What happened to...?

[Joseph Goodman]

[Lord Hastur]

[MouthForWar]

*Takes deep breath*

First off, I don't want any of this to sound like a personal attack on Franz. THe problem with this came from the two of us just NOT CLICKING very well in my opinion. We are from different planets and that's all there is to it. Some if this may seem like an attack, BUT that's only because I wanna tell the stone cold truth. I assure you that I don't have any hard feelings now, and I hope its the same for him... we're just different.

I basically quit the GZH crew out of frustration. In case anybody didn't know, I was the WebMaster and a production assistant for GZH for about a half a year. Franz has THE biggest ego of anybody I've EVER met. I've met plenty of film makers, musicians, actors, etc. and none of them have ever had an ego like this guy. I knew Franz had a big ego from day one. Just the way he talked about GZH was very condescending towards the genre in general. Hell, I remember one time I mentioned that the Millenium series left me cold and I didn't think Toho's last G movies were all too good and his response was "That's cuz they haven't had me do one for them"- with a straight face.

I got sick of the way he was jerking people around, both the fans and the crew. He would get other people to do everything, then he would just go back and do it himself. My good friend Bob Harrington composed a kick arse score for the movie and he ended up throwing it out for crappy U2 wannabe bands and lame pop and techno music. Jose wrote an awesome script and he went back and practically rewrote it word for word. I was at almost every shoot for the movie and before shooting he would tell the actors to go with their own flow and play off eachother, but almost EVERY take he'd yell "CUT" and tell them to PARROT THE LINES AS HE TELLS THEM TO HIM. That's NOT DIRECTING. He continually snubbed his nose at the whole Godzilla series, saying things like "there really haven't been any GOOD Godzilla movies, I just wanna show its unrealized potentional" while praising directors like Michael Bay and Joel Shumacher (his favorite Batman movie was Batman Forever and this caused many a debate, me being a die hard Batman comics fan)- Does that sound like a fan to you?. He would always talk about how they need to remake [insert movie here] because it needs to have "MODERN SPECIAL EFFECTS"- we were watching Carpenter's the Thing one night and he even mentioned that THAT could do with a remake!! This was all very frustrating to me because I come from an old school, indie kind of film background. I embrace things with low budgets and resources, but Franz is very much from the Michael Bay, MTV-style editing, CGI IS THE BEST THING EVER background, so our opinions clashed A LOT. But I never held this against him, even if I was frustrated with it all. I tried to show him TONS of great movies, like Taxi Driver and he just snubbed his nose at all of them. Every time I showed him a movie, he would just go "Huh... you know, I would have done (blank) if I made that movie, I think it would have been better that way"- WTF.

The thing that made me mad was that he thought GZH was going to be better than the real Toho produced films... he really thought his movie was gonna be the 2nd coming for Godzilla, and it was ridiculous. He even demanded that we stopped using the word "fan film" (!!)

The thing that got me was the way he NEVER did anything with this movie. It was always a new excuse NOT to work on it (broken hard drive, no money, blah blah blah). He was supposed to have the whole thing done for G-Fest last year, but instead he didn't even start shooting anything until like 2 months prior (after a good 2 years of hyping it up in G-Fan). Then he had to miss the first day of the Con because he was trying to edit this mess all together and we came out with just stupid talking footage and a short preview at the end... ok, whatever. The crowd seemed to be able to understand the time issues, and Franz PROMISED the fans to have it done by the end of the month... well, its almost another year gone and still there is N-O-T-H-I-N-G there. He's just lazy. He likes talking about making his movie but he doesn't like MAKING it. He spent most of his time playing X-Box and crashing sites like Toho Kingdom with the losers from Maser.City, all while bragging about his non-existent, never gonna be made movie. This is why me, Erichka and Bob Harrington have an inside joke- we call GZH GODZILLA: ZERO MOVIE instead.

