The Whisperer in Darkness Trailer

I know. I know. It's been forever since I've posted anything. I was waiting for something truly amazing to post about and, BEHOLD, it's here!

Here is the trailer for The Whisperer in Darkness. That's right, my friends, this is what I did with my fall vacation from school. Check it out and see if you're as excited as I am!

When I embed the video in here directly, the right side gets cut off, but use this link.

The Whisperer in Darkness - Day Two

I'm sorry I'm not doing these more often, but time to yourself is a rare commodity on this shoot. At the moment I'm covered in paint from painting a set that should have been completed while we were in New England. Silly of me, really, to think that I wouldn't end up painting a set for this. We've re-arranged our shooting a bit and we're back on schedule. Now I'm off for a much-needed bath.

Day 2 (September 22, 2009) – First Day of Shooting!


5:00am: Wow, another early morning. And it feels like it’s two hours earlier. Granted, to my compatriots it feels like it’s three hours earlier.


7:00: In Jamaica state park to film a dead sheep in a river. It’s a party now!


7:20: Met Paul, our farmer. He’s a cool dude and a tech writer and he has to get super wet in an ice cold river in Vermont.


8:06: Found myself lying amidst cold, hard rocks, desperate not to be seen by the camera while making fog to make the river look “eerie.”


8:35: First shot is in the can! WOO!


8:42: The dead sheep looks gross and yet cool!


9:00: Sean says I’m having too much fun. Hee!


4:30: On the busiest road in Vermont trying to film in some fields, but people keep driving past. One woman in a Prius tried to run us over 6 separate times.


6:00: The lovely Andrea Ogden (whose house we’re filming in front of) brought us cold local beer to refresh us. These Vermonters are so sweet and friendly.


6:06: I don’t have to look at the monitor to know how a shot is looking. I just watch Sean and Andrew’s faces. Their smiles speak volumes.


8:00: Back to base camp from Landgrove. Sigh.


8:20: Loony chef brought me a flower (!) (and all the girls), but gets mad when I try to take the red one.


8:30: Finished dinner, but we have more simple shots to do. It does mean we have a later start tomorrow.


9:45: Let Amanda run the fog machine cause she feels like the kid in preschool who’s getting punished for eating paste.


9:47: Must keep moving or will fall asleep.


9:49: Chris Lackey says he’ll end this shoot “ripped or dead.” We figure it’s a new line of workout tapes. Chris keeps being the dude to hold up the rain rig (since it’s not actually raining in New England), which is a steel pipe filled with water with a sprinkler at one end and a hose attached to the other.


10:53: A stinger sounds like it should be a fish or something, but it’s really a big-ass extension cord.

Whisperer at Mount Holyoke

I could wait to post this until I post my timeline from the day, but it's too cool to wait. That script at the beginning? Yup, that's mine.

The Whisperer in Darkness - Day One

Wow! So sorry it'a taken me so long to post. There was a really irritating lack of internet access in New Hampshire. I'm back now. Back in L.A., that is. Here's what happened last Monday. I have a few of these saved up and more to write. The joy of making movies.

Pictures soon to follow!

Day 1 – Monday, September 21st
4:30am: Dude, it’s early!

4:32: Nudged Daddy awake, cause he didn’t hear the alarm go off.

4:33: Wondered if he really was awake.

5:00: Left home. Buy kitties, buy Mummy!

5:20: Wondered how many times my father was going to bitch about red lights before he finally let it go.

5:55: Smooched the Daddy goodbye at the airport curb.

6:00: Marveled at the SHORT line for American Airlines!

6:02: My suitcase weighs 33 lbs. Trivia is fun!

6:05: Saw the line for security and figured it made up for the short check-in line.

6:06: A little girl in the security line has a backpack bigger than she is. Blonde and cute.

6:11: Told the security dude his name tag was on upside down. He said he’d been there for half and hour and I was the first one to notice. I’ve got your back, Ross.

6:18: Mmmm… Starbucks.

6:25: At the gate, checked my e-mail, blah, blah.

6:40: On the plane. Glowered at the people in first class, just for effect.

6:42: Had the weird recollection that de-icer smells like maple syrup.

6:48: Done “reading” Skymall and the in-flight magazine. Good article on Ricky Gervais.

7:20: Finally in the air. We taxied so far, I thought we were driving to Chicago.

7:25: Realized that these stupid little tables on the plane are not QUITE big enough for my laptop.

7:35: I dislike turbulence.

7:45: We have to detour for thunderstorms across the midwest. This is bad, since my layover in Chicago is only 30 minutes anyway.

9:13: Was strangely fascinated by some awesome clouds.

10:32: Prodded two people awake so I could go “un-hydrate.”

10:40: Finished crossword in in-flight magazine.

10:45: (Chicago time) Heard Josh saying, “Don’t tell me what to do it sickens me,” when they told us for the fourth time to keep our seatbelts buckled while we were in our seats.

11:15” Plane should be landed at O’Hare and we’re still in the air!

11:30: Wondered if the plane always makes that noise when it lands. Hmm…

11:31: On the ground!

11:35: At the gate! Out of my way, people!

11:45: Off the plane and sprinting for the other end of O’Hare to make a flight that leaves in 5 minutes.

11:50: Gasping and wheezing, but just in time.

11:51: A line to get on the plane?! I could have stopped to pee!!

12:08: Mention of “life rafts stored in the overhead compartments” sounds like “live rats stored in the overhead compartments.”

