We’re giving away 10 Free Copies of the Brand-New, Ultimate “B” Horror Collection, the SHOCK-O-RAMA HORROR COLLECTION - PLUS – each DVD collection includes a complimentary set of 8x10s! – See info below to enter!
About the Collection: Available at a store near you June 15, 2010, the Shock-O-Rama Horror Collection contains the four feature films SCREAMING DEAD, BITE ME!, SHOCK-O-RAMA and BACTERIUM. Kurt Dahlke over at DVDTalk.com got a sneak peak at the collection and proclaimed:
“Lovers of this stuff want cheap, smart laughs, cheesy gore, great monsters and much, much nudity. Piper delivers in spades, and he doesn't insult you in the process” Read entire review here
The Contest: Practical effects wizard and Director of the films featured in the SHOCK-O-RAMA HORROR COLLECTION, Brett Piper, is heavily influenced by classic stop motion animators RAY HARRYHAUSEN and WILLIS O'BRIEN, who created some incredible creatures during their respected careers. To win your complimentary copy of the SHOCK-O-RAMA HORROR COLLECTION plus the ultra cool 8x10s, send an email reply to the question
What is your favorite Stop Motion animated movie monster?
to publicity@alternativecinema.com
Pretty easy huh? Winners will be alerted by email the final week of June. And, be sure to check back the first of every month for a new AC promotion and a new contest.
Meet MARS of DEAD HOUSE MUSIC, composer, musician, horror fan and the composer of the original scores for the Stephen Romano Presents Shock Festival DVD.
Could you give the Alternative Cinema audience some background information on your career in film or the arts in general? My pleasure. I grew up in a musical household, and have a background in music ranging from musical theatre, Classical and Jazz, thru Death Metal and Goth rock. I performed / toured in the extreme metal scene of the 1990's and decided to get off the road around 2004 or so. As a fan of genre film, who just happens to be a musician and composer, I figured that by establishing a studio in my own home I could pursue my primary career while simultaneously exploring my other passion: Horror films. I grew up on Universal Monsters and Hammer horror, and later I discovered Italian Giallo and other styles of Euro Horror. So, working within the genre just seemed to make sense.
I decided to sharpen up my orchestral chops, and I began looking for film work in 2005. I opened DEAD HOUSE MUSIC that same year, as a company dedicated to creating quality scores for independent genre film. 17 films later, I'm still on that mission.
I understand that you composed the music for various menus and intros on the Shock Festival project, what brought you to this project? I was on Paige Davis' radar, and she called me when it came time to brainstorm for the project. She actually asked me initially to direct a trailer based upon one of Stephen's “films” that was supposed to be a lost H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. Anyone who knows me knows what a Lovecraft nerd I am. Anyway, at the time (directing a trailer) seemed like a bit of a stretch for me time-wise…so, I offered to write some music for a few of the other trailers and perhaps to do a central theme song for SHOCK FESTIVAL instead.
After corresponding with Stephen, we hit it off so well, I just kind of ran with the inspiration as it came. The result was a lot more music than I'd initially intended, but Stephan & Paige really dug what I was coming up with, so no one seemed to mind. Now the music is a really integral part of the project, and I'm really pleased that it turned out this way.
What is the process of composing music for projects like this? I'd say it begins with 30 years of being a genre fan. Seriously, I have my bases covered when it comes to this world. Being able to reference multiple eras thru several decades of film music styles, let alone being able to reproduce those styles convincingly, by myself, takes some serious effort, I don't mean to sound arrogant, but that's the truth. But it never FELT like work, I was just indulging myself and immersing myself in the fantasy world Stephan had set up already, mixed with all the genre music I had absorbed thru being a fan for so long. The two mirror each other so closely that they crossed over. From a technical standpoint, I used as many vintage guitars, amps, drums, and various other musical instruments as I could get my hands on. This was to get the correct tones that were crucial in making the music seem truly credible as being from the past. After that, I used selective equalization techniques and vinyl noise to “Age” the recordings properly. I think the results are pretty convincing if I do say so myself.
Are there any current or future projects you would like people to know about? Sure. Several feature films I've done this year - ("WON TON BABY" "SAWTOOTH" & "SLIME CITY MASSACRE") hit the convention circuit before December, “LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN” is out on DVD & Blu-Ray this month. “DEMON DIVAS AND THE LANES OF DAMNATION” should be out on DVD in 2010. And, the video & music I did for Transfuzion Comics's DEADWORLD re-launch turned out cool.
I'm past the funding stage for a film I'll be directing in 2010 (which, as everyone knows, is the hard part), and into pre-production right now. Lastly, I'm scoring an animated feature film sometime in the New Year. My Bloody Best to all the fans of horror out there.
This is not your father's high school reunion: five school chums get together at a cabin in the woods to celebrate their tenth year out of school. What they don't realize, however, is that a killer is lurking around somewhere in the darkened forest, waiting to pick them off one by one. The question is: is there an unknown serial murderer that's responsible, or is it one of them?
