I posted an end of the year/30th birthday/wrap-up/reflection/news/update blog on my MySpace page. You can check it out there. In the future, I will probably double-post news and updates both here and there, but for now I'm too lazy to copy it all over here with the links intact. So hop over there, read, and enjoy.

Add Unfilmable.com, Dread Central, and Bloody Disgusting to the press list from yesterday. They each show off the new poster design (Dread Central professed a particular fondness for it), and Bloody Disgusting got hold of a couple of exclusive screenshots.

Fangoria ran a story on their website today regarding the new Closet Space poster. Awesome.

I get more and more pumped as time moves on and I get more of the edit done. The movie is looking pretty sweet so far, and it's just my first pass.

2006 is definitely shaping up to be a year that doesn't suck (for the most part). Thanks to everyone that helped it not suck - from my wife, to my crew, to my lawyers, to my favorite bands/musicians, to my colleagues and fellow movie makers. Hopefully 2007 will tear the door off the hinges.

UPDATE:

This evening I noticed that Arrow In The Head ran a piece on the poster as well. They also went to the website and grabbed a pic of Danielle, who is slowly becoming our unofficial mascot.

I find that funny in a lot of ways, especially since she was a last-minute replacement because of some stupid bullshit that was left over from the last project I did. Long story, but it worked out for the better. Things happen for a reason, I guess...it should suffice to say that I'm glad that we found her...and I need to find a way to have Monica return in Closet Space 2. Twin sister, maybe. Or maybe the "Earth-616" version of Monica.

Wow...I'm a huge nerd.

Got back from Tampa today. All of the pick-up shooting went well, and some really weird disturbing stuff was captured on tape. I'll be dropping it in the movie over the next few days. We also got a chance to talk a little bit about Marcus' upcoming movie, 100 Tears, which I will be co-producing.

We've confimred our appearances at the San Jose and Chicago Fangoria Weekend of Horrors shows - at the very least, myself, Melanie and Marcus will be at both, with other cast and crew joining us as schedules permit.

Here's the final poster if you haven't seen it - feel free to make it your desktop background.

Flying out to Tampa tomorrow to get some final FX inserts for Closet Space. More gore, punching up kills, things of that nature. Should be fun.

We also confirmed our presence at the San Jose and Chicago Weekend Of Horrors dates. That also should be fun.

I'll be unveiling the new Closet Space poster shortly, so keep an eye out for that. On the edit front, I've got a little over a third of the movie in rough-assembly edit mode. By the end of next week I should have most if not all of it done, and then the fine tuning begins. Hopefully, I'll be able to cut another trailer before Christmas.

Just watched Superman Returns again for inspiration. I love the class and majesty of that film.

The Texas Is The Reason show was phenomenal. It shook me to my core, lifted me up, inspired me, recharged me in so many ways, etc. The best show I've ever seen in my life, period.

We also saw Evil Dead: The Musical, which was pretty damn entertaining. It took place in the coolest theatre space that I have ever seen.

Bad ass bands, support for the arts...yep, more reasons that I should have taken the chance and gone to college in New York. Ah, the folly of youth.

Here's a video from Saturday night's show. You can see my ever-bobbing head and "rock fist" in there a few times.

Texas is the Reason reunion live Back and to the Left

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3 weeks...man, I'm seriously slacking on this blog thing. I know you're all out there waiting to read the latest goings-on with baited breath. Some of you probably were hoping that I was dead. Not the case. Not yet, at least.

Hmmm...let's see if I can remember all that's transpired. First of all, Witchcraft 13 and all it's related issues are finally a thing of the past. Thankfully, that also means that I am done with all parties involved (both in front of, and behind the camera), and I am legally and (soon to be) financially free of that cinematic tarbaby.

By the way, I can say "tarbaby", because I'm Black.

Great big thanks are due to my cadre of lawyers, as well as the actors and crew that had my back throughout all this nonsense. You know who you are...because you were probably in Closet Space. Or you'll hopefully be in the sequel (ahem...Zoe, Lynn, Cesar...). If you are reading this and feel indignant, then you probably fall in the "thanks for nothing, and I hope you burn in Hell" category. Have a nice life.

