in the future we will die eventually. there will be some virus or a meteorite or an alien invasion OR SOMETHING that will bring our short reign as the most powerful beings on this planet to an end. i like to pretend sometimes when i’m walking down the street at night alone that it has already happened. that inside the houses with the lights off there is no power to turn on, there is rotting food in the fridges and there may be post apocalyptic zombie dogs lurking about every corner.

that is of course only if we meet our end because of some human engineered zombie inducing germ or nuclear explosion that tears down the balance of our DNA to leave us deformed, stupid and blood thirsty. i like to think about that if our makers were met and if somehow our world remained intact and IF, JUST IF, there are aliens and they do discovery the remnants of our society what will they think? will they praise our advancements in technology? our attention to the arts? will they find our iPods and dig our earth tunes or will they turn them off and exclaim that “thats not music, thats just noise”. i always keep a playlist of my best tunes called “for inter terrestrial ears” so they don’t get the wrong idea… i would be horribly embarrassed if our civilization was judged by me rocking out to fergie or something retarded like that.

if i WERE one of the few humans left on earth the first thing i would do is break into a really tall building, go to the roof and throw things off while drinking post apocalyptic Crystale BY THE FUCKING CASE. i would then most likely find myself an expensive car (like a lambo or a lotus or something) and ghost ride that shit straight off a cliff or a bridge or something.

i think also one of the best parts of living in a collapsed world would be no one would be around to judge the way you look or dress and you could wear whatever the fuck you wanted. i think that i would strike a balance somewhere between mad max and alex from a clockwork orange. a ravaged but regal version of my current style. combat boots with a huge knife sticking out and burberry trench coat to conceal a mud stained wife beater and tattered designer jeans. sweet…

i hope our civilization does live long enough to give birth to sustainable energies, interplanetary travel and find some sort of understanding of the relationship between time and space enough to travel through it but if it doesn’t… whatever. i would like my name in the running for post apocalyptic president for the nuovo-anarchist party. i would ensure a society that would strike a balance of social preservation and needless destruction. we would use the collapsed framework of our world as our canvas and plaything.

so fellow post apoc enthusiasts what would you do? what would you smash? who would you want to be with you?

empty streets, crowded minds

1. grizzly bear – two weeks
2. dirty projectors – stillness is the movie
3. the national – start a war
4. supertramp – give a little bit
5. beastie boys – brass monkey
6. hole – hungry like the wolf (YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!)
7. beats antique – shes looking for something
8. bon iver – blood bank
9. joker – digidesign
10. heart – magic man

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)
★★★★ / ★★★★

I like to think of myself as an adventurous moviegoer so I’m on the constant lookout for movies that are vastly different from the mainstream. I’ve heard of the term “exploitation film” before (mainly from Quentin Tarantino because his movies often reference to that genre) but I never really knew what it really meant until I saw this film and did a bit of research about it. I really loved this documentary because I really learned a lot from it. I had no idea that Australia released all these cult classics, some of which have never been released in America. The way Australians made and released these daring movies in the 1970s and 1980s was so refreshing because nowadays, especially here in the United States, those kinds of movies are not made anymore. Once in a blue moon an exploitation flick (or a flick inspired from such like “Wolf Creek”) would be made but it was always under the radar no matter how good or bad it was. Speaking of good and bad, another thing that I loved about this documentary was it put the spotlight on good and bad movies alike and the people being interviewed explained why they thought a particular movie was good or bad (or sometimes even both). It fascinated me and I literally made a list of the movies wanted to check out. Some of them include “Mad Max” (1979), “Turkey Shoot” (1982), “Fairgame” (1985), “Dark Age” (1987), “Next of Kin” (1982), “Long Weekend” (1979), “Road Games” (1981), “Patrick” (1978), and others. The documentary, written and directed by Mark Hartley, was divided into several sections which started from movies about sex and nudity and ended with movies about car crashes and extreme violence. While it did cover a plethora of disparate motion pictures, I was also very impressed with the fact that it found enough time to discuss censorship (or lack thereof) in the era of Ozploitation. I wish this movement would repeat itself here in America because I’m starting to get sick of Hollywood trash being released in theaters weekly. Some days, I just want to see intense car chases with no real story but has a great sense of dialogue (like “Death Proof”) or even a movie about science gone wrong with buckets of blood on the side. Nowadays it’s all about the box office and watching this film really made me feel like the filmmakers wanted to make movies just because they were in love with the process–a reason why some of these exploitation films are so randomly original. I was so excited about the content of this movie, I decided to added some movies on my Netflix (the ones available in America anyway). I just want to see something so risqué and possibly something I can love and recommend to my friends when we don’t feel like going out and spending money.

A few snapshots of our past trip to Los Angeles and San Diego for the GoldSpun Spring 2010 Campaign!

Be ready for the future!

In Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and George Miller’s Mad Max it is undeniable that violence is a key and extremely prevalent theme. The different ways in which violence is portrayed, however, is crucial to the plot, the narrative, the characters and, most importantly, the success of both of these films.

Rashomon

In Rashomon, Kurosawa uses lighting selectively to create an atmosphere of danger and to suggest or imply violence. Shadows are placed on the bandit’s face, immediately presenting him in a darkened light and, therefore, identifying him as the ‘bad guy’ and thus, the character most likely to be violent. Furthermore, the film is set in a dense forest. As a result, the steady beams of sunlight flicker and are disrupted by the trees, thus creating shadows that move continually over the faces of the characters. This renders “dense thickets as poetic metaphors…that entrap human beings”[1]. This disrupted image distorts the audience’s view of the characters, and therefore forbids an objective view being cast. In addition, this sets the violent moments of the film out of the audience’s view, casting some moments in shadow or blinding the audience with the glare of sunlight. The full extent of the violence, therefore, is unknown. This unknown is left to the imagination of the audience member. This is most apparent in, the bandit, Tajomaru’s version of events. During his rape of Masago, the camera scans to the sky creating a deliberate glare and dream-like feel to the scene. “Shooting directly into the sun to make the camera lens flare”¹ and “probing the filaments of shadows in glade and clearing”¹ roots this violent act in a fantasy world, out of reality and into the imagination of the audience. They, as a result, are left to decide the fate of Masago using their expectations, thoughts, dreams and fantasies, making the viewers of the film voyeurs. Kurosawa is commenting on the unconscious desires of his characters but is also allowing his audience’s unconscious desires to be satisfied through the mystery of violence.  By portraying violence in this way, the audience is as much a part of the film’s jury as the judge, or the other characters, in their ultimate quest for truth.

