Terrestrial Is Coming!

Hello everyone,

Almost a year has passed since we made our little short film, Lepus, which will be on the Death By VHS DVD coming to video September 17th. In that time we have made some serious headway in moving forward with our projects. Not only do we have a feature version of Lepus in the works with producer Michael S. Rodriguez but we have a documentary about our lives in the world of podcasting and all the other projects our fellow network associates are involved in. But, most immediately, we have a little project called Terrestrial. It was an idea I pitched to Brian Smith one night when I was thinking about E.T. and what Elliot would be like as an adult. Two words - Psychologically Disturbed. We sat down and wrote out the story later that night.

Terrestrial is about a man who has lost everything in his life - his family, his job, his furniture, everything. All was lost because he believes he has an alien living in his closet compelling him to do bad things. We were all set to shoot this back in January and it fell apart due to a location issue. We put it on the back burner to focus on a few other things and decided to come back to it at a later date. Then we lost our lead actor. As sad it was to lose him it was actually great news in the long run. I sent the script to an actor I have become friends with over the last year who has a bit of a name in horror circles and he's agreed to do the short film. He loved Lepus and I sent him Terrestrial on a whim. He immediately said he would be interested. That man is Bill Oberst Jr.

We are very excited to work with Bill on this project. Not only do we have the utmost respect for his talent but we also think he's a great fit for the lead role. Anyone who knows Bill knows that he is a genuine and funny man but he always plays serious and psychotic. We wanted to showcase his humorous side a little with this piece. Although Terrestrial will be darker in tone than Lepus there is much humor to gleaned from the project and we are confidant that Bill has that in spades. 

Upon securing Bill comes the question of budget. We do need to raise the money to ensure that we can bring him out to Arizona for a few days to shoot this. For that reason we have elected to start an IndieGoGo page for Terrestrial. On it you will see a link to Lepus so you can see what we did without a budget. Take that and imagine what we can do with better equipment, a star lead actor and a crew of more than three. I will soon have the IndieGoGo page all set up with some great incentives for donation. Please help us in support of this project. We promise you will not be disappointed. 

Look to our Facebook page for details on how you can donate soon. And, even if you don't donate, share the project with friends and get them to do it. Trust me, you want this to happen.

Jacob O'Neal

Robot Vampire Productions

We Don't Want To Beg

Good evening everyone. I suppose I shouldn't be that specific. I have no idea when you're reading this. How about "Hello everyone"? Is that better? Good.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about things lately. Robot Vampire Productions has a pretty full slate of projects coming. Not only does Lepus debut on the Death By VHS DVD on September 17th but we have several projects on the horizon. We are currently writing a feature length version of Lepus that we hope to start soon. We also have another short film, Terrestrial, we hope to start shooting in the very near future. Then there's the documentary I'm talking about doing as well as another horror short called Unhinged.

Yes, we're busy.

Add that to the three shows each that Brian and I do, plus all the supplemental shows and you'd wonder how Brian is ever able to play Magic The Gathering or I'm able to watch all the movies I do for The Gorram Nerd Hour.

Now that we've got that out of the way I would like to talk to you about what we're struggling with. When it comes down to it money is always an issue when making even the shortest of short films...unless you're Kevin Moyers and then you'd argue that Vine is the future. But we're not Kevin and would summarily ignore him when he begins to talk about Vine again. No, instead we would like to talk about the validity of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Sure, these are great tools. Sure, they help people get stuff made that otherwise may not have been. But you could also say that the world would be a better place if people like Spike Lee and Zach Braff weren't begging for your money.

When we made Lepus we had nothing but ambition. And even though I am proud of the end result I can't help but look at the short with a small degree of sadness. The reason I say that is because we didn't have the time nor did we have the resources to do some of the things I would have done. And that came down to money.

Terrestrial is the next thing on the slate. Much of the Lepus cast is returning. And we'd really like to pay them this time. They are working actors, after all. Now the question is this - do we go the crowdfunding route? I'm not 100% opposed to it. In fact I think it can be a great tool when not being used by tools. If we use it I would prefer it be used as a stepping stone, something where we use it to complete a few small things that help this company build a reel. After that we have something we can show people to hopefully find investors. That's what I see crowdfunding as being good for. I wouldn't want to use it to fund a feature, especially a feature being made by someone who is a big name in show business.

We would love to hear your feedback and possible suggestions on how we can do this without Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

Hugs and Kisses,

Jacob

Death By VHS coming To DVD September 17th!

Hello everyone,

I have never used this blog. I know it was set up a year ago and it's linked right to our podcast page for The Gorram Nerd Hour but I always forget about it. Anyway, I'm using it now. I wanted to take a few minutes of your time to talk about a project that Brian and I were involved in. That is Death By VHS. It's a horror anthology from Worldwide Multi Media and includes a short I directed, Brian starred in and we both wrote together. Our director of photography was David Sabal from Brian's other show, The Atomic Fallout Society. We had a blast making it. The cast was amazing and we have been getting some great reviews for it. 

Recently I was on the phone with Bill Oberst Jr., star of Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies, Scary Or Die and the upcoming Ditch Day Massacre. You can listen to the conversation by heading over to the Gorram page. After we finished the interview I sent him a copy of the short Brian and I made (Lepus). Two days later I received this email - 

Jacob,

I just used your Lepus as a stress reliever after a long day and boy, oh boy was I not disappointed! What a grainy homage. It has all of the hallmarks of the low budget horror I loved as a kid. I would love to see this at a midnightshow at a run-down drive-in in a rural and isolated Appalachian Mountain community and then have my car not start after the show. That would be the perfect viewing environment for Lepus.

Favorite parts? Numerous! The kids walking calmly by as Lepus bashes the boys' heads in; the stupid hero girl thinking that merely closing the blinds was an effective deterrent to a man in a pink bunny suit with fixed and dilated pupils right outside her window, the slut thinking that Lepus was her boyfriend just because he was wearing the hat, the tiny remote control car sending the Naughty Nurse tumbling forward in the floor, the party montage complete with featured song for the movie's soundtrack album, the whole final battle, the stupid coroner who said it was "bee stings," oh yeah and the preceding interview with the filmmakers. Otherworldly. The guy playing the sheriff was really good! He had a star quality; sort of like a former TV actor doing a comeback guest appearance. 

Watching this thing was almost as weirdly delightful as a first viewing of PINK FLAMINGOS. I feel like I need a shower. But its a happy kind of "need a shower" feeling, you know? Like after being with a favorite hooker and she didn't talk much and now she's gone and there's cheap Chinese food on the way. Yeah, like that.

I say bravo. You guys do trashy cinema better than I could ever hope too. But I will keep trying. 

Bill

This was, by far, my personal favorite review of Lepus. We have had some good ones like this one I found on Facebook from Cultcuts Magazine - 

Now, let’s talk about the last segment, LEPUS. I do give the creators of this anthology credit for knowing one thing. Your anthology is made or broken by the last segment. Creepshow did it with that box under the stairs and DEATH BY VHS does it with LEPUS. It begins with a girl dressed like a Pilgrim (???) being chased by a large man in a big, pink bunny suit. If you say these things do not belong together, then you would be right.
Unless it was Halloween and this bunny is on a rampage. It’s the big night and the house party is in full swing and no one would suspect someone in a bunny suit to be a psycho killer, right? Well, they would be wrong. Dead wrong! The film is full of sight gags, a sheriff dressed like Jesus who is coming to fix that damned Easter Bunny for good. The effects are good, the story moves at a quick clip and it was the only one where the Grindhouse effect actually worked. I will give them grief for no boobies again, but I was so busy laughing that I really didn’t care. Director Jacob D. O’Neal has crafted such a laugh a minute, gory horror/comedy that I might have to admit that it’s one of the better things I have seen this year. Brian Smith as The Bunny pulls off the deadpan psycho so well that it makes you nervous, but you still laugh. One of the extras is of this pair doing an interview and they had me laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face. 

We have really appreciated all the kind things said about our very weird little piece of Death By VHS. Now go click on the sponsors page and pre-order it from Amazon. While you're there order a book by fellow network cohort David Hayes or the graphic novels he and Kevin Moyers did together. 

Thank you all,

Jacob O'Neal