Meeting Simon Pegg

Things have been quiet on the BGR front for the past few weeks. We are still waiting to hear back from some festivals, and have to enter more festivals as they open up their submissions. We are also hard at work on our next movie, Red Scare. You can see Red Scare information at www.indiegogo.com/red-scare. We have already raised over $3,000 and have some more to go to our goal. Please spread the word. 

So, tonight, me, Isaac, Loarina, Tony, and Tony's girlfriend went to the Strand Bookstore in NY because Simon Pegg was signing his new book there. As soon as I heard that he was signing in NY, I knew I wanted to go. I have been a huge fan of Simon Pegg's since Shaun of the Dead, and have followed him since. I would be lying if I said that BGR wasn't at least slightly influenced by Shaun of the Dead... Everyone who made BGR LOVES Shaun of the Dead. 

Since we have gotten our BGR DVD's I have sent a few copies of the movie to a few celebrities through  their agents and production companies. But that's a gamble. Who knows if the people working there will pass the DVD's on. So, when I saw an opportunity to put the DVD into Simon Pegg's hands, I jumped at the chance. 

We waited in line for awhile, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Eventually we were able to get the books signed. When I went up, I asked if I could give him a copy of the DVD. I told him how much of an influence he was on us, etc. He said he would give it a watch. He also said that I sort of looked like him on the BGR cover. I tried to explain that it wasn't intentional, but even my cast and crew never believed that one. 

So, yeah, one of my favorite actors/filmmakers has a copy of my movie. That is a pretty big deal for me. 

Some pictures! 

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BFF 2011: our first festival.

I suppose I should preface this blog by telling you that I have never been to a film festival of any kind before, so not only was the Bergenfield Film Festival BGR's first... It was also my own. As first festivals go, it certainly was eventful. 

The night had all the makings of a good one. Dinner with my parents and brother who were seeing the movie again. Then, the festival was going to feature BGR, John Trigonis' CERISE, and Blake Zawadzki and Dan Gregory's The Definitive Point. All in the same theatre! 

The reality was somewhat different. We got there and got our VIP passes for directors and producers (picture below). We waited outside the theatre and first listened to one guest speaker who was involved in a documentary that was being shown that night. What followed him was the creator of one of the other movies at the festival who spoke (at length) and then introduced a singer who did one of the songs for his movie. This was strange to me. Why was the festival focusing so much on one of the films? Then, someone pointed out to me that the program listed only 3 of the many films as nominees for their "best all around film" award. The aforementioned film was one of the three, but none of our group's films were. That's cool. I don't mind not winning. BUT. What is the point of making a fuss of the "all around film" award when before the festival even begins three films are singled out? And no one at the festival is voting that night, so the choice has clearly been made already. That just feels like a slap in the face to every filmmaker not in that group of three. When so much energy and support is pushed towards three films (one in particular), where is the love for the rest of the films? I understand that festivals are political, and there will always be favorites... But show a little class, and don't broadcast the favoritism. It's classless, and just plain unprofessional. 

So, there is disappointment #1. Then we get through the first few films, and get to CERISE. I have seen CERISE, and it's a good film, a fun film. If you have the chance, I recommend getting to see it. But during the movie, it started to skip and stop a bit. I really felt for John during this. I knew he would be pissed. (Not to mention the sound problems in the theatre and the aspect ratio fuck ups... The theatre's problem, not CERISE's.) 

CERISE ended and BGR started. It was going really well. The comedy was playing, and we got tons of laughs. Then we had a little bit of the skipping and stopping that John's film had. Then a little more, and a little more.... Eventually, the film couldn't go on for more than a minute without skipping a little. (The theatre's fault, not BGR's... Also, the sound and aspect ratio sucked for us too.) That happened and was frustrating, but we are pushing through until we get to this dramatic bit where the group is arguing. And boom! Skip! Freeze! And it stayed frozen on this image: 

Yup. I know, its an improvement, but there it stayed for awhile... A long while. A painful while. They stopped and restarted and struggled to get the thing moving, but the damage was done. The movie was not playing right at all, and the last 20 minutes must have taken an hour to get through. People who didn't know us must have been pissed. They were there seeing this movie and whatever reaction they might have had was soured because of this... I don't blame them... But it made us look bad. It made the film look bad. I still got compliments from people I didn't know and people I did about the acting and the story, etc. That felt good, but it did little to get rid of the sour taste the festival left in my mouth. 

