Out-Rommeling Hitch

I am a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney and recently bought a couple of DVDs inlcuding The Birds, Marnie, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope & Norht by Norhtwest, special editons with making of´s. It is amazing how much you can learn from this documentaries. Hitchcock who was a master in every sence of filmmaking turned several times to the Disney Studio to help him with sfx and one of Walt Disney´s closest artists, Ub Iwerks, did supervise some very specifal sfx in The Birds.

Rope is a very special movie, Hitchcock wanted to make it look as if shot in one single take, but as film could only run for ten minutes in the camera and then had to be replaced. The solution Hitchcock used is already mentioned in Francois Truffaufts excellent book on Mr. Hitchcock, they stopped shooting on the back of an actor, replaced the film and started shooting on the back of the actor. One of Hitchcock´s crew members who is interviewed in the making of said, actually this was not very convincing, and I agree, that Hitchock could have done this far better.

While still watching the docu I thought how the problem could have been resolved in another way. I remembered when I had my interview for a job at Walt Disney Company, they asked us if we had been in the army, as this would help a lot getting along.
I alsways admitered Rommel who was also a Genralstab teacher who taught young officers how to make right and good decisions. Rommel told them something he experienced in WW 1: He should conquer a small farm on a hill held by enemy soldiers and he asked the young officers, how to do this. They suggested all some way of attacks involving the possibilitiy of being killed while attacking. Finally Rommel told them how he actually did it: He got some fireworks amuntion, shot it at the farm, the farm was set on fire, the enemy soldiers retreated, Rommel and his soliers walked over. Mission accomplished. No soldier of Rommel killed, no enemy soldier killed. I always was fascinated how Hitchcock and Rommel solved problems and I started thinking this way around and here is my suggestion for shooting Rope in one singl take:

When the two guys kill their victim, the victiom is hurt and blood is dripping. They put the dead body in the box, and then Hitchcock could have always stopped shootin after ten minutes rolling the camera towards the box, stopping, and showing each time one more drip of blood dripping out of the box, increasing the suspense if Jimmy Stewart or someone else will notice this sooner or later.
Anyway I think this would have created much more suspense than stopping on the back of an actor which was far too obvious and artificial and would have hidden much better the fact that the film had to be changed.

Terror Stalker

A new Unhappy End! movie is in pre-production coming in 2012, Terror Stalker.

Die Schulfeindin - Director´s Cut 2011

The newly digitally edited version of the 1994 thriller Die Schulfeindin is now available, this version is different from the digitally remastered analag version
featured on US site vod.com as a video-on-demand program.

The new 3 dvd set had been all new edited after being transferred on computer.
For the first time the original stereo recorded o-sound is included in stereo (in previous versions it was only mono) and a new musical score.
The extras dvds feature a new recorded director´s intro showing Michael Huck
talking about Die Schulfeindin, Goethe´s Faust and William Shakespeare´s Julius Cesar,
a new slideshow, making of and outtakes.

The new version is available in october 2011.

King Munsa´s Cookery-Book

Nightmare Follies 2, King Munsa´s Cookery-Book finally is ready to take off.
Postproduction is completed and the 2 dvd set will be released now with
the episode, making of and a slideshow, later this year it will also be
available as VOD in the US and Canada.

Director´s Cut 2011

Die Schulfeindin (1994)
We just edited a new director´s cut version of the 1994 made thriller "Die Schulfeindin". There will be a 3 DVD set with an all new digi-remastered,
stereo sound version with new musical score and on 2 dvds outtakes and
making of.
The new dvd set will be available in September 2011.

King Munsa´s Cookery-Book

It´s a wrap. Shooting of King Munsa´s Cookery-Book is finished.
We shot from April till July 2011, nice little story about cannibals.
Post will take another 2-2 months and King Munsa will then be released
in autumn 2011.

VOD

VOD is a business we are very interested in and so we started distribution
our programs VOD. You can watch on www.vod.com

We only distribute the programs on VOD, without any outtakes or Making of...´s.
So we still will continue to sell dvds with the extra outtakes.
Right now we consider VOD more a kind of PR but we closely watch and maybe
later we also will distribute more programs.
Please let us know what you think or if you would like to see more videos
VOD.
Right now we start with

- The Moonlight Orchids
- Die Schulfeindin
- Nighmare Follies 1
- The 7 Nightmares Girl 1-3

Sincerely,
Michael

Nightmare Follies 2

Currently we are still shooting Nightmare Follies 2: King Munsa´s Cookery Book

Sell Your Own Damn Movie

Lloyd Kaufman´s new book is here:
Sell Your Own Damn Movie
Finally I will learn how to sell what we shot all those years.
Hooray, thanks so much Lloyd.
Again Lloyd interviews some of his famous colleagues how they sold
their wonderful projects and Stan Lee, creator of the Marvel Universe
is also on board again.

King Munsa´s Cookery-Book

Nightmare Follies 2: King Munsa´s Cookery-Book
From April 2011 till Mai 2011 The Gator Group is shooting a new thriller for the
Nightmare Follies series entitled
King Munsa`s Cookery-Book starring German actress Dina Babajic.
Patrizia(Dina Babajic) chases her former classmates killing one after another
and forcing them to eat some special meals prepared by Patrizia who discovered
in a book shoot the cookery-book of the legendary King Munsa - the King of
Cannibals!

Ted V Mikles´Astro Zombies Part 4

Astro Zombies

Ted V Mikles, the famous producer from Las Vegas shot last week in Berlin part 4 of his Astro Zombies
series.
Martin Schmidt directed the scenes shot at Berlin Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag,
Joerg Moehring played the part of the uncanny Zombie from Outerspace killing all
those people and blowing up Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor.

To learn more just look at Ted V Mikles website and...watch the skies!

Sincerely Yours,

Michael Huck

Photo above: Copyright 2011 by Michael Huck
Director Martin Schmidt, Joerg Moehring and some of the earthlings.