PITFALLS OF ACHIEVEMENT

We quite often equate success with being respected and appreciated. We see Achievement as something that would be rewarded. As an artist or in fact a person in any other profession, you would expect to work hard and reap the benefits. 


See about 15 years ago, maybe less maybe more depending on wether you do or do not count my humble beginnings helping my school friends out making Slasher Movies on a home camcorder when I was 15, I have worked, for the most part, pretty fucking hard at what I do and let me tell you its not something that falls naturally into my lap. I was never good at it (I'm not saying I am now, just better than I was) but fuck I worked hard, for a long time to make sure that I could work to professional standard, and that for me has been the biggest and more importantly is still the biggest journey I face on my road to being what I hope to one day deem a successful artist in my chosen medium. In this case referring to Horror Movies, but of course I can equally apply this notion to my band Subject 7, or many other things that have done over the years.

It seemS however that people very quickly can choose to ignore the fact that you worked hard, at one point I was working three jobs, trying to set up a company attending university FULL FUCKING TIME!! and I think people lose sight of that and just choose to see the end result and view that as Luck. I'm coming to a point here as working around a lot of students this weekend I came to realise that there is one thing that we are lied to about for most of our lives. Especially when working in the creative industries and that is that others will respect you and appreciate it if you work hard, if you make something of yourself. 

Now hold on a second , I'm not saying that I am in anyway now a successful person, so please don't read this as an ego trip. Also please don't think that I'm applying this to everyone, there are a handful of people out there who support us, who have helped me personally and I am eternally grateful and if the scales were tipped in this kind of behaviour the world in general would be a better place. I simply believe that after 8 years of fucking pushing harder than I ever thought I would ever have to I feel like I might just have Achieved something and that seems to have made a lot of people angry.

Because there is a truth here, if you work hard and try and create something from nothing, to better your life, your position, people for the most part will hate you quite simply because, and I quote Bill Nighy in Hot Fuzz here "You're making us all look bad". Yes because you have tried to do something and they gave up long ago or never got up and tried to begin with, they will create a problem. A very real problem, unfortunately that problem is with themselves and as people we find that hard to accept and so we 'choose' to make our issue someone else's. But of course thats not very helpful when you suddenly realise that 'some people' don't like for what seems like no reason. 

Now just for a second, imagine you work 18 hour days, hard days. Imagine you strain most relationships around you because of the amount of time you have to commit to your art/business/career and then imagine that you have to get up every single day knowing that some people are going to dislike you immensely for that, sometimes to level of sabotage or worse. Imagine now doing the impossible knowing that your payment is that. And I stand there every day and say is it worth it... and without even a blink I say... Yes. 

Why?

Because my job is to make Those people Look Bad.

You know who you are ;)

MJ

SUBJECT SEVEN - HEART OF OSIRIS : RELEASED!!!

You can find out more about the and download their music FREE HERE.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND - How Veronica Mars Has Changed The World

Ok so the last few weeks I've talked about things like Story and Cameras, but I suppose one of the first steps in heading out to make your movie is how you're going to fund it. 

I am a believer in you not needing money to make movies and thats very true, You don't need money to make certain specific movies, that you have created to be made on nothing. Hell, I did that for my first feature CREEPSVILLE along with 25 + short films on shit all, before we finally set out and made our first 'budgeted' feature SLASHER HOUSE. But depending on the movie depends on the money. We still try to do everything on the minimum possible. 

So with the world of Crowdfunding out there and us in the midst of trying to fund our brand new feature THORN using it, I have obviously spent the last few months really thinking about Crowdfunding and how it effects us as artists and filmmakers and I released something very interesting.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Its an age old term that is pointed toward the idea of creating product that people want to see, because people want to see it and it makes perfect sense. 

