A release date for Olalla!

Olalla awaits her fate at the hands of the crazed villagers

An update on the post-production of Olalla:

The final cut (edit) of the film will be done September 10th, at which point we will be compiling the thumbnails of stills from the film and emailing everyone who selected a perk (from the IndieGoGo campaign) that contained a signed photo from the film to make their selection!

We have also found a fantastic company to do the sound mix, and that, along with the color grading, will be done October 1st for an October 31st release of the film! Hooray!

I'll have more news as the post-production progresses.

Don't forget, you can see more updates and behind the scenes photos on the Olalla Facebook Page (link)!

Olalla, "Self", Weng's Chop, and my first music video!

Family portrait 1880

Last Saturday we had a wrap party to close the production of Olalla. It was great. I couldn't drink because I was getting over the stomach flu, but, because everyone else was drinking, the joie de vivre spread to me as well. I danced until 3AM. My cat let me sleep in, until 10AM, so nice of him.

The day after, I realized how important it is to close a film with a party like that. To experience again the companionship of the cast and crew of the film, this time without the pressure of making the film. I finally felt like I could move on from the production, begin anew, with another film of course.

It must be said that I have a really great team. The affection and camaraderie we feel for each other really helps to lessen the stress of production. Also, the fact that everyone is so responsible, talented, and great at their jobs makes a huge difference as well.

The other thing I always have a hard time letting go of with a film, is my character. In learning acting so young, and I began with Lee Strasberg's techniques, later with Stanislavski, and more interpretations on Method acting, it seems I never learned how to separate my character from myself. This is not to say that I create a character who is anything like me. But I'll take select memories, feelings, experiences of mine and combine them to make my character. But then I become only those experiences, those feelings. Everything I feel for that time while we're in production is based only on that information. When we're done shooting, it can take me weeks sometimes to find myself again. Anything I accomplish as Amy Hesketh seems so far removed from me. It's painful, I lose my sense of self completely. Like my soul has left my body and been replaced by another's.

I really need to work on that if I want to continue acting.

Moving on to less angst-y topics...

Yesterday, I received a copy of the enormous book-sized Weng's Chop magazine #5, in which I am mentioned as participating in the PollyGrind Film Festival (an awesome experience you can read about here), and there's an AMAZING review of my film Barbazul (Bluebeard) by Tony Strauss. Here's an excerpt:

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Mario Bava, Jean Rollin and Jess Franco had somehow defied the laws of nature and biology and produced a lovechild who became a filmmaker? Yeah, me too! Well, now we have our answer in the form of writer/director Amy Hesketh."

Totally awesome, right?! (I'm a bit overwhelmed). He goes on about Barbazul:

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"...everything about this film has the look and feel of much of the 70's output of the aforementioned three filmmakers, from the direction to the editing to the music to the production design. This erotic reimagining of the Bluebeard legend is like a sexy little time machine that gloriously transports your spirt back to the Euro-Horror glory of days past."

You can get your own copy of Weng's Chop right here! There are pretty pictures of me in there, as well as a bible's worth of interesting articles about bizarre, cult, action, and exploitation films, in addition to an amazing coverage of the PollyGrind 2013 Film Festival. If you're a fan of strange cinema, you pretty much need this 265 page magazine anyway.

You can get your hands on a copy of Barbazul on our site right here on download, or DVD, or on Amazon.com on download, or DVD.

And... a week after coming back from shooting Olalla, I directed a music video for Andrea Figueroa, for her song Mas Que Palabras. Here's the video below, and you can listen to more of her music right here.



It was so nice working with Andrea. She was a bit self-conscious about appearing in lingerie for the video, but as she put it, "if I was going to take my clothes off for anyone, it had to be you (directing the video)". She said that I made her feel very comfortable during the shoot, which made me glad.

I'm very proud of what we accomplished in this video, with no budget whatsoever. I feel like Art rises to the surface with challenges like that.

There's so much going on lately, that I'll have to write another blog post to cover it all. Stay tuned!

Olalla: now "in the can"!

So happy with the shoot!
(photo: Miguel Inti Canedo)

I just got back from a 10 hour freezing cold bus ride from Potosí, and I couldn't be happier. My fourth film as director, Olalla, is now in the can! Thanks to my cast and tireless, talented crew we pulled off a huge amount of shooting in only a few days.

