#48 hour horror film project

[daveinediting]

On the last 48 Hour Horror Film Project, I did not see it as my job to produce a finished cut. Not in my first pass, that is.

Oh, I know it looked an awful lot like one but the reality is that on our film, "What Lingers", I could indulge choices that were not in the script. The ticking clock, for example.

The footage the production crew and actors crafted during their day of shooting definitely allowed for the film to be shaded in different ways. And even though there were only 48 hours to create this film, I left options in that first cut. Options that could be dialed up or down, tweaked to taste, replaced, or removed entirely. No sweat.

I made certain choices about sound and edits so that I could gauge the director's and producer's reactions. Yes, I followed script directions for certain edits... but I also presented alternatives. For example, I let some edits run longer because of superb acting. I allowed for more ambiguity through shot choices. I added a layer of supernatural that's not in the script to see if it would play.

It did, by the way.

So yeah.

I created that cut for its first test audience, the director and producer, to see what worked and what didn't...

And then we tweaked accordingly.

In the end, I think we learned that horror is a more demanding genre than we assumed. It requires more strategic thinking, more consideration for each moment's impact on an audience and how those moments are crafted and structured and sequenced into a singular experience. 

I'm guessing comedy's gotta be a similar kind of challenge.

So yeah. Doing two of these 48 Hour Film Projects this year was a very intense experience as you may imagine. If you're new to production and post-production, you learn a lot about process and logistics. I've been in the industry for awhile so I've got a lot of process and logistics already in my wheelhouse.

But I'm still learning, as it turns out. Which is a pretty sweet deal.

🙂

[tea-and-secrets]

(this is so long i’m sorry lmao)

i hate this one friend of a friend and none of the friends in our circle like him either

so there’s this one girl i’m friends with and we have our own circle of friends, but she’s also friends with this one guy we all went to high school with (actually we all went to high school together), so we hang out with each other sometimes due to that connection. but let me tell you this guy sucks. he sucked in high school and he still sucks now. we’ve tried to gently tell her multiple times that he sucks but she still defends him 😭. he’s one of those egotistical, pretentious film major bros and he once told me that he thinks people who take meds for mental disorders are lazy. anyway, that’s the context, so here are some stories:

so in this story, there’s the guy (Star), our mutual friend (Astor), two other friends in Astor and I’s circle (Mango and Pansy), and me (all of these are fake names btw). Astor, Mango, and Pansy are all professional cosplayers and Star wanted to take pictures of them at this con we all went to to put in his portfolio. on the first day, Astor, Mango, and Pansy were supposed to run a panel, but Astor was running late, so that made Star late as well. we were all stressed about this (i was helping them as well), so when Star got there he was in a bad mood. you do not want to be around Star when he’s in a bad mood. one time when we were playing monopoly, he was losing, so he stomped on the ground and yelled about how the game isn’t fair (yes, like a toddler). after they got there and it was just Mango, Pansy, and i together, they would bring up how Star was lowkey scaring them with how aggressive he was acting. after the panel, Star wanted to take pictures and i was holding his tripod. this tripod was in a flimsy cardboard box with no case and i was in charge of holding it. apparently i was holding it upside down (it was hard to tell which way was up bc this cardboard box was really fucked up), so it slipped out and hit the floor. i felt bad for dropping it, but it was right side up and only fell to the floor like 2 feet, so i wasn’t too worried about it. most of it was still in the box actually. but the room went silent for a moment and Mango and Pansy looked at me with horror. i could tell they were scared that Star was going to blow up at me. he did yell at me a little bit but i knew he was overreacting so i wasn’t too fazed by it. after that, Mango and Pansy came up to me and were like “i thought he was literally going to kill you for that.” i think they were only half-joking

this next (and last) story happened sort of recently and reminded me why i dislike him so much. as i said, Star is a film major and he wants to be a director, but he is NOT a good director. i know this bc i’ve worked with him on projects before, but he thinks he’s big shit. awhile back, Astor asked me if i wanted to do a 48 hour film challenge with her and Star and i said sure. our film was a shit show. Star was supposed to be running it, but kinda gave up halfway through and even said he wanted Astor and i to direct some scenes. Astor and i are NOT directors. he literally just sat on a bench like 30 feet away from where we were filming for the last bit of the shoot. also, he was 30 minutes late TO HIS OWN CALL TIME. he blamed the complete failure of our film on another guy he was friends with that he invited on to do camera work and some editing. and while i agree that he kinda took too much on at once and oversold his abilities, it was just as much Star’s fault bc of his lackluster skill and terrible planning (i also think Star made him do most of the work). but he convinced Astor that it was all that guy’s fault and now they blame him. Astor even said that she never wants to work with that guy again. i am also never working with Star again, so i guess we’re in the same boat

sorry if this didn’t make complete sense, i’m not the best at telling stories lmao. and don’t worry, i don’t see him too often and i tolerate him well enough, so this isn’t a big issue between us or anything

i’ll leave off with this: for the film challenge, we were finally done filming and the sun had gone down. we still had to do voiceover work and pictures for the poster, but Star said he really wanted to go out to eat (he wanted us to be done filming that day so they had the next day to edit).

i said “we should just get something delivered, we don’t have a lot of time left today”

he said “but i want ~rEaL~ food.”

i said “Star, we can either get real food, or have a good film”

we eventually went out to eat that night, so i guess i was right

(there is someone on tumblr who might see this and know who i am based on these stories, so if they’re seeing this, um. hi lmao)

.

[thedaveandkimmershow]

So yeah. We’re leaving 2022 behind us. Some great adventures. Wonderful experiences. And hard work that legitimately produced great work.

We also said goodbye to some very important people in our lives, though.

So the year was very much a Best of times/Worst of times kind of deal.

Now, I told you about Linzy’s year (plus a little bit of next year), yesterday. Oh — except for finally, finally, finally: Linzy got to walk Cornish College of the Arts graduation at Benaroya Hall. The classes of 2020 & 2021 joined the class of 2022 for a completely deserved act of closure.

Brava!

Our year involved a lot of traveling both professionally and recreationally. On the recreation side, Kimmer’s become quite serious about van conversions, transforming our minivan into a stripped-down version of a campervan, complete with a double bed and kitchen/cooking set-up. We took it on the road in the Olympic Peninsula in July for a marvelous time. 😇

Kimmer’s also big time diagramming, planning, and managing the changes to and construction on our house. All year long. It’s a pretty involved process with a definite eye to the future.

Of course it’s not all recreation for Kimmer. She’s also a full throttle health and mental health care provider. An endeavor that keeps her fully scheduled.

And me? Well, the highlights of my professional career in 2022, aside from my deep dive into all things Real Road Adventures, include editing the mockumentary, "Convergent Belonging" and the horror film, "What Lingers", for the 48-Hour Film Project. We screened both films in Seattle movie theaters with fellow production teams, friends, and family. I had no idea what an addicting, wonderful experience it is to have your work experienced like that. 😊

Family highlights this year include the three of us rockin’ that Pat Benatar / Neil Giraldo concert at the Moore. Hiking to the base of Snoqualmie Falls on Father's Day. All 4 seasons of Stranger Things. Kimmer’s birthday adventure, Linzy’s birthday adventure, and Kimmer ‘n me celebrating thirty years of being married. 😁

Now, as I said before, this was very much a Best of times/Worst of times kind of year.

On the morning of Wednesday, March 16, our friend Susan was taken to the hospital because of dizziness. They did CT scans and discovered she had cancer. This led to further scans, tests, and a number of prognoses by Friday that took her from 3 months life expectancy to 3 weeks life expectancy to one week.

Life expectancy.

Susan left us before any of those prognoses came to pass. She died early early Sunday morning (basically Saturday night) three-and-a-half days after being admitted to the hospital.

Okay.

I’m gonna skip forward ‘cause this was already in the works at the time Susan passed away:

It’s what our family calls "Memorial Quests".

You see, Kimmer's dad passed away last year and we didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate his life in the midst of the pandemic. So Kimmer decided to recreate a trip she took with him to the national parks of southern Utah: Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches. She packed our bags for a campervan trip, we flew into Salt Lake City, picked up the campervan, and were on our way following in the footsteps of her memories. A unique, incredible, breathtaking adventure that, because it conjured specific memories through camping, hiking, and long-distance road travel, well, it felt like a quest... which is how the term “Memorial Quest” entered our family's vocabulary.

Having done that and, with Susan's death still fresh in our hearts, we decided to do the same for Susan. To travel down Susan's memory lane and indulge what was special to her. In this case, Disney World and Harry Potter. I know, I know, it’s not a very quest-y thing to do... but the point was chasing down memories as well as conjuring new ones wrapped around our friend.

And it worked more profoundly than we could’ve imagined.

