I saw a final cut of THE GATEWAY MEAT, filmed in Massachusetts. I appear in the film, I get brutally murdered and got to write my own death scene. Unfortunately my face is bound up with duct tape and we shot for 8 or 10 hours and I couldn't see and was covered in cold fake blood all day. The DVD will be out soon. The film is AMAZING- oh my god- so gory! I was only in a small part and did not see the script so knew nothing about the plot of the film or anything about it except my scenes.
Also out soon on DVD:
Countess Bathoria's Graveyard Picture Show, which debuted at the Fantasia Film Fest, and which I co-wrote.
I am writing for The Independent Magazine website and will be interviewing Jeremy Kasten, director of the upcoming remake of The Wizard of Gore.
I have an interview in the next Girls and Corpses magazine with Erik Ruhling, author of Infernal Device, an illustrated book of torture devices.
Although I put it aside months and months ago it looks like my script A Fistful of Anger may be optioned.
Distributing Your Short Film: A Symposium for Filmmakers
Distributing Your Short Film in the Global Marketplace
2-5pm Friday, Nov. 9 | The Bordy Theatre | 216 Tremont Street, Emerson College
Free of Charge to Emerson Students & Members of the Public!
So you’ve made your short film. Now what? With the agonies of fund-raising, shooting and postproduction behind you, how do you best get your film out into the world? The good news is that more avenues for distribution and exhibition exist today than ever before. The bad news is that the bewildering number of options that face the short filmmaker can often be paralyzing.
“Distributing Your Short Film in the Global Marketplace” is a three-hour symposium designed to demystify the processes of short film distribution and prove that talented and motivated student filmmakers can take their work beyond the classroom and reach audiences around the globe through film festivals, television and the Internet.
Moderator Sue Biely is the Director of Business Development & Social Responsibility and Co-Founder of The Nimble Company, a multi-platform media company creating and managing media brands for the post-tv generation, including the beta interactive community hip hop site RapSpace.tv. Sue will be joined by an expert panel of industry professionals, including:
Derry O’Brien, founder and director of Network Ireland TV, an Irish-based TV program and DVD distributor which has specialized in short film distribution internationally for the past 12 years
Shane Smith, Director of Programming for Movieola The Short Film Channel, an online provider of cutting edge short films
Megan O’Neill, Vice President of Acquisitions and Production for AtomFilms, a leading entertainment provider of short content via internet, broadband services, and mobile devices
Cara Longo, Manager of Acquisitions & Programming for the Sundance Channel, formerly Director of Scheduling for the Independent Film Channel
Acknowledging that shorts constitute a unique genre with specific modes of distribution and exhibition, Sue and her panel will discuss what makes a good short film good and how making the right decisions can maximize your film’s exposure and get you established. Discussions will approach distribution from a global perspective, addressing festivals, television, and online video streaming.
Distributing Your Short Film in the Global Marketplace will take place at the Bordy Theatre, 216 Tremont Street in Boston's Theatre District.
Members of the public are advised to arrive there at least 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time to ensure a seat.
Supported in part by the Ireland Funds. The Ireland Funds is the largest worldwide network of people of Irish ancestry and friends of Ireland dedicated to raising funds to support programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland.
Supported in part by Network Ireland Television an Irish-based TV program and DVD distributor which has specialized in short film distribution internationally for the past 12 years.
Understanding Mobile Media: Untapped Opportunities and Hidden Challenges
One Hour - Thursday, October 18, 2007 – 9 a.m. (PT) / Noon (ET)
Driven by a society that wants instant gratification, 24-hour access and portability above all else, consumers have forever changed entertainment.
As the term mass media threatens to become obsolete, the time has come to engage and start a one-on-one dialog through the only medium that is always on, and never leaves consumer's side - the mobile phone. The audience for mobile exceeds broadcast TV, the web, and cable in sheer numbers and functionality. There are currently 2.3 billion mobile phones in the world, with which the average person spends 10-15 hours per day. On top of that the mobile channel offers the most personalized user experience yet, with rich media, personalization and interactive capabilities available anytime, anywhere.
But it's complicated - dozens of mobile operators and network configurations; hundreds of devices with a variety of media formats; and numerous channels of distribution with different business models. Overcoming these hurdles is tough.
