If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell Page B
Authors: Bruce Campbell
Tags: United States, General, Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Actors, Biography, Performing Arts, Film & Video, Autobiography, History & Criticism, Motion Picture Actors and Actresses, Film & Video - General, Entertainment & Performing Arts - General, Film & Video - History & Criticism, Motion Picture Actors and Actresses - United States, Entertainment & Performing Arts - Actors & Actresses, 1958-, Bruce, Motion picture actors and actr, Campbell
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running down the screen." As a tribute to him specifically, there is a scene in the finished film where an old film projector whirs to life and "projects" blood running down the screen.
Most importantly, Mr. Grainger provided the name of a distributor in New York City whom we could approach for possible distribution -- Levitt-Pickman films. Their claim to fame had been Groove Tube, featuring a very young Chevy Chase.
Little did we know that a letter of "intent" was all one could really expect without a finished film, but that was good enough for us and we set up an appointment to meet with them. I'm not sure what dream world we lived in, but we were convinced that the only way to get to New York was by train.
Bruce: Wasn't that kind of an absurd concept?
Sam: We didn't have a car that would make it.
Bruce: No.
Sam: "We'll take a train."
Bruce: "We'll take a train to New York City."
Sam: It was affordable. I think the tickets were like forty bucks each.
We arranged to stay at Andrea's apartment. I had met her on a Chevy industrial shoot and we hit it off very well. So well, in fact, that as we prepared for bed in her New York apartment, she came on to me like I'd never experienced before.
Sam: How did she come on to you? Did she just put her arm around you or something?
Bruce: No, she was like, "You're sleeping in my bed and that's going to be that." She was giving me the look and even though I didn't know shit about women, I knew something awful was going to happen and I knew I had to get out of there.
Sam: And you left that night.
Bruce: I told her, "I have to drive back tonight 'cause I've got a lot of stuff I have to do."
This remains a great source of amusement to Rob and Sam. My only consolation was that Andrea's cat slept on Sam's face, and by morning, his eyes were swollen shut.
Humiliation aside, we came back to Detroit with a letter of intent to distribute.
15
"DO YOU VALIDATE?"
The next step was to get some notice of our abilities artistically. We had a pseudo seal of approval from a "major distribution company in New York City," but there was no outside opinion about our capability as filmmakers.
In August of that year, we got whiff of a theater on the east side of Detroit (the Punch and Judy) that ran Rocky Horror every weekend and whose management was "open and flexible." We approached them with the idea of showing Within the Woods just before Rocky Horror. To our shock and delight, they agreed.
The only real battle with this screening was a technical one. A Super-8 projector has limited bulb power, so we had to set the thing up halfway down the aisle of the theater. It became a game of:
"The image is too dim, move it closer."
"Well, if we move it closer, the picture isn't big enough."
Eventually, with the help of a new, $21.10 EFR Halogen 150 watt, 15 volt bulb, we found a happy medium. A trip to Radio Shack provided the hundreds of feet of audio extension cable needed to patch our feeble projector amplifier into the theater sound system. The distance, combined with lousy source material, resulted in a slightly annoying hum, but hey, we were in a legit house.
The "cult" crowd gathered to see Rocky Horror seemed to share enough basic interest in real horror to enjoy themselves. To combat the fact that we scored the film with music we didn't own the rights to, we decided to donate the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. A week after the showing, I dropped off all of $11.40 to the Cancer Society -- about half of what the new fancy bulb cost.
On a side note, I had a chance to discuss the "cult" thing with Rocky Horror's star, Tim Curry, several years later, at the top of the Iruzu volcano between shots of the film, Congo. I told him how, indirectly, I was grateful that Rocky Horror provided us with such a good springboard. He explained that I wasn't alone. He had gotten a number of thank-you notes from independent theater owners across the country applauding him for being involved in a
Most importantly, Mr. Grainger provided the name of a distributor in New York City whom we could approach for possible distribution -- Levitt-Pickman films. Their claim to fame had been Groove Tube, featuring a very young Chevy Chase.
Little did we know that a letter of "intent" was all one could really expect without a finished film, but that was good enough for us and we set up an appointment to meet with them. I'm not sure what dream world we lived in, but we were convinced that the only way to get to New York was by train.
Bruce: Wasn't that kind of an absurd concept?
Sam: We didn't have a car that would make it.
Bruce: No.
Sam: "We'll take a train."
Bruce: "We'll take a train to New York City."
Sam: It was affordable. I think the tickets were like forty bucks each.
We arranged to stay at Andrea's apartment. I had met her on a Chevy industrial shoot and we hit it off very well. So well, in fact, that as we prepared for bed in her New York apartment, she came on to me like I'd never experienced before.
Sam: How did she come on to you? Did she just put her arm around you or something?
Bruce: No, she was like, "You're sleeping in my bed and that's going to be that." She was giving me the look and even though I didn't know shit about women, I knew something awful was going to happen and I knew I had to get out of there.
Sam: And you left that night.
Bruce: I told her, "I have to drive back tonight 'cause I've got a lot of stuff I have to do."
This remains a great source of amusement to Rob and Sam. My only consolation was that Andrea's cat slept on Sam's face, and by morning, his eyes were swollen shut.
Humiliation aside, we came back to Detroit with a letter of intent to distribute.
15
"DO YOU VALIDATE?"
The next step was to get some notice of our abilities artistically. We had a pseudo seal of approval from a "major distribution company in New York City," but there was no outside opinion about our capability as filmmakers.
In August of that year, we got whiff of a theater on the east side of Detroit (the Punch and Judy) that ran Rocky Horror every weekend and whose management was "open and flexible." We approached them with the idea of showing Within the Woods just before Rocky Horror. To our shock and delight, they agreed.
The only real battle with this screening was a technical one. A Super-8 projector has limited bulb power, so we had to set the thing up halfway down the aisle of the theater. It became a game of:
"The image is too dim, move it closer."
"Well, if we move it closer, the picture isn't big enough."
Eventually, with the help of a new, $21.10 EFR Halogen 150 watt, 15 volt bulb, we found a happy medium. A trip to Radio Shack provided the hundreds of feet of audio extension cable needed to patch our feeble projector amplifier into the theater sound system. The distance, combined with lousy source material, resulted in a slightly annoying hum, but hey, we were in a legit house.
The "cult" crowd gathered to see Rocky Horror seemed to share enough basic interest in real horror to enjoy themselves. To combat the fact that we scored the film with music we didn't own the rights to, we decided to donate the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. A week after the showing, I dropped off all of $11.40 to the Cancer Society -- about half of what the new fancy bulb cost.
On a side note, I had a chance to discuss the "cult" thing with Rocky Horror's star, Tim Curry, several years later, at the top of the Iruzu volcano between shots of the film, Congo. I told him how, indirectly, I was grateful that Rocky Horror provided us with such a good springboard. He explained that I wasn't alone. He had gotten a number of thank-you notes from independent theater owners across the country applauding him for being involved in a
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