Austin Screening, soundtrack and semi-endorsements

The good folks at the Austin Film Festival sponsored a Stomp! Shout! Scream! screening at the Alamo Draft House as part of their Best of the Fest series. Thanks to them for the great promotion in getting the film seen.





On hand was Mike from Chicken Ranch Records, who has put out the soundtrack. Along with all the songs from the film, there’s 3 additional tracks. The legendary Fleshtones contributed super rare, original surf tune that kicks ass. Tiger Tiger added “Black Daggers” which just had its video release recently. It also kicks much ass. The Clutters added an amazing, big, crunchy guitar-laden “Tainted Love”, originally recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones, then covered in 1981 by Soft Cell. Wholly cow, it’ll rock your head off. Also on there is the full vocal version of The Woggles’ “One Four Three” which is heard as an instrumental during Theodora and Hector’s love montage. “Renegade Grinder” is a gear-head, buzz-saw-guitar, surf track from Johnny Knox & HI-TEST that’s only in the film for a quick snippet and has to be heard in it’s entirety. Tracks from The Evidents, The Vendettas, The Penetrators and, of course, all the Catfight! songs are there in their full glory. Go get a copy from Chicken Ranch, you won’t regret it.

Pictures from Dragon*Con 2006. Not necessarily endorsements:

Introspection & on-line reviews

The latest analogy for film making that’s come into my brain is this:  Film making is like cliff diving.

In cliff diving, you hurl yourself off the top of a mountain, hoping you don’t hit anything on the way down and successfully dive into the water.  With film making, you hurl yourself off an emotional mountain hoping you are successful (artistically, monetarily).  But with each step of production you land, splat, on another cliff.  Then you have to pick yourself back up and hurl yourself off a cliff, into the abyss again.  Always hoping you find success.  That’s how I felt showing the script to friends for the first time… casting actors and hearing my words spoken aloud… raising money… launching into production… directing a cast and crew for the first time… submitting to film festivals… screening the film for strangers, hoping it plays to them like it does to me… and, most recently, starting DVD self-distribution.  A project like this takes a great deal of commitment.  It’s been 3 and 1/2 years since I started writing the script and I feel like I’m-- maybe-- at the half way point.  I’ve always heard that finishing a film is only half the job. Marketing and selling it being a whopping other 50%.  Now I really know what that means.

On that self-distribution trail are more film festivals.  July is a pretty dry month festival-wise, but August and September are shaping up nicely with screenings in Atlanta, Rome (GA) and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  More on those soon.
 
On-line reviews are starting to come in. The John Waters comparison might be the best thing anyone as ever said about one of my films.

“Stomp! Shout! Scream! is a unique B monster movie romp that’s a lot of fun… Edwards never seeks to spoof, but tell an actual story, with great performances, and a wonderful soundtrack. I really enjoyed this in all its demented straight-faced glory. John Waters would be proud.”
Cinema-Crazed.com

“STOMP! SHOUT! SCREAM!(2006) is a delightful homage to/entry in the beach party/monster subgenre of Sixties drive-in fare, packed with rock & roll, bouffant hairdos, bikinis, and cheesy monsters…”
DVDLateShow.com

“Stomp! Shout! Scream! is a groovy movie... Fans of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies like Beach Blanket Bingo(1965) will dig it, as will fans of the Herschell Gordon Lewis film Blast-Off Girls(1967) or the “man in gorilla suit” movies like The Beast That Killed Women(1966).”
Pollystaffle.com

"It’s a tightrope walk to pay tribute to three separate genres of ‘60s movies – the beach party flick (think Frankie and Annette), the rock and roll movie (believe it or not, even Herman’s Hermits had their own movie in 1966), and the old-fashioned monster movie – without drifting into parody. Somehow, however, “Stomp! Shout! Scream!” pulls it off just about perfectly."
bullz-eye.com

FILMSTOCK, DeadCENTER, Portland Underground

The biggest week in the festival life of Stomp! Shout! Scream! just ended. Three screenings on 2 continents, and 2 premieres-- all in 7 days.

I can’t personally report how the European premiere at FILMSTOCK in Luton, Bedfordshire, UK went. To be totally honest, I didn’t realize my passport had expired until I was at the airport, ready to fly out. There was nothing I could do, except send out apologetic emails and save that credit for some future overseas screening. A couple of emails filtered in from folks who saw the movie there and found this website or Stomp! Shout! Scream!’s myspace page. They said the crowd response was good and there was a big round of applause at the end.

Stomp! Shout! Scream! was selected to be the opening night film at the DeadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City, OK. There was a pre-screening party at a beautiful art gallery, complete with girl-centric rock band-- The Oh! Johnny Girls, who rocked some Shangri-la’s covers—- and a formally-attired Skunk Ape.

Over 230 people came out to see the film on a beautiful night in the OK City park. Just as the film was set to start, the city’s sprinklers came on, on the other side of the park and systematically started moving closer to the screening and the movie goers. A cagey festival volunteer grabbed several small trash cans and had them at the ready to cover the sprinkler heads. A few folks did get wet, but it was a screening few will ever forget.



Stomp! Shout! Scream! ‘s west coast premiere was at the Portland Underground Film Festival, held at the Clinton Street Theater. Showing movie since 1914, it is the oldest continuously-operated theater in the country. A small but very appreciative crowd view the film and all stayed for one of the best Q & A sessions yet.
Thanks to everyone at these festivals for giving Stomp! Shout! Scream! such amazing exposure.

DVD Release party at ABC

The DVD Release Party, held may 26 at the Atlanta Brewing Company, was a great success. Over 275 folks showed up to drink beer, watch the film, drool over the Dames Aflame, and rock out to Catfight!’s final performance. The pictures tell the story. Here’s a bunch of ‘em.



Thanks to Ashley Zeltzer for painting up her car.




Ned Hastings enjoying his performance as the Skunk Ape.