Friday, November 5, 2010

Seven Days Later...

Well, it’s been a week since the opening night of the Hallowscreen Film Festival. I couldn’t have written this up any earlier, I was beat down dead exhausted after months of scrambling and relatively little sleep. Once the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival bowed out of the Hallowscreen, I didn’t have that much time to pull the festival together, especially considering how I’d never been in charge of a film festival before. I’ve run 35mm projection for the Sarasota Film Festival, but that’s a completely different animal. They, for one, have staff. I had only me, really, to organize and get the word out. Denise Kowal, the head of the Avenida de Colores, who was running the Sarasota Chalk Festival, was kind enough to support Hallowscreen. She had enough to worry about with her massive amazing event and yet, she managed to help me out tremendously!


Unfortunately, some of my plans didn’t work out. I tried to get I Am Nancy for the festival and I tried to hook up with Fangoria, but IAN didn’t work out timing-wise and there just wasn’t enough money to do any advertising with Fango. For what little time I had, I think I managed to pull off an amazing festival celebrating everything that encompasses the horror genre: cheesy bad movies, surprisingly awesome movies, scream queens, and heart...lots of heart. And guts. And various other viscera.


Every showing had at least one non-projectionist / non-staff audience member, which I think is extraordinary considering the incredible, historic event that was happening right outside the venue. I mean, we were a mere 50 feet from Edgar Mueller’s first large scale American installation! We had standing room only during the Saturday shorts package which featured the majority of our Sarasota artists: Jesse Kozel and Sage Hall with Candy, Paul Krisher with 8:59, Derek Conley and Brett Jones with a promo for The Hunted: Vindication, as well as 2:22 from Orlando filmmaker Steven Shea and myself with Without/Within. Hopefully some collaborations will be borne from the connections that were made during this festival!


The screening I arranged of Nosferatu with a brand new score performed live by my brother’s band, World Collision, was an unmitigated success! Whenever anyone came up to me and turned away as soon as they heard that I was running a horror film festival (which, let’s be honest, was nearly everyone because of Sarasota's demographics), I would tell them that they shouldn’t miss Nosferatu. According to some friends who were able to be there for it (I couldn’t leave the venue as the projection guy had to be at Nosferatu and I had no volunteers), the crowd for Nosferatu swelled to about 200 people!


No film festival can be a film festival without the actual films. Hallowscreen had some of the best in new Indie horror features such as Mel House’s Walking Distance, Barbara Stepansky’s Fugue, Adrian DeLude and Eric Nichols’ The Awakened, and Gregg Holtgrewe’s Dawning. Our special screening of the classic Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama to honour Brinke Stevens as our Queen of Hallowscreen was a hit!


Though I was sort of volunteered into the role of program director for the festival, I did my best to take up the challenge. I’ve done just about everything else for a festival: I’ve been a freelance photographer, a concessionist, an usher, a projectionist, an attendee, and a filmmaker...why not try this one on for size, too? And when the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival bowed out leaving me essentially on my own, I tried my best to continue on and put on the best show I could. I’m sure I made some mistakes, but they were all things I have learned from for the future, assuming, of course, that I do this again next year...which I don’t know if I will or even can.


The main goal of this festival wasn’t to make money for me. All money earned via donations went directly to the Avenida de Colores (it’s never too late to donate, by the way, just go to www.chalkfestival.com and look for the donation button or contact Denise Kowal herself via the site for more information.) Making it a free event was a GOOD idea, especially given a few of the bumps that happened during the festival such as the tremendous amount of foot traffic from artists and volunteers during the films or the band that was set up right outside our front door for thirty or forty minutes on the last day of the festival...just gotta work on that donation aspect more because I don’t think the film festival raised as much as we could’ve for the Avenida de Colores. If I were to do this again next year, I honestly wouldn’t do it for profit. I’d do it for a reputable organization like the Avenida de Colores.


Anyway, for my first time doing anything like this, I think it was a huge success! I’ve learned a lot (especially as a filmmaker, such as why 30 minutes is too long for an individual short film!) and if I DO do this next year, I think it could be even better! But I have a lot of projects lined up right now and can’t even begin to think about next year yet. One day at a time...


A huge thank you must go to Denise Kowal and the Avenida de Colores, my brother Shawn and World Collision, the people of Sarasota who shed their inhibitions and came out in support of great indie horror, Ron French and Axis Audio/Video and PC Rental for the excellent projection and sound, and to the amazing filmmakers for giving their films to an untried first year not-for-profit film festival!:


Julian Grant, Jesse Kozel and Sage Hall, Mel House, Ashley Maria, Marc Leland, Gregg Holtgrewe, Wyatt Weed, Matt Harry and Barbara Stepansky, Douglas Pritchard, Mike Sasse, Eric Nichols, Adrian DeLude, Steven Shea, Derek Conley and Brett Jones, Norman Magden, Doug Osman, Joe Kerns, Paul Krisher, Gary Ugarek, Chris Kiros, Tiffany Jackson, Shane and Derek Cole, Alex Horwitz, Tim Anderson, Brinke Stevens, Ry at Full Moon Entertainment, and all of the filmmakers in the Thirst for Blood package given to us by Asif Ahmed at the Vampire Film Festival in New Orleans!


As Rob Zombie said, “Art isn’t safe.” Support indie horror!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Annoucement!

Slight schedule change!

The short film Shed has been moved to Saturday night before Fugue and will instead be a trailer for that short and Inner Beauty will be taking Shed's former spot in front of M. The online schedule has been updated!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

New short added!

The short film 2:22 from Orlando, Florida filmmaker Steven Shea has been added to our line up! It plays in the shorts package which starts at 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 30!

2:22 Short Film - Trailer (2009) from Abyssmal Entertainment on Vimeo.

Downloadable versions of our schedule!

In an effort to reduce how much paper is used, I've created two more ways of getting our schedule in addition to the physical, printed brochure and the web-based version of the schedule.

Click here to download our schedule as an epub document hosted by MediaFire.

Click here to download the inside of our brochure as a PDF, also hosted by MediaFire.

If I'd remembered about QR codes earlier, I would've put them on the posters...ah well, next year!!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hallowscreen Festival Director on At the Movies!

Here's the video of me, Festival Director / Program Director Lori Bowen, on local access television talking up the Hallowscreen! I excised my parts from the whole show because of YouTube's length restrictions. You should definitely check out the Sarasota Chalk Festival's Denise Kowal in the video at the bottom of this post for the rest of the episode!

Lori chatting up Hallowscreen:


Denise Kowal chatting up the Sarasota Chalk Festival:

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

At the Movies with Gus Mollasis

Hey everyone (who lives in Sarasota anyway...) Tune in to BlabTV (Comcast 189) at 7 tomorrow night to see Sarasota Chalk Festival director Denise Kowal and Hallowscreen director Lori Bowen (me!) talk about our events with Gus Mollasis, host of At the Movies!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Congratulations DGA award winner Ashley Maria!

Last night, I heard from filmmaker Ashley Maria that she received an award from the Director's Guild of America for her short film Friday Night Fright! That's an amazing honour from a prestigious organization!

Congratulations, Ashley!

You can see Friday Night Fright on Saturday, October 30 at 8 pm! It shows before the feature Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Final feature added to our line-up!

Just added the feature Walking Distance from filmmaker Mel House!



Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this is the last feature we'll be adding to the festival! We're still accepting shorts for now so bring the noise, bring the funk!

Another short added to our line-up!

We're pleased to announce that we've added Brooklyn filmmaker Tiffany D. Jackson's short film The Field Trip to our line-up!

The Field Trip from Tiffany D. Jackson on Vimeo.

Looking for volunteers!

The Hallowscreen Film Festival is looking for responsible volunteers (read: no pay, except in gum and gratitude!) for our Halloween weekend event!

We request that all volunteers are 18 or older as this film festival shows mostly rated R films and as one of the functions of the volunteers will be to check IDs at the door, it doesn't seem right for the volunteer to not be able to see the movies they're carding for!

