Blog

ARRIVE ALIVE Trailer (and more)

9/13/2024

Hey everyone!

If you haven't seen already, ARRIVE ALIVE has had some pretty big news! For those unfamiliar, our latest live action feature directed by Gina Bryant has set it's premiere date! That being October 25th at the Tallgrass Film Festival. We actually made a fun little announcement video with Gina and Molly (the lead of the film). The ending has been a little spoiled for you, but it's still fun.

That happened at the end of August. In more recent news, we released the trailer for the film (which can be seen below). We hope to see some local folks at the festival next month. Hopefully more good news is on the way!

- Tyler

Something ARRIVING Soon...

8/6/2024

Hello everyone!
A new month, a new update. There have been developments on all our current projects.

PODCAST
I usually don’t lead off with this because it’s such a side project, but although we released three new episodes in July, until recently, only one of them made their way to all major podcast platforms. It seems annually we had some kind of issue with our hosting service and it’s that time again. When I got in touch with them, their response was about as good as, “fix it yourself”. Ultimately, we moved over to a new host that has been much more accommodating. So be sure to check out Direct to Dumpster Vol. 8 and Deadpool & Wolverine. The former featuring special guests Lolo Loren & Patrick Poe. New episodes coming this month!

ARRIVE ALIVE
Good news! We know when are where we will be premiering our next feature. Where? We can’t tell you yet! I’m sure we’ll be whipping up a fun way to do so, very soon. Or we’ll just tell you in a boring blog post. I dunno. We’ll see how much effort we have to expend.

ANIMATED PROJECT
It’s happening, folks! We’re one month into the animation process and progress is being made. Still not ready to announce a title yet, but it’s worth checking in. We will also be completing a few more sessions for voice over soon. All focus is slowly shifting onto this.

COMPLEX HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Speaking of voice over, David Cantu’s narration sessions have come to an end. We’ve been spreading these out over the last couple months and wrapped up a little over a week ago. Now on to more editing!

That’s pretty much it for the moment. Here’s to more great news in the near future!

- Tyler

Three Feature Intersection

7/6/2024

Time for another long overdue update. My monthly streak crashed in May, but here I am picking up the pieces. There's been a lot going on, but it's all boring stuff. Let's break it down anyway!

ARRIVE ALIVE
The film we shot last year has been in post-production for the first half of this year. I won't lie, we're pretty much sitting idly at the 99% mark. We had a big rush to get to that point so we could submit a watchable work in progress around. That said, all plans for release are up in the air. Each new feature leaves room for experimentation, this is no exception. While we wait, let's enjoy the first still form the film. Intriguing? I hope so.
There will be more to say when there's more to say.

Molly Strickler in ARRIVE ALIVE (2024)

A COMPLEX HISTORY OF THE US
This one is making some strides! Chris has completed his first cut of the documentary. The biggest thing happening right at this moment is that our very own David J. Cantu is recording narration for the film.

OUR NEW ANIMATED FEATURE
The often mentioned, yet to be revealed animated project has also had some major developments. As mentioned in the last post, we held a screening of LEFT HOOK to raise funds for a new drawing tablet, as the one I had been using croaked. Good news! The new tablet is in and it's being put to use! Now a year into this production, it's still the one with the biggest hills to climb. That's making an animated movie for you. We're still not quite ready to announce what the project is, but that will come soon enough. The animation process has officially begun and personally, I'm really thrilled about it. Things are really heating up with this one, can't wait to share more about it.

That's all I've got for now. No promises when the next blog post will be. I've already tarnished my record. Don't want to break your heart again.

- Tyler

A Big Screening & Big Things in the Works!

4/23/2024

Hello everyone! I'm doing it! I'm writing another blog post on a monthly basis!

LEFT HOOK SCREENING
If you haven't seen already, we have an exciting event coming up. Our film, LEFT HOOK, will be screening at the Tallgrass Film Center in the city we call home, Wichita, KS! In spite of being made here, due to the pandemic, the film never actually got to screen here. We're making things right on May 4th and celebrating the fourth anniversary of the film. This will also serve as a fundraiser for our new animated project, which hit a bit of a snag recently. My animation tablet keeled over on me. Replacing it will be a bit of a large expenditure that we weren't expecting, so any assistance helps. Buying a ticket goes a long way! Which you can do HERE!
The screening is actually happening on Free Comic Book Day, so we will be giving away a limited number of free single issues of our comics THE DOG PARK and A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY at the venue. It should be a fun evening. Hope to see you there!

View from the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City.

ARRIVE ALIVE
We've been making some progress on our most forthcoming feature. As of last night, I finished the score. Jillian and her team are working on audio. Caitlyn is color grading everything. All I have left is to grab a couple more pick ups, do a few ADR sessions and some VFX work. It's all slow and steady, but it's almost done.

