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PERSONAL HISTORY is Coming to Tallgrass!

8/29/2022

The cat is out of the bag!

We've had to keep quiet about it for over a month, but it has finally been announced that PERSONAL HISTORY will be screening at the Tallgrass Film Festival on October 2nd. It's hard to illustrate how big this is, but needless to say, we are very excited. You can find out more information about that screening HERE. We did our primary form of announcement with a video where we try a little sampler of hot sauces from the show Hot Ones. You can see that video HERE. In addition to the Tallgrass screening, about a week before, there will be sneak previews of the film happening around IBC 2022 in Amsterdam. We're still planning more screenings for the future as well, we can't wait.

That isn't the only great news we have! We are also adding a new member to the team. That being, Jillian Terrell! Jillian helped us tremendously with sound on PERSONAL HISTORY and has since joined us for several upcoming projects. Having gotten to work with her, it became very clear that we would love to have her be a part of our crew.

Additionally, we have done a few co-productions with other local teams. First was Fritz Robinson's GOOD LISTENER. This was a fun little comedy short we shot in the spring and it will soon be premiering at No Coast Film Festival in Emporia, KS on September 10th.
We also recently participated in Take 36 (a 36-hour film competition) with our friends Gina & Roy in which we made a short film called CHEKHOV'S HAND GRENADE. This screened at the Orpheum here in Wichita and at the Tallgrass Film Center a few weeks later. We've decided to do a little bit of extra ADR work before releasing it online. It was a lot of fun to make and we plan to work with them again fairly soon.

Lastly, we've been working on our animated holiday short for THE DOG PARK for the last few months. Animation is well underway and while the upcoming busy months will surely bring turbulence, we are still on track to release the short on time. After screening the animatic, I think everyone will really enjoy it.

With that, I'll disappear again until the next update. See you when I see you!

- Tyler

PERSONAL HISTORY Trailer & 4 Months of Other Catching Up

5/7/2022

Hello everyone!

Did I mean to go four whole months without a post? No. Is this the longest we've gone without updating the blog? Maybe. I'm not willing to check. Could someone else have stepped up to the task? Definitely. Did they? Nope. Is this getting question/answer thing getting old? Absolutely.
I'm happy to say we've had several things happen in the last few months to make this nice and jam packed. Honestly, every time we go a while without a blog update, it's because I'm waiting for the next big thing to happen so I can talk about it all. So let's just get into it. Enough horsing around. Starting with the most important stuff first.

PERSONAL HISTORY
Lots to say here. The movie is completely finished. I spent the winter editing. We had a really great set of sound mixing sessions in a nice studio setting in the early months of the year while I wrapped up the score at home. Just a very good experience in post. Since then we've just been making a ton of plans for the future of the film. Sadly, it's still too early to say anything one way or the other. It's a long process.
However, what we can do, is show off our new trailer that just dropped this week! We'll keep updates coming as they happen.

COMICS
I'll do this as an all encompassing thing. This year as a whole will be fairly quiet on the comic book front. We've been doing some work behind the scenes, but it'll be a slow process getting anything new out there.
We do have something happening today though! With Free Comic Book Day happening, we always like to do a little something. Check out a special edition of THE DOG PARK PODCAST with a little free something-something. This is something we're doing just for fun. Not to the caliber of a genuine Dog Park story. But I do think anyone who is interested in the history of this project will be able to appreciate it.
Other than that, we'll talk more about THE DOG PARK on the podcast. Including everything we've done so far this year. I won't waste your time making you read it now.

As some of you may remember, we do have another comic. A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY has been on a long hiatus. It went mostly unannounced because it was totally up in the air for a bit. The long and short of it is, Beth hit some major burn out with the project after Issue 3. Getting the fourth going was a struggle, so we gave her some time off. That expanded to several months and that turned into making the mutual decision to take it off her hands and find another way to deliver it. We have two final chapters left. It's been an awkward run. The second we started off, Beth's work on LEFT HOOK prevented her from working on the next part. I think that shook things up more than we could have anticipated. It's certainly not her fault as far as keeping momentum is concerned. It was virtually impossible to do. That said, with some cool down time, I have jumped in and penciled the last two chapters. Layout is totally done and it took me about a week of focused work to get it done. This was generally the longest stage on the first three issues. That said, with other things kicking into gear, ink and color will take longer than usual. I will not promise a finish date for the final parts of the story, but it will get done eventually.
For one last piece of bad news, we teased a full length motion comic to go along with the release of the omnibus version. That's not going to happen anymore. We recorded most of the dialogue, but that was back in 2020 when we were doing everything remotely. Those who were not used to remote recording, had a lot issues. It was too much to deal with, especially since it was meant to be an easy project any way. I'll probably use some of the scenes as promotional videos, but the goal at this point is to move forward and finish the book itself. Companion material is of very low priority.
All this said, expect another long silence before we jump back in. When it's all said and done, it will be a fun read. I hope it will be worth the embarrassingly long wait.

