My Edmonds News Interview

Did a little interview with My Edmonds News.com. Read it below...

By Janette Turner

A few years back, a video crew shooting in Edmonds alarmed locals with a too-realistic gun scene. The resulting movie, “Rat Rod Rockers!” was released and I recently checked in with director D.A. Sebasstian to find out more.

My Edmonds News: Could you please give us an update on “Rat Rod Rockers!”

D.A.S.: The film has done very well, especially through Amazon Instant Video. I was surprised at how many folks actually rent underground hot rod films through this mainstream channel, instead of just stealing my film on one of the Peer To Peer or Pirating sites. We have also sold bucket loads of the “Rat Rod Rockers!” DVDs at car shows and on our own website. and the film has received decent reviews in all the Hot Rod and car magazines. It’s funny, with my genre of film making I get much more attention from the “Car” magazines and websites than the “Movie” magazines and websites. The sales of “Rat Rod Rockers!” enabled me to finance my latest documentary film- “Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride.”

My Edmonds News: What are you shooting these days?

D.A.S.: Right now I am in post production with “Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Take A Ride.” I started shooting in 2011 and have accumulated over 60 hours of interviews and Hot Rod footage. This film is a tribute to the builders and fabricators who make Hot Rods in the Northwest. I went to various shops from Medford, Oregon, to Monroe, Washington, and interviewed the builders one on one about why they do what they do and why they have a passion for these cars. I really see these guys as artists more than just “hobbyists”. Besides the builders, I also interviewed Matt Sawdon of Sunken Ship Tattoo, Photographers Tina Tang and Susana Victoria Clark and Pinstriper Don Charbonneau. “Kustom Kulture” encompasses the cars and the lifestyle and everyone form the Pin-Ups who pose with the cars to the artists who paint and stripe the cars are involved. I am on track to have this in festivals by end of 2013. I am also making a companion book to go with the film. At each interview session I took my Canon 7D along to take pictures for the book. I am not the greatest photographer in the world -much better with a film camera- but several of my photo shoots have been published in national magazines, so maybe I’m mot as lame as I think I am!

My Edmonds News: Anything else that you want folks to know?

D.A.S.: We re-booted our TV show “Go-Kustom TV!” We were on SCAN (cable 29/77) for four seasons back in 2002-2005 and then I put the show on hold to make feature length movies. When I was out filming “Rats & Gassers,” I found some of the footage, especially about muscle cars or kustom cars, wouldn’t fit the documentary’s format. I started thinking, why not re-boot Go-Kustom TV? I talked to pin-up mega-model Kitty Mansfield about hosting the show; she agreed and now we are wrapping up Episode One of Season Five. We will shop the show to various distributors and plan on having 12-14 25 minute Episodes in Season 5. Most are centered around area car shows like the Hell On Wheels show at Darrell’s Tavern in Shoreline, and many more. Some of the footage from the TV show will also be in “Rats & Gassers.” In this way I was able to shoot two project simultaneously. I like to maximize my effort this way.

To follow “Go-Kustom TV” and “Rat Rod Rockers!” check out the website.

Website http://www.go-kustom.com/go-kustomtv.html

Go-Kustom TV @ Hell On Wheels 2012

We set up the big 20x10 foot outdoor screen at Darrell's Tavern for the Hell On Wheels Car Show before noon. Darrell's is on Aurora (Highway 99) in Shoreline, Washington. This is the third annual and includes a small car show, bands all day in the tavern, burlesque performers and this year outdoor Hot Rod movies! I filmed a bit for Go-Kustom TV as my wife worked our vendor booth. Some cool rides, especially Craig VanSant's '49 Plymouth Sedan Delivery and one of my favorite area cars Mike Smith's 1967 Coronet R/T. After dusk, we started running films with a few hot rod shorts and then Rat Rod Rockers! Looked awesome and people from the nearby Fred Meyer parking lot and Jack In The Box drive through were gawking all night long. Hopefully we will run films next year. 

Mention In Ol' Skool Rodz...So Nice!

This came in our P.O. Box this morning...the latest issue of Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine with a full page of DVD and film recommendations entitled the Ol' Skool Library. Included on the list were my last feature, Rat Rod Rockers! (misprinted as Hot Rod Rockers!) and Go-Kustom TV Archives: Car Shows & Fabricators. It's always nice to get unexpected national press! 

