The sequel without a prequel, Hacker Riley: The Return, is presently in production, and will hopefully be well into post by the end of Christmas holidays.
The plot is (basically), as follows- 8 monthes after a surprise altercation with a madman (Hacker Riley), a young couple (Christine and Jeff) are still recovering from the emotional trauma inflicted by said villain. Christine is suffering from horrible nightmares and the nagging suspicion that it isn't over (even though Jeff shot Riley and the man is assumed to be dead). Jeff is suffering from a major "Superman Complex", the (false?) confidence that he can handle anything or anybody. The couple decide to go to a party to relax, and Hacker Riley makes a guest appearance. He begins to extract revenge on Christine by systematically killing off her friends, leaving a small group trapped in the house and fighting to survive. Will the heroine survive? Will the strangely apparent connection between Hacker and Christine be explained? Will we discover the meaning of her mysterious dreams?
"The Return" is in the midst of some serious cast changes. We are determined to film this Friday and Saturday, but it's a bitch of a thing trying to make that happen...Damon and I (Jodie) are beginning to get a glimpse of what it's like directing/producing a film... it involves a lot of patience, a willingness to change and fantastic abilities at kissing ass. Our leading man Darryl said he was cutting out on Saturday to play volleyball, so we moved him into the role of Steve, replacing him with Cory Anderson. However, upon hearing this, Darryl asserted that HE was going to play the lead, and threatened to revoke the use of his house for filmming. Cory has been moved back to the role of Steve instead of Jack, (who he was originally playing), because the old Steve (Matthew) is getting his wisdom teeth out this weekend and can't make it to filmming. Therefore, Matthew will play the role of Jack. Meanwhile, Samantha can't make it on Friday(she was supposed to play the role of Kate), so we replaced her with Alisha, who now can't do it because she has to babysit. Now Alisha will play the role of Linda. The role of Kate is filled by Tammy, who is worried because Sam still wants the role. And the role of David? Well, Richard was supposed to play David, but has now backed out to go hunting. Let's just pray we find someone by tomorrow night.
Oh, by the way... Lina, the girl who plays Anna, just sprained her ankle and is wearing a VERY BIG CAST! Since Anna was a Swedish exchange student (Lina is Swedish), we are unable to replace her. Thus, Anna will no longer be a character. We at Skipsterfilms are taking bets on what else could possibly go wrong... Mail us with your guesses at skipster_films@hotmail.com WELCOME TO HELL!!!!
Knock on wood repeatedly, it looks like the casting is completed (thank God, because we're starting filmming tonight)! Damon and I are both wearing BIG smiles on our faces! Today we coerced Adam Vandermeulen into playing the character of David, and after Tammy Charon backed out, Tera Kemp agreed to take on the role of Kate. It's good to have connections in this business! Filmming begins tonight at 7 o'clock at Darryl's house and will continue through the weekend. Our plan is to kill off as many characters as we can tonight to solve some of our sceduling difficulties.
I'm also extremely happy because we finally found some liquid latex... we're really dumping a lot of money into special effects this holiday season, and are nearly set for the coming year (lots of fake skin and fake blood!!!)
Oh, as though we haven't been through enough, I hear rumors that the power will be turned of in town this Saturday, for repairs or some such garbage. No one guessed that, so I guess the bets off! ;)
We had a FABULOUS time filming last night, probably one of the best shoots we've ever had. Much much fun was had by all! We had four new cast members (Adriene, Tara, Cory and Adam) who did an excellent job and will hopefully be returning to future Skipsterfilms *hint hint to the aforementioned people*.
Filmming progressed (as always) slowly, but we were able to complete about half of the party scenes and kill off Cory's character (Steve). Our only major conflict involved Hacker Riley's mask... Some cast members wanted him to wear a painted plastic mime mask, but Damon wasn't going for it. He wanted to have a simple bag-over-the-head type mask, but we didn't have one available. We temporarily solved the problem by not shooting (with a camera) his face... if you have any ideas for Hacker's mask, write us at skipster_films@hotmail.com
Another interesting thing, the movie is turning out much more comedic than we had originally intended... mostly due to Darryl's constant adlibbing. There's a very amusing scene where David and Jeff have a lemon juice drinking contest to determine who's more manly. There's also a reference to Steve's past experiences involving a petting zoo. At first Damon was quite upset by this unexpected change of atmosphere, but he eventually relaxed and decided to just go with the flow.
I don't want to jinx the movie, but I think this will turn out to be Skipsterfilms best. We have actually spent money on props, have a cast willing to act, have a script and a time allowance. Things are definitely looking up!
Filmming last night was a blast (even though it took a REALLY long time to shoot some VERY short scenes). We got a couple shots of Christine kickboxing/working out and talking to Jeff. Even though we only needed Damon, Darryl and I (Jodie) to film, we had the entire cast (sans Cory) watching, as well as our friend Richard and Adriene's little sister Caley.
Due to the fact that the batteries for our camera are being very disagreeable, we weren't able to film any outdoor scenes. Hopefully the problem will be remedied by Saturday, our next day of sceduled filmming.
There have already been requests to purchase this movie once it's finished, and people wondering when the first official screening will be... To clear this up, as soon as we're finished this movie we'll be putting up a page for purchasing info on all the Skipsterfilms. As for the screening, we'll set something up and keep everyone posted.
Our next film date as a group is set for this Sunday night, and it promises to be an all-nighter! It's difficult trying to get the entire group together, so we'll attempt to get most of the characters killed off by the end of the evening.
We're running into some serious continuity errors. Cory, who last week was worried that the length of his stubble would differ in between shots, has gone and cut his hair. This means he'll walk into a room with long hair,into the porch with short hair, and outside with long hair again. DOH! We've so far been lucky enough to avoid snow *knock on wood* and are really racing winter!
Filmming didn't work out and we were left to watch movies instead of making them... Cory couldn't make it to filmming and there was an "unexpected lack of chemistry" between the two members of the leading couple. This has proved to be quite damaging to the script, and major changes are in the works to compensate.
As you may have figured out, Hacker Riley was in a bit of trouble... Damon and I were honestly considering scrapping the whole thing. However, a review of the footage last night has given us new hope- it was pretty good. I was really scared it was all cheesy, but our final cuts were actually not too shabby. So, we're pushing on ahead, and will be filmming a really fun scene tonight in which Jack and Linda meet their makers... I'm looking forward to it.
The cost of our delay has been that there's A WHOLE LOT OF SNOW on the ground today... I woke up today and swore repeatedly. We've decided to simply ignore it and chalk it up to a HUGE continuity error. But really, this is just for fun anyway, it's not the end of the world. We'll explain it in the outtake clips.
Skipsterfilms is on a high! Last night we completed the Jack (now Chandler) and Linda death scenes, and they were most likely the best work we've done so far. Filmming flew (comparatively speaking) and there were relatively few problems (nothing that we couldn't fix/handle). What a thrill!
Matthew and Erica both did a great job and were easy to work with. Even though Matt was tired when he got here, he was a good sport and allowed us to put him into the snow and give him a face wash. His only request was that we change his name from "Jack" to "Chandler", which really wasn't a problem. Erica also did a good job, and was a very good sport when we had numerous problems shooting a scene were she falls to the ground, face covered in blood. By the end of the scene the blood was on her jacket and in her hair as well, but she still insisted that it had been a fun experience working with us.
So, it appears that things are (at least temporarily) on the upswing! Until next time...
Well, as you may have noticed from the month that's past since our last filmming, we've been having a bit of trouble getting organized. However, filmming is sceduled for tonight, and we'll hopefully finish up the majority of the movie.
After reviewing the number of continuity errors we were facing (including Cory growing a goatee, Tara getting a haircut and a WHOLE LOT OF SNOW falling on the ground), we've decided to completely re-shoot the party scene. We're hoping to cut down on filmming time and just GET IT DONE. Adriene couldn't make it to filmming, so we've temporarily dropped her character from the party and re-initiated Lina's role as the Swedish exchange student (her cast came off weeks ago). Hopefully we'll be able to fit Adriene in elsewhere in the movie.
More updates soon...
Credits (thus far)Special thanks to-
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