PRODUCE YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE!

This 2-disc set from Troma continues their "... Own Damn Movie" series, which began with "Make Your Own Damn Movie", and later "Direct Your Own Damn Movie".

The motivation behind the DVD is best explained by the back cover blurb: "When it comes to producing, no one speaks with more authority than Lloyd Kaufman, creator of THE TOXIC AVENGER and founder of the longest-running independent film studio, Troma Entertainment. Over the years he has discovered talents such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone (SOUTH PARK; THE BOOK OF MORMON) and Vincent D’Onofrio (LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT) to name a few. Candid interviews, tips, tricks and tidbits scattered throughout the DVD give filmmakers practical tools for getting a movie shoot off the ground, keeping it afloat and seeing it through to the end – Lloyd Kaufman shows you how it’s really done".

Of course, this being Troma, the numerous featurettes and interviews contained within are often as dumb and irreverent as they are instructional. One thing you can’t argue with, is that there is a shitload of stuff crammed across these two discs:

First up on disc one is "German Lesson Number 7", a 2-and-a-half-minute intro shot at the Berlin Film Festival, in Troma’s usual moronic manner. Still, Kaufman manages to quote Werner Herzog, as if in a bid to lend himself some gravitas ...

Next, we have a featurette filmed on the set of BLOODBATH IN THE HOUSE OF KNIVES. Kaufman appeared in the film and hosts this little video diary-style 10-minute featurette, detailing his experience acting on set. He also gets to interview the cast and crew briefly, and mispronounce the film’s title. It’s a decent little insight into no-budget filmmaking. The film itself is said to be a modern take on classic gialli, and looks like it has potential.

Then we’re off to the set of the new MOTHER’S DAY remake, again with the Troma president as our amiable, intentionally stupid host. This time he’s accompanied by his brother Charles, as they travel to Winnepeg to film cameo roles for director Darren Bousman. I assume this is the same 9-minute featurette that’s going to be included on the upcoming blu-ray of the original MOTHER’S DAY (directed by Charles). It’s good stuff.

"Produce Your Own Damn Green Screen" is a 15-minute look at how green screening is used in low budget films. Greg Lamberson takes Lloyd to the set of SLIME CITY MASSACRE to show us how it’s done. We also get to see green screen being employed by the makers of CEASAR AND OTTO MEET DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. While Lloyd acts as zany as ever, the intermittent explanatory text is actually quite informative.

Herschel Gordon Lewis fans will lap up the next feature: "My Dinner With ...", Kaufman’s documentary on the Godfather of Gore. The BLOOD FEAST auteur talks us through his philosophy on making films, and grants us access to the set of THE UH-OH SHOW. This 18-minute segment is one of my favourite features of this entire set.

You may have noticed James Gunn and Ted Hope’s SUPER appear on UK DVD recently, garnering great reviews, with some testifying that it’s a superior version of KICK ASS. Well, the next featurette is 8 minutes of Lloyd on the film’s set with the co-directors. Apparently this fast-paced, enjoyable featurette will also be included on this series’ next instalment, "Sell Your Own Damn Movie".

Next up is a 10-minute look at the film SUCKER (again featuring a Kaufman cameo). This takes in some of Troma’s unpaid interns, helping to explain how a low budget studio can get work out of people for nowt.

The on-set featurettes keep on coming with looks at Lloyd’s cameo performance in NUN OF THAT, and exposes on the nicely titled films BAD GIRLS BURN IN HELL and UNDER THESE DAR HILLS.

Particularly amazing is Lloyd’s 8-minute look at J D Lifshitz’s film KILLED ON THE 4TH OF JULY. Here we are on the set of this micro-budget film ... with a writer-director-actor who’s only 16 years of age! Brilliantly, Kaufman agrees to a role in the film and chooses to interview Lifshitz on camera – but neglects to read the screenplay in full. Liftshitz claims to owe his success to reading Kaufman’s "Make Your own Damn Movie" book. So, you see, this stuff does help ...

Another redundant "German lesson" later, and we’re off to the set of JON, before settling into a 12-minute featurette looking into how to have your own (damn) base of power. Again, we follow Kaufman as he takes his video camera to document his own cameo appearance in the film. In this case, it’s a Jeff Burr film that goes by the working title of SURVIVAL.

Disc one comes with a static main menu page which allows you to either select each featurette individually, or select them as a whole via a "Play All" function.

Disc one is indeed excellent. The real meat for film fans, however, is over on disc two.

Here, we’re treated to some surprisingly good, relaxed interviews with a real mix of horror luminaries. Kaufman covers a fair range of low budget exploitation here, taking in the old and the new, along with the well-known and the more obscure.

Steven Paul (GHOST RIDER) comes first, walking us through his production offices and giving an accurate but tongue-in-cheek reveal into how to make headway as a producer. This is 13 minutes in length.

Next, David Cronenberg gives an interview on how to sell a film. Basically, he tells how you try to sell your film before it’s even made. Cronenberg looks old now, but still sounds incredibly intelligent and passionate – bless him. Unfortunately he only gets 2 minutes of screen time.

Trent Haaga (EASTER BUNNY KILL! KILL!; DEAD GIRL) proffers a funny 13-minute chat with Kaufman, while revealing a fair amount of detail about how he got into acting, presenting and producing.

It’s good to see Joe Dante here in a 7-minute featurette, as he’s always an enthusiastic interviewee. He looks a little like The Tall Man these days, and discusses his working relationship with producer Mike Finnell.

The Duplass Brothers (THE PUFFY CHAIR; BAGHEAD) get 8 minutes of airtime with Lloyd.

A 4-minute interview with Avi Lerner (producer of RAMBO 4) is more serious in tone than most of the preceding stuff (the Cronenberg chat excluded), but it’s good stuff nevertheless.

Now, the best 12 minutes on disc two are devoted to footage of Roger Corman being interviewed by Kaufman. Kaufman keeps his questions pertinent and Corman makes for a gracious, generous interviewee. It’s glorious stuff, despite the (intentionally) annoying camerawork and editing.

Interviews with Mick Garris, Monte Hellman, Ernest Dickerson, Caroline Baron and Kathy Morgan round out disc two’s fantastic array of insider insights.

Again, the disc’s static main menu page contains a "Play All" option alongside the opportunity to watch each interview in isolation.

Picture quality varies throughout the set, such is the nature of the footage being shot (most of which is shot on handheld digital camera). But it’s all good, and the English 2.0 audio suffices throughout.

Whether you’ll walk away from this mammoth DVD proposition with a clear idea of how to produce a film is debatable. But you will be entertained along the way.

Review by Stuart Willis