Timewarp's Dead Hunt now available

From director Joe Ripple:

Timewarp Films is proud to present its latest two-disc Horror DVD release, entitled "Dead Hunt."

Synopsis;

Ten movie reviewers are invited to a party by the host of a website devoted to horror films. The party is in full swing when the power - and the lights - abruptly go out. A mysterious, black-hooded figure has cut the main wiring.

The party's over.

After the host goes to check the circuit breakers, the guests are shocked when they find one of their fellow reviewers dispatched in a grisly fashion. Panic sets in after another reviewer is found killed in a bizarre manner. Cryptic notes left with the bodies hold the only clue to the reason for the psychopath's rampage.

The terrified group try to evacuate the building, only to find that they can't - all the doors have been electrified. Realizing they are trapped in a dark, foreboding warehouse with a madman, the survivors look for another way out. Their search leads them to the creepy older section of the building, where danger and death lurk in every shadow.

Can they find another way out? Can the y hide from the demented killer? Or are they all destined to become targets of the DEAD HUNT?

This two-disc special edition DVD set contains the movie, a "Behind the Scenes" featurette, deleted scenes, two alternate endings, Bloopers, a stills gallery, and the audio commentary with co-directors Joe Ripple and Don Dohler. Sadly, this was Don Dohler's last film, as he passed away from lung and brain cancer in December, 2006. (I miss you, my friend!)

DJ Benz, a reviewer for www.Horrortalk.com writes -

"...a fun ride and one I genuinely enjoyed. I have no hesitation in recommending Dead Hunt."

This film Premiered to a standing-room only crowd during Horrorfind Weekend, 2005.

You can purchase your copy today, by going to: http://www.createspace.com/Store/ShowEStore.jsp?id=228629

Don Dohler Halloween Gore Fest!

Don Dohler's legacy is going strong. Here's the latest news, including showings of Blood Massacre and John Kinhart's documentary, Blood, Boobs & Beast, about the cult filmmaker's trials and tribulations in low-budget filmmaking.

From John Kinhart's Newsletter:

There's a lot of really great news this month and more to come soon!

++7 New Film Festivals!++
- Coney Island Film Festival (screens Sunday, September 30th at 5PM) http://www.coneyislandfilmfestival.com
- Atlanta Horror Film Festival (screens Friday, October 5th) http://www.atlantahorrorfest.com
- Secret City Film Festival (screens Friday, October 5th 11:30AM) http://www.secretcityfilmfestival.com
- Freakshow Horror Film Festival (screens Friday, October 20th 6PM) http://www.freakshowfilmfest.com
- B-Movie Film Festival (screens Saturday, October 27 11:30AM) http://www.bmoviefest.com
- Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival (schedule not yet released) http://www.thrillerchiller.com
- Asheville Film Festival (schedule not yet released) http://www.ashevillefilmfest.com

++2007 Fantastic Fest++
The wonderful staff at the Fantastic Fest and The Alamo Drafthouse are flying Director John Kinhart down to Austin, Texas to be in attendance. He'll be flying down there tomorrow and staying with BB&B composer Christian Brown. BB&B will screen on Sunday, September 23rd (6:30PM) & Monday, September 24th (1:30PM) Tickets can be acquired at http://www.fantasticfest.com. Stay tuned to http://www.bbbmovie.com for UPDATES, PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF AUSTIN as it happens!!

++Don Dohler Halloween Gore Fest!!!++
This October 26th at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore get ready for a special double feature: Blood, Boobs & Beast and Don Dohler's Blood Massacre. In the style of Grindhouse we're showing Baltimore-made trailers between the two features AND we're even having a BLOOD MASSACRE DRINKING GAME!!! Tickets can be acquired by following the link on this page: http://www.creativealliance.org/events/eventItem1207.html

More Great Blogs for Writers

Here are a few blogs I failed to mention in my previous post, Great Blogs for Writers.

Scriptwriting - Oscar-nominated Roger S. H. Schulman shares knowledge from his experiences writing for TV and film.

