Siolo Thompson in Munster Style

Just got these in from artist and model Siolo Thompson, shot by Niffer Calderwood for Issue One of Munster Style. We are doing a full feature and interview on her artwork and modeling.

Cusp

Multi-tasking to the max. Compiling Munster Style content, having a meeting with MS Co-Editor Steve Puvogel and taking delivery of Blacktop Deceiver's song for the Munster Style Compilation CD (they are dropping it off). I am also blocking and uploading episodes of Go-Kustom TV to our new Blip.TV page @ http://gokustom.blip.tv. Also sorting through the Zombie Crush pics of BEcky lee and Smookie Tiger for Evil Undead Girlfiend:The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross pre-production film promotion. Tomorrow Heidi Van Horne and Shannon Brooke are shooting promotional pics for another film I am working on Chopper Chicas.

Got word from the pressing plant that the Rat Rod Rockers! DVDs will ship next Monday. The DVD broker also said that the guys in the pressing plant really dug the film! They have to proof the replicated discs for technical reasons at different points and ended up watching the whole movie. A good sign?

Go-Kustom TV on Blip.TV

Just started a Blip.TV page for Go-Kustom TV. The cool thing about Blip.TV  is you can link it to your YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook and even (if selected by the Blip staff) get your content on the Roku and other internet TV devices. They also convert your content and make it available on iTunes. One Stop content distribution. This will also be the first time some of these clips and interviews have been seen since we went off Public Access years ago.

Snow Day & Roku

Another snow day this winter. Went to the studio late after watching old movies and listening to international internet radio on the Roku. Love the Roku! Also got a glimpse of my interview with Northwest TV Live during our Everett Premiere of Rat Rod Rockers! Nice little ditty- wish the bigger media hounds deemed our event worthy of their attentions. Given that it was probably the biggest Movie Premiere in Everett, Washington history...ohh well...sigh...
Also started a Blip TV account at http://gokustom.blip.tv

Egypt

I didn't really comment much on the amazing changes going on in Egypt and the Middle East the last month. Though I haven't said much- I was and am extremely interested in the political atmosphere over there. It is hard to believe how strongly the U.S. backs dictators and regimes for "economic" or "security" reasons. Hypocritical by any means or measure. I have heard all the arguments and can not see the justification. No wonder so many countries don't trust the U.S. It may all be toppling over, not only in the Middle East but at home as well. People everywhere are tired of the bullshit, abuse and outright lies the governments and ruling class are serving these days. Time for a new menu- one that doesn't include the McDonald's Corporate Happy Meal Mentality™.

"Meat Wagon II"

Started work on the "Meat Wagon II" for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. This 1/25th scale model is based on a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker Wagon as opposed to the "Meat Wagon I" that was a 1956 Dodge Wagon. It will be set up exactly the same in a gasser straight axle style with white wall cheater slicks, red interior and gloss black stripe on flat back paint. I really dig the front end and fins on the Chrysler.

Projects Projects Projects

So now that the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD is being pressed and the first round of promotions and ads are set for the film, I have really started digging into the Munster Style CD & publication as well as laying the ground work for two films, Chopper Chicas and Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. Heidi Van Horne (model) and Shannon Brooke (photographer) are set to do a character development photo shoot for Chopper Chicas on the 27th of February (hey that's also my Birthday!). They have set it up in Skratch's (famous L.A. fabricator/builder) garage with (possibly) two choppers. I will post pics when they are done. Meanwhile- Karen Kougar (who plays the The Baroness) is setting up her photo shoot as Zombie Crush is processing last weeks pics of Smookie Tiger and Becky Lee, both sets for Evil Undead Girlfiend. I still need to get all these projects websites updated and redesigned.

Yesterday I sent out three interview for Munster Style as well as started new file folders for several article sets. We are still waiting for many tracks and contracts to come in for the compilation CD.

I have also started a new Go-Kustom TV Vimeo Channel. The cool thing about Vimeo is you can upload very high quality video clips and then watch them on your home television if you have a Roku player. I am hooked on the Roku ($120 for a mid level box). We have had ours for a month and haven't visited Blockbuster or a Red Box machine since. I can really see why Netflix and others are moving away from the physical DVD Distribution model and to the internet based Video On Demand models.

Seattle Chilly Sun Rise

Top Food Parking Lot February 18, 2011

Munster Style Issue One Compilation CD

Finished a few mock-ups of the Munster Style Issue One Compilation CD. This is one of my favorites. This disc comes with the publication. Cover model is the lovely Heidi Van Horne, who also will have a track on the disc. Also on the CD will be Devil Doll, Blacktop Deceiver, Hard Money Saints, Stellar Corpses, my band and a dozen more. This will only be available as a promotion disc for the publication.

