After 30 minutes of watching this abomination of my favorite Horror franchise I was ready to leave the theater. This has never happened. I have never wanted to leave a theater because of the film that is playing. Ever. My wife, knowing how much I love the originals, made me stay. All I can tell you is that it just got worse from there.

I did find a fun little thing to keep me entertained while watching the movie. You may have noticed this or if you plan on seeing this soon you can watch for it as well. There is one line of dialog used through out the movie (used maybe 4 times) that just made me giggle every time I heard it. Now when you hear this line you have to look at the reason they are asking and context in which it is used. The line is “Are you OK?”

New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes should be ashamed.

P.S. At least there is one thing good that came from this franchise this year.

WOW, I got lucky today!

I was looking through my Facebook feed and noticed Chris Spurgin, who you may know from our short film In the Deathroom, had become a fan of this epic documentary. Why is that lucky? I probably would have never had seen it if he hadn’t! This doc looks absolutely amazing! OK, before I start rambling here are some links. You can check out the official page HERE, Facebook page HERE and Twitter page HERE. Whew.

Now, as some of you may know and most of you probably don’t know, I’m a HUGE Nightmare on Elm Street fan. I have been since I was 8 years old. I was that odd kid who had movie posters on my wall instead of athletes and girls. Well, I lied. I did have one of Alyssa Milano wearing a sweater and lifting it to show her stomach. I’m sure the fellas my age know which one I’m talking about. I think at one point I had at least 4 or 5 posters of Freddy on my wall at one time. My room was small so “covered” would be a good word to use. I don’t think my parents were worried about it, unless they were just too afraid to ask!

Why such the obsession with Freddy? He’s the ULTIMATE bogeyman that’s why! He doesn’t slowly stalk you through the woods. He doesn’t lure you to his old house and crash through the closet door to get you. Freddy Krueger waits for you in your freaking dreams! How can you escape that? You can’t, everyone has to sleep some time. That’s why he’s such a bad-ass, well, that and The Glove. Enough of my fanboy banter though, on to the DVD!

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is co-directed by Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch who both have impressive resumes when it comes to working on horror documentaries and Special Edition DVD’s. Looking at the list just reassured me that this doc is getting the love it deserves. This is a 2-disc set with 4 HOURS of goodies. Here is a quick list pulled from their site:

DISC 1: Feature Presentation

DISC 2: Bonus Features

• Extended Interviews
• First Look: Heather Langenkamp’s “I Am Nancy”
• For the Love of the Glove
• Fred Heads: The Ultimate Freddy Fans
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Return To Elm Street
• Freddy vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd
• Expanding the Elm Street Universe: Freddy in Comic Books & Novels
• The Music of the Nightmare: Conversations with Composers & Songwriters
• Elm Street’s Poster Boy: The Art of Matthew Joseph Peak
• A Nightmare On Elm Street in 10 Minutes

It’s absolutely insane the amount of work that has gone into this doc. When you visit their site go to the Cast link and you’ll get an idea. They have interviews with almost EVERYONE ever involved in the franchise right down to Stacey Alden who played Nurse Marcie in Dream Warriors. Who could forget her! Hell, they even talk with Dokken!

I guess all I’m really saying here is that if you’re even the slightest fan of these movies, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is a must have. Visit their website to keep up-to-date on the DVD pre-sale date for chances to win contests and givaways and remember…don’t…fall…ASLEEP!

1.. 2 Freddy’s comin’ for you…

Sing it!

I was just going to put this on Facebook but screw their 420 character limit.

So I had a dream over the weekend. This is odd for me since I don’t sleep well enough to dream or at least remember it. Ever.

I’m not sure why but for some reason I was in an office with James Cameron. Yes THAT James Cameron. I want to say there were other people there with us but I don’t remember for sure. I don’t remember what we were talking about but all of a sudden he freaks out! He’s completely pissed about something, I don’t know if he was pissed at me or what. So he starts yelling and throwing stuff, anything he can get his hands on. I get hit three times, in the arm, back and leg. Just look into those eyes. That man is holding in some anger! So what do I do?

