The Wind-down Part 2 - FILMS OF 2015

FESTIVALS!

It's also been the month of FESTIVALS and QnA's! Most notably the Widescreen Weekend at the Bradford Film Museum and the big horror fest in Sheffield, Celluloid Screams!

I rocked up to the final day of the Widescreen Weekend to meet a buddy who's a regular to the festival. He was in it for the long haul and went to pretty much every screening and talk there - projectionists, award winning FX artists etc.

The big hitter was a presentation by the legendary Douglas Trumbull. If you don't know who Doug Trumbull is, get educated. '2001', 'Blade Runner', 'Close Encounters', 'Silent Running'...this guy was the FX supervisor. So yeah, he's kinda a big deal. Shit, he even turned Star Wars down (as you do). Along with the 70mm screening of '2001 A Space Odyssey', he presented a talk about his work, film in general, and what he sees the future of film as a medium.

Thoroughly fascinating in a pure nerdist sense, it was an eye opener. The man himself couldn't be a kinder gent. A class act.

Up next was the annual horror jaunt Celluloid Screams. An absolute treat of a weekend it was too. A good mix of great and not-so-great movies, shorts, and general bollocks talking over gallons of ale.

Opening night was a great night with three flicks that ranged from terrible (The Invitation), to sublime (Goodnight Mommy), to the batshit crazy (Yakuza Apocalypse). It also showcased Andy Stewart's new short film 'Remnant'. See last years BLOG on his excellent short film 'INK' just to remind you on how much of a great talent the feller is.

'Remnant' itself is a showcase of the filmmaker trying to stretch himself but still keeping a signature style. The short lingers long after it finishes and has a gritty, bile-tinted visual style that unsettles for the runtime.

Capping it all off, I got to get drunk with some good guys, hang out with the legendary Graham Humphreys, the ladies from Arrow Video. Also, a shout out to Ben Stiener and Michael Wallin (quiet Nordic nutter and FX guy).

FILMS OF THE YEAR 2015 

As for this years movie intake? Well...compared to last year, it's been poor. Check out last years blog HERE

The list of my faves is shorter, and the quality isn't as high (minus a few choice flicks), and the majority are Documentaries.

QnA for 'The Wolfpack' with director Crystal Moselle and Angulo brothers

FILMS 
Black Mass - Scott Cooper
Steve Jobs - Danny Boyke 
Yakuza Apocalypse - Takeshi Miike
Goodnight Mommy - Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala
Sicario - Denis Villeneuve
Straight Outta Compton - F. Gary Grey
The Man from U.N.C.L.E - Guy Ritchie
Maggie - Henry Hobson
Mission Impossible Rouge Nation - Chris McQuarrie
Electric Boogaloo; Story of Canon Films - Mark Hartley
Jurassic World - Colin Trevorrow
Mad Max Fury Road - George Miller 
Cobain: Montage of Heck - Brett Morgen
The Wolfpack - Crystal Moselle

Oh, no Star Wars: The Force Awakens???? Well, yeah. It wasn't the flick I signed up for if I'm honest.

Also, your Revanant's and Hateful Eight's will rock out in January, so I'll bunch them in with 2016 list.

Here's to next year. Hopefully it'll improve. I'm sure it will as a new Shane Black flick is out.

Festival Season kicking off...

Heyo folks.  Hitting you with a quick update faster than a Jim Kelly (RIP) pimp roundhouse.

While I nurse a badly sprained ankle and float about high on painkillers, my good buddy Chris Purdie dropped some great news about his band -MERRIN- and the music video HENRY KANE.

The video is going to get a screening at the SUPERNORMAL FESTIVAL the 9th - 11th August (clicky the link) in Oxfordshire.

A breakdown of the programme is on the link. Below is a brief of the fest...

