Newsletter -- December 1, 2003
Greetings, Dreamers!
Welcome back to the irregular newsletter for Guerrilla Productions, purveyor of some of the lowest-budget H. P. Lovecraft-inspired films in the Known Universe.
There's still time to pre-order The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath on DVD for Christmas. Furthermore, if you're in a really big hurry, or just not feeling up to the latest technological advances, we have a small number of VHS cassettes available NOW, for only $14.00 postage-paid (US address -- please write me for postage info for non-US addresses).
Order everything you want at: http://www.petting-zoo.org/OrderForm.html
The DVD (which we're more confident will be shipped before Christmas) has a bunch of very cool things on it:
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, of course. This is a completely remastered audio version. Cyoakha and I camped out for two days at the editing computer and went through every sound effect and voice and piece of music. It's better than you heard in the theater (if you saw it there).
- A Music-only track. If you aren't hearing enough of Cyoakha's wonderful music, now you'll be able to watch the movie and hear only her music, with the levels brought back up so you can hear every single nuance and subtle play. This is really a very cool thing -- it's like a 100-minute long concert!
- An early 90-second teaser/trailer. We played this at last year's H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival much to the excitement of the patrons and the only time since that it's seen the light of day has been on a very limited and very weird promotional DVD I published called "H. P. Lovecraft's Cosmic Horror Fun-Pak".
- Our final four-minute trailer, never before seen outside of the low-resolution website copy and personal showings. This is the one that still send chills down my arms!
- "The Call of Cthulhu", our one-minute short goofy movie that has strangely become one of our most popular downloads and film festival movies. For the first time, this is available in the highest possible resolution.
- "The Testament of Tom Jacoby", our award-winning eight-minute short that is still popular in various film festivals. This was Guerrilla Production's first big project and even now, when I watch it, it freaks me out!
- A "Making-Of" slideshow, complete with photographs. I'd suggest that you could almost make your own movie if you follow these steps, but I think you'll be better off combining these steps with the lengthier descriptions on our website. Still, it's a good rundown and -- despite the fact that it's my first slideshow -- I happen to think it came out really well!
- Finally, the thing that I think is the most cool about this DVD (well, aside from the fact that we did it!) is that this is a limited run of 1000 DVDs. They're signed and numbered and once they're gone, they're gone and we won't ever ever ever do a signed/numbered run again. Well, it's pretty freakin' unlikely, anyway, considering the logistics.
Cyoakha informs me that a soundtrack is available at her website, so if you want a piece of that action, point your browser to http://www.landoftheblind.com/. Trust me, you want a piece of this action. Although we have a music-only track on the DVD, this is not the same thing as the soundtrack. there are pieces in the movie that you only hear clips and bits of, cued to the video. The soundtrack's the full meal deal!
Hungry to know about our next project? Well, it's a little thing called "Shadowdog" and we've pretty much got it all done except for a few seconds of tricky-to-shoot footage. The set's put together and we're ready, but I had to loan out my brain. So, we're probably going to finish that shoot tomorrow and have the audio and video digitized by the end of the night. "Shadowdog" is very short, I should point out, but funny and very nice-looking!:
Shadowdog: http://www.petting-zoo.org/Movies_Shadowdog.html
"Innsmouth Legacy" is also in line after "Shadowdog". The script is done and we like it verrrry much. We've started storyboards. Man, some of these images are gonna knock your socks off! For "Innsmouth Legacy", we're looking for someone who knows lighting and we're also looking for a camera (preferably with a competent shooter attached!). As with all our projects, the pay is credit and copies of the finished product, as well as our eternal gratitude.
Innsmouth Legacy: http://www.petting-zoo.org/Movies_Innsmouth.html
Hey, all you other amateur sci-fi moviemakers, especially if you're in the Pacific Northwest, listen up! We run an annual moviemaking workshop at Norwescon, a science fiction convention held up near Sea-Tac. We are soliciting entries to "The Fandance Film Festival", short fan-made films. Note that one of the requirements is that you have to be a convention member. If you've never attended our workshop, then you could be in for a heckuva treat! Every year, we start from scratch with a bunch of people and make a short movie, from soup to nuts. It's a workshop format and we start with introduction to gear and go all the way to digital editing. One of the people who took this workshop a couple years ago called it "very empowering". I found this out after he had a film accepted to a film festival. Woo-hoo!
That URL is http://www.norwescon.org/filmfestival.php?menuarea=departments
Over and out!
Have fun! Dream! Live!
Cheers,
Edward