12:09: Can’t stop coughing. This is why I don’t jog to keep in shape.

12:16: And we’re off again!

2:22: (Boston time) Losing two hours should make the day feel shorter, but it doesn’t.

3:10: On the ground! Huzzah!

3:20: Called the Mothershipto inform of safe landing. She reminded me to stand up straight.

3:30: Please God, let my suitcase be here too!

3:35: My suitcase! Double HUZZAH!!

3:43: I hate crying children.

4:12: I also hate “Unchained Melody!” Ugh!

4:20: Someone I recognize. Yay, they’re here!

4:22: Thoroughly kissed by Barry Lynch, Matt Foyer, Andrew Leman, Laura Brody, and Sean Branney.

4:45: In a BIG van trying to follow a conversation about where it’s best to be during a zombie attack. Apparently the prison in Concord, Mass. or the Warner Bros. movie studio are the best. According to Chris Lackey, anyway.

5:00: The leaf peeping isn’t quite as developed as I was hoping for, but what are you going to do?

7:45: New Hampshire is bringing out the West Wing geek in me. Home of Jed Bartlet! AH HA HA!!

8:00: During a long drive to our Home Base in New Hampshire I was told in so uncertain terms that I was NOT going back to Utah by about 7 different people.

8:30: Lunatic chef man is making me crazy and I’ve only known him for 30 seconds.

12:20: Partied hardy with my favorite people. Ate, drank, laughed. I’ve really missed these guys. Wouldn’t have partied quite so hard if I’d known our call for tomorrow morning (this morning) was going to be so freakin’ early. Sigh.

Sorority Girls and Free Tequila

Reading the title of this post, you'd think that I'd gone 'round the bend and joined a sorority. Fear not, faithful readers, I've not been brainwashed into all-night keggers and wet t-shirt contests! Rather, I've been brainwashed by crazed movie-makers.

About a week ago I received an e-mail from my friend Sean (producer/director/actor extraordinaire). Sean wanted to know if by some miracle I had dropped out of school and wanted to take a month helping him and his minions shoot a movie in New England. My e-mail of reluctant decline followed shortly. Over the next few days our e-mails got more and more... sassy. His last was very adamant in his concern for "what I wasn't telling him." Because, it used to be that if I was faced with the prospects of a drowned sheep prop in the middle of a freezing Vermont river, I would have "jumped up and down like a sorority girl on Free Tequila Night."

I have to admit that he had a point.

Well, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't stop thinking about it! I mentioned it to my parents, they voiced their concerns, we came up with solutions we're all comfortable with, and I e-mailed Sean back and was able to astonish him by agreeing to his mad scheme (no small feat, I assure you).

So, it's true. Mid-September I will depart for New England, spend a week there, and then head for L.A. where we'll film the rest of The Whisperer in Darkness. Remember two years ago when I helped them film the trailer? No? Maybe this will jog your memory...



You can also check out the blog for the production here.

I'll be acting as Script Supervisor. You know, making sure the actors don't screw up their lines, that we film everything that needs to be filmed, etc.

I'm ridiculously excited! One might even say that I'm as excited as a sorority girl on Free Tequila Night.

Tell Me a Bedtime Story, Mr. Lovecraft

I didn't fall asleep until midnight the other night, despite the fact that I went to bed at the ridiculously early hour of 8:45pm. So, what did I do for those hours? Stared at the ceiling. Tried to get the cat to actually share the foot of the bed with me. He got pissed off and left. Listened to my sacred iPod. And finally fell asleep listening to The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's old-time radio drama "The Dunwich Horror."

Isn't that about a slimy monster who tries to take over the world, starting with the town of Dunwich? Why, yes. Is that weird?

Picture of said greedy cat to follow...

"The Whisperer in Darkness" Teaser!

Now, you can see the teaser that I helped film a few weeks ago for the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society! Check it out!



You can read my post about filming it here!

Notice how nice the rain falls? And how well the globe turns? And the lightning? The lightning is perfection!

Byakhee and Mi-Goh and Shoggoths, Oh My!

This past Saturday was meant to be a day of laundry and cleaning. As my one real day off during the week, I had it all set to take care of all the little things that had been piling up since the previous Saturday. Did that happen? No. Why not, you ask? Because my boys needed help.

My dear friends Sean and Andrew are the founders of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. H.P. Who? H.P. Lovecraft was a novelist during the 1920's. He wrote horror stories with strange mythical beasts, most of whom are trying to enslave humankind forever.

A few years ago, they made an award-winning movie called The Call of Cthulhu. Cthulhu being a creature that's half octopus, half ape. And there are wings in there too, just for good measure. Well, the boys have started filming the teaser for their next venture, a film based on the short story "The Whisperer in Darkness." Good title, right? They're trying to have it ready for the H.P. Lovecraft film festival which is held in Portland every October.

So, I spent the day "gripping," which is a fancy term for doing whatever needs to be done. I taped tin foil over the windows to black out the light, I went to get lunch from El Pollo Loco, I turned n the "rain" on and off, flickered lights to emulate lightning, and mopped up the "rain" when it leaked all over the floor. I meant to be there for a few hours, but finally went home at 11:30pm, after a 14 hour day. Only for these guys would I sacrifice my Saturday.

And boy were they glad to see me. They really needed an extra set of hands.

So, keep an eye out for their new trailer and hoardes of malevolent Byakhee. I have to go do my laundry.