My life As a Low Budget Moviemaker

New Monsters in the Wood Art

2012-05-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

One of the producers recently had a graphic artist in the Ukraine do up a few new one sheets for Monsters in the Woods which I'll be posting here.

1st one is very Pirates-esque.

Don't forget to pick up your copy on DVD today.
MITW on Amazon

Authorized Trap Commentary

2012-05-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

So I recorded this commentary for TRAP with Producer Robert Bravo and Production Designer Blaine Cade a ways back. It was not available for the initial dvd release, but will appear on the new ones. So here it is for any who've already purchased the movie and want to check it out. It syncs up with the Zapruter Logo at the beginning of the movie. It's pretty much just us rambling and is not very scene specific, so don't freak if the sync is a bit off. Anywho....

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews: Jason Horton (writer/director) and Robert Bravo (Producer)

2012-04-19T21:19:00.002-07:00

Monsters in the Woods FLASHBACK: What Was I Thinking?

2012-04-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

One of the producers of Monsters in the Woods wrote this last year.

I’ve been involved in the film industry for many years. Over a varied and eclectic career, I’ve worked on a number of projects as an Actor, Writer, and Producer. As a Producer, the projects I’ve been involved with received financing mostly through outside sources, either through investors, banks, etc. Most recently, though, I did something I never thought I would ever do. I got involved in co-financing a movie. Now let’s get real here. I am neither wealthy, nor financially well off. What I did get was a few grand from an inheritance, and I do mean ‘few’.

While I was contemplating what to do with the extra funds, I read an article from an independent filmmaker’s blog whose subject was “Making and Releasing The Micro-Budget Indie”, and one of the respondents to the blog had this to say: “The micro-budget feature is probably most functional in the hands of an experienced producer. Those of us attempting to break in from the outside with a 10k comedy are in an uphill battle. Folks who have made a few movies, and have the requisite connects and experience, could probably make a very profitable micro-budget piece. The tech is there to make a movie look good for cheap. The two keys are to write a story that can entertain an audience without a huge SFX budget, and to have a way to get the film seen. The latter half of that equation is where experienced producers/writers have a real leg up. It would be a grand experiment to see a Hollywood veteran do a “made by hand” film and make it financially successful. That might really change some minds.”

Ok, made sense to me. But did I really want to put my money into something like this? I didn’t have a project that fit the mold. That is until I received a call from a friend who said another friend of ours was going to make a micro-budget creature feature and he needed a “few grand” to make it happen. Weird, huh? What timing! I had known this young writer/director for a few years and had watched his career carefully. He had already made a few micro-budget horror movies, one of which had very good critical acclaim. So, I knew he had the know-how and experience to make another good horror movie. I was also familiar with his writing skills, as I had read some of his bigger budgeted scripts. He is an excellent writer. So, when he sent me the script for his creature feature, I couldn’t wait to read it. I wasn’t disappointed. It was scary, action filled, had a lot of emotion, and the dialogue was witty. “What a clever project”, I thought. And I was convinced, I wanted to be involved.

I Just Want To Invest And Then I’m Going On Vacation… What Could Go Wrong?

I think the first thing I said to both the writer/director and his young producing partner was, “I have enough to cover the costs of your five day shoot”. (Did I say five days?) Well, I was assured that the movie was already in production, was being shot ‘guerrilla’, with everyone on board (Producers, actors, and crew) all gung-ho and raring to go! All they truly needed were the finishing funds. I told them I think they have a fun project, and if the production turns out anything like the script, we would have a very marketable movie. I shook their hands, handed them their first check, and accepted the role as Executive Producer. “I think you guys have a good plan for production. It’s too bad I won’t be there for the first part of the shoot as I’m going on a long planned vacation, and since I haven’t had one for years, I can’t cancel now. So, I’m leaving you with great confidence that everything that we have discussed will come to fruition, and you shouldn’t have any problems.” I walked away confident that within a couple of weeks we would have wrapped principal photography by the time I returned from vacation.After all, what could go wrong?