I got to work with Cristian Del Rio, a fantastic Flamenco musician and actor, who added his amazing voice and knowledge of period music to the film (Fatigaaaa!!!).

Rhobess Pierre played the unforgettable priest, with the unexpected and very welcome addition of some physical comedy to the role! In character, he even made me feel guilty in one scene, and I wasn't even raised with religion.

Alejandro Loayza (seen with me in the photo on the left) played the younger Felipe, severely freaking me out in the best way possible with his  excellent acting. He also played a key extra in the big scene, showing his diversity.

Eric Calancha not only terrified me with his Enrique, the instigator of Olalla's violent end, but was extremely helpful, as always, as PA.

Through Jesus Relos Ramos we found the two girls, Rosario and Valeria, who look just like Mila Joya and I, who were amazing actresses as our younger representations, as well as the terrifying crowd of villagers who drag Olalla out of the chapel, whip her, and burn her at the stake. Among them, the girls' father, Jaime, who was a super helpful key extra.

Mila, who acted in the first part of the film, was there as a fantastic assistant and key extra in the big scene, instigating the crowd to throw insults at poor Olalla.

Miguel Inti Canedo, as always, knew just what I wanted. In each film, he exceeds himself as Director of Photography in my films. The cinematography in this film blows my mind.

Gina Alcon exceeded herself as PA, actress (striking fear into my heart with her performance as one of the vicious townsfolk), and all around super helpful person on the set.

Sol Calle did a fantastic job with the make-up and hair, and entertained us with stories during downtime.

Rodrigo León continues to grab good sound for the film, and his massive knowledge of historic details, and art, add special touches.

Beatriz Lizarazu Jauregui, and her daughter, Beatriz Rivera Lizarazu, came all the way from La Paz to be key extras in the big scene. I can't wait to work with them again!

And what shall I say about the Hacienda Cayara, but that Arturo and David did such a great job that we could just relax and shoot the film. They even put up the cross with an incredibly awesome-looking platform.

Last, but certainly not least, my producer, Jac Avila exceeded himself with this huge production. Somehow, all I had to do was stand back while he produced the impossible and awesome. So many great things fell into place on this production that I think he must be sacrificing chickens in the back patio, just to make sure I get what I want.

I forgot to mention that I was dragged by one of our actors, a donkey, down the road when he decided his scenes were over. I'm pretty bruised up from the experience, but it gave me some perspective vis a vi the whipping/burning at the stake scene. Being out in the cold without clothes is nothing compared to being dragged down a rocky road by a burro.

Also, there was a great dog who acted in the film in the last scenes. I almost took him home with me he was so good, repeating the scenes, doing exactly the same thing in each take. Amazing. Until he started nibbling on the other cast & crew members.

The whole gang, in the 1880s scenes.

While I'm so happy with the film that I could burst, I also feel the let-down that comes with finishing a film. It's like a postpartum depression. All that remains is to nurture the film into maturity with post-production. My part is largely over. Sigh, it's like I have no purpose in life when I'm not directing a movie.

The only cure is to start right in on the next film, Debutante.

Discussing locations with Jac around the Hacienda Cayara.

Olalla... and more!

The contemporary Olalla

The date is approaching in which we shoot the final scenes for Olalla, those set in the 1880s. This weekend we leave for Potosí, and we return to La Paz on the 25th. We'll be traveling more than 10 hours to the rather far-away location.

And what a location it is, a huge colonial hacienda, with its own chapel, big yards, courtyards. Everything I wanted, and more, for this film. One downside is the lack of internet. As a cyborg, I will find that rather disconcerting. We have verified that our phones work there, however. So, it won't be quite as cut-off as when we shot Barbazul (Bluebeard) in Chivisivi.

A lot will happen in those days, many key scenes will be shot, leading up to the big, climactic scene in which my character is dragged out by an angry mob, chained to a cross, whipped, and burned alive. She is a vampire after all. In those times, the general population was not so forgiving of bloodlust...

Planning the FX for the big scene has been challenging, and crucial to making it work. I think the results will be fantastic.

