Least haunted doll ever joins the KISS Army...

Ahhh Marlene, bored from a total lack of purpose now that her standing as a total fraud has been exposed, has decided to enlist as a Knight in Satan's Service. I mean, you never know till you try right?

My coffee maker is probably more haunted than this doll...

I mean seriously, my piece of shit, $12 coffee maker from some 3rd-World bunghole has all the attributes of some haunted shit.

A.) It makes random, strange noises.

 B.) It works when it wants to - turning on and off at its own leisure. 

 C.) It's fucked. 

 D.) Coffee is addictive, therefore the Devil is truly inside. 

In other news, on Saturday morning while sleeping soundly in a hotel room, I woke at 3:30 a.m. ON THE FUCKING DOT! However, Marlene was safe and sound at my home. Could she have generated enough haunted mojo to affect me 65 miles away? I doubt it. I did give her a new awesome hairstyle and a Faberge Egg for some reason.

End Without End: The Sun Never Sets on Forever. The Making of Ashley - A Filmmaker's (Post) Apocalypse.

There are over 300 sunsets in my new film. That's right. 300. Why? The same reason that just this past weekend (10/20/2013) while shooting at the scenic, serene Holy Hill Basilica in Hubertus, Wisconsin, I made the decision to add the footage to my post-apocalyptic epic. The reasons...

Because these images beautiful. 

Because I can extract meaning from its images. 

Because I can. 

Because I can not stop.

You may know others that have made "post-apocalyptic" films, but Ashley is a true epic for it possesses a production history of great magnitude, it has developed a bizarre, yet fascinating mythos about it. The film has been forged by obsession, built out of madness, and over time has defied those limitations of being "just a movie." Ashley has become not just a piece of artistic expression, creative output, and experiment in self-discovery, it is an extension of its creator, and letting it go has become difficult. As this film moves into its final phase of production, this 4-part journal will serve as my catharsis.

PART 1: GENESIS

The creative process is almost impossible to articulate because both the sources of inspiration and true genesis are difficult to identify. Where did this movie come from? How did we get here? What am I doing? 

Film School, Chicago, 1997. I spent a lot of time during film school trespassing through dozens of abandoned buildings, and navigating through some rough neighborhoods. I shot a plethora of 16mm B/W Reversal of the Windy City's more impoverished areas. These experiences became the seeds for this film.  But, the idea really began to take root in downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin when I lived in what appeared to be a derelict, and practically abandoned part of town. In fact, the area is still adorned with such condemned, depressing structures, some struggling businesses, and a terrible long-term business strategy  Oddly enough, it is here (where some of the film is shot), where Ashley began to take shape. The neighborhood maintained a gloomy, listless atmosphere, it was sad even - especially in the Winter where seclusion is the norm for many in Wisconsin. The first and final season of the year is tough for many; they retreat during the cold months, they hibernate physically and psychologically. Those downtown Kenosha Winters; those were peculiar, and lengthy. Those long, drawn-out cold spells were tolerated from an apartment right off  Lake Michigan. Fortunately, artistic types, such as myself, well…we turn this hermit-like existence on its head and with much introspection, get creative. So in 2004 I bought a Sam Cooke Greatest Hits CD (remember those?) and used his soulful, melancholy spirit to write the first drafts of my "2004 untitled post-apocalyptic film." In fact, many of the gospel singer's best songs were featured in the my first cut of the film; this cut, a bloated, but beautiful 6 hour and 17 minute “long version" as I like to call it, utilized tunes such as "A Change is Gonna Come," "Another Saturday Night," “Bring It On Home Tonight,” and "Hem Of His Garment” (an amazing decision in retrospect, this being such a devoutly religious song – however, my respect for such an amazing talent supercedes matters of faith). The screenplay would undergo many changes as various subplots would be eliminated and or altered significantly; the most important of these goes chronicles the main character’s complex marriage. A decision to truncate the subplot between husband and wife arose from my concerns over replicating Director John Hillcoat’s 2009 film The Road based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Additionally, as shooting began, several other facets of the screenplay were altered, namely the main character’s experiences while serving in the military and his subsequent PTSD he suffers once he returns to civilian life. We will discuss these aspects of the story in future blog posts.  

Paddock Lake, Wisconsin. 2010. While shooting my science-fiction suspense film Dove throughout the State of Wisconsin and Michigan, I met a Milwaukee-based actor named Tony Lee Gratz. After discussing my desire to begin work on a “small, in-between Winter project” (in-between meaning the film I would produce and direct while cutting Dove in early to mid-2011 as I prepped my still-to-be-made-revisionist frontier western Tormenta, Gratz signed on as shooting was expected to take us into no later than Fall, 2011.

Ashley officially began principal photography on Saturday, February 19^th, 2011. As of this writing, Sunday, October 21, 2013, the film is still considered to be in-production as I am continuing to add new footage to the now 11^th cut of the film. To understand the grand complexity of this film and the sheer volume of footage at hand, try to imagine a standard PC-based linear editing platform such as Final Cut pro or the far more efficient Adobe Premiere CS6. Now construct a timeline in your mind that goes on for 66 hours. That is how much footage I have amassed for this picture. Ashley’s catalog of coverage possesses over 400 folders, that is, footage taken from over 400 separate days of shooting. The current 103m cut contains over 4,000 edits, 71 different pieces of music, 140 effects shots - footage taken in almost a dozen states over the course of its immense production. To make things even more interesting, I recently determined that over the course of shooting, the total cost of Ashley has remained relatively small; less than $2500K.

Today, Sunday, October 21^st, 2013, marks the 976^th day of continuous production.

For next time...PART II: SHOOTING THE FILM AND THE TRILOGY de NATURA et FORMA 

Production notes on the ABCs of Death 2 - Search for the 26th Director contest

"M is for Mutation," my short film entry to the ABC's of Death Part 2 contest is now complete and officially submitted. In case anyone was wondering, the winner of this contest will have their film attached, along with 25 other Directors (each filmmaker being responsible for a letter of the alphabet) from around the world, to the 2014 sequel produced by DraftHouse Films and distributed by Magnet Releasing. The winner will also receive $5,000. The original ABC's of Death film had a similar contest in 2013 with British-born filmmaker Lee Hardcastle's claymation short "T is for Toilet" winning in surprising fashion.

Shot over the course of 5 days between 9/18 and 10/10, this editing exercise was extremely fun to cut, produce, and direct. It was  made very efficiently and with very few production problems with the exception of our on-location issues while shooting at the nuclear power plant in Zion, Illinois. Shooting at a nuclear power station has its issues, for one thing - there is a significant amount of hidden surveillance and it is intense. Now granted, security should be apparent to the public and admittedly I was shooting coverage of a federally regulated nuclear power plant. However, the actors and I stayed on public property during shooting and we were quite conspicuous. We weren't carrying any backpacks or large pieces of equipment. We had no sound recording devices either. We had one camera and nothing else. Nevertheless, these people are NERVOUS - I don't recommend shooting at this location or any nuclear facility in general. On our first day of shooting at this facility, lead actor Tony Lee Gratz and myself were approached by two "civilians" within the span of an hour asking strange and somewhat obvious questions. Both Tony and myself are convinced that these men were actually undercover security employees. Of course, we could be paranoid, but their behavior was really odd. As we moved to the Southern edge of the power plant, I witnessed a man following us, keeping an eye on or movements, and he may been speaking into some type of walkie-talkie. Once again, he could have just been a curious bystander, but I seriously doubt it. Here's why I think my paranoia is valid. After we returned from the Southern edge of the plant grounds, a white van parked within 25 yards of us. The drive rolled down his window and began taking photos and/or recording video of us. Was he plant security? Fuck, I sure hope so. So, was it all worth it? Would I shoot there again? Of course I would, I'm a crazy person.

All in all, I am satisfied with the way this film turned out for the simple reason that this project is not finished. It was always my intention to complete a much longer version of this film - this is primarily why I shot over 90 minutes of footage. When the snow begins to fall, I will return to the power plant with my actors and makeup guru Sarah Sharp to construct the ending we did not have time to shoot due to the limitations of this contest and the fact that reconstructing Winter during a rather warm Indian Summer can be a tremendous undertaking. Later this year, I will return this film to its original form; that is a 10-12 minute, true-in-every sense-of-the-term "Director's Cut." Assuming we do not win this contest, we will lose the "M is for Mutation" title and re-name the film; this title is pending.

We will resume production on this film within the next few weeks, as usual, I will keep you posted....

Mani Ratnam's Dil Se is fucking amazing and what happens when a film genius has ADD.

