Photoshop outpainting and character generation

This is probably the most controversial use of AI I’ve dipped my toe into, so I’ll get it out of the way first. In animation for clients, I often need to build photorealistic worlds and props. I would usually source royalty-free images and video from sites like Pixabay.com. For this particular project, I was creating a parody of 1990s Mortal Kombat gameplay. For the background, I had a photo of a courthouse, but I needed to build it out with a post-apocalyptic landscape. Usually, I would use the clone tool to paint more steps and building elements. But Adobe had recently introduced “outpainting” in the form of the generate fill tool. It solved that clone issue in seconds and I could move on. For the sky I used some stock video and the foreground texture was another stock image.

In creating the characters for the scene, I knew they should be somewhat photorealistic. That was the thing that made Mortal Kombat unique at the time. My traditional method would be to make digital puppets from stock photos with heads, hands, and clothing from multiple sources. I did, in fact, do this a little bit, but then fed some of those stock images into Photoshop and asked it to give me back high-res versions in fighting poses. 

I did not ask for animation, however. Instead, I took those AI still images and puppeted them myself in After Effects. That’s the fun, creative part — performing characters with exaggerated action and timing. I’m not in a hurry to give that up.

Vibe Coding with Gemini

I’m finding Google’s Gemini to be a good sounding board for topics. I ask it questions like “What are some ways I can build a stand for a TV monitor?”, “What are some solutions for reading old Mac diskettes?”, and “Can you help me with my Windows networking issues?” All lead to discussions that are more in depth than a web search… or rather if I did traditional searches, it would lead to hours of reading message boards and watching tutorials that often answer the wrong questions. 

One thing I asked Gemini was to code a stop motion animation app for me. I typically use Dragonframe, but for my Animation Workshop students, it’s more than I need. I’ve also used the very affordable Stop Motion Studio, which is great in general, but there are a few things I wanted to improve about the experience. It can be slow to export and crash unexpectedly.

I had heard about vibe coding, but didn’t know what to expect. Would I need to know Python or another coding language? How would I get my code out of Gemini and use it locally? Can Gemini even code like Claude? (I haven’t tried Claude, instead I started with Gemini because I already use so many Google services.)

Well, I told Gemini what I wanted, and it wrote something in Javascript that runs right in Chrome. Impressive. I then proceeded to tweak the look and functionality over several weeks in our Animation Workshop classes. I would watch our students use the app, and when they found glitches or stumbled over UI issues, I would go back to Gemini and ask for changes. It helped that I knew HTML and some CSS, but for the most part I didn’t need to get into the nuts and bolts of code.  

The biggest issue I’m having with vibe coding is the tendency for the AI to undo functions that are already working. I’ll ask for a button to be moved and it will make the change… along with changing the name of some other buttons and breaking the “save” function, for instance. I’ve taken to finishing my commands with “Don’t make any other changes,” which usually helps.

Is vibe coding unethical? Where is Gemini getting its stop motion interface and code from? Well, at this point I wouldn’t feel right about selling this app. (I don’t want to support software, for one thing.) But also, I didn’t write it! If anything, I’m acting as “developer.” One of my students insists that to use the app ethically, we should go into the code ourselves and modify it, make our own changes to make it our own. But I want to iterate quickly. I keep coming up with new functions to add, and Gemini can do that — even if I have to double check that old functions don’t break.

My bottom line on this is that I want to shoot animation, and the movies themselves are the creative output. So the AI generated product — the software — is a tool I’ll gladly use to that end. 

I look forward to vibe coding some other software in a similar vein. I already started on screenplay software (watch out Final Draft, your days are numbered) and a hand-drawn animation app. I could see using Gemini to help with scheduling and call sheets, especially since it talks with Google Sheets fairly well.

Querying Interview Transcripts with Notebook LM

I first heard of Google’s Notebook LM as a way for researchers and journalists to query a corpus of documents. I watched a tutorial (geared towards college faculty) that described how to upload class materials and create slide decks from them. Sure, Notebook LM could hallucinate and regurgitate bad info, but professors should be able to fix that, right?

One day while editing a documentary feature with thirty-eight plus interviews, I remembered Notebook LM. I uploaded all my transcripts (generated by Adobe Premiere and exported as TXT files) and started asking questions. Who spoke on certain topics? What are some related sub-topics? The AI gave quality responses with links back to the source transcripts.

I got excited. I told Notebook LM I was editing a documentary and asked it to suggest quotes around a topic, with names of the individual speakers and the timecodes related to source transcripts. Worked really well! Not flawlessly — sometimes the AI would misunderstand who was speaking in a given transcript, but that’s my job to catch those errors, right?

So the next step was to track down those quotes (timecode helped) and put them in the right order. It’s a rough draft to get the ball rolling on a given scene, not the final scene. I’d love it if this was built into Premiere so it could do that rough draft with one click, but maybe in the near future.

Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech

This is why it pays to keep abreast of new Adobe releases. A few years ago, I was working on a documentary where the sound for one interview was recorded poorly. I struggled to boost the bass and clear up the audio with Premiere’s traditional tools, but I was never satisfied with the results.

Then Adobe Podcast came out.

The marketing for Adobe Podcast is all about helping normal people record and edit podcasts without high-end software. To this day, it’s a web app only. But its “enhance speech” function is so good, it’s downright spooky. It cleaned up my bad audio without any tweaking. I’ve since used it on problem audio in multiple projects, including sections with too much echo, wind, even background noise at a party. One challenge can be overmodulation — it’s hard to do away with that kind of corruption.

Put simply, you upload your audio file, and the app gives you a remarkably clean result. It’s not a filter, instead the AI analyzes the file and essentially recreates the voice. You move a slider to choose how much processing to apply. You want to be careful that the app doesn’t clip the beginning and end of spoken words too much.

Background noise is also given a volume slider, so you don’t accidentally take out too much roomtone. (For example, it might look strange to hear someone talking in a windy outdoors to sound like they’re in a perfect recording studio.)

Adobe has since brought a version of enhance speech into Adobe Premiere, but it’s not as versatile. It also has the annoying habit of requiring long re-render times whenever you razor a clip that has the effect. I still prefer to round-trip my selects to the web app and back because even though it’s a hassle, the results are better.

Corridor Key

Here’s one I haven’t used yet, but I will the next time I have greenscreen footage to work with. Corridor Digital developed an AI workflow to deal with pulling better keys from bad (and good) greenscreen video. Niko of Corridor oversaw the training of an AI model to understand what to look for in a good key, then released the results for free to the public. Several plugin and app makers have taken that ball and run with it, notably EZ Corridor Key.

I worked on a feature last year that had a TON of greenscreen, and no matter what they say, it’s not easy. I’m better at it than I’ve ever been, but I’m looking forward to letting AI take the reigns next time.

As Niko points out, AI is everywhere in VFX workflows. Machine learning tools include magic mask, roto brush, up-resing, noise removal, sky replacements, blemish removal, even stabilization. The important thing as I see it is to use AI tools to help you get to the point where you can be creative, NOT take the place of being creative. We all have a line we don’t want to cross, but it may take a little bit of experimentation with AI to find out where that line is.

PROJECT TIM

This one has been off-and-on for a few years. Finally comes out at the end of the month. I’m finishing animated titles and segments for a four-part doc series.

PROJECT STREET

Make-up effects and special effects for a musical comedy horror indie. Today I sculpted a prop “garlic grenade” intended to ward off vampires.

PROJECT FLAT

Editing a documentary, which is slow going so far. So much footage to watch and assess!

PROJECT FOOTBALL

This one I have the least to do with, but I was hired to put together sales materials for the producer, including pitch deck, website, and press release.

PROJECT DOWN

This is a script I’m co-writing, which is a positive experience. Really nailing down structure and the ending before diving in. Good to have a partner to ask story questions with.

Now that I think of it, this week I also had some finishing touches to do on two completed-but-I-guess-not-complete projects, PROJECT FAIRY and PROJECT CLOWN.

All that, and I’m also teaching four days a week. But the end is in sight on a few of these. Looking forward to a lighter load so I can get back to some of my personal films!

For the last few months, I’ve been outlining a new feature script. I was determined to hammer out the outline before doing any actual “writing” of scenes. And I got there! The next step was writing a treatment, and that’s the real hard part.

It seems every time I try writing treatments, I get in the weeds. I start getting into specifics, planning actual scenes and shots. Will I ever get to a place where I can write a generalized treatment, or am I more a “scriptment” person like James Cameron? Maybe I shouldn’t worry about it so much, if it works for him.

In any case, I was knee-deep in scriptment worry when I heard about the Vimeo Short Film Grant presented by Nikon and RED. They were offering 30k to filmmakers who wanted to make a twelve minute short film. The requirements? Have all your ducks in a row. Meaning, provide a screenplay, logline, synopsis, budget, timeline, artist statement, bio for you and key crew members, even plans for what to discuss with Vimeo’s panel of mentors.

So I gave myself permission to jump ahead and write out a segment of the feature, turning that sequence into a short screenplay. It came out great! And now I can get to work on the rest of the script, fitting together with the puzzle piece of the short.

It was nice to fantasize about having 30k to spend on just this section. Mainly, the money would go to paying people for their labor. The piece includes some animation and effects that might be intimidating for some, but lately I’ve done a lot of similar client work with my colleagues at Ameriscope Pictures. I also have access to lighting and grip equipment, sound equipment, as well as animation and editing software.

So what’s the story? I’m calling it Haunted Circuits for now. Here are some of the elements I submitted to the contest. I’ll hold back on posting the budget publicly, but here’s the rest. Yes, even the screenplay! I do a lot of mentorship as a Stage32.com lounge moderator, as well as teaching film students at RIT, so I hope showing these elements can be of use to others.

Do I think I’ll be one of the contest winners? Doubtful, but I love that it gave me the kick in the pants to get the screenplay started.

HAUNTED CIRCUITS

Screenplay

Haunted Circuits short screenplay PDF.

Project Logline

In a gothic horror story with a sci-fi twist, a young man searches for the remains of his robot father with the help of a vampire guide.

Project Summary

Another place, another time. A young man dressed in a medieval cloak named Marcus makes a nighttime journey, an untrustworthy vampire as his guide. Their destination is the Grand Cemetery, where Marcus’ father was buried. Many years ago, they were separated when his father was called away on a quest for scientific knowledge. During Marcus’ journey, he checks data from a small palm computer, giving a hint as to the nature of technology in this world. Upon reaching the graveyard, the two are attacked by ghoulish rat-creatures. The vampire helps fight them off at first, but leaves Marcus when another imposing creature approaches. Marcus escapes into his father’s crypt, and soon discovers his remains. Marcus’ father is a robot with human flesh, now decomposing off his metal and plastic form. Marcus attempts to reboot his father, but the memory module is missing. His father spouts “demo mode” banalities while Marcus fights off other resuscitated robots. The two escape into the night, off to find the man who can help reconnect Father’s memories.

Statement of intent

In my career as an animator and filmmaker, I have done hand-drawn, digital, and stop motion animation. For client work, I have learned new programs and methods to accomplish specialized looks. Using my skills as an editor, I have seen client projects through post-production, handing off feature films to distributors for release on streaming. However, I have yet to find the time and resources to produce a significant project personal to me.

My love for gothic horror films and sci-fi inspired HAUNTED CIRCUITS, which I’m writing as a feature. The structure of it is such that each segment can work as a short, and I am submitting one such segment for this grant. I love the style and substance of horror films from Universal and Hammer, with archetypal elements such as vampires, zombies, and fog-covered graveyards. To give it a new twist, I’ve created a world where these horror elements exist years after a technological boom changed everything. The development of AI led to a singularity — human minds and computers could merge to become one. But something went wrong, and there was a collapse of society, throwing the world into a new dark age. Those with scientific knowledge in this new world are thought to be alchemists, who use that knowledge for power. Our hero doesn’t want to change the world, just repair his corner of it. To find his father, whose self was uploaded into a synthetic form, and rebuild his family unit.

The story includes elements that will be shot on stage and location with a small cast. Robots will be achieved with a mix of costumes and live puppetry. Creature elements will be done with stop-motion animation, composited into live action plates. I am accustomed to working with special effects and doing post production, including animation compositing.

My business partner John Vincent is an accomplished cinematographer, stop motion animator, and production designer. Last year we worked to provide creature effects work for a werewolf feature called Frenzy Moon. We’re comfortable working at this scale, creating all elements that will appear in frame.

If this grant committee is looking to fund a thought provoking, exciting film with fantastical elements, I can provide that. If you’re looking for a young person, that’s not me. I have been working in the business as an independent for over 20 years (and I now teach animation to young people and college students). However, I have never directed a feature, and funding this short would be a serious stepping stone on my journey to that goal. I have confidence that HAUNTED CIRCUITS would be a strong film to showcase Vimeo and its sponsors.

Links to two directorial work samples

H. P. LOVECRAFT’S THE OTHER GODS
Animated short film created under a pseudonymn. LINK.

UNMASKED
Comedy/crime short film. LINK.

