|
 Let’s
be honest, guys. Everyone of us loves to sit down on his couch every now
and then and just drink a cold beer and have a good time watching a
trashy low-budget horror film on his old TV set. But what do we do when
watching such a film is no longer enough to still our needs and we wanna
take it to the next leven and just go out and make our own b-movie for a
change?
Well, if you need some help in getting your ambitious micro-budget film
project off the ground, Greg Lamberson’s new step-by-step guide to indy
filmmaking called “Cheap Scares!”, which has just been published by
McFarland, might be a worthwhile investment for you.
Cause one thing’s for sure, this guy knows what he’s talking about and
if you’re a passionate horror nut, you’ll most likely have heard the
name Greg Lamberson before, be it as the writer and director of cult
flicks such as “Slime City” and “Undying Love” (aka “New York Vampire”),
be it as the author of the critically acclaimed horror novels “Personal
Demons” and “Johnny Gruesome” or be it as the editor-in-chief of the
highly recommendable horror webzine FearZone.com.
And though Greg’s definitely qualified to tackle a tough subject such as
low-budget filmmaking all on his own, he’s nevertheless taken a rather
different and truely ingenious approach when he began to write “Cheap
Scares!”.
Cause what he did is structuring the book in such a way that each
chapter covers one of the essential steps of a film production (from
scriptwriting to shooting to post-production to marketing and just about
everything that’s in-between) and while he moves through the 290 pages
of “Cheap Scares!”, he’s accompanied by a total of thirteen other
people, who’re all experts in certain fields of low-budget filmmaking
and who’re more than willing to share their experiences and anecdotes
with the reader.
And throughout their interviews with Greg, they do not only tell you
about the good times of their careers, but rather do they talk about the
dark and cloudy days as well, cause in the end you learn just as much
from someone’s mistakes as you learn from the things he did right.
At the beginning of each chapter, Greg gives a general introduction to
the topic which he often spices up with things he learned on the sets of
his own films as well as when he was working on cult flicks such as
Frank Henenlotter’s “Brain Damage” or John Michaels’ “I Was A Teenage
Zombie”. In a second part he then presents an informative, in-depth
interview with one of his fellow filmmakers.
When he talks about screenwriting, for example, Greg starts with his own
presentation of the subject matter and then moves on to a long chat with
Robert Craig Sabin, who has not only starred as the lead actor in Greg’s
1988 splatter epic “Slime city” but whose award winning film scripts
have also found their way onto the desks of the Disney officials and
other Hollywood producers.
Legal questions, on the other hand, are discussed with Jerry Gold, a
respected entertainment lawyer, whose clients include, among others,
“Basket Case” creator Frank Henenlotter, while hints and tips on how to
sell a low-budget horror film are given by Stephen Biro, who has relased
DVDs by cult flicks such as “Frankenhooker” and “Guinea Pig” on his own
label Unearthed Films. And when it comes to raising a budget and
fulfilling all the other duties of a producer, Greg passes over to his
former filmschool teacher Roy Frumkes, whose credits as a producer
include timeless horror classics such as “Street Trash” and “Document Of
The Dead”.
Every single one of Greg’s guests has a different story to tell and
different words of advice to give, but what they all have in common is
the fact that every single interview in “Cheap Scares!” is not only
highly entertaining but also packed with tons of useful information and
precious tips and hints for first-time filmmakers and routineers alike.
No matter whether you read the interviews with genre veterans such as
J.R. Bookwalter (“The Dead Next Door”) and Brett Piper (“A Nymphoid
Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell”) or upstart directors such as Devi Snively
(“Teenage Bikini Vampire”) and Justin Channell (“Die And Let Live”),
they all have more than just a few helpful words of advice to give to
everyone who’s ever dreamed of picking up a camera and shooting his own
movie.
And even those who’ve already been working in filmbiz for years will
most likely still enjoy “Cheap Scares!” a lot and even learn a thing or
two from reading this book.
Without making false promises and telling fairy tales, Greg Lamberson
still succeeds in making this book not only a highly entertaining read
but also a very inspiring and uplifting one. While you leave page after
page of “Cheap Scares!” behind, you really feel how the urge inside you
grows and you really wanna start with the preparations for your own
b-movie cult flick rather today than tomorrow.
So what are you waiting for?
Read “Cheap Scares!”, put
a tape into your camera, sit down in the director’s chair and scream
”Action!“ from the very top of your lungs!! |
