The funniest thing I’ve seen in two days…

Local filmmaker, Sean Grady (Operation: Mongoose) has graced me with a sketch in my likeness, wherein my likeness battles Judge Dredd (naturally).

Just ridiculous.

Roller Town!

Andrew Bush & Picnicface’s (http://www.picnicface.com) Roller Town has just been released to the internatz. I dawned a pair of roller skates for a couple days and provided some sexual nudity for the film.

Here’s a direct link to the video (if you have any trouble watching it, leave a comment, it’s a link through Facebook and I’m not sure if it’ll work or not): http://video-sf2p.facebook.com/v2685/246/45/86815540336_30052.mp4

Headrush Set Photos

This past weekend I worked on Headrush, (the directorial debut from Paul McLeod) the short film tells the story of a breakup set in a world where people can blow up other people’s heads with their minds. Wacky tabackie.

The film features a kickass cast of myself, Matthew Nette, Evany Rosen, Pardis Parker, and a lovely girl named Harriet. Never asked for her last name, but for blog purposes, her last name will be: The Spy (HARRIET THE SPY, GET IT?!)

Here’s some set photos from Sunday’s shoot provided by Andrew Noseworthy…

DOP Colin MacDonald (left) and Director Paul McLeod (right) set up the shot moments before we all took a five minute break to watch a pigeon eat from a hard-to-reach bird-feeder.

Shimmer!

My “acting” face.

Jason Grant operating sound and pretending not to be sexy. Oh my, the amount of times that man heard me go to the bathroom with my lapelle mic on is pretty disturbing.

Matthew wearing the bounce as a diaper. Thanks AFCOOP!

Gore MASTER Henry Townsend gets ready to unleash an explosion of blood.

Evany Rosen is pictured here having the unfortunate duty of being first to be shot with blood.

Matthew Nette AKA Graham Chapman lookalike.

Headrush will likely see a release in the Fall, but I’ll hopefully get more stuff up on here before then!

Zan Rosborough Reports From the B.U.F.F.

Zan Rosborough (Sound Designer for Treevenge, The Scavengers & Blood Shed) reports on The Boston Underground Film Festival via the internetz…

“Whew. Just got back to Halifax from Boston where I was attending the Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) and I thought that I would share my experience with you all.

I was the Sound Designer on three of the Halifax films playing in the festival (Treevenge, Scavengers and Blood Shed) and made the trip down to Boston with Jeff Wheaton who was also the Director of Photography on all three of the same films (we’ve both agreed that we’re pretty much the film tekkie whores of Halifax after having worked together on numerous local short films).

Picking up our sweet gasoline/electric Toyota hybrid rental, we made the “not-as-long-as-Google-Maps-says-it’s-going-to-be” drive to Boston in about 10 hours. From a driving perspective, Boston is a lot like Halifax – tonnes of no left-hand turns and one-way streets (except a hell of a lot more of them). After making a few wrong turns and a couple of lucky guesses, Jeff and I made it to our hotel (The Sheraton Commander) and got settled.

We met up with Cory Bowles (Director for Scavengers) who had flown in earlier that day. Cory is the most experienced with Boston streets out of all of us and was quick to show us where the festival and cinemas were. We picked up our festival passes, briefly met with some of the organizers and volunteers for BUFF and promptly hit up an Irish pub.

Sam Adam’s is an awesome beer.

The next day (Friday) we had some really good crepes to kick the day off and did a little roaming around Boston. We met up with a Director/DP from Montreal named Karim Hussain who is also one of Rob Cotterill’s (Producer/Writer for Treevenge) long-time friends and was a great guy to have around. He was very friendly, energetic and helpful during our stay and I’m stoked to work with him in upcoming projects. Gary Ferguson (Special FX/Firearms Master Extraordinaire for Blood Shed) made the trip down and met up with us at the same Irish pub as the night before (I couldn’t get enough of their steak-tipped sandwich, so fucking good). Jason Shipley (Director/Writer for Blood Shed) met up with us back at the hotel and [for this trip] our posse was complete.

Time for some films.

