Beyond Beyond

Goodbye, Blogger

2010-03-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

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

Thanks for reading.

SATANTANGO

2009-12-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Been watching this from fellow countryman Bela Tarr. Great opening scene. Makes me proud to be Hungarian.

POST blue (Greenscream)

2009-12-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

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?

Thirty One Years Ago Today...

2009-11-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

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.

VIVA, OVERDOSE!!!

2009-11-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

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.

Luis Bunuel is one of her faves. Me too.

Some Much Needed Balance

2009-11-13T17:42:00.000-08:00

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.

I am watching this now:

You is BAD!

2009-11-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Practically Unwatchable

2009-11-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

I'm in the thick of editing OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. This is one of the most exciting movies I've made so far, in terms of editing. I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time and being very meticulous in making something that's going to look like a messy piece of shit, but that's sorta the idea. Shot about 11 mini-dv tapes. So far I have edited six and I have one hour of edited footage. If the 1:6 ratio continues, I should have a little over two hours cut in the end. I can cut together a ridiculously long movie, or about 6 or seven 20 minute episodes, or maybe even 12 or 13 ten minute episodes. Perhaps the last way is best. This fucking thing is brutal. I edited a scene which goes on for about twelve minutes and the word hysterical is impotent in expression. Irina says the tagline should be "PRACTICALLY UNWATCHABLE". I think she is fucking right. I think if I show it at the Clinton, it should be free. You get charged if you walk out. And everyone will.

Today I cut a scene where a nurse goes down on a burn victim. I really like how it came out. I took Archee for a walk and I ate a carne asada torta from Super Torta. Yummy! I am also thinking a lot about a women in prison movie called SLAMMER TRAMPS which I am soon going to make. I also need to get started shooting the sequel to OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. It's going to be called TERROR IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. I also have to ready the upcoming DVD's. So many things to plan out. Also need to edit the HE GOT OUT script so I can get going on shooting that thing too. That one will be like a half hour teleplay. Should pack a punch!

For Me There Is But One CRASH

2009-09-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

Paul Haggis' 2004 film Crash is a great example of a shitty movie. It makes a big deal about examining modern day bigotry in the U S of A. The tone is ponderous. Its conceits are shallow. The film is a dry hollow husk for anyone with any real life experience. For people who have never had to think about these things, Crash may seem like an epiphany.

Less than 10 years before Haggis' film, David Cronenberg made a movie with the same title CRASH. I watched it again over the weekend and was truly taken with it. I bet people who love Haggis' film would walk out during the first ten minutes of Cronenberg's picture. It shows you stuff and then leaves it all up to the viewer. The latter Crash lectures us without having anything to say.

I prefer being presented with information and then making up my own mind. I don't like people telling me what to think.

TRAILER

CLIP

SISKEL AND EBERT REVIEW

MAKING OF

Cuneyt Arkin!!!

2009-09-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

This man is amazing and one of my favorite actors ever. He was a big star in Turkish cinema. On top of that, he's a poet and a doctor. Wow! In one of his movies he is billed as Kunt Brix! Yes!!!!!!

Mike Kuchar's Alien Encounter

2009-07-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Mike was visiting with Irina and I at our house last summer when he was in town to show video work at the Clinton Street Theater. He told us about an alien encounter he had recently.

Victor Olid In His PALACE OF STAINS T-Shirt With Dario Argento In Rome

2009-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Aztec Mummies, Deadly Organs and More Sex Horrors From The Southern Regions of the Continent

2009-07-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. For three bucks I bought the Aztec Mummy movie collection. It was so worth it. I remember loving these strange films when I saw them on USA network's Night Flight program when I was a kid in the early 1980's. I watched the first Aztec mummy and it was fantastic. Just dripping with atmosphere and great melodramatic acting. I can't wait to watch the rest.

Also picked up a film by Argentinian director Emilio Vieyra entitled The Curious Dr. Humpp, which was a complete mindblower. Non stop entertainment for the entire duration of the film's running time. Such a strange combination of sex and horror. There's really nothing like it. Can't find any clips on youtube, most likely due to the copious nudity, but I found a trailer for another Vieyra film named The Deadly Organ, which is also pretty great. You can buy it from Something Weird Video. It's re-titled Feast of Flesh and it's a double feature with the astounding Mexican feature Night of the Bloody Apes.

Here's a typically insane clip. And this one doesn't even have the masked female wrestlers!

Behind the Scenes During an OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL LOVE

2009-07-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

NOTE: The above is behind the scenes footage shot during the making of O.D.ITHOL.

Over the weekend we finished the principal shooting for OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. Delicious.

Kim Deal said she doesn't really care about being able to shred on the guitar. There are enough people who play like that. She wants to play a different way and she does and it works and it's unique and totally her own thing and that's why it works so great.

That's how I feel about movies. I am a very modest person but cinematically, I know how to shred. But shredding is boring for me. It's good exercise, but people don't get much out of watching someone exercise.

It's kind of a standards thing I guess. Like, what do you want to do? I don't want to make the same old movies that have been made a million times and I don't want to make a plan and follow that plan exactly and then watch the thing I made and go "wow I planned that thing exactly and that thing exactly turned out the way I planned." That is not satisfying for me. It is redundant and meaningless myth of Sisyphus for me. I want to uncover the things covered up by the psychological backslidings and hidings of the human race, thereby surfacing the non-surfaced, laying them on the table to touchseeandsmell for analysis and psychic growth, thereby helping the world become a better place.

Castle Freaks, Grandmasters, Slumber Parties, and Medical Deviates

2009-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

I saw 7 Grandmasters at the Hollywood Theater last weekend. It was amazing. The Kung Fu is top notch. Not a whole lot of cinematic trickery necessary with artists of this caliber. See this movie. It is incredible.

Also saw Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak at home on DVD over the weekend. I loved Re-Animator and From Beyond. I also remember really enjoying Dolls when it came out. After that I sort of lost track of Gordon's work until I checked out Dagon a while ago, which I thought was a pretty decent Lovecraft flick.

I knew about Castle Freak, but the title never really grabbed me. I got the DVD for three bucks and it was totally worth it. I love Jeffrey Combs theatrical acting, especially when combined with Barbara Crampton's style, who kind of came up in television soap operas.

Gordon's movies are strange. They kind of come off very theatrical and sort of chintzy at first, but then after a while I find myself really into it. They play with super classical themes and do a good job hitting nerves. The monster in this is pretty great. The castrated beast walks around naked most of the time, exposing a sizeable sack, but no meat. It's a disconcerting sight.

Finally, I just watched Slumber Party Massacre III for the first time and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I wrote the franchise off after the second one. Part two had a rock star slasher with a drill on his guitar and I hated it. I never really got into those late 80's rocker/metal/horror movies like Trick Or Treat and Rockula. I was very disappointed that SPM2 was one of them.

The third one is the 90's reboot and the girls wear high-waisted pants and frizzy hair. Like part one, this film was written and directed by women and there's definitely a nascent feminist subtext. In this one the slasher is an example of the dreamy golden boy gone wrong, rather than the mad male psyche unleashed of the first installment. Strangely the franchise was renamed Cheerleader Massacre after this one.

Lastly, here's an amazing trailer for Doctor Butcher M.D. (aka Zombie Holocaust) that Mike sent me. Enjoy!

Nightmare City - or - City of the Walking Dead

2009-06-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

I just saw this Umberto Lenzi film which was pretty unbelievable. These days it's known as Nightmare City but it used to be better known as City of the Walking Dead. This is the first zombie film with fast moving living dead. Watching this film was like being on a powerful narcotic. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, especially a scene where zombies attack a television studio during the taping of some crazy spandex laden workout show. Here's the incredible trailer:

David Lynch Commercials

2009-06-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Friday the 13th (AGAIN!!!)

2009-06-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

I watched the new Friday the 13th film and I really loved it. I wasn't partial to the Texas Chainsaw remake, mainly because there was no way to top the original. When I heard about the Friday reboot, it actually sounded good to me because the Friday movies really aren't that great. They're fun and I love them, but they're not cinematic masterpieces, like Chainsaw. The mythos is what's so fun about the Friday movies. I figured if they got the tone right, had some good kills and a decent Jason, then the movie would be all right. But it exceeded my expectations. I watched it twice.

Production Has Begun On Overdose In The Hospital Of Love

2009-06-15T16:12:00.001-07:00

The first Saturday of June was the first shooting day for my new project entitled OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. I would like to release it as a four or five episode season for public access television. But there is a possibility it might work better as a self-contained feature. Might work as both. I will not know until I cut it all together. The cast is amazing and there is a great energy on the set. I have noticed that these things usually pay off.

The tone is really strange. It's sort of funny, but it isn't funny at all, but it isn't trying to be funny, so it's not like it's setting out to do something and then not delivering. That doesn't work. Creating a strange tone is something I want to do. I like incongruity. I like getting jarred and shaken around. I like rollercoasters. I like a little feeling of danger. The crass generalization I am about to make is that American audiences want the Jungle Cruise, not Space Mountain. Shit, I don't even know if those rides still exist!

American audiences are very sensitive to tone in this sense: if the lighting, editing, photography, sound, and acting don't stray too far from the aesthetic of the standard Hollywood movie, the audience will swallow all sorts of ridiculous poo. If any of those elements deviate from the formulaic traditions, then the American audience is quick to dismiss. Even if there is treasure to be found. It's funny how it works. Kind of like a bratty teenager who thinks he knows everything but doesn't realize he is merely reacting to his environment. Wisdom and reason is gained through experience. The bratty teen thinks he has wisdom just because he is beginning to acquire experience. He doesn't know he's got the job of sorting it all out ahead of him.

So, two more shooting days. Then post-production editing, green screen, mattes and effects. There is much left to do. This is an exciting stage.

Russ Thorn: Winner Best Slasher

2009-06-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Slumber Party Massacre is my favorite slasher movie ever, hands down. It has all of the classic elements of the slice and dice genre, yet they are presented in a refreshing and subversive way. It is a fun and playful movie and it's got something to say and it says it in a lively and succinct fashion.

I think it's notable that SPM was written and directed by women. This is especially unique in the slasher film pantheon. This lends the film a perspective unlike any other in the slasher film. It gives a different vibration to the nudity and gore standards. When the protagonist, Trish, undresses in her bedroom, there is a sort of poignancy to the scene. Her body is in a state of transformation. She senses the power of her sex, yet she is new to it. This subtext gives the nudity purpose. It develops the character, as well as allowing the audience to really connect with the character. It makes us care. I also love the phone repair woman. Instead of some burly hunk, the handyman's a hot blonde. And the boys aren't intimidated by her competency. They find it attractive. One of them hits on her mercilessly, but in a humorous, not an uncomfortably sleazy kind of way. The movie respects its characters, male and female. There's also the locker room shower scene which is fascinating. The camera glides past the girls showering in stalls after P.E. There is ample flesh on display, but the women are mainly seen from behind with the frame ending at the waist. The camera pauses curiously, and then glides down to reveal a bare naked ass. And then it stays there. It's as if to say, "Here it is! This is what you wanted to see now, isn't it?" It's a very funny moment that says a lot. It could have come off as sleazy or as an indictment of the audience that goes to the movies to see such films, but instead it's funny and thoughtful.

In the clip above we get the first look at Russ Thorn, mass murderer of five just escaped from the state hospital, my nomination for best slasher ever. He is cut from a completely different cloth than any other bloodlusty cinematic psycho. This guy has a face. He's not some faceless unknown. And check out that big, long penis, I mean mechanical drill...

Also, this is a slasher that runs. I love the shot at the end of the clip where Russ is running to the van after killing the girl in the gym. He is panicking and afraid of getting caught. Screen slashers usually are usually depicted as shadows or monsters. This guy is just a man - a freaked out guy suffering from mental illness, not some faceless monster.

One of the things I love about SPM is the tone. It's kinda off. The first thing you get in the clip above is a ridiculous bait and switch. The drill busts through the door, but it's only the mulleted handy woman. No worries! I like how the women in the film use tools for the tasks for which they were designed. Russ is the one who sticks his bit in all the wrong places.

Apparently, the screenplay was written as a total parody of slasher movie, but the producers wanted a straight ahead slasher film. I actually think that's a good thing. Some people don't like inconsistency in films. I am fascinated by it. I think if the film went down the road of straight horror or straight parody, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. The incredible super cinematic finish wouldn't pack such a punch.

Here we have the horny guys spying on the undressed girls. Funny thing is, the guys are totally likable and not complete sleazeballs. You can't blame them. Later on Val's little sister Courtney thumbs through a Playgirl. The picture presents body curiosity as a natural thing, nothing to be ashamed of - rarity in the world of the slasher pic.

Robin Stille, also known as Robin Rochelle, plays Val, the new girl in SPM. She also appeared in Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama. Sadly she killed herself in 1996 at the age of 34. I always really liked her in this movie. She's got sort of a tragic sadness thing going on. Maybe that wasn't acting.

The clip above is just loaded with goodies. The girls actually invite the horny guys inside to hang out and when Russ shows up, the boys do their best to help out. The scene where one of them gets stabbed to death while Trish watches a horror movie on television is classic metafilmmaking. And this was fourteen years before Scream. This clip also has my favorite slasher scene ever. I love it when Jackie eats the dead pizza guy's pizza.

The clash between the SoCal locales and the gothic organ music creates such a wonderful atmosphere. I wanted to move to Los Angeles so bad after seeing this movie.

Russ, the slasher, has what the greatest screen slashers always have and that's a unique physical vocabulary. He has a certain way of moving which is all his own. I think Michael Villella, the fellow who played Russ, does a fantastic job. He looks bugged out and crazy. He takes it a little over the top, but not too much. He takes it right over the edge and then back again. I've worked with severely mentally ill people and this depiction of a sick slasher really comes off more like the real thing than anything else I've ever seen in a movie. Check out the scene where he looks at himself in the mirror. I've seen that many times.

Man I love that ending. I love how the girls really bond together to fight the foe and how smart they are about it. The whole finish starting where Coach Jana pulls the blanket off the killer is just magic. When Trish runs out in slow motion and stabs him in the back, you get the true feel of the horror of the situation. You see that she is very disturbed about doing such a thing, but she must in order to survive. And then, at the end, it is great how his huge drill is castrated by Val, and then he's symbolically castrated again when Russ gets his hand cut off. Then finally, Russ is penetrated deeply by Val's huge machete. The shot where we see Val wielding the machete and then the lightning strikes - so hot. So surreal.

The last shots of the movie show each young woman reacting to the horror they had experienced. This is something you don't see too often - the aftermath. Slumber Party Massacre is simply a great movie on many levels. It is very human with likable characters and a slasher that's a man, not a monster.

Reproduction!

2009-05-30T11:54:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite things ever...

Hobo With A Shotgun (+ TRAILERS)

2009-05-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

I found Hobo With A Shotgun, the 2007 winner of SXSW's exploitation trailer contest. These Canadian guys made it. When Grindhouse screened in Canada and the US, this trailer played with the double feature in select theaters.

Jason Eisener, John Davies and Rob Cotterill made the trailer and they did a bang up job. When I went to see Grindhouse, one of my favorite things was the phony trailers. Seems like the filmmakers had a lot of fun and they also managed to capture the vibe of those wonderful movies. That's not an easy thing to do. These trailers from Grindhouse really show those guys know what they're doing. It's a homework assignment not everyone can get done correctly.

Here are some amazing grindhouse trailers from the 70's which have real movies attached to them. They are for: Trouble Man, Hit Man, Invasion of the Blood Farmers, and Blacula.

Now here are the fake trailers from the 2007 Grindhouse features by Rodriguez and Tarantino. My personal favorite is Eli Roth's for Thanksgiving. I love his ridiculously deep throated announcements. Rob Zombie did Werewolf Women From The SS, Edgar Wright did Don't, and Robert Rodriguez, of course, did Machete which is being made into a feature length film. How PoMo is that!

Now here are some more real grindhouse trailers for Nights of Terror, Last House On The Left, Torso, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, House By The Cemetary, The Crazies, Street Fighter, I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin, Tombs of the Living Dead, and Maniac.

If one manages pulling off watching these incredible films without an ironic eye, they will find wild and wonderful treasures beyond belief!

Policewomen!!!

2009-05-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Watched Lee Frost's amazing Police Women over the weekend. Sondra Currie (sister of Runaway Cherie Currie) is incredible with her fight moves. This movie has everything. Relentlessly entertaining!

Tourist Trap

2009-05-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

I just watched Tourist Trap again. Haven't seen it in over 20 years or so. I have no idea why, but I love this movie. Can't really pinpoint anything, it just really works for me. It's derivative and sloppy yet totally original at the same time. Chuck Connors turns in a typically askew performance and Tanya Roberts with dark hair is incredibly foxy in a tube top. It's PG, not much sex or gore, no super wild camera or editing techniques. Great ending. It's an alchemical wonder!

Scary Tim Carey

2009-05-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

I remember Tim Carey scaring the shit out of me when I was a kid watching TV. Apparently he's the only actor Stanley Kubrick allowed to improvise. He was in Marlon Brando's One Eyed Jacks. John Casavettes loved him. I love his dance moves. I will cop some...

Bower of Blood!

2009-05-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days, I've returned to the wooded land of the slasher in Friday the 13th Part 3 and The Burning. The third Friday is probably my favorite in the series. There's something about the vibe and the colors. It was obviously shot in Los Angeles so the outdoor scenes have that nice warm glow. I like the way it just sort of spreads out over the course of a day. I remember seeing the trailer on TV when I was a kid and thinking that the harpoon in the face gag must have been the greatest thing ever. Missed it in the theaters, but caught it on cable. The 3D gags looked so cool. My imagination ran wild thinking of what the movie must have looked like in 3D.

The most recent DVD release of Friday 3 has the a 3D version of the film. I was very excited about this. However, it's anaglyph, not polarized. Originally, it was released in the theaters polarized. My cousin saw it in the theater when it came out and I remember the glasses were gray, not red and green. I watched about half of the DVD and then took off the glasses. It was pretty cool and all, but distracting. I appreciate the try, but it would be nice to see the flick in the original polarized version.

Still, this is my favorite Friday. Richard Brooker, the dude who plays Jason, is my favorite Jason. He contorts his body like he's sort of hunchbacked and there's something very off about his whole look and movements. He doesn't just look like some guy in a mask. He looks like he's a real weirdo. He's also the only Jason in a green work shirt and khakis. I also liked the campers in this one. They seem like a nice group of young people and I feel bad for them when they get chopped up.

The Burning is a bit nastier than Friday 3. It's actually the first effort by Bob and Harvey Weinstein and it contains a mean spirit. The Savini gore effects are pretty raw and juicy. I especially like the horrific face of the Cropsey maniac. Check out Jason Alexander in an early film role with a full head of hair!

NAKED MASSACRE

2009-04-22T08:13:00.001-07:00

Naked Massacre (aka Born For Hell) is basically the Richard Speck story and it really packs a punch. Again, the transfer is crap but it doesn't really hurt the movie, which has a dingy, washed out and muted feel anyway. Instead of it taking place in Chicago, the location is switched to Belfast. I get the impression that the crew spent a few days shooting exteriors and then probably back to France or maybe Italy to shoot all the indoor stuff.

Mathieu Carriere plays a dude named Cain (hmmm?). Finished up a tour of duty in Vietnam and he's bumming around Belfast with hardly a cent. Haunted by his war experiences, Cain's shell shocked and steaming close to a blown fuse. On top of all that, his wife made it with his best friend and he's pretty bummed about it. The cherry on top is the bombings and firefights erupting due to IRA terror. That can't be good for his already pretty whacked out psyche.

