Part Three of Steampunk Granny's Interview with Director/Actor Patrick Devaney

                                                                         

I saved the best for last on my interview with the very talented Patrick Devaney. Enjoy

Marie Gilbert: “When is the last season of the Zombie Hunters? I want people to know who read my blog.”

Patrick Devaney: “For the last season, the eleventh episode will come out in the summer and then the final one (Episode 12) will be filmed starting January 31, 2015, and probably will come out in January or February 2016 and, as always, it will be on public access all over the country. If people e-mail me or come they come to a show and they see us there, we have DVDs of all the different work that we do, all of it on DVD and any public appearance that we do, anyone can come to talk to us and get whatever they’d like to see.”

                                                                      

Marie Gilbert: “You’ll be at the film festival in New York this year?”

Patrick Devaney: “The New York Horror Show? Yes I’ll be there on Sunday only because we’ll be filming the other two days of the event.”

Marie Gilbert: “What are you showing at this event?”

                                                                 

Patrick Devaney: “I actually won’t be this year because I’m swamped with production of so many things and, this year they’ve asked me to be one of the judges of the film festival which is an enormous honor and I immediately said yes. Adam Ginsberg and LC Macabre, they told me that they wanted me to do this and as soon as I agreed, they informed me that I had 124 films I needed to watch and I said, “Oh, I understand, okay...that’s a lot, but I’m in!” They gave me and the other judges access to them all. The films are some of, especially the short films, they are some of best that I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Marie Gilbert: “Well I’m a big supporter of Independent Films because you’re allowed more freedom and you get better quality because you’re not tied to a big Hollywood studio and you have more of a say on film.”

Patrick Devaney: “I’m happy to hear that, and I’m all for it as well because you don’t have to follow a formula. A lot of the films that I see that are so successful and so brilliant, but they would never get off the drawing board in Hollywood because they didn’t follow a specific marketing formula that they can match to make money. I understand that it’s a business and they have shareholders and they have to make money and that’s how the big gears turn, but on the artistic side, it lacks much. That’s why I love Independent Films, especially Independent Short-form work,, which is my favorite to watch and some of the ideas that I’ve seen in the past six weeks is just amazing work. It’s so nice to see so many people doing such wonderful things.”

              Photo courtesy of photographer, John Sheehan                                              

Marie Gilbert: “One more question. You were in a band or you had your own band?”

Patrick Devaney: “Yes, and an interesting time with that. I was in a number of different bands on the New York circuit in the early to late 80’s. When Manny and Lindsay Serrano from Mass Grave Pictures told me they were looking to set Blood Slaughter Massacre in October of 1984, I was actually in a recording band at that exact point in time, and they asked me if I had any little demos to add to the film’s soundtrack. I not only had that but, the two guys that were in the band with me are both professional musicians today and one of them is in a very successful band that tours the world. I said to Manny and Lindsay “If I can schedule everyone together, they’ve actually agreed to re-record one of those songs for your movie.” So we got the band together twenty-eight years later and we re-recorded some of that music and it’s used it in the film. Blood Slaughter Massacre about to be released by Wild Eye Releasing this spring.

Also, you can talk to the crew from MGP too, if you want, because that movie is nutty and I’m even one of the characters in that too. I play Captain Bracken, the Chief of Police of the Town of Havenwood in the film.”

Marie Gilbert: “So when I see that movie, I’ll be listening to your music?”

Patrick Devaney: “There is a particularly gruesome death scene that you’ll be hearing our music during, yeah.”

Marie Gilbert: “Because of your busy schedule, do you have time to devote to your music?”

Patrick Devaney: “I really haven’t at all. I stopped performing over twenty years ago and just to get this one song together for their movie kind of re-sparked interest in it for me, but I kind of try to leave the work in the hands of the professionals. I know much better musicians than I am so I try to work with a lot of different people, like Charlie Maffia and Steve Montano, the two people I was speaking about earlier. The band we had was called ‘Romeo Penguin’, the band that did the work for Blood Slaughter Massacre.

