FEWDIO - A bunch of horror guys that you should be keeping an eye on...

There's a distinct possibility that you haven't heard of Fewdio or "Nightmare House" yet, but starting August 6th, I think you're going to start hearing a lot more. Actually, if you're a regular reader, you may have heard us talk about them or their first short film, "The Easter Bunny is Eating my Candy", already. Either way, these guys are really on to something big, they're definitely a group to keep an eye on and, over here at Dead Harvey, we're already big fans.

What I really appreciate and love about the five guys that make up Fewdio is that they have all cut their chops in the industry successfully, having established themselves as screenwriters, directors, actors and producers. Then, one day, they woke up and decided to say "F it" and started Fewdio... and what Fewdio's doing, as far as I'm concerned, is trail-blazing. They're making a collection of horror shorts and are trying new ways of distribution by throwing stuff out there using the web, festivals and networking...

Brad and I had a chance to sit down with three of the five Fewdio members a few weeks ago, have a bunch of beers and shoot the shit... they're an extremely talented bunch of guys and they're really on to something with what they're doing. We'll be sure to keep you posted on all Fewdio activity, but until then... take a listen to what they had to say.

Clip 1 - Introducing Fewdio
Clip 2 - The website
Clip 3 - What we're trying to do
Clip 4 - The movies
Clip 5 - Gore
Clip 6 - Budgets
Clip 7 - How long was the shoot?
Clip 8 - Achieving the look
Clip 9 - Distribution
Clip 10 - Tips for indie filmmakers

Fewdio's site can be found here and to check out their first short film, "The Easter Bunny is Eating my Candy", click here. Their site now has a 'go live' date, by the way. Make sure you check it out August 6th!

Dead and Gone signing at Dark Delicacies Saturday August 9th

Yossi Sasson and members of the cast and crew listed below will be signing copies of their new film, "Dead and Gone". Be sure to stop down to Dark Delicacies and buy yourselves a pair (of the movie and book, that is)! And be sure to check back right here at Dead Harvey for Sasson's upcoming mp3 interview.

Saturday, August 9^th – 2 pm – Dead and Gone
Harry Shannon (writer), composer Harry Manfredini, Kathryn Bates (Frankie), Yossi Sasson (Director), Gillian Shure (Kate), Dan Crawley (makeup fx) and other guests to be announced.signing the new horror film, Dead and Gone (DVD $26.98). Harry will also be signing the novel, Dead and Gone (TPB $16.95).

All items can be order through our website at http://www.darkdel.com/ under signing/events. This is a secure shopping cart.

Dark Delicacies
4213 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
818-556-6660 / 888-darkdel
darkdel@darkdel.com
http://www.darkdel.com/
Tues - Fri 10 am to 7 pm
Sat/Sun 11 am to 6 pm
Closed Monday

Distributing your indie horror film, part III.

Okay, let's take a look at a few more indie horror distributors... and, to reiterate, we definitely feel that your first move after finishing your film would be to push the festivals as hard as you can and/or look into some sort of self-distribution. However, if that's not an option, you've already done that scene or you just really don't want to do the work yourself, you can contact these guys and send them screeners. Now, if a distributor is interested in your film, always read the fine print on a contract, weigh your options and think about any decision you make. I would also like to mention that if anyone wants to share any stories about dealing with distributors, good or bad, please send me an email. Really, we're a community here and we need to look out for each other because there's a lot of sharks out there.

Darclight is a division of Arclight and they're devoted to showcasing the best in the horror, thriller and action genres from around the world. Formed in 2004, the Darclight banner encompasses a wide variety of genres including horror, thriller and action feature films, with recent successes being the horror films "Wolf Creek", "Perfect Creature" and "Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror". They tend to deal with bigger budget films that have run or will run the festival circuit, but you never know. If you go to their site there, they have all the contact information you'll need to get in touch with their head of acquisitions.

