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!

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.

We kicked off the month with a screening at the Backyard Film Festival in Palm Springs, which came about as a direct result of our screening at the Palm Spings Short Fest.  However, this information is only useful to you if you read it well before I wrote it.

This weekend is Pupsock-packed, with screenings Friday night and Sunday, plus a parade on Saturday.  It’s all part of the Orlando Puppet Festival, which is where the movie premiered (in rough form) last year.  Hard to believe it’s been over a year already!

This year, the OPF has teamed with the Orlando Film Festival to have a screening of select Handmade Puppet Dreams films, including The Gallery of Doom.  The first screening will be held on Friday, Nov. 7th at 9:00 PM at CityArts Factory located at 11 E. Pine St. in Orlando, FL.  The second will be Sunday, Nov. 9th at 11:00 AM at The Gallery at Avalon Island located at 37 S. Magnolia Avenue (the green building at the corner of Pine & Magnolia) in Orlando, FL.  Both The Gallery of Doom and John Kennedy’s The Sure Sheep (which I worked on extensively) will be playing at these screenings.  John, I, and other filmmakers will be present for Q&A afterwards.

In addition, the OPF has teamed up with the City of Orlando in order to have a puppet section of the city’s Veteran’s Day Parade in Downtown Orlando on Saturday, Nov. 8th starting at 10:00 AM, and going through (I believe) 1:00 PM.  I’ve been helping John Kennedy build a huge eagle puppet that will trail behind the main float, and Pupsock will be operating one of the wings.  We were assisted in this endeavour by the Drama Club at Bishop Moore High School, and the young thesps. will be operating the eagle and Pupsock during the actual parade.

Next week, The Gallery of Doom will screen at the 10th annual Melbourne Independent Filmmaker’s Festival in Melbourne, FL.  Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest played there to a great receptionin 2005, and I’m excited to bring Pupsock there this year.  That screening will happen on Saturday, Nov. 15th at 10:00 AM at the Premiere Oaks Stadium 10, located at 1800 Hibiscus Ave. in Melbourne.

Hope to see you at one of the events!

Most of my time has been spent working on The Sure Sheep for writer/director/Muppeteer John Kennedy, as both Director of Photography and Visual Effects Supervisor.  It premieres this Saturday at The Smithsonian Institute’s Discovery Theater in D.C., so I’m packing up the family (my wife & daughter, my wife’s parents, her youngest brother, and his girlfriend whom we haven’t met yet) and we’re driving up tomorrow night.  Hopefully the three-year-old will sleep through the duration of the 14-hour journey.  I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which of us is the three-year-old.

Of course, Dudley and the Toy Keeper’s Chest is also playing at the Smithsonian, which is reason enough to make the drive.  So, all-in-all I’m very excited about the trip!  (Well, not so much the 14-hour car trip with 7 people.)  Kevin is the smart one, as he’s flying up tomorrow.

Saturday’s screening went really well, but the print was a little dark.  We checked it out at Adam (the editor)’s house before we sent it and it looked fine, so that’s a mystery to me!  Great audience reaction, though, and an invite to submit to another festival, so all-in-all I’d say it was a success.

Kevin and I should be meeting up with Tom within the  hour.  Hopefully Tuesday’s screening will go well for him.  It will be good to see him again, as he’s been on the road shooting for a while.

That’s all for now.  I probably won’t be able to blog again until after I get home tomorrow night.  Then I can tell the tale of the invisible Jessica Biel, the Camera That Couldn’t Photograph Kirsten Dunst, and the Blocking of Bill Pullman’s Path.  None of which are remotely as interesting as they sound in title form.

The following weekend, September 6th to be exact, Pupsock will be screening Colorado at the TriMedia Film Festival.  It sounds like a fantastic festival, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend.

Lastly, we were contacted by the Drive-In Film Festival, who had heard about Pupsock through someone who saw it at the Florida Film Festival (thank you to whoever that was!).  I sent them a screener, and while they really enjoyed Pupsock, they said they absolutely love Dudley, which was also on the DVD.  So, now Dudley is in yet another festival!  It won’t be showing in the actual drive-ins, but rather as part of a special selection of digital films.  Pupsock was invited to be a part of the traveling Drive-In part of the fest, but the Drive-Ins can only screen movies on 35mm, and the cost of making a print was too high, so, sadly, that won’t be happening.

I’ll blog again after Palm Springs to let you know how it went!