Recent awards

Archon Defender has been well received at several film festivals. I was recently in Vancouver to receive the 'Rising Star' Award at the Canadian International Film Festival. The film has to date received 3 awards:

As the filmmaker, I know my film is awesome, however this is a point of view that is somewhat biased. It's great when people agree with me ;D Of course, the film has had it's share of complaineys and haters:

Voice acting precedure: read this, and I'll record you.
If you think I need something more than robotic monotone: don't.

(Notice the the folks over at xtranormal have taken a page out of my filmmaking book... Simple characters, computer voices, simple facial animation rig that doesn't cross the uncanny valley...)

If you want to see the film in your area, a great new resource OpenIndie has opened recently online, go there to add your name to the list of people to request a screening in your area, the more people that sign up, the greater the chance that we can get a theatrical screening in your area. And the film looks amazing up on the big screen in all it's HD glory.

My next project, 'Tales from the Afternow' is done, and in post production, look for it to be released on RantMedia.com later this year:

Oddly enough, I'm not doing the sound or music for a change, but from what I've seen of it so far with the soundtrack added, it's going to be win ;D

In the meanwhile, head on over to Genero.tv to watch (and vote for) the music video I did for Moby's "Wait for me" contest.

Hey sneaky sneakys...

Did you happen to catch the 'rah rah' rally the troops 'round the American flag scene in Avatar?.

Happens twice, at the beginning when Col Quaritch is giving his 'tour guide' speech to the new recruits, and towards the end when he's rallying everyone to go get eaten by flying critters.


It's subtle, and a sneaky way for James Cameron to insert the iconic image of the General rallying the troops in front into his film. (There's even 13 stripes created by the venetian blinds on the window...I counted)

If you're going to be a good filmmaker, you have to have a sharp eye for things like this. As filmmakers, we love hiding little things like this in our projects ;)

The Stars and Stripes forever...
You want to rally the troops,
get Elvira on board.

(She'll make you "stand to attention" *ahem* ;)

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Now, I'm all for flag waving... Hey James Cameron, you're from Canada, here's how you wave the flag:

Tales From the Afternow - sneak preview

Here's a few sneak preview stills from my short 'Tales from the Afternow' Written by Sean Kennedy, and music by Patient Zero. The folks at RantMedia are in the process of finishing up the sound fx and music, and when that happens it's going to be awesomesauce over9000 rocketballs hella cool.

Based on Patient Zero's past releases:

The soundtrack is gonna hella rock it all the way to Russia like Saddam Hussein.


In the meantime, head over to Genero.tv to catch my latest music video for Moby's "Wait for me" contest. Don't forget to vote for my video. Or make a video of your own, the contest deadline is Apr 5 2010.

Crazy bollywood fight sequence

Apparently copies of the 1999 film 'The Matrix' have made their way over to bollywood, who have subsequently latched onto the revolutionary 'bullet time' effect, long after that effect has been thankfully abandoned by the turkey farm. Now, bollywood fight scenes can be pretty over the top entertaining, as such:

A quick summary of this fight scene:

Some chick is getting chased by the guy from the KLF, so she ducks into a karate dojo in hopes of ditching him. He follows her in and hilarity ensues.

The 'hair-o-vision' is a nifty touch, as is the acrobatic multi karate guy formation right at the end (5:50 in the video) I can't imagine how effective that would be in a fight, and they seem to get their asses handed to them as well.

Everything here makes sense in the typical bollywood fashion, even the use of 'bullet time' when not even necessary (a trick they learnt from the original Matrix movies.)

So what can we learn from bollywood: Your fight scene doesn't have to make any sense. It just has to look cool.

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Revolutionary moments in Cinematic History:

1999
"The Matrix" introduces "bullet time" effect
Everyone wishes this was filmed in 3D

2003
"The Matrix Reloaded" revolutionizes cinema again
with that crazy highway chase scene...
...If you wear pulfrich 3D glasses when neo comes flying in
during that scene where the two trucks collide, it looks like it's 3D

2009
James Cameron remakes 'Pocahantas' in 3D with blue aliens,
mech suits, flying dragons and trees that grow those string lights
they have at "adult entertainment clubs"...
...the scene where the guys are coming out of space hibernation
makes your eyes bleed and you wish it wasn't in 3D

Neill Blomkamp talks about alien life and the singularity

Neill Blomkamp is one of my fav directors right now, right up on the list with JJ Abrams, who have both somehow managed to sneak cool films out of the turkey farm. Blomkamp recently spoke at/for the TED conference (which seems to be spreading faster than an infestation of Candida albicans) on the subject of alien life, and the ominously approaching technological singularity:

"Aliens stole my comb"

Of course, if ufo kooks are correct, then the aliens are already here. Working in cushy government jobs, or something.

3D in your face...3D SKULLS in your face >:O

Seeing as how Avatar cleaned up so well at the oscars >:P it's obvious that we are now living in a new golden age of 3D movies. Of course 3D movies have been around forever, and they've always been in your face. Literally. Given these two 'golden age' gems, I'd wager that today's crop of 3D films are subdued by comparison:

The first film gives a pretty good explanation of why films should be in 3D. The second takes it to the logical conclusion: that stuff should be flying out at the audience at any opportunity.

Now. Why do you suppose this isn't imitated in live action theater (aside from GWAR concerts) Theater has been 3D since the classical Greek days, and you don't even need to wear glasses. "Alas poor Yorick"... ...then throw the skull into the audience. Hell, have a batting cage machine off stage filled with skulls, ready for the cue. Now that cinema has been revolutionized by James Cameron once, and twice by the Wachowski Bros, it's time for live action to "play" catch up. Or rather, it's time for the audience to play "catch skulls"

More top secret 3D

More 3D test renders today:

Cross-eyes 3D

3D glasses 3D

(It's debatable which is easier on the eyes)

Of course, keeping separate masters for left and right eye, means that I can master for different 3D formats, red cyan anaglyph, yellow-blue anaglyph, interlaced dvd for shutter glasses (which I don't happen to have yet), 3D projection for theaters if that ever becomes accessable to indie filmmakers (which I suspect it won't... at least until 3D tv's become cheaply available)

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Update:

A parallel-eyes freeview version for those who prefer that method: