Gregory Lamberson's Blog, page 15

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Development and Day One

I love monsters, which is why I do what I do.  These damned jump-from-the-shadows creatures have teased and inspired me all my life.   It's why I love the work of Don Dohler.   Of my original three films, only Slime City could be considered a monster movie; Undying Love is a deconstruction of of vampire mythology, and Naked Fear was a psycho thriller.  But I worked on I Was a Teenage Zombie, Plutonium Baby and Brain Damage, and those were all monster movies.  I suppose Frank Henenlotter's Aylmer is the closest I've come to working with a creature from the greater pantheon (I got to puppet the little sucker's eyebrows in the infamous hotel sequence).  Making Slime City Massacre was an opportunity for me to return to a more imaginative realm of horror, and because I believed it would be the last movie I'd ever make, I threw in science fiction as well - everything including the kitchen sink.

In my novels, I've created many monsters because I've never had to worry about budget.  Johnny Gruesome is a talking zombie with a slasher film obsession; the Wolves in The Frenzy Way and The Frenzy War (and The Frenzy Wolves next year) allowed me to put my own spin on werewolf mythology; and Jake Helman has battled ghosts, demons, angels, voodoo "zonbies" and what is probably my favorite creation, Avademe, the giant mutant octopus god who is equal parts Christian mythology and Cthulhu Mythos; and Carnage Love was my love letter to the zombies of John Russo and George Romero.  At the end of this year, The Julian Year deals with worldwide demonic possession.

After SCM, I was all set to hang up my filmmaking hat and concentrate on my fiction and Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival (now Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival).  Then Sam Qualiana, who won the FIlmmaker to Watch award at Buffalo Screams, posted a teaser trailer of a shark fin gliding through the snow.  He was already shooting what he intended to be a short film reboot of a short film he'd made years earlier when I met with him to discuss turning the project into a feature.  He had already directed several scenes and cast several parts, so that footage needed to be incorporated into the proposed feature.  Winters are long in Western New York, but they aren't everlasting, so he was under the gun to to complete a feature film script on the weekdays while shooting what had already been written.  There was a very Roger Corman-like aspect to the whole endeavor - "We have to make this now or never!"  My involvement included bringing in investors, some additional special effects artists, editors and a composer who could cope with our miniscule budget, and finding a distributor.  Alternative Cinema released Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast on DVD in February; you can find it for rent in many Family Video locations, and all over Canada.  It's a success story, and one that I'm proud of.  I produced the film for three reasons: Sam is more focused on becoming a better filmmaker than being famous in our little pond here in the Buffalo-Niagara region; the concept was great and marketable; and I loved that frigging snow shark - what a cool monster.

Since Snow Shark, Sam and I worked together on Debbie Rochon's Model Hunger and Chris Olen Ray's Battledogs (werewolves), and I recommended him to be 1st AD on Return to Nuke 'Em High.  I also hired him to be the Director of Photography on Dry Bones, a succubus film which I wrote and co-directed/co-produced with Michael O'Hear, which I just wrapped (one day of pickup shots this Saturday).  It was on the set of this film that Sam mentioned he had another project in development, a super low budget "found footage" film based on a Native American legend about a Bigfoot-like creature called "Six Fingers" because it's supposed to have three fingers on each hand.  Most people would have balked at the budget Sam had in mind, but I knew he could pull it off,  Found footage movies consist of handheld master takes, and editing them together is easy.  He said he could shoot the film over the equivalent of one week, and I knew editing masters together would be a snap.  Here's a valuable piece of information for indie filmmakers: the safest way to make a profit on a micro-budget film is to complete it for a maximum of $5,000.  At this point in my semi-professional career, I have no interest in directing a film for so little, because the people I wish to work with are professionals who need to be paid.  But I'm happy to produce such a project, and Sam is up to the task of directing one.  Best of all, his concept - two documentary filmmakers searching for a legendary creature in the woods - is tailor made for such restrictions. Sam will play one of the leads, a cameraman who is off screen for much of the film, so he'll be acting, shooting, and recording sound all at the same time!  And so The Legend of Six Fingers was born...or at least conceived.

As a producer, I immediately think about what will make a project appealing to potential investors.  They don't care about locations, and The Legend of Six Fingers is basically a Bigfoot film about a monster who isn't Bigfoot.  Since I knew Debbie Rochon would already be in town for her co-starring role in Dry Bones, we cast her in a small part consisting of three scenes.  After working with Lynn Lowry on Debbie's Model Hunger last year, I wanted to work with her again - she's incredible in that - so Sam performed a sex change operation on one of the characters so she can play it.  And there's a third big genre actress I want in the film - "player to be named" - and she's agreed to do it.  We expect to have three top notch actresses in our little film, which is amazing in itself.  RJ Sevin whipped together the cool poster you see, and Julia Sevin did the typography for it.

I read the first half of Sam's script - all that was written at that point because he was busy on Dry Bones - and found it much more sophisticated than the one he wrote for Snow Shark because he developed it and wrote it at his own pace, without the race against the weather we had on the previous film.  The script has solid characters, clever dialogue, an interesting mythology, and best of all, a genuinely good structure.  Snow Shark had a ton of characters in it, and it's debatable who the main character was.  The Legend of Six FIngers has two likable leads, and the form of a "found footage" movie dictates that everything is from their point of view (POV).  I showed what we had to a distributor, who offered encouraging feedback.

The next order of business was our monster.  Who should make it?  Rod Durick and Arick Szymecki are my local go-to guys for special effects, but Rod is taking a break (or retiring altogether) from this area of filmmaking; he and Arick have full time jobs; and both are still busy working on the "money shot" effect for Dry Bones.  My good friend Craig Lindberg, a NYC based effects artist who worked on Undying Love and Naked Fear before becoming a top notch makeup/special effects artist on countless big Hollywood projects, offered to help with Dry Bones, but I already had my team on that.  He's currently working on the TV show The Royal Pains (all those grisly wounds are his doing), and he's busy as hell, but I remembered he had created a Bigfoot for the old rag World Weekly News, so I approached him to see if he'd be willing to create a great monster with a non-existent budget.  Like I said, Craig is a good friend, and now I know we're going to have a very cool, very sophisticated "Six Fingers" mask/appliance.  Now we just need a body.

Because Debbie consented to play the role of "Melissa," the clock was ticking on our first day of shooting.  There was still a lot of casting to be done, but we needed to concentrate on the scenes with Debbie, who plays one of the residents our protagonists interview.  The biggest role to be cast was "Neil," one of the two filmmakers.  Because he isn't off camera like "Drew," Sam's character, Neil is actually the lead of the film.  There were a few local candidates, but Sam and I settled on Andrew Elias, who played the nerdy cryptozoologist in Snow Shark.  Like many of the locals, Andrew is more of a hobbyist than a trained actor, but he showed how committed to a project he can be on SS, and has a genuinely endearing presence.  We wrapped on Dry Bones on a Wednesday, Sam had Thursday to prepare, and we shot the first three scenes of the film on a Friday.

