0 Comments
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
Hello everyone!
2022 has officially come to a close and we're moving in to a new year. Ol' 22 was pretty decent to us. We saw the premiere of our latest feature, a new animated short film and a handful of great collaborations. As you can imagine, we're still very early into 2023, so there is a lot to be determined. However, I'll do my best here to highlight everything we're looking to accomplish. PERSONAL HISTORY With the film having made its debut, there has been a long waiting period on what our next move will be. That said, it may be a little longer before we know. Broadly speaking, the film will see a digital release, likely in the middle portion of the year. In less important news, we released the soundtrack album a few weeks ago. That can be found HERE. SHORT FILMS We have a couple of co-produced projects that have yet to be released online left over from last year. Fritz Robinson's GOOD LISTENER will likely be released after wrapping up its festival run. The Take36 project, CHEKHOV'S HAND GRENADE, is just waiting on a bit of ADR. Briefly mentioned on the latest episode of our podcast, we have been working on a horror project with Kurt T. Choate. We will be shooting this in the first part of the year. The short is called BLINDISGHT and will be helmed by David Wayne Young and Kurt. We're also continuing to work on another short film with Fritz Robinson called DEATH IN LAVENDER. This is a 16mm crime short. There is one more day of shooting left to go in the spring before we move into post-production. Finally, we are producing a short film directed by Gina Bryant called HOLE IN THE GROUND. Also to be shot in the early part of the year. Needless to say, we'll be busy for the next few months. NEW FEATURES We've sorta softly announced these in the past. We are currently developing a live-action horror feature as well as a new animated comedy. It wouldn't be smart to say much more this early in the game. It will probably be a while before there is any news of substance on these. I'll leave it at that. ANYWAY! COMICS It's probably a good time to throw out an update on where these projects sit. Ideally, we would love to release THE DOG PARK Volume 2 this year. We made a good amount of progress last year. The animated short definitely sidelined it a bit. I'd say at best, we could try for the end of the year on this one. It will be a big undertaking no matter how you look at it. As for A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY, there has been no major movement since the last time it came up. It's a low priority at this point. We are still determined to get it out there eventually. This project has just been a victim of circumstance. PODCAST We're about to move into the ninth season of our movie podcast. We'll be kicking things off with our annual tradition of The Golden Jamie Awards, running down every new film we saw in 2022 and declaring our top five favorites. We're all very excited for the line up of episodes we have this year. We have a lot of fun topics and guest appearances that we can't wait to do. The future remains unwritten as usual. We'll see how everything goes. Bottom line, we hope to putting out cool projects for you to enjoy. Have a Happy New Year! - Tyler
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
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.
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.
|
