Mutantville.com

The Horror -VHS Classics in Review Episode 1

Unboxing Horror with Brento

RESPAWNER

Streebo has posted a few notes on the site about my web series, RESPAWNER. To be fair, it’s a 1 minute short film at this point. There’s been some nice buzz generated among the Mutantville Players about doing a web series in 2010 dedicated to the character I’ve created.

About The Show
“What if an undercover police officer could RESPAWN into an invincible demon with powers only limited by her imagination whenever she is murdered?”

The lovely and talented Sylvia Burris plays the lead role of Lexi Bowman, an undercover police officer with an incredible, secret super power.

Over the course of 10 or so 5 minute episodes she will face amazing super villains in a Bad guy of the week format.

I’ll be sharing more about this new project as the post production for G.H.O.S.T. draws to a close. At present this is soley a Brento project as it just sort of birthed itself organically from a 1 minute test film. If you think that this should be the next MUTANTVILLE effort, why not share your thoughts with good ole uncles Streebo and Geo Swanko by using the Contact Us function here on the website. There is no “I” in team – but there is an eye in meat pie as the saying goes.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the test film.

Written in 20 minutes, shot in about an hour, edited in about 6 hours, this test film (yes I know purist don’t like to hear video called “Film” sorry Streebo) was designed and created as a reel builder for Sylvia Burris, my new side kick, or rather, the person to whom I play sidekick most of the time here lately.

Sylvia, Jeremy and I worked hard on this little ditty so please leave us a comment and a rating on YouTube and subscribe to my channel.

See Avatar In Theaters

I can’t remember the last time I spent 2:35 in a theater riveted like I was watching Avatar today. This film simply has to be seen in a theater to be believed. A truly beautiful film with a touching story of sci fi fantasy. johnny B heralds this one an instant classics. Don’t miss it in theaters.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

The Return of Dr. Saw Bones – FX Pickup Shooting for G.H.O.S.T.

Todd A. Britt, resident makeup guru and spiritual leader of the Mutantville makeup department has a set of appliances he enjoys torturing me with. They were originally created for a rather involved vampire makeup from a previous project. When used by themselves they tend to make me look like an exaggerated Jay Leno or perhaps Bette Midler’s Winifred ‘Winnie’ Sanderson from Hocus Pocus, ie a big warted nosed witch. Ever since I knocked out a large chunk of oone of his front teeth in C For Chaos, Todd has been looking for the right opportunity to strike can. This weekend he found it.

Now typically ole Johnny B stays behind the camera unless the role calls for some danger stunts we don’t want to endanger our actors with or an uncomfortable mask. That said, I felt like Todd has really pulled it together for this project despite a shaky start and was obliged to indulge him with this character makeup.

Now this time he wanted me to shave my beard only on the chin, Liev Schreiber style, which I did. The idea was for the chin appliance to fit on the clean shaven area. Unfortunately, someone’s math was off with the shaving which was expanding twice. Ultimately Todd decided that I’d survived latex directly on the edge of my remaining beard line. Sweet mother was this painful to get off, that is if you consider having your beard plucked one hair at a time painful. There was also some lovely latex in the nostril.

By now it should comes as no surprise to anyone that it was an amazingly successful shoot. We this unbelievable cast of giving artists we really can’t go wrong. It’s gratifying to see some of the cast proper, coming back to lend a hand on the pickup shoots or fill a role as an extra in disguise. We also made a few new friends who just found there way to the magical kingdom of Mutantville.

It was cold and a bit uncomfortable but once again everyone pulled together and we made our day. Todd A. Britt and Sylvia Burris provided some rather remarkable battle damaged makeups which I wish I could share. At last, we can’t let that cat of the bag just yet. I have posted some snaps on the Face Book gallery so be sure to swing by and check those out.

Remember this above all else Mutantville Players, Johnny Brento loves ya!

Communication is Key

With it comes to making films with your partners there really is nothing more important than keeping the lines of communication open. Film making is stressful. The more the folks sharing the load communicate, the more things will magically fall into place when you’re on the set.

The members of Mutantville Productions meet 2 – 3 times per week via phone conference when we don’t have any shoot scheduled for the weekend and considerably more frequently when we do. Take today for instance, we’ve already had a 3 way phone conference and will have a business lunch meeting at 12. From lunch, we’ll take a short break and meet up again at 2 to start preparing the triage set and getting folks into makeup. The shoot will most  likely run until 11 tonight or so.

Before you ask, we all work standard 40 hour per week jobs in addition to our duties in MVP. Experience has shown that the more we communicate, the better the finish product, ultimately, the film on DVD will be in the end.

Increased communication with your cast & crew will likewise make your life so much easier while in active production. Don’t presume that because you’ve sent the details in an email that everyone has taken the time to read it or has the important stuff present in mind.  People get busy and forget. Put in the extra time to make that phone call and make sure every remembers the shoot schedule, what to wear, not to cut their hair when to arrive etc etc. You’ll be glad you did.

Remember this above all else Mutantville Players, Johnny Brento loves ya!

LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION

Johnny B With Gene Starnes

Many people have asked how we managed to get access to such an amazing location as the historic Albemarle Opera House for our current project G.H.O.S.T.. In truth it takes fineness, accountability and most of all relationship management skills.

I first met local business man and downtown Albemarle champion Gene Starnes many years ago. It was only last year that I discovered the amazing piece of history located above his place of business, Starnes Jewelers. Gene is a member of virtually every civic organization related to doing business in Albemarle and has a list of community contacts that boggles the mind. I began to ask him about the possibility of a tour of the opera house which his grand father originally built in 1908. Gene readily agreed and before you knew I was filming our walk through.