Kurosawa’s films have often been compared with the silent movies of the early twentieth century; Rashomon is no exception. Kurosawa has been described as “consciously attempting to recover and recreate the aesthetic glory of silent filmmaking”[2]. Many scenes are “composed as silent sequences of pure film”² in which the action is reliant upon ambient sound, music, facial expressions and body language. This alters the portrayal of violence in the film, in comparison with a typical horror or violent action movie. In the woodcutter’s long marching scene, it is the minor-key music that generates a dangerous military atmosphere and creates the expectation of violence. Sounds are coordinated with the actions of characters, just as in a silent movie, so that when this music is repeated, violence is not only expected, but is essential to the upkeep of the films “aesthetic glory”². Camera angle and shooting is also important in the portrayal of violence and is fundamental to continuing the silent movie effect. In the bandit’s version of events, he murders Takehiro, the samurai. In this scene, there is reliance upon body language and an emphasis on facial expression, typical of the silent movie melodramatic acting style. During the murder, the camera zooms in on the bandit’s face to show his psychological reaction. This intensifies the audience’s experience of the violence. Furthermore, the camera angle forces the audience into the samurai’s position so they experience, through their imagination, what the samurai is experiencing. 

 Mad Max

In Mad Max, Miller articulates the destruction of civilization through the portrayal of violence. It is significant at the beginning of the film that a rural-urban distinction allows for distance and separation between violence and peace – for instance, the innocent child and families found in the town areas and the Night Rider and motorcycle gangs found on the rural highways. However, the motorcycle gang cross this divide, infecting the civilization of the town with violence, death and destruction; no longer contained by boundaries. A cyclic feeling is emphasised by the significant use of cars and motorcycles. As the film progresses, this cyclic feeling begins to parallel the developing pattern of violence as the motorcycle gang encroach more and more upon the urban, the civilized and society. Max and his family try to escape the failing justice system, and the violence that lies hand in hand with the motorcycle gang, by travelling around the country. Dissolve shots are used between these scenes to imply that a significant amount of time and distance has passed. However, the motorcycle gang eventually manage to find them and invade the most rural setting so far, the farm. The rural-urban distinction is, therefore, lost along with the violence-peace distinction. Place names are no longer used and boundaries blur into one another, highlighting the loss of civilization and dominance of violence, death and destruction. In this way, Miller portrays violence through the manipulation of landscape, scenery and the traditional ‘road movie’ concept.

Miller uses the psychological decline of Max, from hero to mad man, to portray violence in the film. At the end of the film, there are powerful moments of inversion as Max begins to display actions and moral reasoning similar to those of the motorcycle gang. The Australian Gothic genre is described as having narratives that “transplant their protagonists to create unease and alienation.”[3] Max is transplanted from his world of stability and justice to insanity and violence. Mirroring of relationships can be found all the way through the film with similarities seen between Max’s relationship with his son and the Toecutter’s relationship with Johnny the boy. Max’s violent murder of Johnny the boy at the end of the film can be seen not only as a true act of revenge, but also as Max’s final fall into madness, the overthrow of justice and the destruction of civilization.

Rashomon is described as having a “daring, nonlinear approach to narrative”[4]. The continual use of flashbacks means that “the narrative continually retraces the same series of events, four times over”. This unique narrative style causes the audience to focus on the multiple versions and interpretations of one violent event; the rape of a woman and murder of a samurai. The violence and violent acts, therefore, become the narrative; they are the story, the reason by which we judge the characters and the focus of our viewing. The cast is small and the flashbacks are many, so the characters’ personalities are developed and questioned more intensely than in a conventional film setup. As a result, the psychological turmoil of the characters is examined in depth, binding the audience to their angst. This means the experience of violence is heightened for both the characters and the audience.

In both Mad Max and Rashomon differences can be seen in the treatment of men and women, particularly in relation to violence. In Rashomon, the women, Masago, admits, in her version of events, to killing her husband. The camera dwells on her face for a long period of time before the killing and there are many close-up shots. This focuses the audience’s attention on Masago’s inner turmoil. Her mind goes through many different stages of thought as she decides how to react to the intense look of disgust she receives from her husband. Violence, in this scene, is portrayed as Masago’s only option of empowerment after she has been disgraced by Tajomaru, the bandit. Freudian psychology identified the unconscious mind as extremely important in the repression of sexual desires that would usually be seen as culturally or socially unacceptable. Freud himself believed women were inferior and that femininity was failed masculinity. As a result, in the psychosexual stages of development, women develop penis envy. Masago demands sexual authority, gender equality and satisfies penis envy, by killing her husband with a dagger – a phallic symbol of male sexual power. The weapons seen in Rashomon are often highlighted through bright lighting. Sunlight on the woodcutter’s axe and the samurai’s sword, for instance, glimmers and shimmers off of the metal. This beautifies and glorifies them, in turn, beautifying and glorifying the violence that they cause. So, when Masago kills her husband with a dagger, it is the ultimate act of glory, dominance and power. This struggle for power is further emphasised through the use of lighting and colour. Masago is presented beautifully in white clothing and with a white veil as a symbol of purity. This, therefore, emphasises the brutality of the bandit’s rape; that something so pure is so cruelly violated. Furthermore, before Masago kills Takehiro, her husband, shadows appear more and more on her face. Her pure white face is distorted by dark lighting and shadow as her innocent exterior is tainted by her desire for power and violence. In this way, violence is portrayed through gender conventions and as a result of the psychological desire for sexual power.

In Mad Max, it is through the emasculation of male characters that Miller portrays violence and the corruption of a justice system. The police force have an almost hyper-masculine appearance at the start of the film; black leather, muscles, cars, explosions etc. The cars, particularly, are significant as physical symbols of a way in which men can assert their masculinity; large engines, speed, long exhausts and power. But this image, including Max’s, is broken down through continual violence and the film becomes subversive in its attitudes to masculinity. The masculine character of Fifi Macaffee, for example, is seen later in the film watering plants with romantic music playing in the background. This is highly contradictory of the gender stereotypes that are seen originally in the film. For instance, the masculinity of the police force is exemplified in the chase of the Night Rider. Max takes control of the situation and reduces the, once stereotypically masculine and “fuel-injected”[5], Night Rider to tears showing his loss of power. However, as the film develops and the motorcycle gang’s violence increases, Max’s masculinity, and that of the police force, is destroyed. The motorcycle gang do not use guns as weapons as much as they use chains, ropes, axes etc. The phallic implications found in using these long objects as weapons shows that, through violence, the motorcycle gang can demand sexual power. Violence, therefore, is presented as the only way in which Max can gain back his masculinity and take ultimate revenge on the criminals. The original heroism conventions are, now, ambiguous and corrupt. Max has experienced heroism and was able to gain masculinity and power through that, but, now, he is forced to resort to violence. Violence is, therefore, portrayed through a polarised view of the power struggle between good and evil, hero and villain, acceptance and revenge.

[2] Stephen Prince, ‘Rashomon’, The Criterion Collection, <http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=138&eid=212&section=essay&page=1> [accessed 18 January 2008].

[3] Jonathon Rayner, Contemporary Australian Cinema: An Introduction, (Manchester, Manchester University Press: 2000), p.24-25.

[4] Stephen Prince, ‘Rashomon’, The Criterion Collection, <http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=138&eid=212&section=essay&page=1> [accessed 18 January 2008].

[5] Mad Max, Dir. George Miller, Kennedy Miller Productions, 1979

For those looking for quick, thorough analyses of films, check out Rob Ager’s YouTube page. The 5 – 10 minute videos include discussions on cult favorites like Pulp Fiction, The Thing, The Exorcist, The Big Lebowski, and Full Metal Jacket.

Below is a sampling, this one on the wonderful Mad Max trilogy. Click here for Part 2 of the video.

Get ready for the new look of GoldSpun, this Spring 2010!

bedroom scene

equestrian stables

Lambo Reventon

I saw this on my run around the lake and I just couldn’t resist showing y’all.  It may be one of the more concise arguments against this current no-germs-allowed-no-matter-what-and-do-you-all-have-your-purell-and-now-that-I-think-about-it-maybe-if-we-just-never-leave-the-house-or-touch-anyone-or-anything-then-we’ll-never-get-sick-OH-what-a-great-idea-I-hope-it-doesn’t-come-back-to-bite-us-in-the-ass phenomena that has so GRIPPED our world lately.

Full disclosure:  Of COURSE our entire family got flu shots already.  We got the regular flu shot and we got the H1N1 flu shot.

And then our entire family got the flu.

Except Eli.  And I can easily say with 100% confidence that Eli takes in more germs than any of the rest of us, mainly due to the fact that he sucks his thumb pretty much constantly.  Meaning he just, you know, lives his life, touching stuff all day long and then intermittently sticking his thumb in his mouth, sucking all those germs right off and swallowing them down.  Exposing himself to all sort of crazy pathogens, all the time.

He is survival-of-the-fittest-ing himself right to the front of the line.

I know there is a middle ground and I’m hoping our family lives somewhere within it.  I mean, yes, we got the shots.  At the recommendation of our pediatrician, who also happens to be my dad.  And yes, I try to get my kids to wash their hands occasionally (after they’ve gone to the bathroom at the very least; I’m not a complete and total heathen).  But I was also never the type to boil pacifiers when they dropped on the ground.  Or even clean them, actually.  I was more of a pick-it-up, shake-it-off, hope-for-the-best type.  Same went for food or utensils dropped on the ground.  I also know for a fact that my kids ate a LOT of dirt.  And sand.  And small rocks and pebbles.  This may have been because most of the time, I was just really, really tired.  Or lazy, whatever, my point IS that my kids are (basically, for the most part, I think, pretty much) just fine.

So are dirty kids ultimately tougher than clean kids?  Well, of course.  And I’m not just saying that because my kids are, on occasion, pretty filthy.  I mean, if we’ve learned anything from the movies about the future like Escape from New York and Blade Runner and the Mad Max series, it’s that the people that survive at the end of days are always all grubby and unkempt and stuff.  Coincidence?  I don’t know.  But my parenting choices are a lot easier to justify if I think there’s something to it.

Listen to the episode HERE.

Since I first saw The Road Warrior on the big screen at the tender age of (about) ten, I’ve been in love with stories about post-apocalyptic adventures. Something about the idea we’re going to blow ourselves to hell and the few hardy survivors of our race will be doomed to make the same mistakes in a future jerry-rigged together from the scraps of our disposable culture simply resonates with me. I have a famously dim view of human nature and this is a genre built on dim views of human nature.

Not only does humanity bring the world to the brink of oblivion but, with the social contract brushed aside in a maelstrom of decay, people begin to feed on each other. Stories about the thin veneer of civilization being ripped away simply tickle my gloomy bone.

I think in the middle ages I would probably have belonged to a doomsday cult or have been a wandering bard preaching the approaching Day of Judgement. You could argue I already belong to a doomsday cult. A weekly feature of the community radio show I used to co-host was The Apocalypse Watch where we’d report on all the news of the day which suggested we were about three degrees from the world going Mad Max on us. Most of the stories were climate change and oil related—little indications the thundering machine is about to sputter and stop— and I loved every minute of it.

Of course, really, to be honest, I probably just want to wear buttless chaps, a feather boa and a pink mohawk and ride a motorcycle with a Vince Neil ladyboy chained to the backseat.

Reading list: The Hunger Games (trilogy) | John Wyndham | Post-apocalyptic WP article.

Read…

You see, this is what a down economy causes…people forced to use household items like propane tanks, beer cans, spears, grenades, and human skulls (you know, stuff you’ve just got laying around) as a way to cut corners to maintain a roadworthy vehicle.

[As Seen on Bert Kouns by Joel]

More photos after the jump…unfortunatly no pictures of Mad Max, who, I have to believe, was the driver.

GoldSpun is currently casting talent for the Spring 2010 “Active WarFare” Campaign, The shoot will be taking place in San Diego and Los Angeles California.

The concept behind “Active WarFare” is a rough nomad, the Mad Max type, transforms into the refined and cultured, James Bond type.

Casting Talent for GoldSpun Spring 2010

Contact Brand Manager Joseph I at josephi@goldspun07.com or casting@goldspun07.com

VERDICT:
7/10 Vegemite Sandwiches

Just one more reason why I need to get off my ass and make my own damn movie already.

Not Quite Hollywood is a documentary about the revolutionary Australian genre exploitation movies that came to rise in the 1960s but never quite made it to the big time and have since been all but forgotten. This isn’t Baz Luhrman and Peter Weir we’re talking about, this is gratuitous sexploitation romps, grisly C-grade horror movies drenched in karo syrup, and some of the most badass car chase action movies you’re likely to ever see.

It’s a pretty fitting title for one utterly insane look back at a whole slew of groundbreaking movies that Hollywood wouldn’t even go near, not even by today’s standards. Chances are you’re in the same boat as me and haven’t heard of 99% percent of these movies outside of Mad Max, but that doesn’t matter, because if things go according to plan, you might just find yourself with pen and paper in hand ready to write the names of these suckers down.

Then again, I can see how this one might not necessarily go according to plan for a lot of people out there. Not only is this a movie about movies you’ve never heard of, but it’s only really catering to all us cinephiles/nerds in the audience as it more or less boils down to people talking about movies for two hours. And while those are two hours I’d gladly spend, I’m not gonna delude myself into believing that this is gonna convert anyone that’s not already part of the congregation.

