"Me and My Brand New Haircut" - starring Billy Kelly and Davy Jones of The Monkees!

Those of you who follow my blog already know I'm a huge Monkees fan. So having the opportunity to shoot a video with Davy Jones was an honor... thanks to Billy Kelly. Billy is a children's music artist and an old personal friend of mine. This is the second video I shot for him (here's the first). "Me and My Brand New Haircut" can be found on his new album Is This Some Kind of Joke?, and can be found on Amazon, iTunes and places like that.

During the shoot Davy told us stories of his Monkees past and entertained us all with lots of jokes. Some may say he monkeyed around. After the shoot Davy posed for photos and he signed my copy of the first Monkees album – my very first album ever!


Visit www.TheBillyKellyShow.com for more Billy Kelly info.

Hope you enjoy the video!

"Me and My Brand New Haircut" (teaser video)

Above is a teaser video I put together using found footage and original footage promoting a video I shot for Billy Kelly featuring Davy Jones of The Monkees! THE DAVY JONES!!!

I'll write more about the shoot once the video for "Me and My Brand New Haircut", starring Davy Jones and Billy Kelly, premieres on October 26th.

TALKIN' WITH TED (2010)

I'm a huge fan of Sesame Street and one of my favorite skits was when a Muppet (Kermit, Grover, etc.) would talk one on one with a kid. Ever since I got my own Muppet Whatnot from FAO Schwarz in 2009 (which I wrote about here), I've been meaning to do my own twisted version with my kids. I finally got around to doing it.

TALKIN' WITH TED


Here's some outtakes...

"Ted on Dolphins" (TALKIN' WITH TED outtake)


"Ted on Curious George" (TALKIN' WITH TED outtake)


"Ted on Recreation" (TALKIN' WITH TED outtake)


"Ted on Bluetooth Headsets" (TALKIN' WITH TED outtake)


And here's some TALKIN' WITH TED art cards...


Jim Henson is rolling in his grave.

TEAM 12 (2010)

I had gotten some positive feedback from family and friends on the last two Fusco Family Films – YOUNG DRACULA and THE SQUIRE, THE MAIDEN AND THE DRAGON. So when I decided to have a summer barbeque with some old friends I thought it would be fun to make a movie with them and their kids.

Of course I wrote an overly ambitious script, not taking into account that I'd have less time to shoot than my usual productions. Plus, I added 15 more actors than my usual productions – 10 of those being kids! Needless to say, attention spans were short and directional skills were limited...and that's just the parents! (((rimshot))) But seriously folks...this meant shooting in a more "run and gun" approach so the end product is a little rough around the edges.


And here's a little fun fact: All the kidnappers in this movie also starred in one of my first movies, NUDE AND DISMEMBERED...20 years ago!

The Squire, The Maiden and The Dragon (2010)

In the middle of filming YOUNG DRACULA, my son pitched me another idea for a movie – and I mean literally between takes. This time he wanted to play a knight that fights a dragon. I told him "We'll see"...meaning "I'm not sure I can pull that off". But after some thought I figured I could just green screen the dragon. I'd done a little green screening on the video I shot for Billy Kelly, so I was semi-confident it would work – emphasis on "semi". Here's what we came up with.

Young Dracula (2010)

A while back I shared a Beastie Boys "Sabotage" parody video I made with my kids. My son had so much fun making it that he came to me with a new idea…to make a Dracula movie! Beyond knowing he wanted to play Dracula, he didn't know what the story should be so he put me in charge of script development. Of course I had to put my stamp on it. Above is what we came up with.

I'd like to say thank you to cosmobells.blogspot.com for sharing the The Hammer Film Music Collection, which came in handy when making our movie.

Elliott Gould - Mean Johnny Barrows (1976)

I'm going to continue the Elliott Gould fest for one more post. This time I'm highlighting a film that would never make a Top 10 list. I'm talking about Elliott Gould's cameo in the Fred Williamson blaxploitation flick Mean Johnny Barrows (1976).

Elliott befriended Fred Williamson during the filming of Robert Altman's M*A*S*H. Mean Johnny Barrows was Williamson's directorial debut so Elliott probably did him the favor. And if it wasn't for Gould's star name the scene would probably have been cut, if not shot at all in the first place.

Elliott plays the character of Professor Theodore Rasputin Waterhouse, a homeless man who attempts to teach the newly homeless Johnny Barrows (Williamson) the ways of living on the street. You can tell that a good portion of the 3 minute scene was improvised on the spot, causing Williamson to break character, or at least behave nothing like the character he built up in the movie. Gould and Williamson's antics even make an extra in the movie crack up with laughter – and they left it in!

It may have been sloppy directing but it's the best scene in the movie. Here it is...



And here's the soundtrack to Mean Johnny Barrows (1976)...


[DOWNLOAD] Gordon Staples & The String Thing - Mean Johnny Barrows (1976)
01- Strung Out
02- Toonie
03- From A Heart That's True To Only One
04- Hustle
05- Love Theme
06- If Your Love Were Mine
07- Get Down
08- Sounds Of The Zodiac
09- It's Got To Be Alright
10- Strung Out (Reprise 1)
11- I'm Back
12- Strung Out (Reprise2)
13- Who Knows Better
14- Dialog 2 & 3