EVERYTHING ELSE
We've had a few cool events go on this year. The main one being ICT Comic Con for this year. They moved the event a little earlier this time around and we had a great time as usual. We were also surprised to find out about an encore screening of ANOTHER DAY COLDER happening at Doc Sunback. I had gone to see Patrick Poe & Lolo Loren's new movie ALMOST, SORTA, MAYBE and found out that we were playing when our poster was featured outside. A pleasant surprise for sure.
We're helping Fritz Robinson on his latest short film, GOOD LISTENER. I served as Assistant Director and Director of Photography. Now we're handling post-production. We've got a few other collaborative projects in the works and I'm sure we'll post about those as they come to light.

As for now, I think that's all we've got. Hopefully another update will come sooner than four months from now. No promises!

-Tyler

Catching Up To 2022!

12/31/2021

Another new year is approaching and with it, several new things on the horizon. 2021 was interesting to say the least. We stayed busy from beginning to end. A feature, a short and a graphic novel certainly saw to that. Before we get into what is coming, I'll take a second to mention that on January 1st, our holiday sale will be coming to an end. All of our movies and comics will return to their regular prices. In the meantime, head on over to the store page to take advantage of some discounts.

THE DOG PARK
A few things to mention here! We've wrapped up everything we needed to with this first volume. Previously, in the deluxe digital edition, we hadn't finished every motion comic upon release. I'm happy to let you know, they are all now available.
We have also finished the lineup of companion podcasts. David and I go in-depth on every chapter of Volume 1 and there was quite a bit of fun to be had in doing so. Feel free to check those out HERE.
Although this was covered in the last episode of the podcast, I feel like it's worth mentioning a few spark notes on the future of THE DOG PARK. Firstly, Volume 2 is currently being written. However, we aren't expecting to have it ready for release until about 2023. Some prep time will be necessary to make sure it comes out as good (if not better) than the first one.
That said, 2022 will not be left empty handed. We are currently working on an animated holiday special to release just in time for next November or December. The script is great and it should be a lot of fun when it rolls around.

PERSONAL HISTORY
Let's do a short update for our new feature film! The movie is currently in post-production. We spent Christmas Eve getting a handful of pick-up shots and only have a little more material to collect before we can move on to sound, color, etc. We recently had an in-house screening of a work in progress cut and the reactions so far have been pretty good. If all goes well, we've got a great flick on our hands.
Now as for release plans, much like some of our other films, it'll be a slow burn process. We want to explore a few avenues that we haven't before. That said, the earliest one can expect to see this will be in the fall. I'm sure there will be plenty more updates in the future, so stay tuned for all of that. For now, I'll go ahead and let you see a poster...

PODCAST
This month we ended season 7 and began season 8! We plan on this new year having plenty of new episodes, of course. Though the line up is still a little up in the air. Currently, we do plan to have our January episode be the new Golden Jamie Awards (still plenty of movies left to catch up on).
I would say expect another lighter season. Not as many episodes as we used to do. Who knows, we may surprise ourselves. You can of course follow all of this on the podcast page.

ANYTHING ELSE
There are still plenty of things left up in the air for 2022. Who knows, maybe we'll try to squeeze in another short or something. We do plan to attend the next ICT Comic Con happening in March. We'll see if we can sneak our way into a couple other events too. Playin' it all by ear!
Regardless, we hope everyone has had a great holiday season and of course, has a happy new year! There should be a lot to look forward to!

- Tyler

WISH YOU WERE HERE IS HERE (& MORE)

11/11/2021

WISH YOU WERE HERE
WISH YOU WERE HERE is now available to rent or own on Vimeo and VHX!
It is $5 to rent, $10 to buy. The package also comes with a commentary featuring David and I, as well as an outtake reel. This is definitely worth checking out! We've spent this year getting all kinds of awards and nominations, which has been nothing short of an honor. Just in the last week, the film screened at the Will Rogers Motion Picture festival where it was nominated for "Best Comedy Feature" and over in Florida we were nominated for both "Best Comedy or Musical" and "Best Motion Picture" at the Prince of Prestige Academy Awards. It's been a great journey finally getting this movie out to an audience and this is, of course, one of the biggest steps of all.
If you want to watch the film, head over to the WISH YOU WERE HERE page to learn more!

NEW PROJECT
As for new business, we just finished principal photography on a new feature film, PERSONAL HISTORY! Still a lot of work to go in this one, but a big deal nonetheless. We shot for 13 days with a fantastic crew and an amazing cast including Samantha Montero and Patrick Poe. I took the directing helm on this one and I'm very proud of the work everyone has put in to make it happen. It is going to be a long post-production process. I'll probably be at it for a few months, but we all can't wait to see it come together.