And that was our first festival... Hopefully, we have bigger and better in the future. I really hope this isn't it. 

Anyways, I will update as we have updates as usual. Once again, check out www.indiegogo.com/red-scare to donate to our next project. 

Below are more pictures from the BFF taken with my new t2i that will be used on Red Scare. 

Stay Tuned!

Sam 

Actor, Writer, Producer

Blaming George Romero 

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Bergenfield Film Festival

Hey, folks! So, for anyone who asks me "How can I see BGR?" Well, on Thursday, May 5th you will have your chance. We are going to be a part of the Bergenfield Film Festival. It starts at 7pm at the Clearview Cinema 5 located at S. 58 Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, NJ. More details here: http://www.bergenfieldfilmfestival.org/

I'll be there along with some of the cast and crew. I actually haven't seen the movie since the 2/7 screening, so it should be like a whole new movie for me!

Also, screening are some of our friends' movies. John Trigonis' CERISE will be playing along with Dan Gregory & Blake Zawadzki's Definitive Point.

We are still waiting to hear back from the other festivals that we submitted to, and we continue submitting to other festivals all over the country.

In other news, you can check out my next film "Red Scare" which we are raising money for at www.indiegogo.com/red-scare. The pitch video is really great, and I have a good feeling about this hilarious follow up to BGR.

Stay tuned!

Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
Blaming George Romero

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"Red Scare" Auditions

Hello. So, first, some bad news. Got an email from the Festival de Cannes telling me that BGR was not accepted, blah blah blah, so many entries, blah blah blah, they can only select a very small number, yadda yadda yadda. Well, it's not like I wanted to go to an amazing festival in a beautiful part of France and hobnob with people who can advance my (and the rest of the BGR family's) career. Sigh. C'est la vie. We still have plenty more festivals to hear back from, and more that we haven't submitted to yet.

Next. Some better news. In April, we plan to hold auditions for several of the roles in:



If interested in auditioning for this movie, please email headshots and resumes to RedScareMovie@gmail.com.

The following parts need to be cast. Note: all roles must be comfortable wearing basic makeup. All principle roles must have great comic timing.

Principle Roles:

General Carter (Male, 30’s-40’s) The guy in charge. Strong presence, natural leader.

Miles O’Shaunnesey (Male, 20’s) Young, enthusiastic hero worshipper, but smarter than he seems.

Sasha (Female, 20’s-30’s) Gorgeous. Must be capable of an American accent and a Russian accent and everything in between the two. Russian accent doesn’t have to be accurate, can be over the top. Must be able to range from evil, to seductive, to slapstick comedy in the same scene.

Winston (Male, 20’s-30’s) Preppy, arrogant high schooler. Willing to cast older or younger.

Carl (Male teens-20's) African American High Schooler. Incredibly expressive face.

Lou (Male, 30’s and up) Older, but full of energy. Think Ed Asner from Mary Tyler Moore Show or J. Jonah Jameson from the Spiderman movies.

Stevie (teens-20’s) Must come off as young/easily frightened, enthusiastic intern/photographer. Willing to look at both men and women for this role. Must be excellent at slapstick comedy.

President of the United States (30’s and up) Leader of the free world, in a wheelchair. Commands attention. Calm and gentle one minute, ruthless the next.

Nurse (20’s-30’s) Sexy nurse. Not too bright, giggly, Marilyn Monroe type.

