Back on Track

After a rough weekend, I'm back on track.  Keeping my head down and my eye on the prize.

My brother and I (mostly me because I took care of most of the details) threw a bachelor party for my cousin this weekend.  It was a great time, but financially a disaster.  I already spend 90% of my free time on my job (which I guess doesn't make it free time), but now I will have to kick it up a notch.  This may also mean I don't get to go to my best friend's wedding in Santa Barbara this August.  I'm pretty pissed about the whole situation, but I am coping...

Happy Father's Day to My Pops - He Can Beat You Up

He inspires me, he encourages me and without his support I would not be able to pursue my dreams.  He is my hero.  Love you dad.

HBO's A Game of Thrones Teaser

Some of you may know that I am producing the feature film version of George R.R. Martin's novella The Skin Trade.

Well, his epic fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, is coming to series at HBO.  And they just put out a teaser for the first season (A Game of Thrones).  Here it is:

Winter Is Coming

Movie Review: Fighting

This movie is by no means new, but I caught it late last night on TV and had to comment on it.  Now, most of you probably think - he's gonna rail against the acting, etc... But to be honest, the acting was all fine.  Even Channing Tatum was serviceable - because he didn't have much to do.  The directing was straight to video level - but again serviceable.  The biggest problem with this thing was the trainwreck of a script.

Why on earth anyone agreed to finance this thing is beyond me.  Maybe because they liked A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, as I did - a lot, but there's no way anyone read this script and thought it was going to be a good movie.  

None of it makes any sense.  At all.  It's more ridiculous than the last few Seagal movies.  

Sean (Tatum) is a kid selling bootlegs on the streets of NY.  But he's not actually from NY.  He's from Alabama.  Why is he in NY?  Never explained.  Why didn't he try to get a real job - since they make a point of saying he's a college graduate?  Never explained.  Why does Harvey (Terrence Howard slumming it) set him up?  Is it a set up or was he trying to rob him?  Why does a band of teens/20 somethings hang out with Harvey?  He sees him beat up one of his young hoods, who don't seem very tough and are never established as tough - and then he's immediately a hot ticket fighter.  No training.  No more fights.  Sean's not even a street fighter to start.  He was just trying to not get robbed.  He didn't even beat someone tough up.  Then, he's making more money per fight than low level pro fighters and he's immediately some sort of hot shot after a fight or two.  Two to be exact.  One of which he doesn't actually win.  They then have an absurd subplot about him punching his dad - who was his wrestling coach.  However, it means nothing to the story and he doesn't even out wrestle his opponents or use his wrestling.  The only time they show him training is before his last fight - against a hot shot pro (who would never take a fight like this) - and he's shadow boxing and doing some push-ups on the subway.  Oh, forgot to mention - the hotshot pro is someone from his college wrestling team.  The same one he got kicked off of for punching his dad.  

And somehow they all go out to the same club.  After every fight.  Even when he gets knocked around.  

It's a shame - because Dito Montiel started off with such a good film... It's another lesson that more money on your next feature doesn't make for a better film.  Don't always jump at the studio offer, sometimes you can sabotage your own career.

Bulderlyns: The First Designs

Karol just sent me the first two sketches from Igor, the artist on Bulderlyns.  I didn't realize they would come so quickly - I hope this is a sign of good things to come...

The first one is the main character, Robby Dedalus.  The second is of his father, Mike.  They need a few tweaks here and there, but pretty damn good for a first sketch.  Check them out:

It's All About the Benjamins

I just realized it has been almost 20 days since my last post.  I've been extremely delinquent.  Sorry about that.  I've been under constant pressure to finish things up.

We're at the very tail end of Spread the Fuzz - the name we've decided on for the first book in the Fuzzies series.  The only thing left to do is the title design, which is underway.  And then laying the title on the cover and the text on the back cover.

I was also cutting a trailer for the novella I'm writing, The Beast.  Why?  Because I saw a few book trailers that were cool and think it is a great way to sell the book.  I wish I was a better (more knowledgeable) editor though.  Actually, I think my actual editing skills in terms of timing are pretty damn good - but I just don't know the finer points of the program; such as panning on a still, more advanced transitions, titling, etc...  I got it down to 3 minutes, but I'm going to cut it down to 2 now.  And I did the voice-over myself.  So it is shit.  I will post when it is ready.

Harbor Moon is ready to rock and we're just dealing with the printer at this point.  Hopefully I have hard-copies in hand by the end of the month.  I cannot wait.  Seriously.  This is, to date, even more important to me than Battle for Terra - because it is mine.  Something I sweat over meticulously for a long time.

I have also been working hard to try and get a sample issue of the graphic novel R.E.M. done.  Everything is going great with the project, both the book and the film - and we wanted a sample of the book to show to actors as we approached them.  Credit to Marco for working hard to make this happen as well.  And Karol - who is invaluable to me in all that I do.  And I will pay him back generously - hopefully soon.  We finally finished it this week - and it looks pretty great.  Hopefully we're done with this book by the Fall for a release in November/Christmas.  It's hard to put a definitive timetable on artwork so we'll see...

I came up with what I believe to be a rather ingenious funding method for the feature film I'm putting together called King of the Night.  It relies on a few major pieces falling into place, but that seems to be the case.  I'm working behind the curtain like the Wizard and Jimmy Devoti is out on the west coast playing Dorothy.  Together, we may just pull this thing off - and in a major way.  Much better, financially and creatively, than the traditional investment method.  Stay tuned...

The company I am working with on The Skin Trade, Mike the Pike Productions, has been great to work with.... and we actually just signed a deal for them to raise funds for a slate of Spoke Lane graphic novels (R.E.M. included, Bulderlyns, Chasing Rabbits).  I know I mentioned this before - but we've signed the paperwork and things are moving.  Exciting times.  I'm pumped about it, and things on The Skin Trade have been progressing really well.  The business proposal should be done within the week and then I may have to spend some time on the PPM - but we will be off to the races.  Just as everything else is coming together.

I have also been going through the graphic novel script for Bulderlyns.  Trying to tighten it up as much as possible - because in this world, every page costs money.  I'm about halfway through.  Either way, the artist, Igor (a college student from Poland who is perfect for the book!) is already working on character designs.  We should start artwork on the book by July.  This is something I am dying to see come to life.

The Kickstarter campaign for Lil is still going on.  We're 1/3 of the way there with about 21 days to go.  So, if you haven't checked it out - please do.  It's a very cool project, with great artwork, smart and fun storytelling, and it has a positive learning component for kids.

And I'm still trying to rise out of the debt that all of these projects have put me in.... So that takes up a lot of my time and is the cause of a few gray hairs on my mohawked head.

Skin Trade: Artwork

Because the publisher putting together the graphic novel for The Skin Trade has been stand-offish, to say the least - I went and got artwork done for the film.  I had two pieces done.  One is by Pawel Sambor and is more artistic (ie... a bit more subtle/abstract).  Pawel also did the title design, which came out awesome. The other is more photo-realistic by Marek Purzyki - done as an old polaroid.  The design work on Marek's (turning it into an old polaroid) was done by Anna Mancheva.  She also happened to do the title design for Bulderlyns.
Fans of the book will know the origins of these two images.  The former is the cane that werewolf elder, Jonathan Harmon, carries.

The latter is Blackstone Manor, the towering Harmon estate that overlooks the decaying city.

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

It looks good.  The set pieces are cool.  Iron Man, when he's in the suit, looks and moves awesomely.

But this film is completely forgettable.  There is not much redeeming about the story of this film, nor about any of the characters.  None of the storylines come together, and individually they all fall flat.

Too many characters makes for a movie full of nothing.  I don't even want to waste too much time writing on this... because this movie had all the makings of something that could have been great... like The Dark Knight to Batman Begins... but falls way short of the first one. 

Spring in NY

I haven't been very active on here lately... which is a good thing I guess.  It means I'm swamped.  There is a lot of momentum on a bunch of my projects...  I will give a quick recap and then enjoy some of this sunshine.

Lil crossed the $1,000 mark today, less than a week into our Kickstarter campaign.  Hopefully we can keep up this momentum.

Jim Devoti and I are piecing together what we think is a pretty brilliant strategy for our film King of the Night.  More will obviously be revealed regarding that - but not until the right time.  In the meantime, Karol Wisniewski, who designed the site for Harbor Moon, is building the King of the Night website. 

I think we may have our tech glitches sorted out on R.E.M.: The Graphic Novel and we're back up and running.  Marco is also changing gears a bit and inking the book in grayscale.  It looks great.  As soon as we get that sorted we're going to print some 'mini-issues' for promotional use (and to submit to talent on the film front).

The Skin Trade is firing on all cylinders right now.  I finished the business proposal content and handed it off to my graphic designer.  She should have a first pass done any day now.  I also enlisted Pawel to do a piece of artwork for the project, as well as Marek.  Pawel was the artist on Harbor Moon and Marek did the cover for R.E.M. as well as a promo piece/splash page for Chasing Rabbits. 

Karol is lettering and doing the layout for the Fuzzies illusrated book... that should be done very shortly as well.  Pretty excited to see it all come together.

Nelson Evergreen finished a promo piece for Bulderlyns recently.  I am going to start a Kickstarter campaign for that project as well.  It is a pretty special piece and couldn't come out any better.  I think the title design (by Anna) came out great, and Karol did a great job of adding the color/texture to it.

Lil - The Kickstarter Campaign

My first Kickstarter campaign was launched today.  It is a children's book series called 'Lil'.

If you have children, or are a fan of the arts, please check it out:

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

Kickstarter is free to sign up and all payments go through Amazon.  If you have an Amazon account you're all set.  And you don't get charged until the raise is successful within our 60 days.