Indiegogo: Final Thoughts

by Torey Haas

Our Indiegogo campaign for Invasion of the Undead closed this past Sunday at $6,487, 32% of our final goal of $20,000.

Am I disappointed? Not even remotely! Going into this campaign I literally had no expectations; MonsterBuster Entertainment is a very small and new company with little exposure in even the local Atlanta filmmaking community (hey, we like to make movies, not market them), and I knew raising any amount of money- let alone $20,000- was going to be an uphill battle at best. Looking back over the past month and a half, the fact that we raised $6,487 on Indiegogo (plus more if you include our fundraising party at WonderRoot and outside donations) is a miracle in of itself, and the support we received from our family, friends and fans was truly astounding.

We needed your help, and we got it!

One of the caveats I wrote in the campaign description was that if we didn't raise the full amount of money we would devote the funds we did get to creating a short film featuring the same characters and themes (similar to Within the Woods); well, after talking with the rest of the MonsterBuster team I've decided to go ahead and proceed with production on the feature, on the grounds that we've come too far and accomplished too much to turn back now. I'm not entirely sure how we're going to make the remaining budget (I'm working on a plan right now) but I can assure you and all of our generous backers that the movie WILL happen and we currently have no plans to deviate from our production schedule.

However, the main reason I wanted to write this blog was to give my thoughts on the campaign- i.e. what worked and what we could have done better- in the hopes that another aspiring filmmaker out there will read it and learn from our experience. I'm going to be completely candid here- I don't know if this is the best marketing strategy but whatever, I'm a firm believer in honesty.

The positive:

• MonsterBuster grew a LOT throughout the campaign. We started out with 150 Facebook fans and now we have over 400, with 227 followers on Twitter. We even have genuine fans now (not just our friends and family members) who like and comment on our posts. This has been the most gratifying development for me personally.

• The response we received to our pitch video and webisodes was unanimously positive, and we made a lot of great professional contacts interested in lending their talents to the campaign and the production, such as Shane Morton, aka Professor Morte of Atlanta's Silver Scream Spookshow. I've been a huge fan of the Spookshow since I first heard about it last year; seriously, if you've never been before you really need to check it out. It's easily one of Atlanta's top entertainment attractions, and the storytelling and performance quality are straight out of Disney World or Universal Studios. I randomly showed Shane our Indiegogo campaign and he immediately offered to not only host our fundraising party but also to donate several of his artwork and masks to our auction and raffle. Currently he's allowing our creature creator to work in his shop, which I've been told is like a wonderland of horror memorabilia and props (I still need to check it out myself). He's probably the nicest guy I know, and the fact that I can now call him a friend and colleague is pretty awesome.

Professor Morte at our fundraising party!

• We raised $6,487! Seriously, let's not gloss over this- that's a LOT of money. And it means even more considering that it came from people who believed in our team and my vision. Now that's definitely awesome.

The negative:

I hesitate to call any aspects of this campaign negative because overall I'm overwhelmed with the results. However, there were certainly things we could have done better and I'd like to address them for any future Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaigners out there who may be taking notes.

• We didn't get all of our planned updates out within the ideal timeframe, specifically our webisodes and final poster. While Allison's webisode came out on schedule, Jake's was delayed by a week and Desmond's is still not released, and our poster (which is going to be amazing by the way) is still being worked on by our unbelievably talented production artist. While there were a few reasons for these delays outside of our control (a computer crash being the primary culprit behind Jake's webisode), the main reason was a simple matter of time and money. Everyone in MonsterBuster (myself included) needs to work a day job to pay the bills, and unfortunately paying gigs encroach on passion projects like Invasion. My advice here is to have all of your updates ready before you even launch your campaign, especially if they're something elaborate like videos. No-budget filmmaking is never a smooth process, and stuff will come up that will prevent you from getting updates out when you want to.

Our poster is going to be mind-blowing once it's finished.

• We never really received any exposure for our campaign outside of our immediate social circles. This, to me, is far and away the main reason we didn't raise more money than we did. This wasn't for lack of trying- we sent out press kits to numerous websites and blogs but received no responses, and the only press coverage we got (that I'm aware of, at least) was through a Portuguese website and happened courtesy of one of our backers. I can't read the article myself since I don't know Portuguese, but I do know it singlehandedly brought more traffic to our campaign page than any of our other efforts and got us a few international backers and fans, which is really cool.