So for all you out there who are still reading and still interested, here’s what the movie breaks down to.

Not Quite Hollywood is split up into three sections that all provide the audience with a look into what was really going down in Australia when the rest of thought it was all boxing kangaroos and dingoes eating babies.

The first part covers the whole sexploitation genre, and who knew those Aussie’s were such horny bastards. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen such a constant barrage of full-frontal nudity in a movie before, so much so that it could easily pass for softcore porn after a while, so…way to go, Australia, I guess. It gets to be a little much after a while as it’s not exactly glorifying the female body as it is exploiting it, but, man, times were different back then. Pretty interesting in light of the Australian censors nowadays, something that could be said for the next two sections as well.

The second and third parts focus on the horror and action genres. The horror stuff has this early Sam Raimi vibe to it, and even though there’s not a whole lot going for this section, it’s interesting to look at these movies in contrast to what America was putting out at the time. But the action genre…wow. If you’ve seen Mad Max, you’ll understand what I mean. They still don’t make car chases like the Australians did back then, and boy howdy do they stand the test of time. No special effects, overtly dangerous camera angles, complete disregard for personal safety, tons of destruction, super high-octane, and enough badassery to go around to make Vin Diesel piss himself running. Fast and furious my ass.

It’s all really interesting for the most part and some of the commentary had me laughing out loud, but after a while it gets to be a little overwhelming. There’s a lot going on with these movies and in between trying to catch what everyone is saying and the total overstimulation of it all, Not Quite Hollywood sort of ends up being its own worst enemy. And some of us can only listen to people talk about B-movies like they’re golden oldies for oh so long.

Recently I read an interview with one Rob Zombie where he said that Hollywood has turned into a “scared town” that is too afraid to back original movies in lieu of financing another shitty remake that’s going to be box office gold. And you know, Rob is right. As someone who’s had it up to here with all the bullshit that gets released in theaters nowadays just because a frightening amount of people are more than ready to dish out their money on movies that fucking suck, I take a look back on the movies showcased here in Not Quite Hollywood and I think, “What the hell happened?”

Sorry if I’m going off on a bit of a tangent here, but this is one of those movies that gets you thinking, primarily about how ridiculous the so-called “limitations” are that have been put on amateur and veteran filmmakers alike by the producers who only have eyes for the Benjamins. It’s very fitting that Quentin Tarantino is one of the main commentators here, because this is a guy that truly loves movies regardless of their budget and is living proof that you can make effing great movies as long as you just go out and do it.

To say that movies in general have changed a good deal over the course of 40 or 50 years is one disheartening understatement. This is a celebration of filmmakers who had balls, of guys who just went out there and did it regardless of their budget, of movies that are unabashedly lewd, horribly gory, and unanimously crazy, and considering how much green the new Transformers sequel raked in this year, these are indeed qualities to be celebrated. Not Quite Hollywood isn’t for everyone, and sorry for the long review, but if you’re a total movie geek like me and are interested in this kinda stuff, it might just be right up your alley.

Good on ya’!

Interesantísimo trabajo el de este arquitecto y escritor de origen griego. Aristide Antonas, que así se llama, tiene una estupenda web, un blog y una cuenta en flickr, que en conjunto dan sentido a lo que enuncia su blog, “una acumulación de entradas describiendo una persona”. Una peculiar estética; limpia, cercana y poco vista, acompaña proyectos reales y utópicos que recuerdan las manifestaciones de grupos como archigram o superstudio. Me quedo con la frase que acompañaba la memoria de este proyecto, cuya lectura me ha traído a la memoria películas como waterworld o mad max:

Las cosas existentes están destinadas a ser el material creativo del mañana

via dpr-barcelona

With my biological clock at full tick, I was pleased to read the latest announcement by Fisker Automotive. The energy-wise automaker recently selected a plant in Delaware to begin building its new line of “affordable, family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedans” By 2014, we’ll be able to get our hands on that hybrid for a cool $40K. So that means if I start birthing small Earth-lovers now, I’ll have a case for ditching my rasping Mad Max Mobile for a shiny, new plug-in.

If you don’t know Fisker, don’t feel out of the trustafarian hippie circle. It’s a SoCal-based car company trying to make a name for itself with eco-friendly cars just like every other automaker. Currently, it’s only got one product, the Fisker Karma, with the fam-sedan slated as number two.

Dubbed the world’s first eco-chic cars (well, dubbed by Fisker as such), the Karma burns zero fuel for the first 50 miles. After that, its gasoline engine turns a generator to charge a lithium ion battery, turning the Karma back into a normal hybrid.

Technically, if you charge your Karma every night and travel less than 50 miles a day, you could brag to your stuffiest, eco-snob friends, “I achieve an average fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon per year.” And they will squint and huff with jealousy that your Earth hug is bigger than theirs.

Karma comes at a price not everyone can afford. But with a little planning, the new plug-in sedan could suit our wallets and our families quite nicely.

Yabancı bir kaynakta yukarıdaki üçleme beğenisini yansıtan bir grafiğe rastladım ancak tek bir kişinin yorumumu ya da bir istatistiğin sonucu mu olduğu bilgisi yoktu. Spiderman 3′e biraz haksızlık edildiğini düşünüyorum ayrıca X-Men’lerin de yüksek olduğu kanaatindeyim. Onun ötesinde basit ama güzel bir çalışma olmuş, insanın bu üçlemeleri oturup yeniden izleyesi geliyor…

My day started really early at 6am, YAWN, actually I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm went off because I was excited about the events to come………=)

I quietly got out of bed in hopes of not waking my sleeping husband and headed to “empty” my daughter’s room, except for the dog who was sound asleep, and started to get ready.   

My Race Attire!

While getting ready I downed my pre-race breakfast, which was a Blueberry Cliff Bar, 1/2 a banana and a glass of water.

Pre-Race Breakfast

Here I am in the bathroom mirror just before I headed out to the race!  =)

Cheese!!!

Despite my best efforts I arrived at the race just 15 minutes before it started, so I quickly dropped off my fellow co-worker/friends race packets to them by the Registration Table and then rushed over to the port-a-potties.  Of course, everyone else had the same idea and the lines were long……I was a bit worried I wouldn’t get my chance to go before the horn sounded but I did with just minutes to spare!

F.Y.I………………I saw Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point (http://www.healthytippingpoint.com/) while waiting in line and really wanted to go say hello, she told me too if I saw her, however I was afraid of losing my spot in line so I couldn’t and didn’t see her again!  =(

My friends husband was able to snap a picture of us just before the race started, don’t we look excited!?!?!

Catrina, Lindsay & Me

Than……WE WERE OFF & RUNNING!!!

