So my first script reads like Anne Rice. Its a horror, so thats good.
My second script reads like HP Lovecraft. Its a noir, so I suppose I will go along with that.
Soon, I will quit playing and get to writing a real blog post.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Apparently I write like Stephen King...
At least, my blog. I havent put in one of my short stories yet. I have a feeling old Stephen is the most common answer, especially when dropping in blog entries due to his way of writing exactly like people think. But still, a pretty nifty deal. I suggest everyone try it.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The end of the Pity Parade
Yeah, so....um...I have a great excuse for not posting. It's true. I didn't want to be Debbie Downer on the interwebs where the proof of the occurrence would last forever and a day. I shall explain.
*Insert wavy flashback effect here*
Mid-April my back went out. It was a re-occurance of a weight lifting injury that was my own fault. Then a week after that my Mom fell and broke her arm. The upper bit, near the shoulder in what the doc called a spiral fracture. There was a big how-do-you do where the ER doc was stoned or just plain dumb, because he sent her home and said it wasn't life threatening so she would have to wait a couple weeks till surgery. Please note, he told my 50 plus year old mother whose arm broke bad enough it had flipped around backwards to just chill with some advil. Oh, and no changing out of those clothes either, we dont want to aggravate it.
After many calls to family and friends, some of them in the medical field, a medical type swung by her house to check her out and scheduled a doctor visit/surgery. A metal plate, 14 screws and a week later she was finally taken care of. Left a nasty scar on her upper arm.
Add onto my mothers injury my own angry back and the fact that May 01, 2001 (nine years and a couple of days to when my mom broke her arm) my father was killed in an accident at his place of work. This delightful emotional cocktail meant I wasnt in a mood to chat with anyone and leave them better than depressed until a couple weeks into May. And that was when my back really got angry.
Apparently when it had went out in April a disk had slipped. Well, around May 15th as I put on my tennis shoes, the disk ruptured. Of course, I didnt know this at the time. All I knew then was by the end of the day I had trouble walking to my car after work. Then the next morning I couldnt get dressed. I went to see my doctor and he set up an MRI, but it was a couple weeks away. I thought I could manage.
I couldn't sleep more than a couple hours at a time due to random spasms of intense pain. Then after a couple days of that I woke up with a spasm that lasted 45 minutes. I've never felt anything like it. Pain so intense I was seeing colors, screaming, gritting my teeth. My poor wife must have thought I was dying. Of course, this was a Sunday and I couldn't get ahold of any of the medical professionals I rely on. For some reason I thought it could wait and no trip to the ER was necessary.
Thankfully on Monday I got the doc to prescribe some intense pain killers over the phone. This numbed the pain to a dull roar, kept the spasms to short and random and made sitting in the easy chair (where I would sleep and spend most of my next several days) tolerable.
June 8th I got to go in for an MRI. Apparently this was the earliest anyone could see me. A month of pain and my free-fall of faith in the medical bureaucracy that started with my moms ordeal continued the entire time. When the results of my MRI came back it showed that my disk had ruptured with such enthusiasm it pinned my spinal cord against the back wall of my spinal canal, setting off every pain receptor I had from the waist down. A handy wikipedia image of what my MRI looked similar too is below.
So, as you can imagine, I was a very crabby kid for about two months. My wife is a saint for putting up with me as well as she did, putting up with the responsibility of all of the household chores that I could no longer handle along with my sterling demeanor. The neurosurgeons and spinal specialists (very nice and capable folks once I was finally able to get in to see them) told me to wait a couple weeks to see if the pain improved. If it did, no surgery. If not then they'd make a pop top out of my L5 vertebrae and remove that disk (an option someone of my young years should want to avoid).
Thankfully around late June the pain started to fade a little and I could walk more than 10 yards without having to stop and catch my breath. By mid July it had faded to a mild discomfort that the doctors said meant I could avoid surgery. Now a couple ibuprofen every few hours keeps the pain at bay, and I can do most things again.