See Jason Horton’s Blog: http://mylifeasalowbudgetmoviemaker.blogspot.com/2010/10/micro-budget-movies-can-be-drama-too.html

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews: Composer and Director

2012-04-19T14:23:00.002-07:00

Monsters in the Woods FLASHBACK: Micro-Budget Drama

2012-04-12T09:06:00.002-07:00

Here's an interesting bit on some of the production drama that plagued Monsters in the Woods. It's amazing to me now how trivial much of it seems, including my ego-centric antics.

Ballooning budgets, on-set drama, producer/director in-fighting, prima dona actors, these things are often associated with big budget productions. But is the drama any less significant when it’s thousands of dollars at stake as opposed to millions. Well, that’s obviously a matter of perspective, but for the most part I used to think the answer was no. I was wrong.

Monsters in the Woods is the most expensive production I’ve directed. It was not originally intended to be so. It started out has a low-end production, even by micro-budget standards, to be shot for a low wage job’s monthly salary using friends for cast and crew. Almost no one was to paid, I was either multi-taking crew positions myself or calling in favors (I’ve done plenty over the years.) And I was totally cool making this kind of movie.

Then a few things happened.

One of my friends had a personal connection to Glenn Plummer. He said he could get him in the movie and he did. Glenn was cast in the role of Jayson. While he would only be shooting a few days, it still put a substantial strain on our extremely meager budget. I also wanted to get a legit location, permits and insurance to shoot our massacre sequence. These two costs were starting to push the budget beyond what we could manage on our own. So, I reached out to a producer friend of mine and he came onboard, along with another producer. They brought with them a little more funding that would cover the location (Big Bear), insurance, permits and Glenn Plummer. The budget basically doubled. But we were still talking very low. And I was ok making that movie.

Then a few more things happened.

We get to Big Bear. We have two days to shoot out Glenn Plummer and get our major massacre sequence in the can. Things didn’t go exactly as planned. As with most productions, our 1st day was full of hiccups. We got started a few hours late. The 1st scenes took much longer to shoot than expected. Then we had some major drama between a few actors (which I can’t really get into). By the time we got to our second and last day, we were more than a half-day behind. Luckily we came back strong in the 2nd day, finished all of Glenn’s stuff and were ready to shoot our massacre sequence.

Then something else happened…

Our monsters weren’t ready. The crew helping out with FX had to exodus early the 2nd morning (personal reasons.) This left a one man FX make-up crew to do 3 full monsters. We were already behind and it just wasn’t doable. When it came time to shoot the sequence we had less than one full monster. The massacre sequence (one of the main reason we were shooting on location in the 1st place) could not be shot.

These two days in Big Bear were the bulk of our budget and we only got done half what we needed to. Well, Glenn was shot out. The massacre could most likely be done somewhere cheaper, probably guerilla. We were going to soldier on. And I was still ok making that movie.

we also had some drama with one of the lead actors. He had to be replaced and we had to reshoot footage.

Then something else happened…

I reviewed the footage we shot in Big Bear. It was awesome. Glenn Plummer and the rest of cast were incredible. They were clicking and gelling better than I could have ever imagined. I think the script is pretty damn good, but they were taking it to a whole other level. If done right, this could be a really good movie. Of course, done right = more money. So I first asked the producers for more cash to hire a proper fix company. They agreed and we hired Tom Devlin’s 1313 FX (in retrospect this turned out to be one of wisest decisions.) It was also decided to upgrade cameras from the JVC with which we had shot the entire 1st act behind the scenes perspective stuff to a CANNON 7D for all the “real movie” stuff of which we had shot almost none. And I was really ok with making that movie.

Then a few more things took place…

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the upgrade from the 720p JVC to the 1080p H264 Cannon was going to strain my older editing system past it limits. Not only were we going to have to spend money on the camera and FX, but also now I need a new editing computer has well. The budget kept rising.