Supernormal is a festival like no other, providing a powerful antidote to the current malaise of festivals-as-big-business. Blurring the boundaries between art and music, performer and audience, it champions the iconoclastic and the experimental, allowing risks to be taken and leaps of imagination to occur. Somewhere in spirit between the original Glastonbury Fayre and an eccentric village fete, Supernormal is the alternative's alternative.

Pretty chuffed but slightly gutted as I know Chris has been trying to play that festival for a few years rather than screen a music video.

So, if you're out and about in toff-land or going the festival anyway, drop us a message and let me know what you think.
HENRY KANE by -M E R R I N- from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.

See ya on the flip side

-MERRIN- Screening

What a busy week. Always a good thing as it generally improves the monotony of the week, but as it drains the life out of you I've been taking shares out of Red Bull and Maxwell House.

My last blog I told you that there's was a screening of the music video Henry Kane -MERRIN- at the Black
Lion in Manchester on Wednesday

.

"Cut to the chase you blub, how did it go?" Well...Where were you? Just joking. In answer to the question, it went well. But it's an odd thing to gauge

It was only a small turn out, about 30 at a push in a upstairs screening room above a nice boozer not too far from Piccadilly station. There was some great music video's and experimental pieces that were shown throughout the night with most of the filmmakers there who took part in a Q and A after each screening.

As with most of these screenings I generally turn up to, something odd happens when I bump into someone I know or at least have working/know someone who has worked with them. In this case it was a director called Lee Bolton who runs Elerby Studios in Bolton. He had directed a music video for the band Blackheart who are, surprisingly enough, close friends of my wife's family and are currently on tour in Europe. Anyway, it was a good to break the ice so to speak, especially when I was flying solo with the worry that my video was going to make me look like a sadist.

As mentioned, there were some good videos. A short by Jason Wingard-Hasford who animates the rants of Artist Taxi Driver had me in stitches. A big highlight was screening of Biting Elbows video for Bad Motherfucker. Never seen it before and while its an already done concept, its execution is golden.

Anyway, back to Henry Kane. It was the last one of the night. Don't know if it was because of the tone and it suited a late night show, but hey, it meant I was getting home at half 1 in the morning after missing my train anyway so I was beyond caring.

The titles came up and those first bars kicked in....

 

I said before it was hard to gauge the reaction. It was similar to my Univeristy screening of Random at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield in 2005. As the tone is dark, there's never any vocal reaction. There's no gasp, shock, or jumps (something I thought I'd get with Random back in the day) just pure silence. I can't even remember if it got a round of applause. I'm sure it did as everyone elses did, I just can't remember as I was going up for the Q and A and thinking out how to deflect the idea that I'm not some kind of fetish sex offender.

It was only in the Q and A that I got an idea that the video worked.

The Q and A was with another director from the night, his a far more personal and experimental series of films. I gave a brief overview of myself, what I've done, and the film itself. Hopefully the interviews get put up online as I'm sure I'll get rinsed for the blatant movie nerd cock-up (saying Henry Kane was a character in Phantasm rather than Poltergeist) as well as coming across like a whinging wannabe. 

Why do I say that? Well, I mentioned I want to get away from Horror genre and do something different because...I don't think I'm very good at it. The reply and consensus was? "It was pretty scary, mate."

And with that, I know it worked.  Silence can mean engagement, can mean they're "getting" it.  The biggest thing I'm enjoying with these screenings seems to be the fact that elements are working. Sure, there's loads to improve, but when you set out with a goal and it generally pulls it out the bag, you know you're on the right track.

Big thanks to Chris Purdie for letting me do the track, John Kino for putting the night on and showing the film, and everyone else that watched and "enjoyed" it.

And as for thanks...it always surprises me the amount of readers each post is getting. So if you're reading this, I say thank you. I seriously expected it to be about 5 people accidentally reading it. But no, 2000 views so far, nearly 300 of them last month. The short films too getting an insane amount of hits recently. Henry Kane hitting 500 views, Another Film in Woods 300. Imidiwan 800...True, its no Gangdam Style or Panda Sneezing hits, but its a start.

