3:30am. Why did I have to get up so early to catch this flight again? Oh yeah, I was at the mercy of PRICELINE.COM and the flight I was given left Newark NJ at 6:00am sharp. It's only an hour drive to Newark from Philadelphia, but with the current state of security at the airports and having to drop off my car at the lot I figured better safe than sorry. When all was said and done I arrived at the terminal about an hour before my flight was to depart.

I flew from Newark to Charlotte NC where I was to connect for my flight into St Louis. I had about an hour layover in NC, which wasn't too bad. At this point it wasn't even 8:00am and I had been up since 3:30am. Neither flight offered food since travel time was less than two hours each way, although they both did offer beverage service and the tiniest bag of pretzels you have ever seen my friends. My hunger took hold and I picked up a 5-dollar chewy bagel and bottle of orange juice in NC. Lucky for me (or unlucky for me) the second flight (a much smaller "express" plane mind you) also offered one of the bitchiest stewardesses I had ever met...please allow me to explain.

This express jet sat maybe 60 people tops and it wasn't even full. I was sitting in a single seat on the left of the aisle. There was one stewardess for the flight and I could tell that she was just old and bitter (obviously jealous of the younger, much prettier stewardesses who work the larger planes). I had two pieces of carry on luggage one for the overhead (a duffel bag) and one for under my seat (a backpack). Now, keep in mind that this was a connecting flight and I had no problems on my first flight (a much larger plane, mind you). My duffel back fit snug in the overhead...great. My backpack, just fit under the seat in front of me, with just a bit of the end sticking out near my feet. This obviously wasn't good enough for the stewardess because she proceeded to give me a load of shit about the whole thing. She literally scolded me before take off in front of the entire plane and then forced me on my feet. She wanted me to put the backpack in the overhead, but it would not fit...I mean there were three boxes of KRIMPITS ( a tasty east coast treat) in there for godsakes! She proceeded to tell me that there was something wrong with me for bringing a bag that size on the plane (it wasn't THAT big, but you flatter me ma'am). I tried explaining to her that this was a connecting flight and I had no problems with my carry on items with the other flight, but I don't think she heard me. I had no idea that my connecting flight was going to be on a toy plane, if I had, I would have checked the bag in. I told her if she wanted to check in the bag for me, she could, because at this point it was out of my hands. What was her solution you ask? She gave my backpack its own seat and strapped a seatbelt around it! I felt embarrassed until she then yelled at a nine-year-old girl just before take off as well. Lovely.

Less than two hours later I had landed in St Louis, a town that I had never even been to before. I was still a little bugged by the flight, but had begun to feel a bit better because of the apple juice and pretzels I was given by the very same stewardess who had scolded me moments earlier. Besides, Eric Stanze and Jeremy Wallace, both of Wicked Pixel Cinema were picking me up at the airport. Who wants a little bit of background? Nobody? Good, because you're getting it anyway.

Over the past year and a half, The Monsters have reviewed many a Wicked Pixel Cinema or Sub Rosa Extreme film and have almost always been pleased with titles like Ice From The Sun, Scrapbook and Savage Harvest to name a few. I have always felt that Wicked Pixel was making some of the most enjoyable, polished indie horror flicks I had seen. At one point Jeremy Wallace (director of the very funny The Christmas Season Massacre and the upcoming The Undertow) had emailed me to thank me for my kind reviews and request that I post some Wicked Pixel Press Releases on the site. Just about a year later, we were still talking on an almost regular basis and had actually become quite good email friends. When Jeremy asked if I was interested in visiting with Wicked Pixel for the weekend and hanging out on the set of Savage Harvest 2, I jumped at the chance. I could actually hang out on set and meet all of these folks I had a huge amount of respect for? Sure, why not...and here I am!

I kinda knew what Jeremy looked like from a picture, but Eric was the one I noticed first in the airport and recognized him almost immediately. I was nervous for sure, but Jeremy and Eric made me feel most welcomed as we walked to Jeremy's jeep to take a drive to Eric's place AKA Thrill Ride Media to spend a good part of the morning. Forget the fact that I had been up for almost 8 hours and it was barely 10am, I was thrilled to be hanging out with Eric and Jeremy. We arrived at Eric's nearly 1/2 hour later and our casual conversation in the jeep made me feel at ease (as did driving by the St Louis Arch, cool). Once we arrived at Eric's place I knew that I was keeping good company. His house was a practical shrine to everything Wicked Pixel, along with other elements of horror that made me feel really comfortable. Nearly everywhere I looked I saw something that reminded me of home, either a horror poster or a DVD rack that looked eerily like my very own. Eric offered me a cup of coffee, which I accepted and the tour began.

