Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Santas Claws and other fun distractions





























Work on The Secret Door has slowed done quite a bit lately. As autumn blows by I’m trying to enjoy the season as much as possible before the long dark of winter clutches Allentown in its icy grip. That means I’ve not been working on my movie the past few weekends.

I did some production work for my friend, Luke Ramer, the first weekend of October which was pretty cool and worth mentioning here on my video-production blog. His main project, Under the Rainbow, has been put on hold for a while due to some equipment and budgetary problems (we
micro-budget indie filmmakers know all about that) but Luke is a man with a lot of ideas. To keep busy he started another short horror movie intended for web release entitled (I think) Santas Claws. Roughly speaking it’s about an ex-military guy who plays Santa Claus because it makes him happy – because when he’s not happy (ala the Incredible Hulk) he becomes a werewolf and kills people. Santa has a bunch of enemies that pursue him; witches, a cabal of vampires, and a psychopathic killer called The Hunter all seek to destroy our hero.

My role on Santa’s Claws was as key grip, second (b) camera operator and all-around utility guy with a concentration in lighting and practical effects. I think it went pretty well. Here are some photos I lifted from Scott Cameron’s Facebook page.

Speaking of Scott, I’ve mentioned him on my blog before. He and his brothers run a production company nearby in Emmaus, PA, called IO House. He has managed to have been present for nearly all of the shoots I’ve been on recently. In fact, Scott has held a number of important positions on The Secret Door crew, not least of which as visual effects artist. Check out this frame from a special visual effects sequence that he’s working on for the movie.
To say that I’m stoked about his contribution is understatement. It promises to be one of the show-stoppers of the production. More on that and other insights on The Secret Door will be revealed in future posts. I‘ll try and post again this month with more of a Secret Door focus. Work may have slowed but it hasn’t stopped entirely. Editing continues, as does the slow and challenging work of building a buzz for my first real indie film which is just beginning.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Ha! You snuck in the pic from Secret Door! That's the first time I've seen any shots from the "other place" shoot...that looks really good! I was curious on how the effects were going to turn out...we HAVE to get those last few shots done, I really want to see the finished project.

PunkmonkeyEd said...

Ah, you caught that one frame from The Secret Door. I was going to release that in a more Secret Door focused post but since I was giving props to Scott C. it felt like the right time to show off that impressive shot. That “other world” sequence is really going to knock people out. In fact, I think that if the movie receives plaudits of any kind it’s as likely to be for that as anything else (except the acting of course, which goes without saying).
I’m as eager as you to see this thing released but it’s a slow process. I was going to wait to mention this but even after the edit is done it won’t be immediately released to the web. I’m hoping to set-up a premiere showing for it and then do a DVD run, either by myself or in partnership with a certain record company that I’ve worked with from time to time and then shop it to some festivals. I’ve spent far too much time, money and effort on this thing (as have all the cast, crew and musicians) just to see it vanish in a few hundred mouse clicks, forgotten and forlorn. No, I’ve suffered for my art…now it’s your turn.
Thanks for checking out the blog and for your comment.