In this hour, Nellymoser and INmobile.org will show you how to successfully overcome the hurdles of going mobile and staying there, by focusing on the following:
Getting the Lay of the Mobile Land - Where to start and what you need to know
Selecting your content and delivering it to your target market
Ensuring a compelling experience for the most handsets
Presented by:
John Puterbaugh
Founder and Chief Strategist
Adam Zawel
Chief Collaborating Officer
For Safari Users Only: To register, use another browser or call us and we’ll register you - 310.453.4440
Sam Weisman: A Wolf in Directors Clothing Written by a Sheep in Wolfs Clothing (Susan H. Davis)
Last week I traveled down to Woods Hole to hear Sam Weisman speak about directing. Three hours there and back, from the north shore, through Bourne bridge traffic. "This better be good", I thought. Honestly, I was open to anything. Why else would I be there, stuck in traffic, sucking in fumes? Under the guise of a producer to hear a director¹s point of view, I wanted to hear why a "Hollywood² or studio director would come back to his roots to settle here in Ma.
Disclaimer- All information into the writers mind is subjective and diffused through a myriad of lenses, so my apologies upfront, Sam, as I had my selective filter on, but here were the things that stuck in my mind:
Sam on basics: Sam started the workshop by recapping what a director does on set- Directing 101. The main ideas being that the basics are ever changing, wavering a bit here and there depending on the size of the production. Hidden in the technical details were personal anecdotes, gems of Sam¹s personal experiences. These were what I wanted to hear, what I had come for, for even though one can find the technical details of directing in a book, the life experiences of one who spent years in the trenches are, to me, what's invaluable.
Sam on actors: The director has to understand how to get the best acting out of the actor. Even if this means cheating the actor into believing the cameras are turned off as the film rolls away capturing the perfect moment, unbeknownst to the actor. The purer the actor is the one who at least tries, take after take. The bigger the celebrity is the one who repeatedly says 'No' to trying out the director¹s suggestions. The best actors are the ones that state the positive when requesting changes. The best way to get the best performances are to get the best actors, and according to Sam, the best world is where the director has the pleasure of being the audience, as the actor does his/her magic.
Sam on the Assistant Producer/or the UPM: Often hired by the Line Producer or studio, the 1st Assistant Producer helps to control the money, who in turn controls the director. Try to hire your own, if you can.
Sam on diffusing the negative: The director has to be a psychologist, friend, father, mother, dictator, etc., all these things on set. The director has to eliminate the negative as quickly as possible between essential creative crewmembers by cutting to the quick. If problems get debated five minutes or more per take, or hour, one loses an hour or two a day for shooting.
Sam on unruly outsiders on location, who are disturbing the shoot: Let's just say that after a myriad of tries to get folks to shut up who insisted on blabbing through a shoot, (but who had every right to be next door to the shooting location because they owned the property, but were paid already for the inconvenience), sometimes one has to fake a commotion to get the unruly bastards taken away by the NYC cops on location. Guts. For this Sam gets the ŒWolf in Director¹s Clothing¹ award.
What I came away from this workshop with was that one of the successful traits of a good director is someone who can diffuse a negative situation immediately, thinking on his/her toes...for time is money, and time is creative energy spent, rarely to be regained, or regained at quite an expense. At the end of the workshop Sam was concerned that he was being too negative, maybe because his experiences were tainted with overcoming the daily problems and pitfalls of directing. On the contrary, the reality of overcoming the minutiae as positively as possible under the ever-changing daily landscape of filming shows the ability to be flexible, and more importantly to get the job done at all costs. Thanks, Sam, for the reality check. Isn¹t that why I was there? There is nothing sugar coated about a day of hard work, and much to be learned from his experiences. And why was I there under the guise of producer? Because I was the sheep in wolfs clothing...a first time producer, learning to build up guts. Why did Sam move back east? He answered this right up front..."to have a better life". With all the benefits for filmmakers in the MA. film industry right now, and all the amazing talent, locales, and crew, I couldn't agree more.
After a decadent three course meal overlooking Hollywood Boulevard at the Highlands. The LATV festival resumed their "Digital Day"of in-depth panels conducted by experts in all things new media.
