A convention I attended in Nov. 2014, LIWho 2, fate had me meet Kyle Williamson. He's an independent filmmaker who makes both fan films and original short films (so far no full length ones... yet).
I attended his fan filmmaking panel at LIWho and learned some things. But mostly made a great connection with Kyle. Soon after, in Dec, he asked around Facebook needing help with an original short he was going to enter into a short film festival. I immediately, electronically, raised my hand to volunteer.
He first needed a sound person, which is what I have done with Potent Media films. But I am a very good PA as well. By the time the first shoot came around, he realized he needed a camera person. So I changed hats that week and prepped for that instead. I broke down the script with what type of shots it should probably be, just based on the script directions and dialogue. I went over some of it with Kyle that morning but it wasn't really enough prep work. I got challenged with being an Assistant Director more so then expected. So I had to switch hats or add hats very swiftly. Kyle and I learned a lot on the fly because of that. And we learned from those hardships and mistakes very quickly. But it did mean our shoot was going to need at least one more day to finish filming.
We came back another day in early January to finish filming. This time I had more time to prep. Took the rest of the script and really broke it down this time and made sure Kyle made a shot list for the shoot. We got together the night before and really sat and worked through the rest of the script so we knew how to shoot each scene better, what shots we needed to maybe redo and any pickup and insert shots we missed last time. We decided what type of shot each one would be (close-up's, medium, wide, etc). It was definitely a much more productive and intense production meeting for us.
Being better organized and prepared for the second shoot, it went a lot smoother. There still needed to be a couple pick up shots that Kyle shot later on with the actors but overall we got everything we needed. He had one more shoot day that was for the beginning sequence and outdoor shoot with the actors that was only about a half days worth of filming. (I was unable to attend that shoot).
We actually shot this film in order, which is not normal. But almost seemed easiest in this case, oddly enough... Since we didn't have to worry about different actors for the scenes or different time tables for the actors, and there wasn't a lot of shots that were the same, it worked out ok to shoot in order.
Kyle then had a friend do the special effects in the beginning and Kyle added all the graphics and music and edited the whole thing together. There were a lot of test films sent to me to review and give feedback on what was ok to keep and what needed some work. The full film was about 18 minutes long. For the festival it needed to be about ten minutes. So Kyle worked on chopping it down for that but kept the longer version on his YouTube channel, Sci Fi Geek Productions.
But without further ado, here is the completed film. I hope you enjoy it!
Me and Kyle on set!
Cast and crew between takes. Allen Clark, Robert Lacorte, Asha Brown, Tiffany Bartholomew
Kyle and Rob
Me and Rob
Me, Tiffany, and Rob
Two of the stars: Tiffany and Rob
Filming magic! Lateek Harrison on sound, the back of me, and Kyle. (I'm not sure who that is in the foreground)
Me and Rob. Photo by Kyle J. Williamson
Me and my over-the-shoulder camera mount. Photo by Kyle J. Williamson
Lateek checking sound, me checking the camera and Kyle directing.
Rob, Tiffany, me, and Kyle
Getting directions from Kyle. serious face, movie making is serious business! hehe
The cast and crew! Asha, Allen, Tiffany Kyle, me, and Rob. Missing Lateek and Garland though.
Loved filming this short fan-made film with Carmela and Christian!
Great story and great acting. I'm in a few scenes. And I helped as both executive producer and as sound engineer. Sounds so fancy! hehe. I am still laughing so hard at some of these scenes. Loved being around my Potent family again. Please watch, like, make nice comments! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!! I'm so excited to be a part of this amazingly fun film!
PS - here's the link to my post about being on set for this movie and Sugar Skull Girls.
http://geekgirlscastle.blogspot.com/2014/10/theres-no-place-like-home.html
Apocalypse Kiss is a sci-fi thriller much like Blade Runner only this time I could follow along. (Tho to be fair it's been years since I've seen Blade Runner now). With a murder mystery under foot and an apocalypse at its heels, Apocalypse Kiss is set in that futuristic sci-fi world with colorful video screens and oddities at every corner, strange people in every seedy setting... It's pretty cool.
The synopsis of the movie, taken from the Potent Media website:
In this futuristic science fiction thriller, government security agent Jerry Hipple has been unsuccessfully tracking
the city's most infamous criminal The Red Harvest Killer. When two nomadic lovers, Katia and Gladys enter the city
the death count rises and are being credited as Red Harvest killings. Obsessive compulsive Adrian, the actual
Red Harvest Killer becomes furious that the sexy serial killing duo are grabbing media attention under his alias. Not
only does Adrian attempt to reclaim his rightful reputation but he also decides to cleverly aid his detective
counterpart through the case. All the while, killers and victims alike are unaware the world is about to reach
an abrupt catastrophic ending.
Katia, played by Carmela Hayslett, is brilliant in one of the lead female roles. So diverse and playing a triple threat comes across so easily on screen. Gladys, played by Tammy Jean, was pretty effortless as a blonde bombshell who follows Kat around and who sometimes gets her hands dirty in order to survive.
The Red Harvest Killer, Adrian, played by D.C. Douglas, is pretty convincing as a crazy psychopath killer on the loose. He plays his role with some satire but it comes across wonderfully for this film. Tom Detrik plays the detective trying to figure out whodunnit. I loved him as the noir Dick Tracy type with a sad backstory. I enjoyed his character a lot. I would love to have more on him. But he wasn't the focus of the film of course. I usually identify with the person who's trying to figure out the murder mystery, though.
The story was great. Writer and director Christian Grillo did an amazing job at the storyline and cinematography. The only gripe I have is that the apocalypse part within the story, never came across well. (And this is not a spoiler because it's in the title of the movie...) It was embedded in the middle of the film, or almost at the end really, in a one-liner from the Wizard character and it was easy to miss. I missed it the first time around, only to have it pointed out to me by my friend who watched it with me. And when the apocalypse starts being discussed as a plotline to the audience, it was like suddenly watching another movie, but only for a few minutes as its near the very end of the film. It was very abrupt and you almost felt like you didn't need it anymore as any plot device since it didn't add much else, other than wrapping up everyone's story in one big chunk. It was never a part of any of the characters lives within the rest of the film, except at that very end moment... So I'm not sure it was needed perse.
Other than that, the murder mystery was fun to follow and see the characters interact with one another. I liked how things had a slight twist to them. Tho I could see a lot of plot twists coming.
The amount of special effects for this low-budget film is pretty astounding. I was surprised how much special effects were actually used and utilized to great execution without it looking cheesy at all! It was pretty seamless with the rest of the film. From the technicolor Wizard's monitors and the creepy girls he had on screens, to the elevator doors opening/scanning and the scanning of the east sector, all blended in well with both the story and scenery.
I will say the soundtrack is pretty amazing. Totally helps tell the story and I can see myself getting a soundtrack to it if it were available. It definitely has the sci-fi gritty tone to it that the film needs. None of the songs are out of place or sound too pretty for the film.
And the end song, for the apocalypse is quite beautiful, if in a most haunting kind of way. The credits show vocals are done by Deb Portalatin. And she has an amazing deep dark voice that was perfect for those last minutes on Earth. And during her song, the montage they play of each characters last few moments on Earth, is done beautifully. I could listen to this song on repeat for a good few hours if not more...
I highly recommend watching this movie. It definitely doesn't feel or sound like an independent film or a low-budget film. It never comes across as hokey or anything. The camera angles are artsy and fantastic. The quality of both video and audio are amazing for the budget they had. Only in one part when everyone is yelling, can you hear the sound warble a bit. But it's minor. And I'm an A/V girl so I happened to notice. But really, go out and get this film however you can. It's pretty amazing. It's out on DVD at Amazon and on-demand from major cable companies. I will say it took awhile for me to find via my RCN on-demand but eventually I found it. I am currently waiting on my DVD from Amazon to arrive to watch it a few more times.
Oh and one disclaimer, there is full frontal male nudity which I was not expecting. I knew I'd see naked women based on the trailers alone, but not one of the males. So, fair warning haha.
I would also watch this video after you see the film. Love behind-the-scenes videos and this one is great. Some really good interviews with Chris Grillo and the cast and crew behind Apocalypse Kiss on how it was made on such a low-budget but never looking hokey. Enjoy!
This movie was produced by my friend, John Kent, but by no means was this review solicited by him or anyone at Potent Media and it is written with all opinions as my own.
This was a small fan-made film that was made in 2005 by Barry Curtis. It
actually won the George Lucas Selects award at the 2005 Star Wars
Celebration. That was amazing to be a part of it! I am theatre patron #2, dead Aunt Beru and a stormtrooper. Yes, I am wearing my Jedi Academy sweatshirt.
I recall getting
driven to upstate NY somewhere, in the middle of winter so it was chilly, from the city and spending the day at the
high school to film this. Lots of down time but plenty of food, fun and
clowning around behind the scenes. Lots of technical talk about who says what and how, and even where that character sat in the film. I remember eating a lot of swedish fish during the beginning shots, in the exact same way each take, for continuity purposes. Hey, I'm a professional! hehe Mostly tho, I recall how much fun is was to film and be a
part of it! Thanks Barry!
