Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Drooling C's


How to install OSX on a Dell Mini 10v.

Oh boy. My websites are all down. I'm sure they'll be back up in half an hour, it's just that even with 99% uptime, that 1% of downtime will seemingly always occur when you're trying to upload or retrieve some files.

Have you ever noticed that "weird" violates the "i before e except after c" rule? Thank Shiva for spellcheckers.

Another funny thing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer is how it is its own fan fiction. I mean, in most shows they'd never even have Buffy and Spike become lovers -- that would just be in the realm of short stories posted on message boards. And also they manage to (very occasionally) wink at the audience without becoming "camp". Like when someone asked the group if there were any two of them who hadn't hooked up and Spike and Xander very momentarily do a double-take at one another.

I made a little Pavlov and the Drooling Dogs page. I really need a picture on that page.

E-Cig


Theater is stupid.


I think I want to make some key art with this image.

You know, the cool thing about those e-cigarette is: if you use them in a movie you don't have to worry about the continuity of them changing length. And you can pretend they're all the non-nicotine kind so you aren't doing bad things to the kids. (You know, the kids.) And since everyone looks cool on screen smoking cigarettes, everybody wins.

I've been thinking lots about cameras. Mitchell has the awesome Panasonic GH-1 and that's cool and everything -- it seems to do most everything we want plus it has autofocus which really works and that could be... very interesting.

Normally professional video/film DP's would never use autofocus. But it is amazingly difficult to pull your own focus if you're a one-man-band operator of a camera with an imager size approximating that of 35mm film. There are French guys who can do it.* But it's very hard.

I would feel very comfortable doing walk-and-talks with the Panasonic camera. I hate constantly telling actors to slow the hell down when they do a walk and talk (look at how unnaturally slow actors walk when they have a big conversation with one another -- it's the limitation of the camera department, we're walking backwards for cryin' out loud).

But the new Canon 7D has a 60p mode which can be used to shoot slow motion.

Here's a cheap fast Sigma lens. I dunno -- I still go by the rule "cheap, fast, good, pick two."

You can easily spend $2000 on a Canon 85mm lens -- and photographers complain about the slow auto-focus on it.

Bleh. I don't know. I just want an Aaton Penelope with a digital back...


*That's not a joke -- I bet more French camera operators with Aaton cameras have the level of experience one needs to pull focus and shoot handheld than any other nationality.


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tirez Le Rideau


If you need to know how to remove the keyboard on a Dell mini 10 so that you can get at the hard drive, here's how.

Chance Shirley's Interplanetary won the World's Best Film in the History of Cinema Award.

I'm subscribing to Martin Klasch.

Another T-Mouse rehearsal. We're starting to sound like a band. Lou and Ethan were rehearsing for two hours before I showed up (they were rehearsing with another band -- The Joybuzzers). I'm freakin' exhausted. I don't even remotely have the stamina to do 4 hours. Two hours is plenty...

As soon as I deal with contract stuff and finish making a duplicate of a couple hard drives, I'll actually have everything done I was supposed to do yesterday. Hopefully that'll be done by tomorrow. Hooray for me.

Mmm... I could really use a slice of apple pie right about now.

Do To

On today's To Do list: make a Dell mini10v work with the Mac OS. Work on hoverbike color details and start prepping a hard drive for delivery to our sales rep. And there's a Tyrannosaurus Mouse rehearsal tonight. Oh, and I have contract stuff to deal with and library books to get. Oh, and guitar strings 'cause if one breaks I have no spares.

In addition to that I'm going to begin to explore the Dark Arts in order to get screenwriters to send me scripts. Being warm, cajoling, threatening, those things haven't worked. But I met this guy Louie something-or-other -- he says he can help. I wonder if he's read "Save the Cat"? ;-)

Where am I going to get a paisley psychedelic band jacket with one of those mandarin-like collars which doesn't come all the way around in the front, has no buttons or metal on the front of it, and tails? Oof. I'm going to have to get it made aren't I?

I'm not actually able to watch this trailer: The Bannen Way.



Monday, September 28, 2009

Nobody Undertands This Anyway

Via Bill Cunningham via Warren Ellis, Assault Girls.

Nice costume design. The air drop is clearly Starship Troopers inspired (from the book, not the movie). And no, I don't really get it. Perhaps the pithy Japanese dialog is lost on me.

There's a short and a teaser for a feature. Oddly, I like the costume design in the short better.

Oh look, it turns out there's a bunch of short films. Well, two years of high school Chinese and I can recognize the character for "girl" in Chinese/Japanese from the official web site. I suppose I could have paid more attention in class. Let that be a lesson to you kids: if you don't pay attention to your schoolwork and you're just thinking about rock bands and girls you'll end up like me... er... not paying attention to schoolwork and thinking about rock bands... and girls...




Next?

What's next for Tyrannosaurus Mouse?

Out there in the world there are a number of handmade cheap bass pedals, parts to make MIDI pedals from old Hammond pedals, inexpensive bass synthesizers on pedals, this link won't last forever but it's for a set of handmade $250 pedals. There's a "pushbutton" one for $200.
I used to have a pedal set I'd made myself and hooked up to a super-cheap Yamaha synthesizer. I remember I played at some club in Dover with them, I don't remember much else. They were big. And heavy. And later we got a keyboard player.

So my choices include:
1. Audio playback from a computer.
2. MIDI pedals played by me.
3. Keyboardist

***************
Clonehunter news: working on the hoverbike chase.
***************



Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Love Saboteurs

Tell me you don't want to be in a band called The Love Saboteurs of Project Jericho.

Or for that matter, Death Orgy of the Leopard Women.

A very old song for me is Softly I Stand (which we originally did as "Plaid Cow" but we also have some live Prague Spring versions). Anyway, we might try a Tyrannosaurus Mouse version (you won't be able to see it in your news reader.)



I wonder if there's a music xml to .pdf converter... well, at least you can print directly from noteflight.com.

The Song Lyrics Generator is still amusing me:

Verse One:
Grey air wraps the dingy trees
This circus is falling down on its knees
She is like Death itself, blood upon her lips.
Watch me fall apart you see

Chorus:
Scraped the filth from my hands
All over againIt ain't so easy
Melting into rock
I always catch the clock

Verse Two:
You smell of decay
She's gonna turn me down and say,
Anything, anything would be better than this
On a planet that insists

Chorus Two:
Scraped the filth from my hands
.........
Melting into rock
I always catch the clock

Remembring


I forgot what this was like -- prepping material so a band actually has something to rehearse (in time for the next rehearsal.) Of course I have more experience now than I did back in the day. That doesn't necessarily mean I know what I'm doing any more. But I'm certainly a better collaborator now I believe. That's probably because I'm more confident. Still -- I have no idea what I'm doing.

Well, maybe not "no idea". But I don't really know where the musical exploration with Tyrannosaurus Mouse will go. Originally my notion was to come at this from a late '60's progressive rock direction -- like we're a psychedelic band from Denmark in 1968.

But then I started to think about how I'd read somewhere that the album Fragile by Yes was created in the edit -- they build the songs out of pieces (however this wikipedia article implies that the record had been rehearsed, so I dunno.) So I figured I'd get a "band" together and we'd work out bits in rehearsal and then go record.

That may still yet be what we do. In the meantime I'm putting together some pieces and bits of things -- maybe a little "flower pop", some "big riffs", and other musical ideas and notions I've been working on -- and a couple old songs which I feel need a second chance. I'm going to list them songs so I's don't fergits:

Jabberwocky

Now if you're me, and I am, you'll note that there is significant representation here from the Prague Spring album October River. That's our hardest "rock" record. I was going to say that album is my least popular, but knowing that my total album sales are something under 100, the statistical sampling between my most popular record and least popular is not terribly significant. I've never had a record chart on the CMJ "hot 100" or whatever they call it. But not even my friends listen to October River.
*************
My friend Dave, who used to be with the band October Project (no relation) pointed out an interesting problem with the Prague Spring "sound" in that we essentially had two lead singers -- and you didn't know who to listen to. I, of course, with my insanely anti-commercial sense of reality, just thought that was a cool part of our sound. Now I don't really think so. I think dual leads made us sound less focussed.

That won't be a problem with Tyrannosaurus Mouse. If we get a soprano I just won't sing when she sings -- not at all. It'll be more like... Rammstein that way.

*************

Listening to the October River album made me a little sad: there are a number of solos on piano by my friend Raphael Rudd who died in 2002.


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Song Generator #1

Pictures of Angela in Clonehunter. Yeah, the aspect ratio is rong. Wish FCP would export stills in square pixels...

I played a bit with Mitchell's Panasonic GH-1 camera. It's very nice. I don't see any "jello-cam" artifacts (and I was trying hard to make it do it.)

The bad thing about that camera is that the fastest the lens which comes with it goes is f4.5. But Mitch pointed out that new primes are coming.

