Friday, April 20, 2018

Avoid Stepping On Bela Lugosi

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP which you can subscribe to in the sidebar if you can't wait for news from me.

While THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE winds its way through post, I am chipping away at some other things.  But the guys at Neon Bloodbath did a nice write up of me, and you can read that here.

I have been a screener for the Indy Shorts International Film Fest, part of the prestigious Heartland Film Festival, which would never, never show any movie I have ever worked on.  I have concentrated on the high school part of the fest, which has clocked in over 75 entries to date.  I love seeing what people come up with, with whatever they have on hand as far as geography and equipment and friendships.  And some of them do astoundingly good work.

I am also joining the Programming Committee for the Blue Whiskey Film Festival, run by some old friends who have done great work in first suburban and now downtown Chicago.  My schedule has not allowed me to get up there as regularly as I might like the last few years, so it permits me to help from afar.  It's been amazing to see the people who have launched out of there over the course of the fest, including Michael Mohan who helmed EVERYTHING SUCKS to Mike Flanagan who recently did GERALD'S GAME and has a million things going to Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote a little movie a few people went to see called A QUIET PLACE.  Nothing makes me happier than to see people go on the arc from their peanut butter days to Making It.

I went to Cinema Wasteland a weekend ago, which is a one of the key conventions for people doing b-movies, though distance (it is near Cleveland) has precluded me from going every year.  But with CRAWLSPACE in production, it seemed a good time to go and chat with people.  I don't know if it was because I was going around as a director instead of a screenwriter (it has always seemed like nobody wants to talk to screenwriters) or because I was walking around with Henrique Couto, who is sort of like the Mayor of Cinema Wasteland, but I touched base with a lot of new folks.  It was worthwhile, and there are a lot of people trying to figure out what to do next, including me.

I would like to write more, but I cut my index finger washing the blade in the food processor last night, and I am making a ton of typos, so I am going to have to quit here.  Talk soon.