Long Overdue Update

It's been a long time since I've updated this.
Not too much going on.

So I'm going to point some hi-lights of the past few months.

1. My script 'Development Hell' failed to make the finals in any competitions. It got as far as quarter-finals in one L.A. area festival, but fell flat on it's face a few days later. I've been told it was too nihilistic, and the fact that a lesbian couple was front in center, didn't help. Ah well. So be it. Everyone can have their happy fake blockbuster scripts...not for me. I've moved on over it....it's not the best thing I've ever written but I'm glad I took the chance with something so moody.

2. I have two screenplays in finals at the RIP Horror Film Festival. My award winning (I use the term lightly) script 'With Child' is in the running for best feature script. My short 'Dead Therapy' is in the short list for Best Short Screenplay. Winners were supposed to be announced a few weeks ago, but the festival has been delayed until January 2014. Fingers still crossed...expectations low as always though.

3. Which brings me to 'With Child'. A few weeks ago, I got the golden opportunity to pitch the script to a studio in Canada. It went well, was a good experience and I'm thrilled that it happened. Sadly, as the game goes, I got a rejection letter a few days later. But again, it was a great experience, and I would not have traded it for anything. Remember the silly artwork that was done for Shriekfest last year...well...some may remember...I've added some of the new laurels it's gotten to it.

4. Work is progressing on my short film based on my script 'Dead Therapy'. Auditions were held a few weeks ago, and had a good turn out, Sadly, I had only a small number of roles to cast. So many good actors showed up. Anyway....scheduled to start production on January 11.  Here's a teaser ad for it. I know it's not much.

I'm not sure how this will turn out. I hope people are excited about it, but starting a production in the middle of the Holiday's is probably not the best idea, and there a several other productions going on at the same time. This is just a really short small film, so my hope is that people are excited about it.  Not sure what I'll do with it when it's done....
It's had some interest and offers from other people, but for some reason I'm crazy in thinking I can pull this off.... lol.

5. Looking forward to 2014....sending off  'With Child' to several more competitions this year. Seems like that one is getting the most attention. Also going to be sending off my new script "Reflecting the Void' to several competitions as well. Already did the HPL Festival.
Speaking of 'Reflecting the Void'...I'm happy with it. I've only had two people read it, one was a mixed review, the other slightly more positive. It's my long in development idea of an HPL story on a R/V....notice the first the word RV is actually in the tittle....'R(flecting) the V(oid)"....yes...it was planned that way. Both reviews said it was my easiest read though...that could be in my favor as it is more commercial and starght forward....until the end that is....

OK..that's it for now, IF anyone is reading....doubtful. This is my place to brag...Facebook slams you for doing so, so I figure this way if people are reading, they must be interested 'cause they clicked to get here!

Big News

It's been a while since I've post here. So I thought I would at least try to update this a couple times a year for the few the read this.

Going to be making a short film in the Spring of 2014, hopefully. I've got the script ready. Working on it with a good friend of mine, who is also a filmmaker.

Yeah, it's horror....it would be nothing less from me. I think....or hope...it's a little different. Trying to do a different take on the zombie genre. Yeah, I know. Zombies. Been done to death. Never thought I would write a zombie script....but I think we have something a little different with this one.

Got a FaceBook page for it. Check it out and give it a like, please? I will be doing most of the production updates from there, once the ball gets rolling.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead-Therapy/561956077201778


Also I've got a personal webpage that I update from time to time....

http://jeffkacmarynski.webs.com/

Thanks for reading!

Drugged Up

Kidney stones suck. I;m trying to pass one right now and it just won't do it. Hurts like hell sometimes, esp. yesterday morning. So they have me doped up on some pain killers, and they are really making me say / do some wacky things. Tired. Plus with the big move my family is doing, it's very stressful.

So, while I'm drugged up and thinking weird things, I'm going to complete the last draft of my short screenplay. Maybe I can really dish out a screwed up ending, because I'm not to crazy on the one I have right now.

Movies Watched 2013 so far....

Just keeping a list for myself on what movies I've seen in 2013. New movies, old movies, or movies that I have seen before and are just re-watching.

 Loved DJANGO UNCHAINED!!

 MAMA was an OK horror film, works better as a thriller.

 Hard movie to describe, but awesome movie.

 I have no idea why I watched this.

 DEAD INSIDE is the only movie I can think of that is part horror / supernatural / zombie / romance / musical. Not many movies can say that!

 From the makers of BARAKA...a great visual trip around the world filmed in 70mm.

 I've seen this a long time ago. My daughter and I watched together. Her first Miyazaki film.

 Part of my Grindhouse 25 Movie box set

Old  spaghetti western, part of some 25 movie Blu Ray set I got.

SELF PROMOTION

This is my place to just promote my scripts and writing now.