I also work with a wonderful composer and arranger named Bernadette McCallion, who scores music for shows like The Shield and The Real World and many other major network shows, and she gives me the time to do my independent films as well, which is a godsend with her.

                                                                          

We’ve been friends for twenty-five years and she does this for a living and I get her hand-me-downs mostly, but with my film Aemorraghe, she actually did the score for it. It was all original music and, it’s amazing how everything tied in. She worked with Charlie and Steve from her studio as they worked in The Bastudio in Bayside, NY, on other original music as well as all the Foley. Bernadette also composed at home and then sent the themes over to them and then I would approve everything once they had it properly placed and mixed. Charlie also enlisted a beautiful track from a London-based producer named Vahn who recorded with a singer called Imonomi, and that was the icing on the cake for the soundtrack.  I could not have asked for a better sound team to work with, and that’s why I left it to them!

When you see the film, you’ll see how everything has come together for it. It’s one of the best-sounding Indie short films I’ve ever seen, and I can say that because I take no credit for that aspect of its production. I like to find the most talented person I know, and often, that isn’t me. So I say okay, who is the best for this, and can we get them? That’s what I like to do. Bring everyone in and let all their strengths shine and its one cohesive picture.”

Marie Gilbert: “If my readers want to see Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead, how would they find it?”

Patrick Devaney: “They can find it on Amazon Prime. They can download that or pick up DVD’s from Amazon. DVD copies might also still be for sale in stores like FYE, if you can still find them.

I want to add that for the people reading this: if they appreciate horror and Indie film the way we do, then they should go out to the festivals and go out to the conventions and talk to the people who make these films and support them.

A lot of times, you go to conventions and you’ll see the cast of “The Walking Dead” and you can spend 300 dollars to get a picture with them or, you can spend a fraction of that and pick up three or four Independent Films that you may get more from than a picture with a celebrity. The convention scene is drastically changing now where it’s focused on stardom and these photo ops, and what happens is the Independent producers come in and some of them are mortgaging their houses to make these films and selling them for ten dollars, but people just walk by them and say, ‘I can’t, I just spent one hundred and twenty-five dollars to meet Norman Reedus.’ (this is something that has actually been said to me, and more than once.)

                                                                  

People have different interests, and there’s nothing wrong with autograph collecting. But if people truly love Independent work: sci-fi, drama, horror or whatever, then it needs to be supported. If it’s really good, then people have to be told, “You know this film was exceptionally good.” This will encourage them to do more things and that’s how you keep art going because if not, then it’s just Hollywood and just Transformers movies and that’s all you’ll ever see. That would be a real shame. There should be room for both.”

Marie Gilbert: “Thank you, Patrick for being my guest. It was a pleasure talking and you have to thank Joe Parascand.”

Patrick Devaney: “The pleasure was mine. Thank you very much. Joe is awesome and in an industry that’s built on selfishness, he is the most open guy and the most selfless person who will put everyone ahead of him and equally promote everyone and he really takes cross-promotion to a whole new level. I love the guy as a person. I’ve known him for years, but just being able to work with him...I’m going to be directing him on January 17^th and January 31st in different scenes in for the last two episodes of Zombie Hunters.”

                                                                     

Marie Gilbert: “Tell Joe I said hello. You know Joe has referred a lot of people to me to interview and you are all nice, good people, who love and do top quality work. Thank you again, Patrick.

And to all my little zombie snacks out there, if you make it out to the New York Horror Show go looking for Patrick Devaney and tell him Steampunk Granny sent you

Part Two of Steampunk Granny's Interview of Director/Actor Patrick Devaney

                                                       

 

Hi, my little zombie snacks. I’m back with Part 2 of my interview of Director/ Actor Patrick Devaney where we learn more about the First Zombie series on television and Devaney’s character in Ryan Scott Webber’s Pretty Fine Things. Join me now as I learn more about the world of Independent Film

Marie Gilbert: “On your IMDb, it has you working with Ryan Scott Webber and Pretty Fine Things, and you are an actor in that film, right?”

