New You Poor Thing Promo Artwork

Soon I'll be starting a separate You Poor Thing blog that will follow the production on that film. I've been putting together some new art for it (above). Stay tuned! 

Nosferatu Czech Poster (1922)

Like this one for instance. Czech poster art is incredible. I'm crying. Tears of joy. Just look at those rats! And his teeth. I love it.

Horrific Poster Art

I just got these books from the library today. And they are full of super great imagery. I've been looking at horror film posters lately for you poor thing design, and I'll share some favorites in the coming days...

YPT -- Monster Mash//Family Tree

I edited together this mash up of monster movies and other films that've influenced You Poor Thing. To get a sense of all these disparate influences coming together. The music is the Castaways "Liar liar", a song that started the dialogue between me and the artist of the soundtrack, Jordan Davis. The clips were taken from Ariel, Inferno, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man, Suspiria, Daisies, Brainiac, Valerie and her week of wonders, The Seventh Victim, Dreams the money can buy, and Hausu.

Monster Security Guard Sketch for YPT

More Monsters

Here's some more photos of monsters from movies, photos we've been looking at while developing the character Matt for You Poor Thing. From the top, The Mighty Boosh, Uncle Boonmee, I Walked With A Zombie, Brainiac x 2, and The Muppets.

The Beast

From Jean Cocteau's La belle et la bête

Monster Security Guard Sketches

These are the recent sketches of the monster character for You Poor Thing. The top sketches are by Shantel, I did the bottom one. The character Matt is a security guard at a parking garage, who turns into a monster.

Brian making film budget

This is me at the kitchen table working on the budget for You Poor Thing.

Cinema One: Val Lewton The Reality of Terror

I am really excited that I found this book at Powell's while I was in Portland last weekend. It seemed providential since You Poor Thing has been influenced by Val Lewton often during the writing and development of the project. He was known for horror films, but horror films that are literary, psychological, and not-very-violent. It's kinda hard to find books on Lewton. I didn't know there was a Cinema One about him until I found this.

YPT///PDX

You may or may not be aware of You Poor Thing. I've written about it here before, it's been a project I've been developing for over a year and it was going to be done in Milwaukee. Well, a lot has changed in 2012. I'm shooting it in Portland now. It's a shoestring budget feature, a monster movie, a page torn from the lives of love-starved criminals, a psychedelic film noir, and so much more. Since this is my first feature and I'm producing it, it made sense to move the project to Portland since its so much closer to me. Though I regret not doing this film in Mke, I look forward to shooting something there again in the future. And Portland is wonderful. I just got back from there where these photos were taken by me and Shantel Bennett, who's playing Colleen, the Bonnie Parker character.

"You Poor Thing" sharpie font

I was working on the "You Poor Thing" font. The slogan I threw on there is from CAN's "Monster Movie" album, it was printed on the back of the album. Seemed appropriate for a monster movie, right? Although that album really was recorded in a castle and our movie takes place in Riverwest, Milwaukee, where there are no castles. 

You Poor Thing -- MKE Photos

I just got back from a trip to Milwaukee where I was putting together some materials for pre-production on "You Poor Thing", a feature film I'd like to shoot there in fall 2012. In the photos: Kara Mulrooney, John Kuehne, and Kristopher Pollard. Photographed by Tate Bunker. Art direction by Amanda Tolefson. Masks by Meghan Savagian.

You Poor Thing

Next month I'm excited to be meeting up with Kara and John in Milwaukee to start putting together a feature-length film titled "You Poor Thing". They'll be playing two characters taken from a screenplay I wrote several years ago. Inspired by Bonnie and Clyde films. A couple of broke artists who turn to criminal activities. Also it's a monster movie. He's terrorizing the wayward youth of Milwaukee. I've just started the new script. We're shooting photos in mid-October. And we're aiming for to shoot the film next year in September or October.

Above: a mask I photographed at a grade school art competition while visiting my Grandma in Iowa. The disguises they wear while committing some of their crimes will be based on this mask.