Everything is Possible but Nothing is Real

So I was in Vegas recently, and while I was there I was stopped not once, but twice by strangers who wanted to comment on the shirt I was wearing.  I happened to be sporting my Black Country Communion t-shirt.

Who are Black Country Communion you say?

Shame... Shame on you for not knowing.  Well, actually it's not that surprising.

Black Country Communion are a super-group of sorts, fronted by Joe Bonamassa, who just happens to be the best blues-rock guitarist on the planet.  It also includes industry stalwarts Jason Bonham (yes, son of the GREAT John Bonham, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), and Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater).  Not that you should actually care or anything, but they happen to be making the best true rock sounds since Bad Company and Led Zeppelin.

But that's not the point.

The point is that while talking with one of the folks who felt the need to comment on my shirt (a drummer who supposedly knew Joe B. when he was just a wee lad), he made the comment, "Man, it's too bad he can't make it in the music scene today..."  I said, "What do you mean - he HAS made it."

The rules of success in the music industry have just radically changed from where they were twenty years ago or so.

Joe Bonamassa has a loyal following who buy all his records.  He tours all over the world.  He even got to play with Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall. That's success in today's music biz.  Is he a household name?  No, but he's not a 15-year old pop star kid either.  The music biz is now even more divided between the 5 or 6 mega stars who are heavily marketed (Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Justin Bieber, etc.), and everyone else.  It used to be you made money off sales of your CDs, but that's long gone.  Now the CD (er... digital download I mean) is a loss-leader just to get people excited about your live shows.  Cashflow is based mostly on ticket sales and merchandising revenue.

The time when an artist could make a living off the intellectual property of their art may be coming to an end.  And it's all your fault.


Yep, it's your dang fault for having an insatiable need to consume music and movies and not want to pay anything for them.  Once something can be digitized and transmitted as zeroes and ones on the net, it inevitably spirals down to a value of zero.  Folks just don't wanna pay if they don't have to.

And this is the sad future for filmmakers as well.


Thanks to Netflix, the assumption is that at any time I can click on a box and instantly watch great entertainment in the comfort of my home.  For free.  Or nearly free. As a consumer, this is amazing.  As a film buff I can now watch all sorts of titles I never would have been exposed to before.  I know so many more directors and their visions.  But are those filmmakers, really being compensated for all this?

Not really.

The indie film I edited and co-produced, The Commune, was offered a deal by Netflix for their Watch Instantly streaming service.  Do you know what they offered us?

$7500.

And that was before the distributor took their 30% cut.

So, let's see, our meager budget was under $100,000.  Hardly anyone got paid.  And now, Netflix wants to own it and allow anyone in the world to watch it for free in the comfort of their own home.  And for all that, we'll be compensated around $5000.

Now I'm not knocking 5 grand.  Hey, that's better than nothing.  Many filmmakers would love to be offered a Netflix deal.

But, do the math.  It's not rocket science.  There is no sustainable business model there.

Now, musicians have a way to get around this dilemma.  They no longer expect to make money off their art.  They can make money off their live performances.  And so now they are always on the road - like a hamster on a treadmill - keeping the machine running.

Live to rock and rock to live!

But filmmakers don't have this revenue stream.  We don't get paid for live performances.  Our films are our live performances.  Unless you're Kevin Smith, no one really gives a s#!+ about hearing or seeing the director - they just wanna see the movie.

So how will the indie filmmaker survive in this climate?

I don't know.  I really can't see it.


The only business model I can see working is to crowd-source the funding of your film.  Spread the risk.  Let your true fans feel like they are part of the process. Set up a kickstarter campaign and raise just enough money to hopefully cover costs.  Maybe pad it a little so you can actually pay your rent while making the film.  Then at least any scraps of revenue that are generated will be profit.

Do not go into debt and take out a mortgage on your home to make your next indie feature film kiddos.  It ain't worth it.

Welcome to the future.  Everything is possible but nothing is real.*



*(Living Colour - Type)

Another Hole in the Head

... you know, like, "San Francisco needs another film festival like it needs another hole in the head."
Except in this case, San Francisco really needs this festival, because this is the only bay area film fest that celebrates horror, sci-fi, exploitation and general wackiness.

And y'all are invited to attend two weeks of mayhem from June 3 to June 16 at the Roxie Theater in the happening Mission District, S.F.

