Bubbas Chili Parlor

The 2008 offerings once more walk among us.
Lord Spoda
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Post by Lord Spoda »

Hey, all, this is Joey Evans, director of "Bubba's Chili Parlor"...(holds arms up to ward off blows)...

It's clear many of you didn't like it but I did want to say it was not our (cast & crew) intention to waste your time. We set out for rural Texas that early June morning to make the best movie we could. Yes, we had very little money and yes, that's no excuse. That being said, all of us do genuinely love horror and hoped that would show in the final product.

It was tough; we ate cheap, crappy hot dogs from Wal-Mart every day and fought off hordes of mosquitos and spiders. Our crappy 2 bedroom apartment, which housed 25 of us, didn't have air conditioning the first week - this is in 100 degree (38 celsius +) Texas weather. We had police pull guns on us. But every member of the cast and crew, all horror film fanatics, toughed it out to the end, and at their expense. I am proud of them.

A post earlier remarked that it looked like it was made by school boys - partially true. The crew were all in film school or just graduated, with this being their first project. The special make-up guys both had just graduated from Tam Savini's School for Make-Up Effects.

I was as shocked as any when the movie was selected for Frightfest. I came to England and watched several beautiful, great films, beginning with Eden Lake, and wondered "What the hell is my movie doing here?"

I did ask the festival gods that question and their answer seemed reasonable; that it was important to have films of all budget ranges and directors of experience range (this was my first feature).

I did learn from the many, many mistakes I made making this movie and my next film, which just completed principal photography, is going to be much better. I promise.

I did have a great time in London, and all of the locals were fantastic, very friendly and nice. I always felt welcome. Great town. I truly hope to see you all again, this time with a better film.
valido
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Post by valido »

WOO-HOO!!! I love it when I smash a movie and the creator himself replies immediately - it already happened twice today... :lol:

So now I just want to say two things:

1) Dear Mr. Evans, I have no intention to watch your movie again EVER! :)
2) I'd KILL to be able to do exactly the same film-making experience, and can easily settle for a far worse result

Best of luck for your future projects!
Last edited by valido on Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
AdeBrown
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Post by AdeBrown »

Hey Joey,

I'll say this for your film, this was an exceptional year of Frightfest for me, there was not really one film I didn't like out of the 25. There have been years when BCP would have been mid-table !

And the two guys who turned up half way through with guns could have stolen the show !

The Frightfest Guys hit the spot when they say the whole range of films should be represented and the main thing for me was that your intentions were clearly Frightfest Friendly.

Keep right on !
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Lord Spoda
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Post by Lord Spoda »

Thanks Ade. That scene was actually supposed to be my Black Knight scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail. The Peter character shot the limbs off, one by one, similiar to how King Arthur cuts the Black Knight's limbs off, one by one, with his sword. It was written really well but budget and time restrictions kept us from getting it perfect. Which sucked. I was upset about not getting that scene right more than any other. I freakin' love that movie (Holy Grail) and wanted to pay homage to it.
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Post by Hello Doris! »

I loved it even if it looked like a student film. I think people are forgetting that you have to start somewhere and making a film for £6,000 is no mean feat. I think its great that the director is admitting it wasn't a "hollywood" blockbuster without being a tool (unlike someone I could mention). Surely the best films come from people who love what they do and are willing to take risks. Its also brilliant that you gave all those people the experience/chance to make something.
As you've said you learn from mistakes and come back with bigger and better things, so hopefully you will be back with something soon. Don't let the negative remarks get you down, you all seemed really nice and me and the Boyf had a really nice chat with Chris Daly and your daughter was so sweet.

Rock on Bubba!
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Stark
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Post by Stark »

Hey Joey,

Glad to hear you're not scared off by the criticism and you enjoyed what must have been a mind blowing experience for you!

I just want to say that, while I won't try to argue that Bubba's was a fine work of art, I felt it very much deserved a place at FF. It was clear you'd made a movie funded mostly with passion and hard work and seeing people like you out there making humble, honest movies solely for the love of the genre and the medium is always a joy.

Personally I found Bubba's charming and entertaining... despite all it's flaws.

Here's hoping you have as much fun on all your future projects!
They're coming for you Barbara...
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Post by lupogirl »

Reanimator wrote:Considering the budget this was ok although it seemed to drag on towards the end - would be better if they chopped the running time by say 20 minutes!
Yep agree with that. The little girl I thought was really good, also there were some humourous moments with the head on the toilet. but the ending did drag somewhat. Should of ended with the girl walking down the road with car pulling up and then a scream but no.
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AndyJWS
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Post by AndyJWS »

What a shame, there were bits of potential (especially the girl) that were let down by dodgy choices for the "grindhouse feel" (the sound bipping - very irritating) and the lack of more judiciousness when it came to editing... personally think they should have used the money for a better short instead...
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dangerous_jamie
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Post by dangerous_jamie »

I'm under the impression there already is a short of Bubba's Chilli Parlor of around 8 minutes.

Would be interesting to see, to draw comparisons.
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scrobble
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Post by scrobble »

I wanted to enjoy this but didn't really. Although the little girl was really good, hopefully she'll be in more stuff. It felt like it dragged for the most part.
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psychobilly
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Post by psychobilly »

You know what, this was ok for a micro budget!

It had a coherent story and structure, that made it fun and watchable unlike dozens of horribly structured lowbudgets you see.
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Well I liked it!

Post by boagirl »

I thought this was not that bad movie at all, it did exactly what i expected, it was fun, entertaining and I thought they did a very good job considering the budget is only slightly less than I spent just coming to frightfest! The little girl was good and the other main characters were ok too. I laughed at the intermission bits, I walked out of a few movies over the weekend that i thought were really bad and this wasn't one of them and Yes i would watch it again!
Fenriz
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Post by Fenriz »

lol, I loved the way eveyone was slaughtering it, then as soon as the director appears, suddenly everyone's changed to "oh it was alright really" :P

just out of interest, why was this in possibily the best slot of the weekend - i.e. Saturday evening at 7pm? The Zombie Diaries last year was a similar amateur camcorda filmed thing, but that was shown in an early morning slot....why was Bubbas in the slot you'd expect the festival's big movie to be in???
Last edited by Fenriz on Sat Aug 30, 2008 1:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
psychobilly
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Post by psychobilly »

possibly cos the festival organisers really liked it?
AdeBrown
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Post by AdeBrown »

Fenriz wrote:lol, I loved the way eveyone was slaughtering it, then as soon as the director appears, suddenly everyone's changed to "oh it was alright really" :P
That's an irritatingly inaccurate view of what happened on this thread.
A few folks say they liked it, a couple say fair play for getting the film together. And even in the two pages previous there's some comments supportive of the film.

But did anyone change their mind ?
Or was it just people who had not got round to posting yet.
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