One night Cain decides to break into a row house rented by student nurses. You can imagine how ugly things get from there. There's an especially shocking scene where one of the nurses (played by the great Eva Mattes) takes Cain's switchblade and stabs herself through the heart rather than face further degradation at the hands of the snapped soldier.

Naked Massacre is intense and haunting. The atmosphere is pungent with a moldy rot. The Belfast backdrop is a nice touch. The outdoor scenes are punctuated by constant violence and you only feel safe when the scenery moves indoors. That makes it even more unsettling when Cain busts into the house of nurses. Carriere is surprisingly sympathetic when he's not carving up or raping somebody. It's an international cast of French, German, Italian, Canadian, and English actors with many who still work actively in film.

For me some of the European sleaze films work on a different level than American ones. The Euros take it a little more seriously while Americans make a big joke out of the crudeness or apologize for the horror. There's a certain uncertain moral high ground disconnect going on in the European ones, making these films wallow in the muck in a more unpleasant fashion. But somehow this disconnect allows the pictures a deeper access to corridors of the soul long quarantined by the pilgrim repression of pagan idolatry here in the USA.

DEEP RED

2009-04-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

I bought one of those collections of 50 movies. Cost me about $15. Recognized many of the titles from childhood days when I had no friends and dad would take me to the video store and let me rent any trash I wanted. This taught me about adult life. Fear, repression, shame, sex horror, death. I am lucky my dad didn't give a damn what I watched. It made me who I am today.

DEEP RED

This was my first Dario Argento film. I was probably 10 the first time I saw it. The quality of the film transfer is terrible. Very dark, impossible to pick up a lot of the nuances, especially when a scene tends toward darkness (which is often!). A lot of the impressive tracking shots are unfortunately lost. But there's something pretty cool about seeing what it looked like way back when. Feels retro.

Deep Red's a murder mystery. Apparently censors yanked out about 20 minutes of footage and it pretty much makes no sense. It's still fun to watch, though. The murders are very gruesome. There's a pretty unforgettable scene where a dude gets dragged behind a garbage truck. The killer's identity is totally ridiculous, but I like that a lot. It's like a cartoon. It shouldn't be realistic.

Many people think this is one of the best Argento films. To me Suspiria was the apex and Inferno (a flick that doesn't get the respect) is a not so distant second. But Deep Red has the always foxy Macha Meril as a scene devouring psychic. David Hemmings is also pretty good in the leading role. There's a bunch of cheesy doll imagery that probably wasn't so cheesy when Deep Red first came out.

The thing that stays with me the most is when a crazy looking little dummy marches out of nowhere. It looks like a little person, but there's something robotic in it's aggressive saunter. That scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. It's still pretty freaky.

Milligan Versus Burton

2009-04-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Damn! Tried watching Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd last night. Turned it off after about 5 minutes, slipped it back into the sleeve, sealed the envelope and put it in the mailbox for the postal worker to take away the next day. Opening credits seemed to borrow from the Kuchar aesthetic, but slicked it up all boring with lame CGI. Then the singing started and then the lame flashbacks rolled and then the bloated Alan Rickman rolled his eyes and then so did I. Hit the stop. Gained popularity at the time of release. Have a hard time understanding why audiences are quick to accept the plastic plate phony of a picture like this, while thumbing the ol' schnozz at lo-fi productions which alchemically shift fakery into hard grained reality. The new Todd does the opposite. Its slickness (r)apes the phony, thusly mocking truth, the audience, and any potential the picture might have to make a real ripple in the universe.

I prefer Andy Milligan's version of Sweeney Todd entitled BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS. It has no shame, while the new Todd's shame plays dress up...

Decepcion En La Casa Del Terror

2009-04-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a movie from a filmmaker friend in Spain by the name of Naxo Fiol. It is entitled Decepcion En La Casa Del Terror and it is an amazing short piece.

Here's Naxo's most recent one. He wrangles some great performances out of his actors. He's a super talented dude.

Te Vengo from Luis Perez on Vimeo.

What's New W/ Bobby Baby

2009-04-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Finished new feature entitled BUMPS. It's about 6 high schoolers who make a pregnancy pact. It's based on real events.

Got a twitter.

Putting together a quick little "making of" about a short I shot on Super 8 film about a year ago called IT CAME AND WENT AND IT WAS NOTHING.

I appear in a great Spanish documentary about low budget filmmakers alongside some of my heroes including George Kuchar, Jess Franco, and Damon Packard. It was made by Victor Olid and it is entitled TE EN VIDEO.

I saw an incredible film from Argentina called FUEGO starring the amazing Isabel Sarli.

Mapping out the first season for my upcoming public access television show. It's called BASEMENT BRUT.

Writing a new epic by the name of GOULASH GUTTER.

Part For Whole

2009-04-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

One time I almost died and I laughed my ass off like I was crazy. I remembered this while laughing my ass off at Synecdoche New York, the funniest goddamn movie I've seen in a long time. The tragic and the comic are the same thing. As I watch the man with part of his face missing spastically yank his penis in the lobby of my workplace, I suppress my laughter. I wanna laugh cuz I wanna cry.

When I was a little boy I had phobias similar to those of Hoffman's character. Those phobias made me very unhappy. I didn't want to have my phobias. I learned how to let go of many of them. Cotard is a man-child completely incapable of looking within to fix his busted up psyche. He carries his unexamined burden not knowing he can ditch it with some effort. Instead he embarks on an insane feat of creativity which takes over the rest of his life and leads him particularly nowhere. And it's not even very creative. It's just a reflection of a reflection of ghostly minutiae - an attempt to look within by creating a play thing in the external realm. The scale is impressive, but the play goes nowhere. No one gets to see it and everyone involved dies in the process of creating the thing.

A lot of people never try to fix themselves. We don't come with an instruction manual for the human mind. Cotard does the best he can do. He tries, but he doesn't really get anywhere. Oh well. It's a common story.

When a part is taken for the whole, one is not really seeing the whole. And if one piles up all the parts s/he can remember, that doesn't mean they really have anything to do with the big picture. I guess that leaves one nowhere.

Die.

IN SUM
One of my favorites. Loved the absurdity, the comic/tragic tone. When the deathbedded tattoo daughter forces Cotard to apologize for being gay and then refuses to forgive him, I busted a nut laughing. It was a brainy flick with lots of tits. It was also good to see Tom Noonan again, the Tooth Fairy from Michael Mann's Manhunter, as Cotard's doppelganger. Every once in a while Hollywood lets a gorgeous little black puck like this slip past the goalie.

Rex Reed walked out halfway through this movie and then declared it the worst movie ever made. Rex Reed is a cunt.

Carrie Nye

2009-03-13T13:40:00.001-07:00

I saw Creepshow when I was about 10 years old and I loved Carrie Nye. I wanted to smoke cigarettes just like her Aunt Sylvia. She had such a haughty attitude and a 3 pack a day voice that delivered dialogue in these low, lilting, smoky cadences. She was kind of like the living embodiment of the evil villainesses from the early Disney pictures. During the scene where the housekeeper turns up dead in the kitchen, Aunt Sylvia freaks out and backs into the corpse of her father, who twists off her head and makes a Father's Day cake out of it. I loved the way she lost her shit in that scene. Such a great contrast to her high and mighty demeanor. That performance really left a mark on me.

I recently looked her up and she seemed like a pretty cool lady. She was much more active in theater than she was in film (I would have loved to have seen her rendition of Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire). According to imdb, when asked what her favorite role was, she said "None of them. I only became an actress so I wouldn't have to cook or make a bed."

I also found out she played an evil real estate agent named Susan Piper on the TV soap Guiding Light. On top of all that, her character dies sinking in quicksand. That happens to be my favorite cinematic death of all time. If only I could have witnessed such a delight!

But thank God for youtube. I found some wild clips of Susan Piper's villainous acts of torture and blackmail on Guiding Light. The great set seems to be of a swampy sort, so this is probably around the time she fell into her slow and dirty doom. I assume she was thwarted and then died a dramatic death. I wish I could have seen that!

Here are those clips from Guiding Light. I urge you to follow these links. The part of Susan Piper was written specifically for Carrie Nye and she tears it up!

Susan Piper Part 1
Susan Piper Part 2
Susan Piper Part 3

Bumps

2009-03-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

This is pretty much what I've been up to - editing my new picture BUMPS. It's about 6 teen girls who all decide to get pregnant and raise the babies together as a family. Naturally, everything gets intense, to say the least.

I cut this trailer, setting it to this droney piece of music I put together. I heard this music when I was 4 years old. I was on the operating table. They gave me the mask. It was the most beautiful thing. Until I woke up. Then I screamed for my mommy.

Passing Through

2009-02-02T15:50:00.001-08:00

It's been a bummer lately. Ray Dennis Steckler died. Lux Interior died. They certainly made a mark before kicking off.

Year of the Ox

2009-01-26T15:32:00.001-08:00

Today begins the year of the Ox. I am an ox. Happy year of the Ox! I am very busy. I am editing BUMPS. Editing. Editing. Editing.

That's Ros Sereysothea. She is one of my favorite singers.

She was the Cambodian Aretha Franklin. She died under the Khmer Rouge. Listening to her is happiness to be alive.

Ruggero Deodato in the House of Wigs!

2009-01-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

Naxo Fiol just shot a mini doc on Mr. Deodato and he used an old song I recorded with the Cripes a few years ago called House of Wigs. Naxo got a chance to hang out and eat dinner with the director. Naxo said Deodato recounted many interesting tales of filmmaking adventures and that he was a very nice and humble person. Enjoy!

Snow Equals New DVD Compilation Of Shorts!