All in all though, I'm glad we did this Indiegogo campaign. It was definitely a learning experience for all of us and without it we never would be able to make the movie. If you were one of our many backers, I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart. The Monday morning following the end of the campaign I was driving to work and I started crying, not because I was sad but because I was incredibly happy. My lifelong dream to make a feature film will finally come true (not to mention the dreams of everyone else in MonsterBuster), and it's entirely thanks to your generosity and support. I promise to make the best damn '80s-inspired horror/comedy with cocky heroes, beautiful women and stop-motion monsters that I possibly can, and I can't wait to share it with all of you!

The Mummy Returns!

By Torey Haas

MonsterBuster trading cards! I fully plan to make these if Invasion is successful.

This past weekend we finished the final pick-ups for Allison's Invasion of the Undead webisode (which premieres next week as part of our Indiegogo campaign), a small shoot involving The Mummy, an ominous figure that appears briefly in Invasion and plays a much more significant role in the sequel, Siege of the Cat Goblin.

Yes, you read that right- there is already a sequel written for Invasion of the Undead, the movie that we're currently still trying to make. In fact there are two sequels, with the fourth (and final) movie existing as an outline as well. I was a huge comic book and superhero fan growing up (Spiderman and Captain America are my two favorites for anyone who's wondering), and I always loved how Marvel and DC created a universe of characters who would interact and team-up with each other. As a teenager I found the same affinity for Kevin Smith and his View Askewinverse, and being a huge horror fan I of course geek out over Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which if you aren't familiar with features characters and story elements from many of his other novels and short stories. With these inspirations in mind one of my goals with MonsterBuster is to create a similarly-styled universe of characters, with the Desmond and Jake series (of which Invasion of the Undead is the first movie) being the equivalent of the Dark Tower, or the story in which all of the other MonsterBuster movies are intertwined.

Most of our current movies are already related in subtle ways. I always wonder if any viewers out there pick up on any of these connections, but here's a quick breakdown anyway:

Troll Picnic: If you don't blink you can see graffiti that reads "B.O.N.E.S." in the first shot of Robin in Tryvester's cave. This same acronym reappears in Jake and Julie vs. The Boogeyman! and First Date, and we finally learn what it means in Invasion of the Undead.

B.O.N.E.S. in Troll Picnic...

... Jake and Julie vs. The Boogeyman!...

... and First Date.

Jake and Julie vs. The Boogeyman!: Julie's shirt reads "Devil's Hill High Dragons," and Devil's Hill is the fictional town where Ricky and Robin live in Troll Picnic; in fact Jake and Julie takes place before the events of Troll Picnic since Jake mentions his (presumably same-aged at the time) friend Ricky Stokes when Julie first asks him about Caroline Thompson. Jake is also the same Jake from Invasion of the Undead; does this mean there will be a rematch somewhere down the road between Jake, Desmond, a grown-up Julie, Ricky and the Boogeyman? Hey, I told you there are three sequels planned...

The Devil's Hill High Dragons logo, designed by Brian Hardison.

First Date: Apart from the aforementioned B.O.N.E.S. reference, Gwen wears the same Devil's Hill High shirt as Julie. Gwen and Chris (and I suppose Charlie) also work at SaveMore Groceries, the same store Desmond and Jake slave away at in Invasion. As to why Desmond and Chris are portrayed by the same actor, well, it's explained rather humorously in Invasion.

Werebum: MonsterBuster's most troubled production doesn't feature any overt references; Mick Feathers' coworker (Keyla McClure) was originally intended to be Gwen from First Date, but it didn't really play out that well so we kind of just swept it under the rug. A now-homeless Mick Feathers will cameo in Invasion of the Undead, which will finally tie Werebum in to the rest of the MonsterBuster Universe.

Gwen? Er, not really...

Crowscare: The ubiquitous Devil's Hill High Dragons shirt returns, worn this time by May's doomed friend Christie. May herself will return in Allison's webisode next week, marking the first time a MonsterBuster character will appear in more than one movie beyond just a name drop.

That shirt looks familiar...

Crowscare's May (Rachel DeJulio) as she appears in Allison's webisode.

Mario and Luigi: Since it's radically different from the rest of our shorts, Mario and Luigi (and its upcoming sequel Super Mario and Luigi) is intended to be a movie that the rest of the MonsterBuster Universe watches; if you're were lucky enough to catch the Invasion of the Undead teaser at the MonsterBuster Film Festival back in November 2011 you may have seen the Mario and Luigi poster hanging on the wall behind Desmond in SaveMore's video department.

