Monday, October 15, 2012

What Halloween Means To Me Day 11: Jason Hoover (JABB Pictures)



Welcome to Independent Horror Filmmakers week here at the “What Halloween Means To Me” countdown.  One of the most exciting concepts to come down the indie horror pike in a long, long time is JABB Pictures’ “The Collective” series.  Each volume is a collection of 10 shorts, 10 minutes long each, all revolving around the same theme.  For example, in Volume 2 each filmmaker was given a small cardboard box that they had to incorporate as a major plot element.  In Vol 3, they each had to come up with a unique take on the concept “10 Minutes to Live.”  Get the picture?  I’ve reviewed Volumes 1-4.  They’re over there in the archive.  I’m too lazy to dig up all 4 links.  The zombie themed Collective Volume 5 premieres Nov. 16 at the Days of the Dead convention in Chicago, and will be available on DVD shortly thereafter.  Follow JABB on Facebook HERE to keep up on the latest goings on and go HERE to order DVDs. You can get all 4 volumes of The Collective for 30 bucks, which at just over 6 hours of awesomeness is about as much bang for your buck as you're gonna find anywhere.  Anyway, Jason Hoover, in addition to being one of the filmmakers featured in the Collective series, is the mastermind behind the whole thing.  He runs JABB Pictures.  My absolute favorite thing about Jason is that he has no filmmaking training, is completely self taught, and turns out great, entertaining, innovative stuff.  He’s pretty damn prolific too, having made 13 short films in the last 2 years.  He’s currently hard at work on his first feature (due out in early 2013), but he took some time out to tell us what Halloween means to him…

"My Halloween experience has changed a lot over the years. As a kid my only concern was to collect as much candy as my freshly removed pillow case could sustain without ripping to shreds. I was a candy marauder!
I would often pick my costume based on agility as opposed to character. It was all about "the pile". Few things make a young, overweight boy happier than standing over a heaping pile of sugary goodness. I would eat myself sick, then start again. It was beautiful; gluttony in it's finest form. Ahhh… the good old days.

 As a teenager, "The Great Candy Caper" began to fade. Each year I found myself wanting candy less and chaos more. Bag snatching, egg throwing, toilet paper covered chaos. I wasn't a criminal by any means but I was a definite pain in the ass for the residents of Aroma Park, IL. Halloween became an excuse to plunder and run wild. Looking back, I think I was just trying to fit in with the local hoods I had befriended. I truly hope that my actions as a young man had no lasting effects on the victims of my antics. 

Now that I'm all grown up and have kids of my own, I find great joy in being on the other side of the door. Now I am the victim of the new breed of marauders. I willingly supply them with all the confections I was once showered in. I revel in the endless parade of eager, sugar fueled little people running amuck through my small town. I say to them, "Onward young plunderers! Go forth and amass a pile like the world has never seen! May you all have a Happy Halloween!"

16 days ‘til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.  16 days ‘til Halloween.  Silver Shamrock!

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