Like Snow Shark, The Legend of Six FIngers will be shot primarily on 100 acres of woodland owned by Sam's family out in Royalton, New York (near Lockport).  I drove Debbie and her friend David Marancik out to the house where Sam lives, which he shared with his grandmother until her recent passing.  Diane Rybacki was a huge supporter of Sam's career, and had passed away just a week earlier, and the house was filled with her presence.  Sam rehearsed Debbie and Andrew several times, than shot the first scene on the front porch.  We did many takes, primarily because the traffic noise is so loud on Akron Road.  Then we moved inside, where Chris Rados of Western New York Grip and Electric helped with the lighting and boom.  Chris is a great guy, and I'm glad I got to work with him on Dry Bones as well.  Found footage films require a certain naturalism in performance, and Sam and the actors worked the scene several times before everything gelled.  Then we broke for lunch at a Chinese buffet and I took off.  Sam shot an unscripted scene with Debbie for later in the film, and some interview footage, and a promo piece for a film I hope to do next year.  He and Andrew also shot a scene of their characters talking in a car, for which they used Chris's Go Pro, a wide angle, portable camera which they mounted on the dashboard, giving Sam some screen time.

We offered the role of Six Fingers to Tim O'Hearn, a muscular drummer and actor from Batavia, and he quickly said yes.  I explained that he will be running around the woods covered head to toe in August, and he still said yes.  Tim has a small role in Dry Bones, and I predict he'll get some of the biggest laughs.  I took an impression of his teeth and sent them to Craig to use in creating the mask, and now the challenge is figuring out how to do the body.  His physique was a key factor in casting him, but may prove to difficult to clothe in a generic fur suit.  This is the kind of challenge I enjoy as a producer.  For the immediate future, our priority is raising money.  We've raised ten percent of our $4,000 budget on IndieGoGo, and need to pull in more fast to gain momentum.  If interested, please visit the page and consider helping us out; you can donate as little as $25, or for $250 you can be listed as an Associate Producer: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828

Casting continues!

MAN OF STEEL

I've never been much of a Superman guy, for the reasons you might guess: he's too perfect and too powerful.  I liked Superboy as a kid, and there's no question that in the hands of Alan Moore or a Frank Miller the Man of Steel can be an interesting character.  Richard Donner's 1978 adaptation remains for me a perfect comic book adaptation, and the first film to get a superhero right; Christopher Reeve will always be the definitive Supes, but that was 35 years ago.  Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS was a sincere effort to restart Donner's series, but it was boring and Brandon Routh lacked any kind of spark.  When MAN OF STEEL was announced, I thought the creative team of David Goyer, Zach Snyder and Christopher Nolan sounded like a good one.  I liked the trailers, and got excited enough about the possibilities to see the film at a 9:30 am showing today.  The best that I can say about the experience is that at least I didn't waste my afternoon. The film is packed with special effects and comic book action, so uncritical moviegoers will get their money's worth.  Anyone expecting more will be disappointed.  I didn't hate the film, but I sure  didn't like it, and the more I think about it, the dumber it seems.

Three stories are crammed into the opening Krypton sequence: the birth of Kal-El, unnecessarily complicated to be an illegal birth in a world where natural births have been outlawed; a failed coup of the government by General Zod and his followers, and (finally) the destruction of Krypton.  Zod kills Jor-El, well played by Russell Crowe, giving Superman an unnecessary, Batman-like revenge motive when he confronts Zod.  For reasons unknown, Jor-El's mode of transportation in this high-tech world is a flying Dragon who responds to his voice like a horse in an old cowboy serial.  In Donner's Superman, Zod and two followers are banished to the Phantom Zone by a creepy magic mirror straight out of the kids' TV show Romper Room; in Snyder's version - or Goyer's, or Nolan's - he and his army are put on a massive spaceship and sent into a black hole,  This seems like a pretty expensive punishment - wouldn't it take years to build a ship like that?  And when we send people to prison, do we send them up the river with their own boat?  It isn't very logical.  And if Kryptonians possess this technology, why wouldn't they "banish" themselves into the Phantom Black Hole rather than parish? The Phantom Menace failed in part because George Lucas heaped weak science fiction on top of his space fantasy (remember those mideochlorines?  Sorry to have reminded you...).

On Earth, Clark Kent's odyssey to find himself is told in flashbacks, a device which is also unnecessary.  The Kansas scenes have heart, and a darkness has been added to Clark's boyhood.  I'm fine with that, but if that's the angle you're going to go with, why cram it into flashbacks?  Commit to the story or don't.  As an adult, Clark Kent manages to get himself at a joint military/science site investigating a scout ship from Krypton that crashed 80,000 years ago.  He just creates an alias and gets a job at a site that, we're told, Lois Lane had to file a lawsuit to gain access to.  If this sounds as stupid as Carol Marcus waltzing onto the Enterprise using a false name in Star Trek Into Darkness, it is, but this time we can't blame Damon Lindeloff for the stupidity.  Clark decides to sneak into the crash site late at night because all military security forces apparently turn in at 9:00 pm.  Since he knows no one will see him, he walks through the frozen landscape wearing no coat.  Nothing suspicious there!  Unless, of course, you're a Nobel Prize winning muckraker like Lois.  How do we know she won a Nobel Prize?  Because she says so; this film is filled with clunky, expository dialogue.

Chris Moinari plays a general or something.  Apparently, he's the only such general, because he pops up all over the country whenever needed, and even flies a helicopter in battle scenes. Superman doesn't meet with the president, or the United Nations, or a bunch of generals - just this one guy, and it still takes the whole film for him to win this One Man Army.  I'll address one of the Kansas scenes out of order since they appear in the film that way: Kevin Costner keeps telling Kal that he should let people die to protect his secret powers, and sacrifices himself into a CGI tornado after telling Clark to stay out of it.  It's a stupid scene, and Clark's behavior is unbelievable.

Man of Steel is wall to wall special effects, none of them as special or effective as those in Donner's film.  Superman's first appearance in his darker costume lacks the impact of the earlier film, and his first attempt at flying recalls William Katt's antics on The Greatest American Hero. , andAfter that, the flying scenes are pretty cool, and there are plenty of comic booky fistfights to please fan boys - so what if Superman causes as much destruction as Zod does?  Zod's army is wiped out in a random manner so that he and Superman can square off against each other, and after more explosions and collapsed buildings than I could count, Superman finally breaks Zods neck - and effectively betrays everything the character represents.  It's not a minor complaint, it's a major fucking blunder, and when it happened it left a sour taste in my mouth.  It's one thing to tinker with mythology, it's another to assassinate a character.

