brv Production Diary

November 2002

The day before Thanksgiving, we received a 2-sentence concept from Sub Rosa for Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires. Instantly we both had ideas forming in our heads. Hours and hours of phone conversations and face-to-face meetings followed and over the next 6 months we crafted the monsterous script.

Spring 2003

Before the script was finished, we took advantage of the fact that actor Jeff Dylan Graham had moved to Portland, only a couple hours north, and threw together a shoot for a part of the story that we jumped ahead and wrote. This was in March of 2003 just before my buddy John moved to Hollywood to eat pasta with Andy Dick and have coffee with Brinke Stevens (among other things like trying to break into "the biz."). Jeff played Lonnie Bob Joe opposite Shannon who played his wife Ronnie Lou. That evening we also shot scenes with Jeff and Shannon for an as-yet-uncompleted movie Mr. Bowker was working on.

Click here to see a few storyboards of the original opening sequence

August 6, 2003

This is a horror comedy I'm currently shooting. It's being done as a joint project with Mike Hegg of Rusted-Angel Productions. We both worked on the story, both wrote the script, both have been involved in casting, location scouting, scheduling, shooting, directing, make-up effects, props, buying beer, and all the other important things that go into making a fun b-movie. This is my first true collaboration on a project and it's been very interesting to say the least. But that's another post entirely. Many F&C Favorites return including Rob Merickel as "Lil' Junior," Shannon as "Ronnie Lou," Robert J. Olin as "BJ," and Felicia Pandolfi as "Catherine." They are joined by BJ Bradford as "Cletus," (BJ was actually an extra in CRIMSON HEATHER), Scott Shanks as "Jean-Cleaude Les Eaux," and Carrie Davis as "Ma" (Carrie is a founding member of REWind award-winners Bravado Entertainment). Fellow Bravado folks Alan Winston and Erin Arbogast (last seen in John Bowker's HOUSEBOUND) have hilarious cameos. Of course Mike Hegg and I managed to give ourselves small, but fun roles, and there are actually over 40 speaking parts in this monster! Many have been filled by the friendly folk of the quaint little town of Winlock, Washington, which is doubling for the movie's town of "Backwash."


Mike speaks up on 8/11/03

I remember when we were finishing up the script and started going through some of the various facts and figures (locations, characters, etc.). Since I was so caught up in writing the story, that was the very first time I realized that we had created a story that contained over 40 parts that needed casting (not including a few extras here and there)! I don't know about the anybody else, but to me, that seems like one hell of a lot. And yet, somehow, we're managing to make it work. (Although, I have been heard muttering to myself as I stumble across various sets: "Next movie - THREE people, that's it. Don't know what it's gonna be; - but I know it's gonna only have three people in it.")
mike


August 11, 2003

Just had another successful weekend of shooting on BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES. Just Saturday and Sunday this time around - started in downtown Portland, Oregon, shooting in a labrynthian (is that a word?!) basement with Felicia Pandolfi and Warren E.B.B. (both seen in Abomination: Evilmaker 2 and Werewolf Tales) as Catherine the vampire and her lowly assistant, Lendel. Felicia was great, pulling off the egotistical Catherine with a great Russian accent. I had told Rob Merickel I wanted Felicia's make-up like Femke Jansen's as Xenia Onatop in GOLDENEYE. Felicia said she'd thought it migght be cool to do a Russian accent - we tried it and it was cool, so we went with it. For you fans out there, just picture her decked out in an off-the-shoulder red dress and saying, "You cretinous dolt! You will not sleep here!" Pure gold! Then it was up to Winlock, Washington, where we had Catherine and Lendel encounter the lovable hillbilly BJ (short for Billy Joe Barney Bob). Lots of funny stuff here, too. We got to bed about 2:30 a.m. I got up about 5 hours later, packed up the lights and extension cords and we headed into town for breakfast at the Firehouse Cafe - damned good food that sticks to yer ribs. Good thing, because from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. we were shooting in a local bar...and using REAL BEER! It went very well and again - lots of great footage and hilarious performances. Rob had come up just to do make-up (he also plays Lil Junior in the movie) and we were thrilled to have him there - he did great bloody neckwounds, troubleshot fangs that wouldn't stay in and made people look like death warmed over. There was a handful of friends and relatives of the local cast there as extras, and everyone seemed to have a good time. We've got a big weekend planned for August 22, 23 and 24, but just as we were thinking we had all the pieces put together nicely (after having our first "Catherine" no show for the big "finale" shoot), I just heard last night that one of our principle players is now unavailable that weekend. CURSES!!!! Ah well, such is life in the micro-b-world! Logged


