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Come join us for a blowout tribute to one of our favorite Philly bars this Saturday, January 7th and share your bar stories for an ongoing project we’ll be shooting for through the Tritone’s closing in March!

From Dan Gross and the Philly Daily News:

The Tritone Bar (1508 South St, Philly) closes for good in March, and on Saturday night, filmmakers from Backseat Conceptions will be at the rock bar and arts space interviewing Tritone fans about their favorite memories there for an online tribute. The Sideshow Prophets and the Cisco Jeeters perform along with King Snake. Backseat’s Doug Sakmann, Nick Esposito and Zafer Ulkucu moved to Philadelphia 10 years ago and began promoting events alongside the Sideshow Prophets and Cisco Jeeters.

“If not for the loving reception we received from Tritone and the late co-owner Rick D., we would have never moved to Philly,” Sakmann says. The guys will collect people’s thoughts at their production vehicle, a school bus, which will be parked outside. The show starts at 9 p.m.

Backseat just wrapped production on a short psychological horror/sci-fi movie called ‘Conclusion’. The film is the directorial debut of Vanessa Romanelli, Actress and Scream Queen from some films such as Emerging Past, Mr.Hush, Dead Collections, and Two Guys One Box (The Collective: Volume 2),.

A Mysterious Mansion production in association with Backseat, the film was production managed by Doug Sakmann, with Zafer Ulkucu as director of photography. The movie was executive produced by Erica L. Frost and stars Steve Dash (Jason in Friday the 13th Pt 2) and Kevin Van Hentenryck (Basket Case).

‘Conclusion’ follows four strangers who check into a specialized medical treatment center. Little do they know, once they check in…there is only one way to check out. The film will be featured in the upcoming horror compilation “The Collective: Volume 3” to be released in early 2012 from Jabb Pictures. The project features 10 female directors with 10 different short films.

Additional crew included Sam Crow on Sound Recording, Amber Kirkwood on Script Supervisor, Gaffed by Kevin Meegan, Assistant Camera by Steven DiCasa, Location Managed by Leandra VTR/Monitoring by Nate Spence, SPFX makeup by Ron Hulsen & practical effects by Doug Sakmann.

See some shots from the set below and you can see additional stills from set photographer Barry Brown right here!

Backseat recently helped produce our friend J.D. Brown’s directorial debut, a short horror movie called ‘The Tap Dancer’ aka ‘T is for Tap Dance’.  The short was entered into the film competition for ‘The ABC’s of Death‘ a cool anthology feature film with 26 short films, each themed around a death related to each letter of the alphabet. ‘T is for Tap Dance’ is now on the website and you can check it out here! (NSFW)

The movie stars Nick Shellenberger, Tim Cronin, Ariella Cohen, Sarah Mostov and Aria Rae, and was assistant directed by Amy Glickman Brown, shot by Zafer Ulkucu with special effects by Doug Sakmann.

It’s that time of year again, October is upon us and so is Zombie Season! There are a lot of cool events throughout the month that we’re going to be a part of so we’re kicking it off a bit earlier with the main Halloween NYC Zombie Crawl taking place on Sunday, October 16th in Manhattan!

It’s all going to start at the Beauty Bar NYC by Union Square (231 E 14th St in Manhattan btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave). from 4pm-6pm with the zombie meet up and makeup. Our zombie makeup technicians will be charging a small fee to create zombies or you can bring out your dead! It’s 21 to drink zombie drink specials or enter the bar, but all ages are welcome to join us for the crawl event at 6pm!

At 6pm the madness begins as we crawl through the East Village. This year we’re honored to have Angelo Moore aka Dr. MaddVibes (also frontman of the legendary Fishbone) as a part of the event! We will be shooting the crawl as part of a new Dr. MaddVibes music video and Dr. MaddVibes will also be performing at the official after party!

The location for the official after-party is ARLENE”S GROCERY (95 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002) and will start at 8:30pm. It’s 21 + and tickets are $10 if you are a zombie, $12 for civilians. Performers include;
Angelo Moore aka Dr. MaddVibes
Nassau Chainsaw Disgraceland Demolition Committee
God’s Green Earth
DJ Brian Blackout
Zombie Comedy, Sideshow and Burlesque – more surprises to come!
We’ll also be premiering clips from Punk Rock Holocaust 3 (starring Angelo Moore) as well as Cross Bearer and The Cemetery!

Rhymesayers Entertainment recently released the new music video by Grieves for the song “Boogie Man’, directed by Maria Juranic and produced in association by Backseat Conceptions. In it, a boy suits himself up for battle with the things that go bump in the night. From the album Together/Apart, check it out on MTVu.com now!