I have him autograph my bruises of course.

Whoa.

Well, expect some exiting news here soon.

Well, here they go again. Messin’ with my childhood and I’m none too happy. Hollywood (Dreamworks) has decided it would be a good idea to remake Fright Night (1985). Yes, you heard me correctly, Fright Night. This news may be a little old so I won’t go into great production details. You can probably find those on cooler sites than this.

Fright Night, directed by Tom Holland who wrote and/or directed such films as Fright Night, Child’s Play (1988), Cloak & Dagger (1984) just to name a few, was and still is one of those movies that should have scared the holy bejesus out of a 9 year old but didn’t. Maybe it did the first time I watched it honestly I don’t remember. What I do remember is the fun my brother and I had making fun of it. Not just the effects but some of the lines themselves. Evil’s line “Mmmmm mmmm his dinner’s in the oven! Eraaahaa” still gets dropped to this day on occasion.

Enough of my trip down memory lane, back to the remake.

Some of you may have heard of Marti Noxon who is currently writer-producer for Mad Men. You may know her better as the writer-producer for Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Marti will be writing the script. Some say it’s a “return to her roots” but I really wouldn’t know. I’ve seen a few episodes of Mad Men and I agree it looks like a great show. The gazillion awards it’s won speak for themselves. Angel and Buffy I have not seen. Sure, I’ve glanced here and there and read this or that about the shows but never really watched them so I couldn’t say if this is a good match or not. The way I see it is that Buffy looked pretty cheesy so maybe she’ll be good for a Horror-Comedy.

I guess I’m just rambling now. I just don’t feel this is necessary. I understand Dreamworks wants to try and grab some more of that remake money a la The Ring but I don’t think this is the one to do it with. Are they jumping on the Vampire bandwagon? Sure. Who isn’t? I know, I know, I’ve heard it too. “Why remake a good movie? Remake a bad one and make it better!” Well, bad is subjective. You know how I like my Good Bad Movies. Hollywood’s remake track record isn’t exactly exemplary. So please, Hollywood remake machine, leave them alone.

Let me know what you think in the comments. If you even care at all. I mean, have you seen Fright Night?!

My Stephen King Dollar Baby In the Deathroom
Filmed last summer, in 3 days, with a zero budget. None of the shots or footage in the trailer appear in the short film.
Used with permission from the office of Stephen King. Tickets and show times available at www.inthedeathroom.com

Check it HERE!

While traversing the Net for ways to find money I stumbled upon a fairly new site called IndieGoGo. After reading a few articles about the site and looking around I signed up immediately. Setup is very easy and quick. They provide all the tools you need to get your project out there in front of the eyes you want to see it. Here’s how it works:

When you first sign up you have to create a personal profile for yourself. This includes things like your picture, tags, tagline, bio, location etc. You also get a personal URL like http://www.indiegogo.com/JTysonHarvey. You can also add media such as videos, images, links and files for anyone that is following your projects or working on a project with you. Allof that is fine and dandy but the next part is what we really want.

After you have setup your personal profile you can then setup the project. The project profile includes some of the same features as the personal profile adding  things like a Synopsis and a Team tab. The Team tab will consist of anyone that is currently working on this project with you. They just need to have their own profile setup, which is easy to do with the invite system. The last thing I want to talk about before we get to the meat of funding is the sharing system. IndieGoGo allows you to reach out to multiple social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. There is also buttons for emailing directly to your contacts list using  Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and you can even Digg it. One thing I found particularly nifty was the automatic creation of widgets for your site or email. You can see an example below.

Once you have your project page setup the way you like it (videos, images, bios all the fun stuff) it’s time to add the funding tab. For setting up fund raising I’m going to use the ol’ copy and paste method from their FAQ. Just for the sake of rambling and probably getting something wrong.

