Updatery

I know I'm ridiculously overdue for an update, so let's fix that, shall we?

I'm still working my butt off on The Greatest Fan Film of All Time. I still love how it's looking, though it's still taking forever. I tallied it up a couple weeks ago and found I have well over twenty minutes of it animated. I'd expect that would make the finish line feel closer, but so far no dice. I'm currently working on the major action scene of the film. Once that's finished, I think I'll start to feel good.

I'm still frequenting the movie theater when I need a break. As I anticipated, I'm a big fan of Wall-E. Cool story, amazing visuals, very touching, Pixar didn't let me down.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army was a blast and a great followup to the first.

Hancock was just okay for me. It was fun and had it's cool moments, but I wasn't blown away. I liked it though.

The Dark Knight, as I'm sure most of you know, is a beast. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed seeing a movie as much as I enjoyed that midnight screening. Eric, Jeff, Mikey, Mo and I were there in the sold out theater for the first showing. Everyone there was pumped and we even had a Robin and a Nightwing in attendance. Turns out I actually knew Nightwing.
The movie itself was great. Intense, dark, and managed to surprise me several times. I'm looking forward to a few more viewings.

DailyMotion has been awesome and very supportive of our films. After they gave Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution a couple months back (giving it an additional 89,000+ views so far), they ended up showing it at a screening at their offices last week. It's pretty wild to think that the project I animated nearly three years ago was just shown on a rooftop in New York City. Craziness. A million thanks to Aimee.

Even crazier, I got an email requesting I submit Sex Love and Honey to the Anim'est International Animation Film Festival in Bucharest, Romania. I still can't process that people on the other side of the world have seen my work and are even requesting it.
Now as part of the submission, I need to create a press kit for myself. That ought to be bizarre.

Who wants more baby Matthew pictures?

Also, some long overdue pictures of my autographed prize from Stan Lee, which turned out to be a poster for The Incredible Hulk.

I'll have to find a prime spot on my wall for this beauty.

The Hundredth Hour

After finishing OldSchool Revolution, one question I seemed to get frequently was "How long did that take you?" The best info I had to offer was that I started in September and finished in December. So, beginning with Batman, I started to clock my hours on my projects, just for reference and out of curiosity.

Last night I hit the hundredth hour of work on The Girl and the Ghost. It seems really strange to have a hundred hours of work in before any voicework is even recorded. With that much time and energy put into it already, it freaks me out a bit how incredibly far from finished it is. It's already taken longer than the Sex Love and Honey music video did and it's approaching the halfway mark for how long Batman took to animate.

The main reason this one's taking so much longer is that the style is much more complex than my previous projects, both design-wise and animation-wise. The process can be (and usually is) mind-numbingly slow, but judging by the clips I have finished, it'll absolutely be worth it, so stay tuned.

In related news, I just saw that iFilm featured Sex Love and Honey again this past Friday. That gave me a nice little motivational boost.

Okay, back to work now.

Music! Merchandise! Mystery! And Me Without a Brown Trenchcoat. And a Fedora.

It's been a little while since I've been excited about upcoming music, probably since the release of Chantal's Ghost Stories back in August, which, incidentally, is finally being released here in the States in May. Moving on to music I don't already have, Andrea Corr's solo debut, Ten Feet High, is coming out in June.
There's a musician out of New Jersey I've been following on MySpace for a while now, her name is Jenny Owen Youngs. She just signed with Nettwerk Records and her debut release, Batten the Hatches, is set for April 10th. I have her EP's and love her sound, I'm really looking forward to picking that album up.

After Corey recommended it, I signed up and created an account for myself on Virb.com. It's basically a new networking site like MySpace, but not. I uploaded the animated shorts and Sex Love and Honey there yesterday and they've actually already featured the latter on their video page. How cool is that? It's a huge kick having people enjoy something you worked on like that. It's a cool site though, very music-centric, check it out.

The weather was nice again today, hovering around 60, though a bit overcast. I did some running around with Mom and did a bit of shopping to satisfy my nerdy tendencies. I got the Justice League Unlimited: Season 2 DVD set, a bunch of geekily magnificent DC Comics figures (including the excellent new Darkseid figure), and, on a less geeky note, Joshua Radin's CD, We Were Here.

As we left Best Buy, I spotted something that struck me as odd. Canada geese aren't foreign to me by any means, but they've always either been on the ground, flying through the air, or floating on the water when I've seen them. Not today. As Mom and I drove past Bakers Square, I saw a lone goose perched up on top of the building, just looking out over everything below him like the king of all geese. I wish I would have thought to snap a picture before we were too far away.

After shopping was done, Mom and I set out on a rescue mission. Dad's been having trouble with his truck these past few days, today he called from the lot when he noticed he was leaking transmission fluid. We picked some up and delivered it to him, before following him home to make sure he made it all the way.

We were all hungry, so the three of us went to Denny's for the first time in months. It was a bit iffy last time, everything just tasted...off, but it was much better this time. As we were getting ready to leave, we bumped into our old neighbor from across the street, Elise. I hadn't seen her in years, so it was cool to chit chat and catch up a little.