The Mario and Luigi poster graces the back wall of the Savemore video department.

Making the Cut: Our 48 hour film is, like Mario and Luigi, a movie that exists within the rest of the MonsterBuster Universe. It even has a video game based on it, as you'll soon see in Katelyn Brammer's Harmony and Allison's Invasion webisode.

Making the Cut: The Video Game in Katelyn Brammer's Harmony...

...and in Allison's webisode.

Bath Salt Cannibal: In addition to a reappearance by the Boogeyman, Kevin Hicks' upcoming short movie also features a can of SaveMore candied cherries in a significant (i.e. horribly gruesome) role.

Our only projects that aren't related to the rest of the MonsterBuster universe are our Red Herring trailers, our Halloween make-up series with xteeener, and our Apocalypse commercials and PSA; I'll probably toss them on a SaveMore television in Invasion just to keep everything connected.

The Mummy, circa 2004...

But what about the star of this blog entry, The Mummy? One of my first student films at Georgia Tech was a short horror movie titled Bride of the Mummy; being an early student film it's extremely bad (I love the beginning where we keep cutting across the 180º line), but I always rather liked the Mummy character we created and I've wanted to bring him back for a while. I finally got my chance this past weekend; one of the most exciting moments for me thus far on Invasion was to see a new and much-improved Mummy (courtesy of MonsterBuster creature creator Tricia Gaulesky and performed by the original actor, my longtime friend Eric Davis) finally return to menace the MonsterBuster Universe. He's way more badass this time, as you'll see (fingers crossed) in Invasion and especially its sequel Siege of the Cat Goblin. Check out Allison's webisode next week for your first introduction to this sinister character!

... and 2013.

As always, thank you for reading. Hopefully this blog wasn't too self-indulgent, and if it captured your interest please check out our Indiegogo campaign for Invasion. If you're friends with me on Facebook or a fan of MonsterBuster you may be sick of hearing how thankful I am for your support, but I really can't thank everyone enough. We can't continue building the MonsterBuster Universe without your help!

The Horrifying True Story Behind Jay Holloway's Werebum

Our 2011 short film Werebum is now available to watch on our YouTube channel:

Werebum was a grueling experience behind the camera- the production literally spanned nine months from the first weekend of shooting until the last, and the cast, crew and script were all in constant flux as the months wore on. Here's two different perspectives on Werebum, from its director Jay Holloway and cinematographer Torey Haas:

Jay Holloway:

"Werebum is no doubt one of the weirdest films I’ve worked on. With no script and a film crew that ultimately consisted of myself, DP Torey Haas and star/special effects creator Ricky Hess, it taught me a lot about filmmaking and that I could bring a group of people, whom I now call my good friends, together to make a fun movie!

From left to right: Nathan DeRussy, Torey Haas, Jay Holloway, Steven Fichtel and Ricky Hess

Werebum, or Curse of DA Werebum as it became affectionately known behind the scenes, is an homage to one of my favorite directors Frank Henenlotter. It follows rising executive Mick Feathers (Ricky Hess) after he gets bitten by a deformed man-creature in an abandoned parking lot and slowly transforms into a bum-like monster.

Ricky Hess applies the Werebum make-up to Robert Thompson.

Werebum was shot on weekends over the span of nine months, which at the time I thought would not interfere with any of the crew members' personal lives. However, it didn’t work out that way. At the time I was single and thus had a lot of free time to devote my weekends to making a movie. Torey, on the other hand, became annoyed with the film’s staggering production commitment and the effect it had on his personal life. At times I would call him up and say “Hey T-Man, do you want to bring your date to the set this weekend and shoot some scenes for Werebum?" I could almost hear the pain in his voice over not wanting to drive down to Georgia State University and spend his weekend shooting but as a true friend he always made the sacrifice to help me finish the movie.

Ricky and Jay goofing off

Working with Ricky Hess was a blast! He showed great dedication in helping out with the production and he was always cracking jokes to keep us from loosing our minds. He would drive a hour and a half from Calhoun to Atlanta to help out, and I couldn’t have asked for a better actor and friend.

Keyla McClure (First Date) was the only actress brave enough to set foot on the Werebum set.

