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Showing posts from August, 2013

R.I.P. Boo 1998-2013

I had to euthanize my cat Boo today- it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do- I've been giving him subcutaneous fluids everyday via IV for the past year as he's been dying of kidney failure- and he took a turn for the worse yesterday- He's been at my side for my whole filmmaking career- he was my best friend so he will be greatly missed by me. He was like my little secret weapon that comforted me through all my tough times. He was a small cat but never backed down from a fight- he never gave up on living but his quality of life had gotten so bad I had to call it an end as his owner who loves him. Thanks for being my little homie for so long and rest in peace little Boo- I'll miss you.

Video games keep calling me

The request I get the most is "please make video games" I've played around with Unity3d and have a little game project sitting waiting to be worked on- I understand the workflow and how to get all my 3d stuff into Unity I just need to set the time aside to actually create and release something- I've read a few books on game design now and have taken baby steps in learning C- so yeh all thats left is for me to create my first game and start learning through experience- I was just watching a documentary on Walt Disney- We had the Disney channel when I was a kid and I watched it like 24/7 so old Disney films and cartoons were a huge influence on me- in the doc they got to Walt Disney's motivations behind creating Disneyland- one of them was that he wanted to take the films they had made and create a real world experience from them- Now some of the worst games I've played have been games based on films- they usually just seem like throwaway projects- but any

Nearing the end of I AM NIGHTMARE production

So now there is only 20 shots left in the I AM NIGHTMARE production- I'll do those 20 shots tomorrow- Then I'll animate the opening credits and go through the edit of the entire film and make notes about what shots to fix, adjust, redo and I'll create additional shots- then I'll animate all those too this week- So by September 1st there will be no more animating for I am Nightmare- September will be all lighting and rendering so I'll be able to focus solely on that- I work better when I can focus on a specific process- I was hired to do a new music video for Mindless Self Indulgence about a week ago- so while I'm lighting and rendering shots for I am Nightmare in September I'll also be animating that music video- I have two other side projects to complete in October as well- so BUSY BUSY BUSY ^_^

M dot looks at some self distribution options in 2013

DPD - (What I'm currently using) Pro They take no cut of sales Allows for pre-orders Manages email lists of customers Easily update products Easy to manage affiliate marketing programs Can sell multiple films + extras as long as you pay for enough space Can sell ANY digital or physical product Con Price for service is $360 to $540 per year No social components so you have to do all the hustlin yourself Have to host/manage your own film sales site No on demand, downloads only Have to wait for downloads to finish and know how to play them Comments: This is the most DIY of all the solutions so it requires the most work. The only reason I would stick with this one is because of the affiliate program potential as I have some new ideas to capitalize on this and I can help the cast/crew make $ by sharing the film which I think is important to the future of independent productions. Vimeo On Demand Pro Allows On Demand +

Mdotstrange.com will change soon

I'm going to redesign mdotstrange.com this week- I'm going to really simplify it to make it easy to find my films. Everything that is here now will remain the same it will just be in my "blog" To get here from the new homepage just click on the blogger icon on the top of the new site like in the example image. The chat box and everything will stay alive on my blog.

Playing with dolls

When a live action director wants to make a film he casts actors that he believes best fit the roles- He doesn't build these human beings from scratch- The purpose of an actor is to become a dramatic vehicle to realize your cinematic vision- Like every other part of the production- the actor serves the story- they are vehicles that allow you to tell your story- My character creation process is like playing with dolls- On We Are The Strange- I bought doll eyes and heads from the craft store- I took arms and legs from different toys- I use a little wire, clay, and latex to create other parts and put them all together- In other words I only made as much of the actors as I had to- On Heart String Marionette the character creation process was very much like my mix and match doll part technique I used on We Are The Strange- I modeled one set of male doll parts and one set of female doll parts- then I simply mixed and matched them to create all the characters- I also made so

When you doubt others- you doubt yourself

As soon as you tell someone else that they cannot do something you're telling yourself that you can't do it either- Perhaps that makes people feel more comfortable as then they'll never have to attempt that thing that they're afraid of? As they've told someone else that it is impossible Once someone actually does it- then you have three choices- 1) Go into denial and pretend they do not exist     Simply ignore them or their accomplishment that threatens you and your reality 2) Admire their accomplishment and use it as inspiration for your own     Tell yourself "if they did it so can I!" and you even add "I'll do it better!" 3) Deny their accomplishment as invalid somehow making it not count (another form of denial)     This allows someone to get back into the loop of choice #1 Perhaps there's some sort of creator karma? The more you hate on and doubt on other creators- the weaker your own powers of creation become? The in

Filmmaking lessons I learned from a 4 year old

The last time I was in Iceland- my wife and I babysat a lil four year boy old a few times- I was drawing stuff with him in my notebook when I asked him to draw some monsters- and this is what he drew- I asked him to describe what he drew- the big round parts were their bodies, the lines were their arms and legs and the other circles or scribbles were eyes, noses and mouths- He was very matter of fact about it ^_^ Since he has a fully working imagination these were monsters- it we adults still have working imaginations we can see these as monsters or creatures of some kind as well- By drawing these monsters he taught me that my characters and other models don't need to be modeled and rendered technically perfect- not even close to it- we know what they are- If you're telling stories with your characters its not about what things look like really- its about telling a story- the look of the things is supposed to support the story not supersede or supplant it- Also

Your film is a message in a bottle to the world.

