Blog Posts

How Much, Broken Key & Podcast Season 4 Finale!

10/26/2018

Hey everyone!

It’s been a little while since we’ve posted on here. That’s because every time I’m about to write up a post, there’s something else that is about to come out. So at this point, we just needed to make a recap at the end of the month.

HOW MUCH:
First things first, we released our short film, HOW MUCH on October 2nd for the world to see. It almost feels like old news now, but it’s pretty cool if you guys haven’t seen it. Make sure you definitely check that out!

PODCASTS:
We have released four podcasts this month! The first was “Alfred Hitchcock” with Chris, Beth and I. We talked about Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho. The next was “First Man” with Chris and I. Followed by, “Halloween (2018)” with Beth, myself and newcomer, Scott Reacher. Finally, we have just released our “Halloween Special 2” where Beth, David Wayne Young and I cover three classic Universal monster movies (Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man).
It’s been a great month for this season to go out on. We will now be taking a month hiatus before we start season 5 of the podcast.

THE BROKEN KEY:
Back in the end of September, we assisted Fritz Robinson in the production of his new short film, THE BROKEN KEY. After which point, we took the role of the post-production studio on the film. We edited, mixed and did special effects work. It’s a nice little spooky short and we had a lot of fun working on it. Give that a watch, why don’t ya!

ANYTHING ELSE:
Coming pretty soon, we will have yet another LEFT HOOK Behind the Scenes video going public. That will be on the first Friday of November.
Don’t forget, we will also be launching the first issue of our comic book A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY at Air Capital Comic Con on the 10th & 11th as well. Lots of things to look forward to.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! That’s all I’ve got for you.

-Tyler

90s Kid Podcast, BTS Video, 5.0 Update and More

9/11/2018

Hey everyone! I've got a couple updates today.

HOW MUCH:
The premiere of HOW MUCH went very well! We had a great time and met some cool people. Can't wait for everyone to be able to see it. We will know an actual date very soon.

LEFT HOOK:
We recently put another behind the scenes video up for the public. This one is all about storyboarding and was shot almost a year ago. Hope you enjoy it.

PODCAST:
Also recently released was a new episode of the podcast called "90's Kid Triple Feature". It features David and I chatting about Blank Check, Kazaam and Heavyweights. Give it a listen!

WEBSITE UPDATE:
Also, if you notice anything weird happening with the website here in the next couple weeks, it's because I'm making some updates. Nothing big. Mostly just rearranging a couple things and updating some pages.

That's all I've got for now. Check in later for more updates.

-Tyler

Upcoming Events & New Podcast Episodes!

9/1/2018

Hey everyone! A few new things to talk about today and a few reminders.

NEW MEMBER:
I'm happy to introduce a new member to the team, Scott Reacher! Funny enough, he's been around for a project or two before now. He was actually a production assistant on LIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT and more recently worked on HOW MUCH and FALLING OUT with us. We're all excited to have him on the team and show you what he's capable of.

HOW MUCH:
HOW MUCH will still be premiering on the 7th at the MTH Theater in Kansas City. David Wayne Young will be there along with Beth, Chris, Scott and I. We hope to see you there!

A SCRIPT CALLED MISERY:
News about this has been a little on and off, so I'll get everyone up to speed. This is a comic book mini-series that I wrote a few years back and Beth is currently illustrating. We've made a good amount of progress on it and it's turning out amazing!
The story itself revolves around a team of freelance writers working for an eccentric producer to bring his heavily plagiarized vision to life. The inspiration comes from some of my own experiences in freelance writer, squishing them all together into a 5-part comedic story.
The great news is, the first issue will be coming very soon! In fact, it will make its debut on November 10th & 11th at the Air Capital Comic Con here in Wichita. It will be going online for everyone else at the same time. It will be available on mostly digital platforms but we are testing out a limited release of physical copies.
There will be more news on all of this soon.

PODCAST:
There have been two new episodes since our last update. Those being, "Seven Samurai" and "Tarantino Deep Cuts: Writer". Both turned out great. We'll be recording another episode while David is in town and that should come out on the 11th.
Also, I made a few lists of episodes under specific categories. Including: Anime, Golden Jamies, Star Wars Films and Tarantino Films. These lists can be found at the bottom of the Podcast page.

That's all for this update! See ya next time!

-Tyler

HOW MUCH - Premieres in September

8/7/2018

Coming off the heels of last week's premiere of FALLING OUT, we are here to announce yet another premiere! This time it is for our second film of the year, HOW MUCH. We worked on this one for a while, slowly chipping away at it. I think it turned out pretty great and we recently confirmed that we will be returning to the First Friday Film Festival in Kansas City to screen it. Our first experience at the festival this January was fantastic and we can't wait to see what other great films also play this time around.
The date is September 7th and it will once again be taking place at the MTH Theater in Crown Center. The lobby opens at 6:30 and the show starts around 7:30. Come check it out if you're in the Kansas City area. All of us should be there and we would love to enjoy the film with all of you!

I should also note that the online release will be happening at a later time. Probably in November. We're still deciding that. We have a few extras that we want to put together before then.

Anyway, that's it! Hope to see you there!

-Tyler

Falling Out, Behind the Scenes & More!

8/3/2018

Hey!
So we just released a whole bunch of things. Here is a post playing catch up!

FALLING OUT:
Most important is the release of our new short film, FALLING OUT! On Tuesday, we had a premiere via livestream, which was pretty fun. Those who stuck around got to see the companion short that we shot along side this one. The film itself is available on our website, HERE. You can also access the bonus feature package by giving $1 or more on VHX. The package includes a bonus short, a 20-minute behind the scenes roundtable and the original scripts.

BRIMSTONE TERRACE:
Speaking of VHX, the 5th Anniversary Edition of BRIMSTONE TERRACE came out on the 23rd. It is also sitting on VHX for $1 and there is a good amount of content on there. All profits from both of these things go straight to the budget of LEFT HOOK.

LEFT HOOK:
For those who would be interested, we have been updating our backers over on the Indiegogo page as production has progressed. We're making lots of progress, slowly but surely. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because we have also been posting behind the scenes videos every month so far. We started the process about 6 months ago. So now we want to start making those videos public.
If you want to see everything six months ahead of time, you can check out the Support page on the Left Hook website. Otherwise, we'll be releasing the old videos each month from here on out.
This first one is from a while back. It covers the early voice acting process and how we started the project off. Not all of them are podcasts like this. We just thought it would make for a good introduction.

PODCAST:
Speaking of podcasts, we released an episode a week or two ago for the films of Isao Takahata. The episode features Chris, Beth and I. The next one will be coming out in a week or so, so stay tuned.

Anyway, I think that is all the news we've got for you. There will be more big updates coming soon.

-Tyler

Upcoming Release Dates & More!

7/14/2018

Hey!
We've got a few things to talk about today, so I'll just jump right into it.

FALLING OUT:
Our first piece of news is about one of our new short films, FALLING OUT. This one is a live action film directed by David J. Cantu. We finished it back in late-May or early-June. We've mostly been trying to figure out what we wanted to do with it. We wanted to organize a premiere at the stage we shot it on, but summer theater season dashed those hopes. Turns out we shot it at just the right time.
Ultimately, we made the decision to release the film during the summer. The date will be July 31st. We also want to do something a little special and we are trying to organize a livestream (most likely on our Facebook page) to kick things off. Not only will we be showing the short film, we will also be showcasing some of the bonus material we shot as well.
That being said, the package that comes with the bonus material will be going up on VHX at the same time.

BRIMSTONE TERRACE:
This year is the 5th Anniversary of Brimstone Terrace. As of July 23rd, the first episode premiered on Blip TV. To celebrate, we are releasing a package on VHX that contains all 6 episodes and some newly created special features.
That will actually be launching on the 23rd. There will be a little promo video going up on the release date so keep an eye out for that. I think everything we put in here is pretty cool.

PODCAST:
I've got a bit of room on the post here, so I'll also throw in the fact that we released a new episode recently. It was Torture Podcast IV. Beth, Chris and I talked about King Kung Fu, Mac and Me and The Conqueror. Lots of "fun" was had. There should be another episode coming this month.

ZERO G:
Recently, I finally finished remastering my first official short film, ZERO G. The film itself can be seen HERE. It's a piece of crap I made back in 2010, so keep that in mind. Anyway, it was important to me to preserve that since the original cut is completely gone. So it meant a lot when some of the others from the IC crew jumped in to help with new voice overs and other technical tasks. We broke it all down in this video to the left. I would really like to start doing those kind of videos when ever we work on other people's projects (provided they want us to). We'll see if we do more in the future.
Cantu and I also recorded a retrospective on the short and that will be coming out next week.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. More news soon to come!

-Tyler

Doc Sunback 2018 & Other Things

6/29/2018

Hey everyone!

It took me a couple days to sit down and actually write out a post, things have been so hectic lately. Last weekend, we went to the Doc Sunback Film Festival. ANOTHER DAY COLDER had two screenings, which was very cool. We went on both Friday and Saturday and met some really cool people and also caught up with some others we've met over the last year or so. We got to participate in a live Filmmaker Roundtable, which I can try to trim our segments into an isolated video at some point, but the full thing is shared on our Facebook page.
Ultimately, we ended up winning Best Kansas Animated Film, which was fantastic. Over all, Doc Sunback went very well. Can't wait to attend next year. The event photographer shared some of the photos with us so you can see those below...

Photographer: Michael Briley

Also, we released a podcast for Incredibles 2! So check that out too.

-Tyler

A Busy Month!

5/28/2018

In some ways, it feels like it's been more than a month and in other ways, it's flown by really fast.

NEW SHORT FILMS:
That's right. There is an "s" on the end of that. This month has been insanely busy because while handling a slower process on LEFT HOOK, we were able to work a lot more on our two upcoming short films for this year. One is the already announced, HOW MUCH. The other is a new live action short film called FALLING OUT. We haven't talked much about it because to be honest, it was a very quick turn around. We wrote the script in April and suddenly had the whole thing planned out in time to shoot it last week. It's been pretty exciting and feels like a major step forward when it comes to the quality of our live action work.
All of that being said, HOW MUCH is completely finished. We're waiting to release it online because we want to do something special for the cast and crew. We'll be finding out very soon what that will be and when it will happen. Truth be told, it could be a couple months.
FALLING OUT is a similar situation. It isn't quite finished yet, but it is getting there. We just finished color grading the footage tonight and I will begin the editing process tomorrow. As for right now, I don't really know when you will be seeing either of these short films. But we will be quick to let you know once we do. They will be coming out this year regardless.

ANOTHER SCREENING FOR ANOTHER DAY COLDER:
Recently on Facebook, we announced that ANOTHER DAY COLDER was selected to screen at Doc Sunback this June. We're very excited to attend. It has yet to be announced which day our film will be playing. But once again, we'll announce that when we do know.

PODCAST:
We released one new episode this month. That being Deadpool 2. The quality is a little bad on this one. It was David Young and I. He was recording from Arizona and unfortunately, what you hear in the episode is the best I could do to fix it. Trust me, it's a lot better now than it was before. The episode is fairly short though. So it shouldn't be too hard to sit through. I believe the next episode is coming in a couple weeks. Everything will be back to normal for that one.

Anyway, that's all I have to report right now. Have a good Memorial Day and we'll let you know what's happening when something happens!

-Tyler

April Update

4/30/2018

Hey just wanted to pop in and give an update on a few things!

PODCASTS:
First off, we've had a few podcasts. Including: "Ready Player One", "Tarantino Deep Cuts: Director", "Isle of Dogs" and "John Carpenter". We cranked out quite a few episodes this month with quite a bit of variety. The next one will be Deadpool 2 in mid-May.

I.C. RECAP:
So earlier this year, we started doing a show called I.C. RECAP and it was meant to be a way summarize everything that has happened over the coarse of a month in a short video featuring Cantu and I. Primarily, it was supposed to be an easily consumable way for social media followers to get caught up (mainly Facebook users). Unfortunately, the way Facebook has changed things, you basically have to pay money if you want literally anyone to see your posts. Even the people who followed you. I'm pretty wise to the fact that people don't like to be bothered with excessive notifications. I'm one of those people. My personal goal is to not annoy any of the people who are nice enough to follow us. So, along with that and the fact that even the minimal effort we have to put in to producing the videos takes away from productivity on other things, we made a decision to cancel it.
That being said, a blog post or a tweet is just as effective. Why bother doing something that only serves to be a burden? If there's a need for it, it will return. As for right now, there isn't one.

EVERYTHING ELSE:
So what else is going on? This month has been extremely busy. I've barely had any room to breath, myself. The main focus has been split between animating HOW MUCH (which is nearly finished and moving into post-production) and what I've been spending most of MY time on, which is creating a full assembly cut for LEFT HOOK. This is just an animatic with unmixed audio, but it tells us everything we need to know going forward. I'm very excited about everything we're working on right now. Even bigger updates are sure to come fairly soon. But until then, that's all I've got.

-Tyler

March 2018 | I.C. Recap

3/30/2018

Our friend David J. Cantu jumps in to save us all from another boring episode with that idiot Tyler by himself. This is everything that happened in the month of March!

LINKS:
-Red Sparrow Podcast: http://www.illuminationcinema.com/e76-red-sparrow.html
-How Much Blog Post: http://www.illuminationcinema.com/blog/how-much-and-other-new-developments