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Paradigm now on sale

Mike — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:12:33 +0000

Lesia Vincent’s first novel, “Paradigm,” is now available through Createspace and Amazon.

It is about modern day Stregheria (Italian witchcraft). If that catches your interest, why not support a Rochester writer and buy a copy?

Oh, and here’s the cover, done by yours truly (and inspired by John William Waterhouse’s The Magic Circle).

Buy “Paradigm” on Amazon.

Exhausted Yet?

Mike — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:30:14 +0000

It’s only been a short time since my last compilation post, and already I’ve got new projects to sum up.

UNMASKED
Mike Russo and I found ourselves making another 72 Hour film for the Mind 2 Movie Challenge. This year’s improv elements: a closet clown, a bunch of bills, and a hostage situation. We’ll be premiering the film (along with the 9 other contest entries) on Monday, March 7, at the Little Theatre.

ANIMATUS IN THE PAPER
The D&C did a great article on Fred Armstrong and Animatus Studio, featuring a few pictures of yours truly working on the latest Buju & Ziggie cartoon for Wegmans and Crustal Pix. Read it online, or see the scan from the paper (with additional pictures) by clicking here.

THE MITZVAH
I’m providing post production assistance to this short film from writer/director Rose Jurman. It’s a piece about doubt and regret, set during WWII.

ZOMBIE INTERVENTION
Franklin Kielar wrote and directed this horror/comedy. It’s essentially a silent short, in which I play an undead father figure confronting a young vegetarian zombie. It was a fun shoot, done in one morning (but with two cameras) back in the fall. Now it’s on YouTube, complete with outtakes.

RAVA Podcasting Forum

Mike — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:21:13 +0000

I recently took part in a panel discussion covering the technology of podcasting, hosted by the Rochester Audio Visual Association. John Vincent and I were representing The Mad Dog Movies Podcast, and I also pulled from my experience managing The Animation Workshop Podcast.

Paul Tracy, president of RAVA, recorded the event and has posted it online. The audio quality isn’t perfect — we all shared the same microphone — but there’s some good info here for aspiring podcasters.

Podcasting Forum from Paul Tracy on Vimeo.

Join me at 360 | 365

Mike — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:28:56 +0000

It’s film festival season again in Rochester, and this year’s 360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival looks pretty promising.

I’ve been involved behind the scenes — I manage the website and I was on the short film panel — but there’s a ton of features I haven’t seen yet.

I encourage all film fans to check the schedule and come out to support the festival!

Here are some recommended events:

AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE
Thursday, May 06, 2010 9:45 PM
Dryden Theater
and
Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:30 PM
Little Theatre – Little 5

A history of exploitation films in America. I’ve been captivated by this genre for the last several years, which is why I jumped at the chance to provide some animated titles for the doc. Director Elijah Drenner will be in attendance.

MADE IN ROCHESTER
Little Theatre – Little 1
Thursday, May 06, 2010 6:45 PM

Here’s your chance to see the best films from the 360 | 365 Shorts Contest, plus films from Michelle Cardulla, Stan Main, Dave Marshall, and last but not least… Mike Russo’s VIRGIN FANG, starring yours truly as Draculess the timid vampire.

ADULT SHORTS: Hidden Worlds
Little Theatre – Little 1
Thursday, May 06, 2010 9:00 PM

ADULT SHORTS: Private Lives
Little Theatre – Little 5
Saturday, May 08, 2010 5:00 PM

These are the two shorts blocks I helped curate.
We watched about 130 entries, then chose the 15 we loved. Trust me, these are some great films.

WE CAN SHINE: FROM INSTITUTIONS TO INDEPENDENCE
Curtis Theatre
Sunday, May 09, 2010 3:00 PM

My student, Adrian Esposito, has completed his third documentary feature, and this is the best one to date. In We Can Shine, he shares the dark history of institutions for the disabled and how improvements have been made in recent years.

FREE PANELS

Local filmmakers should take advantage of the panel events at the festival, including the following:

Demo: RED CAMERA
The Austin Connection
Screenwriter’s Panel
Screenplay Live!

MUCH MUCH MORE

As if that’s not enough, I want to take in the following as well:

THE S FROM HELL
GONE WITH THE POPE
WAKE IN FRIGHT
THE SECRET OF KELLS
IT CAME FROM KUCHAR
CELL 211
HARRY BROWN
A CONVERSATION WITH THELMA SCHOONMAKER
THE RED SHOES

See you at the fest! Visit http://film360365.com for schedule and ticket information.