Patrick Devaney: “Yes, I’m one of the leads and I play Thomas Banner, one of the three Banner brothers that are the main protagonists as well as the anti-heroes of the film. We are three brothers who are criminally insane in different ways and we come home because our dad’s health is failing, so it’s a very creepy story. We play psychopaths in it and I get to work with Joe Parascand, who I love working with. I’ve directed him before, I’ve acted with him and I love it, but I also get to work with Adam Ginsberg, who is just fantastic, so the three of us as the brothers in this movie... I hope everybody gets to see this because they are going to really enjoy it.”

                                           Patrick Devaney, Joe Parascand, Adam Ginsberg

                                                                  

Marie Gilbert: “Joe Parascand is in the film too? He’s the one that introduced me to you. He’s been very good at promoting people and he knows that anyone that he sends to me is someone that I’m excited to interview. I met Joe because of The Soulless. So...now you’re wrapping up on the Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead and I see in your bio that you do star in non-horror shows like Elementary, Law and Order, but is your love really for the horror films?”

Patrick Devaney: “I would say that up to a point, my love has always been for horror films and for sci-fi films. I find myself going more into the science fiction/fantasy realm of horrific things and my favorite director in the world is Guillermo Del Toro. I mean, I love Pan’s Labyrinth and could watch it every day, and the Hellboy movies. The things he comes up with, that dark fantasy and the science based fantasies? I love that, and I’ve been working more towards that.

My first move towards this, while we were doing the second season of Zombie Hunters, I made a short film called ‘Aemorraghe, which is a based on a story from Heavy Metal Magazine back in  1982 that I read as a teenager. I found the artist, an amazing illustrator named Caza, and got the rights to it and wrote, produced, and directed the film. It was shot by Mark Boutros and the crew from MGP, and stars Vivienne Cleary, an amazing actress that carried the weight of the film in ways I could never have even hoped for. But yes, it’s definitely the vein I want to go more into. It’s pure science fiction and science fantasy. It has some horrific elements to it in terms of theme, but overall it’s a positive film and yeah, it just got into its twenty-first film festival this year.”

Marie Gilbert: “Wow, alright.”

Patrick Devaney: “Yeah, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Marie Gilbert:  “I would want to see this.”

                                                                     

Patrick Devaney: “I’ll send you the link and the password for it and you can watch it online; the screener that the festivals watch.”

Marie Gilbert: “Okay and you have to let us know how it does at the festival. When is the festival?”

Patrick Devaney: “The next festival that we know it’s in will be the Patterson Film Festival this Spring. It’s already done twenty others since it premiered at the Macabre Faire Film Festival last January, and I’m waiting to hear from about forty other festivals it’s running for over the rest of its public run. We tried to book it in two-hundred-fifty of them. We got about a twelve percent acceptance rate, which is pretty good.”

Marie Gilbert: “I would say so. Now, what was the film that hooked you onto horror and science fiction as a child?”

Patrick Devaney: “Whenever I talk about this, I always blame my mom. When I was an infant, she would sit me up in front of the T.V. with her and watch the original Dark Shadows first run. As I was growing up, I would sit next to her and she would explain, ‘Okay, now that’s Barnabas and he’s a vampire and Angelique is a witch,” etc. And, what’s really cool is that I just got to meet Sharon Smyth who played Sarah Collins in the show! I got to tell her that story and that was very cool. She’s a wonderful lady and if you can meet her, she’s amazing. It started for me from there and for horror stuff, but the first movie I remember seeing on television that really scared the hell out of me was a T.V. movie called Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.”

Marie Gilbert: “I think I remember that one.”

Patrick Devaney: “It was a weird movie about vampires and had a very strange take on them and it scared the hell out of me. But, for the sci-fi stuff I grew up watching Star Trek even the first run Star Trek, and before Star Wars came out, there was a wonderful show that came out of England called Space 1999. It stared Martin Landau and Barbara Bain from Mission:Impossible and it was a beautiful science fiction show on BBC in 1975 and that hooked me into sci-fi instantly and then two years later, Star Wars came out and I was done, totally addicted. I was a nine year old kid watching Star Wars and saying, “Okay, I’m done. You can end it now, I’m good!”