Brimstone Media Productions specializes in horror and science-fiction films and their latest feature, "Addicted to Murder", was widely distributed through Blockbuster Video and is available for home video rental throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Their movies are distributed worldwide and, to date, they have produced eighteen independent feature films. I can't find a catalogue on there, but I do know that they've distributed indie films from other filmmakers other than themselves... there's even a submissions tab on their site there.

Image Entertainment is a big home entertainment company that acquires, licenses, finances and produces exclusive content for worldwide video distribution through its direct relationships with major North American retailers and foreign sublicensees such as Sony/BMG and Warner Music. Long and short, they're not a little indie company. However, they do distribute little indie films. They've released "Die You Zombie Bastards!", "Day X" and a personal favorite, "Evil Aliens", among many other films. Once again, they don't make it hard to get in touch with their acquisitions department. You can just go to their site there and click on 'contact us' and you'll find the aquisitions email address.

ITN Distribution, according to them, has become a leading film distribution company known to buyers worldwide. They hold offices at the Cannes Film Festival and Market, the American Film Market, Mipcom, Natpe and Mifed, although their head offices are in Las Vegas. They distribute all kinds of films, including a lot of horror. They've recently released such titles as "Rapturious", "The Toybox" and "Chill".

Check out the other distributors that we've profiled on our 'indie horror distributors' page here.

July 22, 2008 - New horror on DVD this week... and one comedy... with horror actors.

A quick week in horror, this week... as usual, you can click on the titles to buy them off Amazon and you can watch all the trailers on our Youtube page.

"Brutal Massacre: A Comedy" is actually, in fact, a comdey, but it needs to be mentioned for obvious reasons. It's written and directed by Stevan Mena, whose only other film to date is Malevolence, and it's being released by Anchor Bay. It's a mocumentary about a washed up horror auteur who's putting everything on the line to get his one last film finished. It won the festival prize at the Long Island International Film Expo and, for a horror fan, it's got an unreal cast, including: David Naughton from "An American Werewolf in London", Ken Foree from "Dawn of the Dead", Ellen Sandweiss from "Evil Dead" and Gunnar Hansen, the original Leatherface from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"... and they're all in comedic roles.

"Pray for Morning" comes from writer/director Cartney Wearn and this is his feature directorial debut, although he has been in the business for a while. He started out writing documentaries (I didn't know they required writers?), as well as freelance writing for magazines and newspapers before he got into screenwriting. During his screenwriting time, he began shooting short films and theater productions... and then came "Pray for Morning", which won the Columbine Award for Film Score at the Moondance International Film Festival. It's about five students who break into an abandoned, haunted hotel.

"Dark Honeymoon" comes from writer/producer/director David O'Malley... but he's going by one of his alternate names, Phillip Leftfield on this one... and I'm not sure why he'd go by an alternate name when everyone knows it's him, but... whatever. So, there's a lot of recognizable names here and the reviews have been fairly good. You've got Lindy Booth and Nick Cormish, with supporting roles from Roy Scheider (one of his last roles), Tia Carrere, Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts. It's about a guy who gets married to a seductive woman after a short, but intense relationship. During their honeymoon, he uncovers the terrible truth about his new wife...

"Death Valley", which was originally called "Mojave", was written and directed by David Kebo and Rudi Liden. It's about four friends that head into the desert for some fun, but the trip turns to hell when they meet up with a couple of bad locals. It was actually made back in 2004 and screened at the L.A. Film Festival back then to great reviews... so, I'm not sure why it took so long to get released. In any case, it looks really good.

"Evil Behind You" has really cool cover art, sounds good and even has a cool plot - "Abducted couples are victims of medical experiments that mutate their minds with supernatural abilities. As their mental capacities increase, so does the danger from something evil that is not of flesh and blood." However, I couldn't help but notice that it was getting terrible reviews... so, I read through a bunch to find out what was going on. It turns out that the film is a "Christian film" with heavy handed Christian views... now, that's not to say it's bad, that's just to say that a lot of people rented it, bought it or saw it, and were surprised by that. Take that for what it's worth...