Lisa Osborne, Ross Cox, Sharon Lawrence and Midori Willoughby
The seats filled quickly for the AFI (American Film Institute)'s "Digital Content Showcase" Many filmmakers and web artists who would find the Digital Content Lab branch of the institute mind-blowing, and are not even aware of it's existence. The Digital Content Lab located in Hollywood, CA has been putting together teams of working professionals from the entertainment, design and technology worlds to incubate digital prototypes over the course of the past nine years. The supervising producer of the lab, Lisa Osborne, led the panel of case studies from the lab's recent past. The first example of the lab's success was from the production company Kontentreal. The environmentally centered company wanted a way for viewers of their eco-educational TV series to be able to integrate their own ideas into the viewing experience of the entire audience. This is a tall order if you are familiar with the disparate elements of the technologies that they chose to integrate. The way that the lab is able to help these prototypes become a reality is with the help of mentors who will work on developing and executing these concepts over an 18 month period. Their impressive mentor list appears to be in the hundreds, consisting of higher ups from companies such as Comcast, Brightcove, Schematic, Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Yahoo! just to name a few. The result in the case of Kontentreal's prototype was a breath-taking design which could be accessed from broadband, a Tivo interface, a blue-ray DVD or a mobile device allowing viewers of the TV series to have a seamless interactive experience. For example: If the lab featured an episode on eco-friendly housing, a viewer could take a picture on their mobile phone after the show of an eco-friendly house in their area and email it to the Kontentreal website (which would automatically be geo-tagged on a world map accessible on all the media platforms listed above). This input would be coming from all over the world so you could find examples after the show of eco-friendly houses and resources in your area or other areas of the world. You can get a sense of the magnitude of this project and the possibilities that it has. This was one of four presentations including presentations from Cynergy Films, the Cartoon Network and Stage 9 Digital Media. Watching these presentations was a true goimpse into te future of new media technology. The AFI Digital Content Lab welcomes applications for mentors and protoypes from all over the world.
If are interested, check out the Digital Content Lab site: http://www.afi.com/education/dcl/default.aspx .
If you want to see more of what Kontentreal is all about check out their site: http://www.krfilms.com/
To see what else the LATV festival had to offer check them out at: http://www.latvfest.net/
The folks at NATPE who organized the LATV festival will be organizing their annual conference in January so keep an eye out for more info we will post as that approaches.
“This year features more than 100 films from around the world that tackle a wide variety of issues at the forefront of humanity; whether related to social change, the environment, war, or people and places on the edge of society. As a festival that supportsthe work of emerging filmmakers, many of whom will be attending, we strive to develop a program that is both a showcase of independent film and a gathering place for filmmakers and for people who love independent film.” -Judy Laster (WHFF’s Exec. Dir.)
The Woods Hole Film Festival, which showcases and promotes the work of independent filmmakers from New England and shows films that are relevant to life on Cape Cod, announces the line-up of the sixteenth annual festival from Saturday July 28, through Saturday August 4. Besides the large number of New England filmmakers represented in the festival, this year’s roster of films includes an unprecedented number of films created by filmmakers from around the world. There are also several panels supported by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, master classes, music events and of course, parties. For the first time attendees can plan a personalized schedule and rate and comment on the films they’ve seen through the B-Side online community (details at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org).
This year brings such talent to Woods Hole as Les Blank who will screen his most recent film, ALL IN THIS TEA in addition to leading a master class in documentary filmmaking looking at BURDEN OF DREAMS, his documentary about the making of Werner Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO (Thursday, August 2, 2:00 PM). Sam Weisman, director of GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, THE OUT OF TOWNERS, and others will be presenting another interesting master class in directing for film (Friday, August 3, 2:00 PM).
Some of Boston’s resident filmmakers will be heading down for the festival such as Arlington, MA-based director and writer David McLaughlin for his screening of ON BROADWAY starring a bevy of Boston-area natives, including Joey McIntyre, Eliza Dushku, Mike O'Malley, Lance Greene, Will Arnett, Robert Wahlberg, and Amy Poehler (Saturday, August 4, 8:00 PM, Redfield Auditorium). Boston-based director David Tames will attend the world premiere of SMILE BOSTON PROJECT, a short film which follows artist Bren Bataclan through the first three years of his campaign to leave paintings in public places with a note that says, “This painting is yours to keep if you promise to smile at random people more often.” (Saturday, August 4, 5:00 PM, Old Woods Hole Fire Station). There will be an enlightening series of panels throughout the week: The future of long form documentary in the age of Internet video Sunday, July 29th - 2 P.M. to 3:30 P.M., Panel Discussion: Delivering Video via the Internet: Challenges and Opportunities Tuesday, July 31 - 2 P.M. to 3:30 P.M, Media Literacy in the 21st Century Wednesday, August 1st - 4 P.M. to 5:30 P.M., Cities Without Walls (cWOW) Thursday, August 2 - 4:00 PM, Survival Strategies for Independent Producers Saturday, August 4th - 2 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. and Making a Good Living as a Filmmaker – An In Depth Workshop with Animator Bill Plympton Saturday August 4th 11:00 AM. Find out what films and panels are the perfect fit for you on their website. There you will find locations, showtimes, synopses, and ticket and pass prices.
