Herschell Gordon Lewis, Godfather of Gore


Book Description

Without a big budget, special effects team, or professional actors and crew members, Herschell Gordon Lewis created films that he himself admits were trash. Yet, while Gordon's softcore porn (The Adventures of Lucky Pierre) and heavy-duty gore (The Gruesome Twosome) were never blockbuster films, they were popular drive-in fare in the sixties and seventies. They have had a strong influence over more recent productions, and they have created for Lewis his own special niche in the world of exploitation and horror film. The history of Lewis the man and the filmmaker is a surprising one. Behind titles like Blood Feast and The Gore-Gore Girls is a warm and friendly gentleman whose road to his own brand of film glory was paved with disappointments, surprising successes, and lots and lots of fake blood. His career is examined in detail, with personal anecdotes and insights into making really gross movies on really small budgets. A filmography is included, and photographs, many of them rare, complement the text.




Open Me Now


Book Description

If you are a student of selling by mail, you may have wondered why "experts" write book after book and magazine article after magazine article about letters ... and almost nothing about the envelopes housing those letters. The reason I do is one that becomes obvious the first time you create a brilliant, award-winning, irresistible direct mail campaign ... and it bombs. "What's wrong with these people?" we cry. "This was aimed right at them. They need it. The price is right. The letter is loaded with dynamite, and we spent a ton of money taking pictures for the brochure. What happened?" The question should be: "What didn't happen?" If the message is aimed right at them and they need it and the price is right and the letter is loaded with dynamite and the pictures in the brochure are worthy of hanging in The Louvre, what's missing? Where did we goof? The envelope. If they didn't open the envelope, all that brilliance was reduced to a zero-watt intensity. The envelope is the greeter, separating us from everyone else...from all the other business mail driven by self-intensifying databases (the best prospect are the best targets and thus get the most mail and thus are harder to reach and even harder to convince). The envelope is the bellwether, moulding the recipient's attitude. It whispers, says, commands, or shouts to the person holding it, "Open me now!" What happens next can determine the fate not just of a mailing but of the organisation behind it. And that's why this book exists. Thanks for agreeing with my premise: If they don't open the envelope, all the brilliance in every other component is reduced to a zero-watt intensity. Now, let's get some megawatt envelopes into the mail!




The Gruesome Tensome


Book Description

A short story tribute to the films of legendary exploitation film director Herschell Gordon Lewis. MP Johnson (author) Jordan Krall (author) David C. Hayes (author) William D. Carl (author) Mark McLaughin (author) Michael Sheehan, jr. (author) L.L. Soares (author) Jeff Strand (author) Gregory Lamberson (author) Garrett Cook (author) Adam Cesare (author)




Direct Mail Copy that Sells!


Book Description

Shows examples of good and poor copywriting, explains how to motivate potential buyers, and suggests ways to improve one's writing skills




CinemaTexas Notes


Book Description

Austin’s thriving film culture, renowned for international events such as SXSW and the Austin Film Festival, extends back to the early 1970s when students in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin ran a film programming unit that screened movies for students and the public. Dubbed CinemaTexas, the program offered viewers a wide variety of films—old and new, mainstream, classic, and cult—at a time when finding and watching films after their first run was very difficult and prohibitively expensive. For each film, RTF graduate students wrote program notes that included production details, a sampling of critical reactions, and an original essay that placed the film and its director within context and explained the movie’s historical significance. Over time, CinemaTexas Program Notes became more ambitious and were distributed around the world, including to luminaries such as film critic Pauline Kael. This anthology gathers a sampling of CinemaTexas Program Notes, organized into four sections: “USA Film History,” “Hollywood Auteurs,” “Cinema-Fist: Renegade Talents,” and “America’s Shadow Cinema.” Many of the note writers have become prominent film studies scholars, as well as leading figures in the film, TV, music, and video game industries. As a collection, CinemaTexas Notes strongly contradicts the notion of an effortlessly formed American film canon, showing instead how local film cultures—whether in Austin, New York, or Europe—have forwarded the development of film studies as a discipline.




Sales Letters that Sizzle


Book Description

This handbook on international development policy and management covers a broad spectrum of contemporary topics across all the major areas of interest. With over 40 chapters, the book comprehensively explores the many themes and issues of significance for both policy and implementation, and provides easily accessible reference material on current practice and research. The 42 contributors come from a diverse range of backgrounds, and enjoy international reputations in their chosen fields.




