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The tour begins here...

Welcome foolish mortals. This is Douglas A. Plomitallo, a filmmaker specializing in all things scary and creepy. In 2008, I launched Scared Stiff, a series of original horror stories available at the touch of your fingertips. Through the next 8 years, me and my team of filmmakers introduced fans to the likes of the Whisperman, Captain Happy and our franchise character, Tiny. We made festival pieces such as "Closet Monster"' and "Predator: The True Horrors of Halloween" and made our own take on the zombie genre with the 4 part "The Zombie Chronicles". We also expanded the show by including fan films with our "Jason Xmas" mini-series which blends two very different tales together into one strange but fun story. We've hit bumps in the road and also enjoyed life on the happy trail of filmmaking. We've experienced a great change in viewership habits due to the ever changing landscape of online video and have needed to adapt to avoid getting lost in the sea of online video.

Over 50 films later, I have learned a lot about the world of filmmaking. Many things that could only have been learned through experience. I could have written a novel based upon our trials and tribulations creating our humble web show. That is why I have decided to resurrect my blog and document the making of our newest film, "Son of Tiny". "Son of Tiny" is our latest Halloween installment in the web series and acts as an expansion of our "Tiny's Halloween" franchise. We our reunited with Tiny, our lovable,  misunderstood, psychopathic, killer clown and are introduced to a new character to add to the Halloween lore. The purpose of this blog is to entertain but more importantly, to help other filmmakers who are trying to put their own stories up on the screen or trying to start their own journey in the world of filmmaking.

Like the challenge of every filmmaker, one of the biggest challenges I face in making a movie on little to no budget is battling with the challenges of real life. I have two small kids, a full-time job, free-lance on the side, a house to upkeep and am in the middle of a move, all while trying to keep the ball rolling on the film. So, I would rather give updates in smaller bit sized morsels rather than bore you by blabbering on and trying to fill out a whole page. Now, these blogs may not be very long, or thought out, or even properly formatted, but if I have educated at least one person by documenting what steps I go through to put out one of my own short films, then I have succeeded with this blog. 

I plan to post to this blog as things develop in production from now until the completion and release of the film. Hang on tight though! With pre-production/production and post-production all happening within about a month and a half, things will happen very quickly here. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride!

If you have any questions you would like to submit, please send them to Doug@scaredstiff.tv and I will try my very best to answer them!



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Time to Expand to Different Platforms (And a NEW Movie!)

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DISCLAIMER

I thought that I should comment on the name of the blog. The Horrors of Zero-Budget filmmaking is not a name given so I could yack and complain about how horrible filmmaking is. I don't want to make this a terrifying tale designed to scare upcoming filmmakers away. In over 60 productions that I have been a part of, I have had mostly great experiences. Of course theres always the odd time that productions have came to a halt do to an actor (or three!) dropping out within an hour of filming. Or locations being taken away with almost no warning. Or when the cops are called on you by someone with too much time on their hands. Or when you get a gun pulled on you because of Henry Kissinger. (True Story!) But for the most part, "Scared Stiff" has been a pretty fun ride. A big part of minimizing problems is making sure that proper time goes into planning and making sure you have people on your team that you are comfortable with. The Horrors of Filmmaking can happen to the best...
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