Blog

NIGHTMARE DRIVE is Coming...

8/10/2020

It's official!

NIGHTMARE DRIVE has been finished for a little while now and we plan to release it online on October 24th.
What is NIGHTMARE DRIVE? I guess we should fill you in, huh?
It's an action / horror short film directed by Scott Reacher. Made in the same vein as classic '80s low budget horror flicks, but with a blend of live action and animation (much like our previous short film, HOW MUCH). David Wayne Young and I set out to produce this short with Scott back in 2018. We definitely had to stall out a couple times thanks to the heavy production schedule of LEFT HOOK in the later days. The main draw for us was not only the aspect of paying homage to many films that we enjoy (whether that be for genuine or tongue-in-cheek reasons) but also the appeal of doing a special effects movie. There's a little bit of everything on display here. Live action, animation, miniatures, practical on-set effects, digital effects and CG, the list goes on. I think everyone's take away from this short has been a good amount of fun for those who enjoy these genres.

As for release, we may have some festival interest before our online premiere, but we're honestly unsure at this point. Festivals have mainly been pushed into a six foot hole this year. If we get the opportunity to screen, we'll let everyone know. However, the primary focus for us is the online premiere, which we will be doing something very special for!
Similar to things we've done in the past (a good example would be FALLING OUT), we plan to have a Facebook livestream for the premiere of NIGHTMARE DRIVE with some extra goodies leading up to it. Lots of fun and games. We'll be calling it the IC HALLOWEEN PARTY. Should be a lot of fun, so look out for that. We'll be posting some teasers closer to October.

Anyway, enjoy the poster and some stills in the meantime and stay safe out there!

-Tyler

RIP LEFT HOOK Screenings

7/24/2020

I have bad news for anyone who may have been looking forward to seeing LEFT HOOK on a big screen. It's probably not going to happen again. We did have a showing in Florida last month. We were unable to attend, but we're glad to have at least gotten that one. We've had several opportunities come and go over the last several months. In fault of the ever changing state of things, we have been totally unable to nail anything down. Anything that seemed like a sure-fire way to screen soon became an impossibility. We recently got news that the few we had left that seemed to be fairly locked in had officially been cancelled. Technically, we still have a few submissions that have yet to be answered, but things aren't getting better out there. I feel like it's safe to say they won't happen. (I'm open to surprises)

Speaking candidly, it sucks to have this blow up in our face. Our crew put a huge amount of work into this film and to watch it die a slow, painful death like this is heartbreaking to say the least. I feel like most filmmakers don't really work super hard in hopes that their film will get thrown on the internet. I appreciate all of the fests that offered refunds or alternative options to those who couldn't have live screenings. The pandemic has also, unfortunately, revealed just how awful some of these other festivals can be. It is incredibly transparent that many have taken half of the selections they normally would have, then cancelled the festival a couple days later so they could keep all of the money from this year and next year. It makes me sick and I personally won't be submitting to them again.

We still have more that we want to accomplish with the film. Perhaps some more platforms and maybe another Q&A? Things are a little busy at the moment so it is hard to make plans. For the moment, LEFT HOOK is still available to rent or own on digital please consider checking it out HERE.

We plan to release more content here in the next few months and make some other announcements that will actually be positive for a change. Stay tuned for all of that!

Catch you next time!

-Tyler

LEFT HOOK is Here!

5/19/2020

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the delay on the blog post. With everything else we had to do, it took me a while to get here. It's been an exhausting couple of days to say the least. However, now we can say...

It's official! LEFT HOOK is now available to rent or own on VHX (Vimeo OTT)! The rental lasts for 3 days and runs for $5. The "own" version is $10 and comes with bonus features (commentary, a documentary, alternate opening). For those who have been following the project, you know it's been a labor of love for the past three years. We're glad it is finally out. So far, a majority of those who have seen it seem to have enjoyed it.

Art by @StevieNChandler on Twitter

With the release has come a few other interesting things.

