I Went to Bed Instead of Writing Yesterday's Blog.

Horrifyingly unacceptable, isn't it?

I was beat though. The Women's Studies cast, crew, and I shot all day yesterday and the day before. Due to the time constraints set by the location and actors' schedules, we had to work at a breakneck pace that kept me moving constantly. By the time I wound down with dinner and a couple of beers, exhaustion hit me like a freight train and I had to run some REM cycles.

I thought I'd make up for it for by posting a ton of pictures from the shoots, but "Ha!" The joke was on me. It turns out all the good pictures were taken on the camera owned by our Gaffer, Jim Housell. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get them from him. Therefore, you'll have to settle for the few pictures I managed to drum up from my personal camera.

I know, I know. Late Blog. Sub-par pictures. Somebody fire this guy.

Next week I'll post some of the good pictures. Plus I'll be able to report not only on this shoot, but the one we're doing tomorrow with Tara Garwood (Judith) and Cindy Marie Martin (Mary). It's a humdinger.

Until then . . .

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Mundy Spears (Sharon), Cindy Marie Martin (Mary), and Tara Garwood (Judith) out of costume at a friend's wedding. Yes, we have actual lives outside of this movie. Well, some of us do.




The camera department works with the steadicam. From L to R: Director of Photography Aaron Shirley, Camera Assistant Laurel Keller, Camera Operator Thomas Fant.




Tears for the dead.




"I went out the desert and I killed this guy." Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer) tells her tale.




Jack of all trades Joey Cabrera rummages through his make-up kit.




Fight Choreographer Shanna Beauchamp (Black Widow Waitress) exudes total hotness while a blurry Joey Cabrera throws gang signs in the background.




Josh Davidson (Revels) touches up a tattoo for Stef Williams (Black Widow Burlesque Dancer).




"All right, what have I told people about playing around with props? It's all fun and games until Josh takes a knife to the chest."

Captain America inks

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Page 3 of the upcoming Captain America #31. See this page in color (along with 4 others) here.

Deja Vu

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An upcoming flashback panel depicting a scene that should be familiar to Captian America fans.

The Dragon Fish - New Tank

I have a problem with a leaking tank in Jul07 and it was a last minute panic for me. Really stressful event for a dragon fish owner. The old 4x2 tank was purchased around 5years ago when i first started the hobby, poor judgment then lead to the situation. The old tank glass is only 6mm thick, not really suitable for the size of the tank. It hold for 5 years and start to leak one morning...Damn with my most expensive violet fusion super red (VFSR) in it. A mad rush to buy a new tank does not help.

With no choice, I moved VFSR from the leaking tank to a new 2ft tank temporary ( it was a bad move, as i forgot about all the fundamental of transporting an adult Arowana). The problem is that before I bagged the Dragon Fish, it jump out of the tank and onto the floor...losing 3 scales. So sad.

The New Tank Arrived 3 days later.



Transport the Dragon Fish.

Things you need:
1. Transmore, anaesthetics for fish
2. Big plastics bag (big enough for your fish)
3. Yellow powder (medication, just in case the fish have some cuts during the move)

[ That's is not a condom pack!!! ]



Steps:
The best way to move an adult dragon fish is to first "knock" the fish out cold with anaesthetic, Transmore. Slowly dip a few drops into the tank and "play" gently with your dragon fish. Play with the dragon fish is to see whether the anaesthetic effect has started.

Continue to dip slowly, 5 drops at a time, and check if you dragon fish has calm down from touch. Work this until the dragon fish is not reacting with force when you "play" its tail. There is no need to completely "knock" the fish out cold.

Then, slowly bag the fish with the big plastic bag and move it into the new tank. Once, in the new tank, the fish will "wake" up from the fresh water and soon be swimming around. Add a little bit of yellow powder if there are minor cut (or scale drop) during transportation. You might want to add blackwater to calm the fish from the new environment.

A Little Bit of J.C. Leyendecker Greatness

I discovered something great earlier this week - this blog.

So far there is only one post on it, but damn, what a post! - 31 huge scans of J.C. Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post covers. They were posted back on August 2 and there's been no new activity since, but I hope we'll see more eventually. In the meantime, if you can tear yourself away from the sheer awesomeness that is the Leyendecker blog, be sure to check out these essays at the always excellent Illustration Art Blog.

Cap For Sale

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See that up there? That's the Captain America Omnibus featring issues 1-25 of Captain America vol 5, as well as the 65th Anniversary Special and the Winter Soldier one-shot. It also has tons of extras including sketches, cover roughs, character designs and interviews with Ed Brubaker and myself - all in one handy volume. It's 744 pages. It's also heavy. Since it's past midnight here on the east coast, I can legally announce that this one of a kind collection of the best in comics liturature is available TODAY at finer comic shops everywhere.

And no, the madness doesn't end there, because also on sale today is Captain America #30. It looks like this -




Okay, that's it. Commercial's over.

Backyard Movies

***SPOILER ALERT! MEGA, GIANT, HUGE, "OH MY GOD! HOW COULD THE BASTARDS GIVE THAT AWAY?" SPOILER ALERT****

(Seriously, a pretty big Women's Studies plot point is revealed in the pictures below, so if you're avoiding that sort of thing, don't read any further. I know. I know. the curiousity is killing you, and how could I put you in this position. You know something? Self-control. Try using some.)

# # #

Back in the late seventies, many low-budget, indie horror films in the Women's Studies vein were referred to as "backyard movies." The definition is a film with no studio backing, made by a bunch of dedicated filmmakers with no promise of distribution, only a hope. The idea is that the films were "shot in somebody's backyard." (Stephen King credits mystery/film critic Chris Steinbrenner as coining the term, so I will too.)

Whether or not many of these films actually were shot in a backyard depends on the film. Rest assured, one shot of Women's Studies was indeed shot in my back yard. Well, side yard.

It's not entirely uncommon. Hell, even the big boys do it. Spielberg shot pick-ups for Jaws in a friend's backyard swimming pool.

Below are some pictures from what was an incredibly inventive and fun pick-up shoot featuring Kelley "Diane" Slagle.

# # #


"What'd you put dirt in my hole for, boy?!?"




It's not a bomb. We swear. No really.




Get a piece of the rock.




You know what they say about girls who wear black bras, don't you? And have tattoos? And let happy Joeys paint blood all over them?




"Is she dead? Kick her! See if she's dead!"




Lick The Slagle. You'll totally trip balls.

Back to Notts!

So I have been meaning to write something here for a while, not because there was a great deal to say but to keep the dream alive and get something up on the blog. After all that's what it is for. About this time last year I was on my gardening leaving lording it up like a right knobber and I wish I was back on holidays living it up with Greg and the Famil'eh Lloyd, I dont however wish to repeat this year ever again. Its been harsh from a work perspective and I am only just managed to get my head round it all.

Par for the course, DEAL WITH IT PIZ. Almost dealt with.......and its the small things that get you through times like these. Recently I have been getting my mojo back, planning time off and training some more. I guess it was imposed, I needed to take my compulsory two weeks off from BARC (FSA regs etc) and I also managed to book myself on the Robin Hood Half Marathon (deferred from last year).

First way to take the power back;

- Book a flight to Latin America. I had been hoping to get away somewhere properly mental for a while and had saved up most of my hols this year for the all or nothing take most of Dec off gamble. I asked my boss this week and got the ALL CLEAR! So fooking awesome its untrue, so the plan is as follows. Dec 12th fly to Chile, hang with my Papa for a while, travel about in Chil'eh and go see the desert. Dec 21st fly to Buenos Aires, GO LARGE. Dec 23rs fly to Porto Alegre and harass James, Juile and Mr and Mrs Julie. Eat, drink and be merry. Dec 27th fly with James and Doris back to their place, GET MESSY. Jan 2nd, one night in Rio, try and avoid the birds tha Strange Uncle Mike 'met' whilst he was there. Jan 3rd fly back to UK. Jan 7th....WORK/Die/Internalselfimplosion.

If that doesnt motivate you then I have no ideal what will. Of course expect heavy blog/facebook/flickr action over that period.

- Get fit. So a few weeks ago I remembered that I had put in for the Robin Hood half and realised that I had to run fairly quick for 13.2 miles and shat it. I did a few long runs and then some shorter quicker ones and just hoped that the last minute stress would get me through. In the end last weekends' long run made me feel a lot better than without and I managed to put in a decent performance. I did 1.43.16 and came 975 out of 6507 (Top 15%...) and was pleased with that. Miles 9 to 11 where tough and hilly so I lost some time there but the last three miles were nice and flat so I pushed the heart rate up to 165 and cut the loss down a minute or so.

Conclusion, training helps a lot. We should all do it, and yes ladies that means you too. The course is quality and takes in all the historical sights and sounds of Notts. I was proud!

Guess that's me folks. Also got some cool new music recently.

- Bonde Do Role
- UNKLE (new and old, thanks Dazzer)
- Kanye West (again new and old, thanks me sen)
- Hexstatic (thanks, er no one..)
- British Sea Power (first album, thanks Coley)
- Gogoroth (thanks ROCKK GODS!)

All are awesome, check them out.

I walked out of the Tube last night and felt winter.......not nice.

