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Cannibal Campout (1988 Video)
6/10
Reflections on Cannibal Campout
20 November 2006
Hi All-- To be honest, I am not a B-Horror Movie person, until I was involved in the making of one. If you have read this far you must be an aficionado of the Banal, the Bad, the Bs....But they are fun to watch aren't they?

I assisted Jon McBride in the direction and coordination of this made-to-video classic. This was Jon's brainchild, and he did a lot of hard work to make it all happen. I enjoyed my part behind the camera creating scenes from the screenplay with what we had to work with. Many of the death scenes I made up on the spot, going by what Jon had in mind, then using what was available to do my best. I "made up" (without spoiling) a number of the death scenes off the top of my head, and often hand-held the camera, which at first appalled my co-workers, but I got pretty steady as time went on. I felt the hand-held feel gave me more mobility and was less restrictive than being glued to a tripod. This movie was shot with a camcorder in the woods, with no budget to speak of. I think we did some pretty good work here all things considered, and to think it is important enough to have warranted a DVD release is simply amazing in a lot of ways. The cast was very dedicated and unpaid in any way. Everyone showed up faithfully , gave up weekends for most of a summer, suffered through warm clothes to maintain continuity as the temperatures rose. Most people don't realize what goes into any film project, but here on its simplest terms, many hours were spent....I recall we had 6 two hour VHS tapes of footage--12 hours that was edited down to a 90 minute running time. I always enjoyed "Bad" movies, the fact that they are bad makes them entertaining on their own level. We more or less wanted this to be enjoyed as a bad movie. We wanted viewers to scream at their TV sets telling the campers how dumb they are. We purposely borrowed from other horror genres, both as an homage and for potential viewers to groan to themselves while quietly snickering.

I could write a lot here, and felt bad I could not make the commentary filming for the DVD, but I was unavailable on short notice at the time. But in closing I want to thank Jon McBride, Amy Chludzinski, Gene Robbins, Richard Marcus, Carrie Lindell, Christopher A. Granger, Joseph Salheb and the rest of the cast and crew who all worked so hard.

I can't wait for the DVD--I will buy one myself to see all the great extras.

Best Regards to all as I am proud to stand in the company of Edward D. Wood Jr., who was an inspiration to us all....

Tom Fisher
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