Martin @ Exit 272 profile picture

Martin @ Exit 272

Whatever it takes, get it on film.

About Me


Hello there, boys and girls. Welcome to the self-indulgent MySpace page of Martin Wagner , Austinite and filmmaker. Exit 272 is the name of my production shingle, named after a highway exit on I-10 in West Texas, about which I have somewhat peculiar but fond memories.
I'm currently in pre-production on a feature documentary, Bloody Work , about the infamous yet curiously forgotten 1885 Servant Girl Annihilator serial murders. (Jack the Ripper happened three years later, which may be why.) As things progress I intend to use this MySpace page to generate awareness of the work, and hopefully network with other talented filmmakers.
Beginning now: a complete series of transcripts from the Austin Daily Statesman from 1885, chronicling the murders and the city's reaction to them. It ought to keep you busy while production on the actual movie continues, with interviews due to be shot after the first of the year, and an offical website and teaser trailer around the same time. Check the blog above for the articles, beginning with that fateful New Year's Day, 1885, when everything changed in Austin....
Update: After over a year of research and prep, shooting began on Bloody Work on April 22, 2007.

My Interests


You Are Very Skeptical
Your personal motto is: "Prove it."
While some ideas, like life after death, may seem nice...
You aren't going to believe them simply because it feels good.
You let science and facts be your guide... Even if it means you don't share the beliefs of those around you. How Skeptical Are You? Reading; writing; art; films (both watching and making); my dogs; video games (though I'm hardly hardcore); science; atheist/rationalist/humanist activism; sleeping late whenever I can get away with it.

The following dogs rock more than any dogs ever.


I'd like to meet:

Cool as hell people in film, in Texas and elsewhere. Ahoy, indie filmmakers: I draw storyboards.
If you're looking for a storyboard artist, or conceptual artist to do illustrations for your investment package, I bring ten years' experience as a comics professional to my storyboarding work. Check my pics for some recent samples. Then e-mail me for terms and such. Please, serious inquiries only. Attn: commenters with images. Keep them to 450 pixels wide maximum or I will deny them.

Music:


54 Seconds
And Also the Trees
Attrition
Azam Ali
Bill Nelson
The Church
Cocteau Twins
David Bowie
David Sylvian/Nine Horses
Dead Can Dance
The Flower Kings
Gary Numan
Genesis
John Coltrane
King Crimson
McCoy Tyner
Miles Davis
Peter Gabriel
Pink Floyd
Porcupine Tree
Qntal
Robert Rich
Spock's Beard
Steve Roach
Steve Tibbetts
Vas
XTC
Yes
and there are about 150 other artists on my iPod I'm not thinking of right now.

Movies:

Best fucking movie in the universe!

2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
Akira
Alien
Aliens
The Andromeda Strain
Battle Royale
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Black Narcissus
Blade Runner
Brazil
A Bridge Too Far
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Cowboy Bebop
Dawn of the Dead (Romero original)
Dead Ringers
Double Suicide
Dracula a.k.a. Horror of Dracula (Hammer classic version with Cushing and Lee)
Dr. No
The Empire Strikes Back (1980 version)
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
From Russia with Love
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Great Escape
Halloween
Hard-Boiled
The Haunting (1960 version)
Heavenly Creatures
The Hidden Fortress
Ichi the Killer
Ikiru
Ju-on
Kagemusha
Kairo
The Killer
Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut)
King Kong (both 1933 and Peter Jackson versions)
Kwaidan
Last Year at Marienbad
Lawrence of Arabia
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Maltese Falcon
Mon Oncle
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life of Brian
My Neighbor Totoro
Nausicaa of the Valley of Winds
Night of the Living Dead (Romero original)
North by Northwest
Notorious
Passage to Marseille
Planet of the Apes (original version)
Playtime
Princess Mononoke
Project A
Project A Part II
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Quatermass and the Pit
Ran
Rashomon
Rebecca
The Red Shoes
Reservoir Dogs
Rififi
Seven Samurai
Snatch
Sonatine
Spirited Away
Star Wars (1977 version)
Suspicion
The Thing (both Howard Hawks and John Carpenter versions)
Throne of Blood
The Trial (Orson Welles version)
Vertigo
Videodrome
Where Eagles Dare
The Yakuza Papers Saga: Battles Without Honor and Humanity
Yojimbo
I'm sure I will think of more....

Television:


Not a big TV watcher...but I have liked...
Mystery Science Theater 3000, The X-Files (mostly the first four seasons), Millennium (first two seasons), HBO's Rome and Deadwood, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Young Ones, Black Adder, The Prisoner, Danger Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons, South Park, Invader Zim.

Books:

Too many to list. For starters:
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkien
• A Song of Ice and Fire saga by George R. R. Martin
• The Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson
• The God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker and The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
• The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford
• The Great Mortality by John Kelly
• His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
• Pretty much anything by the late, great David Gemmell — but the Troy trilogy rules
• The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
• Yes, I have a big jones for Terry Pratchett's Discworld
• The historical true crime sagas of Harold Schechter

Heroes:

Orson Welles (the system was always against him, yet he fought on), Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Robert G. Ingersoll, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Charles Darwin, James Randi , Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins , Madelyn O'Hair (a real bitch, but someone who bravely stood up to the forces of politicized religion).

My Blog

First day of shooting!

On a drizzly Sunday, April 22, Bloody Work had its first official day of shooting in downtown Austin, in a parking lot at the corner of 3rd and Brazos. Not exactly the most glamorous location, but in ...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:09:00 PST

Interview update

Had a most illuminating first meeting with one of my proposed interviewees, Jeanine Plummer, who conducts the Servant Girl Annihilator tour here in Austin, walking through the murder sites. Jeanine an...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:54:00 PST

More newspaper articles: January 1885 - the mystery deepens

Remember, those of you who want to follow the course of Austin's year of terror, 1885, subscribe to my blog now so you don't miss a single newspaper article, as we follow the Bloody Work of the Servan...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:32:00 PST

Newspaper report - 1/3/1885

AUSTIN DAILY STATESMAN, January 3, 1885-------NOTHING NEW.----------The Mysterious Murder Case - The Coroner's Jury Still in Session.The jury of inquest investigating the recent killing of the colored...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:26:00 PST

Second news article with my commentary: 1/2/1885

AUSTIN DAILY STATESMAN, January 2, 1885STILL A MYSTERY.---------------No New Developments in the Pecan Street Horror - A Possible Clue.In the account given in yesterday's STATESMAN of the late killing...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:45:00 PST

BLOODY WORK: The first newspaper report - 1/1/1885

The following begins a series of transcripts of the newspaper reports in the Austin Daily Statesman concerning what would become known as the Servant Girl Annihilator murders. Spelling and punctuation...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 04:18:00 PST

BW Update: 11/14/06

Since some of you have asked, here's where things stand. I've finished much of the preliminary research (though there's ALWAYS more to do), and am preparing to shoot the teaser trailer. As a number of...
Posted by Martin @ Exit 272 on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:59:00 PST