Project budget and financing plan

The funds awarded would allow me to purchase materials for sets and costumes, pay crew and actors, and secure locations. Budget available upon request. (Budget created with the StudioBinder template.)

Production timeline
Timeline proposal

Proposal for six-month production.

Goals for mentorship sessions

For our mentorship sessions, I look forward to discussing approaches to replicating the cinematography of classic horror films. Also hearing from mentors on their best practices for working with actors. I’m sure there may be some technical issues with the new cameras to work out as well.

Marketing, audience engagement, festival, and/or distribution goals

I’m very involved with my local film community, so they are my first audience, followed by friends, clients, and film fans I’ve met over the years. (I have about 1300 names on my email list.) I use social media, but I find more engagement with email newsletters and websites like Stage 32. I would love to involve some RIT students and arrange a screening there once the film is complete. I’ll enter horror film festivals such as Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and Anomaly (local to Rochester, NY). Distribution is difficult to predict for shorts, but I maintain an account with Amazon Prime Video Direct. The ultimate goal is to make this part of a feature or series of episodes that add up to a feature length story.

Behind the scenes on set. Never visit a cabin in the woods on a foggy night!

Click the video links below for SFX in action! John shoots with the camera on a slider, I puppet the wolf head’s motion, and Dani operates the jaws. Thanks to Adrian for the BTS shots!

The news prompted me to update the recommended software page on the Rochester Writers Workshop website. A lot of writing software has jumped in price in the last few years! As before, if you’re looking for free on Windows or Linux, try TRELBY. Free software for the Mac is hard to come by, unless you’re using the first-free-script option with freemium apps like WriterDuet or Studiobinder. Sadly, Celtx doesn’t appear to have a free plan anymore.

I’ve been using Scrivener, which is a one-time $60 fee (or $50 educational pricing). I like that it has notecard options and ways to maintain sub-documents and photos for research purposes. One drawback is I’ll have to buy it again if I want it on both my Mac and PC laptop.

Here’s the updated RWW software page:
https://www.rwwny.org/software/

• KING OF THE HILL STYLE GUIDE
• SIMPSONS STYLE GUIDE

• DERF STYLE PROGRESSION

Opera or Music Video?

In opera, all dialogue is sung as melody. So if is a work has no “regular speaking,” we call it operatic.  Les Miserables the film is based on a stage musical, and in both cases the dialogue is sung in ths way.

Alternatively, there are films that incorporate music and lyrics more like non-diagetic soundtrack. Pink Floyd’s The Wall has some scenes where the main character Pink performs. Mostly, the segments act more like a string of music videos, with faceless voice over.

Let’s look at the scripts to see how they were written.

Les Miserables

The script for Les Miserables is here:

https://assets.scriptslug.com/live/pdf/scripts/les-miserables-2012.pdf

It’s pretty straightforward. There are references in the action lines to “they sing” occasionally. And songs are called out, such as on page 4:

“As we hear the musical theme (’Freedom is Mine’), we see for the first time the darkness in his face give way to a new hope.

VALJEAN 

Freedom at last –
How strange the taste!
Never forget the years – the waste,
Nor forgive them for what they’ve
done.
They are the guilty – Everyone!
The day begins…

So the script is referring to song titles to let you know when the main setpieces begin. Then the characters’ dialogue are the sung lyrics. This would work in conjunction with a soundtrack album, or assuming the reader had some knowledge of the source material.

Pink Floyd’s The Wall

For Pink Floyd’s The Wall, I found this document.

https://ia600500.us.archive.org/28/items/PinkFloydsTheWallMovieScript/Pi…

Looks like it’s a paste-up of storyboards mixed with the script. The script pages contain the song lyrics in their entirety, followed by the traditional screenplay format for the scenes that accompany the songs. This works because most of the lyrics are sung OVER visuals, not spoken by characters on screen.

Once in a while, you do get the character Pink singing, like this on page 11:

INT. HALL STAGE NIGHT

“So ya’ Thought ya’
Might like to go to
The show…”

On stage, at the start of the verse of “In the Flesh” we cut to a neo-nazi, punk/skinhead SINGER.

This works, as we already got the complete lyrics on the previous page.

Later, at the end of page 13, in the action lines:

“In the Flesh” concludes.

And we move on to the next song.

On subsequent songs, the lyrics are written in dialogue blocks, with no character assigned. There are occasional references to the NARRATORS, the actual Pink Floyd band playing in concert footage. (Ultimately, this idea was dropped and this footage did not appear in the final film.)

Usually, having unassigned dialogue blocks could be confusing, but in this special case it’s done consistently and purposefully. Another way to do it wohttps://www.scriptslug.com/script/into-the-woods-2014uld be to assign a character name to the lyrics, something like NARRATOR or LYRICS, do differentiate those words from any dialogue spoken on-screen by characters.

What’s your movie like?

Generally, when I have a formatting question like this, I think of some comps for what I’m writing, and then search to see if their screenplays are online. No sense re-inventing the wheel if someone else already has figured out a valid method!

Some other musical screenplays to look up that might be helpful: Across the Universe, Sweeney Todd, and Into The Woods.

From the time I created my first video clips for the internet, the act of managing quality versus bitrate has been a real challenge. This escalated once I had to author DVDs for clients. I’ve had to learn more about codecs and compression than I ever wanted to.

Anyone else remember a time before YouTube? Those of us with websites would offer streaming video as QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real Video formats. Not to mention offer a high and low quality version of each! Flash video (FLV) came next, then H.264.

For DVD production, it was MPEG-2 (M2V), and at Animatus we used a specialized program called TMPEG to make those files. The non-linear editing programs we used certainly couldn’t export them. (It was years before they built that into Premiere.) That’s when we really had to dial in the high/medium/low settings for variable bitrate files. Looking at scenes of fog, rain, and even cross dissolves was where the rubber hit the road.

According to the article, Netflix has developed the new AV1 codec and its successor for encoding streaming video. Bravo to them, especially since they’re making the codecs open source. There was a lot of worry with previous codecs, since some were patented. (The reason Adobe doesn’t make Encore anymore is their dispute with Dolby over their audio format.)

And for Netflix to commission a free-to-use short film to demonstrate and test for compression issues? Very cool.

Here’s something more about the film, Meridian…

And Meridian itself…

Vimeo Pro used to be an okay option, but Vimeo has pivoted to being B2B OTT company. (Marketing to businesses, encouraging them to start their own over-the-top streaming services for instructional videos, for example.) Under the Vimeo Pro price tier (currently $240 a year), you’re permitted to sell content. Several years ago it was at $300 annually, so it’s nice to see it has come down. Still, it only makes sense to pay for if you’re raking in sales or if you like enough of the other Vimeo services to make it worthwhile for your video business. I use Vimeo Plus for sharing works with my clients, and have never done Pro to manage sales.

I got in with VHX before Vimeo bought them, so I have a short listed there, The Other Gods. The listing is free for me (I got grandfathered in) and I can charge for rentals and downloads. The site has a nice backend and I get to make a pretty page for your film. I wish VHX was a more popular platform, but I make almost no sales there. Since Vimeo took over, VHX has been rebranded as Vimeo OTT. This is Vimeo’s service for creating streaming channels for businesses.

I also put The Other Gods on Amazon years ago. First under “free with Prime” where it made pennies per view, about $15 a year. Then Amazon cracked down on indie content. They closed the option for individual filmmakers to list on “free with Prime”, forcing the films to be purchase or rent only. This actually worked in my favor. Now I might get less views, but make much more annually on the same film.

The Amazon backend is a little clunky. Sometimes you submit something and find out weeks later there was a problem with QC and you need to resubmit with changes. For a time, they weren’t accepting documentaries, but I think they’ve opened that up again. Also, they require captioning for all submissions, which I think is a good thing. First, it acts as a barrier to keep out junk. Secondly, I think if you believe in your product, you should WANT it accessible for more audiences.

One tricky thing about Amazon is I wanted to list a “bare bones” version of the film, then a special edition with extras as a separate listing. They reviewed each and saw them as “duplicate content.” So now I only have the special edition. This tends to annoy some viewers who are surprised to find that The Other Gods is a 6 minute film with extras, not a 32 minute film in total. But I try to explain as best I can in the description. It’s frustrating that this is a restriction, especially since there’s tons of duplicate listings for well-known films on Prime, with many of them “unavailable” — dead links because of lapsed distribution deals. Here I’m trying to offer two variations on a film, and it’s not allowed.

Small time filmmakers can’t get into the major streamers (iTunes, google/YouTube, Xbox/MSN, Vudu, Plex, Tubi, PlayStation) without an aggregator or distributor. I’ve worked with Gravitas (Hero of the Underworld) and Indie Rights (Clowns in the Woods, Greetings from Tromaville) for features, but I’m not sure if either would be interested in shorts.

Filmhub is an interesting option. This service has the potential to get your films out to dozens of streaming services, mostly ones you’ve never heard of. Filmhub is sort of an automatic aggregator, acting as a middleman between you and the streamers. I submitted the The Other Gods late last year but have yet to get any payments. I can see that several services picked up the film, but no payments have come through yet. The writer/director of 3.14, a film I edited, is trying the service as well. We’ll see how that goes.

I’ll wrap up by saying that if you have a film on a hard drive collecting dust, why not try to get it out there? Don’t have unreasonable expectations, and don’t spend more money than you think will return. That said, the act of pushing your film through the system will force you to think about deliverables and marketing in a way you haven’t before. This can help you be more prepared on future film projects.

The Barnyard Concert is mostly concerned with gags, and like a lot of shorts from that time, it just ends when they run out of jokes. Still interesting from a historical point of view.

Tree Saps is much more charming. The story builds in an entertaining way. I love Fleischer cartoons, but I can’t say I feel much empathy for the characters.

What a difference a few years makes! In The Band Concert I feel engaged with both leads (Mickey and Donald) who each want to play their own style of music. I can read their thought processes, feel their joy and frustration. There are some great little details in their performances. Mickey with his too-long sleeves constantly sliding down, Donald with his sly looks to the audience every time he produces another flute.

By the time the cyclone arrives, the tension between the characters has built up. Now we get gags fast, unburdened from gravity. The music builds in synch with the story climax. The film ends with a bang, and the audience is cheering.

It’s valuable to take a look at these shorts side by side to see how character and performance can elevate a piece.

The Barnyard Concert:

Tree Saps:

The Band Concert (not on Youtube in full, so here’s the Disney Plus link):
https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/the-band-concert/2lufpp4h3OrF

In this surrealist docu-horror-fairy tale, Maria, a young woman finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world. Inspired by the actual case of Colonia Dignidad, “The Wolf House” masquerades as an animated fairy tale produced by the leader of the sect in order to indoctrinate its followers.

See our discussion of the film (and stop motion animation in general) in the video below:

Further Strangeness

Can’t get enough art? Here’s a list I put together of strange animation that The Wolf House style reminded me of.

The Bigger Picture / Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees (short, 2014)
In which the characters are animated figures painted on walls of a home.

The Making of The Bigger Picture

MUTO by BLU
Wall-painted animation, much of it outdoors in public spaces.

Jan Svankmajer’s Food series
Svankmajer works often feature human actors who then become clay characters for pivotal moments.

Jan Svankmajer’s Alice
Here’s a segment from his Alice in Wonderland feature film.

The Quay Brothers – Street of Crocodiles
These British animators create surreal, dreamlike worlds.

Tool: Sober
The Quays’ work was undoubtedly an inspiration for this rock video of the mid-nineties.

From Beyond by Michael Granberry
Based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, this film goes from eerie to downright scary.

Clay Cat’s Evil Dead II by Lee Hardcastle
Hardcastle’s stop-motion films are gory, goofy fun. He also did the freaky “T is for Toilet,” but every Evil Dead fan should see this one.

One night only! The definitive documentary on Quentin Tarantino! October 21 at 7pm in select theatres.

Greetings! I’m happy to announce that the big secret documentary I’ve been creating animation for is now being released to theaters. That’s right, QUENTIN TARANTINO: THE FIRST EIGHT will be a one-night-only Fathom Event. So if you’ve ever loved a Tarantino film, and you’ve got a Fathom theatre near you, this is your chance to see an unforgetable doc.

Director Tara Wood and her production team have really gone all out on this project. I’ve seen the movie in various forms over the last couple years, and it got better with every cut. (Truth be told, as soon as I saw Samuel L. Jackson was one of the interviews, I was sold! ) I’m super proud to see my animation be part of QT8.

What did I do? Opening titles, chapter titles, lower thirds, tons of motion graphics here and there. (What I didn’t do was the excellent character animation, assigned to Powerhouse Animation before I came on board.)

I’ll be attending the Regal Henrietta screening, that’s Monday, October 21, at 7pm. Won’t you join me? Get your tickets now while you can!

Not in Rochester? See FathomEvents.com for a theatre near you.

QT8: The First Eight

Quentin Tarantino is the most influential filmmaker of the past 30 years. His bloody, talky, nonlinear films pull together dozens of influences to form bracingly original cinematic events. In a Hollywood that worships at the altar of franchises and remakes, Tarantino’s films are the best kind of tentpoles – wholly unique cinematic visions from a filmmaker at the peak of his powers.