A COMPLEX HISTORY OF THE US
What the hell is that? The title of Chris's documentary we've teased a couple times! Chris has been hard at work the last couple months assembling a mountain of footage for it and at the end of last month, I had the privilege of visit the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City to grab some additional footage. Major thanks to them for letting us do so, definitely visit if you are in the area!

PODCAST
Lastly, the podcast has been delivering on it's multiple episodes a month promise this month. We started off with a favorite of mine, The Silly April Fools Special, followed up with the beginning of this season's multi-parter Science Fiction Double Feature and today we close things off with Torture Podcast VIII in which the Davids and I chat about some real stinkers from when we were kids; WILD WILD WEST, MASTER OF DISGUISE and SHARKBOY AND LAVA GIRL. It's gonna be something.
Next month should also have its fair share of episodes, so stay tuned!

That's it! That's all I got!
Let's see if I can keep the blog post streak going for next month!
I know you're all dying to find out!

- Tyler

A bunch of little updates, but at least one big one!

3/17/2024

I'm putting a minimal amount of effort toward keep this blog updated semi-frequently. We'll see how long I can keep up with that. This time, I mostly just have little updates, so I'll start with those first.

DEATH IN LAVENDER
The short film we worked on, DEATH IN LAVENDER, has been doing pretty well in festivals lately. Enough to where I feel like I'm having to catch up a little bit. We have several screenings happening throughout Oklahoma in the next couple months, as well as Kansas City Film Festival International and later this week, First City Film Festival in Leavenworth, KS. You can see our events page for information on each one. It has picked up a handful of award nominations as well. It's a cool movie, doing some pretty cool things and I thought it was worth bringing up.

PODCAST
We've had some pretty good episodes so far this year. With it being the tenth season, we have pretty big plans, but it's been a little bit of slow start. February had a pretty last minute release and so will March, but the plan for the next few months is to have multiple episodes roll out. We've been working on several things at once at the moment, so we haven't been able to really kick things into gear just yet, but we're almost there. April is supposed to be pretty big. Just wait for that.

Naythan Smith, Jered Becker, Lolo Loren, Victoria Gayer and Sam Schurter (right to left)

A totally normal and not weird person.

ARRIVE ALIVE
This movie is in post-production with an assembly cut completed. We are mostly done with some of the additional shooting we needed to do. The major hurdles we have left are sound, music and color. I for one am looking forward to getting through these processes and getting this thing out to festivals. We're still on track to have it premiere this fall... fingers crossed.

THAT BIG NEWS I PROMISED
Look at us! We just keep growing! We've added a new team member! Caitlyn Cody, who has been our director of photography on both HOLE IN THE GROUND and ARRIVE ALIVE is the newest addition to Illumination Cinema. We worked with her a lot last year. Not just on IC projects, but other places as well. She's proven herself as an essential member of any crew. I'm excited to not only continue that trend, but see what we can do to help her own projects come to life in the near future.

That's it!
Will I actually be back with another blog post next month?
Heheh! Time will tell, my friend.

- Tyler

HOLE IN THE GROUND is Online Now!

2/10/2024

The day is finally here! HOLE IN THE GROUND is now available to watch online.
We had a really nice festival run with one, which definitely could've gone much longer. With another feature around the corner, we needed to clear a path and with Valentine's Day approaching, this felt like an appropriate release window.

Around this time last year was when we set out to shoot this one. It was a pretty quick turn around. Only a couple months of prep and a one day shoot. I remember reading the script and having zero hesitation agreeing to produce it. It was incredibly moving and easy to relate to. I know we're all eager to share this with the world and let them soak it in the same way.

See the film HERE!

- Tyler

GOOD LISTENER is now available!

1/10/2024

The short film we collaborated on with Fritz Robinson, GOOD LISTENER, is now available to view online. You can see it HERE! It's been to a fair number of festivals and picked up some awards along the way. We hope you enjoy it!
Also enjoy this fake newspaper we created for the film.

Here comes 2024!

1/1/2024

Hello everyone!

It's that time of year. The beginning of the year! 2023 was a wild ride in so many ways. We had so much going on that we couldn't fully get to everything we wanted to do, which might be a good problem to have. I'll do my best to catch up on everything we've done since our last update and let you know what we have coming up for the future.

10TH ANNIVERSARY
As many of you may know, 2023 was the studio's tenth anniversary. There were a lot of things we wanted to do in celebration of that, but not a lot we had time for (as mentioned before). What we did manage to do, was a fun stream in celebration featuring Chris, David Young and I. We chat about past experiences and play a little IC trivia. That can be seen HERE!

