TK Filmmaking History

TK FILMMAKING HISTORY (Mythopolis)
(OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THESE MOVIES)

I.	CAMCORDER HORROR FLICKS	(1990-1991)
II.	FIRST SHORT FILMS	(1991-1992)
III.	EXPERIMENTAL ANTIQUES	(1993-1995)
IV.	CHICAGO SUPER8 HYPER-DOCS	(1995-1998)
V.	16MM HOME MOVIES	(1998-2000)
VI.	DV ERA	(2000-2002)
VII.	TIME-LAPSE	(2003-2005)
VIII.	PRESENT MASTER PLAN	(2005-2007)

All films produced, directed, shot, edited and sound designed by TK unless otherwise noted.

I. CAMCORDER HORROR FLICKS (1990-1991)

This was the beginning. Ridiculous short cam-corny horror spoofs, usually produced with no script, cast on the spot, shot in sequence and edited in-camera (except VACUUM SCREAMERS.) The talent was made up of friends, relatives and whoever was within shooting range. The story was conceived on the fly and basically was constructed by determining how each person would bite the dust. When the filming stopped the movie was finished and we watched it to great amusement and self-ridicule. Other more objective viewers either found the movies ridiculously entertaining or inexcusably disturbing and stupid, much like today's big budget releases.

The following movies comprise the Camcorder Horror Flicks and were all shot on 8mm video with an RCA camera.

SHEET STALKER - The first movie I ever made. College co-ed has bad dreams, worse reality.
SHEET STALKER II - The sequel, probably shot the same night.
UNTITLED CEDAR POINT HORROR - Basically Sheet Stalker at an amusement park employee dorm.
EVIL DEAD 4 - Deadly skeleton rises from magic green glob. Shot before Army of Darkness was released.
CHAINSAW DEATH MASSACRE - Red Karo food syrup, Styrofoam dummy head and a Playskool chainsaw!
DEADLY PUPPETS – Main highlight is my brother setting his hand on fire.
KILLER GERBILS - More of the same, but with gerbils. As with most exercises involving gerbils, this was probably the lowest point… of the lowest point.
UNTITLED SEANCE HORROR - Hot chicks and cool dudes invite bad spirits.
CHEESEHEADS - Innocent college kids get possessed... by Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Or is it "cheese and macaroni?" This was a blast to make and I consider it my in-camera masterpiece... ya.
VACUUM SCREAMERS - A bloodthirsty vacuum cleaner goes on a rampage. Spoofs Halloween, Evil Dead and Invasion of the Bodies Snatchers. The most planned of the cam-corny flicks and the first post-production experience for me, editing between two VHS-decks with six-frame accuracy. Only the best. Of course there was no hesitation in experimenting - running clips in reverse, cheesy video transitions and blood literally running down the screen in true Sam Raimi Evil Dead fashion. Thanks to Bruce Campbell for making an appearance in the opening scene, via Evil Dead 2 - a horror classic. He is officially the biggest name actor to appear in any of my films. This was the last of my shoot-from-the-hip camcorder spoofs. Vacuum Screamers should have secured my future as a bankable low-budget horror filmmaker, but sadly, it did not.

Undeveloped Project - Cedar Point Comedy/Gangster Film - The story centered on employees of the amusement park’s various rides (Cadillac Cars, Turnpike Cars and Dodge 'Em) battling each other and the pitfalls of the summer job itself. Permission from the park was not granted.

II. FIRST SHORT FILMS (1991-1993)

Purchasing my first film camera, a Chinon 20 XL Super8, I created my first Super8 films including LIKE A GHOST during this period. At the same time I continued to shoot on 8mm video and made the infamous short horror gore-fest 773-H and the silly GODZILLA VS AMERITECH & GRANDPA'S TRUCK! The striking contrast of these two projects expresses the dichotomy that has always existed in my artwork ever since I was a little kid drawing movie posters for faux slasher films one day and then turning around and creating a pastel chalk picture of Bambi the next. By the way, the Chinon 20 XL was awesome and allowed me to do in-camera dissolves, which helped create the ghostly effects in LIKE A GHOST.

