Halloween Blue Balls

So, smack dab in the middle of my "vacation" is Halloween, my single favorite holiday of all. I mean, how could I not love a holiday based on ghouls, goblins, horror and scaring the fuck outta people. So, I spent about 3 hours today, 3 hours that I could have been getting ahead of the curve on finishing the DVD, to decorate the front of the house so it'd be spooky cool for all the trick-or-treaters. I went pretty much all out. Strobe light, pumpkins (about 10), tombstones, orange and black candles burning on a red-draped table with chains, lots of magenta lights, zombie signs, caution tape, all sorts of spooky shit... and put a chair out front to sit in while my wife to the kids around.

So there I sat, bowl of candy to the side, decapitated skull at my feet, orange lights draping the chair in which i sat and watched Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter on my Mac Book to hopefully give some creepy aural vibe to the awesome landscape I'd created and entertain me between visitors.

This was the first time I'd stayed at home. I'd always taken the kids around, house to house, alternately yelling at each of them when they ran into the street, coming home to hear my wife tell of all the cool costumes and happy kids that came by. So, I was thrilled that this was going to be my turn to sit at home, amidst the cool decorations - did I mention the strobe light and the candles? oh, and the creepy ghoul poster on the front door? - and be able to sit there and enjoy all the fun of the kids coming up with their parent-prodded "trick-or-treat" and "thank you."

i even blasted the Halloween theme from the car taking the kids to school and picking them up in the hopes that pedestrians would hear it and know... this is mother-fuckin' HALL-O-WEEN!

guess what.

over the span of 90 dull-as-fuck minutes (i know, because that's how long the movie was) i saw a maximum of 15 trick-or-treates. 15. about 8 single kids. a group of 5. oh, and my own two.

yeah.

really.

But guess what! The street just perpendicular to ours, just five house up... well, according to my wife, there were hundreds of kids. Cool houses with fog machines. Everyone screaming and running. Huge amounts of mother-fuckin' Halloween happiness that just didn't seem to make it my way.

Really.

So, my wife came home with the kids. Checked their candy. I pulled the plug and killed the lights (oh, I forgot about the huge inflatable pumpkin - that fucker died too), came inside and got drunk because this was supposed to be my night... MY night. and I got screwed over because we were five houses away from really cool shit.

So, now I'm left with a shitload of candy - which the kids don't really even eat candy. I gotta spend another hour or so cleaning up the crap tomorrow. And this was probably the suckiest Halloween ever. All the build up. No payoff.

I may go Michael Myers on this fuckin' neighborhood.

"Hallway" Music Video Hits Web

The completed music video for “Hallway” has hit the internet to promote the release of “The Bet” on DVD December 18, 2007. The video can be seen on Rubbersquare's Vimeo channel as well as both MySpaceTV and YouTube.

"Hallway" was written by Rachel Bellinsky of Switchyard and performed by her sister Justine Bellinsky of Moonvine. The video was directed by Michael Dunn, who also directed “The Bet.” The music video reteamed Dunn with “The Bet” star Walt Turner who reprised his role as James.

Bruce Campbell's Take on "The Bet"

You can't please everyone, nor would I ever try. But it seems Bruce Campbell (yes, THAT Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead and Brisco County Jr. fame) wasn't overwhelmed by the film. A few weeks ago, director of photography, Kurt Rauf, took an early release of the DVD (with a printed image of Donnie & Maree flipping the bird and the proclamation that it was a "Super Duper, Limited Edition, One-of-a-kind, Only for Bruce Campbell and nobody else Special Pre-Release Copy" - or something like that) up to Oregon where he and Bruce were shooting an anti-logging documentary. Apparently he didn't quite "get it," which I told Kurt would have made an interesting quote for the DVD cover. His other comment was that he preferred a three-act structure and that it may have been interesting if Henry's room changed each time you came in, like something had altered, adding to the surrealism (which would have been an intriguing touch). He said it was an impressive first film, so I figure it wasn't a total wash. Not that I was (really) expecting him to love it and do some sort of magic that would get it seen by important people who would suddenly throw cash my way to do more work. But, well, there you have it.

In the Spirit of the Bird

Here's the artwork for that t-shirt I was telling you about. Click on it for a better look. These are being produced as white silkscreen on a black t-shirt. They'll be in when the DVDs arrive (part of the same order) and, as of now, there will only be 22 available. Which means, they'll be relatively expensive (was thinking of $30/each). Let me know if you're interested. I know a few people who will be.

Interviews Done

Nothing says "That's a wrap!" like flipping off the director. Saturday was the last of the interviews with Kurt Rauf, the director of photography, and the three leads, Lou Diamond, Courtney Stavros and Walt Turner.

Now to get them all edited together in a coherent fashion that's fun to watch and that'll be done. That's Monday's task.

I took the week off work to get this bugger finished. On Tuesday, gonna wrap up the music video, with Wednesday (HALLOWEEN) dedicated to getting everything dropped onto the disc to test which will probably spill over to Thursday. Assuming there will be some glitches or what-have-you. And by Monday it'll be done, including the sleeve and DVD as well as extra special, super duper, limited edition, Donnie & Maree t-shirts that are going to get printed with the DVDs. Stay tuned for the artwork on that.

