Santa Does The Nasty! An old Merry Christmas message to you all!

My ancient video from waaaay back in 2005.  Actually my first real attempt at a movie in 'The Movies', and it even picked up a prize in the contest it was made for on the TMO boards.



This is one of the few movies I've made that I might actually remake one year.  Do a little mocap work in iClone, redo the poem a bit, add some better music.  hmmm, food for thought.  In the meantime...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

The Haunter Of The Dark - Now Showing!

It is with much pleasure that I present to you my latest movie, "The Haunter Of The Dark".  Over two years in the making, this was my attempt at doing my very best in the art of movie making (given the tools at my disposal).  I made a vow to myself at the start of production to make sure I didn't cut any corners; to go back and re-do something if it wasn't the way I wanted it; to put everything in the film that I thought it needed for the story to be told correctly, no matter how difficult it might be.

This is the end result.  Please enjoy:

Star Trek: Aurora is complete!

I received an email a few days back telling me that Star Trek: Aurora is finally complete!  I've been following this "series" (really a complete movie, but cut into parts as production progressed) for several years now, ever since K4 mentioned it on the old TMO forums (shows how long it's been around!)  Tim Vining is the man behind it all, and his attention to detail, combined with a compelling story and superb character development, makes for one of the best, if not THE best fan made Star Trek movie around.

Congrats Tim!

http://www.auroratrek.com/episodes.html



(I don't know why he doesn't have a HD version, but it still looks beautiful as is).

MachinExpo 2011 - Nov 19th and 20th

As many of you know already, the 2011 Machinima Expo (MachinExpo 2011 to its friends) is coming very soon.  In fact, it's this very month!  November 19th and 20th!

So make sure to mark the dates in your calendar!  There are some great films in their line up this year, and at least 2 new films will be premiered!

Hope to see you there!

Trailer for The Haunter Of The Dark

I'm pleased to announce that "The Haunter Of The Dark" will be Premiering at MachinExpo 2011 (November 19th & 20th), but for now, please enjoy the all new Trailer (above)!

MachinExpo 2011:  http://www.machinima-expo.com/

Bitfilm Festival Entries

This year's Bitfilm Festival has re-introduced machinima (after a one year omission, I believe).  They now have the entries up for public voting on their website, including two of mine:

"The Ex Files: An Underpants Conundrum" 

and

"Game Over".

So if you feel like registering there, and casting a vote (rating the videos, actually), please do so!

In the midst of moving

A small update today, while I have the time. My wife and I are in the midst of moving into our new home, so any progress on 'The Haunter Of The Dark' will be difficult until that transition is complete.

Editing is complete, and I have given the footage to Ricky Grove to do his magic with the Sound Design. In the meantime, I will see what I can do with the Music. A little while back, I put some music together for the opening sequence, but with the move going on, it's a bit challenging to find the time (and energy!) to get very far.

But I am hopeful the film will be complete in time for the Expo, which means I better get this done before the end of September!

Wish me luck!

Filming is COMPLETE for The Haunter Of The Dark

Yes, you read that right. Just yesterday a minor miracle occurred: I completed the last few shots of 'The Haunter Of The Dark'. I didn't think this day would ever come, but in the end it snuck up on me and I honestly didn't realize I was finished shooting until I hit the "Export" button in iClone, sat back and thought, "What's next? Oh wait, that was the last shot!"

So yes, a bloody miracle.

It's not over yet, of course. Now I have to edit (which I've been doing as I shot the film anyway) with the inevitable re-takes and possibly some brutal decisions on what stays and what gets cut... and what needs complete re-engineering (hopefully not the whole film!)

And after that, the rest of the post-production fun: sound design, music, etc.

But the bulk of the work is now done! Yay for me!

To celebrate, here's some more promotional shots to whet your appetites:

K4 as the Coroner's Physician in The Haunter Of The Dark

As I rapidly approach the end of filming, I now have an opportunity to show you the last (but by no means least) of my cast: K4 as the Coroner's Physician. He finishes off the film quite nicely!

GoofParade as Edwin M. Lillibridge in The Haunter Of The Dark

Let's not forget GoofParade voicing the Reporter Edwin M. Lillibridge. You don't get to see much of him, but what there is is quite memorable (as you'd expect!)

Note: I have one more cast member to promote (K4), but as I haven't filmed his scene yet, I have no screenshots of him that I'd like to use. So stay tuned!

JetCityWoman as Miss Marsh in The Haunter Of The Dark

My darling wife, JetCityWoman, will voice the role of Miss Marsh, as well as a phone operator in the film.

Factoid: I'm still waiting for her VO's... lol

Cecil_Evans as Doctor Dexter in The Haunter Of The Dark

The image above shows Doctor Dexter staring at something interesting off camera. He is portrayed by Cecil_Evans, famous for such films as Mortal Coil and Respect My Securitay.

Another Fun Fact: I "recycled" Doctor Dexter's costume for use by Underpants Man in his guise as the Seer's Underpants Manager in The Ex Files - An Underpants Conundrum.

Fulkster as Shopkeeper Franco in The Haunter Of The Dark

Fulkster portrays the gentleman above, the Italian shopkeeper known as Franco. Here he can be seen gesticulating vehemently as he talks with Blake (off screen).

Fun fact: I recently went back to this scene and re-rendered 90% of it just so that I could add the door frame (in the background) and put some extra fruit in the fruit stands (off screen). I've done similar re-renders throughout the film...

Killian Wolfsinger as Patrolman Monohan in The Haunter Of The Dark

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. Now on with the cast promos! Here we have Killian Wolfsinger portraying the character of Patrolman Monohan. Killian was gracious enough to redo his lines when I thought I heard birds chirping in the background of his first take! Thanks Killian (you wombat!)

Richard Grove as Robert Harrison Blake in The Haunter Of The Dark

As I near the end of Production (cries of delight mixed with horror can be heard), I thought it might be nice to start promoting the film a bit. The above picture/poster is the first of many to come in the next few days or weeks.

Ricky Grove does an outstanding job as Robert Blake, but you'll have to wait until I throw a trailer together to hear him in action. For now, please enjoy this promotional snapshot from the film.

More details to follow...

Cthulhu Fish

I was driving to work the other day and saw this badge on the back of a car ahead of me. I instantly wanted one!

It's just a poster...

Thought I'd share this little poster I made up. It's a little premature (ok, a lot premature!) but I liked it enough to want to share it...



Note: this is just a prototype and likely to change or be replaced by the time I get the film done (anything can happen in a decade, after all!) but for now, this is IT.

:)

2011 - The Year After We Made Contact

Not much to report at this time. Last year was a mixed bag for me personally, but from a machinima point of view it was OK. I only made a couple of movies (Game Over and The Ex Files) and progress on that other project (THOTD) was slow, yet progress was made! The most rewarding part was working on the Expo. I got to see a lot of machinima during the selection process and was impressed by much of it.

This year I have no real plans other than to finally finish that project. I'm going to make it my number 1 machinima priority. Call it a resolution, call it a challenge. Just don't call me on it. lol OK, not funny.

After that's done, I intend bringing good old UPM back for another thrilling episode of Underpants Away! I really enjoyed working with him in The Ex Files and doing the revamped iClone version of him for Episode 3 of Underpants Away! should be just as much fun. I'm considering wrapping up the story in this 3rd episode, rather than doing the 4 planned episodes, but that's probably not going to happen as it would require a re-write of the actual story (or a considerable reduction of it). Just a thought. Oh, and I want to end the whole thing with a BANG. I'm thinking of an elaborate musical number that UPM and the rest of the cast would sing... (blame Gabe and The Nobbit for that inspiration, but without the drug references... hehe).

After that I'm free. No plans of any sort. I have some thoughts on doing a series of small sci-fi/comedy shorts, which I have about 4-5 ideas scribbled down already (none of which are brilliant, but combined should work out nicely together).

Lastly, expect a new Music Collection from me to appear in the Reallusion Content Store sometime soon. The original collection has been up there for about a year and I was recently inspired to do some more musical creation (I'm reluctant to call it 'composing' as it's really just mixing of existing material in Sony ACID.)

OK, that's it! Here's hoping 2011 will be a good year (for me and everyone else for that matter).


:)