One of our early ideas was to spread Susan's ashes in Disney World. Linzy objected to that, however, since it seemed like throwing Susan away. So we thought maybe turn some of those ashes into glass cat figurines to leave at Disney because Susan was thoroughly a cat person. That was gonna be tragically expensive, though. So then I hit on the idea of buying nine PVC plastic cat figurines, three for each of us. We’d leave two of them at different locations in Disney that either meant something to Susan or to our relationships with her. We'd keep the third for the rest of our lives as a reminder of the other two. Which is exactly what we’ve done.

Now, before Linzy joined us in Orlando, Kimmer 'n I indulged a day in Universal Studios because they have a Harry Potter land there called Diagon Alley which is where I left the first of my cats. But. The choice to do anything Harry Potter exposed the fact that we are not fans of Harry Potter, the books or the movie franchise. So Kimmer thought we should watch all eight movies so we’d know what we're looking at. Which is what we did. Making for the best experience in Diagon Alley after which, when we got home, we watched all eight movies a second time. And then a week or so after we finished those... we watched the whole lot again.

Three times we watched those movies.

Allllllll the way through.

Also, inexplicably, many of our belongings now sport stickers from the Harry Potter universe plus I started thinking I wanted a Marauder Map for Christmas. Linzy said of course that makes us Potter Heads. Kimmer misunderstood Linzy to mean that we're Pot Heads.

And me? I just wanted a Marauder Map for Christmas. 😉

By the way...

I got a Marauder Map for Christmas. Huzzah! 😁 😁 😁

In the end… our year was a balancing act of thankfulness and loss. Of course we all know that loss has an easy way of occupying excessive amounts of mental and emotional real estate. However. We are reminded that more of our days are colored in wonder, adventure, fun, love, joy, and friendship. We are aware that the ways in which our lives are shaped by our closest friendships cannot be revoked without our consent even by death.

Even. By death.

And we know how lucky we are for all those (and there are many) who've poured their time and wisdom and love into our lives.

You really can’t put a price on that.

So yeah. We’re leaving 2022 behind us.

Some great adventures. Some wonderful experiences. And a bunch of hard work that legitimately produced great work.

We also said goodbye to some very important people in our lives.

So yeah. The year was very much a Best of times/Worst of times kind of deal.

It is, in that respect, Life with a capital “L”. 

To. its. fullest.

🙂

[the-hidden-writer]

A Piece of True Fiction: Chapter 15

An Alan Wake 2 fic. Spoilers for Alan Wake 2!

Summary: Aleksi Kesä manages to slip out of the spiral and film he was trapped in.

Saga Anderson, caught in the middle of Wake's horror story, finds a man that looks identical to her partner in the middle of the woods. He's lost, confused, and only seems to speak Finnish. Saga has to try and uncover the truth as well as trying to save her family. Where did he come from? How did he get here?

And where's her Casey?

Chapter Summary: Odin, Cynthia, and a film in the basement. Words: 2,375 AO3 Link: [Here!] [First part] [Previous part] [Next part]

A Piece of True Fiction

Chapter 15: Newest Family

Upstairs, the first thing Saga does is glance around the hall, reading the names of the residents. Tor is the one who’s supposedly her grandfather, right? She enters his room first.

The interior is completely trashed. Furniture tossed to the sides of the room, draws open with their contents strewn around, broken glass littering the floor. Lots of moonshine. The only thing untouched is the ‘Old Gods of Asgard’ drumkit in the back corner. That’s right, they were in a band, weren’t they?

Could this be the result of a drunken rampage? Rose had mentioned a hammer. If this room is any indication of his little accident then Rose may have severely underplayed how badly Tor has been hurt.

Next, she enters Odin’s room.

She spots the man himself upon a hospital bed, breathing heavily. Her initial reaction is a spike of worry which quickly settles when she remembers what Rose had said about them getting drunk, meaning this is most likely just an intense hangover.

She catches sight of a portrait near the door as she scans the room. It depicts Tor and Odin, both with joyous faces, standing behind…

Saga’s heart blossoms with a mixture of both warmth and shock. The woman in the front of the painting looks uncannily like Mom. She gets confirmation when she takes a closer look at the baby in her arms. It seems like the story wants to make it so that she was born here in Bright Falls so it aligns with Tor Anderson being her grandfather.

Then again… her mom had always refused to talk about family, claiming it was better for Saga not to know. Two drunken old men swinging hammers around would fit that bill, not to mention that she doesn’t actually know where she was born. It’s one plausible aspect of the story, at the very least.

But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that she focuses on the task at hand.

