"Itching To Act"

It's been a while since I've done any real acting, in fact, it hasn't been since I played the gypsy crone in CREATURES OF THE NIGHT that I've had a role with speaking lines so I've just been itching to get back into the acting groove. Although I've never considered myself a real actor I love to dress up as a different character other then myself and emmerse myself in a personnae other then my own.

Some of my favorite roles were as a Joan Crawford clone in the short play MOMMY DEAREST 2 (an original student play that will never be performed again although I still have the pix), the old gypsy crone in CREATURES OF THE NIGHT (because I loved getting in the make up and becoming a white person), and my favorite role is as a possible Vietnam vet in a mental hospital in the original play PSYCHED (which remains one of my only true roles for which I created a full fledged character). I've also played a postal worker (in the short film FROM ABOVE), a claravoyant (in the short films SEANCE and the feature THE SAYER), and a college student in the film JACK O'LANTERN.

These are few of my more notable roles as I've played extras in several films. These pale in my memory next to the roles that I actually believed help my ability as an actor. I'll never admit that I'm an actor but I do enjoy playing in front of the camera. I have nothing really lined up other then a few lines as a lawyer in Ed Harlaque's next film, so, I can at least look forward to that.

WHEN I LEARNED TO LOVE FILMMAKING

I’m a writer by trade who started off making short films in college as a lighting designer. I must have worked on maybe three to ten short films in my Junior year at Georgia State University and this was not even part of any class. I happened to help on a friend’s film who was in Filmmaking 1 and he liked my work so much that he mentioned my name to other students in his class and from there I just continued to work on all manner of films. When I eventually made my way into Filmmaking 1 a year later I had already had a lot of lighting experience and again I became known as the go-to guy for lighting (so much so that I never finished my own filmmaking requirements for the class because I was always too busy working on other people’s films. My teacher passed me with a B in the class anyways – I ended up helping him on his film as well).

This is when I loved doing lighting for films. Whether it be on 16mm, 35mm (I actually got to do a short film in this format), video, or eventually digital video, I tried to get my hands dirty on whatever I could. I didn’t really have any influences on how I lit films. It was all trial and error as I discovered that gels changed not only the color of the light but the color temperature and that using scrims and bouncing light was more pleasing then direct light (which some of my fellow students could never grasp).

Although I loved doing the lighting on films it was never something I intended to do for a living. I’m a writer and writing stories and screenplays is where my interests is. I just happened to be good at lighting and enjoyed it more then any other student in my class (they, after all, all wanted to be directors or actors).

The moment when I truly loved being on a film set didn’t come from all those short films I shot during college (nor my feature length documentary on the GSU production of DRACULA, still yet to be edited) but instead came when I was an “accident” actor on a little zombie film called NIGHT OF THE HUNGRY DEAD.

One night during the whole college craziness a good friend of mine by the name of Brent Brooks had a film shoot in which he invited me along not as an actor or a lighting person (in fact, I can’t even remember why I went anyways). All he could tell me about the film was that it was a zombie short that had the potential to be aired on a local television station as part of a Halloween-themed event. Well me being the big zombie-lover that I am I jumped at the opportunity to be on the set in whatever capacity. Of course, Brooks never told me that the film shoot was all the way north in Gainesville, Georgia (a place I only knew as being home to the Ku Klux Klan). He also didn’t tell me that the location was in the middle of nowhere and would be all night long, so I wasn’t exactly in my element.

The film NIGHT OF THE HUNGRY DEAD was directed by a newcomer filmmaker by the name of Ron McLellen whose only other film work was the unseen film MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. McLellen and actor Dave R. Watkins wrote the screenplay as they were filming it. The film concerns the night of the zombie apocalypse (as dictated by events from the ’68 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) as a group of young people get stranded at the home of a serial killer whose house is swarmed by all his past victims whom were buried in the backyard. The film is very much a collection of greatest hits from various zombie films that inspired the two writers. The cast was filled with complete unknowns, some of which were on McLellen’s previous film. I on the other hand had my own camera on hand and started filming “behind-the-scenes” stuff with no means of what was going on (I still plan to put this footage together in a short vignette one of these days).