THE PODCAST
Moving on over to the podcast, we recently put out episodes for Halloween Kills and our annual Halloween Special. We still have at least one more episode this season (maybe an additional bonus episode as well), that should be coming this month. So keep an eye out for that very soon!

There is always more great news to come! So stay tuned!
-Tyler

DOG PARK, FESTIVALS & MORE LONG OVERDUE UPDATES

9/30/2021

Why make an update today when another month could go by without one, right?
Oops! Slipped up a little bit there. We've been so busy doing stuff, it's been a little hard to sit down and unpack it all in a long form update like this. I guess I'll do my best here.

THE DOG PARK
It's here, folks! THE DOG PARK is finally available to everyone for purchase. We're trying something new by making paperback copies available directly through our website. We'll see how well that works. It is also available digitally through VHX and Amazon. There will be one more platform soon. But that will be an update for later. The VHX version will be the "Deluxe Digital Edition". This means it will include bonus material such as fully voiced motion comics! The first two chapters are currently available in that form with the other three soon to follow. There's been a bit of a delay getting that ready much to our chagrin. We'll be catching up very soon.
We kicked off the release at ICT Comic Con and had a great time doing it! Probably one of our best convention experiences. Comics were sold, much fun was had. Maybe next year we can do a couple conventions, instead of our usual one. We'll see.
Also, we are still producing our companion podcast series, THE DOG PARK PODCAST, we'll be going in depth with every chapter about how each story came together behind the scenes. Should be a lot of fun, so tune in!

FESTIVALS
Speaking of fun, we recently went to No Coast Film Festival and had an absolute blast! CARRIER PIGEON screened along side many great shorts in an absolutely gorgeous theater. This November, we'll be going to Claremore, OK to see WISH YOU WERE HERE at the Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival.

STORE PAGE
Notice anything new? We now have a dedicated store page for all of our films, books and now merch that we have available. It's still a bit of a work in progress, but a single page seemed like the best way to display all the options everyone has for everything we've been making. Go give it a look!

OTHER NEWS
We've been working on a new film this summer and leading into the coming months. It's been a lot of work, but should be well worth it. It's not really something we're ready to talk about in detail just yet, but we will soon. Keep an eye out for that.

Also, anyone who was paying attention may have noticed, but our Twitch Thursday streams have come to an end. There were several reasons for this, but it was a fun experiment while it lasted. We may still pop in occasionally for a one off. For now, you can enjoy this archive page.

Lastly, we're well into this season of our movie podcast. We still have some exciting episodes coming up. The newest one being a long teased Robert Rodriguez episode. (Seriously, we said we'd do it in our first episode like 6 or 7 years ago) Stay tuned for those as well.

That's all we have for you for now. Big announcements are still to come. Like, pretty big. You'll know. Can't miss it!

-Tyler

CARRIER PIGEON!

6/29/2021

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that not only have we not posted about the release of our newest short film here on the blog, but I haven't mentioned it at any stage of its production. That said, it has been a busy year and we have talked about it elsewhere!

CARRIER PIGEON is the newest short film directed by David J. Cantu! It follows a teenager as he takes a seemingly easy paper route in order to earn some extra cash, only to wind up in a turf war with a local biker gang.
The concept was originally developed in the early days of IC by Jamie Zin and I as a short film Jamie would direct. That film never happened and the script collected dust in the years since. However, in 2020, it became clear that once things were back up and running, it would be a good time to shoot a new short with Cantu and this was my first suggestion as far as scripts were concerned. He and I worked on a new draft to punch it up and fit his sensibilities and I think it works very well as a goofy summer comedy.
Pretty much the whole short was shot on an iPhone, not only to keep things simple, but to also keep equipment light for chase scenes and anything close quarters. It was a fun shoot, but as the cinematographer, I don't know if I'd shoot a whole movie on a phone again any time soon. It certainly had its limitations.
We hope you enjoy the short, which can be viewed HERE. We don't plan for much of a festival run for this one, if any, but we'll let you know if there is any news on that front.

-Tyler

More DOG PARK & 1 Year of LEFT HOOK

5/16/2021

Lots of fun news that we can cover today! It can all be broken down into two categories.

THE DOG PARK:
Things have been going well for THE DOG PARK. We released the first in a series of podcasts called...wait for it....THE DOG PARK PODCAST! Very creative name. Basically David Young and I chat about each story and go into detail about any behind the scenes info that we can. This first one however, was mainly focused on the origins of the series itself. This is a video show and we will be streaming new episodes on Twitch every second Tuesday of the month. Afterwards, they'll be available on our website at THIS PAGE or on our Facebook page.
We've also made a limited number of paperback copies for the free first chapter available at a couple local Wichita comic shops. Those being Hero Haven and Prairie Dog Comics. Many thanks for them for allowing us to give them out there.
Coming this Tuesday, there will be another cartoon out. I'm very excited for this one especially. Can't wait to share it with you.
For anyone who is interested and hasn't jumped on it yet, you can check out the Indiegogo page to pre-order your paperback or digital copy of Volume 1.

