Rats & Gassers Filming @ Tom Sanders Shop

Went over to Tom Sanders' Shop to film an interview with him about his '29 Ford Truck build and to get some detail shots of the rig. We will be heading back to his area to film some drive around footage and shoot a magazine article featuring his ride and the gorgeous pin-up model Shelbi Farhney. The stance of Tom's Hot Rod is perfect, it caught my eye at the Rat City Rodz Car Show a few months back.

We are winding down the shooting schedule for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride. We have a few more interviews, some GoPro pick up shots and a few more locations and then full time editing sets in. We are on track to have this feature length documentary out by middle of 2013.

Filming For Rats & Gassers @ Billet Proof Hot Rod Eruption Drags

Had a blast out in Toutle, Washington at the fourth Annual Billet Proof Hot Rod Eruption Drags. This remote 1/8 mile drag strip hosted bare knuckle heads up vintage drag racing all weekend. The set up was very well organized, with staff cleaning any oil spills, etc. Hundreds of cars, Hot Rods, Gassers, Vintage Rails, Mini-Bikes, Kustoms and everything in between. This is a must attend event for Vintage Drag Racing fans.  

Rats & Gassers And The Sand Rat

Went over to Joe Leppado's shop yesterday to interview him for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride about his unique "Sand Rat." We also has the lovely Miss Mandible Rockatansky pose in Road Warrior garb to bring across the cars apocalyptic appeal. 

Tires And Gate Latches

This (see pic to right) is part of the reason I couldn't go to the Club Grudge Drag Races yesterday at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe. It was stuck in my f'n back tire! 

I had just dropped my wife off at work and then ran to my P.O. Box and didn't see my new auto insurance policy in the box. I was waiting for an updated policy the agent said was on it's way. I got home and called my agent, around 11 AM. "Don't drive today," he says. "Why?" I ask. He says their was a mistake transferring from a commercial policy to a family policy. Our van had been registered to our Arts School, but since the school closed we had to reorganize all our book keeping, including the van insurance. I had been planning on leaving for the Club Grudge Drag Races at 12 noon to do some filming for Rats & Gassers. So now I wait...and wait...and eventually they call (like around 2:30 PM). "We need you to drive to the office immediately and drop off a check to bind the new policy, we can't do it by phone." "Ack!" I say after I hang up. I drive all the way over to the University District, 15 minutes on the freeway, jump out of the van, drop the check, sign the new policy and jump back into the van and then...thumppa thumppa thummpa, I have a flat. Pull it into an empty parking spot. Wow- I made it all the way across the parking lot! Get out. Back passenger side tire is completely flat. Could this be sabotage? An angry apartment neighbor not wanting to listen to my bass guitar playing at 10 PM? Hmmmm.  Just then I remember that as I was dropping my wife off at her work that very morn, we had ran over something under the bridge construction on Highway 99. Ack!  Well now I gotta get this tire patched quick! I walk across the street to an AM PM Mini-Mart and get some FixAFlat. As I am walking back across the street a lady says, "Hey! Excuse me..." I look over at her. She is a fifty year old hipster gal, with shortish graying hair and modern attire, probably works or teaches at the University. "What's up?" I reply. "Do you know who Jim Jarmusche is?" she says slowly. "Oh yes," I reply, "he is one of my all time favorite directors." Really?" she continues, "I wanted to say you remind me of him,, kinda look like him."  "I will take that as a compliment, " I said as I jogged across the street.  She smiled yelling, "Oh yes pelase do," Back at the van, I quickly pumped the flattened tire full of the foamy FixAFlat goodness. It wasn't enough to make the tire even remotely round, so I broke out my portable air pump, plugged it into the cigarette lighter and finished pumping up the wounded back tire. Now it was spewing little tufts of FixAFlat foam around what looked like a large headed nail stuck between the treads. I jumped in the van and drove a few blocks to a Chevron that had "On Duty Mechanics" and pulled in. The mechanic was friendly, quickly pulled the tire and began twisting and pulling on the "nail." He twisted and pulled and pulled and twisted. "What the hell is stuck in your tire my friend," he murmured out loud, between grunts and groans. Finally it began coming out. It twisted around and up. He stopped and we both looked at each other. What the hell was in my tire! He grabbed his pliers and continued pulling. Out...out...out....it just kept coming. When it finally popped out, it was over five inches long! So guess what it was?!? An outdoor gate latch! This metal latch was stuck completely in my tire so only the round end was poking out. When I drove to the Insurance office via the freeway, it must have loosened up and then when I parked, all the air came out. Only $17 to pull this bad boy out of my tire and patch it up.  Still I didn't get home until after 4:30 and the Club Grudge had started at 1 PM. If I left for Monroe at 4:30 with all the evening commute traffic, I would get there until 5:30 or even 6. I decided to bag it, and went to pick up the wife from work to save her the hour long bus ride home. Sometimes things just don't work out how you want 'em too.

Little Red Wagon and My A-100

My '66 A-100 Sportsman.

This model of Bill Maverick Golden's Little Red Wagon came in the P.O. Box today. Always loved the old Dodge A-100 vans and pick-ups. I owned a 1966 Sportsman Van for a year (see pics on right), before deciding it wasn't a project I could tackle at the time. Bought it from my neighbor for $500. Sold it to a guy that was building a Little Red Wagon clone and wanted an A-100 Van as the push truck for $500. He came out from the mid-west with a trailer and towed it off to greener pastures.

More Shirts

Yet another design featuring Ron Foreman's '31 Sedan.

More Shirt Designs

Got on a roll yesterday and made two more designs for Go-Kustom Shirts. I have 3-4 more I'd like to do in the next day or so. I am hitting my stride graphic art wise.

New Shirt Designs

I made a few new shirt designs for Go-Kustom using stills from the Go-Kustom TV Show. We have a full store on CafePress. 

Go-Kustom TV @ Hell On Wheels 2012

We set up the big 20x10 foot outdoor screen at Darrell's Tavern for the Hell On Wheels Car Show before noon. Darrell's is on Aurora (Highway 99) in Shoreline, Washington. This is the third annual and includes a small car show, bands all day in the tavern, burlesque performers and this year outdoor Hot Rod movies! I filmed a bit for Go-Kustom TV as my wife worked our vendor booth. Some cool rides, especially Craig VanSant's '49 Plymouth Sedan Delivery and one of my favorite area cars Mike Smith's 1967 Coronet R/T. After dusk, we started running films with a few hot rod shorts and then Rat Rod Rockers! Looked awesome and people from the nearby Fred Meyer parking lot and Jack In The Box drive through were gawking all night long. Hopefully we will run films next year. 

New Go-Kustom Logo

In an attempt to better rep my brands I decided to simplify and revamp the basic Go-Kustom Logo. 

New Inner Demons Logo

Decided to revamp the D.A. Sebastian & The Inner Demons Logo into something a little cowpunk and sinister. I used a bull skull sent to me years ago as a gift by artist T Crowe Semler. I snapped a few pics of the skull, added full length horns then made the main "Inner Demons" font from "Impact" and put it all together. Happy with the results.

GoPro Footage

Still sorting how to get GoPro footage into a 24p Final Cut pro Timeline with best motion. GoPro's have either a 60 or 30 frame per second setting. I prefer the look of 24 progressive frames per second. In a previous post I said I was using Cinema Tools to "Conform" the footage to 24 fps. This mean that no frames are removed, the frames are just retimed from 30 to 24. This slows the footage down, but when dropping back into Final Cut Pro you just speed up the footage by 125%. I have found if you have the frame blur box checked when making the 125% speed up, the footage looks very good on playback.

Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride

So with all the potential footage from the car shows I have been filming this summer, the pile of usable footage for Rats & Gassers is growing beyond what I originally expected. I was able to interview several Gasser owners at the shows, and in some cases wanted to do sit down interviews with the owners, but that may not happen. I am wondering how the "held mic" interview style of the Go-Kustom TV Show will blend with the "formal sit down" interview style throughout the majority of the film. I think it won't matter so much, as it is obvious that the Go-Kustom TV Show footage was from a different source collection than the main body of the film. This always gives a documentary a well rounded look, when multiple sources are used to tell the story. I have been jotting down "sound bites" for the narration over the course of filming. I want this to be a narrative about art and cultural importance of the hot rod and kulture. I have also received several  sets of photos for the film from around the country. I love using stills in documentaries. I did it all the time in my TV Show.

I have also stared contacting bands for the soundtrack.  I need to finalize the selection quickly for the main editing process. I talk to bands all the time at car shows and events, and doing the followup is a process in itself, especially with lost business cards, contact info, etc. I wish I had an extra set of hands for this film!

Laptop Fan Replacement

So I finally got off my ass and replaced the right side cooling fan in my laptop. It had been whining and chirping for several months and then just died. I ordered a new "used" one for $30 and it has been sitting for a week inn the box. During replacement I stripped the top out of one of those oddball torque screws, so I pulled it with some needle nose pliers and replaced it with a similar sized screw from a guitar. So far Mr. Laptop is purring nicely and a bit cooler. 

Go-Kustom TV @ Prison Break 2012 Monroe, WA

Joe Leppado preparing for a run

Brent Hanson & Emily Keenholts after a run

A lone Rat Truck

Sasquach originally built by Kim Fischer's brother

After Kim's brother passed, she eventually re-acquired it,
then her husband Jess, completely rebuilt it

Kim Fischer talks about her Monster Truck Sasquach

Went out to Monroe, Washington to film the second annual Prison Break 4x4 event at the Monroe Adventure Park, which is actually right next to the prison (hence the name). Gorgeous hot weather, typical for August in the Northwest. We had been invited out by Joe Leppado who owns the Sand Rat we first saw at the Rat Bastards Slaughterhouse Car Show a few months back. We (family) had a blast watching the rock crawl, mud bogs, sand drags and obstacle course runs. We also strapped a GoPro to a few cars during the event, including Joe's rig for some hill climbs and solo sand drag runs and Bret Hanson's Toyota during one of his obstacle course runs. We also interviewed Kim Fischer about her husband and her Sasquach Monster Truck. Jess (her husband) even took my wife and kids for a run around the grounds in the trucks bed! We will definitely be heading back there next year!