NEWS                    

8-21-05

Chthonia was screened at Realms Con in Corpus Christi today.

 

4-10-05

Chthonia won the Best Screenplay award at Outhouse 6.

4-7-05

Chthonia has been selected to screen at LSU's Outhouse Film & Video Festival during April 8-10, 2005.

2-16-05

Chthonia is now listed on the Internet Movie Database.

2-9-05

The screenplay of Chthonia has won First Place in the 2005 BEA Festival short film scriptwriting competition.

 

12-3-04

Chthonia won for Best Narrative Film at Sul Ross University's WestFest 5 film festival.

11-13-04

Chthonia won for Best Short Film at the Third Annual SOL Awards in Austin tonight. Two of the actors from Chthonia, Gary Anderson and Will Majors, also attended.

 

10-30-04

Chthonia won first place tonight for "Scariest Entry" at the San Antonio Film Slam hosted by URBAN-15 Studios.

10-25-04

Had a screening of Chthonia at Jump Start Theater in San Antonio, TX tonight. A number of other films were also shown and I got to sit on a filmmaker panel for a Q&A session afterwards, which was cool.

10-4-04

Both Chthonia and Commode Creations have been chosen to be recognized at the SOL Awards in Austin, TX on November 13.

5-7-04

Chthonia was screened to a decent audience at SIN13 tonight. A few guys who were decked-out in gothic garb said they liked it, so I guess I have the beginnings of a small following...

5-2-04

The local premiere of Chthonia is scheduled for Friday, May 7 at SIN13 in San Antonio. Check out the poster here.

4-28-04

Tonight I screened the completed (?) 34 minute-long film to the cast and crew.  I hope seeing the end product has helped convince them that all their suffering was worth it.

New production stills are up from the night I had extras in the tunnel.

4-21-04

THAT'S A WRAP - FILMING FOR CHTHONIA IS COMPLETE

At 1AM this morning I found myself scooping dirt off from the pitching mound of the Olmos Basin baseball diamond and placing it into a small plastic bag.  The dirt I found there is really the finest, smallest granule dirt I could find anywhere within a 5 mile radius of Trinity University - the dirt around my school's campus is really incomparable to the godlike nectar I found upon that vacant hill, which I helped make a bit shorter.  Looking back, I'm tremendously glad that no one drove up into the park and found me stooped low with my half-filled bag of goodness.  It would be rather difficult to explain precisely why I was collecting dirt from the pitching mound at midnight - a question you, as the hereto forth ignorant reader, may not fully understand.  You see, the Erebus Node is the final place that Robert, the main character of Chthonia, explores.  The Erebus Node is referred to earlier-on in the film, so a visual connection must be established at the end of the film when Robert has, indeed, reached the Erebus Node.  For this, I had a metal sign made - viewable from the newly updated images link on the left.  The sign communicates the message just fine, but it has to look 100 years old - which is tricky since the sign is closer to only 100 hours old.  To accomplish this, I visited the opening of a drainage tunnel located on my school's campus (not used as a location in the film) where a wet muddy substance was apparently decomposing.  I scooped up this foul-smelling sludge with the sign itself and allowed it to drip down the length of its face.  However, the mud was too wet, and most of the goop dripped right off.  Nonetheless, a good texture was left behind from what managed to remain attached.  I decided a final touch had to be rendered before the sign could be considered complete - the gentle application of dirt would do the trick.  Walking around campus, I realized no such dirt as I had in mind was to be found anywhere.  Of course, Trinity has its own share of baseball field pitching mounds, but being gang raped by the baseball team after being found tampering with their beloved field does not sound pleasant.  Thus explains my journey.

At 8AM, Will and I drove to the Woodlawn Park drainage tunnel one final time to capture the last few remaining shots of the film, including him passing by the Erebus Node sign, as explained above.  A fresh application of dirt to the sign after it was mounted onto a wall made it look believably old.  By 11AM, the final shot of Chthonia had been filmed.  All that's left is to apply the finishing touches to the film in editing - a rather small task at this point since the majority of principal editing has immediately followed after each scene has been shot.