We've been pre-producing this part of the film for quite some time, it's period 1880s, so more work involved in terms of costumes, props, and set design. I'm absolutely ready to get this film in the can.

Which leads me to my next film... which it looks like I'll be directing this year as well. Maybe even in July... called Debutante,  film based on the George Bernard Shaw play, Pygmalion. Of course my version, co-written by Jac Avila and myself, will be a bit more... racy (read: absolutely perverted), as well as being a dark comedy.

And there's Justine, which Jac Avila - my partner in crime, if making movies is a crime - will be directing, a labor of love based on the Marquis de Sade's very famous tale of woe, and innocence lost.

We're still securing locations for that film, but we have some great leads, and some excellent actors and crew already on board. I say Labor of Love, because it's a huge project, one that started as a bit more modest and has grown exponentially. Making a period piece is never easy, and this one is more ambitious than most. Carriages, and powdered wigs, anyone? While challenging, it's a worthwhile project, a story that has been told before in cinema, but never like this.

Last, but not least, I also directed a short, existential film this year, based on a story by Jack Hunter, called Ekeko. Here's the short description: "Is a folkloric doll responsible for the murder of a young woman by her husband?".

I shot it entirely on a GoPro, which was challenging, as well as the "found footage" style, which I had previously never used. But the shots turned out great, and the crazy physical effect I made is pretty awesome. I'm happy with it.

Right now, it's being considered for film festivals, and will be included in a film called Paranoia Tapes, and has a lot of other great filmmakers involved, including the creator of the PollyGrind film festival.

My good friend Ralphus pointed out to me that I might have more free time if I wasn't always working on 4 or 5 films at the same time. But what would be the fun in that? Also, I have no other life outside of making films, so I have no idea what I would do with all that free time, other than watch awesome K-pop music videos recommended to me by C. Dean Andersson.

That's all for now, I'll see you on the other side of Olalla!

2013: The End of an Era (Catharsis, be my valentine)

So, you're wondering about the title? What I mean is the end of an era of emotional pain and suffering. In real life, not on screen. No worries.

Between 2010 and 2013 I had a lot of suck¹ happening in my life. Those three years were like a crash-course in hard knocks. What my mother calls, "An abrupt loss of innocence". I experienced a personal loss. I ended a long relationship. And my dad got sick, and suddenly I was entirely responsible for him.². In February of this year, my father died. Now I'm learning to live with my 50% chance of not going out like a zombie far before my time. Thanks, genetics. Hooray to living on the edge! Every day is a gift! Yay!

But there's good news: people heal, and they actually have a bottomless pit of innocence, and strength, left if they know how to look for it, deep inside. Artists need their innocence, believe me. It's there, I looked for it and found it. Pure magic.

Between those years a lot of great things also happened, namely that my output as a filmmaker has been exponential, or at least it feels that way. The production company, in which I'm a partner, is going strong and we're making new movies all the time. I'm actually able to make the films I want to, with little compromise. Seriously? Yes. This is the most awesome thing ever, short of actually having lots of money to produce those films.

He meows like a tiny dinosaur. I'm not kidding.

This year Dead But Dreaming had its theatrical run and pre-release, I had a great interview published in Fangoria Magazine, lots of interviews in other magazines and blogs, traveled from coast to coast, went to the PollyGrind Film Festival³ with Barbazul, met some great people, had good times with old friends, a fantastic time with a new friend, helped out my mom with lots of manual labor, shot about 2/3 of my fourth film as director, Olalla, ran a pretty successful IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the other 1/3 of Olalla, and now have a distribution deal in the works for all of the films. And last, but not least, I found a very cute kitten in my garden, named Mitsou, after the Balthus drawings. When I only focus on the positive, it was a complete and utter blast.

Look at all the pretty awards!

On Saturday the 21st, I threw a party for much of the cast and crew of Olalla. We celebrated the Solstice (at least I did, having been raised by a pagan goddess (my mother)), and we found out at 6PM PST that we won a huge amount of lovely awards from The Beverly Hills Outlook!

Among them, I won Best Director (Gold) for Le Marquis de la Croix, Best Actress (Gold) for Dead But Dreaming, and Barbazul won Best Film (Gold). I really could not be more pleased! You can see all of them at this link right here.

It was wonderful to share that with the people who make everything happen, who believe in what we do, and put their hearts and souls into their work with us. I love them dearly.

I'm very excited to start 2014 with even more projects. We'll be shooting the 1880s sequence for Olalla, including the big scene, it looks like Jac Avila has an adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's Justine in the works, Erix Antoine has a great script we'll be shooting (I finally get to kick ass in an action movie!), there's a good chance I might be heading into the jungle to shoot something (huge insects! pretty birds!), I have a script for a horror film, and I'm making a horror short in collaboration with some PollyGrinders.

This year is ending well.

This is fantastic!

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1 For my non-English-speaking readers (who may be using Google Translate) "suck" = bad (mal)^↩

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Nonsensical ledge, be gone!
I will take out my wrath upon thee.

2 100 painful pages of the ups and downs of that story could be put right here. It would read like a horror soap opera.

The past few days I've been really angry, and didn't know why. I gave it some thought, and realized that this time last year was the last time I saw my father alive. I think he recognized me, he smiled a lot. I felt guilty for not doing more. I still feel guilty, even though everyone tells me I did a great job with him. Someday, I wish to feel at peace about that.

I cried, I smashed a ledge off of a wall that didn't need to be there. I feel better now. And have about 5 inches more space in that room. ^↩

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Barbazul in Las Vegas, baby!

3 I just realized that I'm a silly person for not writing about the PollyGrind Film Fest before now?! Chad Clinton Freeman has organized pure AWESOME there in LV! I went for the entire 5 days, watched tons of films, had my picture taken with Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (Dyanne Thorne), was completely dazzled by the weirdness of Las Vegas (my 2nd visit), and most importantly, connected with a bunch of very cool people. It's what a film festival should be, well-organized, well-curated, lots of fun. I got to Q&A after the screening of Barbazul for a whopping 25 minutes, probably to the utter consternation of the kind director, Chad, who had another film scheduled after mine. I loved every minute of PollyGrind... except for that wicked hangover I had one day out of the five. But, I cured it by watching more films.^↩

That's yours truly with Dyanne Thorne and Howard Maurer of "Ilsa" fame. Pretty sweet.

Olalla: The IndieGoGo Campaign

Just a few days ago, we began shooting the contemporary scenes for Olalla, my fourth feature film as director. I also am the protagonist in this film. Cool beans! You can read more about the shooting of the film on the Olalla Facebook Page.

So, last week we launched the IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the scenes set in the late 1800's. In particular a huge blow-out AWESOME scene in which Olalla is dragged out of her home by a mob of angry villagers, chained to a cross, whipped, and burned at the stake. Intense, I know. And that scene involves a ton of extras in period costume, a great location, and a lot of production. So, we're trying to raise funds to make it the most awesome, intense scene ever!

We've kept the cost low for the contemporary scenes by working with a small crew, sourcing a great location from a friend, and cutting corners where we could. Even as such, those scenes still look big-budget! Because we're that good. See for yourself in this production still, below. Awesome, right?!

Notice the nice lighting here. And this is raw, without post-production.

We really want to make the huge cross/whipping/burning-at-the-stake scene the best ever to be seen on the big screen, so please consider helping us do that by taking a look at the campaign! We have tons of perks for your contribution, like a pre-sale of the Download/DVD (at a discount), autographed photos, the book (by Robert Louis Stevenson) signed by Amy Hesketh (me), t-shirts, copies of the script signed by Amy Hesketh (me) and other cast members, an Associate Producer credit, an opportunity to have Amy Hesketh (me) shoot an interview just for you (answering your questions), the chance to be an extra in the big "burning at the stake" scene, an Executive Producer credit, and much more! It's all really good stuff. Seriously, there's something for everyone, for every budget.

So far we've reached over 10% of our goal. You can help us reach 100%!!!

Here's a link to the campaign right here!

And here's the pitch video below, telling you more about what we're trying to do. 

It's also funny, so I urge you to watch it.