See when you set out to make, oh i dunno, lets say 

' a movie about a taxi driver who kidnaps a girl, dumps her boyfriend in a park on an estate that is terrorised by masked maniacs who escaped from an asylum fire over a decade ago and have been living in a tunnel preying on anyone who wanders into their turf in the dead of night' 

and then you realise to pull that off is a relatively impossible job, then you realise that as you near 3 1/2 years of production and still have no finished product, that people may not actually be interested your product, because you didn't check for the demand of said production, well now that can be avoided… kind of.

After Slasher House, we got some amazing feedback, but two characters stood out as firm favourites. THORN and CLEAVER (Fuck, the clown even made it to the cover). Since the film was shown I'd been getting calls and e-mails asking me what we were doing next and would it be THORN? Well, in fact it was… it always had been (Actually a little know fact is that THORN was supposed to be shot before Slasher House, but certain shifts in other film trends forced me into getting Slasher House out first, and funnily enough was a fantastic testing ground for several of the characters who were being developed for their own solo projects) and that is the film that we are now in Pre Production on.

See it seemed there was a demand for THORN from the offset, instead of setting out to make a movie that I wasn't even sure anyone would want to see (although I do make my best educated guess at the time), we now get to move forward on a movie that people may actually want to see from the start, before its even in the can, before we've even started to fill the can. Of course this is all 'educated' theory at the minute, of course. The IndieGoGo Campaign has only just started so it hard to judge that money and mouth will swap places as of yet.

My point here really comes down to someone called Veronica Mars, I don't really know too much about the property, other than it's some kind of US TV Show starring that chick from Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Which is amazingly funny for a Rom Com). which was cancelled by its network. But what I do know is that the Creative team behind it launched a Crowdfunding Campaign last week to make a 'Veronica Mars' Movie and they blew their target wide open in less than 24 hours. This, my friends, is the future. 

This is absolutely supply and demand in full working order, this is people saying, if you REALLY want to see this, support this, If you REALLY want to watch this, then you can and you can pre order in order to make it happen, then they will Supply to that Demand. This approach could change the way that things are made, think about things like Firefly, Angel, and all the movies that struggle to get made that are based on amazing properties, but get caught up in studio funding bullishit yet have a huge and supportive fan-base. They now have a chance of happening and the same goes for the indie who lets say 

'Made a movie called SLASHER HOUSE and now needs a small amount of cash to make their next movie THORN'.

Speaking of which ;)

MJ

GETTING INTO GEAR...

I wanted to start this year from the top trying to cover the basics from the beginning and hand out a little advice or at least insight into the process that I follow when it comes to filmmaking.  Like I always say, my way is not the right way of doing things, probably the absolute opposite infact, but it is a way and all you can ever do from these things is take what you want to learn and disregard the rest if you so choose, but just remember I make a lot of mistakes, and you can learn from them without having to go through them first hand. So With that in mind lets talk gear.

Obviously this entry is called 'Getting Into Gear' which is sound advice, and that is a great first step, get into cameras know your s**t about them, believe me once you start people will wanna kill you for reeling off camera models like they 'ain't no thang', but understanding your tools is the first battle and it can be fun if you let it be. I gotta tell you I don't know everything about everything, you stick a RED in my hand, I'd probably wonder why its black ;) But I know how to use the camera that I use and thats all I really need to know. But fuck me do I know it well and so I can use that to my advantage when the inevitable shit hits the inevitable fan.

If your making your first film, and I mean like first ever film, I imagine you are probably camera operator too (and sound man if you have no friends). If you have someone else doing your camera for you, then good for you, but believe me you'll learn a lot more knowing the process inside and out, In this day and age its not enough to be a director, you have to be a filmmaker and getting stuck in to every aspect of the process is the best thing you can do.

I hear a lot of people say "We're gonna wait till we can shoot on Red" or "I need one of them canon 5d's before I'll even think about making a movie", I even hear some idiots arguing that "Film is the only look they will ever consider going for" these people will never make it in the industry and here is why. Because they are thinking about the metaphorical cart before the metaphorical horse.

