A Blind Horror Directors Film Journal...

I thought folks on the Creature Corner Message Boards would really dig checking out Joe Monks journals leading up and taking you through the worlds first film directed by a blind director (Flowers on the Razorwire: Episode Two- The Bunker). No joke, all grit and determination. Check it out:

A Blind Horror Director’s Film Journal by Joseph M. Monks:

My cast & crew are out to get me

There’s no question about it. Get this… Monday night was our first meeting, our cast and crew get-together, overview of the flick, answer any questions, that sorta thing. I am expecting anywhere from 16 to 19 people, not including my wife and myself, plus one guy brought his girlfriend. So Pam and I get some cases of soda, big honkin’ bags of chips, 5 pizzas. The meeting goes about two and a half hours, and you know what? I wind up with *more* than three pizzas left and half the chips. What the hell? Are they kidding? You *can’t* leave three and a half cold pizzas here, I’ll be a goddamned blimp by the time we roll cameras! And chips? Don’t these folks hit the http://www.chantingmonks.com site where I bitch about all the water-drinking and low cholesterol food and shit I have been doing to slim down a little? Is this a concerted effort to return me to my overeating, carb and fat downing self?

Hey, folks, we’re not getting paid here, take advantage of the craft services–as they may be–every chance you get!

Well, a day and a half later and a pizza and a half later and a half bag of chips later, I can confirm, they *are* out to get me…

The meeting itself was great. I think we got a handle on what we want to accomplish, how we will be going about it, and the upside. I doled out a bunch of copies of the first Flowers on the Razorwire DVD, which I think is reasonably impressive. It isn’t some home-duped piece of shit we’re banging out on our computers and sticking in Wal-Mart jewel cases. Using the same company VIVID (the porno company) uses to dupe their stuff is a good plus to have. These guys produce a nice, slick package and everybody who has seen just the packaging thinks it is totally pro, and totally pro is good every time.

Laura, our make-up artist, wowed everybody with one of the unsettling special effects from the film. This is more of a horror/thriller, not a lot of blood ‘n guts, but this is something I thought up while writing the script simply for the impact it will have when it happens on-screen. Of course I can’t share that with you because that would ruin it, but it is jarring and just comes out of nowhere and I like the way it plays in the flow of the script. If we do it right and translate the flow of the words on paper to the flow of the film, then I think we will make the most of it. It certainly had everybody cringing…maybe that explains all the leftover pizza… Did I mention not much of it is left over now?

The Sight Unseen Pictures site is just about ready to go live. Big announcement coming about that, hopefully by week’s end. That site will be devoted exclusively to our film projects, and it is being tested and content is being heaped in so it doesn’t launch with nothing but our tag line and a couple of cast pics. It’ll be a pretty decent surfing experience, and it will be frequently updated, especially once we get the blog going.

Our computer issue is now settled. We will be investing in the iMAC, so that we can capture our footage right to computer. It’ll save us loads of time and should help cut down on amateur continuity mistakes big time. I am stoked about this. Even though it is a MAC (I am not a MAC fan) it will also help my wife’s on-line business in web development so she can test run her builds on MAC and PC at the same time, so for her, it is also gonna be an effective tool, but for right now it is gonna be the hub at the center of the film, the brain attached to the camera.

The date for building the set has also been firmed up. My brother in law is coming in on the 30th to help me saw and drill and pound together the bunker, which will take over my living room for approximately 5 weeks. I specced out the cost on most of our raw materials, think I can bring this puppy in for less than $200 bucks and maybe include our lighting for it as well. That should be settled tomorrow morning (Thursday) when I meet with our lighting guy and try and work out the fine details about making this set come alive with the illumination. Home Depot is gonna love me this month…

Wardrobe. Pam is taking Saskia out for wardrobe this Friday, which is really important. Not like this part requires a lot of clothing–just the opposite in fact–but it does necessitate the right clothing and I want that taken care of in advance so we don’t run into any problems once we start shooting. With our principal photography dates less than 6 weeks out, this is one of the final details that needs to be nailed down so that I can just shake it out of my hair and move on to our shoot scheduling for principal shooting and try to work it out so that we maximize every minute of Terry (West’s) time here.

