From OldSchool to the Future

It's crazy the way things align themselves sometimes. Today, January 26th, 2011, is the fifth anniversary of the release of my first animated short, Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution.

It just so happens that today, on the anniversary of our first project together, Larry's out in LA with Marisa and Mark Ordesky for some big meetings with some big networks regarding Four Tanks and a Healer. Cross those fingers.

But wait! There's a third cool tidbit about today I'd like to share. As of a couple hours ago, animation for The Girl and the Ghost is finished. There may still be some minor tweaks to be made, but for the most part, it's done. Next up is editing and some audio work, then this baby will finally see the light of day. It's been a long time coming.

We've certainly come a long way since posting our little cartoon on iFilm in 2006. Howsabout we celebrate by taking a stroll down memory lane and revisiting this old boy?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdbl0s_nintendo-oldschool-revolution_fun

PS- You can also read a couple awesome articles from our wrap party here and here.

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.

Power of the Pop (Follow Up)

In its 24 hours of being featured on MySpace, Tootsie Blow Pop brought in a combined total of roughly 430,000 hits among all of our videos. That's the number of times Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution has had over the past year at iFilm. In one day.

Color me flabbergasted.

I love Tootsie Blow Pop, but it was really just an in-between-projects project, I don't think any of us ever expected it to trigger a surge anywhere near this size.

Wow. What a day.

In other news, my sinuses still hate me.

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.

"They mostly come at night...mostly"

As of early this morning, Harvey Daggit and the Devil's Olives is being featured on iFilm's front page. If you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for??

Things are pretty slow around here. The weather's ridiculous, we have between one and two feet of snow on the ground and some pretty hefty icicles hanging around. I'm ready for summer. Cabin fever's a pain.

I've been writing a little bit lately, but nothing too intensive, just playing with some ideas.

Mostly, I've been doing my best to whittle down my Netflix queue a bit. I've watched quite a few movies lately, but almost none have left an impression. That's not to say they're bad, I've enjoyed watching them, but so many lack that "wow" factor and I end up forgetting what I watched within a few days. Though last night was good. I watched Aliens.

I'm sure I've seen the whole movie over the years, but in bits and pieces spread out over God knows how long. This was my first time watching it all at once. I saw the wow factor. The movie's just awesome. Period.
It ended up leaving me mad at current movies. With all the advanced technology out there, these aliens from 20 years ago look better than most of the creature effects we see today. And not only do they look amazing, but they're actually scary. Sure, CGI creatures can look great, but more often than not, it's blatantly obvious that they're CGI and that's a problem. It's so much more effective when the monster's actually tangible. Tell me the alien queen wasn't terrifying.
Movies need a resurgence of animatronic creatures.

My nerdiness is showing, I better quit while I'm ahead.

Losers and Monkeys and Bats. Oh My.

After one week on iFilm, the films are doing pretty well. The Losers Have a Junkyard has chalked up 18,471 views so far at the moment I'm typing this, while Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face has been viewed 8,833 times and is currently the #1 most viewed animation in the past 7 days. A cool little bonus is that still hanging in at #3 is Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution, which is currently up to a total of 411,171 views. Thanks to everyone who's been watching!

I think Revolution spoiled me. In its first week online, it racked up over 200,000 views. I've been finding myself disappointed with Batman's numbers, thinking "Okay...only 8,000? What's the problem here?" Then I remind myself that a year ago I would have freaked at the thought of eight hundred people seeing my work would have freaked me out. No matter what the numbers, I'm extremely proud of Batman.

Another cool note, Batman and Losers are both officially listed on the Internet Movie Database! You can view the pages here and here.

I'm still plugging away at that script of mine. It's taking longer than I'd have liked, but I'd rather take a bit longer and get it right as opposed to rushing it at the cost of quality. Wow, with all this talk, this thing better not suck.