All three of the Halifax films were playing in the Brattle Theater in Cambridge just outside of the Harvard campus, it was a short walk from our hotel and the films would screen in the same night. Although BUFF is a pretty small festival, there was a great turnout for our screenings and the crowd loved and responded well to all three of the films. All of the films that played with ours were really good with many to note:

Dead Girl – Terrifying. Probably one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen, but at the same time so well done. Just when I thought I was a pretty desensitized guy, I feel like I’m even more desensitized now. Dead Girl has raped my cerebral cortex into next week. Just when you think they aren’t going to go there, they go there and beyond! Dead Girl was definitely one of our favorite films that were were able to see.
http://bostonunderground.bside.com/2009/films/deadgirl_bostonunderground2009

God’s Cocksuckers – Hilarious. Just pure hilarity from front to back.
http://bostonunderground.bside.com/2009/films/godscocksuckers_bostonunderground2009

Electric Fence – Have you ever seen realistic footage of someone cutting their cock off with cuticle scissors? I have.
http://bostonunderground.bside.com/2009/films/electricfence_bostonunderground2009

Heart of Karl – Undead monsters meet Sparta’s 300 and Mortal Combat. I was very impressed how this film was done and it’s interesting story.
http://bostonunderground.bside.com/2009/films/heartofkarl_bostonunderground2009

The Procedure – Very interesting with a few laughs in there for good measure and beautifully shot. There was a ghost-trapping machine that I thought was really well built and emitted very appropriate sounds.
http://bostonunderground.bside.com/2009/films/theprocedure_bostonunderground2009

…and so many friggin’ more! The organizers and programmers of this year’s BUFF should be given a gold star for their work. We were invited to see Morris County, but to our disappointment had to take off before it started. It’s too bad that we didn’t have more time in Boston, hopefully we’ll get some more time to hang out next year!

We drove back to Halifax yesterday and made it home just in time to return to our day-jobs. Yay! Back at ‘er!

-Zan Rosborough”

Thrillema + Girlfriend = Article.

My dear ladyfriend Kristin Slaney just wrote an article for The Dalhouse Gazette on Thrillema, which can either be read below or @ http://www.dalgazette.ca.

Thrillema keeps 35mm alive
Kristin Slaney
Arts Contributor

Local filmmaker Jason Eisener, hosts Thrillema – a cinematic experience for movie lovers. Glen Matthews Photo.

Jason Eisener stands in front of a sold-out audience at a movie theatre in Dartmouth. They have all come to see Jim Henson’s Labyrinth in 35mm format.

“How many cigarettes does David Bowie smoke every day?” Eisener asks the crowd.

A young man in the front row immediately shouts out “fifty”, and then runs to the front to collect his prize.

This is all part of Thrillema, an event that happens once or twice a month at Empire 6 Cinemas on Portland Street. Eisener, a local filmmaker whose short film, Treevenge, was the only Nova Scotian film featured at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is one of the organizers of Thrillema. Adam Perry, from The Last Game Store and Empire Theatres, also helps to put on the event with Eisener.

It started in October 2008, when Friday the 13th was playing. Since then there have been screenings of Army of Darkness, John Carpenter’s The Thing, My Bloody Valentine, Clockwork Orange, and Robocop. But Thrillema isn’t just a movie screening – it’s an experience complete with trivia, trailers programmed by Eisener, and die-hard movie fans.

Shelley Thompson, who plays the stepmother of Jennifer Connelly’s character in Labyrinth, came out as a special guest to officially introduce the film. Thompson, now residing in Halifax, admitted she had never seen the movie, much to the shock of the crowd, who cheered loudly as soon as she came onscreen during the film.

“The idea kind of comes from Austin, Texas, and the Alamo Drafthouse – seeing how they present movies,” says Eisener, who has had Treevenge and his Hobo with a Shotgun trailer screened at the famous theatre. “They treat showing movies as an art. So they would program really cool trailers to the theme of the movie, or they would have the star of an old movie come in. And they would have someone get up and talk about the movie, or talk about the history of this film. I kind of wanted to bring that sort of feel to Dartmouth.”

Eisener is from Dartmouth, and says he is happy to be hosting the event in the place where he grew up.

“I love this city, and I want to give back to it. If we had Thrillema in Halifax, people think we could do better there, but I don’t know. I think it creates an adventure for some people in Halifax who don’t come to Dartmouth too often,” says Eisener.

The trip to Dartmouth didn’t seem to keep people away from this screening. More than an hour before it was scheduled to start, there were only 65 seats still available in a theatre that holds 287 people. The lineup to get in stretched throughout the lobby.

A few fans even came in costume as characters from the Labyrinth, with one of them fully dressed as Bowie’s character Jareth, spandex and all.

Eisener says 35mm films might not be around for too much longer, so it’s important to get them screened now.

“Soon it’s going to get to the point where everything will be digital. You’re going to see them not making film prints anymore,” he says.

