Happy Halloween!

This is a project I started about 3 or 4 years ago around this time of year with the intention of creating an anthology of Halloween and horror themed video and animation clips. I never completed the project, but each year since then I've been inspired to add more to the project. So I've decided to keep it open and add more whenever I feel the urge to do so. This year I added the Dracula teeth face-off and the Shape-shifter piece at the end (with music based on King Crimson's 20th Century Schizoid Man). Maybe there will be more next year, but for now I'm feeling Halloween overkill. Enjoy!

'Mountains of Molehills' stuck in my head...

Here's the brand new video I completed with my friend Christian Arial. The song is 'Mountains of Molehills' by Isle of Skye. Isle of Skye is Christian and Terrell Brady.
Teresa Flowers is the star of the video.

Isle of Sky

Teresa Flowers

Badasssss....

I got the Woodstock DVD from my lovely lady for my birthday. I've never seen it before, but after skipping through and watching most of the 4 hour film, this bit struck me as one of the best moments. If you don't like the Who, that's too bad. I thought they were kinda lame once. In the mid-90's, I got a freebie promo CD sampler, gave it a listen and came to the conclusion that they weren't very good. Then a few years later, I checked out a "best of" cassette from the library and gave it a good listen on my Walkman while wandering all over the city. That's when I decided that the Who were a pretty kick-ass band. You never know when something will come back around and surprise you after you've written it off. Maybe it was 'Boris the Spider' that sealed the deal.



By the way, the whole film is great and worth checking out. I even liked CSN's performances, and I'm usually not too fond of 'em. They might become my new favorite old band...

Movie Marketing Overhaul

Book covers only say so much, then you have to look over on the other side. Sometimes there are quotes, sometimes a little synopsis. Sometimes nothing - just a little price and ISBN number. On the inside sleeve there might be some jargon, but you're ultimately left with the mass of pages in between. That requires reading. In my case, that requires reading over several weeks or months before a book is finished. The mystery lingers. I'm not complaining about reading, but making a case in favor of the lack of exposition in the marketing of books. Especially when compared with the marketing of films.

It's interesting that film posters these days - like many book covers - say very little about the movie advertised, but the trailer usually gives away the entire story and plot twists in 2 minutes. Whatever happened to the tease? If 'Psycho' were released today, we'd all know that Janet Leigh doesn't make it past the first act, because we'd see all that in the trailer, along with some obnoxious "banging oil drum/garage door slamming" sound effects that accelerate with the intensity of the lickity-split scary clips. Of course there would be a last minute pop-em-out scare and scream, after the title appears. Here's an example of a modern-day horror film trailer with all the elements mentioned above. This one's about a killer cell phone:



I haven't seen it, but I don't need to. It's all there. Good job marketing team, I'm not seeing your crappy Japanese horror film remake.

Some suggestions for marketing a horror movie, or any movie for that matter:
-Don't lay out the entire synopsis/story/character arcs, etc. in the trailer.
-Let a shot linger for longer than 10 frames.
-Enough with the loud noises (banging can, whooshes, etc.)
-A little goes a long way.
-Try something new

Here's a classic film trailer from long ago. This is a great example of a trailer invoking the tone of the film advertised without giving much away about the plot or story. Notice all the quick edits in this trailer, much like our modern advertising, though this is nearly 40 years old, therefore way ahead of its time. Marketing is an art form. So get with it people, move it forward!