New Members: Please Post and Introduce Yourself

[grail]

greetings tyger! you're about to become very popular, so i thought i'd make friends early! (just kidding...er, not about the "friends" part! or the "popular" part! er...let me start over...)

HI!

anyway, it's ever-so-nice to meet new folk! welcome to the party! have a muffin and a chainsaw, take a seat (but don't take it far), and hang on for dear life! this place seems to zip by faster every day!

 

[Cantus Rock]

Yes Hello Garrett! Welcome to MC. Enjoy your stay, and good luck getting the film career taking off!!

-Matt

 

[beaker]

>>>I am currently a struggling young filmmaker in Los Angeles. I have written and directed eight features and dabble in animation, electronic arts, and even puppetry on the side. I am broke, need money, and am attending the University of Southern California. We have a nice film library, maybe I should scour it for rare Muppet stuff<<<

Holy cow! So awesome to see a filmaker on here! Since I was little my big dream has been to direct films. My newest thing is lightwave related stuff for stop motion and animation which my friend is trying to show me. My current projects include a comic book and electronic dance album(both of which I hope to have out in 2003) Some say if I had applied myself I could have gone to UCLA film, but I'd rather do a feature on the cheap 16mm El Mariachi style

Btw, any features, shorts, or animation shorts I might know of? Im a huge indie/experimental film buff as well as a big fan of atomfilms.com

As a side note, I have this epic feature in mind for some time
called "emporium"...thatd be a mix of edgy Creature Shop puppetry animatronics, cgi, and 'The Cell' meets 'Never Ending Story' 'Final Fantasy' and 'Dark Crystal' visuals.

Btw, what are your favorite directors as far as visual styles?
Mine are David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Harmony Korine, and
Michale Mann.

Anyways, good to see such deep creativity on here!

 

[tygerbug]

"The title was changed from 'We Couldn't Ride' to 'Couldn't We Ride."

Hii ev'rybahdy!

Thanks for your interest Beaker. I like to work in a lot of different mediums, mostly video but also computer games, animation, poetry/short stories/song lyrics, film, puppetry ... I can appreciate your working in many mediums, and your project sounds like it's got some GREAT influences. =) Let me know if it ever gets off the ground at all.

I actually met Mark Romanek a while back and saw him speak. He struck me as a bit of an idiot, but I liked his film. Mostly because of Robin Williams.

Like everyone else in the world, I thought Fight Club was genius, so I can't speak wrong of Fincher. My main influences were and are Terry Gilliam's films, Henry Selick's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (the film that made me want to be a filmmaker, which I reenacted on my desktop when I was twelve), Darren Aronofsky's work on "Requiem for a Dream," Jim Henson's work on "The Storyteller," Frank Oz's work on "Little Shop of Horrors," Richard Williams' work on "The Thief and the Cobber (uncut version)," Irvin Kerschner's work on "The Empire Strikes Back," Steve Martin's performance in "The Jerk" (that's not visual, but I still love it), Eric Idle's writing and Neil Innes' songs from the tv series "Rutland Weekend Television" and the "Rutles" film (and did anyone see Terry Jones' "Wind in the Willows" film? Wonderful, perfect for a Muppet fan too) ... Tim Burton's work on "Edward Scissorhands" and "Vincent" ... David Lynch's work on "Mulholland Drive" and others ... I dunno, I'm influenced by a lot of things, I watch a lot of no-budget movies as well, and have learned a lot from fellow comedians like Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman (even did a film with them) ...

I doubt you'd know my films ... I'm very protective of them and do so many longer pieces that no one is really interested in them (I was the proud director of the world's first amateur movie to be cut down from 5 hours! ... to 3.5 hours, then 2.5 hours) ... so I'm the sole distributor of my own films. You can find out a lot about them at my website, which is down about 50% of the day but them's the breaks.

