Scallywag enters a new field of entertainment

 Sorry it's been awhile since my last blog but we have been extremely busy here at Scallywag Entertainment launching Lumberjacked.

 If you don't know whatLumberjacked it is let me give a quick refresher.

 What we are working on is an all new form of entertainment. We are making a 30 -40 minute feature horror film that is also a choose your own adventure style platform. So picture this. Old Jacques Laracruix ( the eyeless crazed lumberjack) Is chasing you and your friends through the dark woods... You stop to see a light off in the distance, could be a house, not sure because it's too far away to tell. Off the right you see the car that you drove up in.... You turn and Jacques is closing in on you fast....... The frame freezes and two choices appear on your touch screen... Head to your wheels? or check out the light? What do you do?
The Movie will follow a structured storyline but you will get to make the choices. With over a dozen different choice screens, 4 separate endings and timed battles that will test your reaction skills, will you make it to the credits alive?

 All this will be playable on your iPhone, iPad and iTouch platforms ( we are also currently working on Androids and PC / MAC versions). So you see this is a new form of entertainment media.

 We have everything in place to start production, crew, camera, star, make up, locations, script... We just need that one final ingredient. Funds! 

 We have a few interested investors but this time around we wanted to try a new avenue called group funding. This where we offer up incentives to the public to help raise the capital needed to make this project. The number one site for doing this called Kickstarter.com. They have paved the way for other similar sites but they are the top of the heap. 

 For the past 2 months we have been hard at work filming a video, putting together rewards and writing our pitch package. We wanted to put our best foot forward and make a well put together campaign. This campaign is now "live" as they call it and open for business. We have 40 days to raise the capital needed, but if we fall short none of the money is awarded to us.  Click here to see our campaign and see how this crowd funding works.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309623543/lumberjacked-an-interactive-live-action-movie-game

 So that's where we are now and if you like what you see please throw a few bucks in the kitty and get yourself some great rewards. Also feel free to share this link and if all goes well we will be filming this summer.

Date with a Princess special access....

Hello Film buffs,

    So normally we never show any of our short films on the net until after the film festivals are done with them. But as a shameless way of getting people to come to the Scallywag side of of the blogosphere, we are posting our newest comedy short film " Date with a Princess" here on our blog. Don't bother searching Youtube for it, it's a private listing only available here. All we ask in return is you click the follow tab at the top of blog AND subscribe to our Youtube channel while you are there watching.

This is limited time only. We will remove this link after the weekend.

Thanks for your support and feel free to click the BUY OUR SHIRT link at the top right. We bring all this entertainment to you at no cost, but it does coat us money to make em.....

Please like the video on Youtube and please make a comment, we LOVE comments.

What is a ZOMEDY?

 Hello Film Buffs,

  Michael Clark here to tell you about funniest, most entertaining Zom Com ever written....Modest aint I? Well ok maybe not EVER written but it is a finished screenplay.

Teaser logo video

I set out to write a different kind of horror comedy, something with heart and I wanted to try make it an ensemble piece. Zombies are timeless and even though there are a plethora of walking dead films crowded in the Netflix archives I think there are still some untouched approaches to this popular genre. I was determined to explore a way to make a fresh funny story and tell it in an unconventional story structure. I had bits and pieces in my head, funny little scenes, certain visuals and a few characters but they just didn't fit together as a flowing narrative. I figured the best way to jam pack all this fun into to one story is to write it as an ensemble piece...Think Pulp Fiction meets Zombieland.

Early poster concept.

Zomedy , first titled " Bite me". tells the story of a chemical spill in a small northern Michigan town called Hello Lake. Yawnnnn a chemical spill? Really? Not very original so far you say? Well let's just say you have never seen it done this way before. I mean how many times have you seen a squirrel on a motorized skateboard run a delivery truck off the road ?  Once the stage is set we introduce to the 3 main groups of players in this undead opus.... I'll just give you the short summary...Better yet here is the link to the Zomedy Facebook page. Click and read the logline for yourself...( yeah it's a cheap trick to get you to like our FB page..so?  Could ya? )

ZOMEDY FACEBOOK PAGE

 Ok did ya read it? Did you like our page? Wow you people are the best...expect you, yeah you the guy who didn't click the link...shame on you.

So now what to do with this script now that is done? Shop it around. Being an independent film maker, and being SO independent nobody knows who I am, I had no contacts or agents to help me sell this. I showed to some friends and entered it in the Scriptapalooza screenplay contest hoping Hollywood would send me a plane ticket and huge check.... Dream on Clark.

The feed back from friends, actors and family was overwhelming. Seems I hit on something people really enjoyed reading and that validation feels really good to a writer. 

Fast forward a few months and things were looking good. Friends and others were still very supportive of the project. Got a call from Chicago about a possible option on the script and ZOMEDY landed in the top 10% of the scriptapalooza screenplay competition. I thought ok this is it.. Hollywood has me on speed dial now....No?...Hello? .... LA? ....pfffft , nothing.