At times a few other friends would drop by to get a laugh at the production of the film like Brandon Jolley (who got trapped in the elevator while filming a scene with Frank Fuller and my brother Corey Holloway), Matt Wong, Eddie Mattison, Keyla McClure, Rickey Boynton, Hsiang-Ming Wen, Brian Hardison, Nick Lauinger and Steven Fitchel.

Rickey Boynton can't believe what he's gotten himself into. Most of his scenes were later cut because at Jay's own admittance "they don't make any sense."

I remember feeding everyone nothing but Pizza Mia (the poor man’s pizza, as Torey and Ricky would call them) and Big K grape soda for lunch because it was all that I could afford. I switched the menu a couple of times, with the most memorable experience being when Nathan DeRussy, my friend and one of Werebum's lead actors, tried ordering Domino’s pizza only to end up accidently calling a sex chat line. Afterwards he was bombarded with trashy text messages and advertisements, and he had to call his service provider to get his number blocked to stop them.

The end result of a Pizza Mia and Big K diet. Ugh. 

We shot in various areas of Georgia State University, from urine-covered bathrooms to dark alleys and other parts of the campus that we had to sneak into. To keep ourselves entertained we would pull pranks on the set, like drinking a whole bottle of Sprite, filling it back up with salt water and then putting it back into the refrigerator for my co-workers at my job to drink.  

In the end I was overall satisfied with the way the film turned out and I got a chance to make a fun movie with my friends!"

Torey Haas:

"Werebum is a really weird movie. It's been recut multiple times by now, and there's whole scenes and subplots on the cutting room floor. The very first cut of Werebum was something like 40 minutes long (I thankfully never saw it), and the version we screened at the MonsterBuster Film Festival was 20 minutes. We got it down to 16 minutes for the encore screening at GSU, and this current Grindhouse-style cut on YouTube (which I think is the best version) is about 13 minutes long. When I watch it now it's very apparent to me that there was never a complete script during production, and I remember getting really frustrated with Jay while we were shooting because he was incredibly disorganized. 

Still, I look back on the experience very fondly. Werebum was one of two movies (the other was First Date) that really solidified MonsterBuster Entertainment as a team, and Jay has grown leaps and bounds as a director since then; comparing Werebum to his follow-up film Crowscare (both as a movie and as a production experience) is like comparing night and day. I also learned a lot as a cinematographer shooting Werebum; while I don't want to pursue cinematography as a career (I'll leave that up to Nick) I never would have been able to shoot Crowscare, Tilt or Katelyn Brammer's Harmony at the level I did without the experience I earned on Werebum.  I'm excited to return to cinematography later this month for Jay's next project Werehooker, a sort-of sequel to Werebum. Yes, you read that right.

All in all, without Werebum there never would have been Crowscare, Mario and Luigi, The Red Herring trailers or Making the Cut, and we certainly wouldn't be in pre-production on Invasion of the Undead. For this reason at the very least I'm proud of Werebum and it's place in MonsterBuster history. Oh, and looking back that salt water prank was pretty awful; I hope no one really drank that."

Rickey Boynton, Jay Holloway, Torey Haas and Eddie Mattison bond as shooting draws to a close.

Were all of the hardships worth it? Watch Werebum and decide for yourself!

2012: The Year in Review

 2012 was a great year for us-  we launched our website, became an LLC, met some great people and produced many exciting projects. With the Mayans wrong and 2013 arriving tomorrow, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at 2012 and all of the experiences we're grateful for.

Our first shoot of 2012 was Fred Grant's Metroid fan trailer. The trailer is still in post-production- visual effects, especially on unpaid fan projects, take a tremendous amount of time- but it will finally make its long-awaited premiere in the new year. Until then, check out these screenshots from the near-final cut of the trailer:

2012 was probably most defined by our collaborations with The Collective Project, Inc. While we had previously adapted one of their plays into our 2011 short film Mario and Luigi, our trailers for their summer play The Red Herring were our first time working directly with many of the main Collective members, and they were easily some of our most fun shoots of the year.

The Collective also co-produced our John Carpenter and Italian zombie inspired 48 hour film Making the Cut, and without them we never would have been able to pull off the movie at the quality level we did, especially given the tight turnaround. While we didn't win any awards, we're all still tremendously proud of how the movie turned out. You can definitely look forward to seeing more MonsterBuster/Collective collaborations in 2013!