Among my eight features my favorite is the one that hasn't been released yet. I'm fond of my shorts "Stripped Away" and "Terry Pratchett's Mort." Those seeking comedy and puppets can suffer through "Excaliburger" and "The Phantom Movie."

Some video files for ya:

Gods of Los Angeles trailer
http://www.pythonet.org/godsofla/godstrailer.mov

Excaliburger trailer
http://www.pythonet.org/excaliburger/excalitrailer.rm

Stripped Away
http://pythonet.org/videos/strippedaway.rm

Terry Pratchett's Mort (requires DivX)
http://pythonet.org/lamovies/mort.avi

Beautiful Zelda
http://www.pythonet.org/lamovies/zelda.html

Excaliburger clip
http://www.pythonet.org/excaliburger/lordomirrors.rm

Phantom Movie clip
http://www.pythonet.org/phantommovie/stawajinx.rm

As for making films, film school is nice, and worth going to for the **** of it, but of course the only way to learn to make a film is to make a film ... all film schools even admit this. Making a billion movies is the only way you learn, because your first 30 or so will be abject failures and eventually you'll learn so much you'll realize that you don't know what the **** you're doing, and then you'll learn what to do. Marvelous stuff, filmmaking. It's a lot like controlled suicide. With a great creative energy behind it.

Glad to see cool people at this great site!

 

[beaker]

man, you sound like my kind of guy tygerbug!
in the fall of 1999, I was planning on doing this indie film...shot entirely on one day(like the upcoming 'russian ark' or 2000'a 'time code') all around san francisco with dv based on this script i wrote called 'mausoleum'. Parts of the film were to be filmed in the sf acdemy of arts museum...and I was to include brief stop motion dreamy sequences ala the brothers quay 'streets of crocadile' a friend of mine(who does stop motion) was working on. then somehow the whole shoot went to ****, everyone fell out...and it never got made. (kind of like american movie, that documentary) so yeah, not everyone can pulla blair witch. it was a hack script anyways...too much man bites dog meets
slacker. then 'the cell' came out in 2000 and left me in awe, being that so many ornate visuals in that film i had in mind.


Thanks for your interest Beaker. I like to work in a lot of different mediums, mostly video but also computer games, animation, poetry/short stories/song lyrics, film, puppetry ... I can appreciate your working in many mediums, and your project sounds like it's got some GREAT influences. =) Let me know if it ever gets off the ground at all.<<<

thanx! for now its just writing, the comic book/graphic novel, and music. but i do wanna finally do performance art/multi media instalation(ala phillip glass), stand up comedy(i have some very edgy 3am dennis miller like routines), and of course the indie film stuff. my friend wants me to help him with lightwave stop motion. im great at making character models like nightmare before xmas that can be 3d scanned and stuff with that software. a lot of people(some on mc) dont know all i wanna do or have done artsy wise. I even still put out a rather nifty pro looking fanzine now and then. Im seriously thinking about making a pro looking muppet fanzine, even if its a one time deal for muppetfest.

I actually met Mark Romanek a while back and saw him speak. He struck me as a bit of an idiot, but I liked his film. Mostly because of Robin Williams.<<<

ive had a bootleg rough cut i got of one hour photo and was blown away by it(i dont like the final print in theatres as much) so ya got to meet romanek? did he do a screening of one hour at a college? Ive wanted him to do a film for awhile, as I LOVE madonna's bedtime story and nine inch nails closer videos...very avant garde stuff. 'The Cell' was a total rip of his visual style.
Its funny, I got to meet and hang out with Robin Williams last month...so not like sy the photo guy, but he LOVED the custom figure of sy the photo guy i made(im putting it up, signed and all on ebay today....I make custom action figures and sell em on ebay) I would so love to have him star in a film someday by me...something visionary and visual...I mean I loved what dreams may come, bicentennial man, toys, one hour photo...so he has a thing for those out there films.

