So It Begins...

As I write this, it is about 7 A.M here in New York City. I'm lodged comfortably at the Hotel Pennsylvania. I'm in town for the Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors over at the Crowne Plaza in Seacacus, NJ. I'll be joining EFFECTS producer John Harrison for a Q&A on the film's DVD release with some promotion of my doc, AFTER EFFECTS thrown in.

In about two hours, I will be meeting John for the first time, face to face. After two years of phone conversations and e-mails, this is going to be a welcome meeting indeed. His support of my efforts .. EFFECTS was a primary factor in my decision to devote my time to Red Shirt Pictures full time, and it's going to be nice to finally spend some time with the man.

Anyway, if you are in town on Saturday, please drop by the show. We're scheduled to on around 2 PM I think , although I don't have a schedule in front of me. Should be a good time, and we will have new posters for EFFECTS available, which marks the first time I've ever designed a poster for a movie. That was an interesting experience. Graphic design is not my forte per se but this one turned out pretty good.

In October, you can see me at no less than four events. On September 30th, I'll be attending the Cinema Wasteland con in Strongsville, Ohio for three days. Then the following weekend, I'll be attending the Rock & Shock festival and convention in Worcester, MA. Never been to Massachusetts...should be interesting. And then...on October 14th, I'll be at The Warhol Museum screening of EFFECTS in Pittsburgh which will hopefully bring out many members of the film's cast & crew including the aforementioned Mr. Harrison. Then finally on Halloween Weekend, I'll be making the trip back to the NYC area for the Chiller Theatre show....which is the ideal show to wrap up the October convention schedule. Yikes...I'm gonna be wiped out...I can feel it now.

Well the first reviews of the EFFECTS DVD have been coming in...and the news is good. DVD Maniacs and Mondo Digital have given the film good notices and have responded very positively to AFTER EFFECTS which makes me feel very nice to be sure. I'm hoping that people get a kick out of it...it was certainly a blast to work on...in more ways than one.

Anyway, I think that is enough for now. I've got some other chores to accomplish before heading out of here this morning. Keep posting responses to this blog....let me know you are out there. I am lonely and desperate for love, and I'll do anything to get it.

Hey at least I'm honest!

The after-effects of "After-Effects"

After several months of planning, organization, and several weeks of intense work, the documentary, AFTEREFFECTS has been completed and screened for the producers of the film, EFFECTS, which is obviously the subject of my documentary.

I have never had a project this size before, nothing even close. With 11 interviews totaling nearly 5 hours along with movie clips, photos, etc, this was beyond anything I had ever approached before. It was maddening, challenging, frustrating, and at times I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall that I could find a way to scale. But then if I just took a break and came back to it, I would discover that the wall had a door in it the whole time that I just wasn't ready to see yet.

The final hours of editing on this one were among the most insane of my life. I had had little or no sleep for the last 4 or 5 days of this week. I would nap, edit, eat, edit, edit, edit, eat, nap, not nap, edit...etc. But at last on Tuesday morning...the final pieces came together and what I had hoped would be enough for a 35-40 minute documentary ended up being enough for an entire hour. I could have made it longer with little effort, but this is the running time that works the best.

In a state that I can only describe as sheer exhaustion, I managed to dub off a few copies on VHS and overnighted them to the producing/directing/editing team of EFFECTS comprised of John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, and Pasquale Buba. Most of my conversations concerning this documentary were with John, who had beyond helpful in my efforts to complete this documentary. I have had one conversation with Dusty Nelson, which was extremely pleasant, and up until yesterday I had never spoken with Pat Buba.

Yesterday brought some of the happiest news I can remember in a long while. Pat, and his wife Zilla, loved the doc, and I was treated to a wonderful conversation with Pat where he and I basically talked shop for a while. He treated me as a filmmaker, and not some wannabe halfwit who was flying by the seat of his pants on a project he wasn't exactly prepared for at times. I can only say that he was a class act in every sense and that his kind words about my work made my head swell to a rather obscene degree...but oh well... :)

Today, John Harrison told me that he, Dusty and Pat had watched the doc at Pat's house last night together, and that everyone was now in the "loved it" camp. Then just an hour ago, Pat's wife Zilla Clinton called me to offer her kind words and thanks, which was extremely kind of her. The people who came up from those glory days of filmmaking in Pittsburgh back in the late 60s to early 1980s are just about the classiest bunch of folks you could ever hope to meet. To say I'm proud to have done this story right is understating the matter. My only goal in this was to give the best representation possible of the time and place that EFFECTS was made, and I think I did OK. As long as those three gentleman are happy with it, then I'm happy.

I don't know what fortune has in store for me yet, but I can't help but feel blessed that John, Dusty and Pat, as well as my good friend Don May Jr. at Synapse Films took a chance on me with this film, and I'm glad I didn't let them down.

Now...onto the next project, which I should have more details on next week.

whew...whattttttttttta week!

Michael Felsher
mfelsher@redshirtpictures.com