Never got that call, or check, or plane ticket... So what does an independent film maker do that won't take no for an answer? Fuck it, i'll make it myself! 

Next time we will see how that worked out...

LA Comedy Shorts by Steve Gast

Part 3 - WWRD?  Not take shit from punkass kids, that's what.

A little later on the Kyoto rooftop I bumped into a couple chaps from the UK.  I quickly learned that UKians are tough to talk to because they barely speak American.  Also they are really tall.  I had to stand on my tip toes to speak to Scottish filmmaker Ross Howieson.  Despite these drawbacks I was able to gleen some good advice.  He shared a trick for remembering everyone's name in a large crowd: Name each person after a celebrity.  He dubbed me "Steve Martin".  Clearly "Stone Cold Steve Austin" had already been taken.

Also in the group was Fergus Johnston, who had starred in a couple of the shorts being screened.  I noticed that Fergus's hair had the power to mutate between arrow straight and typhoon wavy.  I would later discover that both Ross and Fergus were masters of disguise:

 
So it turns out they are spies.  But then aren't all tall guys from the UK spies?  It's not like they have anything else to do.  They don't even have real football. 

Ross's cover story was that they were in LA to promote their feature film "What Would Ridley Do".  Ross shot it with no budget, just determination and damn good actors.  Fergus and Owen Whitelaw play struggling filmmakers who shoot a film with no budget.  Irony can be pretty ironic. 

I have a feeling this film is going to get picked up soon.  Owen's accent alone virtually guarantees US distribution.  I would listen to the kid read ingredients off a cereal box.  

Keep an eye out for "What Would Ridley Do" coming soon to a theater/video store/Netflix near you.

***
I didn't get much time to talk to Ramiro Castro and his crew from "Big Dog Eat Child", but I did offer support after watching "What Up Little Kid".  The Chicago natives were there to screen the film, stressing the importance of disciplining our youth.

I think the world would be a better place if this was mandatory viewing in all our elementary schools:

Coming up: Groundhogs and cellphones...

LA Comedy Shorts by Steve Gast

Part 2 - Ninjas and Canadians

I raced out of the theater and tracked down the '70s porn fro bouncing through the crowd.  The magnificent hair belonged to one "Danny Sexbang" of Ninja Sex Party.  I told Danny his film was the funniest so far and expressed my appreciation of falling dummy humor.  He was very grateful and introduced me to his partner Ninja Brian, who as it turns out hails from just down the road in Ann Arbor.  U of M always did have a respected ninjitsu program.

I have been a rabid NSP fan ever since.  I have almost drove off the road several times while trying watch their epic "The Sacred Chalice" on my iPhone.  I wept tears of joy when they released their first album on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nsp-theme-song/id471083577?i=471083579

I give you the gift of Ninja Sex Party now, but I must warn you this is not safe for work.  Or anyone easily seduced by awesomeness.  Or people not wanting to get murdered by Ninja Brian in their sleep.

***
The rooftop garden of the Kyoto Grand was lavishly decked out with appetizers and packed with freezing people.  The one weekend I finally go to sunny LA and it was colder than Michigan.  I sought out some free Revel Stoke to warm my bones.  There at the bar I struck up a conversation with Canadian filmmaker Josh Levy, who is in a nutshell, my hero.  Josh was my age but had a little more experience than me.  And by a little, I mean an assload.  He had started out working on Kids in the Hall and was now reviving Scott Thompson's career with short films.

We quickly bonded, talking about everything: comedy, politics, the meaning of life and Canada.  We may have been slightly buzzed on spiced whiskey, but to this day it remains one of the best conversations I have ever had.

Josh's two shorts from last year are sadly not online yet (that I know of) but here is a trailer for his next one.  You may recognize a face or two...

Coming up: Scottish lessons and punishing children...

LA Comedy Shorts by Steve Gast

Part 1 - One small step for Steve...

Less than three months from now is the most awesomely awesome film festival of all time, and I cannot wait to go back.  In anticipation of this epic event, I will take a look back at the highlights of LACS 2011...

After my first film Last Call had finished it's run, I had come to realize that comic short films get about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield.  The last festival I screened at played Last Call in the basement of a restaurant for a crowd of ten elderly people on a tv screen about the size of the computer monitor I am staring at now.  Meanwhile the "real" film makers were screening their work across the street in a theater to a packed audience.  Just a wee bit frustrating.

I didn't want to go through that again with my second film Killing Kevin, so I researched comedy film festivals.  The first one that popped up was the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival:

http://www.lacomedyshorts.com/lacs2012/about.htm

I had missed the deadline to enter Kevin, but the networking and learning opportunities were too good to pass up.  Also, I had yet to visit LA which is kind of must since it is the capital of breast implants.  Oh yeah and movies too.

So I took a leap of faith, purchasing my VIP pass and plane ticket.

Upon arrival at the theater I was greeted by the festival directors Ryan, Jeannie and Gary.

These are some seriously good people.  Even though I wasn't screening a film, they treated me like one of their own.  I have wallflower tendencies in crowds especially when I don't know anyone, but they were quick to introduce me the staff and other film makers.  Everyone was beyond cool and welcomed me in to the group.  Well except for one guy, who decided halfway through our conversation that I wasn't worth talking to.  Mentally kicking that guy in the knee now.  But everyone else was great.

"Everyone else" included the celebrities too.  At one point I found myself in the small VIP room with  Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin, Who's Line Is It Anyway's Wayne Brady, and Kids in the Hall's Scott Thompson.  I admit I was too much a wuss to talk to any of them, but I could have because they were the most down to earth people you will ever meet.  I did work up the courage to talk to Progressive Flo (Stephanie Courtney) and babbled about her cameo on Angel as a robot librarian.  Her response was very polite despite me blasting geek creeper vibes.

The films.  Holy cripe.  Block after block of side-splitting, crazy, beyond creative films.  And almost all were Hollywood level production value.  The writing, the acting, the cinematography, all perfect.  Not going to lie, it was a little depressing. 

That said it was also inspiring.  Meeting people my age doing what I want to do at that level was unbelievable.  The panels featured normal people who had quit their dayjobs and were now getting paid to do what they love.  HELL YES!  I came home and wrote several shorts, re-energized and ready to join the party.  It might be this year, it might be three years from now, but it's going to happen.

Speaking of parties, one last thought on the LACS after parties - free Revel Stoke Spiced Whiskey is awwwesome.  Like a warm, gentle nipple tweak in a glass.

As I continue my tribute to the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival, I will feature some of the coolest people I met and share their oh so entertaining films.  Prepare to get your LOL on...

Our humor is a little DEADPAN..Pt 3 The Empire strikes back.

 Hello Film buffs,

     As promised the third and final chapter of the DEADPAN saga ( but not unlike Lucas we hope to follow this up with re issues- special editions- and an animated series).  Now the title of this " The Empire strikes back refers to NYC and will get to that at the end of this post.

 As we last left our heroes they had just finished film the first 2 episodes of a new dramedy series titled DEADPAN...

Now I read my previous posts and noticed I never really gave you the story line of the show...silly me.. So let me sum up the show for you.

   Mike Campbell ( Mike Bobbitt) is a struggling comic just trying to find his voice, the show opens with him bombing on stage. After he sheepishly exits the stage we meet Mike's nemesis, the cocky headliner Spader Lavine ( Dave Landau) who promptly gives him a verbal smack down on and off the stage... I just happen to have the opening scene handy, so ya know, let's just roll the clip..........

  We then jump to Dead Jimmy's pub and meet the owners Clark and Kylie Michaels. They are in desperate financial straits, they need more customers to keep the bar afloat. To make make matters worse, the possible renter they had lined up for the apartment above the bar never showed up...They were really counting on that extra income. That possible renter is of course our own struggling comic Mike Campbell. Mike meets Clark and Kylie the next morning but not before running into their 15 year old daughter Molly. Mike agrees to rent the apartment not knowing that 15 years earlier local punk rock legend Jimmy Sheldrake ( Jimmy Doom) had died in that very same apartment. As it turns out Clark was the drummer for Jimmy's band and they were also life long pals. After Jimmy's untimely death, Clark bought the bar and named it after him...Dead Jimmy's Pub.. Strange things start to happen in the apartment and at the end of episode one , Mike and the ghost of Dead Jimmy come face to face.... Lets look at the trailer.

What do ya think? I have to say we were all very happy with the look and feel of the show. It is like nothing I have done before. It started out as a comedy but it morphed into being this touching drama about characters trying to find their voice. You would think this is a silly man sitcom about a guy and a ghost, but Mike and Christine Bobbitt had actually wrote a deep and touching story that transcends your normally sitcom fare.

That being said I was a tad worried that it may have hard time finding an audience. If we called it a comedy people will be saying " Where's the laugh track and rubber chickens? " and if we called it a drama they would be expecting long scenes of people wringing their hands in a dark room... What did we have on our hands? Well I think what we have is a new type of show... Something fresh, something new, something people won't be expecting.. Who would really get this new show? Well who else but New York! We packed up a DVD a sent it out to the New York TV film festival with high hopes they would embrace us with open arms. If anyone would get this it would be the sharp cutting edge artists in the empire city...... ......Nope. We weren't picked as a finalist in the festival......Sad we were.

So this is where we are now. We have episode one in the can and episode two shot and in editing.. We are currently search for someone to pitch this fresh show to and are even entertaining the thought of releasing it as a web TV show. We all completely believe in the show and have high hopes that one day soon it will find a wide audience.

I want to leave you with an unfinished trailer for episode 2.. Some of the footage and audio is still in the raw stages but you will get an more of an idea of where the show is going. I would like to add that 18 episodes are written and each one is better then the last........ I really LOVE this show.