HALO-8 Entertainment is an independent film company specializing in genre cinema, documentaries, midnight movies, music-driven lifestyle videos, and animation.Thill, Scott. "Post-Apocalyptic Comic Godkiller Emerges as 'Illustrated Film'". Wired. October 6, 2009.Moore, Debi. "Halo-8 Launches H8LA Apparel Line". Dread Central. November 23, 2009. Its most popular releases include the films Pop Skull and Threat, the animated series Godkiller and Xombie, the fitness yoga franchise, Fitness For Indie Rockers, and the documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, Your Mommy Kills Animals, N.Y.H.C., and Ctrl+Alt+Compete.Goldstein, Gregg. "Halo-8 Letting Animals Out Of Their Cages" The Hollywood Reporter. July 13, 2007.Simon, Leslie & Tim Kanan. "Yoga For Indie Rockers " Alternative Press #228. July, 2007.Hays, Matthew. "Dealmakers scouting Fantasia " Playback Magazine. July 11, 2007.Martin, Peter. "'Your Mommy Kills Animals DVD' Pulled by Amazon" Cinematical. November 14, 2007.MSNBC Marketwire. "'Your Mommy Kills Animal' DVD Hits Shelves Today... Maybe? " MSNBC. November 13, 2007.Mr. Disgusting. "Halo-8 Acquires 'Pop Skull' for Theatrical/DVD Release" Bloody Disgusting. March 23, 2009.News. "Halo-8 gets Pop Skull" The Hollywood Reporter. March 23, 2009.Dominie. "Halo-8 Acquires Award-Winning Psychological Horror " Famous Monsters. March 24, 2009.Miranda. "Halo-8 Releases Pop Skull on DVD July 28th! " Film Fanaddict. March 24, 2009.Wray, James. "Halo-8 grabs US rights to 'Pop Skull' " Monsters & Critics. March 24, 2009.Rotten, Ryan. "Halo-8 Pops Some Skull Shock Till You Drop. March 25, 2009.Thill, Scott. "Sneak Peek at Ctrl+Alt+Compete, New Doc That Dives Into Startup Culture" Wired (January 11, 2012).
Formed in 2005 by Matt Pizzolo and the producer Brian Giberson as a film production studio, the company has grown to include a comic book/graphic novel publishing division and two DVD Premiere shingles. HALO-8 also has a fashion division, H8LA. HALO-8's film catalog is split between in-house productions and third-party acquisitions.
HALO-8 gained popularity by producing controversial films such as the animal-rights documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals. The film drew the attention of the Center for Consumer Freedom, who waged a legal campaign to block its release. HALO-8 has developed tech-driven production and distribution strategies such as designing the "illustrated film" format, a cinematic style of limited animation that merges sequential art with 3D CGI, motion graphics, and voice performances in the style of a radio play. HALO-8 has also developed the non-linear film format "Ether Films" which adds hypertext and multi-platform transmedia functionality to film.Spielvogel, Cindy. "Godkiller Varies Marketing Push". Video Business Magazine. October 12, 2009.Moore, Debi. "Godkiller DVD will include Prequel Audiobooks". Dread Central. August 27, 2009.Martin, Peter. "'Your Mommy Kills Animals' DVD Pulled by Amazon". Cinematical. November 14, 2007.Yahoo! News. "'Your Mommy Kills Animals' DVD Hits Shelves Today... Maybe". Yahoo Finance. November 13, 2007.Martin, Peter. "Indie Online: Netflix, Televandalism and Jaman". Cinematical. May 21, 2008.Rosenthal, Phil. "Halo-8 Launches Digital Movie Portal 'TELEVANDALISM.com' with Controversial Flagship ". Elites TV. May 21, 2008.
Imprints and Partnerships
Halo-8 comics In June 2008, HALO-8 debuted a new comic book publishing arm at Wizard World Chicago with Godkiller (written by Matt Pizzolo, illustrated by Anna Muckcracker).Goldstein, Gregg. "Halo-8 infected with 'Pink Eye'". The Hollywood Reporter. June 25, 2008.