I took my wife and daughter to see this film.  They agreed that the new Supes is "hot," but my daughter was bored silly by the entire last act.  I started to nod off when Perry White and some guy I don't know had to dig the (unnecessarily) female Jimmy Olsen out of 9/11 type ruins.  A female soldier who follows Molinari around agrees that the Man is "hot" in the umpteenth instance of bad dialogue.  I didn't check the credits to see who the 1st Assistant Director on this was, but I was struck by how bad the reactions of the extras were in so many scenes.  At the end of the film, Supes decides to become "mild mannered reporter Clark Kent" at the Daily Planet, but the actor from The Tudors is now so freakishly buff that he could not possibly pull off the Kent disguise.  Yessir, that Donner film was just about perfect.

Still DRY BONING

Unless your name is Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, or Steven Spielberg, there are three versions of every movie you make: the written version, the directed version, and the edited version.  I wrote a screenplay called Dry Bones; I co-directed a movie with the same title; and I'm about to turn over all of the footage to my friend and editor Phil Gallo.  After Phil edited my third film, Naked Fear, I vowed he would direct every film I directed after that, and he did a spectacular job on Slime City Massacre.  He's also directed two features of his own: the crime drama West New York, on which I was an associate producer and the 1st assistant director, and a metaphysical comedy, Maddie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe.  Although not a horror guy, he co-composed the score for the original Mother's Day.


I spent a little over a week reviewing all of the footage and selecting the takes I want Phil to use.  This is often a painful process, because it's when you start to see the flaws...the imperfections....the fuckups.  Scenes you thought looked amazing on set suddenly look like shit.  You can shoot 17 takes of a scene, honing it, and believe you nailed the sucker on the last one only to discover in post production that an actor looked at the camera, or the audio went out, or that a shot has soft focus.  It can be heartbreaking.  Watching 17 takes over and over, comparing nuances, can also be grueling.  The experience has been true to form for me as I write extensive notes for Phil to follow to save him time (although I trust his instincts enough to defer to them).  The experience can also be rewarding: performances stand out, camerawork shines, audio can be remarkably clean, locations can look great.

Once you've made your select takes, and have resigned yourself to scores of compromises and cuts, the painful part is over: now you know what you have to work with, and you can form plans to resolve issues.  Reviewing select takes goes much faster and is less tedious.  In one day, I've covered over a little over one third of the material I've selected.  Some scenes look great, others good, and some require fixes.  I'm also making up a list of inserts we need to get when the crew reconvenes in a little over a week to shoot the film's biggest effect and to re-shoot a couple of others.  I'm pleased with what I see: the performances are first rate, the homemade dolly we used added some style, our creature looks awesome, and one over the top gag I devised is more disgusting than anything I've filmed before - peanut gallery, here we come!  Dry Bones is a comedy, and I believe it will be genuinely funny.  It's also scary, which surprises me - I've never made a scary film before.  I'm also proud of my daughter Kaelin's brief performance - she's got it.

Watching the footage, it occurs to me that Dry Bones is actually a return of sorts to my first three films.  Slime City is about a college student dealing with sexual frustration, and Dry Bones is about a 49 year old man dealing with sexual frustration of his own.  The slob friend portrayed by Paul McGinnis is similar to the one Tom Merrick placed in SC.  And Debbie Rochon plays three roles, as Mary Huner played two in the slime flick.  We filmed Dry Bones in my house, just as we filmed Slime and Undying Love in my Brooklyn apartment, and there are a number of thematic and visual similarities to Naked Fear (and we successfully pulled off a murder scene in a room lit by a lava lamp, which we failed to pull off in NF).  It's always pleased me that fans of my films prefer different ones over the others, and I'm confident that anyone who likes any of them will enjoy Dry Bones.

After I wrote the script for Michael O'Hear and agreed to produce it, I made myself assistant director and told Michael I would direct the camera coverage and he could direct the actors.  Because he's on screen for 80% of the film, it would be difficult for him to direct and star, and from the very first day I took on all of the directing chores (preserving what he and the cast had worked out in rehearsal).  Michael's my age, and he's been a character actor here in Buffalo for some time; I dubbed him "Buffalo's Donald Pleasance."  His mother died a few months ago, and he has several health issues, and on many days he was exhausted early on.  Reviewing the footage, I couldn't help but note how pale he looked, and I was not surprised that he had checked into the hospital earlier this week. When I visited him, I was relieved and startled to see actual blood in his face, and It turns out he was hemorrhaging for God knows how long.  He's still undergoing tests now.  The man can say he bled for his art.  I hope he gets out soon.

Werewolf Lovers: THE FRENZY WAY is FREE!

For four more days, my werewolf novel The Frenzy Way, Book One in The Frenzy Cycle, is FREE on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes and Noble/Nook. The Frenzy Way was followed by The Frenzy War, and the third book, The Frenzy Wolves, will be available next year (May, I think; both that and the sixth Jake Helman book in 2015 will be published in odd months for me). This is the perfect way - and cost! - to get up to speed for what may be the final book in the series. Here are some blurbs and reviews:

“The Frenzy Way is an awesome blend of police procedural and bloody werewolf action. It’s easily Lamberson’s best novel—and I loved his first two!”
~ Jeff Strand, Bram Stoker Award-Nominated Author of Pressure and Dweller

“A werewolf serial killer whodunit with real teeth, The Frenzy Way is a razor-sharp read from beginning to end. Lamberson’s tale is a police procedural, werewolf historical, good old-fashioned monster movie mash up, a winning mix to be sure, but what really makes the narrative shine are its deft characterizations. Even the tiniest bit players seem alive, vital, a crucial part of the puzzle, making this wild-in-the-streets werewolf hunt all the more tense. Highly recommended.”
~ Michael Louis Calvillo, Bram Stoker Award-Nominated author of I Will Rise and As Fate Would Have It

“The Frenzy Way is a grinning, snapping chainsaw of a novel, so grab some heavy gloves and eye protection and hang on for a fast, fun ride.”
~Jeff Jacobson, Author of Wormfood

“From the opening paragraph, Greg Lamberson’s The Frenzy Way sinks its long, dark claws into you, refusing to release you until your shaking fingers have turned the very last page. There is a chilling seduction to the intelligent, gritty crime noir style in which this distinctive take on the werewolf myth is delivered that is exquisitely terrifying, breathtakingly harsh, and beautifully brutal. The Frenzy Way is horror at its absolute best!”
~ Gabrielle S. Faust, Author of Eternal Vigilance

“. . . combines popular werewolf legends with American Indian myths to produce a delightfully gory horror novel. . . . A solid addition to werewolf literature.”
~ Library Journal

"If living in NYC wasn't scary enough, imagine how scary it would be if it were teeming with bloodthirsty werewolves. That's the premise behind the menacing new police procedural that's absolutely thick with character development, intelligent dialogue, and a remarkably fresh take on lycanthropes. It will have you double-checking your doors and windows on the next full moon."
~ Last Chance Lance, "The Grim Reader," Rue Morgue

