Film Studies

Once upon a time, when I studied film, there was always somebody around who wanted to talk about "Breathless" or "Bicycle Thief" or "The Seventh Seal." I lamented at this blog that not too long ago I went out to dinner with a group of college film studies whose references were "Reservoir Dogs," "Boondock Saints," and the like. And therein lies the rub.

The great world filmmaker Ingmar Bergman died. Though his work can be some pretty tough sledding, might I recommend the archetypal world cinema classic "The Seventh Seal." Young readers might be surprised to learn that no less an august film than "Bill and Ted" paid tribute to this classic (and "The Virgin Spring" became "Last House on the Left," by the by). I am also a fan of "Wild Strawberries" and "Smiles of a Summer Night" (as light as you are going to get, and was adapted into "A Little Night Music"), and many people value "Personae" (as dark as you are going to get, probably).

Check out a nice story from the New York Times here.

We now return to our regularly scheduled b-programming.

MCF

This is me and the great Boston-area filmmaker (and Microcinema Scene founder) Jason Santo chillin' like Bob Dylan in front of the theatre when the fest was in Rapid City, South Dakota a few years ago. Mostly I just posted this to remind everybody that the deadline for entries for this year's fest in Palatine, Illinois is tomorrow. You can check out more at the site here (www.microcinemafest.com), which was just updated today. I was surprised to find this shot in a cache of webphotos Jason had and I didn't think he would mind if I snitched it. Usually when I surf the interwebs googling my name I get to find reviews where people think I suck and wish that I would die. This was a welcome surprise.

My Cleanest Dirty Shirt

My friend Doug showed up Sunday with a grocery sack full o' comics, so I should be happy for a while. It was a nice surpise after a hellacious migraine on Saturday. Although apparently Marvel's "Civil War" is in there, way at the bottom.

My NZ pal Amit Tripuraneni, who I wrote URAMESHIYA (GHOST SCREAM) for, has a pretty interesting interview about his new horror film FIVE right here.

One of these things popped up in front of the McDonald's in the next little town over, making it the closest video store to my house. Has anybody else seen one of these, or tried one?

I don't know where my brother finds stuff like this (probably NSFW).

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Back to the B-Mailbag

New reader Michael writes:

I googled your name and your Blog popped up. I couldn't help but notice we have many of the same interests -- screen writing, b-movies, film making, comics, gaming, Kurt Vonnegut, The Catcher in the Rye, etc. After discovering this and the fact you've accomplished many of the same things I want to accomplish, I had to stop myself from prostrating three times at your feet, and asking you to teach me the WAY (or at least be my mentor). But I thought that might be a little unprofessional.

Aim higher! I am still hoping for William Goldman or Michael Tolkin.

I'm looking forward to watching the movies you wrote. I actually purchased two online over the weekend, PETER ROTTENTAIL and RAZORTEETH.

Well, we'll see how much you want to prostrate yourself afterwards!

I watched the SEX MACHINE trailer, and it looks really well done. I see your friends with Bill Cunningham. I've read Bill Cunningham's Blog before and have rented SCARECROW... or maybe it was SCARECROW SLAYER... or both...

Bill is a smart guy with great advice on his blog, especially the part where he told everybody to watch SEX MACHINE.

Thanks for writing, and feel free to give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Smells as Sweet

I don't do a lot of memes on my blog anymore, but sometimes one really strikes my fancy:

1. YOUR SPY NAME (middle name and current street name)
Oak Lone Oak. True!

2.YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side and your favorite candy):
Vermont York. OK.

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name and first three or four letters of your last name):
J-Dalt. Yeah, 'bout right.

4. YOUR GAMER TAG (a favorite color, a favorite animal)
Blue Kitten. Don't understand this one, must be too old.

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (Mom's/Dad's middle name, and city you were born in):
John Muncie. Funny.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, last three letters of mother's maiden name, first three letters of your most recent pet's name)
Dalamspan. Good one.

7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards):
Koa Smillaiw. Even better.

8. PORN STAR NAME (first pet's name, the street you grew up on):
Daisy Colson. Kind of limits the kind of parts I could take, unfortunately.

9. SUPERHERO NAME ("The", the color of shirt you're wearing and the automobile your mom drives):
Orange Olds. Not too inspiring.

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate):
Jaguar Ribeye. Kinda cool.

Not sure this one worked out the best for me, but there it is. Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

You Might Say I Was A Musical Proverbial Knee-High

On Friday an old friend invited me over to watch SEX MACHINE at his house, cook out, and have a few beers. My filmography always plays better that way. It was a nice evening and good to see SEX MACHINE through fresh eyes. I don't think I had watched it since it played at Microcinema Fest last summer.

My old pal Pete Bauer weighs in on SEX MACHINE here. Thanks, Pete.

