The Wretched Novelization

On the surface, yes, this is just another variation on the poster previously posted.  But what's that on top?  My name?  Holy crap, y'all, it's a book.  Yes, that's right, the official novelization of The Wretched is now available on Amazon, in both paperback and ebook versions.  And hey, if you buy the paperback, you get the ebook for free!  By Grabthar's hammer, what a savings...

The Wretched poster evolution

In addition to my own films (Full Noon is going slow, but still going) I occasionally work on films made by other people.  One of these is a horror film entitled The Wretched.  When principal photography began a couple years back, I was unable to participate, but thanks to the loan of my microphone, I was credited as assistant producer.  Some time after that, I volunteered to write the official novelization, based on the script, production stills, a trailer, and personal knowledge of some of the locations.  It's technically done, and available to read here.  Then, in 2016, reshoots happened.  This time I was able to be there, and handled the camera for a good chunk of the shoots.  Bundles of fun.

All of this leads to a couple of weeks ago, when director Nathaniel Davis contacted me about putting together a poster.  Well, that was one of my favorite things, so I jumped at the task.  Given a set of promotional images and the concept sketch below, I set off to work...

...and ended up with this.

The concept is simple: a poster for the protagonists' latest porn video (did I mention they're porn stars?) is disrupted when the wall on which it's resting is disturbed by an incursion from the villain of the piece.  It wasn't intentional, but I realize now it was influenced by the poster for the horror classic (sarcasm!) Rumpelstiltskin.

After some notes from Nathaniel and a quick confirmation sketch from myself to make sure we were on the same page...

...we eventually got to a better design that's a) more its own thing and b) closer to Nate's original concept.  Plus, the information on it is no longer copied over from Full Noon.

After that, Nate ran it through some filters to dirty it up a bit and make it seem like a weathered B-movie poster, as seen below.  Hopefully, the final film will be out soon, and you can see this poster in all its cheesy glory on a VOD channel near you.  For more information about The Wretched, please check out their awesome website.

One last thing: here's the poster for the in-movie porn (sadly designed too late to be used in-movie):

The title comes from the subtitle of the Marquis de Sade's Justine.  And yes, I'm aware the hazard sign is backwards.  It fit well with the character, especially juxtaposed with her smoking, and she worked better flipped the other way.  Besides, it's a cheap porno poster; you really think the people making it (in-movie, remember) would care?

Full Noon, Update 1

Preproduction is underway on Full Noon, a comedy/horror feature film written by myself, my girlfriend Felicity, and her two friends Leota and Ashley.  I'll also be directing, while my co-writers will star.  We've got a script, we've got a budget, and God willing, we'll have a movie this summer.

We're currently in the early stages of securing funding.  A grant/pitch contest didn't pan out, so it looks like Kickstarter is in our future.  Until that happens, I'm going through and storyboarding the film, which is what a responsible director does anyway...

Be on the lookout for future updates, including our fundraising demo and trailer.

The Mysterious Fate Of Mister Hinson Totoro...

One should never say never, but...  It looks like Hinson Totoro is going on indefinite hiatus.  Even if I do finish the first game (Only 2-3 videos and some voiceover to go!) I will never truly be able to finish this first arc, due to the passing of my father, one of the key actors.  So, to not let so much work go completely to waste, I proudly present ALL THE BACKGROUND PLATES!  Created entirely in Photoshop using primarily pictures scrounged from Google, these took... a lot of time, and may have indirectly led to me failing a class.  What fun!  Hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions as to the specifics of these pics, please comment below. 

Action-y Action Figures...

So, way back in 2008, I began experimenting with stop motion and chroma keying.  Using my old point-and-shoot, I took a series of photos on a blue background, separated them in photoshop, and made the above, then the following.  I never really got back into it, save for a bit of Deadpool and Starscream, but it was fun while it lasted.  Enjoy!

Makin' Movies

So, I'm working on a short film (a real one, with a budget!) as a production designer.  During the early parts of development, I was tasked (along with my friend Kelley) with designing the characters' school uniforms, based on some ideas and images provided by our director.  We went out to Goodwill (always a good start) and took some photos of clothes.  I then took those photos, reconstructed the parts covered by hands and hangers, and colorized 'em.  Using Daz, I rendered out a little girl, then warped the clothes over her.  One posterization later, and this concept sketch was complete!  The design was ultimately rejected for something a bit simpler, but I think this 'sketch' is good enough to share (and to just show what the heck I'm up to here in Hollywood).  Enjoy!

Also, if you need a production designer, contact me; I'm good.  See?

The Pale Man...

Show of hands, who's seen Pan's Labyrinth?  I know, it was good, right?  Anyhoo, an interesting guest recently dropped by my school...  Doug Jones, the actor who played both the Faun and the mind-numbingly terrifying Pale Man (amongst many, many other roles.  Dang, I feel like going out and having McDonald's tonight...)  Having had some forewarning about the Jone's arrival, I set to work sketching the image above, based on a Google reference image.  The picture... isn't that great.  But you know what?  It was signed by the Jones himself, so I'm happy.  And below is a photo of the three of us!  Such fun we had together!  My beard was stroked...

Gigawatt! again...

Hey, remember Gigawatt from two posts ago?  Well, he's back.  For those who don't know (surprisingly, I don't think I've mentioned it on here yet), I'm writing a book, published sporadically on my other blog, The Realms of Neldak (the link is in the bar on the left, but here's another: http://neldak.blogspot.com/ )  Anyhoo, in that book, Gigawatt is nothing more than a fictional character, and one of the characters has a Gigawatt action figure with a broken leg.  Thus the joints, thus the severed leg.  Seen here is a corrected, colored version, and the original ball-point version, captured using my snazzy scanner, a.k.a., my camera.  Also, I'm putting a tag in for Action Figure, even though this isn't really, just for theme's sake.  Please enjoy!

P.S.  First post from my new apartment in L.A.!

The Evening Report

I've been working on my senior project for college, and one of the requirements is the creation of "graphic stills."  So, this is a nice little picture I made up for a segment intro in my webseries "At the Cinema with Deadpool and Starscream" (atthecinema.us   coming soon!)  This here is Lentils the Wonderdog, the muppet host of The Evening Report, the totally serious, not-at-all-funny news segment of DP &SS.  He can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEdkgPy75PE   The dog is a photo, and everything else is Photoshop.  If anyone wants to recreate any of the effects seen in this image, drop a comment, and I'll help out...

Arcadia

Not an image this time, but a link to a series of images...  As the final project for a college course, we had to create an 'interactive'... project.  The majority of the class said "screw that" and made a film.  However, we also created an interactive website/ demi-game to appease the teacher.  That was my part.  Following this link will bring you to that site.  All of the collage images were created by yours truly using photoshop, Daz Studio, etc., etc.  Many hours went into making these beat-up, washed-out photos.  THe navigation scheme (such as it is) was also my work.  Hope you enjoy!

http://www.wix.com/aiclass/arcadia

In the Studio

I like movies. Most people do. I also like making movies. Again, many people can agree with that. But I look at movie making not as a hobby, but as a career. I've got two credits on IMDB already, and hope to add more. Ever since I was 5, I've wanted to be a film maker, and it looks like I might actually be able to some day.

A couple weeks ago, my mom showed me a scholarship opportunity entitled 'Frame Your Future." Basically, you make a piece of artwork showing what you hope to see in your future. So... I did that. I made a little film set, complete with crew. I used action figures from 6 different toylines*, four of which were heavily reworked/painted by yours truly (see Custom Figures by Hrothmeir to the left), photographed them separately on blue screens, and composited them in Photoshop. This was my first success with HDR photography (my older attempts were down without the aid of a tripod), and I really like the results. The background was made in blender, exported as multiple images, and then HDR'd in Photoshop. I then added shadows, lights, etc., etc. in, you guessed it, Photoshop.

Oh, and the camera was made with LEGO; I'm rather proud of it, actually.

*Star Wars (30th Anniversary), G.I. Joe (Rise of Cobra, 30th Anniversary), Indiana Jones, Avatar, Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia