With the recent addition of our entire post-2001 movie collection hitting the Internet, many inquiries have started to pour in as to why certain movies were unfinished or sequels weren't produced.  So, for the next few weeks I will present an article based on a certain unfinished or uncertain project.  Lilredhead Studios has seen a lot of successful movie launches.  However, not everything in the past, and hell, the present, has been so successful.  But like any good company, instead of admitting mistakes were made, we just sweep everything under the rug and hope nobody notices the mess we created.  Well, the time has come to dig up the dirt and talk about these elusive projects.   So grab some some popcorn, fluff your ass pillow, potty your dog, do what you need to do now, because this article is a doozy.

Ah, Inhabitance Bad, we hardly knew thee.  Well, actually, we knew thee too well, which is why it was canceled.  Inhabitance Bad was the beginning of a transition for Lilredhead Studios (at that time known as I.M. Independent Productions).  Let's turn back the clock to August 2004.  Justin Huber and myself were still high off the fumes of The 99.9% Action Movie: The Movie (the project for our high school science fiction class).  Whenever Justin and I get together, it's usually a very dangerous thing, for the most stupid shit known to man will spew out of our mouths.  This shit sometimes makes its way onto film (ie: Max Carnage).  And this is exactly what contributed to the start and downfall of Inhabitance Bad.  If you've read past articles I've done, you'll know I claim the old crappy classic Aliens- Chapter 1: The War Begins to be a big contributor into the evolution of my filmmaking.  Well, Inhabitance Bad was the next step in that evolutionary process.

Inhabitance Bad was supposed to be a parody of the Playstation 1 video game Resident Evil.  The movie loosely followed the story, parodying certain points of the game, as well as throwing completely random shit into the mix to stir up cheap laughs.  The script, simply put, was a mess.  Furthermore, the script called for way too many things that simply could not be done on our budget at that time (even now the movie couldn't be easily done).  Once the script was completed, we held "auditions", which mostly involved asking people on campus if they wanted to be in a movie, and filming began.  Only two days of filming were done before the project was declared a disaster.  Months passed and I held onto hope the project could take off but Iultimately canceled it in early 2005.

The mock DVD cover that was made before the film even started.

All of the stuff I just talked about is pretty common knowledge.  However, what is not widely known is how this movie started and at the same time almost ended friendships and a new campus organization.  When I completed the first draft of the Inhabitance Bad script (with help from Justin of course), I started looking into filming most of the interior shots on the Dickinson State University campus.  I wasn't really sure how to go about this being a freshman and not really knowing my way around things.  This is where the legend of Josh Nichols comes in.  I knew of Josh Nichols when I attended high school (he was a grade above me) and I saw him around campus a few times as I started going to school.  So one day while I was leaving campus with Justin, I spotted Josh and decided to chat with him about the project.  I didn't know much about Josh except for these two things: he had a fucked up sense of humor (like me) and he had seen almost every movie on Earth.  After talking to Josh about the project, there was really only one thing that hooked him and that was the dance number in the movie.  See, there was a scene in the movie where we wanted to parody Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.  Josh obviously wanted to see the script and so that was arranged.  This is where things started to turn for I learned that Josh's similarities to me moved way passed humor.

I am someone who always seems to take charge of a situation or project.  Even today I do the majority of work in a movie (write, direct, animate, camera work, edit, publish, etc) and over the years I had grown accustomed to getting my way.  Well it turned out that Josh also liked getting his way and had a very "take charge" attitude.  This was a problem.  Josh had suggestions for the script and I listened and little by little things were changed.  Somethings were minor, other things not so much.  As things were rewritten and revamped, I felt myself becoming uncomfortable with the changes taking place in the second draft.  After all, Josh had never made a film in his life, yet he was coming in and reworking a movie that filmmaking veterans (ok maybe not, but bare with me here) Justin and I had created.  Well, enough was enough, it was time to voice my opinion.  I did this and I discovered another likeness that Josh and I shared, the art of arguing.