4-18-04

The Chthonia Trailer is ready for download.

4-17-04

Edited nearly all day - only one more shooting day left with Will and Chthonia should be finished at last.

Posted new images from the past two nights.

4-16-04

Tonight was probably most complex night to logistically coordinate since seven Trinity students joined in to act as extras.  Although I promised them that the shooting would start at 11:30am and be finished by 3am Saturday morning, I failed to elaborate on the environment in which they would be asked to become closely acquainted with.  I discovered a handy lesson from this, and I entitle it, How to lose your friends in one night: 1) Invite your friends to act as extras in your film.  2) Only warn them to wear shoes that they can get wet, but reassure them you'll finish shooting at a halfway decent hour (approximately 3am).  3) On the night of the shoot, outfit them with strange-looking costumes and drive them 5 miles from school and walk them a mile deep into a drainage tunnel.  4) Inform them that they now have to actually lay down (and eventually roll around) in the water that they've been walking through, which is probably somewhere between 50 to 60 degrees.  5) Spend the three hours you promised them they would be down there shooting your film while they suffer.  6) Never expect them to talk to you again because of the hatred and resentment that they had a full three hours to conjure up towards you.

Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Mathews of the Trinity University Anthropology Department, Chthonia contains real human remains!  (A femur and pieces of pelvis, to be exact.)  I intermingled the bones with the extras, or at least the extras who didn't feel some sort of oddity about lying next to the pieces of some dead guy.  One of the extras thought there might be something ethically and morally wrong about using real body parts for a movie, but I'm not too worried about it.  My only concern is that since the Anthropology Department apparently doesn't have any records on where the bones originally came from, I can't properly credit the owner of the bones.

4-15-04

This is the first night that Samantha, the actress for the Gaunt Woman, has gotten to perform for Chthonia's camera.  Ironically, tonight is one of the last shooting nights for the film.  Despite being a relative latecomer on the set, she did quite a good job of looking and sounding pathetic - which is exactly what Chthonia calls for.  We left out at 11:30pm on finished by 5am Friday.

4-9-04

I filmed the gory finale tonight. Will had to yell a lot to sound like he was dying and I was constantly worried that someone would hear us and see Will covered in fake blood and think I was murdering him. New stills are up.

4-8-04

Filmed the bike getaway scene from 10pm-3am. No PAs showed up tonight, so I had to rig together a rather interesting contraption to capture some specific shots. Tripod + wheelchair + fluorescent lantern + duct tape = ghetto dolly. New still images are also up.

4-2-04

Shot the dialogue scene with the characters of Trent and Sydney between 12:30AM and 4AM in the Woodlawn tunnel. Edited the scene down to 4 minutes. Flash flooding hit San Antonio in the afternoon - good thing we weren't in the tunnel then.

New stills added to Images.

3-27-04

Basically a repeat of yesterday- started at 1AM and finished at 7AM.  As the night progressed, Nick Kelly, the production assistant for the night, took a break and fell asleep against the tunnel wall only to end up sitting in a stream of water flowing over the floor.  Needless to say, he was miserable the rest of the night.  Nearly two thirds of the script has now been shot and edited.  New screen shots from the last two days of shooting have been posted.

As a side note, I've now been labeled a "sadist" by the cast because of the apparent joy I get out of having them perform take after take of shots that require characters to express pain and agony (for example: Anthony screaming because of his legs being broken, Sydney regurgitating blood, the Minotaurus ripping Anthony apart, etc.).  I suppose I do have a tendency to play those particular shots over and over after they've been edited...

3-26-04

Started shooting at 1AM and finished by 7AM.  Special recognition should be given to Paul West, the actor for Anthony, who had to be yanked out a dirty 3' diameter pipe and then roll around on the ground of the drainage tunnel floor, which still had about an inch of standing water throughout.  Soaked to the bone by the end of the night, Paul nevertheless managed to survive the shoot.  We emerged from the tunnel just before 7AM only to be greeted by the stares of what appeared to be a high school girl's track team who were running around Woodlawn Lake.  I guess three guys dressed in prison uniforms and a skinny guy with no shirt emerging from a cavernous tunnel is a strange sight to behold.  I then slept for three hours, went to class, then edited the scene which has come out to 6 minutes in length - roughly the number of hours we spent shooting.  The rest of the day was spent preparing tonight's shoot.