A cop buddy of mine is looking over the cop material for authenticity, make sure procedurally it is tight and consistent and most importantly, realistic. He is also gonna supply me with some stuff to add more realism to the scene, so that is a big plus. The more that comes across and plays natural and looks legit? The easier it is to suspend disbelief.

Still a few wrinkles to iron out. My main props guy has disappeared, might need to replace him, and one of our PAs just didn’t show, no answer, no return phone call responding to the message I left, nothing. Another replacement project. But on the upside I am locked now with my docu-cam guy, and I think that our DP issue should be resolved tonight or tomorrow.

All right, back to work. That’s the update. Check back this week for more, including the launch info for Sight Unseen’s spiffy new site. It’ll be worth it, believe me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2005 at 4:04 pm.
www.sightunseenpictures and www.cpihomevideo.com

Bras and panties, sheet-rock and lumber…

Bras and panties, sheet-rock and lumber…

Things are going good, but while we’re getting lots done, time is flying by and whether the two converge by the 19th of August or one beats out the other I don’t know, but I am doing my damnedest to try and beat that last grain of sand out of the top of the hourglass.

On Friday, Pam took Saskia underwear shopping. In the film, Saskia spends a substantial amount of time in it, so we needed to pick up several sets of the exact same thing to show the passage of time. How tough it is to find simple bras and panties I don’t know, but they came back relatively more successful on the panties than the bras end of things. Oh well, there is (unbeknownst to me) a store here in Miami called, appropriately enough, Underwear Warehouse, so Saskia was gonna trudge on there after she and Pam had spent half of Friday power-shopping. They also got Saskia her top for the opening scene, the matching nail polish we needed, and shoes. This, I count among the biggest successes of the day. Two women, shopping for one pair of shoes. This could have taken longer than the NHL lockout, but they managed to pull it off in a matter of hours. Believe me, I have seen Pam shoe and underwear shop, and when I heard that the two had stopped in at Victoria’s Secret, I wondered if search parties might need to be sent out before too long, but they must have hit-and-ran the place because Pam was back by mid-afternoon, and they had gotten a lot done. So that was a pretty good piece of news.

Julio stopped by last night. Brought over his old army gas mask, probably from the early 70s. Another big plus. It is authentic, it is creepy, it is black, it fits me so it should fit Terry and it has the big plastic triangle eyes that you might remember if you recall the cover box for the early George A. Romero flick The Crazies. So that saved me a few bucks, which was good, since I pretty much bled cash at Home Depot on Saturday.

Drywall, lumber, shop lights, electrical cord, grill work, plugs, masonite…you name it, we pretty much bought it on Saturday, and we still gotta go back to pick up the 1Å~4Åçs that wouldn’t fit in the truck. But it was a helluva lot of stuff that we will be using to assemble the set, and having it in the house with 6 days to spare before my brother in law gets here is an accomplishment. I didn’t wanna be running out with Pam on Friday night to Home Depot, where inevitably they would have been out of 1Å~4Åçs or something I desperately needed and I would have to waste time after Joe got here on Saturday to run out to stock up. So right now, on that end of things, I am confident and jazzed up. Our set is coming together (literally) right on time, my Dad might come out with Joe to lend a sarcastic hand and comic relief, and our lead actress is nearly wardrobed in full. Still nearly a month out, but as mentioned up above, every detail now is time. Either saving it, costing it, or eating it up.

My NY buddies came through for me on newspapers galore. Joe Ianniello and Robbie Weisse sent down a slew of local newspapers from the NY area to prop the set and this is great, authentic stuff. Suspending disbelief is all about the little details, and having authentic NY newspapers and making things really feel like New York is going to help our production value a thousandfold.

