Easter weekend was a fun, but exhausting one. Thursday through Saturday were dominated by Rock Band, especially Friday, when we went from 9 PM until 3 AM and played 58 songs in a row to reach legendary status. My voice, surprisingly felt completely fine afterwards. We had our biggest band lineup yet, rotating between Corey, Eric, Brendan, Mikey, Jeff, Jake, and myself throughout the course of the night. While we played, the skies opened up and the guys had to dig their cars out from under several inches of snow by the time we finished.
After our Saturday night session, I was up until about 9 AM, putting another family video together for everyone for Easter. The video turned out nicely, but having gotten only 4 hours of sleep, I was pretty much shot for the rest of the day. It was nice visiting at Granny's though.
When we got home, I had an email from Larry with a link to a recent article about Bullcrank and our movies. Check it out here:
http://www.fallsnewspress.com/news/article/3503402
So, the crazy weekend is over and I return to cartoonland once again. People seem to be responding positively to the trailer, which is a nice bit of fuel during the long nights of animating.
For now, I'll leave you with another family video I cut together earlier this week. This one features baby Matthew and I'm calling it The First Four.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Something For Your Easter Basket
Larry threw together a brand spankin' new preview for The Greatest Fan Film of All Time. It's a nice mix of old footage, new footage, and pure Bullcrankocity. Feast your peepers on this!
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter!
Sunday, March 09, 2008
A Note From Beneath the Snow
The outside world has been swallowed and now looks like this.
Would someone kindly send the rescue dogs?
Would someone kindly send the rescue dogs?
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Back to Earth
As of Wednesday, my work in space is done. I finished that scene just a couple hours before Larry and Derby stopped by for a visit, so I got to show them the footage while it was still fresh out of the oven.
I'm extremely proud and happy with how these shots came out and I guess I'm not the only one. Larry's loving it and says the rest of the Bullcrank guys and gals are impressed.
We ended up talking about the rest of the movie and the big shots still ahead of me throughout most of the visit. It helped pump me up a bit and got the creative juices flowing, we even came up with a few amazing ideas I'll be including.
Aside from a few extra pick up shots, filming of The Wimp Whose Woman Was a Werewolf wrapped this weekend. It's looking to be excellent and a real step up for Bullcrank. You don't have to just take my word for it though, being the crazily driven madman that he is, Larry has already put together a trailer. Check it out here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zYGzUJBmoUU
And you can take a look at the creation of the werewolf here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PLo8btWkj40
I've been ridiculously amused at how dark, depressing, and continuously hilarious Garfield comic strips are when you remove Garfield from them and it's all thanks to Garfield Minus Garfield. I'll never look at John Arbuckle the same way again.
Our tickets to see Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova arrived a couple of days ago and the seats look great. This is going to be a fantastic show.
On to the next scene I go. We're expected to have between one and two feet of snow on the ground by tonight, so the weather's right for animating.
Stay warm.
I'm extremely proud and happy with how these shots came out and I guess I'm not the only one. Larry's loving it and says the rest of the Bullcrank guys and gals are impressed.
We ended up talking about the rest of the movie and the big shots still ahead of me throughout most of the visit. It helped pump me up a bit and got the creative juices flowing, we even came up with a few amazing ideas I'll be including.
Aside from a few extra pick up shots, filming of The Wimp Whose Woman Was a Werewolf wrapped this weekend. It's looking to be excellent and a real step up for Bullcrank. You don't have to just take my word for it though, being the crazily driven madman that he is, Larry has already put together a trailer. Check it out here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zYGzUJBmoUU
And you can take a look at the creation of the werewolf here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PLo8btWkj40
I've been ridiculously amused at how dark, depressing, and continuously hilarious Garfield comic strips are when you remove Garfield from them and it's all thanks to Garfield Minus Garfield. I'll never look at John Arbuckle the same way again.
Our tickets to see Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova arrived a couple of days ago and the seats look great. This is going to be a fantastic show.
On to the next scene I go. We're expected to have between one and two feet of snow on the ground by tonight, so the weather's right for animating.
Stay warm.
Monday, March 03, 2008
One Night On Campus
As we got on the freeway, One Night in Bangkok started playing on the radio. I asked Mom to change it.
That's not how this day's story actually began, I just really wanted to open this blog entry with it.
Mom and I took a mini-roadtrip yesterday to see a play. Nikki has been working her butt off preparing for her school's production of Dead Man Walking. Last night was the final performance, so I thought I'd surprise her and make the trip down.
The hour and a half drive was a long, but enjoyably scenic one. The hills and valleys mixed with the clouds and setting sun were an impressive sight. I wish I had my camera handy.
The ride was broken up by a series of odd discussions with Mom, including the pros and cons of various utterances when those ever-present bad drivers make themselves known on the road.