I keep forgetting to post that the final chapter of my article I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP was posted up at Microcinema Scene, here.

I shot off my second draft of URAMESHIYA (GHOST SCREAM) to New Zealand director Amit Tripuraneni on schedule Sunday. His new horror movie, FIVE, is winging its way to the U.S. from the opposite direction as we speak. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Thinking about doing this now that my stitches are out. I love nerd extreme sports!

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Frankenstein Thumb: FX Shots

Hell yeah it hurt!

Frankenstein Thumb: FX Shots 2

Once more, with feeling.

Feel Sunshine Sparkle Pink and Blue

I take the bandages off of my thumb tonight, which is good because I need to finish up a few scenes for GHOST SCREAM this weekend. Still hurts a bit to type, though.

In the meantime, somebody found my site by googling boring facts about john dalton and when a squid is frightened, it turns red and Jeremy Mark Bolt needs to quit sticking out his stomach. I can promise the first but I'm not sure about the others.

Are these guys the future?

I love this kind of stuff. And this.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

On the Set of "Frankenstein Thumb"

I had sort of promised myself to stop typing in my blog until I got my stitches out. But last night I had another strange dream about the making of "Frankenstein Thumb."

My hand was throbbing and pulsing like a Bee Gees album and so I gobbled down some Vicodin and crashed out. And though I always thought Vanilla Coke was a good muse, Vicodin might even be better.

In this dream, I was an actor in the movie "Frankenstein Thumb." Something had happened to my thumb--it was implanted with a microchip, or it was a demon thumb, or something--and I was being interrogated by some mysterious people, being played by filmmakers I know from Microcinema Fest. And, curiouser still, I was being interrogated on the stage at Cutting Hall in sunny Palatine, Illinois, where the festival plays.

The fact that these people were mysterious was denoted by the fact that they were all holding flashlights under their chins, giving them Bela Lugosi shadows. I guess now even my muse is used to thinking low-budget.

Any interpretations of this dream are welcome. Until later, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

The Making of "Frankenstein Thumb"

I had this really vivid dream that me and a bunch of filmmakers I have met at Microcinema Fest were making a movie actually at the festival. It may be because I am looking forward to this year's Fest. It also may have been because I was flying along on Vicodin. Which undoubtedly was because I almost peeled my thumbprint off opening a can of tuna for my cats.

I was using a hand can opener and it slipped out of my hands and fell into the kitchen sink. The first thing I said was, "I screwed up," which I knew I had because I didn't feel anything, just a wave of cold. Which was bad because my thumb was spraying blood on the kitchen floor. I looked closer and saw the ball of my thumb canted out away from everything else. So I wrapped a towel around it, but not before my daughter's friend glommed onto the whole thing and vomited. It was a zany few minutes. I had my wife drive me to the emergency room where after spending a few hours reading five-year-old magazines a friendly doctor put nine stitches in my thumb and patched it back together again. Though I suspect I will never be able to commit any left-handed crimes, because I think I am going to have a weird-looking thumbprint; sort of a Colts horseshoe.

The funny thing was that later my daughter and her friend found a piece of broken Cheeto on the kitchen floor and thought it was the tip of my thumb, until she picked it up with a spoon and butter knife and looked closer. I would have given anything to see my daughter creeping up on what she thought was the remains of one of my appendages with a spoon and a butter knife.

So the muse has gone silent here for a bit longer, maybe until I get the stitches out.

The name of the movie we were making? "Frankenstein Thumb." Ah, Vicodin, my fill-in muse.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Man Has Cried A Billion Tears

I just sent off a few new scenes to the Polonia Brothers for NEW JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and am still punching up the third act of URAMESHIYA (GHOST SCREAM) for director Amit Tripuraneni. So let's go to the mailbag for today's entry:

Sporadic reader Joe writes:

Hi, I was watching a movie called Las Vegas Bloodbath, and in the credits, it credits the fx to someone named John Royal Dalton. Any relation?

Some research on IMDB tells me that this is actually David Royal Dalton. No relation. How come nobody wants to know if I'm related to Timothy Dalton?

Loyal reader Dave writes:

Hey, I just signed in to E-mail you. I decided to take a break last night from wrestling (as I usualy watch every night, but the Benoit thing has me reeling) and finaly got to watch Sex Machine. I dug it, you were right, my kind of movie. My only cretique of it has to do with the lack of a budget they had. I assume the budget =the bad ADR which was pretty distracting in some scenes, but other then that I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Thanks, Dave! Good luck with your wrestling career!

New reader Don writes:

During my hitch down in Louisiana (late '80s, early '90s), I remember watching a video from the rental store that a friend had rented, and I'm wondering if it isn't the Cannibal Campout listed under Jon McBride's body of work. I remember a chunky kid with an '80s haircut singing along to a song in a van on the way to the woods, and the bad guys pulling the guts out of a living victim while his buddy had to watch--not much else. Memories!

