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GARAGE SALE

It's finally here! After four months of work, Drive-In of the Dead's first film (well, the fake trailer for it anyway...) is finally here! GARAGE SALE is its name, and it is our little tribute to all those great slashers from the 80's that we grew up with. It's with a tremendous sense of relief that I finally get to say it's finished, for this has been a troubled production to say the least. I started work on this back in February with the hope that Spring would be right around the corner. It didn't quite happen that way. Instead, we're only a couple of weeks removed from snow covering everything and the temperature is STILL dipping below freezing mid way through May!

Shot on my little hand-held camera, our faux trailer for GARAGE SALE was edited on Microsoft's crappy MovieMaker program (I don't recommend it). We have since upgraded to an Apple and will be making all of our future productions in Adobe Final Cut Pro. In the end, the basic features of the program somewhat benefited the look of our movie, since we were going for a dated, vintage look that was a throw-back to movies of the late 70's and early 80's. To help achieve this effect I used a red filter in many shots as well as an aging filter that put in film grain in post production.

But what really sells GARAGE SALE is the music. Set to the tune of 'Veiled Hunter' by the incomparable Midnight Syndicate, this song can be found on their album 'The 13th Hour.' We can't say enough about this band - and this trailer is just as much dedicated to them as it is to the slashers of our youth. We strongly encourage you to visit their website: www.midnightsyndicate.com to pick up your own copy of the album!

Well, mother nature aside, assembling the trailer for GARAGE SALE has been a great learning experience for me - and I tip my twisted psycho mask to all the filmmakers who are able to put together a full length feature film. It isn't easy! Anyway - I hope you enjoy watching GARAGE SALE as much as I enjoyed making it. It was made with a lot of respect and admiration for the horror genre and for Midnight Syndicate!

Stop on by...we're open for business!

http://www.driveinofthedead.com

Production Update

So things are still moving forward on Drive-In of the Dead's first cinematic endeavor. Moving forward - but seemingly at a snail's pace. I'm not really one for putting the cart before the horse (like doing poster art before there's even a movie to promote); but this production is definitely at the whim of the weather, and mother nature simply isn't cooperating. So now it's practically April and we are a full month behind schedule of where I had hoped to be at this point. Our first teaser trailer is about 75% finished, but most of that was done in the month of February in a freezing (sometimes below freezing) garage.

Now we've come to a point where we simply have to have warmer weather - and no snow! - for the two and a half minute trailer to be completed. In other news, the trailer has thus far been assembled on an IBM computer using Microsoft's woefully inefficient MovieMaker program. Once that is at last completed, I have invested in a refurbished Apple G5 computer that's equipped with Final Cut Pro for the actual movie when we get to that point. I'm pretty excited about this development (I'm an Apple kind of guy) and can't wait to dig in to all the G5 has to offer. However, since the trailer was started on my PC, I feel like I should finish it there - no sense re-doing it all over! So hooking up the Apple for good will just have to wait. Sigh...

I will admit that the art for the above mentioned teaser poster turned out pretty darn good. I'm pleased with how it all came together in Photoshop, besides the fact that even THAT project had to be shot around the huge piles of snow here in Minnesota! The only other thing I have to report is that I've drawn up some official Drive-In of the Dead release forms to hand out to actors, extras, and crew so they can sign on the dotted line and make their effort on our project official. I hope to get the last few shots I needed wrapped up this weekend - it's supposed to be in the 50's on Saturday! - and then do some minor editing and tweaking to the trailer before it makes its debut.

Stay tuned...

Craving A New Script

So did you happen to catch this little blurb from Wes Craven's chat with Total Film? Sounds like all is not well in Woodsboro, with script re-writes always signaling a troubled production (translation: studio meddling). The question arose from a Tweet Craven posted stating that he was 'no longer in control of the script.' The names in question that Craven mentions are Kevin Williamson (scribe behind the first two installments) and Ehren Kruger (the writer behind 'Scream 3'). Here's what Craven had to say about the direction 'Scream 4' is taking:

"I was just stating the fact. In some ways it's a Wes Craven film, and in way it's not entirely, because it's not a script I have control of. It's ultimately controlled by what the studio wants in the script. My job is much more bringing whatever experience and expertise and creativity I can. [pause] Look, there was a bumpy period when things shifted over from Kevin to Ehren. I signed up to do a script by Kevin and unfortunately that didn't go all the way through the shooting. But it certainly is Kevin's script and concept and ideas and themes.

