Addovolt Explorations: White City, Emerald City

Majestic towers.  Shady politicians.  Strangers from Kansas......

Find out what else Chicago has in common with the Land of Oz as actor Michael Moody narrates a walk through Oz Park.

This quick documentary is HERE on YouTube.

More about the Addovolt Explorations series is HERE.

Super Fancy

Thank you to M.F.L. for sending me this picture that he took at Hearst Castle.  I'm gonna use it because it's perfect!  It's golden, gloomy, and it has a nice pair of booty cheeks.  Anyway, thanks Matt.

When we do the feature length horror film at the end of 2017/early 2018, yes, I'll do a website for that.  Because that's a product and will be its own thing.

In the meantime, though, it's more music videos and short films.  I feel like this blog is fine for the moment as our online headquarters.  Blogs are old hat at this point in Internetia Land but, oh well.  It's fine for now.  I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon every time some new and cute platform poops itself out for everyone to enjoy for a while (for example, we didn't get onboard the Vine ship when that was happening and, now that that ship has sailed, we're totally okay with letting that go; bon voyage).  We'll take things project by project and do what makes sense (for this specific production company which has a different personality type than other groups of our ilk) as things develop. 

We have a Tumblr account now!  Wow!

It's HERE

I actually like Tumblr a lot, and it's conductive to videos, so this makes sense.  I realize that everybody loves Tumblr because of the porn factor (of course) but I love it because it's very effectively artsy when done by the right creators and curators.  There are some seriously beautiful, emotionally engaging Tumblrs out there.  But mine isn't beautiful, per se, it's just a projection screen.  Which is fine.

I'm thinking about doing Instagram (I understand why people are into it, I get it) which would probably be a good idea once that horror film product is going to be pushed next year.  Yeah, I probably should do that.  We'll get to it later (....?.....[side-eye]).

I have a secret to tell you:

I don't love social media.  I love media (obviously), and I love socializing with people face-to-face, but I'm not a social media guy.  But I have to do it to some degree because I work in media and because it's 2017.  So I have to at least a little bit.  Whether I like it or not.  But I also don't want to be cornball or phony when it comes to social media (I feel like we're all dealing with that enough as it is, right folks?) so I have to reconcile those platforms in ways that don't completely contradict how I go about things or what our films are about (which is empowering the individual rather than drowning in the collective).

No Twitter though.  Twitter isn't my cup of tea.  I know that everything is SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA right now (will that be slowing down soon.....?......maybe a little bit.....?) but I'm gonna have to draw the line at Twitter.  Can't do it.  Doesn't suit my personality.  Not even to a minute degree.

I don't know what kind of website we'll cook up for the horror film, or what it will be like, but I just want some kind of simple, straightforward, unannoying website.  Nothing too trendy.

Deepspacepilots "Nebulizer" music video press release

Deepspacepilots:  Andre Almaraz, Ronald Strojny, and Bill Shanklin.

Chicago drone rock 3-piece, Deepspacepilots, have released a music video for their single "Nebulizer" from their most recent album, Point of No Return (2016).

Deepspacepilots features singer/guitarist Ronald Strojny, bassist Andre Almaraz, and drummer Bill Shanklin.

"The band wanted a video for their song 'Nebulizer' and suggested that it should have some kind of extraterrestrial storyline.  So we thought up a narrative with an inverse alien abduction done by a group of manipulative scientists," said the video's director, Derek Quint.  "Someone gets pregnant and there's a cover-up.  The alien protagonist gets sucked into some people problems on Earth right from the get-go which, in my imagination, is probably what would happen anyway."

The video for "Nebulizer" is HERE.  Deepspacepilots music and information is on their Bandcamp page.

all photos on this page by Derek Quint

Deepspacepilots "Nebulizer" music video

The music video for "Nebulizer" from Deepspacepilots Point of No Return album (2016) is right HERE

An unfortunate cosmonaut from another planet gets "rescued" by a group of extremely sketchy scientists.  Basically, don't rely on the kindness of strangers especially when some of them are addicts, opportunists, bureaucrats, and/or religiously delusional.  That's a universal message, I think.

