Editor's Note: Monsters at Play brings you a new insight into the world of indie filmmaking. The following is a journal kept by director John Bowker on the set of his latest film, Evilmaker II: Abomination. Enjoy, and as always your feedback is greatly appreciated. Also, be sure to read our review of Abomination here!

6 - 22 - 01
It is just under a week before the cameras start to role on ABOMINATION: THE EVILMAKER 2. I have decided to keep a journal of sorts because I regret that I didn't keep on the first production, and I wish I would have.

The movie is mostly cast, but I'm a little nervous about the first shoot. There are two women who are supposed to play goth chicks and I haven't heard from them lately. Starting to get a little nervous. Hopefully I'll hear from them on Monday.

I feel much better about this production. It's familiar territory and I get to work with some great people. Kylene Wtherell has been cast as Kathy, the lead. Returning as Rachel is Felicia Pandolfi and new characters are being played by Jon Wilmot, Shannon, Warren E.B.B. and Elana Morgana Smith. More later.

6 - 29 - 01
The two women who I wanted to play the goth women bailed out on me. One just flaked and the other wanted to go to a rave that night. No problem, I can re-cast it and shoot it on a pick up shot.

I should have gotten some sleep today...or at least laid down to rest. But, no can do. Had too much yet to get together. We got a late start today due to some costume issues. Felicia had part of her costume over at her mothers house and when she went over to get it, her mom was gone so she had to brake into the house. We were supposed to be on the road out to the location by 7:00. We didn't get on the road until 8:15.

We stopped off at a convenience store to stock up on pop and to pick up my sister and something happened to delay us even longer, but it was funny as hell. For most of us anyway. Jon Wilmot who plays Charles in the movie locked his keys in his truck. So, we were all out there laughing while he was getting pissed. With the help of a coat hanger, he finally got in. Michael and Robert (two guys who came down from Portland to shoot a documentary on the making of Evilmaker 2) got it all on tape. I hope it makes the cut.

We finally made it out there, unloaded all the vehicles and got Kylene and Felicia into make up while Joe and Elana (my first Assistant Director) strung the extension cords down to the culvert. By the time Kylene got down there after make up, we were two hours behind. I thought to myself "No problem. We can make it up." I was wrong.

It had been almost two years since we shot at the culvert and it was WAY overgrown and the water was a lot deeper than in the first movie. So it took a long time to get everything down there (lights, cameras, us, etc). Plus Joe and Kylene had to cross the stream across these rocks to get to the right spot to film. I'm a very clumsy person, so I stayed put and yelled directions out to them. It took longer than I thought. Three and a half hours behind.

My goal was to get all of the exterior night scenes shot in one night. If we managed to do that, I would be happy and we could pick up the other shots tomorrow night. After the culvert scenes were done, we packed it back up to the house and shot all around the area. It's funny how on the major scenes nothing goes wrong, but on the little stuff you have to do take after take after take. There was a scene out by a shed that involved Kylene, Felicia and Jon and it just seemed to take forever to shoot. Flubbed lines, the giggles, you name it. It comes with the territory. But, we got through it.

We ended at 5:00 AM, four hours behind according to the schedule, but of course, nothing EVER goes according to schedule. I tell everyone we are starting two hours earlier tomorrow (actually later today) and everyone is fine with it. People were beat and Elana (1st AD) was looking pretty worn out. We all put in a first hard night. Some people were staying out on location, some wanted to go home. So, I packed Felicia and my sister up and took them back into town. I was so tired, Felicia kept talking to me to stop me from nodding off...she did a good job. I then drove back out to the location and I'm lucky I didn't become air born off a cliff and land in a tree. I had been up for 28 hours straight and was wasted.

I come into the house and Elana and Kylene are passed out on a pull out bed and everyone else was watching a movie Joe and just finished putting together. I pulled up a corner of the floor and passed out. We will get on track tomorrow.

6-30-01
Well...I only got three hours of sleep. Normal for shooting I guess. Elana and I went into town today and got more food and then came back out to the location to rest a little. I, of course, couldn't because my mind was reeling about the shoot tonight. It has occurred to me that there IS NO WAY IN HELL we can finish things tonight. I will have to pick what scenes I want to do and postpone the others. I know I need to shoot as much with Shannon (she plays Madam Vladmeria) as I can because her schedule is so unpredictable.

I sat down with everyone before we started shooting and gave them the news that there would be an extra day tacked on and everyone was fine with it.

Michael and Robert made it out again and they proceeded to interview me. I have rarely done this and it was strange, but I'm getting more comfortable with it. After everyone arrived, it was in the make up chair with Kylene, Felicia and Shannon. Rob is an amazing make up guy. He's like "how do you want them?" and then boom! It's done.

