The long awaited (by us at any rate) sequel to The Proletariat Of Space is finished. Brian and I today spent the morning burning and labeling DVD's and cases for our friends, family and lawyers. The film looks great. The POS II outfit looks wonderful. The relief is palpable. In the time since commencement of principle photography on POS II, I have lost a job, begun a new career and purchased a broadcast edit suite. Brian for his part has graduated Law School, taken the bar and is working on another project. We have lost weight, lost hair and gained the sort of wisdom that only filmmakers of our determination can accumulate. In the end it was worth it if only to see the Mech puppet walk.
posted by Hunter 12:38 PM
Friday, February 25, 2005
Well, it's been a while.
But fear not. We toil on your behalf. Brian works feverishly both to pass the bar (wish him luck everyone) AND directing an action short (details of which to be announced soon). While I am freelancing again.
Yes, I am no longer a part of the Leo Ticheli Family. As such, I find myself freelancing again. The very words fill my mouth with an acrid bile. More importantly, I have had to transplant POS II to a new home. It currently resides on a 200 GB firewire drive at Atomic Pictures. Brian Collins, sole proprietor of Atomic, has been kind enough to open his doors to Killer Bones.
So we yet live. POS II will be at Sidewalk this year sporting a shiny new soundtrack and some really nice production values. Brian's script is, of course, excellent.
Don't believe me, come see for yourself.
posted by Hunter 12:31 AM
Sunday, April 25, 2004
POS II nears completion!
We are well in edit with POS II. We are shooting a cameo with the esteemed Mr. Alan Hunter (recently of Johnny Flinton fame). He will be watching outside his very own WORKPLAY facility as a giant robot smashes into the lobby. Hilarity ensues…
posted by Hunter 2:39 PM
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
POS II!
We are late in production on POS II. I’m building a giant robotic nemesis for the stalwart POS right now. We’ll be shooting that and a heap O’ green screen in the coming weeks. We basically wrapped out the cast save Brian last session so it’s the usual team of Brian and me on the green screen from here forward.
posted by Hunter 12:34 PM
Monday, September 22, 2003
THE SCREENING
The screening went well – as far as I can tell. I’m not the best judge of such matters as any attention we get at all is a genuine surprise to me. Brian has had the media machine humming along nicely and I’ve been able to keep its rapacious hunger for media fulfilled to this point.
We got a little help from a friend at Intermark – Kelly Marshall. She was able to line up an interview or two. I’ve been gratified and flattered by all the support we’ve received by our friends and peers.
As far as the screening went, we were book-ended by two perhaps more serious short features – TAKE A DEEP BREATH and BECOMING MARY. Both were worth seeing and it was very clear that much time and love had gone into each. At festivals like this, I often feel a bit odd about running a film like ZERO PROSPECT because our aim is so clearly to entertain. If, God forbid, we were to take away top prize in such an event, what does that say about the subject matter of the more serious efforts that didn’t get equal recognition? We were showing a film about spaceships for crying out loud. I guess I just have to assume that I feel as strongly about spaceships as some people feel about…well…Jesus, for example.
Then there is the matter of credit. The film immediately BEFORE ours had – I swear to GOD – 300 individual names. They had what seemed to be one out of every ten people in the state working on their feature. Us? We had Brian, David, Lisa, Phil and me. And most of that involved Brian, David, Lisa or Phil venturing into my garage every couple of days to make sure I was still alive.
Phil – Hunter? How’s the cockpit coming?
Me – Fine. Almost done wiring the video feed to the monitors…
Lisa – Hunter? How’s the Matilda coming?
Me – Fine. Almost done painting her…
Brian – Hunter? How’s the spacesuit coming?
Me – Fine. Almost done sewing the patches on the shoulders.
David – Hunter? How’s the Avatar cockpit coming?
Me - …
David – Hunter..?
Me - …
David – Oh God. He’s passed out on the workbench again…
It is at this point that I remind our reading audience the safety value of recapping your acetone after use.
I just want to remind everybody that we made ZERO PROSPECT by ourselves. Every set, prop, miniature, costume, shot and edit came from one of four sets of hands – usually mine. We had help – good help - but we sure as hell didn’t have three hundred people hanging around. I can only imagine the luxury of being able to ponder "I wonder how the wardrobe person is getting along with Alex’s arm patches just about now?” Any time I had such questions, I needed only ask:
“Brian, am I asleep or awake?”
“Awake. Why?”
*sigh* “Well then I guess I better see if FX 24-B has rendered yet…”
posted by Hunter 7:40 AM
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Alrighty!
We have been on channel 42, we’ve been accepted to the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and now channel 6 wants to see our mugs on television.
Zero Prospect screens at the Alabama Theater at 12:00 noon this Sunday the 21st of September. Tickets for our film are only $5.00 from the Sidewalk Film Festival offices.
Zero Prospect seems to be getting as good as it gives and we are about half way through with POS II at this point. Those of you visiting because of our EARLY morning appearance on Fox 6 can email me here. Those of you who are just loitering on my website need to get lives.
Hey you kids! Get offa my lawn!
posted by Hunter 8:30 PM
Friday, July 11, 2003
DVD encoding.
I don’t know how many of you out there have access to DVD authoring tools but it’s a process fraught with pitfall and deception. Worst yet, many of the mistakes common to a mastered DVD are not apparent until after you’ve burned the DVD.
This is the shadowy hinterland in which I currently reside. So even after you can wrap photography, complete effects photography, wrap up post and even lock your audio print you still have miles to go before you sleep. I wish that statement were not as literal as it has proven to be.
We screen the print for the cast and crew tomorrow (Saturday the 12th of July). The group is much larger than I remember it being!
posted by Hunter 8:48 AM