At some point in the night McLellen realized that he didn’t have enough zombies for the big siege scene so I was thrown in some cover-alls and make up and made to be a farm hand (with an afro since I forgot to cut my hair) zombie. It was a great evening of zombie gut munching zaniness as I’m not an actor but being a zombie was one hell of a great time. What made things even funnier was that Brooks tried to teach us zombies how to walk and act (this is on video) and McLellen had so much screaming in the movie that you’d think we were making a slasher film instead of a zomedy.

Now prior to this experience I had made lots of short films but this was the first horror short that I had done, never mind the fact that NOTHD had a huge cast and lots of action and deaths. And did I mention the fact that we filmed until well into the rising of the sun of the next day? The film was on a deadline in order to compete in the television contest and we were filming like mad to get it done. It was both exhilarating and exhaustive but we lived through it (or at least most of us did. Some left early so the original cut of the film was choppy in parts).

Everything that was missing from those previous film experiences at college were present here which is mostly that I had fun on this film. The films I did in college were all pedestrian in story (as many of the filmmakers were not writers) and the stories were mostly dramas or comedies (that really weren’t that dramatic nor funny) – films that you would watch once and never again (which is why I remember so few of them now). NOTHD was extremely fun and gory and I met a lot of people I would subsequently work with on other productions.

I fast became friends with McLellen and Watkins and we all worked on numerous horror films and crazy productions such as JACK O’LANTERN, HELL’S END, CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, BAD LAND, and SHUDDER, among a plethora of short films for both of their individual production companies. McLellen liked my performance so much as a zombie in NOTHD that I became one of the stars of his next film JACK O’LANTERN (I’m not even an actor and I survive the film) but after that film I realized that my talents were best spent behind the scenes as the guy who helped produce the film and do all the technical “paperwork” on the production so that McLellen could concentrate on the actual production of the film. I was production manager on HELL’S END and CREATURES OF THE NIGHT moving up to producer on BAD LAND and SHUDDER.

I’ve since worked on both horror films and all other manner of genres from teen comedy (Movie Tao’s 6 DEGREES OF DESPERATION), urban film (BREAKING THROUGH), and suspense thriller (my own feature film HOUSE OF SECRETS), among others.

I can honestly say that I may not be in the indie film business if not for Brooks and McLellen and that little zombie film NOTHD. If NOTHD had not happened then I wouldn’t have worked with all the great filmmakers that I’ve become acquainted with since that dark night in Gainesville.

I could have easily become one of those people who went to film school but never did anything with their degree other then work at UPS (which I’ve done) or the neighborhood gas station (which I worked for two separate gas stations in my life). Instead, whether for good or bad I make indie films in Georgia where I get to work with a huge talent pool of people in any and all genres.

I’m currently working on finishing up HOUSE OF SECRETS as well as a short film for a vampire anthology, finishing up the screenplay for my next film which is a love story (A LOVE SONET), filming a documentary on remote viewing, working on a documentary on drag Queens (should be very interesting), and finishing up a script for the reboot of the JACK O’LANTERN franchise tentatively called JACK O’LANTERN REBORN, so I’ve managed to curtail my little experience as a zombie on a no budget short film into an ongoing love affair with filmmaking.

Not bad if I say so myself.
And if you’re wondering NOTHD may not have screened on television but we did go back and shoot additional footage for the official DIRECTOR’S CUT version which is far superior and far bloodier then it probably should be but it has screened in several film festivals and can be seen on You Tube among other places.

"Why I Love to Write"

People who know me (or at least think they know me) know that I like horror films. It’s no secret. I watch a lot of horror films and I study a lot of horror films and I support the horror genre but what many people don’t know is that I generally don’t like all that many horror films that I see. In fact, on average I like about 25% of the horror films I watch in any given year (most of which are indie productions that don’t see a wide release at the Box Office).

As a filmmaker I could have decided to study any genre of film whether it be horror or drama or comedy or noir but I chose horror because of the films I’ve seen the most in my 33 years of life George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) is the one that I’ve seen more than any other and has inspired me the most as a writer (I said “writer” not “filmmaker”). It really wasn’t this film that inspired me all that much but one of that director’s later films MARTIN (1977), a pseudo-vampire film, released a year after I was born. I happened to find a copy of MARTIN at the library and it was the cover that struck me the most – vampire teeth and a razor blade with blood coming from it. That video box cover was amazing to my young eyes as it told me that this was a “different” type of vampire film. Indeed it was as this vampire film was a 180 degree turn on what I had been told vampire films were suppose to be about. It was an intriguing story on myth, religion, faith, and sexual horror unlike anything I had ever seen before (you have to remember I was in middle school when I saw the film). I devoured the film several times before having to return it to the library and then never saw it again (until the invention of DVD) because the video rental I frequented didn’t have it on their shelf (and as a middle schooler I never went to the library all that much) but what stuck with me was that box cover and the fact that the title of the film read as “George A. Romero’s MARTIN, ” which for the longest time I thought that was what the movie was called.