Josh and I had some good arguments over the script.  In the end, compromises were eventually made and a third draft was conceived.  But there was another factor to this whole thing and that was Justin.  Justin was not happy at all with the revisions for it lacked that random goofy shit he had always loved. Admittedly there were changes I liked, but many of the changes I was not happy about.  But, in the interest of getting the project off the ground, I (in my eyes) let Josh have his way.  When it came to actors, Josh had us covered for he seemingly knew everyone on campus.  A couple of meetings were held, the actors were picked and the hunt for costumes and props got rolling.  Keep in mind we didn't make a schedule for filming or anything, it was all done by ear.  So this made meetings and overall communication a big sloppy mess.  To ease this a message board was created on the old I.M. Independent website.  This board was visited only by Josh, Justin and myself, another words, the other actors never took interest (save for Brandon Pelling who wasn't going to be in the movie, but that later on changed).  Everything seemed good to go and the first film/take picture day was picked.  There was a problem though.  And it involved Justin, who played the Larry character.

"Auditions" are held for Inhabitance Bad.

On the day of the shoot all the actors went to Corrina Lowe's apartment (the female star of the movie) to take pictures for the movie.  Justin had notified me he had to work that day and would be off in the evening to film but not during the day to take pictures.  Justin was picked to play Larry due to the Max Carnage-ness of the character.  And the character was pretty much written with Justin in mind.  However, after the shoot we were ready to go film and Justin was nowhere to be found.  Then, someone who was helping with the costumes approached me and told me that Justin expressed a desire not to be in the movie to her, due to the fact the script underwent so many changes.  And, for whatever reason I believed her and I made an executive decision and gave the role to Brandon, who was Justin's "understudy".  Brandon had posed in the pictures we took as Larry as a placeholder anyway, so it seemed logical to move forward with him.  Just as we were getting ready to leave to go film, Justin showed up.  After I told him my decision I could tell he was mad.  Justin normally doesn't show anger, but I could tell he was disappointed, which meant my decision had a very negative effect on him.  And really, the decision I made was a poor one, for I should've known better that Justin wouldn't have quit the movie like the costume designer said he did.  With that, we all moved forward to the location to film.  Justin came along to help out and be a crew member.  The filming itself went well enough, except when it started to get cold out (and some people got crabby).  For the night shots Brandon hooked up some strobe lights in some trees to give off the effect of lightning.  Overall, it was a fun experience, for it was my first time working with such a big cast.  To tell the truth, despite compromising the movie (and my friendship) during the course of that day, it was by far the funnest time I had with that movie since the conception of the first draft of the script.

The joys of not having a green screen.

With some of the outside scenes under our belt, Josh and I went forward with securing filming locations on the DSU campus.  We met with the director of student services (I could be wrong on the title, it was someone who dealt with students).  After we explained the project to her and where we wanted to film, she said she would get back to us.  A week later we were called back in and she denied us access to film at DSU.  The reason you ask?  The school wanted money.  Yes, the school wanted us, two DSU students, to pay them money to film on campus.   This ladies and gentlemen is the reason why we formed the DSU Filmmakers club, so we could use the school facilities and film on campus if needed.  Yes, the club wasn't made to spread the joy of filmmaking to all the agricultural and teaching majors (who by the way don't give a hoot about filmmaking), it was to raise a big middle finger to the money hungry business men (note: administrators) of the school and work around legal squabbles.  But, the club wasn't created until late 2004 and Josh and I needed a place to film now.  After some doing at city hall, we tracked down a woman who owned a big old abandoned house in the middle of town.  This house had been around, for it had numerous owners over the years (many moved out because they claimed it was haunted) and several Halloweens it had been turned into a haunted house for kids.  It seemed like the perfect place and the lady granted us access to film there.  The house was completely gutted out and a wreck.  We spent numerous days trying to clean out the piles of wood and surplus of Garfield dolls.  Since there were no walls we used white paper (yes, fucking paper) to create walls.  The house was a disaster, for on the third and fourth floors, the floor was warped and brittle.  One of us could have easily fell through and got seriously hurt.  It's amazing the woman let us even go in there.  She even told us she let her grand kids play in the house.  The place was a god damned death trap!  And let's not forget about the porn box.  While cleaning, Josh stumbled upon a metal box, which on top of it was the book entitled "Bitches in Heat".  Josh ran down the stairs giggling like a little girl, showing me the book.  I went upstairs with him to see where he found it and if with curiosity we opened the box.  And that was a mistake because there were many Polaroids of this old lady in compromising positions.  When news of this spread through the house we couldn't keep the helpers back from taking a peek.  After seeing these images, I could never look at that woman the same way.  But it's a good thing she let her grand kids roam the house and discover these hidden treasures (I'm being sarcastic if you can't tell).