Slaughterhouse Car Show

Go-Kustom (me and my wife) went out to the Slaughter House Car Show (put on by the Rat Bastards Car Club) yesterday to sell our films and music and show a movie after dark on my out door projection system. The weather was decent and the turnout was about 72 cars (almost double the number of last years show).  We got to hang with many of our friends, some we see at many different car shows. After dark we showed American Graffiti on my projection system on one of the massive open white walls of the Monroe River Valley Farm buildings. We screened American Graffiti instead of Rat Rod Rockers! was because most of the evenings remaining patrons already owned copies of the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD. We got home around 1 AM. A good time. 

Light Turnout for Rat Rod Rockers! at STIFF

Well ya can't win 'em all. We had about 20 people show for our Wednesday screening of Rat Rod Rockers! at the Central Cinema in Seattle last night. I know it was an off night, being mid week and we started screening at 9:45, but I expected a few more butts in the seats. Especially after the 351 bodies at our Seattle Premiere and the 426 patrons at out World Premiere. Thanks to the Rat Bastards Car Club, my sis and cousin (who also plays Harold Milldue in the movie) who made it out as well as the hot rod curious who, like me and my wife,  are probably dragging at work today from a lack of sleep. Promoting a Hot Rod Film at Car Shows is almost effortless- promoting to the festival community is a little more work. Also the free screening we are having at the Slaughter House Car Show this Saturday probably didn't help the turnout either. We did get mention in the Seattle Times, which may give the film some press traction further down the line.

Between screenings I snuck into the theater and took this pic.

Saturday we are setting up my 20x10 outdoor projection screen and showing Rat Rod Rockers! Drive-In Style. People seem to love the mini drive-in setting. Maybe some free in city outdoor wall screenings? That might be an idea whose time has come.

New Rat Rod Rockers! Poster

Made a modified version of the Rat Rod Rockers! movie poster today, minus the middle date, time and location sections we used for the World and Seattle Premiere posters. I wanted to add pics of Cameron, Charles, Raegan, Ron and Aeon to the poster.

Rat Rod Rockers! on Amazon Instant Video

Screen Shot of Rat Rod Rockers! Instant Video page

Been watching with excitement as our Rat Rod Rockers! film gets out to the public. This is the first film we have set up immediately on Amazon as an Instant Video download/rental, simultaneous with the physical DVD release and initial ad campaigns. We are seeing first hand how strong the V.O.D. (Video On Demand) or Instant Video services have become. This week downloads and rentals have outsold physical DVDs more than 10 to 1 !  This is Amazon Instant Video sales versus Amazon DVD sales and other website and store DVD sales. I think the key for us has been getting links to the Amazon Instant Video pages on the front page of the Rat Rod Rockers! website immediately We just had a spat of positive reviews of the film in big national magazine and when people go to view our films website, they can watch the film instantly, save it, burn it, and keep it indefinitely (if purchased and not just rented) or just rent it to watch immediately. Our family own a Roku device that we use for our Netflix, Hulu, Amazon etc. accounts viewing on our TV. The quality is just as good as putting a DVD into your DVD player and the selection is getting bigger all the time. I also dig all the strange stuff you can watch on the Roku, kinda like international public access television.

Amazon is also getting many first run films up online before Netflix does. I know this has to do with licensing. Personally I think Amazon is a much stronger company and should be the one to go to for Instant Video. Still options give the consumer more choices and there is nothing wrong with that. 

My Movie Posters

Got a test poster for my forthcoming film Choper Chicas in the mail yesterday. Had to put it with my other two films on my studio wall. I still need to do one for Evil Undead Girlfiend-:The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. Chopper Chicas is on the front burner now tho. I think I am developing a poster graphics style.

Rat Rod Rockers! Review in Rebel Rodz

Just got a DVD review for my new film Rat Rod Rockers! in Rebel Rodz Magazine. They are pretty fast with the reviews. I just sent the DVD in last month!

Evil Undead Girlfiend & Chopper Chicas

Now that Rat Rod Rockers! is officially out in a few festivals and on DVD, I have been getting scripts ready for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross and Chopper Chicas. All my stories are loosely related by the town where they occur- Anywhere, Washington, so in a way it's like writing one big story as opposed to two smaller stories. I may have several cross-over characters between Rat Rod Rockers!, Evil Undead Girlfiend, Chopper Chicas and Hot Rod Girls Save The World ... I haven't decided yet. Dutch Von Henry (played by Tony Ririe) is in both Hot Rod Girls and Rat Rod Rockers! All stories qualify as part of The Anywhere Archives Series. You might ask- why did you make all the stories happen in the same crappy little town? My answer would invariably be- why not? I have been in solid character development for both Chopper Chicas (with Heidi Van Horne & Monica Olive) and Evil Undead Girlfiend (with Smookie Tiger, Becky Lee & Karen Kougar). We will be posting both sets of pics for the character development on their respective sites when they are ready.


