Time For A Change

Well, most of the crew that I started out with isn't with me anymore. Other commitments have kept them from doing as much as they had hoped. The superhero series that we were doing was mostly their idea, and honestly won't work as well without them. That's how all of my projects are, actually. I have a script after I know what my resources are, instead of the traditional Hollywood method of writing a script and getting it filmed. This is what happens when you have limited resources. I loved the concept we were working on, and it would have been a hilarious little set of short films, but it's time to move on.

So, at Mysti's request, we are going to do a medieval / fantasy film. I found a castle that looks like it will work really well(the picture above is from google earth, but it honestly doesn't do it justice), and I've met a few SCA people lately that may be willing to help.

Wesley Stagg has also agreed to help with this new film. He's passionate about cameras and lighting, and will be an invaluable asset.

So expect a few updates coming soon. I hope to get this project moving quickly.

Stunt Dummy

Wow. I haven't posted in a while. Sorry. I'm in the middle of moving. But that doesn't mean I'm not working on stuff! I don't have any pics of mine exactly, but I've been following this. I think I'll call him Steve. I'm a lot less afraid of Steve.

Our Newest Cast Member

Mysti Sadler has agreed to join our little "How To Be A Superhero" production. She's an aspiring model who has also started taking acting classes, and I think she'll make an excellent addition to our film.

How to MacGuyver a Dashcam

I've published an instructable if you want some details, but it's pretty straight forward. Now it just has to stop raining long enough for me to film what I need...

A Side Project

Things are going a bit slower than we had planned for our Superhero series, so I'm working on a side project. It's mostly on my own, but I've also got some help from family.

It is based on the idea that the chase scene in the first Transformers movie was way too short, and will involve the following characters (plus a few more):






I'm not really going for the same thing as all the stop motion animation Transformers fanvids on youtube. I may use some stop motion, but I'm mostly going to treat the toys as miniatures. I'll probably even chroma key in my kids, just for the fun of it.

I Am Testosterone Man!

This is a concept from way back in the day. It wasn't even mine, originally. We had to do a short film in our youth group, and this is what we came up with. I don't have the film (I don't think it exists at all anymore, actually), but anyone who saw it will attest that it was freakin' hilarious. I ended up playing the main character, and from that point on, I have been Testosterone Man. I had this drawn up by a comic artist I met in the Philippines, and it looks a whole lot better than the white long johns and pink cape that we started with.

So, I believe this is where we'll be going with our "How To Be A Superhero" shorts.

I'm gonna make a total and complete fool of myself, and then I'm gonna put it on youtube. This is gonna be awesome!

Our Goals

I thought now would be a good time to outline the goals of our little organization. Our long term goal is in Interactive Storytelling. If you're not familiar with that concept, it's what the Choose Your Own Adventure books were, except that we plan to do it with video. We've considered both animation and live action, so we'll see where that goes.

The thing is that interactive stories require considerably more work than regular fiction. A one hour story that has only four decisions from the audience would require over seven hours of footage (that's some math that I definitely need to look at more closely - there has to be a formula for that). I would consider us amateur filmmakers at best, so we have some progress to make before we start in on the really difficult stuff. That's why we're currently working on silly little short films like "How To Be a Superhero" - It's all for practice.

And for fun. Fun is good. :-)

Starting on Our First Project

We've started our first project - "How To Be A Superhero - Chapter 1: Discovering Your Superpower." Yes, I said Chapter 1. This will be the first in a 5 part series of very unrealistic, just-for-laughs videos. I will play the guy that gets pulled off the street and paid $20 to be a test subject. Daylan will play the guy running the tests (Oh, of course, they're very scientific... Yeah, right!). And Andrew will be the one running the show. We should start filming the first week of May, and have it done by the end of the month.

Oh, and I honestly don't think that I'll look like that in the video, but the picture was classic HeroMachine fun.

The Membership is Growing

On Saturday I met with Andrew and Daylan. They were both in that initial film that we did, and were hard working, talented guys. I'm glad to have them on board. They may even make a few posts here. Andrew's specialty is fight choreography, as well as writing. Daylan is an awesome designer and 3d modeler, and is pretty good at programming as well. And they both share my passion for making games and movies. As far as I know, Andrew doesn't have his own site, but Daylan's is at eegamedesign.com.

Oh, and for your viewing enjoyment, here is that film I keep talking about.

Illusionext is Officially Up And Running

A little over a year ago, I headed up a little film we called Eilert The Dragon Slayer. While we had made a few short films before, this time we were attempting something that had never been done at the Murray ITT before - a ten minute short film. We were told that anytime another group had attempted to make a film longer than two minutes, they had failed. Ours was ten minutes. Well, we made it. It's far from perfect, but it was done.

We called ourselves Illusionext. We've hardly seen each other since then, so we haven't used the name since. But today I'm changing that. Today Illusionext is back.