Here is a play-by-play of the race:

• The race started at 7:30am, though we did not cross the Start Line until about 30 seconds after the it started as we had to wait for all the people in front of us to go.
• As we approached the first turn we heard some music coming from a truck parked on the corner.  I cannot remember what was playing but it was great “mood lifting” music and helped us get into our groove. 
• About a 1/2 mile into the race we the music disappeared and we headed into the residential area of Celebration, Florida and ran than past their beautiful Golf Course & Country Club (my Brother & Sister-In-Law just happened to get married, 10+ years ago).
• Soon we settled into a good pace, about 11 minutes per mile give or take, which made it easy for us to talk while running.  A nice change from my usual “alone” runs, I swear the time just seemed to fly by this way….I really need to find a running partner!  =)
• At the 22 minute mark we hit Mile 2 and our 1st water station.  All I could think was “wow, we are at 2 miles already” and I was not tired at all yet!?!  Me & Catrina walked while we drank our little cup of water and Lindsay kept on running……..as she always does, GO LINDSAY.
• Once we caught up to her a about a minute later we headed through yet another beautiful neighborhood with some of the most adorable houses ever, oh would I love to live in any of the ones we passed.
• We ran, chatted, checked out the scenery and before you know it we were at Mile 4 and the clock said 45 minutes!  It was at that point that I realized we were making really good time and should cross the finish line quite a few minutes before I had expected too.  =) 
• That is when the 2nd and last water station arrived and we once again walked while we drank our water but back on the road running and caught up to Lindsay even quicker this time as we didn’t want to lose time.
• At this point we started to head out-of-town and back to Celebration Health (a.k.a. the Start & Finish Line of the race).  The views weren’t as nice, but we were still able to “chat” and were urged on by those watching the race, which helped as my left knee had begun to hurt at this point.
• Then I started to hear some music again and realized we were close to the Finish Line!  =)  We all tried to step up our pace a bit and as we passed the Mile 6 marker, Lindsay took off and me & Catrina stayed together.  I have a hard time sprinting at the end and could see Catrina was with me on that one.
• We passed the FINISH LINE at 1:08:54!  =)

However, check out the below for my exact statics:

So per the Chip Time we came in at 1:07:54 and ran at a 10:55.6 mile pace, which is faster than I was expecting to do so I was VERY HAPPY!!!  =)

After crossing the Finish Line I saw my mom & daughter on the other side and quickly headed their direction………unfortunatelly they did not see my coming and missed me crossing the Finish Line, but it was great to have them there!

All of us headed over to the post-race festivities and Lindsay got me a small carton of Chocolate Milk that she reminded me was great for “refueling” after a long race, so I quickly drank it up.

Lindsay, her husband & Catrina departed for home and then me, my mom & my daughter headed into town to visit the local Farmer’s Market that is there every Sunday and is really nice.

Celebration's Farmers Market

Then we grabbed a some brunch at a local dinner in town.  I had a breakfast burrito that had scrambled eggs and cheese inside a torita with pico, tomatoes and sour cream on the side (sorry no picture).

My mom headed home after brunch and my daughter & I went to the park for a bit and hit the swings, that is until I started feeling a little light headed and decided we should head home.

Once at home I took a nice long shower and then pretty much rested on the couch with my hubby for the rest of the day watching Mad Max & Mad Max II.  My knee did start to hurt more as the night went on so I tried to stay off it as much as possible. 

Around 4pm we had a late lunch/early dinner of homemade hamburger, fries & bean salad.

Late Lunch/Early Dinner

What an amazing day I had…….running better then expected in my 1st 10K, getting lots of quality time with my family & being able to relax for longer than an hour  or so for a change!!!  =)

________________________________________________________________________________

TIP OF THE DAY

Here are some reasons why chocolate milk is a great beverage for kids and adults, too. Chocolate milk is a sneaky beverage. How sneaky?

Let us count the ways:

1) Provides calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, vitamins A, D and B12, riboflavin and niacin.

2) The 2005 Dietary Guidelines encourages the consumption of three servings of low-fat or fat-free dairy foods each day for those 9 and older. Chocolate milk is an appealing beverage choice for children because of its great taste. (Adults, you’ll love the taste – and nutritional benefits – too!)

3) Research proves that children who drink flavored milk can increase milk and nutrient intake without increasing added sugar or total fat intake.

4) Intake of sugar may contribute to dental decay, but it is unlikely that flavored milk causes this condition. Flavored milk components including calcium, phosphorus and cocoa actually may prevent decay.

5) Flavored milk is a nutrient-rich product for schools and wellness policies and is the most popular milk choice among school children. Since most of the flavored milk consumed in schools is low-fat or fat-free, its presence may be helping children transition to consuming lower fat milk.

I was thinking about film today, as I do pretty often, wondering what I’d pick if I tried to come up with a combo list of slightly strange sci-fi movies including some post apocalyptic stuff.  Films I liked.  Films that had an impact on me… couldn’t forget scenes from them, made me think a bit… that sort of thing.  This is what I came up with…. in no particular order.

2001: A Space Odyssey (68)

2010 (84)

A Boy and his Dog (75)

A Scanner Darkly (06)

Bicentennial Man (99)

Blade Runner (82)

Brave New World (80)

Capricorn One (77)

Cherry 2000 (87)

Damnation Alley (77)

Dark City (98)

Demolition Man (93)

Dreamscape (84)

Escape from New York (81)

Gattaca (97)

Handmaid’s Tale (90)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)

Jacob’s Ladder (90)

Liquid Sky (82)

Logan’s Run (76)

Mad Max Movies (79-85)

Matrix Trilogy (99-03)

Metropolis (27)

Minority Report (02)

Mission to Mars (00)

Omega Man (71)

On The Beach (59)

Planet of the Apes Films (68-73)

Quatermass and the Pit (68)

Scanners (81)

Red Planet (00)

Silent Running (72)

Soylent Green (73)

Stargate (94)

Tank Girl (95)

The Running Man (87)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (51)

The Island (05)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (77)

The Andromeda Strain (71)

The Time Machine (60)

They Live (88)

The Thing (82)

V for Vendetta (05)

Total Recall (90)

Videodrome (83)

The Warriors (79)

Waterworld (95)

Westworld (73)

Zardoz (74)

The intro to Mad Max 2 has the same directional feel as the first and it rules.
The rest of the movie is straight S&M but sweet in its own bizarro Tina turner way.

I wonder about myself sometimes. Why am I so attracted to these types of settings? I can only surmise that it is the absolute escape from the mundane world. I read to escape, that is all. I tend to not like stories in any modern time and place. They bore me. Hypermediocrity. I get enough of that in my 24-7, I have no need for more.