>>> David Lynch's work on "Mulholland Drive" and others ... I dunno, I'm influenced by a lot of things, I watch a lot of no-budget movies as well,<<<

oh David Lynch is a genius...his straight story and mulholland drive: PURE great film making! I too love micro budget films...american astronaut, six string samurai, pi, following,
going nomad, slacker, begotten, clerks, etc. Im also big on visual existential stuff like Waking Life.

>>>I doubt you'd know my films ... I'm very protective of them and do so many longer pieces that no one is really interested in them <<<

are your films like those asylum first rites pictures(super indie comedies) that ya see in Hollywood Video?

Btw, what do ya use...DV, high 8, or 16mm?
As for main inspiration...my home town's own joe carnahan, who directed the upcoming paramont's NARC and blood guts bullets and octane. I got to go to a special chairty screening of NARC, and was impressed how he started out with just a few thousand dollars and a 16mm camera with his first feature blood guts(very tarantino like)

ok man, good to see ya on here...as for that movie dream of mine...it would involve creature shop for sure. most likely a pg-13, dark futuristic fantasy....like i said one of the most epic, avant garde ideas Ive come up with. Unfortunately itd take a miracle for someone int he film world to listen to me or give me a chance...but oh man, as far as a Muppet film...I believe in myself I could write or help or even direct the coolest Muppet film ever and still keep it PG.

 

[Gentle Giant]

I am Gentle Giant. My real name is Edward and I am from the Empire State NY. I work for the best toy store in the world, FAO Schwarz.

 

[tygerbug]

Hi gentle giant! Have you met Sweetums and Thog?


To reply to Beaker ...

>in the fall of 1999, I was planning on doing this indie film...shot entirely on one day(like the upcoming 'russian ark' or 2000'a 'time code') all around san francisco with dv based on this script i wrote called 'mausoleum'.

Funny, in the fall of 1999, I SHOT an indie film in one day. It was all improv and called The Animal Game ... about a young filmmaker convinced he's going to die, the inability to face up to encroaching adulthood, and a film shoot gone horribly wrong. We shot 5 hours of footage, which I cut down and released as a 3.5 hour, then 2.5 hour movie in 2000. It's an interesting little film.

>sequences ala the brothers quay 'streets of crocadile'

Haven't seen. Actually you reference a lot of stuff I haven't seen.

>for now its just writing, the comic book/graphic novel, and music. but i do wanna finally do performance art/multi media instalation(ala phillip glass), stand up comedy(i have some very edgy 3am dennis miller like routines), and of course the indie film stuff.

I also have a standup act, but it's a sort of Andy Kaufman anti standup act. I had no venue to perform it, and finally did the character I wanted to use in little improv audio bits ..... http://pythonet.org/fastforward/ffradio.html

Used to do comic books, but I found that no one cared ... and was too close to my cartoonist father anyway. I basically swore off all art that didn't have something to do with films .... animation etc. I did an animated homeless dancing cat last night that's the best animation I've done ...

> my friend wants me to help him with lightwave stop motion. im great at making character models like nightmare before xmas that can be 3d scanned and stuff with that software.

Be curious to see what you can come up with. I'm very poor at modelling things myself. You should make an online portfolio for folks to look at.

>I even still put out a rather nifty pro looking fanzine now and then. Im seriously thinking about making a pro looking muppet fanzine, even if its a one time deal for muppetfest.

That would be quite nice.

>ive had a bootleg rough cut i got of one hour photo and was blown away by it(i dont like the final print in theatres as much)

What was different?

> so ya got to meet romanek? did he do a screening of one hour at a college?

Yep. At USC.

>Its funny, I got to meet and hang out with Robin Williams last month...

Robin Williams is of course a genius .... although I hate most of his films, with the exception of The Fisher King ... and 1 Hour Photo ... Bicentennial Man and Toys were awful. What Dreams May Come was beautifully designed though. Fun to watch.

