Daniel Lee has a small part in Thomas L. Phillips and Melanie Addington's production, "Where I Begin." At a "Where I Begin" party, actor Johnny McPhail - who has the lead role as Dodge Dakota in SKF's "River City Dead" project was working the crowd, doing the hard sell on River City. Apparently it worked, as this article spends several sentences on it!
Tupelo Underground is throwing a Halloween season festival of short horror films by area filmmakers! We here at SKF are hard at work developing a project for Halloween Horror Fest 2010.
The working title is: Starring as Dodge Dakota is character actor, Johnny McPhail (Ballast, Big Bad Love, The Gun In Betty Lou's Handbag, Where I Begin)
Co-starring as the mysterious Victoria Valance is Sabrina Hawkins (The Collectors, It Came From Beyond Beyond)
Every movie needs a villain. Our villain will be portrayed by Rebecca Pollett.
Caroline Upthegrove will be playing Police Captain Bonnie O' Reilly
Writer/director Daniel Lee wants to take a little bit of Sin City and mix it with a little bit of George A. Romero and a little bit of Bram Stoker for a wild halloween ride! We'll sell you the whole seat.... but you're only going to need the edge!
This sequel to OCHO: Arachnid From Hell was completed just in time (barely) for a Halloween-week screening at Malco theater in Tupelo. It was screened as part of a Halloween double-feature with "A Zombie Movie" (dir. Glenn Payne).
The screening sold out and necessitated opening it on a second screen. This is unprecedented for locally-produced films in Tupelo, MS.
The feature-length movie revisits the bizarro 1960s version of Guntown, MS as Suzie, Johnny, and Sherriff Marbutt once again try to contain a threat accidentally unleashed by Professor Lang.
"I really didn't know how people would take this movie, but so far, everyone has unanimously said it's better than the first. I couldn't believe how overwhelmingly great the response was to this silly thing. I couldn't have written a better reception! And it actually made money!!"
Music video for the band Ukajie. Filmed in the dead of winter in February on a day with a high of 29 degrees.
"A couple guys in Ukajie are old friends. I was looking for a quick creative project to do and this fit nicely. We got access to shoot in the Blue Bell building. It was very cool to shoot in such an iconic, historic Tupelo landmark. If I'm not mistaken, Elvis' mother Gladys Presley worked there. I didn't really think I did a very good job on this video. But I showed a rough cut to the band and they spontaneously broke out into excited applause and cheering. As long as they're happy, I'm happy."
A short film about love and loss. This project by Daniel Lee was never completed. All the source footage was lost due to hard drive failure. This working version is the only surviving version of this film.
Daniel Lee never intended to release the incomplete film, but encouragement by friends and fans changed his mind. Upon getting into Oxford Film Festival and winning Best Experimental Film at the Magnolia Film Festival, Daniel was glad people changed his mind.
"The entire movie came to me upon waking up from sleep one morning. I immediately got a sketchbook and drew it in storyboard and wrote the narration/poem. The visual look was all completely there in the vision. I wasn't sure how exactly to shoot people entirely in silhouette at the time, but I knew I had to figure it out. This is one of my most popular films."
This short made film critic Melanie Addington declare Daniel "The Edgar Allan Poe of filmmaking".
The exterior shots were all done at Brice's Crossroads National Battlefield. A place deeply rooted in southern culture and history.
Doppelganger was an experimental film. It essentially concerns a man who is stalked by a mirror image of himself.
"This is one of my least popular projects, but it's actually one of my favorites. When it was in development, I became aware that a young man who was one of the most dedicated fans of my band had committed suicide. I changed some of the elements of the film to reflect him and dedicated the film to him."
Trainwreck is a music video directed by April Perea. It won "Best Music Video" award in 2008 at Tupelo Film Festival. Not only did she direct the video; but she wrote, performed, and recorded the music for it. Her project- "The Mangled Fairy" has been a long-standing staple of Mississippi goth & synth music. She has been involved in a multitude of music projects, and is now branching out into filmmaking and writing as well.
The video was made in one day. It had NO budget, and only a two-man crew of Daniel & April.
The Memphis Zombie Attack was the first 'zombie walk' ever organized in Memphis, TN. Daniel Lee had become aware of the event and thought it might make a good subject for a short doc. He had never made a doc before and what better to try one on than zombies?
This short won "Best Short Documentary at the 2008 Magnolia Film Festival, and also screened at First Night Saratoga and Indie Memphis Film Festival.
With literally no planning, one camera, and no documentary experience, Daniel and April drove up, arrived a little late, and had less than 15 minutes to try and interview various zombie walk participants. Daniel got just enough interview footage to cut a nice little short doc together.
