Pre-Code Horror Comics!

Scooped this link straight from the pages of Rue Morgue, Toronto's own amazing horror monthly.

The blog is thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com.

It features high rez scans of stories and ads from Pre-Comic Code horror comic books. The site is well laid out, loads fast, and is easy to navigate, making the act of reading the comics online pretty pain-free. It's not as good as having the comic in your hands (no wonderful smell of musty newsprint), but it's still a good time. And the blog is full of love for the gory mess that was pulpy shock stories.

Some of these tales are truly nasty and wild, so prepare your eyeballs...mwa ha ha haaaaaaaa...

By the way, as you can tell from the image below, the June issue of Rue Morgue features lengthy articles devoted to stop motion master Ray Harryhausen, so get it while it's in stores.

Lynch's Interview Project Up and Running

The first of Lynch's humble but very important (and savvy) interviews are up, via his main website. The actual Interview Project site is crashing my browser, so I hope they get it sorted asap.

Anyway, here's an article from The Globe and Mail that gives a great overview of the project, and touches on why I think it's so important. I love that the project stresses the connections all humans share, without resorting to exploitive, cruel, trashy pop-TV crap.

Could we be entering an era of post-trash-reality TV, that does everything it can to turn us against our fellow humans, and encourages us to cruelly laugh at others?

No. But at least David Lynch is doing his part to make the hurt go away.

The Magic Projector on Air Canada!

Tickled to announce that my distributor, Ouat Media has sold my film The Magic Projector to Air Canada.

For the next three months, you can choose it from the seat-back screening machine.

Hopefully, doing so won't result in a need to use the barf bag, which is also located on the seat-back.

Not much money in the deal for me. Pennies, to be honest (OK, possibly a hundred bucks or so). There never IS pay-back for indie projects, it seems. Especially shorts.

But it's obviously great exposure, and hopefully presents me as ever-increasingly bankable and dependable, should the opprotunity present itself to pitch a bigger project that needs investors.

Curious thing, the digital age of distribution and broadcast. A while back, I discovered (to my shock) that my film had been posted online, for any and all to watch. And it hadn't been posted by ME. But before I flipped out on who posted it, I had to ask myself- Is this a BAD situation? It's out there, getting viewed by lots of people... and the guy who posted it is not getting filthy rich on me. So I let it be, figuring what was actually happening was a broadcasting of not only my film, but my brand, the "Chris Walsh" brand. My name, my rep, doing what I do, was being spread, and that was very valuable, if not in a tangible way.

Now this deal with Air Canada comes along. Without this fairly new form of exhibition (in the form of seat-back screenings), sold to the exhibitor (Air Canada) via a distributor that pays me pennies, what's it getting me, tangibly? A few dollars. Imagine trying to make a LIVING make these animated shorts? What a joke.

But again, it broadcasts not just the film, but me- as an artist, that can get the job done, in an indie professional fashion. And that will lead only good things to my door.

It would seem that the digital age allows you remarkable amounts of exposure and contact, that in time CAN translate into real-world results.

Just make sure you've got a day job in the mean time.

TFS=FUN

Yes, my film True Family Story now goes by an acronym, "TFS". Deal with it.

Anyway, in the flavour of fun, here's a few more tasty stills. I must say, doing some "horror movie" scenes in this project was WAY too much fun (and has been going over pretty well with the selected victims I've been showing footage to). It might be hard to resist doing an all-out horror movie in the future...

Regarding the film, I'm about to end the first portion of shooting, before going on some nice holidays. The film is approximately 75% shot, with the remaining shots to be done either at the end of summer (when I'm back at school), or over the Fall semester (on evenings and weekends). Then the sound and score... I'm hoping to have it completely finished to show off, come Spring 2010.

I could probably rush and push and get it done sooner, but the school year makes it hard to move it forward (what with teaching those darn students), and I don't WANT to rush it. I want to take time, and make the process enjoyable. It's my own thing, for no external client, and so I need to enjoy that.

It's actually really nice to work at a modest, humane pace.

I have a whole heap of further posts, a lot of behind-the-scene stuff about story, puppet making, lighting and so on, that I'll start tossing up here in the coming weeks. It will be an awesome thing to tackle while on vacation.

Stay tuned.

Screen Novelties

I just wanted to bring up this company's stop motion work. They mainly do commercials and short pieces for other shows, but have recently been closing a feature film deal, with The Jim Henson Company.

Their web page is here.

What I love about their creations (be sure to watch their reel) is that they let the stop motion animation be FUN. The designs are fun, the overall vibe is fun, and it's not trying to be "real". They're puppets, for Pete's sake, embrace it. Things look handmade, the designs are very silly but lovely, and it's just FUN.

Can I put FUN in capital letters enough times?

Be sure to watch their short "Mysterious Mose," that combines puppet animation, silhouette animation, and live-action puppetry. I love seeing mediums blended, and this short does it beautifully.

I think their work is wonderful, and I really hope the feature project makes it to the screen.

FUN.