Work is actually happening on the film again, so I thought I’d reinstate the weekly progress reports.  We’ve been working on what I’ve dubbed “The Professional 10%” phase of the project.  Basically, going through the movie now that it is “complete” and seeing what can be kicked up a notch.  It’s hard to describe, really, to anyone who is not intimately familiar with the film (that is to say, anyone who not me, Tom, or editor Adam Miller).  We all feel that giving it this one last pass through on seemingly little things is kind of thing that will help elevate the piece as a whole, and makes the difference between amateur quality and professional quality.  It’s also a great chance to push one’s talents a little past the comfort zone.

I’d say Jimmy Compher has the largest amount of work to do — he’s been working hard on shading Giacomo, plus drawing additional in-betweens, and even changing the performance in a few shots.  His hard work is worth it, though — Giacomo is looking even better than before!

For my part, I’ve spent quite a while working on making good video look bad.  There’s a gag in the beginning where Pupsock has a video walkie-talkie that he uses to speak with Wendell.  Before, Wendell was just represented as a little icon on the screen.  However, we felt it would be better if there was a black background behind him, and the “video” on the screen was noisy, and basically looked like a TV with a bad signal on its antenna.  It took a while getting the whole thing to stay synced on the little screen while it moved around in Pupsock’s hand and also to get the bad video look down right without interfering with Wendell’s performance.  Again, though, I feel it was worth it.

OK, I got to get back to work — adding some text to the beginning to help set the mood.  One last thing: We made it into the Internet Movie Database!

I have at last accomplished a long-time dream of mine, the initial heralds of which have been sounded on indieWire and Greenroom Orlando. For my own part, I will make the announcement simple, and then unfurl into greater detail:

Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery of Doom has been accepted into the 2008 Florida Film Festival.

As for the finer grains: As you may have heard, Pupsock screened at Brouhaha a week ago, and the reception was quite positive. A jury of three lurked in the darkness, silently judging the merits of each film that entered their eyes. Of the 46 films screening, they selected only 15 for the honor of being called The Best of Brouhaha and moving on to the Triple F. Among them sits the rough cut of my little FX Demo.

The plan, then, is to polish off the few remaining issues with the film by the end of January, when Adam Miller (the film’s editor) will make a DVCam version of the short and call it Master. Since FFF will be the first screening of the completed version, I’m calling it the World Premiere. Even though it will be the third screening. Also, since they’re calling the selected films “The Best of Brouhaha,” I’m considering that an award. So, my award winning film will have it’s World Premiere in just a few months!

I will update the blog as soon as I hear when the screening is.

I’m Tom Mumme, the producer of PUPSOCK AND WENDELL IN THE GALLERY OF DOOM, and I have finally had a chance to contribute to this blog. It has been a long road up to this point (especially for Patrick), and our screening at the Brouhaha Sunday makes it all worthwhile.

Patrick, Kevin McGuire (voice of Pupsock), James Compher (animator of Giacomo), and myself were on hand for the screening at the Enzian Theater in Orlando, FL (home of the Florida Film Festival). For those not familiar with the Enzian, it’s an art house cinema with tables and comfortable rolling armchairs, a fantastic environment for Independent Films (www.enzian.org).

There were about 150 people in attendance for our 11am screening, and after ordering a pizza and a pitcher of coke, we settled in to watch some films. PUPSOCK was the 8^th of 11 films to screen so the audience was primed and ready when the POEM pictures and Blue Juice Films logos came on. Our film looked great on the big screen and the audience response was exceptional. It was great for me to finally see it with a non-biased audience and to see what worked and what didn’t. For a film that we consider being about 85-90% complete, they laughed in all the right places, were wowed by all the animation, and generally responded to it as a finished piece. In other words, we could release it right now, and audiences would love it as is.

However, being the stubborn perfectionists that we are, we see places that could use a little nip/tuck, or a little polish here and there, and will spend the next few months getting it just the way we like it (by we, I mean Patrick, I just sit back and bark orders).

The best films at the Brouhaha are eligible for the Florida Film Festival (thought of as the #8 Film Festival in the World by Festival Guru Chris Gore, www.floridafilmfestival.com) and we still have a submission out to the South By Southwest Film Festival (www.sxsw.com) so we’re hoping for the best there. We want to have a finished film before those festivals, and Patrick has been tireless in his efforts to make it the best it can be.

Well wish us luck, and I’ll try and blog again soon.