Like I've said many times before, I usually don't cover old films, but I'll briefly mention that 1977's "The Campus Corpse" is being rereleased, just because I love the idea behind it. It's about a fraternity hazing where a few guys are confronted with the death of a brother and they must maintain the illusion that he's still alive by hiding the body and taking it on a trip to make it look like a skiing accident. It's like the prequel to "Weekend At Bernie's". I love it...

Oh, yeah... and Masters of Horror: Season Two Box Set is coming out, this is the season with: "The Damned Thing", "The V Word", "Pelts", "The Black Cat" among others... definitely not as good as the first season, but there's some good stuff here.

"Conjurer" Screenings

Clint Hutchison, the director of, "Conjurer" sent us info. on his upcoming screenings. Dead Harvey says, check it out!

World Premiere Screening

Dances With Films

Tuesday, July 29 @ 2:45pm

Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatre

8000 W. Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90046

Tickets & info: www.danceswithfilms.com

Action on Film International Film Festival

Wednesday, July 30 @ 8:00 pm

Laemmle One Colorado Theatre

42 Miller Alley

Pasadena, CA 91103

Tickets & info: www.aoffest.com

Tickets can be purchased through the festivals' websites, or at the box office.

Also, check out our new CONJURER website: www.conjurer-movie.com

Exclusive Dead Harvey Interview With Roger Scheck, Director of "Nobody Loves Alice"

When I received a copy of "Nobody Loves Alice" I thought it was just going to be another run of the mill slasher flick that I'd end up fast forwarding after the first half an hour. To my surprise, not only was I drawn into the movie, I was highly impressed. This film has gore, fantastic performances, great directing and a well written script. I was even more impressed when I found out it's director, Roger Schek, made it when he was in school. To say the least, "Nobody Loves Alice" is an outstanding debut that we here at Dead Harvey highly recommend. Keep an eye for Roger Schrek. I have a feeling he's going to be a major talent.

DH: Tell us about yourself. Where are you from and what got you into making movies?

RS: I was born in Kansas and raised in McAlester Oklahoma. In high school I became interested in still photography. Soon after that a friend of mine introduced me to the idea of making movies. He gave me the movie True Romance and told me to watch it. I took it home and watched it
three or four times. That movie really made me think, “I have to do this”. Right after that the same friend gave me The Last House On The Left, I went home and watched that film about four times that night. After that I realized, “I can do this”. That summer I made my first
short film and have never stopped.

DH: Film school: yes or no?

RS: I attended the North Carolina School of the Arts. I learned so much at NCSA. It truly is an incredible program. In my opinion it's the best film program in the country.

DH: What was the inspiration behind, "Nobody Loves Alice"?

RS: I had written several screenplays before Nobody Loves Alice but due to budget I couldn’t make any of them. I set out to write a script I could afford to produce. I was waiting tables at the time when my boss received a phone call from a woman that said she had been in that day
and he was so sweet to her that she had to meet him outside of the restaurant. Having to deal with customer satisfaction he told her that he was glad she had a good experience and to come in and have a drink on the restaurant. He then proceeded to tell her that he had a girlfriend. Not two minutes later the phone rings again and it’s his girlfriend, she said that the previous call was her friend and that she just wanted to see if he would cheat on her. In that instant I know what Nobody Loves Alice was going to be about.

DH: Are there any directors or movies that influenced, "Nobody Loves Alice"? If so, how?

RS: So many films and directors have influenced me. My biggest influence at the time of making Nobody Loves Alice were Asian horror films, especially films by Takashi Miike. I enjoy the slower evolution of the story. After all it’s about the story and characters, not the splatter
and gore. Don’t get me wrong that is part of it, but it’s not the reason I sit down to watch something.

DH: Describe your directing style.

