Ninja vs Penguin

Ninja July 25th, 2007

Here are my rejected sketches, but I thought I’d share them with you anyway. =P

I used my own hand as reference, hehe. In addition to placing more objects in the room, there was going to be more splattered blood on the floor to make the image seem more like a cohesive whole (as opposed to just random objects placed in the same space). I was also going to add smoother blood, running off the giant robot hand, so that the pool of blood + splattered blood would make sense. Oh well, maybe I’ll use this for something else later.

Since I don’t know what a teenage girl’s room looks like (mine was really awful when I was a teen—posters + rubbish everywhere), I just used stuff from my room now. If you look at the table in the upper right, you’ll see my Dawn of the Dead dvd, James Jean’s Process Recess I, Akira Vol. 4, Pentagram’s Ideas on Design, + Noguchi’s Akari lamp. Oh, and that’s my plush toy penguin, Bacon, tucked away in the bed. =)

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Penguin July 25th, 2007

1. Have an idea. I’m not trying to be stupid. The key here, is that YOU have to find the idea interesting, otherwise, you won’t want to make the movie. Regardless of what other people say about it being cliche, or boring, make the piece that you want to make. Isn’t that the whole reason we got into this? Oh right, the millions of dollars. That’ll come one day. For now, write what you love.
2. What are you trying to say? Now you have an idea. It’s a seed, a starting point. Sure, it may be exciting, but does it matter? There are plenty of movies that don’t say anything, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But think about your favourite movies. Think about those movies you consider the cream of the crop. Even if they don’t explicitly “say” something, there’s some sort of theme that drives the movie. Does your story have a theme? Is it trying to say something?
3. Write a treatment.  You have the idea, start writing out all the scenes and action that you want to see.  If there would be dialogue, just leave a note for yourself that “// dialogue goes here”.  The idea is that you want to get the structure of your movie down on paper.  Now is the chance to look at the pacing and move scenes around or shore up plot holes.
4. Write the script.  Now, find all your “// dialogue goes here” notes, and replace them with real dialogue.  Think about your characters, model them after friends, family, enemies, just give each one a unique voice.  Give them something fun or interesting to say and try to stay away from exposition.  If you’re finding that you’re explaining the plot, then write a scene that SHOWS what’s happening.
5. Take a vacation. Done with the script? Save it! Put down your pen, or whatever media you’re using to capture your thoughts, just, step away. Your natural inclination is to go back and make edits and to think about your script all the time. But you’ve just spent all this creative energy making your masterpiece. You need to rest and rejuvenate. Just like runners need to rest after a marathon, you need to rest as well.  Go somewhere warm, preferably, with food.
6. Rewrite. How was your vacation? Sunny? Fun? Relaxing? Wonderful! Now open up your script, pick up your pen and reread what you wrote two weeks ago. Doesn’t it suck? Now rewrite it. Make your characters stronger. Make your plot more interesting. Make sure what you’re trying to “say” with your script is clear.
7. Let people you trust read it. Now is your opportunity to start sharing it with your trusted cabal. There should be a set of people who you trust to give you honest and fair feedback. People who care about you and want to see you succeed. Some of the things that say will be mean. Your favourite scene may end up being trash in their eyes. That’s perfect! You know why? Because now, you can go back and go through that scene and every other scene and try and prove to them why it’s not garbage. In doing so, you may realize that there are things in your head that you didn’t get down on paper. Or maybe they’re right. It is garbage and it should be cut. The script is more important than your ego.
8. Rewrite. Armed with the knowledge of your trusted cabal, go back and rewrite. Again. At this point, you should WANT to rewrite it. Because you care THAT much about your script.

Next, pre-production.

Happy writing!

-Penguin

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Ninja July 24th, 2007

BTOY (aka Andrea Michaelsson + Ilia Mayer) is a street artist duo from Barcelona, Cataluña Spain.

+ artists’ portraits from ekosystem.