We created three mock commercials and a PSA for the Collective's "7 Months to Live" party back in May, and these were notable because they introduced us to three new MonsterBuster members. Kevin Hicks and Katelyn Brammer, both fellow Georgia State University alum like most of MonsterBuster, directed two of the Apocalypse Apparel commercials and have since gone on to do other projects for us (more on that later) and have become valuable members of the team. Tricia Gaulesky acted in Kevin's Deep Cut V-Neck commercial, and she now works behind-the-scenes as our chief creature creator. You'll be able to see her work in our upcoming feature Invasion of the Undead.

Scene from "Tilt", the pilot episode we co-produced for Horror Hotel.

Horror Hotel started out as our first web series, but it ultimately became its own separate entity. Still, we were honored to shoot the pilot episode "Tilt" back in August and we look forward to watching the series as it continues to grow. The producers have already gathered some exciting filmmaking talent like Supremacy Films to take part in the first season, so be sure to check out the official Horror Hotel website and 'like' their Facebook page for more info on this innovative new web series.

Finally, we shot two new short films in the last quarter of 2012. Katelyn Brammer's Harmony is something new for MonsterBuster- a purely dramatic film with no monsters or fantasy elements.  Okay, okay, so it does feature a mock video game based on Making the Cut and a significant appearance by a Haunt of Fear comic book, but it is nevertheless a huge departure from our previous works and we can't wait for you to see it. Kevin Hicks's Bath Salt Cannibal, on the other hand, is squarely a MonsterBuster film. A comedic tale of what happens when you try to mix your own drugs at home, Bath Salt Cannibal features eyeball eating, puppets, Dylan Schettina, phone sex, and the first appearance by our official mascot The Boogeyman since 2009's Jake and Julie Vs. The Boogeyman! It's going to be awesome, and we can't wait to see what Kevin follows it up with. We also acquired his previous short Friday Night Blood Ritual, and it will premiere along with Bath Salt Cannibal and Harmony on our YouTube channel in early 2013.

Making the Cut: The Video Game as it appears in Harmony

Dylan Schettina!

Speaking of our YouTube channel, we just uploaded our final video of 2012: Jay Holloway's Werebum! This is an entirely different Grindhouse-style cut than the version that premiered at the MonsterBuster Film Festival back in 2011. Jay has promised to write a blog discussing the real-life horrors of making this homage to the films of Frank Hennenlotter later this week.

What will 2013 bring for MonsterBuster? An Invasion of course! We're starting the year off with a bang as our Indiegogo campaign for Invasion of the Undead kicks off tomorrow. To say we're all excited about this is an understatement, and we hope you join us on this adventure... rest assured it will be an adventure!

Prepare for the Invasion!

As always, thank you for reading!

MonsterBuster Invades IndieGoGo

Edit: We've made a few changes to the plans outlined here since launching our campaign, most notably we're now running for 48 days (which changes our release schedule for the webisodes) and we added a new perk in the form of Desmond and Jake's business card.

By Torey Haas

On January 1, 2013 we will officially launch our Indiegogo campaign for Invasion of the Undead, our first feature film (for more info check out my previous blog post here). To say I'm both extremely excited and nervous about the campaign is an understatement;  while we did shoot the Kickstarter video for our friends Pillage & Plunder last March, MonsterBuster has never launched a crowd-funding campaign of its own, and consequently we're giving it all we've got to help make this movie a reality. Here's what we have planned:

• Our main campaign video features interviews with me and our four main cast members (Greg Garrison, Dylan Schettina, Marie Barker and Nathan DeRussy) along with test FX footage of the movie's many creatures and recreations of a few pivotal moments from the story. Hey, MonsterBuster isn't going to do a video that's just talking heads...

• Each week of the campaign we will also release a 3-4 minute webisode that introduces one of Invasion's three central characters (Allison, Jake and Desmond) and provides some backstory to the events of the film. Some characters from past MonsterBuster movies make an appearance as well, so now is definitely the time to catch up on our YouTube Channel (shameless plug I know, but hey, I'm proud of all of our movies).

• We will premiere the official poster for Invasion during the campaign; I don't want to say too much about the design just yet but if you're a fan of '80s movies it's pretty much going to blow your mind.

• Finally, there will be several other shorter videos released sporadically throughout the campaign such as a blooper reel (you don't know how hard it is to do an Indiegogo interview until you actually sit down and try) and interviews with the actors for Invasion's supporting roles as we cast them (we're still very much in the midst of casting and other pre-production tasks).

