As you've probably seen on the main page, I like making incredibly stupid movies with my friends. Most involve some sort of visual effects, such as lightsabers, mutant abilities, or some other type of absurdity.
I've loved making movies ever since I was a kid, but now the technology is affordable enough that anyone can get rather impressive results on the cheap. And so, armed with our Canon GL1 MiniDV Camcorder and some off-the-shelf software, we spend the occaisional weekend acting like complete idiots and embarassing ourselves on the Internet.
I'm now on YouTube! Please watch our vidoes there, and spread the word!
Below are some of our Shorts and Effects Tests. Please right-click the link and select "Save As..." and watch it once it has downloaded.
Shorts:
- The Beverage Wars: Part III
Currently In Pre-Production
Estimated Release: Fall 2007
- Mutant Melee
Part two of the "Beverage Wars" trilogy. A quiet afternoon watching TV goes horribly wrong when it is discovered that a single beer remains in the fridge. Effects inspired by the X-Men. Full musical score by Sam Sheldon coming soon!
Initial Release: March 27th, 2007
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Quicktime, Sorrenson 3 | 47 seconds | 5.69 MB
- Backyard Brawl
The first of the planned "Beverage Wars" trilogy. Mayhem erupts when Karl "Beef" Pfleiger makes a move on Brian "The Pez" Pestridge's beverage. This was the first short in which I actually attempted to tell a story. Overall I was fairly pleased with it. Lightsaber props were made of 3/4" 280 PSI PVC pipe, with a few joints screwed onto the end as a handle. Original musical score by Sam Sheldon.
YouTube: Link
Initial Release: June 24th, 2006
Final Release: May 2nd, 2007
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Quicktime, Sorrenson 3 | 1 minute 6 seconds | 8.82 MB
Effect Tests:
- Bazooka Beef
Beef illustrates what the Nintendo Super Scope was really capable of when placed in the wrong hands! Simple effect test shot with the new Canon GL1. Visual effect elements thanks to the guys at Detonation Films.
Initial release: May 1st, 2007
Camera: Canon GL1
Quicktime, Sorrenson 3 | 5 Seconds | 758 KB
- Toasty
Beef stumbles upon some unattended bread. A few different effects here, the Beam effect and some rendered particle smoke. Lessons learned here were applied to Mutant Melee.
Initial release: May 7th, 2006
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Quicktime, Sorrenson 3 | 12 Seconds | 940 KB
- Shoo, Fly!
Can't a guy just relax and read the paper without being pestered by flying insects? Other than an early rough test, this was my first real attempt at lightsabers, using the props that wuold eventually be used in Backyard Brawl. Built them out of 3/4" 280 PSI PVC, with a couple of joints screwed onto the end as a handle. I still love this one.
Initial release: May 4th, 2006
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Windows Media | 15 Seconds | 617 KB
- Sneaky Beefy
Three Beefs sneak across the yard and hide behind a skinny tree. Don't ask about what the second Beef is doing, because even he doesn't know. This was my second attempt at cloning, and I quickly realized that cloning outdoors is a difficult thing. The moving tree branches and sunlight being affected by light clouds caused a few problems. Definitely a good learning experience.
Initial release: May 2nd, 2006
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Windows Media | 23 Seconds | 950 KB
- Karl Drinks Alone
You know when Karl drinks alone, he prefers to be by himself. This was my very first project in After Effects, and was shot before I had even installed the software. Among other things, the lighting is terrible, and if you look closely, the mask line isn't even feathered! All things considered, I still laugh at this one.
Initial release: April 28th, 2006
Camera: Sony DCR-TRV280
Windows Media | 22 Seconds | 691 KB
Back in 2003 or so, I scored a sweet deal on an old beat-up arcade cabinet, in fully working condition. As I had an abundance of free time during my exile in Delaware, I decided to follow in the footsteps of many of my fellow nerds and slap a computer into it and get it to run MAME. I quickly realized that it was a project you never actually "finish", and was constantly thinking of ways to add features and better hardware.
It got a lot of great use over the years, but as life got busy and I got into other hobbies, I found that I never used it, and it was just collecting dust. It was hardly used even when friends were over. Like most hobbies, 90% of the fun is working on it, and I hadn't worked on it in about a year. I sold it in the fall of 2006, and rolled the money into a Home Theater PC, which is capable of playing all of the same games on my living room TV.
Cabinet Hardware:
- Cabinet: Dynamo Cut-Corner Jamma
- Monitor: 19" WG K7602 Arcade Monitor
- PC: AMD Athlon 2600XP+ 2.4 GHz w/ 512 MB RAM
- Video Card: Ultimarc ArcadeVGA
- Encoder: Ultimarc J-Pac
- Joysticks: Ultimarc T-Stick Plus
- Buttons: Ultimarc Microswitch Pushbuttons - 7-Button Layout
- Trackball: X-Arcade Trackball
- Coin Mechs: Coin Controls US $0.25, HAPP Ultimech .984 Token
Cabinet Software:
- Frontend: MAMEWah
- MAME: v0.067
- Daphne: Dragon's Lair Anniversary Collection DVDs