IE, I am finally a decent person to be around and no longer the model of depression and discomfort. Plus, I got all the pity party out of me in one post. Now to catch up on what happened since march, including a recap of Planet Comicon.
*Insert wavy flashback effect here*
Mid-April my back went out. It was a re-occurance of a weight lifting injury that was my own fault. Then a week after that my Mom fell and broke her arm. The upper bit, near the shoulder in what the doc called a spiral fracture. There was a big how-do-you do where the ER doc was stoned or just plain dumb, because he sent her home and said it wasn't life threatening so she would have to wait a couple weeks till surgery. Please note, he told my 50 plus year old mother whose arm broke bad enough it had flipped around backwards to just chill with some advil. Oh, and no changing out of those clothes either, we dont want to aggravate it.
After many calls to family and friends, some of them in the medical field, a medical type swung by her house to check her out and scheduled a doctor visit/surgery. A metal plate, 14 screws and a week later she was finally taken care of. Left a nasty scar on her upper arm.
Add onto my mothers injury my own angry back and the fact that May 01, 2001 (nine years and a couple of days to when my mom broke her arm) my father was killed in an accident at his place of work. This delightful emotional cocktail meant I wasnt in a mood to chat with anyone and leave them better than depressed until a couple weeks into May. And that was when my back really got angry.
Apparently when it had went out in April a disk had slipped. Well, around May 15th as I put on my tennis shoes, the disk ruptured. Of course, I didnt know this at the time. All I knew then was by the end of the day I had trouble walking to my car after work. Then the next morning I couldnt get dressed. I went to see my doctor and he set up an MRI, but it was a couple weeks away. I thought I could manage.
I couldn't sleep more than a couple hours at a time due to random spasms of intense pain. Then after a couple days of that I woke up with a spasm that lasted 45 minutes. I've never felt anything like it. Pain so intense I was seeing colors, screaming, gritting my teeth. My poor wife must have thought I was dying. Of course, this was a Sunday and I couldn't get ahold of any of the medical professionals I rely on. For some reason I thought it could wait and no trip to the ER was necessary.
Thankfully on Monday I got the doc to prescribe some intense pain killers over the phone. This numbed the pain to a dull roar, kept the spasms to short and random and made sitting in the easy chair (where I would sleep and spend most of my next several days) tolerable.
June 8th I got to go in for an MRI. Apparently this was the earliest anyone could see me. A month of pain and my free-fall of faith in the medical bureaucracy that started with my moms ordeal continued the entire time. When the results of my MRI came back it showed that my disk had ruptured with such enthusiasm it pinned my spinal cord against the back wall of my spinal canal, setting off every pain receptor I had from the waist down. A handy wikipedia image of what my MRI looked similar too is below.
So, as you can imagine, I was a very crabby kid for about two months. My wife is a saint for putting up with me as well as she did, putting up with the responsibility of all of the household chores that I could no longer handle along with my sterling demeanor. The neurosurgeons and spinal specialists (very nice and capable folks once I was finally able to get in to see them) told me to wait a couple weeks to see if the pain improved. If it did, no surgery. If not then they'd make a pop top out of my L5 vertebrae and remove that disk (an option someone of my young years should want to avoid).
Thankfully around late June the pain started to fade a little and I could walk more than 10 yards without having to stop and catch my breath. By mid July it had faded to a mild discomfort that the doctors said meant I could avoid surgery. Now a couple ibuprofen every few hours keeps the pain at bay, and I can do most things again.
IE, I am finally a decent person to be around and no longer the model of depression and discomfort. Plus, I got all the pity party out of me in one post. Now to catch up on what happened since march, including a recap of Planet Comicon.
Friday, March 26, 2010
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!!
Tomorrow is the kansas city comic book convention. I am flippin excited, hence the scream of CON at the top of the page...okay, so thats not con, thats khan. However, if I had spelt con scream phonetically it would have looked like I was screaming coon, and thats just wierd.
