THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA

PRODUCTION LOG

Larry Blamire and his wife Jennifer Blaire moved out to LA from Boston with an Internet company that quickly went under in the dot-com crash.  Frustrated by months of attempting to raise funds and revitalize the company, Larry hungered for a creative endeavor-he had always intended ultimately to be a filmmaker and was an accomplished playwright already.

Larry wrote LOST SKELETON OF CADRAVRA in an incredible five-day burst of energy.  The script expressed much of what Larry loves about the low budget black and white sci-fi horror movies he grew up with: both the ones that achieved real quality beyond their limitations and the ones we love to poke fun at for being so remarkably, lovably, bad.  He combined this detailed emulation of a period film-with its stock heroes and villains-with elements of classic comedy such as mistaken identity.

Once finished with his opus, the following trek to the big screen began:

DAY #1      Miguel Valenti, an independent producer and longtime friend of Larry's, was waiting in the valet line at the Polo Lounge when Larry called on his cell.  "You think we can make a movie for $40,000?" Doing a quick calculation that the bill for lunch for the10 people he was scheduled to meet at the Polo was likely to be half that budget, Miguel nevertheless said "Er, sure..."

DAY #2     Larry and Miguel began discussing casting and methods of raising investment capital.

DAYS #3-7     A budget and (very) rough shooting schedule were prepared.  Equipment and personnel were discussed.

DAYS #8-10     Casting for a table reading was discussed and finalized.  Schedules were coordinated for the reading.

DAYS #11-17     Miguel designed an investment formula and drafted a business plan, investment package, revenue analysis and all other documents and bits and scraps of paper necessary to use someone else's money to make a movie.  Now whose...

DAY #18     First table reading of the script was held at the home of Miguel and his wife Laurie Trotta in Beverly Hills.

DAYS #19-25     The only person Larry knew personally that might be able to fund this project was his friend Lars Perkins on the East Coast.  Lars was an Internet master of the universe and a longtime friend of Larry's.  Miguel and Larry meet with him at the Biltmore Hotel in Pasadena and presented their case.  Amazingly, and thankfully-having some kind of faith in Larry's brand of insanity- he went for it and agreed to fund the project.

DAY #13-32     Long before shooting, Larry knew music would be a very important factor in emulating a real 50s sci-fi horror film.  Years ago he had ordered an LP of production music from Valentino, Inc. in NY, the same company that had scored the original BLOB.  The music had stuck in his head.  Their archive contains exciting, rich work by a variety of composers and, from a selection of about twenty CDs, Larry spent hundreds of hours planning, picking cues and timing them, before shooting even began.  Making selections beforehand not only saved time in post-production but gave the filmmakers an idea of the look and feel of many scenes.  There's nothing quite like music in helping one visualize.  And in a 50s style film, with its wall-to-wall scoring, it must sound absolutely authentic.  Thankfully, Valentino worked out nicely for the (very) limited budget and we got a genuine 50s score.

DAY #13-32     Larry gathered props on eBay.  The title character was a used medical school plastic skeleton that cost about a hundred bucks.  Only one problem: when we received it, Larry found it had a large shiny brass nut on the top of its head.  No problem-we'll just remove it.  Well, the whole thing fell apart.  So, Larry was forced to cover it with white sculpy (clay) and our titular character spent the film with this odd lump on his head.  Larry also had to cover the many nuts and bolts all over this guy, and the sculpy (and the nuts and bolts for that matter) were constantly falling off and being replaced.  By the end of filming Larry grew to really hate that skeleton.

Larry was also able to acquire an old Geiger counter for the "atmospherium detector" and a large box of old electric meters for the bridge of the alien spacecraft set off eBay.  "eBay...where props are found..."

Meanwhile, odd candle holders were purchased by Jen Blaire for use as the aliens' drinking goblets.  Melrose really does have it all!  This actually includes the Ranger's official uniform jacket, which Miguel purchased for $10 at Aardvarks on Melrose.