Sound familiar? Chaiyya Chaiyya was made alarmingly popular by its inclusion onto the OST for Brooklyn’s favorite troublemaker, Director Spike Lee, and his rather clever 2006 heist film Inside Man. However, long before American audiences were privy to this catchy Hindu riff, it was the centerpiece to one of the most ingeniously constructed musical set-pieces in cinema history. Released on 21 August 1998, Dil Se (From the Heart) is a sweeping, magnificently-conceived socio-political epic set during great strife and  turmoil in modern-day India. It is the third film in maverick Director Mani Ratnam’s trilogy (after Roja and Bombay) that depict the human condition and its struggle against a sometimes oppressive Indian political machine and its military. Ratnam, the source of a blog post all its own, is a God-like figure in Bollywood circles, he almost single-handedly revolutionized Indian cinema - he made a quantum leap in Hindu film-making with his lofty ambitions, grand scope, and visionary, albeit radical techniques. One of these is on display below – this “on the train” sequence from Dil Se is fucking spectacular. It’s achievement is absolutely unparalleled – considering the extreme difficulty of navigating multiple units on the moving Ooty train (the Nilgri Mountain Railway) in the rugged, mountainous Tamil Naduin section of Southern India. In this sequence popular Indian star Shah Khan proves how far a young man will go to get laid; he will assume command of a sleepy, rural train of rural farmers, teach em how to get jiggy with it in lockstep with dozens of other bandits and political dissidents with virtually no formal dance training on board on a moving train. Now to appreciate this set-piece properly one must understand how famed Indian DP Santosh Sivan and choreographer Farah Khan went about splitting up the 6 and a half minute sequence. By employing 8 units over the course of 11 days (5 days for the group choreography master shots)  the Dil Se team was able to complete over 650 camera setups, impressive considering the trek between Point A and B for the on-train stationary camera units was 7 miles, this round trip was made an astonishing 24 times. That is 48 sweeps through rocky, turbulent, and sometimes violently unpredictable terrain during the rainy season mind you. Here are those units:

1   1.)    Unit 1 was the helicopter APU unit, aerial photography or “sweeps”. Most notable the brilliant composed right to lefts at 3:40 and 4:00.

2   2.)    Unit 2 was composed of the stationary tunnel unit, these sequences were  captured utilizing tripods mounted to the train superstructure, aka shooting on “sticks.” The most impressive example for this unit is at 3:00 mark, where we have some fluid movement through the tunnel without cutting, the lighting unit bringing up keys and fills during the 4 second voyage through darkness. Positively amazing. 6:10 you have a group exit into the tunnel and to finish. Ridiculous.

3   3.)    Unit 3 was comprised of a smaller band of operators capturing 9 different tracking shots on the sides of god damn mountains, they utilized over 2500 feet of track although only one of these shots is utilized in the current cut of the film at the 5:28 mark. This is ridiculously complicated on a flat surface, try accomplishing it on the side of cliff while a train whizzes by you at 40 mph.

4   4.)    Unit 4 was the group choreography unit, the most notable bring 1:51 and 5:58, these sections took 4 and half days to complete according to Producers.

5   5.)    Unit 5 was composed of all the stationary C/U’s and Medium shots, the most impressive being some of the stunt work at 1:06, and 1:45 we see the rare match cut C/U, these were most likely eliminated from the final cut as these actors are obviously lip-syncing and the proper coverage was easier to obtain from distance.

6   6.)    Unit 6-8 are what American crews call 2^nd Unit, that is coverage not involving the primary actors – best examples of these are 4:22, :42, 4:10, and 4:59.

7   7.)    Unit 7 – distance crane work. :44 second mark. (These are the vast majority of your set-ups, approximately 215 of the 655 employed). 3:25 is jaw-dropingly amazing.

8   8.)    Unit 8 – proximity crane work. 2:22 keep an eye on this slick piece of cinematography, the crane comes up 60 feet vertically to make a 180 follow through. Unbelievable. At the 6 minute mark you have up and over and reverse as the train moves under the crane system and its operators at 40 mph.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of these individual shots were done at least once for a minimum of a full 35mm magazine, that is a little under 20 minutes or 4 miles. Please note that there were over 650 camera setups. Give Dil See Editor Suresh Urs and his team of 44 assembly men and apprentice editors credit – combing through the 1.4 million feet of film shot for this 160m epic was a tremendous undertaking (although to put this in perspective, my still-in-post-production epic Ashley is 66 hours long stretched out on a timeline, that is roughly 1.2 million feet of film and I am cutting it single-handedly because I am mentally ill). I think the current cut of Dil Se shoes incredible restraint considering there are only 142 cuts (trust me) during the 6 and half minute running time. Incredible patience considering the almost 700 camera set-ups. That is a fuckload of coverage. A fuckload. And keep in mind there were no special effects employed in this scene, no rear or front projection, no practical camera tricks, no post-production SFX, nothing. Old school hubris and bravado. Gangster film-making; the Bollywood Michael Cimino at his most resurgent. If you’re not gonna risk your life shooting the fucking thing, why bother? Beautifully fucking illustrated.