2008-12-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

Irina took that photo this weekend. We were snowed in. It was cozy and comfy inside while it was slippery and cold outside. I spent it putting together a new compilation of shorts - super 8 films and videos I've shot over the last 7 or 8 years. The comp is titled I AM UGLY AND I WANT TO DIE SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST PLEASE FUCK ME. The title nails down a monster or two. Though it's a bunch of stuff collected from the past, they all go together very nicely. There's a good flow. The only thing is, I'm always bitching that movies are too long and this collection is two and a half hours long. I might take one of the longer ones out, but I don't know. I'm going to have to sit down, watch the whole thing and see how I feel about it. I put together a good looking menu for the DVD and Irina designed a beautiful cover. I just have to fine tune a couple of things and quality control the whole thing and then it will be ready for the universe.

As soon as I'm done with this thing, I will be cutting the pregnant teen flick. I already edited it, but I tradtionally cut a movie (no sound editing), erase it completely and then start all over again. The first time I figure it all out. The second time around I get it right. It is very organic and alive. I don't have to do any tricks. Those are my facorite movies - ones without a lot of tricks.

I changed the title. It is now called BUMPS.

Te En-Video (preview)

2008-12-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a preview for a documentary called Te En-Video made by spanish filmmaker Victor Olid about no-budget filmmakers. I'm in it. You can see me at the end. The thing looks great and I can't wait to see it.

Goodies From Gary (Flicker 666)

2008-12-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

Done Shooting Pregnant Teen Feature

2008-11-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished shooting my new feature about pregnant teens. That's Anita Kinney on the left as Marcy.

It's been a trip working on a picture where most of the actors are half my age. I am almost venerable, I guess. It was hard wrangling everyone's schedule, but once everyone was together and the camera was rolling, the girls brought it on - strong and untamed. It was beautiful stuff. Older actors sometimes need to be lead to that place where inhibitions slip. These teens live in that place. They need no guidance. That makes my job easy.

It was a fun shoot. We shot for three full days, and then there were a few minor shoots in between for video diaries and solo stuff. Now it's time for post.

Been getting a bunch of projects done around the house so I can have nice big chunks of time to edit this thing. After Thanksgiving, that will be my main focus.

I Spent Sunday Running Nude Through Mississippi

2008-11-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

My friend Jeff Guay asked me to be in a new short movie he's shooting. It's basically a voiceover set to images. The draft I read was entitled Idea Recycling and I loved it. It says things that need to be said about the artistic climate of the times. He asked me if I'd play a naked guy running around with a box. Not a stranger to nudity, I said yes.

So I meet Jeff and MJ at Laughing Planet on Mississippi for a burrito before the shoot. Then we go to the first location. It's a scenic industrial landscape. Every now and then a car passes by. I've done nude scenes before. but never in public like this. I'm from California and around there you get registered as a sex offender if you're naked in public, unless it's the Folsom Street Fair or something. Luckily, Oregon's public nudity laws are a bit more lax. Even so, I am damn nervous. I feel very vulnerable and, well, naked!

Jeff gives me the cue. I strip off my clothes, put them in his hatchback. MJ is driving, Jeff is in the back with the camera. It's cold and I'm nervous and I know that I'm not representing the manhood of the Magyar race as well as I would be if the weather was warmer and if I was a bit more relaxed. I thought about whipping myself into shape, but I was already pretty uncomfortable about being totally nude in a wide open public space. I'd feel like a total creep fondling myself. I've dealt with much more crippling blows to my ego than this one, besides. I know the truth and so do a lot of other people. I also consoled myself with the idea that a more modest showing would be much less distracting for the overall mise en scene of Jeff's picture.

From the back of his car Jeff shot me as I ran nude through the industrial wasteland of Mississippi. At one point someone stopped me for directions. Why the hell did they stop to ask a naked guy for directions? I got honked at a few times. I heard someone yell, "Put on some clothes!"

I don't think my appearance in Jeff's movie is going to win me any fans, but I did it and I was happy to do it. As a director I often put actors through strange and uncomfortable experiences. These uncomfortable experiences are good. They blow off some of the cobwebs of the psyche. I've definitely felt more comfortable in my own skin since exposing myself to the elements.

From Spain To Spokane

2008-11-05T08:59:00.001-08:00

The season of the witch has been kind to me. Slut Shack played in an underground film festival in Spain on October 25 and It Came And Went And It Was Nothing played at the Flicker Spokane Super 8 film festival on October 26. This was the sixth Flicker Spokane and this year there was a horror theme, therefore it was Flicker 666. The line up seemed like a really good one.

I sent Victor Olid a Palace of Stains t-shirt. That's him. I can't wait to see his documentary. Also, you can see some pics from the underground short festival in Spain. It seems like the people had a great time.

FULL MOON ROUND BELLY

2008-10-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

Teresa, one of the actors in FULL MOON ROUND BELLY (she's the one on the far left - left to right there's Audrey, Nicky, Athena, Elly, and Anita is seated), put this publicity shot together. To see more publicity stills and pics from the shoot, you can go here.

Spain Underground

2008-10-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

My super 8mm short entitled Slut Shack will be playing at an underground film festival in Spain on October 25th. I've developed an email correspondence with Naxo Fiol, the fellow who's putting it on, and he's a super nice guy who makes great, wild underground films. Some of his shorts will be in the program, as well as the shorts of Victor Olid another super cool underground filmmaker from Spain with whom I've had the pleasure to make acquaintance.

It's a strange and wonderful thing finding people from far off lands with similar interests. It gives me a hopeful feeling.

They produce really great and interesting movies and I am very excited to be a part of the festival... If you happen to be in Spain on the 25th, go check it out!

The Hangar Of Fear

2008-10-13T15:07:00.001-07:00

Passing judgment makes us feel like we have power. We make our harshest judgments when we're feeling short on power, dignity, and self-respect. This leads to ugly things. Ugly things come from fear. A lack of power, dignity, and self-respect create a hangar of fear within us.

Fear obfuscates the truth. When the truth is blocked by fear, we tend to miss things that may be good for us. We may ignore things that can teach us lessons and higher truths. Those truths and lessons are still there, whether we can see them or not.

When faced with something one has never faced before - something from the realm beyond beyond - it is natural to be caught off guard. Some, when caught off guard, are exhilerated. Trepidation may supplement that exhileration to some degree, but the primary reaction for these folks is a can-do attitude. "Let's go! Give it to me!" Others, when faced with something strange and unknown, respond with shrinking fear. Fight or flight. In the wild, we fight or flee in order to survive.

A movie can't kill us, but it can make us feel short on self respect if we feel like we can't immediately classify it. We can make harsh judgments when we come across things we can't immediately classify. Thusly we may reject the potentially delicious and nourishing fruits a movie offers us.

Explosions Are The Most Beautiful Things In The World

2008-10-07T11:20:00.001-07:00

I love explosions. Big ones, little ones, white ones, orange ones, red ones, slow, fast, soft, hard, loud, quiet, whatever. Flames and fire and smoke and booming noises get me excited. It is the most terrible thing in the world when living beings get hurt in the process, but damn it, I love explosions. They are the most beautiful things in the world. Like a big deadly flower that can burn you and then disappear in a wake of destruction. It's a powerful thing; creation and destruction at the same time. It's everything.

I've been shooting my new feature FULL MOON ROUND BELLY and it feels like I'm shooting a series of explosions. Big ones, little ones, quiet ones, etc. It's a very exciting thing and I love shooting this way. When I am done shooting them, I edit the explosions together so it comes out like a fireworks display. It's beautiful.

I begin shooting Full Moon Round Belly tomorrow

2008-09-19T12:59:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I begin shooting Full Moon Round Belly - a picture about 6 high school age girls, best friends since 3rd grade, who all decide to get pregnant and raise the babies together as one big family of mothers and their children (sound famliar?). The cast is amazing and I am so excited to shoot this thing.

It's been a wild and hectic time. Brought the Kuchar Brothers into town during the summer. They showed recent video work over at the Clinton Street Theater. The audiences responded with warmth and appreciation. Everyone was smitten with their movies and had good questions for them. A great moment was seeing George reconnect with a fellow who many years ago wrote an underground film book which contained the first piece of writing on the Kuchars ever to appear in a bound tome. He was a very nice man and it was pretty moving to see them meet again after about 40 years or so. George said the fellow was a kid the last time he saw him.

As always, it was wonderful hanging out and catching up with George and Mike. Seeing them interact with Archee, my toy poodle, stripped any visage of cynicism from my soul.

After the Kucharfest, Irina and I took a two week vacation. We visited our parents, then spent a couple of nights in San Francisco. Poopy Lickles and Uni were kind enough to house us and they were warm and gracious hosts. We hung out with Mike Kuchar, reuniting him with Archee. Took a walk in beautiful Beauna Vista park. A highlight was when Mike took us to this magical grove at the park - a portal into a fantastic and mysterious realm. Mike used that grove to great effect in a few of his movies. It was a thrill seeing that spot. Mike gave me a stack of 20 dvd's of his movies. I've slowly been savoring them since I got back from vacation.

After San Francisco, we stayed for a week in a small cabin in the Oregon coastal town of Pacific City. I'd get up, take a walk on the beach, write, walk Archee on the beach, hang out, write, drink beer, listen to music, watch movies. It was great. I wrote a script for a silent feature film and an outline for a feature to be shot digitally.

It's been tough getting back into the swing of things. But now I'm shooting this thing and I have to. It's good.

this says it all:

2008-06-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

It Came And Went And It Was Nothing @ P.U.F.F.

2008-05-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

My new Super 8 short entitled IT CAME AND WENT AND IT WAS NOTHING will be playing in the Portland Underground Film Festival's short program on Saturday, June 14th at 7:00 pm.

It Came And Went And It Was Nothing (blurb)

2008-05-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Four lost souls glide through monotonous motions, candy bar munching, and murder. There's the man in the car with binoculars eating a rocky road bar. There's the woman and the man wearing glasses walking up to a motel with infinite rooms. There's a man in a yellow poncho dragging a body across an empty field.

Bob Moricz's haunted Super 8 short breathes, seethes, and loops with the proof that today's actions provoke tomorrow's terrors from beyond beyond.

Destroy! Revive! Tinker! Teeter! Stabilize!

2008-05-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend I deleted everything I had done with It Came And Went And It Was Nothing. The first cut was too stagnant, slow, and foggy. The second was too frantic, unfocused. I felt trapped in a haunted castle, so I demolished it. Then I started over from scratch.

It worked out nicely. I really like the approach of editing a movie, then throwing it out completely and then starting all over again. Before I would add, subtract, reorganize, restructure while sometimes remaining a slave to a ghost I was trying to bring back to the mortal realm. This is better. I can learn, tear down, then apply the knowledge to a new structure.

I was also having a problem with the soundtrack. Nothing I was recording seemed to work with the images. I recorded a bunch of music before I'd even received the footage back from the lab. Once I'd assembled the first cut, none of it seemed to work except for an extended improvised keyboard piece. It fight well, but I didn't like the way it created a mood. The images already created a creepy, somber atmosphere. The music made it redundant. I needed something to just be there, holding up as support rather than decorating.

I came up with a variety of solutions. The results weren't satisfying. Some were just downright embarrassing. Then I hit on the right one. I knew it was right before I even recorded it. I finished up the final cut, added the audio and it was right. Stable. Haunted with life.

The Multi-Multitude of Possible Possibilities

2008-05-13T11:44:00.001-07:00

Ok. So I got the footage back from the lab. This time, there is no dead pixel. I liked the way the first edit came out, so I was planning on recreating the cut exactly. It took about five minutes for me to realize that there is no possible way for me to re-edit the footage in the exact same fashion way I'd done before. It is an empty, meaningless and completely uninteresting exercise.

I overhauled it. Now it's more abstract and the speed varies. Starts fast, then slows down and speeds up again. It's like fog lifting off a mountain with a brisk, strong breeze. All the skeleton bones attach, then the organs, nerves, and muscles form.

I am trapped between two obsessive desires. One is to make something so beautiful; a gift to the world. The other is to make a fuck you of love slab heaping absurdity - a flailing shriek of futility echoing jarringly in the crowded hall of the jaded.

Dead Pixel!

2008-05-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

When the digitally transferred footage for It Came And Went And It Was Nothing arrived in the mail, I got straight to editing it. It was super easy because every shot was mapped out in advance. Not in the sense that it was all storyboarded. Storyboards are stiff and limit magical influence. I prefer poets to surgeons. Unless I need an operation.

So, I get about 85% of the cut done and then I notice a dead pixel. I watch the whole thing again and notice that the little white dot has been there the entire time. There's a lot of texture in this picture. Only one scene contains solid colors and that was the one where I noticed the pixel.

I have to edit it again. I sent it back to the lab and they said they'd fix it. I should be getting the footage back early next week.

dead spring robin

2008-04-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

On my morning walk I saw something flutter and fall from the top of a telephone pole. When it hit it bounced the way something alive would bounce after falling from a tall height hitting the ground.

I stepped off the sidewalk and into the street. Passing I noticed it was a robin. An old one. Its feathers were faded and sparse. It looked in my eyes, moving slightly - barely alive. Then it stopped moving.

I thought about being the last thing the robin saw before dying. I thought about the expression on my face. It was probably a mix of sadness and fear.

I thought about how I can tell what my cat and dog are feeling when I look at their faces.

It Came And Went And It Was Nothing Music

2008-04-07T11:35:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend I recorded the music for a short film I shot the previous weekend called It Came And Went And It Was Nothing.

The results are best when I'm not composing to the movie. I keep the soul of the picture in sight when I sit down to record. This way the sounds that come out are direct extensions of the picture. I'm not trying to match the images on the screen. When I try composing to the image on the screen, it turns out a little wobbly and unsteady; just not quite right. Forced. When I make sounds blindly, with the movie's soul in plain sight, things match up magically and automatically. When I work this way, I feel the movie makes its own music and that is the music that is absolutely right for the movie.

The first thing I recorded was sort of spooky and droney. A drum machine wallops away at a monotonous beat and a couple of wailing synths moan and groan. A while ago I recorded a piece and it accidentally ended up sounding like John Carpenter music. The one I recorded yesterday retains some of those Carpenter elements, but drifts off into its own world. For the next piece, I used the same monotonous drum beat, but added two loopy fuzzed out guitar lines weaving in and out of each other. I also added a sound that sounds like a robot blabbering unintelligibly. In the mixing process the guitars sounded way too organic for the cold monotony of the film. So I buried them in the mix and slapped on a ton load of echo. Now the guitars sound like an iron lung. I mixed down a version of the same song with just the robot murmurs and the beat, another with just the murmurs, and another with just the beat and one guitar. This gives me plenty of options when I'm doing the sound editing. Then I found a setting on my micro korg which created a great buzzing breathing wave breaking kind of feel and I recorded a track of just that. Then I tuned my teleplus to open E and recorded a solo guitar track. I made extensive use of the Danelectro French Toast, Pepperoni, and Chili Dog pedals Irina bought for me for my birthday. They sound unbelievably unhinged and nasty. They create the appropriate atmosphere of dread and roboticized terror. Thanks, Irina!

Finally, I found an interesting setting on the micro korg. It sounds like a farfisa and when one hammers clusters of notes, they come out one at a time, so a mad smashing sounds like an intricately conceived sequence of notes, rather than a mishmash of noise. I found a a good place to start and a few different places to go and then I hit record. Twelve minutes later I was done. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be the one.

Shooting Sunday

2008-03-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I shot a new short on Super 8 film. In A Field Behind A Motel was the original title. Now I'm thinking of calling it: It Came And Went And It Was Nothing. That has a nice ring to it.

I approached this one differently than other films I've shot in the past. Having gotten my cinematic start in video, I am used to over shooting and sifting through the footage during editing. This can be costly with film. With this one I wanted to do shoot it and then just put it all in order once I got the processed footage back.

I shot 6 rolls. The total running time of the raw footage should be about 15 or 16 minutes. I didn't do any retakes unless I screwed something up, or if something was a little off. I think I did three takes on one scene and maybe two on another. Other than that, it's all single takes.

The experience was super pleasant and good physical exercise. My legs are sore from contortions induced by the whirring camera. The actors were super pro and fun, pleasant, deep people. This is the kind of movie that doesn't give a whole lot of meat for actors to chew on. They just sort of glide through the scenery. This can be a frustrating experience for some, but Pat, Art, and Jeff were super accommodating and very cool with it and totally delivered when the film was rolling. Ian had a bit more to do and he consistently summoned a seething intensity for his role. He was also a real trooper when it came to getting dragged across a rough and ragged field in the pouring rain. I am very much looking forward to working with all of them again on future projects.

The Sitar Swami

2008-03-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Max told me about the Danelectro Sitar Swami. We looked at a message board and laughed at the comments people made about this thing. People hate it with a moist passion! Anything which raises such bile and ire is worthy of my consideration. I'm a fan of weird effects, anyway, so I told Irina that I wanted a Sitar Swami pedal for my birthday.

Posted on the aforementioned message board was some positive feedback regarding the Swami. These folks had a positive perspective. They saw the thing for the strange unruly thing that it is, rather than imposing unrealistic expectations upon it. Replicating a sitar sound in an effects pedal is a pretty tall order.

It turns out the Sitar Swami has beem discontinued. If I'd known, I would not have asked Irina to embark on such a fruitless venture. She went to music stores all over Portland and she was met with a variety of reactions which I think truly seperated the cool from the uncool. The uncool talked to her as if she was a complete asshole. "Oh... We don't carry that." On the cool side, Trade-Up Music was super nice and Centaur Guitar tried hard to track one down for her. They referred her to Tommy at Tommy's Guitar Shop in Everett Washington. He didn't have the pedal and Irina could tell it wasn't his thing, but he understood and respected the fact that there are cats out there who dig this kind of thing. He gave her a great deal on a Summer of Love box of four Danelectro pedals. It contains the French Toast fuzz, the Pepperoni Phaser, the Chili Dog dual octave, and a tuner pedal. Last night I plugged these puppies in and had a great time.

This weekend I'm shooting a s Super 8 short called It Came And Went And It Was Nothing. I'm going to record the soundtrack while I wait for the film to get processed. Those pedals are going to come in super handy. Thanks, Irina!

Best Director

2008-03-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Miami Underground Film Festival
Golden Coconut
Best Director
Bob Moricz

I won Best Director at the Miami Underground Film Festival! The last award I received was in the eighth grade for wood shop. Since then it's been a twenty year losing streak.

I am most honored...

Down and Dirty

2008-02-28T14:42:00.000-08:00

Before heading off to the Mid-Valley Video Festival last Sunday to catch the Down and Dirty Shorts program in which my film A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF DORIS DOLORES was slotted, I stopped in at Zach's Shack for a dog. Then I took the ride down to Salem.

It was a great time. Ross and his crew did a fantastic job organizing the fest and selecting the pictures for the program. The crowd was enthusiastic and receptive. The shorts program was great. The selection was diverse and well sequenced. Some of them were slick with big budget backing, others were lo-fi and conceptually innovative. Cat Piss and Mike Justice's Goodtime Charley are good examples of great lo-fi.

After the show there was a Q and A with some of the directors. Frank, the director of the intense Little Boy fielded several questions about his picture and gave thoughtful answers. Davon, director of Portrait of a Soul, was a super positive spirit. I got a chance to chat with both of them a little bit, and they were both super nice guys.

I don't think I gave the crowd enough time to formulate questions for DORIS. I do that sometimes. I have to work on that. Or perhaps they were utterly confounded by the picture and didn't know where to start, which is a possibility. But they were receptive to my voicings on movies with dream logic making the world a better place to live.

