camera light. This is a fault of the design of the viewing screen on the camera. It hides about 5mm all around the frame, which is about a foot or so on screen, so you miss things like if the boom or the camera itself is in shot. But anyway, now that I’ve noted it here you can’t all go ‘Oh look they missed the camera and the boom guy’, because we already know that! :)

The town square sequence was pretty good, but there are a few really annoying sound issues that I can’t clear up. A few patches (extra tiny shots) would clear this, and I will add them to the pick ups for next time. The plan for the next shoot is to shoot the pick ups one day, and then film the main scene the next. But I’ve had enough of working on the film for this week, so I’ll make a detailed shot list on Monday of next week and then schedule the shoot.

I’m also excited to say that the next shoot will be the end of principal photography on OCTOBER 31st: DON’T FEAR THE REAPER, and if all goes well we can call this a wrap, bringing theOCTOBER 31sttrilogy to a close. This will be good as we can then start to explore all of the new exciting ideas that we have. 

For now though, I need a break. Thanks to everybody for all of your hard work on this weekend’s shoot…we’re almost there, hang on in there. Peace! GM

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Reaper shoot report:

O31: DON’T FEAR THE REAPER… Is BACK!!!!!!

Well, this past Friday and Saturday (February 17th and 18th 20120, filming finally recommenced on Gary Mancini’s third chapter in the October 31st Trilogy - DON’T FEAR THE REAPER!

We started on Friday evening with what would be the only night shoot of this film, and that took place at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park - home to October 31st: It’s My Party, and of course our Halloween shows. (new one this coming Halloween!).

As we were awaiting the arrival of our leading lady, Lauren Jordan Bushby, we set about filming the death scene of the Bar Manager, as played by Neil Sanderson.

The original plan was for the Bar Manager to be placing some trash in a skip, when he hears a noise and is attacked by The Evil. The problem with this was, that logistically we could not make the bin work in this scene. It was placed right up by the entrance to the section we were filming in, and couldn’t be easily moved. This meant that if we had had our bar manager see The Evil at the other end of the area, he could make an easy escape, whereas we wanted him cornered. So the shot of the bin was dropped, and we decided to just have him hurrying back to the pub trying to get in when The Evil showed up. This shoot went fairly smooth. Having had time to look at the edit, there are shots missing, but we will rectify those in pick ups at a later date. The next shoot was the arrival of town drunk Charley Bowles, as portrayed wonderfully by Gavin Williams (Sean from Gary Mancini’s Guilty Conscience). Gavin really puts his all into the creation of his characters, and that is why we love working with him. He really brings the character on the page to life, sometimes in unexpected and amazing ways. It is unfortunate that this great character isn’t in more of the film, but that’s what you get with short movies. We have one really great line from this section that when we were shooting caused Director Gary Mancini to proclaim “That’s great, that’s going in the trailer!” This scene also marked the arrival of our amazing leading lady, Lauren Jordan Bushby. It was very cold on the night, and there were lots of problems with lighting and sound, but Lauren never complained once and really gave the role her all. We are all so glad that she agreed to take part in this film, and we can’t wait to see more of her character as the film progresses. Lauren is also the extremely talented make up artist on this movie. We wish we could talk about some of the amazing work that she has already done, but you’ll just have to wait to see the film.

The shoot at the park went on well into the night. I think we wrapped there around 11pm. But the night wasn’t over…next it was over to Lauren’s hotel for yet another scene.

This is the scene that precedes the conbfrontation with Charley scene, and shows Lauren’s character Jane trying to write a report, but coming up blank, when she suddenly hears a noise outside, and looks out of the window to investigate. This scene really didn’t take too long, and before we knew it, we were calling a wrap on the evening. 30+ shots and 4 scenes later. It was great to get back into filming O31: Reaper.

The next morning saw us rise early, as we gave Lauren and her fiance Dan a tour of Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Dan is a film maker too and was interested in the park as a potential location. Having shot O31: It’s My Party there we knew a few good locations and the potential pit falls to shooting in the woods at night, so we were glad to show them around. We then shot over to the town square to attempt to shoot another brief scene where Lauren (as Jane) is interviewing townsfolk (including our pal David Tarrant) about why their town doesn’t celebrate Halloween.

The problem with shooting in a mildly busy town square on a Saturday morning, is that there are people around, cars driving past, and basically anything that will ruin your shoot. Even something as simple as the sun coming out! We managed to get the shoot, but think that we might also try a reshoot when we come back on March 18th for the main town square scene. Yesterday was the boring part - logging shots. This takes forever, and every shot has to be examined carefully to make sure nothing was missed. After this a basic edit was made.

The film looks good, but it’s not perfect. There are sound issues and some shots that are missing minor things. They will be considered for the pick ups. The next shoot date is Friday March 2nd, and will mark the appearance of our second new actress, Claire Diana Smith as Samantha the waitress. We will update more then, In the meantime, for the latest news please follow us on Twitter, and Facebook. Peace! GM

[mancinipicturesltd-blog]

Mancini History

We're baaaaaacckkk!!!! (Said in Poltergeisty voice!) Finally - after much hard scheduling work, we will return to filming O31: Don’t Fear The Reaper on Friday February 17th 2012/Saturday February 18th 2012. We then film again on March 2nd and March 18th. Further shoot dates to be scheduled, but it feels great to finally be back on the road again! Pictures from the shoot will be posted here as we progress. GM