773-H was a TALES FROM THE CRYPT-like story in which my shooting and editing style was heavily influenced by James Cameron's TERMINATOR 2 and executed using the wonderful little contraption known as the Steadicam Jr. The 30-minute horror movie was shot over summer break and included buckets of blood, vigilante shoot outs, an emergency room scene, a deal with devil, a prison break and a shotgun blast that actually destroyed my camera and put me in the hospital (I hope my mom isn't reading this.) We eventually finished the film and it was a minor cult hit on the Bowling Green State University campus at the time. Along with most of the camcorder shorts and the Super8 films it was screened at various venues in town.

Two years after being bit by the filmmaking bug, this collection of films was to culminate in a feature horror film that I was targeting for the underground independent home video market during the heyday of Film Threat. The film, HORROR HEAD, was a grisly ghost story in the vein of Evil Dead (of course) and based on a short story "A Free Place to Sleep" from my favorite childhood book TALES FROM THE MIDNIGHT HOUR. Unfortunately the location, a fantastic old hotel built in the 1890s and untouched since the 1950s, was pulled out from under us only two weeks before shooting was to start. It was the typical heartbreaking kiss of death for the project, mainly because the script was centered on the infamous location, the Miliken Hotel in downtown Bowling Green, Ohio, and I could not find a suitable replacement. I've always wonder what would have happened if I'd made HORROR HEAD. In hindsight, the script is not perfect by any means but I think I could've made a film hard-core horror fans would have enjoyed and it would've made for a great filmmaking experience.

Soon after the production of HORROR HEAD came to a halt, I moved to Chicago and would not tackle a narrative film until eight years later with THE SPOOKY INCIDENT, which would be very different in the way of style and execution.

IDIOT BOX (1991)
Short Film
A boob-tuber gets sucked into the television, literally.
Music - Marty Willson-Piper "Travelling Through The Sea Of Sun Machines"
Super8

BLOOD MONEY (1991)
Short Film
Two purse snatchers jump a woman taking a cemetery stroll.
Music - Led Zepplin "Whole Lotta Love"
Super8

RETENTION (1991)
Short Film
A residual nightmare of abuse.
Music - Tangerine Dream "The Dance" (From the soundtrack for Legend)
Super8, Video8

LIKE A GHOST (1992)
Music Video - Short Film
A young man tries to connect with his lover from the other side. This Super8 film was edited together the old fashioned way by cutting and splicing together with tape.
Music - Steve Kilbey "Like a Ghost" (A bonus track on the Slow Crack CD)
Super8, Video8

773-H (1992)
Short Underground Horror Movie
Convicted killer Frank Chapman escapes from prison, but can’t seem to run far enough away from his inevitable punishment. Extremely gory.
Features Shawn Podgurski, now a member of the hot Chicago indie band Sybris and Andrew Fuller of Charlotte's Webb fame.
Music - Kronos Quartet from Black Angels
Hi8

WISH (1992)
Music Video Montage
Experimental montage featuring footage from the Rodney King incident.
Music - Nine Inch Nails "Wish"
Video

GODZILLA VS AMERITECH AND GRANDPA'S TRUCK! (1992)
Stop Motion Short
Grandpa’s Truck, an antique toy from the 1930s, finds itself in the center of a battle between a raging Godzilla doll and the animated corporate monster Ameritech!
Music - The original version of the movie used Steve Kilbey's "Memory" (From Earthed)
Helena, OH
Edited by Sean Ivory + tk
Hi8 (original), 3/4" (edit)

BASTARDS & BITCHES (1993)
Music Video
Music - Charlotte's Webb "Bastards & Bitches"
Hi8

Undeveloped Project - HORROR HEAD. On the Super8 end, THE DISILLUSIONIST, which was to be another music video/short film in the style of LIKE A GHOST centering on a time-traveling Jack the Ripper character. Inspired by and set to The Church's "The Disillusionist" from Priest = Aura.

III. EXPERIMENTAL ANTIQUES (1993-1995)

After graduating and moving from Ohio to Chicago I found myself without "actor" friends that were willing to do fly-by-night projects, so I began experimenting with lighting, camera techniques and abstract images using sound and emotion as the inspiration. One project to come out of this was abstract images and feedback loops set to Curve's ambient Blackerthreetracker releases. Also, at this same time I found my Grandfather's 8mm film collection which included home movies, old cartoons and a vintage nudie film, some of which I began syncing to industrial music and mixing with my experimental images.