Now the producers are getting miffed. What started out as a minimal investment was becoming much more substantial, especially by micro-budget standards. In addition to reshooting the big bear stuff, now there was additional post costs. The budget had pretty much tripled. I had pitched a movie to be done at a certain budget and now it was 3x’s that. I was still cool making that movie.

Then more shit went down…

I had never shot on the 7D before and am pretty much the DP on the movie. I needed at least a day before shooting to familiarize myself with the camera, especially in the lower light of our cave set. I was supposed to get the camera the day before we shot in order to do this. The owner of the camera had a shoot pop up and I could get it until the night before the shoot, late. I had no time to work with the camera in the dark cave setting beforehand. It cost us. We shot over the next 2 nights in our dark cave set. While not unusable, the footage turned out less than stellar. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly didn’t match the superior performances by the actors. I asked for more days to reshoot the scenes. The producers were not happy, but I was fine with making this movie.

Then something else happened...
A new investor turns up, brought in by yours truly, who wanted to put a substantial amount into the movie. This investment would cover a new computer for editing. The 3 days of reshooting or a new cannon of our own. I suggest that we use it for this.

Then all hell breaks loose. I get angry emails and calls from producers, saying I’m outta control, spending too much money, mishandling money, that purchasing a new camera is unreasonable. I was told how “easy it was to spend other people’s money.” Ect.. I don’t know, maybe they were right. I don’t know anymore. I did promise to deliver a certain product at a certain price, in this task I failed. The final budget was just under 4x’s the original. Now, the movie we’ve got in the can is more than 4x’superior to the one that was originally intended, but I don’t know how much that counts for. In the end the new investment was put towards the computer and the reshoots. We continued to rent the camera, went back to Big Bear for three days, got the massacre and a bunch of new fx shots. We finished out production and I’m ok with making this movie.

Then something else happened…

Well, we did finish the movie. It has been released, and all involved are pretty happy with the results. There are those that believe that I was initially aware that the movie could not have been finished at the original budget, and pretty much lied in order to get the movie going. This is simply not true. I did think that the script I wrote could be made for 10k. And I still say had certain things (most not under my control) not gone wrong that it could've been done.

Monsters in the Woods FLASHBACK: F*&@ and MPAA

2012-04-11T15:42:00.002-07:00

Way back when, I wrote a series of posts regarding the pre/pro/and post-production of Monsters in the Woods. With the movie just now being released, I thought I'd repost some of the better ones.

So, there's been a concern amongst some of our production team about the overuse of the word "fuck" in Monsters in the Woods. That it will cause us problems with the MPAA.

I at first dismissed this as ridiculous. I even started counting fucks. Tonight me and my pal counted 65 give or take in the 1st half. (it was not fun). Double that for the 90-minute run time and you get 130. Which is well under acceptable MPPA R Rating standards.

Casino had 422
Summer of Sam 326
Born on the 4th of July 289
Pulp Fiction 252
Jarhead 251
Big Lebowski 281
*although we did beat out Glengarry Glen Ross which had only 138. Woah!
http://www.listology.com/list/most-occurrences-word-fuck

Shit you could straight double my estimate and still be under the top 3.

But it keeps coming up and then a producer brought up a more artistic concern, that the overuse of the word takes away its power when you do need it. Now this I can agree with. It’s a valid point. So I looked back over the cut with friend tonight and I have to admit, that yes, it is overused. The actors took what was in the script, which was a lot of “fucks” and added another 15%. If I had the whole production to do over, I’d have had a full time script supervisor and I’d have reigned in the improv a little more.

But I didn’t. There aren’t alternate takes and without cutting whole scenes or making really awkward cuts to existing scenes, there isn’t much that I can do about it now. And really when it comes down to it, I don’t have a problem with it. I personally use expletives that way myself, as do many people I know, and I enjoy hearing it onscreen. To me it feels authentic.

It definitely can be off-putting to some. But, it’s not to me. And I have to ask myself, even if I could, would I want to cut them down, would I want to neuter my movie, because of what some may find offensive? Because it might limit the movie commercially?