Hi, Doris. It's Me. Bob.

2008-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

In just a few hours, a surreal super 8 short film I shot a couple of years ago will be playing at the Mid Valley Film and Video Festival. It's part of their Down and Dirty Shorts program.

This was shot in one night back when I was living in Sacramento. The house was sold and we were getting damn close to packing up time. Sadly, I had not yet captured in a motion picture the way the house looked. It was something I had to do before splitting the Capitol City.

I cracked the shell encasing my feverish brain and the events of a domestic drama revealed themselves. A sock puppet ventriloquist stick in the mud. A party girl filmmaker with a lust for liquor. A relationship doomed. An unplanned pregnancy. I scribbled a list of scenes to shoot.

George and Rocky were two actors I had yet to work with, so I wrote it as a vehicle for them. I found out they went on a couple of dates in the past. We shot the whole thing in about 5 hours. It was fun working with them.

As I look back on DORIS, it's a strange and loaded film. It's fun and ugly and silly and scary and serious. My fears and dreams were mingling and melding with skinny little strips of celluloid. I was exposing my self and trying to make entertainment. It was a strange and scary time. It's a strange and scary movie.

I Am Now A Morning Person And I Really Like It

2008-02-13T11:24:00.001-08:00

Lately I've been having a helluva tough time getting down to writing after getting home from work. When I sit down at the laptop at night I find myself checking email over and over again and just cruising random sites. This is no good. All the while, an infected frustration swells. I want to work on the script. I love working on the script. Why can't I work on the script?

At work I have to be organized and ON at all times, so when I get home I feel like letting the day's events drain out of me so I can be an empty vessel ready to soak up some more of the world's horrors and beauties. When approaching writing at night when the vessel is full, I find myself caught on snags and forcing things. This leads to endless revisions and it takes a while for me to realize I've strayed from the path.

Stephen King says you have to read four hours a day, and write four hours a day. Otherwise, you're no good as a writer. I wonder how he kept that up when he worked as a school teacher. John Gresham was a lawyer. When he wrote his first book, he'd squeeze in some writing in the morning before work. It yielded him some positive results, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I got up at 5 am and got to work. Beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful. Being closer to the world of dreams made all the difference. I was connected to my consciousness, my memory, my imagination, my story and what I'm trying to say with it. It started my day off with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. On my walk to work I reflected on what came out and plotted what's to come. It works for me. It is good.

Unrealistic Realism

2008-02-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

Someone who says, "I didn't like that movie. It was too unrealistic" walks a short and narrow path. For realism, ride the bus downtown. Get a room at a single room occupancy motel. Talk to your neighbors. Get a blowjob at a massage parlor. Go to a leather bar. Go home with someone who picks you up. Get completely wasted. Act like a total prick. Start a fight. Get beaten up. That's real.

POS @ MUFF

2008-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

PALACE OF STAINS will be featured in the Miami Underground Film Festival's 2008 program. It is an exciting thought that the garish colors of PALACE will frolic in the lushness of those tropical climes. Around here it's so damp and gray all the time. This has an insulating effect on the ecstatic waves of ROY G BIV slime drop color. In Miami it can be free to mingle and mesh for mind warping maximum-ality.

Notes From the Black Hole

2008-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

I took a cold long walk on New Year's Day. Of course it was gloomy and gray. The wind cooled my feverish brow so I could better reflect on the past and passed year. This has been an intense time. I freaked out. Not in a big and loud way, but in a quiet, inside, black hole kind of way. When I freak out, it is good. I am climbing. When I am content, I know I'm heading for a fall. The black hole unmasked some brainworkings. It makes more sense to me. I am absolutely certain that the only thing to do is to make the movies which come from that big black hole inside of me - the same big black hole within all of us - regardless of whether or not people want to see them. If I listen to the black hole and remain faithful to it, then I am making something unique and universal - something people want to see (perhaps not now - perhaps later - perhaps when I'm dead - that's ok - like a crackling ghost speaker box from beyond the grave); an offering, rather than an indulgence.

How to See Beyond Beyond

2007-12-05T10:38:00.001-08:00

Everything is in the image.
Absorb the image.
It is reaching out to connect with you.
Let the connection happen.
Let your intuition out of its cage.
Take your intuition off its leash.
Let it run free.
Let it have fun.
You will have fun, too.
You will understand
if you let it run free
and if you let it have fun.

It will all make sense to you.
Don’t be afraid
of the shit
or the roses.
It’s all in there.
It’s a gift of love.
And it’s for you.

Mysteries Are The Greatest

2007-12-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

A fun and important part of the soul is extinguished by a reliance on rationalism.

The Loch Ness Monster has detractors. Perhaps the Scottish lake is too small for such a creature, but the skeleton of a forty foot prehistoric sea reptile with cucumber sized teeth was found somewhere in the Antarctic. It’s a new species and not like any creature ever encountered by science. I haven’t seen any photos yet, but I’m excited by it. Even if there was no such thing, I would be excited.

Twenty years ago, some people didn’t believe in global warning. Some of them were scientists.

Science is nice, but science can stop you from believing in some of the things you’d like to.

What a Difference a Wig Makes

2007-12-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Werner Herzog on set directing

Rescue Dawn.

Tear it Down

2007-12-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

Not satisfied with THE SCRIPT. Doesn't seem to know what it wants. No unified vision. Seems like a shallow attempt to make some thing of a normal movie – like a bunch of paper mache dumped on top of a broken plastic skeleton. Not digging it. Some parts ok, but over all not working so hot. Not enough juice spurting. I'm still behind the idea and the direction, just not happy with the execution. Time to tear down and rebuild. Can either try to make it work as just some regular movie, or blow it out of all proportion and do something beyond beyond. Opting for the latter. Maybe both? Neither. I will use my nose as my guide.

After the Buzz

2007-11-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

After spouting about how great THE SCRIPT was coming along, I hit a snag last night. But that snag turned out to be a beam of enlightenment. I was just sticking to an idea rather than swaying with the breeze and accepting an interesting turn – got stuck and the pages weren’t coming. Now it’s moving in a truer direction.

Been watching the second collection of Kenneth Anger’s short films. There was something heavy going on in America during the sixties. The blind joy sheen top-of-the-worldism afforded by World War II victory was peeling and the thrills of the horrors beneath surfaced with adrenalized heart pump motion in art. Anger’s movies showed this. Kuchars’ movies showed this. Warhol’s movies showed this. Night of the Living Dead showed the horror behind the exhilaration dead on. Easy Rider, Mean Streets, Five Easy Pieces, Apocalypse Now de rigueured it.

Anger, the Kuchars, Warhol, and a few others caught on film that wild anaesthetized nineteen sixties thrill of the cocaine rush to the horror beneath peeling full speed ahead victorious war fruited joy.

After the buzz, things get bad, hollow, ugly. Today’s ghost of the times is cynical, compartmentalized, zombied and bored. T.S. Eliot was right:

“This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.”

But there is still fun to be had and new things to make. These are just different times.

Spurting Curd

2007-11-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

I love the finale in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man where the monsters claw at each other while the villagers blow up the dam. My dam has busted. Liquids are spilling out all over the place. I’m not working fast enough to recover the juices, but luckily my bile doesn’t evaporate. It gets thicker, curdic.

THE SCRIPT is coming, spurting, squirting, flowing. Can’t wait to crack it, shoot it, cut it, show it. Wrapping liver and guts all up into it. Can’t talk about it. Talk obscures the actual doing.

Showed Doris Dolores at an open screening. Audience was pretty rapt and sat quietly in their seats. When it was over, nobody applauded. It was the right thing to do. Applause would have been like stripping bare the dead body at a funeral. After the film the guy in front of me said “I was going to get stoned, but I’m so glad I didn’t.”

Freedom is the Thing

2007-11-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

I am not entirely sure if too many people entertain the lofty ambition of working a low paying job and, after paying the bills, using the meager left over income and time to make the kinds of movies allowed by such low budgets. Of course, a filmmaker wants people to see her movies. Ironically, the aesthetic afforded by such paltry pecuniary means turns off many movie goers. The movie making soul’s blaze burns to create in a medium which needs time and money for kindling, the lack of which can be possibly viewed as a bucket of water dousing the flickering fire. I contend the bucket contains gasoline to ignite the incandescent flames, not water to douse them.

If you do your research you can cheaply purchase a camera capable of capturing a super high quality image. With some practice one can make something that looks pro enough for most viewers. If one chooses to eschew the visage of the slick, well that’s ok too. The margins move closer to the middle thanks to reality television. The public has developed a tolerance for the low resolution image thanks to sloppy make out sessions, shot by inexpensive and easily concealed night vision lenses, being pumped into the living rooms of millions all over the world. TV changes everything. What looks to be creatively inhospitable on the surface can actually prove a portal to the freedom and satisfaction of the movie maker and her potential audience.

Of course, there are no titanic ad campaigns or media junkets for the works of those operating in the movie making medium with limited time and funds. Therefore, he will have to cultivate an audience of dozens, perhaps hundreds, rather than thousands or millions. For some, this is the fecal whiff. For others, it is the glorious scent of freedom.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

A black cat crossed my path today...

Night of Lost Limbs – from Act II, scene iii

2007-10-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

Dirk: He’s out there somewhere. And I’m so damn hungry. I need to rip open a bite out of that tuna sandwich of yours…

Louise: Cool your jets, turbo. Save it for later.

Dirk: I’m so damn hungry.

Louise: This place isn’t so bad. The dead animal is a nice touch.

Dirk: Wonder if its fur was pink when it was alive.

Natural Metaphors

2007-10-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

My favorite metaphors are the natural ones. I prefer metaphors that aren’t invented by people, but ones that occur naturally. My favorite one is something I see all that time at work. There’s a client who comes in regularly with her companion dog. The client has a hard time walking and the dog is totally out of control, herkily jerking her fitfully back and forth. Always on the verge of toppling over, she is physically endangered by the thing that supports her.

