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.

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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.

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- 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.

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

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.

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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.

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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.

Things have been simply nuts lately with the Season Finale of Voyage Trekkers fast approaching.  Here’s a Behind the Scenes video on the making of that mentioned season finale:

From the Voyage Trekkers season finale, "Manys Paths to Eden"

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Hey gang!  I wanted to keep everyone in the loop on the release schedule for Voyage Trekkers (yay!).  As the season is nearing the end, here’s what we got in store for you….

* SEPT. 5  (MONDAY) - “Voyage Trekkers – Episode 8″

* SEPT. 12 (MONDAY) - “Voyage Trekkers – Episode 9″

* SEPT. 19 (MONDAY) - “Voyage Trekkers – Special Features & Behind the Scenes of the Finale”

* SEPT. 26 (REVISED; MONDAY) - “Voyage Trekkers Out Takes” 

* OCT. 3 (REVISED; MONDAY) - “Voyage Trekkers – Episode 10: The Season Finale”

So why the “Special Features” and “Season Finale build up” delay you ask?  Well the season finale is going to be a big, big episode.  We’re really kicking down the door with this one …  It’s going to be a genuine ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ … that’s right, you can actually pick the path that the story goes, and it’s all going to be with video.  It’s a very ambitious undertaking.  We’ve actually shot more footage for this final episode than for the first three episodes combined!  …and it’s going to take more time to finish.

In the meantime, here’s some teasing behind-the-scene photos of upcoming Voyage Trekkers episodes!

Episode 9 is an all green screen environment

Previz for the Episode 9 environment

Episode 8 takes place in the Captain's Quarters .... oh yeah!

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Episode 3 was shot on the day after shooting Episode 1,2, and 5.  With our environment now inside, things were a lot less hectic.  Well, less stressful at any rate, and we certainly had better bathrooms!  That first day my eye balls were practically exploding out of my head with stress.  On the second day I was much more confident that were going to pull off this crazy venture.

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Craig Curtis plays one of the doomed Cassigar Barbarians

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Major thanks goes to Dorian and Krissy Lenz who own NCT Phoenix, the National Comedy Theatre, and who graciously let us run around their place like crazy people.  This episode was a nice change of pace, as it was more action than dialogue this time, and was a lot of fun to shoot but it was much more complicated.  You’ll notice there’s many more storyboards for this episode than for Episode 2.  

The sash that Craig is wearing in the picture above, that’s actually fabric from of the casino backdrop in our short film “Until the End of Everything.”  We try to sneak it into as many of our projects as possible.

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I hate to point out things that may break the suspension of disbelief on a second viewing, but you can clearly hear our smoke machine giving an occasional “puff” of air in several shots.  I added other noises, like dripping water and cave echo to the scene, to give the location more of a “evil base” ambience, but  also to distract from the sound.

In the end this is one of the episodes I’m happiest with.  It’s fast, quick, visual, and has some great comedic suspense as it sets up a solid punch-line.  Not that I don’t have regrets or wish I would have done some things different …  That’s the way it always is, you beat yourself up on mistakes no one else (or so you reassure yourself with) can spot.  You can work yourself into madness if you don’t let it go and just move on.  After all, in the end, movies aren’t released … they escape.

The Adventure Starts This Sunday!

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Oh, and if you haven’t heard, we’re having a second Voyage Trekkers “Choose Your Own Path” Adventure!  It starts Sunday morning (August 21), with five daily installments that you can vote on our Squishy Studios facebook page and choose the path that the crew takes.  So that’s five days of interactive fun in this text-based story, with the conclusion on Friday, August 26.  We really want to step things up a bit, so expect a few bits of originally art … including a finished poster with several of the story elements that were chosen at the end!

Clint as a “Cassigar Barbarian” (that’s our Klingons)

The Adventure Starts This Sunday!

I thought I’d try something new and hopefully interesting by providing some “director’s commentary” on recently released episodes of Voyage Trekkers.

(oh, and since we’re going straight to Episodes 2, if you want to learn more about making the Lizard mask from Episode 1 head over to this blog entry right here)

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Commentary:  Voyage Trekkers Episode 2 – Social Network

Originally we were going to do this with a green screen background because I wanted this world to be a far-out alien environment.  Also I wanted to make the three desert episodes, all shot in the same freaking day, look as if they weren’t shot on the same location.  We had a big portable green screen on hand, but once our Visual Effects team did a few tests, they realized it would be just too dicey to pull off in the time we had.  It would then be up to modifying the colors in post-production to create the different looks of the worlds.