She softly moves closer to the hospital bed, not wanting to startle the old man lying on it. Despite his heavy breathing, his non eye-patched eye is open, indicating that he is awake. He still hasn’t said anything, though.

Saga decides to try and start a conversation.

What happens next is a confounding series of events that passes by in a whirlwind of revelations, running, and confusion.

When Odin isn’t able to verbally reply to Saga, she tries profiling him in her Mind Place. Only he takes her place and starts directly communicating with her. Not a projection, but instead he is as physical as anything else in the Mind Place.

He claims that she has some sort of power, like all Andersons, and that she is a ‘seer’. She is confused as to what that means, but Odin sounds confident in what he says (or thinks) and profiling has always led her to the truth so far. Her Mind Place has even baffled herself sometimes… is this the reason? Is there something more than intuition behind it? Are these old vikings really her family, sharing this ‘power’? All this time…

The very idea is crazy, insane, outlandish. Then again, with all of the crazy undeniably-supernatural shit that’s happened in the last 48 hours, it's also the sanest thing she’s heard in a while. It tracks. She’s willing to accept it.

Odin warns her that Tor is in danger and is rushing into something without thinking- at least, that’s what Saga makes of it. He tells her that it’s happening in the Wellness Center and to beware someone called Cynthia Weaver. He tells her that her grandpa (a fact that she’s starting to believe) is hurt.

He explains that the Clicker is like an amplifier for changing reality. Saga starts to understand how Alan would be able to use it. Then again, it doesn’t sound as if it’s exclusive to him. Would she be able to use it, if needed? She realizes that she needs to find Tor for more information.

Saga heads back downstairs to find that Rose has already unlocked the door leading to the center for her. She almost apologizes for her curt behavior before, but ultimately decides to stay professional and thinks against it. She’ll apologize once everything’s fixed, and that woman is a creepy walking red flag anyways.

The Wellness Center is dark, silent, and somehow more unnerving than the morgue had been. Maybe that’s because she’s alone this time. Either way, she pushes on, discovering medical notes and old bandages. She manages to get into the security room in order to open a locked door. She has to unlock the computer to do so, without the necessary warrant, but hey, desperate times. She also finds security footage of an inebriated Tor stumbling down a hall, as well as more evidence about the cult, confirming that the Koskelas are the leaders and that Vladimir Blum is an active member.

The moment Saga steps outside through the new exit, she finds Tor wading into a pond. Rose is yelling after him, begging him to come out of the dangerous water and cursing Cynthia Weaver for doing this to him. Knowing the dangers of the water herself, Saga joins in the yelling. Tor heeds neither of them and disappears into what is undoubtedly another Overlap that fades straight after.

Saga rushes toward Rose to confront her about what just happened. Rose just cheerfully denies everything. Losing her patience, Saga decides to profile her for the information instead. Things are hardly any clearer in her mind. Still, after telling her that ‘Wake has returned’, a switch is flipped and Rose suddenly becomes very forthcoming with information. She hands Saga a keyfob and a manuscript page that tells her how to open the Overlap again. An Old Gods of Asgard record in the jukebox. Odin should know more.

She tries using her Mind Place to directly communicate with him again. To her mild surprise, it works, and he tells her about the record. ‘Anger’s Remorse’. One of its kind, created by Tor as an apology to her mother and her. It’s in the Old Gods of Asgard museum inside the nursing home.

After hurrying to the museum and using Rose’s key, Saga finds a record frame thrown to the ground. The one that she needs. She talks to Odin once again, asking him about where it could be. She learns that Cynthia has it. Fuck.

Reassuring herself that she isn’t on a wild goose chase, Saga makes her way to Cynthia’s room on the third floor of the building. In her search for the right room, she spots Ahti’s room, as well as an odd unnamed one. The door is unique; white with a dark spiral symbol, totally unlike any of the other architecture in this place. She does also find Cynthia’s room.

Except when she tries to use the keyfob, all the lights suddenly flash out. A power cut. Saga hisses a curse and races downstairs to find Rose. Maybe there’s a fuse she can replace? A generator she can fix? She has no doubt that Cynthia, the Taken, must be trying to stop her from getting in. Rose tells her that there’s a generator in the basement. Perfect, though she hates that she needs to do this.

Even more than that, she hates that the basement is flooded. And dark (though she’s grown used to that now).

She braces herself before wading in, hypothermia not being her worry for once. This water could be far, far worse. Luckily, it doesn’t go much higher than her ankles. Small victories.