So yeah, that strange combination of character-driven horror and over-the-top science-fiction, I always try to combine those two things and hopefully, I can be doing this for the rest of my life.”

Marie Gilbert: “You write a lot of the scripts, so you’re a writer, director, actor and producer, so what hat do you like to wear the most?”

Patrick Devaney: “Currently, I really enjoy being someone else for a while and, I enjoy acting in different things. I get to work at least one if not two days a week on different network television shows, mostly as background and sometimes featured roles, but mostly general background. I get to watch those kinds of crews again, and that helps me in being a director because now I can see what actors really need from their crews and their director. I’m really enjoying that a lot right now and also to be able to work with guys like Joe Parascand and Adam Ginsberg and to act with that level of ability; to work with those guys and bounce back and forth from them? That was just a total gift.

        Photo courtesy of photographer John Sheehan                                                       

But I really love doing it all. For example, I’m currently writing a web series that we will start filming in May with an upcoming producer named Lauren Loizidis.  We created this fictionalized version of Mastic, New York, called “Mastic PD”, where all these strange kinds of things go on and we are members of the police department and have to investigate them. This is a project based off characters from the Ormsby’s Cinema Insane universe, created by John Sheehan. I’ve been writing that with her for maybe three months, but she’s also one of the new Zombie Hunters, so it’s very interesting. I get to direct her in scenes, but she’s also my new writing partner. It’s an interesting dynamic where we are wearing different hats with each other now; a different way of doing it. But, I work some aspect of this every single day. I’m doing some kind of production every day and I do write every day, even if it’s just a note to myself saying ‘make sure you finish that story about the cop that did this…’. Yeah it’s a daily task, but I love it.”

I'll be stopping part two here, my little zombie snacks and returning on Tuesday with part three of my interview with Independent Director/ Actor Patrick Devaney. Don't be late. There is more to learn.

Part One of Steampunk Granny's interview with Patrick Devaney of Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead

                                                          

                                                       

Steampunk Granny has a guardian angel named Joe Parascand who tells me about some very talented people in Independent Films. Through these many interviews, I’ve made a lot of new friends, but it seemed that with the different interviews that I’d done about Independent Films, there was one name that kept coming up, Patrick Devaney. It was time for me to meet the creator of the first zombie show on television.

Marie Gilbert: “Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me, Patrick. Why don’t we start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself, your acting, directing and am I right, producing?”

Patrick Devaney: “Yeah, I actually started out that way. I always wanted to do film work in general my whole life, but I kind of put that on pause because I was in the music industry for a while, then I was doing finance for a while. But at one of the places I worked at doing finance, we rented space out to the various Law and Order shows. And, I was selling them locations and at one point I was doing four different Law and Order’s several times a year, so they were a regular staple and I would watch them film and I watched this for years. The more I watched it the more I thought; you know I think we have enough people that we could do this.

We always wanted to see a zombie based T.V. series and there never was one, so we could wait the rest of our lives or we could make our own. I got a number of people together that had gone to film school and I asked them their advice and then got some other people together and asked if they would want to be in it and we started Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead. We came up with the idea in 2005 and it first aired in December of 2007, but the only outlet that we had was public access T.V. I had no contacts other than renting out space for L&O, so the only place we could get access was on public T.V. Since we started with one station in Queens, we’ve been on seventy-five stations across the nation since.”

                                                                          

                                                          

Marie Gilbert: “Wow, so Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead came out before The Walking Dead?”

Patrick Devaney: “Oh yes, we came out several years before The Walking Dead, actually. We were the very first broadcast zombie-based T.V. series in history. We were the very first ones ever on the air, the debut was in December 2007 with the pilot episode and it has been continuously on the air ever since in one way or another. It started out on Queens Public Access and it’s still running on Queens Public Access to this day.”

