Shellter, a movie by Dan Donley

Shellter is an official selection of:

SHRIEKFEST SHOCKERFEST HORRORHOUND DARK CARNIVAL

EERIE HORROR FEST FRIGHT NIGHT FILM FEST FARGO FANTASTIC FILM FEST

PHOENIX FEAR FILM FESTIVAL CINEMA SLAUGHTER BARE BONES FILM FESTIVAL

ATLANTA HORROR FILM FESTIVAL OKLAHOMA HORROR FILM FESTIVAL

So Far...

March 2010

I saw your film Shelter. I have never been to a film festival before and don't really care for horror films. My friend Kip and I only went to do something we've never done before. After your movie, you did some Q&A. Most of the questions were techie questions but then someone asked you, "What motivated you to make this film?" My first thoughts were, "Someone was motivated to make this?" But then you told the story about the Jews in Auschwitz. I left the theatre asking myself, "Would I push the button?"

Your film left an impression on me. I even picked up Viktor E. Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning". Frankl's theory is that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. It is one of the best books I have ever read!

I can't believe I walked away from a horror film with that. Thank you!

Julie G.

This is the way I hoped SHELLTER would effect the audience, it's why I made the film. It's almost better than winning Best Feature at Phoenix Fear Film Festival. Almost better.

October is the time for Horror Film Festivals and SHELLTER was shown all over the country.

To the Festivals we didn't attend we just want to say we wish we could have been there!

And to the Festival Directors of the fests we went to we want to say thanks for the great experiences! It was really fun!

SHELLTER screened at the prime 7:30, Saturday night spot... the same exact day and time as SHRIEKFEST!

At the Eerie Horror Fest SHELLTER was one of 13 feature films selected for the festival and one of five nominated for Best Feature.

Other nominees included EVIL ANGEL starring frickin' Ving Rhames! That's some competition!

SHELLTER had a "coveted" midnight screening... along with an "Over 18, Adults Only" warning.

And if a Horror Festival is warning people you know SHELLTER just might be HARDCORE HORROR.

"If there was ever a movie that made you want to shoot yourself in the face with a shotgun, cut off your arms and legs, fall face first in to a grave filled with shit and then be set on fire, THIS IS IT!

It's SO good but SO dark. After watching it, you feel defeated, abused and ill. Cannibal Corpse songs are more cheery then this film. GO SEE IT!"

SHRIEKFES is held at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood where the films are projected in the plush screeening rooms.

"Shellter" made me so uncomfortable. This film is not for those easily made squeamish. ~Denise Gossett, Festival Director

And if a Horror Festival Director is saying that, you know SHELLTER is HARDCORE!

Happy New Year 2009

I’ve been fortunate to be busy this fall, flying all over the country and working right up to the Christmas holiday.   In the past week or so I’ve been cleaning up from all the shooting, maintaining equipment, getting hard drives reorganized and working on all my websites getting ready for the new year.

In the meantime, a new horror festival has appeared and given me the motivation to finish up SHELLTER and plan out a festival strategy.

I haven’t watched SHELLTER since September and the 3 month lay off was great. I was able to watch it with fresh eyes. Some things that bothered me in September because I was “fish bowling” on them are now fine and I see other things that need work.

I’ve just sent Mike Harrington 9 pages of post notes.   Unfortunately, for flow, I’ve deleted a few scenes, including much of the first 6 scenes.

SHELLTER is about Zoey and the Doctor. All the stuff leading up to Scene 7 was confusing, distracting or just exposition, which is the real horror in a horror film. It plays better just starting right in the hospital room with Zoey walking up.

Scene 1 was the ‘horror movie’ within SHELLTER. Brittney Daylee and Katelyn Gualt were perfect.   In Scene 2 we cut to see the movie on Zoey’s TV, plus she changes the channel to see other programs. All those shots with all those people on TV are gone, too. Thank you all for all your hard work.

We’ve also deleted the scenes where Zoey discovers Wendy and all the dead bodies. I wrote these scenes after I “finished” the screenplay and saw the location, which gave me the idea for using the jail cells.