As Tarantino’s newest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood arrives to praise and controversy, filmmaker Tara Wood takes us on a journey through the first 8 wildly divergent films that Tarantino has helmed, narrated by the actors and collaborators who have worked with him.

From Reservoir Dogs through The Hateful Eight, from the video store to the fall of Harvey Weinstein, QT8 digs deep into the story of the most important and controversial filmmaker of our time.

Post-apocolyptic Prologue December 2010

I decided a great opeing would be for Jess to be wrapped in protective clothing, pursuing the antagonist through a burnt-out city. Then we’d flashback to “Three Weeks Earlier” to see her in normal settings. The idea would be that something has happened to the world — or another world — and Jess will be a changed person by that point in the story.

Slush Notes June 2011

This is me trying to lock down the mechanics of the cross-dimensional game, the nature of the story’s external conflict, and the nature of the multiverse.

Loglines May 2012

Writing a logline can be a great way of focusing on what your story is. I was taking a cue from Chris Soth’s method: your logline should have your protagonist, an action verb, an antagonist, and the world in which the film takes place.

Handwritten Notes August 2014

Here’s where I started to wonder if Jessica should be a journalist or something more related to quantum physics.

Gamers two page treatment 2016 V4

At Rochester Writers Workshop meetings, my friend Wayne told us about Lew Hunter’s “two minute movie,” which is really another way of saying treatment. You should be able to sum up your film in two pages: a paragraph for act one, a few for act two, and one more for act three. I found this this incredibly difficult to do, mostly because I don’t know what’s going on plot-wise in the second and third acts.

GAMERS two page treatment 2017 V6

Here’s a later version of the treatment, now with Jess as a graduate student in physics (theoretical or applied?) rather than a journalist.

Character Sketches 2016 – 2017 

Also inspired by Writers Workshop sessions, I tried my hand at writing backstories for the characters and the world in which dimensional travel became commonplace. Very difficult for me to get my head around. I feel more in my element when writing actual scenes.

Last Starfighter Analysis March 2018

One of my inspirations, structure-wise, is The Last Starfighter. The hero is stuck in place. He shows his skills (at a videogame) which opens up a new world to him. He refuses the call, goes back home, then discovers that the fate of his planet (galaxy?) depends on him getting his act together. That owes a lot to the Hero’s Journey, but the fact that he literally goes to other worlds got under my skin. So I went through the first act and took some notes.

Notes May 2018

Wayne had said something about crop circles being a possible artifact of dimensional travel, which was fun to think about. How would that work, logistically? There’s a mention of Jess being motivated by the loss of her father, which I started thinking about when writing character sketches.

Crop Circle Prologue August 2018

In 2018 I bought a copy of Highland, a screenwriting program for the Mac. I generally like it, but I feel a little restricted in that I do most of my daily work on PC, not on my laptop. Anyway, here’s an alternate prologue I wrote, setting up Jess and her father’s relationship. What if he was making crop circles as a way of activating the dimensional beams? And he disappears or dies, leaving Jess to work on the same problem from a theoretical physics angle years later. Is this a new goal for Jess, to track down her father? That was the plot of the latest Tomb Raider movie, so that gives me pause.

Knight and Day January 2019

I revisited this movie, since I remember it having a similar relationship that I wanted for Jess and Trevor. Cameron Diaz gets swept up in Tom Cruise’s world of action and espionage. By the end, she’s the one saving HIM. It’s a great flick, but upon a rewatch I saw that Diaz is out of her element for much longer than I want for Jess. Her experience is mostly comedic as well.

Midnight Meat Train Analysis January 2019

Something made me decide to rewatch Midnight Meat Train, which I also remember liking a lot. The movie is about a photographer who gets in over his head when he investigates a series of murders which turn out to be supernatural in nature. The plot structure was much more in line with what I want for Gamers. So I took some notes. The murders can be replaced with “weird sci-fi event” and it could totally work.

When Matt came to us, he had the song already recorded and a general concept. The premise was that several recyclable items are thrown in a garbage can and they wish they’d been recycled instead. The “Recycle Me” song urges people think before throwing them away. After some brainstorming, I designed the characters and came up with a rough animatic.

Matt liked it, but wanted something cleaner to show the client, so he did an animatic with limited animation and more environment and lighting.

John got to work constructing characters, while I focused on label designs. We wanted miniature versions of most objects, and also fake brand names. In the case of the graham cracker/pasta piano, pizza box, and milk carton bass, I did mock-ups out of paper to figure out the templates. Then I could redo those templates in Photoshop. For the pizza logo, I did it old school — cut out a card stock stencil with an exacto knife and painted it on.

We decided to shoot each character separately, with no mouths or eyes. Aaron would comp them all together and add the facial features. The challenge was to come up with animation cycles in time with the music. First, I broke down each shot by time and frames (24 frames per second). 
You can see that although there are 13 shots, the characters repeat. So I’ve labeled the shots by letter. Drummer is C, Singer is D, group shot is E, etc. 

I broke down the audio track as an exposure sheet, focusing on the voice for Aaron to do the lip sync. But I had a lot of trouble picking out each instrument from the song. The audio was a mix-down, and scrubbing through in slow-motion sounded like mush to my ears.

Eventually, I realized that I could do some preliminary animation with colors and shapes in Flash, come up with loops that way. Then we could import those loops into our stop motion software to use as visual reference. Better than a traditional exposure sheet!

When it came time to shoot, John did the animation itself while I operated the Dragonframe software and kept his timing right. (I animated one shot of the pizza box falling.) Aaron took measurements and logged our lighting set-up so he could recreate it in a virtual environment using BlackMagic Fusion.

Animator John Vincent

Mike Boas driving Dragonframe

Aaron Powell taking measurements Producer Matthew White

Aaron’s virtual trash can interior

Aaron at the controls

Overall, a rewarding project to be a part of. And I’ve had that “Recycle Me” song stuck in my head for five months!

Here are some short clips of character loops straight out of Dragonframe. If you’re on a computer, you can right-click on them and choose “loop” to see how they repeat. The tracking markers on their faces were to help Aaron position their eyes and mouths later.

Then I bought Lucy Belwood’s book, 100 Demon Dialogues which began life as a 100 Day Project. The idea is to do a creative act every day for 100 days. Lucy did single panel cartoons about arguing with her inner demon, and then she had enough content to print a book. Wow.

Okay, so that lit a fire under me to get on a daily schedule. Turns out this year’s 100 Day Project just started, so I’m jumping on board. I’m making 100 pieces of artwork that I then send over to Redbubble and turn into T-shirts, mugs, stickers, and other things. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter to see my daily posts!

Artwork for purchase at https://www.redbubble.com/people/manyhats

Edited to add:

Well, this is cool! Hosts Leo Laporte, Stacey Higginbotham, and Jeff Jarvis gave the cartoon praise on the latest This Week in Google (no. 453). Time is at about 1 hour 35 seconds in.

Amazon is a successful company. I use many of their services. As a filmmaker, my distributors and I manage multiple items through the Amazon Video Direct portal. (Check out Hero of the Underworld and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods, for example.)

But why do they keep changing the name of their video streaming brand? I did some research and gave it some thought. Here’s a history.

2006: Amazon Unbox

Amazon Unbox, sometimes branded as Amazon Unbox Video Downloads, was an early way to download and watch digital copies of movies and TV shows. The service even had a tie-in with Tivo. The word “unbox” has a double meaning. First, that consumers love to open, or “unbox” physical purchases from companies like Amazon, but in this case there actually IS NO BOX when you’re purchasing a digital good.

2008: Amazon Video On Demand

Amazon moved away from the Unbox branding, changing to the term “video on demand.” Video on demand (or VOD) is an industry standard phrase, so perhaps Amazon used it to help explain the service more than the confusing “unbox” could. A drawback from a branding point of view is that Amazon can’t really own or trademark the phrase. At some point during this time, they changed the logo from using the yellow smile, and instead introduced the green play button. At this point all videos were still pay-per-video, no “free” tier.

2011: Amazon Instant Video

As a way to push their Prime subscription service, Amazon added access to 5000 movies and TV shows for their Prime subscribers. Generally watching streamed content (including pay-per-video items) was termed Amazon Instant Video. Titles that were free access to Prime subscribers were under the Amazon Prime Instant Video moniker.

It was around this time that I started hearing people say they were watching videos on “Amazon Prime” even though that was not the name of either product. As a filmmaker, I was frustrated when talking about Amazon’s online distribution with my peers and potential audiences, because I would often have to stop and define terms. Putting one’s product on Amazon Instant Video meant you could charge “buy” and “rental” prices, but putting it on Amazon Prime Instant Video meant viewers wouldn’t pay specifically for your video. Also, filmmakers had different levels of control in managing listings and income from the two streams. Calling both services “Amazon Prime” colloquially was fuzzy terminology.

2015: Amazon Video

Amazon simplified, dropping the word “instant.” Perhaps the term was useful at first in expressing the idea of streaming (not buying a DVD), but by 2015 the public inherently understood the concept.

It seems there was also a subtle move towards material design during this phase. See the difference in the green circles in the two logos above. I grabbed them randomly from the internet, but later discovered the difference in size and shape between them. (Presumably, they had dimensional and flat versions of each logo.)

2018: Prime Video

I recently logged into my phone and saw that my Amazon Video app had a new logo. Soon, the logo on the Roku had changed as well. So now, in 2018, Amazon has given in to calling their service what the public was calling it anyway, Prime Video. The color is no longer green, instead, they’ve brought in blue, to work with their overall Prime branding.

Over in my Amazon Video Direct (now Prime Video Direct) dashboard, where I manage my uploaded movies, I see that “Included with Prime” videos are now “Prime Subscription Access (Included with Prime).” I can only imagine this compound phrase is something creators see, but not the general public.

As a name for a streaming service, Prime Video is actually pretty good. It’s short and suggests “the best” in video offerings.

However, Amazon still has two video services in one, and the use of “Prime” in the name for both makes my teeth grind. Let’s say I’m an Amazon Prime member. I login to Prime Video and what do I find? Many videos to watch that are covered under the Prime membership. What else do I find? Many, many items that are NOT FREE to Prime members. And yet… they are on Prime Video.

Perhaps in a few years, no one will give this a second thought. Maybe everyone will be comfortable with all videos on Amazon termed Prime Video, both free Prime videos and Prime videos you pay for.

The definition will shift. But for now, the fuzziness makes me itch.

YOUTUBE

Youtube gave us little guys the ability to monetize a few years ago, but now they’re raising the minimum threshold. Now creators need over 1000 followers to receive ad revenue. Interesting, that if you have a one-off viral hit, but not enough subscribers, you won’t earn. I still have aspirations of creating awesome content that people want to see, but not at the volume it would take to gain 1000 followers.

VIMEO

There’s Vimeo Free, Plus, and Pro. I do the Plus at $60 a year. Gives me enough to share big uploads with clients, including a feature if necessary. 5gb upload cap weekly.

I would only do Pro if I wanted to sell videos through Vimeo. I don’t have anything worth selling that would gross me at least $250 a year, though. As a user, I have purchased a few Vimeo shorts in past years, and I like using the app on my Roku to watch on TV.

VHX

I’ve tried VHX (now owned by Vimeo) for selling my short, The Other Gods. Their pricing structure changed since I first signed up, though. I think I’m grandfathered in on a free tier and people selling feature films now have to pay an upfront fee.

AMAZON

Amazon Video Direct just took us indie producers down a peg. It’s gone from 15 cents an hour payout to 6 cents an hour. Unless you’ve got 500,000 hours of downloads, then you graduate to the 15 cents tier. Doesn’t make any sense. They must have been getting a lot of garbage uploaded and are now trying to cut back by lowering the incentive. Personally, I thought 15 cents was an insult. I was making about $5 a month with my short, now it’s gonna be about $2 if people keep watching at the same rate. The Other Gods is also availabe for sale for non-Prime subscribers (see below)

VIDEO AS A SERVICE

Meanwhile, I’m subscribing to Moviepass, which lets me see unlimited theatrical movies (practically) for $10 a month. So if you look at Moviepass/Netflix/Youtube as trends, content will be experienced by the public more as a service than as a one-at-a-time purchase — like Spotify and other music services. As a producer, it’s no good having one item, you need hundreds of videos or series to break through the noise and make a living.

What’s a global jam? It’s when a boatload of animators disassemble a film and redo sections of it in their style.

So when I heard Ken Mora and Mike Schneider were doing a global jam for “Your Face,” I jumped on board.

My three second segment, in the original film, was the part when our singer’s face tears itself into pieces. Here are the beginning and ending frames that segment:

I decided to literally incorporate tearing of paper. Here’s my animation of that, complete with green screen that I would later key out.

Next, I drew and inked the singer with a dynamic hold. I combined it with the ripping paper to see how it would line up.

Turns out the ripping action would require some finesse, especially where the prop stick came in. That would require rotoscoping to erase it.

Here’s another test.

My final version included a pink, fleshy background.

And today, the video goes live, with dozens of artists taking part!

