Category Archives: story

Clearing Cobwebs

I’m actually not allowed to blog, there’s too much else in the queue, priority one, hurry the fuck up and get it done sort of stuff. So let’s just keep this a secret, just you and me… k? Where have … Continue reading

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Almost and update

Well Howdy do? Been a long lick since I’ve checked in and offered an update on my cini-state. Standby for bullet points. Clambored onto Vine today. Posted ~10 videos, perhaps a dollop or two of genius among the lot. Tighter … Continue reading

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A Dogged Determination

I thought I’d already begun a post on the almost obsolete topic of unfinished projects. It’s been on my list to finish that post, but I guess I never started it. Well, here we are anyway. Since posting Illustrated Revelations … Continue reading

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Illustrated Revelations on an Art of Self

The outcome for 1/1 – 1/2 is to publish a clear and fun compendium and quick reference for the driving objectives of 2013. Let’s begin with thinking about thinking. How do introspective sessions connect and coalese, how do I bind … Continue reading

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Progress

Good lawd, what a ride. It’s November now and peddle to the metal. Today I am going to finish revisions on the team and tasks document. Roto artists are providing a constant flow of results. Money is definitely thinning out … Continue reading

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Music to repair cars by

Ben Woody rocks. As a summer intern for Trickster Pictures, Ben rotoscoped for DOG with zen-like concentration and produced a slew of personal bliss projects for YouTube. Towards the end of July, he proposed making a time lapse of his … Continue reading

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As you May Know

I’m proud of my FBI record. To clarify, I’ve never worked for the FBI. What I mean is that the FBI has a file on me. Not only do they have a file on me, but it’s secret. That’s why … Continue reading

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Asad 8-30

Having safely landed his ship on the surface of the strange planet, Micro Mizako secures the bridge with a flick of his mighty gauntleted wrist. All systems spin down in a satisfying whirr of mysterious technology. Not mysterious to Micro … Continue reading

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Airplane! dubbed in Spanish

Here’s my story a day for yesterday, written in the whee of this morn. This is a true story. A man lies in a vaporous clawfoot bathtub watching the movie Airplane! – dubbed in Spanish. He doesn’t speak Spanish, but … Continue reading

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As tor yaday

Or, a story a day. The domain name is being squatted by the by. I love squatters because they make the search for useful domains so much more interesting. I was searching on a bunch yesterday, found some cutsie doozies. … Continue reading

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Fukushima in the USA

Arnie Gunderson – 23 plants in the USA identical to Fukushima, 2 near Chicago, Dresden and Quad City neither are on Lake Michigan

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Prop and set injections

She’s approaching the boat, passing boutique shops. Haute and Tea Room. Haute was couture for ladies and now features clothing strewn every which way, stylish gowns half hanging through shattered windows, fluttering in the morning breeze. Tea Room sign has … Continue reading

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Posts to post

I’ve been blogging in my mind for the last couple of months, here’s a sample of the topics I’d like elaborate on soonish. First, a crisis of confidence. Gosh, why blog at all? With the explosion of FB, a personal … Continue reading

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Protected: Animation

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Cutting glass

Ben and I do DOG daily (have you met Ben Woody?) but my early evenings and weekends are dedicated to acquiring old Hobie 16s cheap – usually with soft decks and other structural issues. This is long range planning for … Continue reading

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Artist reference May 2012

Introduction x Daughter of God is a narrative short originally shot in 2006, now moving steadily through VFX towards a completion by summer of 2012. Though roto artists will be repairing some continuity and production gaffs, we are mostly adding … Continue reading

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Today is the first day…

…of the rest of your life, Geritol. Use only as directed. Welcome back to the DOG progress report. Editorial on the first and second act is (dare I say it?) done.  There are some weld edits which require a deeper … Continue reading

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Progress on Gerry’s cabin

Gerry’s cabin or Act 2 is very close to it’s final iteration. The length was cut from 9:00 minutes to 8:15, 45 seconds. We lost some lag and tuned the performance by splitting several two shots. My first foray into … Continue reading

