BLAIR WITCH co-director’s next film going straight-to-DVD! PART V
PART I - PART II - PART III - PART IV
2006 will go down as one of the worse years of my professional life. There isn’t any aspect of my abilities that I haven’t completely doubted this year. There were a lot of dark paths that I went down in 2006, a lot of sleepless nights.
Personally, things couldn’t have been better. My family, friends and especially my partners are responsible for me being able to get through it with only some sleeping problems and three or so tiny ulcers in my stomach.
Gregg, Rob, Mike, Jamie, Bob, Jeff and Matt have been great. They know I’m disappointed but they all feel proud of the film and have shown nothing but total support for what I’ve been going through.
One day after some meeting in New York, Gregg told me Γ’β¬ΕALTERED doesn’t suck. We made a good film. And even if you think it sucks, great directors make bad films sometimes. No one is batting 1000.Γ’β¬Β
I don’t think the film sucks. I really don’t. I LOVED this film before December of last year, before all the screenings. But the road since then has been very hard and nothing is quite as painful as people not digging my work. It’s like people not loving your kids. It’s hard, man, and I don’t know how artists do it, to tell you the truth. It’s one of these things that I’ve examined in myself this year wondering if my skin was tough enough to keep going through this shit with every film. The jury is still out on that one.
At this point, less than a week until the release of the film, I honestly just want to be done with ALTERED. I want to move on. What reaction do I expect? Well, some people will dig it, some people will think it’s all right, and some people will hate it. What else can I say? Maybe it’ll do great on DVD. Maybe it’ll flop.
We’re not angry at FOCUS or ROGUE or UNIVERSAL or anyone on that side of the equation. They’ve been nothing but fair and very cool to us and as great a partner as we’ll ever get as a studio is concerned. After our hardships with ARTISAN after BLAIR WITCH blew up, we really appreciate the fact that they’ve always treated us with the utmost respect. They did what they needed to do with ALTERED and if we were in their shoes, we would’ve done the same thing. We really hope to make more films with them.
We on the ALTERED side of things all believe in the film. Last month, we began our own little marketing campaign with UNIVERSAL’S (who is distributing the film on DVD) approval and paid for with our own money. We’ve all been working hard on it, we still want to get the film out there to as many people as possible, we still support the film 100%.
But we’re not hiding from the fact that everyone, including ourselves, expected that this film was going to go theatrical. I mean, how can you go from one of the biggest INDIE successes of all time to a straight-to-DVD release? How?
Well, like this. We just did it, folks, and even though pretty much every word of these five blogs was painful to write, we’re not afraid to talk about it, because in the end, it’s just another movie.
DonΓ’β¬β’t get me wrong, I love ALTERED. I think itΓ’β¬β’s a fine piece of work and fun as shit and IΓ’β¬β’m really proud of the work all my collaborators and I did on the film. But itΓ’β¬β’s just my next film. My next film after a tiny, 30K, shot on HI-8 feature that happened to become THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.
My partners and I will make more films. We’re already working on a few things for next year, including a slate of films we hope to shoot in China. Gregg will direct one. I will direct one. Bob and Matt are involved already. I’m writing my script with Jamie. Rob, Mike and Andy are ready to get involved again as soon as their time comes. We’re all still together. The band hasn’t broken up.
ALTERED has taught me many things, but the biggest lesson I learned is that this is the group of people I want to continue to make films with. I couldn’t have asked for a better filmmaking family. Talented and smart and sexy as hell, too.
I ain’t no SCORCESE, people, and these guys know that and still want to make films with me. That’s what family is all about, isn’t it?
-ed
December 15th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Randomly happened on this post and just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated the honesty you put into this. Self-doubt in an artist is what keeps us up at nights. We want to create and contribute something “good” otherwise why continue to kill ourselves in this tough industry to only be mediocre?
I haven’t seen Altered but I will be looking it up. Congratulations on your successes so far and here’s to many more.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
One thing that I’ve come to appreciate about you is your honesty and how down to earth you are. In the past year, I’ve met and worked with a lot of people who’s ego’s are so big, you’d think their last movie grossed at least half of what TBWP did… when they’ve still to this day have never made a movie.
This was your first movie with a real budget. Use it as a learning experience. 2007 is going to be the year of the SANCHEZ! Just NEVER give up your dream.
Take a look at this video http://youtube.com/watch?v=F5uHwzKx5Zs
That guy ended up becoming one of the top directors today… Just take it one at a time. Manabal-Wak and Faceless are going to be great if you just keep on chugging and learning as you continue on.
KEEP THE FAITH ALIVE!!
-Darren
December 15th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
While it sucks that things work out the way they do sometimes, it always works out in the end.
Hang in there, move on and have fun.
December 16th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
BWP was just too though an act to follow.
That’s all there is to it.
December 16th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Failure sweetens eventual success.
“I ainΓ’β¬β’t no SCORCESE, people, and these guys know that and still want to make films with me.”
