Here Today, Numberwang Tomorrow

Today: I was on set all day working special effects with a projectile-vomit rig I built the last couple of days. It was a hoot. I'll post the video whence it is completed. It felt good to build something and shoot it out over the last few days. My mom always said that I love building things and moms know these things.

Currently: I am ripped on delicious wine and watching TV with my girl. What a delightful Sunday, can't think of a better way to spend it.

Tomorrow: Lots to do that I didn't do last week as well as finishing a couple of fun projects and posting pictures of a finished model! Sweetums!

Now: Here are some selections from "That Mitchell and Webb Look;" A british sketch comedy show my girl wised me up to and this stuff is HIGH-LARIOUS. That's Numberwang!

(Also, the last one down is really really funny. But they all are. but especially the last one. And NumberWang.)

Fake Tilt-Shift Photography

As many of you know, I love miniatures and miniature photography particularly when it has to do with moon bases and space trains (and more than likely said moon bases and space trains blowing up). Anyhow, there is a type of photography you may have heard of called tilt-shift photography which makes things look like miniatures by altering the point of focus and mimicking the focal plane of a macro lens, making the human eye think the subject is much smaller than it actually is.

Stupidly, Wikipedia has a whole entry on "tilt-shift miniature faking" which I think is such a stupid name for it, because it's not really faking anything. If you built a highly detailed miniature, you'll photographic to look real, but you also want people to know you've made a highly detailed miniature.

Regardless, tilt-shift lenses are staggeringly expensive and since I don't even have a nice SLR to attach a fancy-pantsy lens to, I had to settle for some point and shoot pics I took while out and about in Long Beach yesterday, then used photoshop to create a macro lens effect and heavily saturated the color. Tilt-shift photography works best from high angles, but I didn't have access to any high angles of the city (Jesse- can I come by your loft with my camera one day?), so I just took some street level photos.

These are the ones that worked the best.







Also, if any resident optics nerds have anything to add, feel free.

Breaking Ze Mold!

Stereotypes, we know them, we hate them, we embrace them, we mock them, we rebuke them, but we all use them at some point in our lives. Personally, I'm always uncomfortable when stereotypes are reinforced in any way, like when everyone told me that everyone speaks English in Europe and then I went to Europe and English was everywhere.

So you can imagine my surprise when I met a hilarious French guy, Sebastian, this weekend who hated France and thought that America's government and people were way better than those in his home country- a country stereotyped by it's people laughing and mocking our entire way of life.

Sebastian is a smiley, rotund man who works as- I couldn't possibly make this up- a TEMP physicist. He has a delightful outlook on life, but only outside of Paris, which he doesn't seem to think is as awesome as the rest of the world. I mean, I guess I take a lot most of Southern California for granted, but it's no Paris. Still, Sebastian was exclaiming to me how utterly horrid the government of France is and I kept trying to tell him that things weren't going so hot in our country. But he would not give me an inch and he had a pretty good point- at least we are constantly given the hope of change(yes, I know the coincidence of a certain someone's campaign message).

Among other things, people talk about Los Angeles with disdain for the concrete and plastic architecture that surrounds us seeing as the city is 160 years old, whereas Paris has stood for 6200 years. !!! When things stand for over 6 millenia, I can see how change starts to come slower and slower. When you've been around for the better part of two centuries, and those two centuries exhibit some of the fastest evolution of ideology and technology in the history of a species of mammal, then I can see how Los Angeles and America may change a lot more than Paris, France.

My best wishes go out to Sebastian and the handful of other non-stereotypical French out there that are living in the horrible city of Paris, France. I will continue to appreciate my Angeleno heritage and go see the RoboCop version of the Mona Lisa on Hollywood Blvd, next to the Louvre of wax museums.

BOHICA movie trailer I cut

Here is the trailer for B.O.H.I.C.A, the independent movie I worked on last year. Do a solid and pass it on to fans of independent cinema and the afghanistan war.

Trailer


Plus sign + there is a new episode of Kitten Vs. Newborn on SuperDeluxe.com

Pay Attention: DNC and RNC footage

(Finally found the embed links to these guys so I can post them right up in this here blogtown)

Politics sure can be adorable. Have a great weekend!

Hot Scolioses Chick or So Much Content, So Little Time

I was going to write a blog about the stacked, crooked chick I saw at the Village Cafe on Sunday morning, and how her ailment accented her large breasts and cute, round ass, but I got sidetracked and didn't finish it. There's a whole world of girls out there with just a little something that's off- that somehow in my mind, makes them all the hotter stuff. For instance, a girl in college that was involved with the short fiction reading series I started came up to me to tell me how much fun she had and when she removed her glasses she had one severely crossed eye; but she was really really hot.

And now- more content that I have been too lazy to post until now.

It happened right after Townland got back from tour so I might have been too exhausted to let everyone know, but that's OK- there's just more to share now!

KITTEN VS. NEWBORN has premiered on AdultSwim.com! You can find the two candidates at their respective sites:

Republican business tycoon Frank Tambanelli, a newborn baby - http://www.babyforpresident.com/

Democratic Senator Brad Esposito, an adorable kitten - http://www.kitten08.org/

There is lots to explore on both sites, including the "Campaign Headquarters" link that takes you SuperDeluxe.com and to all the other media we created for the show. New episodes are being released, er, UNLEASHED every week and today or tomorrow they should be releasing the two hilarious convention episodes.

Since AdultSwim.com don't got no credits, I can tell my loyal MySpace blog readership that I was the visual effects supervisor making sure that the cats, babies, and peoples were properly lit against the green/bluescreen as well as developing the backgrounds and graphics for the whole show. Andy & Scott wrote and produced everything in all its hilarious satire.

Of course, a web series like this can't succeed without your eyeballs and the eyeballs or your friends, so do a solid and pass the links on so others can appreciate the presidential race by the real frontrunners of 2008.

AND! I can't believe I never posted this-


Superego: Supershort 3: Gettin' Laid With Rutherford B. Hayes from Matt Gourley on Vimeo.

On top of that- The SuperEgo Podcast just relaunched on iTunes with a brand new packed episode* featuring fancy-pantses like Jason Sudeikis(SNL, 30 Rock) and Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad, Pineapple Express) as well as your old friends Matt Gourley, Jeremy Carter, and Mark McConville.

Follow the link above and subscribe to SuperEgo to robotically download all the new episodes as well as a bevy of new short videos, like the pretty little thing above, whenever they are released.

Whew! So much! Thanks for reading. I've been busy wrapping up the final few episodes of Kitten Vs. Newborn and looking for new work, preferably out of the freelancing realm and into the office with a steady paycheck realm. But beggars can't be choosers.

Hope everyone had a good relaxing Labor day!




* Damon- you get your name mentioned in the end credits!