With that description, it could be nothing else but! Jon enjoys singing in his movies--check out "Bigfoot Stole My Six-pack" in AMONG US.

Write me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

"We Need Weapons"

Another publicity still I shot for the bigfoot movie AMONG US, as Bob Dennis, Hunter Austin, and Jon McBride try to keep the critics at bay.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

This exclusive behind-the-scenes shot shows the incredibly rickety, dangerous bridge that the Polonia Brothers made use of in AMONG US. They made me carry a heavy tripod across this thing, figuring that the writer was probably the most expendable person on site.

More Among Us

Here's another publicity shot from my bigfoot opus AMONG US, with Bob Dennis, Hunter Austin, and Jon McBride. That remote cabin was genuinely terrifying, being overrun with snakes, vermin, and sporadically visited by bears.

Actors Among Us

Hunter Austin and Bob Dennis prep for a scene while John Polonia lugs around a 16mm camera in the background. I think these two are super-talented and have a special place in my heart because they were the first actors I heard read some of my words aloud. Unfortunately those first sentences included the word "cornhole."

Back to Bigfoot

With my new series of articles "I Was Bigfoot's Shemp" appearing at Microcinema Scene, and AMONG US playing on the Space Channel, it dawned on me that I had never posted photos from my trip to the set of the feature--shot in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania way back in 2003--and maybe it was past due. Here we see stalwart heroine Hunter Austin beseiged by Bigfoot, in a photo I took that was later photoshopped into a pretty good DVD box cover.

Burn, Baby, Burn

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes photo, we see our leads prepping for a scene around the campfire--a campfire started with pages from my script. And that's why writers aren't invited to the set.

Baby I'm-A Want You

I have been laughing until crying at Kathy Griffin's LIFE ON THE D LIST show. But if she's on the D List, where am I? Probably QQQ, like the top row of cold metal bleachers at the Colts' stadium.

I got a courtesy subscription to US WEEKLY when PREMIERE got canceled and thank God it's almost run out. I saw the new issue the other day and was like, "Oh, finally, Lindsey Lohan's mom is telling her side!" and "Brittany Murphy married a bad guy, oh snap!" I'm so ashamed.

I was out to dinner with some friends when they started talking about how funny Christopher Sharpe and Shogo were on the commentary track for SEX MACHINE. I looked kind of blank, and my brother asked, "Haven't you listened to it yet?" I admitted I didn't have a copy and had given both of my early screeners away. Another friend said, "You mean, of the people sitting at this table, you are the only one without a copy?" Damn, I better get my ass on Amazon.

My good pal Mark Polonia gets interviewed at the Houston Chronicle website here, and I link it even though he didn't mention me.

The Polonia Brothers' new movie SPLATTER BEACH is getting a lot of good buzz. But they always make their bikini movies with Misty Mundae without me.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Summer Reading

I think loyal readers know by now that I write a book review column for a publication called POMP AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE which is published quarterly by the Magna Cum Murder Mystery Conference. Here is the latest entry, for those who don't subscribe:

SUPSECT by Michael Robotham
A psychiatrist learns that one of his former patients, a prostitute, has been found murdered, and a dogged detective thinks the psychiatrist is a prime suspect. The problem is, by all accounts, he looks like a likely candidate; thus our (flawed) hero tries to untangle himself, and find the real killer, before time runs out. Nerve-jangling debut thriller from British writer Michael Robotham, though some of the nerve-jangling may come from the thick-skulled moves the psychiatrist makes throughout. Though I wanted to shout at the pages a few times, I kept turning them, all the way to a nice denouement.

MAISIE DOBBS by Jacqueline Winspear
The first in Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series features our plucky heroine looking into mysterious goings-on at a retreat for disfigured veterans in the English countryside, and being forced to face her own troubling memories as a nurse in the Great War. A nicely-wrought mystery, though the long flashback that makes up the story’s center about the war might be of greater interest. Perhaps works better as a rumination on changes in life in England between the two World Wars than a mystery, but is engaging and interesting throughout.

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER by Jeff Lindsay
Darkly comic thriller features Dexter, a cheery police forensics specialist who moonlights, as it were, as a monstrous serial killer. However, thanks to Dexter’s foster father, a cop whose spirit looms large over the story, Dexter only hunts and kills greater monsters than himself. However, a killer with a similar style begins to disrupt Dexter’s peaceful existence and challenge his views. Dexter’s humorous, glib asides stand in stark contrast to creepy scenes of grisly horror, making Jeff Lindsay’s debut novel a unique and offbeat work.

