Paranormous @ Fright Night Film Fest!

Let's have some fun!

Who's up for an update? Who's up for an update that is really cool? Lots of shtuff going on in the Walk Softly universe these days and, along with everyday kind of life, that is the reason for our shortage of updates recently. Oh and it's summer. As you know we like to kind of spring things on people and this week is no different. Would you like to see Paranormous? Our ghost hunting mock reality short that premiered last fall at the Rivers Edge Film Fest will be playing this weekend at the Fright Night Film Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. 'Normous as we call it, will be playing twice, once on Friday night at 11:45pm in the Galt House 1st floor Suite Tower in G3. Sounds like a Battleship move, but ask if you can't find us. We will also be showing on Saturday evening at 6pm in the Kentucky International Convention Center 2nd floor and that number would be C 215. BAM! You can find tickets HERE. And let's face it, why go on vacation when you can come here and see us dressed up again for all the world to see. There is an award ceremony too at 8pm, so if we win big, this might be the last time you get to see the humble version of WSF. Bonus bonus! Other updates to come soon. More "oh... wow, really..." posts that will have you questioning the way life is lived and dreams are dreamed.


Deadline News and Notes 9.9.13


So, the big news for us last week was this big bubble-lined envelope you see above. If you've been following along lately, you know that we've been feverishly working on our newest project with the hope of submitting it to RiversEdge Film Fest before their final deadline closed. Well, it took a few weeks of hard work and a couple of edit parties to help finish it off but, with a wide grin on my face, I dropped that thing in the mail on Thursday.

I've talked about it before and you'll hear it again I'm sure, so I won't bore you with a bunch of details about why we love RiversEdge so much. In a nutshell: it's a Fall fest, we love downtown Paducah and the food you can find there, the peeps that run it are super nice and they take great care of us. Now, do we think there is some guarantee that we'll be accepted just because we got our submission in under the wire? Absolutely not. I know there were over 80 submissions in our category from countries all over the world, which means that likely less than 25% of them will be accepted into the festival. We've been accepted three years running right now and this would be the fourth. We realize that sooner or later our run of good fortune has to come to an end. But, every year we'll continue to cross our fingers and wait for that email that lets us know yay or nay.

Paranormous

 Now, some thoughts on the product that actually made it into that envelope. The question becomes, what do we have on our hands here? I am extremely curious to see how Paranormous is received. I know we all like it. I know it makes us laugh. A lot. That's nothing new. But, Allen has said several times that he believes Paranormous will have more universal appeal and more audience laughs than anything we've done up to this point. Allen's positive vibes are really interesting to me. I don't disagree with him at all, but it's always hard for me to judge. As the guy who spends the most time in the editing cave, I usually become disconnected with everything we work on and rarely have a solid notion of how good or funny it is by the time I'm done with it. Also, we've been surprised before. Just like we had no idea that Bizarnival, a glorified camera test, would win several Best Short awards and get the attention that it did. You just never know how the public is going to react until you put it out there.

It's also an interesting experiment for me because the very first project we worked on together was in mockumentary style, much like Paranormous. We tried to submit Meltdown to a Lexington festival, got turned down flat and it practically disappeared forever. So will Paranormous be our mockumentary redemption or are we off base? Time will tell.

Speaking of, you may be asking yourself, "When can I see this 'Paranormous'?" Well, IF RiversEdge takes us in, your first opportunity to see it will be in Paducah, KY, November 7-10. We're going to hold off and give those guys the World Premiere if they'll have us. Then we'll have an online premiere sometime afterward. But, if we get denied, we'll likely put it up on our site the day after we stop crying. We'll let you know as soon as we get the news.

So, what now? Finish Space Cops 4 and 5!

We'll see you back here for Indie Wednesday and any other goofiness that comes up.

VMA's News and Notes 8.26.13

Wait...  I'm not the only one that can see this, right?

Sooo... the VMA's were last night. Apparently they still give out awards for music videos. Where exactly do people see these videos? And I'm not taking a snarky (albeit easy) shot at MTV. Seriously, where do people go to watch music videos?

And can someone please tell me what in the name of all that is (un)holy happened to Hannah Montana? Not to sound like a 90 year-old but, between Miley grinding on Alan Thicke's kid and Kanye being Kanye and all of the other debauched insanity that was going on last night, I'm not sure how the Earth didn't open up and swallow the Barclays Center.

