Harryhausen

We lost a great yesterday with the passing of Ray Harryhausen. Ray's stop motion work influenced a whole generation of filmmakers and his onscreen magic is still very potent today. Here are a couple videos. The first is a collection of his scenes from classic science fiction and fantasy films.

The next is an interview with effects guru Phil Tippett talking with Harry Knowles about Harryhausen's influence on his work.  

If you are interested in Ray, The Art of Ray Harryhausen book is a great companion piece to his film work. It shows off his preproduction artwork as well as his beautiful models.

I'm still here...

I've been working on a couple private commissions lately that I can't really share images of, thus the lack of posts. I need to wrap up a couple more things this week, but hopefully I'll be back to working on M'aidez again soon. My wife and I are expecting our first child this summer, so I have a bit of a deadline now to try to get the short wrapped up. We plan on taking a couple months off after the little guy is born to get use to the new family experience ahead of us .

Here is something amazing to look at.

 I came across this book Automaton by Paolo Ventura over the summer when we were in Paris. I was floored by its beauty. Paolo immerses you into his world. The details kept me staring at the same image for long stretches of time. The story is simple, but very striking. Here is a video of him reading the text along with all of the images in the book.
I am still not sure exactly what his process is. I know he constructs his background, but I'm not sure if the dolls and clothing he uses are scratch built or modified from existing models. In any case the photos are beautiful.

Movie Trailers!

Here are two movies coming up in 2013 that I am dying to see.
The first is a no-brainer. Guillermo del Toro's latest movie features giant kaiju monsters fighting giant robot mechs. Throw in Idris Elba, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman... what more could you ask for? Pacific Rim looks like it will be non-stop action and fun with some sincere heart thrown in knowing Del Toro's work.

Next is a much smaller movie called Upstream Color by Shane Carruth. This one looks like you'll need to bring your thinking cap along with you to the theater. Carruth has only release one other feature previously, a movie call Primer. Primer is one of my favorite movies. I've watched it many times and always think I have a handle on it, but I know I don't. It might be the best time travel movie of all time. It's scope is so big, but really its a very small film. Reported made for only $7000, it took the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004. So here is his new one, and it doesn't look like he's going to take it any easier on the viewers.

Animatronic hand

Here is a hand I made for some close up shots. I used this wonderful tutorial as a starting point, modifying for size mostly. Forgive the sloppiness here, it is now covered with white fabric.

San Jose International Short Film Festival 2012

The San Jose International Short Film Festival 2012 was held this weekend and my short M'aidez was shown there! I should have posted this befroe the showing but I wasn't sure of the date and time it would be screened. Thank you SJSFF for the invite, I hope things went smoothly. 

Also featured at the fest was the short "The Maker" by Zealous Creative, a studio out of Australia. I saw this a couple weeks back online and really enjoyed it. 

8 Bit Devo

I did some artwork over the summer for an 8bit tribute album to the band Devo. The album, titled Crack that Chip, by 8-Bit Operators is set to be available around election time. Here is a promo video they made featuring some of my artwork and samples of the music.



I had a lot of fun working on this and really loved diving into Devo themed art. Here are a few progress photos from the sculpture.

Talking to yourself

Here is the conversation a lot of us (me included) wish we could have with our former selves. Brilliant video. This took a lot of foresight for a twelve year old.

Are We Not Men?

I might be working on some cover art for a Devo tribute album coming up. I've been doing some research lately, revisiting and discovering old music videos. Deanna and I fell in love with the album "Q: Are We Not Men?, A: We Are Devo" when we were driving down the California coast for our honeymoon. So I'm really looking forward to working on some Devo inspired artwork. Here is a video for the original version of Jocko Homo. It's a bit more raw than the album version which is a nice variation. ENJOY!

Short Film M'aidez

 I recommend watching this in HD, fullscreen, with headphones on 

Complete!!! I have finally finished my short. I have spent so much time with this that its going to feel odd not staring at that figure for a little while. I am pretty pleased with the final product. It is not the longer form narrative that I originally intended, but maybe I will come back to that someday. I wish I could give some estimate of hours spent, but I can tell you it was a lot. The figure, the suit, the backpack, the electronics, the sculpting and painting; and then of course the shooting all took a good chunk of time to complete. I have been working on these types of figures for about eight or nine years and its really satisfying to seem one brought to life a little bit. I am hoping to continue stop motion work in the future. Who knows what little short is next. I'll leave it at that. Thank you for watching!

Vacuforming

Just when you think you can't love Jim Henson anymore than you do...

Here is a short film that Henson made for AT&T in 1963. His pacing and rhythm is just astonishing.

We miss you Jim-

Originally seen on FilmDrunk

Impossible Acts

I haven't really set any limitations or restrictions for myself with this blog yet, and I don't think I am going to. It's just going to be a little corner where I can put things that I like, things that get my attention, or that just wow me. This video falls in the last category.

I am not a musician. I love music and listen to it constantly, but never took that step into creating it. I do have daydreams of being a drummer though. Maybe I was one in a different life or maybe I will be in an upcoming one, but for the time being I just like being a fan. I don't know all of the technical aspects of drumming, but sometimes you can just see something you don't completely understand and know that its an incredible feat. Buddy is said to have been a very diffcult person to be around. Some say there were things he could do on the drums that no one can or will ever be able to replicate. You have to respect someone who puts so much of their heart into something like he did; even if they fail in so many other aspects of life.