While I think crowd-funding websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter are great, I personally have mixed feelings about using one because I've never been one to ask for money. However, we definitely need funds to make a project as ambitious as Invasion, and while I'm not expecting (or even planning for) the entire budget to come from Indiegogo, we certainly need some help in this regard. Given my own mixed feelings about asking for money I'm trying to make as many perks as possible tangible items so that you're physically getting something for your money apart from my eternal gratitude; if you're willing to take a risk and donate money to a small independent horror film I want you to make sure you at least get something cool out of it. The following list and price brackets are tentative but they will give you an idea of what you'll receive if you decide to back Invasion:

$1 - Every dollar helps, and for even this small amount you will receive a mention in the 'Special Thanks' section of Invasion's credits. Yes, I realize that this contradicts what I just said about tangible perks but come on, you're getting your name on a feature film for only a dollar!

$25 - In addition to the above reward (all rewards are cumulative) a donation of twenty-five dollars will get you a copy of the film's poster and a signed glossy of the Invasion cast member of your choosing. I'm predicting Marie and Nathan will be the most popular because she's adorable and he's going to look awesome in full make-up and wardrobe; check out the concept art for his character below if you haven't seen it already:

$50 - Fifty dollars gets you a signed special edition DVD/Blu Ray combo pack of Invasion once it's complete. We have a lot in the works for the special edition- we've already begun shooting extensive behind-the-scenes footage for the planned hour-long making of documentary, and there's one bonus feature we're working on that to my knowledge has never been offered on a DVD or Blu Ray before. I won't say any more for fear of putting my foot in my mouth, but if we pull it off it will blow your mind more than the poster, particularly if you're into classic video games (which are a huge inspiration for Invasion, but that's another blog post).

$100 - This is the perk I'm most excited about. In addition to the above rewards a donation of one hundred dollars will get you a unique Invasion of the Undead lobby card to commemorate the individual scene in the movie that your donation helped make possible. Check out our prototype lobby card with images from the FX tests below:

The final design will most likely change, but each lobby card will nevertheless feature four screenshots (one large and three small) from a different scene in the film. I was inspired by NoFilmSchool's Ryan Koo and his Kickstarter campaign for Man-child for this perk- he offered the unique frame sequence that each backer helped fund as the perk for his different reward levels, and I just think that's an awesome idea because it really commemorates the difference each backer makes on a small indie film.  As to why I chose to create a lobby card, it just seemed like a perfect fit for a retro '80s inspired-horror film like Invasion. That and and lobby cards are just plain awesome- seriously, why don't theaters use them anymore?

$500 -  At this reward level you will receive a prop from Invasion, specifically one of the articulated stop-motion "Sons of Z'athax" creature heads designed by Brian Hardison and sculpted by Tricia Gaulesky. If you've seen First Date you know that we created Freaky Dad by compositing a stop motion head onto the body of of an actor, and that's exactly how we plan to create the Sons of Z'athax in Invasion. We're still putting the finishing touches on the first puppet head for the main Indiegogo video, but you can see a photo of the work-in-progress along with the concept art below:

Belle, our first Son of Z'athax, desperately needs some teeth...

On the chance that we get more backers than we have puppet heads (which is certainly possible since we only plan to make 3-4 of these things) I will personally cast and paint an exact reproduction from the same molds used in the movie; if a year from now I'm losing sleep casting multiple creature heads to send to our amazing backers I will quite frankly consider myself very blessed.

$1000 - Our final reward level will get you all of the above plus an executive producer credit on Invasion,  an invitation to our exclusive cast and crew premiere in Atlanta, Georgia, and the option to have your likeness immortalized in a family portrait hanging in Allison's mansion in the film. This portrait will be featured in a close-up shot establishing the mansion near the beginning of the film, and I'll work with you directly to get the images I need to make this happen. 

I tried to approach our rewards from the point of view of a fan- i.e. what are the things I would like to receive if I supported a film- and I hope you agree with me. If you have a cool idea for a perk or any other suggestions feel free to drop me a line at torey@monsterbustentertainment.com- like I said earlier this is our first Indiegogo campaign and I certainly appreciate the advice! If Invasion has captured your interest like I hope it has, please consider following us on Facebook since we will be posting more information and screenshots from our different Indiegogo videos regularly throughout December in anticipation of our campaign launch on January 1st.

As always, thank you for reading!