Robin changed the face of stand up comedy forever. He really was (and is) the master .... Steve Martin's standup routines too, man ... I could listen to those over and over.

>he LOVED the custom figure of sy the photo guy i made(im putting it up, signed and all on ebay today....I make custom action figures and sell em on ebay)

Hahahahahahahahahah ... who have you done? Would like to see that.

> I would so love to have him star in a film someday by me

Join the club.

>oh David Lynch is a genius...his straight story and mulholland drive: PURE great film making!

Straight Story? Nah. Lost Highway on the other hand ...

> I too love micro budget films...american astronaut, six string samurai, pi, following,
going nomad, slacker, begotten, clerks, etc. Im also big on visual existential stuff like Waking Life.

I'm talking NO budget. There are a lot of people out there making movies with their camcorders. I've met several hundred of them, and a lot of them have talent. We will take over Hollywood someday.

www.blancscreencinema.com
angelfire.com/movies/gmppictures

Among the movies you listed, I've seen pi, clerks, and Waking Life. Waking Life is quite quite lovely .... breathtaking animation ... although apart from the final story told by the director, much of the dialogue is pretty random and hard to follow. Pi is a bad story EXCELLENTLY told. I bow to Aronofsky, but more so for Requiem for a Dream ... a great story excellently told. Clerks is ... overplayed.

>are your films like those asylum first rites pictures(super indie comedies) that ya see in Hollywood Video?

Have no idea what those are.

>Btw, what do ya use...DV, high 8, or 16mm?

I have used all three that you note. Back in the day when it was still the most common format, I used hi8 for everything. Up to Excaliburger! Finally I wised up and shot my student films on an expensive DVcam ... cut on Avid. Also worked with B&W and color 16mm for some classes. Film is ... difficult. But interesting. Gods of LA was shot mostly on Digital8 (!) because it's all I had ... but D8, crappy as it is, there are ways to make it look more beautiful than DV, it has a rawness and when lit with an eye for that, you can get much more filmic qualities to the shoot ... some of Gods was also shot on DVcam, some on MiniDV ... I've shot on every format there is nearly ...

>one of the most epic, avant garde ideas Ive come up with. Unfortunately itd take a miracle for someone int he film world to listen to me or give me a chance...

Forget that, if you're a filmmaker nowadays waiting for a "big break" you'll never get to make a film! Just build the props and sets and make the **** movie yourself. It's the way you learn ...

 

[beaker]

tygerbug:

Eeek, dont wanna hijack this thread too much with my wanton aspiring film auteur ramblings, so I'll make this short:

>>>Funny, in the fall of 1999, I SHOT an indie film in one day. It was all improv and called The Animal Game<<<

Hehe, well I was rising high on the Blair Witch assumption...so for awhile there was hope camcorder movies would make it big.
Btw, you mention your films are 2+ hours, yet arent most indie comedies 90 minutes? hmmmm.

>Haven't seen. Actually you reference a lot of stuff I haven't seen<

Hehe, well since the late 80's I have aggressively sought out virtually every type of cult, indie, experimental, foriegn, etc film.

>>>I also have a standup act, but it's a sort of Andy Kaufman anti standup act. I had no venue to perform it, and finally did the character I wanted to use in little improv audio bits .....<<<

Aw, ok. For some reason I cant get any media stuff to work on here, but i'll take your word for it. Sometimes I think I spread myself out too thin...but as for the standup comic thing...I get a pretty good response to my unapolagetically offbeat humour, so who knows.

Used to do comic books, but I found that no one cared ... and was too close to my cartoonist father anyway. I basically swore off all art that didn't have something to do with films <<<

I got a bit discouraged to...but with a lot of new coloring software and stuff, Ive gotten really encouraged. As for animation, thats more of a down the road thing. Though the comic thing is a huge project of mine I am determined to get done.

