50 Most Recent | Film | Film Fests | Michael | Podcasts / Interviews | Sophia | Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins

Sophia and Michael’s 2021 in Review

January 29, 2022 by
Sophia, Blanche, Rose, Michael

2021.Well, it was a lot of lockdown and some brief moments of shooting films, a couple film fests, and a quick visit East.In sadness, our beloved chihuahua that we adopted at the start of the pandemic in 2020, King Ghidorah, passed this year just a few days shy of his first anniversary with us. We didn't stay dogless for long though, and we adopted the senior-chihuahua-mixes Blanche in April (who we had intended to be King's sister, but they ended up just ships passing) and Rose in December. They are our sassy little joys who bring us so much laughter. They share an Instagram, tiktok, and Facebook.

And, like everyone, we watched WAY too many movies - and we're nearly through an entire watch of Murder, She Wrote. You can check out our stats on Michael's letterboxd.

everywhere we went in 2021.

FEATURE FILMS

The Once and Future Smash

We got back into shooting our new feature film, The Once and Future Smash starring Michael St. Michaels (The Greasy Strangler) and Bill Weeden (Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D). We shot the principle photography in early 2020 and were able to shoot most of the rest - still a few small shoots to go and it's currently in edit. We are hoping to send it out to festivals later this year.

 

 

In 1970, Mikey & William both portrayed football cannibal Smash-Mouth in the influential cult hit, End Zone 2. Now, 50 years later, only one can wear the mask.

The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins

The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins was a filmmaker-sourced pandemic collaboration. It premiered at Genreblast and will likely be available later this year.

Determined to create the ultimate pandemic film, Stephen (who apparently has never heard of an exquisite corpse) brings a team of filmmakers together, believing he has created a brand new genre of filmmaking, they recruit 20 of their friends to each shoot a segment of the film. A lot goes wrong! Michael convinces the team he can program an AI better than Amazon. Bob wasn't invited. Kate has regrets.

We were honored to win the "Forever Award" at the fantastic GenreBlast!

SHORT FILMS

DARLING PET MONKEY

DPM is a collaboration between Jim McDonough (Friday Night Films) and Launch Over, it had an very successful festival run and was finally released this year. It is a small part of a larger project we hope to complete exploring the stories and experiences of people who bought strange items from the backs of comic books. The true story as narrated by Tim Tate. 1969 Outside of Washington D.C. Two brothers ordered a monkey for $19.95 out of the back of a Monster magazine. Things get weird. Tim's monkey story has been covered on NPR and has been made into a musical.

 

THE BIG STEEP

A fun one-day shoot around Hollywood with David Whitney.

 

BLOODHOUND

We made a movie with King Ghidorah, BLOODHOUND about how he is actually Dracula (voiced by Luke de Ayora) trapped in a chihuahua's body and all of the indignities that come with that! Bloodhound was released this year on the Arrow streaming player as chosen by the team behind The Stylist.

2020's Sick ‘n’ Wrong 72-Hour Debacle Film challenge, Murderous Space F************s was released

2021's Sick ‘n’ Wrong 72-Hour Debacle Film challenge, “I thought his name was Blarche” starring Blanche and Sophia was released

MUSIC

Sophia wrote lyrics and sang vocals on MEDUSA for Bring Us Your Women

Bring Us Your Women is the brain child of Catherine Capozzi and seeks to celebrate, reimagine and recontextualize women and icons from the ages. Sophia collaborated with Capozzi and her band, Axemunkee on the song Medusa.

Hypatia, Leizu, and Medusa is a new 3 song EP.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (Sophia's main songwriting project) covered the INXS song "Don't Change" for The April Fifth Project.

The April Fifth Project was created as a day to remember musicians who we've lost to depression/substance abuse/mental illness - celebrated by covering their songs and posting them with these hashtags: #TheAprilFifthProject and #SingTheirSong  April 5th was chosen because it's the day we lost both Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains. We chose "Don't Change" for our cover - we love how it's a dark and dancey song with lyrics about being yourself and entering a relationship with acceptance of each other. The April Fifth Project is the brainchild of musician, Jeffrey Vachon who released a four-song EP of covers for the project.

 

WORK FOR OTHERS

Coming in 2022:

This year we shot Meat Friend for Izzy Lee, Reel Trouble for author Brian Asman, Demon for Hire for screenwriter/author Travis Heermann

Sitting Duck

We had the pleasure of co-producing and shooting Aaron Barrocas's horror-comedy short, Sitting Duck! We also collaborated with him on his previous film, Half-cocked. Sitting Duck is currently enjoying it's festival run!

INTERVIEWS AND PODCASTS


LAUNCH OVER PODCAST:

We only managed one podcast this year - we have some ideas to revamp it for 2022.
[ Episode 12 - June 25, 2021 ]

PODCASTS We appeared on:

INTERVIEWS:

Michael appears in In The Dark  – The Fears And Nightmares Of Indie Horror Film Makers documentary

Sophia and Michael interviewed by Killer Shorts about working with Aaron Barrocas to bring his “Sitting Duck” to life

Sophia and Michael interviewed for Micro-Budget Marauders: Micro-Budget Mindset documentary

Michael is featured in documentary, Microbudget Marauders 3

WRITING / BOOKS

Michael's pilot placed at festivals and on the Red List

Chimera

Television (Half-hour) · Horror · 32 pages
After the accidental death of his twin sister, a guilt-ridden teen and his friends use lucid dreaming to free her captive spirit, but unwittingly open a gateway for malevolent forces.

Red List.

Leave a Reply