Marie Gilbert: “I did get to see the first episode of season one, so with Zombie Hunters are you using the same cast every season?”

Patrick Devaney: “We’ve made it pretty much consistent, I’ve been very lucky in that. If someone doesn’t die, they pretty much come back. We’re actually wrapping up the series this year. We’re filming the very last episode in 2015 and that’s going to wrap up the entire series and some of the people that were from the very first show and continuously with the show will be there at the very end and, we are even bringing back some of the zombies that were in the very first pilot episode.

We are bringing them back eight years later. I’ve already spoke to some of them and they were like, just let me know when! It started out just to see if we could do it and to date, we’ve had over four-hundred people work on the show.”

Marie Gilbert: “How many episodes do you have per season for the last eight years? In 2015, it will be eight years.”

Patrick Devaney: “The first season was eight episodes and the second season was going to be another eight, but we cut it down and are wrapping up the show on the twelfth episode. For a while we were averaging two or three episodes a year, and in later years since we had gone onto so many other film projects; to get one out a year has been a miracle. We realized that with so many projects going on right now, we had to shorten the series down and are ending in 2015. Yes, we are going with that, but it has been a continuous storyline and continuous characters and the entire series only takes place over the course of five months.”

Marie Gilbert: “Oh, okay.”

Patrick Devaney: “Yes, so in the storyline, this event happens and no one believes it at first. What we tried to do was show what if George Romero and John Russo’s original idea for Night of the Living Dead actually happened in New York City today. What would it be like? So that has always been the premise of the show. And what we thought was that in a city like New York, no one would believe it at first. If you saw things going on, you would just call the Cops. You wouldn’t think there were zombies. You would just think that they were crazy people or on drugs or whatever and, if the government actively covered it up, we go for almost a month before anyone in authority even admits that this is happening! So, it’s not worldwide and it starts in New Jersey and it spreads out from there, so...it’s a slow progression and most people still don’t buy it until it’s too late and by the time it’s too late; no one is prepared for it. That’s where we are right now and things have gotten horribly worse and no one is prepared except for us and, the end of the world is upon them.”

Marie Gilbert: “That is so interesting especially since it is taking place in the city because normally when you talk about a zombie apocalypse, they always say that the city is the worst place to stay. It’s better to go out to the countryside. But, your guys are staying in the city. How was staying in the city better for the characters?”

Patrick Devaney: “Well, we sat down and talked about this and I think that most people wouldn’t think to leave. I mean, I’ve lived in New York City for forty-six years and I couldn’t think of where else to go. I don’t have a house anywhere else and most of my family is still in the city.

I wouldn’t even know where to go, really. I think a lot of people in New York, most don’t have firearms and most get around by the train so what do you do? Do you rent a car and find a gun and try to go somewhere that you don’t know, or would you figure out maybe I’ll stay put and see what happens.

Unfortunately, we had that really happen when 9/11 occurred and most people did not flee the city. Most people stayed exactly where they were and if they had to get to Queens, they walked over the bridges. What we did was stay in the city not knowing what would happen next and knowing that the city was a target; we all stayed in the city and we all went to work two days later. So, I think that in any kind of emergency, people in a major city, until they see that it’s bad and the food runs out and the water stops and the gas runs out, they are going to stay put. So, our characters pretty much said, we’ve been lifelong New Yorkers and we have access to some guns and we know people where we can get more guns from. We’re going to stay put and that’s what we do until it’s really far too late.”

Marie Gilbert: “In a way, that does make sense. You stay where you’re comfortable and you know the area. Now you play Billy Cassidy in this series. Is he the main protagonist of the story? Is everything centered on Billy?”

Patrick Devaney: “He started out that way, but it’s quickly progressed that the real leader of the group, who has been holding it all together, is Paul Michael Bates, who is played by Christopher J. Murphy. He is also a fan-favorite and people really respond well to him.