I, of course instantly realized the cinematic potential for the space, with it’s aged walls, circular French balcony windows and extremely high ceilings, but it wasn’t as simple as winning Mr. Starnes over to the cause. The space covers a neighboring building as well and is co-owned by the adjoining business underneath. There was the matter of establishing a certain rapport and illustrating that Mutantville Productions can be trusted. I really needed Gene to sell the idea to the co-owner of the space with whom we personally had no contact.

To satisfy certain insurance requirements a few ground rules had to be established. For instance, no smoking up there or out in front of the building. As far as I know this only inconvenienced one or two cast and crew members the whole time. As Dave Mustain of Megadeth  once said, “We don’t smoke in this band!”

Contact numbers in case of power failure had to be maintained. I think there are 6 – 8 numbers in that call chain for instance. It turned out that we needed these on the night of the black out so that preparation paid off.

I recall a solid 3 months of discussions before final approval was granted. Even after that through the 9 months of pre-production I kept in constant contact with Gene, say on a bi weekly basis at least, keeping him up to date on the productions progress.

Throughout the process and even in the face of what I’m sure must have been an annoyance to him personally, the night the power went out and it took us 4 hours to find the fuse in the 100 year old structure Gene has really been amazingly supportive of MVP. At this time he is reaching out to a few contacts to help us possibly locate a local resource where the civil war period dream sequence can be shot.

Jumping back into to our mammoth half decade horror film production C 4 Chaos, we actually managed a ton of real locations. If a bar was called for, we were shooting in a bar. If the script called for a bunch of scenes in a comic shop, of which there are precious few around these days, you betchya we were in a honest to goodness comic shop. This really, really elevated that production to be working in the great locations instead of sets.

Like they say, it really is all about LOCATION! LOCATION!LOCATION! Remember this above all else Mutantville Players, Johnny Brento loves ya!

P.S.

Visit the most amazing Jewelry Store in Stanly County. Gene Starnes wants to be your jeweler. Tell him MVP sent you.

Motivation Moments with Johnny Brento

I find that the life of a productive artist is one that requires constant motivation. The creative process for film is so multi-faceted and long that it’s easy to get side tracked. Take my role in MVP for instance. As editor and visual effects artist, much of the hoopla and excitement has died down by the time my work begins in earnest. The actors have moved on to other projects and except for the occasional “When will it be done” message I’m left to my work. In the case of Streebo as a director, we’ll he is a bit of a control freak and thusly is here for %100 of the assembly edits. So there is that to help keep me motivated and it helps quite a lot, but the visual effects work is a whole different matter. I always try to push the envelope with each project and assimilate new techniques. I spend a ton time alone watching tutorials, finding new After Effects plug-ins and generally researching how things are done by the pros.

Music is another great motivational tool. It constantly shapes my artistic mood. I’m fond of all kinds of music and can be found listening to Pandora.com radio almost all of my time I’m in the editing suite.

When it comes to branching out to assimilate other skills such as improving my writing or building myself as a director, I find that nothing motivates me more than someone saying or implying that I can’t do it. For instance, “I don’t think you have what it takes to be a director.” or “You don’t know how to build a story.” Ha! I’ll be damned before anyone else defines me as an artist or as a person. OK, so here comes my arcane movie quote. Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis’s character from Armageddon) “I have never missed a depth that I have aimed for.”

I truly believe that we make our own reality. Very few people start out as great artists or directors or guitar player/songwriters. These are skills one acquires and hard work beats talent that doesn’t work hard. Mutantville is all about defying the odds and breaking boundaries with very little resources. All of us are capable of so much more than those around us would ever believe through dedication and focused effort.

Remember this above all else Mutantville Players, Johnny Brento loves ya!

My Band is Called Mutantville

This past week with the cancellation of one shoot and aggravation of some misunderstandings about a pickup shoot schedule have served to  remind me of just how much like a music band or even a family our group of merry guerrilla film makers really is. I can only speak for myself when I say that I love these guys I work with. They are my best friends on the planet Earth. I really do think that I have more in common with my partners than really anyone else. Sometimes, just like in a band, the singer might think that the guitar is walking all over his lead, or the bass player can’t hear himself and insists on turning up his amp until everyone gets nauseous.

The core members of MVP have been working together for the better part of a decade and that hard work is starting to pay dividends, but from time to time myself or one of the other fellas will slip into a little bit of burn out and get caught up in a quagmire of interpersonal B.S. I want to jump up like Valentine McKee , Kevin Bacon’s character in Tremors, and yell at the top of my lungs, “No! No! No! We HAVE GOT TO GET OUT.” Get out of the muck and drive on. Why? Because that’s what we do. Another shoot, another script, another project. I feel that remaining productive is the key to success as any sort of actor or film maker. George Romero himself advised Streebo this way. “Finish that first one and the rest will come.”

So, if any of you Mutantville Players are missing the invigorating G.H.O.S.T. shoots in the Albemarle Opera House, or feel your creative yen waining, remember this, if it was easy to make movies, anyone could do it. It’s not and and not just any group of people can hold the band together. You are a rock star already for being active creating your art!  Above all else remember that Johnny Brento loves ya BABY!

Brent Develops New Independent Web Series: Respawner.

Poor weather conditions forced the postponement of shooting our dream sequence this past Sunday.  Not wanting to rest on one’s laurels, Brent decided he would rather spend that time developing a new sci-fi based web series.  The project is titled Respawner about a heroine who’s super powers are activated after she’s killed. For more information join the group on Facebook.