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.

Welcome to this Behind-the-Scenes look at the post-production of “Pupsock & Wendell in THE GALLERY OF DOOM!” I’ve set up this blog to keep people posted on the progress of the film, and to help raise awareness of it. I’ll post on my progress and my process, and invite some of the other people making the movie it to talk about their work.

First, the basics:

• The script was written in May of 2006.
• Principle photography took place in Orlando, FL in January 2007.
• The film was shot over the course of 8 days, on a Panasonic AG-HVX200, in 720p.
• I wrote and directed the film. Thomas Mumme produced it, Jeremy Schneider DP’d it, Ryan C. Wolfgang was the Production Designer, and Chris Santora was the 1st AD and Practical Effects Supervisor.
• The film stars Pupsock Jackson, who was built and puppeteered by Jamie Donmoyer, and voiced by Kevin McGuire. The humans are played by Joey Monasterios and Jeff Gougen.
• We’re currently deep in post-production, currently working on the two animated characters.
• Wendell is a 3D animated character, and is being brought to life via the OpenSource 3D animation package Blender. He was designed by myself, modeled and rigged by Philip Yon, and is being animated by me.
• Giacomo is a 2D animated character, being animated in Flash by Jim Compher and Sharon Jimenez.
• I’ve currently got 17 shots of Wendell completed, out of about 47.
• I did the initial design work for Giacomo, and it was further refined by Sharon. Jim took Sharon’s detailed drawings, and has begun making a simpler version inside Flash.
• The Giacomo team has 0 of 27 shots complete.
• The film is being cut by Adam Miller using Final Cut Pro. I’m doing the compositing in After Effects, on a PC.

I plan on expanding on most of those bullets in future posts, so check back often.