ED– The Eerie Digest very happy to share this interview with our readers of Julian Moss, probably the best Line Producers in Hollywood. Julian, please tell us something about yourself.

JM–  Flattery will get you everywhere!  Well, I tell people that I am British, born and inbred.  The one thing I would like people to know about me is that I am a happy person.  I have a great family background and have literally never had a nightmare in my entire life.  I consider myself to be very fortunate to have wonderful parents and a stable fun childhood.  My adult life – well that’s another story!

I live my life by strict ethics and like to think of myself as ‘A man more sinned against that sinning’ (King Lear).  I love mornings. They excite me. They represent fresh beginnings, prospects and opportunities.  I tend to be a ‘Jack of all trades and a master of none’, but my focus now is to master filmmaking as a writer/director.  The producing, line producing, editing, legal work, accounting and set building experience has just gone to make me wiser and more in tune as a filmmaker, I think.

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ED– We are definitely giving a treat to our readers with our interview with filmmaker Joe Taranto. He is one of Hollywood’s rising stars. Joe please tell our readers a little about your work.

JT– I like to focus my work on stories that take the audience to a different world, and allow the audience to sit back experience anything out of the ordinary. Whether it be a commercial or short film,  I always try to implement this element along with a good dose of comedy.  I’m a cinematographer, editor, and Director, “never all at the same time”, but when I’m in any of these positions I’m always looking for that shot, or the edit, or the moment that will create this unique experience for the audience.

My previous work has consisted of commercials and shorts. I just finished my 1st festival circuit with my short film King of the Ring.
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ED– The Eerie Digest is excited to introduce to our readers Brian Dickett, the Special Effects Supervisor for PlasterCITY Digital Post Production. Brian, your work makes films really “happen”. Special effects are what movies are made of today and you are a leader in that field. Please tell our readers about your business and the impact it has on the Movie Industry as a whole.

BD– These days, there isn’t much content being developed without a plan for some sort of digital manipulation in post.  It’s not just the obvious dinosaur running through a scene anymore; it’s set extensions, performance capture, crowd replication, screen replacements, cleanup.  The list goes on and on.  Almost anything you can imagine doing to pixels on a screen has at least been tried somewhere.  It’s an exciting, evolving, and extremely complicated field and it’s in constant flux.  You’re always a student when you work in visual effects, and films have become bigger and more realistic because of it.

ED– Tell us a little bit about the company that you are with, PlasterCITY Digital Post Production.

BD– PlasterCITY has really positioned itself to be the preeminent stop for all forms of digital post-production in Los Angeles.  There are suites for editing, surround sound mixing, advanced 2 and 4k color grading, and visual effects.  I was brought on by Scot Barbour to fill the visual effects side of the equation.  Before PlasterCITY, Scot’s post-production experience landed him a job at Apple as a liaison to the film industry, and he has also worked extensively with stereoscopic imagery.  PlasterCITY has been moving into 3D in a big way.  The main grading theater is equipped with a RealD 3D projection system, and there’s even a 3D editing suite available. (more…)

ED – We are here today with Actor and Producer Holt Boggs (www.holtboggs.com). Holt this is an honor. Our readers love mysteries, thrillers, and stories of ‘things that go bump in the night’. We understand that you starred in The Prodigy and also wrote for the picture and designed the sound. Tell us about the film.

HB – Thanks so much for the great intro by the way. Yeah, The Prodigy is crime drama that plays like a horror movie as one critic put it. The antagonist, known as ‘Rains’, is a sadistic assassin with an almost mythical reputation. In the film, it is said that bullets pass through him, he can walk through walls and no one has ever seen him and lived to tell about it. Blurring the line between hitman and serial killer, Rains believes he’s doing God’s good work. As there can be no good without evil, he sees what he does as a necessity in his eyes.

His time has come to pass the torch so to speak and he searches for someone to continue his ‘work’, he is looking for a prodigy.  He searches the city’s underworld through hidden surveillance cameras placed in known crime hot spots and sees something special in my character.

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ED – The Eerie Digest Magazine is honored to have this interview with British author Tom Cain, whose exciting series of the character Samuel Carver has gained popularity world wide. This action packed thriller is a must read for lovers of thrillers and explosive story lines. Tom tell us something of the Character of Samuel Carver.

TC –

ED – Tell us the title of this thriller and the follow up stories in this series.

TC – The first Carver novel was The Accident Man. That was followed by No Survivors (which is confusingly called The Survivor outside the US: not my decision) and Assassin. I’m currently working on the fourth novel in the series, which has the working title Dictator. They all follow Samuel Carver, a hitman who specializes in creating non-attributable ‘accidents’, a process complicated by the fact that he works for people who are, by definition untrustworthy, ruthless and devoid of conscience … none of which can be said about him. We all are blessed, or cursed with a random selection of talents (or lack of them) which determine what we do. Carver happens to be very, very good at the business of killing. It’s also the only way he knows to make decent money. He tries to tell himself that he is performing a socially useful, morally justifiable task by ridding the world of people whose continued existence would cause far more misery, criminality and bloodshed. But for anyone who isn’t a psychopath, the taking of human life is extremely traumatic. So Carver can only continue in his work by becoming progressively more detached from his emotions, personal relationships and sense of guilt. Right from the start of the series, he’s painfully aware of the price he’s paying and his desperate need for some kind of redemption … And then, by complete chance, he finds Alexandra ‘Alix’ Petrova, the woman who may just be able to provide it … Because as far as I’m concerned these books are love-stories just as much as they are action thrillers …

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ED – We are treating our readers today with this interview of Darren Power, the CEO of Irishadows Productions in the UK. Welcome Darren. This is a big moment to introduce you to both our National and International readers. Tell us something about yourself.

DP – Thanks to you for your interest. It is nice to be able to show what we do and who we are to a more global unity. About me, well, I’ll try and keep it short and sweet. I am born of Irish decent, My Father coming from County Waterford, South East Ireland. And my Mother being born in the UK, in the town I still reside actually and the town in which I have my production company. From a very early age I guess the dream was there to get into the movie industry, but then who doesn’t?

I started composing music for shorts, animation and novels. Slowly moving into the business more and more, via many different avenues and vehicles till the miraculous day came that I decided to branch out on my own and I have to say, I have not looked back since

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ED – We would like to present to our readers Mark W. Capehart of CRC Entertainment of Hollywood, California. Mark it is great to have you with us today. The Eerie Digest’s readers and fans enjoy mysteries and stories of things that ‘go bump in the night’. Tell us something about your organization.

MWC – Thanks for having me. CRC Entertainment started way back in 1978. . CRC was originally founded, by partners TJ Castronovo, and Michael Carazza. It has been making independent production for the last 3, well now 4, decades. We at CRC produce material in all mediums and that includes theater, stage plays, as well as movies and TV.

ED – What are some of the latest projects that you are working on that are in line with our reader’s interests?

MWC – Well right now we are getting set for the release of our thriller Boiler Maker. It’s a thriller exploring both the dark and redeeming sides of human nature. We are also working on some projects that will mark CRC’s entry into the realm of new media.

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ED – We would like to present writer Marlene Buffa to our readers today. She is a most talented author and her ghost stories are the basis for several recent interviews in the past several months.

ED – Marlene, we are extremely excited to have you with us today. Your writing is a favorite with us, and has been the basis for ‘The Ghost Writer’ pilot that has been in our magazine recently. Tell us something about it.

MB – Several years ago I took a few writing classes to brush up on my skills.  My degree in Journalism encompassed more than writing, and I sought to improve my expression through the written word.  My writing teachers both told me to take my manuscript, “Soul Party: New Orleans” to its fullest potential.  In fact, my instructor and mentor said, “Forget the book, go right for the screenplay.  This is a TV show idea!”  He
proceeded to brainstorm with me several ways to expand on my ideas and how a TV show could evolve over time with the premise I put forth.