Chopper Chicas- Lead actress Heidi Van Horne has appeared in many TV series, including ER, The O.C., and Gilmore Girls. She is also a writer and prominent pin-up model gracing covers of several national magazines. Monica Olive is an accomplished actress appearing in short films Overheard in NYC and Checkmate. Heidi is also working as co-producer on this film. Shannon Brooke shot the character development pics that will be online shortly.

Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross- Becky Lee appeared in my last film Rat Rod Rockers! as Veronika Lakester (the flag girl) and is a prominent pin-up model with feature articles in dozens of magazines. Smookie Tiger has a long background in modeling and has worked with numerous professional agencies and photographers. Karen Kougar is an adult film star with numerous films to her credit.
Check the films websites for updates.

Rat Rod Rockers! Accepted Into STIFF

We just got word that Rat Rod Rockers! has been accepted into the 2011 Seattle's True Independent Film Festival. STIFF was modeled after the Slamdance Film Festival as a way to champion local and true independent films. We are happy and honored to be included this year!

Rat Rod Rockers! on Amazon VOD Rental

Amazon just added our film as a Video On Demand rental (currently $1.99 for one week) for internet TV, computer and mobile devices. You can also buy the film in VOD (Video On Demand) formats for $7.99. We did this through the Amazon's related company CreateSpace.com. With CreateSpace you can upload your film, music or book to sell on Amazon as an On Demand short run product. I love this service and what Amazon is doing for the indie-film industry.

Rat Rod Rockers! Screenings at Mild To Wild Car Show

Gave multiple free screenings of Rat Rod Rockers! Friday and Saturday (April 1st & 2nd) at the Mild To Wild Car Show in Puyallup, WA. We set up in a back room with two of the cars from Rat Rod Rockers! and one from Hot Rod Girls Save The World under the projection area. Rat Rod Rockers! screened several times Friday night and all day Saturday. I had to shut down temporarily when a Mom complained about the heavy use of the F-word in the film. We had warnings printed at the bottom of the schedules but obviously some people can't read. My wife and I placed poster easels blocking the area off with big "This Film Contains Adult Language" signs attached. This seemed to remedy the problem. The car show itself was cool- though attendance for the three day event was less than the Mild To Wild staff had expected. It may have been due to the extreme rain storms on Friday or because they moved this years show from the Tacoma Dome to the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Maybe it was the $15 per person ticket price or the economy in general. These things are hard to gauge.

During the car show, I sensed a little bit of back biting from the Street Rod crowd. This is common. These guys spend tens of thousands of dollars to have someone build them a "Show Rod" and don't much like sharing space with the do it yourself gearheads who build their own cars for the tenth the cost. These "Show Rod" guys use the term "Rat Rod" derogatorily. I overheard a few snickers and smug comments while standing behind these old guys reading my Rat Rod Rockers! posters in the hall. "Rat Rod Rockers...sounds like crap to me" or "Let's skip that 'Rat Rod' movie." On the flip side- quite a few people who did watch the film gave us very good reviews. Others commented on the setting. One photographer told me sincerely that the presentation, with the big room, cars and my films projected above them was the coolest thing he had ever seen at any car show. Personally it reminded me of some Modern Art Museum exhibit on Kustom Kulture. Overall a good weekend of promotion for the film.

Rat Rod Rockers! Advertisements

The Seattle Weekly ads for the Seattle Premiere of Rat Rod Rockers! just hit the web. We are running several weeks of ads online and a small print ad with the Weekly for the event. We also have radio sponsoreship ads hitting KEXP and KGRG in the next week. We didn't have alot of money for advertising the event- but are doing what we can. As an indie-film company you have to maximize your ad dollars and holding an event that also corresponds to (in our case) a DVD Release Party is a two fer situation. You are announcing the event and the release. Four wall screenings can be costly, but with decent grass roots promotion you can get people out to see your little film. Key to this strategy is never letting up with your promotion. You can't just have a four wall and then move on to the next project. I look at promotion in stages. With Rat Rod Rockers! the first stage was the World Premiere in Everett. This opened channels to promoting the film and was the initial push. Four months later we have the second stage which is the Seattle Premiere and DVD Release Party. The third stage is car show vendor booths and event screenings all summer long with the release of a new Black & White version of the film (love the old B&W films). You have to be relentless, because in the world of DIY indie-film making, you can only count on yourself.