360 | 365 on Facebook

360 | 365 on Twitter

Vote for Animated Zombies

Mike — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:29:15 +0000

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated has been nominated for a Rondo Award! Lovers of animation and horror alike can vote for NOTLD:R as Best Independent Production of 2009.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are highly revered in the independent horror community. The voting is open to anyone! I highly encourage you to vote, not only for Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated but for the horror sites, blogs, hosts, movies, and magazines you love.

Visit www.rondoaward.com to find out more.

EDITED TO ADD (03/08/10 )

Maybe you’d like to watch the film before voting?

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated will continue to be hosted by Count Victor Von Scary and the gang at ‘Friday Night – Fright Night’ until this Friday, March 12th at
http://www.fridaynight-frightnight.com

So if you haven’t seen it yet, this is the last week.

How I do the things I do

Mike — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:21:01 +0000

We all like going behind the scenes, right?

When Mike Schneider, director of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, asked me to contribute a featurette to the upcoming DVD release, I was afraid I wouldn’t have the time to do so. Well, last week I gathered strength and put together a 6 minute tutorial on interpretive rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is an animation process that involves a lot of tracing. For NOTLD:R, I changed my style up depending on the shot — and sometimes that meant tracing 15 pictures a second with my Wacom stylus.

In this video, you can see some of that process, albeit sped up to make it more interesting.

Interpretive Rotoscoping for NOTLD:R from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

25 Hour Horror Feast

subterranea — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:47:54 +0000

Meanwhile, in Rochester, two of my films will be playing as part of The Little Theatre’s 25 Hour Horror Feast. The event starts Halloween Eve with a zombie walk, followed by a marathon of horror movies that continues through Halloween. A special horror-themed edition of Rochester’s Emerging Filmmakers Series will play that Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm.

Kicking off the EFS is the premiere of Skeletal Remains, which acts as both a tribute to classic horror movies and as a music video for 1970s rock group Aviary. (It was Matt Guarnere, a friend of Aviary’s Brad Love, who first suggested I try such a film.)

Someday I’d like to work some animation into Skeletal Remains, but I’ve had friends tell me the current live action cut plays pretty well. My approach was to borrow (steal) scenes from public domain movies like The House on Haunted Hill, The Last Man on Earth, and The Screaming Skull, then remix them to depict a fun little horror story. Now I get to brag that my film stars Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, and Vincent Price!

Later on in the show is Mike Russo’s Virgin Fang, which starred me(!) as Draculess, king nerd of vampires. Mike threw this at me back in August, when many of us Rochester Movie Makers were in the midst of multiple other summer short projects. He invited me to play the lead in this silent horror-comedy, and I was too flattered to refuse.

It was a challenge for me to “act,” even if it was only hamming it up pantomime style. I helped Mike by knocking out some storyboards, then editing the piece in Final Cut Pro at Animatus.

Virgin Fang also stars the beautiful Becky Herber, with camera duties performed by RMM head honcho Stan Main.

Come out October 31st to The Little, 240 East Avenue, Rochester! For a complete run-down of the event, click here.

NOTLD:R Side by side comparisons

subterranea — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:58:15 +0000

Now that I’ve completed three scenes for the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, I thought it might be cool to show my cartoon shots next to the original movie footage. You’ll see where I applied faithful rotoscoping and where I deviated from the original acting.

The following video clips show the animation, then side by side comparisons with the original live action scenes.

NOTLD:R Don’t worry from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Here he comes now from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Down in the basement from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Take a seat why don't ya?

subterranea — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:02:03 +0000

I nearly blew it on this one. After what I THOUGHT was the final render, I noticed I had animated everything at double speed. So 13 seconds of footage was zipping by in 6 seconds.

So… I went back to the keyframes and had to double the space between them. And then add in some more animation so things didn’t look… so… deliberate…

Overall, a cute little scene. No zombie attacks, but it gets across a plot point — that Judy is now watching the sick girl in the basement.

NOTLD:R Turn your pretty head and walk away

subterranea — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:18:38 +0000

Here’s a continuation of my latest scene. Helen Cooper turns around and leaves the basement. Next, I’ll add the Judy character, who takes her place watching the sick child.

Once I’m satisfied with the movements, I’ll go back in and add the grayscale coloration to the characters. Traditionally, I do that before the animation, but I’m changing things up a little.

Some of my new drawings for Helen’s back and Judy:

NOTLD:R Get Up Stand Up

subterranea — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:11:24 +0000

I’m trying to crank out a short segment this weekend. This shot has Helen Cooper leaving the basement, with Judy taking her place to watch over young Karen.

I started off tracing the background and foreground elements, but to change things up, I’m using my “cartoon” style on the characters. Does it save time? Well, there’s a lot more planning up front, drawing all the character pieces. Once that’s done, it’s simpler to move them around… except Helen has to turn around to leave! I haven’t drawn her from the rear yet, so it’s back to the drawing board.