For the two weeks leading up to the film's release, we held a drawing challenge for Twitter and Instagram users to draw Michael and/or Ariana in their own styles. We received several great entries and ultimately went with Twitter user @StevieNChandler's work (as featured to the left). So congrats to her!

Next up, upon revisiting my previous posts, it doesn't look like I talked about this before. So I'll cover them both here! So far we have done two episodes of a companion show called DIRECTOR VS. In this series, I take on members of the crew from LEFT HOOK in different fighting games. In the first one, I face David Wayne Young in Mortal Kombat XL and in the newest episode, I take on Beth in Dragon Ball FighterZ. These are available on IGTV and Facebook. They should be easy to find on each of those pages, but I will try to make a spot for them on this site as well. Again, I've been busy.

Finally, we capped things off with a launch party live stream on our Facebook page. The stream featured David Young, Jacob Aaron Cullum (lead voice actor) and I. We played games, Jacob played a song and then we wrapped it up with a bit of Q&A. It was a lot of fun and it had a better turn out than expected. We did have a couple technical issues throughout the night so the stream ended up getting a little split apart. Luckily, I got all the different pieces and put them all into one complete video. I'll go ahead and attach that below.

All in all, it's been a good time. There is still more to come in the future for LEFT HOOK. Not much, but a little bit, like a decent amount. We'll keep you updated as it all happens. As for now, we'll be jumping back to some of our other projects. Catch ya next time!

-Tyler

LEFT HOOK Coming MAY 16TH!

5/2/2020

It's official, everyone! LEFT HOOK will be making its online debut on May 16th!

We will be making the film available to rent or own on VHX (Vimeo OTT) and Reelhouse. If you choose to purchase the movie it will be accompanied by a 20-minute behind the scenes documentary, a feature commentary and an alternate opening. We're excited to launch this thing and for all of you to see it. We may branch out to other services in the future if the opportunity arises. For now we are focusing on these two.

We also plan to do a little stream on Facebook that evening to celebrate the launch. Specific details will be posted later once everything is all sorted out.

It goes without saying that this was a painstaking decision to be made. Even with stay-at-home orders being lifted, audiences and festivals alike are hesitant to jump back into theater crowds. It's understandable. As of right now, we still plan to follow through with our currently announced festival appearances if and when they happen. We've lost several great opportunities to the world's current situation and it really does suck. In a perfect world, we would have had our full festival run first and then released online later in the year. It became clear this month that it wouldn't be an option. We do have a couple more screening opportunities that we are currently hold onto but are waiting to announce. Who knows what could happen between now and then. Any fests we are currently waiting to hear back from may decide to slim down their schedules or cancel all together. The uncertainty was a big part of our decision. If anything, we figure giving everyone the chance to watch it from home during all of this is the best option at this time. If you told me that a year ago, I would have laughed you out of the room.

We'll be back with more news in the coming weeks. Hope everyone is excited to see this. I can't help but be excited to show it to you.

-Tyler

Update 5/3: Originally our post said the stream would be on Instagram. We have changed it over to our Facebook page.

A.S.C.M. Issue 2 & More Updates

4/6/2020

Some of this will be old news, but we're overdue for a blog update. So here it is!

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY
Awesome news! Last month we released the second issue of our comic book A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY! (Speaking of overdue!) Work has been in full swing for the next issue for a little while now. No word as to when it will come out, but we'll be sure to let you know. It won't be over a year, we can promise you that!
If you want to check out the new book head over to the page now by clicking HERE!
We've been doing quite a bit of work with comics for the last month, actually. Won't say too much regarding that. But it has been something fairly easy to do with all of this staying at home business. Hopefully, we'll have all kinds of updates on that soon. We're pretty excited about what we've done so far.

PODCAST
I know for a fact that we've had several podcasts come out since the last time I mentioned them on the blog. The most recent one being our episode on Boomerang Movies. Chris, Beth and I watched a few classic cartoon films on the Boomerang app. It was a lot of fun. That one had to be done remotely, like the old days. We'll probably be doing that for the next few as well until all this crap blows over. It didn't seem to make a difference in quality though. So no loss there. We planned for very few podcasts this year to give ourselves a breather. Perhaps with the current conditions, we may increase the amount we're doing by a little bit.