Invasion of the Undead! Starring Desmond and Jake, Paranormal Exterminators

by Torey Haas

When I was nine years old my parents took me to see Jurassic Park; to say the movie changed my life was a complete understatement. Sure, I loved dinosaurs just as much as the next kid, but there was something else about the movie that completely captured my imagination and I couldn't quite put my finger on. Later that week my mom bought me the Topps Official 'Making of Jurassic Park' magazine at the local Ingles; the magazine contained dozens of detailed pictures of Stan Winston's fabulous animatronic dinosaur creations, and upon seeing these images I realized what it was about Jurassic Park that had me so completely enthralled: the people who made the movie were literally living their imaginations. I saw myself standing next to an animatronic creature on a busy film set, and from that point on I knew I wanted to spend my life making movies.

While I always had an interest in monster and horror movies, fostered in large part by my equally genre-obsessed mom and grandpa (or "Poppy" as he will forever be credited in the 'Special Thanks' credits of my films), my interest skyrocketed to a whole new level after seeing Jurassic Park. Every week I would scour the TV Guide to check when all the horror and sci-fi movies were playing and set the VCR to record them (to this day I still sorely miss TNT's MonsterVision). I grabbed every book I could find on filmmaking (my fourth grade biography book report was on Roger Corman) and I read Fangoria religiously every month. When I was in fifth grade my dad made me a bootleg copy of Army of Darkness and I literally watched it every day when I got home from school- no joke, and I'm pretty sure I still have the entire movie memorized. As I grew older my interest only became more serious, and in 2009 I received my Master's Degree in Film Production from Georgia State University. Since then I've been working in the Georgia film industry as an editor and compositor, and I've been incredibly privileged to have some amazing experiences. I've worked on numerous commercials that have aired nationally on Cartoon Network and The Weather Channel, I regularly work with (and are friends with) the producer and director of a horror film I greatly admire (Dance of the Dead), and last year I edited An Elf's Story, a holiday special seen by millions(!) of people on CBS. I'm still blown away to think that something I played a significant role in creating has been seen by that many people.

So what does all of this have to do with MonsterBuster and this blog post? Well, everything. With the experience I've garnered over the past three years I established MonsterBuster Entertainment with the greatest people I've ever met and now I feel the time is finally right to take a leap, pursue my childhood dream, and make a feature film. If you've been reading this blog, checked out our website, and/or went to the MonsterBuster Film Festival last Fall (where the teaser trailer premiered) then you already know that the first MonsterBuster feature film will be Invasion of the Undead! starring Desmond and Jake, Paranormal Exterminators.

Invasion of the Undead is an eighties-style horror comedy (think Big Trouble in Little China meets The Evil Dead) that follows beautiful recent college grad Allison as she inherits a large mansion from a cousin she never knew she had. Her good fortune quickly turns sour when she discovers the mansion has something of a monster infestation, and she reluctantly enlists the aid of Desmond and Jake, two self-proclaimed 'paranormal exterminators', to take care of the problem. Unfortunately Desmond and Jake, who both work at a local grocery store for their day jobs, are not the most competent bunch and when a terrifying extra-dimensional evil from the mansion's past reveals itself the situation spirals completely out of control. Desmond, Jake and Allison soon find themselves fighting not only for their own lives but for the fate of the entire world as well.

We're currently in pre-production on Invasion and have been since early this past summer. Principal photography is slated to begin in January 2013 (edit: we've pushed back into Spring 2013 in the hopes that my preorder for the Black Magic Cinema Camera will be fulfilled by then) provided we raise the necessary funds (we will launch an Indiegogo campaign for a portion of the film's budget on January 1st, but that's a separate blog entry in of itself). Make no mistake though- even though Invasion is a feature film, it will nevertheless exemplify micro-budget independent filmmaking at its finest just like all of MonsterBuster's previous shorts. I won't reveal the estimated budget here (I'll save that for the Indiegogo campaign), but it's well under the cost of a new car. All of the film's major leads have been cast, and I couldn't be more thrilled with who will be appearing in the movie:

 Greg Garrison/"Desmond"- I first worked with Greg on my short film First Date back in 2009. I remember thinking he was a great actor and that I wanted him to someday audition for Desmond, but it wasn't until I saw him perform on stage in The Collective Project Inc.'s The Theory of Everything in 2010 that I knew he was Desmond. He showed such an incredible range and subtlety (the latter especially surprising considering it was theatre) that I realized he could completely pull off Desmond, a cocky, obnoxiously handsome, retro video game-playing jerk who turns out to be a pretty decent guy and who ultimately becomes a hero by the film's end. The funny thing is that Greg pretty much possesses all of these qualities himself; he's currently replaying the original Final Fantasy on a Nintendo emulator on his laptop, which is as Desmond-like of a behavior as anything I could have scripted. In addition to his work as an actor Greg is also one of the best writers I know; he wrote the Collective's sickeningly clever stage play The Red Herring and has several more plays in the works. I consider his endorsement of the Invasion script to be one of the best compliments I've ever received as a writer.