1956 Dodge "Meat Wagon" Gasser Completed

Finished the first "Meat Wagon" mock-up for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. Came out pretty good. Still need a few details and I smeared the gloss black paint stripe on the roof. Sometimes I really need to slow down and let the paint dry before I try gluing things together- ya know?

1956 Dodge "Meat Wagon" Grill

Detailed the grill of the 1/25th scale 1956 Dodge Station Wagon I am building as a mock-up for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. Also finished the CD Cover for the Munster Style Issue One Compilation featuring Heidi Van Horne sitting pretty on a primered Merc, Narrowed it down to three designs and waiting for her choices before we post. Looks very cool.

This just in- both CreateSpace and AMG received the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD submasters this morning and the disc is officially in production at two places!

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD Submaster Shipped!

So after a dozen test burns with small audio and menu defects, I finally shipped two DVD-R submasters of Rat Rod Rockers! off this morning. One went to our DVD replication broker in Atlanta via FedEx Overnight the other went to CreateSpace (part of the Amazon.com empire) here in Seattle. I ordered 1,000 replicated discs in cases for the Seattle Premiere + DVD Release Party coming up March 26th at the King Cat Theater. Replication is much cheaper (between $1.20-$1.70 per disc) than duplication ($2.50-$4.00 per disc), but with you must order at least 500 at a time. CreateSpace does very high end duplication and feeds content directly to Amazon.com for DVD on demand and Video On Demand services.

The Rat Rod Rockers! DVD is not perfected yet (in my opinion), but close enough. I could keep working on this film for months and still not be satisfied. I had to pull this cake out of the oven, or risk project burnout (as well as not have any DVD's available at the DVD Release Party). I also checked the Rat Rod Rockers! primary external drive and it still will not mount. I am missing some older files, but have the final audio and video mixes intact and separated enough to do an eventual 5.1 Surround mix or foreign language version of the film. I am also contemplating release of a Black & White version of Rat Rod Rockers! by summer. Next (project wise) I'm digging into our Kustom Kulture print publication with music CD- Munster Style as well as writing screenplays for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation of Issa Kross and Chopper Chicas as well as promoting Rat Rod Rockers! Gotta stay busy!

1956 Dodge "Meat Wagon" Headlights

Got some cool 1/25th scale headlights at the local hobby store this afternoon. This resin kit I bought of a 1956 Dodge Station Wagon had globs of plastic in the headlight areas. Not the best casting I have seen. I had to Dremel out the areas and then had no headlights. These look really good, even if the bezels are painted silver instead of chrome. This model (or a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker Wagon I start working on shortly) is just a mock-up of a real car I want to build for Evil Undead Girlfiend. I occasionally use model cars (heavily Photoshopped) for backgrounds and other film work. Its amazing how realistic you can make a plastic model look with a little work. Model are also great for illustration work, especially getting correct proportions and angles.

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD

One third of the way through watching the latest submaster of Rat Rod Rockers! with the family- I noticed rising background noises in some scenes. Upon further review I found that I had compressed the audio a bit too much, bringing the background noises up against the foreground dialog. I am now back in the studio re-exporting new audio tracks. Nothing like doing something 30-40 times to get it right.

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD Baked!

Got to the studio relatively early, made a few edits to the DVD files and made several submaster copies. I think this cake is baked! Need to take the disc home and have the family preview (8 eyes are better than 2) and it should be ready to send to the DVD brokers tomorrow morn.

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD

After I got home from the Evil Undead Girlfiend Photo Shoot (see previous post), I continued editing the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD. Found a few problems in the DVD menus and a typo in the character pages. Burned a proof copy to watch tonight. Have to ship this off Monday morning.

Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross Photoshoot

Had a 10AM photo shoot today with models Smookie Tiger and Becky Lee at the mighty Zombie Crush's (husband and wife photographer team) photo studio for my new film and graphic novel series Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. My wife and I shot a few lo-rez behind the scenes pics I am posting here. The girls are portraying Issa Kross and Ingvar Chienne and may possibly star in the movie as well. These character development photo shoots really help design the characters look and attire. Everyone did an excellent job on this one!