OUR OTHER PROJECTS
I've been hesitant to really dig into how the current conditions have made us change plans. Mainly because things have been so up in the air for the last several weeks. That and it's just a bummer and everyone, well most people, are sick of hearing about it. However, I feel like there's plenty to be addressed, so we kinda have to.

First off! While LEFT HOOK's current line up hasn't made any changes since our last post, there have been several other events that were unannounced that were shifted around or all-out cancelled. Some of which are extremely disappointing. We planned to make a convention appearance this year, but we're having to pull out (if the event itself even proceeds) because with the change in timing, our plans for that time will no longer line up. The idea of releasing in the spring is a lost cause. The summer is more likely, but impossible to confirm. We will know where everything is truly sitting in a month or two. We've been making plans for every avenue we may come across in order to be prepared. We'll try our best to keep a level of optimism about it.

Then there is WISH YOU WERE HERE. Full transparency; I finished my edit in March and we are picture locked. Feels good to have gotten that far. We now have sound and music being worked on by outside collaborators and we are giving them plenty of time to do those tasks. A big thing we won't be able to accomplish will be ADR. Again, something we'll just have to wait for this to blow over to execute. We preemptively eliminated any worry about our window of time as we have decided to move the film's release to next year. Which may sound like a big jump, but in all honesty, if we had started the festival run in autumn, the film wouldn't have been released on digital platforms until about next spring anyway. With the beating LEFT HOOK's release is taking, I would want to see this movie suffer the same fate.

As for NIGHTMARE DRIVE, we technically haven't budged on it since February anyway. Since I haven't talked about it here, I can quickly say that we shot a majority of the live-action elements for the film already. We still need to do animation and miniature work, but that is currently on hold. We planned to get rolling again this month but we have yet to discuss the new plan. Something I'm sure we'll be meeting about soon. I'm sure the release will be effected, but I can't tell just how yet. Hard to say when there is still so much work to do and no way to do it for a little while. Yet another thing we'll tell you about when the time comes.

All of this said, I can happily say that we aren't coming to a complete and total halt. I've seen plenty of good work getting done and from the second conditions began to change, we have been discussing what can be done to keep things moving. We'll try to keep a little hope if you do!
That's all for now! Later!

-Tyler

Thanks, Coronavirus!

3/13/2020

Bad news, folks.

Both screenings scheduled in March for LEFT HOOK have both been postponed. Treasure Coast International Film Festival has announced that they will be moving to June and we will be screening on the 26th. No word as of yet from First City as to when they will be moving everything to. We'll be letting everyone know as we find out.
I'm sure that this will also change the conditions of a few other festivals and events that we could be a part of. That's just something we will have to deal with as it comes up.
This really sucks for everyone. We spent three long years working on this movie and already had to wait to screen it after other ridiculous delays last Fall. Hopefully this will all be cleared up soon and we can have a good idea as to how all of this will be playing out.

Until then, here's some good news!

We will be releasing a new issue of A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY sooner than planed. In fact, we're releasing it on the 14th. In addition, we will be making both Issue 1 & 2 only $3 on VHX for the rest of March. If everyone is staying home for a bit, they might as well have some new comics to read. I can't promise a regular schedule for these releases still, but I can say that there won't be over a year in between each of them anymore.

Stay safe, wash those hands and stay tuned, folks!

-Tyler

The State of Everything as of Now

1/2/2020

Sorry for the sparse updates. As you can imagine, we've been very busy. The goal of this post is to get everyone up to speed on everything we've done recently and what is to come with all of our projects.

LEFT HOOK
I'm not sure where all I have said this. The backers have known for a little while now. But, the movie is finished. We have made a few submissions and we will hopefully know when screenings will be happening in the next few months. We're very excited for people to start seeing this thing. As you know, we've put a lot of time into it. We have a plan for over-all release of the movie, however, things could always change so I will keep my lips zipped. There will be plenty of updates on this project on the future. No need to worry about that.