Billy is kind of a jerk. He’s moody and he’s not very positive and the character of Bates is like, “Listen things are bad, but we got this by the ass,” to quote Dawn of the Dead, “We got this by the ass and we are fine.” Bates has readily become the fan-favorite, so you see in the series as it goes along that he’s started taking more of a leadership role, also because Billy kind of vanishes for a while and Bates has to deal with everything on his own. Eventually, Billy comes back into the fold and he’s changed. He’s different and when the series wraps up, you’ll see the changes in him. There are a few main characters like John Salazar, played by Rick Martinez, who is always there and he plays the voice of reason. He is the only person with military training. He is the person who holds things together on a much more non-emotional level and on practical level. We see the things that he goes through; he loses his entire family at one point so we see the different ways that the different characters progress and we’ve lost some along the way. Yeah, so anyone who has survived so far will be there at the end.”

     Photo courtesy of photographer John Sheehan                                                              

Marie Gilbert: “Besides working on Zombie Hunters that will end in 2015, do you see this series becoming a movie?”

Patrick Devaney: “It’s funny, people have asked me that before, but we don’t really see it becoming a movie only because we are finishing up the story completely at the end of the season with the last episode and we actually explain everything that goes on. We explain what the zombies are and where they come from and we do a big reveal for this. The fate of the characters may be up in the air and that is kind of left to the viewer, but what really happens is that we do finish the series properly and explain everything. We don’t leave a lot to conjecture, and it’s not going to just end abruptly.

But, like I said there are so many more projects that we are writing and producing and moving on towards; plus, most of my crew is made up of a company called Mass Grave Pictures and they have their own projects going on right now. They finished their first feature film called Blood Slaughter Massacre, and they are currently filming another one called In the Shadow of the Imp. So, it’s very creepy kind of horror stuff and they are all doing their own projects, so everyone is kind of spreading out from there. To keep this series going, I mean we’re all for working together, but there are so many projects to do.”

Okay, my little zombie snacks, we are going to end part one of this interview here and pick up with part two on Monday.

Pretty Fine Things

                                                         

My friend Ryan Scott Weber is doing a kickstarter for a new picture called Pretty Fine Things. One of the stars is a good friend of mine, Joe Parascand and he shared a synopsis with me on what the movie would be about. Check it out and then check out the information for the Kickstarter. Tell Ryan that Steampunk Granny sent you.

                                                           
                                                                        

Synopsis: When the search for a missing girl turns up empty, her friends encounter 3 serial killers that may be involved in her disappearance. Joe Parascand, Edward X Young, and Patrick Devaney will play the 3 serial killers who are brothers in this film. It will be the first time that all 3 of them will be together in the same scenes in any given project. Joe has been most known for the Mary Horror/Sheriff Tom trilogy as well as another trilogy of films called THE SOULLESS. Edward has been known for over 60 films, including Mr. Hush and the Green Monster.

                                                            

He has also had great roles in Sheriff Tom vs the Zombies, Witches Blood, and Zombies Incorporated - all Ryan Scott Weber projects. Patrick has been most known for his web series, Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead (filming of episode 11 for this series should be this fall and Joe will have a role in it), his short film, Aemorraghe, and he, too, has had great roles in Sheriff Tom vs Zombies, Witches' Blood, and Zombies Incorporated. Add to the above the facts that you'll see some creepy twists and turns and wind up with a dark film that will be as fun to watch as Ryan, his cast, and crew will have had making it.                                                                         

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ryan Scott Weber

Phone: (908) 644-8712

Email: weberpicturescompany@gmail.com

 

Anticipated NEW FILM from

RYAN SCOTT WEBER

‘PRETTY FINE THINGS’

LAUNCHES ON KICKSTARTER

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanscottweber/pretty-fine-things

Weber Pictures Company has announced a fundraising Campaign on Kickstarter.com for its

new film, PRETTY FINE THINGS.

Planned to all be filmed in New Jersey in October of 2014.