The completed piece:

Read “In Deep” (PDF)

What a great match! Diffability Hollywood takes a close look at film and television’s portrayal of people with disabilities. The term “diffability” is a reframing of disabilities, thinking of them as “different abilities.” I’ve worked with Adrian for nearly 10 years, helping with editing and many other aspects of production. This is his most accomplished movie yet.

As one attendee to the screening said, “every special ed teacher should see this film…” both for a historical perspective and to see what those with disabilities are capable of.

The next screening is the North Hollywood Cinefest, which Adrian and producer Kristina Nomeika will be attending. After that, a release for general audiences, and pricing for educational use will be available. Keep an eye on Espocinema.com for details.

Diffability Hollywood Trailer

WXXI Arts in Focus: Adrian Esposito

Arts In Focus full episode is online here.

My best-seller so far has been the INNER LOOP FOREVER design, which appeals to Rochester natives who just love that downtown shortcut, no matter what its current state.

See my designs under my “Many Hats” moniker at http://www.redbubble.com/people/manyhats

There will be an introduction, then the movie (85 mins), and then a Q&A after with Director John Vincent, Writer/Star Tom Malloy, and Producer/Actor Chris Wilmot.

Tickets for the general public are $10, for sale online here.

Spread the word, share the Facebook event!

Want to know more? Here’s an interview with Tom and John from FICKLE 93.3 FM.

I’ve written before about my admiration for Joe Bob and how influential his books and Monstervision show were for me. In my “self-curated film school,” Joe Bob was one of my virtual professors. It was a thrill to meet him in person.

In the Q&A after the movie, there was a question to Joe Bob about the worst movies he was asked to present on TNT’s Monstervision. He recalled the film Superbeast was a stand-out, and that that upon showing it, he challenged his audience to write in with an explanation of just what the heck was going on.

Superbeast (1972) was shot in the Philippines, and, as Joe Bob puts it, doesn’t make a lick of sense. I barely remember it, but I do remember that I took Joe Bob up on his challenge. With a little digital digging, I found my email from March 2, 1998. I present it here for posterity.

Dear Joe Bob,

The other night you practically begged us to write in with our interpretation of the opening minutes of that Filipino classic “Superbeast.” I’m surprised that the plot puzzled you so.

It was quite obvious to me that the film opens with the plight of the persecuted man. An everyman, you might say. This man is desperate to escape the jungle of everyday life. This jungle could represent a tortured existence, a loveless marriage, or a meaningless employment. At the same time, he is afraid to die. Even as he despises his life, he must continue in the struggle to survive. He will even kill to stay ahead. This our main character does, killing a truck driver and stealing his vehicle. Now he has a chance to break from the dreaded jungle of unhappiness.

He arrives at a hospital, looking for a way to perpetuate his fleeting success. He discovers that competing members in this race for enlightenment have beaten him here. He is approaching burnout, and he has no time to wait for the treatment of his soul’s wounds. Now he must resort to violence again, for that is the basis of competition. He takes a man unawares at his most vulnerable point. The man in the lavatory is the metaphorical man “with his pants down.” By obtaining this man’s “ticket to nirvana,” we see the Machiavellian premise (the ends justify the means) acted out.

Our man journeys to higher level of enlightenment. This time he travels in a more complex vehicle, representing his higher stature. He has almost realized his goal. At the flight’s destination, others believe him to be mad. His understanding of the universe has exceeded his ability to cope with the corporeal plane. He is shot and released from his confining body. His spirit is one with the ethereal world. He is no longer man or beast. He is “Superbeast.”

I hope I’ve helped you to fully understand the subtext of this rich, glorious film.

Sincerely,

“Mad Dog” Mike Boas

P.S. Do I win a beer? How about a T-shirt?


Pretty cheeky of me, sure. But I thought it fell in line with the spirit of Monstervision. I tip my hat to Joe-Bob… the drive-in will never die!

But now there’s a pendulum swing towards terrestrial radio happening in my hometown. In the last year, Rochester has birthed three new independent radio stations. Why? Perhaps as a reaction to the corporatization of radio in general (they all seem to be owned by the same few companies, constricted by advertising and narrow formats). Or maybe it’s more in line with the maker movement — in a digital era, people are looking for tangible, real world ways to be creative.

My initial reaction when I heard there’d be new indie radio stations was excitement: “What kind of show should I sign up to do?” And then I remembered that it takes a lot of time and effort, and I’m stretched pretty thin. Plus, isn’t it a step backwards, given the versatility and reach of podcasting? If I have a broadcasting itch to scratch, why not just dust off the Mad Dog Movies Podcast? Why doesn’t EVERYBODY just podcast? It’s easier than ever with services like Soundcloud and Mixcloud to help those without websites.

I suppose being on a radio station offers the network effect — audiences will find you by accident after tuning in for something else. The station acts like an aggregator — “You like this content? How about this, too?” That’s something that a podcast alone doesn’t do. Not unless you join forces with other podcasts, working to build each others audiences, which I’ve seen done.

One other thing to consider is that new live radio doesn’t require a radio. Each of these stations also broadcasts via the internet, and WXIR even serves via the Tune-In app.

Anyhow, here’s a run-down of the new (old) media in town.

WAYO 104.3 FM | LISTEN ONLINE

WAYO was first out of the gate, with hip crowdfunding campaigns and art-centric personalities. One frustrating thing for me personally was that they were moving into the Fedder Industrial Park while I was moving out. It would have been darn tempting to do a show if I had kept my office there.

Many DJs archive their shows using Mixcloud, and they’re featured on the website. Here’s an example of Eggwork Radio from my friend Matthew Ehlers:

[mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/eggwork/eggwork-radio-episode-22-david-byrne-talks-about-george-eastman/ width=100% height=120 hide_cover=1 light=1]

WRFZ 106.3 FM | LISTEN ONLINE

Rochester Free Radio is a little more political in nature. I get the impression it’s more talk than music, and many of those shows are available as downloads at archive.org.

Their website offers personal blogs from their talent, including the Fresh Toones Music Show from my friend Dave Puls. Dave went on to make a Youtube video from his first show also.

WXIR 100.9 FM | LISTEN ONLINE

An offshoot of public access television RCTV 15, this is the latest one to launch.  I admire what they’re doing there. Rochester Movie Makers has had a good relationship with RCTV in the last several years, and they have a great facility there with a motivated community.

No archives are listed on the site, but show pages often have links to outside websites where hosts can post their content. For instance, here’s a recent episode of the Rockabilly N Blues Radio Hour with James Riley.

Will I keep listening? It all comes down to habit. I’ll have to dial in some radio time while working or driving and see if anything sticks.

Each month, Brooks puts a call out for 15 second short entries in the “Rubber Onion Battle” on Instagram. They get compiled and discussed on the show. It’s a lot of fun to see what listeners come up with.

This month’s topic was “Handshake Fail” and it was the first time I found a couple of hours to devote to the contest. The hardest decision for me was… what music should I go with? Jolly or dramatic?

Jolly Handshake

Dramatic Handshake

I thought dramatic had more comedic punch, so that’s the one I went with. Here’s the compilation of all this month’s entries:

Rubber Onion Battle | June 2016 | Handshake Fail

Looking forward to the next challenge, “Mustache Problems.”

The animator of the doodle actually built a multi-plane camera!

Ten years ago, I produced an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods, done in a style inspired by Lotte Reiniger. I actually have been working on an HD version, which will be released soon.

The challenge was to include the following:

• A character named Bruce or Bryce Lemon, who has a secret.
• A clock.
• The line “This has never happened before.”

Then pick a genre from the Select-O-Matic 6000. I picked NOIR.

Since I was working in (mostly) vector animation, I decided to source mine in 4K as a proof of concept. I endeavour to learn something on every project, so I thought working out how to do 4K animation on something short would be a good idea.

What did I learn? The two raster images I used in my Flash project sized down in Flash and then up correctly in After Effects. (I run my animation through AE for final framing and camera moves.) So that’s good.

But After Effects wouldn’t let me output a Quicktime with h.264 compression at larger than 2000 pixels.  (For you Adobe nerds out there, the error message was “Output file will be resized from 4096 x 2160 (1.00 PAR) to 2000 x 2000 (1.00 PAR) to meet format constraints.”) Fortunately, I could do Cineform or Animation codec at 4K.

One nice thing about Youtube is it does take 4K uploads… not that many people can watch it that way. Still, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

I’m pretty pleased to be part of these two projects, which were honored by the Rondo Hatton Awards this year.

Not only did the Army of Darkness Collector’s Edition win best Classic DVD/Blu-ray of 2015, but THE MAKING OF ARMY OF DARKNESS (for which I provided animation) won BEST DVD EXTRA.

Meanwhile, another documentary I worked on, THAT GUY DICK MILLER, got an honorable mention, acting as one of the documentary feature runner-ups to Creature Feature: 60 Years of the Gill-man. Curse you, Gill-man! :)

Not a bad showing for last year!

Chris is also a producer, and he’s currently doing a documentary about his two main interests: photography and bow-hunting. They have more in common than you’d think!

For the doc, which also touches on his role at Dogtown, he needed some animation of the company’s mascot. Here’s what I came up with. (No sound.)

How did I get there? Pencil drawings! I started with the legs.

Then came a rough of the body. Just trying to get the walk cycle right.

This last test shows the biting of the hot dog.

You’ll notice the camera shake around a bit. I was shooting these tests in my living room on my phone, without a traditional camera stand. Jumpy, but gave me an idea of how the animation would work once I cleaned it up. (I’m actually working on a down-shooter rig for my iphone so I can shoot steadier tests that way.)

Next, I scanned the pencil drawings, imported to Adobe Flash, and did my clean-up inks digitally.

This year, I’m happy to be represented on the ballot twice!

THAT GUY DICK MILLER is nominated for best documentary, and Army of Darkness: MEDIEVAL TIMES for best DVD extra. I did animation for both.

Anyone can vote! Check out the link below for instructions.

Winners announced in the (Gasp!) 14th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

Working on this was a real honor. The Evil Dead films were hugely influential on me, helping to define what I loved about horror and humor, and then influencing me to become a filmmaker.

Here’s some behind the scenes image from my work process. Separating the various Army of Darkness posters into layers is time consuming, but it’s something I’ve done quite a bit of for other projects. I love finding ways to paint in the missing areas where characters overlap each other or the background.

Now matching those elements into the book’s turning pages, THAT was a challenge.

That’s a pretty small whirlybird, isn’t it?

The helicopter was made by Rolls Royce, and our pilot Sam showed us the turbine engine, which weighs less than 200 lbs. I think he was trying to ease our minds by talking mechanics. Not sure that helped.

The four of us climbed into a space smaller than a compact car!

We were told NOT to lock the door, which was confusing, given the labels.

We couldn’t ask for a better day. No wind. Great temperature. Here’s a shot of The Genesee River.

Some shots of downtown.

An overview of the fill-in work on the Inner Loop.

The U of R — hey, I got married there!

What I don’t have a picture of is me looking green. Sure enough, about halfway through the flight I got nauseated and broke out in a cold sweat. Still worth it!

This was of particular interest to me because I used Scripped on a project several years ago — in fact that screenplay would still be there if not for the server dump. At the time, I was intrigued by the option of writing online. I’ve never been a fan of Final Draft or Movie Magic (having used both). I began writing scripts using a screenplay template in Word (a bit of a pain to set up) which might still be my favorite experience, although I do enjoy Celtx.

Anyway, even in 2009 I was wary of putting all my chickens in one program. After each day’s writing, I would download a pdf of my work as backup. So the Scripped.com purge didn’t affect me specifically.

However, it got me thinking about other such evaporations I’ve witnessed over the years.

MESSAGE BOARDS

I now see message boards like social media — ephemeral, mainly to be used for conversation, not archiving. I used to converse a quite a bit on boards at Indieclub.com (for filmmaking) and Dread Central (horror movie fandom). There were threads that were full of great information, so I bookmarked some to read again. But the internet is impermanent, and those pages are now gone. This was due to software upgrades at Indieclub and a change of site owners at Dread Central (which used to be under the umbrella of The Horror Channel). What’s the lesson? If I find something really useful in a board, I should copy it to a file on my hard drive.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Forums like those have mostly given way to social media like Twitter and Facebook… and Myspace. Wow, I put a lot of time into Myspace. But it became unwieldy, so I walked away when Facebook came knocking. When it finally pivoted into a music site, I didn’t weep for my lost page. I’d been trained to be a digital nomad by that point.

WEBSITES I’VE BUILT

I once had a client’s website totally wiped out when the webhost upgraded their servers. Didn’t I have backups? Well, this was before I learned exactly how WordPress worked. I had template design backups but not the MySQL database, where all the content for posts lived. A learning experience! …Which is what I told myself as I rebuilt the site from memory.

Under my own Mad Dog Movies network, my Ominous Events wiki tanked at one point, and I never found out why. I actually had the MySQL backup, but at that point I was sick of writing in wiki code and following its format rules. Instead, I restarted the site in WordPress. It’s not the same as it was, but I’m not certain how much time I want to put into the site.

