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Robert W. Filion chosen as Inspirational Filmmaker of the Week!

Mutantville Productions first learned of Robert W. Filion during our epic adventure to take Devil Comes Down to George A. Romero’s American Zombie Film Contest in 2009. During said contest Robert’s movie, See The Dead, went on to sweep his competitors into the grave including MVP’s own Devil Comes Down. Robert reaped the rewards of the contest and MVP was left rubbing our collective bruised egos and has been plotting revenge ever since.

Over the years, MVP has come to know and respect Robert as a man of many talents.  Robert follows MVP’s filmmaking philosophy in that he is always ready to do whatever needs to be done to get his movies made whether it’s working as the writer, director, producer, director of photography, editing or doing his own digital FX.  Robert is a filmmaker with twenty years of experience and any time he brings his considerable talents to bear it is always worth taking notice. Most recently, See The Dead played at the prestigious Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC.

Robert’s company Image Impact Group has been responsible for countless shorts and films over the years including Lot 66, Chekov’s Children, The Promise Jar and The Parcel.  Robert never seems content to create run of the mill horror, instead he always tries to push the boundaries of the art-form technically as well as through the narrative.  His films may feature undead, zombies and other sorted beasts of mayhem – but there is always an attempt to marry the surreal or psychological to the narrative.

In a recent interview with Fangoria magazine, Filion states that “I find the scariest place to navigate is my own head.  I was raised in a military family and never had longterm friends, so I never really fit in, since we moved around a bunch. Though very outgoing, I found the cruelty of children a bit much to take. Even back then, I wrote stories of a fantastical nature and retreated into my own world.”  Filion comments that “people are emotionally fragile, and the question I come up with time and again is, what if you push the right buttons?”

Years later, the stars would align as MVP and Filion no longer found themselves at odds, instead teaming to create a new horror anthology entitled Tales From Mutantville. This past October, Robert teamed with Mutantville Productions to shoot three short films back to back.  Producer J.T.McRoberts commented on working with Filion by saying that “Robert is an inspiration to work with.  He is very professional and possesses a drive and determination to create something new and exciting.  He may know how to do everything that needs to be done on a film set from production manager to gaffing and beyond but he never lets work get in the way of having a good time on the set.  Working with him was a real blast and I look forward to future collaborations.”

Never one to rest on his laurels, Robert has been keeping busy with projects such as Seeing and is still currently in post-production on Indigo Child for Tales From Mutantville.  This weekend he is hosting a private screening of his latest project Ghost Trek. Ghost Trek was developed by writer/co-director Michael Plumides and stars Michael Melendez, Johnny “Fairplay” Dalton, Mikey B. Bartone, Gia Allemonde, Christy Johnson, and Addy Miller (of The Walking Dead).

For his dedication and professionalism to the art and craft of filmmaking, MVP is proud to chose Robert W. Filion as the inspirational filmmaker of the week.

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago.

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MVP’s Inspirational Filmmaker of the Week: Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi didn’t start out at the top directing three of the highest grossing blockbusters of all time with Spiderman.  He started at the very bottom going door to door with his aspiring actor buddy Bruce Campbell, asking dentists to invest their Vegas money in a little project called “Book of the Dead.”  That obscure project went on to become one of the most lauded horror films of the eighties and helped start the entire video nasty craze in England under the more well known name of “Evil Dead.”

Check out this great clip from Jonathan Ross’ Incredibly Strange Film Show as Raimi discusses the horror roots of his filmmaking career.

For more on Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead, be sure to check out Geo’s great article on Evil Dead here.

Posted 1 year, 4 months ago.

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iPhone Horror from Oldboy Director Park Chan-wook

Apparently shooting on film just isn’t good enough for some filmmakers. Park Chan-wook – renowned Korean director of such modern horror/action classics as Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Thirst has just finished shooting a his latest horror film. The 30 minute short, entittled Paranmanjang, was shot entirely on his iPhone 4! It’s nice to see modern filmmakers trying to break out of the pack and use the new media as a new means of expressing cinema. Such actions just might earn Park Chan-wook a spot amongst the illustrious pantheon of MVP’s Patron Saints of Guerrilla Filmmaking.

From the Wall Street Journal, “From hunting for a film location, shooting auditions, to doing a documentary on the filming process, everything was shot with the iPhone 4,” Park said, “We went through all the same film-making processes except that the camera was small.”

For the short, he teamed up with his younger brother Park Chan-kyong, a media artist, and KT Corp., the wireless operator that is the exclusive distributor of iPhone in South Korea. KT paid for a portion of the $130,000 in production costs.

The short is a fantastical tale that begins with a middle-aged man fishing one afternoon and then, hours later at night, catches the body of a woman. The panicked man tries to undo the intertwined fishing line, but he gets more and more entangled. He faints, then wakes up to find himself in the white clothes that the woman was wearing. The movie’s point of view then shifts to the woman and it becomes a tale of life and death from a traditional Korean point of view.

Park was not the first South Korean moviemaker to experiment this way. Last October, KT sponsored a film festival with 12 short movies also made with the iPhone 4. Mr. Park’s new work will be screened at nine cinemas nationwide later this month.”

For more information, see the original Wall Street Journal article here.

Posted 1 year, 4 months ago.

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Docs to Make Your Inner Filmmaker Smile: Zombie Girl: The Movie


“Zombie Girl: The Movie” is a feature-length documentary covering the time it took 12-year-old Austin, Texas, filmmaker Emily Hagins to make her zombie movie “Pathogen.” The film also explores the advancements in technology that have made it possible for so many young people to shoot and edit their own movies. Official website: zombiegirlthemovie.com

via YouTube – Zombie Girl: The Movie (widescreen trailer).

Posted 2 years, 4 months ago.

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MVP Presents the Guerrilla Filmmakers' Spotlight: Mark Borchardt

Rock great Perry Farrell interviews Guerrilla Filmmaking Guru Mark Borchardt.

Posted 2 years, 8 months ago.

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