The Artful Writer - Craig Mazin, who wrote Scary Movie 3, talks about screenwriting, with a focus on the WGA.

Seriocity - TeeVee writer Kay Reindl (Haunted, Millennium, The Dead Zone) shares witticisms on genre writing for the boob tube. Block some time for these posts; they tend to be long.

The Rejecter - A literary agent's advice to aspiring writers who want to get published. The bad news is about 95% of you won't.

So long, and thanks for all the Goju

Last week my friend Rakesh (back center of the picture), a fellow FX artist and Goju karate instructor left for the west coast. Even with free long distance, e-mail, and occasional visits, I'll still miss him.

We met through a Lightwave user group several years ago, and became fast friends. The group sort of fizzled out, but we had so much in common, we continued working on and discussing CGI on our own. In fact, I recruited him to work on Timewarp's CGI-heavy feature Crawler. Work has been slow-going, but he's made progress--and he insists he wants to keep working in spite of the distance. I'm holding you to that, bud.

One day about 4 years ago, we discovered that we were both long-time martial artists, and he was an instructor. The timing couldn't have been better for me, because I was in between schools and looking for a place to train. His school, a Kodokan flavor of Goju Ryu located in D.C., was run out of a small activity room in an apartment complex. It was a little bit of a trek from Rockville, but worth it. At that time, there were only 3 regulars, including the two of us, so the small space suited us. And it was great training again.

I actually came from a completely different style, Shorinji-Ryu, a Japanese style (Goju is Okinawan.) Boy did I have a lot to learn... or, rather, unlearn. But Rakesh was up to the challenge of dealing with an old warhorse that was a little set in his ways. And with the help of the other instructors, Josh (bottom right), Jay (back, second from the left) and Vu (back, second from the right), I was able to make the transition.

Thursdays became a night-long ritual of training for 2 hours, then dinner (where we'd talk about movies, computer geekery, and Goju, of course), and then more chatting by one of our cars. There were several nights that I didn't get home until 1 or 2AM. That made for an unproductive Friday at work.

It's about 4 years since I joined, and our school has really grown. Among the regulars are Sampak (bottom, second from the left), Johann (back left), John-Joseph (back right), and James (bottom left). We also have several part-time students and two more black belts. And we added two more weekly classes on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sometimes we train outside on Saturdays if the weather is nice.

Of course, the activity room has started to show its size, or lack thereof. As I said, it's small and we share the room with 2 couches, a treadmill, and 3 tables. It's not so bad when we're all doing the same thing, but we often get in each other's way when we branch off. And don't get me started on the parking. But that doesn't stop us. After all, we're Samurai. Inconvenience matters, not.

But the absence of a friend does matter. I'm sure we'll feel the effect, at least for a while. It's certainly the greatest challenge to our Samurai persistence. But I think I speak for all of us in wishing Rakesh Sensei well, and we look forward to his occasional return for a class.

Not My Big Break

I checked Final Draft's Web site this week and they had posted the semi-finalists for the Big Break screenwriting competition. I wasn't on the list. :(

I quickly went through the stages of grief. Denial - I checked the list three times to make sure my name wasn't on it; Anger - Don't they know a great script when they see one?; Depression - I suck and will never write again (that only lasted a nanosecond :lol:); and Acceptance - What's my next idea?

I'm not too disappointed, really. First, the script was an update to my first, which was written in 2003. I figured it would be awesome if it placed, but since a screenwriter doesn't hit his or her stride until about the 5th script (so I've heard), placing would just be gravy -- albeit good gravy, and maybe a little bread :D.

Second, judging is extremely subjective, and not everyone likes supernatural thrillers. That's why I've already entered a second contest, Red Inkworks, which offers feedback to every contestant (it doesn't hurt to get more feedback). And I'm considering the Gotham Screen competition, which caters to lower budget ($2-12 million) films. With the results of three contests, I'll have a better feel for where this script fits in the screenwriting world. Maybe nowhere. But that's okay; I've learned a lot since writing that script, and have many, many more ideas.