How do I start fundraising?
First, post a project profile, making sure you complete the MEDIA and TEAM sections.  Then prepare your audience-building and fundraising strategy.  (See IndieGoGo’s Guide to DIWO (Do-It-With-Others!) Filmmaking for tips).  Next, complete the FUNDING section.  For filmmakers with a U.S. bank account, you are eligible to enable the Amazon Payments option.  You will be redirected to Amazon Payments to setup your Merchant account.  Make sure to check for an email from Amazon to complete the setup.  (Learn more HERE)  All filmmakers are able to enable credit/debit card payments directly on the Contribute page.  (Learn more HERE)

Upon payments setup, your project will be “Open for Funding” once you set your fundraising goal.  You can then start sharing your project and receiving contributions!  Contributions made through Amazon Payments will be deposited directly into your project’s Amazon Merchant account.  Other contributions will be sent via bank account or international wire transfer.  We will notify you to add your bank account information and disbursement preferences once you receive your first contribution. Funds will be disbursed the Friday immediately following the point your disbursement preference criteria are met.

For additional fundraising and promotional tactic guidance, check out our DIWO Tips and dial-in to DIWO Live! to ask questions and get real-time advice from IndieGoGo’s founders.

Why do I need an IndieGoGo Merchant account with Amazon?
For filmmakers with a U.S. bank account, this allows contributions to be deposited directly into your Merchant account.  (Learn more HERE)

Is there a time limit for funding?
No.  A funding period ends once the project has reached its funding goal.  IndieGoGo recommends filmmakers break down their total funding goal into mini-goals and raise money in rounds to show progress to fans and build credibility through a track record of successful fundraising and execution.

What happens when a project reaches its funding goal?
IndieGoGo records and displays the fundraising success on the project’s profile.  The project administrator then brings the next phase of the project to life with the funds just raised and delivers the VIP Perks.  We encourage project administrators to share the progress of their project with fans by blogging in the Announcements section and posting fresh content (new videos, dailies, bloopers from the week, interviews with the press, etc) to their MEDIA section.  (Announcements are automatically sent to the project’s community via email or RSS if selected.)  The project administrator can also set a new funding goal to raise money for the next phase of the project.

What happens if a project does not reach its funding goal?
The funding period remains open and project administrators continue to receive contributions until they notify IndieGoGo that they would like to stop receiving contributions for their project.  To stop contributions, please email support@indiegogo.com.

What’s not mentioned here is that IndieGoGo takes 9% of any contributions you receive. Yes, capitalism happens. Also, Amazon takes another percentage but it’s minimal. You can also set it to disperse the contributions to your bank account in different increments such as $500, $1000, $2000 and so on.

All in all I think this is a great tool for any Indie filmmaker to have in their arsenal. I have seen projects on there that have raised 20,000+ dollars and I have seen some that have raised a couple hundred. It just depends on what your funding goals are. As you can see we have not raised any money but I just setup this project a few days ago and have yet to use all the tools provided. Ya know, were Indie filmmakers. We need all the help we can get.

Keep makin’ sh*t.

I’m talking about Celtx from Celtx.com. I have been using Celtx Pre-Production software for for over a year now and I have to say that it is the only one I will ever use for the foreseeable future. I am currently using Celtx for six screenplays and two films that are in production and cannot imagine what it would be like without it. This suite is far too feature rich to list in this post and my time is far too poor. Here is a link for your reading pleasure.

Celtx Overview

Awesome right? For the people who are too lazy to click on the link, you know who you are, here is a quick screenshot of the screenplay environment but it’s all I’m givin’ ya.

One thing you won’t read about in the Overview link above is the community. The Celtx community is full of people who are always willing to help in all aspects of your project whether it be in screenwriting, film-making, legalities, reviews, and on and on. These people are either doing it or have done it and can give you advice from personal experience. Hell, even the developers hang out there and are always on top of any issues you may have. Don’t get me wrong though. It’s not filled with flowers and butterflies. If you don’t take criticism as constructive then you may need to purchase some harden skin from your local psychopathic skin collector. “It puts the lotion on the skin!” Don’t let that scare you though. It’s the type of criticism we all want and need.

