Review: Speed Racer

I haven't kept my reservations and apprehensions towards the Speed Racer movie secret. Just a few posts ago I wrote that it looked a little too "Spy Kids" for me. Saw the movie on an opening day matinée and I have to admit, it's fantastic! Much better than Iron Man, which is the buzz movie at the moment. It was so good I had to see it again the very next day, and I'm sure they'll be at least another viewing before this ducks out of theaters. Very few films have surprised me like that.

I often complain about filmmakers taking cartoons/comics and changing them to the point where it doesn't resemble the original cartoon in any way shape or form (Transformers or the upcoming G.I. Joe for example.) This film is literally a translation of the cartoon to the screen, down to the tiniest detail. It's not the cartoon adapted into a real world. It's an original universe with races that seem born out of Mario Kart rather than Nascar.

The producers have been marketing this film completely wrong. They continuously show all these candy coated trailers of cars flying around, and while those scenes are INFINITELY better on screen (and in context) than they appear in the trailers, there's a lot more to this movie then CGI cars. I was shocked by the strong theme of family throughout this film, especially scenes between Speed, Rex, and their father Pops.

I have to warn you though, while this movie gets my highest recommendation (something I don't do too often on here) I don't think everyone will like this movie. But there's an easy test. The first 7 minutes of the film is online (embedded below.) These opening scenes capture the film perfectly. If you like what you see, you'll love the film.
Click here to watch.

UPDATE: I've been getting lots of e-mails asking, "Are you seriously recommending this movie?" The short answer: absolutely. The long answer: while this movie does have it's problems (especially a rather slow second act), the first act, the third act, and lots of great scenes peppered throughout the second act overcome all it's faults.

Captain Blasto: The Series

Finally able to post the news.

Early this summer you'll be seeing Blasto in a new form, a web series. We've cut the film down into 5-8 minute episodes which will be released online each week for absolutely free through both the main site and iTunes. We've also taken the time to do some color correction, so Blasto will look better than it ever has. (Or maybe we'll go the George Lucas route and throw a bunch of CGI creatures singing into the Lock and Key Heist.) On top of that we're trying to offer some new content for long time Blasto fans in the form of previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage.

Why are we doing it? Simple really. We'd like it to be seen by as many people as possible.

I'll keep ya posted with details in the very near future. If you haven't picked up a DVD yet, the original cut will remain on sale through the main site until the series premiere in June. All future DVD sales will be of the new, shorter cut, with older footage as a deleted scenes special feature. Supplies of the original cut are incredibly limited (50 or so left) so if you'd like to own a copy, I suggest ordering soon.

Never Again

This morning I got up early to get alot of work done on a current project. After 6.5 hours of work, without a single break, my computer froze for the fifteenth time. The project file became corrupted and everything I had done was lost.

I will NEVER do another film project on a Windows computer again. Never.

My apologies to the basket of blankets in the corner of our bedroom which suffered the wrath of Microsoft's incompetence.

"On the other hand..."

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.

Lucas and Spielberg Interview

Okay I lied. One more bit of geeky news.

Caught this interview in Entertainment Weekly and the opening question sets things off wonderfully. I can't imagine an answer to a question capturing George Lucas any better.

EW: So why resurrect Indy after all these years?

GEORGE LUCAS: We're doing it to have fun. We're not doing it to say, Oh, we're gonna get an Academy Award, everybody's gonna love us.... We don't need the money. We're only going to get aggravation. The fans think it's gonna be the Second Coming. And it's not the Second Coming. They've already written the story [in their heads], and lemme tell ya, it's not that story. So they're going to be very disappointed. I went through this with Phantom Menace. Believe me, I've been there, I've done it, I know exactly the way they react. And they're very vocal about these things. We're not gonna have adoring fans sending us e-mails saying how much they loved the movie. We're gonna have a bunch of angry people saying, ''You're a bunch of a--holes, you should never have done this. You've ruined my life forever. I loved Indiana Jones so much and now it's ruined.'' And all that kind of stuff.

