He called me an FX artist. - by Tocky
Tocky on 13/6/2018 at 03:52
Double shit. Everything has gone pear shaped but with options. And I don't know what the hell to do now. Help me dear internet Abby.
Mike got fired. He said he was out of town a couple of days and then off one for his birthday and when he came in the station owner said he could just stay off. They didn't pay him for the last week of work even. Actually that would be the three days he was off I guess but still he is angry at them. I knew he was sort of scatter brained and just expected folks to take him as he is and work around him but shit he has a wife and kid and no other job. I don't understand all of it but it does seem a shitty thing to do to him. On the other hand I get the feeling he didn't tell them he was going to take off. He is flaky as hell but turns out some decent stuff somehow.
So we are just in limbo for awhile thinking well that's it. No more fun for us and that's all it was anyway. Mike never paid us either. Still enjoyed it and like all the folks involved. Then Amanda gets a message from the station saying they want her to come in and continue, in a scaled down version, her character for introductions to the horrors. She wants to know what to do so we talk about how between us we could shoot a graveyard scene digging up movies each week. With editing software these days it should be easy. Hell, I could do it the old fashioned way too. Back in the day there were work arounds. We got all excited talking of all we could do. Only she wanted me to find out more what the station wanted because Evelyn had made the remark they wanted it more tasteful. We both figured it was the low cut bodice thing but hell, that too is what horror has always been.
So I call and pry a bit more. They want TCM type intros with info about the show and less of a skit type thing. I ask about a standard opening sequence and then a differing banter for each show and they say that's exactly what they want. Well okay, I can do that. That fits in with the digging up an oldie thing. Finding a grave and digging it up (just moving dirt placed on a grave for a few shovels with the stone blocking the action and I had thought of making a stone and using my own plot as a bit of irreverence) then prying it from the skeletal hands of the occupant. Only Amanda just wants to act and not learn anything about the movies. Sigh. I can coach her. I know quite a bit about horror both written and screen. Well okay, if I coach her.
So it's kind of set right? Only Mike calls. He says he still wants to do one more drive in thing come the fall and also he is in talks with another station to start another horror show on it. A bigger more well known and well viewed one it is. Great timing Mike. Okay, cool Mike, but Amanda was contacted blah blah blah... I tell him everything. He freaks. They go behind his back and steal his people. The nerve! His people? Sort of a bit more ownership than I would have liked to hear. He calls me bi polar for saying I like his work but still talking to them. What? I DO like his work but I've always wanted to be involved in horror and I figured you were done here and back to life in Memphis. Nope. He is moving here. Holy shit. I hate all this soap opera crap. I just wanted the fun stuff.
Okay I give. No show on 99. I did try to ask couldn't we just do some shows till his stuff starts to keep sharp. Nope. He hates that station now. How could I hurt him by being such a traitor but you are a grown man you can do what you want. What? I don't even... what? I might use you but at least you are being used by somebody who is into the same stuff you are, he says. Yeah but... wait what? I just... I was asking... okay Mike, I'll wait on you, I sure don't want to hurt your feelings. Do I know of a job I could hook him up with until then? He doesn't know how he will last till the new gig starts. Uhhh... what can you do? Nothing really, virtually unemployable. What? Well, there's always retail. Oh he couldn't do that. Can't stand dealing with the public. Ummmm yeah, I don't know, Mike. I have to deal with folks all the time. Oh he could do a job like mine, after all, he can talk women out of their clothes so he could do talking body shops into buying stuff. Well that's not exactly what... umm... we don't have any openings right now, Mike. And that is true.
Hell. Okay, it's over, if I get contacted by Mike in the fall fine and if not fine. Only it isn't. Evelyn saved my number and calls me this morning. I explain things and how Amanda has told me she only wants to work with Mike now and so our involvement with the station is over. Sorry. Mike promised to take her to a horror host convention and other stuff and she doesn't want to burn that bridge because that's exactly how she reads doing anything else would be. I think she is right too. Well they don't want Amanda anymore. They want me. Holy hell. I seem really knowledgeable and they like my ideas and would I do it. Well... no... Mike won't allow me to work... I mean... he has these projects and... you know what? Let me make a pilot episode and you can decide if you really want me okay? Okay. No hard feelings either way. Well that sounds... reasonable.
Sigh. The other station is bigger and reaches more folks but really I'm not into it just for that and I don't have any idea if I can trust Mike. His behavior has been all over the place. I sure as hell didn't want to be in a damn drama and stepping around on eggshells. My wife and daughter want me to take the station 99 gig. They know how much fun I would have with complete control. But I like Mike. I wouldn't mind helping him any time if he didn't act like he owned me. I want him to succeed. I don't know. Advice?
Starker on 13/6/2018 at 04:52
I don't know... I'd take a sure thing over a what if, but that's just me. And who says things won't go south at the other station too.
Pyrian on 13/6/2018 at 06:00
Flakers gonna flake.
Tocky on 15/6/2018 at 04:03
Yeah. I guess I just needed to hear it from somebody else. I like Mike. I hate he will feel I betrayed him. I would still help him out gratis even but I have to take a stab at this. I'm not supposed to know my daughter has gotten me a new camcorder for fathers day but when I was going to buy a new battery for my old one I was told not to. She always spends way too much on me. So much I feel guilty taking it. I will though. I need it or... well maybe not... my Nikon D7000 has the capability but I've never used it for anything but pictures. No telling what she got me or the ungodly amount she spent on it. She is so wonderful. If you ever have a daughter I suggest having one like mine.
I'm going to have to get editing software if it doesn't come with whatever it is. Any recommendations? I want green screen chroma key and image stabilization but other than that I don't even know what to want. Sure I've googled but I get a sinking feeling I'll pick the wrong one or something. I hope the camera I get has some editing on the fly feature but adding Night on Bald Mountain and any script images will be a challenge for me.
I have the scenes in my head which will be the repeat part of the segment. Closeup of shovel dragging on ground to the cemetery gate with a pan upward to hooded figures entering and making way through the stones. It will have to be shot at twilight to get the right mood. At the grave the lantern lighting faces as one says, "this is the one, Eeflac the evil, dig here". I have fake bulging near white eyes I will use and I want them only glimpsed and shaded. I'll have to build a cardboard coffin replica of the one I'll use to step out of because it is a heavy bastard. I'll spray paint tiki torches black for the dragging into the entrance of the crypt. Sconces will be lit and cloaked figures take leave. That will be the recurring portion.
I'll bend my long black nailed fingers around the rim of the coffin lid placed upright and open it. "Good eefening. I am your host, count Eeflac (my last name backwards in honor of Sivad and Alucard) and I am from the old country where we stick to the old ways... like sniffing a cats belly to tell the weather. It is not very effective and there is a high incidence of cat scratch fever in my country. BUT not all things old are bad. For instance there is this next film...." I will camp it up a bit. I'll be in top hat, blue granny glasses, black suit, collar pin, cloak, and cobra head cane. This last scene of movie introduction will be different each time of course.
I hope I don't mess this up. I have it in my head exactly as it will go and I've gathered the materials. Although the building on the cemetery grounds works well for the outdoor scene I want to use a cement storm house for the inside one. The acoustics are amazing in the one downtown for laughing in. Lovely reverb. Tibetan throat singers need to go there. It seems simple in my head but nothing ever is. We shall see.
Tocky on 23/6/2018 at 06:17
Well it's more difficult to blend scenes than I thought. I still haven't gotten any editing software but it turns out nobody makes any worth a damn for XP. I'm just way behind on replacing my computer I guess. Too much other stuff to do. But really it's my lack of experience more than equipment. I cut scenes too quickly and when you do so it jars. There needs to be transitional movement. So now I'll do some fade to black to cover. This is absolutely amateur hour though. I'm learning but not near quick enough to suit me. At least this isn't supposed to be serious drama. Blessed be the old ones for that.