From Ryan Scott Weber, the writer and director of the 'Mary Horror Trilogy’ comes the

horror/suspense thriller 'Pretty Fine Things'!  When the search for a missing girl turns up

empty, her friends decide to take matters into their own hands, but what they encounter is

much more than they bargained for.

Owner Ryan Scott Weber (Born February 24, 1980) is an American film director, screenwriter,

producer, cinematographer, actor, editor and musician.  Ryan Scott Weber has had his films

spotlighted at the biggest Horror convention on the east coast: CHILLER THEATRE!  All three of

Weber's films have screened to SOLD OUT crowds at CHILLER THEATRE and Weber has also been

one of their featured guests.  The extent of what Weber has done in the last three years is

extravagant.  He has completed three feature films each for under 5,000 dollars, a TV series, and a

short film.  It’s amazing what can be done with a budget this small.  Weber Pictures Company and Atomic

Kid Productions is located in Bernardsville, New Jersey.  Weber also plays the drums and

previously released two albums with the Trustkill Records Band Crash Romeo with the first being in 2006 and the other in 2008.

 

Weber has a distinctive directorial style.  He manages to make what appear to be big budget movies for little money.  Weber’s first feature film, Mary Horror, was released in 2012 with the sequel, Sheriff

Tom Vs. the Zombies, released in 2013.  The final installment, Witches Blood, and the short film, The Legend of Zeke, were released in early 2014.

 

“We are ready to take Weber Pictures Company to the next level by making a film with a proper

budget, which will allow it to become the best one possible.” 

 

Other conventions that Weber has attended are Monster Mania, Philly Comic Con, BizarreAC, and Parafest, to name a few. Weber's second film, Sheriff Tom Vs.The Zombies, was also a selection of The NJHORRORFEST in New Jersey and MACABRE FAIRE FILM FESTIVAL in Long Island. "We are at a point now where we are ready to make something really great" said Weber about his newest film, Pretty Fine Things.

 

We need your help to spread the word! www.facebook.com/prettyfinethingsmovie   FOLLOW us

on Twitter via @Weberpictures, @ryanscottweber to stay involved.  Tell friends, co-workers and

classmates!  Be apart of Indie Horror history. . www.weberpicturescompany.com

 

###

For additional information, please contact Ryan Scott Weber at maryhorror@gmail.com

 

Steampunk Granny's Interview with Actress Genoveva Rossi

                                                                   

I have met many talented people either through my Steampunk adventures or my Ghost Hunting adventures and I’ve learned so much from them. I became acquainted with the lovely and talented actress, Genoveva Rossi, through my interviews of Director Chris Eilenstine of The Soulless. I’m very happy to have Genoveva as a guest on my blog.

Marie Gilbert: “How did you get started in acting? Did you always want to be an actress?”

Genoveva Rossi: “This was something that had always interested me since I was very young as far back as nursery school, I was in school plays. In nursery school, I played a Lady Bug, but I don’t remember what I had to say, but I was very excited. I’ve always had that interest and by the time I got into college, I started doing some short dramatic films with college students that were working towards their film study majors and things like that and I was taking acting classes as well.

                                                                   

                                                                               

Then, one day awhile after I graduated from college someone Jennifer Valdes and Fallen Faith had posted on my Facebook wall that they were looking for people to star in a horror film and did I want to be in it. They wrote a part for me and I went out to Long Island to this old haunted house and farm and I played a sexy Satanist in Jack 'o' Slasher, my first horror movie and I met a lot of consistent people on the set of that film, especially, Director, James Balsamo.

                                                                        

 I did his next film, I Spill Your Guts, which actually got huge pretty quickly and James Balsamo became famous all over the world for that. James got didn’t know how big it was going to become and I didn’t know how big it was going to become in the horror genre, but I still get a lot of feedback at Conventions where people recognize me from that film. I also get fans messaging m from all over the film to ask about this film.