STEVEN SPIELBERG: Uh, he needs to speak for himself here. [Laughter all around] You need to put in parentheses ''George Lucas is totally speaking for himself.'' And I absolve myself of any connection with that last statement about fans not liking it.

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.

Speed Racer

I am a big fan of the 60's Speed Racer cartoon. It used to play back-to-back with Johnny Quest (another CP favorite) when I was kid. While the show was cheaply made by constantly reusing shots and backgrounds in a different order, it had a good concept, unique style, and a fantastic show intro and theme song. I loved that each race took place in some perilous location like the inside of a volcano. On top of that, Speed was just in it to win, while EVERY OTHER racer was there to kill him. No wonder his car needed giant hidden buzz saws. Just look at that terrified expression on his face. I'd look like that while driving too, only without the scarf.

Since the cartoon holds a special place in my DVD collection, I'm a little apprehensive about the upcoming Speed Racer movie, which I'm sure you don't find too shocking. First what I like:

Michael Giacchino's soundtrack. He's the composer responsible for the Incredibles (one of the best soundtracks in the last 10 years). I got to sample some of his score today and it's FANTASTIC. To hear the theme music with a full roaring orchestra is already worth the ticket price.

The car. No doubt about it, that's the Mach 5. Forget Knight Rider, Connery's Aston Martin, or the Batmobile, the Mach 5 is the only car I'd ever plunk down millions for.

John Goodman as Pops Racer. Not only does he look spot on, but Goodman will always hold a special place in my heart after that episode of Roseanne where he throws everything out of the house.

And now the bad. While I love the fact they're going "cartooney" with the look of the film, it just all looks a little too Spy Kids for me. Each frame of this movie is so "busy" it's just a hair away from being a Magic Eye picture. As opposed to cramming the screen with as many CG elements as possible I'd think a simpler, colorful, 60's cartoon look would fit the film. The entire cartoon was about simplicity. They couldn't afford to load up the screen with tons of elements they didn't have the time or manpower to animate.

All that being said I'll reserve judgment until I've actually seen the film. And I am pulling for it. I really want it to be fun. In the meantime, there's always this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScF_ZGdg6ik

Henry Jones Jr.

Dr. Jones on the Big Screen
I saw the trailer to the new Indiana Jones film on the big screen for the first time last week. While watching it I had a sad realization. I have never seen an Indiana Jones film in a theater. I was alive for all three films, but for some reason or another my grandfather or mother never took me to see them. I absolutely loved the films as a kid, but that came by television as the movie of the week. (I clearly remember struggling to watch the dinner scene in Temple of Doom which is terrifying to a 7 year old.) The only times I've ever seen Indy on the big screen was the Last Crusade trailer back in early '89 and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls last week.

While that is a sad confession to make, it also brought to light something very exciting. On May 22nd, like many children born post-1989, I will get to see an Indiana Jones film in theaters for the very first time.

"When I'm hanging from the back of a truck I like to eat..."
This morning I discovered that my box of Cocoa Krispies were covered with images of a fedora clad Harrison Ford swinging the whip. Inside was a spoon that looks like a temple column complete with snakes, vines, and cracked stone skulls. Isn't it fantastic that rather than talking trucks, teenage wizards, or CGI animals we get new Harrison Ford merchandise for a while? It's good to have him back.

Short Round
My 7 year old brother Peter got an Indiana Jones Lego set for Christmas which has sparked a new interest in the old grave robber. It follows Indy through the temple in the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark and includes every single booby trap from the film. (It even comes with the bi-plane complete with Jock the pilot and his pet snake Reggie, which sounds perverted when typed out like that.) In preparation for the new film we watched the three originals this past weekend. It was fantastic to see him experience them for the first time. He would hide his face as the Ark melted the Nazi faces. He couldn't wait to see the chilled monkey brains. And the questions he would ask were fantastic. "Why are the bad guys trying to get Jesus' cup?"

Blasto Poster Pt. 3

Finally got around to finishing up that Captain Blasto poster I started working on for my brother last year.And here's the first pencil sketch from September '07.