BOOKMARKS

I use Delicious.com to bookmark everything I like online, But some bookmarked sites from years ago have evaporated. I could investigate other bookmarking services that take snapshots of pages, but I rarely go back that far in time when searching for links. Plus, there’s always the wayback machine for archived pages at Archive.org.

***

The shifting sands of cloud computing should worry me more, but I do my best to back things up. I try to spread it around, too, hosting my sites on my own server (rented from a webhost) and doing periodical backups. I’m deep into using Google programs and Dropbox, but try to keep everything there on hard drives as well. Fingers remain crossed.

The Prototype

Almost two years ago now, I saw the trailer for The Prototype online. It seemed like a sharp story about the singularity, told as a chase thriller. Where’s the release? Upon further investigation, it turns out that trailer was a promotional tool to raise money. Wow, I hope they get it together!

Ex Machina

Can a robot love? It’s easier to believe when it looks like a beautiful woman, that’s for sure.

Automata

Automata seems to be more Asimov than the disappointing I, Robot was. The idea of an underclass of robots is intriguing, reminding me of District 9.

Chappie

http://youtu.be/LifnxDn6e28

Speaking of District 9, here’s Neill Blomkamp’s latest. It seems somewhat lightweight, however. More E.T. than District 9. Curiously, the bunny ear antennae are reminiscent of Appleseed‘s robot design.  Seeing this made me want to go back and look at one of Blomkamp’s early shorts, Yellow, still hanging out on Youtube.

Yellow

Aside from these films, there’s also the more threatening return of the Terminator franchise, which I’m cautiously optimistic about. Any other robot films to watch out for? Let me know.

One of the challenges in our field is discussing the different styles of animation with prospective clients. When someone asks “how much does animation cost” it can depend on the type of animation. Hand-drawn, realistic, limited, even CG or clay all have different considerations.

What better way to explain it than in animation? We at Animatus Studio put together this video as an introduction and explanation.

The animation in this piece was not mine, rather my role was as the final checker and editor. I made sure the elements matched in size and resolution, did the color correction, some transitions, and audio mixing.

Earlier this year, we released a rough trailer for Hero of the Underworld. Since then, I polished it up a bit — give it a click!

We still have some post production work to do, but the film really came together well. Still too early to do any screenings, but I’ll post here when I have more news.

Hero of the Underworld Synopsis

Dylan Berrick is the overnight manager of the Century Grand, one of the most chic and upscale hotels in the city. His business demeanor is flawless, but underneath his professionalism is the dark side of heroin addiction.

It all comes to the surface in one shocking night, when a woman is nearly beaten to death in his hotel.

Dylan takes it upon himself to seek this girl out and become her savior, rescuing her from the drug underworld that he is so familiar with.

As their relationship grows, we learn that Dylan is battling his own personal demons and saving this woman may be the only key to saving his job, his sanity, and his life.

The Scanners Criterion Blu-ray came out yesterday, with animation I did for the bonus feature “The Ephemerol Diaries.”

Visit Criterion.com

Also, there’s a sale over at Humble Bundle this week. You can get a bundle of 2K video games, including The Darkness II. Attentive players may find my production of “H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods” playing on a television screen inside the game.

The Darkness II game trailer:

Humble Bundle has weekly deals on video games, ebooks, and comics. This week’s bundle also includes the Bioshock games and others from 2K Games.

Visit humblebundle.com

Here’s my latest reel of animation work, including clips from the documentary That Guy Dick Miller and the opening titles from TV show The Right Stuff.  Also some character designs and magic burros from the feature 3.14… and much much more!

Earlier this spring, I took part in shooting the feature Hero of the Underworld. The story is deals with addiction and abuse, inspired by writer Tom Malloy’s experiences working in a hotel in New York. I acted as assistant director, and I’m also one of the producers.

It was a privilege to work with so many professional actors like Quinton Aaron, Catherine Mary Stewart, David Lawrence, Gabriel Jarret, and of course Tom Malloy. We’ve got some great performances, and director John Vincent, Tom, and the rest of the creative team are eager to finish the film and get it out to festivals.

For more about the project, visit:
http://www.herooftheunderworld.com

Today I’m proud to announce that the Criterion Collection is picking up “The Ephemerol Diaries” for inclusion on their U.S. Scanners release. So, there you have it, my animation will be on a Criterion disc. Yowza!

Back when we were conceiving  the piece, Elijah and I wanted to emulate the experience of a VHS industrial video. I took the Consec logo from the film and tried to imagine it as part of a 1980s era logo sequence.  I added some bad tracking and warbly synth music, and it came out pretty well.  At one point, we were going to start with a VCR blue screen that read PLAY in the upper corner, but we later decided that would be too much.

My animated opening:

In Scanners, Consec is the amoral drug company that the hero must eventually do battle with. We came up with the phrase “securing a better future today” as an example of corporate-speak that sounds vaguely ominous.

To create the animation, I first had to replicate the logo. So I started with some screen grabs.

I brought those pics into Illustrator and created a vector image to match.  It took a combination of tracing, drawing, and an existing font (Exotic Bold, coincidentally a font I had used before for my Subterranea website).

I exported the vector art in grayscale, then applied color as an overlay in After Effects. That’s a method I’ve used out in several projects, especially when I’m unsure of what color I want until I start animating.

For the animation of the logo, I constructed a landscape of horizontal lines that recede into the distance. The final step was adding “bad tracking” artifacts, which came from an effects package I bought online.

Here’s some 1980s VHS logos I took inspiration from:

Next came the titles themselves, which I based on the original Scanners trailer. A red heart beep line, and the right font treatment were the challenge here.  I went through dozens of “computer” fonts before finding one we liked. We chose to go with the red heart blip from the American trailer, but a green treatment for the font, more in keeping with some other Scanners artwork.

The Scanners trailer:

I won’t include all the title animation on this post, but here are some screen grabs from what I did.

I animated the blips using Flash, then made it glow in After Effects.

The titles were designed in Photoshop, then the glows and zooms were done in After Effects.

We were pretty happy with the resulting piece, which of course has a great interview with Scanners actor Stephen Lack.  It’s a privilege to see that it has Criterion’s seal of approval as well.

For more about the Criterion Collection release of Scanners, visit www.criterion.com/films/28043-scanners

For more about DVD and Blu-ray features from END Films, visit www.endfilms.com

Comfort Zone, a documentary about what the average person can do in response to climate change, is now available to purchase on DVD.  The film was produced by three Rochester filmmakers, Dave Danesh, Sean P. Donnelly, and Kate Kressmann-Kehoe, and I contributed some animation of personified gases for the feature.  (Some preliminary designs you can see below.)

The idea was to come up with a look for various gases you’d find in the atmosphere based on their dominant traits.  The characters appear in the movie as “usual suspects,” sometimes in a police line-up.  It was a fun challenge, and a documentary I’m proud to have contributed to.

Buy Comfort Zone today at comfortzoneproject.com
       

Featuring animation by yours truly!

And then the unedited audio sat in my computer for another several months. What can I say, I’ve been busy (ahem– got married, edited another cut of 3.14, animated the openings for two Pursuit Channel shows, took on an acting role in a long short film… enough items for another blog post).

In any case, it’s online now for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Listen to The Mad Dog Movies Podcast episode 12

There’s a website called Scripted.com that acts as a go-between for bloggers and writers. It works like this: a blog-runner wants content in a certain field. He or she posts a request on Scripted.com, asking for article pitches. Writers who have been vetted for that field are allowed to pitch on the job. If awarded the job, they write the article and get paid.

Intrigued, I signed up as someone who can write about art, design, and movies. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, these jobs usually pay about $29 an article. Which is low anyway, but really low when you take into account that it’s ghost-writing. You’re not even supposed to take credit for your work once it’s published.  The way I figure it, writers should get paid MORE for any writing they do without credit. Hush money, so to speak.

I kept an eye on the writing requests anyway, just to see what’s out there. Then came one I couldn’t resist.

Pitches for a Weekly Cartoon Text

Things to Mention: General interest gags, preferably business or family related

Things to Avoid: adult themes, politics, religion

Additional Notes: Gags can be rated G, PG, PG-13 & R but not XXX

Payment: $2.50

Hmm. So a cartoonist is looking for gags? And he’ll be paying a whopping $2.50 per joke? I’m in!

Yes, my enthusiasm is sarcastic, but I thought it would be fun to pitch it anyway. Here’s what I sent off:

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says “Why the Long Face?”

Surprise, surprise… I got an email from the site saying the party “loved” my pitch. So now I had to write the comic. Erm… okay. Here’s my first attempt:

Cartoon Text: The Horse

PANEL ONE
Medium shot. A bartender stands at the bar, washing a glass.

PANEL TWO
A horse enters from screen right.

PANEL THREE
The bartender and horse look at each other. An uncomfortable silence.

PANEL FOUR
The bartender says “Why the long face?”

So the next day, I get this email:

Chief Complaint Hi Mike, Per the client’s feedback, the gag in your pitch has already been used. These need to be unique gags. Please re-submit by end of day today

So the stale joke pitch, which he loved, is now insufficient. All right, how about this?

Cartoon Text: The Horse v2

PANEL ONE
Medium shot. A bartender stands at the bar, washing a glass. A horse stands across from him.
Horse: “Why the long face? Really? Get some new material.”

PANEL TWO
The bartender and horse look at each other. An uncomfortable silence.

PANEL THREE
The bartender looks sheepish.
Bartender: “Yeah, sorry. What can I get you?”

PANEL FOUR
Horse: “Got any hay?”

Keep in mind, I’m doing this for the fun of it at this point. What’s to lose?

Now the client answers with a zinger of a challenge.

Can we see it in one panel?

That’s the kind of thing you think he could have mentioned up front.  But sure, why not?

Cartoon Text: The Horse v3

PANEL ONE
Medium shot. A bartender stands at the bar, washing a glass. A horse stands across from him.

Horse: “Sure, I got a long face. Mister, you don’t want to hear my troubles.”

But wait, it’s not quite good enough yet. Here’s the next email:

Please let me know if you can complete these edits by end of day. As it stands, the panel needs to be made wittier/funnier:’

Oh, now he’s hitting below the belt. My jokes aren’t funny? Fine. Will this tickle his funny bone?

Cartoon Text: The Horse v4

PANEL ONE
Medium shot. A bartender stands at the bar, washing a glass. A horse stands across from him.

Horse: “Sure, I got a long face, but you don’t want to hear my troubles. Just lead me to a gin and tonic, see if I drink.”

He answers:

I’m afraid your edits didn’t meet the necessary tone for these pieces. For this reason, you’ll be compensated 50% of the payment and the job will be re-assigned.

I apologize that this was not a better fit.

$1.25 for miscellany
Paid on 05/31/2013

Ack! The final insult, I’m only paid $1.25. But think of the experience I gained!

My short script is called “Ingredients,” and it’s a modest story — at least compared to other years, when my work has included monsters, talking fish, and the devil. Instead, it tells the story of a blind date that doesn’t turn out as expected.

You can read the script right here:

“Ingredients” by Mike Boas (PDF)

Read my scripts from past years:

2012 “The King of Cups”

2011 “The Old Fish and the Sea”

2010 “The Interrogation”

What? You don’t get RCTV where you live? Okay, check out the interview on Vimeo here:

Mike Boas Interview from Stan Main on Vimeo.

3.14 is a surreal film from writer/director G. Gotham Smith that asks if there is a mathematical constant that determines why some people never learn from their mistakes, but instead go through life in circles, acting out repeating patterns of behavior.

Here’s the trailer, which I’m quite proud of.

“3.14…” Movie Trailer from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

Stop Motion Scaresnake – Raw Animation with Motion Blur from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

For instance, here’s the opening to a piece on John Carradine, for Subkultur’s German DVD release of Gallery of Horrors. For this, I attempted to imitate the opening of Gallery, which had a lot of colored smoke. We chose some gothic fonts to go with it, one of which carried through to the final packaging.

John Carradine DVD animation from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

And here’s the opening for a piece on Roger Corman, produced for the “Nurses” box set from Shout! Factory. For this, we wanted something that evoked 1970s title design and colors. A long piece of intro music made it an extra challenge.

Roger Corman DVD animated titles from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

If you REALLY like it, my services are available for hire. Contact me today about animating titles or logos for your movies or video productions.

I thought the Umlala song “My PDF Files” would be great to cut to — it has a strong beat, fun lyrics, and several changes that work well for animation sync. When I first heard the song online last year, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Now I can’t get it out of my head all over again, but in a good way.

It was fun going back through years of material, if somewhat challenging to assemble everything. Add to that my goal of including as much HD (1080p) footage as possible, which meant opening original Flash and Toonboom files and exporting at high resolution. (Will I be rendering again at 4K in a couple years?)

For the third consecutive year, a short script by yours truly has won at Rochester Movie Makers Script-A-Palooza. There were 9 screenplays read (performed!) that night by our troupe of talented actors. I was impressed with the continuing quality from our small community. The dramatic pieces were really strong, too, which doesn’t always come across since script readings generally favors comedy.

