The Mercury Men Screenings

Some great news came in recently for The Mercury Men, a short film we produced as a concept for our upcoming web series.

The Mercury Men will be screening at the San Diego Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival on July 27th. (2:05 PM, Room 26AB) The film was selected by Tom DeSanto (producer of X-Men and Transformers) and Borys Kit (senior film writer at The Hollywood Reporter). The Comic-Con film festival can be found at http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_iff.shtml

TMM will also be screening at the Action On Film International Film Festival on July 30th at the Laemelle Theater in Pasadena, CA. On top of that, TMM was nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Sci-Fi Film, and Best Short Film! The AOF Film Festival can be found at http://www.aoffest.com

If you happen to be attending Comic-Con or live in the San Diego or Pasadena area, I encourage you to come check out the screening and introduce yourself.

Writing

Been writing all this week which means there's dozens of index cards lining our apartment floor. It's basically like a giant puzzle. So far the story has a REALLY strong first act, a pretty solid third act, and lots of great ideas in the second act that don't quite connect to one another just yet. I have to play around with the placement of current ideas, constantly contribute new ideas, and toss out ideas that no matter how much I may like them, just don't seem to be working.

Mercury Men is a tricky story to tell only because I know beforehand the production will have limited resources. It'd be easy to write, "the Employee dives through the sparkling window, catching the leg of the hovering helicopter moments before plunging to the street below," but making a scene like that happen is impossible. Therefore I have to force myself to come up with creative action sequences based in an office environment. No, our lowly office employee can't hang from the bottom of a helicopter, but what if he was attacked inside a small elevator without a weapon or an escape? That can be just as intense.

I also have to keep telling myself to keep the story incredibly simple. I decided to pursue this film strictly because it can be made cheap and quickly. I don't want it to get bogged down with a complicated story. Mercury Men is more of a fable or fairy tale. A simple story of a man who needed the very moon to come crashing down before he'd change his life.

The Day to Day

Figure I ought to take a break from writing about my thoughts on geeky movies and talk a little business here. The number one question I get asked lately is, "What are you working on now?" Well here's the skinny.

The Mercury Men feature adaptation. I began converting the Mercury Men short into a feature length project which takes a bit deeper into the Employee's life and the world of "The League." Think Die Hard meets Flash Gordon. It's a simple and fun film that can be shot in two weeks with a minimal budget. Planning on filming this before the end of the year.

For those of you who have yet to see the Mercury Men short, send me an e-mail at chris@captainblasto.com and I'll send ya a link.

Production Company. A few months ago I finally formed a production company, Mercury Men Pictures, to finance/produce small budget shorts, features, and web content. It's over at http://mercurymenpictures.com. The company is developing the Mercury Men feature and an untitled short project. It's long overdue, but anyone that knows me knows I'm not Mr. Businessman so I've been dragging my feet.

Captain Blasto project. I hate to be mysterious, but unfortunately I can't go into details on this just yet. I'll break word on here very soon. What I can say is Blasto will be coming in a new format and I'm pretty excited to see how it pans out.

Black and White

I'm currently in "black and white phase." It seems that everything I'm writing, filming, and even thinking up recently is in black and white, as evidenced by The Mercury Men. Over the past year, as I discuss the two features I've been developing with various people there is always great concern over them being in black and white. I have to confess I've never quite understood the prejudice towards it. People say "it looks old." What's wrong with something that looks old? And I'd say classic before I said old. Others say "it's really bland, boring." To that I say you're bonkers. Tell me the inserted shots from The Third Man and Sin City look bland or boring. Can you imagine Sin City in color?

Orson Welles called black and white "an actor's best friend," because it focused the audiences attention on the actor rather than the sets, the costumes, etc. Not only do I agree, but I'd take it one step further and say it's a director's best friend as well. Black and white illuminates the framing and composition. Since the brain doesn't have to take in and process colors it focuses elsewhere and it just so happens to land on the most important parts.

I found this clip on YouTube today of Frank Darabont discussing how he had wanted to release his latest film The Mist in black and white. He claims the studios wouldn't even entertain the idea. I realize nobody could say how audiences would have reacted had the film been released in black and white but I know one thing for sure: they would have noticed it. When the trailers for The Mist hit screens it looked just like every other horror movie. Had it been black and white audiences would have at least paid a bit more attention for the simple reason that it looked different. Moriarty over at Aint It Cool News claims that had the film been in black and white it would have made his top ten films of the year, rather than lying around somewhere in the top 50. If only the studios would have been a bit more brave.

Mercury Men DVD Artwork

Here's a look at the design for The Mercury Men DVD screeners. Notice it's not too far off from the concept art made a while back.

New Design
Concept Artwork

Misc.

Thought I'd post some random film related stuff since the past few posts have mostly been Japanese related in some manner.

I just found out that Captain Blasto was the Jury Prize selection for Best Feature Film at GenCon 2007 Film Festival. That's right...2007. August 2007 to be precise. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and I was never notified that it had won. I was not even aware that it had been accepted or was screening at all actually. I just happened to spot it while randomly checking a few sites yesterday. Regardless, it's an honor, and obviously everyone is thrilled. Throw another set of them palm branches up!

I'm heading to LA this Monday for meetings, meetings, and more meetings. I'm armed with two dozen copies of The Mercury Men and about as many of Captain Blasto. The Blasto DVD packaging was redesigned recently. The first packaging design seemed to confuse people into thinking the movie was animated. I've been swapping around the photos into different panels, so this image isn't final, but you get the idea.

Two DVD's which should be at the top of your list to watch. In the Shadow of the Moon, documenting NASA's Apollo program and the first moon landing, and King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, about a science teachers run for the Donkey Kong world record. Both are remarkable in their own ways. Shadow of the Moon features some of the most stunning archive photography I've ever seen. Kong features a great stuggle against some of the pettiest enemies film has ever offered.

Wrapping Up

Now that I've had a week or so of screenings and feedback, I'm in the final week of post-production on The Mercury Men. Along with some mild editing and contrast changes, I've been cleaning up a lot of the effects. The most drastic of these changes, as seen below, is the Invader lightning.I originally created the Invader's attack as a single simple bolt, but after a couple repeat viewings it just didn't really sell it for me. It just wasn't intimidating enough. The updated version features a more realistic bolt, which acts much closer to actual lightning. The final cut of the film will be completed within 2-3 days.

The Mercury Men Logo

Here's a gander at The Mercury Men logo. As you can see, very classic sci-fi B-movie.

The film for the most part is completed. I'm going to screen it a few times this month to see if there's any changes to make. Unfortunately I cannot post the video online, as much as I would love to. Film festivals aren't too keen on screening films that people can see online for free.

For those of you in Pittsburgh, I've got the film on DVD and iPod and will gladly show it to ya if asked. Perhaps I can do something for the consistent readers and post a link for only a few hours on a pre-determined date.

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.

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

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.

Mercury Men Stills Pt. 2

And your first look at one of the Mercury Men themselves...

Mercury Men Stills

Here's a few stills from the upcoming short:

The film should be completed by the end of the month. The effects and contrast correction are coming along very nicely, but take a VERY LONG time, especially when you're not working on a very fast computer. After another wave of corrupted projects and random crashes, I vow that if it's within my power I will never edit another film on a PC again.

I'll have more stills (and possibly some rough footage) soon.

Shots from the Mercury Shoot

Here's some behind-the-scenes shots taken by Kati, Lindsey, and Evan during yesterdays FIFTEEN HOUR shoot. (No, that's not a typo. Fifteen hours.) If you've seen Captain Blasto, you notice some pretty big similarity in Mark Tierno's character.

League Concept Art

Here's another shot of concept art for the upcoming short:
This is a member of the league, responsible for protecting "the battery," which you'll see in later posts.

Invader Concept Art

Here's another piece of rough concept art I did for the upcoming short depicting "the invaders."

The Mercury Men

Got another short film I'm lining up and thought y'all might enjoy a peek at some concept art I did for it.On a side note, Google Analytics tells me there's a couple hundred of you reading this each week, from varying countries. That's pretty freakin' crazy. I honestly thought I was just writing for the heck of it. Now that gives me some incentive to write a bit more often. And now that you've all been outed by the good folks at Google, you don't need to continue to lurk in the shadows. You can actually comment on stuff.