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With the 3rd Macabre Faire Film Festival just around the
corner, why don't you tell us a little bit about it?
Sure,
The Macabre Faire Film Festival is our featured event where we bring
independent movies from the US as well as abroad to be shown, judged and
awarded right here in Long Island, NY. We decided after our 2nd
festival in January to go heavier on short films for this event and an
overall larger number of films for our attendees to enjoy. All told
we are screening 69 films in 3 days this time. The film festival is
being held May 31 - June 2, 2013!!!
So
what's a Macabre Faire Film Festival usually like, what are your
visitors to expect? Visitors
to a TwitchTwitch Productions event can always expect an experience.
We pride ourselves on creating an environment that our patrons can lose
themselves in. We have created a culture, a vibe, a true family
feeling within our events, and our film festivals are a great example of
that. There is plenty of opportunity for networking and friendships
as the festival is designed to enable everyone to mingle throughout the
three days. You can meet and spend time with the actors, filmmakers,
performers, hosts, even the vendors if you like. There is no line to
stand on to speak to or take a photo with someone… Everyone is there with
the same purpose, to enjoy and celebrate some fantastic horror, sci-fi,
twisted, macabre, dark comedy, even Steampunk films. There is
something for everyone under the Macabre umbrella that we have created.
On top of the films there are live music performances, vendors with
eclectic and unique items, Q&A sessions, panels and a grand awards
ceremony on the last evening of the event.
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Can you tell us anything about the
films you're going to screen yet? Well
we can tell you that if you love to go for a ride, these films are going
to deliver. We have it all, from dark comedy to twisted tales, from
suspense, to gore, from classic horror to Steampunk, the selection is vast
and attendees will have the opportunity to cast their votes for best
feature and short films too. Everyone’s vote counts, so make sure
if you come, you watch as many films as possible if you intend to place
your votes in the ballot box. No festival without a
few celebrity guests - so who have you lined up and why? For
this event we have Eileen Dietz known for her work in The Exorcist,
as
well as Canadian actor Robert Nolan [Robert
Nolan interview - click here], who happens to be in a few of the
films being shown at the festival. Both are extremely talented at
their craft and we are very excited to have them. We also have child
actress Grace Powell, actor Charles Lo Manto, and radio hosts Jimmy Star
and Ron Russell. And of course we have a number of actors coming
from the various films in the festival as well as many of the directors
who made those very films. On top of that we have some incredible
musical guests for this event including musical artist and actor Wyzae,
Demon Boy, Will Bozarth, Psych Corporation, Neon Knights Dio Tribute, The
Wandering Cellist, Vlad the Inhaler and even Sammy Davis Jr. from the
Undead Rat Pack. Last but not least our official TwitchTwitch
Productions characters from a Nightmare on Your Street, Freddy vs.
Jayson,
and Joker & Riddler. You don’t want to miss it.
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Do
talk about your venue for a bit, and what made it perfect for your needs? Size
matters and so does location, as well as working with a venue partner that
can be flexible with accommodating our needs. In this case the venue
is perfect size. The Best Western Mill River Manor Inn in Rockville
Centre, NY is not a mega hotel. It is intimate in size, large enough
to spread out our attendees so they are not climbing over one another, but
small enough that you can’t get lost and always feel that you are right
in the thick of things. We have three screening rooms, a stage for
performers and Q&A’s as well as room for vendors. We have
leather couches to sit on in the front row of one screening room, a
comfortable main lobby area for relaxing by a fire or having tea and
cookies with friends. There is an Italian Bistro with a bar and the
hotel’s rooms are quite comfortable and well appointed. The hotel
also has an outdoor pool. As far as location it is perfect for us.
It is located right downstairs from the Long Island Rail Road’s
Rockville Centre stop, making it about twenty minutes or so by train from
Manhattan. Key
question: Where to buy tickets for your event?
www.MacabreFaireTickets.com
until Midnight May 26. Then at the door of the venue during the
event itself until capacity is reached. What gave
you the idea to run the Macabre Faire Film Festival in the first
place, and what's the philosophy behind it?
We
had been growing our Macabre Faire party type events…Three days, 20 or
so bands and various types of performers and we were building a solid
relationship with the Best Western. It was on a trip to another
convention (Monster Mania), that we found ourselves in discussion with a
filmmaker. During the conversation he mentioned film festivals as
being a great opportunity to network and show off his work. It just
clicked for us right there. We already had a love of movies, we had
been brought up on horror, sci-fi and comedy respectively, we were already
acting, directing and producing, and we had a venue. At that moment
the Macabre Faire Film Festival began to come to life. 2 months or
so later we were standing in the midst of our first and have not looked
back since.