Death, Maleficarum, Reviews, Olalla

As some of you may already know from my posts on Facebook, my father passed away not long ago. Although I was supposed to be prepared for it, I wasn't. So, I took an emergency trip up to the great white North, saw friends and family, and slogged through a bunch of bureaucratic paperwork. Why does death involve so much paperwork? Incredible.

Robert Louis Stevenson, my new BF

I'm back in the South now, where the water goes down the drain the other way, and am getting back to the project at hand, my next movie, Olalla, in the midst of mourning. My next movie involves death. And a strange family.

I was perusing the interwebs and found that someone had written a review about Maleficarum recently on horrornews.net. You can read it right here!

I also received some spectacular reviews of Le Marquis de la Croix and Barbazul from the Beverly Hills Outlook, which will be published this year. Here are a couple of excerpts below:

Le Marquis> "This intense and focused Bolivian production, handsomely mounted by Amy Hesketh and Jac Avila with just the right visual accents and splashes of color for Decadent Cinema, is a master class in film direction, courtesy of Hesketh herself."

Wow, "masterclass in film direction", thanks!

Barbazul> "This Latinization of Bluebeard is the most successful adaptation of that fairy tale to the cinema to date, as, in it, cineaste Amy Hesketh subtly expands her thematics from her already established central concern of Control (of one being over another) to Complicity."

Again, seriously, thanks!

A bit of Inspiration

Olalla also includes themes of Control and Complicity. I do seem to like those themes, don't I? I'm also including Incest, Genetics, Vampirism, the Victorian, and the Gothic. Just to round things out.

More Inspiration

Obscure Video and DVD Blog: INTERVIEW WITH AMY HESKETH

After a really nice review of Maleficarum appeared in Obscure Video and DVD Blog back in July, he was nice enough to ask me to do an interview as well. You can read it on his blog or right here below!

INTERVIEW WITH AMY HESKETH

Amy Hesketh, not many know the name that read this blog, but she is a very talented and beautiful young woman who starred in a film I reviewed here called Maleficarum, about the Peruvian Inquisition and it has developed into my most read review and has made traffic to this site triple.
My blog deals with older movies, cult films,a few newer low budget gems and the like, but Maleficarum struck me as a cross between Jess Franco films and the witch finder films of the 60's and 70's.
I consider Amy a very "Jess Franco" type director with a similar vision (I hope she doesn't mind me saying that).
Amy was very kind to link the review to other sites and I decided to see if I could do a small interview about her and her other projects.
Here, below are the results of that request and some interesting pics of her upcoming projects.
WARNING: THE PICS CONTAIN NUDITY....


I know you were shown the movie Fright Night with Roddy McDowell when
you were six,
but are there other films of that genre that you like and got you
interested in movies?


Four films that I saw when I was younger are Return to Oz (1985), Warlock (1989), Tale of a Vampire (1992), and Boxing Helena (1993). I realize that it's a bit strange that three of these films feature Julian Sands... I also realize that some of these are not movies for young people. My dad was great about not censoring my viewing, he let me watch what I wanted. These movies made a big impact on me. I realized very young that horror, violence, obsession, sex, art, and perversion were the "good stuff" in movies. I think my work features a healthy dose of the "good stuff".

What kind of film would you ultimately like to direct?


I'm so happy to have the freedom to write and direct almost any movie that tickles my fancy, I have several scripts and ideas on the burner for the next few years. Eventually I would like to be able to obtain the film rights to a rather famous book that was slated to go into the public domain last year and didn't.




Can you give us a little info on the movie you are now directing
called Le Marquis de la Croix, such as when it will be released?


Le Marquis de la Croix and Barbazul I directed in 2011and they'll both be released this year, Le Marquis will be direct to DVD/VOD in the Fall, and Barbazul will debut in Bolivian theaters October 11th.

Le Marquis de la Croix is inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade. The film features a man who is writing in prison, played by Jac Avila.. It's implied that le Marquis was locked up for obscenity. He pays for a young woman, a gypsy, Zinga, played by Mila Joya, to be brought to his cell. He writes about and commits all kinds of atrocities to her. It's intense. I really tried to bring the writings of de Sade to life in this movie in a very graphic way. At the same time, I wanted to keep it a bit fun, a bit campy, old-timey exploitation, done in a post-modern way, with a sprinkling of social commentary. I think I succeeded in doing all of that.

Barbazul (Bluebeard), is based on the children's story by Charles Perrault about a man (with a blue beard) who kills his wives. He's a serial killer. This, again, is a very graphic movie in terms of violence and nudity. It seemed as though other movies made about Bluebeard skimmed over the more intense elements of the story. There was a hole in the cinematic trajectory of Bluebeard. I'm not one to squander an opportunity so I made Barbazul much in the fashion of the 1960's/70's Italian exploitation horror flicks of yesteryear but, like I do, went farther with the "good stuff". It's a tense and terrifying movie, but has enough (very) dark humor to appeal to a wider audience.






 

Have you always wanted to both act and direct or does one interest you
more than the other?


I started taking acting classes when I was 6 years old and I've wanted to direct since I was about 10 or 11 years old . Both have their value and interest to me. Being on both sides of the camera makes it easier for me to ask for more from my actors and to understand what they're going through. I've acted in difficult roles and done extraordinary things, so when I tell them to do something that may sound a bit crazy I'm pretty sure my actors think "Well, at least I don't have to sit on a wooden horse for 5 hours like you did!". One actress told me straight out that it's amazing that I think up these crazy ideas for movies and everyone just goes along with me like what we're doing is normal. Like the Pied Piper of Crazy Art Movies. I doubt anyone who works with me would want to continue to do so if I made "normal" movies, they would think I had completely lost my mind.


What are your five favorite movies of all time and why?


Well, if I can only choose five...there are so many more that are not on the list below.

Pretty much all of the movies I love have one thing in common, a depiction of the point when the personality is stripped away and something is revealed beneath: the animal, instinctual, something sick or undefined. It's what I explore in my own movies. Call it an obsession.

1)The Night Porter (1974). Dirk Bogard and Charlotte Rampling, two amazing actors in a very sexy film. It's audacious, crazy, wonderful. I would love a role like Charlotte's. Dirk Bogard in a Nazi uniform gives me a frisson.
2)Le Mepris (1963) Brigitte Bardot in what I perceive to be her most revealing role. I have a thing for the miserable, lost and existential.
3)Jules et Jim (1962) Weird threesome, dark, existential, what's not to like?
4)Weekend (1967) In my opinion, Godard's most important film. It also embodies the spirit of film-making for me.
5)Antichrist (2009) When I saw this in the theater in NYC, half of the audience walked out. I was leaning forward in ecstasy, hoping it would be 8 hours long.
 
 


My blog is usually about off the wall and older films yet Maleficarum
seems, at least to the people who read it to fit right in. How do you
feel about that and account for it?

I'm very glad that Maleficarum fits into your blog as we admire the movies you write about here. Maleficarum, as well as the other films that we make, is made in the style of the older audacious exploitation films of yesteryear. Those films were shocking in their day, and our films are shocking now. We take those older films as inspiration and build upon that, going farther with the "good stuff". Essentially we make the movies we, ourselves, would like to see, but can't find because they don't otherwise exist.

Maleficarum is interesting to viewers in many different ways, historically because we use actual transcripts of testimonies from the Peruvian Inquisition (it's amazing to think that people really said these things), in terms of how we graphically show the tortures as realistically as possible, no holds barred, and the story arc of the victims, the sad tale that it is.


Where eventually do you want your acting career to go?

I plan to keep pushing myself until I burn out... joking! I want to get to a point in which I've acted in every role imaginable, a point in which I can say, "you did good, kid". It could be a long time from now.





Is a sequel to Maleficarum planned?

We haven't planned a sequel to Maleficarum, however we may touch upon the theme of the Inquisition in a film again. We've had so many emails and messages requesting just that, it would be hard to let people down. ;)






I know from very personal experience that I get a rush from making a
movie. Do you have the same feelings when acting and directing?

It's the best! I get more of a rush from writing and directing a film than acting. Standing behind the camera when the actors do something really good, when the scene comes to life right there in front of you, pretty much exactly how you imagined it, is thrilling. Acting is more complicated for me. The characters I tend to play, having to enter into the soul of another and leave myself behind is draining. When I watch the dailies and see I did a good job, that's when I get a good feeling from acting.