Links:
+ BTOY’s fotolog
+ BTOY’s blog
+ interview with ekosystem
+ buy their book via belio magazine (18 euros)

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Penguin July 24th, 2007

1. Write a screenplay. Before you do anything else, you have to have a script. Your script is your blueprint, your business plan, your todo list, it’s everything. Without a script, you won’t have a movie. Even if it’s a really simple outline, have something that you can share with your actors and crew so they know what’s going on.
2. Cast, scout locations, get a crew.  Now that you have a script, it’s time to find people to help you make your movie a reality.  You’ll have to cast actors for your parts.  Find interesting places to shoot them.  And a crew to work the slate, camera, sound, food, and everything else.  Most likely, YOU will be the crew.  Especially if you don’t have any money, you won’t be able to pay anyone to do this stuff for you.
3. Storyboard. Now that you have your cast and where you want to shoot, plan out and put on paper how you want your shots set up, the camera to move, and your actors to move. A lot of times, it’s easier to show them what you want in addition to telling them. And it doesn’t have to be elaborate, just get your ideas down.
4. Shoot your movie. Grab a camera. Grab your crew. And start shooting film. If you have a script and storyboard, you’ll save a lot of time when shooting. Have fun, because it can get boring or tedious when you’re doing the same scene over and over and over again.
5. Edit your movie. Sometimes, you get the opportunity to edit the same day you shoot. If you have this luxury, take full advantage. It’ll be easier to see the progression of your film and to see if you need to shoot coverage or cutaways or reshoot some key scenes while you still have your actors. Most times, you’ll edit the whole thing at once. This usually takes 3 to 4 times as long as it took to shoot.
6. Sell your movie. You’re done! Right? Wrong. You need to go out and tell people of your new masterpiece. This does two things. First, people love movies. Once they’ve seen that you’ve finished one, your friends will by dying to get involved and be IN the movie. Secondly, you may catch the eye of some sugar daddy who’s jumping to bankroll your next project.
7. Bonus!  Watch it!  It’s all done.  You’ve sold your movie for a million dollars.  Now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Get your cast and crew together, get some friends, some popcorn, and enjoy your latest masterpiece.

Now, your done.

Happy filmmaking!

-Penguin

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Ninja July 23rd, 2007

Hallo, hallo! Good morning! =) I wish I could show you the whole process behind my blot no. 13 origami monster. Unfortunately, I can’t take photos and fold at the same time (folding is sort of a two-handed process). Maybe next time, I’ll see if I can kidnap Penguin + have him viddy record me).

Here are photos from the key stages.

Here’s the original blot supplied by Stefan.

In Photoshop, I duplicated it (apple + j) and flipped it horizontally + vertically a few times. I set the blending mode to “Multiply” so that the white background would become transparent. Then I printed out two tabloid sheets of my new pattern.

I cut them up into squares (1.5 sheets for 12 squares).

Here are my parts, all ready to be assembled.

Monster 13 all put together! Rawr! My favorite thing about this piece is the brilliant locking mechanism which allows the head, individual body segments, + tail to swivel + move independently. Huge, huge kudos to Tomoko Fuse, who designed this clever origami toy.

Here’s blot no. 13 escaping into the wild.

Most of Tomoko’s books are in Japanese. Sadly, I don’t own any of them, so I can’t be sure how the step-by-step process is (I know some origami books are tricky). But I did a quick book search on Amazon, + if you’re interested in trying out some of her pieces, here’s the link for her books.

Link:
+ buy Tomoko Fuse’s books

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Penguin July 23rd, 2007

I just want to apologize for NvP.  After the server move, we lost our database.  Even still, it was corrupt before that.  Between my day job, Love Angle, and everything else in my life, I just don’t have the time to sit down and upload the entire database again.

The process only takes an hour, but I have to find that hour.  When you’re as busy as I am, you need some time to just decompress and veg.

Hopefully, I will get around to it tonight.  The pressure from upstairs (you guys), is just overwhelming.  Thanks for the kick in the pants.

