Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Gun: Why You're Stoked and You Don't Even Know It.

In this day and age, everybody with a computer thinks they're special. I mean, just look at YouTube for example: I spend 7 months on a cartoon that over the course of 5 months gets just over 100 hits, where somebody can take a dump on an animal and get 2,000,000 in just under 5 min.

With the new modern technology that lets anybody in the world make their own media content and potentially reach millions of people comes the inevitable over saturation of fields that I've been interested my whole life; certainly before there was ever any internet. It almost makes it that much HARDER to get your stuff noticed, because there's an incredibly huge amount of shit to sift through and it's not hard to get lost or stuck in it's murkiness. These days, you have to do something either incredibly ambitious or totally stupid to get noticed. So I'm doing both.

I keep referring, in this space, to the "Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Gun Project." I kept from labeling it anything other than "project" because I wasn't sure if my initial ambitions would still be clearly manifesting themselves 4 months after production started. Guess what: They are.

Thats why I've decided to attempt the impossible: Create the worlds first feature-length (animated) film done in full (except maybe some voice acting and music) by 1 person.

I'm doing this for a few reasons. One of the reasons is I can't tell the story I want to tell in less than an hour (which will probably end up being "feature length" enough for me). There's just too much to go over, and I don't want to make it feel rushed like I did with Lunchbox Duck Does it Right Episode II.

Another reason is the way I'm going about writing it. The entire film, while initially having a basic outline, is being written and created scene-by-scene. This is basically a measure I'm taking to make sure I don't get bored. If I were to do each step at a different time I would get bored and unmotivated. I have 2 or 3 scenes in production at any given time, it's just how I'm choosing to do it. The other reason I'm doing this is for freshness. I find that my best ideas are my initial thoughts and not ones that have had time to marinate over time... epically with a comedy in the vein as this. I want to keep it fresh for no only the audience, but myself.

So, this is a project. With everything I have so far, I's say I'm about 1/6 to 1/7 of the way completed. Not close, but not entirely ridiculous.

I will leave you with a previously un-released clip (unless you check my youtube site) thats been waiting to go to into final production for almost a month now. But here it is, about 95% done.

ooh, by the way... if you want to check out my other shit click HERE

We're going on a Dance ah-choo

Many of those sketches from last post are more than just random images shat out onto paper from my knuckles to your eyes; most of them serve a purpose. I like telling people that I have a fully functional animation studio in my apartment because not only was it expensive, but I use it quite often... that means that a majority of my ideas evolve from sketches and notes. Well, here are some of the work that has specifically been derived from those sketches.

^Some head. Experiment with photoshop techniques

^Another Photoshop test



^ Here's my mockup intro to a (now on hold) pilot show called Beasts of Lore





^Another Beasts of Lore test featuring one of the main characters, Gillard, a half man, half cow... man. Please notice the dirty-ass paper I was using and how terrible it makes everything look. This is a perfect example why I always test, test, TEST!

NEXT POST: Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Gun and why you should be stoked and shitting in your jeans.

-Kev

Run.

^ Just a lazy-ass scan, wow.

^Few sketches and plot balloons. I don't know if "plot balloons" is a real term or not; perhaps I invented something glorious. Anyway, they're super helpful.

The first 6 Minutes in stunning video diary!

The first 6 minutes (and then some) of Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Gun, is 100% animated and edited. There is still a small segment I want to put in between 2 scenes that would better clarify things, but for now, it's just an idea.

So, I'm really stoked on how this all turned out, and so I've taken the liberty of going through the first 6 minutes and taking a few snapshots of how the final product looks.



^it starts off with a rockin, fast-paced opening credits sequence. There are many cuts and effects put in place here. Theres also an underlying story that doesn't have anything to do with anything, but it's basically a copped-up, re-edited version of the original scrapped intro. I like this one better.


^My name happens to be in every single credit.





^ A few more happenings during the opening credits



^Hooray! The title!



^scene change- We meet Officers Frank and Marty, as well as the chief of police, Paul Stuck. The introduction is brief however, as there are better things to focous on.






^Scene change- we see Stan arm wrestling a pig. Before this, I plan to add that short sequence I mentioned earlier. As satan enters, we discover that Stan is involved in Illegal, Underground, Left handed pig arm wrestling. After a moment of arm wrestling, a shotgun goes off. A cat jumps up and yells "FARMER!" as he is mauled by a herd of animals hastily making their way to the exit.






^Satan has made it out of the barn through the commotion. But... "Wheres Stan?". cut to Stan laying down on his back. We see a creepy old man slowly make his way to him... they have an awkward conversation for a moment, before we change scenes.

(oops forgot to include the old man. sorry)


^lengthy scene change includes many pans and zooms throughout the city, to the saxaphone.


^After the scene switch, we come across Frank and Marty again. This scene is (almost) verbatim to their first comic introduction. Much nostalgia.

Well this it folks. There are other scenes that are indeed finished that aren't here, but they take place later on and I'm just not there yet.

So, tell me what you think (I'm pretty sure this is getting posted on my Facebook, as well?) about what you saw. The art direction, the characters, anything. lemme know! comments!

Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Comeback

In 2003 I attempted to create a cast of characters that I could use in a sort of "Film Noir" type story about a man named Stan, his companion, Satan, and their quest for a priceless antique Gun. Like so many others, the idea faded away into oblivion.

