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.
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.
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.
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:
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: