Xander Benzer, Scott Kos, Peter Haverson, Jason Lippencott, Nick Benzer, and Shannon Griffith on the set of "Laptops' Revenge"

If you can come a bit earlier our friend Kane Black will be premiering his short “Fashion Assassin” at 11:08am.

Be sure to drop by Zach Reddy’s Paleocomics and Emma Lysyk’s Em2a Cartoon booth (759)  They are both very talented and in addition to selling their own work they will have a small supply of DreamStalker Films Vol. I DVDs.

DreamStalker Films Shorts Volume I

While in the exhibitor area be sure to check out Anti-Hero Brand Press (booth 681).  Artist John Chihak and Agnew will be there selling his work.  We had the pleasure of sitting in the booth next to this talented guy at last year’s con, so if you see him tell him we sent you.

Other than that we are running full force towards finishing Principle Photography on Slayer Wars 3.  We should be wrapping in September.

In the meantime, watch for completion of the long awaited Amoric video “Who Are You?”  Hopefully that will be soon now that we have a final cut of the song.

After that I’ll finish up “Fair Seasons” so it can be posted here.

The last half of the year will be occupied with shooting our untitled Steam Punk film and hopefully starting a limited webseries version of “Reunion”.

Hope to see you all at the Comicon on Saturday!

How the Production Assistant tells the Director to shut up.

In January we completed a very long day of filming on Slayer Wars 3.  Special thanks to Chrissy for all her hard work in her return as “Darth Empiric” despite being very pregnant (she delivered a healthy baby girl less than two weeks after the shoot) and to Shannon for sticking through it most of the day despite being sick.

Chrissy Palmer as Darth Empiric

I have just completed the final cut of the “Voice” version of “Laptops’ Revenge”.  There were a few shots that just incredibly slowed the pacing (and this version was already a lot longer than my Director’s Cut) and I wanted that fixed before submitting it to any festivals.  I am burning copies of that to go out for submission to Filmstock and the Phoenix Comicon Film Festival next week.

A couple of weeks ago we met with Ryan Lunt and offered him the job of Propmaster for our upcoming Steampunk project later this year. Ryan has already created some amazing and original things and we look forward to working with him on this project as well as possibly creating more original DSF props in future films.

Last weekend we took on the A3F 48 Hour challenge again, as I mentioned earlier.  This time we spent more time in pre-production for “Fair Seasons” than we have in the past.  This was primarily due to needing to get costumes together and props (not to mention preparing the cameras and equipment for shooting in the rain).

Ryan Lunt creating wings for "Fair Seasons"

It was a cold and wet shoot but we all got through it.  Thanks to the actors and crew for sticking it out.  Unfortunately, due to the lateness of when we started (and me leaving the ND filter active on one camera) we had some rather dark shots toward the end.  Despite this, we finished filming and had all the footage captured by 8:00pm.

Before going to bed at 4am, I completed the rough cut and began compositing.

The Four Seasons in the rain.

Beginning again at 8am Sunday morning, I was off to finish visual effects while Derek Lookingbill ran Unit 2, re-recording all the dialogue for the film (as our original audio was plagued with planes, traffic, and annoying kids).

While Scott Kos composed music for the film (blind as he had no internet that day) and Shannon Griffith and Alanta Noel drove to pick it up, I finished compositing and editing as much of the new looped audio as possible.

At the time I had to stop in order to get it rendered and burned to a dvd in time to make the deadline I was less than halfway through adding the looped audio (and what was done was far from perfect), had not done a final mix, no sound effects were added, and the soundtrack was very haphazardly added.

Spring Vs. Winter

So, needless to say, we don’t consider the film finished and will not post it here until it is completed.  The film did not make the top 20 for the competition, as expected and did not premiere at their event.  I’ll post it as is here after it is finished.  Expect it in a few weeks (minimum), because I need a little break and I am currently brainstorming ideas on the Steampunk project while working on a draft for “Reunion”.

Shannon Griffith, Joe Benzer, Alanta Noel, and Derek Lookingbill at the DreamStalker Films booth.

First of all, I have to say a HUGE Thanks to everyone for their support of our fledgling company this last weekend at the Phoenix Comicon!  Especially to Shannon and Alanta for coming out and working the booth with us (and alone when Derek and I were at the screening or getting our geek on with Stan Lee) for the entire Con.  Thanks also need to be said to Jason, Dori, and Everett for hanging out on the last day and making it so all the tons of stuff we had left we could get back to the truck in one trip.

So here’s the rundown… Friday was our first day at the table.  The day was a bit slow as far as selling product, but we made some film connections and spread the word about DreamStalker Films.  Shortly after we had opened the DSF Booth, our short film, “The Family That Decays Together…” premiered at the Film Festival during the local films block.  Derek and I were there to hear the audience reaction.  We heard laughs and “ahhh”s in all the right places, so seems to have gone over well.

Saturday was a much busier day at the whole Con, and our booth was no exception.  We sold more DreamStalker Films Shorts Vol. I DVDs this day than any other at the Con.  Thanks to Matt showing up we were also finally able to sell our first Car Decal.

Sunday, was pretty busy still at the Con, most likely due to Stan “The Man” Lee being on hand for autographs and pictures that day.  We sold some more DVDs, despite not being able to offer any more free Slayer Wars DVDs along with them as our supply had run out.  Also, thanks to some supportive family members and Jason coming down we were able to sell some more decals as well as several T-Shirts.  Additionally, we had some added products this day thanks to Dori Perry: DSF Dice Bags!  We were able to sell one of these nifty products, too!

Dori with one of the DSF Dice Bags she created.

On Sunday, Derek and I had the honor of getting our picture taken with Stan Lee.  Check out us sporting our DSF shirts with “The Man” and a copy of our DVD we gave him.

Overall, we sold 35 DreamStalker Films Shorts Vol I DVDs, 3 T-Shirts, 4 Decals, and 1 Dice Bag.  Not too shabby for a pretty much unknown independent film company.  More importantly, we spread the word and made a bunch of new contacts for potential fans, filmmakers, and actors.

For everyone that were not able to make it out to the Con or didn’t have any money at the time, there are plenty of DreamStalker Films products left.  Looking to the future, we will have these items available by PayPal on this site, but for now, if you’re interested in a DVD, T-Shirt, Decal, or Dice Bag, contact us at dreamstalkerfilms@gmail.com.  If you’re a veteran DreamStalker Films cast/crew member, ask about our discount especially for you!

Stay tuned for the next post with an update on Slayer Wars 3.

I will wrap this post (finally, a week after the PCC) with this picture:

‘Nuff Said!