Effective E-mail Marketing


Book Description

This marketing text provides proven strategies and tools for increasing response - and revenue - with every e-mail message.




Incredibly Strange Films


Book Description

Incredibly Strange Films is a functional guide to important territory neglected by the film-criticism establishment, spotlighting unhailed directors -- Hershell Gordon Lewis, Russ Meyer, Larry Cohen, Ray Dennis Steckler, Ted V. Mikels and others -- who have been critically consigned to the ghettos of gore and sexploitation films. In-depth interviews focus on philosophy while anecdotes entertain as well as illuminate theory. The guide includes biographies, genre overviews, filmographies, bibliography, quotations, an A-Z of film personalities, lists of recommended films, sources, index, as well as 172 photos.




The Horror Film


Book Description

In this volume, Stephen Prince has collected essays reviewing the history of the horror film and the psychological reasons for its persistent appeal, as well as discussions of the developmental responses of young adult viewers and children to the genre. The book focuses on recent postmodern examples such as The Blair Witch Project. In a daring move, the volume also examines Holocaust films in relation to horror. Part One features essays on the silent and classical Hollywood eras. Part Two covers the postWorld War II era and discusses the historical, aesthetic, and psychological characteristics of contemporary horror films. In contrast to horror during the classical Hollywood period, contemporary horror features more graphic and prolonged visualizations of disturbing and horrific imagery, as well as other distinguishing characteristics. Princes introduction provides an overview of the genre, contextualizing the readings that follow. Stephen Prince is professor of communications at Virginia Tech. He has written many film books, including Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 19301968, and has edited Screening Violence, also in the Depth of Field Series.




The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead


Book Description

Produce, direct, promote and sell your own chilling horror film with real-world advice from award-winning producer/director/writer Danny Draven! The second edition is completely updated with information on new technology, new exclusive interviews with industry pros, new photos and samples from the production of recent horror movies, new behind-the-scenes video, information on modern distribution methods and delivery and more! From the history of horror and the technique of the scare to pre-production and distribution, this complete, full-color guide to filmmaking uncovers all the insider secrets for creating your own spine-tingling horror film from start to finish. The 2nd Edition features all NEW interviews from industry professionals such as: Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers, Bag of Bones, Desperation, The Stand) John Ottman (Composer/Editor of X:Men: Days of Future Past, The Usual Suspects) Mark Ordesky & Jane Fleming (Producers of Lovely Molly, Exists) Kane Hodder (Jason from the Friday the 13th, part 7 to 10, Hatchet) Tibor Takacs (Director of The Gate, Spiders 3D, Megasnake) John Debney (Composer of Predators, Sin City, End of Days) Jojo Draven (Composer of Ghost Month, Reel Evil) Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Weird Science) Mike Mendez (Director of The Gravedancers, Big Ass Spider!) Neal Marshall Stevens (Screenwriter of Thir13en Ghosts, Hellraiser: Deader) Chris Alexander (Editor in Chief of Fangoria Magazine) Jessica Cameron (Actress/Director of Truth or Dare) Denise Gossett (Founder of Shriekfest Film Festival) A newly updated companion website that features: *Behind the scenes videos for films films such as Puppet Master, Blood Dolls, Trancers, Subspecies, Reel Evil, Ghost Month and more! *A revised collection of horror movie trailers! * Sample scripts, schedules, storyboards, agreements and more! Other featured interviews include: James Wan (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) Robert Englund (Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street) Robert Kurtzman (From Dusk Til Dawn) Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dagon) Tom Savini (Night of the Living Dead) Lloyd Kaufman (Toxic Avenger) Charles Band (Parasite, Metalstorm, Ghoulies) John D. LeMay (Friday the 13th: The Series) David DeCoteau (Puppet Master 3, Sorority Babes in the Slimball Bowl-O-Rama) Debbie Rochon (Tromeo & Juliet) Reggie Bannister (Phantasm) Sam McCurdy (Director of Photography of Dog Soldiers, The Decent, The Hills Have Eyes 2) Nathan Barr (Composer of Hostel,True Blood, Hemlock Grove) Jim Dooley (Composer of When A Stranger Calls) Chuck Williams (Bubba Ho-Tep) Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Wizard of Gore) H.P. Lovecraft’s Notes on Writing Weird Fiction And many more...