The Only (Pulp) Filmmaking Advice You'll Ever Need

Occasionally good buddy Jim Henshaw will send me an email... well, that's not quite right.  It's not quite mail. It's more like a signpost pointing the way to something good, or a simple question that usually takes me several paragraphs to answer fully.  There's often no "How ya doin?" No Chatty Cathy aspect to his email - just the pulp. 

He cuts straight to the bone that Mr. Henshaw - yes, he does.

So when I get an email from Jim - I know it's something important, useful and often profound in its elegant simplicity.  The following hit my Inbox a few minutes ago and the article linked pretty much sums up my philosophy of indie/pulp/low budget film making - hell, media making - and is...

The only film making advice you really need

Print it.

Learn it.

Live it.

Edit to add:  I almost missed this portion of the web page scrolling through the comments. The author of the article - Matt - sums it all up quite nicely as to why he wrote this article in the first place:

 So why do I really post this information? Mostly because I get really aggravated working for people who don’t know this stuff already. I get alot of jobs from people who go on and on about nebulous “film theory” concepts. Those are usually the jobs that turn into 18 hour days, go over budget, run out of money, and I get short changed.

Those are the jobs where the AD and Script Supervisor stop the whole production for 4 hours because they aren’t sure that the layout of the beer bottles on the table matches the last scene .

Those are the people who feel like a $1000 leather coat is the only way to express the lead characters personality (but sorry, we had to blow the catering budget for the next two days to buy it).
Those people are the “noise” you are talking about…it’s the noise I’m trying to get rid of.

I probably have half a dozen films that I can’t put on my resume. They’ve never been finished. They’ve all went so over budget, they went into post and never came out.

On the other hand….television and commercial are a dream to work with. They always finish the project. Maybe there is a hard shadow on the wall in a shot or two, or the lighting color temp is a little off. But at the end of the day there is a finished product.

For digital filmmakers on low budgets, thinking like a “filmmaker” when it comes to production is only going to lead to failure. My goal is to get people to think more like a commercial producer. Do the best you can, but nothing is sacred except the budget and the deadline.

IPad and Filmmaking

For those of you doubting the positive implications of the new Apple IPad (Yeah I'm looking at you, "Anti-Bill Cunningham") then I would ask that you take a moment to read Matthew Jepsen's article on how he sees the way IPad will affect filmmakers and other creatives such as:

2. It’s a book, it’s a movie, it’s… an app
Anthony Zuiker (CSI) released a “digi-novel” last year, wherein a printed book contained a URL every 20 pages; readers could enter the URL into a browser and watch a related online video. In a lot of ways transmedia storytelling to date has been mostly about promotion (The Dark Knight, for example, used an Alternate Reality Game to promote its theatrical release), but the iPad offers a different set of possibilities: instead of these experiences existing as separate, promotional entrypoints, they can all be brought together on one platform. This is not to say that a project can’t have a live component that exists separately, but the iPad will play a pivotal role in bringing together different forms of storytelling: words, still images, moving images, audio, and interactive experiences can all live together on one handheld, connected device. The iPad will profoundly blur the line between book, movie, and game, and it will do so by offering these new-media experiences for sale through iTunes as… an application. When you’re developing a cross-platform story, what happens if you can’t define your project along clear lines? Should I say it? “There’s an app for that.”

And to add my own two coppers to it - we get a work surface that's also the final display. That is, you can draw your image, manipulate it, and upload it to the store with a device the size of a netbook (and half the weight). 

This is only the beginning...

The Last lullaby - Subdued but not a Snoozer

I meant to write this review a loooooong time ago, however my laptop committing seppuku before my eyes kept me from my pulpy duties.

The Last Lullaby is a midwest noir film with Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander.  It is written by Max Allan Collins (whose name should be familiar to all you pulp fans out there) and directed by Jeffrey Goodman.

Sizemore - in a very subdued, nuanced performance - plays former assassin named Price who has retired to a small town in the Midwest only to find that boredom creeps in when you're no longer living an adrenaline filled life.

The Last Lullaby plummets Price back into his old life and forces him into a corner from which he may never escape. Price's old ways no longer work for him when his heart opens, and he finds life beyond his profession.  The tension finally comes to a head as Price must decide to close himself off again or open himself up to a world beyond his control.

 This movie took awhile for it to stoke my interest. It's a slow burn and very much the opposite of something like 24 which is my usual bill of fare. That said, it does grow on you as Sizemore and Alexander grow together as characters.

Rounding out the cast are a bunch of very familiar faces that make you feel right at home with this movie.  I suppose that's appropriate to the overall mood one gets from this film - a sense that dirty deeds are happening in the corner restaurant you know so well, or right on main street, USA.  It's something you don't see from Hollywood films and the landscape of rolling hills, trees and suburban Midwest life adds a level of calm to the otherwise incendiary proceedings - that slow burn I alluded to earlier.

(which is ironic given the shoot took place in Louisiana, but reinforces the idea that it's the state of mind in the story and not necessarily the location that gives Lullaby its level of calm)


What's really nice is seeing Sizemore actually acting in this movie. He shows a level of restraint and control here that is in keeping with an assassin - quiet, calm, getting the job done. Acting not just reacting.  Alexander is a spinster-ish version of her usually glowing self which works for her character.