Links will be sent to Twitter for further promotion, there are a few people that follow me there that are in the business.

Anyway, DEVELOPMENT HELL is on it's way to Eerie Horror Fest. I'm thinking of one other. Not sure if I will do Shriekfest again. Looking for alternatives. I did find a competition for scripts with strong female leads, but they only have 2012 stuff posted. Not sure if they are doing one in '13. If they were to, I'd jump on that in a second since most characters in this are female.

So, here's my shameless self promotion stuff now:

Working on some projects that I'm happy about.

THE HOUSE - an anthology project that I am writing two segments for.

BRINE - an obvious shout out to HPL. A feature that I am working on that will provide very few answers by the end of the story.

SEAWORTHY - A short script and another shout out to HPL, this time in a dark comedy. Working on a second draft.

CREATED CHAOS  - Another super short script inspired by HPL.

PASSAGES - Horror on an RV. Was going to be a feature, now a short, if I ever get back to it.

RED FLUSH - J-horror, yokai, toilet screenplay that is always a work in progress.

and.....V.E.A.-----not giving the title away, but it's a steampunk fairytale that is going on for two years now. Thinking on how I can divide it into two parts as it's already at 60 pages and no where near done. Think if Tarantino did something in steampunk and fairytales.....

I hope I did not bore anyone, if anyone reads this. Just excited about some things.

Going to finish up SEAWORTHY so maybe I can get it to a competition in short screenplay category.

THE SOUND OF A THOUSAND VOICES SCREAMING AT THE STARS

What follows is a short, short, short story I wrote back in 1991. I wrote it while being bored in an Entertainment Copyright Law in Art School. It's very simple and very different. At the time I was a HUGE Lovecraft fan...still am...and for some reason I thought of this story. I've always dreamed of making something more of it and expanding the world it takes place in.

I'm thinking it might be my next screenplay project.
Anyway.....


A THOUSAND VOICES SCREAMING AT THE STARS 

So I sit here. Looking over the landscape in front of me.

A tragedy.

A mess.

I ignore the neglect that the citizens have had to endure. I think about the Service we are assigned by The Controllers. Our daily lives. Our duty to fulfill The Call.

I ignore the hundred of other citizens gathered here on the rooftop, looking down at least eighty stories below. I ignore the thousands of other citizens all lined up on the towers around us in the city.

Our duty.

Our duty to fulfill The Call.

I do gaze into the Center Complex of the city. Several miles away. A bright yellow orange color. Stronger than the sun. Stronger than suffering. But not stronger than love. 

How many time have my beloved and myself tried to get to the Center Complex. To behold it's wonders, it's mystery. For no citizen knows of what resides in the Center Complex. Life for sure. Old life. Older than this planet. Older than this city.

I think of how old the city is, and how all of us have grown up here. Not knowing anything other than this. 

Our assigned duties by the Controllers. Those of us that are lucky enough to be Chosen to be an Overseer.

But most of us....sometime or another in our life, must offer to The Call.

I try not to think on these things.

 Instead.....

I look over to my right. And the reason that  I have not made another attempt to reach the Center Complex is there.

My lover. She sits next to me. My Kayla.

We've been through so much together.

She has even before me.

Her husband who was assigned to a job in the City Beneath the Sea (that is something I will never dwell on). The child that was taken away from her.

By the time I entered her life, we were both lost. Broken. Addicts of our own creation.  We found each other and somehow rose above all this madness.

Day in and out, watching our neighbors and friends suddenly loose their sanity. Or change into something horrible.

Not us.

Our love endured for the past six years. We were untouched. Left alone by the Controllers. Given our Assignment. Her an Artist. Me......myself a Creator.

We both had the rare power to summon. And that scared the Center Complex. 

We were left alone because they saw us as special.

Being special does not take away your obligation to The Call, however. And two years ago, we received our summons. Leading up to this point.

"It's an amazing site to see", she states.

"What is?"

"All the Citizens. Offering themselves. Here on top of the city."

I nod my head.

"It disgusts me", Kayla spits out. "We were so close to the truth."

At one time we were. She is right. We almost DID make it to the Center Complex. 

"My mama mama used to tell me about the city before the First Call", she tells me. I remember her telling me this before, but I let her. This will most likely be the last time she will tell me.

"People did as they pleased. They worked were they wanted to. They ate when they wanted to. They made love however they wanted to."

She looks me in the eyes.

"Freedom. No insanity. No metamorphs. No Call. Can you imagine?"

I tell her that I could not. I never had any one who was still around since before The First Call.

She holds on to my arm.

"All this ugliness will be gone very soon. For you...for I...for all these citizens."

I ask her what would come after this.

"No one one knows what happens after we serve to The Call. I imagine it is only death. Death. Just death."

"How can that be beautiful?"

