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Ramblings of a Splatterpunk

Ramblings of a Splatterpunk
Personal Blog of an Indie Horror Filmmaker

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Welcome to the Shady Palms
2009-12-10 15:11:00
It’s been a long time, but I have been busy writing as I have promised. I have basically completed the first serious version of the script for Redress. I have shelved it for a while as there are some rough spots that need smoothing and I want to take a fresh whack at it after the holidays. I had started work on the novel for Cinco de Mayo Massacre a long time ago but I could never get past the first chapter, so I shelved it after staring at the screen with writers block for several days. The story was all written in a treatment I did a while ago, but After some serious thought I pulled out the 1/2 completed screenplay and 14 page treatment for Bedbugs from Hell. After a lot of thought I finally decided to make this my next official writing project and my first novel that I will seriously attempt to get published. Rather than just call it the same things, I thought I would name the book after the Shady Palms Motel that is the centerpiece of the story. The great thing about this...

Redress – Almost done in time for the Holidays!
2009-11-25 15:00:00
I just wanted to let the few people who actually read this stuff know that I have finally finished the long, painful edit of my script for Redress. The editing was long and painful simply because I have had a lot of personal stuff to deal with over the past few months and it has been extremely difficult to find time and focus on the story. The script is basically done. There ware three scenes I want to briefly revisit before I start letting some of my peer take a stab at it…no pun intended. I’m going to shelve it for the holidays and dust the confetti off it after New Years. More on this in 2010!
More About: Holidays , Time

Redress – This Rewrite is Done!
2009-07-31 11:15:00
Whew. I literally finished this rewrite of Redress a few minutes ago, but I am so stoked about it, I had to keep writing…which brings me to this. As of this moment, the script is at 134 pages; the single largest screenplay I have ever completed. I know there are some “pros” out there that can scoff at that, but Fuck You. This is my story to tell, my damn near two years of development and my celebration to enjoy – and you know you were once there in your humble careers as well. For some of you out there, I know you are still wishing you could get to this point. Trust me, I know the struggle, and if you keep pressing forward it will happen for you. While I am at a very celebratory point with the script, I can’t take all of the credit however. My friend Kreg contributed a number of twists and turns to this grand story arc and I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t shared his ideas for the script with me. As I have been rewriting, I thin...

Comic-Con 2009 – Here it comes…
2009-07-19 20:11:00
Ahhhhh…. It’s that time of year again: Comic -Con in San Diego (aka Uber Geek Christmas). I don’t think you can find any other single place in the world where so many people, who are fans of so many different things, are gathered under one roof in almost perfect harmony. Granted, you get the really fat people, the really smelly people and that one stupid fucking asshole who stands directly in front of a 1200 foot line of people dressed in black robes holding wands and says, “Oh, this is the line for the Harry Potter panel?” I have a booth again this year, although this time I think it’s just so I can get into the convention hall early. We’re not really selling anything this year, more doing some shameless self promotion and trying to network with people slightly more influential than ourselves. Personally, I really wish I had a new film to promote. This is my second year to host a booth and not have something brand spanking new, other than o...

Redress – Script News – 100 Pages, Finally
2009-06-26 20:55:00
It has taken a while, but the screenplay for Redress finally crept across the 100 page mark last night. My target length for the script is about 130 pages for this draft and then I plan to go back and trim the fat back to about 115 pages. For those of you following me on Twitter you may recall I posted a photo of a book called How Not to Write a Screenplay. I bought the book mainly as a reference for scripting items like flashbacks and dream sequences. It also has some great tips for trimming the fat and rewording scenes into the basics while using examples from other screenplays. I tend to be extremely descriptive when I write, so it was a good booster for me and really drove home a few points. Now that I have my head wrapped around the story more, I’m starting to make things a little more uniform and adding explanations for things that were initially kind of like WTF? I have been having fun adding new frights and gore to the story and developing the characters further alon...
More About: News , Script , Finally

Redress – Considering a Name Change
2009-06-13 06:58:00
I have been working quite a bit on Redress lately, and it feels good to get my hands dirty again. As I work on developing the story more and more, I am considering changing the name to “Old Mill Road”. All of the major parts of the story happen on, you guessed it, “Old Mill Road”. Plus, I’m starting to get a little sick and tired of having to explain what “Redress” means. I think I was pushed over the edge when somebody linked the title of the film to a page on Wikipedia for redressing a theatrical set. For the record, my definition of Redress is: The setting right of what is wrong. Personally, the more I think about it, Old Mill Road can have a creepy ring to it…you know.. never go out to Old Mill Road alone after dark…etc. I’ll play with it a little more before I make it final though. Hell, if I manage to sell the screenplay rather than make it myself, they can call it whatever they want. As far as script updates, the...
More About: Change