I watched Sin City again tonight and it's got me feeling the creative flow, not only because it's an awesome movie that was amazingly executed, but because, cheesy as it might sound, Robert Rodriguez inspires me.
I mean, the guy started out by basically being a guinea pig at a drug testing facility to make enough money to shoot his first feature. He worked his way up to where he is now because he loves doing what he does.
He's such a hands-on filmmaker, doing everything he can do himself to keep the films as close to his vision as possible. That's how I want to do things. It'd be torture for me to film a whole movie and then just pass it off to somebody else to edit.
His movies just get me pumped to make movies. Can you tell?

I'll end this post with something I have recently finished, the second installment of Ask the Reading Monkey! Enjoy!

Lappy's On Life Support

My laptop's been acting funny for about a week and a half. It was making a strange grinding sound and running really slowly. On Monday night, she gave out and wouldn't start up again.

Seeing if anything could be done, I headed out to the Apple Store yesterday. In a nice change from the norm, I got helped way before my scheduled appointment.
When I mentioned the grinding sound, I couldn't hold back the laughter when the guy actually whipped out and used a stethoscope to listen.

Long story short, my hard drive is shot and I'm now running my system from an external drive. After four long, good years, my lappy's on crutches.

In more cheerful news, Batman's doing great at iFilm! They featured it on their main page today and it's currently been viewed 3,500 times!
Losers is cleaning up too! After being featured yesterday, it's up to 12,300 views!

Keep spreading the word!

Film News

Okay, for anyone who had trouble with the films before, the wait is over. Bullcrank.com has been revamped and the video issues have been resolved. So go check it out!

Also...

As of a few hours ago, Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face and The Losers Have a Junkyard are online at iFilm!

To see Batman, click here:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2766332

To see Losers, click here:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2766330

Enjoy and spread the word!

The Big 2-4 and Other Tidbits

It's now the early hours of my birthday. Some time around 4:30 AM, I'll officially be 24. Mom and I are leaving in the morning and heading up to Niagara Falls for a few days, that'll be a nice little getaway.

I've still been keeping myself busy and creative. The script is moving along slowly, but I really do love how nicely it's coming together.
Jeff and I got together tonight and shot the 2nd episode of Ask the Reading Monkey. I'll cut that together and get it online after I get back from the Falls.

iFilm said Batman and Losers would go online on Monday. As in last Monday. It's been a week, but no films yet.
If you're waiting for them, I suggest you go and check out the shorts at How it Should Have Ended in the meantime. These guys are great, you'll see.

Well, if I don't post again before I leave, I'll be back Thursday. Y'all be good now.

The Addiction Continues

And now I'm hooked on the video blog chronicles of LUCYinLA, a Texas girl trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood.

How did this happen? I'm not reality TV guy, this is basically the same thing (minus the oh so realistic premises reality shows have). Okay, I'm not a total reality naysayer, I'm one of the millions sucked in by American Idol and I thoroughly enjoyed the second season of Road Rules back in the old days. Timmy and Christian were great. Anyone that remembers "high elbows", give yourself 100 points.

But yes, I'm hooked. I may try my hand at making one soon.

The buzz on the interweb is that Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face and The Losers Have a Junkyard should be up on iFilm tomorrow.
In the meantime, take a look at the hilarious behind the scenes footage from the set of Losers, featuring Lloyd Kaufman. There's some heavy (but funny) language ahead, you've been warned. Enjoy!

Monday, Monday

Not much going on today. August is winding down and the air's starting to change already. It's not cold by any means, but that certain feel that summer air has is starting to fade. I've been feeling under the weather these past few days, though I'm not sure it's actually the weather's fault. I'm just not feeling quite like myself.

On a lighter note, the reviews for Batman have been great so far. It's just awesome to be doing this and know that people are really enjoying the product of your efforts.
We know some people are having trouble viewing the films at bullcrank.com and Larry's site people are working on fixing it. Also, the new films should be on iFilm pretty soon, so hang in there if you haven't been able to see them yet.