I just tried out the Song Lyrics Generator. This is what I got.

Verse One:
When I close my eyes
Only daybreak will do me harm.If you were real,
Like a dog left in the rain
A Hopeless Night is born.It's Friday Night again,

Chorus:
Whenever the sun goes down
Who only wants to run around
The taste of your warm skin
I dream of fire when

Verse Two:
Drowning all the time
'Cause I can't get next to you
Never never never
And if only was that easy,

Chorus Two:
Whenever the sun goes down
Come flailing around
The taste of you

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Internet


OMG I'm glad I live in the age of the Internet. I desperately needed to know why, after Buffy dies in season 5, a new slayer wasn't called. And the Interwebs has the answer. Whew.

Have you noticed that I don't even bother to put spoiler warnings on these posts? It's 'cause I figure that at this point anyone who hasn't already seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer just doesn't care so it doesn't matter.

Via Lost in Schlock, cybertopian handgun prop tutorial.

Trash Film Orgy


Trash Film Orgy makes movies like Planet of the Vampire Women and Monster from Bikini Beach. In our world, of course, that qualifies them as art-house filmmakers.

Sometimes it's worthwhile to simply steal content from Bill Cunningham.

This airship design is from Alex Sherman for our upcoming "Fly By Night". I suspect we'll end up with two designs - one like this and one more traditionally "cigar" shaped. The big question for me is: how are we going to UV wrap it?

Sounds like fun, whatever we do.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

New Angela (In 4)





Yes, this is my life. Photographing beautiful women in my apartment. Angela Funk in costume "number 4" in Clonehunter.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Loudness


This .pdf is the Delivery Recommendations for Recorded Music Projects by NARAS.

Guitar Center has a thing where you can win a Les Paul custom made -- up to $6000 "value" in their custom shop. I should stop in and fill out a card.

"I had been thinking for years about making a corporate shenanigans Mars movie." The gratuitously talented and unnecessarily good-looking Chance Shirley on Fox News.

So, one thing which is nice with my present Buffy obsession is that I know that one day it will come to an end. So it's much better (and cheaper) than, say, a cocaine habit.

But that doesn't mean I can't go on and on about it.

So I just finished season 5 and I have been thinking about the writing and the performances and I came to a big ol' question: how the heck did the season 5 "big bad", Gloria, and the character of Anya, get developed? I mean performance - wise? I think that I'd know how to get a performance out of each of the actors playing any of the other characters, but to the actors playing those two characters? If they weren't just already "doing it", what the heck would you say to them to get them into the place they need to be to play those (weird) roles?

This interview with Emma Caulfield (Anya) doesn't really shed any light on the "process" she used to get her character (who does the fascinating thing of actually saying all her subtext). Honestly, virtually nobody wants to hear all that "actor-y talk" and any actor more than a year out of acting school just shuts the hell up about it. Unfortunately for me, this one time I'd love to hear it!

Snark mode=on.
Somehow I managed to miss It Might Get Loud. I'm kinda interested in seeing it, it's a documentary about Jimmy Page, The Edge, and that guy from the White Stripes. Wait, what? "Three Icons Get Together"? No no no. That's one "Icon", one rock star, and some guy who lives down the street.

Jimmy Page's work, both as a composer and as an instrumentalist are in the Rock Canon. And it's not like I don't like U2, they're fine. But they are not in the Rock Canon (no matter what the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" might say). And the last guy? He is of no interest whatsoever.

Three rock "Icons" would have to be like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and (oof, this is hard 'cause I'm trying to think of living electric guitar players... hmm... the Rolling Stones are mostly alive but we think of them very much more "ensemble-y" so I'm gonna have to go with) David Gilmour.

And I'm not saying anything really negative about The Edge but c'mon, you know some kid from high school who's as good a guitar player and has been as influential as... Jack White.

This is like "We're going to have a forum on composing. Our panelists are Ludwig van Beethoven and the guy who wrote the Hill Street Blues theme song."

Maybe the Jack White parts of the movie will irk me a lot less when I see it. I doubt it. But I'm willing to try.

snark mode=off

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Oh Of Course

So as soon as I say that they don't use cell phones on Buffy, out comes a cell phone.
*************
More Buffy stuffy: It's nice to see someone with a big budget make the kinds of mistakes which we tend not to make. We would have painted this boom mic out (I think this was a static shot so it's fairly easy to do.) It may have been that the boom went unseen on the broadcast version because it was beyond where most TV's have image. Still, it amuses me.