On the Lot

Congratulations to Will Bigham!! You were my choice. I can't wait to see what you come up with for your first feature.

For those who don't know, On the Lot, sort of an American Idol for filmmakers, aired throughout the summer. Ordinarily I avoid reality shows at all costs--I think they represent the beginning of the end for American television--but this one I wanted to see. Some 18,000 filmmakers were whittled down to the top 50 that would be contestants. Each believing they deserve the big prize. But they had to prove it by making short films.

The first episode documented their attempt to pitch a film idea to the judges. The ones that impressed the judges moved to the next round. From that point, they had to produce short films that we as viewers would watch and vote on after the show. Sometimes contestants were assigned a specific genre like horror, action, or comedy. And sometimes there was only theme such as "Two worlds collide." In later weeks, contestants had access to professional crews and actors as well as their pick of locations. They were living the dream. Some films were really impressive, while others were God-awful. One of the early favorites--Danger Zone, created by one-time front-runner Zach--showed a domino effect of mishaps in a lab. It was filmed as one shot, and had some amazing effects.

Like American Idol, On the Lot had 3 judges that offered their opinions of the films. Each week, regulars Carrie Fisher and Gary Marshall were joined by a different guest judge. Among the guests were Wes Craven and Michael Bay. I loved the irony of Michael Bay pointing out a "groaner" in one film, and then explaining why it was a groaner. He really does know what it means. :lol:

But ultimately it was the viewers' votes that picked the winners. That was actually a good thing, because I felt the judges were a little out of step with the mainstream, and didn't get some of the cleverness of the filmmakers. Though, sometimes their experienced opinion was needed to make clear how bad a film really was.

I wasn't surprised that Will won. He was the most consistent throughout the competition. Every film he made was not only creative and original, but technically proficient as well. No other contestant could say that. Sure some of the other contestants were technically proficient, Jason, Adam, and Zach come to mind. Each had some great films, but others lacked originality or a coherent/complete story. Will, however, nailed it every time. In fact, one film (Nerve Endings) that the judges didn't like, but the viewers did (thank God), had a brain surgeon's assistant toying with a patient's exposed brain while the doctor was out of the room. That was one of the best films of the whole competition, but it almost cost him the contest because the judges didn't get it. They obviously don't watch dark comedies.

The final episode had Will meeting Steven Spielberg on the Dreamworks lot. That was really cool, especially since I wouldn't mind that happening to me one day. :) Will won a million dollar movie deal from Dreamworks pictures. I don't exactly know what that means once all the contracts are signed, but it sounds good.

It was a shame that On the Lot never really caught on. It had lackluster ratings throughout its run, picking up slightly at the end. I guess a reality show picking the next generation of filmmakers isn't as interesting to the general public as someone willing to eat live slugs for money. :shake:

My First Tag

Stewie over at Incoherent Thoughts tagged me with a cultural assignment. Of course that was a month ago, which shows you how long I've been neglecting this blog. Did I just have a kid or something? :lol:

Anyway, here's the assignment: Go to Wikipedia, type in your birthday (month and day) and list 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday. The tagging has been played out. Besides, I don't get enough readers to tag.

On June 30th, the following crap happened:

Events

1805 - The U.S. Congress organizes Michigan Territory. - so my Aunt would have somewhere to live.

1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope. - he forgot his barrel.

1997 - First Harry Potter book is published. - and, according to the religious right, the devil worshiping began.

Births

1286 - John de Warenne, 8th Earl of Surrey, English politician - no clue who this is, but he sounds important.

1934 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician - *poofed* into existence.

1959 - Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor - Star of Law & Order: CI. He's older than I thought.

Deaths (not mentioned, but I wanted to check anyway)

2003 - Buddy Hackett, American comic - D'oh, Buddy Hacket died on my birthday. Not funny.

Holidays

Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. - cool!