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Año bisiesto – That’s Right, it’s Leap Year!

Leap Year (2010) - movie poster

So I was informed that this year is leap year or año bisiesto in Spanish. I started wondering if there were any horror films about leap year and what is the first thing I find? Año bisiesto a film by Michael Rowe released in 2010. It was co-written by Michael Rowe and Lucia Carreras. It stars Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sanchez Parra and Armando Hernandez. This film looks pretty interesting. It’s about Laura (Monica del Carmen), who lost her father on February 29th. Through this month she has sex with a stranger named Arturo. Their sex becomes rougher and rougher and builds to more S&M then has interesting ending that leaves viewers with a conflict feelings.

Learn more and watch the trailer after the leap…
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John Carpenter’s Halloween

John Carpenter, Debra Hill

Author:jrnyfanraleigh

In 1978, John Carpenter brought us his film “Halloween.” This movie sticks out in my mind because it’s the first movie Streebo watched with me when we started preproduction on our film “C for Chaos.” We watched lighting, camera movement, pacing and story telling.

This film is about Michael Myers a psychotic killer that has been in an institution since he was a kid. His doctor, played by Donald Pleasance, searches the streets for him to find him before he hurts someone. Obviously he doesn’t find him before he hurts anyone or it wouldn’t be a horror movie…and it would be a short movie.

This movie also stars Jamie Lee Curtis. I believe this was her first feature film. She did some television work prior. The film also stars Nancy Kyes (credited as Nancy Loomis). She was also in “Assault on Precinct 13″ and “The Fog” which were directed by John Carpenter as well. Continue Reading…

Blockbuster and Netflix Film School

Hello Mutantville! I want to discuss something that helped us out immensely when embarking on our first feature film “C for Chaos.” A few of us had gone to art school to develop our eyes, since of composition, etc… But we hadn’t gone to “Official” film school. We were lucky that Streebo had been studying storytelling since he was young and I had been behind a camera since I was young. Brento had been making and editing movies since he was young. So now that we’ve established that at one point we were all young, we’re ready to move on.

When preparing for “C for Chaos,” we all studied feverishly. We read all the books we could find but another thing was watching movies. I know this sounds like a “Duh” type thing but…we watched them from as if we were making them. Streebo and I would get together and point out camera movement, lighting, pacing, screen directions, composition, coverage, etc… If you really watch and dissect films in this way you can see how different directors can cover similar situations. Some may use more wide angles, some may go in for close ups, etc… Commentary tracks are another great resource. Of course not all commentary tracks are created equal. If you’re a low budget filmmaker then I recommend lower budget movies. Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks. Some of his you need a note book and the pause button to keep up. Be sure you keep an open mind when listening to the commentary. You may only get one or two gems, But if it saves you a night of shooting or makes something easier, I’d say that was worth 2 hours of your time. For example, on the commentary for Ronin, he talks about the scene when they’re buying the weapons. They purposefully wet the entire area since they were filming outside, that way if it rained, it wouldn’t mess up their shooting schedule. Either write this stuff down in a journal or file it away in your brain somewhere.

Streebo is a big believer in only watching what you’re filming. So when we shot “C for Chaos” for about 3 years, that’s pretty much all Streebo watched. Thanks to places like Netflix he showed me horror films from all over the world. This can give you a lot of insight into the genre.

So before, while and after making your film, study as many films as possible. Notice I said study and Not watch. Watch is passive. Study is active.

Below Please leave comments about films with good commentaries for other filmmakers to go and study! Thanks!

Perkins 14 is the First Internet Created Mass Collaboration Horror Film.

From an article at Ars Technica:

The Internet has democratized information and given us the ability to “poke” each other on Facebook. Now it has brought that same decisive dissemination to filmmaking, as the first feature film created entirely by an Internet community is set to debut in January.

The film, called Perkins’ 14, is a horror story about kidnapped children who are dehumanized for evil. Whether or not a horror flick is your cue to break out the popcorn, Perkins’ 14′s more interesting story lies in its creation. The film is the product of Massify, a film production community that provides tools for members to share ideas, collaborate on projects, post résumés and portfolios, secure funding through grants, and ultimately find an audience through distribution companies.

Massify gave its members control over Perkins’ 14 every step of the way, from voting on the initial concept pitches, to picking the cast, and even a contest for the poster. Pitches were solicited in February this year, and Massify members were allowed to vote on them through the middle of March. Once Perkins’ 14 was chosen by the community, casting auditions began in March, screen tests followed the next month, and pre-production began at the end of May.

Massify partnered with After Dark Films, the production company behind the yearly HorrorFest (warning: link resizes browser), to bring Perkins’ 14 to life. The film will debut in just a few weeks during HorrorFest III, which runs from January 9-15 ,2009.

Cofounder Brett Icahn (son of Yahoo’s outspoken investor-turned-board-member Carl Icahn) told the New York Times in March that Massify is “more a production network than a social network, because it’s driven by a creative purpose.” The company is making a name for itself in part for being a useful collaboration tool for film makers and various talent, but Kenneth Woo, Massify’s other founder, hopes to also make money from advertising by “building an audience before the film is made.”

Fangoria has a trailer for Perkins’ 14, and Massify features a number of behind-the-scenes clips and information about the film’s production and its actors. Even if only mildly successful, it is almost certain that more projects like this are on their way, harnessing democratic tools like Massify’s to produce major films.

via First Internet-created feature film debuts next month – Ars Technica.