Lullaby has played the festival circuit and if you get a chance go see it.  It's not what you would expect and all the better for it.

Just Give it Some Bass, ya Bastard!

I'm occasionally tasked with doing some of the weird stuff around the office - posing with a gun in hand for a piece of key art, having a stiletto heel ground into my temple or covering someone in blood and photographing them (See: Bottom Feeder).

But balancing that weirdness out is a healthy dose of cool - going to concerts for free, developing new projects, meeting and working with all all sorts of wonderful talented people...

and getting to hold a bass guitar from the musician who played the National Anthem at the National Championship Football Game at the Rose Bowl. 

Here I am holding a gen-yoo-wine Flea Bass signed by the man himself.  We auctioned this off for charity to benefit the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

Nice. 

New Apple: Pulp for the New Media

Wired has a piece on the unveiling of Apple's new tablet and points out an interesting shift (or rather refinement) in the Apple business paradigm:

“The focus is going to be on content creation and participation,” a technologist with close ties to Apple told Wired.com. “If the tablet is going to be an answer to things like the Kindle, which are purely about consumption, what you’re going to see is Apple is going to be full-blown about creation.”

 There's no doubt (at least in my mind) that this is a game-changer:

Then, instead of deploying that content on a website and asking for donations or trying to sell ads, creators could deploy their web pages-cum-e-books to the iTunes store, where a built-in retail apparatus takes care of collecting payments as small as $1 while Apple holds on to what looks like a reasonably small 30-percent cut.

A recent Wall Street Journal story suggests that Apple is in last-minute negotiations with book publishers, urging them to adopt a model where most books are priced at $13 or $15, instead of the $10 that prevails on Amazon’s Kindle e-book store.

By distributing through iTunes, creators would have access to users on any of Apple’s platforms, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBooks, desktop PCs, or possibly even the Apple TV. Even more significantly, iTunes users on Windows PCs would also be part of the available market.
And sure, that content will no doubt look good on a tablet, too. Our guess is the tablet will have exclusive functions for displaying iTunes book content in a special way, which will be one of the gadget’s main selling points (among other new, yet-to-be-known features, of course).

In one fell swoop, a move like this would give content creators easy-to-use and powerful tools for creating interactive content, and give them a way of making a living from it, too.

James Patterson is a Pulp Writer

I've written about Mr. Patterson before - specifically about his Women's Murder Club series - but the NY Times takes an in-depth look at James Patterson Inc.

Reading through this article, one can't help but draw parallels to the pulp game of the 1930's and how some writers were so prolific, popular and widespread amongst various genre fans.

The opening of the article:

 Like most authors, James Patterson started out with one book, released in 1976, that he struggled to get published. It sold about 10,000 copies, a modest, if respectable, showing for a first novel. Last year, an estimated 14 million copies of his books in 38 different languages found their way onto beach blankets, airplanes and nightstands around the world. Patterson may lack the name recognition of a Stephen King, a John Grisham or a Dan Brown, but he outsells them all. Really, it’s not even close. (According to Nielsen BookScan, Grisham’s, King’s and Brown’s combined U.S. sales in recent years still don’t match Patterson’s.) This is partly because Patterson is so prolific: with the help of his stable of co-authors, he published nine original hardcover books in 2009 and will publish at least nine more in 2010.

Read the article and start thinking about guys like Dashiell Hammett,  Edgar Rice Burroughs, Raymond Chandler, L. Ron Hubbard, Edward Stratemeyer , Walter Gibson and countless other who created different series for different audiences, used staff writers, pushed their creations into various media like movies and comics (Even Lester Dent held onto the media rights to Doc Savage and tried to get interest in a radio show).

Another excerpt:


Patterson built his fan following methodically. Instead of simply going to the biggest book-buying markets, he focused his early tours and advertising efforts on cities where his books were selling best: like a politician aspiring to higher office, he was shoring up his base. From there, he began reaching out to a wider audience, often through unconventional means. When sales figures showed that he and John Grisham were running nearly neck and neck on the East Coast but that Grisham had a big lead out West, Patterson set his second thriller series, “The Women’s Murder Club,” about a group of women who solve murder mysteries, in San Francisco. 

No sooner had Patterson established himself in the thriller market than he started moving into new genres. Kirshbaum didn’t initially like the idea; he was worried that Patterson would confuse his thriller fans. Patterson’s first nonthriller, “Miracle on the 17th Green,” published in 1996, did very well. That same year, Patterson wanted to try publishing more than one book despite Little, Brown’s view that he would cannibalize his own audience. In addition to “Miracle on the 17th Green,” Patterson published “Hide and Seek” and “Jack and Jill,” each of which was a best seller. From there, Patterson gradually added more titles each year. Not only did more books mean more sales, they also meant greater visibility, ensuring that Patterson’s name would almost always be at the front of bookstores, with the rest of the new releases. Patterson encountered similar resistance when he introduced the idea of using co-authors, which Little, Brown warned would dilute his brand. Once again, the books were best sellers. “Eventually, I stopped fighting him and went along for the ride,” Kirshbaum says.

Gee, some things never change...

Robert Silverberg Talks Pulp

Here.  (found courtesy of Boing Boing)

Mistress of the Tentacled Oblivion: Please tell my Octopulps readers a bit about your work as a staff writer for Amazing Stories.

