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read all the news from 2005, archived (part 3) read all the news from 2005, archived (part 2) read all the news from 2005, archived (part 1) read all the news from 2005, archived (complete) read all the news from 2004, archived read all the news from 2003, archived read all the news from 2002, archived read all the news from 2001, archived read all the news from 2000, archived For the very latest news, stay tuned to FFrevolution.com. n e w n e w s I've been posting my videos at Youtube ... I'm a late adopter to this internet fad, because the picture quality is so junk. But pretty much every internet fad these days passes through Youtube, so gotta go where the peeps are. Was recently involved (fat executive producer style, doing no actual work) with a restoration of a fanfilm called Beer Wars. This takes Star Wars and redubs it with the voices from Strange Brew ... Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, eh, you hosers? If you're a fan of the Mackenzie Brothers, this is funny stuff. Enjoy - in two parts, eh? Beer Wars Part One - Beer Wars Part Two These days I'm mainly posting in The Thief and the Cobbler thread at originaltrilogy.com, forum 11 .... those interested in that huge ongoing project can look there. Recently I've posted three rare making of specials from the 60s and 70s covering the early days of the film ... and screen grabs from the new cut I'm doing. So if you have any interest, go. What I've been doing of late is pretty technically crazy, involving reanimating certain shots in Photoshop, frame by frame. The Thief and the Cobbler pt. 1, at Youtube. Opening narration, and the Thief meeting Nanny. Part 2 - Zigzag the Grand Vizier is here. Maiden from Mombassa. Part 3 - "Getting to know you" ... Part 4 - Bath scene and staircase chase. I had to cut two "concept" trailers together for my planned animated series, since I was pitching both series to some artists at the animation Co-Op. There's no real finished animation in here since I had to slap these together in about five days - I just kind of drew like mad and got a few storyboard type drawings done. I even had to play all three male characters in The Chosen Ones, which I won't be doing in the final (I won't be playing Rex, in the basketball shirt). Despite repeating the same drawings over and over and not having the voice for the female lead either, I rather like how The Chosen Ones trailer came out. The Grandpa one is a little nonsensical by comparison, and shows some of the troubles I'm having nailing down a style of humor for it that works, but it's just a trailer - a small taste of things to come. Enjoy! The Chosen Ones - Cody, a 24 year old slacker, is thrown out of his aunt & uncle's house, and winds up homeless on the street. He meets Juliet, an eccentrically brilliant poet whose apartment has been blown up (actually by aliens, but only we know that) and who is also homeless ... they strike up a friendship and wind up getting an apartment, next door to Rex Roper, who lives with an alien named Jefferson and a robot named Lionel, and who in his spare time battles intergalactic crime. Together they will save the world from alien invasion, along with the usual trials and tribulations of twentysomething life. A heartfelt comedy. Dance With Grandpa - A rather strange little sketch comedy show. We are the laughing few who understand your soul's torment, sent from hell to love you. In the vein of David Lynch and The Muppet Show. This wouldn't be an FF style post without a long autobiographical entry, so here's the one from saturday. So after about 5 days of work I had those ready to go .... and the pitch session was a very strange experience. It was for the Animation Co-Op at awn.com .... six people were pitching ideas looking for artists, and I was two of them. I was there with Daniel Geduld who is doing voices for both shows but mostly Grandpa, which he's also writing stuff for .... I'm normally pretty decent (I think) at off the cuff public speaking ... at least I can be pathetic and funny ... but it was hard to get the audience interested, and on my side. Their minds were elsewhere. LA audience. Er. I asked, any fans of The Thief and the Cobbler in the house? Yeah, I had brought 5 copies of The Recobbled Rough Cut. If nothing else I could be the only one there to give out free gifts. At least 9 people raised their hands - 5 people got copies. Audience still not with me, despite free gifts. Can't buy me love. Played Dance with Grandpa trailer. The sound quality was awful, the bass thrown way up and everything so distorted you could hardly understand it. Damn. I wasn't that happy with this trailer anyway. Got a couple scattered laughs, but er. Started to explain Dance With Grandpa, then realized there was no explanation for Dance With Grandpa. Started to tell the story of The Chosen Ones instead, where my heart really lies. Funny thing - there was a fellow in the audience, who presented later ... who is almost finished with a flash-animated feature called The Chosen ONE. He has an all-star voice cast (Tim Curry! Laura Prepon! Lance Hendriksen! Debra Wilson! Chris Sarandon!) .... although the animation is, well, Flash. I knew about this film because of all the bizarre similarities between it and my own baby, The Chosen OneS. If you remember at FF, I was tlaking about what celebrities I'd cast in it if it were a big budget feature. Laura Prepon got a nod for my lead, Juliet. Well, Laura Prepon is already in The Chosen ONE. I read up on this and the similarities were ridiculous ... slacker with sideburns thrown out of where he is, genius girl with glasses, Robot Wars, "sarcasm in place of makeup" ... replace aliens (in my script) with religion (in theirs) and you've got more similarities than Aladdin and The Thief. So. Ah. I was presenting my baby the same night as he was presenting its parallel universe twin. Great. I explained that I was really looking for animators, anyone to help out, explained the plot briefly, said that it was basically cramming everything I loved into one story, and trying to convey how heartfelt the project is. Played the clip. The sound was so warped and distorted that you couldn't make out half the dialogue. And guess what - the entire trailer is just dialogue, with no real animation. So I was screwed, basically. Its entire entertainment value was ruined by crappy A/V quality. No laughter when I wanted it - there was laughter when the Beatles' Golden Slumbers kicked in, which is somewhere I didn't really want anyone to laugh, but oh well. Oh well indeed. I opened it up to questions from the audience. There were very few. I wound up finishing early, which I never ever do. Ah well ... The nice thing about this pitch session is that it forced me to get these little trailers in shape. I slapped them together in a matter of a few days and they're not very good, but they're a start. It forced me to START and put something on video. My goal is now to animate the trailers themselves, fully and gorgeously. Shouldn't be impossible just to do some trailers. Trailers aren't super long .... Oh, and for those following the Thief and the Cobbler thread, check out the thread at originaltrilogy.com, forum 11 ... lots of good stuff going on there. Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, who animated the henchmen in the film, let me his giant box of Thief artwork to scan. It's in my room right now. Which is remarkable because art from this film is so very rare. He also had a lot of stories to tell. |