My piece, THE KING OF CUPS, is something I wrote in response to one of our RMM Writers Workshop challenges. I ignored my usual sense of practicality for this one and set it in New Orleans during a hurricane. Would I ever change it to, say, Rochester during a light drizzle? Eh, I don’t know. Without giving anything away, there are some plot elements that seem to fit New Orleans… After the reading, someone described it to me as being like a Twilight Zone episode, and I suppose he’s right.

For anyone who’d like to read it, I’ll share it online here. (Copyright 2012 Mike Boas.)

Read The King of Cups.

Ben Gilbert’s review of The Darkness 2.

Perhaps you’ve seen the ads all over the web this week for The Darkness II, the horror game from 2k Games and Digital Extremes. The story of The Darkness (in comics and games) concerns an ancient evil from another dimension that aligns itself with a mob hitman. There’s some hints of Lovecraftian ideas there, so it feels right that my film, The Other Gods, has a role in the new game.

The creative director of The Darkness II reached out to me several months ago to see if it would be possible to license The Other Gods for inclusion in the game. Of course, I said “yes.” Apparently, players will have the option of watching (or ignoring) the entire 5 minute short in the game world. I’m assuming it appears on a video monitor or movie screen in the game — I haven’t played the game yet, so I can’t be more specific. I hope to share some screenshots online soon.

This has been quite a year for The Other Gods — it played at the Museum of Art and Design in NYC, as well as two screenings in Buffalo and a surprise appearance at the Halloween edition of Rochester’s Emerging Filmmakers. Not bad for a film that premiered in 2006 (or 1924, depending on which version of events you choose to believe).

Find out more (and buy the game) at http://www.embracethedarkness.com

New York, NY (September 23, 2011)—New Yorkers can now celebrate Halloween a few days early. The Museum of Arts and Design hosts the 3rd edition of the short film fest Daggers, featuring 12 exquisitely creepy films that will share the spotlight on October 20, 2011, at 7:00 pm, and on October 22 at 3:00 pm in the Theater at MAD. Curated by noted critic Peter Gutiérrez, the all-shorts Daggers showcases work by up-and-coming talents, as well as contemporary classics by renowned filmmakers such as Denis Villeneuve and Jason Eisener. This mini-fest sports a macabre mix that is sure to please horror-hounds of all stripes.

“Horror is a much richer and more diverse genre than it is often given credit for,” observes Gutiérrez, who founded Daggers in 2008. “With Daggers we get to show off that range of artistry. In this year’s lineup, for example, we have surrealism, gothic mystery, psychological horror, a silent film, a musical, Cronenberg-style body horror, stop-motion animation, an experimental dance piece, and even gore-comedy. The goal is to represent the unsettling, the poetic, the thought-provoking, and yes, the stomaching-turning.”

Unspooling its dozen films in about two hours, Daggers will screen some of the best short-form horror from around the world, giving local audiences a chance to enjoy titles that are typically accessible only via major film festivals. Shot on the streets of Prague, “Prahands” recalls classic avant-garde cinema while “New Born” is an early effort of Israel’s Navot Papushado, co-writer and co-director of this year’s Tribeca favorite “Rabies” (“Kalevet”). Tasmania is represented by Briony Kidd‘s “The Room at The Top of The Stairs,” which makes its New York premiere. And of course there will be films by American, Canadian, and British filmmakers.

These include the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “The Other Gods,” Matthew Garrett‘s “Beating Hearts,” Firas Momani‘s Fantasia-winning “The Adder’s Bite,” and the world premiere of “(Baby) It’s You,” a fun twist on the archetypal “mad scientist” film. Also making its New York premiere is Jerome Sable‘s acclaimed Sundance hit, “The Legend of Beaver Dam.” As always, the programming strategy seeks to combine fresh titles, many of which are new to Big Apple audiences, with ones that are well worthy of encores. Faye Jackson‘s “Lump” was shown directly before “Pan’s Labyrinth” at 2006’s New York Film Festival, and Jason (“Hobo with a Shotgun”) Eisener‘s “Treevenge” won the audience award for best short at the 2008 edition of the New York City Horror Film Festival. Moviegoers will know “Next Floor”‘s Denis Villeneuve as the director behind the Oscar-nominated “Incendies,” but may not have been able to catch this short, a prize-winner at TIFF, Sitges, and Cannes, not to mention a recipient of the Genie, Canada’s highest filmmaking award. The lineup also happens to boast another Genie-winner, Pedro Pires‘s unforgettable “Danse Macabre.”

“From last year’s Zombo Italiano and Jodorowsky series to this fall’s Sion Sono retro, MAD is proving itself to be a force in bold yet offbeat genre programming,” explains Gutiérrez. “That’s an approach that appeals to New York’s cinephiles and horror fans alike. It also happens to be very close to Daggers‘ sensibility, so I couldn’t be happier that this unique event has found such a great venue.”

ABOUT THE SERIES

Daggers will screen in the Theater at MAD on October 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm and on October 22, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

Both screenings $10 General
$7 MAD Members and Students.

Daggers is curated by film critic Peter Gutiérrez, frequent contributor to Rue Morgue and TribecaFilm.Com.

For more information, or to order tickets, please visit: http://www.madmuseum.org/series/daggers

THE 2011 DAGGERS LINEUP
All films will be projected digitally.

The Adder’s Bite (2010)
Dir. Firas Momani
9 min

(Baby) It’s You (2011)
Dir. David Cowles, Jeremy Galante, and Brad Pattullo
3 min

Beating Hearts (2010)
Dir. Matthew Garrett
11 min

Danse Macabre (2009)
Dir. Pedro Pires
9 min

The Legend of Beaver Dam (2010)
Dir. Jerome Sable
12 min

Lump (2006)
Dir. Faye Jackson
12 min

New Born (2006)
Dir. Navot Papsushado
14 min

Next Floor (2008)
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
11 min

The Other Gods (2006)
Dir. Mike Boas
6 min

Prahands (2007)
Dir. Charles Pieper
5 min

The Room at the Top of the Stairs (2011)
Dir. Briony Kidd
15 min

Treevenge (2008)
Dir. Jason Eisener
16 min

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design explores the blur zone that characterizes so much of art, design, and craft today. The Museum focuses on contemporary creativity and the ways in which artists and designers from around the world transform materials through processes ranging from the artisanal to digital. The Museum’s exhibition program explores and illuminates issues and ideas, highlights creativity and craftsmanship, and celebrates the limitless potential of materials and techniques when used by gifted and innovative artists. MAD’s permanent collection is global in scope and focuses on art, craft, and design from 1950 to the present day. At the center of the Museum’s mission is education. The Museum’s dynamic new facility features classrooms and studios for master classes, seminars, and workshops for students, families, and adults. Three open artist studios engage visitors in the creative processes of artists at work and enhance the exhibition programs. Lectures, films, performances, and symposia related to the Museum’s collection and topical subjects affecting the world of contemporary art, craft, and design are held in a renovated 144-seat auditorium.

How has my site changed over the years? Here’s a brief history.

2001: THE HAND

Before I ever bought maddogmovies.com or even mikeboas.com, I had a free site hosted on Tripod.  I was trying to share my resume, so to that end I created a Flash “interactive resume.”  Cute, eh?  The Animation Scoop was a cartoon news blog idea that I never did more than a dozen posts for.

2004: MIKE BOAS SITE

After getting fed up with pop-up ads at Tripod, I moved over to another free host.  Not surprisingly, service there was intermittent.  Eventually, I moved my personal site to Cyberpixels.com, where I bought legit domain names.  The site itself had a spooky sci-fi theme, with sounds and music borrowed from The Outer Limits and The Creature From the Black Lagoon. The design of these bio pages went unchanged until I re-organized the site in 2009. (This snapshot is from 2007.)

2004: THE LANDING PAGE

At this point, Mad Dog Movies was the name I gave to my network of sites.  The bio site stood on its own, and the Mad Dog Blog was a third entity.

2005: THE SMORGASBORD

As I created more websites and cartoons, the landing page became more and more crowded.   I won’t get into it here, but Almost A Movie, Subterranea, and Ominous Events also went through a few versions over the years.  Oh, and those references to the Cinematic Almanac?  That site encompassed a half dozen articles I felt (at the time) should stand on their own.  I later moved them into the blog.

2006: EL BLOGGO DEL PERRO LOCO

Meanwhile, the blog continued.  Cyberpixels became unreliable in 2005, so I moved everything over to Hostgator, where I continue to reside today. Early on, I chose the B2Evolution blog software.  A sort of competitor to WordPress, Blogger, and Moveable Type, it later made me crazy.  

2008: Brightcove

At some point, I wanted to put more video on the landing page.  Brightcove was a cool Flash player that allowed me to do that.  Until they discontinued their free service, that is.  After that, I made due with a Youtube playlist for a while.

2008-2009: CHANGING HAIR

Over on the B2Evolution blog, I made some significant changes.  Unfortunately, I don’t have screen caps from that time, but I do have this selection of vanity headers showcasing my various haircuts.

2009: WordPress

In December of 2009, I bit the bullet and migrated from B2Evolution to WordPress.  There was some angst involved, as I didn’t want to lose all my old posts, but I managed to keep everything intact.  I also took this opportunity to combine the bio site, the blog, and the Mad Dog Movies identity all into one.  The Atahualpa theme lasted a week or two, and then I created something crazy…

2009: DARK RED SLIDING DOORS

There was something about the “Sliding Doors” theme I liked.  It had javascript-powered sliding banner links at the top of the page.  But there were other design elements in the “Dark Red” theme that I wanted, also.  So I combined the two — which was fine for a year or so.  Eventually, WordPress updates (and the lack of updates in both Sliding Doors and Dark Red) necessitated another change.

2011: PAGELINES IN PROGRESS

I burned through a ton of test themes in the last few days.  I landed on one called “Platform” from Pagelines which has a great interface for making changes.  I rarely want something straight out of the box, and I need to make changes to colors, fonts, backgrounds, and column widths.  Platform lets me do most of that without hard coding.  Here’s what it looked like yesterday.

2011: CURRENT

And today I’ve brought in my current logo and scratchy paper look.  I’d like to tighten the spacing a bit (mostly in the sidebar) but it’s pretty satisfactory.  Pagelines offers pro versions of their themes, so I might consider upgrading.

It is about modern day Stregheria (Italian witchcraft). If that catches your interest, why not support a Rochester writer and buy a copy?

Oh, and here’s the cover, done by yours truly (and inspired by John William Waterhouse’s The Magic Circle).

Buy “Paradigm” on Amazon.

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When last I blogged, I was pushing Mind Rip’s Kickstarter campaign. Well, that fundraising tactic fell short, but that doesn’t mean we’re not making the movie any way possible. We’re continuing to shoot the first half hour of the film (which are relatively low on special effects). Thanks to our leads, Joe Thompson and Kristen Royale, for shooting with us for a few nights in July. For more pics, friend the film at http://facebook.com/mindrip

Meanwhile, after a 6 day shoot in and around Death Valley, I’m now editing the feature film “3.14…” for writer/director/actor Greg Smith. This is an indie feature that looks at mathematical concepts and philosophy through dream logic. Oh, and there’s guys dressed in zebra striped lycra suits riding motorbikes. Friend the movie at http://www.facebook.com/pages/314-the-movie/142935755771042

And this is a good time to mention our new base of operations for Philrose editing projects, which I’m dubbing the Phil-Mad offices. Because, you know, I’m there too. At last, John Vincent and I have enough space for computers AND noxious chemicals. (That’s office plus workshop space, folks.)

As long as I’m in recap mode, I’ll mention that I won the Rochester Movie Makers short script competition for the second straight year. My entry is the soul-searching tale of a young man and a talking trout. (Gulp! Now I have to consider shooting it.) Read “The Old Fish and the Sea” online here.

Lesia Vincent’s first novel will be released soon, so here’s a sneak peek at the cover by yours truly. Paradigm’s story involves a woman connecting with her ancestors via Italian witchcraft. For the cover, I did an interpretation of John William Waterhouse’s painting, The Magic Circle. Watch this space for an announcement when the book goes on sale.

Ammo and Attitude is a reality show on the Versus network. Derrick Petrush (of Rochester Movie Makers) is editing the show and asked me to update the animated intro for the new season. The original intro was really well done, and it was a fairly straight forward job to go in and swap in this year’s contestants. Still, it involved a certain amount of rotoscoping and After Effects cleverness. Find out more about the show at ammoandattitude.com

And finally (finally!) I should mention what a pleasure it was to co-teach a class on storyboarding to 36 young filmmakers at the 360 | 365 film camp. Fred Armstrong and I went in armed with dittos about camera shots and tons of samples.  The kids were super creative and super appreciative.  Their resulting short films will be going online soon at http://film360365.com/school

That’s all for now. Here’s where I should insert a witty comment about it better not be another four months before updating again, but… eh, I don’t feel like it.

But what about the structure? Am I sure it’s going to work? Is it possible to share an entire outline with the group?

That was my goal for this past Sunday’s get together. I’ve been working from a loose outline, but it seemed too loose to share. So I started turning it into a treatment. I got through Act 1 before running out of steam.