"Hallway" music video

It was a stressful shoot, trying to cram WAY too much into a tiny time frame. Only got about a third of what I wanted, but what we did get looks pretty fucking awesome.
The first image is in the "light" world, which is a dreamy reality. Justine is playing a glamourous version of The Girl from "The Bet." She's being stalked by Walt, reprising his role as James from the film. He finally pulls her into the "dark" world where she becomes a darker version of herself. And then they dance.

sleepy. sore.

We wrapped the video shoot (part one) last night about 11:30. I can't imagine how Justine feels. I was just standing around going, "more ragdoll-y" "eyes up" "chin down" while she had to waltz with Walt (heh) in about a 5-square-foot area. Not to mention the corset. We scrapped a few shots for time, but, in all, what we got yesterday looked absolutely stunning.

We've got a few shots to grab today, just the still-life inserts (like the shackles and a tv playing the film) to intercut with the singing and dancing (and Walt's creepy reprisal of his James role from the film). My wife's had it with me working on the stuff for the DVD (and the film in general) and I guess I can understand a little. At the same time, I also don't. But, well, whatever.

Soon. Done. The sleep.

Commence Shooting

Today I'm going to be directing my first evah music video. Like "The Bet," the most nerve wracking thing is that since we are doing it on the uber-cheap, that something will go wrong. Luckily, the video doesn't have a strict narrative, so some muddling wouldn't be noticeable. Still, though, I just want it to go smoothly.

My wife is doing the first makeup look and I'm driving her nuts with "It's sort of a high-fashion corpse look with dramatic eyes and no lips, but the color are muted and maybe there's yellow in there somewhere..." I'm surprised I can ever get what's in my head to be understood by another person.

Tomorrow we're shooting some of the props from the film as still life images that will be incorporating in the video. I decided to do something that acknowledges the film rather than try to duplicate the film. Speaking of which, I need to get the film burned onto a DVD since there's a shot of the TV from the film, with the film playing on it. Man what I wouldn't give to have had a week off to plan for this thing.

Artifact is Awesome

Artifact Design did an awesome new main title animation of "The Bet." They rock. We (Shannon Sarver and I) recently had drinks with them when they were in town and talked about the commercial they are working on with us and asked about "The Bet." They had just done the title for George Romero's Diary of the Dead and were interested in doing the titles for "The Bet." And I was like, um, hell yeah. The pic above does little in showing how cool it is. You're just gonna have to buy the DVD.

Shockerfest

Yesterday, "The Bet" played at the Shockerfest International Film Festival. And? Well, unfortunately we couldn't go, though we had hoped to. I checked the website and I was the only one who'd added it to their schedule (and then didn't go. ugh). Wondering if there'll be any kind of response. Feels weird not knowing what happened, if anyone even showed up for the screening, what was thought by anyone who might have. Just a weird, empty, unfulfilled kind of feeling. If anyone happened to catch it, let me know. And if anyone does leave any kind of comment you know I'll post it here.

Opacity

If you haven't seen the site Opacity, GO NOW! It's shots of abandoned asylums, hospitals and other buildings. Awesome, creepy, amazing, haunting, just... WOW! Lots of pictures from that site were inspirational in creating the sets of "The Bet," and just browsing through the pictures gives you an unsettled feeling. Check it out.

Commentaries & More Interviews

Today Chris Smith and I recorded our writers' commentary, followed by me on the director's commentary. Let me tell you, a 20-minute film flies by when you're talking about it. Chris and I were going on and on and I looked up and realised we were near the end and thought we'd only just begun.

Same with my director's commentary, although I tried to rush through to not run out of time and would realise I missed this and that along the way. Then just froze when I realised I'd covered everything I wanted to talk about and just stopped for about a minute before rambling on again. Eek. Short film commentary... YIKES!

Did get some good stuff in the interview with sound designer John McClain. Hopefully I'll be able to edit the interviews in a cohesive manner. Starting to worry about getting it all done, but, hey, it's GOTTA get done. So stop whining!

Interviews Part 1

Between armpit sniffing, brain blowing, puppet fucking, score keeping, foot showing, puck flying, random rambling, Boone's Farm guzzling, chubba huffing, and what can only be described as the most horrid violation of a stuffed creature I've ever known to be committed to film, I'd say day one of the interviews went pretty fucking fantastic!

Editing this thing is gonna be tough. There may be more Easter eggs than anticipated.

And there's still MORE interviews to come.

Constructive Criticism

Wow, it can sting a bit, but can actually be pretty helpful. Got the critique back from the Sydney Underground Film Festival (which didn't select "The Bet" for viewing). Not as nice to read as the one from the International Horror and Sci-Fi FF, but definitely more useful:

Firstly, we would just like to state that all entries were put into a tough competition for limited programming time. In regards to your film, “The Bet”, the selection committee would like to commend you on the good use of the digital medium and for making a film that is nicely shot with good grading and nice use of textures visually. It was also a nice touch with the ‘puppets’. There were great locations used, great design and a good build up of tension. However, the committee felt that the film loses the viewer at the point of the piece to the camera. It was a little ‘cheesy’ for lack of a better word. Also, the film could have benefited from being a little shorter and less derivative at times. Overall, a very good achievement, demonstrating high potential for Michael and the “The Bet” team and we look forward to seeing more work from them in the future.

I was confused on the "the film loses the viewer at the point of the piece to the camera" but think they mean when James is giving the "Always the same thing..." monologue. Too long? Derivative? Yeah, I can see that too. Mikey make sad face. But, hey, there were good points, too.