Two years later, we're at September, 2005. I ressurrect the characters, but drop the whole storyline. The title, Stan, Satan, and the Old Fashioned Gun didn't apply, but I chose to stick with it simply for the fact that it delightfully didn't any longer make sense. I chose to spiral the story into craziness with more stupid characters and insane situations, and it worked. The characters clicked, the story, while palable and limited, successfully infused each character with an important role and interesting situations (Like jail and record deals).

I continued on with this comic, and to this day is the longest running project I have. With 170 6-pannel comics just under the belt, theres a lot of content to work with, some good, some bad. I've slowed down considerably (from a new comic every day to a new comic every 6 months or so)due to other projects, but I always had it by my side while I took on the task of my new Animation projects like Lunchbox Duck Does it Right and Beasts of Lore (Both on YouTube).

Flashforeward to Now... almost August 2008.

The inevitable happens: Production begins on Stan, Satan, and the Old fashioned Gun Animated Cartoon. But it's a whole different animal...

Whereas the comic is black and white, the cartoon is simple, solid colors. Each character is represented by 3 colors ... black, white, and one other color thats specific to the character (Stan is blue, Satan is red, etc. etc.)

Now, production is about 3 weeks in, with about 4 to 5 minutes completed already. Each frame is also very expensive, costing me almost a dollar every time something appears on screen. The style and editing is alos very unique... when the project is over, I want it to be like nothing else in entertainment... and so far I'm on the right track.

Pretty large ambitions, I know, but I don't know how to have any other kind. With production moving along like it is, I have a slated release date of mid 2009.

Oh. did I mention...

I'm attempting the first ever (as far as I know) feature film made by a single person. We'll see how that goes.

More, More, Beasts of Lore

First off, I'd like to sincerely apologize for the shittyness of the title of this post. Ok, with that off my chest, we can get down to business.

Secondly first off, I want to kind of think about an episode of Rockos Modern Life for a minute. Remember that 2-parter where Rocko and the game make a cartoon? If you recall, Ralph Bighead (famous cartoonist) wanted to get away from cartoons and do someting a little more arty. Well, he finally does and nobody gives a shit. He is followed around by his past as a cartoonist and its impossible to move on.

I kind of feel like Ralph Bigehad a little bit.

Not so much in the "leaving animation" area, but in the way that i want to do something more than comedy, I'm just afraid people won't give two fucks of shit. Beasts of Lore is still a comedy, at it's heart, but it also revolves around some dark themes, a deep story, and some heavy issues. It touches on terrorism, racism, oppression, and mass murder to name a few things, and I'm not even done writing it yet.

This isn't the first time I've delved into that area, though. One of my Original movie scripts, "In the Rain" which I finished back in '05 or '06 was about a guy who's suppressed child within begins to emerge and fuck his shit up. There were some really terrible things expressed in that screenplay, like heavy drug use, promiscuous sex, and murderous betrayal. It too, also had quite a deep and complicated story; filled with flashbacks and clues, even a few missing parts that were left out on purpose for reasons I won't give here. The ending was also a surprise ending that I was mad proud of.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...

I just want people to embrace it. Look at it, be attracted by it's visual style, listen to it, and be captivated by the soundtrack (which is %100 not done by me, so you know it's good) and superior voice acting (you bet). I'm trying to create a certain feeling with this; one of excitement, angst, and depression- set to the theme of a comedy.

I'm treating this one with kid gloves. One wrong move and I could have a huge fucking waste of time and an even bigger de-motivation for future projects.
-k

Beasts of Lore

I have a serious problem with staying focused on projects, epically in the shadow of bigger, better, bolder, bigger, better projects. Lunchbox Duck Episode 1 took me, what, a month or two to complete? Episode 2 took me... almost 7 months? Now, part of that was it being winter, that special time of year when my already low motivation levels can't slip past the harsh boundaries of sitting and watching a movie. But it's been summer-y for awhile now, and I'm back in full swing with new ideas and a fresh new pilot in the works.

I'm going to be the first one to admit that I wasn't happy with the way episode 2 turned out. It's 100% my own fault, and every problem that I identify I can attribute to not only the time it took me to make the damn thing (I forgot how characters were placed in a scene and then I would do the connecting few lines months later and the characters would flip to a different position) but the computer transition as well. I also didn't storyboard the episode at all, which was another huge problem in the continuity. The editing was also sub-par, and I don't really have an excuse for that because I finally actually have a real editing machine.

Ok, enough re-hashing. Lunchbox Duck episode 3 has begun production(with a complete storyboard and new animation models for the stars), but is totally not thrilling to me right now. It will come back into the light sooner or later, but right now, I've got something much cooler to tinker with.

Now, the new pilot I'm working on- I've had this idea FOREVER, and it's gone through many many different phases and genres and characters, but I think I might have a formula that actually works. It's urban, it's gritty, it's surreal, and could possibly be an artistically viable piece of work when finished. The tentative title is "Beasts of Lore". It takes place in modern times, only I've exaggerated it severely. I use photography collages as the backgrounds, and straight pencil on paper sketches -no color- on the characters. It creates kind of an odd look that is 100% different than my previous projects, but thats what I wanted, and thats why I haven't started this project till now.



So far I have some of a script written, but I will re-write it and then storyboard it and then start animating. I have the backgrounds done because I wanted to get the feel of it down, and the character designs are fully animated and scanned and imported and ready to go... I just need to strengthen the story and it's a go!

Oh, this is a comedy by the way. Not in the same sense as LBDDIT, but it has jokes and strange characters.