Tonight was a little harder than the night before, even though the night before was all outdoor shoots. After staying up for so long the night before and getting hardly any sleep, at about 3:00 AM my brain started to shut down. It was a good thing Joe and I storyboarded a fight sequence between Kylene and Shannon. It was a lifesaver. Joe took over talking to them about how it was going to be shot while my brain took a rest. Joe and I have known each other for so long and we are on the same wavelength. We shot the fight scene and were done for the night.

It was also a rough night because one of the crew members got word that her uncle had not very long to live. I told her to go home, but she insisted on staying.

There were no real problems this time out and I'm thankful. After the shoot we packed up and got out of there. I got to the driveway of my house at about 8:00 AM, turned the motor off and laid my head back. I woke up an hour and a half later, still in my car. I haven't been this exhausted in a LONG time. I drug my sorry ass into the house and slept some more.

The footage looks great. If the rest of it turns out as well as the first weekend, I think we are going to have a pretty good movie on our hands. By the way...we are 8 hours behind...

7 - 5 - 01
I have been calling around to people to see if they survived the shoot okay and got some shocking news. On her way home, Kylene was in a car accident. This was the day after we shoot, so it wasn't due to fatigue. She hit a dear, swerved off the road, got airborne, took out some mailboxes and a pump house. Thank god she is okay, but her car is totaled.

Okay, the up and coming shoot on Saturday the 14th is going to be changed a little due to some unforeseen circumstances. No matter how hard you try, you can never predict what is going to happen in peoples lives. It shouldn't be major changes, but I will start working on it soon.

7-13-01
Crap, what a week. Earlier a location I was counting on fell through. I hate it when that happens. We were going to go out and shoot in Independence Oregon at a cabin. I had checked with one of the owners and she said she had no problem with it, but she had to check with her husband. He said no. So, some quick trouble-shooting and we are going to shoot the stuff in a hotel room.

Other bad news. Elana, my 1st AD, has a bacterial infection and won't be there this weekend. She is also playing a character, so we have to bump her scenes to a later date. The upside is we are going to get some pick up shots of stuff we missed on the first weekend shoot. One trick. All that stuff was at night and we are shooting during the day, so we have to blacken all the windows out. Have done it before, so it's no biggie, just another small pain in the ass. (There are a lot of them in making movies.) I hope everything goes well.

7-14-01
My god, I keep putting my cast and crew through hell and they keep coming back for more. Today was a 15 hour day. We started at 7:00 AM and went until 10:00 PM. Things started well and when we started shooting the newscaster footage out on location with Robert L. Sumner as the newscaster. Things were light hearted and I wanted them to be that way. After the shoot two weeks ago, I wanted people to laugh and have a good time. A couple of practical jokes were played on one another. Kylene was doing cartwheels in between takes and Shannon was spinning around like a tornado with all of her vales. Even I got in the action by doing summer salts, which I haven't done in years and remembered why after I did them. (You will see all this in "the making of" which will be after the feature on the tape.)

Then, the sun came out and zapped us of any energy we had. A lot of us got burned and the back of my neck is sore right now. By mid day we shot all of the outdoor shots we needed and headed into the house. Since Elana was home sick, I took the opportunity to shoot some stuff we didn't get done the first weekend. While Joe and I went over the rest of the shoot, Michael and Robert blackened out the windows so we could shoot day for night.

Felicia got a good dose today of what it must be like in Hollywood. Her make up was a "hurry up and wait." She went several hours without doing a thing in make up and then it was her time, and boy did she shine. She is one of those actresses where she gets it right on the mark (character wise). She will ask a couple of questions and then go right into it and do an amazing job. Part two is fun for her because she is playing three versions of her character.

Kylene is awesome and so full of energy. Her and Felicia play well off each other. The afternoon was a long process, but we made it through. It was time to pack up and head into town to shoot the hotel scene (formally the cabin.)

By the time we got there, set up and ate some dinner, it was pretty much dark out. This scene was supposed to happen during the day (there is a scene at the door, so it couldn't be cheated.) so I did a quick revision on the dialogue and problem solved.

There is very few times when I actually get upset, and it happened tonight. We were at the tail end of the shoot and Jon Wilmot had joined us at the hotel, so he hadn't been out shooting in the sun and heat all day and had bundles of energy while the rest of us didn't. I told him to knock on the door three times, pause then do it again. He started to knock on it a bunch of times in a silly way and something snapped in my head.

I sprung up out of my chair and I could hear Joe say "Uh oh...Wilmot is going to die..". I swung open the door and he looked shocked, because he was expecting Kylene to answer it. I said "14 hours Jon...I'm not in the mood!!!!" I felt bad afterwards and apologized and things were okay. He said he was going to pull a practical joke, but then decided not to do it. Smart move.

It was a long rough day, but I wanted to get all of the stuff shot that needed to be shot so tomorrow can be a little lighter. I am so glad to be home so I can get a little rest.

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