Why would you say that in your blog? Your first film became one of the high grossing independent movies ever. Why would you say this? Strive to be the best, spit in the face of rejection, and continue creating until you find the inspiration to create your masterpiece. You could be better then scorcese, but not with that attitude. There is a myth about talent being genetically implanted in the select few, BULL SHIT. Work harder, work harder, work harder, devote everything to your passion and anyone can produce a masterpiece, it just won’t happen overnight, the question is how bad do you want it?
December 17th, 2006 at 10:36 am
man, you need a healthy dose of livia soprano: “POOR YOU!”
December 18th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Hollywood, as through my experiences as a screenwriter, is a lot like a 9 year old girl. When she get’s a crush on you, it’s total and forever and… lasts for 10 minutes.
Your story is too friggin’ typical. Get over it. Move on. Adapt.
December 19th, 2006 at 3:21 am
it’s nice to read the thoughts of a director, including the extremely personal ones. hey, you win some, you lose some - but i can tell everyone appreciates your honesty and openness about the situation. thanks to your own marketing campaign, i found your site, and i plan on seeing the movie tomorrow. don’t lose sleep and don’t stop doing what you love. hope to see your name again.
d
January 2nd, 2007 at 4:09 am
I just watched ALTERED. Credits rolled twenty minutes ago. Just read your blogs to find out why the movie didn’t make it to theaters. Honestly I didn’t want to watch it because of the “FROM THE DIRECTOR OF BLAIR WITCH” in giant letters on the cover… I hated The Blair Witch Project immensely. Altered, however, was really great and you were right to not give up on the film. Keep up the good work and may future projects be even better.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:08 pm
hello, I’m andrew, from singapore, not sure if you have heard of my little country. But I saw Altered last night, and I must say that I was very impressed! I was surprised to learn that your movie was relegated to dvd because honestly, i thought the concept was VERY COOL. And it allowed you to do suspense in one location, which i thought, was very clever. Maybe you guys should consider distributing to the asian market, because we, in asia, love our horror. Personally, i like saw, hostel, and yes, i love altered as well.
Plus. I am a writer as well, trying to hawk my horror script about pontianaks - ( this is a creature which eats foetuses to keep alive). I symphatise and empathize with you totally.
great to hear you are shooting in china, will it be horror?
is there a chance of you dropping by singapore in the future to collaborate on something??
thank you so much for doing altered. I had a blast watching it. Honest. I was creeped out. I was laughed. I ABSOLUTELY ADORED that guts being pulled out scene.
keep it up, man. keep them hororr flicks coming.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:04 am
[...] PART V ALTERED MYSPACE ALIENPAYBACK YOUTUBE [...]
July 17th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Your honesty is refreshing and speaks well of you as a person and filmmaker. I’m going to check out ALTERED immediately. I adore Mike Williams and would love to see him in anything. The film summer of 99 was one of the greatest thanks to BWP. You earned your place in history.
peace.
July 25th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I bought ‘Altered’ the minute it came available in the UK and I just wanted to let you know I liked it a lot. I MEAN A LOT! Gj man and good luck with ‘Seventh Moon’. It’s really been cool reading your blog at myspace. It seems you had great time in Hong Kong.
My best wishes for everybody at Haxan!
-Frecius
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:57 am
Dude, i dunno if this will mean much to you (or if you’ll even get round to reading it, this may be an ancient blog)…but i bought Altered on a whim 3 days ago, for no reason other than i just liked the premise of the story, it arrived this morning and i watched it a couple of hours ago (before i got to this page in a round-about way after searching Altered on IMDB just to read others opinions)…
I honestly was raving about this movie after i watched it, its become one of my favorite horror movies of all time…fuck people giving it a poor rating, Altered is a testament to how a film maker and crew with real belief in their work can created a GOOD modern horror movie to surpass the trash that Hostel and the like have served up lately.
Good on you man, you’ve created a movie that is absolutely brilliant and i’ve made 6 good friends go out and hire it tonight, 5 of who raved about it and 1 of who liked it but they aren’t even a fan of horror so what can you expect.
Keep it up man, it might not make you millions but there are the few that i’m among that will come back and watch this movie again and again, you’re an honest guy but you’ve created a great movie in Altered, don’t be down about anything man!
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am
You have no idea how much you’ve helped me out with this comment, Mike. Lifted me out of a terrible rut I was in after a bad day of prep.
Thanks for being a fan at a time when I desperately needed one.
Peace, my friend.
-ed
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I am ordinarily not scared by movies AT ALL, but “Altered” scared the crap out of me. After renting it, I was excited to see it for sale, so I bought it. I like the pacing, the scary premise, but what really struck me is the caliber of the acting. Everyone did an excellent job, very realistic. The female character was great. Very believable. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a lot more of her. I would have loved to have seen this on the big screen.
Thank you for this great movie. It is definitely one of my all-time favorite horror movies (I think my top favorite is “The Hunger” with David Bowie). Looking forward to seeing more of your films in the future. I will watch/buy anything you put out.