LEFT HOOK:
It has officially been a whole year since LEFT HOOK made its debut online. It has had one hell of a run in spite of everything 2020 threw at it. We've decided to pretty much end the festival run to make way for WISH YOU WERE HERE, but it is still available through Vimeo OnDemand, VHX and TromaNow. Maybe we'll offer up some more screenings in the future or expand the platforms, but this is where it will sit for now. We're pretty comfortable. You can get links to all of those at the LEFT HOOK page.
Additionally, as a fun little release for this first anniversary, I put together a full "deluxe edition" soundtrack on Bandcamp. This includes every piece of score in the film, plus a few bonus demos and such. Feel free to check that out HERE. We haven't spoken much about our Bandcamp on here, but we have released score albums for all of our features (including WISH YOU WERE HERE) and an EP for our work on NIGHTMARE DRIVE. Feel free to check all of that out.

I'm sure we'll be checking in again pretty soon. Lots of great stuff still on the way!

Catch ya next time!

-Tyler

All About THE DOG PARK!

5/1/2021

Today is a pretty big day for THE DOG PARK!
Well, this whole month is, actually. We'll get in to all of it here.

First and most importantly, we are starting pre-orders for Volume 1 through Indiegogo. We go more in-depth on the campaign page, but I can briefly explain here as well. The campaign is to support the distribution of the book. It's a direct way to secure yourself a copy (whether that be digital or paperback) and helps us with additional printing, as well as setting us up for conventions. Definitely consider picking yourself up a copy! We'd greatly appreciate it!
INDIEGOGO CAMPAING CAN BE FOUND HERE!

Additionally, as you can see right above, we've also made a companion cartoon. This is one of two animated promos we created to support the new book. It was a lot of fun to put together. This one features the usual in-house voice cast along side Tori Kamal and Ciara Duarte. The other cartoon will be coming in the middle of the month. Stay tuned for that!

If you want to sample some of THE DOG PARK, then you're in luck. IT'S FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!! What, do you think I picked today to start on accident!? That's right, folks! We're making the first story of the book, "Some Like It Burnt", free to read on four platforms. Including: VHX, Webtoon, Tapas and GlobalComix! (For VHX, you'll have to use the code "FREETDP" at checkout. They wouldn't let us make it free.) We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

I think that covers everything for now. Stay tuned this month for more great THE DOG PARK related content.

-Tyler

EDIT: I've seen that the actual Free Comic Book Day "event" has been postponed until August. We'll still be doing ours in May, like it's always been. Plus, ours is all digital after all.

WISH YOU WERE HERE is Here!

4/13/2021

Hey everyone!

A lot has been going on, it's been a little hard to keep up! The biggest thing was our premiere screening of WISH YOU WERE HERE. Big thanks to everyone who came out, it was an absolute blast! To tell you the truth, ever since the whole COVID thing started, I've been beating my head against the wall, trying to think of the best possible ways to get all of the great work we've had going the last couple years out there. We initially planned for this movie to come out last fall. Instead, we took our time and waited for spring. The horizon is looking much better with every passing day, which is exciting news for this movie. Hopefully this means we'll have a good year of screenings here and there. We will certainly keep you up to date on that.
In the meantime, WISH YOU WERE HERE has been having the makings of a great awards run so far. We took home "Best Narrative Feature Film" at the Indie Eye Film Awards. David snagged a Semi-Finalist spot in the categories of "Best Indie Feature Film" and "Best First Time Director (Feature)" for the Best Director Awards. We are currently in the running for "Best Indie Feature Film" and "Best Acting Duo" in the Oniros Film Awards. Hopefully, we can keep adding onto the good news as time marches on.
For anyone who is curious to learn more about the movie, David has done a little Q&A video about the movie. This can be seen below.

Speaking of features and Q&As and the like! Our first feature film, LIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT, will be celebrating it's 5th anniversary on April 15th. Therefore, we will be livestreaming the film on our Facebook & Twitch pages along with a Q&A featuring David and I taking a look back at the film. It all begins at 7pm central. Hope you'll tune in!

We have a lot exciting things coming up in the next few months. Some of which we haven't really been able to touch base on here in while. So stay tuned as we switch gears because it's going to be a fun spring / summer!

-Tyler

Watch the WISH YOU WERE HERE Trailer!

3/12/2021

Check out the trailer for our new feature, WISH YOU WERE HERE! With our world premiere set for April 5th at the Starlite Drive-In, we are really excited for you guys to check it out. Hope you guys enjoy!

-Tyler