This post first appeared in my secret eNewsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.
The last time I sent a newsletter was the morning my movie THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE streeted on DVD. I genuinely thought it would pass without notice; I felt when it hit streaming, especially Amazon Prime and a few other platforms, that was where the most interest would be. But I was wrong.
All day long that day, and in the days that followed, I was getting pictures and texts and DMs and emails from all over the country where people found copies of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE in WalMart. If I had known how much I would need to respond to that first day I would have taken the day off, as my phone literally chattered all day with hundreds of notifications and messages. It was a very heady day in what has been a wild experience, with the movie getting a much wider release than I anticipated in streaming and physical media.
I think one thing that helped is that Henrique Couto's OUIJA ROOM streeted on the exact same day, and Henrique was offering a deal at his
webstore for people who bought his movie at WalMart and took a picture with the receipt. A lot of people picked up my movie too, and I think some that went looking for mine got his also. His movie was shot first, features a lot of the same cast, and Henrique DPd and produced mine as well, so there was a lot of synergy in promoting these two in one swoop.
Thank you to everyone who picked one up that day and in subsequent days, whether you sent me a photo or not.
When you have something going, everybody asks you what you have going next. And I do have something, an exclusive for newsletter subscribers. Starting next weekend, and throughout the month of March, we are girding up for a new thriller, HIS WIFE MY KILLER, the third film under the Midwest Film Venture banner.
This feature will once again feature my friend Henrique Couto as producer and director of photography, and will have some new faces and some familiar ones from previous films. Here's a synopsis:
Trond is a film composer who is unlucky at love, so he tries a website featuring Eastern European women looking for marriage. But when Oja arrives at his door, mayhem ensues. Trond's first wife, their college-aged daughter, and his best friend all get caught up in the maelstrom.
We are doing a little pre-shoot next Saturday, then shooting solid the next two weekends, then doing a pickup day on the last Saturday of the month. It's going to be full blast, and you can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and if I'm not too tired Snapchat. I'm @johnoakdalton all of those places.
My main thing I promised myself was no more cold weather shoots, and it looks like it will be in the 50s at least part of the way, which means it looks like I will be sort of keeping my promise to myself.
And lastly, longtime newsletter readers know that I like to keep a "secret soundtrack" of songs that inspire me when I'm writing a movie, any one of which the rights to would cost more than the movie.
So here is the first look at the "secret soundtrack" for HIS WIFE MY KILLER to give you some ideas about what I was thinking:
Fox on the Run, The Regrettes Imaginary Lover, Atlanta Rhythm Section For the Love of Money, The O’Jays Where is the Love, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway Ain’t No Sunshine, Bill Withers Can’t You See, The Marshall Tucker Band Cinderella, Firefall Tuesday’s Gone, Lynyrd Skynyrd He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones Dream On, Postmodern Jukebox Keep your eyes peeled for a lot more updates this month, and thanks for following along.