She maneuvers through the dark basement, passing by shelves stacked with storage boxes and boards with notes (Ahti steals fuses?) while staying focused on her goal to find the fuse box, which doesn’t take long. She is, however, missing a fuse. Blum’s notes tell her it’s in the laundry room. To get there, she ends up needing to crouch to pass through a short tunnel and is careful not to let too much of herself touch the water. 

The other end is equally dark, though it looks different to the other side of the basement. It looks more like a living area, with bookshelves, a desk, and… a film projector?

A film projector, positioned in the middle of the space and pointed toward an empty wall. Huh. Like everything else, it lacks power, but Saga wonders if it’s water-damaged. She doesn’t think much more of it.

Saga finds the code to the locked box containing the fuse (real helpful there, Ahti) as well as some old newspaper clipping about a filmmaker and his girlfriend. She’s pretty sure she saw Thomas Zane’s name mentioned on a poster somewhere in Watery. It seems like this area is still proud of their famous auteur a good 50 years later.

She takes the fuse and goes back through the tunnel to fix the generator. The power slowly flickers back on and some parts of the basement light up. Great, one step closer to saving Tor, unless Cynthia has decided to block off her room entirely in the time it’s taken Saga to fix the power. With all the spontaneous obstacles she’s had to face so far, Saga wouldn’t bet against it.

Just as she makes to leave, Saga pauses. She can hear a low humming noise that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the overhead lights. Now able to unlock the door leading straight to that other room, she realizes that it’s coming from the projector. She approaches it cautiously. Despite now being on, it doesn’t seem to be projecting anything. Maybe it’s been water-damaged after all.

Her eyes catch two frames on the wall that she’d missed in the darkness before. Film posters, probably for Thomas Zane’s works. The one on the left looks like any other film poster, featuring an image of a diver and titled ‘Tom the Poet’. The one on the right is stranger. Other than the simple title, ‘Save Him’, it’s hard to make out any details. She moves closer, trying to decipher what the poster is showing through the blended, overlapping images. A chair, maybe? Or is that-

Saga startles at the sound of the projector suddenly whirring to life. She stumbles back just in time to see a projection flicker onto the wall.

It takes a generous number of seconds for her brain to register what she’s seeing.

Projected onto the wall is a large image of a dark room, the edges of which are barely visible, giving the illusion of an endless chasm. No visible furniture other than the wooden chair and the man slouched upon it, who takes up the majority of the frame. His head hangs with his chin nearly almost touching his chest, and loose fallen strands of hair hide a clear view of his face, but that doesn’t make him any less recognizable- not to Saga. It’s Casey.

As if in a dream, Saga hesitantly takes a few steps closer to the screen. She outstretches a hand toward it, his name lingering but unspoken on her lips. Trembling, she lightly touches the wall, not caring that her body is partially blocking the projection.

It’s difficult to make out between the darkness of both the image itself and the basement surrounding her, but it looks as though he’s wearing the same clothes she’d last seen him in, when she’d left him to interview Wake. Holster and all, though minus the jacket. It also could be a trick of the light, but it almost seems like his arms are bound to the chair’s, holding him relatively upright. 

Saga can’t tear her eyes away from the screen. The longer she stares, the more convinced she becomes that the picture is of Casey. Her Casey, the real one. How..? She has no idea. She has no idea what the actual fuck is going on here, just that the man’s face is undoubtedly Casey’s. Upon closer inspection, it looks like there’s something lying by his feet, though it’s impossible to make out what it could be.

There’s movement in her peripheral vision and Saga jumps out of her skin.

She draws her gun and stumbles back from the wall in surprise, her heart racing, only to realize (both to her relief and terror) that she’s still alone in the basement and that the movement was from within the projection.

She’d thought it was a still image. Apparently not. Instead, she watches with wide eyes as a long pair of legs and a white-shirted torso glide closer to the chair, the head keeping just out of frame. The new figure moves closer to the camera and Saga’s instinct is to move back in case they step straight out of the wall. They don’t. All they do is use one foot to kick the item by Casey’s feet, flipping it over in a way that makes it much more visible to Saga, though she doesn’t know how to react to it. It’s a deer mask, like the ones the cultists wear.

Her eyes are now transfixed on the moving figure as they slowly walk around the front of the chair to the right of the frame. Then they turn so that their front is facing the camera, like Casey’s is, and lifts one hand to give a small wave in its direction- in her direction. 

Then they continue walking out of frame and the projection fizzles out. Saga continues to stand there for another minute, trying to wrap her head around what she just saw.