Keep an eye out for the shot at 1:09, Ratnam stealing a page from my playbook (wink, wink).

Marlene and Herzog

Marlene, the haunted French doll from the fiery pits of a shitty, rural barn sale, watches on adoringly as I export M is for Mutation utilizing the far superior editing platform that is Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 (No, that wasn't a paid advertisement). I've been sleeping really well lately - and in an ironic twist, I guess I owe it all to this supposedly cursed piece of wax and plastic (sarcasm). It looks like Marlene is about to call her favorite film company...of all the possibilities, through this life and the next, she chose mine. I'm honored. Incidentally, that business card is using an iconic image, the single greatest metaphor for film-making and life; the "ship over mountain" still that has been burned into my psyche since I first laid eyes on maverick German Director Werner Herzog's Magnum Opus, Fitzcarraldo, during my film school days.

M is for Mutation Update

M is for Mutation, my ABC's of Death II short film contest submission, is now in the final phase of the post-production process. We are anxiously awaiting composer DC McAuliffe's score. Once the film's music has been laid down, there will be some minor adjustments to make regarding timing and we should be ready for submission. Featured below in this BTS still are actor Tony Lee Gratz and makeup effects artist Sarah Sharp.

M is for Marlene

Check it out, Marlene is a big fan of this year's biggest internet-indie horror sensation; the ABC's of Death II short film contest. Apparently, the spirits of her horrific possession have singled my film out - what an amazing coincidence! Of course, Marlene is a by-product of the undead so I wouldn't call this a ringing endorsement. Nothing to report at this time, other than I fixed her hat. I may cut off some of my own locks and glue them on to her weird egg-shaped melon.  

Haunted Doll goes Gangstuuuur

Remember the clown doll that terrorized Robbie Freeling in Director Tobe Hooper's classic, 1982 haunted house tale Poltergeist? Yeah, this the opposite of that. I did mange to find Marlene some bling, then armed her, and check out that handsome devil on the right. Gangstuuur. As far as the actual haunting goes, I slept pretty good last night, I think I dreamed I was in the desert. I didn't wake until 7 a.m. On a side note, Marlene does smell like cabbage and she may be tilting backwards; although I'm 99.9% certain I'm actually moving her as I make periodic adjustments for her photos. At this point, I'm placing the odds of her being actually haunted by anything other than my own subconscious manifestation of some childhood trauma at 0.0000001%. Cheers!

New doll fails to impress in first attempt to haunt

My first evening with the haunted doll, I'm going to call her Marlene, was largely uneventful. She not only failed to wake me at the horrifyingly pre-determined time of 3:30 am, but ironically enough, I slept like a baby. I briefly dreamed about a new movie I'm developing but other than that, I was in no mood to deal with the craziness of the condemned. I fastened a button of my stunningly handsome 1987 Little League photo upon the haunted plastic corpse and gave her a token of one of my trips to France. Admittedly, her stupid hat may have moved like one millimeter in the past 6 hours but that was probably a result of Mr. Squeakers jumping onto my desk looking for Sour Patch Kids. So far, no dice ghost hunters. I'll keep you updated.

Anton Bernardo's Eastside-Milwaukee film finds a title

SSF swingman Anton Bernardo's new hush-hush relationship drama will be titled "Varying Degrees." The avant-garde, experimental film is said to be produced in a manner similar to Lars Von Trier's controversial Dogme 95 format. The infamously reclusive Bernardo is apparently quite fond of the Dutch-based filmmaking philosophy which stresses a minimalistic approach to the craft.

Shooting continues this week. Here are some on-location BTS stills from the film. Cinematography by Anton Bernardo.

  

Stupid haunted doll my Mother bought from the Devil

My sister and some of my extended family believe this ragged old hag of a doll is possessed with the power to get this...to wake you every morning at 3:30! Noooooo! As Colonel Kurtz would say, "The Horror, The Horror! I'm an atheist, I don't believe in the afterlife or in the supernatural, therefore my family's tale of terror is positively comical. However, out of respect to my dear Mother, who apparently paid money for this admittedly bizarre-looking plastic woman of leisure, I'm going to keep this in the place I spend the most time: my home-office - near all my computers and many of my current projects. Maybe it will become my muse - watching me longingly from my bookshelf. Perhaps she will feed my insatiable appetite for creation while simultaneously planning my cold-blooded murder. On occasion, I will take the doll to my bedroom and place it on my nightstand so that it can watch over me while I sleep. As we move along, I'll add some personal possessions to the doll (such as the handcuff keys already attached to her weird right hand, don't ask why I have handcuffs). Occultists say this is the best way to attract the spirits that inhabit the doll to me. I'll maintain and update this until November 1st, by then I will be dead or this will be the most boring blog thread in history. Enjoy! 