Highlights include:


- Helldriver, by Yoshihiro Nishimura (opening night)
- The Victim, Directed by and Starring Michael Biehn (who will be at the screening!)
- Absentia, by Mike Flanagan
- Red Ice, by Ralph Hyver (San Francisco Filmmaker)
- The Bleeding House, by Philip Gelatt
- Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, by Jalmari Helander
- Apocrypha, by Michael Fredianelli (Bay Area Filmmaker)
- I am Nancy (cool doc about actress Heather Langenkamp, "Nancy" from Nightmare on Elm Street)

AND...

 Enter the Dark!  by yours truly, which will screen twice:


Thursday, June 3 at 5:20 pm (We actually open up the festival, supporting the feature film, Haunted Changi!)

Friday, June 9 at 7:20 pm 


I will be attending both screenings, along with some of my cast and crew, so if you're in the Bay Area and want to catch some cool films, drop on by.


Tickets can be purchased here:

Exclusive Interview with Chauntal Lewis, Star of Toolbox Murders 2

You probably haven't heard of Chauntal Lewis yet.  Hopefully, that will soon change. I was lucky enough to work with her on the indie film, The Commune. She recently took some time off her busy schedule to do this interview with me for Horror Society.  Take a sec to read about her inspirational story:

The Next One...

I've been so fortunate with the success that Enter the Dark has had so far: screenings around the world, great reviews and multiple awards.  More importantly, people really seem to respond to it and have encouraged me to keep going.  And therein lies the problem.  That dreaded sophomore slump.  It's time to start writing the next one.

With Enter the Dark, my main goal was simply to finally finish something.  I've been very good at coming up with ideas in my lifetime, and horrible at actually finishing any one of them.  I purposely made this goal embarrassingly easy to accomplish - shooting it in my own house, with my friends, with gear we already owned.  No excuses.  If I couldn't complete a short film under those circumstances, I never would and I should just accept that fact.  Fortunately with the great help of my friends, we did indeed steam forward and not only finished the project, but made a pretty darn good one as well.

 

But now, things are different.  This time, there can be no excuses - no conditions.  It's not enough to say, "Hey, isn't this pretty good considering we did this with no money and it was just me and my buddies?"  No, this time it has to stand on its own.  This short film has to be good enough that it could be shown to anyone and they would assume it was a Hollywood-produced film.  The story, acting, camerawork, lighting, art direction, sound design and everything else all have to be top-notch.  It has to be seamless - no excuses.

And why is that - you may ask.  Well, it's simple - this has to be my calling card.  There's no more goofing around.  If I'm to ever make it in this industry - to actually fulfill my little ol' BA in Cinema from S.F. State University, then the time is now.  This project has to be good enough for someone to look at and say, "Wow, this guy's good - let's give him a couple million and see what he can do with an actual budget.  Let's give him a feature film to direct."

There, I said it - that's what I ultimately want to do.

So, you tell me, how can anyone actually produce good art under those pressures?  You see, I have to play a game with myself - to forget what my goals are and just concentrate on the task at hand - writing a great story.  But it has to be a story that not only speaks to me, but that enables me to showcase my talents as a writer/director.  It has to be small enough so it is do-able (considering I still will have almost no budget), but big enough to explore inventive ideas. 

In short, I need to produce a tiny, perfect gem of a story that will be the seed to my future.  No pressure there…

UGH!!!

I'm stuffing myself with movies, pouring over M.C. Escher prints and reading Borges' Labyrinths to hopefully have all this wash over me so that some of its brilliance may somehow seep into my pores.  But I know I need to find my own true voice - I cannot allow myself to try to write to please others.  Only by making the story personal will it connect with others on a deeper level.  The things that work in Enter the Dark work because they feel authentic.  I must focus on that.

The good news is I think I've found the story - the architecture around which I may be able to create my film.  I still need to flesh out the details, breathe life into the characters, find the heart - but I think I've found the vessel.  Now, if I can just make the damned thing float!

Insidious - An Empty Shell of a Movie

I was worried.

You see - with all the buzz surrounding the new film by James Wan (Saw), I thought maybe someone had made the new classic haunted house/demonic possession movie before I could.

Turns out I needn't have worried.

Insidious is an empty shell of a movie, adrift in a nether nether land, with other nasty, scary movies forcing their way into it's lifeless corpse. Hey... that also happens to be the film's premise - what a coincidence!

