Festivals, that’s who.  Elder Sign, specifically.  We are proud to announce the our film will appear in nine festivals this fall.  We don’t have time slots for all fests but we will update as information becomes available.  In the meantime, try and check out a festival and support you local genre films!

-  Fantastic Fest,  Friday, September 25, at 11:59 PM, and Wednesday, September 30, at  9:30 PM.  Both screenings are with Jake West’s “Doghouse”

-  ShockerFest International Film Festival, Saturday, September 26, at 12:30 PM

- The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu Con, October 2, 3, 4, 2009, Hollywood Theatre, Portland Oregon

- The Eerie Horror Fest, October 8 to 11

-  The International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival, October 15 to 18

-  The Terror Film Festival, Friday, October 23, at 1:30 PM

-  The Sacramento Horror Film Festival, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25TH, at 3 PM

-  The Spooky Movie 2009, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25,  CINEMA ARTS THEATRE (FAIRFAX), 12:30 PM

-  The Horror UK 28 Hours Later Halloween Film Festival, Saturday, October 31, at 6:20 PM

Last week we finished shooting the third HPL inspired short in our unholy trinity.  A good time was has by all and the Necronomicon was refined and polished (the prop that is)  Let’s call it a dry run for its feature film debut.

The short should be finished in a couple of weeks and then it’s off to the internets.  And that’s it for our short films.  But as the days get shorter the films get longer as we begin production on our first feature Drawing Baphomet.

Keep on Ftaghn,

Joseph Nanni

Jim offers some friendly advice.

The big bad book changes hands.

Dan holds 'the book' heavy with forbidden knowledge.

The good people at the Lovecraft News Network interviewed me here..  All I can say is of all the news networks out there, LNN is the most fair and balanced.  What is the LNN, you ask?  Well they are this:

What is the LNN?

Throw your horns in the air, wave ‘em around like you just don’t care.  Elder Sign has been offically selected to screen during Dragon*Con in the dirty ATLA between September 4 and 7.  If you’re down on a hardcore genre tip or like to trick out your moma’s wig for some cosplay then this con better be in yo’ PDA.

Fantasia is the name of a lot of things.  It is also the name of North America’s premire genre festival – their website says so.  And we are very excited to announce that Elder Sign will be having its North American big screen premire at this year’s show.  The work that shows at Fantasia is the very kind of stuff that inspires us to make shorts like Elder Sign, and plus I was born in Montreal.  We’ll get back to you with the dates.

Joseph Nanni

If you find yourself in Uruguay from May 15 to 22 the check out Montevideo Fantastico. The Festival is the only event in Uruguay specialized in horror, sci-fi, fantastic and bizarre films. Its objective is to divulge once a year independent and generally low budget productions that are frequently considered as part of a “minor genre” and who almost never have accesss to commercial and even cultural circuits.  And Casting Call of Cthulhu will be there.  We still got it.

Short Film Festival season is here again and this time out we’ve descended all the way into madness by printing, cutting, assembling, and hand-finishing some 100 plus pieces, each requiring 60 steps to complete. We assume that the average festival in-box is filled with a multitude of hard mailers and bubble-lined manilla envelopes which are torn open an emptied at random and the contents ranked, filed and cued for review. Unhappy to just add to the heap we decided to do something different, after all, we sacrifice our heart, soul, and mind for our work so to just put it in a jewel case and drop it in the post seems like its own brand of insanity. So we constructed 50 pieces for submission and another 50 to offer to our fans which will help cover the production cost and festival fees. This is really about the packaging as both films are available all over the internet in high quality.  Regardless, the DVD features Elder Sign (2 min 14) and Casting Call of Cthulhu (9 min 12).
We were inspired by a voice from beyond the stars and outside reason . . . and the Farrow design for Spiritualized’ Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, a brilliant album, brilliantly packaged.
The package was designed by Art Director Gints Bruveris and assembled by Joseph Nanni as follows:

First, each box flat is cut from a single 11×17 sheet, which has to be individually fed into the printer ’cause it is 100 lb paper.  Each piece has 26 cuts.

The box flat is then scored.  Each piece has 14 folds.

The scored box is then assembled with a single piece of two-sided tape.  Simples!

The inner sleeve is then cut from a piece of heavy tracing paper which looks and feels just like Band-Aid packaging. There are four cuts.

The inner sleeve is then folded.

The pill design label is placed on the DVD.

Each DVD has to have a tracking number.  This is hand written as each show has a different code.

The DVD is then sealed in the sleeve with three pieces of two sided tape for that “sterile” look and feel.

The sealed sleeve is dropped in the box and presto . . .

. . . packaging magic!

Finally, the piece is dropped in the mail and into the hands of the gods . . . where it WILL be judged.

If you are interested in owning one click here.  The package costs $15.00 and features both Elder Sign and Casting Call of Cthulhu.

More than 50, 000 people have seen Elder Sign and by all accounts people seem to like it.  This is great news.  So while you’re clickin’ and surfin’ why not head over to IMDB  and do some votin?  Let’s do this – change, hope, cosmic terror.

Want an up-to-the-minute account of what is going on in my world?  I would.  But that’s not going to happen.  Alternatively, I will be droppin’ nuggets and updates on the feature Drawing Baphomet.  Brace yourself to teeter on the edge of mundanity.

Here is a link:  http://twitter.com/josephnanni

The best of this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival will be shown in Seattle from March 20 to the 27 at the Grand Illusion theatre.  We are seriously chuffed to be considered the best – clearly the festival directors have gone insane.