Still, I place myself in a very and equally challenging fantasy. Life after civilization would still be a struggle…even more so than a day to day life in this time and place. Think about it…if all of society were stripped away and there were no laws, no keepers of the peace. As a woman I think feminism would sort of disappear…unless I was good at hand to hand combat, had knife skills or was a freakin’ gunslinger I would be in danger from whatever came my way. I could be made into a slave…I could be locked up in an old basement and no one would come looking for me…I can imagine a thousand horrible possibilities.

Still, for some reason the idea still appeals to me.

I think that even though it would undoubtedly be a bare and hostile world…it would be a world full of possibilities. Anything could happen. What an adventure…taking each day as it comes, not being worried about your 401k or buying that cookie cutter house in the suburbs. The slate could be wiped clean a la Fight Club. The world would test your mettle…not your ability to kiss ass and climb the corporate ladder. I think it’s symbolic…a fresh start in a place where others have no choice but to be honest…because consider what could happen if they weren’t.

Screw it, maybe I’ve seen Mad Max too often. I probably have a secret fetish for leather and muscle cars in the desert.

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The Road: Awesome Book

I recently finished The Road, an excellent book by Cormac McCarthy and a soon to be released movie starring Viggo Mortensen.  I came across the book a bit unexpectedly. I had heard good things about it among the blogs and websites I frequent but, to be honest, I thought it was a graphic novel.  Imagine my surprise when I came upon the book on display at my local Barnes and Noble. Without hesitation l picked it up and headed toward the door.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. The books on display were the stupid editions that come out when a movie adaptation is near release: the book cover consisted of the movie’s poster and the eye rolling marketing badge “soon to be a major motion picture.” Maybe this makes me some sort of literary snob but I hate reading books cross-marketed with upcoming movies (ironic considering one of my favorite novels as a kid was the Back to the Future 2 novelization… talk about quality literature.)  So, instead of heading straight for the door, I went back into the fiction section, found McCarthy’s shelf, and picked up the book sans any movie tie-ins.  Petty, I know.

Okay, I need to back up a few thoughts and clarify that The Road is not a book adaptation of the movie (like the Back to the Future 2 novelization) but a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country For Old Men (a movie I was never fond of.  Best Picture my ass.)

Wow, so I’ve written some 250 words and I’ve talked about almost everything but the book itself.  So, The Road is post-apocalyptic, a genre I love. I don’t know what it is but I’ve always been fascinated with life after “the end of the world.”  The writing itself is wonderfully minimalistic, a style I love. Put those together, minimalistic + post-apocalyptic, and its not a surprise how much I loved this book.

Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.

~ The Road

Now, since the movie’s release is only a few weeks away I’m going to shy away from direct spoilers (your welcome) and just give a brief synopsis: Taking place a decade or so after a dramatically cataclysmic event (the details McCarthy give are vague) we find a man and his son (no names given) traveling, on foot, out of complete desperation, the former United States toward the coast where who knows what awaits them (hope, salvation, good people?)

Sound cliché?  Maybe.  But I found McCarthy’s take on the genre surprisingly refreshing and completely unnerving.  He takes many of those tired clichés, scavenging for the necessities of life, and makes them brings them down to earth.  He makes them personal.  This story is never about the “big-picture.”  No attempt is made to answer why this happened.   Unlike The Terminator, there’s no war against machines. Unlike Mad Max, there’s no climatic battle for water or fuel.  This book is about survival for one man and one child, nothing more, nothing less.

When it comes to details McCarthy is incredibly vague (that’s what I love about minimalists!) He only hints at what might have happened to the world.  Unfortunately, the marketing for the movie seems to imply some sort of environmental disaster and, I must point out, environmentalists have hailed the book as the single most important climate change book ever written but, in my opinion, what little clues McCarthy does give the reader hints at nuclear war.   Whatever happened, all plant life, all vegetation, and, consequently, all animal life (except one dog they spot) is dead… leaving man not far behind.

After a decade of these conditions, fuel is nonexistent and food is scarce.  The father and son live off what little canned goods they can scrounge up (their days pretty much consist of this search.)  Almost everybody else they encounter in their travels has resorted to cannibalism.  And, as you probably could guess, these are some pretty scary people.  Once again, McCarthy never goes into detail about their lifestyles but the glimpses he does offer the reader are quite terrifying.

He pulled the boy closer. Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, don’t you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.

~ The Road

The Road is captivating.  There’s a good chance you won’t be able to put the book down (seriously). The way it is written is haunting.  There are moments in this book, however brief, that you will never forget.   Few books have enthralled me as this book has.  When the father and son are cold and hungry, I found myself cold and hungry.  When the father and son are scared and desperate, well, I couldn’t stop reading… almost as if my own life was in jeopardy.

If you’re looking for an incredible read… I highly recommend The Road.  Just beware, it’s not for the faint of heart and this probably isn’t bed-time material unless you don’t want to fall asleep anytime soon.  And it might make you want to invest in bullets.  Bullets and canned goods. And shoes.

Since the movie is only a few weeks away, expect a few more posts on the subject!

‘Possum Walk’ writer/director Jeremy Sumrall grew up in New Waverly, Tex., about an hour north of Houston, on Possum Walk Road. He decided the name would work well for the small-town setting of a horror movie, then expanded it to be the name of the movie itself.  

Sumrall has written a number of scripts over the years in several styles (slasher, supernatural, occult, etc.), but could never finish anything before going back to the old adage ‘write about what you know.’

“I don’t really know a whole lot,” Sumrall explains. “But a couple of years ago my niece had a pregnancy scare, and naturally, since she’s in a small town, people immediately began looking down on her. She was an unmarried, small-town, 19 year old who grew up believing you do things a certain way: grow up, get married, then start having kids. That’s not the generation a lot of us live in anymore, but in small towns it’s still prevalent.”

His niece’s situation got Sumrall thinking about the general lack of privacy in small-town life — in order to have any secrets you have to be really sneaky about it – and provided the basic idea for his first motion picture, ‘Possum Walk.’

Sumrall set the movie in a small religious town and made the protagonist a girl who grows up believing in the straight-and-narrow life, living her own accordingly, but winding up pregnant anyway. 

The girl has a Southern Baptist preacher father with a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach. He rules over Possum Walk with an iron fist and tries to control his daughter’s life as well. At the same time these two battle their respective demons, a murderer decides to make Possum Walk his hunting ground, sexually abusing and killing its young women.

Maggie Conwell (as 'Faith Carpenter')

The paths of daughter, father, and killer eventually collide, leading to lots of messy carnage and allowing ‘Possum Walk’ to simultaneously explore the internal horror of the human mind and the external horror of, well….having a maniacal killer on the loose!