DAY #33     Larry delivered completed Storyboards. Larry's illustration background came in handy here.  Not unlike the comic book work he had done previously, this proved an invaluable tool during the shoot-especially on our super-tight schedule of 10 days.  The setup of shots would be dictated by two interrelated elements: the fact that most of these low budget 50s films were dominated by master shots, with occasional close-ups, and lots of static two-shots.  But, also the fact that we were facing the same restrictions those filmmakers faced 40 years ago: time and budget.  So, our film would not have a lot of coverage, which meant we wouldn't be able to cut away much if mistakes were made: often a challenge for the actors.  And indeed, as it turned out, there were some long scenes (relatively) where the camera was static and unblinking and lines had to be really sharp.  Larry was down with a flu in the spaceship dining scene and could barely get through the single long take without keeling over.  The scene where Ranger Brad (Dan Conroy) warned the inhabitants of the cabin that there had been mysterious horrible mutilations taking place was interrupted by everything imaginable, including breaking crockery, a kettle whistling and a phone ringing.  Since Dan carries most of that scene, we felt pretty bad for him.

DAY #34-35     Larry and Miguel spent two days with the storyboards, breaking down the script scene by scene and assembling props lists, design lists, etc.

DAY #36-37     Miguel drafted the final budget (yes, AFTER the money came in!)

DAY #38-40     To create certain vital items like the Mutant costume and the transmutatron raygun, Larry commissioned his old art school pal Cortney Skinner, whose experience in creating unusual props goes back to their days working Boston stage. The huge Mutant suit, which Cortney designed based on Larry's sketch, is primarily made of foam, and looks like nothing so much as a giant cornstalk with a frog-like head-perfect for the film-while the shiny retro transmutatron Cortney made from a painted bathroom and kitchen caulking gun.

DAY #40     Miguel officially formed Fragmighty Productions Limited, LLC in Delaware.

DAY #41     Miguel opened the Fragmighty bank account and secured production insurance.

DAY #28-48     Location scouting for the perfect cabin to shoot in.  Laurie Trotta, Miguel's wife, got online and found a company called High Country Property Management of Lake Arrowhead, CA which featured photographs of some of the best (and more appropriately for us) some of the worst cabins around.  From here on, Laurie became our official Location Coordinator.  After more research into lodging, Miguel elected to combine living and shooting quarters for cast and crew in several cabins.

DAY #28-48     Two exhausting weeks of negotiations with SAG concluded-SAG Experimental Contract for the project was signed, thus enabling actors to work happily without getting paid.  We did actually end up paying them, but (very) little.

DAY #42     Miguel began the ridiculously complex and expensive permitting process for use of Bronson Canyon with the County and City of Los Angeles Entertainment Industry Development Corp.  He immediately discovered that, despite their claims to the contrary, these people are not at all friendly to the independent community and, in fact, that there are no serious provisions to expedite or give a price break to smaller films.

DAY #43     More permitting nonsense.

DAY #44     More permitting nonsense.

DAY #45     Permitting process finally completed.  The permitting fees for 4 days in Bronson Canyon total over $3,600, a good chunk of the entire production budget.  Outrage ensues.

DAY #2-46     If we had a casting director it was Larry's friend, actor Brian Howe (Dr. Roger Fleming/Rudolph Yaber), whom he'd known since their Boston theatre days.  As Larry was relatively new to LA, Brian knew more actors here than Larry did.  Brian, Miguel and Larry all agreed that this experience should be a good time as well as hard work and working with friends is always desirable whenever possible.  Miguel and Larry quickly became friends with Fay Masterson, Dan Conroy and Andy Parks, and that's certainly one of the most valuable things to come out of this experience.  Andy was a trouper and a half.  We had asked Sam Robards, whom Brian and Larry had known for some time, if he'd play Kro-bar, but he was also up for a role in Spielberg's A.I.  How he could decide to do a Spielberg film instead of LOST SKELETON is beyond us. Andy agreed to wait in the wings as a standby through this rather nail-biting vigil.  But, my God, he IS Kro-bar.

Of the other casting, Larry has been known to say the following: "I can't believe now I didn't write the role of Animala, the exotic (yet cute) animal-woman created by villain Roger Fleming, for my wife, Jennifer Blaire."  "First of all, she is the greatest animal lover I've ever known (they take to her-all animals-with an almost magical attraction).  But her magnetism (and dance background-unlike mine, believe it or not) create the perfect Animala."

