TLC Media Services Movie blog: April 2008

In order to clean out for the summer, the TLC is giving away all of our old movie posters. None of these will be framed, plus they may have minor damage but they are perfect for hanging in your dorm, room, ear, whatever gets ya going.

This is first come, first serve. And there will be no exceptions made. To get the poster you want:

1- You must leave a comment and reserve the poster you want (please use your name). To be fair, the poster will go to the first person to reserve it, so you may want to write in an alternate choice.

2 -You can pick up your poster during the week of exams; Monday, May 12 - Friday, May 16.

Here is the list of posters available for the taking:

Saw IV
Joshua
Dan in Real Life
Sunshine
Hitman
Slueth
No Reservations
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
AVP: Requim (Alien v/s Predator)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox
Atonement
There Will Be Blood
Love in the Time of Cholera
In the Valley of Elah
Into the Wild (miniposter)
Dragon Wars

Make sure you leave a comment and keep reading the MovieBlog over the summer for more film reviews and interesting movie-related articles.

Have a great break!!!

Saturday March 29^th, the undead descended on the unsuspecting Clarion Hotel in Greensboro. Although some came looking for fresh brains and warm human flesh,the majority were in attendance for the first Zombie-related convention to be held in Central North Carolina (as far as I know). Organized by Mark Bowers, the convention, according to Bower's blog, had over 500 people take part in the day’s unusual festivities.

Event organizer Mark Bowers.

I (Phoenix Mangus from Hey Ya’ll! Productions) had been invited to set up a table due to a little zombie-comedy film we have been spending a little under a year making called “Southern Undead: Attack of the Redneck Zombies.” We were there to promote the film as well as show approximately 10 minutes worth of footage, culled together from 10 tapes in less than a week. Our production company had only just begun editing our film but we still showed a little exposition and lots of machete-oriented zombie killing, including a little bit of gore and lots of zombies. At our table were many of the people who were producers and stars of the film, we had extras who played zombies in the mass downtown attack on Mebane, or were “featured zombies” come out and support us. It was great to see friends and meet new people who were interested in hearing about our silly project and the issues that arise in independent, community filmmaking.

Hey Ya'll! and Badger (second from left)

.Not too long after we had set up, Badger from Rotting Flesh Radio came up to introduce himself and get an interview, since we mostly concentrate on comedy and satire the interview ended up being quite fun. We talked about our battle with the Mebane City Counci l and a small band of local business owners who were against us shooting our film in the downtown area and how their attitude got us lots of press and finally, the go ahead to shoot what we wanted. Afterwards, Badger continued making the rounds, interviewing production company MadOne Films, Artist Thomas Boatwright, organizer Mark Bowers and many others. Rotting Flesh Radio is a horror industry show that is podc ast multiple times weekly. Check it out and be virtually transported to the ZombieCon!

The convention space was full of all type of interesting vendors, lots of comic books, graphic novels, movie memorabilia, and t-shirts -- almost all with a zombie theme. UNCG’s own “Parts Unknown” (on Spring Garden, toward downtown G-boro) was also in attendance with comic book artist and Eisner Award Nominee John Hitchcock. There were even beautiful ladies making the rounds (like Vera VanMunster), shopping and enjoying the sights – mutilating the rumor than only nerds go to conventions (if they were nerds, they were HAWT nerds. Wowza!). Such is the power of the zombie genre, and those who are fans seem to intrinsically possess a tongue-in-cheek humor about life and death.

Another artist in attendance was Thomas Boatwright, the very talented, up and coming artist and creator of Cemetery Blues. The third issue has just been released from Image Comics. His style is fun, with lots of movement and humor, his art reminds me, to a degree, of Bill Watterson. Boatwright does his rough sketches on paper, scans them into Photoshop and finishes them digitally, placing in backgrounds and computer effects. Art fans should come to the next ZombieCon and meet him, I bought both released issues of Cemetery Blues, as well as two original pages, all happy signed by Boatwright. They are now framed and ready to be hung on my wall at home, that’s how sure I am he is going places.

Full shot and detail of one of the pages Boatwright sold me.

The Mad Ones

Finally, MadOne Films had a table right beside us where they displayed special gore effects and sold

copies of their film “The Devil’s Tramping Ground”. Throughout the day Hey Ya’ll and MadOne took turns showing clips, MadOne came with quite a number of zombie videos, they showed a trailer for “Tramping Ground” and the crowd pleasing Zombie PSA’s -- a collection of information videos with a zombie bent. My favorite was the story of a chain smoking zombie killer that gets a strange reaction from the humans around him. All the MadOnes were there, from Jaysen to J. Evan (who also was the convention’s Eemcee) to their talented special effects man. We both enjoyed cornering passers-by and haranguing them with anecdo

tal war stories of our most amazing community-made horror films.

Other activities during the ZombieCon included door prizes (many cool thigs were given away, autographed photos, movies, hardback graphic novels, t-shirts, etc.), a Costume Contest and a Scream Queen Competition. The winner of the costume contest got one hundred dollars in cool, tasty cash and the winner of the Scream Queen contest gets a bit part in an upcoming zombie movie. Yours truely shared judging duty on both contest, with Zombie Mark Bowers, Max Diablo, and Vera VanMunster

Scream Queen Contest, the winner top center, with her crown, top right corner.

Costume Contest, judges at top left, with the winner -- eating her reward, center.

(Above) Some of the weirdos in attendance at the Greensboro ZombieCon

I didn’t know what to expect at the ZombieCon, but I really enjoyed it, and I suggest it as a fun outing for anyone interested in zombie horror and community filmmaking. Look for the next one at Chapel Hill in October, and Mark Bowers has announced that he will return for another convention in Greensboro next year. Mad Ones Films and Hey Ya'll will be at the October ZombieCon showing our films at the Zombie Film Fest Mark is planning for the convention. Hope to see you there!