She looks down. "Because it is freedom. These things that we have been forced to do by the Controllers because of our Special nature. Our Assignments have appalled me. I know they have in your heart as well."

"You are right. I hate what you and I have become"

"We serve no God other than the Old God.  That much I know. And whatever God the Old God is, I hate him." she says..

She looks around at all the citizens , spread out on top of the towers. The Call Guards, blocking the ways out of this. Then she looks up into the heavens. At the stars.

"Their beauty will shine down forever. No matter how mad we are down here, the stars will always be a reminder of what was. How peaceful they must be. How confused they must be when they look down upon our insanity of this city." she tells me, or herself, I'm not very sure.

She then points around the city.

"It's so quiet. No one is making even the slightest sound."

She is right. For the first time since we have been forced up here to honor our duty, I realize this. You can here the drones of City life below us. But up here. Around all these towers with all these people here, you expect commotion. Wailing. Anger. People professing their love for each other. 

Terrified.

Yet all I hear is the wind. The winds from the heights of which we sit.

And Kayla's voice. Her sweet, angelic voice.

"It is quiet.", I agree.

"That, my love, is the sound of a thousand voices screaming at the stars".

At now the loud sound. Like that of a horn, or some loud instrument The City Complex lights up. Brighter. Intense.

And  we see what really is at the heart of the Complex.

A mammoth sized thing. Bulbous head. Tentacles the size of three towers. It rises slowly. 

The sound of the instrument louder.

The Call.

Now it happens. People around us loose their mind. Their sanity is turned off like the water coming out of a faucet.

Anguish, fear, wailing starts.

And they fall. 

Plummet.

Offer themselves to the streets below.

I feel a gnawing in my mind. Something that is not my thoughts. It's not me. It's the Old God. He's here. I must fulfill mu Duty.

I see Kayla. She is gone. Her physical body is here, but she screams and stammers like a fool. 

Then she offers herself. I see her body into the air.

Now I realize that the Complex is actually the sea. The city has been built around the sea....and now I know that beneath that spot in the sea is The Dreaming City that we have been told about in whispers. And now it dawns on me. We have been raised her, put here for this.

I.......yes...........IT IS.........OLD......OLDER THAN TIME......

Ai! Ai!





Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn





Now isn't that a pleasant little story to write while in a class.....see...I am fucked up.
A lot of you are thinking that was a dumb fucking story....well go ahead. I'm rather fond of it.

More graphics. New script ideas

One more graphic I made on the run for DEVELOPMENT HELL. Going to try to post these around places...somewhere....to try to push my script. Not fully counting on the competitions this year.

The gas mas image is a representation of one of the central evil characters in the script "The First Created".


Also revised the other two I did yesterday, slightly.

The blood red sky over the Hollywood sign, kind of paints the theme, and is very visual of the ending!

The retro computer is a central prop used through out the script. I love retro tech....and with several horror / sci fi movies having a retro look and feel in 2012, it felt OK to do this.

I've decided on at least two competitions /  festivals this year. Eerie Horror Fest and something called Shockfest. May not do the two I entered last year. One of them I know I don't stand a chance on (it's one of the biggest) and I'm not too sure on the other one yet.

I'm slightly afraid of what people will think. It's a very bitter, weird and strange story. It's very anti Hollywood in it's theme (although that does not reflect my entire attitude towards Hollywood) and the ending is a real downer....

I made kind of a ballsy move with the ending, and did something that one probably really should not do in a screenplay. I find it depressing as hell...just the way I like my life I guess.

On the flip side, I hope to attract attention. It has two very strong and intelligent female characters, who happen to be in a same sex relationship. Now I know a lot of people are saying that this is a guy writing out some sick fantasy. Wrong. There is not even a hint of sexual content in this script. I made them this way, just because I wanted to. I wanted to break stereotypes. Why can't a couple be gay in a horror movie without it being a political statement (although I do feel same sex marriage should be a right). It's no different then how I try not to play the minority stereotype game either.  I believe in giving all types of people a spotlight in my stories. The next one I'm working on (maybe) is mostly hetro-sexual college kids, but I'm sure I will find a way to sneak something fresh in it.

It's probably gonna: piss people off, make them not want to read my stuff ever again, have them think I have issues ( and I do), or just get them very bummed out. And angry with my choice of sexual orientation in the script. We'll see just how liberal filmmakers and writers / readers really are......

Thinking of developing a couple (gasp, ready for this) more comedic ideas. Still horror. Still gory. But a bit on the lighter side.

I'm in the long process of researching these two ideas to make sure they have not been done exactly the way I want to. I hope not. They are kind of my way of paying tribute to the movies I grew up with in the70's and 80's. But I would be no where near ready to write them. I'm polishing up a short script and working on two other features.


OK...that was fun typing to myself. Since no one reads this crap, I'm gonna post it and go read it myself...then let it sit and fester with scurvy.