BRANDED WOMAN by Wade Miller
I keep talking to anyone who will listen about how much I have enjoyed the new “Hard Case Crime” series, where lost noir classics are re-issued with classic paperback covers for new audiences. This one, by the writing team of Robert Wade and Bill Miller, is a scorcher. A pretty smuggler is branded across the forehead as a warning to stay away from the business by a bigger fish called “The Trader.” Upon recovery, she doggedly pursues revenge, capped with a particularly cold-hearted climax. One of the stronger entries in what has been a top-notch series of reprints.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

One Morning From A Bogart Movie, In A Country Where They Turn Back Time

I am working on a new third act for URAMESHIYA for director Amit Tripuraneni, plus a few new scenes for NEW JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for the Polonia Brothers. Both projects I'm excited about.

They tore down the Northwest Plaza Cinema in my hometown. It wasn't one of those fancy old theaters but it had a fair amount of history. Naturally, they are building a Ruby Tuesday's there. An old friend and local film history buff, Conrad Lane, talked about it in the local paper. When I was a scrawny high school kid and a scruffy college kid Conrad inexplicably regularly invited me onto his local film review show on the PBS affiliate and his show on an AM radio station, sending me on the path I am on today. When he retired he gave me a thick book of Oscar history which I still keep on my shelf. Conrad said that the old Plaza was known for debuting STAR WARS (and I was there), but its longest running feature was THE LONGEST YARD, of all things.

When I was a kid, going to see STAR WARS thirteen times was the magic number that entered you into that next realm of coolness. My kids never understood why we went to the movies so much. But they have never lived in a world where that movie was never coming to HBO because there wasn't one, or coming to a video store because there weren't any built, or going to pop up on VHS or DVD because they hadn't been invented yet. All we had was it might show up on one of three channels in the far future, all cut up with commercials. Such a strange world cannot be imagined by the youth of today.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Pieces of April

Yesterday was my daughter's 19th birthday. Since we just got back from a blowout Florida trip for graduation we went modest, buying her her own cell phone and adding her to our family package, upping our minutes and throwing in unlimited texting. She almost immediately raced from the room, and my wife and I looked at each other and wondered if she was unhappy. I peeked into the living room and saw her already texting people and adding phone numbers and taking photos of herself with the camera. And thus I learned that the separation between parent and child would not come from the packing of the van for college, but from the plaintive beep of an incoming call.

On top of that, I thought I was the only screenwriter in Farmland, Indiana. Then these two bastards come along.

But you can read the next chapter of I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP over at Microcinema Scene.

And somebody has my copy of EXTREME DV by Rick Schmidt, because I can't find it anywhere. Anyone want to fess up? Write me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Also, call your dad if you haven't already.

This one has been a bit dull; I have been slouched on the couch all day watching my ball teams lose, suffering from a head cold. My wife was in a fender bender last night and is okay but not feeling too great either. Oatmeal and tea for supper, with Nyquil for desert.

I got a lot of emails during my Florida sojourn. Longtime reader Pete writes:

John, In case you didn't know, you can now watch Among Us on Netflix in their Watch Now offering. So, if you have a membership, you can watch it online for free. I'm going to check it out this weekend, if things don't get too hectic.

Thanks for the tip! That Bigfoot movie seems to have legs, or at least feet, it seems.

New reader Don writes:

You didn't go to Ball State by any chance? I remember the film programming at the Student Center there being first-rate, with flicks like Attack of the Mushroom People and Robot Monster--the Daily News offered up that a guy named John Dalton was to credit. Seeing that we're the same age and you're also a Hoosier....

Truly, that was I. That job was fun, but a struggle at times. We made money showing TOP GUN and FERRIS BUEHLER so we could show stuff like A BOY AND HIS DOG and BARBARELLA outside in the Quad at our makeshift drive-in.

I hadn't thought about that in a while. This interwebs is a funny thing.

Until later, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Summer Catch

Everyone told me not to take my laptop on vacation, but nothing spells vacation to me more than uninterrupted writing time. I have been working on punching up the third act of URAMESHIYA for director Amit Tripuraneni and worked on that. A change of venue always gets my juices flowing. I knocked out reading RITES OF PASSAGE by Alexei Panshin and Philip K. Dick's FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID and then traded them at the paperback swap area for CITY OF ICE by John Farrow. I watched GHOST IN THE SHELL: SOLID STATE SOCIETY because we were on vacation and nobody would tell me not to watch it. I peeked ahead and watched the last episode of THE SOPRANOS and saw the season premiere of BIG LOVE. I laughed until I cried over that Kathy Griffin show on Bravo. I found out the Tampa Ray Devil Rays look pretty good this year. I loafed around and ate a lot of good seafood.

The batteries reloaded, and now I'm back to work today and cruising around cyberspace. Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

Tequila Sunrise

I have been offline in Panama City, Florida, for vacation. I worked a little and rested a lot and read a couple of good books and ate some good seafood. More soon.