THE AFTERMATH OF LARRY CARRELL'S "JACOB"

In 2011, the Houston Film Scene was much in astir about a local filmmaker [Larry Carrell] who put "the best" of what Houston, Texas had to offer in one film and through some daring production shams and scams, as he was able to put up the cash to make his dream film come true. Give this man some pretty impressive "ambition points" as he set out to do something and make it look big as possible. In a few months, he had a written script, a few thousand dollars in his pocket, and he tore away at Houston to make this dream come to life.

There was ton of double-dipping going on prior to the production of his film JACOB; the filmmaker infiltrated several local films and evaluated talent in them, then sucked the talent right out of those productions to bring into his film, all of the time promising huge success and big contracts. Quite truly, the film was the talk of the town...at least in the local independent film scene.  But when the first premiere hit the streets, it was a complete disaster of 'unfinished mastery' missing sound, filled with incomplete scenes, and presented scraps of an unfinished film to the cast, crew, and their families...and like most amateur indie film actors in the vast landscape of "wanting to be stars," no one complained about it all during this initial premiere. Instead, local actors and their families stood proudly and took pictures afterwards; smiled and boasted the films "huge success."

Just a month prior to the first premiere of Carrell's JACOB, a local short film produced entirely of teens, boasted huge success at several "Sold Out" premieres which seemed to jeopardize Carrell's potential future film success with his uncompleted film. During JACOB's first premiere in Houston, most of the attendee's in the seats were just the cast, crew, some family and a couple of local indie film critics who were begged to come see the film. People outside of the films clique who attended were not impressed with what the film presented and Carrell knew that. Some of the people in attendance openly complained that the price paid for tickets should have been refunded...and of course, even though he [Carrell] was ashamed, nodding in agreement with them promising something would be done about that, that never happened and Carrell and his team pocketed the cash with a nice grin and went on about their business.

You see? that's the way "real" film business is run in Hollywood and Houston should do the same. For him being someone who always tasted the long reach of top fame, Carrell was finally on the right road to success, not caring what or who was standing in his way. People in his inner circle began to believe that his attitude was the right one to have if you truly wanted to step into the real world of movie success.

 

But through diversity and patience, Carrell and his team continued to push forward. Over a period of months [up to even a year] they added scenes to the unfinished film and were able to scrounge up a known Hollywood name to bring more credence to the film. None of what is written here is fabricated...it's the truth. Through thick and thin, the film made it's way from one convention to another, then eventually onto Netflix. The film crossed the oceans and landed a following in Europe, where the title of the film was changed to "Sister." The film won countless local Indie awards and practically over night Carrell's clique grew and some names were added to the "producers" list who seemed to jump on the bandwagon ride of success...and all were very proud of the end results; which weren't easily attained. None of the local actors in the film have ever been paid for their work...not that they expected anything due to the shady contracts they signed.

So, in the end, Carrell got his film made and he got the attention and money he dreamed about...sort of. Below are comments made on the films IMDB page. You have to get passed the comments posted by the cast and crew to see what the real thoughts are by the REAL people who previewed this "fine masterpiece" of 80's horror. 

I still have yet to see this film, so I cannot review it properly....but I thought it was best that you, the reader, know what your getting into should you choose to decide to watch it yourself.

D. R. Quintana
Editor

MOVIE REVIEW - STAR TREK BEYOND

This movie is DOGSHIT!

...And this blog entry is going to be a good reason that I will never be promoted in media as a film critic "who has good taste and delivery."

I am completely convinced that Hollywood is trying to damage Gene Roddenberry's dream and universe, by unleashing a myriad of bad writers...yeah YOU, Simon Pegg, and bad directors to produce and sell a bad idea with bad plots, no character development, shoddy presentation, and no chemistry performances that level out a new genre of CGI crap B-Films that have no foundation of creative genius and will die out as a "bad conception" as time passes on. 

What is MOST absurd, was the transparent plotline where the crew of the U.S.S. FRANKLIN was responsible for being the bad guy in the film! If Roddenberry wasn't tossing and throwing up in his coffin, I was surely tossing and turning in my bed last night...."Gravitational Slipstream???"....seriously, my trekkie folks!?!?!?...you were happy with this shit pile?????

MOVIE REVIEW - STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE - [PG13] is definitely one of the BEST SciFi movies I've seen in quite a while! I was given a special preview about a week ago and I was COMPLETELY blown away by the original story, visual effects, and take on making a prequel to the original trilogy, parts 4, 5, and 6. 

This was NOT a J.J. Abrams disaster tale, filled full of useless nostalgia and recycled old actors; this film has class, style and best of all, a strong story arc which will lead to a sequel and possibly a better angled trilogy (???). Targeted with brilliant new actors and very little swiping from one scene to another, SWRO surely brings eloquently detailed filmmaking back to the big screen...well, I saw it on the screen I have at home. There is something NOT Star Wars about it though, don't expect to see anything far too familiar with the storytelling, save the ships and technology which have become the staple of the franchise. There are certainly darker plotlines and a hopeless trail of intrigue that damages the certain eventual fate of the characters that are developed in the film.

Darth Vader is as menacing with his words as he is in stature in this film, a poignant delight for older SW fans. There is nothing "empty to see" about him, save the movie reinforces the diabolical side of the empire and what Vader does to seduce a more promising future for the Empire.

On a final note, there was something more "punching in the gut" about this film than "Force Awakens"; with likeable developed characters and a mission I really cared about, seeing them through to the end...kind of. A much-much better film with a convincing story adaptation ELEMENTS that should have been adhered to with SW VII. 

☆☆☆☆ [4 of 5 Stars]

"HER CRY" FAILS TO IMPRESS...AT ALL

Houston has had it's long-ass-list of Indie film flops, many of which I wouldn't even dare review on this blog to contaminate your lives, and unfortunately this mega-mega flop is right down there with them. 

HER CRY [(2013) from Dark Lightning Films] is no doubt another slap in the face to real filmmakers in the local area. This hour long schlep of crap won a couple of awards, one being a Houston REMI for best "mystery" and "thriller"... REMI's are the prime example of "participation awards" given to anyone who submits a home video as an indie film.

Directed by Damir Catic, HER CRY tries to tell the Urban Legend of La LLorona, a Mexican story concerning a female spirit who appears during rain storms and thunder claps and tries to drown people who hear her cries out in the wind. The story is brought out through "found footage" and is not brilliant in it's adaptation of the legend, nor in it's screenplay. This is definitely a "hold a camera in you hand" type of film; don't expect anything else out of it.

I'm not sure what it is about having shaky camera footage and bad sound dubbing that was supposed to make this amateur film scary, but I wasted a little over an hour of my life [89 minutes] just trying to get through to the end credits. The acting is atrocious and definitely not what I expected to see from one of Houston's "brightest award winners" for that year...or any other year for that matter.

The absolute worst part of this film was the lighting; many segments just in the opening scenes which were poorly shot on camera without any attempt at bringing light to scene...a dire attempt to use darkness as a scary tool, I'm sure. There was use of an infrared night camera [of sorts] for some shots, but the techniques used with it were very poor and not thought out well at all. Some child actors were brought into the film who seemed to have no training or concept of working on film, seemed to give the film an amateur feel that brought no charisma to any scene at any time. These big failures make me wonder who accepts a film for preview by the awards team in Houston.

Again, the blame for this crap film goes directly to the production staff and it's director. Editing was inconsistent and the sound jumped from static to clear sound; to muffling; to garbling; leaving me with the impression that two to three people were involved in the final editing, and just trying to put something together to complete a film.

In the end, the film had a clever idea in a story but it was delivered with an overall feel of "an awkward kindergarten play that deserved an award for participating in a localized event where the production team were lucky that all of the actors just happened to showed up at the last minute."

I would honestly warn you not to waste your time on this little indie "train that couldn't." If you decide to want to watch it, you'll have to pay to see it.

[2 of 5 Stars]

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STUDIO RELEASES OCTOBER ISSUE - THE PILOT PREMIERE OF ZOMBIE REIGN!

This Blog entry also has an editorial by David Quintana & is to be considered as "liner notes" for future reference; for openly sharing his opinion to the subscribers of this e-magazine. His opinion is not the opinion of the cast and crew who work with him on his film projects.

