KGB Productions

Two posts in two days no less. I'd like to get a little personal here and explain the man behind this blog. I've been restless these past few months, and it seems as though it's gotten worse as I near my birthday. The older I get the more I would like to do, but I know full well what it takes to do make a film. Gone are the days when I'd call my friends up, and say "hey gang let's make a movie". Back then it was all fantastic, fun, and a bit unique. We do a sci-fi film one week, and a monster flick the next. No challenge was too hard, and no subject was forbidden. We tried to imitate what we saw on TV and in the movies, and sometimes we manage to get it right. Creating miniature sets, directing the pretty girl on the block to fight for her life against the alien horde, and just plain telling a story was fun. In my teens it provided a outlet to express myself, and it steered me away from the normal adolescence problems of drugs, violence, and apathy. Throug...

Okay since I'm waiting for some footage to digitize, and waiting for a presentation to be emailed to me I like to take this moment to talk about getting professional. Getting Professional? What the hell is he talking about? I read an article by an actress I met awhile ago in where she describes her career. Her name is Debbie Rochon , and she is a funny, and smart actress whose been in a number of low budget films, and she is co-host with Dee Snider for " Fangoria Radio ". In the article she describes how she was hurt on the set of a film while doing a stunt. I'm talking seriously hurt, and where the filmmaker seemed to have no insurance. Here's my advice to the serious. GET INSURANCE ! Noticed I capitalized that. If you don't then you're not a serious filmmaker. I love actors. I'm kind of partial to their creative side, and I love mixing it up with them. For all that they give they also need to be protected. You're a fool if you don't take the...

So I went to see " Grindhouse " this week-end, and kind of enjoyed it. Kind of? What does that mean? Either you like it or you don't. Which is it bud? Well I enjoyed both Tarantino’s and Rodriguez’s films, but as always the audience votes with their pocketbooks, and the week-end grosses aren't good. A review I really agree with is Joe Leydon at his blog . Joe gets it right, and I agree with the man. But did I like it? I know, I know I can all hear you. I enjoyed Rodriguez’s better, but I did like Tarantino’s film also and his knack for dialogue is quite good. I'll probably go out and buy the DVD and hope there is a ton of extras on it, but I don't see " Grindhouse " becoming a series. Most theater audience's don't care about the 70's exploitation flicks. I love many of them, and have fond memories of them, but today's audiences really doen't care. We live in a over saturated market where anyone can program their own entertainm...

Over at Lazy Eye Theatre Piper has proposed a John Carpenter Blog-a-thon, and his effect on today’s cinema. I happen to be a fan of Carpenter’s earlier work. Assault on Precinct 13 , Halloween , The Fog , The Thing , Starman , and even Prince of Darkness are all good films. His work with the cinematographer Dean Cundey was always something to behold. I think Carpenter hit his plateau with his remake of " The Thing ". The Thing was and is a film that shows Carpenter at his best. Carpenter always has a certain amount of dread running through his films, and in "the Thing" that dread is notched up on steroids. After all the film is all about paranoia, and along with the Cundey’s cinematography and John J. Lloyd’s production design, Henry Larrecq’s art direction and Ennio Morricone’s music the film achieves a level of tension and claustrophobia that only enhances that feeling of paranoia. In Prince of Darkness Carpenter achieves a level of malevolence without ever real...

Finishing a script has its rewards. One can sit back as the printer spits out your latest opus, and smile. You've done it, and it's perfect in your mind. That is until you re-read it, and make notes. If its one thing that I've learned about film making it's all about the re-write. So am I finished, or does this matter? Sure it does. You've spent hours on writing your opus, and now its on the printed paper, and together all those pages tell a story (you hope). My first drafts are rough, and then I go to the computer and re-write it. As I input my notebooks into my screenwriting software , I re-write the project and when I'm done I have a second draft of the screenplay. It works, and it's not bad way to work, but right now I'm kind of hot and cold on the screenplay. I wrote the current project around the resources I have. I've limited myself but it's not all that bad. I've tried to limit characters and locations, and in writing it I...

There's a guy up in the Boston area who has a real passion about blogging and vlogging. His name is CC Chapman , and he has a presentation he did on the web about "new media". He knows his shit!, and he makes sense. It's a nice little intro to what is happening on the web. I've talked here about regional cinema, and grass roots marketing and how important they are to the independent filmmaker. In his presentation CC goes through some case studies that other people are doing on the web. It's an interesting presentation, and CC is a down to earth kind of guy, so take a look and listen on what he has to say. The presentation is about 48 minutes long. I think you'll like it. Thanks CC for the presentation. CC's presentation

Django was released April 6th 1967, and it still holds up today as a great trashy spagatti western staring the cool suave Franco Nero. As we all know durring this time a lot of spagatti westerns were hitting the old drive in, and it did pave the road for Clint Eastwoods " The Good, the bad, and the ugly . But before that there was Django. Eastwoods film would come out later that year in December. Sergio Corbucci was the director of Django. Corbucci would go on to direct such other classics as: " Revenge of the Gunfighter ","and " Companeros ". What makes Django that extra special film? Well not only does the film try to take itself seriously, but it also has fun doing so. In the first ten minutes of the film ten people are already dispatched in a hail of bullets. The opening of the film has a song that will have you whistling the tune after seeing it. The tune itself is hilarious, but you'll remember that tune good or bad. Corbucci employed an over th...

April 4: Director Bob Clark dead in car accidentTMZ reports that Bob Clark, director of the original BLACK CHRISTMAS andother cult horror favorites, was killed in a car crash on the Pacific CoastHighway early this morning at age 67. He was riding in a silver Infinitiwith his 22-year-old son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, when they were struck by anSUV driven by 24-year-old Hector Velazquez-Nava. Both Clarks were killed,though Velazquez-Nava survived and was arrested for driving under theinfluence of alcohol; he¹s scheduled to be booked for gross vehicularmanslaughter once he is released from the hospital. Clark began his career with the offbeat 1972 zombie film CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS and followed it up with 1974's DEATHDREAM, a.k.a. DEAD OF NIGHT , about a soldier who returns home from Vietnam as an undeadflesheater, and the same year¹s CHRISTMAS, the influential stalker filmabout a houseful of sorority girls terrorized by a murderous obscene phonecaller. He went on t...

It never ceases to maze me what you can find on the web. Over at iklips they have a segment called lunch with David . David Poland is a guy who sits down with writers, directors, and stars of movies and just has a nice intimate conversation with the person. It's eye opening and revealing. I always like the one on one interviews, and you get so much more out of it when the subject is relaxed. Richard Dreyfuss is his latest guest. Directing actors has always been fascinating to me. The way the creative process works is really inspiring, and fun. It's also frustrating and complicated. That's why I like working with professionals. You get it all. The ecstasy and the agony all in one. It makes for good movie making, and something I want to continue to do. Check it out if you have some time.