By ringing in the new year, the crew and I have begun to direct our attention solely to our next feature film EIDOLON. As a result of that, I will be moving blog information to there from this point forward. This site will remain up as a reference and to let people know about the film, until October then I will close it.

VictimEYES represents so much to me personally and professionally. I had been bitten by the bug early in life to make films and by the mid-late 80′s and early 90′s, several of my short films and music videos had aired across the state of Kentucky. Some of those were lengthy, the longest one being about 45 minutes in length.

This film was my freshman effort and the culmination of knowledge I had about preparing for and executing a film that runs nearly 2 hours. I was very pleased with the result and the film is in the black and for that, I am very happy.

I began this blog by paying tribute to my mentor, my former Chief Photographer Leonard Judd, whom I still miss greatly. When I look back at all we have done this past year, I think about how giddy he would have been to have stood among us and helped out and how much of a twinkle that would put in his eyes. I owe a debt to him I can only repay by paying it forward now, teaching those who come into our fold.

I am grateful for those of you who have visited this site and hope you will continue to follow and support Neil Kellen and myself and our crew as we rise further into the indie film scene. You can do that with the link above.

So this will either be the “Abby Singer” or “Martini shot” for this blog and with that you have a giant thank you from me and the cast and crew of victimEYES.

If you have worked on local films or are looking to learn more about film making and trying to find a way in, we may be your ticket. Contact me at eidolonmovie@gmail.com and tell me about yourself.

As this year is drawing to a close, it will be a time to reflect back on the films we have helped bring to life. We still have a couple in post production (A Mind Beside Itself and Batman l Metaphors), one about to wrap production (Reality) and one in pre-production (Eidolon). How we have grown in the past year would impress Superman himself with our leaps and bounds. We have a simple goal…every film will raise that bar higher and higher.

Neil is a powerhouse of creativity and one hell of a film maker and I am fortunate to have found someone to partner with who does more than talk the talk, he walks the walk. He has been an inspiration to me and continues to be and I look forward to a long line of successful films working with him.

Add P.J. Starks to the mix and it’s the tri-fecta, the triple crown. Another great visionary from our area who sees things thru the eyes of someone brought up in the kinetic world of video games, and has ambitions akin to mine and Neils.

Rounding out our crew are folks who are moving way up on the next one: Theresa Chadwick, Sharon Caudel, Kelly Pearson, Greg Schultheis, Jason Welden, Laura Nicole Ambrose and Dave Couch. And we hope to have other old friends in the mix such as Trina Starks, Marx Pyle, Lori Rosas, Pablo Gallastegui, Zach Scheller, Drew Kirkman and, of course, we have to include our resident “Bruce Campbell”, Mr. Seth Cheek. Also looking forward to working with the man who wrote the short story Eidolon is based on, Todd Reynolds and lighting master David Ross.

Neil said it best. We had our freshman efforts, now, we are seniors and the best is yet to come!!

The next thing to come out, that we worked on, is PJ Starks’ “A MIND BESIDE ITSELF”, a very well written and directed short by PJ, who is very talented. It’s been interesting turning out some short films this year but….

To that end, we have spent the past year working on other people’s projects and we have been involved in some really good work and some okay work. But now our focus shifts to projects we have that we want to accomplish and none of these will be short films. As a result, we are pretty much set for the next couple of years, at least, on turning out some higher quality feature films

Neil has a script he has been working on for a while called ABBADON and he is anxious to get that going once we finish up EIDOLON. We will be working with PJ Starks on these as well and he has a project in mind that will involve the three of us uniquely, but he still has to write it. As we have said before, our aim is to raise the bar and if doing a film a year is how we achieve that, it is what we will do.

In the meantime, PJ will be editing the much awaited BATMAN l METAPHORS Neil directed and I did lighting on back last year. I can’t wait to see what PJ brings to the table from that perspective. So stay tuned as we will be up to our eyeballs in things for years.

Lee Goldberg posted this trailer for REMAINDERED, the short film he directed. The film itself is getting some pretty good reviews out there on the writing and directing but also about how slick and professional it looks and how great the actors were. For more on those go here:

Lee's blog

Cast and Crew of Remaindered

Lee Goldberg debuted this film at Boucheron World Mystery Convention in San Francisco and has gotten some rave reviews for the project, praising his writing and directing, the cast and the crew. It is something of which we should all be proud. This shot was taken at the end of the day on the final day of shooting at Sureway in Henderson. In my continuing quest to prove that indie film can be so much more, this stands as a testament.

In other news, Reality is going well. We have had some very solid performances and great looking stuff come out of that as well. I have been studying on some other lighting techniques and look forward to expanding my knowledge on this project as I continue to also move forward (albeit slowly but surely) on Eidolon.

Filmmakers on the edge of REALITY

The rockstar rocks

Neil Laura and I as a scene unfolds

Sharon's shirt says it all, she ROCKS!!

Capturing a scene

Jill, Rach and I get ready for a scene

Marx preps for sound

Dave where he belongs

Theresa takes some pics

I love it when a plan comes together and it did Saturday as we gathered to do some scenes for THE JENNIFER SHOW portion of REALITY. Much of the material we got will be seen on tv during the course of the film, but we added some things that just might make the movie as well.

This was a first for me, allowing the actors pretty full reign performing ad-lib for the scenes. As a director, it was somewhat unusual but it was also very interesting to do and learn from as we went. Along with my co-director and business partner Neil Kellen, we chugged thru 13 scenes in 7 locations in 7 hours and 38 minutes. I had scheduled this to be done in 7 hours and only going over by such a small amount was very rewarding and a large chuck of that was regrouping and stopping for lunch.

We got some really great material, particularly a scene where Neil got to act and he and Jillian just hit it out of the park! Of course this is a we project and I have to shout out to the whole group yesterday.

Sharon Caudel, art directing and lighting assist, who added just the right touch to one of our sets and grabbing some good photos. She’s such a trooper and I can’t imagine doing one of these without her being a part of it!!
Dave Couch, who got a chance to shoot for the first time on a movie and whose skills I have always respected greatly and who is falling in nicely with us.
Jillian Petrus, lead actress, who took direction wonderfully and in a faux interview with her character, batted every curve ball I threw at her. She rocked!
Rachel Powers, PA, who stepped out in front of the camera as our lead characters assistant and did an amazing job herself ad libbing and giving Jillian things to play off of, not to mention her behind the scenes help.
Theresa Chadwick, script supervisor who had to learn how to mark all this stuff as we went and is just a joy to have on hand, so dedicated and professional.
Laura Ambrose, makeup artist, who got to be in front of the camera as well and had fun chewing up the scenery in one of those.
Marx Pyle, sound, who hung in there with us making sure we were heard as well as seen and getting to run camera on a scene too.
Neil Kellen, for his incredible shooting talents and showing his acting chops and for letting some of us other shooters have some fun with the camera.
And to my great friend Bill Shewmaker for giving up his house as a location for some scenes.

It was a day filled with good friends, good times, good laughs and solid work. It’s a sign of things to come and that will just be a blast!