"I saw some other people with like a 'REAL' camera and boom mic shooting footage and thought that somebody else had the same idea of making a doc out of the event. So I figured 'well if mine isn't going to be the best, it's going to be the first!' "I ran around shooting stuff on the fly and by complete accident or providence or fate or what-have-you, got coverage of seemingly all the best moments of the Walk. Moreover, I got really GOOD footage of a lot of it. "So I drove straight home, edited the movie that night and had it uploaded on the internet by the following afternoon. "I always refer to it as 'my stupid zombie movie' because I don't really think much of it - yet it has by FAR the most hits on YouTube, has been a hit at festivals, and I've noticed other short films and coverage of this and subsequent Memphis zombie walks seem to have been strongly influenced by mine. All in all, I guess that's not too shabby for something I just completely slapped together in 24 hours totally unprepared."
OCHO: Arachnid From Hell started shooting in early 2007. It's a parody/homage to 1950s/60s era monster b-movies. Daniel wanted to make a feature length film as a project to learn on. He loved b-movies and figured if he made an intentionally bad movie, most of the errors, oversights, and mistakes that would occur as a natural process of learning would actually help the movie instead of hurtng it.
He pitched the idea to his friends and they were all more than happy to play 2-dimensional characters.
The resulting film has spread virally through people passing around the many dvd copies that are floating around, and it's slowly growing a cult following.
The film ended up being 47 minutes - which barely meets the definition of "feature length" by IMDB (internet movie database) standards.
The film had a public premiere at Malco Theater in Tupelo which drew a very large crowd who were very enthusiastic and excited about a locally-produced movie.
"I think - in fact i've been told - that the abundant joy we have for movie-making shows up in my work. I believe people are responding both to the fact that we made a movie for no other reason than the sheer fun of it - and also I think they really respond to just the audacity of a bunch of people slapping a silly b-movie together in their backyards with no money, no production values to speak of and putting it on display for all to see. I think people love OCHO not despite its shoddy backyard-production values - but BECAUSE of them. It's something they can really relate to. Of course, the movie IS kinda funny too." "We froze to death at various points making this thing. When shooting the garage/hangout scenes, it was a cold and windy february afternoon. We got done with them, and I was thinking aloud how I would love to have a Frankie & Annette style 'beach' scene if only it wasn't february. The cast INSISTED that we should go shoot that beach scene RIGHT NOW at Lake Lamar Bruce and immediately started digging out swimwear. I tried to protest that going to shoot in cold windy weather was madness, but they were hell-bent on doing it because of how funny they thought it would be. "When we got a bunch of footage, it suddenly broke out into some very cold rain! Instead of immediately running for cover, the actors looked at me and first asked 'What do we do?' WE RUN FOR IT!!! I knew right then and there that a bunch of people freezing and acting for free that would actually ask first instead of making a break for it was probably the best cast I would ever work with in my entire life. So far, that's been the case.
"The period of time where I made The Picture, then went to my first film festival while also trying making OCHO was the best time of my life."
The Picture was the first short film Daniel Lee made back in late 2006. It was accepted into the 10th annual Magnolia Independent Film Festival and the Keokuk Film Festival. It won "Best Student Film" at Magnolia. People frequently cite this short as their favorite of Daniel Lee's movies. It also screened at the OCHO: Arachnid From Hell premiere.
It was shot in a few evenings and stars Judd Williams and Isaac Hardy
(please note the credits do not display correctly on YouTube.)
"We were using a two-socket handheld Bell & Howell light that came with an ancient 8-mm camera/projector/screen set. I duct taped it to a broken down cymbal stand (that was itself held together with duct tape). I had another socket that probably came out of some old lamp that I duct-taped to a mic stand. I was always playing punk rock shows with bands who had sub-par gear falling apart. There's a DIY mentality to punk that carried over into filmmaking. "For the shot where Judd lights a match and drops it right onto the camera, I was laying on the ground with the camera under a window pane that was randomly in the closet of my house when i moved in. I think we had like three cheap plastic picture frames. When Judd did the take of throwing the frame, it broke and he kinda freaked out a little (although he was also laughing the whole time) until I assured him I had 'stunt doubles'. "Isaac had that costume and makeup as a halloween costume and I thought it looked cool enough to put into a movie, so I wrote a little movie that incorporated it. "As simple as the movie is, there are several themes that recur in later movies. Sometimes the best things are the simplest things. "I think this is always going to be my favorite movie and even though it has many many shortcomings and limitations, and I've gotten much better at filmmaking since then - I still think in a weird way it's the best thing I've ever done."
"He's the Edgar Allan Poe of filmmaking." - Melanie Addington
"I just love him. His creativity is so unique." - Kat Phillips
"That man is a fu@!ng genius." - Ken Calloway/Cockfight Club
"Daniel is an amazing guy and an interesting filmmaker." - Edward St. Pe'
"One cool guy and filmmaker." - Elizabeth Pasieczny
"Who is this guy?" - George A. Romero
"..." - John Sayles
"He looks like Marilyn Manson." - Some random drunk guy
Daniel Lee is a southern-based indie auteur who specializes in producing cinema with little-to-no budget and limited resources. 'The Doctor' as he's often called has acquired a devoted cult following and base of support. He has earned the respect and friendship of many more prominent figures in the film industry. Despite having only consumer grade equipment largely available at your local electronics store and hardware retailer, Daniel Lee has beaten out literally hundreds of competing films for selection in multiple film festivals and won three film awards. The Doctor eschews the outdated Hollywood division-of-labor habits by writing, designing, photographing, and scoring his own projects - often also composing the music and creating sound design himself. He has been known to even sew costuming and fabricate props from scratch. These habits have earned him nicknames such as 'The-One-Man-Band' and 'The Wizard'. Daniel Lee's other hobbies include playing and performing music in his band - Dr. Daniel & The Rockabilly Vampires, collecting antiques, writing, and political activism.
The following is a partial biography in his own words: I am a mad scientist of the cinematic arts. I have a great love for old film styles. I have been in love with science fiction and horror since my earliest memory of seeing The Empire Strikes Back (at a drive-in no less) in 1980.
My brother and I used to live in Ohio when we were children. We watched b-movies, old Universal classics, Ray Harryhausen flicks, Godzilla movies, Star Trek, anime (anyone remember Tranzor Z?), and more on a UHF station - Channel 43. Most of the movies were hosted by a local horror host named Superhost. He was supposed to be a sort of W.C. Fields-in-a-Superman-costume character. That was a bygone era. Gone are the unique localized UHF stations from the days of yore. I should mention we didn't have cable or a VCR back then. Those were still commodities of a minority of the population at that point. Come to think of it, MTV hadn't even launched when we started watching all that TV. If it wasn't on Channel 43, PBS, or one of the three networks (Fox wasn't even around back then!), we didn't see it.
We also used our imaginations a lot and played make-believe whenever there was nothing interesting on TV (which was pretty often). This localized viewing habit provided myself and my talented brother with a pretty unique set of influences which we still draw from today. The result is pretty one-of-a-kind.
Some years later, myself and my brother were constantly experimenting with our grandparents' Zenith brand camcorder. We figured out a light-refraction could look an awful lot like a transporter beam. Kung fu movies were really funny if you used the built-in mic and dubbing feature. And you can do a lot of crazy stuff with GI Joes and Ninja Turtles when you start getting wicked with the stop-motion feature. Come to think of it, that was a pretty kickass camcorder. My brother still has it. It still kinda works.
So years later, as an adult, it was pretty inevitable that I would delve into filmmaking. My first attempt at film was a music video for "Graveyard Road". A song I wrote in one of my musical projects. I had a Kodak digital camera and two 16mb memory cards. This still camera had a video capture feature and I figured "Hey... If I could feed video into my computer, I can probably figure out a way to edit it. Whatever editing is." So I set out to shoot a music video. I quickly found that this Kodak camera would only record for 30 second bursts. Moreover, only two 30 second clips would fit on a 16mb memory card! So I had to shoot 2 mins worth of footage, and drive back home from the cemetery I was shooting in, upload the footage, clear the memory card, drive BACK to the cemetery, and get 2 mintues more. This went on all day. Did I mention I didn't have a tripod? And there was nobody to run the camera for me? And that I had to bring a portable cd player with tiny mini speakers I could barely hear so I'd know what to lip-synch to? And that I had to operate the cd player and the camera at the same time and still find enough time to 'act'? The end result to this one-day shooting experiment was surprising. I put together a half-way decent looking music video which incorporated footage from some of my favorite horror flicks. Although I had intended to just shoot this stupid thing for the purpose of learning and didn't really intend for anybody to see it, my friends insisted that it was good enough to share with the world. It has since aired on a couple of television shows. (Late night horror host shows! How fitting!) The very next day, I shot a second music video which was twice as long and way way way better than the first. "Six Feet Underground" which you can see on my youtube channel or on my band's myspace. It would eventually go on to screen in the Tupelo Film Festival. I swore off any more filmmaking of my own until I got a proper camera and got some film ideas. That took about another two years. But now here I am, making films again! In the interim, I have "acted" (horribly no doubt) in my friend Solomon Mortamur's epic ode to b-movies - It Came From Trafalgar! and several other indie films, donated money to film festivals, donated songs to movie soundtracks, encouraged other aspiring filmmakers, and worked with a lot of different directors.
I know my movies won't appeal to everyone and that everybody's a critic, but for those of you who decide you DO like my style, I hope you enjoy the ride. I know I will!
April Perea is a musician/writer/filmmaker born and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi - the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
April has been playing music from a very young age. She has created numerous projects including the first all-girl punk band in Mississippi - The Underpants.
In 2008, her musical outlet combined with filmmaking when she became the first woman to win Best Music Video at the Tupelo Film Festival. Her no-budget, largely improvised music video for "Trainwreck" beat out professionally made videos, including one by major label artist Paul Thorn.
In addition to experimental films, April co-wrote "It Came From Beyond Beyond" and co-wrote and co-directred "Pretenders" due out in 2010.