I was doing Zombie Hunters at that time and I was in episodes nine and ten as a National Guard soldier. I had met Patrick Devaney the director from Chiller Theatre that I’ve been going to since I was a kid. I asked him if him if he had a part for me and he said, “You know what I have a part for a soldier, which I haven’t cast yet and I was going to cast a man, but we’re living in a modern world where women are soldiers too, so why don’t I cast a woman and why don’t I cast you.” So, the part was given to me and I got to wear camouflage and I got to handle an M-16. This was so interesting and I had fun."

                                                                                     

Marie Gilbert: “This was a television series?”

Genoveva Rossi: “Yes it’s on Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead. It’s been going on for years and each episode is around thirty minutes. I was on episodes nine and ten and there’ll probably be some more episodes down the road as well.

Marie Gilbert: “Now, where can people find these episodes?”

Genoveva Rossi: “People can find them on FYE.com.  It goes on Public Access television stations on some parts of the country. You can Google it. I don’t think it’s on Netflix, but you can probably buy it. There are a lot of places that distribute it and you can buy it. It’s been around for a while and it’s very much like a soap opera and it follows so many different characters lives.”

Marie Gilbert: “You started acting right out of school and it looks like you do mostly horror.”

Genoveva Rossi:  “Yes, but as far as horror, I can go through my IMDb to tell you what isn’t horror. Sanctum Deep is actually a Sci-fi horror film directed by Geraldine Winters. We just shot that pretty recently and it’s been getting some press. Midnight Show is an interesting film and a collection of trailers of all kinds of movies and is more of a fantasy movie. Then we have The Soulless, which is more like a sci-fi drama. It has zombies in it, but it’s not really a horror film. Also, it doesn’t have crude language or sexuality in it and there is not going to be exclusive violence. I would call it a dramatic series with serious dramatic acting.”

                                                                            

                                                             

Marie Gilbert: “I did an interview on Director Christopher Eilenstein here and here and also with actor Joe Parascand on The Soulless and I was invited to the Premier of part one and I was very impressed with the movie. What part did you play in The Soulless?”

Genoveva Rossi: “In part one; I played a part of a zombie and also a person running from people. We don’t shoot on some days consecutively, but I’m a team player and I’ll to help when needed. I pop up as a member of ‘the soulless’ as a soldier, Charlotte Elling going around and killing zombies and trying to save the human race in parts 2 and 3. In fact I actually have a duel role in that I play Madam Serling, a fortune teller and she is in part three.

You don’t meet my characters until part two when we go away on location with the main characters. In part three, Madam Serling pops up and I play that character with a wig, make-up and a French accent and Christopher was impressed on how unrecognizable I was at being the same actor. He said that the people he showed this film to did not know it was me."

Marie Gilbert: That’s really neat.”

Genoveva Rossi: “Well it challenging for me as an actor. I didn’t know if I would be able to pull it off, but after Christopher shot it he said it actually came out better than he expected, which is what you want to hear as an actor.”

Marie Gilbert: “This opens your career up now because other people are recommending you, right?”

Genoveva Rossi: “Yes, that’s right. If things work out and you’re a good actor, you’re reliable and you have a good positive attitude, it gets around. In fact I was working on The Soulless when I got cast for Trailer Heaven, which is being directed by Michael Chartier and we’ve already starting shooting that film, but it’s not on my IMDb yet. Trailer Heaven stars Edward X Young, myself, Alan Rowe Kelly, and a whole bunch of other wonderful actors. I play a reporter in that film, Jennifer Devine.

The film is about a con artist played by Edward X Young who seeks sanctuary in a trailer park inhabited by cannibal transvestites”

Marie Gilbert: laughing says, “This is going to be a good movie.”

Genoveva Rossi: “It’s going to be amazing and thatstically done with the great acting and with the strong cinematography. What I’ve seen so far, it looks spectacular. I play Jennifer Devine as homage to the actress Divine  who acted in a bunch of John Waters' films.”

Marie Gilbert: “I know Devine. I love the actor. Thank you for doing part one of the interview, Genoveva and we'll continue with part two next week.

I have to end part one of the interview with Genoveva Rossi here, dear readers, but don't worry, Genoveva will be back next week to tell us more about her acting career.