Rather than deal with a shoddy editing system, Wicked Pixel Cinema went for the gusto and Eric has a full-on Avid editing system in his house. Multiple TVs for testing and editing as well as a full DVD authoring system. They are hooked up, and no doubt deep in debt. This would explain why their product looks so damn good and professional. Of note is the fact that Thrill Ride does all of the authoring for b-movie.com in house as well, just another penny in the pot to pay for a set up that costs well over $100,000 dollars. Any other indie filmmakers have a set-up like that? I doubt it. At this point I was introduced to Lisa Anne Harness who works with Eric at the homemade Thrill Ride Media. Lisa was working on some menu deigns for China White Serpentine and Jeremy's new flick The Undertow, which is in post production as we speak. Eric was also in the process of digitizing footage from The Undertow to be edited and I was able to catch a sneak peek of some advanced footage. I was struck by how much care and effort went into the whole process. From the font on the menu design down to the bit rate the DVD was encoded at. The fact that too many extras would spoil the bit rate and that the product could ultimately look inferior was on everyone's mind. I was deeply impressed to say the least.

We hung around Stanze's place for a bit and chatted while drinking coffee. It was all very informal, and best of all fun. It was obvious from the get go that I was dealing with a true group of professionals and film lovers, I respected them now more than ever.

Jeremy and I made our way out to grab some lunch and drop my stuff off at his house (he was gracious enough to host me on his sofa, if you know what I mean). We stopped off for a bite to eat at a place called Bandanas. Now, if I want to eat good barbecue in Philly, I have to wait for the State Fair to come around. Bandanas was a real treat ladies and gentlemen, we both had the same pulled pork platter. Delicious chunks of pork (quite a selection of barbecue sauce as well), fries, beans and a side of fried corn on the cob...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I picked the remaining chunks of flesh out of my teeth and we headed to Jeremy's home. The plans for the evening were to meet the Wicked Pixel Crew at Blueberry Hill, Chuck Berry's restaurant at about 7:30.

We left for Blueberry Hill with plenty of time to spare, unfortunately it took us two hours to get there. Jeremy got lost...but I'm fairly certain in retrospect that this is the best thing that could have happened to us. It gave us a great chance to really get to know each other and feel comfortable with the person we were going to be spending the entire weekend with (wink wink). Besides, it helped to ease my nervousness about meeting the rest of the crew, I didn't know what to expect. Jeremy had been in constant phone contact with Emily Haack (a WPC favorite around here) while trying to find our way to the restaurant, we were nearly the last to arrive.

When we walked in everyone greeted Jeremy with a warm welcome as they did me after our introductions (although I'm sure they all knew who I was the moment I walked through the door). I sat down and immediately felt just a tad bit uncomfortable, but that quickly changed. Those who came out to greet me included; Jeremy Wallace, Julie Farrar, Todd Tevlin, Jason Christ, Emily Haack, Robin Garrels, Bill Clifton, Eric Stanze and Jessie Seitz. The night flowed quite freely with great conversations about movies in general, Wicked Pixel Cinema and Monsters at Play. It was at this point that I realized that I was hanging around a great bunch of people. I also had a chance to chat with Robin Garrels who had been involved with films like Insaniac and Last House on Hell Street. Robin wasn't going to be around the rest of the weekend, so I was glad that I had the chance to chat it up with her at the restaurant for a bit. Robin is currently working on a film called Buzzsaw and it really caught my attention, we'll definitely have to keep an eye out for this one. The night ended with our goodbyes after we roamed the strip for a bit. I was going to be seeing most of these people again over the course of the weekend, so Jeremy and I hopped in the jeep and headed home.

We got back to Jeremy's place (his kids were already in bed) and I met his wife for the first time. We all chatted for about an hour or so before we parted to get some shuteye. At this point, I had been up for nearly 24 hours straight, needless to say, but I was very tired. The longest of the weekend was still ahead as we had 2 night shoots to contend with over the course of the weekend. Tomorrow I would spend the evening on the set of Savage Harvest 2, despite my excitement, I was still able to sleep like a dead baby that evening. Jeremy's sofa was very comfortable, it was pure bliss.

Part 2 of 3 is coming soon, including tales from the set of Savage Harvest 2, my flea market purchases along with my first experience with Vess cream soda and toasted ravioli.

Pictures are fun, aren't they? Well, you can be the judge this go round. For some pics from day one, just click here!