Secondary Roles

The biker gang:
Eyepatch (Male, late teens-20’s) Biker gang type, tough, but a follower. Must be comfortable in an eyepatch.
Tooty Fruity Judy (female, late teens-20’s) Female member of the gang. Tough. Character types welcome.
Slim (Male, late teens-20’s) Tough. Can be comically skinny or fat.
Rough Randy (Male, late teens-20’s) Short, lots of energy.

The minions: Russian soldiers. Capable of Russian accents, or cartoon versions of Russian accents.

The preppie gang: a group of both men and women to be Winston’s gang.

Stay tuned!

Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
"Blaming George Romero"

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More festivals and a Quick Update on "Red Scare"

Howdy! Quick answer to a question I have gotten several times the past few weeks: "Have you heard back from any of the festivals?" Answer: No. We only started sending out to the festivals a few weeks ago. They copies need to arrive there, and then they need to be watched, and then judged, etc etc etc. No worries, as soon as we know, we will share that information.

In the meantime, we have submitted to several more festivals: Las Vegas Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Hoboken International Film Festival, San Diego Film Festival, Arizona Underground Film Festival, NJ International Film Festival, American Independent Film Festival, and Bergenfield Film Festival.

We are now on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1842327/

That feels pretty great to see a movie that I wrote almost a year ago have its own page on IMDB. It also feels pretty great to be able to give some people their first ever IMDB Credit. Its not a huge deal really, but I remember how I felt when I got my first IMDB credit... I was really very happy. Its kind of a big deal, because even though it might not mean that you've made it (anyone can really set up an imdb page) to me it means that you're on your way. That's my opionion anyway.

Red Scare is proceeding very well. I have talked to many of our cast & crew, and we are all very excited to work together again on this project. For the time being, I will update you on Red Scare here. Eventually, we'll progress to where Red Scare has its own (slightly different) blog and various web presences. For now, I will tell you that we plan on holding auditions for some of the roles in the middle of April (likely a Wednesday & Thursday around 4pm or 5pm). Look for updates on that and all other things Red Scare & BGR coming soon.

Stay Tuned!

Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
"Blaming George Romero"

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Where are we?

Here is where things stand as of today:

We are hard at work looking at, and submitting to, festivals. We have submitted to three so far, and have more to go. So, far we have submitted to the Comic Con International Film Festival in San Diego, The Festival de Cannes, and the Cannes Independent International Film Festival. Question to anyone reading this: Would you like to see BGR, but aren't in the area? Are there any film festivals in your area that you would recommend?

Beyond that, things are a little more relaxed as far as BGR goes. We raised a good amount of money through the 2/7 Screening, so I thank everyone who participated in that. I also have to thank Frank Theatres for donating their share of the ticket sales to the future of BGR. That was incredibly generous, and we truly appreciate it.

Things are ramping up as far as "Red Scare" goes. Honestly, if you told me that we would have even made a full length trailer out of the small "Red Scare" scene from BGR, I would not believe it. So, imagine my surprise when last night I finished a feature length screenplay for a full "Red Scare" movie. Nothing is definite yet, but it looks like this BGR spinoff might be our next project... and that would make it Part 2 of Narrow Bridge Films/Lion Face Lemon Face Productions' Zombie Trilogy. I feel good about that. We learned so much working on BGR that I think/hope that "Red Scare" could/should be a much smoother shoot. More info on that to come.

Til then.

Stay Tuned!

Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
Blaming George Romero

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"Red Scare" & a few more things

Above should be the trailer that ran before BGR on Monday (if it uploaded okay). The trailer for a movie called "Red Scare..." Except its not a real movie... yet. It could possibly be our next project. We are working that out.

Today, I submitted BGR to our first film festival: The Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. This is it. We are officially getting into the film festival game. Wish us luck!

Finally, if you are on facebook, you can now review the movie by clicking on the review tab. If you are not on FB, but want to share your thoughts, feel free to email us at BlameRomero@gmail.com. We would love to see your thoughts.

Stay Tuned!

Sam
Actor, Writer, Producer
Blaming George Romero

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