Wait a minute! One of the characters refers to another Hispanic character as a spic. Might the Hispanic community be offended? I better take that out too. Then there’s the whole Jesus action hero thing (That’s gotta offend someone). Then there’s characters committing adultery, nudity, monsters, blood, a character wearing white after Labor Day… Damn, who won’t be offended?

I made a micro-budget horror flick. It’s not a 4-quadrant Pixar movie. It’s a gritty, no holds barred splattery horror movie. That’s what I set out to make and that’s what it is.
So be it.
But, I am cutting the Michael Bay, Donald Duck stuff…
Sorry Lee, there are legalities to be considered.

post-mortem-one year later.
I still think my above argument is valid. However, I do think I probably over-did the profanity a bit. I recently watched the movie again with an audience and have to admit there were a few instances where I was a bit embarrassed by the overuse of the F@#! word. But it's not because of it's profane nature. It's simply because of the repetitive nature in which it's used.

Monsters in the Woods Screening March 31st

2012-03-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

There's going to be a screening of Monsters in the Woods in Redlands, Ca on March 31st.

We're given out screeners of Trap (the movie that inspired Monsters in the Woods) to the 1st 25 people through the door.

Click here for more info.

SSA Public Relations NEWS RELEASE

2012-03-18T09:19:00.003-07:00

Osiris Entertainment Unleashes Monsters in the Woods Overseas For Immediate Release:

Leading independent film and DVD distributor, Osiris Entertainment, has acquired international broadcast rights for for Monsters in the Woods, the shock- horror film that parodies the pitfalls facing filmmakers trying to make it in Hollywood, it was announced today by Evan Crooke, Founder and CEO of Osiris Entertainment.

Monsters in the Woods tells the story of low budget filmmaker, Jayson, who has made the movie of his dreams. But to his dismay, it can’t sell in Hollywood. In order to salvage the film Jayson is told to add sex scenes and more violence. Out of money and clinging to his last chance to get the movie sold, Jayson approaches his psychotic producer Bravo and orders him to assemble a cast and crew and immediately begin a re-shoot of the film

With a precarious promise of a share of the profits, the crew and a ragged group of ‘B’ actors head to the back woods of the Great Bear Mountains to begin filming. Tragedy strikes immediately when Jayson is accidentally killed by his inept crew. Amidst all the chaos, Bravo strangely convinces the cast to finish the movie. They reluctantly agree, but soon after, are attacked by an unrelenting swarm of deadly ‘devil dogs’ from Hell. Bravo and members of the cast briefly escape the danger as they are rescued by two ‘angels’ sent from Heaven to battle the monsters. Unknown to them all, Bravo has made a pact with the Devil to provide twelve souls (theirs) in order to get the movie made. Mayhem ensues as the survivors attempt to kill the ‘demons’ and close the entrance to Hell before the whole Earth is consumed by evil!

Monsters in the Woods features memorable performances from Glenn Plummer as the unfortunate Jayson (Sons of Anarchy, ER) and Blaine Cade as the desperate Bravo (Edges of Darkness, Rise of the Undead). They are supported by horror genre regulars, Lee Perkins (The Living Corpse), Linda Bella (Filth to Ashes, Flesh to Dust) and Gladys Otero (Z: A Zombie Musical).

About Osiris Entertainment:

Based in Chatsworth, California, Osiris Entertainment was created in 2008 by Evan Crooke, a noted filmmaker with a mission to provide a distribution company that meets the business and creative requirements of the independent film and music community and serves the global broadcast and DVD marketplace with the highest quality film entertainment in all popular genres.

Monsters in the Woods Video Interview: Linda Bella

2012-03-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews: Ashton Blanchard

2012-03-10T06:57:00.002-08:00

Monsters in the Woods Deleted Scenes: Crew

2012-03-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

I Voted 7 on My Own Movie...Does that Make Me a Bad Guy?

2012-03-03T08:26:00.001-08:00

We'll get back to that in a sec...

Two funny things happened on Wednesday (the day after Monsters in the Woods was released on DVD).