We need volunteers for the following days:
Friday, October 29, 2010, from 6pm-midnight. 6pm-9pm is the VIP party and 9 pm-midnight is the open to the public portion. The opening night film will be shown during both sections. The volunteer may be called upon to change discs as well as card attendees to verify that they are 17 or older for our films.

Saturday, October 30, 2010, from noon-midnight. Obviously, we don't expect volunteers to stay all twelve hours, but we're running films that entire time. Switching discs and checking IDs will be the main jobs for the volunteers. There is also an outdoor portion to this event, from 6:30 until 8, featuring local band World Collision playing a brand new, original score live to the silent film Nosferatu.

Sunday, October 31, 2010, from noon-midnight. Obviously, we don't expect volunteers to stay all twelve hours, but we're running films that entire time. Again, switching discs and checking IDs will be the main jobs for the volunteers.

Other functions that may be asked of the volunteers: help tearing down / putting up A/V equipment if the tech crew so asks, go-fer / errand runner, sell t-shirts that help to raise money for the Chalk Festival / Avenida de Colores.

To apply, please send your name, availability, and contact information to Hallowscreen@gmail.com . Please use: "Volunteer for Hallowscreen" in your subject so the email doesn't end up in Spam. Volunteers are responsible for getting themselves to and from the event, which is in downtown Sarasota. Finally, serious applicants only, please. Please don't volunteer your time only to not show up and not even let us know that you're not showing up.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Two more films to announce!

First is The Awakened by Adrian DeLude and Eric Nichols:


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Finally, to round out our special presentation, Vampire Fest Sarasota, we bring you last year's VFF Audience Choice winner, Shadowland by Wyatt Weed.


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The schedule has been updated to include these films, but not to reflect start times as those have changed a tiny bit to reflect changes in run times. Start times will be updated as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Three more feature films to announce!

Today's been an exciting day and I have added three more feature films to our spectacular line-up!

Drive-In HorrorShow is an anthology of short films that I thought would be a perfect way to start our festival as our opening night film!


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M from the filmmaking team of Shane and Derek Cole.


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Fugue by Barbara Stepansky

World Collision video from Sarasota Comcast 19

Here's a piece that aired recently on Sarasota Comcast channel 19 about World Collision, the band who will be performing a brand new, original score live to the silent film Nosferatu.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Current festival schedule!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29:



6 pm - 9 pm By Invitation Only: VIP Party.

9 pm - 12 am Open to the public: Opening Night Film: Drive-In Horror Show



(The opening night film will be played during the VIP party, too.)







SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30:



INDOOR VENUE

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm ZOMBthology from Chris Kiros

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm The Awakened

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm SHORTS

Without/Within from Lori Bowen - LOCAL

Candy from Sage Hall and Jesse Kozel - LOCAL
The Field Trip from Tiffany D. Jackson

2:22 from Steven Shea
The Hunted: Vindication by Derek Conley and Brett Jones - LOCAL

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm The Call of Cthulhu

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Fugue preceeded by the trailer for the short film

Shed from Douglas Pritchard

8:00 pm - 9:40 pm Queen of Hallowscreen: Brinke Stevens

Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama preceeded by

Friday Night Fright from Ashley Maria

9:40 pm - 10:15 pm Deadlands 2: Trapped from Gary Ugarek preceeded by

aftershock from Lori Bowen - LOCAL

10:15 pm - 12:15 am Walking Distance from Mel House



OUTDOOR VENUE:

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Nosferatu (1922) with a brand new, original score performed live by local band World Collision







SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31:



12:00 pm - 1:00 pm SHORTS

Cafe from Norman Magden

Consumption from Doug Osman

Torture Girl by Jon Kerns

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm M preceeded by the short film

Inner Beauty from Douglas Pritchard

3:00 pm - 4:40 pm Dawning from Gregg Holtgrewe

4:40 pm - 6:20 pm She Wolf Rising from Marc Leland

6:20 pm - 9:20 pm VAMPIRE FEST SARASOTA

Thirst for Blood Shorts Package:

The Familiar

The Latest Vampire

Vicky

You Are So Undead

The Unwelcomed

Seeing

Forgettable

Shadowlands



9:20 pm - 11:30 pm The Defiled from Julian Grant preceeded by the short film

Alice Jacobs is Dead from Alex Horwitz



As always, times and titles are subject to change without notice.



More films added!

We're honoured to have the following films added to our spectacular line-up!!

SHORTS:
Shed and Inner Beauty by Orlando, Florida, filmmaker Douglas Pritchard.

SHED:


INNER BEAUTY:




Alice Jacobs is Dead by New York filmmaker Alex Horwitz




Candy by Sarasota, Florida filmmakers Sage Hall and Jesse Kozel

Candy Trailer from StarFruit Productions on Vimeo.



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FEATURES:
The Defiled by Chicago, Illinois, filmmaker Julian Grant




Dawning by filmmaker Gregg Holtgrewe




She Wolf Rising by New York filmmaker Marc Leland


SCHEDULE TO COME SOON!!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Several more films to be screened during our festival!

We're honoured to add the following films to our program!

DGA award winning short Friday Night Fright by Los Angeles, California filmmaker Ashley Maria

"Friday Night Fright" Trailer from Ashley Maria on Vimeo.


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Consumption from Winston-Salem, N.C, filmmaker D.C. Osman



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Norman Magden's award-winning short experimental film Cafe doesn't have a trailer online, but I saw this film last year at the Vampire Film Festival in New Orleans, and it's beautifully shot and very striking. A must see!

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I currently have two of my own short films in the program. One is a three minute film called aftershock, which doesn't have a trailer, and the other is Without/Within, the trailer for which is below. I'm not too proud to put my own films in a festival I'm programming, but I will move / remove them should the demands of running time press on me. Check back closer to showtime to see if they're still in or not!

Without/Within by Sarasota, Florida filmmaker Lori Bowen

Screening at the festival!!

We here at Hallowscreen are aware that there's more to cinematic horror than sharp-toothed prowlers of the night and are proud to announce that we've been given the opportunity to screen two feature-length zombie films and a short film that is probably the best adaptation to date of an H.P. Lovecraft story!


Deadlands 2: Trapped from filmmaker Gary Ugarek; winner Silver Scream Award - Best Zombie Film - Fright Night Film Fest 2009; winner Best Horror / Thriller and People's Choice Award winner for a Feature Film - World Music and Independent Film Festival 2010



ZOMBthology from filmmaker Chris Kiros; nominated for Best Actress: Tiffany Shepis, World Music and Independent Film Festival 2010



The Call of Cthulhu from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society; Multiple award winning film, receiving honours from festivals like the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Eerie Horror Film Festival, World Horror Con, Rhode Island Film Festival, Avignon Film Festival and many more!




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F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu

Nosferatu, with a new, original soundtrack performed live by World Collision, will be shown on Saturday, October 30, on the wall near where South Pineapple Avenue converges with South Orange Avenue in Sarasota, Florida!

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Sorority Babes at the Silimeball Bowl-a-Rama



Horror movies wouldn't be the same without some of the wacky, weird, and wildly wonderful B-movies that make up a huge and popular part of the genre's history and the actresses who help bring them to life. To that end, the Hallowscreen Film Festival honors Scream Queen Brinke Stevens as our first Queen of Hallowscreen! With the very generous help of Full Moon Features, we bring you one of the films Ms. Stevens herself is proud of, one that she herself picked as one of her favourites out of the over 100 films she’s been in: Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama from 1988.

When a college initiation ceremony goes wrong, three sorority pledges are told to go steal a trophy from a local bowling alley. Aiding them in their quest are the three frat boys who got them into trouble in the first place. During their larceny, the trophy is destroyed releasing an evil, wish-granting imp who proceeds to cause mayhem and murder amongst the unfortunate students.

The film is gory and chock-a-block full of nudity, it is rated R after all so make sure you bring your ID, but it's also a hilarious send up of the genre and of itself. The film also stars Ms. Stevens' fellow Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead) and Andreas Jones (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.) Unfortunately, Ms. Stevens will not be in attendance.

RATED R. 1h 20m

For more information on Full Moon Features, the studio behind classic films like Puppet Master and Trancers and the distributor of films like Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama, please visit www.fullmoonfeatures.com.