Start Date

We're going to shoot another picture starting on March 1, 2008.

More information forthcoming.

No CG part One!

As I've mentioned earlier, the purpose of making movies is to impress my friends. To impress Chance Shirley we're going to try to do some old-school visual effects work. For a series of shots in Solar Vengeance we're attempting to use actual real models that Brian Schiavo is making.
I grew up fantasizing about having spaceship models -- I was never that good at building them. But now I have Brian so I get all the cool "look at this model" experience without having glue everywhere and parts of the models stuck in my hair (again.)
Here is the basic shape of the alien cargo ship model. It's a little more than a meter long.
And here is the fuselage (unfinished and undetailed, of course).
We're going to have to shoot with a very deep focus, and overcranked. So that means a lot of light. Now all those complaints I remember reading in Starlog and Cinefex by effects artists about the heat from the lighting melting the models is making sense...

Michael Kessell

Art Director Michael Kessel has a new website. I thought I'd link to this because it amuses me.

Running the Blade

I've noticed a distinct lack of ninja Yakuza in today's cinematic offerings. Hopefully this movie, Machine Girl, will help rectify that situation.


Bill Martell blogs about logical problems with Blade Runner (long post, keep going down). I don't agree with most of them but it's amusing nonetheless.

What's new with the extended special final Blade Runner? This article goes over things and touches on the weirdness of how nobody recognizes the replicants even though the cops have pictures of the replicants.

Today am rendering robot shot 8 of 30.

Ash Not Bishop

Ash.

Bishop.

So I saw the wonderful show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by the New York Neo-Futurists. They were doing their "best of 2007" show -- 30 plays in 60 minutes. Of of the plays was called Spoiler Alert which gave the spoilers to a bunch of movies and books with the refrain "and Rosebud was his sled."
The part which has driven audiences almost into open revolt is when the singer gives away the end of the last Harry Potter novel.
My problem was that amongst lines about how Bruce Willis' character was dead in The Sixth Sense and the surprise in The Crying Game, was the line "Bishop was an android".
Yes, Bishop was an android but he was the android in Aliens, not Alien. The android in Alien was Ash. The fact that Ash was an android and was helping the alien all along is a big 3rd act surprise in Alien (and if you I just ruined the movie for you and you're reading this blog there is nothing we can do to help you). The fact that Bishop was an android in the sequel Aliens is an early 2nd act reveal and a red herring - it's not a spoiler and you learn he's an android almost as soon as you meet him.
This is, of course, the sort of thing which drives me nuts. It activates some Asperger's part of my brain and sends it into high gear. It's like saying "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow" is from Macbeth.
I tried to use proper channels to see to it that the line was changed. Apparently, I'm the only one who cares.

Marvelous Blog (Contains Nudity!)

This blog is described as "marvelous" by the fine folks at Scoopy. It's implied that it's marvelous because of the nudity, which I feel remiss in posting.
Although what if it's just pictures of absurd things I'm not posting? Perhaps absurd nudity will do (for today).
I may as well take this time to mention that big changes are taking place at Manhattan Theatre Source, where Pandora Machine has had its studio/edit suite (in what we call "Digitalsource") since it came into existence. I'm a founding member of Theatresource (and although that doesn't really mean anything I'm still kinda proud I was there when it was still a shoe store.)
Jim Lawson has come in as the new Artistic Director* (his page on the Theatresource website is totally un-linkable). Daryl Boling (who's been in all three of the movies I've made since meeting him at Theatresource) has left to work at the Signature Theater (whoever they are). Hopefully that'll mean he'll find more time to direct. And Lanie Zipoy is the new Managing Director**. One day I bet her company Avec Promotions will have a website. I'm sure she's just too busy actually promoting things to deal with it right now. ;-)

*Which means he spends a lot of time scrubbing the floor.
**Which means she spends a lot of time trying to get the copier to work.

His Dark Materials

The Golden Compass
I enjoyed it. It's a movie about costume design, collars in particular (I'll give ye no spoilers here.)

OK, so it's beautiful but flawed. The problem is that they tried to make a feature out of a novel and included almost every dang scene in it, while keeping the picture to under 2 hours. You only get one or the other of them things baby.
I'd say the biggest fault was that the movie went "And then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened..." There was a dramaturlogical issue that we couldn't effectively get from moment to moment properly because we were squeezed for time. We couldn't get into a scene, feel the big turn or decision, and then resolve it. We just keep smashing through. Honestly, another edit and an added 20 or 30 minutes would be all we'd need. But it sure was beautiful and, oddly, I'd say the screenplay was fine, it just needs a less tight edit.
Look, I know what I'm talking about here. I made an unwatchable movie based on Milton's Paradise Lost.
Went with Melissa, Laura, Maduka, and Lanie. Melissa hated this dress.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

We haven't been given the official word by our distributor, but clearly Millennium Crisis has a street date. I just found it on Amazon: January 29, 2008. You can pre-order right now to have it in time for... um... Groundhog Day. You can also pre-order from Best Buy.
Oh and look. This blog has broken the 5000 visitors mark.

