The Battery

Most of our “crew” has known each other for ages.  And we wear many hats.  But there are only so many hats you can wear on a set before the neighborhood children start pointing and laughing and singing “hathead, hathead, look at all those hats!”, while double-dutching on the sidewalk near a gushing fire extinguisher in the sticky thick of August, before ultimately scattering in fear at your approaching, segmented, indescribably horrifying, elongated Cthulhu-esque shadow.  

You know, because of all those hats on your head.

So we needed a sound guy.  Below is our original Craigslist call:

O. hannah Films is seeking an on-set sound mixer for a micro-budget horror feature. The film will be shot over 16 days in early August, in Kent, CT.

Experience is necessary, Equipment a plus.

This will be an intimate, hot, sticky, sweaty, bloody, grueling affair, shot almost entirely in the woods near Kent Falls. Cigarettes, Sandwiches, Coffee, low pay and a place to lay your head will be provided. Along with an overwhelming sense of pride, accomplishment, and teamwork.

Only serious applicants, who don’t mind dirt and bug bites, need apply.

Applicant MUST BE AVAILABLE for the ENTIRE SHOOT.

Luckily, Mister Nick Bohun was–and remains–crazy enough to think that on chicken-scratch and with cuts and scrapes is an acceptable, even preferable, way to work. And as it turned out, he is also fairly skilled in the art of wearing multiple hats.  If you need a sound guy/all around on-set problem solver, look him up.  

If you don’t, then do check out his new e.p., The Hungry and the Hunted.  If tags including, experimental, blues, downtempo, noise, nonsense, soundscape, and weird; or song titles like Rat Dance do anything for you, then it just might be your jam.

It’s not an easy thing, getting great music for a no-budget movie.  Like every other aspect of the process–from funding on through post-production–it takes a mix of generosity, passion for the project, and an understanding that the only way to create something special on scant resources is through collaboration.  Oftentimes the only compensation for participating, is a faint swell of pride at seeing how your art, or skill, or tireless effort, contributes to the whole.  

In the case of the following generous, and blisteringly talented musicians, the best we can do at this juncture is try to open a few new ears to their efforts.

All three of these artists will have songs featured in the The Battery.

WISE BLOOD

From Pitchfork: 

“Wise Blood is Chris Laufman, a young guy who lives in Pittsburgh and makes woozy, inward pop songs out of other people’s music. Laufman’s voice is usually the only original element in Wise Blood’s songs. But Laufman’s sample manipulation can turn something like the brontosaurus-stomp drums from Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” into just one element of a funky swirl of a track.”

You can download an E.P at his bandcamp page here for five bucks!  He also has a newer E.P. called These Wings, available on iTunes.

The Parlor (formerly known as We Are Jeneric)

Their Story: 

Many moons ago Eric met Jen in the elevator of a college dormitory.  Now, more than a decade later their music is inspired by the old haunted farmhouse in which they live and the ghosts who occasionally serenade them to sleep.  They are influenced by the sound of church bells, by Jen’s canned apple chutney, and by the wild animals that roam their farmland…

You can grab their brand new album Our Day in the Sun by clicking on these underlined words and be sure to check out these three fantastic earlier albums recorded under their previous moniker, We Are Jeneric.

Chris Eaton, and Rock Plaza Central

What to say about Rock Plaza Central…  They’ve been one of my favorite bands for going on five years now.  I was lucky enough to have seen them live (before their indefinite break from touring) at least a half dozen times, hoofing it in to the city from Connecticut each time they rode through.

When we released our locations video last summer as a teaser, it featured two Rock Plaza Central songs and we noted it in a Twitter post.  Chris Eaton, lead singer of the band, caught wind of it, seemed delighted, and started a conversation that eventually led to him actually recording an original cover of Claude Ely’s classic song Ain’t No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down), specifically for the film.

It was an incredibly gracious gesture from a busy man, to a group of shoestring filmmakers he has never met; a perfect example of the way artists and musicians and filmmakers can connect and collaborate through social networking across the world…

and it plays like gangbusters.

You can buy both of the band’s most recent albums Are We Not Horses and At the Moment of Our Most Needing… on iTunes or at Amazon.  They are both magnificent, lush, gorgeous, haunting, must-own records; each worthy of a song by song dissection that I haven’t the words to write.

There is another, equally excellent record called The World Was Hell to Us that I’m not sure where you can purchase, but I suggest you follow Chris on Twitter or friend him on Facebook so you can politely hound him to sell you a copy.

So please folks, friends, family; shell out a couple clams for these incredible musicians, if for no other reason than to say, with your own hard-earned money, that you appreciate artists who selflessly offer their own work, to help facilitate the goals and dreams and work of others.  Our movie wouldn’t be near as good as it is without their contributions.

Just a shout in the storm here to let everyone–or anyone–know that despite an eerie quiet around these parts lately, we have been working on finishing the film.  A little over a week ago in fact, in the hot bowels of Florida in February, we had a marathon editing session, during which we delicately pared the movie down from a portly two hours and nine minutes, to a lean hour forty-five.  We are now only a few minor tweaks away from a picture lock.  

Then sound and color and music.  Then you.  Thanks for sticking with us.