At any rate, I am excited. This year their media guests will be Lou Farigno of incredible hulk fame, Helen Slater from the 1984 film SuperGirl, and Mira Furlon who was one of my favorite characters from one of my all time favorite Scifi series, Babylon 5. She was ambassador D'Linn. There are some other folks there, mainly voices from star wars the cartoon, but as I have never been a very big Star wars kid, people that do voices for the cartoons don't have a great deal of appeal to me other than professional respect.
I was up way to late last night working on some freelance animations for a couple of infomercials, so I am dragging today. Luckily, today at work its kind of a company holiday, Game Day, where we all bring in different games and game systems and spend the whole day playing them and expanding out game knowledge. Its actually pretty helpful as a game artist to see some of the stuff thats out there that I normally wouldnt have caught if left to my own scrupples. Most of my interest lies with the old games I played as a kid; Atari 5200 (Joust rules!), Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Thankfully, almost all of these can play on emulators that a person could download to their Nintendo DS should they feel so inclined so don't have to hook up my old systems for a refresher blast of nostalgia.
While waiting for animations to render the last two nights, I have been sorting my comic book collection in preparation for the con. Every time I go I end up wishing I would have remembered to brought such and such book for an artist to sign, or refreshed my memory so I dont end up buying a duplicate of a book I already own. So I've got a stack of comics for some artists to sign, mainly Arthur Sudaym who painted all of the Marvel Zombies covers. This is pretty much one of the most amazing crossovers of two of my favorite geek addictions. Comics and zombies. The art is phenomenal, so I am very excited to get to shake the hand of the artist. This year I also did a little research on each artist to make sure I was familiar with their work so I knew who i would want to check out to see if they had sketchbooks. I have found with most comic book artists, their personal art blogs and sketchbooks are far more interesting and nuanced than the work that they have in the comics. I can understand, they have to fit the pre-existing canon and general style and format of the book and that sort of funneling of creative energy can dampen the artists flexibility a little.
I have been drawing, but havent been scanning them in, so desperately need to add an art update soon. Until then, I leave you with this beauty. As a child I had this battlecat bouncy toy, and never thought I would see another (mine is still in my basement back home). Apparently they are on ebay every so often. Huzzah BattleCat!!!
At any rate, I am excited. This year their media guests will be Lou Farigno of incredible hulk fame, Helen Slater from the 1984 film SuperGirl, and Mira Furlon who was one of my favorite characters from one of my all time favorite Scifi series, Babylon 5. She was ambassador D'Linn. There are some other folks there, mainly voices from star wars the cartoon, but as I have never been a very big Star wars kid, people that do voices for the cartoons don't have a great deal of appeal to me other than professional respect.
I was up way to late last night working on some freelance animations for a couple of infomercials, so I am dragging today. Luckily, today at work its kind of a company holiday, Game Day, where we all bring in different games and game systems and spend the whole day playing them and expanding out game knowledge. Its actually pretty helpful as a game artist to see some of the stuff thats out there that I normally wouldnt have caught if left to my own scrupples. Most of my interest lies with the old games I played as a kid; Atari 5200 (Joust rules!), Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Thankfully, almost all of these can play on emulators that a person could download to their Nintendo DS should they feel so inclined so don't have to hook up my old systems for a refresher blast of nostalgia.
While waiting for animations to render the last two nights, I have been sorting my comic book collection in preparation for the con. Every time I go I end up wishing I would have remembered to brought such and such book for an artist to sign, or refreshed my memory so I dont end up buying a duplicate of a book I already own. So I've got a stack of comics for some artists to sign, mainly Arthur Sudaym who painted all of the Marvel Zombies covers. This is pretty much one of the most amazing crossovers of two of my favorite geek addictions. Comics and zombies. The art is phenomenal, so I am very excited to get to shake the hand of the artist. This year I also did a little research on each artist to make sure I was familiar with their work so I knew who i would want to check out to see if they had sketchbooks. I have found with most comic book artists, their personal art blogs and sketchbooks are far more interesting and nuanced than the work that they have in the comics. I can understand, they have to fit the pre-existing canon and general style and format of the book and that sort of funneling of creative energy can dampen the artists flexibility a little.
