My bad movie!

[Tom White]

I went against doctor's orders and watched the rated version of Dead Alive the other day. I'm going to have to eventually see the whole unrated version to see what I missed. But in any case, it inspired me to make my own bad movie.

I know someone with a digital video camera who's already said it's okay for me to use it, (and he also has editing equipment). I have some very creative and resourceful friends to help create some strange effects on a low (make that non-existant) budget, and I have plenty of experience with using video cameras. Mostly as a kid, but it doesn't leave you. And of course, I've already written up a synopsis and decided the perfect way to do it. I'm going to write a basic script and adlib the whole movie! That way, it's easier and more fun to make, and guaranteed to be bad.

Now, here finally is my question:
Does anyone have any tips on what to do when I finish the movie? What's the best way to publish and distribute an independant film? I'm rather paranoid about some small company taking over my movie, putting their name on the tapes, and cutting out the violent head-exploding scene that took an hour to film.

Any suggestions welcome!

[Gerry]

You could submit it as an entry for Tromadance--Troma Film's annual response to the Sundance Film Festival.  There isn't even an entry fee!  Details can be found on Troma's website.

[Brian Ringler]

there's always the option of sending your work to review site like this

[Tom White]

I'm not talking about promoting the film. I mean distributing it.

[Gerry]

There are basically two options:

1) market it to distributers and hope somebody thinks its worth picking up.

2) distribute it yourself.  Make VHS and VCD or DVD copies and sell it out of your basement.  You could sell it on Ebay or make your own website.  A good way to get some visibility is to send free screener copies to (as Brian mentioned) to sites like this one and hope they'll review it.

[Tom White]

Thanks a lot. Too bad I can't take Troma up on their little festival.

It says entries must be submitted by Dec. 20. I haven't even started yet! Getting that movie in would require a device that stops time, a very fast spaceship, and a pile of money that mysteriously appears out of anywhere.
Speaking of which, if anyone has any of those three things to donate, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Pete B6K]

They do Tromadance very year as far as I know, so you've got December next year, year after etc etc to have  it ready for submittal.

Pete

[Ash]

Too bad you don't have that watch from "Clockstoppers"!  
You'd be done by now!

When it's finished and up for sale, let us all know.

But give us a sample clip or a teaser trailer to view first.  
Possibly one we could view online or download from a website, if you have one.

Based on that, I'm sure most of us will decide whether or not to purchase a copy from you.

If it is good, I'll cough up the dough.

Keep us all posted!

[Tom White]

Well, I'm nowhere near the sort of stage where I can promise anything at all, but I'll give you a couple of little teasers here:

- The main character is trapped inside a mall that is quarantined by the military because a radioactive meteor hit it.
- There will be an exploding head scene. So far the best effect we've been able to think up (but haven't tested yet) is a papier mache head, filled with the insides of a watermelon and lots of corn syrup. I imagine it would be messy when it gets hit by the golf club.
- There will be some zombies and at least one vampire.

I also should note, I'm going to put a lot of effort into the fight scenes. I think I can direct a kung fu scene that easily rivals the Catholic priest scene in Dead Alive.

[Brother Ragnarok]

Well, I can't distribute it for you, but you can feel welcome sending it to us at the Brotherhood of Bad Movies.  No one's ever sent us a screener before, but I'd love to see it.  Ad lib sounds like fun, and I love anything with violently exploding heads.  Hooray for DIY!

Brother R

[JohnL]

>There will be an exploding head scene. So far the best effect we've been able
>to think up (but haven't tested yet) is a papier mache head, filled with the insides
>of a watermelon and lots of corn syrup. I imagine it would be messy when it gets
>hit by the golf club.

Is there going to be some other cause to help the head to explode or is the golf club alone supposed to make it happen? The reason I ask is that a head exploding from a hit with a golf club seems way past cheesy and into just plain silly.

[Deej]

 I don't have any of those things, but I do have a shotgun, a pitbull, and a pound of blow, and I'm thinkin'....I'm gonna use one of these tonight.

[Tom White]

Think about where you're typing that and re-post it, please :P

It's the head of a zombie, and the man with the golf club has super-human strength.

[systemcr4sh]

Good enough for me!

*Cheers on the head explosion*

Aint nothin like a really good head explosion/crushing scene.

I had an Idea to take a paper mache head (much like toms Idea) and fill it with ground beef and fake blood (a la troma) and attach it to a fake body thats sitting in a chair or something, and take some kind of Roman Candle style firework and shoot it at the head. I thought that would look pretty cool. Also by using a Insecticide Pump Up Sprayer its really easy to make safe and effective, not to mention nice looking, bullet hits.

[Gerry]

Tom White wrote:
>
> Thanks a lot. Too bad I can't take Troma up on their little
> festival.
>
> It says entries must be submitted by Dec. 20.

There's always next years festival.  This is year 3 if I remember correctly.  If you start now, maybe you can finish by next year's deadline.  Who knows, maybe Ron Howard will drop in and want to buy remake rights to your film--it would co-star Meryl Streep and a Talking Pie and they go back in time for some reason...