1. It popped up on over 200 torrent sites.
2. Several hours later it started to get a ton on hate on the IMDB message Board. Most of the bile seemed to be centered around that fact that the movie was rated 7.5 by users prior to it's release.

I checked out a few of the THEFT links and think I figured it out. Pirate sites give a quick synopsis of the movie, maybe the poster and the IMDB rating. So most of these folks see the 7.5 and go about stealing the movie without so much as checking out a trailer. Then are mad if they don't like it.

Then they complain that the cast and crew must of bumped these ratings.
To this I say...no fucking shit Sherlock! The movie has been listed on IMDB for about a year (prior to it's release). The only people that could have possibly seen it are cast, crew, distributors and a few critical reviewers. Some of these folk worked on the movie for over a year. And you're telling me it's not cool for them to cast a vote on their flick? Sure, I'm the first to admit the movie doesn't deserve a Casablanca 10 and I have tried to dissuade cast, crew and friends from that kind of hyperbolic voting. I voted a 7 by the by. ***unusually high and low scores outside of the median are not taken into account in the final # anyway. As time goes on and more fair and unbiased votes (somewhere between 2-6 would be my guess) are given, all the 1's and 10's will not even be taken into account.

In this day and age, do you think there are many (or any even) new indie flicks on IMDB that don't get votes cast from cast and or crew? If you answered no, then you are truly naive and deserve to have your illegal downloading time wasted.

As anyone actually every purchased a 16 dollar movie based on the IMDB rating? If so, wow! That's not too bright. Especially since it's pretty easy to find more info about flicks.
There's plenty of trailers, actual critic reviews and video clips from the Monsters in the Woods. Most of which can be linked to right from IMDB. Check out the movie here and join in the discourse.

So am I in fact a jerk or douche for casting a vote on my flick?

Check Scam Beware!

2012-03-02T11:09:00.002-08:00

So this is not really movie related... well kinda, since it was attempted on me and I make movies.

Anyway, so here it is.
I received a check in the mail for 3,950 dollars. It looks legit. A letter accompanies the check saying that I've won some sweepstakes. I'm to call the number to activate the check. The guy on the phone says to deposit the check and call back.

I called the bank that the check was drafted on to see if it was indeed legit. They knew all the info and said it was in fact a scam. After you deposit a check it can take weeks for it to actually bounce. In the meantime the scammers will try and get you to wire money to cover some processing fees.

If you get a similar letter and or check, report it and then rip them up. The company mentioned on the check was
MPR SUPPLY COMPANY, turns out MPR is totally legit and they've been bombarded with calls over the last month due to this scam. They have nothing do to with it. They are just another victim.

Anyway, here's Jason Brown's # 905.781.7233
If you get a chance give him a call and hassle him... it'll be fun.

Turns out this is a pretty common scam. So the names and business may change, but the grift stays the same. Look out!

Win a Copy of Monsters in the Woods from Fangoria

2012-02-27T17:16:00.002-08:00

Click here for a chance to win.
It's just a link to Fangoria's site. I swear. I wouldn't lie. Not about that.

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews: Blaine Cade (Bravo Roberts/Production Designer)

2012-02-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Blaine Cade gives one of the more popular performances in Monsters in the Woods as "Bravo Roberts" a part semi-based on our actual producer. He also did the production design, building an entire cave set on his own property.

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews: Jason Horton (writer/director) and Robert Bravo (Producer)

2012-02-26T10:46:00.003-08:00

This was a fun night. It so super-cool to see everyone again and talk about the movie and production.

…and Yet Another Exciting Saturday in the Life

2012-02-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

One movie out and another two in the pipes. Things are looking good. I did a phone interview with Dread Central yesterday for their Indie-Horror Month. Look for that around the 7^th of March.

630am – Up and Adam. Slept in a bit so that I wouldn’t be to tired and lame at my little shindig. I’m having a few close friends over to celebrate the release of Monsters in the Woods.

