2014 year review: The 30th anniversery of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

2014 was the year of NIGHTMARES lol, well the production of my fan film THE BEGINNING OF A NIGHTMARE was a ride from start to finish. Principal photography began on Wes Craven's birthday August, 2, 2013 and wrapping up in Feb, 28th 2014. Post production was completed June 1st, 2014. The film was screened along with the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET on Oct 28th 2014 at the Garneau theater. This was an awesome event for me, That is why it made it in my year in review.

Production was tough but I'm happy I survived the process. This film evolved me as a filmmaker.
I was engrossed by all the stages of the film process from cinematography, make up, set design and editing. I also wrote the script for NIGHTMARE with ideas from working with cinematographer Arthur Mah. The crew that stuck through the turmoil held the film together, their determination and hard work elevated this project. The locations were a gift to have, the Ortona was a beautiful location creating a cold and haunting place. The creative clubhouse created the sinister home of the nightmarish Freddy Krueger. I stayed faithful to the origins of Freddy, but I wanted his mother Amanda Krueger to feel the pain delivering the evil bastard to the world.

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The undertone of the film was masochistic fetish for knives and blood. Freddy's characteristic was pain onto himself and others.  Even the way he was brought into the world was a gruesome delivery from hell. The maniacs are the cornerstone of Freddy's psychotic rage and blood lust.

2014 year in review: The year of the snuff film

2014 was a significant year of sensational horror. The fear mongering elevated to a massive scale selling death to the nation of sheep. The first fear tactic was the ISIS be headings, the heavy rotation of the American captives getting beheaded was released and shown all over the world. CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC and all the web channels spread the visions 24hrs a day. In my opinion the  be headings are staged to create mass hysteria and other propaganda methods. ISIS even
released a fucking Hollywood inspired propaganda video for fuck sakes, on top of that it looked like a
Michael Bay movie. Second snuff event was the murder of Richard Garner. He was illegally
taken down with a choke hold, and ended up going into a coma dying later. This triggered a nation wide back lash of police brutality between the African American community and the NYPD. On top of that the nation was divided following the events of Michael Brown's death,  lastly the most shocking was soon to come. John Crawford was  gunned down in a Walmart for carrying a bb gun, he was shot right on camera. This is by far the most disturbing of the year because he's shot dead without a warning. I hope people realize how cunning and effective these events are played on the news. While people complain about the violence in films  the big picture is clouded in smoke. We have been watching snuff films every day 24 hrs a day in our very own homes, and this is our reality.

David Fincher: A Life in Pictures Highlights

INFAMOUS: Inspirational material

The key influences for INFAMOUS are from 4 mediums of art.  Man Bites Dog is a classic film diving into the realms of satire. This meta movie is a hilarious film about a camera crew following a serial killer around as he goes through day to day routine life. I was introduced to this movie by a fellow filmmaker, and I was blown away by it's dark humor with elements of social commentary predicting the soon to be popular Reality TV. I really enjoy the concept and execution as the plot triggers a mix of emotions by continuing breaking the 4th wall in traditional black and white film. The second source material is Bret Easton Ellis AMERICAN PSYCHO. Mind you, I'm going to talk about the book and the film. Patrick Batemen is a psychotic mass murdering psychopath working on Wall Street. I enjoy the first person Perspective view in the novel because, it gives the reader a true in depth  look into a compulsive obsessive mind of Patrick Batemen as he describes  bloody murder and mayhem. The film is a excellent companion piece to the novel with well directed set pieces and beautiful cinematography. The third medium is the classic Mark Millar comic WANTED. This comic has one of the best character story arc's I've ever read. It's about an ordinary modern loser named Wesley Gibson. Wesley's life changes when he finds out he's the son of the worlds deadliest super villain. Quickly Wesley is taken under the wing of a society of super villains, living the high life of secret society. Wanted is a compelling and a no hold bars action comic giving the reader a glimps into the world of super villains from comic book lore. Lastly the next inspiration comes from the video game MANHUNT. This game is an experience like no other. The idea of an audience watching a person murder some one on camera is a example of how voyeurism can elevate the mass by giving the viewers a taste of death is fascinating to me. As a filmmaker Manhunt challenges the player to take part in calculated murder. The ideas from books, films, comicbooks and video games is the source material for my up and coming highly stylized neo horror film INFAMOUS.

Horror Movie Rewind: American Psycho Review

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