I can't believe today marks 2 years since I first saw The Corrs in concert. 2 years ago right now I was hanging around out back of the Tower City Amphitheater with the other hardcore fans. Man, time flies.

Batman News and Other Updates

Hey gang, got some cool news! Last Thursday, I saw the finished version of Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face. I'm gonna be honest and I hope I don't sound too cocky, but this is going to blow Revolution out of the water. I'm extremely proud of how it turned out and I'm hoping everyone else enjoys it too.
Larry's talking about doing a premier for Batman and his new short film, The Losers Have a Junkyard. There aren't any details on the premier yet, but for now, you can view new trailers for both films over at Bullcrank.com

I also have to mention that late Friday night, Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution passed 400,000 views at iFilm and it's still going strong! It's like the little cartoon that could.

So, I've now been done animating Batman for almost two weeks. I'm definitely enjoying the break, but I'll admit, it's pretty weird not having a project waiting for me every day. After the initial aimlessness of the first couple days post-Batman, I haven't had much trouble finding ways to keep myself busy. I've actually been working on quite a few projects and hobbies. So far I've...

• Started rewriting a script of mine.

• Resumed reading Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors.

• Gotten roped into Monopoly madness with Mikey, Brendan, and Corey.

• Created some new artwork.

So, yeah, I'm keeping my hands full, but looking forward to the next big project.
Closing thoughts for now: Go see Clerks II, it's great. And while you're at it, see Superman Returns. That movie's amazing and beautiful and deserves more love from the moviegoing public.

Holy Teaser Trailer, Batman!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as of earlier today, my work on Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face is complete. Larry came up with Vince today and got the footage. So, shortly after Larry finishes editing, it should go up at Bullcrank.com, iFilm, and wherever else the wind takes it.
In the meantime, I present to you the teaser trailer for Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face.
Enjoy!

I'm Still Here

It's been a while, eh? No blogs, no reviews, no site updates. First impressions might suggest I've just been lazy, but on the contrary...brace yourselves...I've actually been really busy.

Where to begin?

Nintendo: Old School Revolution exploded at iFilm since its debut. To date it's been viewed over 380,000 times at iFilm, not to mention it's popped up on countless other sites across the web.
I knew Revolution was going to be good, but its success has blown my mind. To top it off, the film was recently added to the Internet Movie Database. How cool is that?

After finishing up my work on Revolution, I animated a logo for the folks over at Twitching Monkey Productions. You can check it out here.

After finishing that up, I worked on another animated short with The Brothers Longstreth. This time around, we attempt to answer the age old question: How many licks does it take?
Ladies and gents, I give you...Tootsie Blow Pop.

And if that's not enough, I'm slowly nearing completion on our third animated short. The title is...ready for this?...Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face.
Yep. That's the title. And y'know what? It's gonna be good.

Well, I best get going for now. I'll try my best to update the site more often, bear with me. Until next time, hang in there!

Wow...

The cartoon's had 200,000+ views in it's first week online!
On top of that, it's the current #1 most popular animation and the #1 most popular short film, it's #4 in the top 100 most viewed films in the past 7 days, and it's also featured on the main page as one of the Editor's Picks.
This is mindblowing.
Thanks to everyone who's watching it!

Toon Soon

This past Monday, I finally saw the final cut of the cartoon. The DVD came in the mail early in the day and I found myself unexpectedly nervous. I sat with the DVD on my desk all day, wondering how it was going to look and how I was going to feel about it. At about 6 PM, I popped it into the DVD player and my family gathered around.
From the moment it started until long after it ended, I sat and grinned like a dork.
I really can't wait for thing to go up on ifilm so you can check it out. It'll be online soon.

I'm happy to say I'm typing this entry from my newly repaired iBook. Once we finally got an appointment, everyone was helpful and the service was super fast and smooth.

I'll update you guys on the cartoon ASAP.