“The Frenzy Way is a rip-roaring, bloody-good time that you'll read in a sitting or two. Don't miss it.”
~ Nick Cato, The Horror Fiction Review

“. . . Lamberson’s knack for furiously fast-paced action and the building terror of the graphic and increasingly sexualized murders combine in a surprisingly compelling read for horror fans with strong stomachs.”
~ Publishers Weekly

“Wow. Just wow. The Frenzy Way might prove one of the most significant pieces of lycanthrope literature in years.”
~ Radiation-Scarred Reviews

“Fast-paced, bloody, sexy, and brutal, this is Lamberson at his best."
~ Scott A. Johnson, Dread Central

“The author of Johnny Gruesome and Personal Demons puts forward a fresh examination of lycanthropes and offers readers something brand new. . . .
The Frenzy Way is definitely a cut above other werewolf novels."
~ Derek Clendening, Dark Scribe Magazine

“Lamberson provides rich characterization and a multilayered plot along with the obligatory gore. Together with a few speculative flourishes about werewolves’ shape-shifting origins, Lamberson’s clever plot twists make this a nice little werewolf yarn—relief, as it were, from the current glut of vampire fiction.”
~ Carl Hay, Booklist

"Leaving the oversaturated vampire and zombie genres in the dust, Lamberson delves into the world of werewolves in an NYPD horror-thriller with the feel of an 80s splatter film. . . .
The Frenzy Way is a fast-paced, fun read for gorehounds and horror fanatics.
~ Madeleine Koestner, HorrorYearBook.com

"The narrative in The Frenzy Way is gutsy. Gregory Lamberson kills off some likeable and admirable characters and incorporates much information, factual as well as fabricated. His book’s title refers to a ritual which enables humans to walk in animal form. Possessing spirited action scenes and distinctive dialogue, the novel penetrates the psyche of a terrorist and comprehends the psychology of terror. It’s like taking a savagely wild walk—in animal form."
~ Sheila Merritt, Hellnotes.com

“The key to Gregory Lamberson’s terrific police procedural horror novel is that he makes his Manhattan seem genuine even with a supernatural species hiding in the shadows, as the older audience will be reminded of the panic during the Son of Sam serial killings.”
~ Harriet Klausner, Independnt Reviewer (June 2010)

“Lamberson makes it very apparent that he's in charge of the story and that it doesn't merely evolve into something formulaic. Instead, the writer turns every convention on its head and gives you something breathtakingly fresh and new.”
~ Colum McKnight, Paperback Horror

“Filled with violence and winking paperback-potboiler thrills, The Frenzy Way is a ton of briskly paced, loopy (as in garou) fun.”
~ Chris Alexander, Fangoria

“For a while, I thought I was watching a movie and not reading a novel, because it was so vivid. The Frenzy Way is a must read for horror fans and action fans alike.”
~ Chris Welch, Elder Signs Press

“The Frenzy Way is completely enthralling. The book shifts from frightening, gruesome, sexy, and suspenseful seamlessly.”
~ Meli Yoroshiku, Destroy The Brain!

“Gregory Lamberson roars back from last year’s celebrated Stoker nominee Johnny Gruesome with an equally hard-rocking heart stopper, The Frenzy Way. . . . Magnificently crafted, The Frenzy Way screams across the pages with pitch-perfect characterization and plotting, not to mention some exquisitely well-done graphic gore.
~ Countgore.com

THE FRENZY WAY Is FREE!

Four four more days, my werewolf novel The Frenzy Way, Book One in The Frenzy Cycle, is FREE on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes and Noble/Nook.  The Frenzy Way was followed by The Frenzy War, and the third book, The Frenzy Wolves, will be available next year (May, I think; both that and the sixth Jake Helman book in 2015 will be published in odd months for me).  This is the perfect way - and cost! - to get up to speed for what may be the final book in the series.  Here are some blurbs and reviews:

“The Frenzy Way is an awesome blend of police procedural and bloody werewolf action. It’s easily Lamberson’s best novel—and I loved his first two!”
~ Jeff Strand, Bram Stoker Award-Nominated Author of Pressure and Dweller

“A werewolf serial killer whodunit with real teeth, The Frenzy Way is a razor-sharp read from beginning to end. Lamberson’s tale is a police procedural, werewolf historical, good old-fashioned monster movie mash up, a winning mix to be sure, but what really makes the narrative shine are its deft characterizations. Even the tiniest bit players seem alive, vital, a crucial part of the puzzle, making this wild-in-the-streets werewolf hunt all the more tense. Highly recommended.”
~ Michael Louis Calvillo, Bram Stoker Award-Nominated author of I Will Rise and As Fate Would Have It

“The Frenzy Way is a grinning, snapping chainsaw of a novel, so grab some heavy gloves and eye protection and hang on for a fast, fun ride.”
~Jeff Jacobson, Author of Wormfood

“From the opening paragraph, Greg Lamberson’s The Frenzy Way sinks its long, dark claws into you, refusing to release you until your shaking fingers have turned the very last page. There is a chilling seduction to the intelligent, gritty crime noir style in which this distinctive take on the werewolf myth is delivered that is exquisitely terrifying, breathtakingly harsh, and beautifully brutal. The Frenzy Way is horror at its absolute best!”
~ Gabrielle S. Faust, Author of Eternal Vigilance

“. . . combines popular werewolf legends with American Indian myths to produce a delightfully gory horror novel. . . . A solid addition to werewolf literature.”
~ Library Journal

"If living in NYC wasn't scary enough, imagine how scary it would be if it were teeming with bloodthirsty werewolves. That's the premise behind the menacing new police procedural that's absolutely thick with character development, intelligent dialogue, and a remarkably fresh take on lycanthropes. It will have you double-checking your doors and windows on the next full moon."
~ Last Chance Lance, "The Grim Reader," Rue Morgue

“The Frenzy Way is a rip-roaring, bloody-good time that you'll read in a sitting or two. Don't miss it.”
~ Nick Cato, The Horror Fiction Review

“. . . Lamberson’s knack for furiously fast-paced action and the building terror of the graphic and increasingly sexualized murders combine in a surprisingly compelling read for horror fans with strong stomachs.”
~ Publishers Weekly

“Wow. Just wow. The Frenzy Way might prove one of the most significant pieces of lycanthrope literature in years.”
~ Radiation-Scarred Reviews

“Fast-paced, bloody, sexy, and brutal, this is Lamberson at his best."
~ Scott A. Johnson, Dread Central

“The author of Johnny Gruesome and Personal Demons puts forward a fresh examination of lycanthropes and offers readers something brand new. . . .
The Frenzy Way is definitely a cut above other werewolf novels."
~ Derek Clendening, Dark Scribe Magazine

