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.

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….

On May 30th I directed a music video for Will Eastman’s remix of “So Damn High” by Ruby Isle. A former production student of mine, Chris Burke came along and shot some behind the scenes footage he cut into this video. It’s being used as a teaser before we launch the music video next week with Kindercore Records. It was a good day… but effin long. Real long. I believe I had time to only consume coffee and complimentary drinks from 7 AM until 5PM. And watching my closing interview… you can tell!

Good practice in my recent decision to get over seeing myself on video. I hate it. I need to get more comfortable with it.

Stay tuned… actual music video should be coming within the week.

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.

so we chalked it up to a little idea that maybe would never happen.

fast forward a couple months and observe a projector falling into my lap. well whattaya know!

so i started making dvds of motion graphics that i was just messing around with and running it on a loop. then i found out there was a thing called a VJ! and people were doing live video mixing out there in the world! and wow, there’s like alot of those people and software and books and a documentary or two. isn’t it interesting that the world is always a little bigger than you think it is? always. never forget that.

got inexpensive software (we’ll say it’s intro level. good, solid, affordable, simple -  i have no real complaints. check it out if you want to get into this – AV Mixer Pro), and started to do it live.

found online VJ sites and started participating uploading and downloading clips. then one day i got an email – a clip i put on VJ Vaults was a finalist in a contest! no kidding? really? well, didn’t i just fall into something. so it was fifth place out of about 1200 submissions. thanks internet, i didnt even know i was good at this or i was entered into a contest. i still feel like i’m just starting out at this. i’ve done a few cool events and i love doing bliss every month. but i’m starting to realize that if i put a little legwork and time into it maybe this would be more of a viable endeavor than just a hobby.

thanks for stopping by. here’s the clip that placed in the contest.

at the moment i’m blogging from one of the only spots in scranton where i enjoy myself. Northern Lights. while it’s not my ‘type’ of coffeehouse it is a good solid coffeehouse with a mix of clientele and decent beverages. right now i wish they served soup.

but really that’s not an interesting blog, is it? i should say something stupdendously engaging so that the 3 people who might read this will not feel like their time was wasted.

it’s march of 2009 and i’m 32 years old. i just figured out what i want to be when i grow up…. an astronaut! but i’m too old for that, so i’ll be a filmmaker instead. if you read my ‘about’ page, you know some things about me already. i do VJing (live video mixing at events) and i’ve produced/directed an independent (innacurate term – MICROBUDGET would be more accurate) feature film. it’s currently being edited by a long time friend and collaborator, Bert. also, that i’m a professor at American University. i am 32 years old and on paper i sound like i figured some things out.  i like reading things i’ve written about myself, because it reminds me that i am not just the sum of the critiques i’ve given recently + alot of time on my couch watching pictures moving around a screen sometimes delivered to me by over priced satellite tv. i’m meeting the producer of my last feature in a few minutes. it’s a rainy night. i’m hoping that we get into one of those great conversations that make you feel like you can DO something. the moments when potential is all there is and you havent started to hammer and chisel the idea until you’re left with what’s really possible and you have to make it work and you hope it doesnt suck and god bless Bert if he can make it come to life.

and that… is my first blog post. catch you next time.