The most difficult line to get in the can was a Macbeth line, or the bastardized version, that I've said to myself whenever I've faced a hard task which tries my soul. "If 'twere done 'twere best done quickly". So many "if twits" and other hilarity. Not that there were many lines. I threw in a few homages to horror movies most will miss like the eyes of the "sisters" being like those of the head nun of "Dark Waters". Not hard to miss the heat and horseflies but it was still fun to do. Oh God though. All I can see is my mistakes. Too loud in this scene and too quiet in that. Wrong angle. Noise during pan. Even my own heartbeat betrayed me in those instances of handheld movement.
I can edit into a workable segment. I just have to chop and fade and crop and lower brightness and raise contrast. I have it written down what I want when I go to the station to meet Evelyn, which is tomorrow. I need a full day of reshooting certain things but I can make what I have work. There were things which worked in my favor. Ambient noises like crickets and whippoorwills. Some scenes were overplayed but some worked well understated. It's all disjointed till the edit.
And lord my long speech was high camp. I'm introducing "Don't Look in the Basement" and explaining about the "Don't" movies of the early seventies. The first bit was a bit dark but this was anything but straight horror. Truth be told I couldn't figure how to do informative and sinister. The last line was meant to be a bit wicked but I don't think I pulled that off either. Ah well. We will see. May your reach always exceed your grasp.
Tocky on 10/7/2018 at 04:32
Okay. Doing it. All in for better or worse. Here is the promo. I've shot a few movie intros and exits already and may post those too.
height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/278955185">Hosted Horror Intro Long Version with Promo and Aged Film Effect</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tv99newalbany">TV 99</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
I'm afraid they won't do "Don't Look in the Basement" because of editing out the boob shots and it is actually fairly disturbing but not in a Last house on the Left way. I'm still arguing for it.
Tocky on 5/8/2018 at 04:08
Well I got them talked into doing "Don't Look in the Basement and it's on now at (
http://www.hillcountrynetwork.net/) . I've done six total so far, some more horror, and some more camp but the public domain films to pick from aren't exactly pick of the litter. Some like "Curse of the Swamp Creature" are fairly unwatchable. Still, there are those which introduced iconic scenes to horror audiences and those, shoddy edited and poorly acted as they are, are worth it. "Don't Look in the Basement" is one of those as is my next to cover, "Messiah of Evil", which has several memorable scenes stitched together by the loosest strings of plot. Anyway catch some if you can. Let me know how bad my introductions are or what would make them better.
Unless they put them on Vimeo or something I can't do anything but link the channel though.
Here is the first thing we did with Mike which is on vimeo-
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/273123233" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/273123233">Hill Country 1</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tv99newalbany">TV 99</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Tocky on 19/8/2018 at 02:12
I went ahead and put a few of the intros and exits on Youtube. Not all but the gist is surely gotten by putting horror host Count Eeflac in the search bar. They are unedited as I send them to the station. Honestly I don't like their edits. They had a wolf howling while I'm talking on tonight's show and they didn't cut out the bark at the mention of Luana Anders from our Yorkie like I asked. Meh. I have no budget and don't want to spend a lot of time on them and I guess they feel the same, though I get lavish undeserved praise because they know I'm all they have right now. Look, I know these are goofy, but I've always wanted to try my hand at horror hosting. The usual way it was done was in studio with lot's of props and green screen head carrying and things that I just don't have capability or time for just now. Okay, I could, but it honestly takes more time now than I care for here at home. It's shot in a bedroom and if the camera were any more right or left it could be discerned. Supposedly it's a tomb covered in posters. Most hosts had stone rooms somewhere.
I wish I had done these when I was young and skinny at least because you know the camera adds fifty pounds of realism. Here is the intro and exits for Dementia 13. We have a bit of fun with them anyway.
[video=youtube_share;UV3RmnCQyvE]https://youtu.be/UV3RmnCQyvE[/video]
[video=youtube_share;Bcp2C_fhkfU]https://youtu.be/Bcp2C_fhkfU[/video]