QUANTUM STORM .357 ISSUE 21 IS RELEASED FOR JUNE 2023!

QSE .357 ISSUE 21 dtd 6/1/2023

38 Pages

ON THE COVER - Graphics design by
T. T. Wombritch. Used by permission.

MAIN ARTICLES

Masters of Photoshop - A special peek inside the world of Photoshop Masters who create breathtaking pieces of graphic works.

 Bustin' Loose - Music videos are in full swing for this summers indie film releases. From rock to hip-hop, we feature some local performers making their mark in Texas Indie Films.

BBQ Pit Masters - On a quest to find the best BBQ in the world, one Texas filmmaker has put together a mini-series of the paces he's traveled to taste the best BBQ in Texas. 

Head Shot Season Is Here - We provide a list of photographers who specialize in taking head-shots. Is your favorite photographer on our list? If not, let us know by emailing us here.

 

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A SPECIAL LOOK INTO "ZERO ZERO ONE" WILL BE RELEASED THIS SUMMER. FIRST SNEAK PEEKS WILL BE POSTED IN THE JULY EDITION OF THE QSE .357 E-Magazine! 

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AWAKE HELPS RAISE THE EXPECTATION OF HAVOC 114

A few years ago I was working on a script for a SciFi that was about an alien abduction in New Hampshire, when the name of the band AWAKE fell into my lap from an unlikely source; that source being an actor from San Antonio, a cast member from the now defunct zombie film project "Zombie Reign" - a  now well known San Antonio, Texas indie film that wasted five years of actors and crews lives over the vanity one idiot who claimed to be a professional director. The bands leading member and guitarist, Maksim M. Dragan had been longing for a chance to put their work on a film project for many years and kind of had the feeling that the right project at the right time would bring his band and music some real success.

 

I kept the band in the periphery of my mind until I started working on a project that I thought needed a little surge in the soundtrack of a new film. When HAVOC 114 began to take shape in production, I started thinking about adding more meat to the film and contacted Dragan, asked him if he was still interested in producing some music for another zombie film; but for a real movie production that was surging closer towards completion. He sounded overly surprised and was shocked about me asking to use some of his work for our project, and he reassured me that his band was in the middle of putting together a new track called "I got this" with a new lead singer.

 

There was a little inside joke that had started to form through out the film, as most of the cast on HAVOC 114 had already started to use the line, "I got this" during the production even before Dragan had told me the title of the song he was wanting to pitch for our feature film. Over the course of a few weeks, he kept me up to date with the status of the songs production and the angle that the song was going for. It was at this moment that I began to feel that if the track had some good punch in it, that we could advertise our film with a dark, but a cool ass music video to fuse our ideas together. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, I felt that we would require a recurring promotional ad to run until the final film was released for all to see. We were going to need something new and edgy to keep future viewers fed until we had something crisp and polished to present to them.

 

The day that Dragan contacted me, telling me that the song was complete, I didn't hesitate to download the track and take a listen to it. The opening riff on the guitar was perfect for what I was expecting and the the rest of the performance had my mind afire with the possibilities of the track and the possible punch of success that it would have with a proper music video. I called Dragan suggesting an idea of the band [all dressed in black] performing in a junkyard setting at night, to give the presentation of tough and rugged look for their on camera performance while small segments of HAVOC 114 was playing throughout the video. I wanted the video to look dark, illuminating only the band members faces and their instruments. I think that the local director did an outstanding job in the end.

 

Another month would pass by before AWAKE finished work on their music video performance, which was filmed on video by local Director Josh Bermudez in Monterrey, Mexico, and then the footage was sent to me in Texas for editing. The problem I had then was that we were limited on what good completed film of Havoc was composited and ready for release. But obviously knowing that the song was about being on the highway with a club full of trusted bikers, I thought that showing the soon-to-be infamous "Texas truck barreling through the Texas darkness" at the beginning of the music video would show how professionally Havoc was shot at night; something that has become a staple of what to expect throughout the zombie film we were finishing up at that time.

 

I completed putting the music video together over the course of two days picking some of the better and darker portions of completed scenes, then submitting the music video to  an executive producer for review a day later. We were both excited about the opportunity to have the track for the video and the film, later saying that, "The song grows on you the more you listen to it." We listened to "I got this" while we shot some pool and drank Whisky & coke, getting the feel for song at a high volume. We knew that this would only be the start of bigger things to come for our first studio feature film. We wanted Havoc to be filled with great music of many genre's and this was a fantastic start.

 

For over three months, the "I got this" music video by AWAKE was released on both YouTube and passed around on Facebook circles through several posts. The existence of the video was out there, but the potential of the music video truly wasn't tested until just a month ago, when the video was submitted into the film festival arena, where it won an award for "Best Original Song" at the Paris International Film Festival in France; making it an instant international hit. Passing the news of the videos success to Dragan was a complete hoot, as when I tried reaching out to Dragan, he was busy teaching a student and unaware of the news I had in my possession. I knew that at the time, this wasn't news you just text over the phone, this type of news had to be passed over personally on a video call, one on one. Needless to say, Dragan was in shock when I gave him the word and his excitement was almost too good to witness over our video call.

 

But the news doesn't stop there. The submission of the "I got this" music video continues on, as there are several more indie film festivals to go in 2021. The chances that the news of the already proven winner of one film festival will spill to the next, giving the track from AWAKE several more chances to be heard in other countries and larger venues that will play the track to a larger variety of future fans is a strong possibility. For now, the band presses on and works on newer material, possibly working on a new album. We are so proud to have worked along side AWAKE to help make their dreams come true; it was definitely a team effort and a well earned WIN for the band!

 

Ride Easy, My Friends

 

D. R. Quintana
Producer/Director/Writer