Thursday, February 28, 2019

My Head's Been Wet with the Midnight Dew

 This post first appeared as exclusive content in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP which you cam subscribe to from this blog if you can't wait.
I've been hammering away the last few weeks judging the Indy Shorts International Film Festival for Heartland Film as well as the Phantoscope High School Film Festival and seen a ton of interesting things.  But more so I've been gearing up to shoot my second feature, SCARECROW COUNTY, a week from today.

I have kept this largely under wraps, superstitiously, because my holiday movie I was going to shoot around Christmas bottomed out when the lead actress had to withdraw because of a serious family situation.  I have tremendous empathy for her and her family but now it seems too hard to stage a holiday movie without convenient holiday decorations being up in homes and around towns, so I am hoping to gird that up again next winter.

In the meantime comes SCARECROW COUNTY.  A small-town librarian is gifted the lost diary of a dead teenager, exposing long-buried secrets as a murderous scarecrow stalks the streets.  Here is the teaser poster:
More "Hoosiersploitation" but less cerebral and more drive-in than THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE.


Right now I'm watching the weather and assembling a props list:  flask, cell phones, table saw, pitchfork, knife, gun, other sharp implements, rope, straw--it's reading like an End Times diary more than a movie list.

I also assembled my "Secret Soundtrack"--the songs that inspired me while I was writing the movie, any one of which the rights to would break the bank on the budget.  For your listening enjoyment, here they are:
God’s Gonna Get You For That by George Jones and Tammy Wynette

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me by Culture Club

You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive

Eli’s Coming by Three Dog Night

Jesus is Just Alright by The Doobie Brothers

Superstition by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

The Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine

Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

God’s Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash

Beginning Friday, follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat at johnoakdalton to see behind-the-scenes stuff about what is happening--or look for the hashtag #scarecrowcounty.

Thanks for following along as we jump back into the moviemaking fray once more.