Courtney over at HauntJaunts.net recently wrote a brave and emotional post about what draws her to the concept of Phasma Ex Machina.  It's not easy to share personal details like that and we're in awe of her openness and honesty.

I had to take care of my mom in the last months of her life. That was almost two years ago. I’m still reeling from the effects. I have a lot of regrets about how so many things went down during that time. First and foremost I’ll always regret not giving her the dying wish she wanted most, which was to just die in her own house.

And then, just five months after saying goodbye to her I was told I had that grapefruit-sized hitchhiker in my chest? I pretty much figured I was about to say adios too.

I’m not skilled enough to put into words the torment my heart felt at the thought of Death doing me part from my beloved husband Wayne way, way, WAY before I was ready. There was a lot of regret and remorse on my part for all the unspoken “I love yous” I’d withheld over the years for dumb reasons, and which I was painfully aware I might not get the chance to make up for.

And that, I have decided, is what the draw of Phasma Ex Machina is for me. It questions the “what if” and brings those answers to light in ways that only serve to emphasize how brief, fragile and precious our lives with our loved ones are –and why we should strive every chance we get to let them know how much we cherish them.

She truly hit the nail on the head.  

Thanks for fighting the good fight, Courtney!  Read her full post here.  

If the history of ghost hunting is your sort of thing, don't hesitate to check out our new Ghosts 101: Legacy of the Supernatural section. The first entry is about Thomas Edison and his mysterious "ghost machine."  Here's a bit:

Edison in Scientific American (1920):

"If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth.  I am inclined to believe that our personality hereafter will be able to affect matter.  If this reasoning be correct, then, if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected, or moved, or manipulated by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something."

One year later, in another interview in the New York Times, the author makes it abundantly clear that Edison has been working on a device to record "personality units" and potentially communicate with the dead.

New York Times (Jan. 23 1921):

"When so called "death" appears to drive life from our bodies Mr. Edison thinks that our personality "units" do not die, but continue to to exist as substantial material things."
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"Life does not cease to exist.  The life units which have formed that man do not die.  They merely pass out of the unimportant mechanism which they have been inhabiting..."
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"...so Mr. Edison hopes to build a mechanism of exquisite fineness and great power upon which the now impalpable life units of personality will make themselves known, will register.  Does this mean messages from the dead, instructions from the departed as to future instructions..."
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"What Mr. Edison does say is that should his theories prove correct and should his apparatus succeed in apprehending the stimuli, it will be the first step in a correct understanding of the entire problem of life and death, and will lead the way to the development of concrete communication with the dead."

The interviewer attempts to push Edison into revealing more details about his machine, but Edison remains mum on the subject.  He would only say that he has been engaged for a number of years in the construction of such an apparatus.

Edison died 10 years later.  His machine was never completed and the plans are relegated to the trash-bin of history.

You may have already noticed, but we just launched an entire new section of the website called Ghosts 101 (you can see it over on the left hand navigation).  Because the film deals with the supernatural in a scientific light, we wanted to share some of the interesting theories and scientific background of ghosts and the famous people who have studied them.  We also have a fun on-going series called "6 Questions with..." where we will interview many of the most unique minds working in the supernatural field today.

Please check it out and let us know what you think!

Phasma Ex Machina - More than a Ghost Story from Phasma Ex Machina on Vimeo.

Thomas Edison is making things difficult. Despite his vast contributions to the world of cinema, Mr. Edison is now causing the indie film, Phasma Ex Machina some minor irritation. Mr. Edison makes a brief appearance in the movie, as a photo, and lawyer Mick Spence wants to make sure that the image has been cleared. The irony of a deceased man causing problems is not lost on the Phasma team.

Click to read more ...

If you're an aspiring screenwriter (or just interested in the craft) you should be visiting Scott Myers' fantastic blog (gointothestory.com) every single day.  He's constantly churning out interesting tidbits, tips, and tales of what it takes to become a successful writer in movie land.  Phasma was lucky enough to be featured on the site recently and we'd like to thank Scott for the support and suggest all of you interested parties to check it out.

Here's the link to our post, but make sure to visit his main page as well.

http://www.gointothestory.com/2010/01/movies-you-made-phasma-ex-machina.html

As many of you already know, last year Phasma Ex Machina was one of ten films in the nation to be selected to the IFP Filmmaker's Labs in NYC.   Well, time sure does fly and they are again accepting rough cuts and applications for the next round of Lab fellows.  All in all, it was an amazing experience and we cannot recommend it enough.

