This has been a busy month. I had two big back-to-back projects that have both come to completion. Last night brought the conclusion of a video for the Guardian Project that will air Sunday at the NHL All Star game and during the television broadcast. I was responsible for some of the compositing for that enormous project. Above are a few videos we at Butcher Bird Studios produced for Nexon in December and January.
One of my jobs during my days at TOKYOPOP was directing Motion Comics (then called iManga). Riding Shotgun and I Luv Halloween were both released shortly after completion. My favorite of the projects was Gyakushu. Unfortunately, for various reasons, it was never released. Thankfully, that has changed. It has been over two years since we completed it, but the Motion Comic version of Dan Hipp’s book is finally online at Hulu.
Our first official television commercial as Butcher Bird Studios is now airing on Time Warner Cable channels in the Los Angeles area. Do not fear those of you in another region or (like me) without cable television, you can see it online. It is a :30 spot featuring Luka Jones of Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre and Terrence, the Space Monkey from Moodoo Puppets. Watch it and learn why you should read and attend the 2010 West Hollywood Book Fair.
Butcher Bird Studios unveils itself today. We are a group of filmmakers offering our services in varying capacities. Stop by our new site or send it to someone who may need our special services. Think of us like the A-Team, but with less explosions (unless that’s what you want to pay for).
I’ve been using the GoPro everywhere that seems sensible this summer. It’s been on the West Coast Trail, SCUBA diving, rock climbing, the Zion Narrows, and several other places. We spent the Fourth of July in Hesperia with Erika’s family where we shot a lot of footage of us playing in the pool. The above is a short montage of that day. I put together a similar video when we went sledding earlier this year.
I’ve mentioned in past entries that Duncan Toys hired me earlier this year to take some of their yo-yo footage and turn it into two television commercials. Well, I’ve finally uploaded those two spots to Vimeo. They are embedded below.
We may have finished shooting The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell over a year ago, but I have only begun to do the time-sucking post-production work. I anticipate the final product running roughly fifteen minutes. Well, I have recently completed the first minute! It is online for everyone to watch and rebuke. That’s the video embedded above if you haven’t been paying attention.
I also decided one minute of footage must be enough content for an entire website to be built around. Sound reasoning, right? Visit ManyMaladies.com and you can follow the Marty Mitchell production blog as I slog my way through completion.
On an unrelated note, the movie that engulfed two years of my life at TOKYOPOP is online at Hulu. I was responsible for almost all of the motion graphics and visual effects. I also had a belligerent bit part as an actor. If you have two hours to lose, check out Van Von Hunter. You will never be the same!
My ability to maintain this journal always seems to wane in the summer. A lot has happened since my last post. I quit my job and fled to Canada for two-and-a-half weeks. The first week was spent sight-seeing with Erika. Along with my friend Steven, we completed the West Coast Trail over six days of backpacking. Then I took the Amtrak train down the coast back to Los Angeles. There is plenty to share about the trip and I intend to do so over two entries in the near future.
Returning to California submerged me in the world of self-employment. I thankfully had two paying projects awaiting me. Those were completed early this month. Since then, I have finally been working on The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell. I am hoping to post a completed excerpt from that very soon. I have also been working on editing fresh demo reels and building a web identity for a venture I intend to launch with a group of friends next month.
It hasn’t been all work. I finally learned to surf. I’m no master, but I can get on the board and ride it a ways (sometimes). I’ve been sticking to my plan to rock climb as much as possible (I’ll be getting up in a few hours to do that). Erika and I hiked the Zion Narrows again, this time with Karl and Extreme Things. We also got back in the ocean and did some more SCUBA diving (the first time since our certification last August). I’ve been shooting GoPro footage all over the place and am hoping to edit a few more short videos (if you don’t know what I am talking about, check out my sledding video).
New posts with better content on the way (hopefully soon).
Every so often we have to shake up our lives, take some chances, move on, take risks. The other option is complacency—stagnation. Four years ago, my life went through a drastic change. I underwent a huge break-up and accepted it as an opportunity to look at my life and aim it in the directions I most wanted to head. It was a rough time and the changes to my life were drastic. It has made all the difference. The life I am leading now is a proactive one and I am doing things I’ve always wanted to do. That being said, it is time for another big change (although a smaller one than four years ago—and no, Erika and I are not splitting up). After five and a half years at TOKYOPOP, I am leaving. I gave my notice last week. I have learned a lot, developed as an artist, and grown immensely during that time. Yet, it is time for that relationship to end. It has been time for a long time. There is little left for me to give there and little for me to gain there. It has been time for change for quite a while and I am openly embracing it now.
What are my plans? Many signs are pointing me towards that frightening path of self-employment. The skills I have been developing are generally most useful on short-term projects and the industries I’ve been pursuing are largely project-based. Being a full-time employee has actually cost me some opportunities in the last two years. I have often said that my hope was that TOKYOPOP would be my last full-time job. Now is the time to try to make that a reality.
Now for some requisite updates:
Things have been going well so far this year. I hope they continue this way. I’ve taken rock climbing lessons and finally invested in my own gear. Right now, I am trying to sport climb regularly in hopes of moving into trad climbing in the next few years. I’ll be off to British Columbia soon and I’m planning to hike the West Coast Trail I’ve been pining after. I’ve been busy on various video projects and entered a few festivals: Delivery is a short I co-directed with two friends, Third Degree is a piece I helped my buddy Shlain shoot, and I’m trying to forge ahead on Marty Mitchell. Some of you may remember the Duncan yo-yo spec commercial I put together with some friends. I am still waiting to hear if it places in the festival I entered it in. In the meantime, I have added it to my Vimeo page. The great news I’ve been keeping quiet about that spec spot is that it landed me a gig with Duncan for their 2010 television commercials. I finished up 15 and 30 second spots for them last week. Hopefully, they’ll be airing on TV this summer or fall.
I guess I better get to showering now.
I want to smell good for the encroaching future.
Back in October, I got together with three friends for what we called the Spec Weekend. Essentially we each directed four Spec Commercial spots. We helped out on each others shoots and shared the costs. Well, I finally cut my spot together and entered it in an online contest. Feel free to vote for it if you like it. Special thanks to Daniel Colmenares for the great photography and Rui Kyo for the badass performance.
Last summer, I helped shoot a short project with some friends called Silver Moon. Afterwards, I spent the last few months of the year compositing the green screen photography. Well, Travis and Ben have finished tweaking the audio and now it is online for everyone to see.
Silver Moon is a proposed feature-length horror/western. What you can see embedded below is a teaser. It is two scenes from the movie. If we can get funding, we hope to shoot the whole thing. Pass this video around if you enjoy it and become a fan on Facebook if you are social network savvy.