Tomorrowland

As part of my recent obsession with space I've been watching some old Disney Tomorrowland films. Tonight there was a great film about Walt's original design for EPCOT (embedded below), which was light years away from what it is today. Walt envisioned it as a city of the future, home to over 24,000 people. EPCOT is actually an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

While in hindsight it's easy to look back on such an idea as a bit grandiose and out of reach, but I was shocked to discover just how much time, passion, and especially resources were devoted to the project. This was an endeavor that utilized many of America's largest corporations working together and would have cost billions of dollars. Billions, on some grand dream of a city of the future? Can you imagine? Unfortunately Walt died in the early planning stages and what resulted is the place you see today, some lame "science" park with rides about the body or fossil fuels.

There seemed to be a lot of grand ideas like EPCOT in the first half of the twentieth century. There were World Fair's highlighting the great dreams of the world's future which have left us little more than the Eiffel Tower. Even the films of the time seemed to be so incredibly hopeful and optimistic of where mankind would find itself in the later half of the century. Not only did we dream big, we actually devoted ourselves to achieving them. Hell, we made it to the moon in under a decade. I can't help but wonder, where has that gone? No, I don't expect us to have flying cars, rocket packs, pill dinners, or any of the other outlandish predictions, but has our ability to dream on that scale died? Could a place like Tomorrowland be built today? I sure wish it were so.

In closing, a fantastic quote from Ray Bradbury.

“I came back from Paris one time about ten years ago, went to Disneyland, and I looked at the side of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, and I called John Hench over at Imagineering, and I said, ‘I noticed something about Sleeping Beauty’s Castle: there’s a spire there that I saw last on top of Notre Dame in Paris! I said, ‘How long’s that been there, on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?’ He said, ‘20 years.’ I said, ‘Who put it there?’ He said, ‘Walt did.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because he loved it.’

I said, ‘Ah! That’s why I love Walt Disney.’ It cost $100,000 to build a spire you didn’t need! That’s the secret of [Walt] Disney, is doing things you don’t need and doing them well, and then you realize you needed ‘em all along."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBNfauF6IHc

Two VCR's

Nearly all filmmakers can trace their love of movies back to telling really bad, really funny stories as children on Super 8 or VHS camcorders with their friends as actors. I personally have a whole bin full of awful and hysterical old films. I know some of you out there will remember Lighthouse Superheroes, BR, Youth TV, and the ORIGINAL Captain Blasto episodes.

Curt sent me this great little showcase of childhood filmmaking, complete with some hysterical gore and kung fu fighting. My favorite part is to see how he had to do post-production and edit. I'm sure there's many filmmakers out there, myself included, who worked there editing magic with two VCR's.

Be warned the video drops a few f-bombs in the beginning, so I wouldn't have the volume too loud if you're at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiQE_Lb801U

London Independent Film Festival

Found out this week that Captain Blasto was accepted into the London Independent Film Festival. We entered the category for "no budget films" which is films made for under $20,000, a perfect category for this film. I don't know many details yet, other than it's playing at the end of June.

It's a shame there's very little chance of being able to attend, as bad as I want to, since the dollar is pretty freakin' low right now.

Keep ya posted as we find out more.

Missy Moreno's Singing Contest

My great friend Missy Moreno is in a singing contest over on YouTube and would sure appreciate your vote. If you have 5 nanoseconds, please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE2EZH6gsGw and post a comment saying "I vote for Missy." It's that simple and literally only takes a second or two. If she gets enough votes she gets to visit/sing with Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls fame, and trust me, she deserves it.

Many thanks!

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.

Categories

You'll notice that there's a newly added listing of categories over on the right side of the blog. That way you can read all posts on specific subjects, or check out past posts. Organization. Fun.

CaptainBlasto.com Update

Just wanted to let you all know there's some new content over at captainblasto.com. Under the PICTURES section I've added some of the comic artwork and chapter illustrations from the film, such as the ones seen below.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

Heinz Contest Article

Mike Holohan sent me a link to this article about the Heinz contest. Thought you might enjoy the read.