MapQuest is great for getting you near your destination, but we've realized that actually finding the place you're going isn't always that simple. We spent a while navigating aimlessly on the roads of the campus before finally finding the Arts & Humanities building. We hustled through the cold and got our tickets. With a few minutes to spare, I found myself in an odd, funny, but unbloggable (to protect the innocent, of course) situation in the restroom.
That was immediately followed by Mom and I frantically trying to figure out how to silence or shut off my new phone as showtime approached. It would've been somewhat awkward to get to Matthew Poncelet's execution scene and suddenly have John Williams' Superman theme blare from my pocket. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice the button with the power symbol on it.
We were led to our seats and within moments, the lights dimmed and the show started. I'm not much of a theatre guy, I don't think I've actually seen a play since probably the 5th grade, but I have to admit I really enjoyed myself. Not being very used to the stage approach of storytelling, it took me a couple minutes to settle into it, but once I did, I liked it. A lot of work went into this and it showed.
The protest scene was especially beautiful and haunting.
Parts of the play were filmed beforehand and projected onto screens on and around the stage during the show. I thought it was a cool and interesting mixture of media.
The cast was excellent and did a great job. Acting seems daunting enough in front of a camera, but I imagine it's a lot more intimidating doing it in front of a live audience.
It was really cool to see Nikki in her element and doing what she loves. She really impressed me.
Afterwards, we headed out to the lobby, where the cast was gathered, and said hello to Nikki and congratulate her on a great show. It was just a brief chat before we exited the lobby, hoping finding our way to the freeway would be easier than finding the theatre was.
A few minutes later, we were on a long, dark, skinny road in the middle of the boonies.
It took some backtracking and a lot of reassuring talk to the nervous driver I call Mom, but we found our on-ramp. Around 10:30, we were on our way home. As we got on the freeway, One Night in Bangkok started playing on the radio. I asked Mom to change it.
The long ride home was smooth, despite accidentally taking an exit ramp in some unknown town. I was reminded as we drove just how bad the radio is on Saturday night.
We got home just after midnight, tired and hungry, but the good kind. It was a nice little detour from the norm, taking a break from creativity to absorb creativity.
Now, back to space.
That's not how this day's story actually began, I just really wanted to open this blog entry with it.
Mom and I took a mini-roadtrip yesterday to see a play. Nikki has been working her butt off preparing for her school's production of Dead Man Walking. Last night was the final performance, so I thought I'd surprise her and make the trip down.
The hour and a half drive was a long, but enjoyably scenic one. The hills and valleys mixed with the clouds and setting sun were an impressive sight. I wish I had my camera handy.
The ride was broken up by a series of odd discussions with Mom, including the pros and cons of various utterances when those ever-present bad drivers make themselves known on the road.
MapQuest is great for getting you near your destination, but we've realized that actually finding the place you're going isn't always that simple. We spent a while navigating aimlessly on the roads of the campus before finally finding the Arts & Humanities building. We hustled through the cold and got our tickets. With a few minutes to spare, I found myself in an odd, funny, but unbloggable (to protect the innocent, of course) situation in the restroom.
That was immediately followed by Mom and I frantically trying to figure out how to silence or shut off my new phone as showtime approached. It would've been somewhat awkward to get to Matthew Poncelet's execution scene and suddenly have John Williams' Superman theme blare from my pocket. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice the button with the power symbol on it.
We were led to our seats and within moments, the lights dimmed and the show started. I'm not much of a theatre guy, I don't think I've actually seen a play since probably the 5th grade, but I have to admit I really enjoyed myself. Not being very used to the stage approach of storytelling, it took me a couple minutes to settle into it, but once I did, I liked it. A lot of work went into this and it showed.
The protest scene was especially beautiful and haunting.
Parts of the play were filmed beforehand and projected onto screens on and around the stage during the show. I thought it was a cool and interesting mixture of media.
The cast was excellent and did a great job. Acting seems daunting enough in front of a camera, but I imagine it's a lot more intimidating doing it in front of a live audience.
It was really cool to see Nikki in her element and doing what she loves. She really impressed me.
Afterwards, we headed out to the lobby, where the cast was gathered, and said hello to Nikki and congratulate her on a great show. It was just a brief chat before we exited the lobby, hoping finding our way to the freeway would be easier than finding the theatre was.
A few minutes later, we were on a long, dark, skinny road in the middle of the boonies.
It took some backtracking and a lot of reassuring talk to the nervous driver I call Mom, but we found our on-ramp. Around 10:30, we were on our way home. As we got on the freeway, One Night in Bangkok started playing on the radio. I asked Mom to change it.
The long ride home was smooth, despite accidentally taking an exit ramp in some unknown town. I was reminded as we drove just how bad the radio is on Saturday night.
We got home just after midnight, tired and hungry, but the good kind. It was a nice little detour from the norm, taking a break from creativity to absorb creativity.
Now, back to space.
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