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
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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.
Wow. I can’t believe I haven’t made a blog post since Halloween. Yet at the same time, I can. Things have been busy around here, but there has also been a lot in the air. That said, I believe it’s time to unpack all of it. HOLIDAY SALE Before we start getting into the meat and potatoes, I just want to mention that we do have a holiday sale going on over on VHX and with our two films on Vimeo OnDemand. We knocked $2 off of everything. Movies, comic books, you name it. Okay, pretty much just those two things, but still. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve been wanting to get any of these things. This will be going on until December 31st. LEFT HOOK This month, we’ve been releasing some fun material for LEFT HOOK on our social media pages. Mainly mini-featurettes with some of the cast. Also a special IC TRIES where we do the One Chip Challenge to bring attention to the film. The biggest development however, is that among all the other spots it has landed, LEFT HOOK can now be streamed on AMAZON PRIME! It took much longer than I would have liked to get that finalized, but I’m just glad I can finally say it. Recently, I was interviewed on INDIES ON INDIE to talk about the film. It was nice to follow up because I also appeared on the show back in early 2018 to promote the fundraiser. It was nice catching up with Patrick Poe and I hope everyone enjoys the episode. While the main focus was LEFT HOOK, we also touched on a few other things that I can announce here today.
A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY Our current comic book, while moving slowly, is moving along. With 3 out of 5 parts released, I fully expect for this to be wrapped up next year. The idea is to finish releasing the singles digitally and then to print an omnibus for conventions. While that is cool news, the even cooler news is the additional plans we’ve been putting together throughout the second half of this year. When the omnibus is released, we will also be putting out a motion comic movie paired with a fully voiced audio track. We pulled in several of our good actor friends to be a part of it and I’m equally as excited to get that out there as I am the other two issues. With cast members like Elijah Muldrow and Harrison Hallows leading the project, how could I not get excited!? It will be similar in presentation to this promo for Issue 3. I don’t want to give a solid timeline for it just yet. However, we do expect it to be out next year. THE DOG PARK Well-well-well! Something new!? That’s right. I announced it a little sooner than I originally intended on that interview I mentioned earlier. But I couldn’t pass up the chance. Honestly, I’m super passionate about this one. It’s a big deal to me. I won’t do a deep dive into exactly what it’s all about until later, but it’s a graphic novel featuring multiple episodic stories following a very fun group of characters. They’re all dogs. Don’t worry, there are no bad dog puns or anything. They just happen to be dogs. Seriously. It’s not even a big deal. The approach to this one will be different to that of A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY. Aside from being released all at once, we are going to try out a pre-order format through Indiegogo this time. That seems to be the common way to handle indie comics these days. Though, we do plan to have copies at conventions as well, whenever those get going again. THE DOG PARK is a series that I used to write when I was a kid first learning to be a writer and an artist. So like I said, it’s a passion project. This time around I’m illustrating things myself and mostly writing by myself as well, with fantastic contributions from a story team of Beth and the Davids. All of this said, DOG PARK will be more than just a comic book. We already have plans for companion cartoons and a few other fun things to go along with it. Alas, these are all things we will need to cover later as well.
LEFT HOOK
This year has been rough on LEFT HOOK. We had big plans, but they had to be ever changing to compete with all the twists and turns. All-in-all, it hasn't had the worst run. It hasn't had an ideal run! But not the worst run. We've garnered several nominations and even a few awards along the way. Recently, the film was put on Vimeo OnDemand (to buy or rent) and Troma Now (to stream). We're excited to expand the platforms for the film and hope to have more in the future. You can see all your options on the LEFT HOOK page. But, the biggest piece of news for local fans and film lovers, we're actually going to have a screening. On November 6th, LEFT HOOK will play at the MTH Theater in Kansas City, MO as a special presentation by First Friday Film Festival. A huge thanks to Matthew Dunehoo for setting this up. Honestly, this is the cherry on top for me, I've been dying for a festival experience with this one and I'm finally going to get it. Plenty of precautions are being taken and I feel really good about it, you can read up about the event HERE. TWITCH THURSDAYS We've recently introduced something new that hopefully some of you will be interested in. We've launched an IC Twitch channel. This is something a few members of the team have been wanting to do for a while, but it always felt like it should be separated from all of our more serious work. Twitch seems like the best place to do this. As of right now, the goal is to stream weekly on Thursdays with a rotating cast of hosts. We've been playing around with it for a couple weeks now and seem to be getting the hang of it. We also have archives of streams up on our Miscellaneous Stream page, for when they roll off of Twitch. We're looking forward to seeing what fun we can have on here. I'm sure more great news will be rolling out soon. But for now, that's all I've got. Catch you next time! -Tyler 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
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
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.
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 wouldn't 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 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 |