When I realized that George A. Romero was the writer & director of the film I immediately set out to find all the movies that this guy had done (and in the age of pre-Internet it wasn’t all that easy). It was my mother whom had seen the name before and lead me to my next Romero film as we owned a copy of it in our video library – NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). I was floored! I had one of his films all this time and never knew it (I was young and horror films just weren’t part of my viewing pleasure at the time).

This was the film that forever changed me. It was terrifying and spooky and – I hate to say this – starred an African American. At the time the only African American on my radar was Sydney Poitier and I had seen every film he had ever done and now there was this new guy (I’d later learn his name to be Duane Jones). I don’t think the film would have stuck with me as much as it had if the character of Ben (Jones) had lived at the end. His death at the hands of ignorant (as I saw them at the time) white hillbillies was a travesty but made me realize that films (not just horror films) could be depressing and be more then just entertaining. They could tell a “real” story.

From that year on I started watching NOTLD at least once a year (if not more) so much so that I wore out our VHS copy and forced my mother to replace it as soon as possible. It was a lot harder to come by Romero’s other films SEASON OF THE WITCH (1972), THE CRAZIES (1973), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), and KNIGHTRIDERS (1981) not even knowing about THERE’S ALWAYS VANILLA (1971) until I was in my mid ‘20s. The amazing thing about all of Romero’s films were that he didn’t simply want to entertain but he wanted to leave audiences questioning complex ideas about people, relationships, and life, not only through the horror genre but other genres as well (KNIGHTRIDERS being another particular favorite). It was through my absorption of these films that I realized that I wanted to be a writer.

Now over the years I’ve seen some equally monumental films – CITIZIN KANE (1941), BRINGING UP BABY (1938), SCAREFACE (1932), CASABLANCA (1942), THE HAUNTING (1963), and FREAKS (1932), among many others, that helped carved my idea of what a good story was capable of and what a great story could achieve no mater what the genre.

I didn’t always want to be a writer, in fact, for the longest time I wanted to be a homicide detective (of which I live out through my constant viewing of LAW & ORDER, BONES, and THE CLOSER) but that never seemed to quash my love of writing and the movies where I could literally put my mind into whatever situation, job, or circumstance that I wanted.

As a grow up there is a point in your life where you either realize that there is something or someone that inspires you to do what you do and continue to do regardless of the consequences or how hard it is to do and that’s where NOTLD comes in. I’ve been writing since I was in forth grade introduced to the craft by Mr. Sanders, my forth grade teacher from Alaska (yes, people do live in Alaska and I was one of them for five years), and I’ve never looked back since. There have been times when I didn’t write (mostly during the later years of high school when I focused my attention on drawing & painting) but my attention always came back to NOTLD and thus my fate was forever sealed.

Whether Romero realized it at the time or not (and he’s said that he didn’t on countless occasions), NOTLD is not just a zombie movie but it is a film about race relations and how the differences between two races can sometimes blind us to our similarities. In the film you have a strong white character Mr. Cooper and a strong black character Ben who use the house that they are trapped in as their own battlefield against one another when there is a greater threat just outside their doors. When they refuse to put aside their differences in order to work together as a team their fates are sealed in total defeat, hence they both die by the end of the film. Nothing brings this home more then in the final moments of the film when Ben is mistaken by one of the white posse members as a zombie and killed. Now you have to remember that the posse is made up of like minded people who have come together to defeat the real menace which is the zombie plague whereas Ben is the lone survivor who dies because of his own stubbornness to put aside his own prejudices. Not such a simple film now is it.

Take the film as you like. The above is an interpretation that many scholars and critics have attributed to the film while others just think of it as a great zombie flick.