My Hacker’s Source interview came out on Wednesday, and by Friday I was getting e-mail about it. Mondo Cult Magazine is going to run updates from pre-prod through shooting for the film, so that was a sweet deal. Jessie Lillie edits the mag and the site now and she is definitely a supporter I am happy to have in my corner.

Carmen was gonna work on the scene breakdowns this weekend if she had time, so I should know more about that tomorrow and get a handle on how much shooting we need to plan for each day. I don’t wanna burn anybody out, but we need to get what we need to get, so that breakdown is gonna be critical. Should be the biggest item we hash out this week, besides my meeting with our DP, which should be happening on Tuesday.

That’s the scoop for now. I got a slew of great horror film soundtracks/scores to go over thanks to Dan Vegso, who has been a great supporter since I met him back a few Chiller cons ago. This package came in just at the right time, as I am busy getting a list together of musical styles and snippets of sound I wanna lay on my composer to get the kinda score down that I have in mind. So many pieces…this is like a 10,000 piece jigsaw, but where a few of the pieces have been made to fit in no matter where you put them. The key is to recognize which ones have to go in a certain way so that everything comes together without the rough edges sticking out. Right now, I am still sitting there figuratively looking at the box cover, and with a lotta the box still full…

More later, got pieces to fit together.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2005 at 8:50 pm.
www.sightunseenpictures and www.cpihomevideo.com

Breakdowns...

Breakdowns…

Finished my update for the Monks Word column a while ago and just finished an edit for a freelance story I promised an editor, and thus have made both my lightning-turnaround deadlines this week. Not as much of a meat-grinder as last week’s assignment-on-Wednesday-due-date-of-Thursday gig, but I made that one too, so who the hell cares, right? This is about the 25,000th word I have been paid to write in about a month flat, and every damned dime is a blessing, so I ain’t about to question any work thrown my way. As long as I can fit it in, I’m going to do it. Sleep can wait. As Warren Zevon said, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

I am still waiting for my film slate to arrive. You would think something this simple would be a fast-turnaround, right? But my cot and my new MAC computer both have arrived and they were ordered after the film slate, so go figure. As long as the thing comes this coming week I will be fine with that, but still, how long does it take when all you sell is one product? (Which this company does–sells just the one product). It isn’t like I ordered anything special, just an acrylic slate, standard black frame. I didn’t even add on the dry erase marker, I will get that here at OfficeMax or something. Sigh…

ShaRhonda e-mailed me tonight. She is virtually finished with our story-boards and should be sending them on over sometime next week. Sweet. I still gotta get back to Sherman Johnson about our four day schedule, but we spoke at length mid-last-week and he still seems gung ho. Lost our still photographer today due to a prior engagement, but scooped up another warm body to help fill that gap and to report from the set, so all is well.

Carmen came by yesterday, and we ran through our breakdowns for our four days of shooting. I trimmed a lot of scenes out of the mix because they were solo scenes with Saskia, and those can be shot afterward, around schedules. I only got Terry West down here for the four days, so I gotta get everything with him that I can. When we were finished, it looked like a pretty light first three days, with almost all of Terry’s shots in there, and some time for solo Saskia shooting on Monday. This means we have two good contingencies; 1) Terry hangs and chills out and helps us in general once his work in front of the cameras is done, and 2) if we go long on stuff during the first three days we can bump scenes into day 4 without burning ourselves out. I am very happy with the way the whole schedule shakes out, and I think we are more than capable of getting this material down.

I gotta get back in touch with Laura tonight, our make-up F/X artist for our grisly indoor scene, and see how her sched. shakes out for the 20th. We lock that up, I am going to be very confident about our technical issues, too. The make-up F/X shot may take a substantial amount of time, we want to get it in one take but if not, then we need to re-set it and re-shoot it, so I want as much time available at the end of the day as possible. If this works out right, the way I have it planned, we should be in pretty good shape.