This wasn’t an Overlap. But that had to have been Casey. How? Was that a glimpse into the Dark Place? Had it corrupted the existing film somehow? And who was that beside him?

Her eyes wander back toward the film posters on the wall, the second of which now displays a familiar scene that makes more sense to her. An empty chair, a dark room. 

‘Save Him’.

“I will,” she says out loud. Her brain and body both jump back into action and she hurries out of the basement, suppressing her increased nausea when she has to sidestep around Vladimir Blum’s corpse. She will. 

But first she has to rescue Tor.

Thanks for reading!

[pittsburgh48hfp]

The Pittsburgh 48 Hour Double Retro Horror Project is coming!

As we’ve grown, the 48 Hour Film Project keeps changing. You used to get one genre pulled from a hat, with a wild card option (and they were really wild) with only seconds to choose. It used to be a mad capped race to the very very last minute, with REQUIRED in person turn in of your film on a card, thumb drive or tape plus your paperwork all due on time at 7:30pm Sunday.

Well it's coming back. IT'S ALL COMING BACK.

With retro meetups, retro judges, and an added requirement of a retro historical event get ready if you need more. The Double Retro 48 filming weekend is September 27-29 2024.

[kikotapasando]

"48 Hour Film Project Curaçao Ta Kaba den Nochi di Emoshon: Pelíkula Kòrtiku di Horror 'Infliction' Ta Gana Premio Miho Pelikula"

[j-a-smiths-blog]

2212 14Jan23: Organizing Positivity

It's a rough road I'm currently traveling. It's all be "Eh" since getting the second dose of Pfizer vaccine and ending up in the ICU for two nights with blood clots. But this past year has just really tested me. Mom passed away, grandma passed away, two aunts passed away. Brother just got admitted to the hospital for chest pain. Dad stopped talking to us because we called him on a few lies. Wife has spent half the year in the Philippines. And now we are going to try and offload a lot of stuff we don't really need and move which will be a temporary move to end my time in the US.

Now with that all said. I have temporarily put my feature film writing on the back burner so I can focus on the move.

Though I have put a stand still for that, I did take four short story scripts I have written and organized them on my Google drive. This made me start thinking of the beginning stages of my production company. Having a good couple short story scripts prepared will help establish yourself rather than shooting straight for a feature.

With these short story scripts, I have not just stuck to all similar storylines. Two of them are similar "periods" but totally different. One is an awareness film and the other is a horror film. Then I have my script I wrote for the 48 hour film project that I plan to edit and make better. So if I wanted to be aggressive I would do those three films all in 1 month. But then while my focus is all on that I have nothing prepared for my next month.

So that makes me think. I should definitely focus on writing a few more short story scripts. I that start thinking that I should aim for two weeks per project.

To break it down I have been paying attention to youtube and how they are working now. They really are pushing these "shorts" which are like 60 second recap type clips. This would be good for the current idea I got going in my head. The idea is to do behind the scenes and the making of type documentary leading up to producing a trailer or two and then releasing the film. All about scheduling it out.

I guess ultimately, I am doing my own version of documenting making my own production company. But it will all slowly iron itself out. I know I have a few other short stories jotted down and I just have to organize them and make magic happen.

If I really think about it. If I can have 12 short story scripts prepared by the time I get to the Philippines I could have six months worth of work prepared. I might re adjust and look at doing one film ever three weeks as more of a set schedule. Week one would be casting and props. Week two would be script read through, production meetings and film days, and then Week three would be editing, trailers, bts interviews and film release. So yes I think a 3 week schedule is a slightly better work frame.

Ok I suppose I should sleep.

[wardenmages]

I never actually posted any thoughts and opinions about Worst Laid Plans so, while I still have access for another ~12 hours through my virtual festival pass: hyperfixation machine go, as spoiler-free as possible since it's not available outside of festivals currently!

I could write full essays about both queer horror and analog horror but I want to wait until more people are able to watch it. I think the film will be at more festivals, so check their socials to find out when/where and if the festivals have a virtual option like NYCHFF did! It was very affordable and I was able to watch 4 films in my block for about $20, and had 48 hours to watch, which made rewatching for details & audio processing very convenient. I don't know how many festivals are offering that option, but aside from being able to watch the films while unable to travel, it was very helpful from a disability accessibility perspective.

Reviews of each part of the anthology below the cut. Any specifics I mention are only as deep as the summary on the festival's website, I'm trying very hard to make this spoiler-free because it's always better to go in fresh.