The scene plays great, Shari Gulley was fabulous and but the cut flows better as originally written.   Even though I love the scene, it just doesn’t fit in the film.

Even if the scenes never make it into the final movie, the scenes will definitely become “deleted scenes” extras on the DVD and all the actors involved will get screen and imdb credit.

Although it will not be color corrected or sweetened, I hope to have a screener finished by January 31st. Then, we’ll send it to a couple of festivals and see whom salutes.

Mike and I spent a week in PS editing everyday. We were working so hard on the individual sequences we still didn't get a chance to watch SHELLTER all the way through. In fact, I've only watched the film once all together and that was after my first rough cut in January. But now we've seen some of the sequences run together and it's coming together. It's coming down what to leave in and what to leave out. We've whittled the cut from the original 100 minutes to just a bit over 84 minutes. It might get shorter.

Using sounds instead of music is really working. It makes the shelter a character with each room having it's own voice. But there are times you just want something more music like, especially during the fight scenes. I'm still looking for what I want/what works. SHTELLTER has reached the Work-In-Progress stage as it still needs fight sounds, sweetning, color correction, credits, etc. but like the trailer, it's in shape enough to show to people for comment.

Speaking of the trailer, we're still working on the graphics. You'll note that in some of the title cards everything is capitalized and some not. We'll probably add some movement in the title cards, too. Then, at the end we'll do something with fire in the hell in Shellter. The credit block was just something we grabbed from the poster, so we'll make that right and might do a little more sound work.

The question is who to show the current cut to or whether to enter a festival as a work-in-progress to get feedback. Suggestions?

I can't beleive it's August already! June/July was used to get the key artwork done. This gives us posters, flyers, postcards and business cards. It also gives us the key artwork to add to the website to get that finished which we hope to have done by the end of the month.

Post continues. Mike is about half way through the film... for the second time. Chuck Jean visited Mike in Indy and while he was there did some cutting with Mike on the film. He through out the script and just tried to find the film that was there. How did I like it? I'm going back to the script. Sorry Chuck! But Chuck's effort wasn't a waste, it loosened up our thinking on the flashbacks and all of Scene 7 which is our big chance to grab the viewer.

Mike has gone back to cutting to script for the rest of the film and hopes to be finished with his first pass by the first week in September. The second week in September we are meeting up in Palm Springs to polish up the first version with music and effects. I use this version to show around, get some feedback, maybe even enter a few festivals as a "Work In Progress". Then, early next year I'll put a lock on it and start marketing in earnest.

May 2008

It's a good news/bad news thing: The good news is both Mike Harrington (the editor) and I have still been busy since shooting SHELLTER. It's nice to see the money meter turning in the right direction! The bad news is we just haven't had the kind of time we wanted to spend on the film.

That isn't to say we haven't been working on it. As you know, I got the rough cut finished and we got the long distance editing thing worked out. Mike has done a first pass on up to scene 31. I thought he was just going to do picture but he has started adding SFX and it's really working!

I always hoped not to use any music in the film and just use sound to build tension. Mike’s done a great job using noise and SFX and I think it's working pretty good.

We had a time table worked out for the festival circuit. Because most the horror festivals all happen in October most of the submission deadlines are right around June 1. This meant music and color correction in May, SFX in April, picture lock in March, etc.

Then, it became, do we 'rush' to get it done or wait until we had the time to do it right? The answer is easy: We're waiting and doing it right. I hope you agree with the decision.

There is one very important horror fest that has a September deadline. It is a festival that requires the film be a US premiere. We’re still hoping to enter that festival this year and I want to get at least a finer cut ready for that festival. That leaves the film free for all the other festivals next year.

Yeah, next year. 2009. Wow. Hopefully, we can finish the film by fall. All the deadlines in the fall are for festivals in the winter. Oh, well. In the meantime, I'm still working on poster concepts, the website (www.shelltermovie.com) and the myspace page.

Please remember to get all your friends to become both a Nervousa Films friend at http://www.myspace.com/nervousa and a Shellter friend at http://www.myspace.com/shelltermovie

January 20, 2008 -

The rough cut is done. I finished what’s known as an assembly edit which is all the footage in script order. I cut it long and it runs about 102 minutes without credits.