The following February at Wondercon, Halo-8 unveiled its "illustrated film" format that fuses comic books with cinema and explained Godkiller would be released simultaneously as a print comic book and as episodic illustrated films on shortform DVDs.
In April 2010 at C2E2 in Chicago, Halo-8 premiered the collected Godkiller illustrated film and announced several new comic book series: The Long Knives (a giallo-style revenge adventure written by Pizzolo, illustrated by newcomer Ana Ludeshka), Loaded Bible 2 (continuing the acclaimed Jesus vs vampires series by Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash)), Medusa: Year One (a re-invention of the mythic character as a misunderstood heroine), Godkiller 2 (reuniting Pizzolo and Muckcracker), and Black Sky (a Band of Brothers vs Cthulhu series by Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night)).
First annual Halloween multi-filmmaker showcase DVD In October 2008, HALO-8 debuted a unique, multi-filmmaker showcase project called Slumber Party Slaughterhouse: The Game, a horror DVD game where each death scene is directed by a different HALO-8 filmmaker and stars actors and actresses from various HALO-8 films. Participating filmmakers included Matt Pizzolo, Doug Sakmann, Joanna Angel, Ramzi Abed, and Kurly Tlapoyawa. Participating actors and actresses included Tiffany Shepis, Masuimi Max, Joanna Angel, Melissa Bacelar, and Katie Nisa. The project premiered at the Halo-8: Films That Kill Halloween festival in Hollywood, where live hosts Joanna Angel, Matt Pizzolo, and Daisy Sparks MC'd the event that mixed pub-trivia style gaming with Rocky Horror-style audience participation.Mr. Disgusting. "SDCC '08: Halo-8 Entertainment's Comic-Con Happenings" Bloody-Disgusting. July 23, 2008.Graser, Marc. "Comic Con Sees Super Efforts in PR" Variety. July 25, 2008.Mr. Disgusting. "Slumber Party Slaughterhouse Contest" Bloody Disgusting. September 23, 2008.First Look. "First Look: Slumber Party Slaughterhouse " Femme Fatales Magazine. September 2008.HR News. "Happy Halo-Ween" Hollywood Reporter. September 30, 2008.Moore, Debi. "8 Films To Kill For: Halo-ween Fest Details" Dread Central. October 2, 2008.Moore, Debi. "New name For Halo-8 Film Fest" Dread Central. November 7, 2008.Laurie, Wes. "Halo-8 Films That Kill Schedule " Terror Tube. November 15, 2008.Loh, Stephen. "Films That Kill Fest " LA.com. November 24, 2008.
Partnership with Epic Level Entertainment for Xombie In November 2008, HALO-8 announced the acquisition of the Xombie web-series produced by James Farr and Epic Level Entertainment's Cindi Rice and John Frank Rosenblum. The March 31, 2009 release date of the Xombie: Dead on Arrival collected series DVD marked HALO-8's entry into distribution of animated films, which was followed by anime-style adaptations of the comic book series currently published under HALO-8's publishing arm.ICv2 News. "'Xombie' To Get DVD Release". ICv2. November 13, 2008.
Illustrated films Pizzolo and Giberson began developing what they termed "illustrated films" in late 2007, citing influences Liquid Television, the MTV cartoon adaptation of The Maxx, the Berserk anime series, Chris Marker's La jetée, the motion comic Broken Saints, and the experimental cinema of Ralph Bakshi. Since Pizzolo started out as a playwright, he was interested in using voice performances to drive the pace and action, while composing the visuals from sequential art illustrations in an experimental cinema style utilizing only subtle pans and zooms. Giberson, an Emmy-winning TV producer, pushed Pizzolo to integrate more elaborate animation. The two developed a style that mixed simple limited-animation puppetry with moments of fully animated 3D-CGI. Pizzolo (a longtime comic book fan who previously worked at St. Mark's Comix and Village Comics in NY) decided the sequential art should be composed as a comic book because it was the ideal workflow for creating sequential art. Pizzolo has made clear that this was all theoretical and they might never have executed on the illustrated film style if he had not discovered Anna Muckcracker and recruited her to illustrate the first project, Godkiller.Anders, Jason. "The Making of Godkiller". Fulle Circle Magazine. November 24, 2009.