Robert Silverberg: I was a staff writer for Amazing, turning in two or three space operas a month. The editor of Amazing at that time was either Howard Browne or Paul Fairman—Browne quit somewhere in early 1957 to return to freelance writing, and turned the magazine over to his assistant editor, Fairman. I was taken onto the staff in the summer of 1955, when I was still in college, and proceeded to sell Browne a lot of stories that he had previously rejected from me as a freelancer (he never read unsolicited stories; everything was staff written and the outside stories went back instantly with nice rejection slips) as well as a lot of stuff written to order. I was just a kid and delighted to be part of it: you brought your week's work in on Monday morning and your agent had the check the next day. In any case when Cele Goldsmith replaced Fairman around 1959 she did away with the staff system entirely.

MOTTO: How did you first encounter the pulps in all their glory? What made you decide you wanted to write for the pulps?

RS: They were sold on every corner newsstand. I hope you know what those were. I began buying them when I was in the eighth grade—Weird Tales, Amazing, etc.—and immediately figured I could write stories for them and get them published and make a lot of money and get famous. I was 13 at the time. It turned out I was right about all that, but it took another few years before those checks came rolling in.

From the Studio That Brought You A PRINCESS OF MARS

Comes the spectacular steampunk-ian adventure SHERLOCK HOLMES:



Enjoy!

The Questor Tapes

With the announcement that Tim Minear has been hired to reboot the classic Gene Roddenberry television movie THE QUESTOR TAPES into a series, I thought it proper to help those of you who never saw the original pilot movie and want to catch up:



Enjoy.

1945A

A short pulp film filled with all sorts of stop motion madness and interesting use of resources. I wouldn't mind seeing a whole alternate timeline series derived from this - the war from all fronts.



Found by Tim Shrumm (@KidSchlocko) via Rob Shrab (@Robshrab)

Smallville: Absolute Justice

To be frank, I'm not 100% sure this is going to work... however I'll give it a peek when it comes out, and roll from there.

I do like the idea of Clark discovering the old HQ of long-forgotten heroes, a theme that resonates with me, and what I initially explored when I developed the Museum of Supernatural History Idea in Astonishing Adventures (which you can read here).

   

You Twarts!

Comic Twart is a comics sketch blog started by a group of artists including:

• Ron Salas
• Mitch Breitweiser
• Chris Samnee
• Declan Shalvey
• Dan McDaid
• Nathan Fairbairn
• Urban Barbarian
• tomfowler
• Evan "Doc" Shaner
• Mitch Gerads
• Francesco Francavilla
• Steve Bryant
• Ramón Pérez
• Mr. Hawthorne
• ANDY KUHN

They tackle a different character every week and post the results on their blog for all to see. Check out their Zorro(s):

 

Exploitation Explained by The Other Bill

Bill Martell - my partner in cinematic pulp -  has an excellent review of the movie BITCH SLAP. 

Within that review Bill takes the time to go over the history and power of what is the exploitation film:

(Emphasis mine)

The review in the Los Angeles Times complained that BITCH SLAP was an exploitation film send up without the send up... and this made me scratch my head, because I never got the memo that it was a send up, and when you read the poster or publicity stuff (they had a great gimmick to make you see it more than once - collectible postcards for each of the characters in the film, and they gave away a different one every night) there was nothing about this being a send up... it was pretty much advertised as a fun exploitation film that *knows* it’s an exploitation film. Which makes it just an exploitation film.

Back in the drive in days, there were lots of exploitation films - made cheap and filled with things that would attract and audience. Lowest common denominator stuff like fast cars and topless women and machine guns. A studio film might have all of those things in a pretty story - and those things serviced the story. An exploitation film was *about* the exploitation stuff, with a flimsy story connecting the elements. Now, some exploitation films had *great* stories connecting the elements, and now those films are considered art. Tod Browning’s FREAKS is a great film, but where would it be without the promise of seeing a bunch of side show freaks? And the suggestion of side show freaks having sex with a hot blonde woman? Hey - I gotta see that!

And the drive in exploitation films offered the same sort of forbidden thrills. Hey, what really goes on in a women’s prison where they evil lesbian warden enjoys whipping the hot naked prisoners? Hey - I gotta see that!

One of the things I hate in studio films, I love in exploitation films: “kitchen sinking”. So many of those A.I.P. drive in films seemed like a grab bag of cool stuff threaded together into a film. So you might have custom hot rods and acrobats and some rock & roll band and a bikini beach party and dogs that do tricks and martial arts and a monster... all in the same movie! Hey - I gotta see that!

I’ve seen studio films that try to throw in a little bit of everything and end up with nothing, and the reason why is that the film is supposed to be about the story... and just ends up being about a little bit of everything. A mainstream studio film is all about the story, and even though it may have fast cars and hot women and a machine gun, it’s not ever about those things. Those things are elements of the story, not the story itself. The exploitation is in the background not the foreground.

Someone on a message board a couple of months ago was lamenting the 50s and 60s when Americans went to see foreign films... and even though that was before my time sitting in a cinema seat, I can tell you from conversations with those older than I am - they went to foreign films to see boobies. American films had no nudity at all - we still had censorship under the old system. But foreign films managed to sneak in nudity and the censors didn’t seem to care, maybe because the films were “cultural” and had subtitles and not everyone was going to flock to see them. Except a surprising number of normal middle class Americans saw a bunch of foreign films... often featuring nudity or lingerie or lots-a-cleavage. Thank you, Sophia Loren! Hey - I gotta see that!

Foreign films ended up being exploitation films! Just, with culture!

And that is the problem with the poor exploitation film - it has no culture. It is honest about its intentions. You may see a foreign film for culture... um, cleavage culture... but you see an exploitation film for the exploitation. We always complain that people these days go to the movies for the explosions and CGI - the exploitation elements. And it’s funny that I will hate TRANSFORMERS and then have an excited conversation with another film fan about that amazing street shoot out in HEAT. Okay, why isn’t HEAT an exploitation film? Why is a long shoot out in some B movie just stupid and a similar scene in HEAT complete genius? Well, it’s that HEAT isn’t just that shoot out (and the other great action scenes). But, isn’t there room in cinema for a film that *is* just about the shoot outs? A film that isn’t going to try and pass itself off as culture, and just be its sleazy self? A film that knows that one of the main reasons why you go to see HEAT or some big budget Hollywood movies is the exploitation elements? “You’ll believe a man can fly.” “From the moment they met it was murder.” Movies are all about sex and violence and exploitables... Heck, how many pages would be left in The Bible if we cut out all of the sex and violence?

Click on the link above and read the rest of the review.

Some Interesting Statistics

Source: Online Education

Illustrated "Bat-Pulp"

I saw this wonderful piece of Gotham by Gaslight artwork by Mike Mignola floating around the web so I thought I would use it to make a quarterly pulp- style magazine.  If only DC would take the hint and do what Moonstone does with their characters.

I'd love to see a quarterly illustrated (B&W naturally) pulp mag with stories featuring characters like Batman, The Crimson Avenger, The Sandman (Mystery Theater version), Slam Bradley and others.

Enough art, now I have to get to writing...


The Batman is (c) and TM 2010 by DC Comics. Original artwork by Mike Mignola.

Open Fist, Pulp Heart...Groovy Martial Arts Mags of the 1970's

One of the blogs I've recently added to the blogroll is DIVERSIONS OF A GROOVY KIND, a comics blog that celebrates comics magazines of the 1970's. This week "The Groovy Agent" is showcasing the big B&W Martial Arts magazines of the period.

Many of you won't recall these, but on 1970's newsstands there were a plethora of B&W large size comics and article magazines designed to capitalize on the 'adult' path Warren magazines explored. We had DOC SAVAGE, CONAN, INCREDIBLE HULK, BIZARRE ADVENTURES; I, ZOMBIE ; TOMB OF DRACULA and others that fit outside the norms of comic publishing. In many cases I would say they were 'pulp comics.' 

In any case, I thought you'd want to take a look at these and maybe kick Marvel and the other companies into stepping up their ESSENTIALS series so you can get and enjoy these lurid, colorful (yet B&W) tales.

Flash Gordon Done Right

Again, I was hopping around the web and decided to check in with Christopher Mills' blog SPACE: 1970.  As I was scrolling through making sure I was up to date on all of the grooviness that happened in the 70's (I'm old - I was up to date) I decided to read Chris's review of the FLASH GORDON DVD SET from my old friends at BCI Eclipse to see if he liked it as much as I did.

He did.

Bu then he mentions the FLASH GORDON: THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL TV movie that had preceded the series on NBC.

I HAD NEVER SEEN THIS FEATURE!!!! 

Chris goes on to explain how cool this feature version was and how it was so much better than the opening of the series. (Can ya feel my agony?)  I had to see this feature especially the opening of the movie:

Unfortunately, the DVD set does not include the prime time TV movie that preceded the series, Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All. The feature-length movie was made by the same team, but was somewhat more adult in tone and story; whereas the TV series began with Flash and company landing on Mongo, the film begins in 1939 Warsaw under attack by the Nazis.

OMG! I HAD TO SEE THIS FEATURE.

So I did.  Now you can too...all nine chapters. (Almost like a serial)



And if you've never seen this version nor the series which followed it then I would suggest you click, buy and enjoy.  BCI did a great job with this DVD set.  It contains a lot of great extras that show exactly what it was like  creating a cartoon show back in the 70's.  I'm also including links to other shows you may want to check out - ISIS, ARK II and of course, SPACE ACADEMY and JASON OF STAR COMMAND.  All from Filmation - the little company that kept many of us thoroughly entertained on Saturday mornings.

Now if only the guys who had made the recent SyFy Channel FLASH had taken the time to watch this animated feature.

[sigh]

No Need to be Depressed

As I was doing a little bit of research today, I found yet anther parallel between today's depressing economy and the "Great Depression" of the 1930's.

But what's fascinating (to me) are the political and cultural responses today that mimic the 1930's.  I tend to use Pulp 2.0 rather haphazardly when describing this new movement that is taking over the internet, but in looking at the many sites that came up in my Google search and reading the postings, I'm convinced that we are in Pulp 2.0.

The general populace is again looking toward fiction media (film, television, print, games, e-print) that is both low cost and high entertainment value - a distraction from the drudgery of the economy and the politics.  They are getting rid of those high end cable packages and using the lower-cost internet services as part of their entertainment time.

We're also focusing on heroes - strong, forceful types - and villains - terrorists, corrupt officials who've violated our trust.