Eisener wants to continue having Thrillema events introduced by big fans of the movies. Matt Amyotte helped Eisener emcee Labyrinth, telling the crowd that he first saw the film when he was three and it’s still his favourite movie. Eisener hopes to find more people like Amyotte.

“If there’s anyone out there who has a superman appreciation for one of these films, or has a suggestion, let us know, and we’ll try to get it. Then they can present the movie and talk about how it affected them growing up.”

The next movie to be featured in Thrillema will be Aliens on March 26, followed by Jurassic Park on April 16. Aliens was one of Eisener’s earliest encounters with genre film.

“I remember coming down the stairs and my parents were watching Aliens, and I snuck down,” says Eisener. “I was looking behind the railing, and it was the scene where Sigourney Weaver dreams about having an alien burst through her chest. That scene came on and I saw that, and I freaked out. I ran upstairs, and didn’t tell my parents. I had trouble sleeping for days. That kind of always stuck with me.”

Tickets are $6.99 plus tax. More info can be found through the Thrillema Facebook group.

Treevenge This Weekend at Oxford Theatre!

Fun news! This weekend only TREEVENGE will be played before the new film from Bruce MacDonald, Pontypool (click here to watch the trailer) at Oxford Theatre in Halifax!

Show times are:
FRIDAY- 7:00pm, 9:30pm, & 11:59pm
SATURDAY- 4:30pm, 7:00pm, & 9:30pm
SUNDAY- 2:00pm, 7:00pm, & 9:30pm

Get out there and support some independant Canadian cinema!

More details available @ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=58295892499

Building the GlenJMpire: Chapter Seven.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
“YouBoob, The Musical”
Christmas 2005

By Christmas of 2005, I had already moved to Halifax to pursue post-secondary knowledge of Applied Arts at NSCC, and was feeling pretty good about the direction of my life. Learning about Photoshop, Illustrator, Photography, Illustration and other ways to make me feel good about myself.

During Christmas break in Lunenburg, my friend Dave Maddox sent me a link to watch the SNL Short “Dick in a Box”. The link lead me to a little website called Youtube; the first website (that I knew of) where you could upload your very own videos! I was absolutely blown away and excited beyond belief. Before the launch of Youtube, the process of getting videos online was incredibly complicated, and me being notorious for my technical laziness had never learned that process.

I locked myself indoors for the remainder of my break and created a short animated music video for the Gorillaz and uploaded it to Youtube…

…They still haven’t even said thanks.

Instantly, I started brainstorming ideas for short films. I knew that I wanted to act in them, but I wasn’t entirely confident in my ability to do so (mostly because I sucked); therefore, when I got back to the city, I signed up for evening Acting Classes at Neptune Theatre.

For those of you who know what I mean when I say “Zip-Zap-Zop”, you understand how weird the theatre classes were. I loved it. It felt very liberating, to be able to run around and play with adults. It was definitely a sexual preference test.

Once the class was over, I signed up for two more, another acting class, and a musical theatre class. The problem with the musical class was that (1) I had zero knowledge on how to read music, or (2) how to sing, because back in elementary school I made fun of Elvis in music class (in Grade 3) and my teacher kicked me out of her class for the next three years. I really don’t think she was allowed to do that.

So after three of the musical theatre classes, I told the teacher that I had to call it quits, because I had no sweet clue what was going on around me. On my way out, one of the other students Kerri Leier asked me to audition for her upcoming musical called Jump! An 80’s Musical! I re-stated the fact that I had no sweet clue what was going on, and she insisted that I come out.

In my first audition, I read my sides, and then at the end, I asked to showcase my ability to “sell” a punch to the face. I did my best impression of the Ric Flair flop and promptly left the room. Later on in the day I learned that I got the part of the Jock villain, who luckily for me, had minimal singing and dancing, but a good amount of dialogue.

The next 4 months were spent watching a VHS of the routines over & over & over and dancing along with them in my tiny bedroom between rehearsals.

June came, I completed my first year of college (with good marks), and it was time for the show. Here’s the poster that I designed for the show…

And here’s a photo of me (on the right) trying too hard…

The show went very well and was deemed a success. Hip hip hooray.

Confidence: +1.

During the rehearsals, the musical director, Matt Amyotte asked a few of us if anyone had wanted to be in his friend’s movie. The way he phrased it made me think it would just be a couple guys in a backyard with a Hi-8 camcorder, so I thought “fuck, I can do that”. He then said it was Jason Eisener’s next movie. I knew that I had heard the name, but I wasn’t sure until he brought up The Teeth Beneath, a film that Eisener made and I had seen parts of, I loved what I had seen.