3-24-04

Scouted out the tunnel for tomorrow's (Thursday night/Friday morning's) shoot of the Anthony scene.  Besides the inch of standing water present throughout the tunnel, nothing appears amiss.

3-20-04

Completed all story boarding and drew a total of approximately 300 panels (or shots), which means if each shot lasts an average of 6 seconds, Chthonia will be 30 minutes long.

3-12-04

Began filming the Storage Room scene at 1AM and finished up at around 6AM. I had four camera batteries this time and used all of them - anything less would not have been good. When I got back to my room, I put away all my equipment and promptly began editing. The rough cut is just over four minutes.

Will, Gary, and Lupe had no objection to acting in a house constructed of boxes underneath an overpass - a location I'm sure they may never encounter again.

Special accolades for Lupe's death performance while spurting (fake) blood out his mouth and down his neck.

Also worth mention is when Gary attempted to give himself a concussion on a cement block during a shot when his character is thrown backward onto the ground, but failed to successfully bruise his brain.

The Images section has been updated with still images from the shoot.

3-11-04

Cleaned out the trash and leaves from the floor of the set for the Storage Room scene- trees don't grow in Chthonia, after all. 

3-10-04

Worked on the set of the storage room scene by constructing and painting the collection of boxes that I've gathered there for the past month.  Pictures of the set can be found here.

3-9-04

Drove around and bought a bunch of supplies for the shoot on Thursday night.

3-6-04

The first day of shooting started today at 1AM and lasted until around 4:30AM.  The scene shot was the finale in which Robert confronts the Gas Mask Man inside the Erebus Node.  The actor I had planned for the part of the Gas Mask Man had to go out of town unexpectedly and I found out only a few hours before the scheduled shoot time.  Instead of giving up the night's shoot, I quickly cast Kris Kolve, a Trinity student, as the replacement role of the Gas Mask Man. 

The last shot of the scene involves the character of Robert - played by William Majors - ramming his flashlight across the face of the Gas Mask Man (or at least he tries to).  Of course, I set up an angle in which Kris wasn't really going to be hit.  Will obediently performed take after take under my direction until I told him, "Ok, this time, really go at like you're an animal."  Not only did he perform the best take, but also successfully rammed Kris' face with the flashlight.  Luckily, the front of the gas mask took the brunt of the blow and Kris is alright.

The shoot went off without any other real problems and after sleeping until 1PM, I proceeded to edit the entire scene - complete with sounds and background music that I have mixed and composed.

Still images of the scene can be viewed in the images section.

3-5-04

Made the costumes for Robert, Sydney, Trent, and Gaunt Woman.

Began story boarding.

3-3-04

As luck would have it, Trinity University's Physical Plant cannot give me permission to shoot in any of the crawl spaces after all because of state safety regulations.  I'll just have to find another way...

Thanks to the Baptist Health Center in San Antonio, I now have six more sets of scrubs.

Gathered even more empty boxes from Trinity's Aramark dining services.

2-28-04

Added sounds to the Story links.

2-27-04

Today I was given a tour of all the crawl spaces around Trinity University by Physical Plant Assistant Director Jim Counce.  I may also have found a 1950s vintage bicycle for the film.

This is the third Friday in a row that I have gathered boxes from the TU Mabee dining hall and reconstructed them underneath the overpass where I will be shooting the storage room scene.

Held an interview with who I anticipate to be the the Gas Mask Man.

Updated the Cast page with pictures of all the actors.

2-26-04

Typed up draft six of the script.

The drama concerning which camera I end up using and who I will borrow it from continues to drag on.  Regardless of the numerous phone calls I have made, there are no clear answers yet.