An exception might be some scenes in Maleficarum. There was adrenalin involved when we shot the roasting scene. A lot of adrenalin. I was scared out of my mind. That's a kind of rush I guess.

My recent role in Diego Torres' experimental film La Montaña Interior was an exception as well. To have to hike up to about 5000 meters (16,000 feet), shoot some scenes, then take my shirt off in front of a glacier (a glacier!), shoot that scene before the clouds came in, and then go back down. That was a rush. More from the extreme cold than anything else...  

I gave myself a lead role (which I normally don't do) in my new film Olalla, inspired by the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. That could be a rush, and an opportunity for catharsis.



I hope you enjoyed this small little interview with someone whom I think will go BIG places.
Maybe I should have Amy in my next project? A huge thanks to Amy for the pictures in the interview.
 

Vampires

As I've been finishing up the script for my next movie, Olalla, I've been thinking a lot about vampires. Mostly since my next movie involves vampires and we just wrapped on another movie about vampires, Dead But Dreaming, and we'll be shooting the second movie in that series soon as well.

The poster of the movie that ruined my 6th year

That will make my movie the third this year. So, what's with all the interest in vampires? For me it started pretty young. When I was about 6 years old my father showed me the movie Fright Night. I'm sure he thought it was appropriate for someone my age, being rated PG. It wasn't, it scared the living daylights out of me and I wore a scarf to bed for a year after that, even in the summer, thinking that vampires were going to come and kill me in the night.  Children tend to think that the world centers around them, don't they?

After the year was up and the vampires didn't come to kill me, I gave up wearing the scarf to bed and began thinking about the origin of the vampire myth. It was just around this time, I was 7 and in second grade, that I was learning about research papers and researching. So, I went to my school library and found several books about vampires. I read them all. In the midst of this, I began to understand the origins of the vampire in media.

She gives you that weird feeling

In my school library were a series of books about monster movies (Universal Studios) from the 30s-60s. The idea of the vampire in film began to take hold of me as a concept. My research broadened to the local library where I read more books and understood the vampire myth and where it came from. I thought about how amazing it would be to make a movie about vampires. It became a lifelong dream. Nay, obsession.

So, you must be thinking that I'm making a movie about the same kind of vampires as Jac's Dead But Dreaming. Nope. Dead But Dreaming's vamps are more classic, infectious vampires, bites, exchange of blood, and a little magical realism later, you've got a legion of the undead. Romantic vampires, with hopes and dreams, and vengeance, internal struggles. Good stuff, but not the same as my vampires.

In my research, I think I got to Robert Louis Stevenson when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I came across R.L.S.'s Olalla. It's the story considered to be the introduction of the concept of genetic vampirism, on which my movie is partly based. A soldier goes to a villa to convalesce, only to fall in love with the daughter of the decadent family who resides there. The family has a craving for blood. It's a strange story. At that time porphyria and related diseases were little understood, thus resulting in the idea that a "vampiric" disease could, or did, exist.

Olalla

My vampires are a family, a rather large family, who has learned to survive through the ages by keeping a low profile. They crave blood, they have to drink it, but it's not considered good form to kill thy neighbors, so they do it discretely. Some of them never even leave the house. And they tend to live longer than other humans.

My character* is named Olalla. She goes back to her family's home after a few years of attempting to escape them and her affliction; the prodigal daughter returns after having done something very, very bad.

For me, Olalla, inflicted with inherited vampirism, has a struggle that is literally superhuman. It separates her from the rest of humanity, it makes her a monster. At the same time, she has no desire to be like the rest of her family. Riddled by incest, they keep the line going, they do not mix their tainted genes with normal human beings. And there are other branches of the family as well. 

In an attempt to "educate" Olalla, so that she does not have to be "put down", her uncle Victor returns to the house to be her "teacher". What ensues is severe corporeal punishment, incest, nudity, bondage, all of the good nasty stuff that should be in a movie of this sort. You know what I mean. While I'm including a bit of camp, and it has its humorous moments like all of my films, it's a disturbing story.

*Yes, I gave the lead female role to myself. I really didn't want to do a casting for an actor who (might) do what I'll willingly do in a movie. I'm less trouble to work with ;)