CROSSED

Jetpack Comics, the greatest comic shop in the world (and where Rich works) keeps winning contests. The first was simple- people just had to comment on a website saying why Jetpack was the best. The second involved a little more work- putting the head of Dark Horse Comics' head honcho Mike Richardson on pretty much anything. I did a sweet picture of him as Spaceboy from The Umbrella Academy at my first sketchgroup attendance. 

We also made a few ridiculous gifs which, along with the billion pictures sent in, helped Jetpack win a visit from Richardson himself (which just happened Saturday). Here are the links to the gifs so they don't make this page explode while trying to load. 

Street fight

Robbery

So when Crossed, a comic I loved, announced a contest to promote the launch of a new Crossed comic, Rich came up with the idea to make a short movie. He asked me if I would edit it and to help out if I felt like it. I agreed, but wasn't too psyched about it to be honest. While I do enjoy putting together little videos (which have been a driving force of this blog), I was in full on winter lazy mode and didn't want to spend the time to try and make a movie- which I hadn't really done before. It was more of an undertaking than I wanted to commit to.

I was dumb though, because even though it took forever, it was a blast, especially the filming itself. 

Rich and Josh made tons of guts the night before (out of panty hose filled with paper towels, soaked in blood) then Josh and I headed to Jetpack to start filming when they closed. We brought Rich's super old video camera they shot every movie in college on, but figured Josh's iPhone would take better footage. Since I haven't quite bought that ridiculous camera I keep threatening to buy, these were our only options. 

Jaime came over to give Josh some sweet makeup, and we prepared for the mess. 

What started as some bumps and white,

turned into a very blatant cross I worried about,

and then ended up looking really awesome.

There was no written dialogue, no storyboards or big plans, just a basic story and old carpets that we were allowed to get all bloody. Hilarity immediately ensued with Rich not being able to get lines out. I managed to figure out a good opening that involved a cameo where somehow it looks like I'm talking when Jon Waugh talks. From there, it was pretty much Rich saying what he wanted to have happen, all of us together suggesting shots, and me somehow filming everything with both Rich's old camera and Josh's iPhone in the same hand. I'll be honest, I felt pretty cool doing this, even though Rich's camera yielded horrible looking video, and some of the iPhone shots had my thumb in them. I've never really directed anything before, and it felt pretty awesome to suddenly be sort of in charge of a video. It was all Rich's idea, but I had to think about how I would edit stuff later, so I had to think of everything like an editor. It was neat- my initial worries of the video looking amateurish and lame were pretty much in my hands- it was my job to make it NOT lame and instead as awesome as possible.

I definitely failed on a few shots that were either not great, or I didn't even think of how well certain angles would work. I also didn't really make anyone do anything more than twice, even though, in some cases, I wasn't psyched about how it looked. It was a definitely a learning experience, as, while editing, I immediately saw where we should have done things differently. "Why didn't I ask for another take when I still wasn't happy after 2?" I kept saying. Oh well, live and learn. If you haven't seen this yet, here, watch it now. Warning- if you're a wimp, then don't watch it. It's got some solid violence/gore. Make sure you click the gear button and change the quality to 720p, otherwise it looks awful.

Or if you don't like embedding, watch on youtube here.

Highest quality (select it from the drop down to watch in 1080) original (without bloopers). (if you watch this for the better quality, make sure you still watch the other one for the bloopers- they rule)

Good stuff. Based on Rich, Josh and Jesse's movies made during college, no movie is complete without a blooper reel, and no blooper reel is complete without Smash Mouth's "All Star." The "Whip My Hair" part was a pain to make but I laugh my ass off while watching it, so it was well worth the time. 

Here are some more PRODUCTION SHOTS: 

Rich laying down some blood catching plastic and rugs while Waugh stands there doing nothing:

Fake blood time: 

Setting up the wound:

The best Rich has ever looked:  

Dead Rich:

Headwound Josh: 

Beginning the cleanup: 

The actual editing of the video pretty much went like this: 

Step 1: Oh god this is horrible. Everything is so awkward. Oh my god why did I agree to doing this?

Step 2: Ok, some editing helped, but the hammer shot is the worst thing ever. 

Step 3: Ok, everything is better, but this has no feel. It's incredibly awkward.

Step 4: I need the most evil, horrible music ever to make this work. 

Step 5: Holy shit, this music couldn't work better. YES!

Step 6: I'm gonna try making the screen more red so the gore looks better and the video feels more evil and sick...

Step 7: That worked way better than it should have. I'm gonna make it more red!!

Step 8: Rich's review- the hammer hit needs to be cleaned up more, and it needs sound effects. 

Step 9: Rich records sound effects with his mouth into his phone and sends them over. 

Step 10: It works incredibly well. I have splatters, thunks, and guts sounds. Wow, this actually kind of works now. 

Step 11: Finish, export, upload, send out for approval, begin blooper reel/music video. 

Step 12: Crap, I have to go through all of this video again?! UGHKKK. My computer can't handle 7 minutes of video. 

Step 13: I need a new computer and video camera.

Everyone has been pretty psyched about the video, and hopefully Jetpack wins again. The link was re-tweeted by Avatar Press, the company that puts out Crossed. It was re-tweeted by a bunch of other people too, which rules. It doesn't have the number of views I was hoping for based on all the re-tweets, but I'm blaming that on people not watching the credits. Oh well. 253 views and 7 likes is still pretty sweet.

Making movies, although involving a ton of time editing, is super fun. 

currently listening to: It Dies Today- The Caitiff Choir