Showing posts with label Publicity/Promotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Publicity/Promotions. Show all posts

9.01.2012

Experience the Many Dimensions of Nightscape

As diligent (and patient) readers of this blog know, the film will be supported by a series of ancillary products. The most immediate releases inlcude an original novel, a video game and the film's soundtrack. I'll go into greater depth on each of these endeavors as their street dates near. In the meantime, here's a brief overview:

Nightscape: The Dreams of Devils

This original novel has its origins in the first unproduced Nightscape-related screenplay I wrote. The book concerns three high school seniors who gain unwanted paranormal powers. They have to uncover the source and purpose of these powers in order to prevent the collapse of earthly reality. The book features two characters from the film, though in decidedly different guises. What makes it possible for one of those characters to appear is revealed in a climactic twist.

Despite the ages of the book's main characters, it's not a young adult (YA) novel. It's a work of literary horror intended for a mature audience. The question at the heart of the book is: What does it mean to be human?  It’s darkly philosophical in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and shouldn't be confused with standard paperback horror. The main protoganist, Case, is a 16-year-old math prodigy with a particular fascination with the mathematics around infinity. His mathematical obsession is intimately tied to the nature of the story's supernatural threat.


The book includes a bonus short story, "Auto-da-Fé, American-style," which serves as a direct prequel to the film. It will be available on October 9th in both print and eBook editions from Amazon and other retailers.

Nightscape: Phantom Fast Racing


In this free iOS action-driving game, your goal is to outrace a nefarious phantom car through a series of rural burgs in a tricked out El Camino. The phantom car slows your progress by transforming hapless bystanders into tentacled monsters. You can evade or destroy these creatures using a variety of power ups, including a nitro boost, a spike drop, a demon-killing pistol, and a flamethrower. Your pursuit is further hampered by the ever-dogged police. With three difficulty settings and 15 levels, the game offers 16-bit-style fun for casual and hardcore gamers alike. Look for it starting September 25th on iTunes.

Nightscape: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Composer John Morgan Askew outdid himself on the film's spaghetti western meets retro-80s score. He's scored a number of indie films, notably, Calvin Marshall (2011), and worked uncredited on HBO's Deadwood. While I'm not above bias here, I think this soundtrack represents his best work yet.

John had this to say about the experience of making it: “[David] Edwards created a unique world for his film Nightscape so the score needed to not only support this in sound and feel but also needed to be an additional, tweaked, layer to the setting and the story. In the end, a very industrial palate was developed by recording percussive car sounds for drums, 8-cylinder engine idles for drones and, by good luck, some random chain scrapes and tool squeaks from a machine shop became key melodic tones throughout.  These created sounds with a blatant hat-tip to Tangerine Dream and Wendy / Walter Carlos made for some pretty weird score!”

The soundtrack consists of 20 tracks and clocks in at nearly 60 minutes. In addition to the original score, the soundtrack includes the garage rock song, “Save Yourself (Cuz No One Else Will).” This track, performed by Monster-Sized Monsters (fronted by the film’s lead actress Emily Galash), ties directly into the prequel short story included in the book. The soundtrack also contains the catchy Casio-inspired theme from the iOS video game.


The soundtrack will be available in both MP3 and limited edition CD formats via a number of online retailers, notably, Amazon, CD Baby, Google Marketplace and iTunes. The suggested MSRP is $9.99 for the digital version and $11.99 for the CD. I anticipate pre-orders will be available starting September 18th.

Pretty exciting lineup of tie-ins, eh? Look for our ads in upcoming issues of Rue Morgue, Shock Cinema, Scream and Screem (yes, two separate genre mags with nearly identical titles) and help spread the word. The Leviathan is heading your way...

10.03.2011

Nightscape Rock n' Roll

The short story that serves as a prequel to Nightscape, “Auto-da-Fe, American-style,” is set in the late-60s. As part of establishing the proper counterculture tone, it sports a series of (made up) song lyrics. The process of writing these lyrics led ineluctably to co-writing and recording a full-length song, “Save Yourself (Cuz No One Else Will).” I co-wrote the song with the film’s lead actress Emily Galash and her band Monster-Sized Monsters. (Well, I had the easy part of suggesting the song structure, providing some initial feedback and writing the lyrics; Emily and her cohorts did all the heavy lifting.) Needless to say, the group has crafted a supremely catchy tune that evokes songs like The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and The Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy.” I plan to make it available as part of the digital version of the tie-in book as well as feature it over the film’s end credits.

Monster-Sized Monsters recording "Save Yourself (Cuz No One Else Will)"

We recorded the foundational parts of the track last Friday in a marathon nine-hour session. The film’s composer, John Askew, served as our able guide and recording engineer. A veteran musician and producer,  he provided invaluable feedback throughout the recording process. And because his studio boasts a number of vintage instruments, band members we’re able to perform with era-appropriate gear. We’ll be adding some instrumentation and mixing the song over the next few weeks (in-between various post-production tasks). The initial plan is to debut the song this spring in conjunction with the tie-in book and hopefully, our first major film festival screening. But I doubt I’ll be able to contain my enthusiasm for the track that long and will likely post a special preview sometime before year’s end. Maybe as a holiday present for those who enter our Facebook sweepstakes. So, if you haven’t entered yet, get to it. The sweepstakes ends October 21st.

9.24.2011

Preview of Tie-In Book & Sweepstakes

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned that I’m writing a tie-in book that further explores the Nightscapeuniverse. I didn’t have any interest in re-hashing the film in prose form, so I’ve opted to pen a standalone short novel, along with five companion stories. Collectively, these stories describe the earthly history of a reality-shattering supernatural threat. The short novel that opens the book, The Dreams of Devils, is an adaptation of the original script for the film—a script that proved to have a prohibitively high price-tag. It’s about three high school seniors in a small Oregon town who discover an ancient supernatural weapon that gifts them with unwanted powers. While coping with their new talents, they must learn to put aside their differences in order to prevent the breakdown of reality. You can read the opening scene below...

Dreams of Devils_Online Preview

I’m pleased to present a special preview of this short novel and at the same time, announce a related Facebook sweepstakes. We’d like to garner as many Facebook friends as possible. By becoming a friend of Nightscape on Facebook and/or persuading your friends to do so, you’ll be entered into a contest in which you could win your name (or alternately, the name of a friend or family member) in the tie-in book, plus a host of other cool Nightscape merch. Check out the details of the sweepstakes at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nightscape-Movie/194911663155.

The contest ends on October 21st, so be sure to enter soon!