WISH YOU WERE HERE
In November, we re-shot a few scenes and got some additional footage. Consider this project in post-production now. We're not currently in a rush to edit it, but will probably do so this spring. We've been attacking this one a little bit at a time. For those brief moments, it is going by pretty fast. I don't want to make any assumptions for this one because it could go any which way, but I'm confident in our ability to knock this one out pretty fast once we get around to it.

HEY MAN
Right after our re-shoots, David Young put together another little project. This one is a short film made specifically for IGTV. We shot it on an iPhone with the intention for it to be watched on a phone. It was a fun experiment. This is the first chance I've had to talk about it here. You can find out more HERE!

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY
It has been a while since we've been able to budge on this one. In late 2018, not long after the release of the first issue, Beth had a majority of Issue #2 illustrated. The entire thing has been roughed out and most of the pages had finished line-work. Work on the book had to come to a stop so that Beth could focus fully on her responsibilities for LEFT HOOK. The project has sat there ever since.
We are currently getting back on track with it. Issue #2 should actually be done very soon. I don't know when we plan to release it as we want to take advantage of the break in order to get a little bit ahead. But the long and short of it is, the comic is Beth's priority this year. We plan to get as much done as possible.

NIGHTMARE DRIVE
With LEFT HOOK in the bag, the other person who can focus their efforts on their own project is Scott Reacher. A few of the live action elements of this hybrid short film have been done, but a majority of the work is still to come. We do have a plan to execute this one and we will see how the results turn out. It'll be nice to finish this one. Most of it rests on Scott. There will be more updates on this one soon.

PODCAST
I honestly don't even know where I left off on this one. Our last update was in early October. Since then, we've ended Season 5 and launched Season 6. A lot of episodes have come out. The main thing that wrapped up was our mini-series following the Godzilla films. FINALLY! It was a chore to say the least to get through all of those. Especially when time was tight while working on LEFT HOOK. But we managed to finish it. Unfortunately, we had to cut some episodes last season to keep things moving. I tried to have episodes made without me, but nothing much came of that.
This year, the schedule is a little more loose. I haven't planned very much, so we can add to it or stick to the plan. Expect an episode a month. Give or take. Plenty of fun should be had.

That should be all for now. 2020 is shaping up to be pretty exciting. A lot of projects led by a lot of people should be making their way out and we couldn't be more excited. Last year was a little poopy considering we spent all that time working on these projects and didn't get to release any of them. The future is looking pretty good.

We'll see you in it!

-Tyler

A Slight Delay for LEFT HOOK

10/8/2019

Well, I’ve got some crappy news, folks.

Although we haven’t given an official date yet, we did promise LEFT HOOK to be out this fall. Well, we thought we were going to fulfill that promise up until about a month ago. The story goes like this. Back in February we were searching for a venue to premiere in, a little later, around March or so, we got into contact with one specific venue (which will go unnamed) and set a date with them. They were going to pretty much give us everything we wanted. We were all set for November, the only thing we really had to do was give them a check, which wasn’t an issue, we just needed them to take it from us.
A couple months go by, until around August we get back in contact with them to say, “Hey! Please take our money!”. After finally getting in touch with the venue’s event manager, she begins talking about trying to get us an even better deal. Okay...but we still want to secure the spot anyway, can we just pay you? So about a week goes by and then we start calling them over and over again, trying to just get the damn place secured. No response. This goes on until mid-September when we finally get an answer. The venue isn’t allowed to do ticketed events. This is completely different from what we were told before.

So now we’re really up a creek. We have about a month to book a new venue to preserve our date that we have built everything around. We try a few places to no avail. Anything past this point is cutting things way too close. The premiere got screwed, a big chance to make back a portion of our budget is gone and we have to rely almost completely on festivals for screenings.

We’ve done pretty much everything that can be done at this point. I’m massively disappointed in the venue, but more disappointed in myself for not being able to deliver the film as promised. As we are still in the final stages of working on it, it’s put a tremendous amount of pressure on us trying to figure out all of these last minute problems on top of finishing the movie.