Rat Rod Rockers! Error Error Error

So I had almost finished the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD audio mix on Thursday afternoon and was trying to get the disc completed to send off to the pressing plant today (Friday). I had just finished a new end credit song called Down Time and started work on the last song for the film that needed some updating- the Car Show Theme. Suddenly my external disc drive stopped responding. I panicked! Did the drive crash!?! I noticed the drive light was off. Tried restarting the computer, checked connections, nothing. My heart sank. Not now! My head was hanging low, when I noticed the power adapter cable had come loose at the chord side. Pushed it in and viola, the drive is up and the movie is saved! Yea! I had backed everything up religiously until mid January, when I started burning the midnight oil to get the DVD ready for the release party in March. So after the drive was up- I finish the Car Show Theme and turn to put a DVD in the burner and my foot hooks the external drives power cable (most likely because I had not tucked it back in after I fixed it) and the drive tumbles onto the floor. Now it is dead. :( Will not mount, busy light stays red (supposed to be blue), drive whirs up and then quits. I change the drive cases with another donor drive, nothing. Shit! So I break out the backup drive. I had (thankfully) save all the mixed master files the night before on it. However, this was before I finish writing the end credit song Down Time. I had a copy of the Car Show Theme saved on my desktop, so that work was still there. Then I start rebuilding the movie files and am able to get everything replaced, except Down Time. OK...some lost time, but not a complete disaster. I am missing one months of final editing, but have the end product. I find a mono version of Down Time that somehow got saved in my iTunes folder, most likely when I played it from the desktop. I use the mono version and combined it with the old rough tracks, re-sing the verse and chorus and once again have a usable version of the song. Not as tight as the previous incarnation, but not too bad either. I put everything back together, and losing a day of time am a  back on track. Word to the wise, never stop backing up your work, even for a week or a month! Everyday.

Hot Wheels Are Good

Got a box of 1/64th scale die-cast cars in from Milezone today. Collecting die-cast cars is one of my hobbies. Feels good to get a UPS box full of little cars. Yeah I know I'm just a big kid. In today's shipment were a couple M2 Machines Auto Projects, which are cars made to look like they were rusted out hulks found in a field or barn for a potential project. Also got several Hot Wheels Vintage Racing titles including Dick Landy's Dodge Challenger and Shirley Shahan's Dodge Dart as well as various other Dodges and one Chrysler.

Silver Blue Seattle Skies

Taken driving North on I-5 from my cell. Love the cloud formations in the Northwest. Lots of weather around these parts.

Rat Rod Rockers! DVD Audio & ADR

I am still fine tuning the audio for the Rat Rod Rockers! DVD. The artwork is done and off to the broker/pressing plant and the account set and ready for the DVD submaster. This has to be in by weeks end to meet our March DVD release deadline. In this screen shot I am adding a ADR slap for Hot Rod Heidi's character Ruby Milldue. The original slap got cut as the background audio was too noisy and overlaps in dialog made it pointless to keep the original. So I set FCP 5 to Voice Over mode and re-recorded me slapping my leg and then dropped it back in the timeline. Seamless. I still have one guitar track to lay down and a vocal for the score, then random audio fixes and mixes. Should have it done by Wednesday.

Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine Ads

We bought a full page ad for Rat Rod Rockers! in Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine- one of the best Kustom Kulture publications out there. Since the magazines started hitting the newsstands, sales of the Rat Rod Rockers! pre-sale DVDs have been way, way, waaaay up. A testament to the power of print advertising- especially when directed at your niche audience (of which I am also a part of). Also if you look closely at my little Rat Rod Rockers! ad, you can see that I made a big nasty typo on the event year listing- March 2010?!?

Cell Phone Pics

Got creative with the cell phone a few days ago. Taking pictures of window blinds and other things around our apartment- out of context to use for film and Photoshop backgrounds. The best thing about having a camera in your cell phone, even if it is lo-fi.

Tura Satana Passes Away At Age 72

Tura Satana, star of Faster, Pussycat! Kill!...Kill! passed away the evening of February 4th, 2011 in Reno, Nevada at the age of 72. Tura and Russ Meyer were big influences on my own film sensibilities. In fact the original posters for the film with the title written "Faster, Pussycat! Kill!...Kill!" were (upon years of reflection) a subconscious influence on my using ellipses in my band name Kill Switch...Klick. Russ Meyer was the King of the Exploitation genre and Tura personified the sexy tough Super Vixen Protype with enough conviction to endure forever. She will be missed.

Issa Kross Facial Scars

Besides working all day on the Rat Rod Rockers! audio and Soundtrack, I took a few computer breaks to make facial scars for Evil Undead Girlfiend character Issa Kross (portrayed by Smookie Tiger). We are doing an extensive photo shoot for the pre-production character development for the film next week. Using self drying clay- I scrapped grooves into one side of  a small block and let it dry overnight. Then I poured clear latex into the grooves, smearing extra latex on the surface to give a gripping area to pull on once the latex has dried. The first attempt turned out very good. After I pulled the scars from the home-made mold, I simply trimmed the excess latex from around the scars and they were ready to color and then glue to the actors face. Having a mold also enables you to make additional latex scars, if one gets damaged during removal.

Rat Rod Rockers! Soundtrack

Using my Turkish Spike Fiddle (Kamancheh) to add little flourishes to the Rat Rod Rockers! Soundtrack today. I used it extensively in the woods chase scenes of my last film Hot Rod Girls Save The World. Sounds a bit like a violin. I can make noises on the thing- but am not an accomplished player by any means. My wife and I have quite a collection of odd instruments from around the world.

Sunny Groundhog Day In Seattle

Took this pic in the University District today on my cell phone. Cold, brisk and sunny day.