In between these projects I shot two no-budget commercials for a Chicago antique store, mixing live-action and stop-motion using a video camera. I continued to shoot a great deal of footage during this period but most of it was never actually used for anything specific. However, I learned a little bit more about the camera, controlling the aperture, depth of field and the distortion of life through the lens. I also shot the closet classic "Serial Killer Theater" with a cohort. These black-comedy mockumentary shorts were rarely viewed as we would only show previous episodes to unsuspecting viewers, who were unwittingly partaking in the newest installment of the series.

The parallel dichotomy of this particular period seemed to be the contrast of the fascination with old 8mm film footage and the allure of the clean sharp video images of abstraction and slick kaleidoscopic feedback loops.

A WARM PLACE (1993)
Experimental Montage
Abstract images convey decay of relationship.
Music - Nine Inch Nails "A Warm Place"
Hi8

KINDA I WANT TO (1994)
Music Video Montage
Mix vintage 8mm nudie film with feedback.
Music - Nine Inch Nails "Kinda I Want To"
Hi8, 8mm

LOST ERAS COMMERCIAL #1 (1994)
Stop Motion/Live Action Commercial
What happens when the owner closes shop for the night.
Chicago, IL
Edited by Sean Ivory
Hi8 (original), 3/4" (edit)

LOST ERAS #2 (1994)
Stop Motion/Live Action Commercial
An animated vintage corset dresses a mannequin body.
Chicago, IL
Edited by Sean Ivory
Hi8 (original), 3/4" (edit)

CHICAGO STYLE (1995)
Commercial
Ridiculous hot-dog dance sequence.
Chicago, IL
Hi8 (original), 3/4" (edit)

MISSING LINK (1995)
Music Video Montage
Features cool footage from National Geographic.
Music - Curve "Missing Link (Screaming Bird Mix)" - Remix by Flood & Trent Reznor
Video

RISING HEADSPACE (1995)
Music Video Montage
Trippy feedback and abstract images with a focus on the trippy.
Music - Curve "Rising (Headspace Mix)” – Remix by The Future Sound of London
Video

HALF THE TIME (1995)
Music Video Montage
More trippy feedback and abstract images with a focus on the abstract.
Music – Curve “Half the Time (Honey Tongue Mix)” – Remix by The Drum Club
Video

SERIAL KILLER THEATER (1995)
Mockumentary
Strangers and friends looking for a free place to sleep watch our sinister home movies, in which we murder strangers and friends who were looking for a free place to sleep.
Video

IV. CHICAGO SUPER8 HYPER-DOCS (1995-1998)

This is when most of my "documontage" or music video slash documentary montage films were created. In the summer of 1994, my precious Sony V-801 Hi8 camcorder broke down just before my friend's wedding so I turned back to the trusty Chinon 20 XL camera that I'd shot my early Super8 films with and improvise with lighting and style.

For THE BACHELOR PARTY I began using a technique in which I captured events using short bursts of motion picture film with photo flashes and flashlights when there was not enough natural light. I complimented this with random frantic shots of surrounding elements and faces, double exposures, and sometimes post-production scratching on the developed film. It has a very early-90s MTV music video style look, but it was bare bones no-budget (as usual) and the final editing and sound-sync was done by video taping the raw film projected on the wall, often without the need for editing. The serendipitous timing of the music with the hyper images of the film was usually quite startlingly synchronized as anyone who has ever braved to capture a moment or event using this technique has discovered.

I miss shooting in this style and it forever changed the way I viewed the filmmaking process, especially in an age when videographers roll off hours of useless footage and corporations spent countless time and money on filming events with multiple cameras only to produce painfully boring material. Give me two 50-foot rolls of Super8 film and I will capture your event in a hyper-style rock star fashion and viewers will be glued to 5 minutes of motion picture magic. I have never recorded a wedding, party, or personal event any other way since and I wouldn't really want to unless the style was entirely unsuitable.

From the time the Sony V-801 breaks down again in 1996 I will not personally own a working video camera until 2005 when I purchase a new Sony HDV camera for the documentary project A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS. Throughout the next ten years I will experiment will all sorts of shooting techniques using 16mm, Super8 film, spy cameras and still cameras in order to create motion pictures.

As a cameraman and editor for a company producing national cable shows, I will have access to BetaSP cameras and high end linear editing system during this period as well, balancing my frantic artistic style with more conservative shooting and editing work experiences. This contrast will be the beginning of a give and take battle between the creative personal projects and the conservative day jobs that will shape my style for better or worse over the next decade.

