Scary Movie Saturdays comes to Stellarcon 35 with Respawner! The Mutantville Players were live and in living color this weekend at the Stellarcon 35 convention in High Point, North Carolina. MVP was on hand to spread the good word of horror to the fans in attendance.
The Mutantville Players screened a fantastic selection of independent horror films including Milton, Bursters, Devil Comes Down, The Promise Jar, and the trailers for Be There In Ten and G.H.O.S.T. There was a short Q&A session between films and it all led up to the special sneak preview screening of Respawner: The Web Series Pilot. Fans in attendance said the experience was just “awesome.”
Mutantville Productions would like to thank everyone that came out to support the screening as well as to Davey and his volunteers hosting the Stellarcon 35 convention.
Included on the evening’s playlist was Robert W. Filion’s The Promise Jar. It’s a very Lovecraftian short film with a tightly packed three minute run time. It is available for viewing right now on Vimeo! Wait are you waiting for? It’s Stellarcon 35 weekend! The movie is scary. And most of all – it’s free! It’s Scary Movie Saturday!
Francis Ford Coppola set the mold for what an independent filmmaker should be. Over thirty years ago, he gathered together a group of his friends, grabbed the best cameras and technology that he could find, found money wherever he could and set out to create his movies – his way. Francis started his career with a guiding hand from Roger Corman and in turn helped launch the careers of many a young filmmaker such as john Milius and George Lucas.
Check out this fantastic article on Coppola on 99%.com by clicking here.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 1:14 pm. Add a comment
[Major spoilers for Remember Me, and light spoilers on Kick-Ass, but the ending is not discussed. Lane does spoil it, so look out if you click through to his review.]Dear Anthony Lane,Nearly a year ago I wrote on this blog a response to your colleague David Denby for his review of Inglourious Basterds, in part because he felt the need to spoil the ending of a movie he did not like. In that open letter I mentioned something you did that bothered me: you spoiled the ending of the movie Watchmen, a movie you did not like. I have heard arguments that movie reviewers should be able to spoil movies, because now they are too straightjacketed by “rules.” I am sympathetic to this. The ending of the movie is part of the movie, and as a reader I might need to know about it to understand if it is any good. I never really got into Seinfeld until the brilliant final episode, and it was a wrongly mailed to me copy of Entertainment Weekly that spoiled the season 2 ending of Alias for me and got me into that show — and from there to LOST, a show I love. And a lot of times I want the review instead of the movie. I am never going to see Remember Me, but I totally wanted to hear about the absurd ending in which it turns out this dumb love story — surprise! — does not take place in the present day, but in 2001, and ends with our guy going up the Twin Towers the morning of September 11. So if you guys decided to open reviews up to discussing the endings, this could be a neat thing. It would put you ahead of the game maybe.But the New Yorker has not done this. I know, because after your review of Watchmen your magazine printed a letter to the editor from a reader who was bothered that you spoiled the ending. This was, I think, a gentle rebuke from your editor surely. In printing the letter the New Yorker was saying “hey, we think this guy has a valid point.” That may seem like a dumb thing to point out to someone like you, but the fact that you later spoiled the ending of Kick-Ass shows that you were unable to see that. And I don't think that you want to have a spoiler-ific discussion of movies anyway. I think you believe that movies should NOT be spoiled. That is why you only spoil movies like Kick-Ass and Watchmen — movies you hate. You are spoiling these not for discussion, but for spite.
Read the rest of Geoff’s letter over at his website Remarkable.
Quentin Tarantino discusses the movies that he wishes he had made since his directorial debut in 1992. Quentin briefly covers Battle Royale, Audition, Boogey Nights, Fight Club, The Matrix and more!
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 11:06 am. 1 comment
From indieWIRE.com: The following are Michael Lynne’s opening remarks from Friday’s Independent Film Summit, presented by MoMA & indieWIRE (with Zipline Entertainment).
As someone who grew up in the independent film world and helped shepherd a company from “Reefer Madness” to “Lord of the Rings,” it is a pleasure to be here today.
I think it is ironic that I have been asked to kick-off this Independent Film Summit, having been a principal in perhaps the most successful independent film company in history – which has nevertheless become one of the biggest victims of the consolidation of film production and distribution that has so negatively affected the independent film universe. Fortunately, we are living to fight another day in our new production company, Unique Features.
