Filth To Ashes
Filth To Ashes Trailer
For those that haven’t seen this yet. Here is the trailer and the official website. Enjoy!
Filth To Ashes Audio Mix – Day 2
A long one today… down to the final scene tomorrow… then a mini screening. I am super stoked with the progress. This clip features Jimmy Von Jernigan hard at work, a visit from The Cricket Toy and a little blood gurgling.
Filth To Ashes Audio Day 1
Day 1 was great! got thru 5 of 11 segments today! It is freezing cold here. woke up to snow.. had BBQ for lunch. I love being back in the south.
Old Year
2009 was probably one of the roughest years for me thus far. But at the same time was possibly one of the most memorable. From the economy nearly killing one of my largest clients, to identity theft, check fraud, license plate stolen and being held at gunpoint, this was definitely a rough one. So I am super stoked to see 2009 go away.
But in 2009, I also saw some significant career jumps. “Oversold” signed worldwide distribution and I finally made the leap from shorts & commercials to features – As a Director for Hire, I directed my first feature film “Filth to Ashes” which we are finishing post this week!
My oldest son also started school this year, he loves it. Will be interesting to see how long that lasts. (him loving it, not how long he’ll stay in school 
)
Music… I tripped up on an artist that just blew me away. I was surprised as this wouldn’t normally hit my radar at all, but PHIL WICKHAM rocks. I also fell further in love with Country Music: Brad Paisley and Zac Brown Band…. hah, never thought I would say this… but these guys definitely made my list of 09 faves.
January 8th marks 10 years of being in Los Angeles, I have lived in LA almost as long as I lived in my home town. Does this mean LA will soon be “HOME”? lol. I don’t know. It still doesn’t feel like it. I have spent the last 2 weeks with Mom and Dad in Florida… and this is definitely “home”. And the food is WAY better in the south
Back in LA January 7th… a couple infomercials on the slate and another feature.
Happy New year. Twenty Ten. Let’s rock it.
PS…. an update and footage from my 7D shoot are coming… wasn’t completely prepared for the workflow when I headed home for the holidays… (I loaded all the footage onto a USB bus powered drive…. and it needs FW800) So I will get er done when I get back to LA.
Filth To Ashes Update
Filth to Ashes is in the final stages of post. 2 rough cuts have been completed and we will be locking picture by next week. Score is nearly complete and then we are scheduled to start audio post (sound design and surround mix) the 2nd week of November. The last puzzle piece is color correction and grading. (don’t know when that will happen! lol.)
Thanks for everyone’s input on the artwork. Here is what I hope to be the last round of these photos.
Special thanks to Royce Allen Dudley (Photographer) and Josh Sullivan (Digital Artist & Title Design) for knocking these out of the park. Trailer is coming… then off to hit the pavement trying to sell this monster.
These are my choices:
Filth To Ashes Poster
Cast Photo
Pick a poster.
Alright, need some help here. I have been going back and forth with production on the look and feel of the marketing package for this horror flick. Here are 4 mockups that we have put together. These are no where near done, so please no comments on the photo editing blah blah blah. All of these are by different artists. I am not going to tell you which is my favorite…or why… not yet. But here they are. Please let me know your thoughts and why! Rate them in the order you like best. You can leave comments below and or send me an email to : contact@sumojack.com
Poster #1
Group Poster
Poster #2
Linda Poster
Poster #3
Allison Poster
Poster #4
Purge Poster
Poster Mockup #2
Here is another. First round of screenings went really well. Everyone is pleased! Starting on the score next week… This is happening fast.
Purge / Filth To Ashes – Score.
After 10 weeks of working on this feature, most of the 1st act has been cut. The footage looks great, I can’t wait to share. We have an award winning composer that just signed on to score the film – Ken Eberhard. Ken has won 2 Daytime Emmy Awards. From Providence and American Dreams to the Apprentice, Entourage and more, Ken’s music can be heard nearly every time you turn on your TV.
Still fighting with the powers that be to change the name to ‘Purge’ but for now, it is called ‘Filth to Ashes’
Our goal is to have the film ready to screen in November.
For now it is back to reality. Literally. Cutting the next 11 days on a show, then back to the film. Deadlines are loomin, and “Wailin’ Jones” is a comin
It’s a wrap.
Just finished principal photography on my first feature I have to say it was an incredible experience. A lot of work no doubt, but a ton of fun. Statistics say that an indie filmmaker will only make 1 film in their career. I really don’t believe that is me. Thankfully on this project, I had producers to deal with the money, set, locations, crew, etc. etc. etc. So, I only had to deal with the creative side of making the film, which probably really helped my experience to be so positive.
Aside from an evening of mishaps where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, the process was really smooth. The crew were all super supportive and gave it their all. The cast absolutely rocked it, and we all have a butt load of stories to tell and laugh about.
Not really sure why indie filmmakers only make 1 film…. I guess they didn’t have the cast and crew I did. Can’t wait for the next one. For now, on to post production where I will really see if I screwed it up or not!
“I hope I’m right”
Making Movies with Nasby
We got product placement coming out the wazoo. Cases of water, beer, energy drinks and motor oil galore. Who would’ve thought we could find product placement on a no-budget horror film. Kinda random, yet completely rad. Thank you John Nasby.
9 HOURS TO TAKE-OFF.
9 hours to call time, 11 hours for cast and 12 and a half to camera roll… Directing my first feature. Am I nervous? No not really. Anxious yes, but not really nervous. Cast is solid, would have liked a bit more time to rehearse them, but they are solid. Crew is on top of it like none I have ever worked with and the set is absolutely gnarly. 1st day is rather light compared to the rest of the schedule. 1 fight scene, 3 babes shackled in the dungeon and a ton of blood. Nervous… nope. I actually feel prepared. I may be singing a different song tomorrow night?!?!? but right now, there is a definite calm before the storm. Should be an awesome ride.
It never hurts to ask….
Making a no-budget horror film has been an interesting process. Up till now, I have always had at least some money to put towards department crew and expenses. With this one, we are basically asking people to work for free. So, the logical thing is to think you will get a bunch of people that don’t know anything about their craft. Whether that is because they are just starting out or they are just stupid. That said. I am blown away at the caliber of cast and crew we have been able to wrangle for this film. Most of them are completely unpaid. We just asked. People that have done FX on Spiderman, Stunt guys from Transformers, and Set guys from Million Dollar Baby. Hopefully we will pull this off and can pay these guys on the next project!
lol.
Table Read – without a table
Home from the table read…. no there was no table. It was actually an insanely hot theater type room with about 15 seats in it, and I was on the dang stage. The lights were making it even hotter and I was sweating like sweaty pig. lol. It was awesome.
We lost one of our leads today, due to her agent being hard to deal with. I thought the agent’s job was to help you get work, not piss off production to the point no-one wants to work with you because your agent is so difficult. Oh well. such is life. The rest of the cast is absolutely stellar…. We will be recasting the role in the next few days.
rock it.
Casting a lo-budget horror
I am absolutely amazed at how many actors there are here in LA, that are willing to audition for a lo-budget horror film that will require 15 days of shooting for LITTLE TO NO PAY! We had almost 1500 actor submissions!
We have narrowed it down to about 100 and we will be seeing them all at least once some twice over the next 4 days. Super stoked! This is gonna rock.
still need a warehouse location, if anyone has access… preferably something gritty that we won’t have to dress… like a machine shop or abandoned car shop/large garage.