This is exactly what happened in the 1930's. Not only in print, but on radio and at the movie theater. The popular culture exploded.

I'm sorry the economy is taking a tanker, but I have to say I'm pleased that the cultural response is to "create something." This spirit and bootstrapping know-how combined with a cost-effective delivery system (order on the web or IPhone and it comes to your door or computer or reader device) is going to change everything...

And that means opportunity. 

That's what the country was looking for in the dark days of the Great Depression - opportunity - and that's what everyone is looking for right now. The opportunity to earn money and provide for your family. The opportunity to show what you can do. The opportunity to do better. 

I'm looking forward to this 2010.  Lots of hard work ahead...but boy, think of the opportunity!

Kindle Lightens Load for Screenwriters, Agents

Sit down here by the fire with me kids.  Yes, settle in now...
Back in the old days we pulp screenwriters had to send out our work on...paper!
Yes, we had to actually buy reams and reams of paper and and print out our screenplays... I know, crazy right?  Then we had to punch three holes along the spine and put in two brass brads, only two, with brass washers.

Then we had to put our cover letters and scripts in to envelopes and send them out via the mail.  Shocking! The agents would get these scripts and have to log them in and lug them home to read every night. 

But finally, we got smart and the internet and the Kindle changed things for everyone.
(courtesy Variety)

They Have You Covered Over at Covered Blog

There's always room for improvement or interpretation - it's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with creative endeavors. There's not a moment that passes by when you look at something and the critical, left-side of your brain and say, "If only I had done this..."  Perhaps you look at someone else's work and see how you could apply your personal view to the work. "You know, this could be really funny (or tragic, or scary)  if you did this..."

And the internet has only made that process faster and widespread.

One only has to look at the plethora of variations of the famous Obama "Hope" campaign poster or the musical work of Pamplamoose  to get the point - give someone a template and they will use that as a launchpad to express their personal view, or add to the canon of the original work.  It works because the audience is able to access the original work and see what the artist, writer, musician, costumer, film maker has added to, or edited out of the original work.

That sense of creative revisionism has finally invaded the comics art thinkspace with the blog COVERED.

It's here that comic book artists and designers rethink classic comic book covers adding their own design aesthetic to the original art template.  For example (because it embraces a pulp aesthetic) is artist/designer Paul Sizer's revision of SPIDERWOMAN #1:

There's plenty more fun over at Covered, so feel free to go over and browse. You may also want to head over to Warren Ellis' internet hole WHITECHAPEL and see some of the remake/remodel's of public domain characters he's initiated over there.

No Explanation Required: ZOMBIE WOMEN OF SATAN

Probably NSFW, but what the hell, right?

(Oh, and btw this was found by that sick degenerate Jeff Obrien from up in Vancouver)



http://www.zwosthemovie.com

Production Plummets in Los Angeles in 2009

From The Los Angeles Times:
 

Overall, on-location filming on the streets of Los Angeles plummeted 19% last year, falling to the lowest level on record, according to data from FilmL.A. Inc, the nonprofit group that handles film permits for much of the L.A. area.

The production sector, a major employer and key facet of L.A.'s signature entertainment industry, was buffeted on several fronts: by a deep recession, which caused studios to release fewer movies and advertisers to curtail spending on commercials; a protracted contract dispute earlier in the year with the Screen Actors Guild; and the continued outflow of film and TV work from Southern California.

Hardest hit was feature-film production, which had been steadily falling over much of the last decade as L.A. lost jobs to Canada and, increasingly, other states such as New Mexico, Louisiana and Michigan that offer lucrative tax credits and rebates to filmmakers.

California's newly adopted film tax credit program helped to blunt the downturn, with production activity increasing by double digits in the second half of the year. About 50 productions have qualified to receive about $100 million in tax credits since the state program debuted this summer.

Nonetheless, the uptick wasn't enough to keep features from falling 30% for the year overall. Feature films accounted for 4,976 permitted production days (defined as a crew's permission to film a single project at a single location over a 24-hour period), the lowest level since 2003 and less than half what it was a decade ago.

--------------------------------------------

Lesson(s) to be learned - just because the money is being made by the studio in term of box office return it doesn't  mean that the people working (below-the-line)  on those films are making money.  That cripples infrastructure, talent pools, and ancillary industries.

This means that people go elsewhere to make their movies / TV / etc...

So what's called for are further tax incentives to stimulate production; more "smaller" movies and perhaps "mini-series special event programming" ; a complete sense of cooperation between all the unions and the studios and an overhaul of the old California First program for indie film and mediamaking.  We also need to build infrastructure for these new media distribution and production channels - more shows on the web.

And again, that's not the whole of the solution, but certainly it's a step in the right direction: More media making (finance, development and production) and more avenues to distribute that media.  Removal of the systems that are inefficient and strategies to build for the future.

Oh boy, we have a lot of work ahead of us... 