See what should be driving you is 'Story' (Your horse) or at very least your idea, everything after that (Your cart) doesn't matter (to some degree) if you haven't got a f**king shit hot horse to pull it. Now I'm not saying I'm the golden child of writing or original thought here, I'm the first to admit that as a young(ish) man I have a lot to learn about writing, Bit I understand it's importance and the need to get it right before you shoot.

So before you start 'Getting Into Gear' make sure your Cart has a horse and that your horse, is a Stallion.

MY FIRST CAMERA (A Cautionary Tale)

Up until about 4 years ago I was shooting on the cheapest Equipment Available, because thats all I could afford. See I grew up in a time where Super 8 was dying out, well actually, it had died out. I had a Super 8 Camera all the way through my life (It was just lying around in our attic), but absolutely no way to get hold of any film stock for it as it was fast becoming a thing of the past in the 90's. Video seemed the way to go, but Video Cameras, even for the cheapest were nearing a grand and that was something that was out of the question for my family.

When I hit my mid teens, it became a game of making friends with the guys who did have the cameras and hoping I could borrow them, or at least get involve in what they were doing. Which of course led me to starring in some questionable no budget Slasher Movies.

Things weren't so bad when I started college and realised with a bit of 'creative' convincing the guys in stores would lend me the S-VHS TV cameras they had in stock, which led to my first proper film that since exists only as a rapidly deteriorating video tape.

It became apparent to me though that if I wanted to get good at this I needed to practice, practice 'a lot'. I needed my own camera to make that possible.

At 20 years old, I made a deal with my Grandparents, They would give me half the money toward a Camera, should I earn the other half on my own, I had a Job and the college would also drop me a living allowance every 3 months (which was not a lot by any stretch) but I summised that If I didn't eat lunch, or go for a beer or have a night out or buy anything for 3 months I would have just enough for half the camera which back then cost about £350 for the cheapest digital camera available. 

But I fucking did it and became the proudest owner ever of a Samsung VPD10.... 

This camera was my fucking training wheels, I made so much awful shit on this, that its unreal. But eventually in 2004 I made my first attempt at a proper sort film with a little Japanese inspired story called Destination and put it on the internet (Which was still kind of like an overlooked medium for film watching back then) and because of that it garnered quite a nice little audience and became somewhat a success. I should state now that it was awful, but perspective is everything :)

Me and Samsung did everything together from then on, I even realised that it was out performing the cameras we had at the University which I now attended and so I used it non stop for everything from 2004 - 2007 we made some god awful short horror comedies and put the better ones online, in the end I think during that time this little camera shot about 25 short films, as well as some other terrible stuff. If you jump over to my youtube channel HERE and scroll way back you can see some of it :)

It was still going strong when I upgraded to my 3rd Camera in 2010... Unlike my piece of shit Panasonic that died after hardly ever being used and never shot anything but behind the scenes stuff.

"Wheres the cautionary tale" I hear you ask, well, sadly I did let someone borrow my first camera and she was never returned :(

Horror On Sea - Film Festival

Photo courtesy of  'Silent Studios'

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of days, but since we got back things have been a bit insane. Which kind of brings me to what I wanted to talk about because Film Festivals, like Music Festivals, are a different world, and one that you find you could very easily live in, everyday, forever and when you land back into your 'everyday' life everything is looked upon with a kind of melancholy.

First of all I have to just say that although this has been my first Festival experience where I have shown a feature film, and I can't imagine a better place or Festival to go through that. Horror On Sea director Paul Cotgrove crafted a weekend of films from all over the world that flowed wonderfully and of course made us feel like our film was something special.

Photography by Bradlee Nelson

It was a life changing experience for most of us and Slasher House (screening as the late showing on Saturday) was surprisingly well attended, which is quite a feat considering the weather and how late the film was on. We got great feedback from it and it was fantastic to see a room of strangers enjoying something that we had spent so long crafting.
The best part of the weekend for me was meeting filmmaker Pat Higgins (Hellbride, Trash House) whose film Trash House kick started my feature film journey more than 7 years ago, which brought everything to a nice full circle. Especially with Hellbride star Eleanor James being our leading lady.