Pearl Harbor Day

Here are (courtesy of the Mystery Man on Film):
4 Screenwriting Tips that Annoy Me. They're pretty amusing. And I've gotten a couple of those tips in my life. And yup, sometimes these kinds of notes are good and sometimes they stink.
I'd especially be careful of actors who read scripts 'cause they tend to 1. look for parts they can play and 2. read from an actor's "moment to moment" perspective rather than whether it is a good story.
In other words, it's like asking an oboe player if a symphonic work is good. They might say "yes" because there's a good oboe solo in it or they might say "no" if the oboe part is "boring". In either case, it don't say much about the actual work.
I was just thinking about a movie I worked on briefly, The Great New Wonderful, which has problem number 1. It's filled with great actorly "moments" but the story... well I don't even know what the story is but they got a buncha big-name actors in it. I'm sure those actors were attracted to the great new wonderful moments in the screenplay, but those moments (like oboe solos) don't necessarily add up to a good story (symphony.)
I don't have anything against oboists by the way.
--
The thing I really don't understand is why writers think it takes so long to write a script. After all, you can write a feature film in two weeks. And that includes editing.
Look: "Day 11 - your character gets the girl, returns home and lives happily ever after (8 to 10 pages)"
And then Day 12? "Rest". You even get a day off with this schedule!
I just don't see what anyone could be complaining about.
In order to be self-referential, I'll re-guide the reader to this post on "the formula". Read. Memorize. Create. Thank you.
--
Pandora Machine will be shooting a new picture on March 1st. I wonder what that movie will be?
Ahem...

I Don't Wanna Be One of Those Guys But...

I don't wanna be one of those guys who thinks about this kind of thing all the time but you know I gotta disagree with David Wellington and say that New York is ultimately the most defensible place when the zombie apocalypse comes.
Interestingly, the high-rent areas will be "no-go" zones because unlike the ghetto they ain't got no security. Any building with riot doors and windows will be impenetrable by the drooling zombie masses. And we survivors can get around from roof-to-roof. Supplies will be abundant because each self-contained block has at least one bodega. And if one block is taken over by the infected, it's still isolated from other blocks so they can't go any further.
Schools, for instance, are basically impenetrable to the vast hordes of mindless undead. And they have dining facilities, exercise facilities, and Internet access, so as long as you get food into them (via helicopter?) you could feed and house thousands of survivors.
Sure, the relative lack of weapons would make it harder to clear out infected sections of the city than it would be in a rural area with lots of hunting rifles but I think we can expect at least some assault rifles brought in by the 82nd Airborne when the apocalypse breaks out.
OK. It's official. I've already thought too much about this.
At least I don't have an irrational fear of velociraptors.

Our First Review

Millennium Crisis gets its first review.
Our North American distributor, Pop Cinema, did all the PR -- thanks guys!

Hopefully we'll soon have a release date for the picture.

Golden Compass

Because of my sister I'm buying into the complete marketing campaign of this movie. The books are brilliant brilliant brilliant. They kick the combined butts of J. K. Rowling and C. S. Lewis in the first dozen pages.
Anyway, I have twelve days to decide if this daemon is the right one for me. I was really hoping for a large cat but it seems most people get birds...
Update: it used to be an osprey... seems to be a lynx now... but you have the power to change it by telling the Flash animation about me. Plus also too, you can make your own!
I am so going to see this movie in two days...
Update 2: my sister made me a lion!
Update 3: who the hell turned me into a spider! That will not do. Not at all. I want the lion back.

Today's News

Drew: "I wish I were more like Snoop Dog."
Maduka: "I'm sure lots of 40-something white guys from New Jersey think the same thing."

What's wrong with this Robot 3 v4?

It starts to pull apart at the end. Perhaps it should be moving at about half that speed? Also, it seems too "plasticy-shiny" and, oddly, too tall. Perhaps the camera in Blender is set incorrectly. I'll take a look today.

Update:
Here is two seconds of shot four. I mean, here is the entire two seconds of shot four. Perhaps again it needs to be slowed?


Here are the changes to Robot 3 version 5:


And slowing Robot 4 version 3: