Christopher Moonlight Productions: Jenna Green

Saturday, August 22, 2015

First, watch the trailer and then I'll tell you about what we've been up to.

Here's the short link to the Indiegogo: http://igg.me/at/quantumterror

Did you like it? We're pretty pleased with it. There are issues what we're working to improve right now, such as improving our sound, but over all I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything else of this quality on our budget. I'd say that I'd bet my reputation that we'll probably finish with a better all around film than most bigger budget indies, but the fact is that anytime a director/producer makes a movie, that's exactly what they are doing. Fortunately, I've got a great cast and crew who are bringing a level of quality to this film that would otherwise be out of my reach. However, we still need your help. If you've already pledged, please share our campaign. Now what we've made our goal, Indiegogo is letting us keep raising money, so we can make this movie be the best it can be.

The Story

Samantha Carroll's twin sister Silvia has gone missing, without a trace. The only clues that Sam has to go on are notebooks filled with strange quantum physics equations combined with scribblings about the occult, that have been left behind. Silvia's ex-boyfriend and fellow college classmate claims he has seen her going into the nearby drainage tunnels that run under the town he lives in, however he himself is a suspect in her disappearance.
Accompanied by Samantha's concerned ex-lover Lucy, who has brought a new boyfriend in tow, the now group of four go down into the tunnels where strange alien creatures and alterations of reality, will confront them with their deepest desires and darkest inner truths. Now, the question isn't just whether they will find Silvia or not, but if it's even possible for them to ever get out again.

How We're Making It Happen

If you haven't already seen, we've cast actress Kristin Cochell in the leading roll of Samantha Carroll. She, along with the supporting cast of Paula Marcenaro Solinger, Matt Blackwell, Jordan Michael Brinkman, Mike Gassaway, & Dimitrius Pulido were all part of an extensive casting process, in order to ensure that we had the best actors possible, who would engage the audience and truly bring the story to life.

The Script

As I say in the video, story and characters count. Executive producer James Hudnall is known for his work as co-creator of the Ultraverse for Malibu Comics as well as Harsh Realms for Chris Carter, and is a writing genius in my book. His revisions of the script are invaluable. We continue to talk on the phone about directors we love (David Lynch and Sergio Leone are names that kept coming up) and tweaks that should be made to the script as footage is shot. We're both very visual storytellers and we want to make sure that ours unfolds through mood, body language, the looks in people's eyes and actions, as much as through what is said.

Building Scary Worlds & Monsters

Let's talk about building underground tunnels and the creatures that inhabit them, on a micro budget. My passion for a long time has been working with a hybrid style of miniatures, trick photography, practical effects, puppets, and green screen composite work, both for the screen and design. I've helped bring to life the visions of some amazing creators, on projects like Passport To Explore, Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey, and Harbinger Down, but I'm the director, so I had to bring in someone who I could trust to do even better at that stuff than the standards I hold myself to. That's why I made Jenna Green my head of special effects. You'll probably know her best for her time on SyFy Channel's Face Off (season 4) but she also wowed audiences with work on Army of Frankensteins.

We're not having a go at the FX alone, though. Studio 1881 actually has no internet presence, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that the main creature that is being sculpted there is beyond amazing. The fact that Oscar winning FX company studioADI is contributing animatronic tentacles to our film is just mind blowing. Having the support of people with that level of achievement (the Aliens franchise, Tremors, Starship Troopers, Harbinger Down) makes us believe we must be doing something right.

The Look & Sound

Cinematographer Anthony Gutierrez is one of our latest additions to the team. This has been an amazing development for us, because even though I had confidence in my own camera skills and artistic eye, there's nothing like having a specialist at the helm, that can look at everything that is going on in a production, and capture it in a way that transcends your average B-movie. Composer Derek Hunt is a relative newcomer to film scoring, but as you can tell from the trailer, he's come up with some haunting melodies that will put the fear, in atmosphere. (It works better when you say it out load.)