Now I try and write everyday whether it be part of a screenplay, rewrites, a short story, film review, blog entry, poem, etc. and on a good day I can get about 10 pages done (and on a great day 15-20 pages). Writing – it’s what I do and what I think I’m good at whether any one else thinks so or not.
I love films but if you were to ask me some of my favorite literary authors my list would be smaller with Gaston Leroux (THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), Franz Kafka (THE METAMORPHOSIS), Albert Camus (THE STRANGER), Ira Levin (THE STEPFORD WIVES), Jhumpa Lahiri (THE NAMESAKE), William Peter Blatty (THE EXORCIST), and Clive Barker (SACREMENT), to name a few. The reason my list is small is because I read more non-fiction then fiction these days but regardless I like a good read but I love a great movie.

Last Day of May!

Today is the last day of May 2009 and I for one will be making a few changes in my life (I hope this time). I say this but will it truly happen?

Been trapped in a personal relationship problem for some time and I've been wondering about how to proceed especially since either one would take me down a path I thought I had left behind me in the past. I, not one to be hindered by "feelings" and "emotions," I've always done what was easier and what would give me a short term enjoyment (thus my always being single) but as I get older I wonder if my "childish" outlook on life has turned me into a "bastard of men" or a "stoic" and "heartless man." I've been called heartless before and I hate to admit that at the time I was indeed heartless to her not only because of my lack of emotions but also because of my lack of feelings for her emotions.

Other times I've been dubed clueless because frankly (and most men will agree with me) that I can't read a woman's mind (and even if I did I'm not sure I want to know how it completely works and processes information - that might scrare me too much) and I should be able too even if I can't. A canundrum if there ever was one.

I love women in all their many splenders but frankly I don't always understand them and in my 33 years on this Earth I've still got a long ways to go (if I ever really get there) but my true delima is whether or not I should take what I've learned from my past and use it for my future or should I try to relive my past knowing now what I didn't know then. An enigma still.

It's a question I've found myself trying to answer for the last month as my brain and heart and common sense duke it out with each other. It's the end of the month and I've decided to leave the past in the past and live for the future (learning what I've learned from the past in order not to make the same mistake in the future).

A canundrum and an enigma roled up into a jigsaw puzzle and game of Tetris in one. Boy do I hate life sometimes.

Nothing New, How About You...

Sorry to say this but there is little going on in my world because I'm stuck finishing up several projects all at the same time (then again I guess this means that there is lots new). A list of the current projects (and un-projects) on my plate as of right now:

1. HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE - a short film that makes up part of a vampire anthology. I am contributing one of the five stories and co-producing this one with director Ron McLellen (JACK O'LANTERN) currently at the healm (and produced by Ondie Daniel). I love the script which is an homage to vampire films and the vampire mythos. I'm doing this project to see how someone else will interpret my work.

2. BLOOD DREAMS - originally intended as part of a two-part vampire anthology of my own but the first draft of the script was so long (at approx. 82 pages) that my business partner thought I should just go ahead and write it as a stand alone film. I'm currently in re-writes to achieve just this.

3. QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES (3 vampire film) - was originally intended as the second part of the vampire anthology. I'll see how this one goes once I finish the rough draft of the screenplay.

4. SALVAGE - the final vampire film in my one year trilogy - is one I came up with a year before I even thought about writing a vampire film in the first place. This is the only one originally intended as a feature length film and the only one I plan on hoping to direct (once the screenplay is finished). All the other vampire films are intended to be sold and/or directed by other filmmakers.

5. CONTAGIUM - my infecteous disease political film of which is the most interesting for all my actor friends as it has many different roles. I got through 2/3rds of the screenplay before I decided to scrap the whole thing and start all over. I hope to be done with this one before the end of summer.

6. A LOVE SONET - my first love story (which means it's not a horror film) which I've been working on for over 15 months and am 98% close to completion. If all goes well this will be my next film as I do not wish to be pigeon-holed in the horror genre (I hope to film this before going on to CONTAGIUM).

7. HOUSE OF SECRETS - finished filming but now in post production (still logging footage) of which I'm slightly behind schedule and I hope to still be done with by November if I can find an editor to work on deferred payment (if you editors out there are interested contact me at nqmedia@yahoo.com).

8. MISS KITTY & ME - a short film which I'm completely foley on and should be complete and finished by end of summer (part of my CITY GARDEN anthology).