So yeah, that movie is finally gone off the hard drives, so I had the latitude to start screwing around with Closet Space in a big way. I've gotten most of the assemble edits done for the bigger kills and setpieces, so the next step is to do a hand off to Visual Oddysee to start optical FX. I'm also still planning on trekking out to Tampa this month to get some more practical FX inserts done. I'm hoping to have a new trailer cut within the next couple of weeks, and I'll also be rolling out the new poster design.

Jonah made a quick trip through Houston to do a show, and we were finally able to talk about some collaborations. Look for at least one Jonah Matranga composition on the soundtrack to Closet Space. We also discussed some plans for next year that are pretty exciting, so I hope those come to fruition.

This weekend we checked out roughly half of the movies that were part of the After Dark Horror Fest. Some okay, some laborious...but The Grave Dancers was one of the best horror movies I've seen in a long while. Go see it if you can.

I'm going to try and get a lot more of the Closet Space assembly edit done before we go off this weekend for this:

The new Deftones album is amazing. Go buy it. Good job, Shaun.

Here's a scan of the Fangoria mention. Thanks to Barricade screenwriter/producer Ted Geoghegan for scanning it in and sending it to me.

Well, another dream has come true.

My name is in the print version of Fangoria.

This months's issue (#258, Saw III cover), page 26...Closet Space has a short blurb in the "Terror Teletype".

Awesome. Scan of the page is forthcoming.

It' s been a while here, but not for lack of activity. I've just been hella busy lately.

First, I had to drive what I hope are the final nails in the coffin for my last project. We'll see where that goes...the producers now have what they want (the complete elements of the movie), and it looks like everyone on this side will get what they want (i.e. payment). Everything is going through escrow, so it will take a week or so. Involved parties will be getting an email with the next step. On a related note, the Project Manager function of Premiere Pro 2.0 is a huge lifesaver. It helped me reassemble and clean up a project that had become pretty unwieldy. It went from about 400 gigabytes to a svelte 70 G's. Nice.

Concurrently with the above, I also had to throw together some Closet Space packets and mini promo DVD's for the American Film Market. We just recently were able to have someone out there to promote and get the word out, so I had to do a rush job, but I think things turned out okay. Hopefully, we can get some sort of response out of that.

Closet Space's own FX guru Marcus Koch is planning his directorial debut next year, and I've been talking to him about coming on as a producer. I definitely have enough experience, but I've never just been a producer, so it should be nice if it all works out.

I've secured tickets for the wife and I to see Evil Dead: The Musical while we are in New York next month. I've heard good things about it, so I'm looking forward to that. This has become our semi-offical anniversary getaway. Evil Dead one day, Texas Is The Reason the next...how could it get any better?

Speaking of Texas Is The Reason, I just got lined up to do a phoner interview with Norman Brannon (nee Arenas) tomorrow for inclusion on the Space City Rock website. Look for that soon, hopefully between now and the date of the show. I'll also be writing up a review of the show for SCR afterwards.

Now that I've exorcized my computer, the Closet Space edit is kicking into overdrive. A new trailer should be out before Thanksgiving, along with our new (and official) poster design courtesy of Mr. Jason Beam. We're also getting our ducks in a row for the San Jose and Chicago Fangoria shows. It's going to be another busy holiday season for the House That Never Sleeps.

For those of you that clicked over here from the Zombos Closet or Blogcritics interview - you might want to start further back if you want to read all the crazy production stories. I'm in post on Closet Space right now, so there aren't that many tales to tell...I'm sure when promotion, screenings, and distribution stuff starts to kick in it will get a little more exciting around here. For now, courage.

Here's a good place to start. That's around when we did our cast readings, conceptual designs, and set construction. We began shooting in May, shot heavily through June and July, and wrapped principal photography in August. You can use the monthly list on the right to click around, and note that the older entries are at the bottom of the pages.

I hadn't realized that there was so much to trudge through, as I really didn't expect to write all that much on this thing. It will make my snarky autobiography all the easier, though.

Our first interview Q/A is up at:

http://zomboscloset.typepad.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2006/10/interview_with__1.html

Thanks to Zombo's Closet for conducting it.

Enjoy.

In honor of Friday the 13th, I give you Kane Hodder choking the crap out of me.

Third in a series.

I've just about settled down from my whirlwind September, and am slowly getting into the editing groove again. Closet Space is looking good...so much so that I'm starting the process of setting up Closet Space 2 to shoot this time next year. My plan is to use the spring and summer of 2007 for pre-production and monster and F/X building. I've been talking with Jason about having a CS2 brainstorming weekend sometime soon, so I'm pretty sure I'll find myself in California in the next month or so. Our aim is to have a draft done by January.

This past weekend the wife and I took advantage of a Best Buy sale to pick up an 32" HDTV for my edit suite. I'm using it as an output monitor, so now I can really dissect picture and contrast during the CS editing process. My goal is to time things pretty dark...but without losing a whole mess of detail, much like...you guessed it...A Nightmare on Elm Street.

I'm also flying out to Tampa sometime soon to do some final 2nd Unit FX shooting for Closet Space - that will happen within the next month or so as well. Thank God I have a OnePass account.

The first weekend of my Screamworld security detail went by without a hitch, and I got the chance to scare the ever living shit out of quite a few people. It's the little things in life...

Back from our crazy drive out to the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors...which came directly after my work on The Flesh Keeper...which resulted in my being sick for the last couple of days just from the sheer toll of all that on my body. It was all for a good cause though - the Flesh Keeper footage looks good, and Closet Space has already generated a grassroots buzz in the horror community. Now I just have to make sure I deliver with the edit.

The Weekend of Horrors trip was so successful that we are definitely doing it again for the California show in January, and more than likely the Chicago show in the spring of 2007...and probably a few after that as well. And yes, we will be bringing the door along whenever possible.

On a more personal note, I have successfully secured tickets to the Texas Is The Reason reunion show, so I'll be back in New York on Thanksgiving weekend. I'm really looking forward to that.

I also finally picked up my copy of the Infinifilm Nightmare On Elm Street DVD, and spent my day watching the movie, commentary, and all the extras. Damn, I love that film. I have to admit that a lot of the behind the scenes anecdotes reminded me of shooting Closet Space, which I guess has to be a good thing. If CS turns out to be even one-quarter as effective as NOES then I'll be happy.

Fango Pic #2: Me at the Closet Space table. People are digging the door.

So....last night Domingo, Marcus, Chris, Kristi and myself had dinner with Michael Gingold, Scooter McRae, and Mike Mendez. Very, very cool company for a horror nerd like me, and the conversation was excellent. I also found a male hetero life-mate in Scooter; we bonded over our shared love for Alien 3.

Today begins the second (and probably busiest) day of the convention, so we'll be pimping Closet Space super-hard. Tonight I believe we are having another "horror nerd night out". Awesome.

Fangoria pic #1. Me with Dee Snider.

"Street Justice....whoa oh oh!"

I'm sitting here at the Closet Space table at the Fangoria Weekend Of Horrors. The convention is a lot of fun so far, and it's only the first day. We've already made a ton of connections and talked our heads off about the movie. There's lots of interest, which is really, really cool. Most of the kind words we've recieved go something along the lines of "it looks like you guys had a huge budget". I try not to get a coronary each time I laugh at that one. It's definitely high praise in my eyes.

Tonight we're probably going to party/hobnob with some of the other horror luminaries, and then tomorrow night we are setting up an impromptu screening for one of our fellow filmmakers. Sunday is a day of mystery at this point, but I'm sure some of it will involve driving.

The Flesh Keeper completes principal photography tomorrow night...my friend Matt is taking my place there now since I'm in movie-pimping mode. The shoot was fun, yet harrowing, although we got some really really good stuff. I can't wait to see the finished project. The crew was great, as was the cast...I definitely have some casting ideas in mind for Closet Space 2 now.

It will take me a while to recover from the one-two punch of that shoot and this Fango trip, but I have a lot of relaxing editing in front of me. So...next stop - rough cut of Closet Space. Engage.