RS: My style is very loose. I give my actors a lot of freedom to meld the character and make them their own. If I like what they do I let them run with it, but I have no problem letting them know something isn’t working. However some of the greatest moments in Nobody Loves Alice
come from the actors being able to just play with the lines and emotions.

DH: "Nobody Loves Alice" was impressively made on such a small budget. How did you pull it off?

It was challenging but we were very strategic where we spent money. The majority of the money had to go to converting Alice’s room and the blood effects. I had a very talented and resourceful crew that was able to make things look great with very little. We only had twelve
days to shoot the film so that also cut down budget.

DH: The performances in the film are outstanding. Describe your casting process and how you selected the leads.

RS: I worked with Nitzan Mager (ALICE) on a short film entitle Motherhood, you can see that film on my myspace. I actually wrote the part of Alice for her. So, knowing what she was capable of I was able to create a great character that I knew she would be great playing. Philip Ward (ALEX) acted in a film that I was Cinematographer on. I also knew his abilities and created that part for him. Phillip was enrolled in the acting program at Elon University at the time so he was able to bring me a lot of the cast from people he had worked with previously. He was sort of the casting director. He had actually been scene partners with Amanda Taylor (Abigail) in school so they already had a relation ship they could play off and bring to the film.

DH: What did you shoot on and how long of a shoot was it?

RS: We shot on the Canon XL2. In my opinion Canon blows it’s competition out of the water. The image the XL2 produces is a big part of why the film looks so good. It’s build to be lit like you’re working with film. It’s competitors at the time were point and shoot idiot proof cameras and their image quality suffered. We shot for twelve days over our winter break from NCSA. We never went over 12 hours during production except for the last day. That was the final fight scene and Dave Martin, the cinematographer and I had to stage the fight scene. That took about 18 hours.

DH: What obstacles did you overcome to get your film made?

RS: There were several obstacles that could have presented themselves. However, the production went very smooth. We planned everything out so meticulously in preproduction that we had very few problems. It was so smooth that on one particular day I was able to get 48 different camera setups.

DH: How did you secure distribution? Any tips for people trying to get their movie out there?

Distribution is a painful process, especially when you don’t have a named star. There are a lot of sharks out there and all they want to do is steal your film. I had a couple of different offers on the table and when I asked around I found out that they all had tricky ways of accounting for income, ways in which they hide profits from filmmakers. In fact I talked to about 100 people all of which have never seen a penny from these companies. Indie-Pictures is a new company that is changing the face of distribution. I have a substantial voice in all the decisions made regarding the distribution of my film from what festivals we enter to designing the artwork to how we spend money on advertising. My advice for those filmmakers seeking distribution is to ask around about the companies interested in your film. Try to put a named actor in your film even if it’s a small part. Get even a C list actor if you can. But, if I knew then what I know, the most important piece of advice I would give to you is skip the sharks and contact Todd Taylor, CEO of Indie-Pictures he is revolutionizing the distribution process for filmmakers. www.indie-pictures.com

DH: What's next? And, last but not least, any plans for a sequel?

RS: I have several projects I am trying to get off the ground in all different budget ranges and genres. As far as a sequel, there are two more installments of Nobody Loves Alice. We are currently working on the scripts and have investors interested. So keep your eyes open for the sequel to Nobody Loves Alice, Somebody Loves Alice.

Sincerely,
Roger A. Scheck
Scheck Media
www.myspace.com/scheckmedia
www.myspace.com/alicefilm
www.nobodylovesalice.com
roger@nobodylovesalice.com

Brad's Drunken Ramblings: Keep The Faith, Indie Filmmakers!

I'm not drunk yet but I'm working on it. I've got some ale in me and I'm about to crack open this over sized flavored malt beverage that's 9.0. Wired and drunk: two great things that go great together.