August 25, 2003

Another weekend of shooting on BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES. Those of you who've followed this project know that we were set to shoot the big finale back in mid-July, but our lead vampire was a no-show! We shot everything we could think of that didn't have to cut in directly with her scenes, but it really screwed things up for us.

So all these weeks later, we finally got to reshooting those remaining finale scenes with our new lead vampire Felicia (The Evilmaker, Abomination, The Seekers) Pandolfi. By now, the actor who had to appear with her in the scenes had moved south (and we were already shooting in a location about 3 hours north of where he used to live) so he drove 9 hours on Saturday, arriving in the afternoon. NINE HOURS!!! We shot all night and he drove back after breakfast the next day. Now THAT'S A TROOPER!!! The finale scenes went well, but it remains to be seen how they'll all cut together with the bits we shot in July.

Interesting stories? Well, before I even left town on Friday, I spilled about 43 ouces of a 44 oz soda in my car. Then, we accidentally shot 4 scenes with someone in the wrong outfit ("day one" instead of "day two"). To make matters worse: the actress didn't have the "day two outfit" with her.

Ya see, when we shot with her back in July, she brought 3 outfits, but we ended up needing 4, so the "day two outfit" became the shirt and shorts she wore up to the shoot. When she came up this time, she brought her "costumes" but forgot that one of them was her usual street clothes. We actually took a break and drove 30 minutes down the freeway to a mall and amazingly found a shirt that looked very much like the one she'd left at home! Whew!!!

Did I mention that the guy who drove 9 hours left his outfit at home, too? Luckily, he remembered that someone he knew who lived on the way up had a similar jacket, so he turned around and drove an hour or so back to Corvallis, and luckily the guy had the jacket and let him borrow it. Whew!!!

Looks like our next shoot will be September 13. The guy whose property we've been shooting on has a bar band and they've been so inspired by us shooting up there that they not only wrote a theme song for the movie, but they've been working on other bits of music for it as well, all completely unsolicited. Wow - who knew we'd be so inspirational? Anyhoo - the band is playing a gig on the 13th, so we're planning to head up and shoot it for use in the movie as well as a music video (hopefully included as a DVD extra or something).

And so it goes...


September 11, 2003

Just a quick update on BLOODSUCKING REDNECK VAMPIRES. I'll be joining my partner in crime Mike Hegg this weekend to go over footage and take a look at some of the color correction and fine-tuning he's done thus far. In a couple weeks we've got the final shots with Felicia Pandolfi as lead vampire Catherine scheduled and are looking to flesh out that weekend with additional shooting. Following that it looks like one more big weekend and we'll have everything shot. The actor playing Lendel, Warren E.B.B. (also seen in HOUSEBOUND) is also a part of a epic Star Wars fan film project that's been shooting off and on since last year. Turns out that the director was planning to finish up some stuff this weekend, but Warren was clean-shaven for his Star Wars character, while he'd grown a beard for Lendel. All is well, though, as the fan film director decided he could shoot around Warren this weekend and pick up that stuff after we're done with him as Lendel. Awww, isn't that sweet? We're just one big helpful microcinema family! More soon... - Joe