Our
philosophy is simple. We want to make the filmmakers and the films
the stars and celebrities. We want to create a unique, comfortable
and friendly atmosphere that encourages getting to know other attendees
and the people who create as well as star in the films. We want to
provide a TwitchTwitch Productions experience, something not forgotten,
something cherished, something that you will want to be a part of and will
do what you can to arrange plans to come back to. So far we are
getting feedback that our philosophy is working.
Highlights
from past festivals?
Yes
of course! Probably the biggest highlight was that our first Macabre
Faire Film Festival was unique and different enough, and that our
personalities and honesty struck a chord with an incredible actor by the
name of Doug Jones. So much so that he made it a point to attend and
became our first celebrity guest. Doug of course has acted in quite
a few major Hollywood movies. Known by most for his role as Abe
Sapien in Hellboy 1 and 2. Long Island’s largest newspaper gave us
great coverage due to that and it set us on our way.
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Another
big highlight for us is our family of “Macabreites”. These are
our family of friends that continues to grow with each event. There
is true love and respect there. Real friendships birthed at our
events with people that we are proud to call brothers and sisters.
Their loyalty and love for what we do drives us to continue to make our
events as special as possible for everyone who attends. Sitting in
the back of the room at the end of the night watching everyone loving the
experience, singing songs, playing guitar, celebrating the joy of being
together, that is a huge highlight for us and one that has been a regular
occurrence since we started our very first Macabre Faire.
Any plans for future festivals yet? Yes
our next two Macabre Faire Film Festivals are already being put together.
In September The Macabre Faire will be the Official Film Festival of
ParaFest. A very large convention taking place in Bethlehem PA, the
first weekend of September at the Sands Hotel, Casino, Event Center and
then we will be back in our Rockville Center location in January 2014. Speaking
of films - as far as I know you have also made a few shorts yourself -
care to talk about those for a bit? Our
shorts were done as promotional tools for our company. The first was
a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of TwitchTwitch
Productions.
It was shot at The Mills Pond House in St. James, NY which we were using
quite often for our theatre shows at the time. The second was done
as a bridge to bring our character Salvatore Rizzo “The DeadFather”
from the stage to film and then ultimately into your real life as it ended
in a movie theater with him going into the theater… At that moment when
the film ends, Salvatore himself would come through the door and surprise
the audience as part of our Horror Nights programming at a local movie
theater that we work with regularly.
You'll also be in an
upcoming episode of the In
Fear of-webseries directed by Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi [Alfredo
Salvatore Arcilesi interview - click here] - now what can you tell
us about that one, and how did it come into being? This
is a fantastic opportunity for both of us that came along due to
networking at our Macabre Faire Film Festival, creating friendships, and
then ultimately, the producers of the series, Scott W. Perry [Scott
W. Perry interview - click here] and
Steven-Mark Glassner [Steven-Mark
Glassner interview - click here], as well as “Maverick Canadian Filmmaker” Alfredo
Salvatore Arcilesi, came together with a story concept for
Mnemophobia
– Fear of Memories. After getting to know us and seeing what we
are capable of as actors ourselves, they asked us to come on board feeling
that the chemistry of everyone involved just felt right. We’re
honored to be a part of this visionary concept that is becoming a hot
series of short films.
Adam Ginsberg, LC Macabre |
A few
words about your company TwitchTwitch Productions? TwitchTwitch
Productions is the parent company behind The Macabre Faire Film
Festival.
We began a number of years ago with a haunted house in our backyard, then
an original theater show called The Living Dead Mafia and a few
larger haunts for venue partners too. We continued with theatre for
a few years developing plays for Long Island playwrites as well as
continuing to create more of our own shows like our homage to the old
Johnny Carson show called Even Later with Salvatore Rizzo. We
dabbled in music via our LDM Band project as well as our acoustic comedy
act. We created and host a syndicated radio program called The POD
of The Dead, and moved into doing 3 day party/music events called Macabre
Faires 2 years ago. After working on our own short films we realized
just how much we loved the medium. Being Actors, Directors, and
Producers ourselves, we decided to transform the Macabre Faire party
events into Film Festivals… And now we are on our third. We are a
true Mom and Pop type of business with both of us heavily involved in the
day to day aspects of our projects and company. It’s always
special when a husband and wife can be compatible working together and we
are very fortunate that we have that. Your/your
festival's website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.TwitchTwitchProductions.com
www.MacabreFaireFilmFest.com
https://www.facebook.com/TwitchTwitchProductions
https://www.facebook.com/MacabreFaireFilmFestival
https://www.facebook.com/MacabreFaireEvents
Anything
else you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Just
that we could not do what we do without the loyalty and support of our
friends, families, and all of those filmmakers that believe in our Macabre
Faire Film Festival. This is a labor of love and we are humbled by
the appreciation and support. We can’t thank everyone enough. Thanks
for the interview! You are
very welcome. Thank you for your patience and the opportunity.
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