THE BACHELOR PARTY (1995)
Documontage – Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - My Bloody Valentine "Soon"
Super8

THE WEDDING (1995)
Documontage – Documentary
Music – Loreena McKennitt “Tango to Evora” (mp3)
Super8

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO (1996)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - Beck "Jackass"
Super8

EDGE (1996)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - Steroid Maximus “Quilombo”
Super8

JOHNNY ZERO BUMPERS (1997)
Experimental Montages
BetaSP

HUNTER HARRIS AND HIS BYPLANE (1997)
Documentary
Hunter flies a class stearman biplane out of Easton, Maryland
BetaSP, Super8

THE WAYBACK MACHINE (1997)
Documentary
BetaSP

WARHOL'S FACTORY (1997)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - The Velvet Underground "I'm Waiting for the Man"
Super8

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (1997)
Documentary Montage - Photo Collage
Music - The Beatles "All You Need is Love"
Hi8, 35mm still photographs

DESTINATION UNKNOWN (1998)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Road trip from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico and through New Orleans and back up.
Music - Various
Super8

I AM VISITED BY PIXIES (1998)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - The Verve "This is Music"
Super8

LIFE (1998)
Concert Backdrop Montage
Projected at The Metro
Musical Performance - Vivid (AKA Whirlygig)
Video, 16mm, Super8

ALL FAREWELLS SHOULD BE SUDDEN (1998)
Documontage - Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - The Verve "Bittersweet Symphony"
Super8

Undeveloped Project: JOHNNY ZERO, which was a project I pitched to the production company I was working for at the time. It was basically a wacky variety show featuring all sorts of "alternative" and underground personalities, hosted by the crazed maniac that ran the production company. I have often toyed with the idea of writing a script based on my experiences at the company.

V. 16MM HOME MOVIES (1998-2000)

During this period I became obsessed with collecting 16mm home movies from 1890-1980s and I began shooting my own "home movie" footage with a Bolex 16mm camera in the more conventional old school style, as opposed to the hyper Super8 documontage material. Using the Bolex I do some minor experimentation with multiple exposure montages and long shutter speed exposures as well.

During this time, I also half-heartedly attempt to shoot an all-too ambitious film called MYTH before realizing that the effort is futile. The film is really many stories wrapped up into an epic movie that would realistically cost millions to even consider and would honestly have very little commercial appeal. In addition, although filled with ideas, the script is unprofessional and chaotic.

It's during this same period that I take a day job with a former Learning Sciences facility at Northwestern University and finally have (or rather take) the opportunity to dabble in non-linear editing and blue-screen shooting techniques. I will also, through an uncanny chain of circumstances, get immersed in creating experimental music and sound design under the moniker "pan" during this time period.

COLLECTION OF VINTAGE 16MM FILMS (1998-Present)
Various 16mm films from 1890s to 1990s

RUST & RELICS INTRO (1998)
Stop Motion Short
Chicago, IL
Hi8

AMBITIOUS PRODUCTIONS INTRO (1998)
Stop Motion Short
Chicago, Illinois USA
Shot by tk
Executive Producers: Gavin Stokes, Lou Frierson, James Franzen & Anthony Kern
16mm

A THREAD OF LIFE THROUGH SPROCKET HOLES (1998)
Experimental - Documentary Montage
Screened at Big Horse, Chicago, IL
Music - Various - Radiohead, Spiritualized, The Church
16mm

SALVATION ARMY MURAL OCCURRENCE (1996)
Documentary Short
Music - pan "Pal"
Hi8

ALEE INTERROGATION (1998)
Part of the uncompleted MYTH project
Video

MYTH INTRO (1999)
Documentary Montage
Music - pan "Reborn," "Indiana Turnpike 2012"
Beta SP, 16mm, Super8

Undeveloped Project - Clearly MYTH, the project that continues to haunt. Many of the characters and scenarios in the MYTH script will undoubtedly present themselves in future projects. The ALEE INTERROGATION was part of MYTH and the interrogation scenes alone would clock in at a full hour and they were only a fraction of MYTH's story. Some of the concepts and characters in the MYTH script are found in scripts for POV, FROZEN, FACTORY and THE SPOOKY INCIDENT. There was also a music video short film I wanted to do for The Church's song "Buffalo" from their CD Hologram of Baal. I wrote a script for The Church's "Buffalo" music video, but never attempted to shoot it. I've always wished that I could make films as good as the music this band makes, but thus far, I really don't have anything that compares.