September 29, 2003

Just finished another weekend of shooting. Two main things were a beauty salon sequence (shot in a real salon) and a 'vampire's den" sequence (not actually shot in a real vampire's den). Lots of good stuff all around, especially Felicia (The Seekers) Pandolfi as Catherine the Vampire. She was dead-on - great expressions and a sexy Russian accent to boot! In one scene, she recited an entire page of dialogue in one shot. Warren (Housebound) E.B.B. was a perfect foil for her. The rest of the weekend was various pick-up shots: exteriors of buildings, landscapes, farm animals, etc. 4-self-contained (i.e. without the MAJOR cast) sequences left and we'll have this puppy wrapped! - Joe


October 10, 2003

Heading back up to Portland this weekend to shoot some pick-up/gore shots for the opening "vampires den" sequence. Haven't had any luck getting shoots together this past week, but last weekend I took care of some pick-up shots in my garage (all kinds of stuff getting knocked down and falling over - these shots will all go into what we're hoping will be a hilarious slapstick sequence). I also had a chance to shoot the "Father Jones" sequence with F&C favorite Tom Shaffer. Unfortunately we had a bit of trouble with the fangs, and after trying several sets and glue configurations, and having only one fang stick, I just blacked-out the other tooth and left him as a one-fanged vampire. I figured it was OK, as these are redneck vampires after all, so a missing tooth won't seem too out of the ordinary. As always, Tom gave a funny performance...and let me shoot in his bathroom...again. Tom's bathrooms have been seen in many a microbudget movie, including Dimension of Blood, Trailer Park Double Wide Trilogy of Terror, We Need Earth Women, Odd Noggins, Lust of the Vampire Hookers, Underbelly, Tom's own "Shadows of Dread," and now Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires, so I guess I was just following tradition.


October 29, 2003

Lots of stuff since my last post! Mike and I have had a couple more weekend shoots, several evening shoots, 3 more "flake-outs" (2 last-minute cancellations and ANOTHER no-show!), and all kinds of fun! In September, we finished up the scenes with Felicia (Evilmaker) Pandolfi and as usual she was awesome! During one sequence she recited a good half page of dialogue in one fell swoop, complete with a Russian accent, great facial expressions and playing off of her co-star Warren (Evilmaker 2) E.B.B. Since then, I've been picking up little scenes here and there while Mike has been capturing footage and assembling a rough cut just to see how scenes are flowing together. David (Underbelly) Duncan plays opposite Cynthia (Lust of the Vampire Hookers) Wilson in a great little scene, and heck I even got my 6-year-old son into the movie as a little vampire! I've got a shoot scheduled tonight to wrap up the "Eunice" scenes, featuring Dee (Lust of the Vampire Hookers) Alsman as Eunice and Jon (Evilmaker 2) as her hubbie Frank. Wish me luck!! - Joe


October 30, 2003

Well, last night was the last 'major' sequence for Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires: a handful of scenes with characters Eunice, played by Dee (Lust of the Vampire Hookers) Alsman, and her husband Frank, played by Jon (Underbelly) Wilmot.

Things got off to a typical no-budget movie start when Dee called - she had lost one of her kerchiefs (seen in a peviously-shot scene) so she was stopping by the fabric store to pick up a bit of fabric that would be close match. A fabric store two nights before Halloween? Hmmm..let's just say it was reeeeeeealy busy and we didn't see her for about an hour. Meanwhile, Jon showed up and even brought his own cowboy hat! Whaddaguy!

As always the first shot was slow getting done. Dee commented that my prop pile of spilled tripe caserolle on her foot looked like a pile of vomit. Well, I was going for a gross-out, but hadn't planned on it being THAT gross! First I panned up from the mess, past the messy pan Dee was holding, up to her PO'd face. Then I did a wider shot where Frank wanders in and innocently begins to point out the spill to Eunice, then gets smacked on the head with the pan. Jon had not only insisted on using a heavier pan than I had chosen (with some potholders taped to the back to cushion the blow) but also did a much larger pratfall than I had expected. What a trooper!

