Just a reminder for all Rochester film fans to come out this Monday night to the Little Theatre. Two pieces produced at Animatus will screen as part of the Emerging Filmmakers series.

“H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods” is a five minute short produced by yours truly, Mike Boas. This horror adaptation tells of a prophet of the Dreamlands who scales a forbidden mountain to look upon his deities. This silent film is animated in silhouette style, with a score by Rochester musician Keith Handy.

“The South Africa Stand” is an animated short from one of my Animation Workshop students, Adrian Esposito. It tells the story of an American family that moves to South Africa in the 1970s in the midst of apartheid. Appalled, they eventually become involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. I’m especially proud of Adrian, who is expanding beyond animation exercises to produce personal stories with social content.

So come out to the Little on Monday night. Adrian and I will be on hand to take comments and questions.

EMERGING FILMMAKERS SERIES AT THE LITTLE THEATRE
240 East Avenue Rochester, NY
Monday, February 26, 2007, 9:15pm

For the entire line-up of films, visit
http://www.little-theatre.com/moviePage.php?filmID=447

A NIGHT OF HORROR is a new film festival premiering in Sydney, Australia this coming March. In their call for submissions, they specified three entry categories: general horror, animation, and adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft. So I had to enter, didn’t I?

Today I learned that THE OTHER GODS has been chosen to screen at the festival. The organizers received 180 short films from horror filmmakers in 20 different countries, so it’s rewarding to know my film made the cut.

To learn more about A NIGHT OF HORROR, visit http://www.anightofhorror.com or check out the Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/nightofhorror

For you residents of Rochester, NY, “The Other Gods” will be screening as part of the Little Theatre’s EMERGING FILMMAKERS series.

Come out for a night of short films Monday, February 26 at 9 PM. The Little Theatre is at 240 East Ave, Rochester, NY.

Find out more at http://www.little-theatre.com/emergingFilmmakers.php

I also just learned that “The Other Gods” played earlier this month in Houston, Texas, as part of the HORROR DANCE event.

Find out more at http://www.horrordance.org

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with David Powers, who hosts a podcast entitled “Podcast of Circadia.” We had a great time discussing writer H.P. Lovecraft and the challenges of adapting his work.

The interview is featured in episode nine, now online (in three parts) at http://poc.graveworm.com

To listen, visit the POC site, click each link and download the MP3 files to your computer. If you use iTunes, the POC feed is http://poc.graveworm.com/pocrss.xml

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods has been selected to play at this month’s Tromadance Film Festival, presented by Troma Entertainment.

As someone who has read and re-read Troma president Lloyd Kaufman’s books on filmmaking, it’s a thrill to be part of this festival devoted to the independent spirit.

The 8th Annual TromaDance Film Festival will be held from January 22nd to 27th 2007 in Park City, UT.

http://2007.tromadance.com

Sometime in the last few weeks, Jason: The Rebirth passed 10,000 hits on YouTube. Who knew so many horror fans would happen across the video?

Hey, it’s not a runaway viral phenomenon, but it feels good anyway.

Check it out and leave me a comment if you so desire!

As the Special Edition DVD of The Other Gods takes shape, a vital component is lacking… We’d like to include subtitles for non-English speaking persons.

If you love Lovecraft and can translate (accurately) into Spanish, French, Italian, or German, we need your help! If you’d like to donate your time and expertise, please write to us at info(AT)maddogmovies.com.

Not sure if you can take on the whole project? It’s a short film, so there’s only about 25 lines of text. Check it out here:

The Other Gods - English text
(Right-click and save to your computer.)

During my weekend in Portland for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, I spoke to a few people who would be missing Sunday night, the night my short was playing. The last night of any film festival usually has less attendance, since many film-goers cut out for travel reasons or out of sheer exhaustion. I steeled myself for a “light” attendance that night.

Instead, the main theatre was mostly full as usual! Not sold out, but a respectable crowd of a few hundred. Now I had a new concern: could I avoid hyperventilating as the film played before so many sets of eyeballs?

Well, I survived. “The Other Gods” was received well. My colleagues all had incredibly supportive things to say.

Thanks to everyone at the festival for a great experience. I loved every minute of it, and I hope to attend next year.

See the Mad Dog Blog for more about the festival.

Rochester composer Keith Handy has really outdone himself with his soundtrack for The Other Gods. As the producer, I wanted the feel of a classic silent film that later gave way to a more contemporary sound. Keith rose to the challenge and gave me an eerie mix of piano, synthesized sound, and distorted guitar for a truly shocking audio experience. Plus, he managed to get it done in record time!

We’ll be putting the entire short film online soon, but people can get a taste for the soundtrack right now by watching the trailer.

For more about Keith Handy and his music, visit his website at www.keithhandy.com. Check his latest blog entries for some inside information on his scoring sessions for the film, too!

The trailer for the 2006 release of “The Other Gods” is now online.

Visit YouTube to see it yourself.