Ghouls Gone Wild

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The International Playboys' First Movie: Ghouls Gone Wild!
Ghouls Gone Wild! Theatrical Poster by Jason Beam Studios
Directed by	Ted Geoghegan
Produced by	Chad Jones, Ted Geoghegan
Written by	Ted Geoghegan
Starring	The International Playboys
Distributed by	The International Playboys
Release date(s)	October 28, 2004
Running time	32 min.
Language	English
Budget	$400.00USD (estimated)
IMDb profile

The International Playboys' First Movie: Ghouls Gone Wild is a short film created in 2004 by the rock band The International Playboys and was written and directed by Ted Geoghegan. The feature showcases the band, both as musicians and actors, as they encounter a ghost town while on their cross-country tour. Rather than trying to escape, they're drawn in by the promise of booze and female admirers. Instead, they find themselves being systematically hunted down by a town full of undead ghouls.

It was shot on location in historic Garnet Ghost Town, Montana and Missoula, Montana.

Contents 1 Pre-production 2 Principal Photography 3 Post Production 4 Additional Film Information 5 Other uses 6 External links

[edit] Pre-production

In mid-2002, writer/director Ted Geoghegan came up with the idea of creating an extended music video for a local Missoula, Montana band which would take place in nearby Garnet Ghost Town. An avid film fan who had previously worked as a screenwriter on several motion pictures, Geoghegan hoped to take some of the insight he had gained from big budgeted films and incorporate them into what would essentially be a glorified amateur movie.

After striking up a close friendship with Chris Knudson, the guitarist for the band The International Playboys, Geoghegan approached him with the idea of making this extended music video. The project would involve several Playboys songs, as well as a short, comedic plot which would tie the songs together. Knudson was equally excited about the project, as his love of avant garde film mirrored Ted's. The idea was brought to the four other band members, all of whom greeted the concept with great excitement. With their first studio album, First Album, debuting at nearly the same time production was scheduled to begin, the idea of making a short film was not only innovative, but made good business sense.

The gears were set into motion and a screenplay was churned out in six days. The plot was brought up early on - the Playboys take a wrong turn, end up in a ghost town, and are comically plagued by ghoulish women for the remainder of the movie. With their music taking up the majority of the film, the script would only end up being sixteen pages long - and the finished film hopefully lasting around half an hour in length.

Armed with a bare-bones script and five men with virtually no acting experience, Geoghegan began scouting for the necessities. Chad Jones, a longtime friend of Ted's, had recently began Hillbilly Productions, his own Missoula-based production company specializing in sports videos and local commercial work. Upon hearing about the innovative project, Jones excitedly took on numerous roles - director of photography, producer, and eventual editor. Jones, skilled with digital cinematography, agreed with Geoghegan that the movie would benefit from some form of actual film stock. After speaking to Knudson, the duo was introduced to writer/filmmaker Andy Smetanka, who was just finishing up work on The Volumen music video "Snakes", which he had shot completely on 8 mm film. After hearing an outline of the film and understanding where Ted was coming from with this experimental short, Smetanka agreed to join the crew during their shoot in Garnet - packing his antique 8 mm camera in tow.

With Knudson also taking on the role of Executive Producer, Geoghegan had now amassed a minimal crew of four. With his family agreeing to help assist with ghoul make-up, virtually every position had been filled without major holdups. The Garnet Preservation Association and The Montana Bureau of Land Management had thankfully both granted permission for the crew to film in the historic ghost town. Nearly everything was set.

Ted's script called for numerous ghoulish women to appear throughout the film, as well as a ghostly sheriff who would convince The Playboys that they hadn't actually taken a wrong turn by coming to Garnet. With only days to go before filming began, the bandmembers enlisted the help of numerous friends and family to appear as ghouls. Geoghegan cast native New Yorker Jose "The Stunt" Diaz as the sheriff - jokingly referenced as the first Puerto Rican gunslinger in the Wild West.

[edit] Principal Photography

Principal photography on The International Playboys' movie began early on the morning of October 25, 2003 after nearly six months of pre-production. Making their way into Charlie's Bar (which would double as Garnet's "Kelly's Saloon") at a few minutes after 9:00AM, the cast and crew set up the film's first shot - The Playboys frantically entering the establishment, meeting several ghoulish women, and being very easily coerced into drinking large quantities of alcohol. With everything running on time, a very high level of enthusiasm, and no dialogue needed in the scene - the first footage from the film would be finished in under an hour.

The cast and crew then travelled to Garnet Ghost Town, arriving before noon and setting up the next shots as quickly as possible. Although the film was set in the middle of Summer, the chill October air made its presence felt as soon as the cameras began rolling. Another chill hit the crew as they realized none of The Playboys had memorized their lines, but his hope was that multiple takes and clever editing would make sense of the pandemonium they were now about to film.