-Penguin

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Penguin July 23rd, 2007

Yesterday I found and watched most of the vidcasts from Take Zer0.  Take Zer0 is a duo of film students from SoCal.  The vidcast themselves and talked about different filmmaking topics.  In one episode, they talked a little bit about editing.  Another, they talked about lighting.

Overall, the show is pretty good.  The information is great for n00bs such as myself.  One of the irksome things about the show is their editing.  They seem to think that it’s funny to make a lot of jump edits while they’re talking.  It’s cute at first, but kind of gets annoying.

Check it out, there’s some good info there.

-Penguin

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Ninja July 22nd, 2007

Recently I read a snippet of Keret’s Kneller’s Happy Campers which prompted me to buy his book, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Short Stories. Then I discovered that director Goran Dukic had turned it into a movie titled, Wristcutters: A Love Story. It premiered at Sundance last year + will be out in theaters in late August (limited release) this year. You can check out the trailer here.

What’s it about? Before you start thinking I’m a miserable, dreary person, it’s a dark romantic comedy. It starts off with the protagonist Zia (Patrick Fugit of Almost Famous) slitting his wrists because of girlfriend issues. He is immediately transported to limbo where all the other occupants have also committed suicide. Even in the afterlife, he still suffers + pines over his former girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb). He later finds out that she was so heartsick + distraught over his death, that she too committed suicide about a month later. Purgatory’s a big place, but Zia wants to find Desiree again. So he sets off for a road trip + encounters quirky, interesting friends Eugene (Shea Whigham) + Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon) along the way. Will he find his dream girl? Will they rekindle their romance in the afterlife? I’m dying to find out (no pun intended). I definitely need to see this! =)

Random kinda-related Link:
+ buy the graphic novel version of this story, Pizzeria Kamikaze by Asaf Hanuka

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Ninja July 22nd, 2007

Gosh, I feel completely awful!

Let me back track a bit. Originally, we had set up this site to be sort of like a Threadless, but for prints. I was going to sell some of my own prints from our shop + use some of the revenue to fund a monthly contest. The NvP community would vote for a winner + we would print their poster. The cool thing would be that unknown artists would be able to get their stuff out into the public + folks would be able to own some cool art (that they hand-picked themselves). Unfortunately, with our server move issues, + our hectic jobs/schedules, we haven’t been able to do so. This dream was sort of put on hold. At one point, Penguin was holding down his full time job, 2 freelance gigs, + being a youth group leader/drama instructor at our church. And I’ve been pretty busy with my bread + butter job, wedding invites for friends, + non-profit org design work, so I haven’t had a chance to fix + tweek the bezier curves for my upcoming prints. Not to mention that since our database is down, I haven’t been able to sell my current First Kiss print. =( No worries though, we will get our ish together! In the meantime, I just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to y’all for your emails + constant encouragement. You guys TOTALLY ROCK!!!

Whew, with that being said, I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging some emails with photographer, Mr. Steffan Chyzak. He’s been patiently waiting for us to get our database back to up + running order. My deepest apologies for this long delay. And a big thanks to Mr. Chyzak for sharing his work with me! =)

Steffan has some cute lil’ animal photos like this hedgehog (+ he’s got some penguins in his gallery too, hehe). Please check out Steffan’s website (click on the photos link in the menu on the left) + if you’re interested in ordering photos, he can reached at via email at steffan@steffan-alternativedesigns.co.uk.

Also, I do get quite a bit of email (anywhere from 50–100 emails a day). Haha, not all from NvP; I’m not that popular, so I apologize if any of yours got lost in the shuffle. I promise I will do my best to reply back to y’all in a timely manner.

Much thanks for your continued love + support! =D

Cheers,
Ninja

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Ninja July 21st, 2007

Happy Saturday!!!

After I burnt my bagel in the toaster, I decided to make a monster + set it free in the wild!

Can you find blot no. 13?

There he is!

Big goofy smiles,
Ninja =D

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