...and there's so much more we're doing right now, that we either can't talk about just yet, or would just make this post twice as long as it already is. (Shout out to David Paul, who is doing our titles & the band Frankenstein who have a track in the film.) I just want everyone to see that the stars are right. We've attracted more top notch talent than I could have ever dreamed. We've got a film with amazing visuals, themes like love, LGBT issues, freedom of choice, life, death, spirituality, science, and the passion to make it all happen. Come be a part of it.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Check the shout out we got on this weeks Fright Hype, on Crypt TV.

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN TRAILER!! That and the best Mortal Kombot YouTube reimaging ever on this week's horror news show FRIGHT HYPE!
Posted by Crypt TV on Friday, August 21, 2015

Friday, January 16, 2015

The Quantum Terror: A Christopher Moonlight Production

A twin sister lost. An underground maze. A nameless insanity from outside of time and space awaits.

It's no secret that I'm very passionate about what I do. Film making has always appealed to me, because it allows me to engage my creativity through writing, drawing, building, and working with other creative minds, as a team. In my quest to pursue projects on micro budgets I have been humbled, but my commitment to finishing them have only strengthened my creativity and problem solving abilities. There for I am happy to announce that my four projects, the all green screen sci-fi short Girl In The Window, my documentary The Practical People, short film My Little Zombie (which I will talk about more, in future posts) and my first feature length horror film as a producer, The Quantum Terror will all see completion of their productions in 2015.

What Is The Quantum Terror?

When I came to Austin, TX in 2012, I was fortunate enough to make some wonderful friends, including director Frank Papa III, special effects artist Jenna Green, and film composer Lauren Morris, and before long I convinced them that they should work with me to produce a work of indie horror, the likes of which no one has ever seen, or dreamed possible on such a micro budget. We tried to run a Kickstarter in the month of December, which was really the wrong time...

...but it was a great way to A) learn that Kickstarter isn't the right platform for us, no matter how near or far from Christmas we try to raise our funds, and B) gain a tremendous amount of enthusiastic and supportive followers who want to see a movie like this made. And why wouldn't they?! We love movies full of strange alien shapes, tentacles, and mind blowing scientific ideas of interdenominational beings so incomprehensible to the human mind, that one would go crazy, just from seeing one. (takes deep breath) It's easy to see that other people love them, too. We also love seeing awesome practical effects, like the ones in John Carpenter's The Thing or James Cameron's Aliens, so when we started doing test videos for our own effects, we and everyone else could see that it could be awesome.

By the way, those creepy sounds were provided by the before mentioned Lauren Morris, who's passion and deep understanding of her craft make it obvious that she's going to be a huge asset in making this movie as spine chilling as it can be.

Of course, these are just some of my own humble effects tests. As a producer, my job is to bring in people who know better than I, and I think I've scored a pretty amazing talent in makeup and creature effects artist Jenna Green, who is responsible for the more impressive effects on the film Army Of Frankensteins. You may also remember her as a contestant on season 4 or the SyFy monster makeup competition show Face Off. Here she is talking about one of the higher end rewards we came up with for our crowdfunding.

We're also courting some amazing actors. I won't mention all of them here, because their availability is going to depend on when we raise enough funds to shoot, but they include the likes of Mike Gassaway (Magic Mike XXL, Dallis, Bad Kids Go To Hell) and Paula Marcenaro Solinger (Blood Sombrero, Salem, Flashes) who was also kind enough to record this video about why she wants to be a part of our movie.

So, what's this film about?

Our story follows a young woman in her early 20's named Sam, who is struggling with all the expectations that she believes she needs to fulfill within the chaos of modern society, and the confusion she feels after having an unexpected romantic relationship with another woman. Things continue to break down, when her twin sister goes missing, and the search for her leads Sam and her former lover into a dark underground labyrinth where a malevolent entity from beyond time and space, dwells.

Wow, right? I could go on, but I've got to get back to work on producing this film. As you can see, we're really passionate about creating something meaningful and unique. We believe that there's plenty of room in life for diversity, and really can't understand why people continue to chase after the same horror movie tropes until they evolve into meta, and the meta burns out. Let's take our love of creatures, practical effects, great acting, and solid storytelling, and show that the spirit of independent film making can bring new and original material to the screen.