Be curious to see what you can come up with. I'm very poor at modelling things myself. You should make an online portfolio for folks to look at.<<<

I should heh, but I dont even have enuff to be a computer yet (good ol Gateway!) As for modelling, Ive gotten very good at using super sculpey, which would be ideal for scanning into lightwave designs.

That would be quite nice.<<<

yes, even if I have to go it alone, totally unauthorized, a nice looking Muppet zine is on my things to do for the first half of 2003...whether its in time for muppetfest as a special one off or a feature of muppetfest Im not sure yet.

>ive had a bootleg rough cut i got of one hour photo and was blown away by it(i dont like the final print in theatres as much)

What was different?<<<

Huge differences...really shows how much is altered in the editing process. A lot of small personal things I liked were altered, cut, or rearranged.

Robin Williams is of course a genius .... although I hate most of his films, with the exception of The Fisher King ... and 1 Hour Photo ... Bicentennial Man and Toys were awful. What Dreams May Come was beautifully designed though. Fun to watch.<<<

I'd say my fave films of his are Toys, OHP, and fisher King. Visually I loved what dreams and bicentennial man. Im surprised a lot of peopel dont like Toys, as after having seen 1500+ films so far(no joke, I keep a list!) that to me is the most astonishing from both a creative, directional, and cinematic perspective. The film captures everything I believe in and strive for.

>he LOVED the custom figure of sy the photo guy i made(im putting it up, signed and all on ebay today....I make custom action figures and sell em on ebay)

Hahahahahahahahahah ... who have you done? Would like to see that.<<<

http://photos.yahoo.com/xlogik909

click on 'Yahoo P...', contained there is a picture of me with Sweetums, some random art for my comic, and custom figures Ive done of Robin Williams(OHP), Al Roker, and other Muppet custom sunder my 'Muppet stuff' folder. Sadly, I dont have an online profile of all the stuff Ive done like writing, other art, etc.

Straight Story? Nah. Lost Highway on the other hand ...<<<

well I loved the american landscape on straight story and the narrative. Loved Lost Highway, Mulholland, Twin Peaks, etc.
My fave new young experimental filmaker has go to be Harmony Korine(Kids, Gummo, Julien-donkey Boy) brillaint stuff.

>>>I'm talking NO budget. There are a lot of people out there making movies with their camcorders. I've met several hundred of them, and a lot of them have talent. We will take over Hollywood someday.<<<

Like a few takes, natural lighting...'Dogme 95' type stuff?

I bow to Aronofsky, but more so for Requiem for a Dream ... a great story excellently told. Clerks is ... overplayed.<<<

To bad his epic 'The Fountain' lwhich was about to film ooks to now be postponned.

Forget that, if you're a filmmaker nowadays waiting for a "big break" you'll never get to make a film! Just build the props and sets and make the **** movie yourself. It's the way you learn ...<<<

Well...for a lot of the visuals and set peices I have in mind...its like the brillaint Wochalskis, the guys behind the visionary Matrix trilogy. They need countless millions for their vision, so they started smaller to convince the studio at first. While one of these days with Lightwave or Miya I could hypothetically do some of the animation or cgi sequences I'd want, itd take millions for my epic vision. But hey, look at Peter JAckson...went from making near no budget horror films to $300 million dollar epic fantasy films.
So there is hope!

doh! I just realized this wasnt short at all...hmmmm

 

[_my_hero_kermy_]

im new !!!

hey everyone ! well yeh im new to this joint ! i have not a clue what im doing ,i cant even get a funky lil muppet picture beside my name some help if u would ! cheers

 

[grail]

towards the top of this page, i gave someone else instruction on how to put up one of the pictures (called an avatar) that many of us have. if you read up a bit, you should find it. there's a bit on page three too, but i won't make you look for it, it was saying that the picture can be no bigger than 64x64, though it can be smaller. i think the one i'm using right now is something like 55x64. but i change often. let me know if you need further assistance.

man...we've got a lot of Austrailians around...weird...