The Festival also gave us a great chance to check out some amazing Horror films such as Nazi Zombie Death Tales (Obvs), Fear Eats The Seoul, Community, Inbred and The Eschatrilogy. We also got to hang out with Jason Wright and the Silent Studios team all weekend and those guys made us feel right at home along with the rest of the staff from Horror On Sea and Bradlee Nelson, thanks to these guys we felt very welcomed

I was also very lucky to meet one the most interesting people (never mind filmmakers) I had ever met in my entire life, who in about an hour restored my dwindling faith in the industry, Director of The Eschatrilogy, Damian Morter, who has been so much help to us in just the time we have arrived back that it is unreal and all because I just wanted to tell him I liked his film There is a lesson to be learned there people.



I'll end with this, It was an eye opening experience for me, both in terms of really understanding where I am currently within an industry and in terms of where I'm going and the kind of people that, if I'm lucky, I will get to work with along the way. There is great deal more that I would love to talk about, but for now my lips are sealed.
P.S. I look forward to the production "Pulsating Suspenders".

MJ

Happy New Year...

First up Happy New Year Everyone.

If You've been reading for a while You might know that I like to try and drop an update on everything at the beginning f the year. Its a little for me to take stock and a little for you guys to keep you up to date on what I'm up to.

CREEPSVILLE
Our first feature is still trapped in Post Production, mainly down to my attention being forced into Slasher House for several different reasons. The main one being interest from distributors and other parties and the fact that Creepsville is an SD (Standard Def) movie make it a slightly less viable product in the eyes of entertainment distributors. However I do have plans for the film and that is my first job of 2013 is get it down in the can and then decide how we'll go about getting it into the world.

SLASHER HOUSE
Some of guys might have caught the premier back in October, but the film is exploding around here, with constant questions and request for copies of it. We're looking to have the film available to buy later this year, but that depends on a few factors that we can't discuss currently. All I can say is that the film is getting some amazingly positive feedback and begins its Festival tour at Horror On Sea this January. This film is the pin point for everything to come from Mycho from this point on so get in the bottom floor as what we have planned is something pretty spectacular.

I'VE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO TONIGHT THAN DIE
You may or may not remember that we announced the film in mid 2011, with the aim of producing it that summer. A few things got in the way and the film continued to be pushed back until I had to make the decision to scrap it all together. It was such a large undertaking and I wasn't convinced we could pull it off. Luckily through several chance happenings toward the end of 2012, I found myself in the perfect position to get the project back up and running. Watch out for news of the film very shortly.

PREQUEL LINE UP
Everything that I want to say about Origins Saga cannot be done justice and will simply give too much away, lets just say its the beginning of a plan that was set in motion more than 7 years ago and its all connected to Slasher House.  3 films that tell 3 separate stories that will all tie back into something bigger than SH itself.  But expect to see the return of characters like Thorn as well as others linked to the House and its residents. Believe me when I say, this is just the beginning of something that looks to push the boundaries of Independent film.

BLOOD ON SANTAS CLAWS
I won't ramble on about this too much, But its the a Christmas Horror film that about 4 or 5 years ago that looks like its entering production toward the end of next year. You better watch out for it ;)

SUBJECT SEVEN
Well we released our first Album 'Seven Rising' back in March and as an independent release it did extremely well. There was a hiccup in the lineup around are halfway point, But it hasn't seemed to slow us down too much. The seconds album carried on in Pre Production and we even found time to re-release Search The Dark featuring our good friend Heather Coulton.

'Fall Of The Four' our second album is now in production and looking at a March release, but we'll have more on that as we move into the new year, as we prep our first single 'Heart Of Osiris' for release in the next couple of months.

Thats just the beginning of what we have planned this year and the state of play as it stands currently and it looks like our busiest year so far.

MJ