G-Fest last year was a complete debacle for GZH. I've been going to the cons since I was 12, and even I'm almost ashamed to show my face this year. Since Franz missed the first day, he called me when I was in Chicago and asked me to wear the T-shirt and talk about GZH and get people involved. This is when he was still at home editing (he didn't know he wouldn't have a movie until THAT NIGHT, so I thought we were gonna have a complete film.) So I told god knows how many people (many of them children) and got them excited and told them we'd have the shirts for sale, and the movie was gonna knock em out, etc. Then the presentation came, and not only did we NOT have a movie, but the guy doing the audio/visual in the ballroom wouldn't turn off the lights or turn up the sound for us. So we had a CRAPPY looking movie, bad sound, and a picture so bad nobody could see it. Not to mention all we had to show was footage of people talking. But even then, the shirts sold out and people bought the word that the movie would be done at the end of August... then Franz said the end of September... then October... then he said it'd be done by Christmas... then he basically said "I'll finish it when I feel like it" and NOW, just earlier this week he posted a topic on his forum saying he just wanted to give up and he pretty much hates GZH... I could have told you that A YEAR AGO. At the end of last summer he called a for a dinner meeting with me and one of the actors and he basically told us that he was gonna make the first episode of GZH and then not do anything else, but he didn't want to let people know because it would kill his hype... so he was gonna lead everyone to believe the whole project was still going, even though he was gonna abandon it. At one point during the same conversation he told me the only reason he wanted to finish it anymore was to make the "Godzilla vs Kaiju Killer" guys look bad... ugh. Also, I feel terrible for the fans that bought the shirts. He charged $20 a shirt, even though they only cost him $5 each to make. $20 isn't a TERRIBLE price, but for how little they cost to make, he could have lowered it a bit. He said the profits would go towards the film, but instead they went towards his PSP that he bought on the way back from Chicago... and he never even plays the thing. I honestly couldn't stand the way he manipulated the fans and even the way he talked about the fans. It seemed like I was the only one that gave a damn about the fans in the first place.

But the straw that broke the camel's back was this. Me and my girlfriend Erichka (who was also the still photographer for GZH) were approached by Franz to do a short film. He came up with a pretty cool idea for a short horror film involving the Alien from the Ridley Scott movie. Our short was called Desolate 48. Since I was the horror/monster movie expert, he wanted me to direct and he wanted Erichka to try her hand at cinematography. He ASKED us to do this because he was interested in getting us to create something and he promised us creative control. Ok, great! I already had tons of ideas cooking in my head! I wanted it to be this very slow, dark, tension filled piece much like the original Alien or the original Halloween. A very slow stalker-ish movie. But every idea that me and Erichka shot at him he just said "Yeah, that's fine but I was thinking more like [insert stupid idea here]"- We still had to do everything HE wanted no matter how hard we tried to convince him otherwise. THere was supposed to be a scene with the lead character (played by him) walking through an empty city confused, and the Alien is slowly stalking him and blending in with backgrounds. I wanted to use a lot of far away shots, a lot of long shots and pan shots, with some weird Tobe Hooper-ish cut aways of creepy objects and he didn't want to do that. We are sitting at his place and he pops in Fight Club and goes to some chase scene with Ed Norton running from police and this scene is really fast and edited like a music video and he's like "THIS IS HOW I WANT IT"- Erichka says she's NEVER seen me ever look that angry in her life... and I've been with her for 3 years so we've had our fair share of fights and arguments. As someone who grew up worshiping guys like Carpenter and Cronenberg, I like REAL horror, not that MTV-quick cut nonsense... so obviously my ideas weren't gonna work because Franz didn't agree with them. I eventually just gave up and just went with it... there was no way I was gonna change this guy's mind. So all this time he says he has a script, right? He keeps asking us about shots and mood and stuff but me and Erichka don't know what to do because we haven't seen the script and he's like "YOU DONT NEED TO READ THE SCRIPT"- ok, that makes no sense, but whatever. So the first day of shooting comes, its midnight and we go to his office and he leaves us for over 3 HOURS. HE'S IN HIS OFFICE WITH BOB KEITH (GZH actor) WRITING THE SCRIPT RIGHT THERE!! So we fell asleep on the couch and somewhere around 3:00 AM, we go out in the freezing Michigan fall weather and once again, every idea me or Erichka throw is shot down and he's basically ghost directing the whole thing. For some reason we had to make this movie in 2 days... apparently it was "SUPER URGENT" that we got it done, but like GZH, DESOLATE STILL HASN"T BEEN FINISHED. Also, since he made us finish it in 48 hours, we couldn't do any cool puppet work... one of Erichka's friends who makes puppets and creatures offered to make us a chest burster FREE and Franz shot that down too because IT HAD TO BE DONE IN ONE WEEKEND. Its like this with EVERYTHING for Franz- it really is HIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY at ALL TIMES. Erichka even drew up some story boards, but Franz literally took a split second look at them and then discarded them. So we have a non-existent Godzilla movie, and the non existent Alien movie that he usurped from me.

After that, I hung out with him a couple times, but I was never able to enjoy myself. Eventually I just stopped calling him and we just kinda drifted apart. He would still call me all the time, and sometimes I'd answer and sometimes I wouldn't. And with me going back to school in the Winter, I didn't really have time for his nonsense anymore so I rarely got his calls, but even when he did call, I almost never called him back... I feel kinda bad about that, but I just had no desire to really talk to him about anything anymore.

But for some reason, out of nowhere he'll still post comments about me on the GZH forum (which I almost never frequent, and really don't even post on anymore). He made some sly remark about how I was stupid for thinking slow zombies are better than fast zombies (he LOVES his dumb fast zombies) or something... this came out of NOWHERE, and the post he made was even slightly racist (I'm half black in case nobody knew). Another poster, who I've only talked to a couple times on AIM made a long, ranting post about how he's given up on GZH and how Franz is an egomaniac, and he kinda defended me when I wasn't there, but Franz just erased his post (but ironically the post slagging me wasn't erased). Immediately after that, he makes a post about looking for a new webmaster, so I guess he fired me then (not that I really cared- there was nothing to update the site with and I never talked to him anymore anyway)

And that's my story. Even though Franz is banned from here, I'm sure someone will point him to this post somehow. So Franz, if you're reading this, I really don't hold any of this personal. We're just really different and I found that getting in the way of a lot of things and I hope to see you at G-Fest this year and catch up a bit.

I know I'm not painting a pretty picture here, and I may be a kind of bitter, but I'm really not trying to say Franz is a bad person or that I don't like him- Those would both be lies. He's a good guy at heart, even if he has a massive ego, and I DO like him and still consider him a friend, but for some reason it just feels odd being around him. Its alienating almost. Like I said, we just don't click well enough for me to still hang out with him all the time like we used to. Its weird that I met him and all that happened in only about one year.

And that's my story... or something.

[Lord Hastur]

Interesting.

And what can I say? I just had a feeling that what you wrote is how that whole GZH mess went/was/is going for real. Honestly, if their's nothing to show at this years G-fest he shouldn't be wasting people's precious convention time. I never talked to this Franz dude so I don't know how he is but if it's all like you say then sounds like someone I don't want to socialize with. ANOTHER TRUE STORY TOLD IN THE MYSTERIES OF GODZILLA FANDOM FORUM!!!

[MouthForWar]

Yessir. I guess there is "behind the scenes" BS that goes on, especially with these self important fandom "figure heads" like Franz and the "goon squad" that a lot of people don't hear. These people gotta realize that their sh*t DOES stink, just like the rest of the fans and they aren't the big shots they think they are. They aren't the celebrities that they have that twisted vision of them being. That's where the ugliness in fandom comes from. Fans thinking that just because they have a social click or a fan film or whatever or something that they are better than other fans... a fan is a fan and they gotta realize that they are the same as everyone else. Like I said, I've met celebrities less ego-drunk than some of these "fandom" figures.

And as far as I know, Franz still has time booked for a G-Fest presentation this year... Why? I have no idea.

[zekend01]

Crazy.

Must have felt good to get that all that mess of your chest, though. Sad how things dissolve into petty ego trips. It's hard to work on an "art" project with people... bands, film projects or otherwise. I remember the first G-Fan articles about GZH. Funny. They were written with such gusto and enthusiasm...

[MouthForWar]

[zekend01]

^^Then he'll be as obvious to everyone eventually. Talk is, as they say, cheap.

[briizilla]

[KaijuHQ]

[Robert Saint John]

[Legion]

[briizilla]

[MouthForWar]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Benjamin Haines]

[MouthForWar]

[Lord Hastur]

[kinggoji]

[KaijuHQ]

[armandv]

[Lord Hastur]

[armandv]

[Robert Saint John]

[Lord Hastur]