VI. DV ERA (2000-2002)

Digital Video hit the market full force in 2000 along with more affordable editing and I finally decided to tackle another short narrative, THE SPOOKY INCIDENT, with my largest budget to date at a mere $1500. During this period I also produced two-dozen music video montages using footage from the 16mm home movie collection and my own footage.

THE SPOOKY INCIDENT was publicly screened at the Brew & View (The Vic) in Chicago and is my first film to screen in a festival, where it won an "Audience Choice" award. There were a handful of other screenings throughout Chicago featuring various works - many of them montages for bands to play with, including Combo Number Three playing to a packed Double Door crowd for the film CARETHA.

As a Christmas present for my niece and nephew, I created the original ROBOT MAN short, animating a character created by my nephew and incorporating some of the 16mm home movie footage I'd shot of them earlier that year. I whipped it together in three days and came up with the wacky narrator voice, characteristic of the old 16mm news reels I'd been collecting.

Apple's Final Cut Pro brought affordable digital editing into the living room and obviously made such projects more feasible. Again, there is the balancing contrast between the silly children's flick ROBOT MAN and the dark horror of THE SPOOKY INCIDENT in my work, although the extreme graphic horror element is no longer as prevalent.

Meanwhile, the Chicago independent scene was growing and I had planned to do a feature film, CINEMACABRE, a psychological thriller that would've been a joint effort with some Chicagowood producers. This project would have spoken for the much darker side of my work but failed to come to complete fruition. A few months later, I moved to Los Angeles to avoid another harsh Chicago winter and work on more writing. This move across the country would take my creative work in yet another direction.

THE SPOOKY INCIDENT (2001)
Short Film
Music - Various (Film Score - pan)
Screenings - Brew & View (The Vic), World Horror Short Film Festival (Audience Choice Award), Halfway to Hollywood, New York City Horror Film Festival, Chicago Community Cinema (Best Editing Award), Metropolis
Digital Video, 16mm

ROBOT MAN (2001)
Animation/Live Action Short
Screened at Dragon-con 2002
Music - Man or Astro-Man? "Timebomb"
Digital Video, 16mm

RADIOWAVE SWOON (2002)
Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - Garage Kubrick "Radiowave Swoon"
Screenings - Brew & View (The Vic), Chicago Community Cinema
16mm

CARETHA (2002)
Collection of 5 Music Video Montages
Music - Combo Number Three (reformed as Sybris) "Caretha"
Screened at The Double Door, Chicago, IL
Digital Video, 16mm, Super8

SONIC WALLPAPER SCENES (2002)
Collection of 10 Music Video Montages
Music - Garage Kubrick "Sonic Wallpaper Scenes"
Digital Video, 16mm, Super8

Undeveloped Project - CINEMACABRE. The project stalled two days before the shoot in yet another heartbreaking end to an incomplete project. As with HORROR HEAD, I wonder what would have happened if this film had been made. It was a very interesting project that incorporated a unique shooting style. But alas, the dream of completing a feature film was once again thwarted. Another project that failed to materialize was, STALKER, an ambitious short music video for the Garage Kubrick track. I did a script and storyboard for Garage Kubrick's "STALKER" music video but it was never shot.

VII. TIME-LAPSE (2003-2005)

Moving to California and feeling a little, well, lost and lonely in "Lost Angeles," I decided to drive around aimlessly while capturing experimental high resolution time-lapse shots of the city and the surrounding area. The cathartic exploration left me with a collection of high end time-lapse clips and eventually I captured footage in Los Angeles, Chicago, rural Ohio, Tampa, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Bali. All of this footage now falls under the banner, TK TIME-LAPSE. My answer to each project idea during this time period seemed to be... time-lapse. Every project I've filmed since has involved some sort of shot incorporating the technique, although honestly it can be seen in a number of earlier projects as well. I've even considered shooting an entire narrative feature this way and I'm certainly not discounting tackling the idea in the future.

During this period I secure a post-production job with AOL Time-Warner and hone my editing while picking up some animation skills using After Effects. One of the teams' projects incorporates my high resolution time-lapse clips and we win a 2nd place BDA/PROMAX award. This gives myself and teammate Roger Ramnath (Digital Ghetto) an opportunity to run with another project, RED's "Scary Movie Contest" Promo and we are given two weeks to create the piece without corporate interference. This provides the opportunity to explore some 3D animation techniques in After Effects with positive results, which will later be utilized in the sequel to ROBOT MAN, the original obviously being a very simplistic animation exercise.

