Base14

While I spend the large majority of my time these days making animated films, Alysha has really been broadening her range of expertise. Why, just this morning she was featured on the Purdue University website as one of five “Purdue Culture Makers.” Wow!

The entire series is about showing how smart and creative the students at Purdue can be, and of course Alysha was a perfect candidate for such a profile. In the article she discusses why she chose the Purdue Apparel Design program, what has inspired her during her education, her big senior collection due out this Spring and her ambitions for the future. She even gives a very nice plug for Base14, which includes a link to us right from the web page! That’s better publicity than I got during my four years in West Lafayette! Also, if you look closely at the main photo, Alysha is sporting the amazing ceramic ring she made of Baru from “The Girl and the Fox.” That’s proof of the symbiosis that Alysha and I have between our creative endeavors. As she says in the article: “His creativity inspires mine and vice versa.”

We’re always better together, sis! Congratulations on the write-up and keep that culture coming!

As stated in a previous post, I am also serving as a blogger for the Voices of the Fest website for the 2010 Savannah Film Festival. We’re in the third day of the festival now and so far it’s been a huge delight talking to filmmakers, sending out tweets about events and writing articles about the day’s highlights. This was essentially my entire plan for this year’s festival, to act as a media representative who is both a student and a featured filmmaker alumnus. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I learned I would have to step up and play filmmaker again this year, at least for one day.

You have all followed the long development of “The Girl and the Fox” over the past year as we’ve worked tirelessly to get it ready for a festival run. And, to be honest, it’s still not ready. The SCADanimate screening was immensely helpful in showing us what the strengths and weaknesses were of the film in its current form, and I’m taking full advantage of that knowledge by working out a list of corrections and adjustments to the visuals, music and sound of the film before we start spending good money sending it to film festivals. This included the Savannah Film Festival! The plan was to hold on until the call for 2011 entries comes in Spring, and then TGTF can be a competition film next year. But The festival also has a block of non-competition films, strictly work of SCAD students, and apparently “The Girl and the Fox” has wound up in there this year.

So with that, I’d like to announce the second public screening of “The Girl and the Fox,” hopefully this time the Fall 2010 cut, with revised soundtrack and some visual adjustments. It will be happening as follows:

Savannah Film Fest 2010 SCAD Student Showcase (Featuring “The Girl and the Fox”)
– Tuesday, Nov 2nd at 11:30am – Lucas Theatre

I am told there will be an opportunity to have question and answer after the screening, so certainly if you’re in Savannah and want to see me say a few words about the film that consumed the last 14 months of my life, please stop on by! If you’re farther away, though, hold on to that ticket money. “The Girl and the Fox” will be coming to a festival near you eventually!

Base14 logo tees are now up sale! That’s right, I’ve been reading your wish book again. This tee features the classic Base14 logo in white and orange on a yummy Hanes 50/50 cotton/poly blend shirt. Sizes available are Small-XL. See our size chart. There are limited quantities of these beauties so I suggest you take a hammer to that piggy bank and buy one. They’re only $10 so how can you possibly say no?

A big thanks to my beautiful model May. I really wish she would come to visit me more often.

“Base14 Logo Tee” Sold by PayPal

$10.00 USD

As you all may be aware of by now, I love film festivals. I love the films, the people, the excitement… the prizes. There’s just so much to enjoy. So, it was an interesting dilemma I found myself in when I realized the Savannah Film Festival was coming up this Fall, and I don’t have any films in it! Last year we saw my film “Duck Heart Teslacoil” entertain the masses as part of the SFF student block, but this year “The Girl and the Fox” wasn’t ready before the submission deadline, leaving me with no all-access director’s pass. Refusing to give up the high life I enjoyed last year, I applied to serve as a student blogger for the Savannah Film Festival website, which would include another shiny all-access media pass for the entire week.

And bingo! I got the gig (hopefully thanks in part to my large amount of experience blogging here at Base14.) So for the next month, I’ll be churning out blog posts not only for Base14 but also the “Voices of the Fest” section of the SFF website. Go ahead and check out my first post published today!

I’ve also opened up my personal Twitter account with plans to use it as a stream of updates for my blog presence at the festival. This way people can know where I am and what I’m doing instantaneously throughout the week. So join up and follow along as I take you on a private tour of the entire festival! Should one helluva ride!

This Saturday is SCADanimate here in Savannah, and that means the new official premiere of “The Girl and the Fox”! I couldn’t be sure until I had seen a final programming list, but now that  I got my hands on a flyer for the event, we know “The Girl and the Fox” will be shown. So come one, come all. The version being shown has an all-new musical score by Azniv Korkejian and several visual corrections and clean-ups. Here’s the details:

When: Saturday, September 25th, 7:30pm
Where: Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. Savannah, GA
Why: Because animation is awesome.

My work in apparel design has been culminating toward one huge final project; the senior collection. We practically just started school and yet the madness has already begun. All of my designs are planned and nearly all of the fabrics have been sourced. All that remains for the next seven months is to construct the garments. But here for your Base14 enjoyment is a sneaky little peak at some of my sketches. Tantalized yet?

You didn’t think “Duck Heart Teslacoil” was done yet, did you? Well, not quite. The plucky little film was just featured in this month’s issue of Animation Magazine, as the second place winner of the magazine’s annual Student Reel Awards!

The write-up uses some highly laudatory language that left Alysha and myself more than flattered. “It takes a lot of finesse and graphical know-how to really work Flash/After Effects.” Animag writes, “The flat, impactful characters are imbued with a kitchy liveliness all their own, and the humor is spot-on. Duck is the ultimate evolution of the animated webisode and we truly hope to see more of these adorable, violent critters.”

Well, thank you, Animation Magazine! We appreciate both the kind words and the fabulous prize pack you sent us. Hopefully we’ll find ourselves gracing your pages again, someday.

And as for the suggestion about seeing more of the characters from “Duck Heart Teslacoil,” what do our loyal readers think? Would you like to see more of Duck and Monster, or something totally new?