 Miley's performance was an equal-parts mix of horrifying and horrifying and I can't in good conscience recommend that you go find it and watch it. (But do it anyway.) I believe if you took someone from the first century and dropped them in the Barclay's Center last night, they would go back and write the book of Revelation word for word. Somebody start searching for pictures of John the Apostle in last night's crowd.

The Week That Was

-  A quick recap of everything that happened here last week in case you missed it. Judging by the numbers, the Parnormous Intro got lost in the shuffle for a lot of people Saturday morning. If you're in that boat, don't fret because here it is again... (I have no shame.)



-  Our new Office Game got people stirred up pretty well on Friday and gave us a traffic spike.

-  And I also threw out some thoughts on our new Batman-elect, Ben Affleck.

WSF Updates

I spent most of Saturday working on the Paranormous edit and I am happy to announce that the day was well spent. I believe we may be able to put a cap on it this week if I get a couple good nights of work in and if Todd gets the chance to come up and smooth out the rough edges.

The assembly cut is basically all stitched together. Now we need to cut any fat, add some music and graphics and a few effects, and then we might be able to get this thing in the mail. Don't close the mailbox just yet, Paducah!

We'll see you back here for Indie Wednesday and any other goofiness we can come up with.

Paranormous Intro



Just a little taste of our ghost hunting "reality" project. SEE! We are working on stuff.

DJ Sweat's News and Notes 8.19.13


So, hey, have you heard how much money DJ's are making? For the top guys and gals, the cash flow is apparently astronomical. I ran into this last night and I'm still fairly baffled. David Guetta made 30 million dollars last year. That's Alex Rodriguez money. When did this happen exactly? And is there much, much more skill involved than I'm aware of?

Deadmau5 (somebody shoot me for knowing to use a 5 instead of an S) makes $200,000 per night. I'm now highly upset that I didn't continue my career as the replacement "DJ Sweat" after Derek Emerson retired from the GWA.

Paranormous

The one and only thing happening in the compound this week is the Paranormous edit. Wait... Scratch that. We have a quick final shoot tonight in Danville and THEN it's nothing but editing.

We made good progress last week. Hopefully we can wrap it up this week and get a DVD in the mail on its way to Paducah. I've always wondered if late-deadline submissions are ever actually accepted. Unfortunately we'll be conducting that experiment this year.

And so, I leave you with this...

ShootLocal's News and Notes 8.12.13


I'm going to start today with a little ray of light for indie filmmakers like us. Then, I'm going to follow that up with a call to action. I've looked at a hundred filmmaking apps and I have yet to find one that sets my world on fire. Artemis came close maybe, but the clouds parted recently. Enter ShootLocal.

I think this thing is a little stroke of genius and represents everything the social media/sharing/information age is all about. Load up the app and you're ready to go. Submit new locations or search for one nearby.

You can find great locations to shoot all over the world. The time saving alone could be tremendous. The key is to have plenty of users in your area and that is your call to action. Photographers and videographers and filmmakers out there, you have to use this thing for it to be one of the best tools I can imagine on a filmmaker's smart phone.

 I did a test run this weekend and the process is very simple. Take a couple pics (up to four), add some keywords, and the app charts the location on its own. Presto. If nothing else, it's a great way to catalogue favorite spots just for our own records.

Believe it or not, we don't have location scouts on staff. If we get stuck while we're out running and gunning on a Space Cops shoot,  I can pull out my phone and find some perfect, hidden gem that you posted...? How great is that?

So I call on all you filmmakers; especially in Kentucky, Southern Indiana, and Southern Ohio. Not just that; let's get the initiative started. Spread the word! I'm not asking you to flood the app with every other block in your town. On the contrary, I think that would be counterproductive. Personally, I think the beauty of the app is that it hopefully keeps me on the lookout for special places and perfect backdrops for composition that I might have otherwise passed by.

Paranormous

A small, but important ghost-hunting update. This week will encompass the bulk of editing on our pilot. It's do or die time. Basically, if we make enough headway this week, we'll have a chance to make the Rivers Edge Film Fest (late, late) deadline. If not, no chance. (Wish us luck!)

Fact: B Long never wears a shirt. Ever.
One thing that will help us out tremendously is the amazing work Brandon Long has done to provide us with original music for the project. Artistically speaking, I'm starting to wonder what this guy can't do. Graphic design, writing music, fabrication... This time he whipped up some perfect tunes and ambient mood setters for our ghostly exploration. Indie projects take a village. We have a chance to finish this thing in time and, without Brandon's help, that probably wouldn't be the case.

