HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF THE DARKNESS AFTERMATH CREW! WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!

Just an idea for evening...not night time...

Stunt people vs the insane actor

We obviously couldn't afford stunt people on our project. That's why we only used crazy people. Danielle got a bit bruised crashing into this tree. We had a mattress for her to land on a foam rubber 'thing' behind the tree to crash into, but it still hurt. I know. I did it first to show her how it was done. I merely lied about how much it hurt before she did it THREE TIMES. What a trooper.

Zeke's been busy with Danielle...

Did that sound wrong? Zeke has been building a body double for Danielle for a rather dangerous stunt. Here is the progress so far.

DEATH RUNNER

This is one of my favorite scenes. It is where the DEATH RUNNER is soaked in animal blood to draw the GARUM out so that the warriors can ambush it. It does not go well. However, as we were shooting this, (Tiffany applied the fake blood to Katie) Katie was unaware of the fact that the camera was rolling as she was licking the fake blood off of her arm. Great gag reel stuff, that.

Shameless Plug!

My sister, Jill, got me this for Christmas! And you too could have one for the low price of $18.00 ($13.00 if you are part of the crew). It was all my wife's idea and she passed it on to Jill.

I wear it to bed.



Coffee mugs/T-shirts...coming soon!

ONCE IN A LIFE TIME

As of late, I have felt like this...

Seriously, you need to watch the entire video...that pretty much explains my mental state about right now.

Replies...

Coolness. I just heard from Ted (we are editing the rough this Sunday), Ron (the Garum will be done and textured in Mudbox by next Sat) and Jay regarding music changes.

This weekend I'm to be the Garum and Max, my 7 year old will be Gwen...I know, I know, sounds weird. Ron wants some references for animating the Garum and to get the scale right. And no, Max will not be wearing a wig.

Attention all SPFX dudes and dudettes!

Ted and I are assembling the first, full length rough cut of all the stuff I've edited so far. We want to start dropping in any of the SPFX that you might have completed, started or roughed out. If you have any of that ready to go, email or snail mail it on a disc to me. Otherwise I'll just drop in a storyboard sequence or key frame. No rush, tho. I understand that all (or most) of you have real jobs that pay and that this is a side gig. So do the stuff for cash first, and then try and squeeze in our little project as time allows.

Waiting...waiting...oh yeah...my top ten!

While waiting for the family to crash so that I can at last FINALLY watch BLADE RUNNER uninterrupted, I decided to post something I have long thought, but not done. My TOP TEN favorite films and TV shows...tho not in any particular order.

Movies
Star Wars - A New Hope
Outlaw Josey Wales
Godfather
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Alien
Blade Runner
Rocky (1 and Rocky Balboa tie)
Die Hard (1 and 4 tie)
Star Trek (even numbered films)
Passion of the Christ

TV shows
Babylon 5
Angel
Twin Peaks
Bones
Millennium
Star Trek (original and Next Generation)
House
Battlestar Galactica (the new series)
Firefly
X Files (season 1-3)

Honorable mentions in film (ie top twenty)
The Thing
Halloween
Dirty Harry
Apocalypto
Apocalypse Now
Lord of the Rings
Braveheart
Black Stallion
Signs
Gladiator

BLADE RUNNER finally arrived...

I'm sure I'll have multiple interruptions all night long, but I'm going to watch as much of this as I can tonight. Tomorrow I'll be a mess, but who cares. Long time coming!

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?

First off, I never thought that that slogan was very well thought out. But to answer the UPS question...apparently it can MESS UP MY CHRISTMAS GIFT! I was expecting UPS to deliver the 5 disc BLADE RUNNER set today. I even slept in a bit to get myself ready for an all-nighter. But then...no discs. My wife called UPS and they swore that they had delivered it to my house at 12:15. When she informed them that I was a mere fifteen feet from the front door between the hour or 12 and 1, they said, "well, you'll have to check with Amazon.com about it." But wait, you brown shirted morons...didn't you claim to have delivered it to my front step at 12:15? If so, why pass the buck to Amazon? Why? I'll tell you why...because BROWN DON'T CARE. What can brown do for you? NOTHING. Now, after getting blown off by the morons at BROWN (gee, he thinks to himself, what else is brown that reminds me of the service I got from them?) Kristi called Amazon and they are shipping a new Blade Runner set to me tomorrow or Thursday at the latest FREE! They asked me to put a sign on the front door so that the individuals at BROWN can realize that...there...is...
a...door...bell...that...they...can...ring...to...
announce...their...arrival!

Christmas break begins!

I have the next three weeks off! YES! One of the few pleasures of being a college instructor. I plan to edit all of the 'bit' I've cut together and insert the SPFX as they come in. In the mean time, I'll use the storyboards to fill in the gaps. This is where the fun begins...

What a day...

I was cleaning out the basement of the old office building I used to have an office in before I was demoted...long story...and slipped and fell down a flight of concrete stairs today. A bit of pain!

Anyway...chilled with Bob tonight with an Artuo Fuente and then watched some TV (Bones season 1 Christmas episode...what a great show).

Here is a Christmas gift I am putting together for my mother in law. The boys are mine...Lincoln is sorta dead so I had to get creative. Still have a bit of work to do...

YEAH!

Source

The other day...

...Ted and I got together to look at the rendered footage that I had edited. It got me psyched seeing it on the TV instead of the small window on my crappy computer. We finished the night chasing my boys around the house with plastic guns.

But then, late into the night when I could not sleep and after my son had asked me questions about Jedi's and Sith Lords (Can Sith Lords marry?...I dunno.) I got to thinking about something. Originally, before Lucas' head trauma that turned the Force into Midicloriens or whatever, the Force was something that people either had or they didn't have so the whole "Going Monk" idea worked. But, if it's a blood thing, then shouldn't the Jedi be encouraging their young Jedi to hook up and procreate in hopes of creating more Jedi?

Yoda: "Mmm. The Force with this one is strong. Boogie the night away he should. Meet babes with high midi's this one should. Younglings to make, baby showers to attend."

Anakin: "So...I don't have to hide the fact that I'm with Padme?"

Yoda: "Congratulations are due. Babies you should make."

Anakin: "Excellent. Thanks Dad-er, Yoda. By the way, Palpatine's a Sith Lord. Good luck with that. I'm going on a REAL honeymoon! Padme!!!"

These are the things that keep me awake at night!

btw, can Sith Lords marry?

Trust the Director? Are you NUTS?

So there I am in costume (I'm to play the part of a guardian that lives out side of Switch's lair and I try to stop Gwen from entering) the arm raps and all with a horse skull attached to my right hand as a club of sorts. The rain is pouring down and it's a tad less than 40 degrees. Oh yeah, I'm standing in about eighteen inches of water. I suddenly wonder to myself, "Do I look like a dork in this outfit? I mean, come on, I have a HORSE SKULL tied onto my hand!" But then I relax and tell myself what I always tell the actors. "Trust the Director"...Then, as I realize that I am the director, and I shout "Action" to Lana and Danielle, I wonder to myself..."Do I look like a dork in this outfit? Ooh boy."

On a side note, Danielle strong point isn't kicking (as she was supposed to kick me in the side but barely made contact) but she can elbow a guy in the back rather convincingly. I have the bruises and scratches to prove it.

Also, there was too much rain so Lana did not get a picture of me.

but these pictures are cool.

Remember when I used to complain about no rain?

During our shoot it rained once...we decided to add a scene this past weekend, so Danielle, Lana and I went to Salamonie Reservoir to shoot. It rained and it was 40 degrees f.



At the bottom of the ravine, Danielle got stuck in deep mud.



I decided to help, but mainly got muddied myself and Danielle got out of the 16inch deep mud by her self.




Danielle (as Gwen) makes it up the steep incline and heads off to face the GUARDIAN.


Then I got Lana's car stuck in the mud when she said to "Pull over, I want to take a picture."

I was trying to push the car out of the mud as Danielle sat in the back seat smoking..then she emerged and pushed on the back end of the car and it was free from the mud. I need to work out more!





More pictures to come later...and I will include the story of the fight between me and Danielle that involved a horse's skull and eight inches of muddy water.

Pick ups

There's some great shots of Michael And Mark freezing their ears off on Michael's blog. We plan to do the same tomorrow while shooting "Gwen in the Dead Forest". Today it was 30 degrees with snow. Tomorrow, a balmy 45 degrees and rain. PERFECT!