Captain America #33 Cover

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Marvel has leaked out some of December's solicitations a day early, and as luck would have it, Captain America 33 was among the chosen few. Here's how Marvel describes the issue:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #33
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils & Cover by STEVE EPTING
The Winter Soldier faces off against Iron Man!
The man at the top of Bucky's hitlist is finally in his grasp... but saying anything more than that will spoil all our surprises! Still, the final moments of this issue will stun fans just as much as the final moments of Captain America #25 did!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Wow. That sounds pretty good!

Armored Warrior

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Nothing original here - in content or composition. This is an old speedpaint that I reworked with some new brushes. Something occurred to me while working on this - if I had done this as a pencil drawing first, I would never have ended up with the armor as it appears here. By going straight in with color and using light to define planes spontaneously, you can get some unexpected results. The Frazetta influence is obviously quite strong here. I wasn't consciously emulating him, but Frazetta has cast a shadow so long and pervasive that virtually every fantasy painting seems to be informed in some way by his work. After I finished some color adjustments, I was certain that this was very derivative of a specific Conan painting, and sure enough, a quick search proved me right -




Like I said, nothing original here.

Fall Preview

Oh god/dess, I'm going to have to start actually writing blogs again.

See, we've only got a few more shoots until principle photography on Women's Studies is wrapped. That means I can't be lazy and rely on having pictures be the meat of my blogs. I actually have to, you know, write and think and stuff.

So what will this fall season bring to the Women's Studies blog? In addition to regular production updates, I have a few things in the hopper, including:

--A character analysis on the character of Zack, Mary's boyfriend and the sole major male character of Women's Studies who was so wonderfully brought to life by James A. Radack.

--Interviews with the Women's Studies post-production team: editor Jim McGivney, music composer Ryan Sayward Whittier, and sound editor/mixer/deity Sean Russell.

--A retrospective chat with WS Art Director/Costumer Stephanie Petagno about the hell I put her through to create the visual look of the film.

--You'll also hear from the amazing Lady Killers and Interlopers of Ross-Prentiss about their experiences shooting the film and why they'll never work with me again.

All this and more. Stay tuned.

Darragh

JT




Darragh

Viking Barbarian

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This morning's speedpaint is some sort of Viking barbarian. There's a bit of a cartoonish element about this one that I kind of like, but there was no real thought put into it at all. Still, I definitely wasn't going for realism here. This was done in about 20 - 30 minutes in Photoshop 7.

Darragh - what a legend. According to Greg

I remember lots of amazing things involving darragh:

1. The dog intercepting a baseball and getting the full
force of cormac's swinging bat
2. The 100's of fag buts on next door's roof.
3. Dazza pulling up on the curb, pissed next to the cash
point whilst the police looked on from across the street
4. Darragh throwing a can of Worthingtons at Syd's head
5. Darragh exploding Syd's nose all over the wall
6. Darragh falling asleep on the cooker at Bynie's after
being a c*** all night, so we turned the cooker on.
7. Same night, pouring a water/vinger solution into his
crotch (whilst he was asleep), he woke up and left without saying
anything, thinking he'd wet himself.

There are many more/........does anyone else think he looks like JT?

"Baby, You Can Drive My Car"

Another weekend, another Women's Studies shoot. We spent a lot of time in the car this past weekend . . . not driving, but filming.

Below are some pictures from those car shoots as well as a few from the weekend before where Ziggy, the babydoll from hell, came on set to creep everybody out.

Also, Fangoria Magazine released a short version of their Women's Studies set report. Look for the full article to appear in print in a future Fango issue.



Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) shows off her gaffer's tape "shoes."




Laura Bloechl (Iris) watches as Tiffany James (Melissa) shows us what a great mom she'd be.




Director Lonnie Martin and DP Aaron Shirley try to catch a quick catnap. The snuggle pictures will be used for blackmail later.




Lighting Assitant Joey Cabrera shows off his fantastic parenting skills.




The Lady Killers, from L to R: Laura Bloechl (Iris), Tara Garwood (Judith), Tiffany James (Melissa), Kelley Slagle (Diane)



Prepping the van for the car shoots.




Cindy Marie Martin (Mary) and Lighting Assistant Joey Cabrera work the light helicopter.




Taisha Cameron (Amy) smiles for the camera while Kevin Finkelstein (Keith) looks on.




Filming a car shot from Women's Studies.



"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."

Captain America: Fallen Son Sketch Covers

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Two Fallen Son sketch covers I did that eventually found their way to the magical land of eBay.These were both drawn with one of those PITT brush pens (and a little bit of prismacolor pencil). Surpisingly, the cardstock cover was actually a pretty decent drawing surface. I've got a few more of these laying around here somewhere that I'll post eventually.