It has been a long, hard, rough road to get here and if I had to do it all over again the exact way it all happened, I would because I'm a better writer and film maker because of it.
I want people to know that if you have a dream, chase it, you can accomplish anything if you believe you can. Never let anyone hold you back or hold you down because you are trying to do something that 99% of people wouldn't dare to try. Two quotes have been with me since this whole crazy adventure started one from my dad and the other from my friend and business partner Chris Fyfe.
My Dad always used to say ....
"Those that can do and those that can't will try to hold you down"
Chris Fyfe has said to me many times..
"Can't never could do nothing"
I have taken these things to heart and even when things looked their darkest and quitting would have been a hell of a lot easier then continuing to shoot myself in the foot I kept going, why would someone do that you might ask?? because I had a cast and crew that were counting on me to make their dreams come true, to make a movie for (some of them) to launch their careers with, while others wanted to be in the movie because they believed in my vision and in me as a writer / director. I even had a few cast members that wanted to be in the movie to simply help a friend make his dream a reality.
You know it's really amazing to me what a group of people can accomplish when they work together, I cast my movie via craigslist and e-mail, I never meet any of these people in person until the first table read and it turns out that worked out well. We all knew this could work if we all just went with it.
Am I saying that it was smooth sailing from start to finish, hell no! We had a lot of struggles from the very beginning all the way through to today. We had last minute casting changes, last minute script changes, we had a shooting location burn to the ground after the first weekend of shooting was finished and had to move the entire production hundreds of miles away to continue shooting and stay on schedule. I think that was the event that brought us all together.
I had to change take on a bigger role in the movie out of need (not want), all I wanted to do was the typical director cameo like the late, great Wes Craven in Scream. pop on scream once or twice and I was good, I'm a writer /director / makeupFX artist NOT an actor LOL.
All in all we made it through and our hard work has paid off because we have our DVD Release Party on Friday and then we steam roll into Pre Production on Sins of Man II starting in January (Final Draft will be done in December).
THANK YOU to my AMAZING CAST AND CREW for all your hard work even when I had no clue what I was doing you all stuck by me and made it happen, we all worked long hours, traveled long hours to make Sins of Man Rise of Mortis happen, you guys are awesome it was an honor to work with you all on my first movie (remember to thank me when you start winning awards later in your careers)
THANK YOU to the AWESOME Horror fans Worldwide who have showed me support with e-mails, facebook messages and tweets you are the heart and soul and the reason we make these movies we want to entertain YOU.
STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES ON SINS OF MAN II !!