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Roller coaster

Before diving back into editorial, some consideration to energy levels and pacing. Below is a very rough graph of what ought to be going on in Version 1.0 2012. The emotional palette ranges from quirky/comic to downright uncomfortable. The peaks … Continue reading

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Interns and the last test of Version 1.0 2012

Trickster Pictures has two interns through the TBAISD Career-Tech Center’s Film and New Media Program – Cameron and Micah. They’ve been learning how to rotoscope using both After Effects and Mocha and will hopefully be able to contribute to DOG’s … Continue reading

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Testing V 1.0 2012 script revisions

I’m now cutting a rough test of the script revisions, with some basic effects and visualizations. So far so good. Having tried with the narrator voice, it’s too heavy and preachy. Interwoven with other audio it’s doable. The shortwave audio … Continue reading

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DOG – script revisions

The plan is to revise the DOG script based around existing live action and VFX elements, adding new elements only when absolutely needed. It’s faster to rewrite than it is to edit. Unfortunately, Final Draft doesn’t have a very robust … Continue reading

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And so, DOG

Recent posts explore the motivations behind finishing / not finishing Daughter of God. Dedicating an hour to daily introspection makes sense, meanwhile the urge to edit builds. If finishing is really so important, why don’t I just finish? Rather than … Continue reading

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Another DOG milestone… missed!

I’ve overrun the rescheduled inventory deadline, after only getting in about 30 hours in the last 6 days. What else was I doing? Some M3 business on Wednesday, the usual training, eating, sleeping, maintaining social ties, fixing things… Below is … Continue reading

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DOG notes August 1-15, 2011

As I dive back in, there will inevitably be tangential ideas and inspiration. These I’ll write down for later review, deep storage… edit (tools) image placeholder or describe what’s seen new script index cards image cards qualities humor / backstory … Continue reading

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3 flavors of DOG

Let’s talk 3 versions. There’s a working 3:30 minute core, ready to get sleeky. The 2011 approach to the final cut is to cut to the core and add back in. Story support – what’s worth adding to deepen, reveal … Continue reading

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ECL interviews DK – 3:30 milestone

A transcription of pro tem Producer El Carne Loco’s interview with Director Dan Kelly regarding Daughter of God’s first milestone completion in 2011. ECL: Regarding the 3 minute version, what do you feel was accomplished, did it meet your expectations? … Continue reading

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DOG resurrection

She’s back! Daughter of God is in the house. 3:30 minutes The first objective was to post a micro version of the story (~3:00 minutes) by Wednesday 8/10.  Between Sunday 8/7 and Wednesday 8/10 I was able to dedicate 11 … Continue reading

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DOG post-production meeting

After updating the archive’s catalog the last couple of days, (40 terrabytes worth), I was finally ready to crack the DOG project this morning. Upon reviewing the major sequences, I had a series of epiphanies. Inventory Cataloging the possibilities will … Continue reading

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The aesthetic and what’s next?

So we’ve pre-released the sfx reel and shared a little history. Now what? There are 4 sheets of newsprint in the backroom covered with to dos, here’s the jist. Two archival and non trivial projects are in the queue for … Continue reading

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Canyon Princess

Premise “Up on the canyon edge, there’s a ship that sails the sky. They say it carries a thousand ghosts who once ate black gold and lived as gods. Big waters brought it here before my grandmother was born. We … Continue reading

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Uturnpike’s drift

Premise Mysterious rows of snow covered cars snake into the distance. What happened here? Was a neutron bomb exploded nearby? Were the drivers raptured away by the returning Messiah? Why are the cars bumper to bumper in both directions? Unturnpike … Continue reading

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Commando Kill

Premise CK is a black ops super warrior run amok. His self determined mission is to bring down technical civilization by crashing key elements of infrastructure. He’s forever skulking around power stations and military installations, tossing precise sabots with economy … Continue reading

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Climate Change and digressions

Premise Climbing high above a menacing mega-weather system, the VIP passengers aboard the Execu-jet attempt an escape to gentler climes, anticipating warm backrubs and frosty cocktails. Hubris! Even the mighty kerosene sucking turbo engines cannot forever loft such a heavy … Continue reading

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iCar, Our dystopian Detroit

We decided to open the reel with the sync sound of iCar. This plodding and awkward scene provides a counterpoint to contemporary SFX reels that are all about speed, zing and blitz… zzz. Back in the 80s when I was … Continue reading

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Your art or your life

In the past I’ve been insecure about my work. A nice way to say it would be that I had high standards, I didn’t want to be a party to schlock. I’ve seen some exhibits and shows and felt embarrassed … Continue reading

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R and D for Science Fiction Musical

Gosh, it’s nearly midnight, but I’ve gotta write a report on the recently initiated R and D for the Trickster Pictures project, Science Fiction Musical. James Weston and I are making narrative dance projects by recruiting talent from Mykl Werth’s … Continue reading

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Party theory

What is a party anyway and Why do I keep having them?  These questions are surprisingly sticky, fraught with dangerous revelations and dark discoveries. With not a little trepidation I turn my attention to look, to document, to understand. Though … Continue reading

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Integrity trap

Yet another iteration of a mistake I’ve made before.  Perhaps by sharing the shame with my imaginary audience, I’ll find a way to uninstall the pattern, permanently. Some years back I had this terrific collaborator, let’s call her L. She … Continue reading

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The clean shaven look

I did it. Redesign and radical simplification of http://ondesire.com has been implemented. There’s more to come but the major scaffolding is in place. Here’s the landing page. Pretty sparse eh? The idea is push some of the complexity deeper into … Continue reading

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Revisiting ondesire design

Here’s the state of the art. Bounce rate has been *bouncing* over the last 5 days. When it hit 70% on March 15, I almost flipped. I waited another day without making any changes and sure enough, it dropped back … Continue reading

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Bounce rate rebounds

Jonathan, Luke, Steve and I were looking at analytics for ondesire.com last night. After posting the Premise page on Friday, bounce rate shot back up to 40%. The point of looking at bounce rate is to see how effective the … Continue reading

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Bounce rate drops at ondesire.com

Bounce rate has dropped from 40% to 10%, whoo! Congratulations team, landing page analysis and revisions are a success. We’re generating a trickle of new visitors by selective follows on Twitter every day. From analytics it was pretty clear that … Continue reading

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Flyboy via iPhone

Just finished reading Jim Munroe’s FLYBOY ACTION FIGURE COMES WITH GASMASK as a text file on the iPhone. Good times! Check out his other story downloads at http://nomediakings.org. Scrollariffic!

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Deconstructing doom

Jonathan has been questioning the veracity of the doom assertion in the ALM / artifact premise. A premise or pitch is a shorthand introduction to a project – typically delivered in less than 15 seconds (and often in an elevator). … Continue reading

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Meeting 10-03-06 ondesire landing page

We’ve had two dream team meetings, in Brooklyn (Faisal, Erica and Dan) and yesterday in Beulah (Steve Elrick, Melonie, Jonathan, Lucas Kelly and Dan). Inviting collaboration and contribution was the focus of Saturday’s meeting. Components of the ask package for … Continue reading

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Faisal’s world

Faisal dropped off his edit of DOG. In the spring of 2009 he had offered to bring out the “David Lynch ambiance” while simultaneously loping off “atrocious performance”. He felt that DOG depicted a quirky, off kilter world that was … Continue reading

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ALM guide – inherent

There was another way of doing things once, a way that has become marginalized and almost forgotten but perhaps not quite totally annihilated. A way that isn’t self destructive. We all know the legend… the native people of several continents … Continue reading

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So far on ALM

We’ve been writing and writing. What has all this writing accomplished? Here’s what we know so far. Objectives for the project are identified The story centers around the guide character – his motivations, experience, starting point and transformation Several character … Continue reading

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Shut up about the xroll already

Holographic scenes are trembling moments of pure gestalt. Put them in a sequence and call that a movie.  Perhaps an alternate sequence reveals more. If you play it backward you hear, “I buried Paul.” I’m imagining a burst of experience … Continue reading

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