The Night Shift: One-sheet surplus
The Night Shift is the production diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in "post" in Mobile, AL. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, you'll get an insider's peek at what it's like for filmmakers to craft a new entry of paranormal pop culture from Erin Lilley, a producer and actress on the film.
One-sheet surplus
The posters are in! I now have 40 bright and shiny posters on my dining room table. I have to say, there's a very odd feeling that goes along with opening up a package and seeing your face staring back at you. These are mainly for cast, crew, and local publicity purposes, right now. Once the film is completed, we'll order more to take to festivals, conventions, and anywhere else that will show this puppy. It's exciting times, over here.
One-sheet surplus
The posters are in! I now have 40 bright and shiny posters on my dining room table. I have to say, there's a very odd feeling that goes along with opening up a package and seeing your face staring back at you. These are mainly for cast, crew, and local publicity purposes, right now. Once the film is completed, we'll order more to take to festivals, conventions, and anywhere else that will show this puppy. It's exciting times, over here.
As of right now, the short has been screened seven times: one convention, one arts festival, and five film festivals. The latest was just this past weekend at the Queen City Scare Fair Horror Film Festival in Meridian, Miss. Other Fighting Owl Film shorts have screened in festivals, as well. In fact, we have a short in the South Alabama Film Festival in Mobile this weekend. These festivals have been wonderful learning experiences for us, and we're hoping for similar success with the feature.
Hopefully, we'll have lots of places to show the film and hand out these posters. If not ... well, I guess I can wallpaper the bathroom with them.
Hopefully, we'll have lots of places to show the film and hand out these posters. If not ... well, I guess I can wallpaper the bathroom with them.
In other zombie news: how cool was The Walking Dead! After working on a zombie movie for ... oh, I've lost count of the months, now, I sort of felt it was my duty to check out the new zombie television series. I have not read the graphic novel, sadly, so I had no idea what to expect. Personally, I loved it. The zombies were creepy, disgusting, and appropriately sympathetic. The human characters are played for realism, and you can definitely feel for what they're going through.
The Ghost Hunters/TAPS take on The Stanley Hotel, part two
[Editor's Note: This is a follow-up to Part One of the Ghost Hunters/Stanley Hotel]
The sprawling Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., is more than a luxurious resort in the Rockies; it’s a symbol for so many stories from America’s past.
It stands on land wrested from a greedy British Earl who had acquired it in an illegal land grab. It was built with the wealth and adventurous spirit of F.O. Stanley, the ingenious creator of The Stanley Steamer automobile. It opened in 1909 with superior amenities and technology for the time, and became a destination for the nation’s powerful, but was also a boon to the residents of the town below.
Then, in the mid-1970s, the historic landmark became a pop-culture one when author Stephen King checked into the hotel for one night with his wife Tabitha and stayed there alone on the final night of the hotel’s season. Roaming the empty halls, King developed the plot for The Shining, a horror classic about a haunted hotel out to destroy a snowed-in family of caretakers.
The Ghost Hunters/TAPS take on The Stanley Hotel, part one
The hollow plastic sound of a Big Wheel rolling down corridors populated by twin girl specters in blue dresses, and the rampant property damage incurred by a tidal wave of blood and reckless axe usage, are the indelible sensory associations with the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining – and by extension, with the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., that stood in for the fictionally haunted Overlook Hotel
.Yet the cinematic Overlook shares less in common with the Stanley than it even does with the Overlook from Stephen King’s literary source material
upon which The Shining is based. Instead, as any casual paranormal investigator or ghost story enthusiast knows, the spooks that supposedly frequent the Stanley are as interactive, albeit less murderous, than those of celluloid.The tales make the Stanley one of the most famous North American spectral spots of apparitional appeal; a haunted hotspot where spirits may gather to roam the hallways, play the piano and carry on as if on permanent vacation. Those tales are also what attracted the TAPS team there twice in 2006 for a televised Ghost Hunters investigation and live Halloween event, and for the July 7 Ghost Hunters Academy season finale – as well as several times since for ticketed events.
The original episodes yielded amazing evidence that rank among the show’s best and earned the “haunted” seal. Each team member seems to have a favorite part of a Stanley investigation after the shows and events.
“The Stanley was one of the big ones we’d always wanted to get to and once we did, it did not disappoint,” says Jason Hawes who says he looks forward to each investigation there – and to pulling pranks on fellow TAPS members if there’s an axe handy.
“Hey brother, it’s The Shining hotel. How can you resist?”