Base14

Last night was SCADanimate [skuh-dan-uh-meyt] or however you pronounce it… and it was awesome! Duck ♥ Teslacoil screened alongside many other wonderful student films. The fun was kicked up a few notches with Jason Maurer’s call to department head Jeremy Mooreshead, who was in Greece as the keynote speaker for the Animasyros 2.0 International Animation Festival & Forum, where it was about 2:30 in the morning. But the real highlight of the evening was the SCADanimate cake created by SCAD Animation alumnus and professional cake designer Ashlee Perkins. I personally was elated to see a sucrose recreation of Duck at center stage. We ate the cake, but unlike the Duck cookies earlier this year, I’m keeping the Duck.

Oh, and if anyone is in Northern California today, Duck ♥ Teslacoil is showing at 1pm at the Galaxy Theatre in Riverbank, CA as part of the California International Animation Festival.

Just a quick note for all Savannah residents: I just confirmed that Duck ♥ Teslacoil will be showing at the 2009 SCADanimate! animation showcase THIS Saturday at 7:30pm, in the historic Trustees Theater. This is great news for all my animation friends who have been dying to see the film on the big screen but just can’t wait until the Savannah Film Festival. Best of all, it’s FREE. Come on out for a entire evening of great animation!

Duck ♥ Teslacoil has been stirring a lot of attention lately. Here are the highlights:

• Duck ♥ Teslacoil has been accepted to Louisville’s International Festival of Film in Louisville, Kentucky. It will be showing at the Galt House Hotel & Suites at 1pm Saturday, October 3rd. Tickets for a Saturday pass are $35 each.
• Dates and times have been announced for the Savannah Film Festival. Duck ♥ Teslacoil will be shown on November 2nd at 9:30am and November 6th at 11:30am. Ticket’s are only $5 each and FREE for SCAD students. I will be at both screenings, so don’t miss it!
• Duck ♥ Teslacoil tied for fourth place with ten other student films in the SkyFest Film Contest. How significant that is, I’m not sure.
• We are an official selection at the Animasyros 2.0 International Animation Festival & Forum on the island of Syros located in the Aegean Sea in Greece. This marks our first international screening!
• Duck ♥ Teslacoil has also placed in a very exciting international competition but we can’t announce it publicly yet! Details on that as soon as winners are officially announced by the judges.

My final project for my graduate directing class, entitled Brian Paulson: Tree Dropper, has finally been released online. This project was created entirely during Spring semester, which includes all pre-production, filming and post-production. Okay, most post-production. The reality of the situation is that it took me all summer to get around to cleaning up the audio and making a final cut. With summer classes and all the traveling I was doing for Duck ♥ Teslacoil, I almost forgot about it. But as of last week, the final cut is done.

More discussion after the break.

Continue Reading »

As an artist, I experience every now and then a blissful moment when my craft sees eye to eye with tasks in my daily life. One of my favorite instances is when I find myself suddenly faced with an event or holiday. I whip out the paper and my X-Acto and go to town exploring new card styles. Only in the past few months did I think to start photographing them before shipping them off across the country. As you can see, I’ve spent some time exploring cutouts. (Having already spent years making illustrated cards.)

Recently, I am moving into the 3D realm. After the work I did on Overlooked, I want to make my pieces more interactive with the viewer. The idea is that if the viewer must make a contribution to the piece then he/she will be more personally connected to it. This latest piece (my first attempt at a card of this format) is strong in concept but needs a lot more work to make it functionally strong and visually attractive. But what’s more fun than having room for improvement?

Next for Base14 cards? Well, they might not be made of paper at all.

I just finished the official electronic press kit for Duck ♥ Teslacoil and have posted it here for everyone’s enjoyment. In the olden days before the internet, filmmakers would print these out and mail them to film festivals. Nowadays we have withoutabox to do most of the work for us (thank goodness), but some contests still like to have one. No matter, it was fun to design! Now I’m working on the full-sized movie poster and DVD design!