MOVIE EVENT UPDATE

(The URL will redirect to this blog shortly. J.T. Lindroos did the awesome poster.)

Here's an update on planned events. A ton more are pending--in San Francisco, Raleigh, Tempe, Pittsburgh, etc.--and I still have to list the private parties to which interested individuals may be able to attend. But we're getting closer to a definitive list.

Jeff


Portland, OR
August 19, 7pm and 9pm showings, $6 admission
Clinton Street Theater (2522 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202 http://www.clintonsttheater.com/ EventsPhone - 503.238.8899 or Message: 503.238.5588)
A full-fledged event, with give-aways of Ambergris beer, Shriek swag, freebies from The Church, refreshments, the infamous Ambergris experimental music from Pittsburgh musician Robert Devereux. MC'd by local Portland author Jay Lake and the renowned performance poet Edward Morris, Jr., with support from 23rd Street Books.

Atlanta, GA
August 6, 6pm to 8pm
The Five Spot (1123 Euclid Avenue, NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, 404-223-1100)
Invited, Like the Fans: A Showing of Shriek: The Movie, with host, writer and publisher Daniel Read--preceding The Church’s concert at the Variety Playhouse, right around the corner from The Five Spot. Church videos will also be shown, and door prizes (including Shriek beer and Church CDs), and other freebies will be available. Members of The Church plan to make an appearance at the event, if their schedule permits.

New York City
August 10, 8pm
Irving Plaza (17 Irving Place, on the corner of 15th Street and Irving Place)
Shriek: The Movie will screen at The Church’s concert, where Tor will be giving out promotional materials for the novel.

(Additional NYC party/in-store event) Date, time and place TBA

Austin, TX
September 30, 8pm
BookPeople (603 North Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78703 http://www.bookpeople.com)
A full-fledged event at Austin’s famous bookstore,, with give-aways of Ambergris beer, Shriek swag, freebies from The Church, refreshments, and a reading by the author, in addition to a showing of the movie. Jeff VanderMeer to introduce the movie and read from the book.

Cambridge, MA
August 18, 2006, 7pm
Pandemonium Books & Games, Inc. (4 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
617-547-3721, Email general@pandemoniumbooks.com)
A showing of the Shriek movie, MC’d by Two Robert Davies. Featuring give-aways of Ambergris beer, Shriek swag, freebies from The Church, refreshments, etc.

MOVIE CAST AND CREDITS

Just an FYI post about the Shriek movie. This is an incomplete list of roles and thanks, but still perhaps of interest.

FROM KING SQUID PRODUCTIONS:
SHRIEK: THE MOVIE

Directed by Juha Lindroos
Written by Jeff VanderMeer
Produced by Jeff VanderMeer
Additional footage by Ann VanderMeer
Management/Admin by Ann VanderMeer

Cast

Elizabeth Hand - Image of Janice Shriek
Kathleen Martin - Voice of Janice Shriek
Rick Wallace - Image of Sybel
Matthew Cheney - Voice of Sybel
Steve Kilbey - Voice of Man #1
Tim Powles - Voice of Man #2
Erin Kennedy - Dead Girl (other dead people not yet determined)

Original Soundtrack by the Church

Support

Dana Martin - Photographs of Sybel as played by Rick Wallace
Elizabeth Hand - Photographs of herself
Steve Kilbey - Artwork
Scott Eagle - Artwork
Hawk Alfredson - Artwork
David Larsen - Ambergris gun
Todd Szuch - Ambergris beer

Thanks

Gill's Tavern
Cooking Vinyl
Church Management
Tor Books
Omnidawn Press

SHRIEK EVENT IN ATLANTA--Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
“INVITED, LIKE THE FANS”—
A SHOWING OF SHRIEK: THE MOVIE, WITH SOUNDTRACK BY
THE CHURCH, BEFORE THE CHURCH’S VARIETY PLAYHOUSE CONCERT

AT THE FIVE SPOT
August 6, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The Five Spot
1123 Euclid Avenue, NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
404-223-1100
Contact: Amit A. Gokhale
fivespot@bellsouth.net


Stop by the Five Spot before The Church’s concert at the Variety Playhouse (right around the corner) August 6, between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., to view Shriek, a short film with a soundtrack by The Church, written by World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. The Church are touring in support of their new CD Uninvited Like the Clouds.

Hosted by local writer and publisher Daniel Read, the event will also feature Church videos, door prizes (including Shriek beer and Church CDs), and other freebies. The movie will be shown at least twice: at 6:15 p.m. and again at 7:15 p.m. Members of The Church plan to make an appearance at the event, if their schedule permits.
Get to the Five Spot early to eat dinner and stay for the movie before going on to the concert. The event is free and open to the public. The Five Spot is one of Atlanta’s favorite bars, featuring great food and excellent entertainment. It is a smoke-free and open environment.

The film is based on VanderMeer's new novel Shriek: An Afterword, set in his popular surreal city of Ambergris. VanderMeer's previous work has made the year's best lists of Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly, LA Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many more. He has been called “the best fantasy writer of his generation”.

"Being able to get The Church for the soundtrack is a great example of synergy," VanderMeer said. "I wrote the novel while listening to The Church's entire catalogue, so for them to turn around and agree to do the music fit the movie perfectly."

According to Steve Kilbey from The Church, "It's great to make music that'll be heard along with something visual. Collaborating with media other than music sparks ideas for our own music, too."

The Atlanta showing is one of 15 such events across the U.S. in August, including film release parties in New York City, at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, the Garfield Artworks in Pittsburgh, The Colony Theater in Raleigh (tentative), and the Variety Theater in San Francisco.

Directed by Finnish director Juha Lindroos, a founding member of the Helsinki 19, Shriek runs 14 minutes long and will be shown with the humorous short A Rough Guide to Ambergris. Steve Kilbey and Tim Powles from The Church contributed two voices for the film, while noted author Elizabeth Hand is the image of character Janice Shriek.

Over the next year, Shriek will be shown in indie theaters, at film festivals, bookstore venues, art galleries, and eventually be available on the internet. International events are already planned for Lisbon, Helsinki, London, and Berlin.

For more information on the film and Jeff VanderMeer, visit:
http://www.shriekthemovie.blogspot.com
http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/city/

For more information on The Church, visit:
http://www.thechurchband.com

PROGRESS AND SOUND FILE

Juha Lindroos has been working non-stop on the movie, and I'll see a rough cut of it by around July 4th, after which tweaking and honing will occur. As I've probably mentioned, it's a combination of live action, still photography, and other things.

Juha's wife Kathleen has voiced Janice Shriek and I've heard some of the voice-over now and am really really pleased. Everyone will have a different idea of how Janice speaks, but this is a variation that works for me very well. Kathleen is an excellent actress who has been in plays with William Macy, among others.

Here's a small sample. You may need Windows media player.

Jeff

EVENT UPDATE

Fourteen or fifteen Shriek movie parties are planned from August through October, most to be held the weekend of August 19th (a week or two after Shriek: An Afterword hits bookstores). These parties will be held in Atlanta GA, Cambridge MA, Columbia SC, Des Moines IA, New York City, Orlando FL, Osceola IN, Philadelphia PA, Pittsburgh PA, Portland OR, Raleigh NC, San Francisco CA, Tallahassee FL, and Tempe AZ. I'll have details shortly on the public and private events.

One public showing just finalized that I can now announce is in Atlanta, Georgia:

Invited, Like the Fans: A Showing of Shriek: The Movie, with Soundtrack by the Church
August 6, 2006, 6pm to 8pm at The Five Spot (1123 Euclid Avenue, NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, 404-223-1100)
Stop by the Five Spot before The Church’s concert at the Variety Playhouse (right around the corner) to view Shriek, a short film with a soundtrack by The Church, written by World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. Also, Church videos, door prizes (including Shriek beer and Church CDs), and other freebies. Check it out before the concert. With host, writer and publisher Daniel Read.

It's not yet clear if members of The Church will stop by for the event or not. But I hope to soon announce Shriek movie events that will feature appearances by The Church.

And here is extended information on the Portland, Oregon, event at the Clinton Street Theater. Thanks to Edward Morris Jr and Jay Lake for their kick-ass efforts.

Join us for a one-night-only screening of SHRIEK - the new film based on the fantasy novel by Jeff VanderMeer, set in his popular imaginary city of Ambergris. A full-fledged event, with give-aways of Ambergris beer, Shriek swag, freebies from The Church, refreshments, the infamous Ambergris experimental music from Pittsburgh musician Robert Devereux. MC'd by local Portland author Jay Lake and the tireless Edward Morris, Jr., with support from 23rd Street Books.

USA, 2006
14 minutes

A city at war with itself. A night beyond imagining. And...aftermath.

Set in the classic imaginary city of Ambergris, Shriek is based on World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer's critically acclaimed novel of the same name. With an original soundtrack by the legendary art-rock band The Church. Directed by Finnish director Juha Lindroos, a member of the Helsinki 19. (With a bonus showing of the short "A Rough Guide to Ambergris," a humorous walking tour of an imaginary city and a video message from Jeff VanderMeer and excerpt from his upcoming documentary.)