Further: "I also did not write the role of earnest Dr. Paul Armstrong for myself.  At one time, I entertained playing the villain.  But that seemed perfect for Brian Howe (and it was) and so I played the intrepid and not-too-bright scientist, both because I thought it would be fun and because it seemed economical (one less mouth to feed)."

Two other old East Coast theatre friends of Larry's came out to play Lattis and "the farmer:" Susan McConnell and Robert Deveau.  Susan is versatile, Irish and insane with a wonderfully quirky persona.  Bob is an actor, director and fellow devotee of old sci-fi-horror films-he got it right away.  In fact, the whole cast really got into the idea of playing it straight-not letting on it's all a joke.  Bob only shot two days in his small role but stuck around Bronson Canyon for a week, scouting locations on the fly, taking still shots, even manning the slate on occasion.

Our Mutant was Darrin Reed, an actor friend of Miguel's and a great guy, who lent much irreverent raucous New York fun to the proceedings and, like so many, really gave his all.  When he wasn't wearing the cornstalk Mutant suit, he was acting as our production coordinator and all-around aide de camp.

Both Fay and Susan were concerned their accents might show through (British and Irish respectively) but we all thought their American held up beautifully.

Some of the most fun we had prior to shooting was screening old sci-fi horror films.  This was especially helpful to folks who weren't as familiar with the genre as were Jen, Brian, Bob and Larry.  All in all, one could not have asked for a better cast to work with.

DAY #46     Blamires and Valentis traveled to Lake Arrowhead for a first-hand view of locations.  They chose three cabins-Thompson, to be used for dining and living room scenes and to house crew; Tyler a sprawling 5-bedroom old-fashioned cabin with a huge fireplace / great room, to serve as the main lodging for the cast and catering facility, and Delph needed for exteriors and Betty's kitchen. Miguel put on his most sincere face and sat down to convince the realtors, High Country Property Management, that filming would be fun and not destroy their cabins or their community.  They believed him and even gave him a coffee mug with their company logo on it.  As it turned out, everyone took extremely good care of the cabins, and they were actually left cleaner (and warmer) than we found them.

DAY #47     Alien costumes for Kro-bar and Lattis arrived from Emily Rapley in Boston. For the glowing meteor prop ("atmosphereum") Larry bought a piece of sea sponge in an art supply store, carved it, burned some craters, hollowed it out, and sprayed it silver.  We put a light bulb inside for the incredible glowing effect (How do they DO that?).  And then one of those "happy accidents" happened.  While the bulb was lit, in take after take, the sponge started to slowly burn.  The smoldering effect is a nice touch we hadn't counted on.  No, no-I mean, it was CGI.  And it cost thousands.

DAY #48     Halloween-Cast assembled in Bronson Canyon for a final reading of the script.  The screenplay was so silly it was hard to concentrate, not to mention the fact that there were bees everywhere.  As Miguel ("the only good bee is a dead bee") is allergic to the little buggers, he got some solid exercise trying to read the description / stage directions while walking around to avoid being stung.

DAYS #49-53     Final preparations and panics.

THE SHOOT

DAY #54     Shoot began-we're off!  Bronson Canyon.  Such history!

We discovered that Brian Howe now had a beard-an unexpected surprise-which he had grown for his role in the movie K-PAX.  Fortunately, it also worked very well for the scientist/villain, Dr. Roger Fleming.

One thing our little film didn't skimp on was FOOD.  Cast and crew would eat WELL we decided.  And they did.  Besides the fine caterer Miguel hired, Laurie Trotta, Miguel's wife and our tireless locations and later PR person, cooked some wonderful meals in the cold of Lake Arrowhead, along with Fay and Jen and Susan who also contributed culinary rescue.  We had the caterer for just the first half of the shoot in Bronson and one of the difficulties there was you couldn't sit still while you ate.  Eating meant walking/running constantly to keep the bees from swarming your plate.

The hardest working DP in show business, Kevin Jones (whom we found in a newspaper ad-that's right-a newspaper ad) of Alamo Films did a wonderful job on this project.  He was not really familiar with the genre at first but did a crash course and, with great personal sacrifice, managed to master the dead-on, front-and-center style of shooting (or "Mexican soap opera" as he called it).  Like any good DP, his urge was to make interesting shots, unusual angles -something.  But he remained true to the form.

Among tireless crew members was Cory Blamire, Larry's teen-aged son, an intelligent lad with a twisted sense of humor, who we flew out to work with us.  He ended up training on-the-job to operate the boom mic and did a terrific job.  He also filled in occasionally for the Mutant as well as becoming official Mutant's Helper to the uncomfortable Darrin ("Cory?  Where the hell's Cory?  Get ova' heah!").  Someone had to remove that huge, ungodly mask between takes.  Cory also took great pride in what is technically known as "skeletal manipulation".  He did a great job, along with Miguel's writer friend Llywelyn Jones of marionetting that damn awkward, heavy skeleton-especially when the stupid thing is "conducting" the aliens' dance.

For the climactic fight scene, Larry drew on his theatre background of fight choreography and scrambled to organize Betty fighting Animala, Paul fighting Roger, the Mutant throwing Animala, the Skeleton strangling Roger all in one big fat master shot as well as separate two-shots.  One of the tough things throughout the shoot was directing and then jumping in as Paul.  Both Miguel and Brian took turns in front of the monitor and having their extra sets of eyes was invaluable.

DAY #55     Bronson Canyon-OK, now the trick was to make the damned plastic skeleton sit up.  Miguel, Larry, Cory and Llywelyn tied fishing line to the thing and somehow managed to make it sit up into frame before immediately collapsing. After about the sixth try, they got it up long enough to get the shot.

Then the next trick was to make the Skeleton climb down a rock face.  Without dropping him and destroying our most economical cast member (he didn't eat much other than a few boxes of sculpy), this proved to be quite difficult to accomplish.  Ultimately, we used the fishing line, still attached to our friend, and hauled him bit by bit UP the rockface.  We then reversed the shot in post.

Finally, we had to create the terrifying voice of the Skeleton.  Larry had been standing in for him during readings and rehearsals.  His son Cory took up a script and began to read Skeleton lines-exactly as a twenty-year old John Barrymore might have sounded.  His "hello, bettyeee" was really quite something.  As appealing as that was, we decided Larry should voice the Skeleton, which he did admirably.  Of course, if the Skeleton had learned his own damned lines …

DAY #56-57     Bronson Canyon-"Bees, bees, everywhere are bees, blockin' out the scenery …" [Five Man Electrical Band (1971)].  We discovered that the only safe place to eat lunch was inside Bronson Cave, which quickly became quite crowded.

Some of the toughest scenes to shoot were Brian and Jen walking alongside the Skeleton.  For some of these scenes, our "can-do" AD, Julian Forbes, crawled along the ground out of frame (well, almost) holding the heavy beast.  In one shot, Brian and Jen had to hold the damned thing up between them and Jen kept cracking up (it was after all the most ridiculous-looking thing ever-this dumb little skeleton head "walking" right beside you).  We finally got it after a number of takes.

During the mortal combat between the Mutant (Darrin Reed) and the Skeleton (the Skeleton), we shot MOS.  That was all Darrin needed!  Without sound, there was nothing to stop him from expressing his truly rowdy nature.  The entire time he was struggling uphill with the bony wonder, trying to make it look as if this inanimate object was really beating him in a death struggle, he was yelling epithets and pearls such as "You want a piece of me!?  Take some a this!  Come on, is that da best you got!?  The rest of the cast and crew were at the bottom of the hill laughing so hard the DP almost dropped the camera.

DAY #58-59     Shooting closed at Bronson Canyon.  On to Julian Forbes' (the AD's) horse farm for the rocket ship scenes, aliens dancing and the Skeleton wedding.  Freezing all day long.  Joey Saccodonuts spent the night building the 10-foot tall spaceship in the 24-hour parking lot of Home Depot.  He arrived exhausted but pleased with his handywork.  The door had some difficulty opening, but we decided to keep it.  As Larry says, it fits perfectly with the genre.