There are however, several very telling points which can be made in this regard:
1 – If you are independent and value the freedom which that brings – stay independent. There is no free lunch – if you are owned by a major studio, you will ultimately be governed by major studio guidelines and major studio decision-making. It is kind of a Faustian bargain. When New Line agreed to be acquired by Turner Broadcasting, we had access to wherewithal for production and distribution substantially beyond what was available to us as a free standing public company. The ambitions which we had for New Line could be accelerated by years. But there was a catch – as Ted Turner said to us about six months after the merger when we referred to him as our partner – “Yes, guys, we are partners in a way and we are definitely friends – but you did sell your company to me – let’s just keep that in mind as we go forward.”
2 – Independent filmmaking emerged in a significant way in the early ‘80s with the arrival of New Line, Miramax, Cannon, New World, Tri-Star and others. Each of those companies had a game plan and a strategy for the space they would occupy in the industry landscape. It was an earlier time of irrational exuberance and lots of capital and very expensive debt was available. The anticipation that we were on the brink of a new generation of film companies, was palpable. Obviously, some of those companies have left a significant film legacy, but the truth is, and this is very telling, none of them today, if they exist at all, exist in the same ownership configuration in which they existed then. And none is truly independent now.
3 – Just as there was an opportunity then for independent, maverick organizations to make films for underserved audiences and to create new paradigms, the same opportunity will undoubtedly come out of the very difficult times for independent filmmaking today as fresh, out-of-the-box thinking on content and delivery, from passionate and talented filmmakers and producers, finds its way through the ambient noise of the establishment to a public hungry for the new. It may be one of us in this room – or it may be a kid with a dream, a digital camera and a fire in his or her belly.
4 – We should be prepared to rethink all of the commonly accepted practices and pre-conceptions about film production and film distribution. There is and will be less funding available for the production of independent films and for the release of those films. (In fact, there will be less funding available for the production and distribution of films in general.) We will see the conventional timing and formats for film viewing re-invented to a meaningful degree. Where films are seen, when they are seen, who pays for them to be seen, are all going to change dramatically in the next 5 to 10 years. Some of those changes will make the process easier and some will make it much harder.
5 – Tough economic times may favor movie-going in theaters, but it won’t solve the shrinking DVD sector and, on balance, it has, and will probably continue to, encourage the production of safer product for a more mainstream audience looking for escape from their stressful private situations. Obviously, that has never been the basic mission of independent filmmaking. The real challenge is to work toward creating films that are original, thoughtful, even challenging, but which nevertheless can capture the imagination of audiences who will always be responsive to something new and unexpected and yes, to films that are entertaining, in the broadest sense of that word.
6 – As an industry we’ve tried to preserve the idea of windows of distribution, ordering the availability of our product by distribution channel, starting in about every instance with the theatrical distribution window. And I don’t know a filmmaker who doesn’t want his film seen in a theatre on a big screen with beautiful sound. But we should be prepared for the possibility – not clear how far off – that there will be 50 or 60 million flat-screen HDTV’s capable of receiving digital downloads around the world. And someone will have the quintessential tent pole which can be ordered for $40 a household before theatrical release. The stakes are high – maybe 2 or 3 billion dollars on one night high. Of course theatrical exhibitors will have something to say about that. But it will also be an opportunity for more niche product which can be targeted to a specific segment of that digitally connected audience, on an incredibly efficient and lucrative basis. For independent films, we are talking about a version of the long tail, which one day may be a real lifesaver for these special films with discreet audiences who can then be identified and addressed directly.
7 – All in all, there is a lot to consider. We are in a very interesting moment in time. It is a time of complicated issues but of enormous potential opportunity. Of course, everyone knows the famous William Goldman quote about our industry: “Nobody knows anything.” It is cautionary, humbling and probably entirely true. And we should all keep that in mind as we continue our conversation today. The fact is, there are no real experts on the future of our business or any business – although I think I’ve found one expert. He’s a true visionary who understood totally the risk of being too certain about what lies in store for us. So in addition to William Goldman’s sage advice, let’s keep in mind what Yogi Berra said (which applies very much to our topic today): “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Michael Lynne, a co-founder of New Line with Robert Shaye, with whom he also co-founded the new production company, Unique Features.
2 – Independent filmmaking emerged in a significant way in the early ‘80s with the arrival of New Line, Miramax, Cannon, New World, Tri-Star and others. Each of those companies had a game plan and a strategy for the space they would occupy in the industry landscape. It was an earlier time of irrational exuberance and lots of capital and very expensive debt was available. The anticipation that we were on the brink of a new generation of film companies, was palpable. Obviously, some of those companies have left a significant film legacy, but the truth is, and this is very telling, none of them today, if they exist at all, exist in the same ownership configuration in which they existed then. And none is truly independent now.
