Addovolt Explorations: Empowered

Is all the talk about artificial intelligence nothing more than electroscareapy or is it truly something to get wired up about?

Is AI just an updated term for automation, a menace to civilization, or a few simple keyboard commands?

All the above, most likely.

"Empowered"--the latest entry to the Addovolt Exploration series of quick docs (sort of like our version of a podcast, pretty much)--is now up on YouTube:

"Creep"ing along slowly but surely

Editing on "The Creep of Crooked Creek" continues along.

The Long Haul

The pieces of the puzzle are popping into place, however "The Creep of Crooked Creek"--our horror-comedy film--isn't going to be a quick process when it comes to releasing it online.

There are film festivals to consider, some interesting/unusal plans, and some other fun elements so.....it's going to be a while but it'll get there in all of it's tacky, pulpy synthpop glory.

Addovolt Productions

Addovolt Productions is an independent film production company led by writer-director Derek Quint. We do everything from short films and music videos to documentaries and features.  Quint's work has been described as "art house", "mesmerizing", "spirited", and "wonderfully entertaining". His projects have been featured on Film Threat, The Gothic Imagination, Dark Matter Zine, Horror Cult Films (UK), Fun Size Horror, Punk Globe, Metal Underground, Creepy Pasta, Legends of America, Art Reveal Magazine, Buzz Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Radio One, the News-Herald, and After Ellen, among other publications.

Please view our Featured Project (one of our more recent ventures) and be sure to visit our Upcoming Projects page to see what we're working on at the moment.

about Derek Quint:

A current independent filmmaker and former illustrator, Derek Quint began creating at an early age and hasn't stopped since.  He is busy working on a number of different endeavors (more than he probably should be) and is based in Chicago.

"You should be very GRATEFUL, Brielle...."

It's serving some "banned 1993 episode of 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?'" energy but, even though we're in spoopy season, this project won't be done until next year.  So, in the meantime, here's a hodgepodge of snippets from the shoot footage done last month and in August.

Al seems like a Halloween type of guy....

I had the pleasure of discussing the intersection of history and folklore--as it pertains to Al Capone and the ghostly legends surrounding his deadly endeavors--with writer and researcher Amelia Cotter earlier this year.  Parts of our discussion are included in issue #6 of The Morbid Curious journal which is available HERE on Amazon.

Also, this week, I had the honor of having the "Former Hangouts" documentary featured on The Yard.  I want to send a couple of big Spooky Season "Thank You"'s to Amelia and to Chris at The Yard! 💀👻🎃🖤

at the "Creek"

The script for our horror-comedy film, "The Creep of Crooked Creek", is offline, back in the vaults, now that the main brunt of shooting was done earlier this August.

We'll be shooting other segments in bits and pieces for months moving forward--deeply into 2023--so this is an extensive project and there's much more to do.  This isn't a quick, easy endeavor but I still plan on having the film available for audiences to view online for mid-summer next year.  I'll do updates and sneak-peeks as things continue on.

Ok, back to work!

"The Creep of Crooked Creek" inspiration board

This is my Inspiration Board, mood board, Pinterest special interest board for my upcoming project which is a horror-comedy titled "The Creep of Crooked Creek".  The main antagonist (or is he the protagonist?....hmm....) is a graveyard creature who's come to feast on the living.  He's not quite a zombie, not a werewolf I don't think, probably not a vampire, nope, he's a ghoul.  He lurks around a section of the forest called Crooked Creek so he's literally the creep of Crooked Creek.  He's based on an urban legend about a scary character called the Gray Baby who's supposedly spotted in Archer Woods in the Chicago area.  I think that telling a story where his world gets twisted with a gang of petty criminals is good fodder for a pulpy horror film so that's what we're doing.  There will be plenty of blood, feisty interactions, and synthpop.  On a certain level, this feels strangely possible in Chicago anyway.  

Some of these references might seem to contradict each other but not necessarily.  

While very big cultural touchstones are, right now, exploring the fantasy-horror niche of the 1980's through the innocent, awkward wonderment of adolescence (I love "Stranger Things" too as we all should), I--in my own small, indie, budget-conscious, limited bubble of media reach--want to explore the tone (the vibe, the feeling) of the 1980's (and the early/mid 90's) through a much different (but also interesting) sociocultural avenue.  What I'm referring to is the grown-up, sleazy, druggy, corrupt dark corner of that period which absolutely feels like it's making a frequency comeback during our current moment of questionable cryptocurrencies, street crime, emotionally manipulative internet hullabaloos, OnlyFans, craigslists, and rotten-to-the-marrow political corruption.  So we'll start shooting this film in August of 2022.

"The Creep of Crooked Creek" boiled down to 1 sentence is:

A feral ghoul grapples with criminals, brats, and bad relationships.

Precisely.  Gore, frustration, money panics, jealousy, life, sex, undeath, and tacky/beautiful aesthetics all intertwining for better and for worse in early 2020's Chicago.

These are some of the things that I've been thinking about while jumbling this project together:

better late than never......

This should've been up a long, long time ago but Addovolt Productions actually has a dot com now so that's nice.

https://www.addovolt.com/

Everything that you can find on there you can find on here--it's really just the bare minimum (intentionally) and is more of a front vestibule to the videos' house (so to speak)--but it's there, it's a standard type of formality for us indie film folks, and it gets the point across.

I'll update it monthly like I typically update this blog monthly so there ya go.

chat

I recently had the pleasure of guesting on musician Justin Lamb's podcast, Friend Request, where we had a lively discussion about film, family, inspiration, the "Former Hangouts" documentary, and growing up in the Midwest.  

Listen to that episode right HERE

Thanks for having me on, Justin!

Contact and Links

Contact Derek Quint at:  addovolt@hotmail.com

You can keep up on all Addovolt projects here on our production blog as well as being connected to Derek on Facebook.  We can be contacted via our Youtube page as well.

Of course, feel free to visit our Addovolt.com website and our Addovolt Tumblr too but, truthfully, all the vids and information you can find there you can find here on this blog.

Instagram and Twitter?  Nah.

immediate future

The next couple of months will be spent promoting "Former Hangouts" a little bit and then starting pre-pro on the horror/comedy film as long as nothing too crazy happens.  Let's have a normalish 2022, everybody.

"Former Hangouts" documentary

Our film about Capone, the Midwest, and Capone in the Midwest is right HERE on YouTube.

He came from New York and ended up in Florida, but maybe Alphonse Capone was simply a Midwestern boy at heart?

"Former Hangouts" approaches established Capone-related topics and locations from fresh perspectives and angles. This casual, independent documentary serves as a daring deep-dive into details that are often overlooked during examinations of the Capone story. Full of off-the-cuff and irreverent takes, humor, and an acknowledgement of Scarface's complicated psychology, "Former Hangouts" is a celebration of the Midwest within the American lexicon, significant historic spaces, and the uncomfortable mergence of facts with folklore.

A documentary by Derek Quint, narrated by Stefanie Erdmann, Addovolt Productions 2022

Still images are below.

"Former Hangouts" features insight and research from library director Jennifer Drinka, hotel manager Dwight Hopfauf, and folklorist Jack Chavez. We had the honor and the pleasure of discussing Capone and his world with some of the very best experts on the topics at hand, including select authors. It's with immense gratitude that we had the chance to speak with them for this documentary project and their respective books--fascinating, riveting, and essential--are highly recommended. Visit their pages on Amazon:

- John J. Binder

- Robert M. Lombardo

- Chriss Lyon

- Jon Seidel

- Adam Selzer