Interview for Mark Ritacca's Buttered and Mashed Podcast Show

These two. Podcast coming soon. Stay tuned.

M is for Muy Bueno Footage

On Thursday October 10th, 2013, at approximately 3:15 p.m., SSF wrapped principal photography on "M is for Mutation", my Apocalypse Now-esque entry into the ABC's of Death II contest. We shot for a total of 13 hours over the course of 5 days (9/18-10/10) and completed exactly 400 camera setups; compiling 106 minutes of footage. The current cut rests at 8:33 with over 15 minutes of new makeup effect footage to sift through. We will have to get the total amount of coverage, that is a full feature film's worth, down to 2:50 this weekend. Holy Fuck. Much thanks to actors Tony Lee Gratz and Andrew Jacob DeHart (pictured below). Special thanks to Sarah Sharp for some amazing makeup effects, footage of which we will not make public until the film is ready for submission. I will be working on this non-stop throughout the next 72 hours in the hopes that it can be scored (by the very talented film composer DC McAuliffe), mixed, and submitted by Monday, October 14th, 2013.

Shooting this week...

I've somehow managed to shoot 349 setups, that is almost 90 minutes of footage for my 3 minute ABC's of Death II contest submission, "M is for Mutation." If this isn't ridiculous enough, when we're done shooting - we still have some complex makeup insert shots to complete (with help from my good friend and the very talented makeup effects artist Sarah Sharp) and two endings to shoot. Welcome to the world of September Son Films....

M is for More shooting than we had anticipated...

At this point, there is no doubt in my mind that my short film submission, "M is for Mutation", made exclusively for the ABC's of Death II contest, will have to be expanded (assuming, of course, that we do not win) as the overall scope and level of artistic ambition within the project has increased significantly. As you can see, getting coverage has not been an issue - we are lucky to be filming this project during a seasonal shift and the Fall colors in the area are positively beautiful. We are making progress however; we wrapped on-location shooting at the Nuclear Power Plant in Zion, IL.today, as well as our location at the Petrified Springs Park near UW-Parkside in Kenosha, WI. I will elaborate on our experiences shooting this film at the nuclear power plant in another blog post. I can tell you this, I do not recommend  it, although the location itself is dynamic, exciting, and unusual to say the least. Photos by Gratz/Lewandowski.

DOVE Bonus Features - Blooper Reel

The DOVE Blu-Ray is coming soon; here's a sneak preview of one of its many bonus features - the gag or "blooper" reel of gaffes, mistakes, poorly executed camerawork, battery and equipment failures, slips, falls, blown lines, and all-around nonsense. All in all, considering the massive amount of coverage shot for DOVE (33 hours total), the the cast and crew of DOVE made very few errors as evidenced by the clips below. Making this relatively small assortment of filmmaking mistakes even more impressive is the fact that the entire DOVE production team, that is the cast and crew responsible for principal photography, consisted of a compliment of only 5 very talented artists. And although we had more hands on deck during the post-production process, this is a staggeringly small collection of misfits even by my usually minimalistic standards. Once again, to all those that helped SSF complete DOVE, I thank-you. Enjoy.

The evolution of a film...

Filmmaking is two parts exploration and improvisation and one part preparation. Personally, I prefer the "wing-it" approach to the craft. I rarely have a specific blueprint when I travel to a location and that's part of the magic and mystery to the making movies. Keep this in mind...happiness is the doing. I prefer exteriors and natural light primarily because the natural world is the greatest special effect there is. Below are some on-location photos from our entry to SSF's entry to the popular ABC's of Death II short film contest. I don't normally participate in contests such as these, but any chance to shoot outdoors is a welcome endeavor. It is our intention to complete a truncated version for the contest and an extended-version, a "Director's Cut" if you will that will feature much of the footage that will end up on the cutting room floor (or my deleted folders) due to the restrictions of the competition. The ABC's of Death contest rules state that submissions can not exceed 3 minutes in length and since I have a tendency to shoot large amounts of coverage, these artistic parameters are almost impossible. However, with enough time, patience, and craftsmanship, whittling the copious amounts of footage we have shot (74 minutes, 106 set-ups, and counting), should be relatively painless. Here are some BTS photos taken by Tony Lee Gratz and yours truly.