“Lamberson provides rich characterization and a multilayered plot along with the obligatory gore. Together with a few speculative flourishes about werewolves’ shape-shifting origins, Lamberson’s clever plot twists make this a nice little werewolf yarn—relief, as it were, from the current glut of vampire fiction.”
~ Carl Hay, Booklist

"Leaving the oversaturated vampire and zombie genres in the dust, Lamberson delves into the world of werewolves in an NYPD horror-thriller with the feel of an 80s splatter film. . . .
The Frenzy Way is a fast-paced, fun read for gorehounds and horror fanatics.
~ Madeleine Koestner, HorrorYearBook.com

"The narrative in The Frenzy Way is gutsy. Gregory Lamberson kills off some likeable and admirable characters and incorporates much information, factual as well as fabricated. His book’s title refers to a ritual which enables humans to walk in animal form. Possessing spirited action scenes and distinctive dialogue, the novel penetrates the psyche of a terrorist and comprehends the psychology of terror. It’s like taking a savagely wild walk—in animal form."
~ Sheila Merritt, Hellnotes.com

“The key to Gregory Lamberson’s terrific police procedural horror novel is that he makes his Manhattan seem genuine even with a supernatural species hiding in the shadows, as the older audience will be reminded of the panic during the Son of Sam serial killings.”
~ Harriet Klausner, Independnt Reviewer (June 2010)

“Lamberson makes it very apparent that he's in charge of the story and that it doesn't merely evolve into something formulaic. Instead, the writer turns every convention on its head and gives you something breathtakingly fresh and new.”
~ Colum McKnight, Paperback Horror

“Filled with violence and winking paperback-potboiler thrills, The Frenzy Way is a ton of briskly paced, loopy (as in garou) fun.”
~ Chris Alexander, Fangoria

“For a while, I thought I was watching a movie and not reading a novel, because it was so vivid. The Frenzy Way is a must read for horror fans and action fans alike.”
~ Chris Welch, Elder Signs Press

“The Frenzy Way is completely enthralling. The book shifts from frightening, gruesome, sexy, and suspenseful seamlessly.”
~ Meli Yoroshiku, Destroy The Brain!

“Gregory Lamberson roars back from last year’s celebrated Stoker nominee Johnny Gruesome with an equally hard-rocking heart stopper, The Frenzy Way. . . . Magnificently crafted, The Frenzy Way screams across the pages with pitch-perfect characterization and plotting, not to mention some exquisitely well-done graphic gore.
~ Countgore.com

DRY BONES Day 19

There's a performance aspect to directing, more similar to an athletic event than entertainment.  A director needs to know his game, needs to coordinate his team, needs to lead the charge.  This is never truer than on the first day of production, which sets the tone for the rest of the shoot, and on the last day, when you need to make sure you have everything.  In the case of Dry Bones: I did something I've never done before: I scheduled the climax for the last day of shooting.  This was because Debbie Rochon was a last minute (and fortuitous) addition to the cast, and I had to change things up so she could fit the film into her schedule.  I also decided to alternate special effects days with non-effects days during her week, which was the right thing to do: with seven hour sessions required to transform her into the succubus, those days took a slight toll on everyone.  In the climax,  Drew (Michael O'Hear) confronts the succubus, who takes on a human form one more time.  The action in the script is fairly simple, but takes place in the same tiny bedroom as much of the rest of the story.  On Tuesday I was confident I had a handle on everything...and then I realized we did not get some shots of Debbie as the succubus required for the opening of the film and one other scene - we spent all day Monday shooting the succubus sex scenes, and this one key shot slipped my mind.  The effects days took way longer than planned, but I blame myself for this oversight.  Still, the logistics involved in getting this shot would have turned Monday into a nightmare.  When I took over directing, we lost our assistant director (me).

On Tuesday we got Debbie to make-up for a neck wound, while we shot Michael's portion of the beginning of the fight, which involved him getting pulled under the bed. I wore the silicone monster hands for one shot - my big break! - and then we put the bed on it's elevated platform and pulled him under.  Kevin VanHentenryck, Amelie McKendry, and Paul McGinnis all went under that bed, and now it was Michael's turn. Then Debbie arrived and we had to get Michael into make-up.  Arick Szymecki had to match this make-up to another one he'd applied to Michael earlier in the shoot, our version of Bruce Campbell drenched in blood.  We shot the scene with Michael and Debbie, and there were some good moments there, then sent Debbie back to the make-up lab to undergo the succubus transformation one more time.  Rod only had to do her face this time though, not her whole body.  Arick stayed on location to tend to Michael's make-up and a special prop.  In the scene, Drew emerges from under the bed twice after battling the succubus, the second time with a chunk of bloody neck flesh in his mouth.  Michael had to crawl out from under the bed - a challenge, due to poor health - shake his head, then spit out the flesh while Sam filmed the bit on a slider, a small track which lies on the floor and allows camera movement.  It was a really dynamic shot.

We shot some final action with Michael which concludes the sequence, time consuming because it involved breaking a mirror. John Renna had wrapped his role as Carl earlier in the week, but came by a few days to help out, including grilling lunch for us for two days and keeping Kaelin occupied/distracted.

I thought we had to grab a pickup of Michael and Debbie-as-succubus for another scene, but upon reviewing the footage of that scene with Sam decided it worked as we shot it (with a "husk" instead of our succubus), so I called a picture wrap on Michael, which surprised him.  Michael's two best scenes in the film are during the ending and during the sex scenes with the succubus.  He came into this project with poor health, which plagued him throughout the shoot, but managed to deliver anyway.  I'm not sure he understood going in how much work a leading man has to do - the volume of scenes, the level of repetition, and the physical requirements - but he knows now.  Hopefully he's pleased with his performance; I expect it will turn out to be his best work when it's cut together.

Then Debbie was ready for her close up as the succubus.  We had to set up the bed again, re-light the room, and set up the shot -again, on the slider.  I call this the Salem's Lot shot because it reminds me of some of Tobe Hooper's shots when the vampires turn to the camera, open their glowing eyes, and hiss.  Debbie did great, and Sam and Chris Rados delivered on the camera/lighting.  It was was a really good moment - scary, kids! - and worth the extra make-up time.  We did a few takes, then called a wrap on Debbie and principal photography.  With our cast dismissed, Sam, Chris, Rod, Arick and I did some pickup shots of blood spatter for different scenes and I called a wrap on principal photography.  I feared it would be another fourteen hour day, but we got it done in ten, and everyone wrapped out of my house two hours later.  There was fake blood in my sink and equipment lying around that needs to be returned, and my house suffered damage here and there, but nothing too severe.

In three weeks' time, some of us will reunite to shoot one pickup shot, the biggest effect in the film, our "money shot."

This has been an excellent shoot, with a great cast and crew, and some real surprises.  I thank every single person who contributed, and I have no doubt I did my most assured directing on it, too.  Despite the damage to bathroom, wall, and carpet, it was fun shooting in our house for the most part, an experience Kaelin will never forget.  I'm not sure who will miss having all these people under our roof most, her or our cats, who appear in several outtakes.

