From the NightShift: Life on ‘Slime City’

From a point somewhere around Thanksgiving last year I have been working on SLIME CITY MASSACRE. I had met Greg Lamberson a few years before that, but I really didn’t know that much about him other than he had made some horror movies while in New York City and he was a writer.

I think the only reason I knew of the Johnny Gruesome video was that I knew one of the actresses in it. I ran into him at both Rotten Jack’s Creepshows and had talked with him a little when we were carrying things out the second year. I found out he had written a book on movie making CHEAP SCARES and was interested in reviewing it and found I really liked his writing style. He seemed more intelligent than the average horror personality, which made me finally sit down with SLIME CITY. The movie was very over the top, and campy and I could pick holes in it if I wanted to but I found I really just wanted to enjoy it.

There is just a feel, a style that makes you want to pay attention and accept it for what it is. When Greg asked for people to help with SLIME CITY MASSACRE I didn’t think twice but asked him what I could do to help. I was an actor so of course I was hoping for a juicy role but to my surprise was asked to help with the local casting. Now that I was a casting director I couldn’t beg for a part I had to see if I got one and if I didn’t well I still worked on casting so it was something. I read the script and found out I really liked it, it was just good writing and I really wanted to help put it on the screen. I watched as out of town roles became local roles and then back again. I saw how the script changed in little ways and how the people linked with it changed over time.

The script started with quite a bit of nudity and then cut back in some areas and grew in others. I did screen tests on some local actors and actresses, and watched Greg decide some casting by a good look or a quality that I may have missed. The crew working on the project changed as well. A makeup man who was linked to it before I came on board ended up losing his job and another makeup man became the supervisor of the team.

There was enough drama between the makeup men to have made a very interesting reality TV show. I thought another of our crew was heading for the door when he ended up stepping up in a lot of different ways and surprising people how much work he really did.

Some very interesting out of town actors and actresses signed on and a local favorite of mine became one of the major characters in the piece. I got offered and accepted the part of Roman who was in the original movie played by a very different actor but it had some nice lines and worked with some of the cast I was hoping to work with and I look better in Black and White anyway. We are on the edge of shooting and there are more stories to live through the next month.

I will be video taking behind the scenes, and doing some photography as well being the first AD. This should be an adventure…