DAY #60     Company moved to Lake Arrowhead. Shopping for catering and craft services was done online via Home Grocer, which showed up at the Valenti's home and loaded boxes and bags directly into their Jetta for the trek up the mountain. …

November in the mountains!-Hmmm.  Perhaps not enough consideration was given to this issue, as we expected the cabins to be heated.  When we arrived, we were casually told by the real estate maven that the floor heater in the Tyler cabin (where we were sleeping) would take a minimum of 24 hours to begin actually warming the barn-like, lightly insulated house.  This heater, of course, had not been turned on prior to our arrival.  He also failed to mention that the thermostat for the heater was near the fireplace, so when the fireplace (which did not throw all that much heat in any case) was roaring away, the heater would shut itself down!  The first night, we all slept in full clothing, including coats, hats and scarves.  The Blamires arrived with their bird, Stuart, who had to be kept warm, and Gascat, the world's oldest cat, who also had to be kept warm.  No easy matter.  Also, of course, there was nowhere near enough hot water for us all to shower in the morning.  An ice-cold shower upon leaving an ice-cold bedroom is no way to start the day.

DAY #61     Lake Arrowhead-First thing, Miguel bought space-heaters for some of the bedrooms (space-heaters were in short supply in the dead of winter in Lake Arrowhead, let me tell you).  They would run non-stop until we left.  Valentis spend half a day searching for pegboard to build the interior of the alien spaceship.  A kind stranger at Rim Forest Lumber with a truck agreed to carry the huge board back to the set if we'd put his son in the credits, which we did.  The Valentis spray-painted the board silver and mounted the electrical gauges on it to form the craft's bridge.

LARRY'S BIRTHDAY!  Slater Bros. Grocery Store bakery nearby featured a Space Alien cake on display-perfect!  The Valentis snapped it up, together with party decorations.  After a long day on the set, cast and crew celebrate.

A tradition (that lasted 4 days) was born that night-rabid competition at a game aptly called Cosmic Wimpout, supplied by Brian Howe.  Perfect for movie sets!  The other big game-type recreation was the movie trivia game brought to us by Darrin Reed.  We think Darrin suggested this game because he knows more about movie trivia than perhaps anyone in the known world!

Our sound recordist, the valiant Frederick Critchlow, declined indoor housing, which we assure you now was provided for all (with warm-ish bedding), in favor of sleeping in his truck.  He lasted one night, then asked to come in from the cold.

DAY #62     Ah, the dining room and living room scenes.  These are the scenes it seems the cast most remembers.  The first time Animala plunged her face into mashed potatoes with Kro-bar and Lattis following suit, each rising from their plates with potato stuck to their noses, cheeks eyes and hair, those of us watching on the monitor in the nearby kitchen actually fell off chairs we laughed so hard.  The set was in hysterical paroxysm for a good ten minutes after that first take.  It was hard to sit quietly through any of the takes of that scene, actually.  The same went for the living room scenes, especially when Animala began to lick the Ranger's hand and search the woodpile for "crumbs."

DAY #63     Lake Arrowhead-Miguel had learned that Susan McConnell (Lattis) was, and had been for the entire shoot, in severe pain.  Susan had suffered a fall in a bizarre Curling accident several days before arriving on set (for those who don't know, "curling" is an obscure Celtic game in which for some reason a large heavy iron weight is pushed around with a broom to no apparent purpose)… Susan refused to see a doctor, as she said it would spoil the remainder of the shoot for her.  She went on to play her part flawlessly and cooked Guinness Stew for the crew to boot, never once complaining.

During our exterior shooting of the alien stair climbing sequence, a number of sound takes were ruined by the dulcet tones of carpenters banging and sawing away at a new house being built somewhere in the area.  Miguel, doing what a producer is sometimes forced to do (bribery), went off in search of the workmen and persuaded them to take a three hour lunch-at 10 in the morning-for a price.

DAY #64     Last Day at Lake Arrowhead-Miguel finally convinced Susan to go to the hospital, where it was discovered she indeed had a broken collarbone.  They put her in a sling and sent her home to Boston to be treated.

We had one more scene with the Mutant.  Unfortunately, Darrin Reed was producing his own film and could not be with us for the scene.  Larry's son gamely took over Mutant duty.  Suddenly, our Mutant appeared younger and sprightlier than he had in any other sequences!  Ah well, must be that transmutatron …

THE LAST SHOT     Cast and crew raced madly down the mountain from Lake Arrowhead, as the sun quickly set, desperate for a clearing with a panoramic view for-interestingly enough-the closing shot of the film.  On a rugged slope we shot, exhausted, half-frozen, as dusk overtook us.  Got it.  Barely.  Bill Russell would later lighten the footage in post.

DAY #65-72     Principle photography ended.  Everyone collapsed from exhaustion.

DAY #73     Pick-up shooting in LA.  It was Bill Russell, our editor-to-be, who remarked that it was a pity we had no miniatures in the movie.  That inspired Larry to quickly set up some model work.  Using a toilet paper tube, cardboard fins, a plastic raygun nose and sculpy nose-tip-all sprayed silver-he constructed a rocket ship (God help us) in about 1:48 scale.  Larry then sculpted a tiny Andy Parks as Kro-bar, painted with acrylic.  For a miniature set, Larry emptied out a bureau drawer, filled it with dirt, added some railroad trees, broccoli for bushes-topping it off with a fine blend of oregano and other spices for a perfect ground clutter/leaves effect, not to mention a delightful aroma.

Our DP Kevin Jones went to Larry's house and they shot half a day of various miniature shots.  When Larry lowered the spaceship by filament to simulate the landing it looked really wobbly (this touches on the fine line we constantly walked in the making of this film: Yes, it's a bad movie, yes, it's a silly movie, but it should never look like these people weren't trying their best.  This credo carries over into every aspect of production, and it's the reason why this film looks so much like the real thing).  Kevin and Larry decided it was better if Larry lifted the spaceship in one quick move, and then we could reverse it to show the landing.  This gave the desired effect: crude, shaky, but not ridiculous.

Post-Production and Marketing

Miguel called virtually every editing facility in the IFP directory.  He finally connected with Kit Gray of Christopher Gray Post, who recommended editor Bill Russell.  Bill surveyed the footage, and got it.  He was hired.

In the meantime, Larry was reviewing hours and hours (and hours) of VHS tape of the film with burned-in timecode. taking laborious notes which would save time and money in the edit room.

To create the effect of the meteor across the heavens (which turns out to be the alien spaceship), Larry created a Photoshop file of a night sky with various layers representing different permutations of a flaming ball of light.  Bill animated these in Final Cut Pro.  Simple stuff really, but it added a primitive animated quaintness.  Similarly, the main credits were designed by Larry and animated by Bill.

Meanwhile, Laurie Trotta began to craft the press and publicity packets that would market LOST SKELETON to the WORLD (I hear Roger Fleming laughing hysterically in the cave).  We created a postcard using the original artwork Larry created as a vintage-style poster.  We decided to splurge on this one item and pay for a four-color process and a larger size than most of the other indie films out there, mostly because of the cool artwork from Larry.  This postcard was used over and over for invitations, press kits and distributors' packets throughout the marketing process.

Laurie then began the laborious process of submitting the film to film festivals.  The basic marketing strategy was fairly industry standard, with a few variations of our own thrown in: create a buzz at film festivals, get reviews, build a following and try to make enough noise that some Big Distributor hears you roar… well, that's the idea.  And, as it turned out, that's exactly what happened.

Larry then wrote a follow-up script, entitled TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD.  At a reading, people wet themselves.

LOST SKELETON got accepted to its first film festival-Mill Valley.  Festival organizer, film enthusiast and all around fantastic woman Karen Davis became a fan and champion of LOST SKELETON from that moment forward.  Go, KD!  A far-sighted and ingenious woman, that.