And you're from all over the world. So you American, Canadian, Russian, and European readers...drop a few comments, leave a message or two, good or bad. Its 2013 so social interaction won't get you convicted of abuse charges 30 odd years down the line, Opertation Yewtree style (Google it). And on that note...

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Woods Screening

Why,  hello there.

Well, the screening on Tuesday happened. Showroom Cinema, Sheffield. Kicked off at 7:30pm.

I arrived fashionably late after a quick run to Costco for a coffee and a toffee and apple muffin (for pros). It was a good turn out, close to a 100 packed in at points.

I bumped into Julia (who plays thr Vicar)  and Amber (who plays Mandy)  who turned up to watch the film. It was great meeting up with them after a month or so. Was also very nerve wracking -  what if it bombed? What if it got laughed at? It was my film, my responsibility for turning out an embarrassment who dragged the actressess with me. Not great.

Anyway, I did what any normal person would do... Run away for 45minutes and watch Sam Raimi's classic Army of Darkness in glorious 35mm.  What a great movie that is. And fuck me did I steal a lot from it. Seemed to me like a great double bill, Woods and Army of Darkness solely based on tone and thats about it.

Then we got down to it. Before hand there was a showing of a lottery funded horror called Ella. It had Giles from Buffy blowing a dogs snout off with a shotgun. Safe to say, it was a winner. 

Next up... It began.

Every problem was amplified. Every sound effect needed more work. I shit a brick...

Then... I heard laughs. Intentional laughs. I started to watch the crowd. A few bopping their heads to the music, people talking about what they were watching. It was the only short on the night that was just pure fun with a pace and energy to it and it seemed to get peoples attentions.

The final credits kicked it. Big applause. Then a few cheers from some complete strangers. I cracked a sly grin. A girl next to me laughed at the final kiss off line and looked genuinely happy with what she watched.  "A techno chase horror film"  I overhead some bloke say.

Safe to say, it didn't bomb which I thought it could do.  I thanked Julia and Amber who also seem happy with how it went. We went our separate ways and I thanked the host Rob Speranza for screening it.

Maybe I'm making the night better than it was. Well, fuck that, it made me happy and I didn't hear a bad word. All I got were positive vibes and an unexpected reaction. I couldn't sleep when I got in, bit of an adrenaline boost thinking about it.

Blubbing aside, it went well. All I can say is thanks to Amber, Julia, Nicola, Rebecca, Chris, Reem and Rob for everything.

Its got me pumped for 2013.

See ya on the flip side... Danny

A gentle reminder...

Hello mucko's,

A little bit of a gentle poke to remind you good people that Another Film in the Woods will be playing at Showroom Shorts tomorrow (Tuesday 20th November).

I'll be spamming book of the face and twatter with further details but as this is another reminder...there's a few short films playing and a little bit of a birthday bash going on that kicks off at 7:30pm till 10pm.

The short is scheduled to be 2nd to last on, around 9:15pm - 9:30pm in the Showroom bar area.  Drop me an email/message/text/phone call/postcard/letter if your coming or want further info and I'll enlighten you.

I'll be there at 7:30pm till 8:15pm as I'll be running off to one of the screening rooms to watch a flick.  But I'll be out at 9:10pm for the rest of the night.  

And if you didn't know...its free.

ANOTHER FILM IN THE WOODS from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.

See ya on the flip side, Danny.

Screening of the Woods

Hey good lookin', whatcha been cookin'?

Currently having a very productive week away from the monotony of the 9 to 5.  What have I been doing?  Pretty much as little as possible aka old school fuck all (bath swishing and the like).  In between the nothingness, there's been a wind down of script re-writing and movie watching.

Anyway, as no one really gives a fuck about what I've been up to privately, its time for an update of the short opus that is Another Film in The Woods.

I was disappointed it didn't get into the 2 Days Later Competition. They've posted the winners up and...I enjoyed them.