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY
After five years of off and on work, it is complete. The first comic book series we produced is finally finished and fully available with all five parts of the story. Links to every issue can be found HERE! It feels very good to have weight of this one lifted off of our shoulders. There was a point in time where we wondered if we would ever see the day, and it seriously bummed me out to think we would leave something half finished like that. Luckily, we were able to strap in and get it done.

THE DOG PARK
While on the topic of comic books, it's probably a good time to jump to this one as well. You'll probably notice that the last couple updates on it were more or less giant shrugs. We sort of surprised ourselves with a major push to complete the other project, which we pretty much anticipated the opposite of. Sadly, it meant there was no movement on this series and that may remain the case for a while. Optimistically, I would love to put out a single issue or something, but that will also be hard to promise. There is a lot of work finished for the second volume. All of the scripts are complete and many of them have been penciled. It all comes down to time, which I know I won't have much of. We'll make announcements if progress is made, but I certainly wouldn't expect it.

SHORT FILMS
We spent the entire year talking about a couple of short films we made. Those being HOLE IN THE GROUND and DEATH IN LAVENDER. Both of which is still currently in the festival stage. I'm sure we'll be switching gears to an online release for the former soon-ish. Probably some time this year? Definitely. I have to assume at least. The other is completely up to Fritz, whom we co-produced the film with.
2024 should see a couple new short film productions as well. We've been talking about some possibilities recently and are excited to pursue them.

ARRIVE ALIVE
Getting into the big topics now! Principal photography for our live action feature was completed in November. To call it an undertaking would be an understatement. We had 18 shoot days spread over 3 months and it was a lot of work to coordinate. We have a few things to pick up here and there and editing will begin soon. Needless to say, December was spent enjoying a bit of down time. Time will tell where this thing goes, but we're excited to send it out to festivals this year!

THE TWO OTHER FEATURES
Yep. We've teased both of these a bit, so here's a little update on them. Considering we're not giving titles yet, don't expect much.
First up, something that has only been lightly talked about, Christopher Strong is directing a feature documentary. We're very excited as this is the first real foray into this field. We did a nice readthrough of the script last month and we're ready to go into production this year.
As for the other, we have previously mentioned a new animated feature film. This finally made some real strides in 2023. We spent a good amount of time gathering voices and making storyboards, which culminated in screening the first complete animatic of the film at our studio holiday party. All in all, it's coming out great. I guess I haven't said it here before, but I will be serving as writer and director for the movie. Much like our last animated feature outing, the process will be long. However, we are employing new methods in this production which could potentially quicken the pace (or maybe it will slow us way down, who knows).

THE PODCAST
Last but not least, we have the podcast. Season 9 wrapped up with a nice holiday special. While the studios tenth anniversary has come and gone, the podcast's has just begun. Season 10 will be premiering very soon with the Golden Jamies as our launch episode. Should be lots of fun. We're trying out a lot of fun new stuff in this year's schedule, so we're all very much looking forward to it.

I'm sure there is more to say. But hey, what ever that's enough for now. We all know I'm terrible at updating this blog. So I'll probably see you next January!

- Tyler

Things That Happened Months Ago & Things That Are Happening Now!

10/25/2023

There were many times I sat down with full intention to update the blog and thought, "it would be a lot funnier if I didn't". At some point, the bit has to come to an end. I do unfortunately have to write a post. What a sad day.

PERSONAL HISTORY
Our feature film, PERSONAL HISTORY, was released in July. It is available to rent or buy on Vimeo OnDemand. You should totally check it out. I heard all kinds of great responses on the festival circuit. Such as "Wow good job", "I liked it" and "Please tell me that was a real documentary. I'm afraid of dying". 'Nuff said! Go to the film's page HERE!

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY
This was another thing we released, that I talked about on the last post. Issue 4 was released in May. That leaves one left to go in the series. The good news is, it's pretty much finished! I have a few notes that need to be applied, but other than that, I wrapped it up back in the spring. The team seems to have responded very well to the ending of the series, so I look forward to having everyone see it. I'll go ahead and throw out a release date of November 24th! Why not?

A BUNCH OF SHORT FILMS
At the beginning of the year, we were working on a few short films. Those have hit festivals and have made for a great fall run! HOLE IN THE GROUND has especially been doing great. Kicking things off at 307 Film Fest in Wyoming, going to Tallgrass along with DEATH IN LAVENDER and it will be finishing up this leg of its run in November with the Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival. We'll see what the future plans are with all of them some time next year. We're debating on what else we want to do. Keep an eye on our upcoming events and screenings to see if any of them are coming to a fest near you.