The production continued as the chilly day turned into a freezing night, with unpaid "ghoul girls" huddling together inside running automobiles to keep warm. The lubrication inside Smetanka's camera, which had been rolling as much as possible throughout the day, had solidified from the cold and the determined filmmaker was attempting to heat the camera by any means possible. With the temperature in Garnet dropping to 29 degrees, the Playboys sauntered on. Without any electricity in the ghost town, the running cars' headlights were used to illuminate the nearly-pitch black scenes. Shivering, yet still attempting to pretend it was the middle of a gorgeous Summer night, the band continued until the decision was made that the crew had filmed everything they possibly could under the now-extreme circumstances.

After reuniting at The Playboys' home in Missoula, Montana an hour and a half later, some pick-up shots were filmed featuring the band and José as the sheriff. When Geoghegan finally claimed that they had wrapped for the day, it was nearing 11:30PM. Everyone went their separate ways, assuming that the majority of the work had now been completed and, over the next several weeks, the minor pick-up work would be completed at their leisure.

Six days later, Geoghegan and his wife followed The Playboys to Marshall Mountain Ski Area for a special Halloween bash. Acting as a second unit cameraman, Ted filmed their entire concert, as well as the wide array of costumed partygoers. The wild, ghoulish footage would eventually act as the culminating "concert scene" in the movie.

Around the same time, back at Hillbilly Productions' editing studio, Jones was running into a problem. After editing out all of the bad takes, useless footage, and shots that were simply too dark - the entire day of filming in Garnet had amounted to roughly four minutes of footage.

Jones and Geoghegan had also taken it upon themselves to follow The Playboys to dozens of shows around Missoula, capturing as much live footage as they could to fill in spaces during the musical interludes that occurred sporadically throughout the picture. The material was good... but still couldn't fill the film's hopeful running time. There was much more necessary dialogue that was far from complete.

In late January of 2004, a full evening of filming took place at Geoghegan's home, which would double as the interior of the film's fictional brothel, "Miss Kitty's". Several outdoor scenes were also shot, with The Playboys and various "ghoul girls" still attempting to pretend they were on a warm evening stroll as temperates plunged to 20 degrees. With minimal drinks and a few of The Playboys' lines rehearsed, the shot went far better than expected. Unfortunately, the group was on the eve of their next major tour, which would take them away from Missoula for over a month. The decision was made to edit as much of the film as possible during their absence, giving Jones and Geoghegan an extremely rough idea of where they stood.

Upon their return in late March, schedules became tousled and it became clear that the filmmakers wouldn't be capable of getting all five Playboys together at any given time to complete filming. Settling on one or two of the boys whenever they were conveniently available, the crew hoped that the magic of editing would make sense of their now-madness.

Filming when and where possible, the remainder of the shoot spanned from April to September of 2004, featuring dialogue, special effects, and countless exterior and establishing shots. The final day of shooting, featuring several minor pick-up shots of ex-Playboy Charles Johnson, was completed on September 4, 2004 - nearly a year after they first began.

Although the movie was set entirely in Garnet Ghost Town, the cast and crew's first day filming there was also their only.

[edit] Post Production

Post-production began on The International Playboys' movie not long after the first day of shooting on October 25th, 2003. Chad Jones, the film's editor, began digging through what he had filmed almost immediately. Attempting to make sense of the first day's footage became a taxing situation, as the majority of the fourteen hour day had produced no usable material.

Without any professional experience editing, both Jones and Geoghegan soon realized that they were going to have to teach themselves how to create the film that existed in their heads. Jones, while proficient in Final Cut Pro, discovered that many of the ideas he had for the film were, at the time, out of his reach. Before the film was completed, however, he hoped that nothing would be too much for his skills.

Several months were spent filming additional footage and discussing how to go about creating the thirty-minute video. As time pressed on, more and more material became available. Editing occurred in random spurts for several months, with large portions of the feature completed in one or two sittings, followed by weeks standstill. It was late August, 2004, when a rough cut of the film was finished. Much to the delight of the duo, Jones and Geoghegan had strung together a thirty-two minute feature.

In the final weeks of editing, filters were added to the film to give it an old-fashioned look. The decision was also made to add silent movie intertitles throughout the feature in an attempt to give it another air of believability.

In mid-October, 2004, nearly a year after the first day of shooting began, the film was finally completed. Ghouls Gone Wild! would debut on the 28th of that month at The Crystal Theater in Missoula, Montana to sold-out crowds and two standing ovations.

[edit] Additional Film Information

The title of the film, The International Playboys' First Movie: Ghouls Gone Wild, was coined on the first day of filming. The working title for the picture was The International Playboys' Hellzapoppin' Spooktacular, which eventually became the name of the making-of documentary about the film.

The idea for the film was originally planned for the band Volumen. After going with The Playboys for the film, however, writer/director Ted Geoghegan wrote them into the treatment for his next music video venture.

Originally, the entire soundtrack for the film was going to be from First Album. However, as production took well over a year to complete, the producers had the opportunity to include songs from The International Playboys second album, Sexiful, as well.

The film had its international premiere at The Rocket Theater in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 9th, 2005.

[edit] Other uses

Young adult author R.L. Stine wrote a novel entitled Ghouls Gone Wild.

Cable TV Channel Spike TV hosted a horror-themed movie marathon during Halloween of 2005, which they called Ghouls Gone Wild Weekend.

[edit] External links

The International Playboys' Official Website - [1]