Unit 30 was accepted to the Hollywood Asylum 13

Good news everyone! Unit 30 was accepted to the Hollywood Asylum 13 Film Festival! More info coming soon

New Unit 30 DVD cover

The Unit 30 DVD cover was update to include awards, festival acceptances and quotes from reviews. We think it looks swell

Interview at the Terror Film Festival

I was lucky enough to be interviewed at the Terror Film Festival by filmmaker Nate Rulf. I was asked about Unit 30, what my favorite horror film was and why, etc....I had no idea I was such an animated talker!

Unit 30 in promo video for the Media Film Festival

Wow, that was quite the subject wasn't it? I feel like I have nothing else to add except the video itself

Unit 30 won a Claw award at the Terror Film Festival!!!

I just got back from the wonderful city of Philadelphia a few days ago after having attended the Terror Film Festival (run on sentences are fun!). As always, the amazing people of TFF put on another great festival. Unit 30 screened Friday night to a reception of 40 or so people, lots of laughs, great questions during the Q&A, etc....The awards ceremony was Saturday night and Unit 30 took home the coveted award for "Best Thriller for a Short Film"! Pictures of the award coming soon (it's being made). Below are some pictures from the festival. (all photos provided by Hamilton Photography)


Ethical Society building in Rittenhouse Square, where the festival took place

Schedule for the Unit 30 screening

Screening room

Looking at the schedule on the back of the pass



Writer Baron Craze



A list of some of the winners from the Terror Film Festival


Me winning the award for "Best Thriller of a Short Film". Can you tell I was happily surprised to win?

photos from the GIAA Film Festival

Eric Pirooz (the Real Estate Agent from Unit 30) was lucky enough attend the GIAA Film Festival in New York this past weekend. I can't thank the GIAA team enough for putting on such a wonderful festival, Eric had a great time and I'm bummed that I couldn't make it. Below are some pictures that Eric took at the screening:
The GIAA Film Festival sign
Eric Pirooz with the poster for Unit 30
A shot of the crowd
Eric Pirooz with Vincent Pastore , winner of the best actor award at the festival

Terror Film Festival trailer

A scene from Unit 30 was featured in the trailer for the Terror Film Festival! The scene from Unit 30 starts around 3:15

Unit 30 was accepted to the Fargo Fantastic Film Festival

I am happy to announce that Unit 30 was accepted to the Fargo Fantastic Film Festival. The festival takes place Oct.15-17 in Fargo, ND. The festival is part of Valleycon and the Fargo Entertainment Expo. Screening time coming soon. Feel free to check out their website here: http://www.valleycon.com/filmfest.html

Unit 30 was nominated for 3 awards at the Terror Film Festival

How awesome is that!? We were nominated for: Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Thriller Short Film. The awards ceremony takes place Saturday Oct. 23rd. Fingers crossed

Unit 30 lobby cards!!!

Why did we ever stop making and displaying lobby cards? They were such a great way to get to know the cast and characters of a movie and were very easy to steal,- not like those big posters behind "glass" at the theater! Have you ever tried to open one of those "boxes"!?!? Trust me, they are hard to open and it turns out you can be arrested for tampering with one. Well no need to spend a night in jail! Below are you very own Unit 30 lobby cards!!!

Screening time at the Terror Film Festival

Unit 30 will screen at the Terror Film Festival on Friday October 22nd during the 5:45pm block. The festival takes places at the Ethical Society Building located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA. 19103. To learn more, visit the festival website at: www.terrorfilmfestival.net

Unit 30 was accepted to the Terror Film festival!

Good news everyone! We were accepted to the Terror Film Festival. The fest takes place Oct. 21-23 in Philadelphia, PA. I don't have the screening time yet, stay tuned

Screening time at the GIAA Film Festival

Unit 30 will screen at the GIAA Film Festival on Saturday Oct. 2nd during the 7pm block. The screenings take place at the Anthology Film Archive which is located at Second Ave and Second St. in New York. I'm not going to be able to make it to the festival, but Eric Pirooz will! Make sure to say hi if you see him :-) To learn more, visit the festival website at: http://www.giaafilmfest.com/GIAA_Film_Fest/GIAA_Fest_2010.html

"Play with Death" review of Unit 30

While attending the Media Film Festival in Media, PA earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting the multi-talented Jeremiah Cress. Jeremiah not only makes awesomely gruesome horror movies, but he also runs a great movie review website called "Play with Death". I was lucky enough to have him want to review Unit 30. Click here to read Jeremiah's kind words :-)

Updates and pictures from The Indie Gathering Film Festival

I just got back from The Indie Gathering Film Festival last week and I had a blast! The festival takes place in Cleveland, OH over the weekend of Aug 6-8. I met so many great filmmakers, saw a lot of wonderful shorts and had an overall great time at the festival and all of the events they had planned. I really can't say enough good things about this festival or the people who run it,- the IG Family knows how to put on an event!

The screening of Unit 30 couldn't have gone better: we received lots of laughs throughout, had a large crowd and my Q&A lasted so long that I was asked to sit down so they could show the next short!

AWARDS!!!!! Did I get your attention? As most of you know, I attended the festival knowing that Unit 30 won the award of "Best Horror-Comedy for a short film", what I didn't know is that Unit 30 also won the award of "Best Overall short film"!!!!! I'm still in a state of shock :-) Below are some photos I took at the event:

Actor/Film maker Carlo Fiorletta, Film maker Mara Lesemann, and Film maker Steve Karageanes
One of the screening rooms before the festival started up
Me accepting the award for Best overall short film
Festival Director Ray Szuch and myself
The medal and plaque we won for "best horror-comedy for a short film" and the award we won for "best overall short film"

We were accepted to the GIAA Film Festival!