It Came To Me

2007-10-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Haunted House Grocery List Script

2007-10-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it’s nice to write a script just like you’d write a grocery list for a meal you’re preparing for friends. Just make a list of scenes with two or three words to describe each one. Then shoot them. Once the ingredients are together, they will mingle in the right way. You just have to put them together. There might be some bread, or pasta, or ice cream left over, but that’s ok. There’s always something left over.

A haunted house trip to a home for the mentally ill when I was six years old kick started a life long lust for the macabre. Those synapses still singe my consciousness. I’m going to make a flame of a film ignited with these sparks. Super 8 rolls in the freezer have been cold for too long. I have the grocery list.

Oh, Canada!

2007-10-16T14:52:00.001-07:00

Went to see Karen Black narrate Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain! with live foley and orchestra. Awe struck by Grand Dame Black. A beautiful night of sensory super feasting. The theme struck truthful stake into my soggy vampire heart. Exchanged a few words afterwards with Jason Staczek, the conductor. Super nice guy. Truly a gentleman, giving us spicy tidbits without dishing any real dirt. Told us Lou Reed fell asleep when he played narrator. Lame! Irina talked with Karen Black in the bathroom. Later, at Pizza-a-Go-Go we bumped into some dude who sat next to us at the show. Asked him how he liked it, he was too cool to say so, instead opting to pontificate about the Aqua Man costume he was supposed to wear to some party.

Read some local rag’s rap on Maddin. Said he likes to show out of shape bodies nude in his films. They look normal, not out of shape. What’s wrong with normal? Isn’t that what everyone wants to be? Out of shape, what if? Out of shape, so what? A pot belly is hot. Americans hate their bodies. Self abuse by gym worn with pride while midnight cake nibblings run away in hiding. If Maddin’s sexy magical films are any indication, perhaps this is not the case in Canada. Oh, Canada!

No Regrets

2007-10-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Irina played a song for me by Aesop Rock called No Regrets. It describes three scenes of an independent artist’s life: one from childhood, one from early middle age, and her death in a rest home at the age of 84. First we see her as an autonomous kid jumping rope with the neighborhood kids. Next, at the age of 37, she spends most of her time painting, eschewing frivolous social engagements. Her neighbors think she’s weird. She’s in a relationship with another artist, just as independent and dedicated to his work as she is to hers. They get together once a week, spending the rest of the time on the work that is mutually important to them. In the final scene she dies alone in a rest home, looking at her paintings, with no regrets.

Twig Limbed Baby with Hitler's Face

2007-10-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Since squeezing the bed into the corner, my head is cornered and, while sleeping, there is less room for images to escape from my head. I remember my dreams with frequency since this recent shift in furniture.

A swaddled brown wrinkly faced baby resembling Adolph Hitler, with mustache and hair, sat upright. Though physically invisible, the mother’s presence was in the room, alive and watchful. She wanted me to unwrap the baby. I did not want to, but I did. The mustache and the hair fell off the baby’s head, giving its countenance a benign look. It wore a diaper, oversized for its stick-frail body. The baby’s hands were the size of an adult man. Though utterly repulsed, I phonily feigned adoration, due to the auric needles aimed in my direction by the invisible mother. A feeling of dread and disgust sucked at me. The baby’s arms were long, no flesh, just waving, wagging twigs. Its adult hands began grasping at my face. Violently, it clawed at my eyeballs.

I woke up. The last thing I saw was the benign sleepy eyed expression on its tawny wrinkled face.

Just Screaming

2007-10-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

A most productive weekend overall. It was a pulchritudinous combination of work and fun. A group of us celebrated a friend’s birthday with sushi at Saburo’s. Best sushi I’ve had in a long, long time. Ate sashimi: octopus, eel, and surf clam. Meat so fresh and the wasabi was hot, not mellowed out for westerners. Ate way too much.

Did meals on wheels Sunday. I’m a bi-weekly regular now. Liked the route – very nice people. Downtown was a bit of hassle, especially due to some marathon, but the stops were all close together. Some guy was screaming inside his apartment. Thought he was screaming at me because I was knocking loudly on a door to an apartment where the occupant couldn’t hear me. But no. He was just screaming.

Finished The Terrible Toothache. Tightened all the nuts and bolts. Very happy with it – tight and smooth. Learned a big chunk of brain manna from the last three movies. It’s all a fine line. The simple, the ugly, the holy, the beautiful and the profane feed into a lazer beam blast of pure soul exposing veracity if focused properly. That’s the best kind of thing. It’s easy to lose in the making, as well as in the taking. But that’s how it is. It’s something big to shoot for, and that’s something worth shooting for. The target gets clearer the more shots fired.

Speaking of pure blasts of truth, I love the movies of Damon Packard. He is amazing. Just watched Reflections of Evil and have been dealing with the repercussions of a major mind blow.

Frankenstein Transmissions

2007-10-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight the plan is to tighten the screws on The Terrible Toothache. Editing and sound mixing were completed back in May. Since then, I tweaked it a bit. Then, after not watching it after 5 months, I watched it again and made a long list of changes – some to do with sound, some aesthetic, some philosophical. It would really be nice if it didn’t take 5 months of distance to see what needs to be corrected. I’d love it if I could pick those things out right off the bat. Then I’d really be cooking.

Another picture currently in production is called Gutter Goulash. Basically Frankenstein-ing choice chunks from previous BM Movie Products into a new piece woven in with a new story threadline. As I compile them like a one man Burke and Hare, new light is shed on the bodies to which the severed parts once belonged. My urge was to spray sanguine psychic states on screen. Tapping into some hidden soul sanctum, messages transmitted visually from a confused and unsettled place. I hear the transmissions more clearly now. There are many miles between now and then.

Nice Pellets of Gloom

2007-10-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

The rain drips nicely in the grey doomy gloom. My spirit lifts.

Finished the office and am very excited about getting to work in a space conductive to my wiring. As mentioned, too much baggage cluttering the conductors. Now the paths are cleared. The writing is on the wall. I just have to follow the directions.

After finishing the office I rewarded myself with a trip to Music Millenium. Sold them some CD’s and paid $10 total for the following:

Brian Eno - Before and After Science
20 Miles – I’m a Lucky Guy
Masters of the Delta Blues – Friends of Charley Patton (Yazoo collection)
Omar Shariff – The Raven
Dolly Parton – Jolene

Omar Shariff used to play weekly at the Blue Lamp in Sacramento when I lived there. Bummed I never got out to see him. Always wanted to. Listened to some of the Yazoo collection last night. A few Bukka White songs I’ve never heard. Spirituals.

I can listen to this stuff forever.

Guitar Wolf Versus Smackhead High School Teacher

2007-09-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

As a former drug addled high school teacher, I was interested in seeing Half Nelson – the story of a drug addled Brooklyn high school teacher and his friendship with one of his students. Saw it and watched white man’s burden implode on itself. It makes some kind of sound devoid of true tone.

Then I watched Wild Zero, a Japanese zombie movie starring the band Guitar Wolf. It recalibrated Half Nelson’s boo-boos with the universal theme of rock n roll transcending all boundaries, thusly injecting the soul with elixirs of freedom and joy. It’s good to be alive.

The winner is Guitar Wolf.

Hey, Ghosts...

2007-09-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

Been busy as all get out cleaning the office any and every not-so-sexy chance I get. After the BIG MOVE I plastered the office with postings from my past. Now that all the Sacramento movies are finished, those ties are stultifying chains to former psychic sines slowing steps to growth. So I ripped the mask from my face and the masks off the wall and sterilized the room. It's a better place to perform operations.

Melt Away

2007-09-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I cried to my bloggy-poo, complaining about my physical deformities and frightful feelings. This was a strange thing for me. I usually subscribe to the have your nervous breakdowns in private rule, but I think giving words to my weepies released some sort of mental blockage and I had a major breakthrough this morning regarding the new feature film. Now I'm really cooking. Things are coming at me fast and quick. Pretty threads that weren't tied down find fabric to which they stick and I'm getting very excited.

After THE BIG MOVE, my brain devotes much time to new cinematic direction for the next feature. Ideas have been swimming around, but nothing worth grabbing. However, cut off from a solid support network, out of fear, I was grabbing and holding on to things I should have cast aside, meshing the prospective project into a mishmash of non-focus. After barfing a pile of bile, phantom fingers turn the ring, focus sharpens and fears melt away.

Lance My Boilz… Pleeeze

2007-09-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Epidermal eruptions have taken over the right side of my face. They surfaced last week and have yet to dis- appear. I am left looking like a darker, thinner Baron Harkonnen. Also, pus has been flowing from my left eye after an encounter with an aunt afflicted with an eye infection. I am a vile human specimen. I moved to Portland to confront my potential – to make great movies. I am lost, afraid, and I miss my friends.

La-la-la!

Defending the Grain (a prayer)

2007-07-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

Please God, help defend the burning chastity, the frayed truth, the crumbling muffin of sanity packaged within the ping pong ball grain of the subtopian motion picture. Lord give light to the eyes so they can see the transcendental transgressions of the non-million dollar moving image polarized to the dictatorial deluge flooding public perceptions with slick curves, cold cuts, artificial beauty, monochromatic morality, medical mindwarps, erectile dysfunction, penile enhancement, grease-burger gorgings, weight loss mania, plastic tit stuffed self-disfigurations, and honest to God blood death violence news zapping the unsuspecting viewer's brain at the hypothetically tested right moment with numbing brain worms of fear.

When all this calculated hidden mocking human herding pushing around by craven yellow flabbed neuters in ivory towers has fallen, new things will rise and, because they are new, they will not claw from the womb seeping psycho-flesh rot.