Hospital Hill Needs Your Help
2009-05-31 05:11:00
I am currently seeking cash contributions to help me make a new short film, Hospital Hill . There are several levels of contributions available and each one comes with a perk. Please check out my project on IndieGoGo where you can contribute funds and learn more: http://www.indiegogo.com/Hospital-Hill If you are a fan of my work, then you will love this next project I have to offer. -DQ

Redress – Script News
2009-04-19 09:55:00
Well, after unintentionally shelving the script for 10 months, I have finally pulled it back out to begin reworking it. It’s not that I intentionally wanted to keep my eyes off the project for this long; just pone thing happened after another and sooner or later I was like,”Shit…I really need to start working on this again.” The fires in San Diego back in October 2007 really set the project back because I had wanted to start filming bits for a trailer and playing with makeup for the main ghost character. I had hope to have the film nearly completed by now, but this economic hill we are all climbing had not been making it the easiest. I think somewhere in there I definitely lost focus on the project and I had a few other items taking precedent. I wanted to shoot Hospital Hill to try and test some effects I was going to use in Redress, but once I had to shelve that project for numerous reasons, Redress seemed to get thrown in to an open grave and have a few sh...
More About: News , Script

My Lipoma
2009-03-07 01:53:00
As some of you know, I had a little fat tumor growing in my arm which is called a Lipoma. It has been there for a few years but recently it started hurting, so I opted to have it removed. My doctor was able to cut it out in the office, so I didn’t have to worry about all the bills associated with a general surgeon. After a few injections of local anesthetic he made an approximately one inch incision in my arm, all the way through the skin and down into the fat layer where he carved out the lipoma. Then he stitched me back up with three sutures. The whole procedure took about 30 minutes from the time he injected me to the time I was headed out the door. It has been about 24 hours since I had the procedure. The wound is periodically sore, kind of feels like somebody punched in arm really, really hard. Other than that it only hurts if you poke the wound directly. Part of me was worried, as you never know what you are going to find when you start cutting something out of someb...

Ghost Lights – 1st Draft of Treatment Completed
2009-02-21 02:05:00
After 8 hours of deciphering my chicken-scratch, I am happy to announce that the first draft of the film treatment for Ghost Lights has been completed. It feels good to start writing again and the promise of making a new film – especially one that is (I hope) as terrifying as this one. usually when I start writing a story, I know where I want it begin, how I want it to end and then I have a few visions sprinkled here and there along the plot that I know I want to include. As I pounded down cup after cup of coffee while typing away, I began expanding the story based on my first hand-written draft. My characters started becoming a little more fleshed out and I was able to do some additional research to help tie this piece of fiction into the history of the area. I have been working hard to create one of those legends, which you could have heard in any small town about a certain building or a creepy house or a particular stretch of the road. I think I have crafted something that...
More About: Treatment , Draft

Fangoria 2008
2008-04-28 13:16:00
Well, we have returned from the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles. This was our second year exhibiting at the show and the first year it was held at the LA Convention center. I’m having some mixed reviews about the whole experience. Luckily the positives outweigh the negatives, but the negatives were huge and psychologically damaging. Let’s start with the negatives… Everything was looking cool heading up to the convention, we put in our order for a table early, picked a cool spot, and we thought everythign was cool. Four days before the show we get an email from Creation Entertainment, who run organize the show, that they had previously been mistaken on the type of seller permit we needed for the show - and that we had to get a new type of permit or we couldn’t sell anything. Four days before the show? Since when have you known any major city to just - poof - issue a permit of any kind. We were terrified that we had spent all this money to get ...
More About: 2008

Redress - Script Update
2008-03-29 10:46:00
Wow - 2008 is flying by fast. On that note, the month of April is here! I wanted to start filming bits and pieces of Redress this month, however the script is not done yet. My writing partner Kreg and I have been diligently meeting and writing and the story is much more focused than it was a month ago. There is far more character development - in fact, I'm very sure the story could stand by itself even if we removed all of the horror elements. We're getting close - not just close enough to film yet. The nice thing about being a small studio is that nobody breathes down our back - the bad thing is that budgets are small, so sometimes day jobs and errands get in the way of a good writing session :-)Once the cameras finally start rolling I plan to send out a press release and hopefully have a trailer ready in time for Comic-Con.On other fronts, I have been busy designing our new company shirts and promo items for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles at the end of April. I t...
More About: Script , Update

