A Cabin in the Woods

The last day of the year. I sit in a cabin in the cool morning air and a fire is made to warm the small cabin. I talk to two men twenty years my elder. They teach me things of lost worlds that only live with the work of old men. At 53 I am becoming them in my own way and am and will pass what I can to younger generations.

Space Pool

The above photo is a Space Pool Table or I should say the beginning of the Sci Fi prop.

Its back to drawing and painting with my next post.

Upside Down and Backwards

The history of movies changed today and no one noticed.

Today I created the first Creative Interactive Movie. I changed the way a movie at the theater was projected.

As I bought my ticket I saw a movie poster of Conan The Barbarian (2011). That was my in.

People that work at movie theaters are bored out of there minds for most of the day. So I set myself up for a joke on myself.
The power to manipulate people is a curse and a blessing. You can trick people into doing the right thing or you can ruin a life with a mean spirited joke. I have some rules for playing with some ones reality.

1. I can't tell a lie.
2. I can't ask anyone to do something that might get them in trouble.
3. I can plant a seed of imagination and nothing more.

I tell one of the projectionist how I was trapped in a movie theater all day as they keep putting the reels of the Original Conan The Barbarian in backwards and upside down. The film played upside and in reverse many times that day.

I then make a small scene that the price of drinks is too high. I go see my movie (The Lincoln Lawyer). I'm first into the theater so the young projectionist will have time to react to my Jedi Mind Trick.

I don't know if the trick will work as I watch one trailer after another. I think I lost my touch as the trailers play out and its time for "The Lincoln Lawyer", then the trailer for the new Conan The Barbarian play upside down and backwards.

It was so much fun that I laughed out loud. I was the only one that was laughing.

Now if I can give everyone the power to change the movie they watch. All I need is a few million dollars.

The story about the original Conan movie is true. That is rule number one.

Lost Location

Today I was looking for my title location and i got lost. I saw some turkeys. I found a pond with small trees growing out of the shallow water and took a picture of myself in the reflection of my car.

Location Scouting

Location Scouting is the best part of making a movie. As I write to location this is the first moment the movie has any reality for me and the story is always born out of location. The above photo is a cabin in my home county and the site of what I hope will be my next movie ( a western ). Walking around the property and talking to the owner was fun. I'm so tired of writing scripts.

30 Seconds

I have had little sleep over the past few weeks to enter a contest on Youtube. All my other projects are suffering for 30 seconds of a mini-movie. The above photo is of the alien backdrop painting for Epic Space. I'll try to get a link up tomorrow but for now you can find it on my channel on Youtube called RobertVollrath.

Debt Free for a few days

I just sent a check to a lawyer for handling my company Dream Streams LLC. I paid off my paypal account. For a few days I'll be debt free.

Then the cycle starts again and I'll be paying for scripts to produce and hiring crew to make those scripts into movies. Then for the love of making movies I'll be in debt again.

Product Placement

I'm going to a ..... I'm not sure what it is, a demo of a new kind of high end product, I guess. I'm to talk to one of the partners of this company about putting their product in a movie I'm producing and still writing at this time.

I believe when you finish a movie you're only halfway there. The other half of the process is marketing and product placement can be part of that marketing. I think of how I'm going to put products in as I write the scripts.

Mermaid Monday; Movie Designs

Puppet Concepts

Micah Husereaux a local movie maker has asked me to build four puppets to be in a movie he is making. Here are the concept drawings in the above photos.

This morning Friday July 2nd I contacted Micah and told him I could not do the puppets for his project. The project was different than I thought at first and feel I was wrong for this movie. I'm still going to make the puppets but for my own movie.

Writing a Mermaid Scene

I love my grand daughter and my grand daughter loves mermaids. I'm writing a epic love story where fairy tales almost break into the real world time and time again.

So I had to do it. I had to write a mermaid scene into my second feature length script in this epic love story. So I start to research mermaids and I come upon a video that makes me believe in mermaids. This woman in the video is a mermaid.

Hannah Fraser is pure magic as she swims in the ocean with her beautiful hand made mermaid tail. My mermaid scene is inspired by her great underwater swimming as a mermaid.

The first time I saw a mermaid in a story was in a Superman comic book. Superman's collage sweetheart was a mermaid. I had always loved Disney movies until the worst cartoon feature I paid money to see "The Black Cauldron". Then Disney redeemed themselves with "The Little Mermaid". I've spent many happy hours watching that movie with my grand daughter.

So as I wrote the scene I dreamed of Hannah Fraser playing the part. How she took a childhood fantasy and turned it into a job I found fantastic. I wrote to her on Facebook and asked if she had acted in movies and found out she had worked on many productions.

I'll ask my my grand daughter if she wants to email a mermaid. To think the mermaid scene started as my grand daughter cried at a can of tuna that she thought was canned mermaid.

The Plan

An idea is like a flower, it can be the start of new life or it can fade and die without anything coming from it.

I have a plan to change the way movies are made. Will it be a new way to produce movies or a dead end? Here are eleven short movies I'm working on.

1. Walking the Graveyard written by Desiree Nordlund and Directed by Jerry White III

A gravedigger finds peace in his own grief.

2. Paralyzed in Paradise written by Desiree Nordlund and Robert A Vollrath. Based on a story by Robert A Vollrath "The Frankenstein Effect".

A man is overdosed on drugs in a mental ward and fights his inner demons to reclaim his life.

3. To Bed a Battle; Concept by Robert A Vollrath.

A Vietnam American woman is hit on by a Marine in uniform at a bar. She turns him down with a story about the battle that conceived her.

4. Divided Soul; Concept by Robert A Vollrath

A Korean man is two souls trapped in a single body. In the womb in the early stages of life he absorbs his twin's body into his own. At 43 his twin comes to him in a dream and demands the last half of his life.

5. Dream Waking; Concept by Robert A Vollrath.

A tribe of Aborigines in Australia wake from reality and see the world in a new dreamtime.

6. Heart Broken; Second draft of script by Robert A Vollrath. I have asked Varun Goyal to write a new opening for this script. Working on contract.

A man's heart stops in his sleep. He wakes to take a walk without a heart beat.

7. Blue Bottles: Working on the 13th draft of script by Robert A Vollrath.

A farm is haunted by four murdered slaves.

8. River of Life; Concept by Robert A Vollrath.

A river is being killed by pollution. The soul of the river fights back.

9. Afterlife Equations; Concept by Robert A Vollrath

A lone survivor of a helicopter crash lays freezing in Antarctica thinking about the possibility of the afterlife.

10. Edge of Eternity; Concept by Robert A Vollrath. Based on a two hour conversation I had with two Skylab Astronauts.

An astronaut falls asleep and dreams she loses her soul in orbit.

11. Infinity Flinched; Concept by Robert A Vollrath

A car wreak separates a man's soul from his body. After a visit to heaven he falls through hell laughing all the way.

12. The Price; First draft Robert A Vollrath. I have asked Nidhi Sharma to write the second draft. Working on contract.

What is the price for returning from death?

I am working on hundreds of scripts. It is an over the top process that seems impossible but it works for me.

Blue Bottles and the Odd Eye

I'm working on a script that may or may not be called Blue Bottles. I'm writing as fast as I can on many scripts because so many people are moving to LA that I want to work with.

The other thing that is on my mind a lot of late is my full vision in my left eye.

From 1975 till February of 2010 I was missing some vision in my left eye and I'm having trouble accepting it came back to me in a second.

It's May 3rd as I write this and I just finished the ninth draft (hand written) of Blue Bottles.

I created a mythology for the script that turned out to be folklore that is hundreds of years old.

Years ago I heard a story about bottle trees on NPR. I only caught the last few minutes of the broadcast and spun a mythology out of that for my script. All the stuff I made up to fill the gaps of what I heard turned out to be part of old pagan beliefs. A bit of luck on my part.

Yesterday (May 2nd) in a rain storm I found out why my new old vision had been making me sick. On overcast days I can see floater in my left eye. Pieces of my retina broke lose from my car wreak and cloud my vision. Most of the time I don't notice this but with my expanded vision I see more of these floaters. Not complaining as I'm glad to have it back.

Dang Bear Superstar

The above picture is of my favorite toy in the world. This toy didn't belong to me but to my oldest son Mark Vollrath. This little plush bear was the first toy my son Mark picked out for himself but the name was given to the toy by his mother when she tripped on the bear.

"Dang bear."

Mark mimics his mother.

"Dang Bear!"

The name struck and Mark and Dang Bear became great friends. Mark spent many hours of his young childhood talking to Dang Bear and Dang Bear spoke back in a smaller higher voice coming from my son.

For many years I tried to put Dang Bear into a movie but he wasn't right for any of the parts that came up. Finally the little bear got his big break.

He was cast in a very emotional scene in the short movie "Walking the Graveyard".

I didn't even have him audition for the part.

Do you have anything to say?

I've sleep the last five days and haven't raised any money to pay the cast and crew for this production. Here is a tiny clip of Jerry White talking about shooting the movie.

It's a wrap!

A few photos I took on the day of the shoot. Too tired to write. More to come....

I'm still too tired to write but I'll try. I believe the cast and crew did a great job. Jerry is a fantastic director! The acting was spot on. As a producer I made a lot of mistakes but as a set designer I believe I came through for the project. My fake pile of grave dirt looked real on camera.

I pushed myself to the breaking point on this movie. I can't do that anymore or I'll ruin my health making these movies. This week I need to raise money to pay everyone on this movie.

I hope I can raise enough money to give everyone a bonus.

Thank you to everyone that was part of Walking the Graveyard. Desiree, Jerry, Laura and Jason thanks for your hard work. I'll put the names of the crew up soon. I would like to thank the crew for your trust in me. Thanks again!

The Painting Exchange That Changed My Life

To Joan Cook; I'm still working on this strange little painting to send to you. The movies I do now are inspired by your half of a painting exchange. Sorry, I'm a very slow painter. Thank you for all your kind words.

The Director Speaks

Forgive the bad sound at the end and some missing footage. I got to close to a electric furnace blower motor and it ruined part of the sound. I don't know how I lost the footage of Jerry talking about switching the Easter Egg Tree with the refrigerator but I did.

Joan, your painting exchange story with appear on this post as soon as a spring storm passes.

More to come....

Joan Cook painted the sunflower painting seen in three of the above photos. With her permission I want to use the painting in the living room movie set.

Next Post; its all about the paintings.

Set walk through #1

Forgive the quality of this video as I had the camera set up for bright sunlight and forgot to change the settings. The three rooms of the oldest house in Kingsville Missouri are seen in this video as the sets for "Walking the Graveyard. "

To Jerry J White III and Desiree Nordlund (The director and writer of the movie) any feedback positive or negative is welcomed. The director Jerry has the final word. I believe that a director must have the final word for any movie to work.

Joan Cook, your next painting update will have a twist to it that will dove tail directly into this movie.

Jerry asked me to dress the living room as a additional set. This wasn't part of the script but our kitchen is too small to play the whole scene out. The bike has moved to the living room replacing a couch that I don't have. I've decided to make the living room a mess too.

As a producer you must trust your director and when the time comes step back and leave him alone to do his (or her) work.

I wonder if anyone outside a few friends read this blog. This blog is becoming boring with set design but there is my focus at the moment and so I must tell the tell of telling a story with objects.

You can hear the train noise in this video, which is a problem with this location.

Lost

I've lost my firewire to load video. These two enhanced photos look more like hell than heaven on the set of Walking the Graveyard.