Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Lake County Film Fest Strikes Back

Proud to announce that The Mercury Men will be premiering at this year's Lake County Film Festival in Libertyville, IL. (And before you ask, no, the film isn't done, but I sent out a rough cut in time for the deadline. We are in the last few weeks of post though.) It will be screening both during the Shorts and Children's programs. Captain Blasto played there in 2006 and A Great Disturbance in 2007. Along with TMM, The Nintendo Office will be screening ahead of one of the features, Last Stop for Paul, which actually screened just after Captain Blasto at the 2006 Newport Beach Film Festival. (Last Stop is a pretty unique concept for a film and has picked up and INSANE amount of awards. You can check it out at: www.laststopforpaul.com). On top of all that, Captain Blasto will be screening again this year.

The Lake County Fest was easily one of the best experiences we had during our run with Blasto. Libertyville is very reminiscent of Munhall, the town in which Blasto was shot, so we really seemed to connect with audiences. And they had some great bars around town for after parties and such. Looking forward to another mid-west outing.

You can read more about the festival at: www.lakecountyfilmfest.com.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Movie Music

Here's a preview of music from the upcoming Mercury Men, along with a music track from the Assassin's Creed short. The "League" track, which is loosely aimed towards Holst's "The Planets," for obvious reasons, is a little slow and quiet to start, but it picks up. I really like the Arabian feel of the Assassin's track, which is thanks to some great loops I picked up at powerfx.com.

The League
featured in The Mercury Men

Assassin's Credits
featured in The Hidden Blade

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Kevin Dart

I love finding artists that create in a style that is similar to my own, but on a level I will NEVER reach. Kevin Dart is one of those artists. I was floored by print after print upon discovering his website. He's got a lot of great movie poster style illustrations. Got to figure out a way to get him to do a poster for one of my films.

Check out his stuff at www.kevindart.com

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Visual Effects

It's taken a while, but I have officially taken the step into the visual effects world. All of my previous stuff has included some mild and ridiculously easy effects, such as Colin jumping over the church balcony in Captain Blasto, the Assassin tossing the dagger into the Baron's back in The Hidden Blade, or even the various animated characters in The Nintendo Office and Luigi Story. But they should be labeled more as simple trickery than full blown visual effects.

The Mercury Men however has pulled me into Star Wars territory and I'm lovin' it. I've been hesitant to try anything because I was worried about the mind numbing slowness of the process along with the horribly long rendering times. But after composing my first couple shots I feel very comfortable with it. It is slow, but the reward is some hopefully impressive filmmaking.

Can't wait for everyone to see the Invaders exploding, sparks flying, ray gun blasts, and more. While I don't have anything to show on this specific post, it will be coming soon. Post-production is moving incredibly quickly now a days and I suspect we'll be seeing a finished film within the next few weeks.