"Deep in the Heart" is the one I knew the most about going in, so I do have a specific fondness for it. It's very soft in a lot of moments, but there's a very uncomfortable tension of knowing what was probably going to happen but it just kept not happening until it suddenly Did. There's also a scene I'm very jealous of everyone who saw it in a theater for because it must have been so cool. And, of course, I always enjoy watching Chris and Maximilian work. I've known about the whole project for a while specifically through them and director John Hale, so this was an easy favorite.

"You've Been Saved" actually wrecked my brain because I had several guesses as to what was going to happen but the climax happened and I Was Not Ready because every single thought I had was wrong. Very clever play on Christian phrases and iconography, a solid emotional core, and really cool visuals.

"Taylor Family Vacation '93" was heartbreaking. It reminds me a lot of the analog horror that's been growing on youtube without falling into the common pitfalls that longer-form series tend to fall into. I love the look of the sections with the camcorder. It's really well-balanced between styles but I want more of the film-style just because it looked so cool.

[movienation]

Movie Review: "How Dark They Prey," How bad can it be?

Movie Review: “How Dark They Prey,” How bad can it be?

Well, there’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back. “How Dark They Prey” is a quartet of ineptly-scripted, randomly-assembled, adequately-shot but amateurishly-acted short horror films that fall under the broad horror subheading of “claptrap.” They include the worst written, acted and envisioned World War II short I have ever seen. And I’ve judged student films, “48 Hour Film Project” saps…

[carnelianflames]

“Unholy Banquet” by Too Lemon Productions

A weary traveler awakens bound to the dinner table of three nightmarish ghouls, ready to partake in their ritual of blood... if only they could stop fighting long enough to dig into their meal. 

Unholy Banquet was created as a part of the 2021 Los Angeles 48 Hour Horror/Comedy Film Project.

[daveinediting]

I spent a lot of time thinking about the How of scaring people in the lead-up to cut a short film for this year's 48-Hour Horror Film Project. I revisited my memories of being scared by the horror books and comic books I read, by the horror stories I listened to on my transistor radio, by the horror movies I watched, by the haunted houses and corn mazes that pop up every October, by that old "haunted house" in the neighborhood in which I grew up.

And so on.

I did it to get my head in the game. And when it came to scares and scary, it was obvious (as it's always been) that our imaginations are a key player in the How of scaring people. And key to that observation is a little thing we call the Unknown.

Okay. There’s nothing inherently scary about the Unknown. It simply represents gaps in our knowledge. It's only when we get to specifics of the Who, What, Where, When, and How of the Unknown...

That things get interesting. In a marvelously creepy way.

What's become clearer to me over this last month of dipping my toes into the waters of scary memories is that whether it's a movie or real life... the Unknown is thoroughly unacceptable to human beings. So much so that we don't let anything be unknown. We naturally, without intention, do everything we can to pump logic and reason into that blank space in our knowledge. And if it's not, strictly speaking, logic and reason we're pumping in there... then it's at least something that sounds like logic and reason. It doesn't even have to be robust, these explanations, they just have to sound right.

One more time:

They just have to sound right. As in yeah, that makes sense.

The first thing to understand about the Unknown when either making horror movies or walking alone in the woods at night... is that our minds interrogate everything processed through our senses. Everything. More than usual, as it happens. Because during the course of normal experience, our focus is directed at a task or activity. You see, we don't normally travel our days trying to pay attention to everything happening around us. We don’t even use the full bandwidth of our attention. So when we do, when our minds interrogate everything processed through our senses, it's as if someone grabbed the dials governing our perceptions and spun them all to ten. As if a radar had been set to maximum sensitivity.

In the face of the Unknown, then, we travel that path on the highest sensitivity setting possible to everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.

In a film context, it's the stuff of tension and suspense.

Beyond that, though, the real gift to filmmakers and storytellers, is the point where our imaginations step in to make sense of what our minds are processing. When we're actively grappling with some Unknown. When we’re overtly trying to wrestle it into the Known.

Because human beings.

Hate.

The Unknown.

As in we just have to know even if we have to fill in the blanks ourselves. Fill in the blanks with what we literally cannot know because there's not enough data to know it.

But. In the case of crafting horror films, you can dependably rely on what's being used to fill in the Unknown... you can rely on it to be pretty terrible.

And awful.

Not even in a specific way.

More of an internal feeling. Feelings of alarm. That trigger fight or flight responses.

I think of the creative process behind creating horror as understanding how to jack right into that subconscious processing of what unfolds from the screen and from the speakers and through the audience.

There’s a feeling even in the room, you see, in the theater, that contributes to what’s happening on screen.

In a way, I'm talking about mastering the emotional responses of other human beings in service to the story you're telling. You're fooling them yes, of course, but for two hours in a dark movie theater there's no distinguishing the fake from the real.

Not, that is...

When you're jacked directly into someone's subconscious.

It's a thing about horror filmmaking that's different from other kinds. There's so much more overt manipulation going on every moment of the film. 

Why?

Because it works.

☺️

[brokehorrorfan]

I’m kicking off October by releasing Root of All Evil, a short horror film that I wrote, directed, scored, and produced. I made my best effort to capture Halloween’s frightfully fun atmosphere.

The short was created for the Providence 48 Hour Film Project, in which participants are given 48 hours to conceive, produce, and hand in a completed short film based on specified requirements. It won Best Film in the competition, along with five other awards: Best Ensemble Cast, Best Costumes, Best Use of Prop, Best Special Effects, and Most Lifelike Severed Body Part.

I was tasked with creating a short in the "nature horror" genre. Jaquelyn Fabian, Topher Hansson, Jordan Pacheco, Anacaren Delgado, Acei Martin, Allie Marshall, and Jamie Dufault star.

This was my first time participating in the 48 Hour Film Project, and I'm so proud of what we were able to accomplish in such a short span of time. I couldn't have done it without my incredible cast and dedicated crew. Despite the time restrictions, we had a lot of fun. The Halloween motif certainly didn't hurt!

The project is dedicated to Dustin "DuddyInMotion" Pace, an artist and active member of the horror community who passed away earlier this year. He created the poster for Root of All Evil, as he had done for several of my other projects.

A Halloween party turns deadly for a group of friends who disrespect an ancient tradition.

If you have seven minutes to spare, watch the short above and then share it with a friend!

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Now that I'm thinking about it, it's not that far away.

Far away?

Yeah. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. July 14, 15, and 16.

The 48 Hour Film Project.

Yup. It's that time of year again.

To review:

I joined the Combat Wombats production team a coupla years ago in 2021. My first swing at cutting a 48 hour production was for the sci-fi short, Cleaners. My second and, I think, my favorite, was the following year's mockumentary, Convergent Belonging. After which we launched into our third effort in the Fall, our horror short, What Lingers.

I was especially proud of the neck snapping in that one, by the way. 😉

Now, the 48 Hour Film Project occupies a position in our marriage that's fully unique. Not just a little. Not just a lot. 100 percent nothing like it. It's the only production during which I impose no boundaries. There is no work/life balance to be found here. No need to lie about it.

From the moment our specific genre and required elements are announced Friday evening, I. Am. On.

Right then I slide myself into the Zone based on my best judgement about the genre and required elements. That can be anything from prepping sound effects and visual effects to sifting for inspiration from some of the best work in that genre. And then, a few hours later when the script is distributed to the team, I'll read the script a few times and go to bed. Let it seep into my subconscious.

It's not a late night. But it is a work night.

The next morning, after a normal amount of sleep, Kimmer 'n I'll have breakfast together, then I'll jump in the shower, get dressed and, finally, settle on the couch or the porch or someplace comfortable where I'll get serious about the script and its implications and so on.

It's a day... is all I'm saying. A day that doesn't end until somewhere between midnight and 5AM Sunday morning.

9AM Sunday morning is when I rejoin the living and get back to work that'll end somewhere between three and five in the afternoon after which Kimmer 'n I go out somewhere for dinner. Because it's tradition. Also because it's summer and dinner outside as the sun seriously begins its arc toward the horizon feels totally deserved.

So.

A work weekend without boundaries.

I wouldn't do it. Seriously I wouldn't do it.

It's just that it's the best.

Experience.

Ever.

And now I'm thinking about it...

It's not that far away.

😊

[kharacterkreator]

Look at my role in this student film I acted in, please comment and share the original video as well!  This film that was made in 48 hours for the Film/Actors’ Coalition about a boy and his demon who cause a series of murders!

[pittsburgh48hfp]

Remember how it used to be?

The Double Retro Horror 48 Hour Film Project is coming…

[dominiquedarkofx-blog]

Locust Street Entertainment’s latest short film. It was made for this year’s Horror 48 Hour Film Project. I had a blast making Ruthy a gross old lady, which I won best makeup for!