Stock up on fake blood everyone...
Heavy Hitting Films has issued the call for submissions to their third annual B-grade Horror Movie Festival, to be held just before Halloween 2004 at MY (Millennium) Place here in Whistler.
Based on last year’s response organizers are expecting great things.
"Last year was amazing," said Feet Banks, co-owner of Heavy Hitting, local producers of the infamous underground ski movie Parental Advisory, Volume 1 .
"We had twice as many submissions as the year before, a much better venue and the overall quality of the films was way up.
"Whistler is chock-full of filmmaking talent and I really want to see the ante upped even more this year. I want to see things stepped up even further," Banks added.
B-grade horror movies originated in the late 1950s through the 1960’s when independent filmmakers pumped out double bills of cheaply made films riddled with over-the-top mayhem and horror. The films were usually made very cheaply and featured stunning poster art and creative titles such as Devil Girl From Mars (1954) or Door to Door Maniac (1961).
"What we’re hoping for once more," Banks emphasized, "is budget B-grade horror movies, not Hollywood Academy Award winners. I’m talking zombies and aliens, monsters and murderers, blood, guts, token nudity, whatever. Anything goes, just make it scary, gory, funny, short, and just give’er!"
For those daunted by the task of creating an entire film, Banks said the festival will accept film trailers this year.
True to the organizers’ renegade style, submissions are subject to very few guidelines. "Just keep them under 15 minutes in length and other than that, go nuts," Banks said.
The films will screen the night before Halloween in the theatre at MY Place, after which Heavy Hitting judges will award the Best In Show trophy – a massive chrome skull mounted on a shiny chrome ball – to the winner.
"We’re giving away some money too, if you’re into that kind of thing," Banks quipped.
Last year’s event sold out completely, with several out-of-luck audience hopefuls loitering in front of MY Place hoping for last minute tickets.
The trophy went to Vancouver-based animator Stu MacKay-Smith, brother of local filmmaker/dancer Ace MacKay-Smith, for his special effects-laden entry Happy Anniversary , a surreal film about a Victorian couple possessed by an evil doll to repeatedly hack each other up.
This year’s festival’s submission deadline is Oct. 15, firm.
For information and submission guidelines go to www.514video.com/heavyhitting, call 604.902-2666 or e-mail info@heavyhitting.com.
Mockumentary Fest on hold
While the third annual B-Grade Horror Movie Festival is charging full steam ahead, Heavy Hitting Films has had to put the freeze on what was to be their first Mockumentary Film Festival.
Submissions of satirical documentaries a la Christopher Guest’s body of work (Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show) were requested for mid-July, with a screening night intended for later in the summer.
The timing was off, however. Busy summer schedules resulted in too many delayed and unfinished projects explained festival organizer Feet Banks.
Banks is encouraging local mockumentarians to see their projects through and depending on interest levels he says he will arrange for an October screening. Otherwise, he says he intends to cut the festival loose.
For more information, contact Heavy Hitting Films at the same contact information listed for the B-Grade Horror Movie Festival.
