Here are the photos from Day 2 and Day 3 of shooting the Pitch Reel.

After a few days off to celebrate the new year (and storyboard), we took back to the camera and filmed the remainder of the LITTLE DREAM ENGINE Pitch Reel on January 3rd & 4th.  It was probably the most ambitious thing I could have written, given that it would have to be in front of the cameras within 10 days of my having written it, but my team pulled it off.

Tom, the Producer, started making calls and secured the three locations we needed very quickly.  He got us a movie theatre (thank you, Premiere Oaks 10 in Melbourne, FL), an old-timey Sam Spade-style office (thank you Spectre3D, Inc.) and a green screen stage (thank you, Tight Line Productions, Inc.) to stand in for the Air Ship.  This is in addition to getting craft services, DP’ing the film, getting extra crew in, and the million other things a Producer does that I don’t realize.

John Kennedy came through with all of the villain puppets, including a group of Air Pirates and a 12-foot tall Goliath to serve as the main villain (you can see him in the pictures from my previous post).  John is a very talented puppeteer, who has performed almost all of the Muppets at various times, such as Sam the Eagle in A VERY MUPPET CHRISTMAS, and Fozzie Bear in MUPPETS FROM SPACE, and has performed Elmo’s Right Hand for many years on SESAME STREET.  We became friends last year, and I got to work on a couple of his shows, and he agreed to help me out with this Pitch Reel, even performing Pupsock during the theatre shoot.

Jamie Donmoyer, who built Pupsock and performed most of his scenes on GALLERY OF DOOM, came back for the weekend shoot to lend her brilliance to the character once more.  She only had a limited time off for the holidays, and I’m honored that she spent some of it with us.

Kevin McGuire  was a big help, and a presence whom I’ve sorely missed on previous shoots.  We did so many films together in college, and then life got in the way and he wasn’t around much.  Finally he rejoined us for this shoot, having been reminded how much fun it is after having done a day on GALLERY OF DOOM and assisting me on THE SURE SHEEP.  He was there every day, took on any task we gave him, and always did a great job with a positive attitude.

One of Tom’s friends whom I hadn’t met before, Josh Malyn, swiped his fiancee’s brand new DSLR camera and was there for the whole shoot taking stills for us, and taking videos when the battery left the land of the living.  We posted the pics from the first night, as linked to in my last post, but haven’t gotten the others ones up yet, as we’re still recovering from the shoot.  I’ll let you know as soon as they’re up.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Things are slowing up on GALLERY OF DOOM, and now my company is focusing on our first feature, THE LITTLE DREAM ENGINE, and couple of other projects, most  involving the Pupsock & Wendell brand.  Right now, we’re shooting a Pitch Reel for THE LITTLE DREAM ENGINE.  This is basically Pupsock using the downtime on his latest adventure to tell investors about the movie, about me and the team, and to show them GALLERY OF DOOM and DUDLEY.  It’s a 3 day shoot, with Day 1 already behind us, Day 2 rising with tomorrow’s sun, and Day 3 soon after.  This one has a bunch of Wendell animation, and another virtual set (this one probably done with a miniature).

Here’s a link to some pictures from the first day of the shoot, where Pupsock battled a 12-foot puppet to rescue the Princess.