The "Nebulizer" music video has been featured on Radio One Chicago, Rockodrome, Sounds from the Underground, Fuzz FM, and Stoner Mountain.

Get more of Deepspacepilots by visiting their Bandcamp page.

Stills from this project are below.

"October Sketches" short film

"October Sketches", primarily a visual piece, tells a story about a young artist with an overactive imagination. 

The film, inspired by Ashley Sant's Icari Hollow concept, was produced to serve as a collection of B-roll visuals.  Sant's vision of Icari Hollow (plus a pic bunch from this project) is explored HERE.

"October Sketches", on its own, is a charmingly surreal short movie--a lightly spooky children's film, really--about fantasy, fear, and creation.  Watch it on Youtube right HERE.

claiming land for Icari Hollow

Updated information HERE

A friend of mine who's an author, Ashley Sant, asked me if I wanted to collaborate with her on an idea about launching a festival:  an October convergence of vampires, werekin (werewolves, weredeer, weredragons, you get it, part-human/part-animal beings), fairies, and witches.  These magical supernaturals come from all corners of the known world and some come from dimensions that we've never even heard of!  Victorian insect-people,  medieval warlocks, art deco elves, and some glamorous undead who just can't seem to let go of their 18th century finery (hey, everyone can be sentimental sometimes).  These spooks originate from a full spectrum of time periods so why should they hide it?

The essentials of the concept:

Outside.  Costumes.  Vendors and artisans selling amazing gear, products, and original works.  Food.  Performances.  Contests.  Characters interacting with guests.  Different factions of freaky entities mingling with each other.  Fun for the whole family.  An interesting place to take friends, boyfriends, girlfriends.  Or to go solo and soak it all in.  All ages.  Autumnal fantasy, not horror.

The idea is incredible; it was fun teaming up with Ashley to go on that journey.

The truth of the matter is that I love Ashley Sant's concepts.  She's a great storyteller with a great creative mind, and a wonderful person, so I was happy to be included in the process of idea-building.

Yes, the name of Ms. Sant's festival is Icari Hollow.  "Hollow" rubs beautifully with "Halloween" and it's a nod to haunt-ridden, classic places like Sleepy Hollow.  "Icari" is a word relating to the universe of her characters, serving as a reference to the legend of Icarus.  Icari are what the legion of animal-people are called.  The werecats, werebirds, werelizards, etc. are the Icari and, according to Sant's narrative, they're the ones running the festival, inviting humans to celebrate the season alongside the supernaturals.  Pre-written dramas ensue, spectacles take place, delicious food is eaten, costumes worn, and goods exchange hands.  I'm 100% for it.

Ashley and I created videos to present a sort of visual and tonal taste of the Icari Festival concept, to give a samples of what kinds of characters guests encounter.

A short film, called "October Sketches", is inspired by Ashley's concept.  The film toys with the idea of creativity/fantasy/phantoms of the collective imagination--the vampires, witches, fairies, and werebeasts lurking in all of our heads.  "October Sketches" is a series of drawings (and a loose narrative) via film as much as marker on paper.  Sketching can be done in all kinds of ways, whether it's poetry, songwriting, or--yes--filmmaking.  The "October Sketches" short film, which is right HERE, was created to present visual samples and as a kind of storytelling B-role.

Spooky, enchanting, and intriguing:  Yes

Terror and splattering brains:  No

Autumnal fantasy, not horror.

Could things be a bit.....unnerving?  Chilling?  Thrilling?  Definitely!

But, no, no chainsaws and dripping viscera.  Ashley and I do love that kind of stuff when it comes to slasher films and other people's Halloween events........but gore is off the menu for this concept.  Family-friendly.  No jump scares, no uncles having heart attacks.

Ashley's slogan, that she whipped up the other day:

"Let Us Enchant You...."

Sounds good to me.

Spooky Nice

We had the pleasure, earlier this year, of being featured on some of the web's very best paranormal studies and folklore sites for our "Spirits of Detroit" short documentary.  Here at Addovolt we want to send some very Special Thank You!'s to Mysterious Heartland, The Moonlit Road, Timothy Yohe at Paranormal Insights, and Unearthly News.