This week was sparked by an awesome deal I found on Amazon. They have a 24″x36″ Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Who Will Survive) Movie Poster for less than $4! Go to convention and try to get a big poster for that. Anyway, finding the poster inspired me to put up some facts about the film and a few videos.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (not pronounced mass a crey…that’s country speak) was released in 1974. I would have seen this in the theater but I was only 6 months old and they wouldn’t let me in. Another example of the man trying to oppress me. As most of us know, the film was directed by Tobe Hooper. Tobe also wrote the film with Kim Henkel. The film starred Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a teen feel good movie about a group of friends that visit their grandfather’s house and are hunted down by a family of cannibals. Of course the main character that is remembered from the family is Leatherface who wields a chainsaw and wears a mask made of human skin.
Dark Tales Chronicles presents In The Dark (2006) from Godbout Entertainment.
Over the past few years, Mutantville.com and Scary Movie Saturdays have become a horror fan’s number one source for discovering the latest and greatest horror films being made by independent filmmakers today. The Patrick Rheas, Scott Goldbergs and Jaysen Buterins today’s indie film scene are tomorrow’s John Carpenter, George A. Romero and Robert Rodriguez. Now you can add Gerald Godbout III to that list.
Mutantville.com and Scary Movie Saturday are proud to present another horror diamond in the rough independent wasteland waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. This week, Godbout Entertainment’s Dark Tales Chronicles presents In The Dark (2006). From the Dark Tales Chronicles comes the first story in the series about a boy and his imagination and his babysitter who learns what it means to fear the dark.
(Watch the full short film after the leap – you dare!) Continue Reading…
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago at 6:15 pm. Add a comment
This weekend Kevin Smith’s Red State is available on VOD while John Carpenter’s The Ward has hit Blu Ray and Netflix and lastly we get a double punch of Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D playing in theaters across the nation. The team at MVP are hard at work moving several projects through various stages of production and foresee a long weekend of work ahead. There’s little time for updates so we’re going to share a few links with you then remind you to check out the Mutantville Productions Facebook fanpage and then let you enjoy yourself in the manner of your choosing.
“Six students are about to find out their teachers really are from another planet.”
The 1990′s were a strange time for horror fans. As the 80′s drew to a close, Freddy Krueger crossed over into mainstream pop culture and in his wake there was a horror glut as everyone tried to make horror more marketable to the mainstream masses. The glut lead to disinterest on the part of the general public.
Horror films were watered down (see Wes Craven’s battles with the MPAA over Shocker) and quietly faded into the background. There were a few gems here and there such as Near Dark, In the Mouth of Madness, Candyman, and Lord of Illusions but it wasn’t until Scream revitalized the genre in 1996 that horror became the center of mainstream attention again. The impact of Scream on horror has been well discussed here on Mutantville so there’s no need to go too deep into it again.
In 2002, Neil Marshall exploded onto the scene with a wild werewolf movie called Dog Soldiers. Dog Soldiers tells the story of six British Army soldiers dropped into the Scottish Highlands to perform routine training exercises only to discover that something much more sinister is afoot – approximately seven afoot tall to be exact – with ears, fur and big pointy teeth! Find out what happens by watching the movie below.
Part of being a filmmaker is always learning and evolving. So as I find some cool tips, I may as well share them. One place I’ve always gotten really cool tips is from commentary tracks on DVDs of the “Patron Saints of MVP.” We all studied these people. For example, Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks on his movies. Grab a journal or a notebook, start the film, but be ready with the pause button because he puts lots of information in his commentaries. I also recommend his book, “Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
.” This book lets you see what it’s like to produce a movie with a very low budget from start to finish.
This is not to say that the other elements of filmmaking aren’t crafts, but the script is the first and lowest-level document. Everything has to come from the script at some point. Every character, every setting, every description, …
GP Tips » Low-budget filmmaking tip #165 It’s easy to think you don’t need a script, or that a script is a pain to deal with, or that writing is easy. None of that is true. Although we sometimes joke that “the script practically writes …
Image Source. (Used with permission). Related posts: The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking; Budget Filmmaking – 4 Secrets To Making a Great Film With a Low Budget; Movie Training & Film Making Tips – Volume 3.
Before making a low-budget movie, find out what the budget maximum is going to be, and learn how to be creative with money. Shoot a low budget movie on digital tape, instead of film, withfilmmaking tips from a director and filmmaker in this free vide…
If you’re shooting a fight scene, get a lot of coverage. A lot. Every possible angle you can. Overshoot. Maybe even a few takes on slow shutter speed to give you blurry motiony stuff. Whatever. Just get a lot. Your editor will love you …
No matter how cool the makeup effects are, find out how long they take to apply and how long they last under hot lights. Factor that into your schedule. If your schedule can’t afford that, then either change your schedule, or change the …
1. Never Compromise! When you are making a low budget movie, it is important to realize that not everything is going to be perfect. You may have a vision for.
“Low budget filmmaking is a process that can at times be arduous, but the pay-off is one of the most creative forms of fulfillment that can be achieved by a modern day storyteller. It is with this concept that we will cover some of the …
Be aware of legal issues in filmmaking and learn all about release forms for Indie films with expert tips for producers and directors in this free filmmaking video. Expert: Kevin Lindenmuth Contact: www.lindenmuth.com Bio: Kevin Lindenmuth has worked…
This is a DVD extra from my film “Songs About Your Girlfriend”. It gives a little insight into how we were able to make a feature film for under $2000. If this interests you, please check out the rest of the film on my main page.
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago at 5:08 am. 1 comment
Back in 2007. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up to make a two part feature film experience appropriately titled Grindhouse. Each director provided their own feature length film in the grindhouse cinema tradition including bad edits, missing reels, and noticeable film grain. It was a throwback film designed to not only be an enjoyable time at the movies, but to recall a point in history when the rejected films of society were celebrated in dollar theaters in big cities around the country. These films usually consisted of taboo subject matter including large amounts of sex, violence, and drug use and in some cases, all of those. This was a form of entertainment that a large portion of society wanted to see, but Hollywood was just not producing at the time. When Grindhouse came out in 2007, it inadvertently opened the flood gates to a style of filmmaking that would invoke a new renaissance of stylistic qualities.
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!
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 9:08 am. 4 comments