Redress - Script Update
2008-03-29 10:46:00
Wow - 2008 is flying by fast. On that note, the month of April is here! I wanted to start filming bits and pieces of Redress this month, however the script is not done yet. My writing partner Kreg and I have been diligently meeting and writing and the story is much more focused than it was a month ago. There is far more character development - in fact, I’m very sure the story could stand by itself even if we removed all of the horror elements. We’re getting close - not just close enough to film yet. The nice thing about being a small studio is that nobody breathes down our back - the bad thing is that budgets are small, so sometimes day jobs and errands get in the way of a good writing session Once the cameras finally start rolling I plan to send out a press release and hopefully have a trailer ready in time for Comic-Con. On other fronts, I have been busy designing our new company shirts and promo items for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles at the end of ...
More About: Script , Update

Locations and Bugs and Trailers - OH MY!
2008-03-01 13:02:00
While Kreg and I are busy wrapping up the script for Redress, I have been scouting locations in my free time and beginning to gather a number of the props that will be needed for the shoot. This film has a number of locations in it which will be a definite challenge when it comes to filming, but I know we need them. I have found a wicked looking park which you find a picture of in the teaser poster that is floating around and we have our psychologist office all lined up also. In other news, we will be using a number of live animals in this film as well - not anything like lions, tiger and bears (Oh My!), but more like real maggots, worms and crows (Fuck Yeah). I don’t want to say too much about how we plan to use these little critters, as they refer to some ultra awesome twists in the plot, but I’ll give you a hint. As we all know, dead things are eaten by a variety of bugs, worms and other animals when they die. Maggots love to devour dead flesh and how many times h...
More About: Trailers , Bugs , Locations

Locations and Bugs and Trailers - OH MY!
2008-03-01 13:02:00
While Kreg and I are busy wrapping up the script for Redress , I have been scouting locations in my free time and beginning to gather a number of the props that will be needed for the shoot. This film has a number of locations in it which will be a definite challenge when it comes to filming, but I know we need them. I have found a wicked looking park which you find a picture of in the teaser poster that is floating around and we have our psychologist office all lined up also.In other news, we will be using a number of live animals in this film as well - not anything like lions, tiger and bears (Oh My!), but more like real maggots, worms and crows (Fuck Yeah). I don't want to say too much about how we plan to use these little critters, as they refer to some ultra awesome twists in the plot, but I'll give you a hint. As we all know, dead things are eaten by a variety of bugs, worms and other animals when they die. Maggots love to devour dead flesh and how many times have you see...
More About: Trailers , Bugs , Locations

REDRESS is becoming a Feature Film!
2008-02-10 08:55:00
It is finally official and now I want to start hyping the news: Redress is becoming a feature length film!As I had more time to sit and think about the story I passed it around to a few people for review. One of my friends has some ideas to add and the project pretty much exploded from there. We are still hashing out the script at this moment, but since I had already done a lot of preproduction on the film in its short form, the project is on the launch pad waiting for its tanks to get filled. Most of the cast and crew are placed; we just have a few more roles to fill once the story if flushed out some more.The goal for now is to start filming around Mid April. I will be releasing a press release later in the month. We will have a teaser ready for the Los Angeles Fangoria Week of Horrors in late April. We hill have the film wrapped by the time Comic-Con rolls around in July.Stay Tuned... our website is going to get busy again :-)
More About: Film , Feature

REDRESS is becoming a Feature Film!
2008-02-10 08:55:00
It is finally official and now I want to start hyping the news: Redress is becoming a feature length film! As I had more time to sit and think about the story I passed it around to a few people for review. One of my friends has some ideas to add and the project pretty much exploded from there. We are still hashing out the script at this moment, but since I had already done a lot of preproduction on the film in its short form, the project is on the launch pad waiting for its tanks to get filled. Most of the cast and crew are placed; we just have a few more roles to fill once the story if flushed out some more. The goal for now is to start filming around Mid April. I will be releasing a press release later in the month. We will have a teaser ready for the Los Angeles Fangoria Week of Horrors in late April. We hill have the film wrapped by the time Comic-Con rolls around in July. Stay Tuned… our website is going to get busy again
More About: Film , Feature