Dylan Schettina/"Jake"- Desmond's shorter other half and the Egon to his Venkman will be played by Dylan Schettina. I've worked with Dylan on two short films now (Mario and Luigi and Making the Cut) and hopefully I won't offend anyone when I say that he is easily my favorite actor to work with. He is just the most pleasant, energetic, respectful and funny person to have on set and he really makes the long hours go by quickly.

Greg and Dylan as Desmond and Jake for a test shoot

I started casting for Jake after I had already cast Greg, and thus I needed an actor who had chemistry with Greg since Desmond and Jake are longtime best friends. Well, Dylan and Greg are actually best friends in real life who have never once acted together before, and when I paired them up for Dylan's audition their chemistry was palpable; they completely played off each other with some improvised banter and just had an overall compelling dynamic. Plus they look great together; when I first saw them standing side by side in costume for our FX and lighting test shoot I couldn't help but smile.

Marie Barker/"Allison"- Allison was by far the most difficult role to cast because a lot of really great actresses came and read for the part. My gut instinct was definitely Marie however; she had previously appeared in our 48 Hour Film Making the Cut and will soon be seen in "Tilt" (the pilot episode that we co-produced for the upcoming web series Horror Hotel) and heard in Fred Grant's Metroid fan trailer. Invasion is more or less told from Allison's point-of-view and she's the main identification point since the audience follows her on the path of discovery. What drew me to Marie's performance in her audition was how natural her reactions felt, especially in contrast to Desmond and Jake, who as characters are more seasoned and thus almost nonchalant about the supernatural occurrences. In her scenes with Greg and Dylan I really sided with her rendition of Allison, which was critical because being essentially the 'straight woman' of Invasion Allison runs the danger of being overshadowed by Desmond and Jake. Marie also has more than enough spunk to keep up with Greg and Dylan's banter, which is equally important for Allison.

Nathan DeRussy/"Guy Smiley"- Nathan starred in Troll Picnic, one of the first films I made in grad school. I remember I lost several points on my production notebook for the class because Nathan never gave me a headshot; fast forward five years later and he still doesn't have a headshot. Whatever Nathan, I'll just use this badass pic from our FX/Lighting test shoot instead. Anyway, Nathan has become something of MonsterBuster's go-to creature performer due to his enthusiasm, body type, and general willingness to do anything; he's like a low-budget version of Doug Jones. His character is Invasion's primary antagonist, a sword-wielding undead sorcerer who turns his victims into "Sons of Z'athax," monstrous slime-covered creatures. While his character doesn't officially have a name, he has become affectionately referred to as "Guy Smiley" due to his creepy permanent smile and a throwaway crack muttered by Desmond upon their first meeting in their script.

Invasion's antagonist. Artwork © Brian Hardison.

The "Sons of Z'athax". Artwork © Brian Hardison

I've thought a lot about how I want to present Invasion in this blog and I've decided that the best approach is just to be honest. I feel that what we're trying to do with Invasion- i.e. create a super ambitious, effects- and creature-laden feature film on a budget that wouldn't even pay for the catering on a typical straight-to-DVD movie- is interesting enough that I really don't need to sugarcoat it in any way. I plan to update this blog regularly from here onward with more news, both good and bad, as the project develops, and while I could certainly say a lot more about Invasion at the moment I'll instead close with this: I mentioned earlier that I used to watch Army of Darkness every day, and I've always loved movies like Army and Big Trouble in Little China (and lesser known cult films like Waxwork II: Lost in Time and House II: The Second Story) that are filled with memorable characters and creatures and are just fun and infinitely re-watchable. This is my chief goal with Invasion of the Undead: I want to make a movie that you will watch again and again and that some horror-obsessed ten-year-old will watch every day when he or she gets home from school. Your world won't change after seeing Invasion of the Undead but you will sure as hell have a good time. That is my promise, and I hope you stick around to see me make good on it.

Thank you for reading, and Happy Halloween!