Realm of LARP - Watch Episode 1 NOW!!!

Or: How to make and sell your own TV show.

Today Realm of LARP Premieres on the Nerdist Channel on YouTube.

Realm of LARP is a documentary series that follows the adventures of live action role-players.  I had the idea for the show over a year and a half ago. After pitching it on paper, I was joined by my Co-Executive producer Jason Kanter, who helped me get the resources to go out and shoot a sizzle reel.

When we started planning the move out to the woods it was obvious that better than shooting a sizzle reel, we should just shoot an entire series as long as we are out in the woods. We did just that.

Once we had footage shot and a trailer edited, we began showing it to television execs and encountering the same problem over and over again. A young development executive would take a look and think that it was one of the most innovative things that they had ever seen, Our new found friend would then turn around and show it to their bosses, and as it traveled up the ladder people kept getting older and sometimes out of touch with rising trends.  At one point we had even gotten word back that the head developement guy at a network thought that we had made up the idea of LARPing and couldn't accept the fact that millions of people LARP all over the world.

But when I talked with Chris Hardwick, the decision maker and all around nerd champion, he saw and understood the amount of joy a show like Realm of LARP was actually sharing with the audience.

So thanks Nerdist and to everyone out there who is getting the chance to see it for the first time, I hope you enjoy Realm of LARP.

Poop Cartoon 6 od 6

As commissioned by Laura Solomon,the sixth in a series of cartoons where the subject should center on pop.

Poop Cartoon No. 5

The fifth in a series of six cartoons about poop, as commissioned by Laura Solomon.

No one told me there was a game with singing Poop!!!

You are all at fault for not filling me in about this!!

LARP rules everything around me.

Where have I been?, Why haven't I been  releasing videos every week?  It's because I have been working on a project which I believe is one of the best things I have ever done. It comes out this month and we just released a teaser trailer for it.  Please check it out.




I have been trying to get this made for several years because I truly believe it is something new and interesting that everyone can enjoy.

What do you think of that assessment?

Poop Cartoon Number 4

True Story.

Poop Cartoon No. 3

This is the third in an installment of cartoons based on the subject of poop.  Only three more to go and then your collection will be complete.

Me and Rooney Mara:

Next week I am shooting a small supporting role in the new Steven Soderberg picture starring Rooney Mara.  She is not disgusting to look at... I think her only major problem is that she does not know how to dress for the weather as you can see in this picture.

I can't give you any details about what I will be doing in the movie but since Rooney has already done scenes kicking a metal pipe up someone's butt, you know at least I will walk away from it.

TRON is good again?

I am a huge fan of the original Tron.  So when I heard they were making a sequel to it I was so very excited.  Unfortunately, I had no idea that the sequel would suck so much. Kind of like what happened with Star Wars and the prequels.  They also sucked so much.

But now, Tron has decided to try and redeem itself with a cartoon in much the same way Star Wars tried with the Clone Wars Cartoon  I say tried because the clone wars was so bad in it's first season that many people never gave it a chance in subsequent seasons. (It's better now, I swear)

The first episode of the cartoon is online for your viewing pleasure.  Once it gets past the exposition, it gets pretty entertaining.  It seems a lot more inventive than Tron: Legacy.  Maybe a case of too many cooks... Please dont get terrible.

Second Poop cartoon

Second in a series of six poop cartoons.  Still trying to get my digital drawing and painting up to speed for a special project which I will tell you about soon.

POoP  Art, get it?

Poop Cartoons 1 of 6:

Hey guys,

I am trying to get back up to speed in my drawing for a special project coming up.  I have been challenged to draw a poop cartoon once a week while I am doing this. Challenge was put forth by Laura Solomon.  Here is my first one. It's a self portrait.

Blackface is funny JUST THIS ONE TIME

I have seen many people put on blackface and call it a joke. Most of the time the joke is, "Hey isn't it outlandish I am doing this?  Isn't it funny that since we all know that I am not racist that I actually am doing the most racist thing possible?" Sadly, I have never seen it be funny.

I'm not saying that it can't be funny though.  I am a firm believer that you can make anything funny and that absolutely nothing is sacred.  I believe the key is being smart and responsible, and then on top of that... funny. More specifically, if you are going to go out on a limb about race or whatever touchy subject that you are dealing with, then you had better really address it well in your material.

I think that the sketch on thirty rock last night with John Hamm and Tracy Morgan covered all of those qualifications and so for the first time that I can remember in my life, I found a sketch with someone in black face hilarious.  Way to go Thirty Rock.

Check it out.

 

More than I can chew?

So, in anticipation of my making a new comedy CD, I have decided to put myself in the public eye more by releasing a video short every Monday. Man, the idea was a lot more attractive before I was about six weeks into it like now.

The hardest part, is always having another "good" idea ready to shoot for the next week. I ended up sifting through the internet for video contests as a way to inspire myself to write. It actually helped and this weeks video is a direct result of one of those contests.

There was a challenge on the filmfights website that you should make a live action trailer of some animated thing. I, as you can see, chose Dragon's Lair.

Well, off to write the next thing...

Two Penguins: 24 hours of production

If you have't seen TWO PENGUINS already then please take a look and then I will answer most of the questions that I have been getting about it right here and now.

So how was this 24 hours of work? SPOILER AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT.

Not quite in a row, but here is how it broke down.

HOURS 1 - 10

Since I had the basic story Idea i could get Laura started in Photoshop putting the elements together for the background while I finished the storyboards. My storyboards were extremely crude drawings but they were enough to get the point across.

Once I had finished the storyboards I moved on to doing the key frames for the animation. The plan was that Laura was going to finish the background and then move on to painting the frames. This is basically what happened, we were moving along at a good pace.

All the drawing and digital inking was completed in Adobe Flash.

I finished all of the key-framing for the entire piece then moved on to finishing the final altered bloody background.

At some point we used my Zoom H6N to Record Laura saying the titular "I'll miss you. " line.

At this point, Laura is super tired and she goes to sleep. I stay up and finish the rest of the inking and then follow in her footsteps.

HOURS 11 - 17

I assembled all the pieces in Apple motion. Since Motion accepts Photoshop layers with transparency and reads alpha channels from QuickTime files, I was able to easily drop thing in, size them up and get a good working idea of what shot looks like.

It took some time to create the aurora borealis effect in the sky, but once it was finished, it was an easy copy and paste to each shot.

HOURS 18 - 20

Once all the shots were exported, putting them together in Final Cut was pretty simple. I got some extra sounds from freesound.org (great resource by the way0 and then recorded the random penguin sounds which I generated with my mouth,

HOURS 20-24

I am not the greatest musician or the recording of the song in TWO PENGUINS would have gone a lot faster. What are you gonna do huh? I harmonized the best I knew how. Please berate me for my efforts.

Freaky Penguins

Yesterday, me and Laura had the great idea to try and finish an animation in a day. Not just a sketch,but fully inked and colored. Many hours and no sleep later, it appears that we have all the components finished. Now all we have to do is edit the stuff together.

Here is one of my favorite frames. It is full of the way I feel after 12 straight hours of drawing.

enjoy.