The main winner has a good concept but severely overlong. The audience winner was funny. A bastardised product of the Human Centipede/Hostel torture porn "genre" where abusing innocent characters in amusingly gory ways without a real point apart from having a cheeky premise (Kebab shop owners is a nutcase) seems to be popular. Anyway, check em out and see what you think.

Compared to Woods? Make you're own mind up. I'm not bitter.

Which leads on to...Its getting screened in Sheffield! The film will be playing at the Showroom Shorts this Tuesday 20th November.

There's a few short films playing and a little bit of a birthday bash going on that kicks off at 7:30pm till 10pm. I'll be dotting about as ironically enough, I've tickets to see Army of Darkness (aka Evil Dead 3) on the same night.

Anyway, its free. So if you can come, let me know and I'll hopefully meet up with you for a chuckle. I'll abuse Facebook and Twitter to spam you all.

I'm off to listen to the new DEFTONES album.

ANOTHER FILM IN THE WOODS from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.

See ya on the flip side, Danny.

Another Blatant Promotional Push...

Another day, another amazing sales pitch for the short film for people who haven't seen it and a few more updates.

Just like to say thanks to the people who have watched the short and given some good feedback. Hey, people enjoy it. Made me a happy bunny. The cast are happy with the film too which is always a good feeling. (shout out to the lead actress Amber Brookes, follow her on TWITTER).

Bad news first...the film didn't get into the 2 Days Later film competition that the film was made for.

Now, there's a variety of reasons as to why I think this happened, and I take full responsibility. The DVD screener I sent isn't the final version for one, and it wasn't rendered correctly. It had a jittery effect due to a interlace problem (tech geek bollocks) that was eventually fixed for the version you see online and sent to the cast & crew. My mistake for running out of time and not being able to fix it.

Another reason? The film is sound heavy. A lot of scene transitions and dialogue scenes are linked with a lot of sound FX. The screener I sent wasn't 100% with these tracks and therefore is rather jolting and amateurish. Not to say the final version is on a level to David Fincher, but its a difference that sets a level of watchable and unwatchable.

Yet another? They may have collared that it wasn't shot slightly within the 2 day timeline? It was shot in a day, but had a couple of days of pre-production and a couple for post. Sue me.

Final reason? They may have thought it was shite? More than likely this one...but compared to what was screened and won last year...ah, well, its all subjective.

Semi-good news...Even though I've missed the deadline for halloween film festivals this year, I'll be sending this out for next year so hopefully it has a life in the future.

Good news...we're on the IMDB. Yey! Check it out and vote/leave comments/whatever. Another Film In The Woods IMDB 

Another plus point was seeing my good buddie Chris Purdie aka MERRIN playing a live set at the Playhouse in Northampton. In his set-list he played Henry Kane with the MUSIC VIDEO I directed for him as the visuals for his stage show. Check it out HERE.

Anyway, its time to wind-down preparing for Christmas. Will be attending the Celluloid Screams festival at the end of the month to check out some horror flicks and shorts. Followed up by a trip back to Liverpool and seeing Rob Zombie in Manchester at the end of November. In-between that will be writing and movie watching.

Anyway, as the title suggests, below is another blatant promotional push. We're also on VIMEO. Thanks.

ANOTHER FILM IN THE WOODS from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.
See ya on the flip side, Danny.

'ANOTHER FILM IN THE WOODS' is here!

Well, well, well then...

No OTT introduction.  No hype.  No ridiculous build up.

Watch.  Enjoy.  Comment.   Be gentle.


"Another Film In The Woods"
Woke up.  Bought Breakfast.  Had to survive.

A horror short where 'Run Lola Run' meets 'The Evil Dead'. On the way back from picking up breakfast, Mandy falls into mysterious and dangerous woodland where she has to run for her life and hope to make it home in one piece. 

See ya on the flip side, Danny.

NEW SHORT FILM BITCHES

Well, well, well, haven't we been a busy little bee.