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The Eerie Digest Magazine will now delve into screenwriting and how to be a great screenwriter. We are interviewing Jim Cirile and his company Coverage Ink. Founded in 2002 by screenwriter/’Creative Screenwriting’ and ‘Script’ magazine columnist Jim Cirile, CI offers discount screenplay analysis and development services for writers, not to mention a panoply of cool contests, tournaments and services. Check them out at www.coverageink.com.

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ED – Jim, tell us about yourself and about your company.

JC –  You bet! I’m from NY and smelling blood, I moved to LA 20 years ago at the beginning of the big spec market boom. Since then I’ve had years when I did quite well as a screenwriter, and years I haven’t made a dime. Most people now know me as agents and managers expert for both ‘Script’ and ‘Creative Screenwriting’ magazines. I’ve written the “Agent’s Hot Sheet” column for ‘CS’ since 2001, and just this year I became the in-house industry expert for ‘Script’ also.

I founded Coverage Ink in 2002 as an alternative to the higher-priced, corporately owned screenplay analysis services. After many years in LA I’d built up a network of professional readers that I used to develop my own screenplays. I then made that same pool of whip-smart guys available to the public at prices far below what the other services charge. Frankly, I was pretty appalled at what some of those other services and analysts were (and still are) charging. Hey, I’m a writer — I know what it’s like to be poor!

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ED – The Eerie Digest Magazine will now take our readers behind the scenes to show you how some of the great movies produce some of their magic. We are talking to Joe DeRobbio and his company Creative Motion. Joe tell us something about your company.

JD – Creative Motion is a Visual Effects company that my Partner Edward Saldana started this year.  Both of us have been in the business for several years with another company that was primarily an editorial house that had a visual department however with that company closing its doors we decided to go directly after the visual effects market.  Creative Motion offers a full service menu including pre-visualization through final delivery including 2D & 3D design, animation and compositing, as well as matte painting and motion graphics.

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ED- The Eerie Digest would like to introduce Film Makers Eric Schumacher and Robert Linden to our readers.

ES/RL– Hi ED thanks for interviewing us.

ED- Eric and Robert, tell us how you two came together and what interests you have in common.

RL– I lost a leading role to my buddy Eric here but fortunately the director and producer felt that I was good enough to stay in the film as fight coordinator.

ES- We laugh about that a lot although I think Rob was peeved at the time. They wanted a Clark Kent type, I fit the bill fairly well, in fact I actually have a phone booth in my house for changing clothes…  Kidding.  This was a short sci fi film called “Darkness” (© Toretti Films) directed by a film school student, Joe Toretti.  There was a 6 hour drive to the Yuma California desert where we originally shot a climactic battle scene (the footage was lost due to high winds and sheets of sand blasting us all day so the scene was later reshot at a different location).  Rob and I sat in the back of a van with the crew and chatted for a solid 6 hours there and 6 hours back and, and became instant brothers. Rob brought up the idea of writing a movie together during that conversation and we started brainstorming. The short version is that that led to the formation of RobEric MEDIA, LLC. We write frighteningly well together and have similar philosophies about filmmaking and the kinds of stories we want to tell.

RL- As to what we have in common, I believe we have a lot in common: our writing styles, favorite movie genres (ES-Except I’m not a big fan of horror movies and Rob likes them RL-I’ve acted in a couple of them) and our background in the martial arts.

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ED- We are welcoming Author Aaron Patterson today to talk to our readers about his new book.

ED- Aaron, tell us the name of your book and what it is all about.

AP- Well, the first one is called “Sweet Dreams” and I just released the second in the series called “Dream On.”

ED- What inspiration gave you the storyline for this novel?