Your film is a message in a bottle to the world. The bottle is the world you create, that your film takes place in. The messengers are your characters. When the audience pays and sits down to watch your film they are pulling the cork out and unrolling the message. What does your message say? Whom is it for? Is it something they've heard before? How does it make people feel? Why? What are you saying and why? Will your message help people? Will it give them hope or despair? Why? This message in a bottle will float through time eternally after its creation- it will be opened by an untold number of humans and other life forms- so you better UNDERSTAND what your message says and WHY- that is unless your just spamming bottles to make a buck or get popular. The world has enough of this spam- say something that matters and that will stand the test of time. I mean wouldn't it feel good to help/entertain a life form in the year 3001?

Micro-budget film finance and marketing

Film Budgeting The idea: The smaller the better- unlike in Hollywood where the bigger the budget the "better" because producers and hack executives get to pay themselves more- you want to keep it as small as possible so you can actually raise the amount in a reasonable period of time while maintaining your rights. In my experience: I was prepared to make my newest film with no budget- but I was able to raise about $5000 which went to paying voice actors and computer hardware/software. The ideal: You would have enough of a budget to make the film without sacrificing quality or time and be able to pay everyone working on the film a fair amount. Film Funding The idea: Self funded, crowd-funded, or private investing- there's enough sites out there to help you raise money for your film IF people are interested in it AND you have a big enough social network to reach enough people AND you present it properly. In my experience: I launched a kickstarter for my latest f

Starting is the hardest part

I sat down to start animating the final sequence for the new film and I started to feel the familiar antsy feelings- an inability to sit still- the desire to do anything else but sit still and start the work- it sort of makes you feel like a lunatic- As Steven Pressfield describes in The War of Art- this is the resistance- its fear- Why are we so afraid to start? To start you need to make decisions- you will have to commit to something- and we feel fear because we're afraid we might make the wrong choice- we feel great pressure to NOT make a mistake- I believe this is why its so hard to start something- because of all the pressure to not fuck up- This causes most people to freeze up and quit- and let one of those distractions become their focus- their excuse to not do the work. Starting IS the hardest part BUT once you commit and start moving forward the pressure starts to fade- it doesn't disappear instantly- it usually takes a day or two of full time working on so

Winner vs. Loser filmmaker mentality

I've come across a lot of filmmakers and wannabe filmmakers in my time and I've seen these traits over and over... First let me define "winner" and "loser" when it comes to indie filmmaking in my opinion- A winner = someone who makes films and continues to A loser = someone who doesn't make their films, a quitter So its that simple- if you proclaim yourself a "filmmaker" and you don't make films then you fail. Now here's the traits I've seen time and time again- --------------- A winner does their best with whatever they have A loser doesn't even try because things aren't ideal A winner encourages other filmmakers A loser tries to tear them down A winner is motivated by passion and possibilities A loser is motivated by fear A winner plans and prepares and is realistic with goals A loser self sabotages and gives up before they even start A winner blames them self for their failures A loser blames ever

Micro studio animated feature films are the future

If you have a tiny budget today and a tiny crew and want to make a "big" film how are you going to do it? Live action tools have gotten cheaper BUT to make a big, epic film you're going to have to do a lot of this ridiculousness Staring into the future of live action filmmaking for epic films I don't think any of us can do this in our basements or garages Ok this could be a basement but whatever its ridiculous Hollywood will eventually implode and die- so who then will make epic films? If you look at the cost and the workflow for creating epic/fantasy/sci fi/etc cg animated films are the ideal solution- The current vfx heavy Hollywood films rely HEAVILY on green screen compositing/tracking wherein actors become more like data sources than actors- this hurts their performances and you can't blame them- how inspiring can it be to do this? I know that acting/filmmaking requires the use of imagination BUT once your filmmaking technique becomes

I am Nightmare teaser trailer

Vimeo I AM NIGHTMARE teaser trailer from M dot Strange on Vimeo . Youtube Downloadable version to upload to your channel etc http://www.mediafire.com/?o4flnskoqekq9ek Downloadable still images https://picasaweb.google.com/mdotstrange/IAmNightmarePromoImages The strange show goes on! Now back to work so I can finish this thing and move on to the next one ^_^

New Images from I AM NIGHTMARE

The teaser trailer has been released to the people that have pre-ordered the film- if you pre-ordered or are an extra in the film and have not received the link in your email please contact me at mdotstrange@gmail and I'll send it to you asap I'll be sending it out to everyone that bought Heart String Marionette tomorrow- then I'll make it public on Monday In the meantime here are some images taken from the teaser trailer