That's it for today, folks. We'll see you back here tomorrow for a new Office Game.

Stan Lee's News and Notes 7.29.13

Hopefully this is not how Stan greeted his fans in Kentucky.

Stanley Martin Leiber (aka Stan Lee) found himself in our fair Bluegrass State this weekend for Fandomfest, Louisville's version of Comic-Con. For anyone who doesn't know, all Stan Lee did was co-create nearly all the major Marvel characters like Iron Man, the Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. I grew up reading his schtick in Stan's Soapbox column and swallowed all his hype-man propaganda hook, line, and sinker. He made me want to move to New York and be a comic artist. (That was my plan for at least four years until I heard a few industry horror stories and decided I couldn't hack it anyway.) But, I always told myself if I got a chance to meet this living legend, I had to make it happen. The guy is 90 years old. There aren't many, if any, people left alive that have made such an impact on popular culture. Well, I didn't. I blew my chance. I had other important things to do and let's just say Mr. Lee gets paid a pretty penny for a handshake and an autograph.

Speaking of Fandomfest, Allen did attend along with his sons and he plans on writing a complete breakdown of his day in the middle of the madness. I can't wait to read it on his CKE blog and we'll be sure to post it or share it here. From what I've heard so far, it's going to be a doozy.

Kickstarter Rant

If you missed it, Saturday I went on a little rant about celebrities using Kickstarter to crowdfund their pet projects. Spoiler: I'm not a fan. But, my biggest concern is that it could get worse.

Paranormus

I got knee deep into the Paranormus edit last night. My biggest take away was that this will be exponentially easier and faster than a Space Cops edit. That's good news when we're trying to get in under the wire for a film fest deadline. If we can get another shoot in soon, I have high hopes.

How about a short peek? (And I do mean short.)

Paranormus' News and Notes 7.15.13

Barnabus is overcome by "the passion."

Friday night was ghost hunting night for the WSF gang. Oh, what will those loveable scamps come up with next?

Paranormus is Todd Sheene's brain child. A (sort of) reality show about two less-than-macho ghost hunters who would rather be doing almost anything else and their friend Barnabus Morningstar, the eccentric, self-proclaimed medium.

The night lived up to its billing to say the least and there are plenty of stories to tell, so let's get to it...


First things first:  Much thanks to Jim, Jeff, Trish, Heather, Jessica and all the folks of KY Paranormal who made Friday night happen.  I'm stunned that so many people were willing to give up their Friday night to help us out. They were great. Also, thanks to Aram Martin and Kolton Winfield who are full-fledged members of the Walk Softly team. Once again, we literally couldn't do it without them. So, thanks for helping out the old guys. (Oh, but don't think you're off the hook yet, either.)
We costumed up and got the night rolling at about 7pm. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of our costume design for Barnabus; possibly the best we've come up with yet. So if any producers are looking for costume designers out there, our services are available.

As the sun began to set, we headed to Harrodsburg, KY and the offices of the Harrodsburg Herald; locally famous for its level of paranormal activity. Paranormal KY set up all their legitimate investigating gear and we got down to business. These guys take their investigations seriously and truly try to help people out. They have just about every piece of gear you can think of.



True to form, we made a long night of it. We talked to spirits, ran around screaming, caused a nuisance, and thoroughly confused the late-night dwellers of Harrodsburg all while the Paranormal KY crew tried to do some real investigating.

We shot until we ran out of digital space somewhere around 1 o'clock in the morning and Allen and Todd's allergies hit full tilt. This tweet from the next morning might give you some insight on how everyone feels about our shoots...


Yeah, that just about sums it up. That's how we do. I hope everybody else loves it as much as I do.

Now for what you really want to know:  did any of us get scratched, felt up, or possessed? Well not so much, I think we were too busy for the spirits. BUT, as we packed up to head home, Jeff Sanford grabbed us and asked if we wanted to see some video of a phenomenon they'd caught earlier in the night. Check it our for yourself, but let me say, this little clip wasn't nearly the most interesting section. At one point, it looked like there was a full-on blizzard of unidentified particles flying in from the right side of the screen, then they would stop on a dime. It was crazy.



We can't wait to show you this and all the other productions we've been working on. (I'm hoping we can finish this one up in time for an entry to the Rivers Edge Film Fest.) We'll see you back here for Indie Wednesday and anything else that comes up this week!