Dumbworld: A Sacramento Based Blog on Entertainment, Media and Art

I first met Mike Carroll about a year into my own attempt at becoming a filmmaker.  He came out and did a story for KCRA 3 on a feature film that I was camera operator on.  I never saw the story but I remember my mom calling and leaving a frantic message on my voicemail that she had seen me on the news.  You have to love moms.  Without my mom, I don’t think I would have any fans.  But I digress.

After the feature wrapped, I came across Mike’s first “one man” film, Year.  I was blown away.  Here was an excellent film, shot on the same camera that I owned (a DVX-100B), on a very small budget, by one person.  I emailed Mike, and he was very cool and down to earth. He was very forthcoming and helpful with advice.  We stayed in touch, he sent me the script for his second feature, Nightbeats before he started shooting it, and he even had me out to shoot some behind the scenes for Nightbeats (part of the making of Nightbeats is here). Both Year and Nightbeats are available on Amazon.

Mike recently released a book on his “one man” filmmaking process called Naked Filmmaking: How To Make A Feature-Length Film – Without A Crew – For $10,000 Or Less.  I haven’t got a chance to check the book out yet, but it is available on Amazon.com.  See the video below for an interview with Mike about the book on KCRA Channel 3.

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Also, Mike is leading a Sacramento Filmmaker- Cameraman Meetup on Sunday, June 27th on the west steps of the capitol, with the goal of people bringing their cameras or interest in cameras and sharing information.  Go to his website nakedfilmmaking.com for more information.

I found this in a box in the back of my closet. It is an underground classic.  Me and Jay shot this in front of his mom’s house in North Highlands (Sacramento) with my Sony HandyCam.  The elusive Blak Rik Rubin edited it.  This video started it all. Funny stuff.

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vimeo Direkt

Kejo Productions, the Sacramento Area filmmakers that brought you Sensored (which is now available on Amazon by the way), will be finished with their latest film, Rogue River in June.  The movie stars Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects and Grindhouse) and Michael Cudlitz (Southland and Band of Brothers), among others.

See the short write up and movie poster at Fangoria, and join their FaceBook fan page.

We slept on this because that is what we do best, but for an independent filmmaker out of Sacramento to get theatrical distribution is a pretty impressive accomplishment.  Congratulations Deon! I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.  If you know of any, let me know.

Sacramento filmmaker Deon Taylor is on the verge of a huge breakthrough: a national theatrical release for his horror film, “Chain Letter,” that was filmed here.

read the rest from the Sacramento Bee

Here at Dumbworld, some would say we are lowdown cheapskates.  We prefer frugal- so this deal sounds like the new black to us.  Moviemaker magazine lifetime subscription for $49.