Editing will commence in another week.  In the meantime, I have to put my house back together.

DRY BONES Days 16, 17 and 18: Home Stretch

Yes, I've fallen behind - it's called exhaustion.

After the brutality of our first big special make-up effects day, it was a relief to have a non-effects day... almost like someone scheduled that way on purpose.  Day 16 was a breeze compared to Day 15 - even with four company moves.  First we returned to the Medina Theatre to shoot the remainder of our bar scenes, this time with Debbie Rochon.  The bulk of the scene consisted of a table conversation between Michael O'Hear and Debbie.  We did a slow dolly in on each character, and those dolly moves will be intercut in the editing; I've had this in mind from the beginning, my ode to Mart Scorsese.  Unlike the first time we went to the theater, we had quite a few extras, including a gentleman I'm interested in casting in another project.  We fed everyone pizza, then hit the road.

We rendezvoused at my house, then headed to the home of Jenn and Bill Brown.  My good friend Tommy Sweeney drove up from the NYC are for a cameo at the end of the film.  After we shot his scene with Michael and Debbie, I had him and Debbie improvise a voice over argument, which resulted in this gem: "Get rid of that goddamned cat, I feel like I'VE got a hairball!"  We had another scene to shoot at the location, but we had to wait for dark, so we went back to my house and grabbed some pickup shots.  Then we returned to the Brown home, where we shot a "walk and talk" (you've seen hundreds of these on LAW & ORDER) between Debbie and Michael - a strong scene with excellent night time lighting by Chris Rados.

On Day 17, we were back in Special Effects Land.  This time I had Debbie at the lab at 8 am, and scheduled plenty for us to shoot while we waited for her to emerge as the succubus.  The entire make-up and costume transformation took seven hours the first time; I hoped to see that time cut in half for the second day, but it took the same amount of time.  Too long in my estimation, but I'm not there in the lab, I don't see what the problems are, and there's no denying that the end result is worth the effort.  The only problem I saw was that Debbie was left alone several times, mostly made up, and no one bothered to tell her what was happening, or what needed to happen... she was just in limbo, and as the day wore on she would politely ask the questions that needed to be asked.  I felt bad, but the reality is that we're a much smaller unit than on Slime City Massacre (we have no assistant director, no production manager, no assistant camera person, no sound mixer ((just a boom operator)) and only two effects people, who have been stretched thin despite the extra month of pre-production they gained when I cast Debbie).

This time the bulk of succubus action was comprised of sex scenes between Lilim (the succubus) and Drew (Michael).  There were at least four such scenes, and Debbie was fantastic: between the make-up and her performance, we've entered Evil Dead territory, and yet we've created something different.  I've always wanted to create a classic styled monster, and I think that as a team we've done it with Lilim.  Michael was very good in these scenes two.  He plays the lead character, but he's often the straight man surrounded by humorous characters.  This was his chance to shine, even though he was on his back the entire time.  I think we got Debbie out of make-up around 8:30 pm - twelve and a half hours after she reported for make-up.  She never once complained, even though the yellow contacts she wore were causing her discomfort.  When you're in that kind of make-up - she wore silicone gloves, had broken wing stems protruding from her back, and had pre-fabricated sores all over her body - all you can really do is sit and relax on your down time.

The big gag of the night was still to come: in a key moment, Lilim exposes her breasts to Drew, squeezes them, and sprays a vile fluid out of her nipples at him.  At my request, the fake breasts (previously used on Model Hunger) also had hair on them.  If you're going for a gross out, be really gross. Arick and Rod tested the gag earlier in the day.  I asked Debbie to stay and wear one silicone glove, and my wife Tamar to wear the other (she doubled succubus hands several times in the shoot).  We held the chest piece low to the floor, over a sheet of plastic.  I realized the shot needed to be Michael's POV, so we raised it... ultimately, Paul McGinnis stripped off his shirt and "wore" the piece.  On "Action," green slime oozed out of the nipples, just like I described in the script... and then they bubbled and stopped.  We did not get a spray.  We shot the bit three more times before I got enough discharge to cut with the shot of the spray striking Michael in the face (priceless,,, Roy Frumkes is going to love this).  That's showbiz, folks: effects take longer than planned, sometimes they work the way you want, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they work well enough.  I always feel bad for the effects guys when this happens - so much pressure - but I also have to worry about everyone else who's been on set all day.

Day 18 was another "recuperate from effects" day: we concentrated on a sequence in which Debbie's character surprises Michael's at his home.  A number of dolly shots, a number of scenes which allowed Debbie and Michael to show some chemistry (they've worked together a few times now), and one bit in which I felt Debbie showed a different comedic side of her (sort of a perky comedic side, as opposed to a dark edged horror side...which comes later).  I called an early wrap because I know we have a killer day tomorrow, Day 19, our last dance.

RIP My Friend Diane Rybacki

Diane Rybacki passed away yesterday.  Many of you reading this never heard of her, and some of you knew her as "Sam Qualiana's grandmother."  I'm happy to say she was my friend, and I'm better off for it.  I first met Diane when she and Sam's mother Kathy came to see support Sam when we screened his short film "No Road Out" at Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival.  They were both excited for him. I got to know Diane a little better when Sam directed Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast out in Royalton, in rural "Lockport Land," where the family is split up between two houses on a lot of property practically across the street from each other.  She cooked for the crew and made me coffee, and her enthusiasm for everything going on with the project was infectious; she loved to see so many creative people, a theme she revisited in our conversations.  I really got to know her when she allowed us to shoot scenes from Model Hunger in her garage and in her house.  I could (and did) listen to her talk for hours, and always considered it time well spent. I obviously have a lot of writer/author friends, but I've never known a better storyteller. Diane had such a rich life, and had achieved real wisdom.  She loved to talk about her late husband Stan, and about how different her three grandsons are and how much she loved each one of them for being unique.  I laughed when she talked about how much she hated her trip to NYC; she was old school, but never quaint - full of life and fire and gumption, and she loved having younger people around her.  I took my wife and daughter to the set of Model Hunger once, and Tamar warmed to Diane right away too - it was impossible not to.

I've never become friends with a friend's grandparent before, but I felt a real bond with Diane and visited her more than once.  It's about a 40 minute drive out there, so it's not like we're neighbors, but the conversation was always worth the drive.  She mentioned more than once that she'd had health issues in the past - not surprising, given her age - but she was so energetic that I thought she had years ahead of her.  I'd planned to interview her for a short documentary: ostensibly, the doc was about the welded-metal sculptures that her husband created, but the film really would have been about the love story between her and Stan.  I knew I could just turn a camera on her and let her talk, and I wouldn't have to dig very deep for gold.  I should have shot it the moment I had the idea; Model Hunger became Return to Nuke Em High and then Battledogs, and then winter hit, and it was important to me to show Diane walking around that big house and that enormous property with the grass green and everything in bloom around her - no gray skies, I didn't see her that way.  I learned during the winter that she needed chemotherapy again and gave her a call, which became a one of our regular 90 minute conversations.  We agreed to shoot the doc in the spring if she was up to it, but at that point I was more concerned about her - chemo can suck the life out of a person.

