[Guy-Girl Conversation]

This scene was used as a primary audition tool for the roles of The Girl and The Guy. Actress Erika Apelgren here does a fantastic job of shooting right down the middle between a realistic acting style and a retro staginess common in old movies. It's exactly what the balance I wanted. The scene is a set up that gives dramatic weight and motivation to what happens later. So it's more than only a music video, it's also a film. Actor Adam Daniels later told me that Bruce Campbell's performance as Ash from the Evil Dead film series helped motivate his performance here, but he also demonstrates an inventiveness of his own. This last gesture he came up with on his own which was perfect for the character.

[Outside Lady's Room]

This acting for scene outside the bathroom was improvised with actress Jhoanna Trias coming up with this great line. I loved that Skeeter Joplin adlib too which was just perfect. It reminded me of the low-down-dirty attitude of the drapes gang from Cry Baby. I decided that The Girl should have her hair up in order to appear conservative and uptight. The square glasses also lend themselves to that.

[The Guy Waits for the Movie to Start]

The smug and lustful oogling at the waitress is another great choice that Adam added at end of the take. I went through lots of old horror movie trailers to find the perfect one.

[Ladies' Room Scene]

This next scene we had performed during the audition process and Reka and Erika fit perfectly together. The sound design was a critical component to the tension. The hand in the bowl is actually Reka's hand since it's supposed to be an extension of her character. I am reminded here of a scene from the movie Ed Wood when Ed Wood is amazed at how Bela Lugosi is able to perfectly make this hypnotic gesture with his hand. Lugosi tells Wood that "you must be double jointed and you must be Hungarian." Reka, like Lugosi, also happens to be Hungarian. I love that this hypnotic walk into the stall looks like slow motion. But in fact, is all real time - that's how good my actresses were after we blocked out the scene. I am really proud of the casting choices I made. Both Reka and Erika knocked their roles out of the park. We shot this women's restroom scene in a real movie theater's restroom. The Dead Day Revolution song that starts after the Vampire Queen walks out of the stall is called "Just One Question" and I love it.

[Vampire Blues Sequence]

The key here was to match the relentlessness of the song. Mike Sandoz and I came up with the idea of this androgynous old man character for the pianist and I decided he should dance. I wanted to operate on two levels here. The first was to show the power of band's performance of "Vampire Blues" was motivating what goes on. The second was to show that the Vampire Queen's sexuality was motivating the band's motivation. The character of the guy here becomes the Singer's alter ego. The car is a great centerpiece because it does a lot. It's flashy. The huge size of it and open top makes it perfect for the physical staging requirements. It's also a key element in the color palette of the film which uses a lot of red and black.

I like including band members in acting roles. It's great to see Mike Sandoz pull of his rock star persona on one place and then be a weasel-like dweeb here. I meticulously decided every detail in the costumes and makeup choices for each character including the Vampire Dancers. They are extensions of the Vampire Queen's power, like she has replicated herself. I went with Reka's idea to look directly into the camera on some of the shots which turned out to be fantastic dramatic choice that seduces the audience just as The Guy himself is seduced. I motivated Mike to get this menacing snarl of a performance which I felt was necessary attitude about the actions unfolding. The song Vampire Blues is about the storyteller's fear of his scary ex girlfriend, but there is more to it. I found it compelling to explore the storytellers fears of his own weakness in the power his ex has over him. I was particularly interested in his contradicting instincts of repulsion and simultaneous attraction. So while this film has vampires in it, I never thought of Vampire Blues as a vampire film. The vampirism is a means to heighten the expression of what I felt the song was about: a relentless man-eater. True to the soul of the song.

If would like to learn more about the making of Dead Day Revolution: Vampire Blues, please see the documentary Sex Death and Rock 'n Roll: The Making of Vampire Blues.