I have been drawing, but havent been scanning them in, so desperately need to add an art update soon. Until then, I leave you with this beauty. As a child I had this battlecat bouncy toy, and never thought I would see another (mine is still in my basement back home). Apparently they are on ebay every so often. Huzzah BattleCat!!!
Monday, March 1, 2010
The boogeyman
Today while I watch some episodes from the 2002 version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe I thought I would post a few boards from the pitch for the film, Bump. Its premise is that the Boogeyman is actually a reference to an immortal monster hunter, not the monster it has come to represent today. Bump is what he calls his young padawan learner.
I'd recommend watching the 2002 He-man. Some great character designs, and the voice cast is a who's who of cartoon voices from my childhood. Adam/Heman is voiced by the same kat who gave Leonardo his pipes back in the day. Optimus Primal is Man at Arms. The rest of the cast is filled out with folks from Transformers, Beast Wars, Ninja Turtles, Dragon Ball Z and Reboot. Tasty stuff.
I'd recommend watching the 2002 He-man. Some great character designs, and the voice cast is a who's who of cartoon voices from my childhood. Adam/Heman is voiced by the same kat who gave Leonardo his pipes back in the day. Optimus Primal is Man at Arms. The rest of the cast is filled out with folks from Transformers, Beast Wars, Ninja Turtles, Dragon Ball Z and Reboot. Tasty stuff.
Friday, February 26, 2010
A weekend in Wine Country...with Zombies!
This past weekend the wife and I, along with two other filmmaker couples that are great friends of ours, all went to Hermann, Mo for their Wine and Chocolate tour. Now, I realize that when you think of Missouri, wine is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However, due to the ridiculously heavy german populations that settled along the Missouri river in Herman back in the day, that area is a veritible cornicopia of vineyards. The self guided tour itself consisted of 7 of the areas largest vineyards, with a free glass of wine and chocolate delight at each. Then, as is the marketing genius, once you have finished with your gratis goodies, then you can go on to sample all of the other wines they have to offer.
Now, I am generally far more of a beer connoisseur, give me a micro-brewed stout or doppel bock and I am a happy guy. But after a weekend where I sampled over a hundred different types of wine, I definitely developed a taste for it and, as they surely wisely expected, we came home with ten bottles of the stuff.
The town itself is pretty amazing. Lots of old world charm mixed with turn of the century architecture. While the eateries leave a heckuva lot to be desired (avoid the 'oldest continually operating bar west of the Mississippi' unless you like steak that tastes like cigarette ash), the bed and breakfasts were beyond belief. The one we stayed at was absolutely incredible. The Inn at Hermannhof was in a reasonable price range and the cottage we rented with our friends was as cozy and romantic as you could get. We were in Weinert Haus, Teresas Room as the rooms all had names and not numbers. Gas fireplaces in every room, four post beds, incredible showers and free wine. A Glorious nights sleep and highly recommended.
The weekend was finished up with the drive home during which we watched Zombieland in the vans little flip down lcd. Aint technology grand.
Now, I am generally far more of a beer connoisseur, give me a micro-brewed stout or doppel bock and I am a happy guy. But after a weekend where I sampled over a hundred different types of wine, I definitely developed a taste for it and, as they surely wisely expected, we came home with ten bottles of the stuff.
The town itself is pretty amazing. Lots of old world charm mixed with turn of the century architecture. While the eateries leave a heckuva lot to be desired (avoid the 'oldest continually operating bar west of the Mississippi' unless you like steak that tastes like cigarette ash), the bed and breakfasts were beyond belief. The one we stayed at was absolutely incredible. The Inn at Hermannhof was in a reasonable price range and the cottage we rented with our friends was as cozy and romantic as you could get. We were in Weinert Haus, Teresas Room as the rooms all had names and not numbers. Gas fireplaces in every room, four post beds, incredible showers and free wine. A Glorious nights sleep and highly recommended.
The weekend was finished up with the drive home during which we watched Zombieland in the vans little flip down lcd. Aint technology grand.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Movies, games and awards!
Lots of good news coming from knights end!
We are wrapping up the most recent Nintendo DS game that I was art lead on and I am getting prepped for the next project. As is standard for the type of titles Black Lantern develops, both are games aimed at the youth market. The one that is shipping soon is my all time fav that I have worked on thus far, Chuck E Cheese! Its a goofy property, and when I first heard I was gonna be the lead on the project I was a little disappointed (I had never been to Chuck E Cheese in my life, so only knew them from the commercials). However, thanks to good team communication, a solid gameplay design and a lot of artistic freedom from the publisher, UFO Interactive , I am extremely happy with the playability and overall look of this game.
Art was ahead of the curve for almost the entire dev cycle so I actually got to add in some swank ambient animations, a lot of flashing lights, character animations and random energy one could expect to find at your local Mouse run pizza parlor. In a nod to my own preferences as a classic gamer, all of the mini games are decked out to look like classic arcade cabinets with lots of references to classics such as Galaga, Super Sprint and Joust. I had a blast doing the visual research because it meant I could spend hours looking at and playing old arcade games. Thankfully, the arcade is just up the street from the office so I could go log some research time whenever I needed it. Due out on store shelves in late June, I look forward to see the reviews on this title. Its all entirely possible that it will beat out my old favorite game I worked on, Garfield's Fun Fest. Of course, that one was mainly my fav because I got to do some character design and get it approved by Jim Davis himself! Plus, he signed my copy of the game when it was all said and done. Hard to beat that!
Other big news! Last March the Ozarks were all a-buzz with a feature film that was shooting in our backyard, down in Forsythe, Mo. The flick was Winter's Bone, based off of a novel of the same name. The story follows a 16 year old girl, Ree, who has just found out that her Meth-cooking father has put their family farm up for bail and then disappeared. Either she finds him, or her siblings and half comatose mother are all going to be homeless deep in the Ozarks woods. The book was a great piece of country noir, incredibly well written by Daniel Woodrell. It wasn't an uplifting tale, but one a Missouri boy could definitely relate to and understand. The first couple of drafts of the film script that came across my desk via friends involved in early casting/location scouting were very rough indeed, but you could tell there was promise in the pages. The main failing of the early revisions were that those who had written the script hadn't had a lot of experience with the Ozark folks and their way of speech, so they went back to the way it was handled in the Beverly Hillbillies. However, by the time that filming started the cast and crew had spent a lot of time with some of the natives and when it came to roll sound they had it nailed! It was a pretty amazing process to see how the project developed and became more and more accurate to the way of life, regional vernacular and dialogue one could expect from Deliverance country.
The film had great talent both in front of the camera and behind. Past Sundance best director winner, Debra Granik, was helming the project, with Michael McDonough as DP, and Affonso Gonçalves taking care of the editing. In front of the camera were Jennifer Lawrence (and indie film favorite and actress from the Bill Engvall show), the incredible character actor John Hawkes (I guarantee you have seen him in something), and a Springfield local and good friend of mine, the beautiful and talented Lauren Sweetser. Lauren is the best actress in town (except for my wife, of course) and I am willing to bet she will be a household name within the next few years.
As for myself, I was only able to get away from the Nintendo projects I was working on long enough to be on set for a week. It was a great experience. The teamwork, respect for their fellow artists and talent that I saw on that set was staggering and set a very high standard I will set future productions too. As you can tell I am very happy that I got to be a part of the production.
Plus, Winter's Bone won the Grand Jury Prize at this years Sundance! Yup, the top prize at 2010 Sundance went to the one with the smallest budget that shot in the Missouri hallows. Not only that, but as I said by the time the cast started shooting, the script was pure literary honey, so naturally the film also won the best screenplay award. It was HUGE! Stupid amounts of excitement coming from the Ozark hills!