A week later I was having a beer with Jason and John Davies and they were filling me in with plans for their epic feature length film Streets of Domination.

PAST BUILDING THE GLENJMPIRE CHAMPTERS:
Chapter 6: Quitter
Chapter 5: VHS FTW
Chapter 4: Two Chapters With One Stone
Chapter 3: Honk If You Happen to be Horny
Chapter 2: Junior Hierarchy
Chapter 1: Prologue

Operation: Beefcake

Given the tabloids infatuation with actors’ physical transformations, I am pleased to announce that I have embarked on my own epic (and heroic) journey to physical transformation for an upcoming role. I am also pleased to announce that I now will be rich and famous within 5 to 8 months from now.

Watch out Twist Magazine!

Ever since I got involved in acting, the thought of transforming my body into that of my character’s has always intrigued me. I’m not a method actor for the most part, but I respect that level of sacrifice from an actor.

Let’s face it, acting can be simple. Some people can stroll onto a set, read their lines once, turn around and produce a heart-wrenching scene with little-to-no effort. Others, like myself, have to slave over a notebook to remember a series of 3 sentences, and work on a character for weeks before they can shoot. At the end of the day, all that matters is what ends up on the screen. And that’s the way it should be. Who cares how you got there, as long as you did.

When an actor transforms their body, they get to wear their art.

That being said, I am initiating Operation: Beefcake.

For the past couple years, my body weight has wavered between 140 and 150 pounds depending on the time of year and the corresponding holiday. The character I’m doing this for is a complete fucking force of nature to be reckoned with so I hope my journey will carry me to 180 pounds with a combination of fat and muscle…

Example: 1990’s pro-wrestler Buff Bagwell, and 1990’s gay man on his porch.

Okay, maybe not so gay.

I am also initiating Initiative: Clouseau/Cato, in which if you see me on the street, you must attack me, for I have to be at peak physical health. An example of which is shown below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyBeIC25yeE

Slow-mo not included.

Alright, I have to go buy more peanuts, seeds, and avocados as they are a healthy source of fat. Thanks Dr. Clain!

PS. If you’re lazy like me and you hate all of the people at the gym, check out this link on how to become as strong as Bruce Lee in the comfort of your own home: http://zenhabits.net/2009/03/how-to-get-bruce-lee-like-strength-without-ever-going-to-a-gym/ Badass.

The Love of Letters

A few weeks back, I got a call from Jeff Wheaton who said he was shooting a bit of an experimental short film for an art exhibit at Argyle Fine Art (1869 Upper Water Street) called The Love of Letters. We shot the film in one day and it’s now being shown. The exhibit actually started yesterday and will run until (and including) Monday. Check it out!

From http://www.argylefa.tk …

This show involved the community and was in the works many months ago, when we asked for the general public to send us letters. Selected letters were then given to 17 artists including painters, ceramic artists, a musician and even a filmmaker. Come see the final results and the letters that inspired it all. Participating artists include: Mike Holmes, Ryan MacGrath, Ruth Marsh, Peter Kirby, Audrey Nichols, Pamela Marie Pierce , Peter Diamond, Nick Brunt, Teresa Bergen, Trevor Van den Eiynden, Gordon MacDonald, Susan Malmstrom, Stephen Gillis, Brian Porter, Jeff Wheaton, Crystal Ross and Brandt Eisner.

An example of one of the works included is an illustration by local cartoonist Mike Holmes…

I’m not sure if Wheaton plans on releasing the film online or not, so go see it!

Roller Town Premiere!

In mid September, I managed to infiltrate the comedy troupe Picnicface for a weekend (I did a blog update on the weekend, go figure), while they filmed Roller Town; a trailer for a fake feature length film that they hope to produce in the future, if all goes well.

Well the time has come and director Andrew Bush has decided to screen the trailer paired with the wonderful Troll 2 (1990) on March 20th at Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street). Here’s a link to the Facebook event if you’re into that kind of thang: Roller Town & Troll 2!!

From the event…

In September Picnicface set on daunting task. To shoot a trailer for a movie not yet made. Well, it’s finished and although it may be released on the internet before its offical premiere, please come out and celebrate with Picnicface!

Pluuus, we’ll be showing the best worst Movie ever made TROLL 2! Fresh with comments and drinking games! This is going to be some mother of a party.

Yes, it’s a real mustache. Come out, get drunk and laugh!