Edward has been on local Portland radio shows promoting the event and postering the entire city. Major kudos to Mr. Morris.

Jeff

TROUBLE WITH THE COPS...ALMOST

Erin playing "Happy Dead Girl"--one for the blooper reel

Ann went off with our daughter Erin, her boyfriend John, and James, a friend of theirs, to shoot some additional footage to give the director Juha Lindroos a few extra options while editing the movie.

The scene involves two people hunched over a body in the middle of rubble, during the Ambergrisian War of the Houses. So they found a nice rubble-strewn, grass-sticking-through-pavement-crumbling-building-in-background area and set up for the shot. Erin and John were to hunch over James, who would play the dead guy, and then Ann would do three or four different approach shots: running at them from a distance, walking at them from a distance, and then strapping the camera to a skateboard and getting a ground-level view, closing in fast.

Unfortunately, as they were setting up, a cop drove by and thought that what was going down was a murder--James was being too good a dead guy and Erin and John apparently looked too predatory. So Ann had to quickly run over before the cop called in back-up and James the Dead Guy had to quickly rise from the dead to reassure him no crime was being committed (except the possible crime against Art).

Ann still managed to get the shoot done and then take some stills of all three for possible consideration for the photos of dead people part of the movie.

Really, the funniest part of all this is that James didn't even know what he'd been roped into until they all go over to our house. He'd thought he was going to have to help John move furniture or something. Nope--we need you to play a dead guy, we said. "Oh--no problem," he said. "I've got lots of experience. Or near experience."

This continues to be an interesting experience. And it was certainly a great story for father's day--Stepfather almost gets daughter in trouble with cops...

Jeff

MOVIE CASTING UPDATE

The Shriek movie is a mix of still photography and live-action. Yesterday, photographer Dana Martin shot photos of actor Rick Wallace, local to Tallahassee, and my wife Ann took video footage.




It's funny how stuff looks with a white screen behind it.




Er, the cat snuck into this shot. Don't think we'll be using it.

In other news, Elizabeth Hand, by way of photographs, has agreed to be the image of Janice Shriek in the movie. (The voice-over for Janice is being done by the director Juha Lindroos' wife, who has been in movies, etc.) Very excited about that!

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

You Want Some Dead People?

Yes. For the war sequences in the Shriek movie, we could use a few stiffs. Literally, headshots of dead people. But not real dead people--of live people acting dead. Which doesn't take much. Casualties pulled from the rubble.

Where and How Do I Post My Photo?

I've set up a thread on my Night Shade message board where you can post a photo of your dead self for possible use in the movie.

As it says on the thread, to post a photo, just copy-and-paste this:

\image{Text description}

and you'll be prompted to upload your dead self. (You don't need to enter anything in the text description part. Just leave it as is.)

Try to make sure the jpegs you post to the thread aren't too big--either in file size or height and width, or it'll be hard to see them.

You will be emailing the original high-quality digital photo (at least we hope it's high-quality) to the director of the movie if your dead face is chosen...

Finally, make sure to include your email with the posted photo so we can contact you.

What does a headshot of a dead person look like?

Generally, that would mean eyes shut and expression slack. If you want to be adventurous and try for the dead-but-eyes-open look, that's cool. Just be sure you can pull it off. Your live self better look dead. If your shirt is showing in the shot, it should be nondescript without any logo or anything showing. Dark solids are best. Also, these shots tend to look best if you're lying down and someone is taking the photo from above. Best not to include anything below shoulders or chest. No cheesy makeup to show head wounds or what not, although if you wanna try to look bruised or scarred or something, go for it. (On our end, it's amazing what photoshop can do...)

What's the deadline?

We'll consider dead shots of your dead self for the next week. Who knows? You might end up dead in a war in Ambergris.

What do I get for being dead?

You'll get a free copy of the movie on DVD and some other freebies if your shot makes the movie. (This is a low-budget production.) You'll also get a film credit as a dead person. I'll probably post all the headshots on my blog, regardless of who makes the movie, at the end of this experiment. That's a lot of dead people.

JeffV

SAMPLES FROM THE CHURCH'S SOUNDTRACK

Here are a couple of short samples from the Church music soundtrack for the Shriek movie. They sent a total of 48 minutes of music. The whole thing is totally fucking brilliant--beautiful and light where it needs to be, and brutal and sharp and cutting where it needs to be. The soundtrack's absolutely and utterly awesome. I've been paralyzed half the night just listening to this and thinking, "This thing's really going to come together." It's primo soundtrack music, but it also stands on its own--and the full 50 minutes is like a wonderful soundtrack to the whole novel or something.


Calm Before the Storm

Intense Build

Jeff