2-24-04

Thanks to various contributors, I now have five complete scrub sets and a bunch of extra tops.  Also secured a wheelchair.

Called up HEB today and the unit director offered a gift certificate to use on anything I need.

2-23-04

Chthonia has been cast.  The decisions were very hard to make, as many of those who auditioned gave superb performances.  Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of roles and choices must be made.  Congrats to those who have been chosen.

2-20-04

I'm holding one more audition session tomorrow from 12pm-3pm in rooms 319-320 of  Laurie Auditorium.  I ought to have a finalized cast very soon.

2-17-04

Gerard Martin, assistant producer for Chthonia, has possibly secured a wheelchair and medical scrubs for use in the film's production.

2-16-04

The auditions went rather well.  Not as many people came as I would have preferred, but there was a large number of strong performances nonetheless.  I think I will audition a few more people one-on-one before I make any final decisions.

2-12-04

Auditions have been scheduled for this Friday night, 11am-4pm Saturday, and 11am-2pm Sunday to be held at Trinity University in the Chapman Graduate Center rooms 105-109.  Hopefully I'll have a full cast at the end of the next three days.

2-6-04

Added a Character section to the Story link which provides the background for each major character.

2-5-04

Made a second conceptual poster.

2-4-04

It looks like I already have two possible audition locations on campus, thanks to some crafty professors.

Added a conceptual poster to the Images link on the left.

2-3-04

The actor candidate list has nearly reached thirty people.  I realize that finding a place to audition them all may be a tricky affair since the film is not in conjunction with Trinity University (which I am currently attending) and will therefore not be "officially" supported by the administration or by any department, but I may be able to work something out.  Time will tell.

2-2-04

Wow, I didn't expect such a quick reaction to my post.  In less than twelve hours, I've already received three emails and two phone calls from people interested in acting!  (At the end of the day, the total number of potential acting candidates reached 12.)

I made a few more of the links on the left active.

Typed up a fourth draft of the script.

2-1-04

Posted a casting call announcement on AustinActors.net today.  Time to get things really moving...

1-27-04

As I anticipated, I scored a "sick" comment by a test reader concerning the rape scene I included in the second draft.  However, I realize that the scene is rather redundant thanks to another somewhat similar scene that occurs later in the story.  For the sake of not degrading women and sounding too gratuitous, I have omitted the scene from draft three. 

1-26-04

Typed up a second draft.  The screenplay now includes a rape scene, among other things.  A number of my friends who have read the initial draft thought the story was already rather twisted.  The stuff I added will probably score a "sick" label as well.  At least I'm making an impression.

I have determined the shooting locations for each scene in the film.  I also found out that all the tunnels I intend to use are actually considered public property and I should not have to worry about committing multiple counts of trespassing to get the film completed.

1-24-04

Went walking through the intended primary shooting location tonight.  Even though it was drizzling out, I convinced a friend to come along and we explored the depths of Woodlawn Park's drainage tunnel which spans at least 2 miles in length, probably more.  Since this is only the third time I have traversed the tunnel, my exploratory promenade provided me with some new ideas and reminded me of how the tunnel looks.  Indeed, this place truly embodies the spirit of CHTHONIA.

1-19-04

Today I completed the first draft of CHTHONIA's screenplay.  The flow of events sounds pretty good but I think another scene could do the film some good.

1-17-04

I have finally settled on the story I want to tell and the screenplay itself ought to be complete very soon.  The opening minute of the film (titles and backstory) have been edited along with the corresponding synthesized music.  I have foleyed other sound effects as well, including the verbal sounds of the "creature".  It is beginning to seem as though I have done much of the post production process before the actual production.

Today I found two cool flashlights that I will have the characters use on-screen since the entire story takes place inside drainage tunnels.

1-4-04

I have begun preproduction on my next narrative short film, CHTHONIA (originally titled The Tunnel).  I've already created opening animated titles for the film, which is rather odd since I haven't even finalized the story yet.

Created the CHTHONIA website today.  Only a few of the page links work since I have not begun filming yet.