I don't know, I kinda like the jeans look...

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Episode 1, 2, and 5 were all shot on a cloudy day, on December 18th 2010, at the base of the Superstition Mountains.  It was a wild environment.  There was jumping cactus, a few broken bottles … a few bullet shells … ah the old west!  Shooting outdoors is always tough.  Not only for the obvious physical conditions, but also in terms of the ever changing lighting conditions.  Balancing out the different levels of bright and cloud sunlight became, and still is since I’m editing Episode 5 right as we speak, a real wrestling match.

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Notice the mountains from "Episode 1"?

The Ambassador’s outfits are really funny … I just love ‘em.  Nathan Stipes’s mom, our production designer, made the outfits herself.  In the concept designs we called them Space Hippies.  I wanted something that came close to some of the sillier original Star Trek aliens (remember Space Hippies?).  But the look we ended up liking were the cultist priest robes from Conan the Barbarian.  We showed Nate’s mom of a picture of the priests and said that was what we were kinda going for … and what we got back was essentially (except for color) an exact reproduction of the picture!!  Okay, so if asked I’m going to call it a purposeful homage.

Lastly I’m including the storyboards from the episode so you can see how the final product compares.

If you have any other questions about this episode go ahead and leave a comment for me in the blog and I’ll get right back to you!

Just six days after “Voyage Trekkers” premiered, we were on the set making new episodes to fill out the ten episode season.

The season finale, entitled “Many Paths to Eden” (formerly “Paradise World”; it sounds much more like an original Star Trek episode now), is quite ambitious.  For those of you wishing the episodes were longer you’ll be pretty happy with this one.  We shot more footage for the final episode than we did for the first three episodes combined!

The episode was such a bear to wrestle we were only able to finish three of the four scheduled episodes that weekend.  We’ll have to pick up the remaining episode some time soon in August.

Episode 3 – Birthday Surprise is out now, if you haven’t checked that out yet.  Also expect a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot to be coming down the pipeline as well.  In the meantime, enjoy some more photos!

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The Voyage Trekkers Screening Party on Monday was a heck of a lot of fun and a big hit.  We packed the house, screened our short “Zombie Team Building” along with the first three episodes of “Voyage Trekkers”, and ended on an audience Q &A.  We’ve done quite a few of these premieres now, and I have to be completely honest, this was really the best we’ve ever had.  It was just a warm fuzzy glow of yayness.

The event was thrown at FilmBar, which is just a great downtown venue, quickly emerging as Phoenix best indie movie hangout.  Maybe it’s just me, as I’m probably the only one that’s a bundle of panic and nerves at these things, but I must say that the availability of purchasable beer also made the night much more enjoyable.

The event was the launch of the weekly comedy web series, which you can see the first episode right below.  Also be sure to check out more photos from the event!

 

For more of “Voyage Trekkers” check us out at either www.voyagetrekkers.com or www.squishystudios.com!

 

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Almost there!  With the “Voyage Trekkers”premiere bearing down on us, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, sleeping five or six hours a night, rolling out of bed and getting right back to the computer to get this project ready.  But worry not, for this burning candle is a wonderfully scented … there’s a lot of exciting things coming your way.

From the Squishy Studios website (www.squishystudios.com)

Voyage Trekkers Website.  If you go to www.VoyageTrekkers.com you’ll be redirected to our new Voyage Trekkers page on the Squishy Studios site.

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Captain Sunstrike's Personnel File

Character Profiles.  On the site, instead of the boring character bios, we’ve created their Galactic Union personnel files.  These will update as the crew continue their adventures.

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The weekly Captain's Blog will at Squishystudios.com / VoyageTrekkers.com; right now the page is slow to load, appologies

The Captain’s Blog.  This is exciting.  Captain Sunstrike will post a weekly blog of his adventures on the website.  This will include adventures both seen and unseen in the episodes.  A good source of expanded universe fun!

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Voyage Trekkers Screening Party.  The online premiere is July 18th, but if you’re in Phoenix, come join us at FilmBar at 8PM.  We’re screening the first three episodes!  Admission is $5.  Here’s the link to the facebook event.

Episode 1 – Rescue From the Lizard Men.  Monday morning is the premiere of the first Voyage Trekkers episode.  It’s entitled “Rescue From the Lizard Men.”  This will be the kick off to our weekly installments of our ten episode season, so tune in every Monday for a new adventure.  The episodes will be available on our YouTube Channel.

Just a few more days … can’t wait!  Yay!