Talked to Mary today about the prop book. I wrote some of the material for our newspaper headlines and articles so the propping is coming right along. I am a day behind on the set because I haven’t gotten out with the person helping on the painting end of things but that shouldn’t derail things too much, paint is paint and I still got two weeks to get it on the walls and get it dry. Not an issue just yet, something just on my radar at the fringe to keep an eye on.

Ink. Did I mention we’re getting ink, like, everywhere? Five more good sized and well-trafficked web sites ran our info and PR yesterday, I haven’t even had a chance to look at some of the other friendlies we have on our side or are converting today. Kick ass. This weekend I am gonna hit up some of the non-horror sites, some non-mainstream outlets. I am also gonna send out PR to the mags that cover diabetes, the associations for the blind, those sort of places. Hey, I am blind and diabetic. When I grew up, a big deal was made of diabetics in high-profile professions, like Bobby Clarke, who was a hall of famer for the Philadelphia Flyers. Anybody doing anything, particularly something like this, ought’a have that curiosity factor I have been banking on (okay, exploiting) to bring this story to light. May as well go right to the kinds of sources who look to make a big deal out of these kinds of stories under these circumstances, right?

Things are going good out on Hart’s front out in California, too, aside from the blackouts and his air conditioner problems. I am looking forward to giving him the poster art shots and having him come up with some logo concepts for the film. I have some specific references in mind, but am gonna sling the images for our fronts-piece over his way and hope he has the time to do it up for us. We’ve both been discussing 70s/80s era grind-house work the past few months and I want that kind of stark, eye-catching image with a simple, but effective font presence. Something like the poster art for I Spit On Your Grave, or The Exorcist or MANIAC. You think back to those posters, you had a great image, and a very simple but effective graphic design. We have our tag line ready and I like it and I think it translates well both to our trailer (which will use it in a Coming Soon… manner) and slightly different for our DVD case art when we run this baby out.

Hart’s boy, Toby, has been updating the CPI Home Video site, and our updated PR is also running over there and I think Hart has been putting up some more trailers and info, including art for his upcoming slasher feature, 13 Bloody Kisses. So go on over and check that out at: http://www.cpihomevideo.com to see what that is all about. Fango and the genre trades have been treating him real well too the past few weeks so we can’t ask for more. At least, we reasonably can’t. Money is always nice, though…

My interview on the In The Meatgrinder site (http://www.meatgrinder.hmandm.com) is getting some really positive response, as is my cover story in the latest ish. of The Hacker’s Source. So where is Rolling Stone? Why are they the Johnny-come-latelys to this story? Write them a letter or send them an e-mail, rattle their cages. Tell them I am political…I know who P.J. O’Rourke is and remember him at the top of his game.

No movement on my work towards another genre cameo for my NJ shooting dates. Not worried about it just yet–this is further to the fringe of my radar than my paint problems. Still, it is something I want to resolve shortly. Time will be devoted to that next week, to be certain. If we snag any of our targets, there will be a big PR update and announcement right here, count on it.

I am also beginning to start outlining the possible shoot necessities and time frame to lens our wraparound out in Los Angeles. That will be a skeleton crew kind of second unit shoot, but I have expanded it slightly and am looking forward to getting back out to L.A. and working with some of the same guys who worked with Hart and I on the first Flowers’ wraparound. Depending on Hart’s shooting schedule for 13 Bloody Kisses, I want to try and shoot and wrap that in a weekend (much like the schedule for the first episode of Flowers) in November. This might interfere with my chance to do the Miami Book Fair, but that is still far enough off that I am not going to be terribly concerned. I really want to do the book fair, but if that needs to be sacrificed in order to make sure our wraparound is done, in the can, and edited before Christmas? Then that is how it has to go down.