LEFT HOOK will still come out, but it will probably be early next year. I apologize for the disappointment and I hope to bring good news here in a few months.

-Tyler

Left Hook Trailer & Another New Feature!

8/30/2019

Hey everyone!
Sorry we’ve gone so long without an update. A lot has happened and we haven’t really had time to talk about it.

LEFT HOOK
First of the two biggest pieces of news, the trailer for LEFT HOOK is now available online. It came out last month, but this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it on the website. A lot of work went into producing this thing and we are very proud of it. Check this thing out. More information soon to come.

WISH YOU WERE HERE
As some of you may be aware (not good at keeping secrets here), we’ve been working on a new project. For those familiar with our previous history with that title, it is in fact a feature-length remake of our short film WISH YOU WERE HERE. It is very different from the original while still holding similar themes.
The new film is directed by David Wayne Young and was co-written by he and I. It stars a variety of local talent, as well as a few familiar faces.
Principal photography wrapped earlier this month, but there is still a long road ahead of us. We’ll be taking our time with post-production and more than likely, the film will be released next year. I’m very proud of our cast and crew and can’t wait to see this thing assembled.

NIGHTMARE DRIVE
At the start of July, we did a tiny bit of filming for this live action and animation hybrid short. We haven’t planned to do a whole lot of shooting for this project in particular until LEFT HOOK is out of the way, but we did a handful of special effects shots while the timing was right. There is some really stellar footage from that shoot.

Really quick, as a general notes. We have made some updates to the website. We added pages for both aforementioned projects WISH YOU WERE HERE and NIGHTMARE DRIVE, as well as teaser posters for both films (seen below). There is also a new blog-style page for our IGTV show, IC TRIES.

PODCAST
As for new podcast episodes, we’ve got three Godzilla themed episodes with Showa (Part 5), Heisei (Part 1) and Heisei (Part 2). Then, David Wayne Young joined me in seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

FESTIVALS
We will be playing HOW MUCH at the No Coast Film Festival in Emporia on August 31st. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to attend. However, if you are in the area, check it out! We are in the second block of films.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Until next time!
-Tyler

Post-Sunback, Pre-Air Cap

6/21/2019

Hey everyone!
Time has been flying. Lots of wonderful things have happened in the last couple weeks and I will try to cover all of it.

LEFT HOOK
We're making heavy progress. I am now in the compositing phase, assembling everything and these shots are looking great. I'm so glad to finally see it coming together. We're working like hell to finish this movie and hopefully we'll reach the finish line on time.

PODCAST
There has been one new podcast episode since our last post. With LEFT HOOK picking up, things have slowed down a little bit. David Cantu, Scott and I had a chat about "GODZILLA: King of the Monsters". Our next episode will also be Godzilla related. Stay tuned for that!

OTHER EVENTS
Recently, FALLING OUT and THE BROKEN KEY screened at the Doc Sunback Film Festival. It was a really great time! We got to see some of our filmmaker friends and watch some cool movies.
The screening for THE BROKEN KEY that I attended went very well. I missed FALLING OUT, but Cantu was present and apparently it had a good turn out.
It's been cool to see this festival grow since last year. They really brought things up a notch in quality. Can't wait to see what next year is like!

Screenings may be winding down a bit this year, at least for the short films we've already released. Maybe a couple more. I don't know.

However, one thing we do have coming up is another year at Air Capital Comic Con! Last year went very well and we're trying some new stuff out this year. The even takes place on November 16th & 17th at Century II here in Wichita.

We unfortunately won't have a new issue of A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY to release there, but there will be copies of the first issue available. Issue #2 was nearly ready, but we had to postpone the coloring process to focus on LEFT HOOK. Next year, we plan to get lots of work done on the project and have a couple issues out. We're used to multi-tasking, but a few other things had to take priority. We're totally committed to finishing it though. Won't leave you hangin'!

Well folks, that's where I'll leave you. There are plenty of cool things brewing behind the scenes here and we can't wait to share them with you as always! With that, feel free to play spot the Tyler in the photo below! Catch ya next time!

-Tyler