Remember back in the olden days when mics would creep into frame in movies in the theater? I think that's because movie theaters were much worse about having correctly calibrated projectors and they showed you more frame than they were supposed to.

Dramatic Thinges


Chance is interviewed about Interplanetary.

************

You know, they way don't use cell phones in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm about to shoot a picture where cell phones (and all kinds of wireless) are explicitly banned from the narrative. Which is good because cell phones suck dramatically.

There are some things which just don't ever really work dramatically. Phone conversations (with the possible exception of videophone conversations -- and yes, I'm serious), the "news" reporting on whatever some character needs to know, and characters being rock stars.

That's my list, and I reserve the right to expand upon it.

Tyrannosaurus Mouse


Tyrannosaurus Mouse had its first rehearsal last night. We played as a power trio with Ethan and Lou. This was actually the first time my Les Paul got a full band workout. Man, that thing is heavy...

The interesting thing about starting a band is figuring out what sound you make. We fiddled around for a bit (Em to G) until we figured out what sort of pocket we fit in.

We're getting close to discovering it. And we played a song with the lyrics to Lewis Carrol's "Jabberwocky", which I wrote some 25 years ago, which went rather well actually.

The most important thing, however, will be our clothes. I really need a psychedelic band jacket. I'm thinking paisleys but Ethan wants a jacket of shag carpeting. I suggested that should be his hat.

Someone actually suggested that I should be more concerned about the music first, then the clothes. I said "No, no I'm not really worried about the music, that'll be fine." But getting the right jacket, that's going to be key. ;-)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Buffy Mouse Strings


I've been watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm up to season 5. That's 88 episodes so far.

I think it's funny how much they like a side light lighting the bottom of people's faces. After season 3 they seem less into that but it's still an interesting look.

They use a lot of wide takes where they've yanked out the dialog. That and over-the-shoulders where the dialog of the person who's face you don't see doesn't actually match what they were saying.

In big and important news about Strings: I wrote to Gibson and asked what my guitar was strung with. They wrote back:

Your Gibson guitar comes strung with Gibson Vintage Reissue "10s"- which means the high-E string is .010 inches in diameter. The low-E is .046 inches in diameter.

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Divisions/Gibson%20Gear/Strings/Electric%20Series/Vintage%20Reissue/

Which is interesting because my high strings feel... well... more buttery than 10's.

If you feel something -- something in the air -- about 9pm Eastern time tonight: that's the first rehearsal of Tyrannosaurus Mouse.

It's happening.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Listening Post

Online Tuning Fork.

Natacha Atlas is actually a year older than me.

Delirium is tangentially related to Skinny Puppy.

Strings

So, I'm still having conversations about guitar strings. This is a vastly interesting subject which I know my hundred or so blog readers are intensely interested in.

"I've always liked DR 'Pure Blues' nickel strings. I'm also a fan of D'Addario and D'Aquisto. D'Aquisto doesn't have a very extensive selection of mixed gauges, but they're inexpensive and they're nice strings.
I like GHS, too and they offer TONS of gauge options and custom sets but I don't think they last quite as long as some other brands."

JustStrings.com is a place to buy strings.

And for those of us who are playing along at home, here's how you install OSX on a Dell Mini 9 or Mini 10v.

They let people read in the Navy. Heck, they actually encourage it.

Has Anybody Noticed?


The Monroe Doctrine is dead.

Well, certainly Manifest Destiny is dead as far as Central and South America is concerned. Stranger yet -- this all happened under G. W. Bush.

Under Reagan we funded death squads in El Salvador and became obsessed with Nicaragua (which, honestly, the US has had a long standing obsession with) by funding terrorist Contras, invaded what -- Panama and Grenada? And the CIA spent a lot of time and money keeping people like Lula from becoming President of Brazil.

For a long time the specter of Salvador Allende's death and Pinochet's vicious regime haunted the liberals and the left of the Americas -- and even of Europe. Kissinger's terrorism and war crimes had its intended effect.

But under Clinton, Central and South America stopped being a punching bag for US covert operations. Furthermore, under Clinton the military was used for (as far as I can think) the first time to re-establish a democracy since WWII (in Haiti - and ironically a leftist democracy at that.) After Clinton left and G.W. Bush came in, you knew that some real scum was going to start showing up in the government (and Cheney sure gave us the evil -- thanks for giving us a country which tortures people, Dick) but the neo-cons and his ilk, for whatever reason, didn't really focus on Central and South America at all.