Earlier that same month, Larry, Miguel and Laurie essentially wasted a lot of time and money traveling to New York to screen LOST SKELETON at the Independent Feature Project.  It was selected as a Work In Progress.  We screened a 25-minute preview.  The actual screening was a success, as we filled the room and people definitely laughed in all the right places, but no one-on-one meetings with distributors resulted.  Three potential distributors did view the film in the IFP library and contacted us later.  We agreed that, in the future, we might submit low budget indies to the IFP, but spending money to trek to NYC was not well spent.

On the heels of our trip to New York, the Blamires and Valentis traveled to Mill Valley for our screening of LOST SKELETON.  Stuart the Bird came too.  We rented a beautiful cabin in the hills overlooking the town.  Almost the entire Skeleton gang assembled for the event: Lars Perkins and wife Susan McConnell, Andy Parks and girlfriend Katy Melody, Dan and Trish Conroy.  Fay and Brian were working and couldn't make it (well, somebody's got to work…).  Dennis Harvey from Variety caught the film and reviewed it very positively.  Suddenly, we were on the radar screen!  Our publicity packet got thicker.  The Festival was a great time and the film got a number of great reviews to set us on our way.

At Larry's behest, Laurie submitted LOST SKELETON as an alternative screening selection for the American Cinematheque at the 600 seat Egyptian Theatre-and the Cinemateque agreed to feature us on its Winter/Spring slate.

Valentis and Blamires spent the Christmas holidays making new postcards and sending them out to everyone they know in the world (well at least in the West), inviting them to the LA screening of LOST SKELETON at the Egyptian.

EGYPTIAN SCREENING JANUARY 24TH-The morning of the show, the Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas wrote a great review that featured a photo of Animala from Laurie's press kit.  We've got buzz! 

Miguel had to stand in the Egyptian Theatre box office to regulate the number of comp tickets, press tickets, etc.  When asked how many people he expected, he guessed "around 100."  So, the box office opened and people came slowly streaming in until there were 115 people inside.  Then, the streaming stopped.  Miguel told the box office folks he was fairly sure that would be all and he was going to find the nearest men's room.  As he was leaving the box office area at about 7 minutes before the screening, it was as if the flood gates opened.  Miguel was stopped by a runner from the box office and never did get to the men's room.  A line, and I mean a long line, formed outside the box office as Miguel watched with glee.  The beautiful theatre almost sold out.  There they were, almost 600 people who appreciated silly humor, cheesy special effects and a heck of a good time.  In the audience was Martin Landau, whom Brian and Jen had become buddies with during their stint on The Majestic as well as the brilliant Chuck McCann.

  Also in the audience was a Sony Pictures Entertainment Studio Executive named Michael Schlesinger, a B-movie aficionado.  Michael became the greatest champion of LOST SKELETON, and our gratitude to him can never be overstated. After a rollicking 45 minute post-screening discussion, during which the entire cast and crew assembled on the stage to discuss The Making Of, Michael Schlesinger was hooked.  He cornered Miguel after the show and asked him to give him a call the next day.

Also, A woman named Charlotte del Rose, who works for Laemmle Theatres, invited us to screen LOST SKELETON at the Laemmle at Sunset later that spring, which we did.

  The American Film Market in Santa Monica. We couldn't afford to purchase a booth, but we got a two-day pass and Laurie sent out a flurry of literally hundreds of emails to every distributor who might be interested in LOST SKELETON, scheduling back-to-back meetings.  There was interest and a flurry of videos went back and forth. 

LOST SKELETON was accepted to two separate film festivals in Dallas-go figure.

LOST SKELETON was accepted to the Ohio Science Fiction Marathon, a 48-hour no holds barred festival of some of the worst (and best) films ever made!  LOST SKELETON was such a hit that audience members spontaneously began an alien dance contest, mimicking the frolics of our own Lattis and Kro-bar and awarding prizes …

The Valenti's son, Ian Miguel Valenti, was born on October 7, 2003.

Finally, the contract with Sony was signed.

The Valentis and Blamires met Lars Perkins and Susan McConnell in the sumptuous lounge at Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica.  Larry announced the contract to Lars' complete surprise.  Champagne was had by all.

THE END

OR IS IT?

ISN'T IT MORE LIKE A KIND OF BEGINNING IN A WAY?

HMM, I WONDER …