As promised, the October issue was released for preview to everyone on the web. But the open release was only intended for the first 15 days of the month to help bring in new subscribers. Subscribers will still receive two extra issues of the QSE this year to make up for this free issue release on the blog.  Amended as of: 10/17/2016

- D. R. Quintana

This issue received a ton of hits on our blog and was linked to many Facebook pages, blogs, and posts on the internet giving the listed pilot a strong promotional push; all due to the first ever free preview of the entire E-magazine during the first fifteen days of October. I had the privilege of following this team of filmmakers through their journey to get the finished pilot episode to it's premiere. And through thick and thin, the members of this project jumped hurdles to reach the point where their work would be seen on the big screen for anyone in the San Antonio area to see. 

They have kept to the goal of completing their work and there is news that the pilot's director, Ramiro Avendano, is making statements about continuing work on the show should things land their way to get more done. With the exception of some production costs being covered by a few of the cast members, now considered as "producers" who helped finance the project, the rest of the project was an all collaborative, all volunteer production with no verified investors that assisted them in getting the job done.

I would never recommend for any group of actors or studio to go into an "all volunteer project" unless you were promised to be immediately reimbursed for any out-of-the-pocket expenses which you may have endured in helping out. Some projects are kind enough to cover gas for travel or meals between breaks. Some studios put together small contracts which provide a "deferred clause" to help pay you back IF the project makes any money...but keep in mind that a large majority of projects with deferred contracts rarely pay out at all, and most of the time, lose out more than their share on smaller Independent film gigs. Deferred contracts usually leads to a lot drama and power struggles within a group who sticks it through to the end...That's just a fair warning to all.

How Zombie Reign [ZR] continued to make it to it's premiere with the core of it's actors and it's director still intact is a guessing game that defies explanation. The pilot certainly penned itself as a dream project that "just wouldn't die" and stunned many of the San Antonio area acting teams by actually admitting to and presenting a completed project to it's cast, crew, family and friends.

The project has a lot of strong actors assigned to it: some of who have accredited and extensive acting experience with a long list of projects under their belts. This part of the cast are "veteran level" actors, filled with on-set maturity and have had their share of national exposure in local commercials, national television, and some movie time. It's a large array of talent on a project that would have certainly died an early death if any of them were missing their participation in the production and all of them volunteered their services to help the first time director complete his pilot episode.

This being Avendano's first film, he was lucky that he had a great team to work with and not have to worry about their performances during action and dramatic scenes. But I do have concerns about this production; i.e. for some of the production/actor members this was their first time as a production team and there were signs that they were thinking far too ahead of themselves by claiming larger appraisal from outside sources before the pilot or any real pitch material was ever complete. This was a huge problem for the team in the recent past which caused a lot of drama, as I am sure it will continue until reasonable thinking takes over. There will be problems with ZR's future unless certain leading figures in the production team learn to let go of big dreams and just reach the projects mission first; complete the series.

"Flash" certainly isn't a problem for this pilot; pre-promotion releases were full of it. Presenting dark photos and character bios to give viewers a small glimpse of what to expect in each character before the pilot was ever released. There was no "Promotions Director" for this project, as most of the dished ads and promo shots were prepared and released by it's director in good faith. But in my opinion, over promoting a slew of characters for a one hour premiere seemed a little dire to give character development through promo ads. 

In the past, I have seen that these type of flash ads from "first time" amateur film makers that don't do any good in getting new fans in to see the project. When flash ads are done too early, most of those projects rarely get to see the time of day; primarily because the finished product fails to completely deliver telling the full story or they suffer because the finished project just doesn't get in-depth enough with all of the required character development to bring it all in. Flash promo ads are often manufactured to keep actors happy on film projects that are taking way too long to complete; it's usually an unwarranted practice done while a project is still in post editing, but usually happens when someone thinks everyone is capable of running away to do something else. Actors are allowed to work on other projects after the current project has wrapped, that's just the way of things in the field of making movies...that's just how I see it.

And make no mistake, I have not seen the pilot, however I saw plenty of footage to let me know that there is a pilot to present. All of the actors should get copies of the DVD in the near future to burn demo reels out of it, which should be impressive for the actors next projects. There are many cast members who are happy to see this project actually [and finally] get released. This one pilot has been in post editing for over a year now and through all of the diversity it's honed over time, I hope only best success to the team that helped get this project reach the goal of being released for preview!

If you feel you are missing out on all of the excitement and news, you probably are. You can change that by being a subscriber to the hottest e-magazine in Texas. You must be a known Indie film director, producer, investor or actor to subscribe. Each page of the studio e-mag has dazzling photos of your favorite Indie actor, actress, and model; with liner notes from each individual taken during video production.

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