You don’t have to just take my word for it. Here is what a few Celtx users who frequent the forums have to say:

Glen Tickle – Filmkid.com

I started using Celtx a few years and many versions ago originally just because it was a free alternative to software like Final Draft. I’ve kept using it because not only does it work great for screenwriting, but I can also use it to format my comic scripts as well. Once everything is scripted out Celtx’s pre-production tools are great for getting from script to screen, or page in the case of the comics.

Outside of the software itself there is a whole community based around the Celtx.com website. Other Celtx users are available for suggestions, feedback, or just general commiseration.

I’ve recommended Celtx to every writer I know, and will continue to do so in perpetuity.

Nick Taylor – Student

I find it’s absolutely wonderful for collaboration and pre-production work. If I make a change to the project; a colleague will know, if I need to breakdown a script to find out what I’ll need in props, it’s easy to do. And of course the scriptwriting editor is fantastic at the price point: free. I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who works in pre-production or is a writer.

Last but not least. Ladies & Gentlemen. I give you Sharkey.

Sharkey

Celtx is like self-gratification, only better!

Ever since I discovered Celtx, it has only gotten better. Each new release is a significant improvement on the previous one. Staff support is fast, helpful and friendly. The community spirit within Celtx creates a sacred bond between user and developer which supercedes family, friends and quite possibly; God.

The Celtx script editor creates a user environment which emulates a type of WYSIKWYMG (what you see is kinda what you might get) in the editor and thus emulates the user-friendliness of the mainstream word processor model. Celtx then converts this, through TypeSet, into WYGIWYWAN (what you get is what you want and need) which results in a perfectly formatted script typesetted by the industry standard of all publishing – LaTeX. This isn’t just good; this is pretty damn awesome.

Celtx is much, much better than a typewriter.

Celtx is an intuitive pre-production suite which isn’t just a simple script editor. That’s just the beginning. Celtx provides you with all the requirements to plan for and create a production workflow for your next film, radio drama, documentary, comic book or stage play. It is the ultimate tool for a production team. And what’s more, it’s under active development, it’s cross-platform and it’s as pretty damn close to free as you’ll get for such an ingenious piece of software.

Celtx comes out twice a year – it’s always Christmas and my birthday on those days.

I recommend Celtx to anybody and everybody who even gives an aura of being interested in writing for media.

See what I mean? And it’s free? Are you kidding me? Nope, but I know what your thinking. This guy has to be getting something out of this. What’s the catch? No catch, and no I’m not getting anything out of this. I just want to show my appreciation for this program, for the developers and the community it has created. Maybe more importantly I hope someone will find this gem and realize it’s what they’ve been looking for all along.

The year was 1986. Some dumb farmer accidentally releases Rex from his Earthly prison. The small Irish town will never be the same. If you’ve been blessed enough to see this film you know Rex is Pure Evil, Pure Power, Pure Terror, and likes to urinate on people. This was a  great year for what I like to call GoodBad movies. I have a whole section of my DVD collection dedicated to these movies, except this one. That prompted me to go straight to my Netflix and add this gem to my queue. The only problem is, it’s not there. OK, I’ll just head down to BestBuy and pick it up. No luck. This DVD is no where to be found.

So starts my Google journey. Upon searching I find a few low-rent sites that I wouldn’t trust if someone paid me. I found a few ebay auctions for the VHS. That was all pretty much expected. What I really didn’t expect to find was at Amazon. What I seen at Amazon made me pull the WTF Face. At the time of this post there are 12 listings for the DVD. Three new ranging in price from $249.98 to $523 and nine listed from $87.71 to $123.98. There’s my WTF Face again.

I know I said I consider this a classic, atleast to me, but seriously? I just wanted to buy the thing for my collection and watch every now and then. I didn’t think I was going to have to make a major investment. I’m sure with a little more searching in the dark alleys of the Net I could find this for free for download. I don’t like to do this for movies I want to officially add to my collection. I don’t consider downloaded movies as part of anyone’s collection.

So, I guess the search coninues. I would like a new DVD obviously as opposed to a used one but if I can find a decent used DVD I would be satisfied. If anyone has any ideas drop me a line. I expect I will be pulling the WTF Face for some time while I look for this DVD.