9. THE OLD WOMAN & THE PARK - logging footage for this second short that is part of my three year personal project CITY GARDEN. Hope to have done by end of summer.

10. DIARY OF A FILMMAKER: FILM SERIES - done with the first two episodes and hope to have them both online soon. Plan on having 3-4 more episodes done before the end of the year. This is an internet based series that I'm having done in my spare time inbetween projects. i have approximated 15-20 needing to be done altogether (again if their are editors who will work for free contact me at nqmedia@yahoo.com).

11. I could go into more of the smaller projects but I think this is enough to give you the idea that I'm very busy and point of fact there is always something NEW under the sun. So, how about you?

Opening Night At the 2009 Italian Film Festival!

As part of my need to get out there in the world to experience more of what the world has to offer I decided that I would go to this year's 2009 Italian Film Festival held over four nights at the Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Last night was the screening of the Opening Night film THE VICEROYS, which is a historical drama about the unification of Italy into the country it is today.

It was a good choice for opening night film as it spoke to the audience in a huge way in terms of what the Italian Film Festival is trying to accomplish, which (I gather) is to allow audiences the opportunity to explore and experience Italian culture through film and since the film THE VICEROYS is placed into a historical context in which is shows how, essentially, Italy became Italy through the rise and fall of a single "noble" family it was a great idea to open the 3rd Anniversary event with this film rather then any of the other three films.

I enjoyed the film immensely as I've always enjoyed Italian cinema since first discovering Dario Argento as a teenager. In fact, one of my all time favorite films is the Italian epic THE BEST OF YOUTH (another historical epic at approximately six hours).

The theatre was packed (with very few seats empty) which made for a more interesting film festival experience then I had with the Atlanta Film Festival several years ago (where the theatre was almost completely empty). I believe that the event is successful, thus far, because they only have four films to focus one rather then the multitude of films at other festivals. Another good thing is that all of the films are screening at the same location for all four nights at The Rialto rather then being spread out all over the city in a multitude of theaters (ala the Atlanta Film Festival).

This is an event I plan on attending later in the week on Friday for the Closing Night film THE SOUL KEEPER but I suggest anyone who is interested to go to the website www.cinemaitaly.com for more info about the event.

HAMLET at the Shakespeare Tavern!

Last Saturday I not only got to see my favorite of the Bard's tales live for the very first time by I got to see it in style. I'd never been to the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia although I had passed by it many times when driveing on Peachtree Street. When I heard that they were putting on a production of my favorite of William Shakespeare's plays I couldn't help myself. The last of the Bard's tales that I had seen live was Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre in the Square in Marrietta, Georgia but since I was part of the run-crew for that show I never really got a chance to be a part of the audience and just enjoy it for what it was.

Having never been to the Shakespeare Tavern I didn't know what I was in for but by glancing over the website I did know that they served food and drink and that it wasn't a very big space but then again neither is Theatre in the Square. I also knew that the play's running time was approximately 4.0 hours long including 2 intermissions so it was going to be a long play (which also meant that they cut very little out as I've heard that there are 2 and a half hour versions floating around out there).

Being true it its name the Shakespeare Tavern is indeed a tavern in which audience members sit at tables and counters and can eat their food and drink their mead while watching the play. Being HAMLET the play has a huge cast (in which many of them perform multiple characters) and even though the set it small it never appears that way as the cast takes full use of the stage. There were many stand out perfornces (too many to mention here) and the strangest thing about the play that had never occurred to me from either reading the play or seeing the myriad of filmed versions is that the play is quite funny and this comedic aspect is never truly taken advantage of in the filmed versions. There were numerous parts in the play that had the audience rolling in their seats with laughter (me being one of them).

My experience at the tavern was very good, so much so that I'm thinking of getting a season subscription for next season (they have one more production for this season) because I believe it is a good investment plus it would give me a reason to go and not only read but to study and enjoy more of the Bard's plays that I've so far neglected. I do plan on seeing THE TEMPEST next month. This should be interesting since I've never read nor seen a filmed version of this play so it should be a new experience for me. I look forward to it.

People who think Shakespeare is hard to understand should go see one of the productions put on by this company of dedicated crew and cast members because they make it accessible to all audiences which is a good thing in this era of theatre in which many people just are too afraid to embrace the Bard's world and words. I'm hooked and I don't plan on going back.