When I initially met with Kevin, he sketched out what the next two would be, and I found it really fascinating. A lot depends on whether they come up with scripts to flesh out. But certainly, I'm up for it, if the script is there. It's a fascinating thing to do two trilogies in a career."

Dark Side of the Moon

Not a big fan of the hand-held 'found footage' sub-genre of horror, but Apollo 18 looks pretty groovy. It wins points for its cool tagline anyway: There's a reason we never went back to the moon. I'll definitely be checking this one out! Apollo 18 launches on Friday, April 22nd. To find out more about the conspiracy, visit:

http://apollo18movie.net/

Action!

Naturally after getting excited typing up yesterday's post, I couldn't wait to get started on production of Drive-In of the Dead's first cinematic endeavor. It all began innocently enough: I just wanted to get some opening credits knocked out in Photoshop - and it kind of snowballed from there. What next started out as simple location scouting turned into taking a few pictures - which turned into shooting a few very basic shots on video. Making a rough edit just to flesh out some ideas turned into cutting together a one minute trailer that, while crude, could basically be used to pitch a low-concept horror movie idea.

All in all it was a ton of fun and a great way to spend the last day of Christmas vacation (even though I almost got frostbite on my fingers doing it!) Work will continue on this project as we re-work it and refine it - and shoot more scenes once the piles of snow melt! More to come...

Dead Weeds Pictures

I wanted to thank Iowa filmmakers Anne and Michael Paul for graciously allowing us to showcase their tremendous film: 'Roman's Bride' here at the drive-in. While the film itself is a grim examination of the darker aspects of human behavior, I can definitely say that the Pauls are not at all like the characters in their film. A delight to work with, I see great things ahead for their production company: Dead Weeds Pictures. To see how well done independent horror can be, I urge you to visit their website and pick up your own copy on dvd. Help support the local talent - and enjoy this macabre tale set amid the corn!

www.romansbride.com

Nevermore

Here's the first pic from the set of the James McTeigue directed thriller 'The Raven' starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe. As a major fan of Poe, I'm satisfied with Cusack in the starring role (although I would have cast Johnny Depp myself - with Tim Burton directing, natch), but I'm not thrilled with the goatee. Granted there aren't many images of the poet to work off of - but of the known likenesses in existence, I can't recall ever seeing one in which he sported a goatee. Cusack does not look like Poe here - he looks more like some random guy in 1845 wearing sneakers, Professor Moriarty perhaps. I also don't jive with the plot, which seems a little too Sherlock Holmes-ish for my liking:

"A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet is in pursuit of a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories."

I would have preferred a straight biopic rather than a fictionalized thriller - but hey - no one asked my opinion...

R.I.P. Dino

Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis dies

ROME (Reuters) – Oscar-winning Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who brought to the big screen nearly 500 films including "Serpico," "Three Days of the Condor" and "King Kong," died in Los Angeles aged 91, Italian media said on Thursday.

De Laurentiis produced several Italian classics in collaboration, including Federico Fellini's "La Strada," for which he won an Oscar in 1957.

He moved to the United States in the 1970s after the failure of his film studios in Rome, and turned to a string of big international productions, including a few flops.

He was behind the legendary King Kong remake of 1976, the killer whale film "Orca," several adaptations of Stephen King's novels, and most recently "Hannibal," the sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs."

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Paul Casciato)

American Grindhouse

For those who checked out our main screen you've no doubt seen the trailer for a fascinating picture called 'American Grindhouse.' My thanks go out to Elijah Drenner, the director of the film, for taking a chance on a fledgling website and allowing us to show his trailer. In the weeks to follow you'll see plenty more film trailers from up-and-coming directors (as well as some established genre legends!) Thanks Elijah, for being the first to recognize Drive-In of the Dead as a legitimate outlet for independent film! For more on 'American Grindhouse,' go to:

www.americangrindhouse.com