“One thing that’s always bothered me about the horror genre,” explains Sumrall, “is that people tend to look at it as being just one step above porn. And it pisses me off. There are brilliant writers and directors at work in the genre, but they get written off because the outside world sees what they’re doing as just mindless violence and sex. And yeah, we all use sex and violence in our stories, but if you go even a layer below the surface, there’s often some really good stories there to sink your teeth into. So that’s one of the things I tried to do with this one; make it a human story. If you peeled the layers back and took away all the boobs and the blood, there’s still a very dark dramatic tale here about personal redemption and living life in the moment instead of for what’s to come.”

Sumrall confesses to always having been kind of anti-message in selecting his own entertainment and is aware he might’ve run contrary to his own preferences. “There’s enough fucked up shit in this world without having to get beaten over the head with a message when I’m trying to be entertained,” he says. “Leave your fucking message out of my entertainment. And yet I wrote a script that has a message.”

‘Possum Walk’s unintentional compass seeped in through his own rebelling against small-town religious judgement. Sumrall doesn’t think religion should control anything: “It’s the fundamentalism I don’t like, whether Christian, Muslim, or the green alien that comes down from Mars. It’s not always a good thing to have blind faith, and not always a bad thing to question everything around you and find your own truth. It wasn’t until I’d finished the first draft of the script that I realized I’d written a movie saying ‘Look at yourself before you start judging anybody else.’ But there’s still lots of boobs and blood, so everything’s fine!”

Sumrall’s interest in horror began with the old slasher movies of the 80s: Friday the 13^th, Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine. His first script was very much an old-school slasher flick, with a supernatural twist. He still hopes to finish it, but hasn’t touched it in 5 or 6 years.

‘Possum Walk’ was supposed to be mindless boobs and blood itself. But Sumrall felt compelled to change it up as he’d just finished shooting his role as the Beast in ‘Sweatshop,’ a movie he describes as over the top blood and boobs, completely ridiculous amounts of gore, and lots of fun.

The Beast ('Sweatshop')

“Possum Walk got darker and darker and darker as it went along, and a lot more serious.”

The more dramatic parts were actually the harder ones to film, Sumrall says. “There’s a moment where two girls were finally confessing their love for one another, and then they die. That’s not even a spoiler…a lot of people die in this movie! And if they’d just lived in the moment and said ‘fuck what anybody else thinks, let’s just do our own thing and be happy about it,’ maybe they wouldn’t have ended up being killed.”

“But that day, when we had the moment with those two girls, I literally had to walk away from set for 15 minutes because I was crying. I wrote it with a lot of heart. But even more came out when we were doing the scene. So much so that a just had to leave.”

His next script (‘Iso’) promises to go even further down the dark, dramatic path, centering on the existence of a girl who lives 10 years trapped in her apartment convinced there’s an entity outside bent on doing her in unless she come out and meets it on her own terms. Hitchcock meets Clive Barker, is how Sumrall describes it. A third script Sumrall describes as Evil Dead 2 meets Mad Max–comedic and politically incorrect—is also in the works.

And his aspirations aren’t limited to horror. Sumrall says he has both a romantic comedy and a family comedy kicking around in his head, though realistically he’s not sure if or when he’ll get to them.

Sumrall is a reformed drummer who works in his family’s machine shop as his day job. But he somehow not only decided he could make a movie, but succeeded in doing so. He describes the journey as “pretty fucked up.” He burned out on music, feeling like his wheels were spinning and becoming increasingly frustrated with its collaborative nature, and started horror memorabilia company Necrobilia so he could meet other fans of the genre.

While still involved with his band, he started taking script-writing classes and saw Necrobilia as a way to increase his immersion in a culture he had long admired. One day he met Stacy Davidson (‘Domain of the Damned,’ ‘Sweatshop’) and thought it was really cool there was actually someone in the Houston-area making movies. Professors had told him if he was serious about the business he’d have to move to one of the coasts, or Toronto. Sumrall called bullshit, citing Robert Rodriguez as at least one exception, but nonetheless shuffled the whole screenwriter notion toward the back of his to-do list for a time.

Welcome

Then he had the meeting with Davidson. “His movie was waaay better than I ever would have imagined,” says Sumrall. I expected to see something somebody had gone out into their backyard with a little $200 Hi-8 camera and made as a little cheesy indie movie. But instead it was very professionally done and very slick looking.”

Sumrall kept the Davidson connection alive at Texas Frightmare Weekend, the first event at which Necrobilia was going to be a vendor, attending a pre-party Davidson had organized and meeting several other film-makers from the Houston area, a network he had no idea even existed.

Beyond Davidson, Sumrall met Mel House (‘Walking Distance’), various effects artists, sound guys, and local composers through his newly discovered network. All of them were working on each other’s films. Newly invigorated, Sumrall recalls very badly wanting to just get access one of their sets to learn whatever he could.

When Davidson finished pre-production on ‘Sweatshop’ and was ready to start filming, he and Sumrall got together and Davidson happened to mention he was still looking for someone to play the killer. Sumrall jokingly responded that he had always liked the idea of playing a killer “so why not use me?” The two laughed it off.

But a couple of weeks later Davidson gave him an open invitation down to the set, followed by an e-mail asking if he’d been at all serious regarding wanting to play the slasher in a horror movie. “I thought about it for all of 2 seconds and answered yes,” says Sumrall, who, still stuck in life-long slasher-fan mode, didn’t dare really believe it was going to happen. “I was basically shitting water for 2 days.”

Sumrall eventually regained enough regularity to go down to the set on a day none of the killer’s parts were shooting and get a feel for the mechanics of movie making. He was instantly impressed. “They literally had just this single 13-in. monitor and an HD camera he was running himself. So if you were just a bystander you’d think it was a bunch of goofy fucking kids making their little backyard movie. But if you watched it in the monitor it already looked like a professional product. It was ridiculous how cool it was. So I knew I was onto something special.”

His own parts followed, and from that point on, Sumrall was on set almost every weekend for ‘Sweatshop,’ whether he had a scene or not, learning as much as he could, seeing how things were done. He describes the experience as invaluable, particularly regarding the importance of patience: “17 hours on set could sometimes yield just 5 minutes of screen time.”

After ‘Sweatshop’ Sumrall got a call from Josh Vargas for a cameo in the movie he was shooting at the time (‘Sway’). Seeing another opportunity to gain experience, Sumrall was on-set from 5p to 5a, soaking in as much as he could and making himself as available as possible in exchange for 2 seconds of camera time.