"The Lion House"- Home to ghosts and dirty pictures.

Needless to say we couldn't film in the house.  With no electricity, the shorter days due to the season change (another words: lighting issues), and the overall cluttered mess, it just couldn't be done.  Nerves were so frayed that Josh and I even argued over a woodpile while cleaning the house one day.  I think we were just so pissed at everything we needed to argue about something and the placement of the woodpile became the subject of choice.  It got the point where Josh and I couldn't say anything to each other without arguing.  Eventually a second film day was completed.  But due to a lack of scheduling and uncertainly the movie came to a hault.  Josh, the new recruit Brandon, and I tried to keep the ship afloat.  We kept shoving sunshine up the actors' asses of things to come but could never keep the promises.  Eventually Josh and I started a new project and the memory of Inhabitance Bad started to die.  Then in early 2005 I announced the cancellation of Inhabitance Bad.  At the time Josh and I blamed everything and everyone but ourselves.  But truthfully, we had no one to blame but ourselves.  The reason why our actors started to resent us was due to the fact we didn't have a proper schedule, rehearsals, or communication.  We rushed into the movie with all these ambitious ideas, tried to make things work and failed at ever turn due to our short sightedness.  When the project was canceled, a blanket of relief overcame me.  The god damned thing was finally over.

The joys of cleaning "The Lion House".

In mid 2005 I started to tinker with the idea of reviving the movie with a new script.  The script was started and the concept was completely new.  The movie was no longer a parody, but an actual horror movie.  I was going to give the script to Brandon Pelling and Zach Tibor to direct since they still had interest in the project.  But my script never got done and the interest died out again.  And really, this was probably a good thing, for this new story couldn't even be considered Inhabitance Bad due to the radical new direction.  However, in a recent conversation with Brandon, he claimed he would like to actually to take on the old script and try directing it again.  So who knows, maybe this damn thing isn't dead yet!

As I stated before, Inhabitance Bad was an important evolutionary step in my filmmaking.  For it wasn't the movie itself that helped me, but the experiences I went through.  By the time this project laid to rest I started to realize that I couldn't have everything my way and that compromise is important to the success of a partnership.  Furthermore I learned that scheduling and planning are key to filmmaking.  And finally I learned that no matter how important filmmaking is to me, friendship is far more important.  During the course of this movie I almost severely damaged a long time friendship with Justin but at the same time almost crippled the developing friendship I had going with Josh.  However, in the end, we all got through it.  And for the record, the three of us continue to have strong ties with each other.  As a matter of a fact Josh and I continue to work on numerous projects together.  And hell, we hardly argue anymore (but when we do, I always win, so there).  Really, the partnership that Josh and I developed is the main thing that came from the ashes of this film.  And even though that partnership (and friendship) would really be put to the test while working on Scrooge, I believe it made us both better people.  If you can do a job and have fun with it, that's great.  If you have can do a job and learn something about yourself, even better.

To view the unfinished version of Inhabitance Bad, click here. 

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