Director Michael A. Hoffman
ROT: Reunion of Terror Trailer
That's the premise of ROT: REUNION OF TERROR, a new feature film directed and co-written by Michael A Hoffman (aka Michael Hoffman Jr.), an enterprising young filmmaker from Florida who has spread his considerable talent through many facets of the movie business, from production assistant on such low-budget efforts as Tim Ritter's SCREAMING FOR SANITY: TRUTH OR DARE 3 (1998), DIRTY COP NO DONUT (1999) and DIRTY COP: I AM A PIG (2001). His first feature as a director was the horror anthology film SCARY TALES (2001), which received worldwide distribution and was followed up with a sequel, SCARY TALES: THE RETURN OF MR. LONGFELLOW (2003), which he co-directed with Jason Daly.
Since then, Hoffman has honed his skills working on commercials, music videos, industrial productions and other independent features as editor, director and writer. His latest directorial effort is ROT: REUNION OF TERROR, which was filmed on location in California. At age 29, Hoffman recently told me in a phone interview from his home in Florida that he "feels a lot older." Then again, he's been involved in film since the tender age of fourteen, when he hooked up with Ritter after seeing an ad for a production assistant in a local newspaper.
His experience with Ritter on SCREAMING FOR SANITY was invaluable: "I learned what to do and what not to do on a film," Hoffman recalled. "It was tough, but I kept working in films throughout high school. I was the worst senior ever; I skipped 45 days of my senior year. But it was worth it."
In more recent times, Hoffman has worked as a writer on Corbin Bernsen's production THE CLOWN and he was production manager of the St. Louis Cardinals' 2008 ad campaign. But it's as director/writer/producer on his own low-budget horror features that gives Hoffman the most satisfaction, despite the trials and tribulations of making ROT.
Clip from ROT: Reunion of Terror
"Of all the productions I've worked on, ROT was the toughest," Hoffman stated. "It was part of a two-picture deal with Disruptive Media, the other being SPRING BREAK MASSACRE. We filmed ROT on location at Big Bear and San Bernardino National Forest in California. Jim Fulton, who is in the film as a redneck store owner, owned the ranch where we filmed much of the movie. It's a great location. Jim Fulton rocks! But we just had one problem after another getting the movie in the can."
ROT: Reunion of Terror
ROT: Reunion of Terror
Those problems included blizzards, car accidents and floods. "I've never seen so many things work against a production," Hoffman continued. "It was cold - we shot in February and March - and there were some shots we couldn't complete, like when the girl has her head bashed against the tree. There was a flash flood and we couldn't finish the shot. Fortunately, I'm a union editor by trade, so I found a way to work around it. But it was snowing - in California! - during all of the night shoots. We had to backlight everything so you couldn't see the snow. Plus the fact that Big Bear and the cabin we were filming in were 240 miles apart, and we had to make them look like they were in the same spot. And we filmed some scenes months apart. So again, as an editor, I had to ask myself, how do I make these scenes work? I basically had to re-edit the entire movie over the course of eight months."
The fact that Hoffman is also an editor makes him feel a certain kinship to one of his favorite classic horror directors, Terence Fisher, who did many of the most famous Hammer Films, including HORROR OF DRACULA (1958). "I have a huge collection of Hammer and Amicus films," Hoffman said. "The fact that Fisher was an editor first shows in the economy of his shooting. He knew exactly how much to shoot, and I try to do that too."
“The fact that Hoffman is also an editor makes him feel a certain kinship to one of his favorite classic horror directors, Terence Fisher…”
Along the rocky road to the film's completion, there were some bright spots. "We had a 140-foot crane donated to us, provided we could repair it," Hoffman said. But even that ended up awkwardly: "We managed to do that, but at one point it broke down and the cameraman was stuck in it for nine and a half hours! And he has a fear of heights. We're good friends now, but I think he still wants to kill me!"
Murphy's Law may have applied to the film, but the end result is a tight, suspenseful and surprisingly atmospheric mood piece that both recalls and satirizes eighties slasher films. "We tried to play around with horror stereotypes," said Hoffman. "For example, the opening scene in your average slasher movie was usually a young couple camping in the woods. You'd see a silhouette of them making love in the tent against the lamp light, and then they'd be horribly killed. Well, instead of the usual clichés, in our movie the campers in the opening scene are two girls who happen to be lesbians. They have the scene in the tent with the lamp light. And, by the way, their nipples are hard because it's so cold!"
“instead of the usual cliches, in our movie the campers in the opening scene are two girls who happen to be lesbians”
Hoffman also does something a lot of young filmmakers don't do: he takes the time to build up a mood before most of the killings start. "I tried to make it like an eighties movie in that respect," he noted. "Then we took all the clichés and moved them one step forward, and we wanted to throw the audience off, especially in the last ten minutes."
His magnum opus now completed and in release through Shock-O-Rama Cinema, Hoffman was recently assistant editor on FORGET ME NOT, an indie feature starring Carly Schroeder, and is currently working on BEWARE, a made-for-TV movie that is being shot in both Spanish and English versions for Spanish television.
Hoffman likes having a regular income from his high-profile gigs, but his heart belongs to horror. "I'd rather make fifty low-budget movies than one huge-budgeted blockbuster," Hoffman said with a laugh. "I'd like some bigger budgets than I've had in the past, but I'm still a huge fan of those eighties slashers, and those are the kinds of movies I love doing."