NY Tyrant Guide to NOT Being a Terrible Writer in 2010

Can be found here.  Some of these gems include:

Don’t conceive of your “central” characters by defining them with a mental or physical “condition.
If you’re going to tell me about your Mom, do it from your dad’s point of view. I want to know what she’s like in the sack.
Don’t connect with me. Don’t try to pretend I’m not there.
Don’t try to be funny. You are or you aren’t. Or the sentence is or isn’t.
You are neither David Lynch nor Captain Beefheart. You might be Cher.
Cry more, but don’t tell anybody either. This is the way crying is like rap.
I used to say you can’t write about serial killers, but they work sometimes, if they are described in the way one would a washcloth or a doll.
Remember your asshole is a tunnel.
If you’ve ever read Bukowski, please stop.
Please, God, no characters who are musicians. There is nothing worse than trying to describe music, or how someone plays it. Leave music to douchebags.
Stop writing about rich literary boys in college. I hated you people when I was in college and I still hate you. Your frat took a shit on my porch.
If you’ve ever told someone they are “misreading” a philosopher, eat a cock.
You are not Andy Warhol.
You probably don’t really listen to black metal.
Can I reiterate the one about not writing about musicians?

All of which inspires me to write 'How NOT to be a Crappy Indie Filmmaker in 2010..."

Johnny Recon gets a Kickstart!

I've covered the adventures of JOHNNY RECON before, but now I learn that the boys are using one of the web's cool new tools to fund the second issue.


And friend Angela Hunt is using the service to finance an art exhibition.

Hmmmm... this could be interesting.   Consider the idea of subscriptions for books or magazines or even films financed and guaranteed through Kickstarter.

Who wouldn't go for a DVD with all the extras -- exclusive to special fans who came into the process early.

Lots of interesting potential here... outside the way things are normally accomplished.  Again, hmmmm......

Boom Studios' 28 DAYS LATER

Kicks. Ass.

Words by Michael Alan Nelson (HEXED). Pics by Declan Shalvey.

Would You Like To See This...

and other designs on t-shirts, coffee mugs, or mouse pads? How about journals with original pulp covers for you to write in?

(Oh, and FYI - I was imagining the image in this post on a black tee - both long and short sleeve)

Yes, gang I am coming up with a line of merchandise designed to empower you to write, to film, to draw...right now!

Other suggestions for shirts have been:

"Livin the Pulp Life..."

"Pulp is not a medium...It's an Xtra Large."

"Life is better with a Jetpack and Raygun."

We are open to all suggestions, all ideas for our line of fun yet inspirational merch.  In the meantime go and browse through the Pulp 2.0 Amazon store and let me know what sorts of things you'd like to see there.

Edit to add: Tell me what's wrong with the design shown. Not "fantastic enough?" Need better image?  Do not be afraid to provide constructive criticism.  This is your line of merchandise.

So, You Want to be an Action Hero?

Well, there's a service for that: Xtreme Design Fx in Spartanburg, SC.

(Note: The mask above is exactly like the one worn by Tom Steele in Republic's THE MASKED MARVEL. I'm just sayin'...)

They provide all sorts of masks, body armor, capes, etc... anything for the would-be superhero to go out and KICK ASS!

Pulp That Never Was...But Should Have Been

DAUGHTER OF DRACULA was an experiment of sorts for publisher Cameron Tyler to break into the narrow margin between outright sleaze (as he called it) of the burgeoning pornographic market (Playboy, Penthouse, etc...) ruled by Hugh Hefner and the Men's Adventure market dominated by Martin Goodman's line of cheap thrill rags (excluding his nephew Stan Lee's editorship of the company's Marvel Comics).

Tyler knew he couldn't squeeze into either of these areas nor could he compete with the rapidly growing paperback book market, so he decided to do an 'end run' and develop a line of books with the appearance of magazines, but the content of the paperback.

In essence he reinvented the pulp.

DAUGHTER OF DRACULA -- "Sounds more sophisticated than Dracula's Daughter... besides, Dracula sells!" he would shout around the office -- was a hastily conceived series  by Tyler's editorial "team" (whoever happened to be in the office that day and could humor the old man) and turned over to freelance writers to flesh out individual "novels."  Tyler's methodology was very direct and responsive to the needs of his audience:

He would read what was popular in the news of the day and develop a way to capitalize on it.  As he often said, "I don't want to make a wine drinker into a beer drinker. I want beer drinkers to try my brand of beer."

In this instance he had just seen Hammer Film's DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE starring Christopher Lee with his nephew. This wasn't the Dracula he knew from his young age, but a more sophisticated, sexy vampire with a sadistic streak that had no restraint. While the material did nothing for the puritan-raised Tyler, he could see his nephew's rapt interest. In fact the only thing that held young Michael's attention more than Lee's blood-soaked performance were all of the scantily-clad women in the movie.

Tyler thought if he could only combine the two elements he would have a winner...

Tyler nearly fell out of his chair when the words popped out of his mouth... "Daughter...of...Dracula!"

The rest fell into place rather quickly. DoD was the story of yes, Dracula's daughter Zara who must endure hardship and sacrifice as she travels the world following important clues left by her father after his demise at the hands of Van Helsing and co. Her goal is to use those clues and the treasure they reveal to forcefully take the throne as Queen of the Vampires.

Van Helsing's nephew, Michael (in a tip to Tyler's own nephew) agrees to aid Zara in her quest because since Dracula's death the vampires have grown restless and are attacking humans more frequently.  There is nothing to keep them in check.  As the duo travel the world encountering all sorts of supernatural creatures and mysteries, Michael and Zara must fight their ever-growing attraction to one another...