Rat Rod Rockers! Ads

Finished some print and online ads that will run in The Seattle Weekly for the Rat Rod Rockers! Seattle Premiere. The banner ad gave me some troubles yesterday. I worked on it for hours and it just didn't "feel" right. Finally dropped in the pic of Big-Tom's Thunderbird at speed and it worked. Graphic art is like that, you have to find a visual flow or else it won't get a second glance.

Projects Projects Projects

So now that the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD is being pressed and the first round of promotions and ads are set for the film, I have really started digging into the Munster Style CD & publication as well as laying the ground work for two films, Chopper Chicas and Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. Heidi Van Horne (model) and Shannon Brooke (photographer) are set to do a character development photo shoot for Chopper Chicas on the 27th of February (hey that's also my Birthday!). They have set it up in Skratch's (famous L.A. fabricator/builder) garage with (possibly) two choppers. I will post pics when they are done. Meanwhile- Karen Kougar (who plays the The Baroness) is setting up her photo shoot as Zombie Crush is processing last weeks pics of Smookie Tiger and Becky Lee, both sets for Evil Undead Girlfiend. I still need to get all these projects websites updated and redesigned.

Yesterday I sent out three interview for Munster Style as well as started new file folders for several article sets. We are still waiting for many tracks and contracts to come in for the compilation CD.

I have also started a new Go-Kustom TV Vimeo Channel. The cool thing about Vimeo is you can upload very high quality video clips and then watch them on your home television if you have a Roku player. I am hooked on the Roku ($120 for a mid level box). We have had ours for a month and haven't visited Blockbuster or a Red Box machine since. I can really see why Netflix and others are moving away from the physical DVD Distribution model and to the internet based Video On Demand models.

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD Audio & ADR

I am still fine tuning the audio for the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD. The artwork is done and off to the broker/pressing plant and the account set and ready for the DVD submaster. This has to be in by weeks end to meet our March DVD release deadline. In this screen shot I am adding a ADR slap for Hot Rod Heidi's character Ruby Milldue. The original slap got cut as the background audio was too noisy and overlaps in dialog made it pointless to keep the original. So I set FCP 5 to Voice Over mode and re-recorded me slapping my leg and then dropped it back in the timeline. Seamless. I still have one guitar track to lay down and a vocal for the score, then random audio fixes and mixes. Should have it done by Wednesday.

Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine Ads

We bought a full page ad for Rat Rod Rockers! in Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine- one of the best Kustom Kulture publications out there. Since the magazines started hitting the newsstands, sales of the Rat Rod Rockers! pre-sale DVDs have been way, way, waaaay up. A testament to the power of print advertising- especially when directed at your niche audience (of which I am also a part of). Also if you look closely at my little Rat Rod Rockers! ad, you can see that I made a big nasty typo on the event year listing- March 2010?!?

Issa Kross Facial Scars

Besides working all day on the Rat Rod Rockers! audio and Soundtrack, I took a few computer breaks to make facial scars for Evil Undead Girlfiend character Issa Kross (portrayed by Smookie Tiger). We are doing an extensive photo shoot for the pre-production character development for the film next week. Using self drying clay- I scrapped grooves into one side of  a small block and let it dry overnight. Then I poured clear latex into the grooves, smearing extra latex on the surface to give a gripping area to pull on once the latex has dried. The first attempt turned out very good. After I pulled the scars from the home-made mold, I simply trimmed the excess latex from around the scars and they were ready to color and then glue to the actors face. Having a mold also enables you to make additional latex scars, if one gets damaged during removal.

Rat Rod Rockers! Soundtrack

Using my Turkish Spike Fiddle (Kamancheh) to add little flourishes to the Rat Rod Rockers! Soundtrack today. I used it extensively in the woods chase scenes of my last film Hot Rod Girls Save The World. Sounds a bit like a violin. I can make noises on the thing- but am not an accomplished player by any means. My wife and I have quite a collection of odd instruments from around the world.