Sunday, August 21, 2011

What I'm Up To: 08-21-2011


I've decided to use this particular blog as my on line journal of goings on. A place where I can be a little less formal than my other blogs, such as Christopher Moonlight Productions (my favorite blog) and Moonlight Art Magazine. The art magazine has been a challenge, because I love doing it, but it always has to take the back burner for more lucrative projects. It's NEVER made any money, but it has the biggest following, out of everything I do. It's also the place where I can present my first love, comic books, which is also my most neglected love.
Comic books are wonderful. I've been reading them since I was a teenager, and I've always wanted to draw them... but not full time. I'm by no means a mainstream comic artist, and I don't have the energy it takes to stay chained to the drawing board, day after day, when my audience will only ever be a niche within a niche. I'll only commit to it when I have the time it deserves to create truly quality comics, or when I'm getting paid to do it, like I am with...
A Dad's Point of View is a little strip I've been doing for www.brucesallan.com which is a really great parenting website. Check it out, here. Comments on the site are appreciated.

I've also been working on an all green screen, sci-fi, short film called, "Girl In The Window." It's got robots, aliens, and spaceships. I can't say much more about it now, accept that I might be posting it on www.kickstarter.com for a small amount of funding, in which case, I'll start blogging about it's progress on this blog. Film making is where I really have the most fun, and it's been my dream for a long time to make it my full time work. I plan on finding a way to set up my own mini studio, where I can do everything myself, from per-production to post, no real sets, and just make ultra low budget movies that look like they cost millions. Why this over comics? Film making is a much more high energy endeavor, where you get to write, design, interact with people and materials, and I want to do all of these things. The screen is the biggest canvas people are interested in looking at these days, and it also allows you to do all of these things in one project. I like that.
I got a couple little inspirational boosts not to long ago, too. The fist was my trip to Comic Con, where I had a great time meeting independent film makers like Vera VanGuard and the production designers John Muto, Cece DeStefano, and Mimi Gramatky who were all very encouraging and complementary of my work.

The other was in the form of an impromptu invitation from one of my (almost) life ling heroes Alec Gillis, to take a tour of his famed monster shop, ADI Studios which he owns with other hero of mine, Tom Woodruff Jr. To say the opportunity was overwhelming is an understatement. I didn't get to stay long, and I probably sounded like an idiot, trying to cram a lifetime of feelings and opinions about what they do into a few minutes, but the experience was nothing short of inspiration, in it's purest form. When I was in High School, I saw an HBO behind the scenes on how they did the rod puppets and other creature effects on Alien 3. It changed my life. I immediately made my own puppet, along with my own Alien head, and tried to shoot an Aliens video movie with my friends in the town sewers. True story. I've never stopped trying to do those things since. So, I am truly grateful.
Anyway, as always I should be working, and here I am getting things off my chest. There's only so much time, and I've still got my day job to think about, as well. It takes up 40 hours of my week, but it's paying the bills. As always, I'd love to here from you in the comments section.
Have a great day.