Look for Winter's Bone at theaters everywhere this summer and congrats to all those involved!
We are wrapping up the most recent Nintendo DS game that I was art lead on and I am getting prepped for the next project. As is standard for the type of titles Black Lantern develops, both are games aimed at the youth market. The one that is shipping soon is my all time fav that I have worked on thus far, Chuck E Cheese! Its a goofy property, and when I first heard I was gonna be the lead on the project I was a little disappointed (I had never been to Chuck E Cheese in my life, so only knew them from the commercials). However, thanks to good team communication, a solid gameplay design and a lot of artistic freedom from the publisher, UFO Interactive , I am extremely happy with the playability and overall look of this game.
Art was ahead of the curve for almost the entire dev cycle so I actually got to add in some swank ambient animations, a lot of flashing lights, character animations and random energy one could expect to find at your local Mouse run pizza parlor. In a nod to my own preferences as a classic gamer, all of the mini games are decked out to look like classic arcade cabinets with lots of references to classics such as Galaga, Super Sprint and Joust. I had a blast doing the visual research because it meant I could spend hours looking at and playing old arcade games. Thankfully, the arcade is just up the street from the office so I could go log some research time whenever I needed it. Due out on store shelves in late June, I look forward to see the reviews on this title. Its all entirely possible that it will beat out my old favorite game I worked on, Garfield's Fun Fest. Of course, that one was mainly my fav because I got to do some character design and get it approved by Jim Davis himself! Plus, he signed my copy of the game when it was all said and done. Hard to beat that!
Other big news! Last March the Ozarks were all a-buzz with a feature film that was shooting in our backyard, down in Forsythe, Mo. The flick was Winter's Bone, based off of a novel of the same name. The story follows a 16 year old girl, Ree, who has just found out that her Meth-cooking father has put their family farm up for bail and then disappeared. Either she finds him, or her siblings and half comatose mother are all going to be homeless deep in the Ozarks woods. The book was a great piece of country noir, incredibly well written by Daniel Woodrell. It wasn't an uplifting tale, but one a Missouri boy could definitely relate to and understand. The first couple of drafts of the film script that came across my desk via friends involved in early casting/location scouting were very rough indeed, but you could tell there was promise in the pages. The main failing of the early revisions were that those who had written the script hadn't had a lot of experience with the Ozark folks and their way of speech, so they went back to the way it was handled in the Beverly Hillbillies. However, by the time that filming started the cast and crew had spent a lot of time with some of the natives and when it came to roll sound they had it nailed! It was a pretty amazing process to see how the project developed and became more and more accurate to the way of life, regional vernacular and dialogue one could expect from Deliverance country.
The film had great talent both in front of the camera and behind. Past Sundance best director winner, Debra Granik, was helming the project, with Michael McDonough as DP, and Affonso Gonçalves taking care of the editing. In front of the camera were Jennifer Lawrence (and indie film favorite and actress from the Bill Engvall show), the incredible character actor John Hawkes (I guarantee you have seen him in something), and a Springfield local and good friend of mine, the beautiful and talented Lauren Sweetser. Lauren is the best actress in town (except for my wife, of course) and I am willing to bet she will be a household name within the next few years.
As for myself, I was only able to get away from the Nintendo projects I was working on long enough to be on set for a week. It was a great experience. The teamwork, respect for their fellow artists and talent that I saw on that set was staggering and set a very high standard I will set future productions too. As you can tell I am very happy that I got to be a part of the production.
Plus, Winter's Bone won the Grand Jury Prize at this years Sundance! Yup, the top prize at 2010 Sundance went to the one with the smallest budget that shot in the Missouri hallows. Not only that, but as I said by the time the cast started shooting, the script was pure literary honey, so naturally the film also won the best screenplay award. It was HUGE! Stupid amounts of excitement coming from the Ozark hills!
Look for Winter's Bone at theaters everywhere this summer and congrats to all those involved!
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