On Sunday afternoon I had the opportunity to go and work with a friend of mine, Christina Kortum of Ravenous Studios. She is up to her eye brows in work right now. When others are having tough times, her phone won’t stop ringing with work. She does special effects make up, prosthetics, and creature effects. Christina is the woman that did the latest photo shoot for The Last Stand’s promo with Daily Motion. She is currently working on the film Stripperland.
OK, I know what you are thinking. Stripperland sound like a cheezy flick. Well, in fact, it is being produced and directed by Cheezy Flicks own Sean Skelding. He directed I am Virgin, a nudy take off of I am Legend. Stripperland is his take on Zombieland, though I think Bill Murry is not in this version. Like I said, I know what you are thinking…WTF!?
It’s like this: Sean is making his movie his way. He wrote it, he is directing it, and more importantly, he got the money to make it happen. That is what all of us who write or direct movies want to do – MAKE OUR MOVIES. He is making his, and any one that says other wise is simply this; jealous. I don’t want to make a tween movie about pedophile vampires getting Mormonistic teenagers pregnant so that werewolves can lust after the infant. That isn’t my movie. I don’t want to make a movie about a dominatrix hooker that slays johns in her basement and has musical dance numbers interspersed through the narrative. I do want to make a zombie movie, and I want to make a couple of scifi movies. Those are probably movies that others wouldn’t want to make, write, or watch.
I have been trying to make sure that I continuously watch my mouth about other people productions. It is far too easy to criticize someones movie…or anything for that matter. Being a critic is easy, doing it right is hard. I socialize with the young, up and coming, wanna-be directors in Portland, and I am shocked at how they tear down others when they aren’t around. I have seen Twitter and Facebook posts pointed at Sean because he got a budget after I am Virgin. Well, guess what? He made a movie, his way.
I had a lot of fun on the set, too. I can’t say that I would shoot a movie the way he does, but it isn’t my movie, either. That is a perspective that I have to take with me every day, and so should others. At the end of the day, Sean is the only one that Sean has to answer to about how he is shooting his movie, and if he is loving it, then let him love it and be happy for him loving it his way.
That goes for people on his cast and crew. I remember reading some posts by some people because a now-local, former Hollywood personality is making an appearance in the film. If I said his named, you wouldn’t even know him or his work, only is brothers. So, he gets put in this movie, and suddenly the new Messiah is choosing favorites. What? Look, if he got an offer for a part, and he takes it, the part and the price were right. Offer him something in your film, and he either takes it or he doesn’t it. Don’t go complaining about what person chose what part or why. Don’t rank worthiness, either. To him, that is his favorite part that day, and if you can get him a better one you had better offer it. Don’t go and say that you or others are more worthy of their talents or efforts. You’re not. Only because you made the situation that way once you started down the road of publicly denouncing someones project.
You can go ahead and think what you want. I know I have my fan base that looks at The Last Stand and thinks “What the hell was he thinking?” Bad choice, bad move, bad camera, bad director. Well, maybe, but at the time I either thought it would work, thought it looked good, or just wanted the damn thing to be done so I could move on. I know that in my head I have been jealous and callous and mean about other peoples projects. The key is to not let it seep into your daily conversations and become poison. Do what you have to do. Do it your way, and let others do it their way. When it is your set, you let the colors of your directing pallet fly. When it’s someone else’s pallet, you let them fly and marvel at them even being bold enough to do so.
I had a blast on the Stripperland set, and I have a new mark to go on my IMDb listing. That of Make Up Effects Assistant. I got to see a friend of mine, Jamison Challeen, who is one of the leads in the film. I spent most of my day doing things like mixing slime and blood, creating body parts to have chainsaws cut up and spew blood, slopped effect goo on things. It was awesome. Everyone was laughing, there were no raised voices. It was really great. Compared to other sets I have been of for other directors, this was one of the most fun.
It is getting harder and harder to get film work done. At least, that is the way it seems. Here in Portland, Oregon, there seems to be a lack of people ready to step out on a limb when it comes to producers or investors. No one is ready to take a chance it seems, but want, instead, an easy way to get rich or famous. It seems that way with some film making as well. There seem to be lots of ideas floating around, and lots of people making them, but not much getting done.
It has been a very frustrating time. I am new, in geologic time, to film making, and I plunged in with both feet. I knew the risks and gladly took them, but I often wonder why so many people stand on the fringe of the same world, claiming the titles for themselves, but not doing anything to actually secure that nomenclature as a part of their being. Title dictated behavior, I was heard. So if you say it, does that really make it so?
I sometime hesitate at the door, not really calling myself a film maker, or a director. I say “that’s what I want to be” when really, that is what I am doing. I am better at it than some, not as good at it than others, but I am doing it nonetheless. The only way I will learn and get better is to do it. So I am doing it. I believe I am now feeling like a professional.
Maybe my expectations are too high at times. Maybe I need to just ease up when the expectations aren’t met. I am not sure. I feel that if I lower my expectations, that will allow for lower quality work. I want to raise my bar, and I am looking for people who are wanting to do that same.
Hmmm, contemplation time. I will stew on this and return.
30 hour day, part 2 is upon us. Local businesses, charities organizations, and trans-media people have converged on Pioneer Square in Portland Oregon to help raise money and entertain the masses. You can find out more and watch the live feed from the embed below.
The Last Stand cast and crew were on hand at 11 pm for interviews and a showing of the entire first season. For anyone who wishes to buy a shirt during the live showing of 30 Hour Day, all proceeds go to The American Red Cross.
Even when things get stalled or stopped, I keep finding ways to stay busy. For those of you that knew, I was in the preproduction stages of In My Eyes. It was a complex story about a female killer, but some twists and turns on love, family, and the twisted intricacies of culture. The investor made some unfortunate investments that didn’t pay off, leaving the production here stranded. So, what next?
That’s easy…more work. I shelved many projects with computer issues and for the film, but now that both are sorted out, I am going back and doing some cleaning. I am finishing the short documentary about Patrick, the man who lost his partner to AIDS and was kicked out of the hospital because he was the Domestic Partner, not the Married Partner. I am cleaning that up for submission into a few film festivals and release for people to finally see.
Things continue on with The Last Stand. Our releases on DailyMotion have been slow but steady. We get spikes in viewings, so it has been odd and erratic. The nice thing is that we are getting more viewers, more responses, and more opportunities to get another season going.
The biggest project currently in the works is a documentary about a local iconoclastic revolution. I am not at liberty to discuss to much, but the beauty is that there seems to be funding in the works. I am really excited to work on this, because it was something that I wanted to do months ago and had to shelve it. Oh, shelf, you have such nice things on you. I hope to come back to them.
In the most immediate future, GSP will be filming for Pride NW and the annual Pride Fest in Portland. While I am not overly excited about continued live event coverage, I am happy to be doing work for the great folks at Pride NW, and I am always happy to have the camera running. When the highlights are edited, I will have them posted here for folks to see.
Next week, Galaxy Sailor Productions meets up with @Large films. Stay tuned for that.
Hey everyone. Back in October, Fell Studios, which is run by my buddy and collaborator Evan Phillips, filmed the Fall Into Darkness metal show in Portland. This show consisted of three days of Doom Metal bands performing on stage. For those that have a taste for Doom Metal music, you would recognize bands like Earth, YOB, Agalloch, Ludicra, Makoto Kawabata (of Acid Mothers Temple), Saviours, Amber Asylum, Witch Mountain, Soriah, and Atriarch. The first DVD is to be released in June by Nanotear Booking’s website. I was fortunate enough to get to run camera for my buddy Evan. He has put hours on hours of time into The Last Stand as both actor and digital effects super hero. It was definitely time for me to pay back his time and dedication for a project that he so dearly loved. Also helping out was Autumn Andel of PhotoSphere LLC, Rian Bosak of reality TV camera work fame, and Rachel Bennett, script writer in the Portland area.
Here is the trailer for Fall Into Darkness:
Fall Into Darkness 2009 DVD Trailer from Fell Studios on Vimeo.
Hey folks, I wanted to show off the most recent video produced by us for the EPA. This one pertains to getting people active in the process of regulations that pertain to environmental decisions. Let Your Voice Be Hear – Faces of Us was shot in one day, and edited in two days. A little quicker and dirtier than I would like, but I like the results. I hope you will, too!
Faces of Us – Let Your Voice Be Heard from Galaxy Sailor on Vimeo.
One May 17th, DailyMotion, the worlds largest user content and upload video sharing site, is doing a media blitz for the release of The Last Stand to its international audience. We are excited to have such a large collective behind us, promoting our work and getting it out to more and more people. We did a photo shoot for the media and here are the Behind-the-Scenes shots:
I recently completed a project with Basic Rights Oregon for their Marriage Matters campaign. Here is an excerpt from the site about their project:
Does marriage matter to you too? Please join me in signing the Freedom to Marry Pledge!
Marriage is the ultimate expression of commitment and responsibility to the person you love. It says “we’re family” in a way that no other word can – and there are many ways that only marriage can allow you protect and care for the people you love.
By signing this pledge, I am joining the thousands of Oregonians who support extending civil marriage to committed gay and lesbian couples.
I pledge to talk with friends and family about why marriage matters to all of us.
I am proud to have helped with the campaign, and I wanted to include the clips that I made for them. I hope they mean something significant to you as well, and you will be willing to sign the Freedom to Marry Pledge.
What, you ask. Because a movie is about to come out…a documentary about the greatest, most influential band of all time. They are the 3 most selling act of all time behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. They span 4 decades now. They are RUSH…my favoritest band in the world. And the documentary movie of the band comes out summer 2010. I think I just shed a tear.
The official trailer for “Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage”, the long-awaited RUSH documentary produced by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn of Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s Banger Films Inc., can be viewed when you hit the link.
“Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage” will make its television debut on June 26 on VH1 and VH1 Classic.
A poster for “Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage” can be viewed below. The film will receive its Canadian premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which runs from April 29 to May 9 in Toronto, Ontario.
The film will be shown on the following dates/times:
* Thursday, April 29 at 9:30 p.m. at the Winter Garden Theatre
* Friday, April 30 at 4:00 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Theatre
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary film festival, conference and market, held annually in Toronto.
“Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage” will receive a red-carpet premier tonight (saturday, April 24) at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. All three members of RUSH — singer/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart — will be on hand for the event.
For more information, go to this location.
Dunn and McFadyen were interviewed last year by Classic Rock magazine’s Jerry Ewing about the first-ever feature film documentary on Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.
“Geddy had been in [Dunn and McFadyen's previous documentary] ‘Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey’ and we were thinking about other bands we could work with,” explained McFadyen. “We felt that RUSH had always been overlooked by the critics so we met them on tour and they liked what we said. We started working on it, then IRON MAIDEN came about so we took a break to do that and raised the financing for the RUSH film. We’ve started on it now and done a load of interviews so now we’re editing with a load of archival footage.”
“We’ve been lucky. Not only have we had access to [RUSH management] SRO’s archives but also Geddy, Alex and Neil’s own personal archives,” enthuses director Dunn. “I was just at Geddy’s house this week. Going through his personal collection of memorabilia. I dug up some gems I don’t think RUSH fans have ever seen so we’re hoping to offer something new.”
As RUSH fans themselves, Dunn admitted this made him feel like a kid let loose in a candy store.
“Well, Geddy’s definitely the premier band archivist,” Dunn said. “He has a massive collection of photographs and clippings. We even got our hands on Neil’s handwritten lyric sheets from back when they were making ‘Fly By Night’, ’2112′ and ‘A Farewell To Kings’, and I don’t think they’ve ever been seen before.”
I can’t believe I haven’t posted in so long. I need to catch things up on here and be more diligent about being on my blog. That is the whole reason to have one, right…to tell you all what is going on with me?
OK, let me sum up:
First off, we have completed The Last Stand season one. Or series one, as I have been calling it. We completed the viewing of The Last Stand Episode 5: Best Intentions to what has continued to be great reviews. Our viewership has continued to increase, and we seem to have fans staying with us! That makes me very happy. We also made t-shirts available for sale to help get the word out and help with our production costs. Feel free to come on over and check them out!
We have had a lot of people help us out with getting The Last Stand out there, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them and talk about their role with us. First off, we were contacted by Earth’s Mightiest Fansite about creating a fan page for The Last Stand and keep a constant news and video update alive. Ed, with Earth’s Mightiest, talked to us about creating a home away from home for our web series, and Earth’s Mightiest has certainly been that. We launched our episodes about once a week over there, and every time we did, we always got a spike in views. Not just that, they also featured us on their front page header. It was a really great deal for us and I really want to thank Ed of Earth’s Mightiest for all of that. Ed also created a web series, Dark Commandos, that you can all check out online.
We have had a whole bunch of great zombie web sites that have helped us out as well. I hope I get them all listed here! So thanks to all of these folks:
Zombie Command
Buy Zombie
Brains Brains Brains
All Things Zombie
Geek Girls Network
Hot Zombie Action
Lost Zombies
My Zombie Pinup
The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse
The Local Zombie
The Zombie Armory
The Zombie Escape Plan
The Zombie Nation
Webseries2Watch by Danger Shoes
Zombie Army Productions
Zombie Pinups
Zombies Defined
All these people posted and embedded our episodes, and helped to push our viewership up. Thanks so much!
Also, we can’t forget RenderYard. They have had a contract with us for a couple of months now, and they continue to grow and gain viewers, helping us to do the same. Not only has Mark over at RenderYard been someone that believes in our project and helping us to promote to new markets, he has also gotten us a new site that will be promoting us with RenderYard. DailyMotion is considered the largest source of viewer content in the world. Even more than YouTube, believe it or not. Starting in the middle of May, we are the featured series for DailyMotion. Not just that, they are having our series dubbed into French, so The Last Stand will now be multi-lingual! Pretty damn cool if I do say so myself.
None of this would have been possible without all the people that helped in front of and behind the camera. Thanks to you all.
More info to come on other things not zombie!
Aralani Photography
Corinne West ~ News from Nowhere
Fences for Fido
Gautch
Geek Girls Network
In Defence of Animals
Shannyn Moore
The Angry Filmmaker
The Discerning Brute
The Green Planet
The Last Stand Fan Page