Now, even with the School of the Americas only "sort of" closed, Lula is President of Brazil. For those of you who have been paying attention since the 1980's let me say that again.

Lula. Is President. Of Brazil.

Oh, but there's more! Venezuela has a leftist populist President who thumbs his nose regularly at the US (and survived a coup attempt which was weakly backed by the US). Chavez makes sport of how the US does not control his country (OK, he won't stop the flow of oil, I mean he's not suicidal, but still...) Heck, Daniel Ortega is the President of Nicaragua again.

And even under G.W. Bush, nobody cared. Under Obama really nobody cares.

And that's not all. OK. I'm a-gonna digress a bit.

I got a feeling that Francois Mitterrand's influence is still being felt in the Americas. He was all too aware of the force of US foreign policy (and especially the chilling Pinochet regime) in European politics. When he became the first "Socialist" president of a Western power (when was that? 1980? '81?) his economy dumped and he quickly turned around and said "Oh hey, I'm a Capitalist actually. Yeah, dat's it! Heck, I'm such a free-marketeer that I think we should have totally open borders between our countries and have a 'United States of Europe' -- hey guys, whadaya think?"* And that way became the architect of the EU.

Well, I think that what Mitterrand was really doing was ensuring that the US couldn't pick on little European states anymore. The US had a lot of power over the economies of small countries, so any European country which didn't go along with US policy could get beat up economically by the US. But not if their economic power was as big as America's. And that's what Mitterrand figured out and implimented.

Hey -- did you see? After this recent financial collapse, Europe's economy became the biggest in the world -- outstripping the United States. Hmm... who could'a predicted that? I bet Mitterrand did. And I think that lately we can say that European states have been feeling like they don't have to always go along with whatever political or military policy the US says they should.

Of course France quit NATO, but even recently Germany and France haven't seen the need to go along with the American adventure in Iraq -- and effectively haven't (and can't) be punished for it.

Why is that interesting?

UNASUL.

Yep, the Union of South American Nations. It's like a... a... United States of South America. And who's the spearhead, the archetect of this idea? It wouldn't be the popular leftist President of Brazil would it?

Oh look. It would.

So Lula's doing in South America the same thing Mitterrand did in Europe.

I'm not saying that South America's economy will be bigger than the US economy anytime soon. I mean, it took 30 years and a huge market crash for Europe to do that. But South America has some advantages -- they almost have a single common language -- except for Brazil, everyone speaks Spanish.

In Europe English is the common language which is a native tongue to only the most recalcitrant of Europeans as the British don't typically even think themselves European.**

So have the days of the US installing a Pinochet in Central or South America come to an end? It looks that way. The American neo-con Right still loves to think of American exceptionalism as destiny manifest, and our economy is only weaker than Europe's in a relative sense -- not an absolute one (I mean other than the little Great Depression we're hopefully avoiding). But our days as the "sole superpower" may have died in the desert of Iraq.

Now, since I'm technically in the export business, hopefully that'll mean that some more Europeans will want to buy some low-budget science fiction...

*He said this in French though.
**Yes, yes, the Irish speak English and they feel more European than the Brits but you get my meaning.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Naked Women and Cats for Everyone!


So Rammstein's new video is actually hardcore. No, I don't mean post-punk-rock either. Just very not-safe-for-work.

It does, however, have both naked women and cats in it.

If I were King I would declare "More naked women and cats for everyone!" And the peasants would rejoice. If I were King of the Mice I would declare "More cheese for everyone!" And the peasant mice would rejoice. I'd make a good king. That is, unless I mixed up those two declarations because the mice would be very concerned about having all those naked women everywhere...

THC is the name of the real band behind the (better-named) fake band Shy in Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They're sorta like "music for the Portishead deprived".

Alien Uprising Netflix Reviews


Since I'm not a member of Netflix (my austerity plan doesn't allow it) I hadn't seen the reviews posted by members of "Alien Uprising".

But first: apparently, someone at Netflix actually writes a capsule summary:

"When Earth loses contact with the planet that's housing its prisoners, the folks back home start to worry. Fearing an inmate revolt, a Marine crew races to the planet to gain control -- but from whom? The Marines soon learn that it's not the prisoners they need to fear but the slobbering alien that's killing them off. Now, prisoners and Marines must band together to survive in this sci-fi romp starring Rebecca Kush and Steve Deighan."

The top-rated review (by "jazza923") reads thusly:

"The special effectsThe murky and grainy cinematography give the movie a cheap and low budget look. The acting isn't bad, but the story is not particularly engrossing. The special effects lack spark. At least it has some imagination."
I'll give you that some stuff was murky. We're getting better at that. One thing that user reviews have become better at recently is recognizing the quality of the acting in our pictures (there's a very strong prejudice out there 'gainst actors who are unknown.) But I dunno -- I find the story engrossing.

The #2 review reads in part:

"Offering it up as a penance for past sins I kept watching."

Ha! Yes. And then:

"All I can say if this was NOT a Sci Fi channel movie, it should have been."

Which is, unfortunately, not a good thing... ;-)

To summarize the rest of the reviews would be something like "Not enuf bo0bies!" or some such thing. Me? I'm happy to have reviews which are analytical at all -- even if they're negative reviews.

Making Your Life Better


If it were all about me, and... it is... I'd note I have everything I need other than a new Stratocaster.

There's a great trick I've discovered. I've found it hard to get shirts I like with flat bottoms. I can find shirts I like -- sometimes even cheaply (my colors are "in" this Fall, thank goodness) -- but they're usually made to "tuck in" and that's not always what I want. Well the answer is: tailoring. They'll flatten the bottom of a shirt or repair where a door handle gouged a hole in it, for $20.

Tailors. They make life better. There. Aren't you glad you read this blog?

What's that you say? You only come here for the naked women and cats? Well OK then...

Still must have:
Dust Buster
Reading lamp
Scotch Brite pads

Being Jewish

Being Jewish is like being in the coolest science fiction movie ever! Happy year 5770!

Where's my jet pack?

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm a little more worried

about zombie space vampire pirates than I am about death panels.

Cat Head


This is Pushkin. My sister took this picture. I think that's my dad's head on the right. Pushkin really like's my dad's chair. When my dad's sitting in his chair the cat takes the headrest. Otherwise, cat curls up on the seat and my dad sits delicately on the end.

And yet more





Here are additional images which I forgot we'd taken. Ben Thomas and Angela Funk.



So then I realize

We actually took a bunch of stills of both Ben and Angela -- probably on the last day of principal photography on Clonehunter. So here are some of those (well, these are of Angela -- in her costume "1" and "2").

This means I'm both ahead and behind where I'm supposed to be right now. The thing that's left is the 2.5D version of the "alleyway". As soon as I've created that, I'll be up-to-date as of yesterday. Yeah, I know.




Pictures of Ben


Today in fabulous Jersey City we took pictures of Ben Thomas. Yes, I have a bluescreen in my apartment.

Doughnuts were eaten. Good times had by all.




Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Before Midnight


Clarence Doore.

The Jam rehearsal studios. Tyrannosaurus Mouse will have its first rehearsal there on Monday night. We still need a keyboard player. All Hammond and piano I suspect.

There's a whole Jersey City/Birmingham Alabama connection you see. Via Chance, Pavo.

Today's tasks: send contracts to sales rep, make 2D images from 3D projects, create alleyway in AfterEffects. All for Clonehunter. Oh, and I need guitar picks. Guitar picks are not for Clonehunter

We'll see how much of that gets done before midnight.

Update on Cain's cheap but nice-looking leather coat: it went into the trash.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Wardrobe Malfunction

We're experimenting with the city exterior in Clonehunter. Here is Maduka's latest render.

Cain's nice leather coat from Clonehunter was left sealed in a bin with the rest of his costume and when I opened it yesterday it was covered in mold. Yek!

My saintly sister cleaned it off but it still stinks. Plenty of Lysol and leaving it out in the sunlight for two days -- we'll see tomorrow if I just throw it away. We need to shoot Ben in costume this week but we'll just use another jacket if we have to. Nobody. Nobody will notice. In fact, in 6 months I'll have forgotten and I won't even realize it's not the same jacket. Just watch.

But whether or not we use the costume jacket I am still washing the rest of the costume before the photoshoot. Ben will be very happy about that.

How is it that Blockbuster doesn't have any episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That's just... just... wrong.

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Best Internet Site in the World

The guitar player here is me, the year is (likely) 1984. In a dive bar in New Brunswick, NJ called "Patrix". I'm 18 or 19 years old here.

The best Internet site in the world is AnimalsWithLightSabers.com

As pointed out in the comments below, this Toon It software by Red Giant is different and seems to be focused on motion rather than still images. Yes, looking at the examples it seems it might be the thing which makes our next movie.