SCRAPBOOK

Film Facts
(Source: wickedpixel.com)

SCRAPBOOK was almost entirely unscripted. The actors ad-libbed scenes from general plot points created by Tommy Biondo and developed with Eric Stanze. Some continuous single takes went on for half an hour as the actors improvised dialog and as their director pushed them into various layers of the scene.

Though Tommy Biondo provided the general plot points of SCRAPBOOK, he did not provide the details of the final climactic scene. Director Eric Stanze asked actor Emily Haack how she thought her character would finish the story. Stanze and Haack developed the events of the final scene, but did not provide these details to Biondo, who would perform "blind" opposite Haack for the movie's climax. He would have to rely on following the lead of his co-star and his director as the scene played out. Biondo learned how the movie would end as he experienced the final scene while the camera rolled.

For SCRAPBOOK, actors Emily Haack, playing Clara, and Tommy Biondo, playing Leonard, insisted that the unsettling events of the movie be presented with as much realism as possible. The torture and rape struggle sequences were played with nothing held back by the actors, resulting in a battered and bruised Haack and Biondo at the end of each day's shooting. Also in the spirit of realism: The sets included real rotting food so that the actors would be affected by the smell of their environment. The dead, decomposed cow in the movie is a real dead, decomposed cow. Scenes depicting sexual interaction were shot with no censoring or minimizing of the nudity or the sexual acts. With the exception of vaginal insertion, all sexual interaction was actually performed by the actors. And, the shot of Tommy Biondo urinating on a sobbing Emily Haack was not faked.

SCRAPBOOK is based on actual events, researched by Tommy Biondo over a five year period.

SCRAPBOOK was shot in only 13 days.

The film Stanze directed before SCRAPBOOK was ICE FROM THE SUN, the most logistically complicated movie ever made at its budget level... and a towering epic compared to SCRAPBOOK. After ICE FROM THE SUN completed post-production, Wicked Pixel Cinema decided to try a new challenge by tackling a movie that existed at the opposite extreme. SCRAPBOOK would have very different production logistics, different budgetary concerns, a different type of story, and a drastically different visual style. ICE FROM THE SUN had the biggest budget Stanze had ever worked with up to that point. The production budget of SCRAPBOOK was the lowest Stanze had worked with up to that point. Requiring 54 days of shooting, ICE FROM THE SUN was Stanze's longest shooting schedule ever up to that point. SCRAPBOOK was Stanze's shortest shooting schedule up to that point. ICE FROM THE SUN was shot on 74 different sets. SCRAPBOOK was shot on 5 sets. ICE FROM THE SUN had a cast of over 60 actors. SCRAPBOOK's cast contained 6 actors. ICE FROM THE SUN had a crew of about 30 people. SCRAPBOOK had a crew of only 15 people.

The actual book that provides the title of the movie was created by almost everyone involved in the movie. In the story, the scrapbook contains trophies and writings from all of Leonard's victims. To put realistic variety into the prop, Tommy Biondo handed the initially empty scrapbook to everyone on the staff of the production, including the director. Biondo gave everyone a character and instructed them to write in the book, in that character, as if they were being held captive and tortured by Leonard. Everyone wrote their unique stories in the pages and contributed their selected photos and other scraps, resulting in a very realistic prop that truly looks like it was created by a wide variety of victims.

As executive producer, story writer, production designer, and actor in SCRAPBOOK, Tommy Biondo had more to do with the final movie than any other feature he had worked on. SCRAPBOOK had been Biondo's pet project for over five years. When director Eric Stanze agreed to make it the next Wicked Pixel Cinema project, Biondo not only worked pre-production and production for months, but then had to wait an entire year for SCRAPBOOK to enter its four-week post-production process. Sadly, 26 year old Tommy Biondo died from injuries sustained while on a shoot in Minnesota only days after SCRAPBOOK completed post-production. He never saw the finished movie.

SCRAPBOOK DVD Details

Directed by: Eric Stanze

Run Time: 95 minutes

Layer format: DVD-9

Audio: Dolby Digital

Picture Quality: The picture quality and sound on the DVD is clear and crisp.

Facts: SCRAPBOOK was nominated in eight categories at the 2001 Syracuse "B-Movie" Film Festival, in Syracuse NY.

SCRAPBOOK won:

BEST MOVIE
BEST DIRECTOR - Eric Stanze
BEST WRITER - Tommy Biondo
BEST VILLAIN - Tommy Biondo
(SCRAPBOOK tied with the movie LETHAL FORCE in both the Best Movie and Best Director categories.) SCRAPBOOK's additional nominations were for Best Actor (Tommy Biondo), Best Actress (Emily Haack), Best Set Design (Tommy Biondo), and Best Make-Up Effects (Tony Bridges, Sarah Stanze, Tommy Biondo).

SCRAPBOOK was named the number one independent movie of 2001 by Rue Morgue Magazine ("Year End" Issue, January/February 2002).

Extras:

Feature film with chapter selections and Dolby Digital sound. Dual Layer Format for best encoding quality.
Behind-the-scenes featurette.
Audio commentary track featuring director / executive producer Eric Stanze, actress Emily Haack, and producer Jeremy Wallace.
Behind-the-scenes stills gallery.
Preview trailers.
Tommy Biondo filmography.
Easter eggs:
Three hidden shorts, additional behind the scenes footage, hidden film facts.

What the critics are saying:

May 2002
Secret Scroll Digest
"A potent, unapologetic look at pain and suffering. Amazing performances. Emily Haack and Tommy Biondo are spectacular."
Review by: Mike Haushalter

June 2001
Flipside Movie Emporium
"...as brilliant as it is brutal"
Review by: Michael B. Scrutchin

July 2002
Horrorview.com
"A horror film like nothing you've seen before. Stars Haack and Biondo are electrifying."
Review by: Head Cheeze

October 2002
Film Threat
"This is true terror."
Reviewed by: Eric Campos

August 2001
Rue Morgue Magazine
"The fact that I find such an excruciatingly ugly and unpleasant film so exhilarating is testimony to the incredible skill with which it was made."
Review by: John W. Bowen

April 2001
Hollywood Is Burning
"Unflinching, harrowing, and relentless. One of the few low budget independent films that can actually be classified as an important work."
Reviewed by: Mike Watt

That is all for this installment of THE BUSTERFACE INDIE DIGITAL BUZZ. Until next time, this is Busterface saying... youddontneedgoddamnhollywoodtomakeafuckingmovie

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