Behind the scenes: WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK"

Finished with the 1st and 4th sequences of WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK"...very, VERY happy with the way it's looking so far. So now it's on to the lab, which I decided to build on a rotating stage for ease of access:


It's basically a giant lazy susan that can be locked down at any angle. It's so well balanced you can spin it completely around with one gentle push of a finger.


This is going to save me so much time and energy having to turn the set around or move cameras & lights.


Glimpse at a few of the interior lab walls, barely dressed:


More to come!

Behind the scenes: WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK"

Things are going smoothly with WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK". Here's a few pics of what's been happening lately:

The first setup, a long hallway. Having sets with full ceilings required making flip-top sections that could be raised and lowered between frames to position the puppets:


A look down the hallway set in between shots:


Stage 1 and Stage 2 both in use:


The fabulous Kristen Meyers building armatures:


Three awesome armatures ready to go:


More to come....

Puppets of "NEVER SLEEP AGAIN: THE ELM STREET LEGACY"

One of the coolest things about working on the stop motion for NEVER SLEEP AGAIN was getting to recreate some of the most memorable scenes from the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films. One of those scenes for me was definitely the image of Nancy's dead friend, Tina, standing in the hallway wearing nothing but a clear bodybag and a bucket of Type O+.

The shot as it was in the film:


Our version had to open up the shot a bit and give it some color:


Like most of the projects around here, a good deal of recycling went in to the animations for NEVER SLEEP AGAIN. The puppet of Tina was no exception...she was originally the star of the music video PUNDING for awesome L.A. rockers, boxViolet!

She may not have had a mouth but she did a lot of acting back in the day. The role of dead Tina may not have required as much acting but she did get a mouth along with a couple of other noteworthy additions:


Another favorite moment from the film: Tina's body being dragged off by an unseen force.

I think we did it justice!


Since she's in retirement now, she's been permanently mounted in a puddle of eels...just like in the movie!


More to come....

Catching up: THE CHRISTMAS FLIP-FLOP

Boy oh boy do I love Christmas. It seems that every year I get to work on at least one cool project due to the enduring memories that people have of all those fantastic stop motion animated Rankin/Bass holiday specials of yesteryear. One person who cherishes those films is the uber-awesome Dan Finnerty, creator and lead singer of The Dan Band. You may have seen him performing in the hit films OLD SCHOOL or THE HANGOVER, or maybe seen him doing correspondent pieces for Jay Leno. If you've never seen him perform live, you're missing out:

Dan called up last November, acting on a recommendation from our good friends over at Santasia, to see if we could put together a video for Christmas. "THIS Christmas??" I asked, looking at the calendar. "Well, we'd actually need it like December 5th," Dan informed me. I love this business.

The project would be to create a music video for the song, "THE CHRISTMAS FLIP-FLOP" from Dan's spectacular holiday party album, "HO: A Dan Band Christmas".

It was a blast to create mini-version of Dan and his bandmates!

Dan is an amazing guy, and surprisingly chill in person compared to his onstage persona. I was already a fan before this project, but after getting to work on this video AND scoring comp tickets to The Dan Band's Live Holiday Show at the Avalon Theatre here in Hollywood, well, I'm just in love with the guy. I hope our creative paths cross again, hopefully on a stop mo Dan Band Holiday Special!

Now in the studio: WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK"

We're very excited to announce a new project underway here at Red Hatchet Films: WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK"! The film is a stop motion collaboration with Morgue Art Films featuring the fantastically demonic infant terrible called Won Ton Baby from the forthcoming live action feature film, WON TON BABY!, starring Debbie Rochon, Lou Martini, Jr., Suzi Lorraine and Gunnar Hansen and directed by Morgue Art founder, James Morgart.

The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of puppet and set building, with an eye to start animating shortly. James is a fantastic collaborator, and his creativity and enthusiasm have given a great energy to the project. Conceived essentially as a hyperkinetically-violent "Tom & Jerry" cartoon, WON TON BABY IN "MIDNIGHT SNACK" will hopefully find its way onto the festival circuit someday and may also be shown as an opener for the feature film, WON TON BABY!

More pics to come soon, but here are a couple teaser shots of the cast...

NEVER SLEEP AGAIN: THE ELM STREET LEGACY

One of the coolest projects ever!

The makers of the ULTIMATE documentary about the Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise, Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch, asked me to create stop motion title sequences as well as some chapter wraparounds for their epic and amazing film...what an honor!












NEVER SLEEP AGAIN has been been getting sensational reviews, and it really is a staggering achievement...a 4 HOUR documentary that never drags and basically sets the gold standard for what a horror documentary should be.

THE NAUGHTY LIST!

Check out my new holiday film, THE NAUGHTY LIST, which I made for the FOX/Aniboom Holiday Contest! Described as "the demented lovechild of Rankin and Bass after a five-day bender in Tijuana", THE NAUGHTY LIST is at this time the most-viewed stop motion short in a field dominated by Flash entries (and some CGI). Please show your support by watching the film, rating, and leaving comments! Every view counts!

http://www.aniboom.com/competitions/Fox/391830/The-Naughty-List/

Hurry! Voting ends September 30, 2009!