After completing two HD time-lapse documontages, TAKE IT ALL and IN DUST REALITY, combining my new high resolution visuals with my sound design/music, I enter SHORT & SWEET into the Cadillac Under-5 contest. The contest is for a five-second film. Surprisingly, I opted for the Drama category with a Buster Keaton-inspired "boy meets girl, boy loses girl" scenario. The short is a runner-up.

In the second half of 2004 I had spent six-months on nights and weekends creating ROBOT MAN VS OCHOMONSTER, yet another unorthodox film exercise. The film is shot on 16mm and a digital still camera with no script. Even as I was laboriously tweaking the animated sequences I was basically making up the story as I went along. I think this method of operation goes back to my roots, shooting in-camera horror spoofs, combined with the fact that a number of bigger projects that were actually scripted and planned for in the past have fallen through. ROBOT MAN vs OCHOMONSTER ended up making festival rounds in a number of childrens film festivals throughout 2005. TAKE IT ALL, one of the HD documontages also gets a festival screening.

Meanwhile, my TK TIME-LAPSE clips found various distributors and the footage has been used by MTV, VH1, UPN, AOL, Time Warner along with various videos and other independent productions. So ya, what about that writing I set out to do upon moving out west?

Undeveloped Project - xINDY, which was not a film project per se, but rather a wider on-line channel concept developed with Roger Ramnath. In typical corporate fashion we found our pitch panned and then partially incorporated into various future projects by the company, which shall remain unnamed. Being of the corporate nature however, this undeveloped project had no effect on me personally, in contrast with the other "lost" personal film projects.

SOMETHING IN THE WALLS (2003)
Short Horror Film
Edited by Roger Ramnath (Digital Ghetto) & tk
Aired on AMC's Monsterfest 2003 Short Screamers
Digital Video

ZACK'S POKER PARTY (2003)
Music Video - Documentary Montage
Music - Chasing Echo "Master Plan"
16mm

RED SCARY MOVIE CONTEST PROMO (2004)
Animated short
Los Angeles, CA
Lindsay, OH
Shot by tk
Edited by Roger Ramnath (Digital Ghetto) & tk
HD/2K

TAKE IT ALL (2004)
Music Video Montage
Los Angeles, CA
Shot & Edited by tk
Music - Chasing Echo "Take It All" (mp3)
Screened at Gotham City Film Festival 2005
HD/2K

IN DUST REALITY (2004)
Music Video Montage
Los Angeles, CA
Shot & Edited by tk
Music - Chasing Echo "In Dust Reality" (mp3)
HD/2K

SHORT & SWEET (2005)
Stop Motion/Animation
Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, it rains. A five-second movie!
Los Angeles, CA
Shot & Edited by tk
Runner-Up Cadillac Under-5 Contest
HD/2K

ROBOT MAN VS OCHOMONSTER (2005)
Animation/Live Action Short
Music - Chasing Echo "Tsunami Twist" (mp3) and "Rinky Dink"
Screenings - Chicago International Children's Film Festival, Brooklyn International Film Festival - KidsFilmFest, Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival, Ohio Independent Film Festival, Red Wagon Film Fest
Digital Video, 16mm

VIII. PRESENT MASTER PLAN (2005-Current)

This is the moment that a generation of independent filmmakers having been pining for... affordable high definition. It promises to put higher end professional equipment in the hands of indy artists like myself. However, I find myself ill prepared to a large extent. Unable and unwilling to play the corporate ladder game or sacrifice creative skills over a button pushing alter I opted out of the full-time job scenario and prepared to embrace the path of the uninsured artist.

Another reason for jumping the corporate ship was that after two years I was frustrated will my inability to get a feature project off of the ground. Not because I couldn't find interested parties or investors, but mainly because I still, after all this time, had no solid script that I felt strongly about. I had finished rough drafts of the adventure-comedy SANDUSKY COUNTY BOUNTY and the psychological-horror POV, but put them on the back burner along with a slew of other half-finished, stalled scripts including the horror stories FROZEN and FACTORY.