The series ran for approximately 27 adventures before dying an untimely death at the news stand. Astonishingly, for a man who was so able to keep his finger on the pulse of popular culture, Tyler underestimated the power of the magazine cover.  While his magazine-sized "pulps" had the goods on the inside - each issue packed with blood-letting, sex, monsters, adventure and  horror - something within Tyler wouldn't allow him to create more prurient,colorful, action-packed covers to demonstrate to the casual browser what delights lay within the pages.  Just as likely Tyler didn't really know what was in his own magazines for after an idea was turned over to his editors he would move on to the next subject that caught his interest. 

Many of the novels in the DoD series were authored by E. W. Benson under the pen name of "Maxwell Ernst." Benson was an author with a bloodthirsty streak whose prose would have made the editors of the old WEIRD TALES blush filled as they were with the above-mentioned sex and blood. Benson never met Tyler nor any of the other editors at the office, but simply and quietly fulfilled her assignments on time.

You read that right. Her assignments.

E.W. Benson stood for Elizabeth Warren Benson and she was one of the many freelancers who answered Tyler's small ads in the back of Writer's Digest and Author's Quarterly looking for writing work.  She worked under several pen names writing fiction, articles and advertising copy for a variety of clients from her home in St. Louis. It was probably a good thing that she never showed up at Tyler's editorial offices because she most certainly would have been fired. Not for any lack of quality in her work - but for the fact that male editors would have been too embarrassed discussing the prurient aspects of the books with a female.

By all accounts, Benson was a quiet woman married to a loving husband who worked for one of the many industrial plants there in the area.  No one ever found out she wrote stories featuring blood, gore, supernatural creatures, nudity, subtle lesbianism and sex.  She simply went about her business pocketing the (meager) checks paid to her family's bank account under "E.W. Benson."

   But that's just part of the story...












(c) 2010 by Bill Cunningham and Pulp 2.0 Press

Space:2099 aka Fandom Never Ceases to Amaze Me

Space: 2099 is a fan made series of 3 minute segments that update and enhance the original episodes of the hit scifi television series Space: 1999.

This of course is all done out of an affection for the original television series, but does address such nagging problems as "Why doesn't the moon crack open under the stress of being pulled out of orbit?"

But beyond the fact that fans are doing this for no remuneration whatsoever, the amazing thing is the level of craft and talent these fan "re-creators" employ to redesign this show. Using "open source" software tools like Blender they are going all out to make sure the 2099 version of the show is top notch.

Take a look at the video of a SFX sequence.

If you're a fan of the 1999 show like I am, then it's worth your time to take a look at the various episodes the creative fans of Space: 2099 have completed thus far.

I think you'll be impressed.

The Store is Open!

My Amazon store is now open. Please feel free to stop by and browse at what I have set up thus far.

I haven't even begun an audio section yet.

Notably there will soon be a "Pulp Equipment" section dedicated to all sorts of software, hardware, tools and manuals for the self-respecting pulpster to acquire and master to make all sorts of mind-blowing media. Think of it as the store with various 'tool kits' you'll need to embark on your journey as a pulp writer, artist, filmmaker and entrepreneur.

As always, I'd like to hear your thoughts on ways to improve the store and make it more user-friendly...

Kick-Ass is well... KICK-ASS!!!

But I still like this trailer better:

Amazon Break Through Novel Contest

I received notification today that Amazon is sponsoring a "Breakthrough Novel Contest" for unpublished and self-published works. Details here.

Sounds like an incentive to plant the ass in the chair and write, hmmm?

Now why am I such a bastard about this sort of thing (Getting ass in chair and all that)? Well, it's because it's one of the easiest gifts I can give you - fun and happiness.

Here's the breakdown:

When you're creating something - you're having fun. Rest assured it's hard work - sometimes to the point of exhaustion - but when you get right down to the nitty and the gritty it's fun.

But even better than fun, is that moment when you actually finish something. That's called happiness. Boy is that happiness a sweet cocktail - far sweeter than fun.

In the current issue of Script (available at your local newsstand or bookstore) there is an article on "The Agony of the Unproduced" about people who are having the fun...

But have totally missed out on the happiness of having been produced. It's agony to work so hard on something only to lead to no result (that's not quite true as you do learn something from every script you write, but you understand the point I'm attempting to make here).

In today's world, there are so many different ways you can get your writing, art, music, video, design, whatever work out into the world... and you can feel the happiness in people who put it out there. There has to be happiness for creative endeavors to truly work.

So go get yourself a slice of happiness, and have fun doing it.

Edit to Add: And it just occurred to me that maybe... just MAYBE it might be a fun idea to hold a "pulp novel contest" of some sort duplicating the conditions under which an actual pulp novel was written: editorial/style restrictions, deadline, content, etc...
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Star Blazers!!!

I Miss Dave Stevens

Image courtesy Win Eckert.

Video Business Closes Shop

After 29 years the industry trade VIDEO BUSINESS is ceasing publication.

“I’m extremely proud of the role VB has played in the home entertainment industry, consistently breaking news, while providing important analysis and insight to our readers for almost three decades,” said Marcy Magiera, editor-in-chief and associate publisher. “Every staff member and regular contributor here is a first-class business journalist, and I will miss working with this smart, dedicated and caring group of people.”

The full story here.

Trying Some New Gadgetry....

This Poster Was On My Wall

Working on the Pulp 2.0 Books Amazon Store Today

I'm revamping the store today with all sorts of new and old goodies for the pulp enthusiast. While I won't be finished today, please take a moment to browse later this afternoon.

We also take requests for the store - so if you know of a book coming out that's on Amazon then shoot me an email so I can add it to the old newsstand.

In addition, I'm adding pulp movies, and a whole line of pulp-related resources for those of you who want to go out and make your own.

Oh, and yes I'll be adding the authors names wherever possible.

Pulp Writing: The Creative and The Business of Writing

Seems I lit a bit of a fuse with my post regarding the Asylum here. There were the usual blog comments and a couple of comments over at the Facebook page.

One of the themes running through the comments were that you could knock out a script in 30 days or less and walk away with a thousand bucks in your pocket. That it didn't take much effort, or craft or creativity.

For my part in that discussion I want to apologize, because that sentiment is wrong. It's wrong on a creative level and a business level. It dangles the carrot that you could knock one of these stories out and go on to do better things with your time. That because the pay is low it doesn't deserve your full attention.

Let me tell you now - and I'm telling myself this as well - the job you have in hand is the one you need to concentrate on no matter how little you're being paid, no matter how hard the work is to accomplish.

If you accept the terms of the job it's absolutely in your best interest to do the very best you can do. Every time. These are your clients (as is the audience) and they deserve your best no matter what you're getting paid upfront, on the back end, whatever.

If you're like me you're a fan of these movies. What do you want to see up there onscreen? What would make your jaw drop to the floor?

The job in hand deserves all of your creative attention. These are the hard nuts to crack - the jobs where you must create on deadline and with the idea there is no money. If you do get to the nut of it then you'll understand exactly how you can apply these techniques to future jobs.

It speaks well of you to do your best every time, because if you don't , you develop the reputation for "phoning it in."

That's a stink that doesn't wash off.

In a world where budgets are dropping, production co's are doing more with less, and new low-cost methods of distribution are the modus operandi, you don't want that sort of stink.

Below are two books by Paul Arden I think you'll enjoy that speak to the creative and the business. They are advertising-specific in terminology, but universal in truth.

Thomas Jane talks About Dave Stevens and The Rocketeer Graphic Novel and Movie

The Future of Pulp Publishing

Click and play:

Now imagine the integration of text, image, audio, video and game play in a pulp context. Read then play a RIP ROCKET or KNIGHTMARE adventure. Illustrated by the top names in comics and graphic design.

Making Your Blog Work for 2010

I've been having an interesting day today, reworking the design and appeal of the the Pulp 2.o blog here with an eye toward optimizing the features and making for a better overall experience. This all came about as I received a notice as to how much money this simple blog was generating through Google ads these past 3 months with no effort on my part. I figured that while I wouldn't be able to live off the money it never hurts to have some spare change in the old pocket.

You'll see more changes to the site as I test certain functions, add features and start putting up some merchandise for sale. Let me know what you think.

Next will be some cleaning out of the Amazon store and posting only the best of the best - books, movies and other merchandise every self respecting pulpster should have in his tool kit.

In addition I am working on text edits for BROTHER BLOOD. Never a pleasant experience.

2010 Writing Advice from The Asylum

Recently the founders of the film production and distribution company The Asylum were interviewed for Wired magazine discussing how they have been successful with their "mockbuster strategy."

From the article:

Using cheap digital technology and even cheaper talent, the Asylum can turn around such requests in as little as four months (the Sherlock shoot — one of the Asylum’s longest — was 14 days). And though the majority of its films are sci-fi or horror, the company has lately expanded into biblical-disaster movies (The Apocalypse), teen-sex romps (18-Year-Old Virgin), and even family fare (Sunday School Musical). It’s a new kind of B movie: low risk and made to order. “I said, ‘Make me a T&A movie in 3-D,’ and they did that with Sex Pot,” says Keith Leopard, director of content acquisitions at Blockbuster. “They’re constantly delivering good little filler products for our customers.”

And for writers wishing to understand what it takes to craft one of these movies:

The Asylum simply strips away all of the lofty ambitions found in a big-budget spectacle and boils down the hot-selling concept to its essence. If the movie is about robots, you get robots. If it promises dinosaurs, you get dinosaurs. “We don’t skimp on the genre,” Latt says. “When I talk to writers, I say, ‘OK, take a three-act structure. Write your first act, your second act, your third act — let’s develop it. Let’s get it good. Now take the first and the second act and throw them away. I only want to make act three. Because that’s when the drama happens.”

The result is a popcorn movie without pretensions — or hackneyed moralizing — which many genre fans appreciate. “I will go on record to say Transmorphers is better than Transformers 2,” says Kevin DeBolt, a 36-year-old Asylum fan from Chicago. “At least with Transmorphers, you know what you’re getting into when you start watching. “

Of course, nailing the timing — not to mention making money — is greatly helped by the fact that the Asylum consults with its distributors, who carefully study the market and have a good idea of what will rent six months down the road. “There’s nothing wrong with people who have a passion project — their black-and-white coming-of-age film,” Bales says. “But it’s hard for films like that to find an audience. We’ve listened to our buyers. And when they say, ‘We need this,’ we take it seriously.”

Read the whole article. I look forward to discussing it with you.