Credits:
Director – Maria Juranic
DP – Trevor Tweeten
Editor – Maria Juranic
Talent – Kyle Donnery
Puppets by Theresa Linnihan of The Brooklyn Puppet Library
Produced in Association with Backseat Conceptions

The new trailer for the 2011 Raindance Film Festival directed by Alex Brook Lynn, produced by Evan Meszaros and Nick Esposito!! Check it here! The festival is happening now through October 9th in London and it will play before every screening of the festival! Additionally, the trailer is screening in over 500 theaters across the UK to promote the festival!
You can also see production diaries and more behind the scenes on the site.

We would like to thank the following companies for their VERY generous support, without which, this project would not have happened:

Backseat  provided production services for a new series for the Travel Channel called “Paranormal Challenge” featuring Zak Bagans (host of the top-rated show ‘Ghost Adventures’) as the host! We wrapped the first season (12 episodes) and the show is airing every Friday at 11pm EST on the Travel Channel. The show features the 12 most haunted places across the nation and is produced by My Tupelo Entertainment and Beyond Our Reality.  It’s a scream!

From TravelChannel.com:
Two teams. One night. One haunted location. One winner. For the ultimate in bragging rights. Each episode of Paranormal Challenge features a legendary haunted hotspot. Zak Bagans invites two handpicked teams of amateur ghost hunters to spend the night locked down in these notorious locations. The contest will pit the two teams paranormal skills against each other to find out who comes out on top. Each team is given high-tech gear to investigate these intense hotspots. After a night of collecting evidence, the teams present their findings to Zak Bagans and a panel of three judges who are nationally recognized paranormal experts. They will be judged on teamwork, their use of technology and the evidence collected during the lockdown.

Let the Paranormal Challenge begin!

You can get info and see exclusive clips here!

While on the road our pal Evan Meszaros is keeping a Ghost Diary blog, you can check out info and pictures on the haunted locations we’re traveling to here!

From Director Jarred Alterman:
You are invited to the New York, Philadelphia and UK Premiere of Convento.

The movie has had an amazing festival run so far, screening to sold out crowds at SXSW and winning it’s first award at the Boston International Film Festival for Best Documentary! For the next three festivals, artist Christiaan Zwanikken, the focus of CONVENTO will bring his kinetic robo-beasts on site!

There will be after-parties at each venue and audience participation with skeletal “surprises” made by the artist. Here is a list of the events – I hope to see you this summer!

UK – Edinburgh International Film Festival
Sunday June 19th, 6pm Film House 2
Wednesday June 22nd, 8pm George Square Theatre
Free Exhibition at Teviot House – Info here

New York – Rooftop Films Summer Series at The Old American Can Factory, Brooklyn
Saturday July 16th, 8:00pm – Info here

Philadelphia – The Awesomefest (Co Sponsored by Rooftop Films)
Friday July 29th, 7:00pm Opening Night Gallery Exhibition at Jinxed Gallery at the Piazza
Sunday July 31st, 7:30pm Philly Premiere at the Piazza – Info here

Convento was also invited to The Provincetown International Film Festival in MA
Saturday June 18th, 2pm Schoolhouse
Sunday June 19th, 7pm Schoolhouse – Info here

For more information about the film and to view trailers, photography and listen to the score visit here: http://convento.tumblr.com/

Check out the feature articles on CBS NY and FANGORIA!

Zombies get ready to take on Williamsburg! We’ll be shooting scenes for the new Punk Rock Holocaust 3 at the 4th Annual Springtime NYC Zombie Crawl! On Sunday, May 29th we’ll begin 4pm at Knitting Factory Brooklyn (361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211) with our usual FREE zombie meetup! For 2 hours, zombies of all ages are invited to hang out while our zombie technicians will be providing makeup for civilians who wish to become undead! Zombies over 21+ can drink with some great drink specials including $1 off all beers and $2 off all liquor! Shot and Bloody Mary specials as well as more surprises!

At 6pm, we will take our annual trek down Bedford Avenue! Only this time, we’ll be shooting a scene for Punk Rock Holocaust 3 while we crawl, a zombie attack on the hipsters of Brooklyn! We’re looking for some victims to be eaten by the zombie masses and everyone is invited to help shoot the scene as well. If you have a camera bring it, or just use your smart phone! We’ll be awarding prizes for the best footage! Email info@nyczombiecrawl.com with the subject PRH3 Shoot to get more info and sign up to be involved!

Zombies will make their way down Bedford to McCarron Park where we’ll have some zombie fun and games at about 6:45 including a human tug-o-war with Disgraceland Hook Squad (not for the weak of heart) and more! Then we’ll make our way back down Bedford, stopping along the way here and there and heading to Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211) at 8:30pm for the NYC Zombie Crawl afterparty!!

Get the info at www.nyczombiecrawl.com!