Here's a little more info:

IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs is the only program in the U.S. supporting first-time feature directors with projects at the crucial rough cut stage, before they are submitted to festivals. The Labs are a free, week-long workshop in New York offering personalized feedback and advice on all aspects of the post-production process, audience building, and distribution strategies in the digital age, followed by continued support from IFP as the project premieres in the marketplace. More than half of Lab alumni have gone on to premiere at major festivals - including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, and Venice, and have enjoyed theatrical releases, been broadcast nationally, or released on DVD. Lab applications are available now for both the Documentary and Narrative Labs which will take place in spring 2010.

To learn more, please go to http://labs.ifp.org/

If ghosts are your thing, you'll definitely have to check out the blog at hauntjaunts.net.  Informative and well-written, it's a great one-stop for all things paranormal.  They just featured Phasma in their Movie Monday series and had some very kind words indeed.  

I dare say this is the kind of movie a lot us have been waiting for. (And even though it’s going to draw the now inevitable comparisons to Paranormal Activity, I’m thinking it could be in a league with Sixth Sense too –if the actual movie is as good as it looks. Man, I’m hoping!)

And when I say it looks good, I do mean GOOD!
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Chilling. Spooky. Even overused as it is, “spine-tingling” comes to mind.

You can read the entire article here.

I'd also like to post a piece of a comment on the article left by autumnforest.  It's people like her that keep us motivated.

Oh boy!!!! I’ve waited my entire life for this movie. The night when I was 10 years old and sat on the stairs of our house with my recorder, capturing the booted footsteps going up–I remember thinking….how can I make this happen more frequently? More consistently? More available for others to sense? Since ghost hunting, I’ve found a 100% correlation between geomagnetic activity and active hunting nights.
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I’ve literally waited my whole life for this movie–it’s how I would have done it. 

 Thanks HauntJaunts and autumnforest!  You made our day!

Shortly after Halloween, a few members of the Phasma production cast and crew joined the MN Paranormal Investigators Group on a real investigation at the historic Mounds Theater in Saint Paul Minnesota.  The following mini-documentary is an account of the experience.

The Phasma Team goes on a Ghost Hunt from Phasma Ex Machina on Vimeo.

We'd like to thank the following people for their help with this video:

Shot and Edited by Kevin McKeever of Image-Generation
John Savage and Lori Bogren, Investigators at MN Paranormal Investigators Group
Raeann Ruth, Manager at Mounds Theater
Elijah Chhum, Dane Whitehead, Matthew Feeney, and Sasha Andreev

In a nice ironic twist, a website I visited often while preparing to direct Phasma has just come full circle and posted an interview with me.  John Gaspard, author of the books "Fast, Cheap, and Under Control" and "Fast, Cheap and Written that Way," runs a wonderful blog called Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts.  He interviews indie directors and looks for nuggets on what it took to get their movie made.  It's highly educational for any aspiring filmmakers and offers a nice peak behind the curtain for all fans of independent and low-budget films.  Other interviews include Q&A's with filmmakers such as Tom DiCillo, Roger Corman, and Steven Soderbergh.  Fine company indeed.

I'll post the first question and answer here, but you'll have to go to his site to read the rest.

What was your filmmaking background before you made Phasma Ex Machina?

MATT: I come from a very small town in the Midwest, so filmmaking seemed like such a distant and unchartered career path. It wasn’t until I moved away to college that I discovered my passion for storytelling and soon thereafter the impossible option became the inevitable one. After writing a bunch of bad scripts, I began directing a handful of bad shorts. This was my film school.

Eventually, through a somewhat circuitous path, I helped produce a documentary that had the distinction of being executive produced by Jon Stewart. That experience really gave me the confidence and credibility that I could build a feature from the ground up.

Be 1 of 100 very special people to get your hands on a limited edition hand-printed Phasma Ex Machina poster. Each one is signed and numbered by the artist - the very talented Clinton Lugert of THEY Design.  

Further, the proceeds of all poster sales are split directly between the artist and the film.  Help support the arts and get a cool poster to boot!  And don't forget, Phasma posters make great Christmas gifts!

Click here to buy directly from the artist.

Friend of the blog, Dane Whitehead, gets the inside scoop on the art and process of color correction and how Phasma Ex Machina found the perfect partner to bring the picture to the next level.

Click to read more ...