Giving myself a reason to blog

A couple years ago I produced a web series titled Stage Fright as a joint production between NBC Washington & American University (that’s where I work). Recently it was screened at the LAWEBFEST. While at this fest I discovered just how many people are creating web series in a lot of different ways. There’s a ton of different distribution routes, funding schemes ( I call them schemes, cause any funding needs a crazy plan by an evil genius to be successful ), and endless possibilities ( particularly if you’re not in it to make a buck. And who is? If you wanted to make a buck you wouldn’t be working on a web series, in fact, you’d probably have gone to school for something else and right now be facing charges for a ponzy scheme).

I started researching Web series for both my job and for my own interests. But I’m lazy. I’m being erratic and inconsistent in my researching and I have a list of at least 100 shows I want to check out. That’s not even counting what’s coming out now, tomorrow, next week, etc. Sooooooooooo imma blog about em! Web series reviews! That’s right internet, what you need is one more guy shoveling his opinion all at your face.

For the summer (spring semester 2012 is over, may it rot in hell, worst semester ever) I plan to post a review about a web series every one to two weeks.

I’ve got some context and guidelines…
The series must have at least one complete season, but I don’t care when it was produced. The whole point to a web series is it exists to be new to someone in perpetuity. So if it’s new to me then it works for my blog.
Don’t care if it’s shot by some joker in his backyard with his iPhone or if it was funded by Lionsgate and stars someone famous ( u know, like antonio sabato jr). I’m not going to compare big production value vs DIY filmmaking. I think all are valid if the creators apply their skills and resources wisely.
I promise myself to vary where I find the series as much as possible and stretch out of my comfort zone in regards to genres and content.

So come back next week when I kick off this entirely self serving project with my first review of Bite Me. It’s zombies vs gamers, folks! Yeah, I’ll stretch out of my comfort zone, but not right away.

so damn high

it’s finally out!

magnet magazine premieres music video for ruby isle’s so damn high (will eastman remix) directed by me.

i am pretty excited by this. i never directed a music video before. i think all the favors we begged, borrowed and stoled helped. i hope it comes off well. It was entirely crewed by American University SOC alumni and students and I think they did a great job on a shoestring budget.
the song is pretty catchy too.
thanks, kindercore records, for liking my work enough to put it out there.

motion + comics = awesome

i’m a huge comic geek. and by that i mean i have thousands of them. it’s deeply ingrained in my person. the oldest comic i still have that was bought at the time it came out is a copy of New Teen Titans #9 from July 1981. i would have been approximately 5 years old. my father would walk me downtown until we got to the newstand and let me pick out an issue or two. it would have been my first introduction to the world of George Perez’s art. he’s seriously teh awesome.

so… the three of you who have ever run across this blog and bothered to read it are probably aware of the fact that i do motion graphics. i refer you to the link to your right that says REEL. that’s my reel. it has moving things in it.

couple years ago i ran across a stephen king animation series called N. N is here. N is the first time i’ve ever seen a ‘motion comic.’ i don’t even know if they called it that for the series. not long after that i ran across some short downloads on itunes that adapted some of the anthology Batman: Black and White, the full Watchmen maxiseries, and some others. lately i’ve been really impressed by the fact that Marvel has stepped it up with lip sync and more advanced compositing techniques. check it here. AND Showtime has created a Dexter prequel series as motion comics (though they’re calling it ‘animated web series’…. someone tell them the word ‘comic’ would scare away viewers who are geekophobic? hmmm?).

ok so obviously this is all very exciting for a young at heart motion graphics slinger such as my self. and it hits me, “why don’t i do one?” and while that’s a great idea cause apparently it’s a growth industry that doesn’t seem to be catching on in the private independent sector… i need material. so i sit on that idea for a while.

lightbulb! about six years ago i did a photo based comic book for a class in grad school. it’s composited in photoshop! it’s already shot! it’s based on a poem by robert browning about some dude killing his girlfriend! there’s nudity!

so i’m just now starting to pick apart the original files. they’re not the greatest work i could have done (it is 6 years old for god’s sake), but it’s not bad. i’m going to attempt to kick this out over the holiday break and only add text, narration, stock images and stock sounds… let’s keep this cheap. then we’ll think about doing something larger and more extensive from scratch.

for the hell of it, here’s the first page as it was created a few years back. again, not the greatest work i think i could have done. but i was proud of it at the time. with any luck i’ll be posting some of the animations as i flesh them out. give me something to blog about, anyway. click it to see it.

Porphyria's Lover comic page 1

maybe if this goes well, i can talk DC comics into letting me scan and motionify some Geroge Perez Titans issues….

such large portions

hey look at that… i still have a blog…

too many projects on my plate. when i was a kid, i never had to finish what was on my plate. i think it actually encouraged self reliance. but maybe now i need someone to say “you can’t have any animation until you finish that feature! and look how much of the music video is left. barely two bites.”

let’s see what we have here…

STILL (my first feature film) – about 70% to a rough cut. sort of stalled at the moment.

Will Eastman’s So Damn High Remix Music Video – literally like one solid full day of editing away from finishing and i just cant find the hours all at once all together.

VJ work – hoping to add some dates/events soon. last saturday my regular monthly gig was a TECH FAIL due to some problem between the computer and projector. they’ve always gotten along before. could it be that the projector is jealous i hooked my computer up to a foreign projector last week? i thought they had an open relationship.

Photo Motion Comic (based on Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning) – adapting a photo comic i did years ago to motion style. did the audio recording last week.

and then there’s always Barrelhouse layout to do….

why list all this here? cause no one’s going to read it. and i just need to clear my brain.