Pizzolo told Horror News:Horror, Joy. "Interview: Matt Pizzolo". Horror News. October 2009.
There are lots of reasons [Godkiller was made as an illustrated film], but I think the most important one was really being inspired by Anna Muckcracker's gorgeous artwork. Brian Giberson (my partner at Halo-8) and I had been experimenting with the illustrated film format for a while, but we might still have gone with traditional animation for Godkiller since it's really risky to experiment with a crazy story and a new filmmaking format at the same time. But once I saw Anna's art, I knew that no traditional form of animation could do justice to the grimy, textured, surreal aesthetic she created. It was really an artistic choice, because from a business point of view it's just so risky.
Pizzolo has also clarified that the term "illustrated film" was not intended to be a snipe at motion comics, saying he was aware of Broken Saints and has always cited it as an influence but feels motion comics are only one element of the evolving illustrated film style, which is intended to be a constantly evolving multimedia format whose elements are determined by the story rather than the workflow.. He even told Bloody Disgusting that upcoming ill-films may incorporate heavily textured live action and be composed for 3D viewing. Pizzolo also says he is a fan of the Watchmen Motion Comic, but that it hadn't been released yet when he, Giberson, and Muckcracker were producing Godkiller. Pizzolo points out that the contemporary motion comics wave is largely influenced by the Watchmen Motion Comic, so motion comics and illustrated films developed simultaneously but separately from one another. He told Bloody Disgusting, "Godkiller was just a slower production than Watchmen because we had to create 200 pages of art and story from the ground up first, rather than starting with one of the greatest comic books ever made as source material. Plus, we had a dozen voice performers instead of just one."THEoDEAD. "MAY SPOTLIGHT: Halo-8 PLUS An Interview With Founder Matt Pizzolo! ". Bloody Disgusting. May 4, 2010.
Wired asked Pizzolo to explain the differences between motion comics and illustrated films:
In illustrated films, we drive the pace of the storytelling with the dramatic voice performances and the sound design, so that allows us to showcase the illustrations in a way where you can really take a moment to absorb the art in the same way you can when reading a comic book ... Motion comics are closer to a form of limited animation that uses comics as source material. Illustrated films are closer to the experimental cinema of Ralph Bakshi's work, Chris Marker's La jetée or animation like Liquid Television.
Pizzolo, Giberson and actresses Danielle Harris and Tiffany Shepis presented two exclusive preview clips of the Godkiller illustrated film at Fangorias Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles on April 18, 2009.Gingold, Michael. "HALLOWEEN star and more join GODKILLER". Fangoria. March 26, 2009.Moore, Debi. "Triple Threat: Danielle Harris, Katie Nisa, and Nicki Clyne in Godkiller". Dread Central. March 26, 2009.Walkuski, Eric. "3 Join Godkiller ". Arrow In The Head. March 26, 2009.Morris, Clint. "Galactica's Cally in Comic Book Movie ". Moviehole. March 26, 2009.News Staff. "HALLOWEEN star and more join GODKILLER". Fear Asylum. March 26, 2009.Meh. "Danielle Harris joins Godkiller ". Horror-Movies.ca. March 26, 2009.Mr. Disgusting. "Genre Vets Loads Up 'Godkiller' Cast". Bloody Disgusting. March 26, 2009.News Staff. "Halloween's Danielle Harris, Battlestar Galactica's Nicki Clyne, Threat's Katie Nisa Join GODKILLER! ". Icons of Fright. March 26, 2009.Beiramar, Emmanuel. "Du beau monde pour Godkiller ". Fantasy.fr. March 26, 2009.Timpone, Tony. "IT'S ALIVE! First look at LA Fango con schedule". Fangoria. April 14, 2009.Moore, Debi. "LA Weekend of Horrors: Choice Cuts ". Dread Central. April 15, 2009.