One bad thing was that I had poured corn syrup on the "pile of spilled tripe" to make it look slimy. I'd also put some in the pan so it looked like the spill had come from there, and also to help hold some frozen mixed vegetables and a bit of tang (for a lovely orange color) to the pan. Well, as we did take after take, Dee kept "recharging" the pan with more vegetables, corn syrup and tang, as the contents kept spilling out. It wasn't until after we'd shot the scene and she was in changing into her next outfit that Jon and I were doing a little clean up and realized that tang-infused corn syrup had gotten flung all over the kitchen - onto the cabinet doors, the oven, the floor, etc. DOH! In fact, this morning, my wife discovered splatters of the orange sticky stuff in the "bill basket" on the counter. DOUBLE DOH! Needless to say, I had a day of clean-up ahead of me.

I mixed some pork rinds with some avacado dip (mmmmmmmm) to make a bright green, lumpy mess to serve as the tripe dish Eunice makes Frank try. It looked super gross and Jon's expressions while being forced to eat it were priceless. He waited until after the third take to tell me of how terrible it was! I guess the spices were really burning his mouth, but again, that trooper was willing to do as many takes as it took...and it took about 3 more!

I thought it would be funny if when Frank (who has been turned to a vampire at this point in the story) bolted from the table after finding out there was garlic in the dish, he knocked Eunice to the floor. So we set Dee up on a stool, with couch cushions below her. When we did the actual take, Jon rushed out of the shot, Dee fell off the stool and her elbow landed in the space between two cushions with a loud thump! If that weren't enough, a glass got knocked off of the table and shattered all over the place. Luckily, Dee claimed her elbow was OK.

After a bit of clean-up, I finished up with a few more shots and we were wrapped for the night. There are a bunch of insert shots (clocks, house exteriors, etc.) that remain, plus of course all of the editing, special effects, music, sound effects, etc., etc. but it's that much closer now.

Once this is all done...I think I'll need a long nap!


January 20, 2004

Well kids, we passed the one-year mark about 2 months ago. It was the day before Thanksgiving 2002 that Tim Ritter e-mailed me a couple of story ideas from Sub Rosa head honcho Ron Bonk. One looked promising: a horror comedy concept described in just a couple of sentences. The town was called Salem Light then and there was no mention of One-Eyed Lurlene or a fruity French designer named Jean-Claude. Just the idea that a vampire hides out in a backwoods town and the townfolk are so stupid that after becoming vampires they end up killing themselves off by walking out it the sun, etc. From that tiny seed, Mike Hegg and I proceeded to create a microcinema epic of monsterous proportions. By the time the first draft was finished in the Spring of 2003, it was over 140 pages, featured over 40 speaking parts and a host of locations and effects. We were freakin' nuts!!! When the production kicked into high gear in July of 2003, we started on a roller coaster ride of brilliant performances, no-shows, recastings, reshoots, beans, cheesy effects, fantastic effects, people who claim not to be actings proving that they are indeed not actors, good times, bad times, beer, beer and more beer. While this may sound like I'm wrapping something up here, I'm really not because the thing STILL isn't done!

It's getting close, though. The basic video edit is done. There are plenty of sound effects and some music dropped in. A few CGI shots have been completed. While Mike toils away on visual and sound effects, and fine-tuning the movie, I've been working on a behind-the-scenes featurette as well as a collection of bloopers. When will it be done? Soon. In a month or 2. I hope.


February 7, 2004

Spent the weekend getting sound effects and music dropped in along with a tiny bit of video tweaking here and there.


March 17, 2004

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Well, not done yet, but getting closer all the time. The behind-the-scenes featurette is basically done - it just needs some music and a bit of audio tweaking. I got the raw footage tapes from Mike a few weeks ago and have captured bloopers off of about half of the 20 miniDV tapes. I did cut together the 20 or so whacks to the head with a frying pan that Robert J. Olin took during a seemingly endless night of takes of the BJ and Darlene scenes. Edited together in a rapid-fire fashion it's pretty damned funny. Also put some serious time in on writing up press kit materials to submit to the distributor with synopsis, cast & crew list, bit of a making-of article, etc. Working on touching up some promo photos as well. Meanwhile, Mike is working on cutting together a trailer before getting back to CGI effects and a bit more music work on the movie itself.


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