3 – Just as there was an opportunity then for independent, maverick organizations to make films for underserved audiences and to create new paradigms, the same opportunity will undoubtedly come out of the very difficult times for independent filmmaking today as fresh, out-of-the-box thinking on content and delivery, from passionate and talented filmmakers and producers, finds its way through the ambient noise of the establishment to a public hungry for the new. It may be one of us in this room – or it may be a kid with a dream, a digital camera and a fire in his or her belly.
4 – We should be prepared to rethink all of the commonly accepted practices and pre-conceptions about film production and film distribution. There is and will be less funding available for the production of independent films and for the release of those films. (In fact, there will be less funding available for the production and distribution of films in general.) We will see the conventional timing and formats for film viewing re-invented to a meaningful degree. Where films are seen, when they are seen, who pays for them to be seen, are all going to change dramatically in the next 5 to 10 years. Some of those changes will make the process easier and some will make it much harder.
5 – Tough economic times may favor movie-going in theaters, but it won’t solve the shrinking DVD sector and, on balance, it has, and will probably continue to, encourage the production of safer product for a more mainstream audience looking for escape from their stressful private situations. Obviously, that has never been the basic mission of independent filmmaking. The real challenge is to work toward creating films that are original, thoughtful, even challenging, but which nevertheless can capture the imagination of audiences who will always be responsive to something new and unexpected and yes, to films that are entertaining, in the broadest sense of that word.
6 – As an industry we’ve tried to preserve the idea of windows of distribution, ordering the availability of our product by distribution channel, starting in about every instance with the theatrical distribution window. And I don’t know a filmmaker who doesn’t want his film seen in a theatre on a big screen with beautiful sound. But we should be prepared for the possibility – not clear how far off – that there will be 50 or 60 million flat-screen HDTV’s capable of receiving digital downloads around the world. And someone will have the quintessential tent pole which can be ordered for $40 a household before theatrical release. The stakes are high – maybe 2 or 3 billion dollars on one night high. Of course theatrical exhibitors will have something to say about that. But it will also be an opportunity for more niche product which can be targeted to a specific segment of that digitally connected audience, on an incredibly efficient and lucrative basis. For independent films, we are talking about a version of the long tail, which one day may be a real lifesaver for these special films with discreet audiences who can then be identified and addressed directly.
7 – All in all, there is a lot to consider. We are in a very interesting moment in time. It is a time of complicated issues but of enormous potential opportunity. Of course, everyone knows the famous William Goldman quote about our industry: “Nobody knows anything.” It is cautionary, humbling and probably entirely true. And we should all keep that in mind as we continue our conversation today. The fact is, there are no real experts on the future of our business or any business – although I think I’ve found one expert. He’s a true visionary who understood totally the risk of being too certain about what lies in store for us. So in addition to William Goldman’s sage advice, let’s keep in mind what Yogi Berra said (which applies very much to our topic today): “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Michael Lynne, a co-founder of New Line with Robert Shaye, with whom he also co-founded the new production company, Unique Features.
Posted 2 years, 6 months ago at 9:21 am. 5 comments
MVP is proud to announce that our Civil War triage scene for G.H.O.S.T. was a resounding success! We had a fantastic turn out of extras comprised of talented musicians, hopeful actors, and knowledgeable horror fans. Our special make-up FX expert Todd A. Britt was on hand to apply liberal amounts of make-up to our eager cast. After a few hours splashing blood on one another, tweaking mustaches, and adjusting the lights – we were ready to shoot another fun scene for G.H.O.S.T.. The shots turned out better than expected and the costumes provided by seamstress Angela Pritchett helped make the scene that much more authentic. Thank you all for another hard night of work. Be sure to relax and enjoy yourself for Halloween. We’ll see you back on the set on November 7th for our big finale. Thank you all.
Posted 2 years, 6 months ago at 10:29 am. 1 comment
Mutantville Productions is proud to announce that Kayli Tolleson (young Maya) has wrapped her role for G.H.O.S.T.. Kayli and her very supportive mother Janna joined us on the set of G.H.O.S.T. this week for her time in front of the camera. Kayli put on a splendid performance as young Maya. We are very happy with her and we are sure she will be proud of her work in the final movie. Thank you for your help Kayli and Janna! We’ll see you at the wrap party!
Posted 2 years, 6 months ago at 9:54 am. 1 comment
From Fear.net: Some say that clowns get a bad rap. Theory being that a few bad apples have used the guise of the otherwise trustworthy buffoon for their own maniacal missions, trading in red noses and balloon animals for killer candy and deadly ice cream.
So what do you think? Are they misunderstood friends to children and favorites of circus-lovers everywhere or rainbow-clothed jesters of Satan? Check out our list of the most evil clowns around and you be the judge. But beware when they knock you dead, they really knock you dead.
Violator – Spawn
Short on height, but big on girth, this demon-turned clown wants nothing more than to enlist some souls into Satan’s army.
How is this entry going to pick up the pieces five, frankly, left behind?
Patrick Melton: This is our third one out. With fourth and fifth film we were getting our footing on what the fans want. What makes a really good Saw movie, so I think with our third, we have a good grasp on that. It comes down to the “A” story. Not necessarily what John’s doing, or what Hoffman’s doing or what Amanda’s doing. It’s that “A” story that’s going to pull everyone together, the emotional hook. So there’s this new character and he’s going to bring us through to the end. With six, we put effort into it with Kevin to get a really good “A” story. It’s Peter Outerbridge, as William, and he has a connection with John and you’ll understand that early. You’ll understand the journey he has to take. When a trap starts, there’s a much more emotional connection and you’ll be rooting for this guy a bit more than you have rooted for anyone in the past.
Marcus Dustan: In terms of horror movies, Saw has been a nice introduction for four filmmakers so far. James Wan has hit it out of the park. Darren Bousman who is, right now, on Mother’s Day. Then, David Hackl is coming back and introducing a new format to these stories. Kevin Greutert, who has been a storyteller since day one, and he has crafted a tremendous visual story to go along with whatever we could have pounded out on the page. He’s a caring storyteller and he wants every audience member to feel the hit.
Melton: What he does well is, through the script process, he pays attention to the minutiae. That pays off. Especially in horror movies, there are the little things that get you. There are a bunch of little moments that set up the bigger moments.
Dunstan: It’s very emotional, too. For example the traditional Saw score didn’t quite fit this ending. It had to go in a new direction. If you were watching the endings of the previous entries, they have that Charlie Clouser score and on this, when we saw the first testing screening, Kevin was temporarily using other scores like [Requiem for a Dream]. It was building to a bigger moment emotionally. Clouser has busted his ass on this score and it’s aiming for the stands.
The Mutantville Players converged upon the haunted opera house in Albemarle, North Carolina for another amazing night of filmmaking last night. We filmed another encounter with something from the other side last night! I can’t tell you what happened or to whom – but I will say that you will be scared out of your pants – so be sure to wear two pairs when you watch this.
I ran out of ways to describe the talent and enthusiasm we have for this project and find myself resorting to simply telling you that we are doing some of our best work ever. The cast and crew continue to impress with their dedication and professionalism. Please enjoy your rest for the day. We have one more major scene to shoot next week, then we break for Halloween in order to prep for the major finale at the first of November. I continue to feel blessed and honored to work with you all. You inspire me to keep pressing hard working day in and day out to make G.H.O.S.T. the best short horror film of the year. Thank you all.
~~Streebo
Posted 2 years, 7 months ago at 9:51 am. 1 comment
From indieWIRE.com: The following are Michael Lynne’s opening remarks from Friday’s Independent Film Summit, presented by MoMA & indieWIRE (with Zipline Entertainment).
MVP is proud to announce that our Civil War triage scene for G.H.O.S.T. was a resounding success! We had a fantastic turn out of extras comprised of talented musicians, hopeful actors, and knowledgeable horror fans. Our special make-up FX expert Todd A. Britt was on hand to apply liberal amounts of make-up to our eager cast. After a few hours splashing blood on one another, tweaking mustaches, and adjusting the lights – we were ready to shoot another fun scene for G.H.O.S.T.. The shots turned out better than expected and the costumes provided by seamstress Angela Pritchett helped make the scene that much more authentic. Thank you all for another hard night of work. Be sure to relax and enjoy yourself for Halloween. We’ll see you back on the set on November 7th for our big finale. Thank you all.
Mutantville Productions is proud to announce that Kayli Tolleson (young Maya) has wrapped her role for G.H.O.S.T.. Kayli and her very supportive mother Janna joined us on the set of G.H.O.S.T. this week for her time in front of the camera. Kayli put on a splendid performance as young Maya. We are very happy with her and we are sure she will be proud of her work in the final movie. Thank you for your help Kayli and Janna! We’ll see you at the wrap party!
The Mutantville Players converged upon the haunted opera house in Albemarle, North Carolina for another amazing night of filmmaking last night. We filmed another encounter with something from the other side last night! I can’t tell you what happened or to whom – but I will say that you will be scared out of your pants – so be sure to wear two pairs when you watch this.
