So this is the end of the line and a new beginning. I won't be posting here anymore. I have a new website which will have frequent updates. You'll be able to find the kind of stuff I used to post here at bobmoricz.com
Wendell Cunningham, star of my new feature OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE, shot this behind the scenes look at the making of the movie. That's exactly how it was.
When I am finishing up a feature, I like to watch it in the best circumstances, comfortably in my living room on the couch with the volume cranked up. Then I make notes. Then I make the changes. Then I watch the revised movie, again in the best circumstances. I repeat this process until there are no more notes left to make. Then it's done. I am always a bit sad when it's over and it's time to move on.
I just wrote my last set of notes, I am pretty sure. I think once I fix this stuff, the thing will be ready for Irina's backgrounds. Shooting in front of a green screen has been challenging and liberating. Mainly, I am super excited about collaborating with wifey. I make no bones of my fandom for her work. Seeing our worlds coming together on the screen will be a great joy.
I originally thought I was going to have a two and a half hour feature. I was going for the letting it all hang out thing. No apologies. But then I tapped into this cutting rhythm in line with the unnatural tennets of my hyper non realism. It really hit on something and gives a visible madness method. Much length was trimmed. It's now down to 55 minutes. I think the finished thing will be closer to 50. That makes for an eleven to one ratio. Next time I'd like to shoot something where I use everything - something edited in camera.
The first movies I fell in love with were the Universal horrors from the '30s and '40s and they were all just a smidge over or a tad under one hour long. I def prefer more entertainment in shorter amounts. Cut out all the bullshit. Get straight to the climax and then keep going and climax again. If you can, then why not?
I'll never forget seeing this on the news when I was five years old. All those still bodies on the ground. I remember thinking why is everybody sleeping. My dad told me they were all dead.
I don't intend to make a mockery of this day with these clips and trailers. If I had loved ones who died there, I certainly wouldn't want to watch this stuff.
Though these films are pretty sensational, they serve as an attempt to understand some of the true horrors of human experience. People have always been doing that.
SISTERS OF DEATH blew my mind. Loved it completely. Reminds me of how much more of a cinematic impact can be made without showing things explicitly. The cast was super attractive and the film packed a nice punch in the end. I always appreciate that! These Mill Creek movie collections are pretty great. Sure, there are always some stinkers and the quality of the films leaves much to be desired, but you can't argue with $10 for 50 damn movies!
On the flipside of the SOD disc is WAR OF THE ROBOTS. Really great, totally silly and mindless no-fi sci-fi fun. Came in super handy in the background while I was writing scenarios for a couple of new projects late last night. One of them has the provocative title, SEX MOVIE MANIAC KILLER. This one shows the criminal exploits of the main character, Todd Hartley, in my TARD series.
I watched Jess Franco's BLOODY MOON, which I also loved. That early 80's vibe and fashions (it's so funny how the women in this movie look like Portland hipsters) are yummy and fun to look at. Lots of gore and nudity, including this great setpiece where a woman gets her head cut off by a buzzsaw. This is definitely a Franco film which, along with 99 WOMEN, I will be adding to my DVD collection soon. Can't wait to see, FACELESS, which Naxo Fiol also recommended to me.
On Saturday I helped a good friend move, so I didn't get anything done on OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. Yesterday I met my scenes to be edited quota. Today I edited three scenes and I will probably finish two more before the night is through. I entered the last two tapes of ODITHOL footage into the computer. This is the last stretch before keying in the green screen and doing all the sound editing. I am very excited and happy with the way things are looking. My favorite scene today was the hospital director walking in on a nurse who is eating an arm.
Another flick I checked recently was Anna Biller's VIVA. She's like me. She writes, directs, produces, stars in, and composes music for her movies. But her aesthetic is very different. And she shot the thing on 35mm, which is out of the goddamn question for moi. She also did all the set and costume design for VIVA, which is incredibly impressive. It's super fun to watch, although a little bit on the long side and the intentional camp never really works out for me. I think it bites off a little too much, but that's always better than not enough. I loved the gratuitous nudity. Lots of naked guys too, and that's something that's still sorta taboo in movies, especially in this new Victorian age. And they're all people who look like real people. People need to be seeing real people naked in the movies. Overall I really loved the way the movie shows how the sexual revolution worked out better for the guys than the dolls. Looking forward to future AB productions.
Think I finally nailed the coffin shut on my Jess Franco binge with OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES. The zombies were brutally phony and great. Doesn't have the poetic bite of 99 WOMEN, nor the high caliber performers, but very entertaining in that Uncle Jess kinda way. Sloppy, loose, messy no-fi fun.
Yesterday I failed my quota of editing four scenes a day for ODITHOL. I got one and a half. But a lot of stuff happened so I forgive myself. I was planning on making up for it today by getting six and a half, but I got five. May very well get one more in before I bedbye. I feel ok about it. The scenes are good and cut very differently from the way I usually do things. Actors gave me a lot to work with.
There is now some much needed balance. I started with the hardest stuff first - the long showstopping set pieces. I designed it with the idea that there'd be three or four big long scenes that go on forever punctuated by very short ones that kick along an all over the place plot. The short ones are tight and to the point while the long ones meander in a hopefully interesting way. I've been doing the short ones, hence the four scene a day quota. A longer one would take me sometimes five days. I am working meticulously on something that is meant to look like a big mess. A beautiful mess.
On the OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE front, just finished cutting a scene where id unleashed Dr. Fang finds his daughter Loris laying in the lap of rock washout Tommy Trykill after crashing from a drug binge. Fang is super anti-drug and loses his shit on her big time. Athena, the actress who plays Loris, laughs when the doctor (played by me) yanks her up from the table and smacks her around. I only got one take, so I had to get pretty creative with the editing. It worked nicely. Cutting around the giggles made it look like Fang has super human strength and pulls Loris off the table with lightening speed. I wouldn't have thought of cutting it that way if Athena wasn't laughing during the take. Rather than busting my ass to control my environment, I bust my ass to be utterly present in every moment, making sure the energy and the actors' sense of play is up and aroused. If that's going on, then there is always magic. Magic can't be faked. Everything else can.
Been going nuts on Jess Franco's movies. I knew about him but hadn't seen too many of his films. He appeared in a Spanish documentary about no-budget filmaking entitled TE EN VIDEO for which I was interviewed. I really liked the things he had to say, so I've been watching his stuff and loving it. The quality of his output varies greatly, but I like that. 99 WOMEN is the best women in prison film I've seen. Amazing ending and an incredible perf by Mercedes McCambridge as the prison superintendent. His most famous film, SUCCUBUS is a swinging late sixties eurotrash jetset mindfuck stunner. Karl Lagerfeld decked out the eurobabes and the vibe is pure decadence!
Also watched ANDY WARHOL'S BAD, which was like an iron glove ripping out my tonsils. How bout that scene where the baby gets thrown out the window?! Holy crap!!!