630 – 9am – don’t get up, don’t get coffee, don’t do shit but go over my latest script fresh. I find I do some of my best work in that magic hour when I first wake before my anaylitcal mind kicks in and inhibits creativity. I’ll go back over this work later, once that anyalitical brain has kicked in. Got a little bogged down in the my 3^rd act…need to go back over it.

9am – 10am – coffee, breakfast and internet corrispondence/social networking.

11am – late morning fun time. (pre-prep ingredients for gumbo) and organize house for the festivities.

11am – Noon – upload latest MITW internet clip_Blaine’s interview. It’s pretty freaking funny. While I’m waiting on that upload, I’ll do a little more work on that script. (gonna be sending it out to some name actors on Monday)

Noon – 5pm – cook Gumbo, Rice, Sour Cream and Chive mash potatoes and get the house in order for the celebration.

5pm - ? Drink, eat and watch the movie a couple of times as new folk arrive and old folk leave.

That’s how I plan to do it today.

Monsters in the Woods Video Interviews (The Outtakes)

2012-02-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

A candid behind the scenes look at the behind the scenes of Monsters in the Woods.

Marvel at my wonderful hair!

Yes, it really was as fun as it looks.

Support Indie Horror - Track Down Monsters in the Woods

2012-02-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

Monsters in the Woods begins a limited DVD release Feb. 21st.

It's a rough time for indies. With the current fractured market place it can be extremely hard for an indie to reach its audience. Monsters in the Woods is a movie deserving of an audience. So take the time to track and down and check it out.

For now its available through:
DVD Planet
CD Universe
Family Video (rental too)
Deep Discount
Amazon

It will depend on how well the movie sells through these outlets that will determine whether or not it gets an increased availability and release. If you're on the fence, dive in and check it out. There's no one trying to get rich off this flick. We just want the opportunity to have our movie seen by as many folks as possible.

Check out some reviews here.

Win Your Free Copy of Monsters in the Woods

2012-02-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

Dread Central is giving away five free copies of my little opus.
click here to enter.

Fangoria is doing the same.

Check out some reviews here.

*****THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Distributor's Newish Plan for Micro-Budget Movies

2012-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

Osiris Entertainment is distributing my latest flick, Monsters in the Woods. It is a prime example of a new distribution strategy being employed by such distributors who are putting out smaller movies. Distributing these movies is full of risk. When you sell movies to a retailer like Wal-Mart, for example, they order say 5000 units. And you go, “great! We just sold 5000 units!” Yeah, not so fast. See if Wal-Mart doesn’t sell those units they ship back the unsold ones and the distributor eats that cost. So now they’re putting out these movies in a more careful manner, which strongly resembles a limited theatrical release.

They start with a limited VOD. The movie will go out to Comcast, ATT, Verizon FIOS ect. Then about a month later they make the DVD available though online outlets like Amazon and CD Universe. At the same time they may sell to a few regional DVD retail/rental outlets. For example, Monsters in the Woods is going out to a chain of FAMILY VIDEOs in the Midwest. The distributor than sits back and watches the numbers for a month or two before deciding if the larger retail outlets are worth the risk. If they are the movie goes wider and makes them a ton of money. If not, they make a few smaller sales (domestic and foreign) and let the movie wither and die.

I can see the logic in the method, but it’s very frustrating as a filmmaker to not be able to point to a single universal release date. It makes your release feel less legitimate. All I can do is continue to promote my movie and hope that the positive press for it translates into some sells.

New Reviews of Monsters in the Woods

2012-02-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

Aint it Cool News
I know it's not that big a deal but this one has me excited. I've been reading this site for over 10 years. I visit at least once a day. It's really neat to see my movie mentioned. Then add in that it's a positive review and I'm ecstatic.

28 Days Later Analysis
Michael Allen has been reviewing my flicks since Edges of Darkness. He always gives an honest well read opinion. It's the 1st site I usually send screeners to.

Beyond Hollywood
called MITW "one of the strongest straight-to-video efforts in recent memory."

Cool Awesome Movies
This guys HATED Edges of Darkness. He checked out Monsters in the Woods and found it more to his liking. Not a glowing review, but one of my favorites. I also did a really in depth interview with him. It's my favorite interview so far.

HorrorNews.net
********[redacted]***********

The Independent Critic
The guy reviews everything from Studio Tentpoles to obscure micros... So it's cool to see him give out some praise for this little monsters movie.

Video Views
One of the only reviews the distributor landed us. And I'm glad they did.

The Movies Made Me
Cool site. Good review. Still would like to see what Chad thinks.

Bloody-Disgusting
says MITW can be summed up in two words "cave vagina." Enough said!

Igor's Lab
An infectiously fun review.

More Horror
My all time favorite review. This dude just gets it! And he wrote a really fun and well-written review about it. Did a cool interview with him too.

Frightmeter
I quite liked this guy's take on the movie.

Jo Blo
Reads like a pretty positive review. The guy even said he liked the movie, but scored it 1.5 outta 5. Weird.

Horror Cult Films UK
He likes us. He really likes us. Great review. Did a fairly lengthy interview for this site as well.

Dread Central (Doctor Gash)
So this guy hated the movie, gave it a one out of five something-or-others. But, he stated his opinions intelligently and backed them up with specific examples. He just wasn't having it. You can't fault him for that. It's a good (albeit really negative) review and I appreciate him investing the time to write it (which is why I'm sharing it here).
****another writer over at Dread Central also as the movie. Hopefully she'll dig it more.

Yeah, so all in all, we're off to a good start and the dvd release hasn't even got here.
AICN!

Another Exciting Tuesday in the Life

2012-01-31T16:16:00.001-08:00

With Monsters in the Woods release happening, that’s pretty much been my life for the last few weeks. The last few days I’ve changed gears and have been working on the development of Chophouse. It’s an older script that there may be some movement on finance front for. So, I’m whooping it into shape.

5am up and adam. Finish up an email interview in support of Monsters in the Woods.

630 am – 1pm – gotta earn that paper to pay them bills

130 pm – lunch and a quick trip to the gym

230 pm – start work on Chophouse rewrite (well, it’s not so much a re-write as a touch up. This script is much better than I remembered. It’s a vicious, non-stop thriller ride about the important of family. Darwinism at it’s most brutal.)

5pm – burn out a couple of MITW screeners for reviewers. Got a few to mail out tomorrow.

530 pm – shower and groom for a wild evening.

6pm – continue work on Chophouse till my ride gets here at 7pm.

And Another Thing About Self-Promoting Your Micro-Budget Movie…

2012-01-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

IF YOU DON'T DO IT, NO ONE ELSE WILL.

When distributor’s pick up micro-budget movies they’re not usually going to do much to promote them. Most actually pick up micros in bulk and package them together. They spend little to no energy to promote individual pieces. Example: Monsters in the Woods was released on VOD in the US and Canada over 2 weeks ago. The distributor didn’t even let us know. We got the list of VOD markets from them 2 weeks after the movie was out, and only then after pestering them repeatedly for it. The only thing more frustrating than not having any help promoting your movie, is to not even know when or how to do it yourself. The smaller distributors may even have PR firms working with them. However, in most cases these firms’ resources are allocated to promoting the distributor as a whole. I’ve found from experience on 2 different flicks that these guys don’t give a fuck about the individual movies or moviemakers. Even slightly bigger distributors like Anchor Bay or Lions Gate do very little for their micro releases, aside from doing up some artwork and putting the movies into the market. So if you get your micro-budget picked up it is most likely going to be 99% up to you to get the word out.

Now I’m not shitting on the distributors here. They have little incentive to really push these “little” pictures. Unless lightening strikes, these movies have a rather low ceiling in terms of their market potential. The chances of them making their promotional money back are slim for most of the stuff they pick up. It’s just a fact many low-budget moviemakers are unaware of. And to be fair, my last distributor actually did send screeners of movie to several press outlets for review (albeit as a part of a package of several of their other movies.)

Oh yeah...

CHECK OUT MONSTERS IN THE WOODS ON VOD NOW!