This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--

DID I MAKE MY GOAL?

My two goals for last week: get our horror film Dead Media set up for Letterboxd reviews and be halfway through editing the new short horror film, Victim Seven.

Yes and almost!

First up: The yes.

I did get Dead Media up on Letterboxd. As we work to get the film out into the world, it’s important that it’s up on Letterboxd to collect reviews. (If you saw the film at its Minneapolis premiere or the Nevermore Film Festival, please give it a review here!)

Now: The almost.

I’m not yet 50% of the way through editing Victim Seven. I’d say I’m about 25% there. I’ve got everything organized in the editing software and favorite takes picked out.

In the next couple of days, I get to cut everything together, make lots of horrible sounds and disturbing music, and find new ideas along the way.

I’m making the short film as a part of the accountability group Just Scare Me and it’s due this Friday, March 20th. So once again, I will have to get up early and stay up late to fight my old enemy, TIME.

I had a fantastic time shooting the short film this past Friday. I wanted to do this one to experiment more with doing the filming and lighting myself. Not something I want to do all the time, but good to learn more by doing. It was also an excuse to team up with Jessica Fenton, one of the stars of Dead Media, who recently moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis.

The rest of the cast and crew was small but mighty: Myself, a sound recordist, a brave production assistant, and one other actor. Plus, Jessica and I collaborated on her make-up. And we only left one blood smear in my friend’s bathroom. (Sorry, Ken)

The shoot was stressful because of how much I want it to go well and constantly fighting that asshole, TIME, but it was also very fun and very gratifying.

Everyone got along well. We laughed a lot. In-between shots, there were running conversations about surfing, The Clone Wars animated series, poetry, and more.

I want to make films for the rest of my life and one of the most important parts of the process is balancing the intensity of making sure everything is done well with making sure the fun of a creative collaboration stays alive in the room. I read an old book about filmmaking and the director discussed the impact of the mood on set. “It gets in the celluloid,” he said, “it gets in the celluloid.”

Here’s to getting some fun in the celluloid along with the horror.

A NICE THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK

A couple nice things happened this week, but the one I’d like to highlight is actually something that happened several years ago now.

Toward the beginning of my filmmaking journey, I decided to make a short film “the right way.” I’d made a couple short films with my phone and my computer, pretty much by myself, to experiment. But I wanted to learn more about proper modern filmmaking. Cameras, lights, sound, insurance, SAG contracts, workflow, the absolute horror of film permits, etc.

So with the help of my friend Christian Ruvalcaba, who co-produced with me, I made a short film called The Narrator starring the great Phil LaMarr.

It played a couple of festivals and won an award for Best Experimental Film. I kept meaning to put it out on YouTube. But then I got distracted working on Dead Media. Then I was waiting for the right time. Then on days I picked to put it out, a horrible awful tragedy would happen.

But, finally, after shooting the film in late 2022 and completing it in early 2023, The Narrator has been released!

One of the reasons I wanted to start making films is that I had written several and pitched them around Hollywood. There were always notes about making the films fit more neatly into very specific marketing and demographic boxes.

I got frustrated with that so for this film I just wanted to create something unique. This film is a tale of drama, existential dread, strange gods, improv comedy, fire bowls, and more.

I just wanted something unique to exist and I hope you enjoy The Narrator existing, too. Any comments, likes, shares, subscriptions to the channel, etc would be greatly appreciated.

You can watch The Narrator here.

LIGHT PLUGS

DEAD MEDIA MAILING LIST: We’ve got a mailing list for Dead Media. I’m only going to send out messages occasionally with concrete info and asks for help—screening dates, sales news, help getting the word out, etc. You can sign up here if you’re interested!

DONATIONS TO DEAD MEDIA: We need all the help we can get for film festival submission fees, advance money to book theaters, etc. Through Film North, you can make a one time tax deductible donation here. Thanks for all the help and support!

SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE: THURSDAY MARCH 19th! The next short film is releasing. It’s called The Demon’s Commentary. It would be a huge help if you subscribed to my YouTube channel ahead of the films’ release!

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

This week is a weird one! Victim Seven is due on Friday so that will be a lot of my time this week. There’s some stuff swirling for Dead Media, but the timing of it isn’t entirely under my control. Also, my wife Sara’s birthday is coming up. So, in a fit of work-life balance, my goals for next week are to send 5 emails related to Dead Media and get all of Sara’s presents wrapped.

YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? How can I help you literally finish your monsters?

A LITTLE SKETCH--

This week’s sketch is one of the most important props in The Narrator short film. A fire bowl. I searched the internet for a small indoor fire pit type thing. This came up. We had no problems with it on set. Everyone was very careful. I had two fire extinguishers. It’s one of my favorite props ever and it also makes a cameo appearance in Dead Media. I would recommend it but it has since been recalled. Because it’s an open bowl you pour alcohol into and then light on fire. Fun! Hope your weeks include some creative time, some nice times, and some completed monsters.