Here’s the first part of the animation. Helen stands up:

NOTLD:R Johnny to the Rescue

subterranea — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:27:20 +0000

It was a marathon session tonight. Just me and my Ustream channel and a few friendly observers.

Lo and behold, I’ve finished the scene. The leering, lurching Bill Hinzman zombie attacks Barbara, she screams, and Johnny leaps to the rescue. It’s only 14 seconds, but I think I put in more hours on this section than the last one, if possible.

All in all, my method is pretty… methodical. George Romero is a director who uses a lot of cuts and handheld work, which means time intensive roto.

Enjoy the scene below. I’m sending it off to director Mike Schneider and going to bed.

NOTLD:R I'm Getting Out of Here!

subterranea — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:35:15 +0000

Same section as last time, but now Johnny has lip sync, the zombie is properly rotoscoped, and so is Barbara.

Roto is tedious. I’m doing sketchy work, but every 2 frames. That’s 15 times a second. Per character. Now my wrist hurts.

To prove it, I actually recorded my work habits with a webcam today. See my Ustream channel for two hours of NOTLD:R Roto work.

Really, it’s boring. Don’t bother.

But, you can enjoy the animated result below:

NOTLD:R He'll Hear You!

subterranea — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:18:55 +0000

Weeks later, I’m back on this “Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated” scene. I’m jumping around a bit, so Johnny still needs lip sync. The Hinzman zombie is a junky placeholder — I’m thinking of rotoscoping him in that shot. There’s also a severe lack of Barbara there.

But… I wanted to get this test up to show what I’ve been doing with Johnny. He’s probably the most fun character to draw so far. Something about the horned-rim glasses, I guess.

A new trailer for NOTLD:R

subterranea — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:55:32 +0000

All this week, while I was focused on animating a few scenes, Mike Schneider was thinking about the big picture. He was getting all the pieces in place for a relaunch of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated website, along with a new trailer for the project.

Behold, the latest trailer! If you watch closely, you’ll see some of my animation.

NOTLD:R a new scene

subterranea — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:17:47 +0000

I heard today about a short scene early in the movie that still needed attention. It’s about fourteen seconds of action in the cemetery featuring Barbara, Johnny, and the Bill Hinzman zombie.

Exciting! It sounded fun and easy. I just worked on the first few seconds for a couple hours, but I don’t even have lip sync yet.

Well, it’s still fun, but it always takes longer than I think. Anyway, here’s what I have so far.

NOTLD:R animation part 3

subterranea — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:45:54 +0000

Here is the completed animation for the 49 second section I’ve been working on. The deadline for content is the end of this week, so I’m sending my files off tonight.

My half rotoscope / half flash puppet method is very time consuming. If I’m called on to do some more orphan scenes (which I’d love to do) I’ll be using a different approach.

This latest test features Ben making a phone call. More difficult than you might think!

NOTLD:R continued

subterranea — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:10:55 +0000

Here’s some more work from that same scene for Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated. My style is changing from shot to shot because I’m playing around, having fun. When finished, the whole movie will have a patchwork quality, so I don’t feel the need to stay consistent from shot to shot.

When I’m done with this sequence, I may move away from rotoscoping and do something with a cartoon look.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated

subterranea — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:27:10 +0000

As if I don’t have enough going on this month with Script Frenzy, I’m also doing some animation for Mike Schneider’s Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project. The idea is to take George Romero’s 1968 zombie classic, which fell into public domain many years ago, and redo the entire feature in animation. Artists from all over the world are contributing scenes. The result will be a hodgepodge of styles, a crazy quilt art project that is tied together by the original audio track from Night of the Living Dead.

Since the project is nearing the end, there’s only a handful of orphaned scenes left. Here’s some work I did over the weekend. Watch this space; I’ll be posting more soon!

The Return of Unfilmable

subterranea — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:35:59 +0000

I heard from Craig Mullins today that his website Unfilmable.com has been relaunched as a blog at http://unfilmable.blogspot.com

Craig’s passion is tracking the cinematic adaptations of the works of H.P. Lovecraft and other weird fiction authors. Anyone making a Lovecraft film crosses paths with Unfilmable at some point. Craig feeds the hungry HPL audience by publishing photos and updates about any production, large or small. Personally, he helped me connect with the person who did French subtitles on “The Other Gods.” He also passed along the short film to artist Tom Sullivan, who reviewed it for the site.

Hopefully there will be some archived content from the old site posted in the future, but for now I’m happy to get a daily dose of strange from http://unfilmable.blogspot.com