While there, I realized I may have watched too much Veronica Mars when I had my own little Mars moment. As we ate, a man came in and seemed quite perturbed when he was seated at the front of the restaurant. He asked for a table in the back room, but was told they couldn't do that, as they only had one server working. His frustration caught my attention.
Wow. Guess I'm an eavesdropper.
Anyway, he held off on ordering as he was waiting for someone. "Ooh, this guy's having an affair!" I joked to myself. Sure enough, a woman showed up a few minutes later. They seemed familiar with each other, but there was still a sort of awkwardness between them.
Is Denny's an acceptable dating destination for a pair of middle-aged folks? It seems like more of an under-the-radar meeting place, especially with the persistence to be in the back room. Now that I think about it, they did both seem a bit overdressed for Denny's.
Yeah, it's mostly speculation and none of my business whatsoever, but that little rendez-vous intrigued me.

Ahh. To be a Private Eye.

Tonight, We Dine in Terabithia! Cowabunga!

Things have been pretty quiet 'round here. Not boring, just quiet.

Seeing 300 with Jeff was postponed that day, so Mom and I went and saw Bridge to Terabithia that night instead. I've never read the book, so I wasn't exactly what to expect. It was really cheesy and very Disney for the first hour or so, then it took a turn and got heavy really quickly. Surprisingly heavy for a movie that's being marketed for a very young audience.
In the end, the cheese at the beginning actually seemed to help the later drama make more of an impact. The more I thought about it afterward, the more I liked it.

I ended up finally seeing 300 with Jeff that Monday. I definitely enjoyed it. Sure, it's not the greatest movie ever made, but I had a lot of fun watching it. It's a visual explosion and excellent for those times when you just want to watch a good action movie.

I've been doing some work on The Girl and the Ghost, mainly establishing the visual style it'll have, seeing what works and what doesn't. So far, I think it's looking rather sweet.

Speaking of looking sweet, Bullcrank.com has been revamped with a shiny new design. Go take a look and don't forget to breathe in that new website smell.

St Patrick's Day was pretty low key, but nice. I had a potato and some Guinness, then Mikey came over to play some video games and I introduced him to Firefly. Much to my surprise, the video leprechauns over at iFilm featured Sex Love and Honey yet again on St Patty's Day. Featured twice in ten days? Excellent!

We got an early taste of summer last Tuesday when it hit 75 degrees. I took advantage of it by driving around and running errands with Mom and Granny. It felt so nice being able to drive with the windows down. Of course, it snowed over the weekend.
It's supposed to warm up again into the 60's towards the end of the week. I'm really looking forward to it. That and the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Can't wait.

(Yet) Even More Cool News!

I'm a dork and missed that iFilm emailed me before they featured the video to let me know when it would be on the main page. They also let me know that the video is featured on their music video page and their animation page!
How cool is that??
Plus it's now up to 506 views!

Even More Cool News!

As of a few minutes ago Sex Love and Honey is featured on iFilm's main page! Go check it out!
When I checked it around 3 PM, it had 81 views (after a week), and since being featured, it now has 171 views (as of right now, 6:32 PM). I love it. Many thanks to the guys at iFilm!

A snapshot for posterity
(click to enlarge)

A Call to Digg

Okay, another small update. As of yesterday, the absolute best looking version of Sex Love and Honey is at iFilm.com. Right here, as a matter of fact:

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2828188

Now that that's settled, I'm a-callin' for your help. Do you like the films the Bullcrank crew and I make? Do you want to help get them seen? Do you like the smell of the air after a fresh summer rain?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions (or even if you answered "no", I don't discriminate), then here's what you have to do.

Step 1:
Click the link- http://www.ifilm.com/video/2828188

Step 2:
To the right of the video, click "Digg this video"

Step 2.5:
If you're not a Digg member, click "Join now", it's quick, easy, and completely painless. Plus it's a one time only thing.

Step 3:
Rejoice in having helped the hard work of some strapping young lads (and lasses) get their work seen by a much larger audience.

Step 4:
Repeat steps 1-3 (excluding 2.5) with the following links.

The Eyeball Papercuts
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2665456

Zombies in My Neighborhood
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2677439

Nintendo:OldSchool Revolution
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2686716

Tootsie Blow Pop
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2725691

Real Men of the Mat
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2715529

Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2766332

The Losers Have a Junkyard
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2766330

The Common Truth
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2821146

Harvey Daggit and the Devil's Olives
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2822444

Security
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2821139

Kira's Office
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2821144

Man on the Street Interviews
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2821149

There. Doesn't that feel better? There's some new project news on the way, so stay tuned.

Films A-Plenty

Get comfy, buttercup. Lots of video heading your way right about...now.

First up, Raine Maida's MySpace page has the video for Sex, Love, and Honey uploaded and the quality's better than on YouTube, in my opinion. You can see it here:

Raine Maida Sex Love and Honey

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Next up, loads of Bullcrank goodness. Larry just put the finishing touches on the gang's short film entry for Fox's upcoming TV show, On the Lot. They did some great work on this one in a surprisingly short amount of time. There's even a few seconds of animation by yours truly.
Check out Harvey Daggit and the Devil's Olives here:

Aaron Longstreth's been keeping extremely busy and making short films like crazy. He just made 7 more in the time it took me to type this sentence. Check out his recent shorts here:

Security

The Common Truth

Kira's Office

Man on the Street Interviews

Sex, Love, and Honey

The video I made for Raine Maida is now online! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zte2ONHChEY