New Projects
2008-02-04 08:34:00
Well, 2007 is long gone and we are now well into 2008. I have been busy putting the finishing touches on the screenplay for Bedbugs from Hell, reworking the screenplay for Redress and starting on some new projects.Our biggest and most ambitous project is very top secret right now, but I have to mumble about it here at least. We are going to produce a weekly video podcast starting in April that has nothing to do with horror what-so-ever. The main focus of this podcast is comedy and satire. I'm not sure if the project will bear the "Steel Web Studios" logo or not.In other worlds, I am also working on a screenplay with RAMCO Productions for a western tentatively entitled "Crackwood". Most of this has been in development for a while now, but things are finally starting to get transferred to paper and hopefully to film.
More About: Projects

New Projects
2008-02-04 08:34:00
Well, 2007 is long gone and we are now well into 2008. I have been busy putting the finishing touches on the screenplay for Bedbugs from Hell, reworking the screenplay for Redress and starting on some new projects. Our biggest and most ambitous project is very top secret right now, but I have to mumble about it here at least. We are going to produce a weekly video podcast starting in April that has nothing to do with horror what-so-ever. The main focus of this podcast is comedy and satire. I’m not sure if the project will bear the “Steel Web Studios” logo or not. In other worlds, I am also working on a screenplay with RAMCO Productions for a western tentatively entitled “Crackwood”. Most of this has been in development for a while now, but things are finally starting to get transferred to paper and hopefully to film.
More About: Projects

Bedbugs from Hell - Script Update
2007-11-19 07:00:00
I am happy to announce that I have officially started work on the screenplay for Bedbugs from Hell . I have had a TON of interest in this project from a number of producers so I am putting this one on the fast track. The original treatment I wrote for the film was around 14 pages. I am already on page 27 of the screenplay - and that’s after only adapting about 4 pages of the treatment. I think the first draft of this is going to come in around 120 pages and I should have it completed near the end of November.
More About: Script , Update

Bedbugs from Hell - Script Update
2007-11-19 07:00:00
I am happy to announce that I have officially started work on the screenplay for Bedbugs from Hell . I have had a TON of interest in this project from a number of producers so I am putting this one on the fast track.The original treatment I wrote for the film was around 14 pages. I am already on page 27 of the screenplay - and that's after only adapting about 4 pages of the treatment. I think the first draft of this is going to come in around 120 pages and I should have it completed near the end of November.
More About: Script , Update

Production Continues - For the Most Part
2007-11-02 02:56:00
Well… the fires are out - thank God. We are again moving ahead with production on several new fronts. I have gone ahead and made the decision to postpone the filming of Redress until a later date. The area we were going to film in was burned up pretty good in the fires. While the actual road we were going to use is unscathed, there is a ton of charred forest around it. One gust of wind and ash goes everywhere. The script is written, so now once the location heals a little more we will go back and film the movie. I am going to continue developing Ghost Lights and I am going to start on the script very soon. At the same time, I will finish the script for Bedbugs from Hell. I have been talking with several producers in regards to Bedbugs, but I know it will be a while before we start filming this one.
More About: Production , Part

Production Continues - For the Most Part
2007-11-02 02:56:00
Well... the fires are out - thank God. We are again moving ahead with production on several new fronts.I have gone ahead and made the decision to postpone the filming of Redress until a later date. The area we were going to film in was burned up pretty good in the fires. While the actual road we were going to use is unscathed, there is a ton of charred forest around it. One gust of wind and ash goes everywhere. The script is written, so now once the location heals a little more we will go back and film the movie.I am going to continue developing Ghost Lights and I am going to start on the script very soon. At the same time, I will finish the script for Bedbugs from Hell. I have been talking with several producers in regards to Bedbugs, but I know it will be a while before we start filming this one.
More About: Production , Part

Firestorm 2007 - All Projects Delayed
2007-10-24 05:44:00
Well, another fire is sweeping across Southern California and coming dangerously close to my family and friends. I was hellbent on trying to start auditions for my new projects in a week, but it looks like Hell surfaced to alter my plans a little. One of our filming locations has been directly affected by the fire and the fire came dangerously close to our house today. The fire came so close we packed up the essentials and left for the night. It’s kind of funny because the essentials are several hard drives of data, our pro camera and a change of underwear. We are keeping in touch with people by email and phone. Once these fires are over and life returns to its new normal, we’ll take a look at scheduling projects again.
More About: Projects

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