Squishy Studios Blog

Voyage Trekkers Radio Play

squishystudios — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:04:44 +0000

In the darkness of space … Hear the mighty engines roar! The Voyage Trekkers defy death in … The Quest For the Golden Orb!

All of the four parts of Voyage Trekkers Radio Play has now been released! You can check them out here divided up into the four parts on YouTube.

To donate to our Voyage Trekkers Season 2 fund check us out here on IndieGoGo: http://www.indiegogo.com/Voyage-Trekkers-Season-2?a=364575

Squishy Studios Calendar – Early 2012

squishystudios — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:14:21 +0000

I thought it’d be fun to post the future events we’ve got lined up for you for the next six months or so. As you can see we’ve got an awesome year ahead of us. (On a personal note, I’m pre-exhausted just looking at it!!) And this doesn’t include Voyage Trekkers Season 2 which we’re aiming to release in September 2012!

- January 23rd – Voyage Trekkers Radio Play – Part 1

- January 30th - Voyage Trekkers Radio Play – Part 2

- February 3 & 4th – First Shoot of Voyage Trekkers Season Two!!!!

- February 6th - Voyage Trekkers Radio Play – Part 3

- February 13th - Voyage Trekkers Radio Play – Part 4

- March 5th - A NEW Voyage Trekkers Choose Your Own Adventure on Facebook

- March 17th – Voyage Trekkers Starship Bridge Fundraiser concludes.

- April 2nd - Normally This Weird Relaunch: Episode 1 - “Welcome to the Neighborhood” …also Nathan’s B-Day!

- April 9th - Normally This Weird: Episode 2 – “Starting a New Life”

- April 16th - Normally This Weird: Episode 3 – “It’s Not You, It’s Me”

- April 23rd - Normally This Weird: Episode 4 – “You’ve Got Mail”

- April 30th - Normally This Weird: Episode 5 – “Special Assignment”

- May 7th - Normally This Weird: Episode 6 – “Ivy’s Story”

- May 14th - Normally This Weird: Episode 7 – “Ghosts of the Past”

- May 21st – Normally This Weird: Episode 8 – “The Best of Both Words 1″

- May 24-27 - PHOENIX COMIC CON!

- May 28th - Normally This Weird: Episode 9 - “The Best of Both Words 2″

Voyage Trekkers DVD

squishystudios — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:38:52 +0000

Right now I’m hard at work at making Squishy Studios very first publicly sold DVD … The Voyage Trekkers Season One DVD! I’m trying like a fool to have it ready in time for the January 7th FilmBar screening. It’d be great to sell it at the event (and naturally, if you worked on the project you get one for free!). And then after that we’ll figure out a way to sell them online too. Here’s what’s planned on the disc:

- All ten episodes of the show.

- Audio commentary on all episodes.

- In-character commentary by Captain Sunstrike on four episodes.

- Double as many Out Takes as have been previously released.

- Trailer and previously released “Making of the Season Finale.”

Here’s a sneak peek of the Main Menu I’m working on, excluding the Menu Buttons:

Screen capture from the Voyage Trekkers DVD Main Menu

Stand-in Theater

squishystudios — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:10:44 +0000

This is a self-amused post of mine, apologies … So when making movies often you need a stand-in to sit where the actor is supposed to go so the crew can light the scene properly. Well, with the advent of DSLR cameras, we often take a photo so we can study the shot a bit longer and let which ever crew member we grabbed get on with their important tasks. Well, after the shoot you find yourself combing through the photos and it never fails to amuse when you discover some of these stand-in pictures, especially when compared to the real shot. Anyways, without further ado …

BEFORE; Bracken does his best Captain Sunstrike for Episode 7

AFTER; Adam does HIS best Captain Sunstrike

BEFORE; Nathan Stipes sits in for Danford in Normally This Weird

AFTER; James Hoenscheidt in a new episode of Normally This Weird

BEFORE; Clint gets his mad scientist on

AFTER; Dorian Lenz is Professor Archeval in Normally This Weird

BEFORE; Another Clint shot, this time he's sitting in for Dr. Rena

AFTER; Gabrielle as Dr. Rena in Episode 6 of Voyage Trekkers

BEFORE; Nathan Stipes gets in touch with his feminine side

AFTER; Christina Stoffan plays Vanessa in the new episodes of Normally This Weird

Ring In The New Year With Voyage Trekkers

squishystudios — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:22:28 +0000

Hey peeps! We’re really excited about a new event coming up. FilmBar is giving us a fabulous screening slot of Saturday night with TWO showings of the ENTIRE season of Voyage Trekkers! January 7th, Saturday at both 8PM and 9PM we’ll be showing every single episode of our comedy web series on the big screen.

So what’s the cause of this special event? Well, we’re trying to raise money to make another season of Voyage Trekkers and we need your help. So not only will your ticket go to funding the show, we’re also planning to sell other goodies at the event as well. We also need your help letting people know about this screening — tell friends who you think might dig the show, as this will be a great event for new fans. The cast and crew will be there, and they’ll get an opportunity to meet the people who make the show. Yay!

