Film Fest Friday the 13th: Women of Horror, Paranoia and ACEFEST

It's Friday the 13th and the new "Friday the 13th" comes out today. It's a big day. What sucks is, I'm heading out of town for the weekend and won't have time to check it out until Monday the 16th or Tuesday the 17th. Both dates don't have the same ring... Anyhow, I think it's going to do alright, box office-wise - it'll lead the weekend, for sure. I also think that it'll be controversial for fans of the series. There's a lot of questions, like... I was just discussing how, as far as we can tell, it's sort of like an amalgamation of the first three, right? How's it going to work? I mean, part 1 - it was the Mom. Part 2 - He wore a bag on his head. Part 3 - He got the mask. So, if this is the beginning, plus he's wearing a mask and it's not his Mom doing the killing... what are they going to throw out of the story and what are they going to try to explain? Too much speculation, gotta go see it and I'm filled with nervous anticipation... I mean I was raised on Jason and Freddy.

Anyhow, here's some stuff going on in the festival world...

Alright, it's lady's night tonight... at the Horror Society Film Festival. Nope, no free drinks or piles of horny dudes. They just want your films. They're looking to showcase your work, whether you're a director, producer, writer or lead actor. It's a program they're doing called "Women of Horror" and it'll take place in Chicago at the Portage Theater. Basically, the Horror Society has different themes and, as they're saying on their event page, it's Lady's Night. Here's a link to the submission form and here's a link the event page on Myspace.

The Paranoia Horror and Sci-Fi Convention & Film Festival is closing their submissions this week... if not today, by the end of the weekend. Soon, anyhow. We did an interview with the festival director, Shane Russeck, not too long ago, and he gave a lot of insight into what's going on and why you should head down there. Feel free to re-read that interview by clicking on this link, it's a good read. It should be a good time and I'm thinking of heading down to it, myself.

The last thing that I'll bring to your attention is ACEFEST. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much more than that because all their website says right now is "Please bare with us as we give our website a fresh new look for the 2009 season". It also says that they'll begin taking submissions on Feb 17, 2009, so check back soon, I'm sure they'll have something new up. As far as what they're about, it looks like they're about focusing solely on American-made works and providing an exclusive forum for domestic film and video. ACE stands for American Cinematic Experience, if you're interested.

So, there you go. Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week...

Film Fest Updates: Spooky Movie, Fantastic Planet and Final Draft's Big Break

Am I the only guy who's week gets just a bit longer after the Superbowl? I'm really looking forward to this Sunday, in a weird way... I mean, I love NFL Football, I do. However, my ability to work on the site and watch films increases two or three-fold after the season ends. It's a bitter-sweet. It's probably better for my liver, too. It'll definitely ensure that I have enough time to check out the new "Friday the 13th" next week, really looking forward to it. Anyhow, a few updates in the festival world...

First off, the 4th annual Washington, D.C. International Horror Film Festival... or Spooky Movie, as they like to be called, now has their call for entries open. They accept almost anything, from shorts to features, every sub-genre of horror, they even accept screenplays this year... and even though they're non-competitive, they will be giving out a DarkHart Screenplay Award. The other really cool thing they do is the "Festival of Horrors" DVD. So, your film can live on past the festival and get further exposure. I'm not sure if you get any of the profits or anything, but hey... if an audience is what you're after, then an audience you'll get.

For a little international flare, how about submitting to Fantastic Planet: Sydney International Sci-Fi & Fantasy Film Festival? It's based in Australia, obviously, and it's founded by the same guys who bring you the "A Night of Horror International Film Festival". It's a five day festival that's going to take place in October and they're currently accepting entries for features, shorts, short animations and screenplays. My guess is that your film should have more sci-fi/fantasy elements than straight horror, but whatever... what horror film doesn't have SOME sci-fi elements? Speaking of, do you think Jason will still have his telekinetic powers in this new "Friday the 13th" movie? I mean, have you seen the trailer where he runs, then throws the machete? It took me back a bit... I don't think I've EVER seen him run before. He just saunters around and appears wherever he needs to, but I digress...