Today, I had a great interview where I heard yet more tales of trials and tribulations from an indie filmmaker. The process is certainly a pain in the ass from start to finish. You hit your head against the wall while writing the script, you somehow find some way to get everyone together at the same time, then it's all out f'ing war as the shooting begins. Sometime, the casualties are enormous, sometimes manageable. But, after hearing horror story after horror story: aka, the shit they don't tell you in film school: aka, the truth, I can't help but wonder why anyone makes movies (myself included). Why does the indie filmmaker keep getting their asses beat down and getting back up for more?

I believe the answer is because, like my interview confirmed today: it's in the blood. If, after finishing a movie you tell yourself, "Fuck making movies! It's not worth all the bullshit1" Then, when the morning rolls around, you tell yourself, "I can't wait to get started on the next movie." If this is you, you should stop at nothing to make your movie. If not, you should save yourself a lot of misery and disappointment and do one of those jobs people go to school to get paid for.

In short, keep the faith, indie filmmakers! Life is painful, but short. Movies will be around a lot longer than we will, and we'll always regret not making more of them. Bring on the obstacles: divas, a-holes, acts of nature, drug addicts, those shitty jobs we have to put up with while we spend all our free time on the movies, the list goes on forever. We will overcome!

Film Fest Updates... Phoenix Fear Fest, Horrorfind Weekend and Scare Fest Horror & Paranormal Convention

We've got a good mix of updates and news from the world of horror film festivals and conventions today...

Phoenix Fear Festival - which is sponsored by Trash City Entertainment and Brain Damage Films, takes place on August 30th this year. The winners get a distribution contract from Brain Damage, by the way, and awards are given in all categories. This year they have the world premiere of 'Death Factory: Bloodletting', from the director of 'Great American Snuff Film', and the Arizona premiere of 'Shut-Eye Hotel', a short by Oscar-winning animator Bill Plympton. You'll find full details on the site, where you can also see the trailer for 'Death Factory'.

Horrorfind Weekend 10 in Maryland, Aug 15 - 17 at UMUC Marriott Inn & Conference Center in Adelphi, MD could be the spookiest show on earth. Well, that's what the site says. It's coming up and it looks pretty damn cool. There's no films, so to speak, it's basically a giant horror convention that features horror movie celebrities, horror writers, halloween seminars and supernatural speakers as well as a giant dealers room , horror movies and many special events. Go check out their site, though... they're getting some great guests, including: Sex Machine himself, Tom Savini; The one and only Kyle Reese, Michael Biehn; Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree; owner of best fight scene if film history in "They Live", Roddy Pipper; "House of 1,000 Corpses'" Otis Driftwood, Bill Moseley and The Candy Man hiself, Tony Todd... who's at every horror convention... ever.

Scare Fest Horror & Paranormal Convention takes place September 12-14 in Lexington, Kentucky and it's the largest horror and paranormal convention in the southeast, where you'll be able to experience three horror- filled- days at the Lexington Center in Lexington, Kentucky. You can still submit your film to be in the festival, but they've announced some of the films that they'll be screening already. First off, they're showing some of the FEWDIO films, including the kick-f'ing-ass "The Easter Bunny is Eating My Candy". (We met up with the FEWDIO guys a while back and we have a great inteview with them coming up soon!) If you'd like to submit your film, send them an email at thescarefest@hotmail.com and get the mailing instructions.

Don't be put off by Failure - Tony Longworth

Here's a another post from our resident indie film composer, Tony Longworth. As usual, his post gives great insight into the world of indie filmmaking and his story is equally pertinent to indie filmmakers as it is to indie composers. As usual, if you have any questions for Tony, shoot me an email and I'll get it answered...

Yes, it comes to us all. I’m not talking about death here, although that does come to us all at least once in our life. I’m talking about failure. And it’s not just any old failure, its failure of something you’ve put your heart and soul into as well as your time and hard earned cash.

Now, my experience comes from the music side of things, but I’m guessing a lot of people reading this will have suffered failure in other forms. Maybe your movie was knocked back from a festival, your script wasn’t received favourably or your acting was criticised.

