When Aaron Vanek asked me for an animated promo for this year’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival event in Los Angeles, I knew I couldn’t resist. I also knew I was in the middle of about 12 other projects and I’d have to carve out the time to do it.
So I spent this past Labor Day weekend hip deep in Flash animation. I reused some cartoon heads from an abandoned Lovecraft short (I may get back to it some day), but all other tentacles, rats, and gravestones are new.
If you’ve been watching my social feeds, you’ll know I’m in love with the work of British animator Cyriak. His use of loops and editing was an influence here.
I also took the opportunity to play with textures and color modes in After Effects. That’s something I’ve been doing in my still work lately, and it’s a fun challenge to apply it to the flat images from Flash.
Music is by Alec Jenkyn Williams.
For tickets and info on the HPLFF in LA September 11, 2010, visit http://bit.ly/hplffla
I’ve heard many questions regarding Croquet The Musical lately. Questions like “Hey Mike, when do I get to see Croquet?” and “Are you going to put Croquet online?” and “Would you stop talking about Croquet already?”
Well, here’s your chance to see it streaming right to your browser. But before you click, think about how great it would be if Mike Russo and I were to win top honors in an online short film contest… Got that mental image in your head? Good, now follow the link below to experience our absurd little film.
Watch Croquet The Musical at Bigstar.TV
Then sign in with Facebook Connect (using the login link at the top of the Bigstar page) and vote with all your heart. A vote for Croquet is a vote for ART!
Thanks for your support! Remember, I cried real tears for this film.
The last two years, I’ve taken part in the Rochester Movie Makers Summer Shorts Challenge. Two summers ago, I helped with a film called X-Girlfriend, and last year worked on The Wingman and Virgin Fang.
This year will be my first time directing a summer short, one called “The Interrogation” written by yours truly. In the writing phase, I decided to keep my characters and locations to a minimum to make it easier — especially since one of my characters is ANIMATED.
I’ve been wanting to try a live action / animation combo project for a while now. The process will be similar to how films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit or The Phantom Menace were shot. I’ll have an actor on set playing the cartoon character, and we’ll shoot his scenes two ways. One version with the actor, one without. That way I’ll have a performance to mimic in the animation phase, but I’ll also have a clean shot to use when I want to composite the character in. (No, I won’t be doing motion capture. That’s overkill for what I have in mind.)
It was a fun script to read to an audience, which is what went down at the March meeting of Rochester Movie Makers. We read 15 (!) screenplays that night. When everyone voted and the dust cleared, it turned out I was the winner of our script competition. It doesn’t mean the movie itself will be the best, but it’s nice to be loved.
Soon I’ll be finalizing the cast, crew, and picking some dates to shoot this thing. At the same time, I’m working on designing props and the cartoon character known as Mad Monster.
After looking through my blog archives, it turns out I never posted here about the H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast. (It must have slipped my mind when I was posting over at Unfilmable.com back in December.)
Listening to the podcast is like reading Lovecraft with sarcastic (yet intelligent) footnotes. What turned me on to it was episode 22, which covers “The Other Gods.” Hosts Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer dig deep into Dreamlands lore to review the story… and the short film I released through Subterranea Entertainment.
They’ve got a great understanding of Lovecraft’s work, and I was thrilled to hear their thoughts regarding the animated film.
So crawl over to hppodcraft.com to listen online. Or get obsessive like me and download every episode and listen on your iPod!
Behold!
And what’s a movie without a website, right?
Click below to experience the agony and the ecstasy:
http://maddogmovies.com/croquet
CROQUET THE MUSICAL will be screening as part of a night of 72 Hour Films at the Little Theatre on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010.
The RMM 72 Hour Mind 2 Movie Exhibition and Awards Ceremony
The Little Theatre, 240 East Avenue Rochester, NY.
Social hour in the cafe: 6pm.
Showtime: 7pm.
Awards: 8pm.
Tickets are available now at the Little Box Office to see all 10 films for $5.00.