Detail work awaits. Got a goth mix CD from The Kitchen club playing on my box and the dog is sleeping under the desk. I am filled with the leftovers of my Chinese food from last night and the fingers feel a little loose–probably since there is no daunting 4,000 word story hanging over them with a deadline looming. Gonna go open my script file, do a little memory work on the paltry few lines I wrote for myself for my brief appearance in episode 2, and maybe turn on the tube for half an hour to see who won what game tonight and if the Islanders signed any more scoring help now that the 2005-6 NHL hockey season is back on track. It feels good to have a handle on everything.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 10:14 pm.
www.sightunseenpictures and www.cpihomevideo.com

Hemorrhaging Cash

Hemorrhaging cash…

Back home, back in the cockpit, tallying things up. Expensive day. But I think we have wrangled just about the last of our major expenses, it should all be piddly-squat and nickel and dime stuff from here on in.

I went after the last of the major things we needed starting last night and into early this morning via eBay and discount retailers. A good, solid tube-leg tripod, fluid-head, prosumer grade. Second Audio Technica mic for the sound. My mic extension cables, and our final prop for the main bad guy.

All told, I was looking at about a $725 outlay. But after playing commander eBay, I managed to score all four items for around $400 bills. Not too bad. Now all that stuff has to do is get here, be the right stuff, be in the brand spankin’ new condition it was promised to be in, and most importantly work. The mic I am certain about, this is the same outfit that sold us our first mic (the one we used for the Zacherley commercial, which will be available on-line soon, so keep an eye out for it). The other stuff I should think would be just what we needed. A big, crazy rubber apron like you see those nuts wearing who fish out in the Bering Sea on that Discovery Channel documentary. The mic cables (which were a world cheaper than the one I got–the wrong one to boot–back in April at Guitar Center) are coming priority mail and I got three for the cost of one. Sweet. And the tripod is a three-way fluid head tube legged tripod, so it should be plenty sturdy for our purposes and it has a low-angle attachment which may come in really handy for one shot in particular. My cot has been here for several days, Pam and I set it up tonight, and it will suit our purposes, even though it is a piece of crap and much more like a chaise lounge than a cot, and it is so uncomfortable I would not damn anybody to sleep on it unless I didn’t like them. As a cat or dog bed, maybe it would be suitable, but even Luna, Midnite and Shadow have been opting for the futon over this thing.

Lissette came over tonight. Was supposed to be last night but she had things come up, so we bumped our Home Depot trip up to tonight to pick up the primer needed for the set and some highlight paint. Tomorrow nite? Painting time. Means moving the furniture (again) and finally getting the entire interior of the set empty and set up in its entirety for the first time. The cot, the bucket, the door, the whole nine yards. Thursday my docu-cam guy and one of our lighting guys and a PA are gonna come by to test out our color scheme with the shop lights and the door swinging in and put the final touches on the set, likely with the cot frame going up so we can measure for certain scenes and to accommodate our camera for certain Hitchcockian angles. Lotta work before the weekend, but by Friday, I should be able to sit back, get our crew ready for one quick get-together the following week early on, run a few rehearsal scenes, and then wait for Terry and Judy and Mike Koneful to arrive on Thursday, and then it is GO time. Lights, camera, action. A week ago it felt like 6 months away. Tonight as I worry over taking time out to write this column, it seems like 6 hours.

My concern now is Sherman. Talked to him Sunday night. He had some things come up, and I hate to pester him but I gotta get my team set in stone, so tomorrow I probably gotta ring him again and see where we stand. If I gotta shuffle things around, I may have to. This will mean that capturing to our camera may become more of a necessity, since I really need to know we are getting rock-solid footage and I want Terry to be able to eyeball our (dailies? minutelies?) before we move on. Vince will be able to get a good idea, Carmen will be right here, and Terry to back me up as eyes so that we know we are good to move on from one scene to the next. But I gotta tie this up soon, I only have so many cards to shuffle in the deck.

More updates coming, and shortly this page will go from column format to official blog, once we beat the blog script into something I can work with. When it happens, you guys will be the first to know.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2005 at 10:29 pm.
www.sightunseenpictures and www.cpihomevideo.com