Rats & Gassers Kickstarter Fund Raiser

We just started a 40 day fund raising campaign for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride through Kickstarter- a crowd funding website that allows creatives like film makers and musicians to post a project and collect funds to make their ideas happen. Our goal is a meager $5,000. I didn't want to ask for more than I needed and as I own all my own filming equipment this will only be to print DVDs, rent a Premiere Hall, promote the film and license historic footage. We made a whopping 9% of our goal in our first 8 hours! Klick here to see our page. 

Car Kulture Deluxe Article

An article I penned is in the current issue (February 2012) of Car Kulture Deluxe. The article is about Steve Mallory's 1962 Oldsmobile Shorty Gasser Wagon and features the lovely Becky Lee. Photos by Steve Puvogel. 

New Little Power Generator

Just got this in from Fingerhut- a smaller 2 Stroke Power Generator by All Power. The last one I had was behemoth and not appropriate for our Vendor Booths at Car Shows. It was too big and too noisy. So I sold it (at a $200 loss) and got this little one. This guy is 1000 Watts (800 continuous). Should be ample for running a few DVD players and monitors so people can preview my films before they buy them at the Car Shows. The Car Shows have become one of my best way to promote my films, much more so than print advertising. I like talking to people about what Go-Kustom is working on, etc. Makes me feel connected to our audience. These generators are also prime for filming outdoors. This one should be able to run lights and charge camera batteries at the same time. I have a power inverter for my van that I also use on locations. In most cases, and when trying to run big lights off a power inverter,  we would continually blow fuses (that was in my older GMC Van during Hot Rod Girls Save The World). Of course the biggest problem with these portable power generators is the noise they create on set. However, if you use a very long chord and place the generator behind sound barriers (i.e. parked cars, piles of wood, etc. and away from sound reflecting walls, the sound increase is minimal). P.S. After gassing it up with 40:! mixed it started on the third pull. So far so good. 

Snow Is Almost Gone

Well the last bits of snow are finally melting. This was a big storm by Seattle measures. 

Four Season Pin-Up Calendar Shoot (Even More Pics)

These behind the scenes pics from last Sundays shoot for Rats & Gassers were taken by Cameron Harris.

Four Season Pin-Up Calendar Shoot (And More Pics)

Four Season Pin-Up Calendar Shoot (More Pics)

Four Season Pin-Up Calendar Shoot

 This was monumental! We shot four rides ( two gassers and two rat rods) with four pin-up models, in the middle of winter and on the tail end of the biggest Northwest snow storm in recent memory. This was for a four season shop calendar in which we documented the whole process for my new film Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride. The amazing Tina Tang, of Parris Blue Photograph, shot the gals and cars at GodSpeed Fabrication in Auburn, Washington. For us, this was an hour plus road trip. The roads were clogged with downed power lines and trees just a few blocks from the shop- and after being scolded by an Over-Caffeinated-Agro-Cop, we turned around and took an unmarked detour for the last few miles to GodSpeed. My wife and Cameron Harris came as film crew. A few night before we were going to cancel, because of the extreme weather. Things had thawed out just enough to make the trip to Auburn.  The models were Kitty Mansfield, Aly Hellcat, Kissable Kandie and Stiletto Sweetheart. The cars were Big Tom & Carla McDonald's '56 T- Bird, Steve Mallory's '62 Oldsmobile Wagon, Robb Newby's International Rat Truck and Dave Leibold's Ford Rat Truck. Dave came through at the last minute when another car owner couldn't make it because he was still snowed in. These guys and gals drove in very iffy conditions to get to make this happen. I am humbled by everyones effort to pull this off!
I will add more pics and still later.

Seattle- The Giant Road Salt Flavored Slurpee

So Seattle just warmed up into the 40's and got severe rain dumpage which equals giant slurpee. We have a big video shoot tomorrow so I am hoping the roads clear in time. 

1/25th Scale 1936 Dodge Pick Up Resin Kit

Just got this excellent 1/25th Scale 1936 Dodge Pick Up resin from an online seller. Gonna make it into a rat truck or other creation... Included in the kit are the body, bed, removable hood, seat, firewall, dash, grill insert and headlights. Very good cast quality.

Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross

Started messing with the graphics style for the Evil Undead Girlfiend graphic novel and motion comic. Did this in Final Cut Pro 7 using several filters...

And MORE SNOW...

Shot this today after me and the wife walked to Subway for lunch. Roads are caked with compacted snow and ice. Saw a guy blasting down our street on a snow mobile. Best way to get around North seattle right now. Seems the snow plows can't even come close to keeping up with the dumping of fluff. Unlike the East Coast (where I lived for years), Seattle doesn't get much snow and doesn't have the plows to get it off the streets in a realistically quick manner. They scrape and sand a little and then it ices up and then people get stuck on the massive hills or slide into ditches...ouch! OK I am really getting tired of the snow now. I have been able to get some editing on our Arts School Winter Performance Video. Other households around the Northwest are not so lucky. I heard 10,000 were without power this morning. 

And More...Of The White Stuff

The "massive" snow storm only dumped 3-4 extra inches in our neighborhood (so far), but it's enough when streets aren't de-iced or plowed to make things difficult for driving. Most of Seattle is on a "Snow Day" and Seattle proper even got some last night. I have been editing our arts school Winter Performance the last two days, so I am still "working," but it's all good.

And Another Snow Day

Got up and opened our arts school and bam...the snow started coming down in tufts. Early closure. The big storm is supposed to hit tomorrow with 12-14 inches. 

And Yet Another Snow Day

Played on the hills near our apartment with the kids, wife, one dog and sleds. The ice under the snow on the roads was prime for builing some serious speed up on the sleds.