Sunday, April 29, 2007

Baron Hats spot - Lightning Test 1

This is a compositing test for the Baron Hat commercial. It's supposed to be in an alley in Downtown L.A., 1943. A stormy night. It's basically a multiplane animation shot. The elements that make up this shot are:
The clouds, moving forward and lighting up with lightning;
The image of City hall, taken in the 1940's during the day;
The alley off of Skid Row, shot as a hi-rez still during location scouting;
A separate image of me and my shadow shot in a different location and comped in.
This was created in Photoshop and Final Cut Pro just to see how it would look. I think it looks pretty good!




Here is the background plate which you can see in the sky at the end of the alley. It is also a composite of several images, heavily manipulated in Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. The original image was shot in Downtown L.A. in the 1940's, during broad daylight.

Monday, April 16, 2007

A Toby Peters Mystery?

Well, I have been writing the second commercial for Baron Hats, this one a detective story set in Los Angeles, 1943. And what better style of detective story than a Toby Peters Mystery?

In case you're not familiar with them, the Toby Peters Mysteries, by bestselling author Stuart Kaminsky, is a series of about 23 books, all of which take place in L.A. circa WWII. They all involve a real-life guest star, like Bela Lugosi or Cary Grant, and are simply hilarious.
Anyway, we are hoping to get the right to film this short Toby Peters story, which I have written with Stuart Kaminsky's blessing. As to what his agent will say, I don't yet know. So, here's to hoping.
Ed and I have made a couple of informal photos of me as Peters, one of which I've made into a poster. And yes, that's Andy Garcia on the poster. We're hoping to get him to play the Boss bad guy. Mark Mejia knows him, so again, who knows?
Here are the images. 'Till later!




Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Baron of The Great Fedora

Okay, if you read this blog around Spring of 2006, you read about my production of Baron of The Great Fedora.
Well, here it is, albeit with most of the commercial elements removed. Hopefully, this will make it more of a fan film, and I won't get sued by George Lucas or Paramount for putting it up, condidering how many other fan films are out there with blessings.
Anyway, if they want me to remove it, I will. But, for now, here it is...