Perhaps then, the grainy clarity and the juicy motion of the lo-fi vision with the hot hope injection will be seen for what it truly was - a beacon of hope reflecting off the armor of a cold and calculated era when the soul was lost in the danger forest of the big snuff.

Editing The Terrible Toothache

2007-05-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm editing an improvised detective drama about a cop with a cavity.

The Terrible Toothache is another one shot in the style of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I basically do the same thing but with a lot less time and even less money. The lack of time, pecuniary backing and preparation gives the whole flick a frantic energy, a springy, bouncy zip that's a special thing for which to be privy.

There's no time for fakery. Even though what we're doing isn't real, it comes off super real. I support the performers. They feel safe to do what comes to them. The actors know I know how to cut a scene and that I won't include anything that will make them look bad.

It's looking spiffy. Shooting this way is the best kind of kick in the pants. It frees everyone. Together you learn things about movies and people and life. It's fun to shoot and edit and watch. And you get vitamins from it, too.

Bloody Maw of the Man Wolf Production Stills

2007-05-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

Back in September of 2000 while I was still living in Oakland, I shot a movie called Bloody Maw of the Man Wolf. It's a black and white movie in the spirit of the old Universal monster movies with a little Antonioni bourgeois angst thrown in - plus a few surprises like alcoholism and a musical number.

Most of it was shot in San Carlos, CA which is right next to my home town of Redwood City. In high school I had friends who lived in San Carlos, so I was pretty familiar with the place.

In the pics you can see Mace Mamlok (in white) and her sister Katie. They bear resemblance to each other, so I cast them as sisters. The fact that they're sisters in real life gave their time together onscreen a super realistic feel that worked beautifully.

We were shooting a scene where Sentria Corningblume (Katie) is doing some target practice, while her sister Althea (Mace) laments her boyfriend woes. You can see her co-star Orlando Furioso in one of the shots. They were actually boyfriend girlfriend at the time, lending more realistic legitimacy to the onscreen action.

We shot this handgun heavy scene at a nearby Christian School. I got a nice impromptu shot of a handy man walking around with a big chain. I slipped it into the movie when Sentria says, "There's all sorts of messed up people running around."

The Last Machine Gun

2007-05-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

Shot another one in the machine gun method. THE SLAVES OF DESTRUCTO is the title. Went to a party and gave a crash course. Great bunch of people. Open. Receptive. Shameless. Shot it in about an hour - fast and loose. Wrapped it up with a story and theme. Edited the heck out of it. Turned out nicely. Keeping the the muscles in shape. But I know the track all too well. Time to move on to a more challenging one. One where I can put the muscles to the test.

Illusions and Battle Axes

2007-04-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

There is a spirit informing our actions and perceptions. The spirit is burned out and depressed. Some people recover from depression by uncovering the things that take them to that lonely place. This is hard work, but worth the effort. Some plod on, ignoring the problem, getting worse. It's the parent who slaps the kid for a minor infraction. That's the zeitgeist of America today.

This zeitgeist manifests itself in an extreme cynicism. A kind of apathy which says everything's been done. A blanket of ennui comforts a slink toward insular isolation. It condones an attitude shut off from truly transcendent works of art while extending a glad hand to the mediocre.

Once I was with a friend and saw a man with elephantitis of the scrotum. I pointed this out to my friend but he didn't see it. He looked straight at the man. His eyes passed over what looked like two beach balls stuffed down baggy pants, crotch at ankle level. But it wasn't there for him. He didn't see it. The vision entered his eyes, but never made it to his brain. It was too upsetting.

The people who think there can be nothing new think so because they are incapable of creating such a thing themselves. They are incapable of creating such a thing themselves because they do not believe they, or anyone else for that matter, can create such a thing. They are defeating themselves in a defeated and deceptive time. It would be upsetting to them if transcendent works of art existed today, so they don't recognize one when they see it.

It's a challenge making movies in such a climate. It is a great challenge that yields great results. Rather than letting the mucky mindsets of naysayers trap the artist striving to create something transcendentally transformational, the artist must work hard to break through the barrier.

That barrier must be broken with magical illusions illuminating paths to buried truths, not with battle axes. Perhaps the barrier should be vanished, not broken. Illusionists can vanish things.

The Big Fat Period

2007-04-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. When I first saw the show I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something special about it. It had a different kind of feel. It turns out the actors don't work with a script. Scenarios are outlined and the actors have a clear idea of what their characters want to achieve within the framework of each scene. I got excited and wanted to make a movie this way.

So I did. It's called The Big Fat Period.

Everyone on earth is dead except for three women huddled in a small house. They hang out. Play games. Eat potatos. Holly's the realist. Franchesca tries to keep it together. Trina loves her baby. There's some big drama and an an emotional ending.

It was so exciting to see the actors take ownership of the story and their roles. It made the thing so much better than it would have been if I'd been calling all the shots. All I did was fan the flames and throw in my two cents when it was necessary. I think this is a wonderful way to make movies. It shook me of some negative baggage. We were all very connected. We were riding a wave, not carving statues from stone.

Fear is no good. It gets in the way of everything. No one was afraid that day of shooting. Everyone was ready and invested. That is a fantastic and rare thing. Psychodramas are no good on a set unless they are being used as raw energy for the imagination. Dictatorial directors are stupid. They fall hard and it's ugly. The director should be a surfer. When a surfer rides the big wave, it's a thrill to watch. You're with them the whole way, hoping they're going to make it.

It was fun and it was intense. We made something worth watching. Together. There's a chunk of each one in there.

Midnight of My Life Sacramento Bee photo shoot - October 2004

2007-03-07T12:53:00.000-08:00

In October of 2004, the Sacramento Bee ran a story about my feature The Midnight of My Life. For the photo shoot I brought along my pals Keith Lowell Jensen, Amber Kloss, and Nick Roberts. They made themselves up as zombies, as you can see. Randy Pench was the Bee staff photographer for the shoot. You can see him bending over in one of the shots. Irina took most of these pics.

Doris Dolores Production Stills

2007-02-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF DORIS DOLORES is complete. Shot it on Super 8 film one hot summer evening in August of '06 at the old house on 25th Street in Sacramento.

Raquel Rupple and George Schau are the stars. That's George on the left and me on the right. I really miss that wonderful light fixture. That house was great and I'm glad it's featured so prominently in the movie.

Golden hour in the alley was a beautiful thing. That's Rocky on the left, me on the right.

I Dipped My Pizza Crust in Garlic Sauce as They Ate His Genitals

2006-11-30T19:16:00.000-08:00

When I was a young lad of eleven years, I was stricken with absolute terror upon discovering stills from a movie by the name of CANNIBAL FEROX while leafing through Kim Newman's book NIGHTMARE MOVIES. At the time I had no knowledge of this Italian cannibal film micro-genre. At the time I had no knowledge the human body could be mutilated in the ways they were in those stills.

I felt a little less innocent.

Now that I am older, I am more soiled. It is about time to fill in my gap of filmic education.

I went to Movie Madness and rented JUNGLE HOLOCAUST (AKA LAST CANNIBAL WORLD), CANNIBAL FEROX, ANTHROPOPHAGUS, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD. I ordered a pizza and saved a very special bottle of Rochefort 10 for the occassion. I dipped my pizza crust in garlic sauce as they ate his genitals.

When I was a kid I watched horror movies. My mother stood in the doorway, aghast at the horrors I gawked. She'd complain about the garbage on the screen but her eyes never averted from the garbage that flickered on the screen.

Animal snuff. Flesh torn from bone.
Racism. Rape. Untamed nudity.
A crocodile eats a human baby.
Castration.

I miss mommy.

Dust Settles

2006-11-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

Things are set and calm. The house is together. The office is ready. I'm ready to start editing the three pictures I made before I left.

I think about what I'm going to shoot next. I am a little bit vexed. Leaving behind beloved locations and the actors that fueled my flicks leaves me in a funny place. The past as mishmash clash of the contents in my bowels and brain is passed. There are many things out there that haven't been made. I will do my best and make them.

Moved

2006-09-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

I moved to a new city six weeks ago and my brain is doing things. It acts like a camera. The buildings in my neighborhood are all photographed and filed. Bad habits gave comfort and then slipped away. I bought two new shirts. One brown one, one yellow one. Multiple movies, made and unmade, are on, and in, my brain.. Before I left, I shot three. Two videos: THE TERRIBLE TOOTHACHE and BABY MACHINE. One film: A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF DORIS DOLORES. A fourth one, too: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE NAKED PREACHER LADY. I need to work in order to work through things so I made sure there were things to work on. This is a beautiful city with movie motion and lovely locations fueling the fire in foetid, fecund fantasyland. This gets it made. But so far I've been making the house. But the house is near done. There are beautiful pies waiting.

The Machine Gun Method of Movie Making

2006-08-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

DO THIS FAST

Run in. Shoot everything you see. Pray you shot everything that needed to be shot.

God is in the editing room where it's all sorted out..

This is the machine gun method. It's fun and it works.

But sometimes all you need is one bullet.

Rancho Seco

2006-08-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

Rancho Seco is a strange place. I've seen these twin towers in a couple of movies. Later on I found out that The Abyss was shot in one of those things. I had to use this place for a shoot.

I'm shooting a movie called A Terrible Toothache starring Dutch Falconi as a cop on the skids. We (Dutch, George as Fernando, Trina as Evelova, Jason the camera man, and me) almost got killed five times on our way up there. Once we arrived it was certainly an ominous sight. We were all wondering what it would sound like if we had brought along a geiger counter. It's probably better not to know.

The shoot went well. There was a white arrow painted on the abandoned gravel of the parking lot which determined my camera set up. It took us about an hour to shoot two scenes. On our way home we were swarmed by the most aggressive flies any of us had ever come across. They harassed us in the car all the way home, even though all the windows were opened wide to push those buzzing maggots out of our sweaty and sun scorched faces. One of them followed me home and it's still buzzing around inside my house.