You may have seen my moody post of a TEASER poster a few weeks ago. Well me and Chris Earl have been busy working hard on a short film called 'Another Film In the Woods'.

Have got back into the swing of things with a couple of MUSIC VIDEOS , it was high time to get on the short narrative film front. So with a few competitions lined up, me and Chris thought we'd delve into doing a short 10 minute horror comedy.

Run Lola Run meets The Evil Dead was the idea.

So through taking a few hours out to write, audition, and cast the flick we finally got things in place.  Saturday just gone, we rallied the troops and shot our film with a all girl cast;

Amber Brookes

Nicola Chance

Rebecca Lund

Julia Bisby

It was a toughie and little Amber took a bit of a beating but she trooped on. In fact, they all did and I couldn't have thanked them enough.

I'm excited by the footage. Big time. Now to spend a day editing it and...who knows...we'll see if we got some fried gold with a techno soundtrack.

Been a bit of a monkey off my back.  Now lets see what happens.

Go HERE for some movie stills.

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Not the face...please...

Well, hello young roughiuns.

Punt a blog time while I sup a cup of Twinings Rich & Velvity smooth cwwwooofee and reflect on viewing a few depressing films over the weekend (Killer Joe, Tyrannosaurs, Inside Job)...

Anyway, updates smashed up on Vimeo. So if you're bored of watching blokes with snazzy camera lenses rendering shit in slow-mo on FCPro, check it out. Add me, slate me, do whatever that takes your mind from knowing you've wasted brain-cells commenting on something so meaningless.

Also, I've done a few promo posters for a couple of scripts, being that its apparently the "in thing" to do nowadays. Check out the Flickr stream to the right.

Back on to ventures of the month. I've been eying this for a few years, the 2dayslater film competition. Basically, they set out a brief which mainly involves certain items that the film has to have or a saying and you make a 10 minute short film in 2 days (supposidly, although there will be some cheating bastards). So, I've roped in Chris Earl again to see if we can bang something up together. I've got an idea...but keep thinking there's gonna be shit-loads of films set in the woods (its simple, its convenient, I get it) where shit goes off. So I dunno where to go...brainstorming is needed.

In other news...another rejection from Bath Film Festival IMDb Script to Screen competition. One maybe thinks about pulling out the most offensive thing I've ever written (if I can find it) and maybe put it forward for something.

There's still a few more in the wings (Amazon Studios, Back In the Box, etc) so when someone once asked me if I've ever paid my dues, I said; "Paid my dues? Yes, sir. The cheque is in the mail."

See ya on the flip side...Danny

-M E R R I N - Unleashed

As mentioned in the previous blog, here's the music video for 'Henry Kane' by -M E R R IN - on the night he smashes up the Nambucca live in London.

Enjoy.

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Derek and Merrin Enjoyed Their Time Together...

Its 'bin a whiiiile... Bad flashbacks to that song by Stained out of the way, but its true...its been sometime since the last blog and announcement of doing a new music video for -MERRIN-.

Its gone well...slow, but well. Took a while to get an idea with inspiration from Michael Mann's 'Manhunter' as a jumping off point and David Fincher's awesome credit sequence to the 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' remake to get the ball rolling. It evolved as the process went along and a story from beginning, middle, and end revealed itself.

But away from that pretentious guff, the bottom line is, its finished. Done. And the feedback? Well...the artist likes it. He loves it in fact. I nailed the mood, the tone, whilst adding that little bit of nightmarish spice and upsetting his girlfriend he said. Not too shabby if you ask me, and its always good to get a response like that.

Anyway, "where/when can I see this masterpiece?" you may not be asking. Answer to that is...I'm holding it back. "You twat!" I'll get in reply (well, I get called that all the time but that's another matter). -MERRIN- want to premier it at the their latest gig at the NAMBUCCA, in London this Sunday the 22nd April. So go check it out of you're in the Big Smoke and enjoy some prog-rock metal while you're there.