I had edited the footage into 5 minute sequences which is easier for the computer (and the editor) to handle. I put the all the sequences into one time line for the first time on Friday (January 18, 2008) and Michelle and I both watched the whole movie for the first time from beginning to end.

What do I think? I’m way too close to it and need to step away for a couple of months. You get so close it’s hard to see the forest from the trees and at this point all I see is leaves and bark.

Michelle was pretty happy with the first cut but the film really needs music and effects, which is everything in a horror film. It’s like listening to your favorite song with only vocals.

I’ve sent the hard drives on to the editor Mike Harrington and he is going to start the real magic. First thing is to get it down to fighting weight, at least cut down to the low 90 minute range if not the high 80’s. Once we lock picture, we’ll start adding sound effects and music.

We’re redoing the Nervousa website and working on the pages for the shelltermovie.com website. Now that I’m off editing duty I want to spend more time getting ready to promote Shellter.

One of the main thrusts of PR will be via the internet. I use Constant Contact to send professional looking press releases. This is where you come in.

I need your help collecting email addresses. Try to think of anybody or organization that you would like to promote SHELLTER or anybody you think should know what’s going on with SHELLTER. Especially anyone in the business.

This could be talent agents, acting coaches, directors, producers, distributors, sales agents, festival programmers, other actors, family and friends. Use your imagination. Anybody interested in horror, magazine editors, newspaper writers and anybody interested in horror films.

Just save the emails in a word document or in an email and I’ll do the rest. Let’s get the word out!

December 27-

Well, Santa didn't make it. I rough cut the entire film except for Scene 56, which I just started to cut. Again, this is a rough cut, more for picture than sound and I didn't want to send out what was there just yet. I think you'll apreciate the extra work, too.

I should make it clear about Scene 56: It's a long scene, like a movie within a movie. Even though the scene shot quicker than I thought (thank goodness) there is plenty of coverage and I think with some love and work it will be the key scene, the turning point of the film.

My January is busy but I'm supposed to hand over the rough cut to editor Mike Harrington in the middle of the month. I want to get a second (and hopefully a third) pass through the film before I let Mike take it over. I think I can get footage to you then.

I let a group of people watch a couple of scenes. They were encouraging until I played the scene where the Doc is cooking and Zoey barfs. The groaning began early and when Cari vomited through her fingers everyone ran from the room. Hmmm. I think that's a good sign. I wanted to make a horror movie and they were horrified!

Have a great New Year!

November 22-

Chuck Jean made the joke that Cari and I would spend Thanksgiving in downtown trying to get empty street shots. We all laughed. Then I got up at 5am on Thanksgiving morning.

Back in October, Cari and I got up early to shoot a few shots one Sunday morning. Cari entertained the locals by wandering barefoot though the streets in her patient gown. But even at dawn, there was a lot of traffic and it was hard to get the big street shots.

I thought a foggy Thanksgiving morning would be quieter but there were just as many cop cars, busses and bums on the streets. All of Cari’s fans who live in the 4th street tunnel with their shopping carts wished her a Happy Thanksgiving.

I decided it was unwise to rush and cut a trailer for AFM. That would have been potential buyers first impression of SHELLTER, and as the saying goes, you only have a chance to make a first impression once.

Instead, after talking with the Producer and Editor, it was decided that I should use my time to do a rough cut unaided so everyone else could see it with ‘fresh eyes’.

During the first cut you get wrapped up in details of each individual shot and how a scene comes together and I find myself losing sight of the film as a whole. You can’t see the forest for the trees, and after a while, all you can see is leaves. You loose your perspective to see how the scenes play together and tell the story.

Except for Scene 56 (the shocking scene), I’m cutting the film in order and last night finished cutting Scene 69. That puts me a little over half way. What I can tell you about the cut so far is that the individual scenes are working and it’s playing fast but I can already sense some scenes are in the wrong order. But I’m not to that part of the editing process. yet. I’m still looking at the leaves.

I’m hoping to have the rough cut done by Christmas and Santa will a have a little something for your stocking. Once again, thanks for all your hard work. It looks great!

October 28 -

Well, it's over. The shooting, that is. Again, thank you everyone for your effort and fabulous work.

Last Thursday I digitized the last of the footage, which happened to be Cari wandering the deserted streets of downtown LA. Even at 5 in the morning, there are lots of buses, people waiting at bus stops and hung over bums. Cari made many new friends while wearing her patient gown!

A big shout out to Cari, not for wearing the patient gown in public, but for walking barefoot in the strees and alleys of downtown Los Angeles!

I'll start cutting this week. I'm torn between cutting a quick trailer or doing the rough cut. I was going to try to put together a trailer for AFM, but I really want to finish a rough cut by Christmas. What to do!
Thanks again for all your hard work!!

September 23 -

A month to the day and I'm finally adding another entry. In my defense, I've been busy.

The main seven days of studio shooting are completed. It seems like a blur. As I type this, I'm sitting in an edit bay digitizing the HDCAM tapes to hard drives. I've had a chance to see most of the actors and they did a great job! I kid Will, but he did a great job straddling the line beween everyday and creepy, without coming off like Dr. Chopper.

Cari was a real trouper. Most of the actors had a day or two of being bloody, sweaty and sticky and for a day it's fun. But Cari's wardrobe was practically glued to her and everytime she pulled on it, she took a little of her skin, too.

To do that day after day, takes a specail kind of commitment. Or is that masochism?IIn either case, it started to wear on her... which I thought was great! She actually looked a little more tired and beaten down everyday. I thought it added to her performance. She's is just excellent.

The only person who really like getting bloody was Maria. What a trouper! We beat her and burnt her and a light fell on her, but she kept going like the energizer bunny. More than one person has told me how fantastic... and scary Maria was.

Filmmaking is a team sport and it was the team behind me that really made it possible. Shooting quickly, with all the effects, it should have been at least an eight day shooting schedule. We did it in seven and never went over 11 hours a day. That is possible because of the crew.

Good work everyone!!

August 23 -

I have come to the conclusion I would make a terrible blogger. I just don't have the patience to sit down and write. At blogs.

We have cast the major parts and had a table read with the two main characters this week. I think Cari and Will have got a good handle on the characters and they are just realizing how many pages we have to get through every day. Scary monsters! Cari and Will also got a chance to see the sets for the first time.

Rich, the art director, saw the sets and props availabie last week and was relieved with how much is there. He has spent the week pickling stuff (like spam) in jars for set dressing. Fun stuff. All the props have ended up in my garage. It looks like the Adam's family is getting ready for a yard sale.

I also spent some time with Kurshila Martini and Adam Fleck, buying wardrobe. I like just hanging with the actors. They have questions about their characters that help me understand the characters better. From our talks I'm going to do a little re-writting of the script.

I hope to have a full cast table read late next week or early the following week. Then we'll lock the script and I'll start breaking it down.

June 30 -

Thanks to everyone who auditioned in both in NoHo and OC. The OC group was especially great and you made me proud!

We will have one more day for make-up auditions, then look at the audition tapes and have call backs the week following 4th of July. Just because you don't get a callback doesn't mean your audition wasn't great. There was a lot of talent at the auditions, but now we have to choose "groups" that fit together. Once the groups are chosen, we can see how you actually act together.

You will receive major portions of the script at this time and hopefully you'll like the script enough to want to be involved. The actors who have read the script are excited about it. After chosing a line up we'll have a day or two of rehersals and wardrobe meetings and then be ready to shoot!

Once again, all of you who auditioned did a great job! Thanks for your hard work and effort!

June 21 -

A big thank you to everyone who submitted for SHELLTER. We have recieved over 800 submissions and we will be using the headshots to make the first cut. For example, a lot of the guys who submitted are too young and not scary enough for the Doctor and Fearless. Don't think we have thrown you out completely. We will save all submissions just in case.

Then, in order, we give weight to what people said in the personal notes, people who are auditioning for several parts, people with physical (fighting) skills and actors not afraid of nudity.

We will probably contact people at the end of next week to set up auditions the following week. The OC audition will probably happen first, early in the week and then the LA auditions, later that same week.

We will try to see as many people as possible. Good luck and I'm looking for to meeting you all.