It has its moments of great jump-scares, but never really develops the undercurrent of dread necessary to make a movie like this really get under your skin.

And why is that?

Well, it's simple.  It seems like James Wan has made a scary movie about other scary movies - kinda like Scream, but without all the fun.  Starting with the blood red embossed lettering of the title (a la Suspiria), Insidious follows the predictable path of The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Entity (nice casting of Barbara Hershey by the way) and eventually all the way to Carnival of Souls (stumbling white-faced ghoulies anyone?) and back to Suspiria (bright red lighting) once again.

Wan even throws in a sketch of his Saw puppet on the blackboard behind one of the characters just in case we're not getting the hint- THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT MOVIES!

Now, the whole thing actually almost works because he's borrowing from some really great films, so moments of the film hold your attention, draw you in and elicit some real nice scares, but you find yourself counting the references (a drinking game for sure) more than actually caring about any of the characters.

I did however, like his attempt to stay away from digital effects and go with mostly old-school costume, makeup and lighting, but while this works fine in the buildup phase of the movie it kinda left me wanting more when we enter the third act and we're supposed to accept the fact that this amazing, limitless astral-projecting reality we're entering is just a dark old house with red lights and a dude who look like Tim Curry.

I'm starting to understand why certain horror movies work for me and some don't.  This quote from William Friedkin sums it up nicely:

“The only way I could have made ‘The Exorcist’ the way I did, is if I believed it.  If you look at the film, it’s a film made by people who believe this – we’re not kidding.  The guy who wrote it and the guy who directed it, accept demonic possession and exorcism as a possibility.”
 
This is exactly why Insidious only works on a superficial level.  These dudes don't believe any of it, and they never expect the audience will either.  Everything is done with a wink and a nod.  The only things that ever terrified James Wan as a kid were obviously other horror movies. If you were ever a kid with night terrors, you would never present them like they are in this film - trust me, I should know.

Real horror comes from tapping those deep lurking fears within us and expressing them for others to see.  Not because it seems like a fun thing to do, or to make the next hit movie, but because you have to.

Because you are compelled.

Wait for my next movie... then you'll see what I'm talking about.

New Horror Society Review - Kill Devil Hill

A nasty little satanic horror short to check out:

What is a Horror Movie?

Ok  kiddos, hate to go on a rant here, but let me make this perfectly clear...

BLACK SWAN IS NOT A HORROR MOVIE!!!!

(phew... glad to finally get that off my chest)

It is psychological thriller that examines a young woman's descent into madness.

Is it scary?  Yes.
Is it disturbing?  Yes
Is it a horror movie?  No.

Just because a film is scary, suspenseful, disturbing, even terrifying, that does NOT make it a horror movie.

Let me tell you a little secret...   Are you ready?  Ok, here goes...

Jaws is not a horror movie either.  (uh oh, I can hear the masses grumbling)
Neither is Psycho. (ducks head, awaiting flying cookingware)
Silence of the Lambs? ...forget about it - it's a straight up thriller (hey, put that pitchfork down willya? lemme explain!)

Stop looking at me like that, Lecter, lemme explain

I tend to be protective of the term "horror".  To me, it represents a very specific type of movie, and in this age of inclusiveness, I feel people have tagged many films as "horror" in order to justify the genre.  They want to say, "Hey look!  Look at all the "horror" films that have won Oscars!  We're legit!  We're not the grade-B low-budget degenerate shlockfest that people think we are.  Please like us..."

Well EFF THAT!  Horror does not need justification or legitimacy.  It's just fine as it is, thank you very much - in all its bloody, subversive, thought-provoking glory.

Therefore, I think a little clarification is in order.  A comprehensive definition of what a horror film is, so these constant mis-classifications can stop.  If a term like "horror film" is used incorrectly, eventually it loses its meaning and has no value anymore.

Once we have a solid definition we can use that as a filter to pass a bunch of movies through it and see how it stands up under scrutiny.

I'll take the first stab - here's my definition.  A horror movie has to have the following elements:

- it has to have an element of the supernatural (witches, ghosts, demons, alternate realities, etc)
or
- it has to have a monster (some creature that does not actually exist)
AND
- its primary aim has to be to elicit fear, horror, disgust or suspense.

This means that many of the most famous movies that you see on those best horror films lists, ARE NOT EVEN HORROR FILMS!

Ok, let's go back to the films already mentioned and pass them through my filter.