AP- Inspiration is like a tiny person living in the back of my mind. I look at the world and think to myself, “What can I do? I am just one guy living in Boise, Idaho!” I was always a big reader to the point that I even got grounded from reading when I was a kid, and I read over 100 books on summer break in high school! I know, nerd! But I love to read and to venture to a world and into the mind of different authors. This story is based on the world we live in now, from gas wars to terrorist threats and even an unsteady stock market. I wanted to tell a story that people could relate to and set in motion from my imagination what it might be like to be able to change the future and make a difference.

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ED- The Eerie Digest Magazine is excited to be talking to actress Silvana Vienne.

ED- Silvana, thank you for joining us in this month’s issue of Eerie Digest. Tell our readers what inspired you in your career and how you got started in it.

SV- Well, I’d say my grandmother Sylvia is behind my love for the arts.  She loved the theatre and took us to see children’s travelling shows at the Manaus Opera House, from a young age.  Often they had these costumed animal characters.  I thought they were really like that.  Then I discovered they were actors, and it made me want to become one.

Grandma Sylvia also made sure we went to all kinds of classes for art, music and dancing.   I also loved to watch a children’s soap opera, Sitio do Picapau Amarelo (The Farm of the Yellow Woodpecker) and wanted to be part of that world of make-believe, so I auditioned for a school play when I was 9.  My whole family is very musical and dramatic, so I grew up around that energy. My dad can be one of the subtlest-funniest people I’ve come across. My grandmother was basically a folk singer in her personality.

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ED: Eerie Digest is interviewing Eileen Grubba, a talented actress, who we first introduced to our readers in our September issue on “Ghost Writer” TV Series Pilot.

Eileen Grubba: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0344190/

ED: Eileen, you’ve shown us that you have worn many hats on “Ghost Writer”. Tell us about them.

EG: Many hats! In a project like this, the creators wear almost every hat. This was a speculative TV project, so the process was different than usual. We started with no funding, just a commitment to make a project happen that could generate work for us and many of the talented people around us. First we started looking for material and a subject we agreed on. Marlene Buffa brought us the idea of a travel writer who sees ghosts in every location she visits, based on her own life experience. Next we started looking at our resources, and creating story around what we had. We went from development, to story ideas, to creating characters for the actors we wanted, and story around the locations we had. The project morphed and grew as we went. It evolved as each of our players stepped in and collaborated. It was really a phenomenal team effort. Everyone contributed. Part of the many hats I wore was finding resources, and talking top industry professionals into joining our team, like Lou Antonio to be our director’s mentor, and Sebastian Milito (www.militophoto.com) to advise and do still photography. We asked some of my longtime (more…)

ED – Bill we’ve read a number of news clippings of you and Atlantic Film Studios. Tell us about yourself and your company.

BM – I am just one those ordinary guys you hear about everyday.  I have coffee in the morning just like everyone else.  The difference I feel between being just another guy and who I am in business is my business philosophies and strategies, “Thinking Outside of the Box.”  I started PAS Media along with my business partners to be a company for the Independent Filmmakers.  Those guys who have great projects but can’t get them produced or they have the financing but not the knowledge or the resources to get it done.  Atlantic Film Studios was started because i kept hearing from people, I have the projects completed but I can’t get them distributed.  Again, another challenge presented to me and I have stepped up to the plate to do my part i making the Independent Film Community noticed, one project at a time. (more…)

Producer

By Joseph J. O’Donnell

ED: Last month’s issue of Eerie Digest featured Heather Hale Director/Writer/Producer of Ghost Writer. Heather tell us more about yourself and your career.

HH: I wear a lot of hats in the industry (you have to in order to survive).  Of course, my bread and butter has always been writing. Writing screenplays on assignment, ghost writing (ironically) manuscripts and helping private clients articulate their family’s true life stories on the page – then bringing those stories to life on the big or little screen is a huge part of my work. I’m now taking my career to the next level by expanding into directing, with Ghost Writer as the critical vehicle in that launch sequence marathon! You really have to balance your creative right brain (“show”) with your logical left brain (“biz”), so I also write independent film business plans, break down shoot schedules and production budgets and I do A TON of producing. I get hired out to produce everything from films and TV to infomercials, industrials, educational DVDs, streaming media web-based campaigns, in-flight programming to events. To make ends meet in this fluctuating business, I also do a lot of script consulting, project analysis and entertainment industry career consulting – it’s all overlapping and keeps my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in all the different arenas. Perhaps most fun, I  am brought to venues all around the globe to lecture at film festivals, writers workshops, college campuses. Thus, the travel bug pilot! I even parlay the glamour and glitz – and humor of – Hollywood, Wall Street and Madison Avenue to inspire non-profit and corporate retreats! Whatever keeps the lights on, you know!

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By Joseph J. O’Donnell

ED – We are talking with Jon F. Merz about his new venture “The Fixer TV Series”

ED: Jon, congratulations on this new venture. I understand that the show will be based on the Lawson Vampire Series. Can you tell us something about it?

JFM: THE FIXER tells the story of Lawson, a jaded and cynical member of a race of living vampires.  Destined from birth to be part of an elite cadre known as Fixer, Lawson must protect the secret existence of vampires, track down criminals, unravel conspiracies, and hunt a motley assortment of rogues.  Part spy, part commando, Lawson does his work dispensing sarcastic comments and lots of bullets.

ED: Tell us something about the characters, the setting, and how you created the theme.

JFM: When I determined that I wanted to write a vampire novel, I knew I had to do something different than what everyone else was doing.  So the vampires in my universe aren’t undead, but a separately evolving race that has coexisted in secret alongside humanity for tens of thousands of years.  They live and breathe and eat garlic and are fairly indistinguishable from humans.  As a result of the ingestion of the life force energy (what Asian cultures would call Ki or Chi) from those they borrow from, vampires have elongated life spans and better-than-average strength, eyesight, and reflexes. (more…)

By Joseph J. O’Donnell

Heather Hale’s dozen years in the entertainment industry span the reaches of “show” and “biz.” An independent producer, screenwriter and director, she is just wrapping post-production on her directorial debut, the pilot Ghost Writer. Her credits include over 45 hours of award-winning productions, including the $5.5 million 2000 Lifetime Original Movie she sold off of a spec screenplay after attaching Vanessa L. Williams to star opposite Diahann Carroll, Gil Bellows and Stacy Keach. Her work has garnered two Emmys, Tellys, “Best New Series Pilot” – and a list of other industry awards. Heather is an active contributor to the entertainment community, having served as The Director of Event Programming for the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the official script consultant for The American Screenwriters Association and has been a judge for hundreds of TV, film and script competitions worldwide. Heather is an active member of the Television Academy and Showbiz Mensans and is currently a judge for the ABC/Disney Fellowship, The Hartley-Merrill International Screenplay Competition, a trustee for the Sally Picow Foundation and a Mentor Board Member for Kids Making Movies. An in-demand keynote speaker, workshop leader and industry expert, Heather lectures and consults globally on careers in entertainment, her trademark PowerNetworking strategies and business development for traditional and new media. For more information, please visit www.HeatherHale.com.

ED: Heather, you have had quite a career in entertainment industry, especially in the television arena. Your work has received a couple of Emmys, Ace Awards, two Tellys and a “2001 Best New Series Pilot” Gold Award from the Houston World Fest, not to mention the 2000 Lifetime Original Movie that starred Vanessa Williams that you wrote that was also based on a true story. Tell us a little bit about your new adventure.

HH: It’s called Ghost Writer. It’s a speculative pilot about a rookie travel writer and reluctant medium who attracts ghosts at every historical landmark or tourist trap she’s assigned to cover. They haunt her until she sets their records straight.

It’s scary and intense but at the same time its sexy, funny and insightful. Industry professionals who’ve read the script or seen the dailies liken it to Murder She Wrote meets Cold Case but I see it more as Moonlighting with a ghost story.

ED: So this is a pilot? (more…)