I'm a Final Draft user, so I feel I should mention Final Draft's Big Break Screenplay Contest, which is an annual, global screenwriting contest designed to launch the careers of aspiring writers. According to them, their objective is "to discover talented screenwriters and help them find success in today's screenwriting industry". If you head over to the site there, you can check out success stories and other stuff like that. It's all genre's, of course, but I don't see too many horror-like titles in the success story page, but you never know. On this note, I would like to officially throw it out there... I will enter a few screenplay competitions this year, just to see what the process is like and find out what you get out of it. I'll keep you posted.

Anyhow... that's all I got for the week. Have a good one, see you on Monday.

Linkapalooza - July 16, 2008... Quentin Tarantino is a bastard, er.. basterd. Uh, basturd?

As usual, lots of interesting things going on out there. This weeks Linkapalooza is a giant 'potpouri' of links, as some of this is fan-boy stuff and some of this is industry stuff. Either way, enjoy...

News recently broke about the script for Tarantino's long talked about WWII epic, "Inglorious Bastards" ...and I got so excited, I had to sit down. Here's a couple articles - Doubt Quentin Tarantino All You Want - But INGLORIOUS BASTARDS Will Carve Its Mark Into Your Skull When It Is Done! - on Aint in Cool News & We’ve Got Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Bastards’ Script. I'm not going to lie, I'll be honest. I'm not a Tarantino fan... and I'll leave it at that. I've been in many a debate over it and I wouldn't shy away from another one, but that's for another day. Brad, on the other hand, is. So, this link is for him. I only ask one thing, check out that second article, what's with that handwritten title page? Is he a complete invalid? Not only does he write like a 2 year old, he spells "bastard" B A S T E R D. Anyhow, like him or hate him, "Inglorious Bassturds" is coming...

Michael Bay talks 'Transformers 2' and 'Friday the 13th' remake on EW.com: This is fairly fluff, but Entertainment Weekly talked with Michael Bay about 'Transformers 2' and 'Friday the 13th'. It's a fairly short interview and the bulk of it is actually about 'Friday the 13th'. If you're like me and don't want to see this remade and think that Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes are just money grubbing trolls for remaking it, you'll find it interesting to see how he tries to sell it. "We're fans ourselves!", "We try to be faithful", "You're just not going to believe the first 12 minutes!". If you're excited about the film and have nothing against Bay, the interview will reveal nothing, it's exactly what you thought it would be.

Now, on to some cool industry shit... PLAYSTATION Network's Video Delivery Service to Offer Movies and TV Shows for Purchase and Rental Through PLAYSTATION 3 and PSP - on iStockAnalyst.com: Here's the thing, if you're a regular reader, you'll probably remember the post about the Sony Bravia being able to connect to the internet and act as a segue, right? Well, Sony's making sure they own this space, they're pulling out all the stops. Basically, they want the PS3 to be the center-piece of the family room. They want it to be the portal where you watch movies, play video games, cruise the internet, everything... they're not alone, though. Microsoft is trying to do the same thing with XBox and then there's my underdog in the arean, Roku and Netflix, who are trying, as well. However, my underdog may REALLY be a crippled underdog, as they probably won't be capable of cruising the internet, let alone playing video games on. Whatever... either way, the way we watch movies and consume media is going to change, my friends!

Lionsgate, YouTube strike ad-share deal - on THR.com: Uh oh... what's going on out there? First... Sony, Microsoft and Roku are fighting to get a device in your living room that connects to the internet, now Lionsgate strikes a deal with Youtube? WTF? Don't take this lightly, by the way... studios used to be so arogant, they thought they could control how, when and where you saw films. Now, they're reeling. Not only that, they're trying everything to squeeze more money out of their catalogue of films. This is actually monumentary. Lionsgate is now working with a website that's known for showing pirated content. Basically, Lionsgate is getting its own Youtube channel, where they show their content, run ads and split revenue with Youtube.

TV Trends:Consumers Demand Control - on eMarketer.com: If you're willing to pay $695.00, you can actually buy the full 24 page report with all 58 charts, however if you click on the link there, you get 1 graph and a short blurb... which was enough for me. These guys do studies for the industry, then sell the studies and this time they did a study on TV Trends. Here's what they found... "Video-on-demand (VOD), digital video recorders (DVRs), the broadband Web, and 3G mobile phones are giving TV consumers new ways to access and watch TV (and they) estimate that by 2012 nearly 25% of all TV content watched each day will be time-shifted, on-demand, on the Web or on a mobile device." Better get that indie horror ready for VOD, DVR's, the web and 3G mobile phones...