If you cant make it? The video will be unleashed Sunday night for all to enjoy (or not). Check back here or most social-twatworks that I'll spam on the back of it and other treats.

IN OTHER NEWS...I've threw out a few short scripts to a couple of festivals to see WTF may (or most probably not) happen. A horror short called 'Last Night Stand' sent to the The National Irish Science Fiction Film Awards which is around October. And the other, a drama/thriller called 'Before I go Away' from a story by me and a friend Michael Ellis, to the Bath Film Festival which is around November - and to which there's no hope in that one.

WOW, just reading over that it seems like a very productive few months which nice so here's to the next few months.  Need. To. Do. More.  I'll be back soon.

See ya on the flip side...Danny

When Derek met Merrin....

Easy now!

Having reconfirmed my ultimate disbelief in humanity and society in general (thank you Monday), its time to dive into some Music Video business.

A good friend of mine Chris Purdie has a rather tidy Doom/Metal band called MERRIN. Check out some tracks on the link and get all moody and shizntis as the band is ripping up some gigs daaarn saaarf.

Anyway, I dropped him a message to see if he needed or wanted any visual/music video pieces doing for any tracks. He said he has so Bob's your Monkhouse, Derek's are getting it done. Should be good fun and unconventional, which is how we like it, and a good piece to get back into the swing of things for 2012.

Also, if you've got some love to give, go check out MERRIN on Facebook for tours and gig stuff (give it the like, what harm can that do?). And also Chris' BLOG to check out some of his performances and video work.

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Red Planet Fail

Ah yes....been a long time.

Anyway, got the dreaded email from the Red Planet Prize saying yo ass aint going to Mars.

Not really much of a surprise as when I read over the submission I sent...it was full of typo's. It pissed me off when I found out, but what can you do? Could've pinned my hopes on them liking the content and dismissing the errors, but then again its more than likely they hated the idea anyway so fuck it.

Getting good feedback on the feature script. All usable. All worthwhile. Quite happy with it and the response.

Time to polish (not the nob) up and eyeball competitions for 2012. Ye-fuckin-ha.

See ya on the flip side...Danny

FINALLY!!!!

"The Rock has come BACK"...we'll, not as awesome as TeamBringIt stomping all over the show but in my personal war of bringing foot to arse, I can happily report I have FINALLY finished my latest screenplay.

"Why are YOU so fuckin' happy?"  You may ask, well...this one has been a toughie.  I've tried to write at least one a year, and I did...till I began to write this ball-buster of a feature which I began tackling on 23rd September 2008 on the back of a successful pitch at a script writing seminar.  And yes, oh dear it took 3 years to write.  Now, its not the Godfather by any means but generally this was down to other "commitments" and the like.  But a large chunk was down to the story, the tone, and the struggle to write an anarchic black comedy heavy on the violence, light on being P.C that didn't end up being a Troma film.

I haven't read it over yet but I know instantly what needs to go, what needs to change.  The first 60 pages seems to be a mess but the rest seems clear and concise as it clocks in at 150 pages (WHOA!).  But that's the future.  The big thing now is that it's done, that all important 1st draft is done.  The hard work of refinement begins now.

Addition to this, while feeling like it was a large rock on my shoulders creatively (twat!) that has now lifted, its time for the Red Planet Prize competition.  No chance of getting anything out of it, but 2012 is just gonna be the year of hammering the comps and festivals...and also making something again after the 2Weeks2Makeit endeavour last year.

Kicking a mud-hole into 2012's bitch ass mo'fucker as Xzibit would say.  Rather...

See ya on the flip side...Danny.

Patience...

Updates soon....(nothing too major lol)

Enjoy in the meantime.  Love it -

GETTING INTO THE GROOVE...

Think this is all up and running now....

So to kick off, heres something I found on my tumblr page (dereks dont run films tumblr) that's pretty bad-arse.