Still, the act of writing it solidified certain aspects in my mind. Then I could discuss that document and my plans for the strucure more clearly.

Here’s the doc, half treatment, half fuzzy outline:
gamersoutline110605

My sounding board, Wayne, gave me a few suggestions to strengthen the first act. Basically, give Jess a more active role in discovering clues about the parallel dimension game before even meeting Trevor. Or maybe that’s WHY she meets Trevor, in following up a lead. We talked about ways to bring in fantastic elements earlier, while adding plot points to the first act to make it longer.

There’s also the challenge of making Jess likeable, vulnerable, yet able to grow into a strong hero. I don’t want her to get sidelined. Even though Trevor is the action hero at first, she has to assume that role by the end of the movie, so it’s her story. Wayne brought up Batman — be careful not to let it become about Batman battling the Joker, while she watches. No — I’d rather it be like Vicky Vale discovering who Batman is, then taking on the Joker herself.

I came away from that meeting with a hundred new ideas to try. It might mean starting over from page one, so I think I’ll finish a solid treatment first.

After many weeks of false starts, I finished work on my animated promo film for the “Another Hole In the Head” horror film festival. Some time ago, Eric Ringer contacted me to see if I could do something for the horror arm of the San Fransico Indiefest. Sure, I said I’d love to… but finding the time was a challenge.

In any case, the zombies got done over the weekend, and now you can see the final result. I was working from a specific storyline that Eric had in mind. I made a couple changes to simplify it, but I’m pretty happy with the result.

Stay tuned to http://www.sfindie.com for tickets and more info in the coming months.

Animation by Mike Boas. Music by Alec Jenkyn Williams.

I’m pleased to announce that the animated short H.P. Lovecraft’s The Other Gods will be playing as part of HP Lovecraft: Reanimated in London this Friday, April 15.

The mission of HP Lovecraft: Reanimated is to take everything that’s great about live entertainment and give it a deviant, Lovecraftan twist. The event is presented by Wake Up Productions in association with The HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast – and with support from the publishers of the At The Mountains Of Madness and forthcoming The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume I graphic novels, SelfMadeHero.

Thanks to Chris Lackey for inviting me to submit The Other Gods! I wish I could attend, and I wish them the best of luck with the show.

Ticket information is available here:
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=xxx&query=schedule&promoter=wakeup

Click the pic for a closer look.

UNMASKED
Mike Russo and I found ourselves making another 72 Hour film for the Mind 2 Movie Challenge. This year’s improv elements: a closet clown, a bunch of bills, and a hostage situation. We’ll be premiering the film (along with the 9 other contest entries) on Monday, March 7, at the Little Theatre.

ANIMATUS IN THE PAPER
The D&C did a great article on Fred Armstrong and Animatus Studio, featuring a few pictures of yours truly working on the latest Buju & Ziggie cartoon for Wegmans and Crystal Pix. Read it online, or see the scan from the paper (with additional pictures) by clicking here.

THE MITZVAH
I’m providing post production assistance to this short film from writer/director Rose Jurman. It’s a piece about doubt and regret, set during WWII.

ZOMBIE INTERVENTION
Franklin Kielar wrote and directed this horror/comedy. It’s essentially a silent short, in which I play an undead father figure confronting a young vegetarian zombie. It was a fun shoot, done in one morning (but with two cameras) back in the fall. Now it’s on YouTube, complete with outtakes.

AIRPORT SHENANIGANS
To begin with, I’ve been fielding comments from family and friends who’ve seen my face on giant screens at the airport. No, it’s not security related, it’s a short movie called Virgin Fang written and directed by Mike Russo. (I play Draculess, the Woody Allen of vampires. ) It’s part of a media showcase put together by the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film and Video Office to showcase local productions.

ANIMATUS STUDIO
Over at Animatus, our big project in 2010 was dancing cats for Wegmans’ Buju & Ziggie cat food. More recently, Fred, Dave, and I worked with a group of Rochester teens to animate a music video about teen pregnancy and STD’s.

SECRET ANIMATED SHORT
I’m contributing animation, drawings, and random textures to a mixed media film that Frank Kielar is directing. I’d say more, but we’re keeping it quiet for now.

ROCHESTER MOVIEMAKERS WRITERS WORKSHOP
As a challenge to myself, I take part in the RMM Writers Workshop. I’ve written a few shorts in the past couple months, based on elements chosen at random. The “talking fish, lemon, argument in a laundromat” script was particularly fun.

MIND RIP
The Philrose horror feature Mind Rip is still cranking along. We held some auditions (more to come) for upcoming shoots. We’re also designing and making creatures, plus planning a Kickstarter campaign to raise some art department funds.

POPCORN
I’m contributing website stuff and moral support to the Bells On Productions DVD release of Popcorn. It’s a personal favorite of Kristy Jett, Horror Queen of the Internet and Fright Rags huckster. She’s tracking down video elements and producing a behind the scenes documentary.

MERRY-GO-ROUND / 3.14
Back in the fall, I crewed on this feature from writer/director Gregory Gotham Smith. (It was once called Merry-Go-Round, now the name is changing to 3.14.) Now I’m editing, assembling the footage before continuing with the second half of the shoot — a week in the California desert later this year.

360 | 365
And then I go home at night and watch short films, trying to decide what we’ll screen at the 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival at the end of April.

THE INTERROGATION
When will I get the chance to do my own Lunchbox short? I’ll have to squeeze that shoot in soon, then get to work animating the monster character.

Is that all? Certainly it’s enough for now. Stay tuned for news of my impending bout with exhaustion.

“At some point I expect this to trickle down to the development stage. If you developed your script openly, providing numerous drafts on the internet and encouraged feedback from fans, it’s an easy way to build awareness for your film (not to mention improve your script) and thus create anticipation throughout the development process. A case can be made that the leaked scripts for Inglorious Basterds and Avatar helped make those films what they were…”

That sounded familiar — it’s what I’m doing here. Of course, the difference is I don’t have a throng of followers giving me feedback. Yet.

This experiment is also a way to encourage accountability, like those on diets who Tweet their daily weight. If I write in public, then there’s nowhere to hide if I don’t follow through.

And lately, there’s been a lot of not following through.  Now that Script Frenzy has come and gone a couple times without my participation, I have a new goal in mind.  I’ll be entering the script in this fall’s BlueCat Screenwriting Competition.

Now back to the writing.

Last summer, I shared what I had written with the Rochester Movie Makers Writers Workshop. It got my juices going again, showed me what was working, and also what WASN’T working.

In the interest of honesty, I’m posting those 14 pages now, before I hack it up. Essentially, I’ll be dropping most of the first scene.

gamers100801

I followed up with a few more pages, a description of “hyperspace” travel, followed by an exposition scene which felt wrong as soon as I read it out loud. I’m thinking of a smoother way to introduce Jess to the idea of universe-hopping. In this version, she and Trevor discuss how dimensional travel works in a convenience store, and I’m not buying it. She’s way too calm, he’s too nonchalant. You can see that in pages 15-17 here:

gamers101109

So that last scene will inevitably have to go.

Come out for the second annual Little Theatre 24 Hour Horror Fest in Rochester, NY, this October 30, 2010!
https://thelittle.org/filmfest.php

The Festival kicks off on Friday Night with a Zombie Walk. Everyone will meet in make-up at Java’s at 10pm. The walk will begin at 10:30pm. Zombies will make their way down East Ave. to the Little Theatre.

SCHEDULE

Friday, October 29th
o 10pm – ZOMBIE WALK @ JAVA’S

Saturday, October 30th
o 12am – SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)
o 2am – DEAD, ALIVE (1992)
o 4am – RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
o 6am – SURVIVOR’S CHOICE (5 PUBLIC DOMAIN FILMS)
o 9am – MVP Little Buddies presents IGOR (2008)
o 11am – Emerging Filmmakers presents HORROR SHORTS*
o 1pm – AMERICAN MOVIE/ COVEN (1999)
o 4pm – DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007)
o 6pm – Fright Rags Presents DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)
o 8pm – Grindhouse presents PLANET TERROR (2007)
o 10pm – DEATH PROOF (2007)

Sunday, October 31st
o 12am – HUMAN CENTIPEDE (2009) – ONLY ROCHESTER SHOWING TO DATE!

Paul Tracy, president of RAVA, recorded the event and has posted it online. The audio quality isn’t perfect — we all shared the same microphone — but there’s some good info here for aspiring podcasters.

Podcasting Forum from Paul Tracy on Vimeo.

So I spent this past Labor Day weekend hip deep in Flash animation. I reused some cartoon heads from an abandoned Lovecraft short (I may get back to it some day), but all other tentacles, rats, and gravestones are new.

If you’ve been watching my social feeds, you’ll know I’m in love with the work of British animator Cyriak. His use of loops and editing was an influence here.

I also took the opportunity to play with textures and color modes in After Effects. That’s something I’ve been doing in my still work lately, and it’s a fun challenge to apply it to the flat images from Flash.

Music is by Alec Jenkyn Williams.

For tickets and info on the HPLFF in LA September 11, 2010, visit http://bit.ly/hplffla

First, all the shiny metal parts are masked off with blue tape.

Then I break out the primer.

It takes a few days to apply coats of primer and spraypaint.  I often get bubbles and drips of paint.  If they’re really bad, I sand them down, but since these lunchboxes are meant to look old, I’m not troubled too much by a rough surface.

Next, my friend Frank prints my artwork on sticky vinyl and I apply it to the boxes.

A little acrylic paint is dry-brushed on for an antique effect, especially on the metal to make it look rusty.

Mad Monster is not the only design.  Here’s a look at some artwork I did for the short “Boxed In,” which has a sci-fi/magical plot. The first piece is a space image crossed with some atomic imagery, combining the macro and micro worlds.

The next two are Nalli and Hitchcock, two “Boxed In” characters in cartoon form.

The film “Lunchbreak” requires a Bride of Mad Monster box. After sketching a feminine version of the loveable green guy, I inked and scanned her to Photoshop. I’m now halfway through coloring — no texture or shading yet.

This Saturday, July 10, Tulsa will be home to Oklahoma’s Underground Horror Filmfest. The event will feature music, horror hosts, vendors, and movies movies movies.

One block of films is being programmed by my internet friend, Craig Mullins of Unfilmable.com. The theme? H.P. Lovecraft Cinema, of course.

This means I’m happy to announce another public screening of Subterranea’s The Other Gods. In addition, here’s what else will be playing:

– The Silver Key a film by Gary Fierro and Conor Timmis (CT)
– H.P. Lovecraft’s The Book a film by James Raynor (United Kingdom)
– At the Reefers of Madness a film by Brian Clement (Toronto, ON)
– From Beyond a film by Michael Granberry (CA)
– Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer a film by Andrew Jones
– The Crimson Robe a by Russell Welch
– Elder Sign a film by Joseph Nanni
– plus clips (House of Black Wings, Pickman‘s Muse), trailers (Lovecraft Paragraphs, Colour from the Dark, Dirt Dauber, The Terrible Old Tran) and teasers (The Seventh Shadow)…

For more information, visit the Underground Horror Filmfest on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter

It’s film festival season again in Rochester, and this year’s 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival looks pretty promising.

I’ve been involved behind the scenes — I manage the website and I was on the short film panel — but there’s a ton of features I haven’t seen yet.

I encourage all film fans to check the schedule and come out to support the festival!

Here are some recommended events:

AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE
Thursday, May 06, 2010 9:45 PM
Dryden Theater
and
Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:30 PM
Little Theatre – Little 5

A history of exploitation films in America. I’ve been captivated by this genre for the last several years, which is why I jumped at the chance to provide some animated titles for the doc. Director Elijah Drenner will be in attendance.

MADE IN ROCHESTER
Little Theatre – Little 1
Thursday, May 06, 2010 6:45 PM

Here’s your chance to see the best films from the 360 | 365 Shorts Contest, plus films from Michelle Cardulla, Stan Main, Dave Marshall, and last but not least… Mike Russo’s VIRGIN FANG, starring yours truly as Draculess the timid vampire.

ADULT SHORTS: Hidden Worlds
Little Theatre – Little 1
Thursday, May 06, 2010 9:00 PM

ADULT SHORTS: Private Lives
Little Theatre – Little 5
Saturday, May 08, 2010 5:00 PM

These are the two shorts blocks I helped curate.
We watched about 130 entries, then chose the 15 we loved. Trust me, these are some great films.

WE CAN SHINE: FROM INSTITUTIONS TO INDEPENDENCE
Curtis Theatre
Sunday, May 09, 2010 3:00 PM

My student, Adrian Esposito, has completed his third documentary feature, and this is the best one to date. In We Can Shine, he shares the dark history of institutions for the disabled and how improvements have been made in recent years.

FREE PANELS

Local filmmakers should take advantage of the panel events at the festival, including the following:

Demo: RED CAMERA
The Austin Connection
Screenwriter’s Panel
Screenplay Live!