Working the full-time job, dabbling in the short film projects on the side, and juggling time-lapse footage were constantly putting up time consuming roadblocks in the way of script writing. But editing work and time-lapse were all putting money in my pocket so it was hard to walk away from that and face the unknown prospects of starvation. At some point I realized I had to make a decision. Whether to stick with the status quo and make a decent living and possibly get a script finished and a feature project off the ground in the distant future or to take the plunge and push the creative process into full throttle and lay the cards down. I've chosen the latter simply because if I didn't I realized I would never have a chance to create even a fraction of the stories that were already growing in my imagination.

I've saved enough money to get by for about two years and I'm determined to work on my own projects, writing and producing, for that time. On the last Friday of July 2005 I walked away from the full-time job. On Monday, I was taking a flight to Singapore with a new camera in hand to do a documentary on a dying ritual I knew very little about, hungry ghost month. The seventh lunar month hungry ghost rituals, based on the belief that the souls of hell are released to wander the earth for the entire lunar cycle, intrigued me and I decided to do research in person for a possible narrative script idea. I figured if I was going to research, I might as well record interviews, and if I was going to videotape interviews and rituals I might as well use my shooting and editing skills and try and put it all into a documentary. When I left the states, I had no idea what would happen. All I knew was that some people in Asia believed that all the wandering souls would be set free in order to fulfill their wants and desires for that entire month. I decided that I was going to be one of those wandering souls.

Having captured forty hours of footage during hungry ghost month in Singapore, I'm prepared to seek grants and finishing funds. I'd like to believe differently, but I do suspect it's another game of who you know. However, I am prepared to edit the documentary A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS without aid if necessary. That will probably take up six months of my two-year plan.

In the meantime, I'm working on a feature length ROBOT MAN spec script for the future, which will take another six-months. This leaves one full year, which I hope to spend choosing a feature horror script, possibly FACTORY, to write and then produce. Of course, as the unfocused artist, I must confess to having already shot footage for another ROBOT MAN short, horror short, and two short documentary pieces. But those may not realistically see the light of day for quite some time. When the dust clears at the end of 2007, I hope to have accomplished either Plan A or Plan B. Plan A is two finished features - one documentary (A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS) and one narrative horror film. Plan B is the finished documentary and two feature spec scripts. That is the plan. Stay tuned to watch the story unfold...

A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS (2006)
Documentary Feature
On the seventh lunar month the souls of hell are released to wander the earth.
Shot in Singapore, August 2005
Not yet completed
Trailer is available
HD

THE MITRE (2006)
Documentary Short
The confines of a decaying century old hotel have a strange allure for two tenants and a squatter who claims partial ownership.
Shot in Singapore, September 2005
Not yet completed
HD

STAY (2006)
Short Horror
A photographer spends the afternoon taking photos of an old abandoned house.
Shot in Ohio, November 2005
Not yet completed
HD

ROBOT MAN VS FIREMONSTER (2007)
Animation/Live Action Short
Robot Man faces off with the hot-tempered Firemonster in the Big Apple.
Shot 16mm footage in New York City, June 2005
Digital Video, 16mm

TK Terms:

Aliases - Also known as Anthony Kern, Tony Kern, A. T. Kern, pan, Chasing Echo and tk.

Chicagowood - "Chicagowood" is a term coined to describe amateur producers that have come back from Los Angeles, with little or no success and sometimes no real experience, but bring all of the bad things about the studio system back with them to the midwest.

Documontage - A stylistic capturing of everyday life set to music. Sort of like a cross between music videos and documentary footage. Not something you'd see on Discovery, but closer to something you'd see on MTV, back in the days when it aired music videos.

Undependent Filmmaker - The independent filmmaker has for the most part merger with the Studio system in one way or another, either through process or style. Independent production seems to emulate studio production in almost every way except for budget and content. But those differences are blurring as well. The undependent filmmaker is closer to the Garage Kubrick and has little or no connection to either the Hollywood establishment or the independent networks. The undependant filmmaker is making films without much regard for acceptance within the industry.

Uninsured Artist - Almost anyone can afford to make a movie on some level, it just may not be profitable or put bread on the table. The filmmaker hobbiests of today are a dime a dozen, like the painters of yesterday. As an independent filmmaker however I'm not actually starving like some of the artists of the past. If it gets to that point I freelance on the side, but in choosing to pass on a career in the corporate world I'm losing the perks of a full-time position, such as health insurance. Thus today, I'm not so much a "starving artist" as much as I am an "uninsured artist." Dig?