Along the way he started to get asked, only half seriously, when he was going to direct his movie. He responded that he always saw himself as more a writer than a director. “The photo shoots I’d sometimes do for Necrobilia were enough to make me want to pull what little hair I have left out of my head, so I certainly couldn’t see myself directing a whole movie.”

A pivotal moment on the ‘Sway’ set followed. Vargas had reached the end of his rope. Sumrall tries to remember the exact words: “It was something like, ‘I’m fucking done with this movie. I need to film something else.’” Sumrall let Vargas know he was thinking about writing something and had been asked when he was going to direct, and Vargas said he’d film whatever Sumrall was working on for free.

One week later Sumrall had completed ‘Possum Walk’s first draft. Vargas didn’t end up working on the film, deciding he had to finish ‘Sway’ instead. But around the same time, Robert Luke (‘Man In The Garage’) joined ‘Possum Walk’ as a producer.

Sumrall and Luke had met and hit it off on the set of ‘Walking Distance,’ and when it became clear Vargas wasn’t going to be available, Luke said he’d film it. According to Sumrall he did a “fucking amazing job.”

Jeremy Sumrall, Robert Luke

With a team in place, ‘Possum Walk’ began to take shape. But sleepless nights lay ahead, and not just because of a rigorous shooting schedule. Sumrall recalls tossing and turning to the point his wife asked him what was wrong. He had initially hired friends and acquaintances as much of the cast and crew, but had come to find that many of them were treating the whole process as a lark. His wife gave him some hard advice, but advice he needed to hear: fire everyone and rebuild it from the ground up.

Sumrall now sees it as the movie’s turning point. “I got rid of a lot of dead weight,” he says. “There were a lot of people who weren’t actually actors, but were friends of friends or whatever who thought it might be fun. And I naively thought at the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to hire any professionals, because we were working with no budget. I mean we had a few dollars to pay for things here and there, but in the grand scheme of things we were a gnat on Hollywood’s balls. We’re not talking about Michael Bay money!”

Once actors were hired, forward momentum returned. Not to suggest things actually ever got easy. “When you’re working with no budget and everybody’s living paycheck-to-paycheck at their day jobs and then putting in 18-19 hour days on the weekends….it’s really fucking difficult. Tempers flare. People snap. You’re in the middle of Texas in the middle of summer.” In the end, however, Sumrall says the common purpose of making a great movie they could all be proud of would take over and carry everyone through.

Sumrall also points out that his cast made the directing process itself easier than it could have been, being self-motivated enough to free him from having to direct their each and every move and allowing him to keep focused on the big picture instead.

‘Possum Walk’s cast includes Maggie Conwell (Faith Carpenter, the main character), Parrish Randall (her father, Brother William Carpenter), Tyler Tackett (male lead, Joe Don Sims), Victoria Lane, Keli Wolfe, Kristen Hall, and Andrew Sensenig. Sumrall describes the entire ensemble as professional, dedicated, and serious actors. “I didn’t have to ask them when we got to set if they knew what we were doing. They just knew. They all had taken notes on their scripts, had certain lines highlighted, and had their lines memorized, which the one thing I was sure wasn’t going to happen.”

Sumrall recalls a conversation with Lane before he had wiped the slate in which she was telling him how prepared she was going to be before heading out from L.A. Sumrall told her it sounded like she was going to be the most prepared person on set. She sounded surprised and Sumrall explained that the rest of the cast was just reading their lines right before they had to film them. She quickly joined the chorus letting him know that better could be had.

Girls of Possum Walk: Danielle Jones, Jessica Jecker, Maggie Conwell, Keli Wolfe

More often than not, however, the actors either got it the way Sumrall heard it in his head, or came up with an even better interpretation of their own. “I wasn’t going to knit-pick on certain words if the intent was the same,” Sumrall explains. “If the intent got changed, that’s when I’d get involved. But I never really had to crack anybody over the head about anything like that!”

Challenges included sometimes not knowing where they were going to be shooting until 5 minutes before the shot. Sumrall and Co. had secured a tiny church on the outskirts of Groesbeck, Tex. The only restriction the church placed on the project was no shooting on Sunday.

Not so fast. “Two days before the shoot,” Sumrall explains, “I got a phone call from [executive producer] Burt [Bailey] saying the church’s septic system had just exploded and sprayed piss and shit all over the church.” A new location needed to be found on next to no notice. Randall knew folks in the area and started making calls and knocking on doors, finding a replacement church just 12 hours before shooting.

Burton Bailey hard at FX work

Sumrall couldn’t get a look at the inside, but based on the outside and the fact that 50 people were arriving in the morning to make a movie went ahead and approved it. They put up signs guiding the new arrivals to the location. The next morning, five minutes before Sumrall himself was ready to head to the set, Randall calls again and says, “I screwed up. I took you to the wrong church last night.”

The correct church was right around the corner from the wrong one, but still 40-50 horror movie extras had to be diverted from inadvertently showing up at the wrong house of worship. The crew shot from daybreak until 7 pm, when choir members started showing up for their own practice.

Returning to the here and now, when asked what would constitute success for ‘Possum Walk’ Sumrall instantly responds with “absolute world domination” before dialing it back a bit. “We’ve accomplished our first goal: to make the movie. Now it’s all about getting the word out. In this day and age it’s pretty easy to self-distribute your movie, with services that print on-demand. But it takes a lot longer for you to get your money selling one piece at a time. So we’d ideally like to go with a distribution deal.”

Sumrall doesn’t pretend to know who he’d go with, or who might even be interested, but plans to work the convention circuit in 2010 to find out. Sumrall says he and the rest of the production team are willing to release the movie themselves, but he’d rather find an already established distributor.            

“I’m hoping that the hopefully pending success of ‘Sweatshop,’ which is now out with screeners getting sent to critics and getting really, really good reviews, will help springboard ‘Possum Walk’ into something maybe a little bit bigger than any of us had anticipated,” Sumrall explains. “Indie film is a hotbed right now, especially Texas indie film. Guys like Mel House are starting to put out some really good pictures that aren’t just rehashes of other movies that have come before. They’re pretty damn original and pretty fucked up and done as professionally as possible with very little money.”

Sumrall says it would be great if ‘Possum Walk’ could be lumped into the same group. movement. “I’m sure that never in a million years did Tobe Hooper expect ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ to blow up the way it did, or Eduardo Sanchez never thought ‘Blair Witch Project’ was going to be as big as it was, and I know that Oren Peli had no idea ‘Paranormal Activity’ would be as huge as it is.”

“You just never know,” concludes Sumrall. “I’d be stupid to say I want to make $40 million off this movie. Ultimately, the idea of success for me would be having people see it, having people respond to it, and through that being able to keep making movies.”

Maggie Conwell as 'Faith Carpenter'

Keli Wolfe as 'Gracie Richmond'