MUCH MUCH MORE

As if that’s not enough, I want to take in the following as well:

THE S FROM HELL
GONE WITH THE POPE
WAKE IN FRIGHT
THE SECRET OF KELLS
IT CAME FROM KUCHAR
CELL 211
HARRY BROWN
A CONVERSATION WITH THELMA SCHOONMAKER
THE RED SHOES

See you at the fest! Visit http://film360365.com for schedule and ticket information.

360 | 365 on Twitter

Here’s the artwork (so far) for the lunchbox props we’ll be using in the Rochester Movie Makers summer shorts. I’ve got a few things I still want to touch up, but I think it’s pretty close.

But that’s only the beginning! At least two shorts are going to require additional lunchbox characters. I’ll have to jump into those next.

If you have any interest in seeing the long hours of Photoshop painting that went into creating Mad Monster, check the links below.

Part 1:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6388643

Part 2:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6442320

Part 3:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6445273

For this year’s Rochester Movie Makers Summer Shorts, we are introducing a linking motif. For those who wish to take part in a larger anthology film, our writers are incorporating a MacGuffin — in this case a red lunchbox. We wanted to give that lunchbox some personality, so I proposed some fictional branding. It’s important to avoid copyright issues (like if we used a Spider-Man lunchbox) so our prop will be emblazoned with the MAD MONSTER identity.

I’ve spent the last couple days working on the perfect retro font style for the Mad Monster. My goal is for the box itself to be a product of the monster mania of the 1960s. Universal monster movies were playing on TV to kids who’d never seen them before. Their popularity led to Aurora model kits and publications like Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland.

I imagine that a character like Mad Monster would have appealed to those kids. He appeared on lunchboxes, but is now almost completely forgotten. Those lunchboxes are prized collectibles today.

To find the right inspiration for the design, I looked at magazines, toys, and comics of the era. I especially examined the covers of Famous Monsters. I like the the letters in the left column interlock with each other.

I also thumbed through an issue of today’s greatest horror publication, Rue Morgue. Check out the font used in the lower right, for the name Paul Naschy. The spiky serifs seemed like a good way to go.

After countless drawings, I scanned my favorite treatment and applied color and texture. The next step will be adding the monster character. (The font had to be done first so I would know what shape he’d be leaning against.)

Today I hold in my hands a book by Albert Halstead. It’s a monograph Al wrote as a critical analysis of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I did the cover artwork and design.

“Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – How Patterns, Archetypes and Style Inform a Narrative,” treats the film as a work of art with purpose. Al writes about how Kubrick used the language of cinema, mathematics, and music to tell the story of man and technology.

Holding it in front of me, it feels like I’m actually part of Kubrick’s movie now. That’s kind of cool.

The book is currently on the shelves in about half of the independent and college bookstores in the Southern Tier, including Cornell University and Ithaca College. It is currently awaiting approval from Barnes & Noble and CD Baby. There may be independent book stores in the Monroe County area carrying it soon as well.

In the meantime you can order the book directly by sending a check to:

Leonine Productions, LLC
7 Spring Street
Waverly, NY 14892

email: ahalst(AT)verizon.net

Full retail price is $22.95, plus N.Y. State sales tax (based on your county).
For shipping, please add $3.00

Al is offering a discount price for members of Rochester Movie Makers, Upstate Independents, and Binghamton Classic Films members:
$17.59 (about a 23% discount). With the Monroe County (8% ) sales tax added the total comes to exactly $19.00. RMM members can avoid postage if they’d rather arrange to pick up a book at the next meeting.

Click here to see the cover in close-up.

I’ve heard many questions regarding Croquet The Musical lately. Questions like “Hey Mike, when do I get to see Croquet?” and “Are you going to put Croquet online?” and “Would you stop talking about Croquet already?”

Well, here’s your chance to see it streaming right to your browser. But before you click, think about how great it would be if Mike Russo and I were to win top honors in an online short film contest… Got that mental image in your head? Good, now follow the link below to experience our absurd little film.

Watch Croquet The Musical at Bigstar.TV

New link! Watch it here!

Then sign in with Facebook Connect (using the login link at the top of the Bigstar page) and vote with all your heart. A vote for Croquet is a vote for ART!

Thanks for your support! Remember, I cried real tears for this film.

The last two years, I’ve taken part in the Rochester Movie Makers Summer Shorts Challenge. Two summers ago, I helped with a film called X-Girlfriend, and last year worked on The Wingman and Virgin Fang.

This year will be my first time directing a summer short, one called “The Interrogation” written by yours truly. In the writing phase, I decided to keep my characters and locations to a minimum to make it easier — especially since one of my characters is ANIMATED.

I’ve been wanting to try a live action / animation combo project for a while now. The process will be similar to how films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit or The Phantom Menace were shot. I’ll have an actor on set playing the cartoon character, and we’ll shoot his scenes two ways. One version with the actor, one without. That way I’ll have a performance to mimic in the animation phase, but I’ll also have a clean shot to use when I want to composite the character in. (No, I won’t be doing motion capture. That’s overkill for what I have in mind.)

It was a fun script to read to an audience, which is what went down at the March meeting of Rochester Movie Makers. We read 15 (!) screenplays that night. When everyone voted and the dust cleared, it turned out I was the winner of our script competition. It doesn’t mean the movie itself will be the best, but it’s nice to be loved.

Soon I’ll be finalizing the cast, crew, and picking some dates to shoot this thing. At the same time, I’m working on designing props and the cartoon character known as Mad Monster.

Read the latest version of the script here.

After looking through my blog archives, it turns out I never posted here about the H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast. (It must have slipped my mind when I was posting over at Unfilmable.com back in December.)

Listening to the podcast is like reading Lovecraft with sarcastic (yet intelligent) footnotes. What turned me on to it was episode 22, which covers “The Other Gods.” Hosts Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer dig deep into Dreamlands lore to review the story… and the short film I released through Subterranea Entertainment.

They’ve got a great understanding of Lovecraft’s work, and I was thrilled to hear their thoughts regarding the animated film.

So crawl over to hppodcraft.com to listen online.  Or get obsessive like me and download every episode and listen on your iPod!

And what’s a movie without a website, right?

Click below to experience the agony and the ecstasy:

http://maddogmovies.com/croquet

CROQUET THE MUSICAL will be screening as part of a night of 72 Hour Films at the Little Theatre on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010.

The RMM 72 Hour Mind 2 Movie Exhibition and Awards Ceremony

The Little Theatre, 240 East Avenue Rochester, NY.
Social hour in the cafe: 6pm.
Showtime: 7pm.
Awards: 8pm.

Tickets are available now at the Little Box Office to see all 10 films for $5.00.

If you’ve been following my Facebook feed ( http://facebook.com/mikeboas ) you’ve probably seen some cryptic messages about croquet in the last week.

It all came about because writer Mike Russo and myself headed up a team for the Rochester Movie Makers 72 Hour Mind 2 Movie Challenge. As you can imagine, this involved writing, rehearsing, shooting, and editing a complete short film in 72 hours. At the start of this event, our team (dubbed TEAM AWESOME) was assigned a line of dialogue, a character, and a prop.

The line: “We are not the doctors. We are the disease.”

The character: Uncle Billy from Utica — a secret drinker.

The prop: A CROQUET MALLET.

Naturally, this suggested the title, “Croquet The Musical.” How could we go wrong?

I’ll be posting a trailer soon. In the meantime, enjoy the following absurd pictures.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated has been nominated for a Rondo Award! Lovers of animation and horror alike can vote for NOTLD:R as Best Independent Production of 2009.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are highly revered in the independent horror community. The voting is open to anyone! I highly encourage you to vote, not only for Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated but for the horror sites, blogs, hosts, movies, and magazines you love.

Visit www.rondoaward.com to find out more.

EDITED TO ADD (03/08/10 )

Maybe you’d like to watch the film before voting?

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated will continue to be hosted by Count Victor Von Scary and the gang at ‘Friday Night – Fright Night’ until this Friday, March 12th at
http://www.fridaynight-frightnight.com

So if you haven’t seen it yet, this is the last week.

Great news! The documentary American Grindhouse (for which I provided some animated “film burn” titles) will be premiering next month at South by Southwest in Austin, TX!

Dates have been confirmed for:
Saturday, March 13th at 9 pm
Tuesday, March 16th at 10 pm

It’s terrific documentary about the history of exploitation film in America. Great interviews and tons of clips — featuring interviews with master filmmakers Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, John Landis, Herschell Gordon Lewis, William Lustig, Ted V. Mikels, Fred Olen Ray, Lewis Teague and more.

ALSO, the movie will be playing at the Boston Underground Film Festival the week of March 25 – April 1.

Congrats to director Elijah Drenner and crew!

Here is the official SXSW Greenband Preview. Warning, includes some sexiness…

When Mike Schneider, director of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, asked me to contribute a featurette to the upcoming DVD release, I was afraid I wouldn’t have the time to do so. Well, last week I gathered strength and put together a 6 minute tutorial on interpretive rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is an animation process that involves a lot of tracing. For NOTLD:R, I changed my style up depending on the shot — and sometimes that meant tracing 15 pictures a second with my Wacom stylus.

In this video, you can see some of that process, albeit sped up to make it more interesting.

I am a man of many projects, a spinner of many plates, a weaver of many websites. In addition to my work at Animatus Studio, I work with writer/director John Vincent on developing his horror feature scripts.

Today, we launched new Philrose Productions website, online at philrosefilms.com . I’ve been eager to leave behind the old Flash navigation for a while now, plus I wanted to incorporate the news blog into the main site. You may notice the design uses a similar sliding menu as the one here on Mad Dog Movies — both templates are based on ones designed by Wayne Connor.

This redesign goes hand in hand with the reveal of our new Mind Rip trailer. What’s Mind Rip? It’s an ode to drive-in horror — with a mad scientist, monsters, and zombies. We’ve produced the trailer as a proof of concept, with the idea of shooting a complete feature down the road.

Find out more about Mind Rip here

Mind Rip Trailer from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

Sure, I could look it up in the instructions. I could Google it. I could post questions on message boards. But I’ve done all that, and you know what? It’s time consuming, and I often don’t get the answers I’m looking for.

So now I have a new plan. I’ll be posting my questions in video form, and the internet will bring the answers to me.

Watch for the latest webcast sensation, coming soon.

Last week’s beige and gray design has been kicked aside like a tumbleweed. Now we have something simple, yet striking. It’s got the black and red and white scheme I’m so fond of, but the really special bit is the header. The sliding images which make up the menu can take visitors to any section or sub-site in the Mad Dog Movies Universe (TM).

Let me know what you think. Too many choices? Too few words of explanation? I’m trying to streamline this baby, not confuse people.

-M

I’ve created a monster! I’ve stitched the Mike Boas blog back into the front page of Mad Dog Movies. The theme is most likely temporary, a work in progress. I’d like the video player to be prominent, but using Vimeo has its drawbacks. No iPhone support, for example.

There was a time when I wanted to keep my personal blog separate from the MDM business, but what the heck. I AM Mad Dog Movies, after all, no sense hiding it. My tendency is to compartmentalize my work into categories: Subterranea, Animatus, Philrose, and other projects. I’ve heard from people that my content is too spread out and hard to follow. This is the first step in consolidation.

Next is to update the Mad Dog Movies Podcast site to match this one. (Maybe do some new episodes, too. What a novel idea!)

I’m still on the fence about merging the Subterranea site. I at least should post links here whenever something goes live there.

Still looking for that perfect gift for your weird friend or relative? Today I’m launching the Mad Dog Movies Emporium, a video store powered by Amazon.com.

Anyone can recommend something popular like Harry Potter or Star Wars, so I’m instead singling out movies made by people I know.  I’ll also be highlighting niche interests like adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft.

There will be new sections added in the future — I’m already contemplating a “so bad it’s good” category — but there’s dozens of films there right now.

Check it out. Remember, Amazon pays me a few pennies per purchase! Oh, the exciting world of internet sales…

Visit the Emporium at http://maddogmovies.com/emporium

(Special thanks to the people of Facebook, who helped me pick a name.)

My interest in the subject matter led me to become an “internet friend” of director Elijah Drenner a few years ago when he was working on the special edition of Jack Hill’s Spider Baby. He reached out to ask me to do some animated titles many months ago, and I jumped at the opportunity. I did “film burn” effects from scratch in After Effects, communicating with Elijah and editor Andrew Goldenberg (aka Goldentusk) entirely through email and Facebook. Who says social media is just a fad?

Yeah, it’s cool to see my name credited along side the likes of John Landis, Joe Dante, Jack Hill, Larry Cohen, H.G. Lewsis, and Fred Williamson. The movie has some great interviews with film scholars Eddie Muller, Kim Morgan, and Eric Schaefer (whose “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!” sits within arm’s reach on my bookshelf right now). A nice surprise was discovering that the narrator is Rochester’s own Robert Forster!

American Grindhouse is making the rounds to “festivals first followed by TV, DVD, etc” according to Elijah.

In the meantime, check out the website at http://americangrindhouse.com

Connect with A.G. on Facebook here.

Some stills of my titles are online here.

Some of my film burn animation can be viewed here.