ARRIVE ALIVE
One of the biggest things we have going on currently is the feature film we have been shooting since the start of September. It has been quite the undertaking! The film is a crime / thriller directed by Gina Bryant and written by Roy Nugen (same team behind HOLE IN THE GROUND). There will be more info on this film in the near future. Besides festivals, this has been the big thing eating up a majority of our time. The cast is great! Our friend Caitlyn Cody is the cinematographer and is making it look incredible. Needless to say, we're excited to wrap this sucker up and get it into post this winter.

PODCAST
As per usual, we've had several great new episodes. We have a nice little mini-series going right now where we are talking about every film in the Halloween series. So check those out every week this month!

The crazy thing is, there is so much more to talk about that we aren't ready to talk about. I'm sure we will some day, but not right now.

See you in like 20 years when I update the blog again!

- Tyler

PERSONAL HISTORY's Festival Run & Upcoming Releases

4/14/2023

Hello all!

It's only been like two months since the last blog post, but there's good reasons for it! We've been plenty busy. It's literally what I'm here to tell you about.

PERSONAL HISTORY
Some of you may have seen that our latest feature has had a great run this spring. In the last two months we screened at First City Film Festival, Kansas City Film Festival International and Red Dirt Film Festival. We even managed to pull in an award at First City for Best Feature Film!
We're very happy with how the film's festival run has turned out. We set higher goals this time around and in many ways, achieved them. That said, it's time for this chapter to come to an end as we will be releasing the film on digital very soon. July 8th, in fact!
The roll out will be similar to our previous films, showing up on Vimeo OnDemand first to buy or rent. Then we will see about other platforms. I'm doing my best to put together a really cool package of special features to go along with the movie. Hope you'll check it out when it comes out!

Polaroid from the PERSONAL HISTORY screening at KC Film Fest 2023 (Featuring: Lolo Loren, Patrick Poe, Tyler W. Moore and Jillian Terrell. Photo by Mickey Clark)

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY (COMICS IN GENERAL)
Here's some news you probably thought you'd never hear. Or you're like, "What the hell is that? I've never heard of that". Our studio's first comic book series, A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY, which hit an unfortunate hiatus near the end of 2020, will finally continue with Issue 4. I wrote previously about how the final two issues (4 and 5) were completely penciled last spring. With everything we've had going on, finding the time to finish them was near impossible. There were several false starts. Trust me, I wanted it to happen. Getting this project finished and out has been a weight on my shoulders that, hopefully soon, I won't have to bear anymore. Issue 4 is completely finished and I've already started work on Issue 5. It is my intention to release Issue 4 next month. Issue 5, will be later in the year.
The page count on this one will a good amount small than the previous three chapters. That said, the amount of script contained in them is about the same. I chose to do a more economical approach to paneling this time around. The same will go for the next one. You may notice a very slight shift in art style as I am now illustrating the final two books. I've tried to keep the same approach as Beth's original vision, but there will obviously be deviations.
Expect Issue 4 on May 6th!

As for our other comic, THE DOG PARK, we teased that Volume 2 should be happening this year. While that is looking harder to promise, I will be sure to get SOMETHING out for that series before the year's end. Our work load turned out to be quite a bit more than we initially anticipated. That said, this project's importance has not waned one iota.

OTHER GREAT NEWS
For a couple months over here at IC, we were all talking behind the scenes saying, "You know what we should do? We should get Roy and Gina to join the team". After not doing that for a while, we took a different approach and did! So you heard it here first! Roy Nugen and Gina Bryant have official joined Illumination Cinema. They've been working in the art department of our last couple shorts as well as producing the other upcoming short HOLE IN THE GROUND. We're very happy to welcome them to the studio and can't wait to get started on yet another project with them. But first...

If I told you being in post-production for three short films at the same time is pretty time consuming, would you believe me? The aforementioned HOLE IN THE GROUND is actually pretty much done. Just a couple final tweaks to do on the sound mix. BLINDSIGHT is also well on its way to being complete, though there are several more weeks of work to go on that one. Finally, we did a final day of shooting on the Fritz Robinson produced short, DEATH IN LAVENDER. The final reel of 16mm footage just came back early this week with 4K scans for us to edit with. That one will go through the whole process next.

Also coming up, our short film from a couple years ago, CARRIER PIGEON, will be screening at the Bird Watching Film Festival in Kansas City, MO. Be sure to check that out if you're in the area. Or you can drive several hours to come see it. That's up to you. It's happening April 26th at the Bird Comedy Theater.

Okay. This post is getting long. I told you we were busy. I gotta wrap this up. Last thing I'll mention is that Jillian will be making her first podcast appearance next week when we do a new episode on the movie Renfield! That should be very exciting. Hope you'll all check that out.

Alright. That's it. I swear. See you in another two months. Maybe less this time. Who knows.

- Tyler

For the website!