Maybe a month ago, just a couple of weekends into rhe production of Dry Bones, Kathy posted on Facebook that Diane needed prayers and support, so I headed out there fearing the worst.  To my relief, Diane had a bit of a rebound - she looked great and was all smiles.  She was receiving a lot of visitors, including one person from California and another from one of the Carolinas.  She was beaming from the attention, which was great (like my grandmother and mother, she did not like people to fuss over her - never wanted to be a burden).  I took Kaelin with me, as I'd done before, which Diane seemed happy about.  Her speech had slowed just a little, and for the first time in my encounters with her she grasped for some words, but she was all there, and we had a nice talk and I held her hand.  She said she was ready to go, she felt she'd left nothing undone, but at the same time she wanted to spend more time with her family and friends.  And she told me that she had seen Stan.  I'd always considered her a wise person, but she felt she'd gained real insight and appreciation for the important things in life through her battle.  I told her we'd shoot the doc as soon as Sam and I were finished with the movie if she felt up to it, and she was as excited about the idea as ever.  That will never happen now.  When I left I told her I loved her and she told me the same, and I hoped for the best.  How many times do we wish we'd told a friend how much they meant to us before it was too late?

My heartfelt condolences to Sam and his family, especially to Kathy.  I'm glad they got to have her back in good health and spirits for a time before she passed, and I'm glad I got to know her at all.

DRY BONES Day15: How to Make a Monster

The final five days of shooting on Dry Bones is when we separate the men from the boys. Up until now, we’ve been somewhat spoiled: because special effects weren’t ready in some cases and weren't needed otherwise, we’ve had the luxury of shooting straight or comedic content, which has been a snap; we’ve also had the luxury of shooting 10 or 12 hour Saturdays and five hour Sundays – the equivalent of one real production day on an indie horror film. Now we’re in the home stretch, and the pressure is on.  We've usually had two of three lighting guys on at a time too, but now it's all on Chris Rados.

Debbie Rochon arrived on Thursday, and we used Friday for prep: first she met with Shannon Kramp to discuss costumes, including the costume for the succubus (Debbie essentially plays the female lead, the succubus, and one other character), then she rehearsed her scenes with Michael O'Hear.  I'm sure Michael was nervous - he's the leading man in this film, and carries it on his shoulders, and now he had to bring his A gane - and I'm sure Debbie made it easy on him.  For me, Friday was like the day before a whole new shoot, with all the running around and last minute problem that entails.  In fact, the entire week was like that.  I made two trips to the effects lab to make sure Rod and Arick were okay, and Stacey Book was helping them out.

Friday morning we started with the scene in which Michelle makes Drew's dreams come true - a seduction scene followed by a soft love scene.   There's no nudity in this film - no human nudity - and these scenes were about Drew's awkwardness.  We got off to a slow start, but the actors and crew did their part; I had a little trouble staging the lead up to the bed, but just kept things moving.  I left it to Debbie to set the parameters of the bedroom action, so that was actually the easiest and quickest part.  My new right hand man Paul McGinnis was unavailable today, so cinematographer Sam Qualiana called in Andrew Elias, one of the stars of Snow Shark, to pinch hit as our boom operator.  Sam forgot that Andrew is allergic to cats.  Thanks for toughing it out, Andrew!

Next we moved downstairs for the preamble to scene 102, in which Drew confronts the succubus in his living room and "the succubus takes many forms."  For me, this scene at the two thirds mark of the film is the biggest scene we have, and we've been shooting it piece meal since our first weekend.  Today we finally got to shoot the spine of the scene, and Drew's reactions to the craziness going on around him.  Once Debbie had shot her portion of the scene, I ran her over to the SFX lab, which I call the House of Pain.  The sign on the stairway now says "Morgue," and on Slime City Massacre the effects crew called it "Cluster Fuck Central."  I guess you could call it a Choose Your Own Adventure.

It's a five minute ride to the lab from my house and I stayed there for five minutes, so I was gone all of 15 minutes, but back at the ranch cinematographer Sam Qualiana and co-director O'Hear elected to try to shoot the climax to scene 102 - involving O'Hear, John Renna, and Kathy Murphy - without me to keep things moving.  I walked in on their master and pushed Michael and John to really make the scene what it needed to be; Kathy had the fun role, and she was dead on.  She was an extra on SCM and had a key role in Snow Shark and has appeared in some other local productions, but I believe that Dry Bones will be her best work.  We finished the scene - other than one shot we need to get with  a big special effect in a month (this is the Scene That Will Never Die) - and it was a picture wrap on John Renna.  John is always great, and I wrote the role of Carl the cop for him, so I'm not surprised at how good he is in the film.  I am surprised at the level of sympathy and intimacy he brought to the part between making dick jokes.  Well done.

Because we brought Debbie in for a compressed production schedule, we were unable to test Rod Durick's makeup appliance on her.  We had her face cast from SCM and Rod sculpted a great appliance, but he and Arick have been working on the film during their off hours from their full time jobs, so a lot was left to the last minute.  The succubus make-up consists of a facial appliance, silicone gloves, latex wing stems, and venereal disease sours all over the body.  Shannon's succubus costume has to work hand in hand with the effects because it has to support the wing stems, which might flop around otherwise.  When an effects man on an indie film tells me it will take two hours to do a complicated job, I give him three and expect it to take four; that's just the way it goes.  Our guys experienced a series of unfortunate events the night before and the morning of the succubus's  big debut.  No one bothered to tell me, and I actually got Debbie to them two hours later than planned, so when I asked Arick if we held them up and he just smiled I had a pretty good idea what we were in store for.  Four and a half hours later I had Michael call to find out if Debbie was ready to come back, and the message relayed to me was that they were almost ready.  If I had a 1st AD on this film (that was originlly my title) I'd have had him on the guys all day, but it was probably for the best that they didn't have to deal with that.  Five hours after dropping Debbie off, I sent Renna to bring Debbie back.  Sending an effects man to an SFX lab is like sending one kid after another in a candy store.  Half an hour later I made the trip myself.  Debbie looked monstrous but not quite convincing; there was still work to be done.  We were scheduled to shoot Lilum's shots for scene 102 in my living room, then move upstairs for two succubus sex scenes.  I made the call to shoot only the shots for 102, and then some publicity stills of Debbie in full make-up and costume for posters, box art, etc., which should have relieved the pressure the guys no doubt felt.

We relocated to my house, got Debbie into most of her costume, popped in some colored contact lenses, and the guys got to work on detailing her appliance.  "A few minutes" turned into an hour.  By then, Arick and Rod had been working on this stuff for 25 hours straight without sleep - after working shifts at their jobs.  Arick was so tired he actually looked rested instead of jittery; Rod looked one shade healthier than death, and his back was bothering him.  Shannon worked furiously to make the final alterations to the succubus costume.  Our scheduled wrap time passed.  The crew waited patiently, or at least quietly; Sam tried to nap, but John made sure that didn't happen.  I felt bad for Sam and Chris having to sit around doing nothing but wait, but I also knew how hard Arick and Rod had been working. There was too much chatter where the work was happening, so Debbie politely made sure that everything that needed to be done was being taken care of (because this could have gone on for another four hours). One of the things I love about working with Debbie is that she is committed 100% to whatever she does; she'll endure a lot for the good of a film, and always puts the ambition for the finished film first.  After seven hours, the make-up looked pretty amazing: a first rate job.  Yes, it was worth the wait.  Arick's silicone gloves looked great.  Next the jacket went on.  Shannon's complete costume also looked great: long skirt, corset, aged chains, bracers with reptilian texture.  Then Rod's wing stems went in and we had our monster. Everything gelled.  If we'd gone through all of this and the end result had been disappointing, it would have been frustrating as hell.

It only took us 20 minutes to shoot our scene.  Debbie was great.  Rod did an excellent job shooting the publicity stills.  We wrapped and I took Debbie back to the lab; hopefully they got her out of make-up quickly, but with those sores all over her body I doubt it.

How do you make a monster?  Very carefully...and very slowly.

Thanks to the entire team for all their hard work!  Today we're back on easy street, tomorrow is our BIG effects day. :)

#

A funny aside: my daughter has now been on my set long enough that when things slow down she says my mantra: "Let's make a movie!"

DRY BONES Days 13 and 14

This weekend marked the end of our “weekends only” schedule for Dry Bones.   We’re 80% finished with principal photography. Debbie Rochon arrives on Friday for a five day stretch that will conclude the shoot. Those five days will also include the majority of special make-up effects for the film, so they’ll be our hardest five days. After that, all that will remain to be done will be the biggest special effect in the film, which we’ll get approximately one month from now. So far, this has been the easiest shoot of my life, and designing the shots has felt effortless. I consider it a minor miracle that we’ve pulled together the cast and crew we have. It’s all coming together nicely, and I can’t wait for you all to see it.

On Saturday, we started out with two scenes featuring Michael O’Hear (as Drew) and two of our regular locals: Bob Bozek (the second Mayor of Slime City, who takes a bullet in the head in Slime City Massacre, and who plays another mayor in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast), and Alex McBryde (Pimp “Bless” in SCM). This time around, Bob played a crafty locksmith, and Alex essayed “Popper,” sort of a contemporary Renfield type who misses his succubus. Both guys delivered the goods, and I added a small tag to Alex’s scene featuring a cool dolly shot. I loved having them around. Kaelin loved having them around too – she loves having everyone on the film around – and I had to laugh when I saw her throwing Carmine Capobianco’s head from Model Hunger into the air and catching it. I’m proud to say I’ve provided her with a unique childhood…

Next we shot a scene in which Michael digs a mass grave in my backyard to bury the three “husks” the succubus has left around his house. I dug the hole the day before and my back was a little tender. Age! Michael had to sing the title song while pretending to dig; it’s one of his big scenes. I sent Sam up onto the flat roof over my kitchen with the dolly for an establishing shot, then two closer dolly shots on the ground for the main coverage. Later, Sam also climbed onto the peaked roof over my front door for another high angle shot of Michael removing a mirror from his car. I forgot to lock the cats in the basement, so Starbuck made his annual escape outside, but returned as soon as he got hungry. I admit to experiencing some concern for the orange annoyance.

After lunch we made a company move to Paul McGinnis’s house. Paul plays Tom, the hero’s sloppy best friend, and he’s one of the producers on the film. He’s also been one of the key crew members, holding the boom for the majority of the time. Paul is another veteran of Snow Shark, and I’m pleased that Dry Bones is his first big role in a film. Trust me, you will see more from him. Paul’s house served as the house of his character, but we started with three scenes in his basement (serving as Drew’s basement). I’m pleased that all three scenes in that basement look different, something I’ve been striving to do with all the scenes in my house too.

Next we shot a scene of Michael on his laptop; the dolly swoops in on him, and it’s one of my favorite shots so far. In the scene, Michael is supposed to be watching a YouTube video of a character named Joe Sarno (named after a sexploitation director) delivering exposition on succubi. We were originally going to shoot that YouTube video, starring Canadian actor Jason Tannis (Blood for Irena), on Sunday; instead, I asked my friend Dave Goodfellow, who produced Irena, to shoot it in his home library in Ontario. For all I know, they shot their portion of the scene at the same time we shot ours. A big thank you to Dave and Jason for lightening our schedule here.

We shot another scene on a dolly with Michael which we faked day for night, but had to wait for it to get dark to get the remaining scene between Michael and Paul. This was Paul’s last dialogue scene, and he and Michael both did a great job. Chris Rados did some nice lighting, too. At thirteen and a half hours this was our longest day yet, but that’s a typical day on most indie films (on Battledogs, we generally had fourteen hour days, and on Model Hunger fifteen hours was normal).   Because another location I wanted for Sunday fell through, Paul agreed to let us shoot those scenes on his back porch, so we left our equipment there overnight. At this point, I’m so tired of shooting in my house that I was glad to spend a big chunk of the weekend away, so special thanks to Paul.

Sunday was a half day. We shot two scenes between Michael and Matt Reese, an old friend of mine from New York City who drove in from Ohio. I’ve wanted to use Matt in a film for years – he had a silent cameo in Naked Fear – so I’m glad this worked out, he and Michael played off each other well. Other than the unwanted presence of several busy queen bees and noise from lawnmowers, the scene went off without a hitch. It was great seeing Matt again.

With those scenes out of the way, we packed up and returned to my house, where we ate lunch (fed the whole crew for only $50) and set up our final shots of the day. There is a big scene near the two thirds mark of the film featuring most of the actresses in the film. We’ve been shooting most of the actresses piecemeal, and Tammy Reger’s bit was the last of those self-contained pieces. The spine of the scene, featuring Michael, Debbie, John Renna and Kathy Murphy, is still to come. This scene also features the big effect I mentioned earlier, and is probably the most complicated I’ve ever attempted.

I’m always happy to follow a heavy day with a short one, but that won’t be possible next week, so I have a lot of planning to do. In addition to Debbie, David Marancik and Tommy Sweeney are coming to town. My central air is broken, so I’m hoping we won’t have to contend with uncomfortable temperatures.  Home stretch, baby!