I am happy to announce that Unit 30 was accepted to the GIAA Film Festival! The fest takes place in the Manhattan/Greenwich Village area of New York, Oct. 1st-3rd. Unit 30 will screen Saturday night Oct. 2nd. We are thrilled to be a part of the festival, more info coming soon. In the meantime feel free to check out the Monkey site

Pictures from the Action On Film Festival

Unit 30 screened at AOF last week and we had an AMAZING time! We can not thank the AOF Team enough for putting on a great film festival and making the night so memorable. As soon as we arrived we were greeted with a poster for Unit 30 prominently displayed right by the red carpet! We took some pictures and than picked up our tickets and AOF Program, that's when we received our second surprise, -the poster for Unit 30 was on the cover of the program!!! Below are some pictures we took, again, we can not thank the AOF Team enough!

Screening time at Action on Film Festival

Update! Update! Update! So nice I said it twice!,- oh, wait.....

Here is the screening info for Unit 30 at AOF

Date: Wednesday July 28th at 6pm (Academy 3).

Ticket price: Tickets are $8 online or $10 at the door. They recommend buying tickets online because it's common for the movies to sell out. If you choose to order tickets online, you can pick them up at the theater before the screening. Click here to order your tickets online and follow the directions at the top of the page

Where: The screening will take place at the Regency Academy Theater located at 1003 E. Colorado Blvd in Pasadena.

Workin' in a coal mine

Goin' downtown! (what does that even mean?)

We have been busy creating and printing postcards for AOF and The Indie Gathering, here is a preview

Screening time for The Indie Gathering Film Festival

Unit 30 will screen at The Indie Gathering Film Festival, Saturday August 7th at 7:45pm. The festival takes place in Westlake Ohio. For more info, click here

the CSM Productions website is now live

The Monkey website is now live. Feel free to check it out, keep in mind it is a work in progress.

Unit 30 was accepted and won an award at the Indie Gathering!

I just found out that Unit 30 was accepted to The Indie Gathering AND that we won first place for horror comedy! Scroll down to "Film-Short" to see the win. The festival takes place in Ohio, August 6-8. I'm not sure when Unit 30 is screening yet, stay tuned for updates

Unit 30 was accepted to the Action on Film Festival (AOF)

I guess the title really says it all....AOF takes place in late July in Pasadena, California. They haven't announced the festival schedule yet, so I'm not sure when Unit 30 will screen. Check back soon for updates

We won an award!

Unit 30 won an award at The Accolade Competition! U30 was awarded the Award of Merit for a short film. I just received the letter in the mail today announcing the win, I will update the site as I get more info and The Accolade site is updated with the wins. You can see a picture of the award on the left

Review for Unit 30

Check out the awesome review Unit 30 received from Dystopia Magazine! You can read the full review HERE. Below are some highlights:

"The short 21 minute film was well worth seeing and had this horror fan giggling at the blend of tongue-in-cheek horror and playful music..."

"I have to say how much I enjoyed this fun little film. While watching, the viewer can see just how much these actors are enjoying themselves and it's contagious for the viewer. Ms. Hough did a nice job of directing this short-film and I was impressed by how much story-line and laughter she was able to pack into a mere 21 minutes; that cannot be an easy task! Original and refreshing, Unit 30 definitely has that be-careful-what-you-wish-for feeling at the end. A playful mystery with an ending that may have you considering buying instead of renting next time around... Look for Unit 30 at your local film festivals; it's definitely worth catching! Overall Rating: 4"

Media Film Fest update

Unit 30 screened at the Media Film Festival Friday Feb. 26th in the town of Media, PA. Unit 30 was the last film shown that night to an audience of 75+. It was a great crowd and we could not have asked for a better audience reaction. As soon as the film started we were getting laughs and as Unit 30 went on the laughter was so loud at times you could not hear the dialogue on screen! I was told by multiple people on the Media Fest board that Unit 30 was the film, out of both nights, that got the biggest audience response. You couldn't ask for anything better than that. Thank you again to everyone on the Media Committee that made the festival happen. Below are some photos I took that night.



Program for the festival
Description of Unit 30 in the program

Media Film Fest schedule

To find out more about the Media Film Fest, click here

Friday Night General Program - 7pm

(box office opens at 6pm)

• Bleeder
• Dan Zimmerman, Musician, Painter, Cosmic Patriot
• Birthday Girl
• Voice of the Desert: MERASI MURLI
• You: Keith’s Enigma
• When Beliefs Are Questioned
• My Dearest Love
• Mother’s Cave
• Unit 30

Friday Late Night Horror Fest
(begins approximately 1/2 hour after the main program)

• Foreclosed
• Night Terrors
• Masterpiece

Trailer for Media Fest

Unit 30 is featured at 1:09ish. Incidentally, another movie I directed called Night Terrors is featured at 1:14ish and a short film I acted in called Dead Creek is featured at 24 sec.

Unit 30 won an award

This award is big and beautiful! In fact it's so B-n-B it wouldn't fit in my scanner, so unfortunately you are not able to admire the walnut frame

Media Film Festival

Unit 30 is being screened on Friday February 26th at 7pm at the Media Film Festival

Unit 30 accepted to the Media Film Festival

I am proud to announce that Unit 30 was accepted to the Media Film Festival! The festival takes place February 26th-27th in Media, PA. Unit 30 is being screened on Friday February 26th during the 7pm block. More info to come soon!