There’s always going to be people out there who really don’t like what you do, but for every one of them there’s going to be a whole lot more who really dig your stuff.

We kind of focus on the negative. It’s difficult to ignore that one comment or review that says you suck, even though there’s another 10 saying you don’t.

After years of being really irritated by the people who don’t like what I do, I now manage to subconsciously blank those naysayers & focus on the people who dig what I do.

It’s all really down to belief & confidence in what you’re doing. If you’ve got the belief that your project is good & the confidence to actually do it, then who gives a damn about some dude who has taken a personal dislike to your thing? Who gives a damn if your movie isn’t played at a certain film festival? Who gives a damn if you’re turned down for a role?

Take the positive, ignore the negative. Pick yourself up, dust yourself down & carry on regardless.

I recently had a bit of a failure with one project I was working on. It was a short vampire movie, the director was looking for a composer & I got in touch letting him hear a selection of my past work. He was impressed & asked me to compose the soundtrack to which I did over the course of about a month.

The finished soundtrack consisted of 6 different pieces of music, I was really happy with what I had created & the director was equally happy.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to both the director & myself, the people who actually funded the short movie where looking round for a ‘named’ composer at the same time as I was writing the soundtrack.

When I submitted my music to the director, he let his investors listen to it & they turned around & said “yeah, it’s cool, but we want to use this other composer because he’s worked on big movies” – you can imagine how disappointed I was. Not only had I spent all that time composing the soundtrack, I also really want to be part of the project & work with that particular director.

I spent several days feeling really pissed off with the whole thing. I was kicked off the project for a guy who’d worked in the music department on Lord of the Rings. Could he write a better soundtrack than me? Maybe, maybe not. But that wasn’t the point.

Soon after that, I got a chance to work on another movie & it slowly dawned on me that I hadn’t wasted my time because the music I’d written was good & it could easily be tweaked & morphed to be used in a different project. That’s exactly what I did & I got something positive out of a failed project.

So, the moral of this story is; no matter what you do & no matter what happens to your music / script / movie or whatever, remember that you’re not wasting you time. You’re actually honing your craft, gaining experience, collecting knowledge. It’s all good.

It’s a big old world out there & thankfully there’s a lot of different people who like a lot of different things so no matter what type of product you create, there’s bound to be a market for it somewhere.

For more information on Tony Longworth, visit his Myspace page - www.myspace.com/tonylongworth

Raindance SFX course for Low Budget Film

Raindance in London, UK was just brought to my attention... not because it's a film festival, but because they're offering a special course this weekend called "SFX For Low Budget Films". Special Effects is something that we, at Dead Harvey, barely touch on and that's not because we don't want to, we just don't have a resident expert, as of yet. Effects are one of the backbones of indie film, so if you're in London, you should sign up for this course... if you're an SFX guy and you're in, well... anywhere and would like a forum to reach and help out lots of indie horror filmmakers, send me an email.

Here's some info on the course being offered: It's a Raindance Film Course that specializes in special effects for low budget horror and action films... Dan Martin will guide you through a comprehensive list of special effects, tailored for low to no budget horror and action films. Generally special effects have been the domain of the well funded or especially lucky filmmaker, but this need not be the case.

Day 1 - Horror FX; everything gory. Want to achieve a Dr Butcher style arm impaling? A pouring chest wound? We’ll show you how.

Day 2 – Action FX; the Woo side of things. How to modify that prop gun to fire a six-inch muzzle flash. How to make ricochets without hiring an expensive pyrotechnician.

If you’re the film maker who balked when told their low budget film could not contain any special effects, or if you yearn for the salad-days of 70’s and 80’s horror and crime cinema, when inconceivable violence was entirely justified just as long as you had a Euro-funk soundtrack, this course is for you.

For more information on the festival and the course, you can go to the Raindance site here.