January 7th -- Watch Every Episode On The Big Screen

Normally This Weird Trailer

squishystudios — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:09:03 +0000

Happy Halloween everyone!

Normally This Weird – New Trailer On Halloween

squishystudios — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:27:08 +0000

The promotion of our other web series, Normally This Weird, starts this Halloween! The holiday is a perfect fit with the tone of the show, and you’ll see when we release our brand new series trailer on the 31st. This trailer is going to have brand new footage from all the new episodes we shot earlier this year. Everyone involved wanted to finish what we started with the two pilot episodes, and I’m so happy I finally get to show people the new stuff!!

Tn the coming weeks, following the trailer, will be character videos that reintroduce (or in some cases introduce) the characters and the world of the show. These character videos will also include an addition behind the scenes moments with the actors who these crazy characters.

All this leads up to the “Normally This Weird” January debut!!

Remember, you can always find the latest news on this project, and other Squishy Studios movies, at our Squishy Studios facebook page and our Normally This Weird facebook as well!

The editing timeline for the upcoming NTW trailer!

IFP/PHX Member of the Month

squishystudios — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:25:10 +0000

I was IFP Phoenix’s Member of the Month for September, and before it gets to be November, I thought I’d finally post this! :) Topics include Squishy Studios web series such Voyage Trekkers (recorded before their release) and the upcoming Normally This Weird.

What’s Up Next For Squishy Studios?

squishystudios — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:07:42 +0000

- – -

Hey everyone! So with the Voyage Trekkers season now complete, this begs the question … so what’s next? The short answer: A Whole Lot More.

Okay, the slightly less short answer….

- Normally This Weird. Our first web series. We started it before Voyage Trekkers, we only shot the first two episodes, and we always wanted to go back and finish the remaining episodes of the season. Well we did. I don’t know how we found the time or the energy, but the whole season is in the can. Expect to see the first glimpses of Normally This Weird on Halloween (a holiday which best describes the fun and vibe of this show).

The entire season is going to be nine episodes long, with the first two episodes already out, and are right here. These episodes are going to be a lot meatier than Voyage Trekkers. I once described Voyage Trekkers as “beer and dessert” … these are going to be a full meals. They’ll be seven to eight minutes long, with plots, subplots, and multiple characters. They’re comedy but there’s also going to be a heck of a lot heart to them. I think you’re really going to dig the characters.

- – -

- More Voyage Trekkers! How could we not do more? Everyone involved wants to do a second season so it’s just going to be a matter of finding the resources to do it. What this means is that there’s going to continue to be a stream of Voyage Trekkers content coming as we delve into the inevitable fund raising efforts, approaching investors, and as we take the show to comicons, festivals, and local live events.

—

So stay tuned to Squishy Studios … there’s a plethora of new and awesome content coming your way! Yay!

Season Finale of Voyage Trekkers

squishystudios — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:30:44 +0000

The first season of Voyage Trekkers is now complete. In a marathon of post-production, with over a 193 green screen composite shots, and four people working on effects alone (and let’s not leave out composer Michael Markowski), the season finale is finally out.

So I used the word “finally” … I’m writing this just six hours after it’s delayed release. At the moment it’s 7 am and most of you haven’t seen it yet. I’m really hoping, for many of you, that it comes as a surprise treat that the “last episode” is effectively SEVEN episodes, being a ‘Choose your own path’ video adventure. We wanted to end on a big note … I just didn’t grasp how big until we were in the final stretch.

It was supposed to come out on Monday (and it technically did if you live in Hawaii!), but wrangling the all the final details (from sound design to final effects) became a protracted ordeal. I was aiming for a 10am release, but it turned into 1am the next day … and for pretty much for every moment of that (except for lunch), I was chained to the computer, running on an hour and a half of sleep, fueled by adrenaline and caffeine. Not that “thrill seeker adrenaline”, it sounds weird when I describe it that way, but there is a force of energy that props you up when you’re working on a project like this. It happens all the time when I direct. You keep plugging away like a steam engine, but about a half hour after wrap is called it all nose dives off and your body suddenly remembers it’s mortality.

Special recognition goes to David Stipes as my partner in the sleepless race to the finish line.

What I really like about “Many Paths to Eden” is that is really lets the characters out of the box. And the box is the short format that the previous episodes have had, and often with a controlling theme or style. In this one, all the comedy comes out of the character’s personalities and the variations of their unique comedy.

It’s been an exhausting yet truly wonderful experience. I can’t express how grateful I am for everyone, the actors and the crew, playing along with me and running around in space man outfits with our toy guns. The fun has been infectious and I think everyone wants to do it again. I know I sure do.

Here’s the part where I sum the entire season and the show and put some perspective on the journey … but instead I think I’m just going to take a nap.