Accepted

I got an e-mail that our Heinz entry was accepted this time around. So now we know that if we don't make it's because they just didn't like it. But let's be honest here folks, there's thousands of entries. Winning this would be pretty close to winning the lottery.

Blasto Website Makeover

To fit the redesign of the new DVD packaging, I've updated CaptainBlasto.com. The content is the same for the most part, but it's got a fresh new makeover.

Also, I recently submitted Blasto to the London Independent Film Festival which has a category for feature films made for under $20,000. If that's not a perfect category fit I don't know what is. Keep ya posted if we get accepted.

Heinz - Take 2

Several months ago we submitted a film into the Heinz Top This TV Challenge. For reasons unknown to this day it was never accepted. Apparently that happened to a lot of people because only 1/3 of the films submitted were accepted into the contest. To make up for their mistake, Heinz is running the contest for a second time. Therefore we're submitting again. For those of you that missed it the first time around, here she is again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR6ycZfS9r8

80's TV Bumpers

Found this music video this morning which pays homage to classic "futuristic" 80's TV bumpers, much like the old HBO Feature Presentation video I posted here months back. No comment on the song itself, but you oughta enjoy the animation.

Pittsburgh

While in L.A. this weekend, and with the news on the passing of our beloved gravely voiced Myron Cope, I found myself in many conversations about my hometown of Pittsburgh. Most of those conversations involve defending it. I can see how those outside of Pittsburgh don't quite get it. It's got a reputation as being gray, cold, poor, and often harsh. Some of those are pretty accurate. But if you spend any good length of time in Pittsburgh you start to see the many fantastic things that get overshadowed by the weather.

Carl Kurlander is one of the many seeking to change that with his film My Tale of Two Cities. Kurlander is best known for his work as screenwriter (St. Elmo's Fire) and producer (Saved by the Bell.) He is currently a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh.

I encourage you to check out the film's site, which includes some great video clips, including groups of Pittsburghers which have migrated to L.A. and New York, singing "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." The film features interviews with Franco Harris, Mr. Rogers wife, Mr. Mcfeely, the late Bob O'Conner, and more.

While I've never been successful in convincing anyone to Pittsburgh's merit, this film will hopefully illustrate some of lesser known aspects of this fine, gray, cold city. Also, I've been to Chicago. It's colder.

Blasto Sketches

Here's some sketches (circa 2003) I found on the computer the other day. Each of these were drawings that I digitally inked, colored, and inserted into various comic panels throughout the film.
Blasto breaks out, from the scene where Colin slips out of the ropes in the warehouse. Obviously Captain Blasto is modeled after Superman. It seems like every picture of Superman in the 70's and 80's had him breaking out of chains. What villain was taking the time to wrap chains around him?

This image is from the same scene. It's one of the only times that a picture of Colin is used in comic panels to illustrate that the lines between the two "worlds" are beginning to blur.

Profile shot of Blasto. I believe this image is in the very first burglar scene as the kid chases Daryl.

Burglar from the same scene. Drawings of Daryl as a burglar are modeled from 1960's Doctor Octopus.

This sketch of Blasto never made it in. Looks much too oafish.

Blasto eyes from the chase scene as well. This image was also used on the new DVD artwork seen on a previous post.

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.

Hilarious

Japan's National Anthem

Apparently Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo," is often criticized much like our own. It's originally a poem dedicated to the Emperor, which is now just a figurehead in Japan. And what song has been suggested as a popular replacement...?

The Super Mario Bros. theme.

Nobuo Uematsu, composer of much of the Final Fantasy games, had this to say about it:

I'm sure everyone in the world -- no borderlines or age limit -- everyone in the world who's come across Super Mario's music will never forget that melody... I think that the Super Mario song should be the national anthem for Japan. [Hums the death refrain] So when someone wins a gold medal at the Olympics, a Japanese athlete, the flag should go up with the theme song.

Can you imagine the Japanese flag at the Olympics being raised to Super Mario Bros? Or better yet, the flag being lowered to the level end music?

The Greatest Picture

From the Star Wars convention last year. I don't know if this was staged or not, but I love how each kid is vaguely posing in character.

(NOTE: I did not attend the convention. Just found this online.)

Christmas Card

You're officially a married couple when you send out Christmas cards. Typically it's a picture of the kids, or if you don't have any yet, the dog, or often times a combination of the two. But us Schnur-Preksta-Green's don't roll like that.

Above is the Christmas card we sent out this year. If you didn't get one it's simply because we didn't have your address. Either that or we don't know how to spell your names and rather than fess up to our incompetence we're simply going to withhold all general goodwill and camaraderie. In fact we even tried to stop all other Christmas cards from reaching your house so that we wouldn't look as bad. In cased you missed them: all the kids you barely know are growing fast and that dog looks hilarious in that Santa hat.

But now the error has been corrected and the card has been provided for your printing pleasure. So break out the Epson and Merry belated Christmas from the Schnur-Preksta-Green's.

Indiana Jones

The new Indiana Jones trailer is up at:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/indianajones.html
Watching this has now become your highest priority.

Super Grover

For our first anniversary my wife Ashley bought me a framed poster of Super Grover (as seen above), painted by the indescribably talented Alex Ross. Super Grover's rare appearances were easily my favorite part of Sesame Street, which I chalk up as extension of my life-long love of Superman. I was even Super Grover for Halloween.

What I love about this poster, beyond simple nostalgia, is the combination of Alex Ross' mythic style with a silly little Muppet parody. This is how I imagine Grover would picture himself in his own mind. Not confined to only being seen from the waist up. Free of the those little sticks operating his arms. Soaring past us like the very hero he's imitating.

For me this poster illustrates a common super-hero theme and a belief I have long held: the hope that we can become more than our natural environment would normally allow. No longer confined by the situations or circumstances in which we find ourselves. It's a theme which I discover in all of my films and screenplays. Colin trying to break free from obscurity in Captain Blasto. The lowly office drone responsible for defending the universe in The Mercury Men. And in my own life, trying my damnedest to create a film career.

I can't speak for other arts or careers, but there is one thing that filmmaking has in abundance: criticism. It's nearly every day that you're being told what the value of your work is, that what your doing is foolish, and that you just aren't good enough. No wonder there's so many stories about egomaniacal directors. They had to build themselves up in their mind just to combat the onslaught of their early years.

And so in its own simple way, this poster serves as a reminder to me that even if I sometimes look or even feel like a silly Muppet parody, it's only a disguise concealing something far greater.

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.

To Each His Own

One of the questions I often ask someone when I'm first getting to know them is what their favorite movie is. You can tell a lot about someone based on their favorite films. (It's a Wonderful Life is mine. Analyze away.) Favorite films illustrates a unique aspect of life: what one person may cherish, another may be completely indifferent towards.

Take the above picture for example. That's the house where I grew up. Without a doubt it is the most important place on the planet to me. But to you, it's a rusty truck next to a willow tree. Or how about when you attend a wedding. To the bride and groom that day will be one of the most important of their lives, and you're thinking "is the reception a buffet?"

Films, like some other arts, has the ability to bring a group together into a shared experience, and simultaneously polarize their feelings.

Miserable Artist

Found this at http://www.kerismith.com/blog/ and thought it quite accurate.

Fable: Book Two

I posted a Fable "animation" here several months back. Thought I'd share another.

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.

Global Domination

I randomly checked the Blasto Blog statistics tonight and discovered that it's taking over the world. And by taking over the world I mean it's averaging 500 hits a month in 33 different countries, including much of the Middle East! I realize that those numbers are small potatoes, but I was honestly shocked. I woulda guessed 20 - 50 tops. And half of those I woulda guessed to be my mom. (I know you're reading and I promise to call.)

Let me say that I am genuinely thrilled to have you reading. Feel free to post your comments and make yourself known. Including the one person in Croatia.

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

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

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.