Picture Day

Walking along with my son listening to him complain about having to get a haircut for his upcoming high school senior photos.  Went home and drafted this dialog and then recorded my voice over.  Then forgot about it for a couple of months.  Well, summers almost gone and I dove in and shot this Roald Dahl styled shorty.  Also shot it vertical to upload later as a YT Short but this version is definitively superior.  Enjoy?

 

Lonely X 3

Its been a while since I asked Hobos or Ghosts and it turns out the most likely answer is a return to the loneliest ranger.   Lonely Ep. 2 was a fun project and some of the best parts of the project were writing the script, casting the characters and then adding the voices to the project and seeing everything come alive.  The hobo project (See the World...) and the ghost project (Windows) are much more visual projects with limited dialog and I just couldn't find enough enthusiasm once the scripts were written (also been playing far too much Fallout 3/New Vegas since I picked them up on sale on Steam).  I'm setting them aside for now. 

I had a few ideas for a new Lonely Ranger adventure and after a month of thought (and post apocalyptic gaming) I managed to draft a new script about Ranger participating in a Laser Tag tournament.  A second draft managed to pare down from 10 pages to a lean & mean 7 which I think is the sweet spot for my projects (6-7 minutes of run time and approximately 4 months of production).  Some of the action will be a challenge but I think the humor is solid.

While scripting I managed to find/kit-bash a suitable laser tag harness and I'm currently hard at work on creating the laser tag arena.  Once I'm convinced that the setting is doable I'll review the script again and then look to get started casting some of the characters.  

Hobos or Ghosts?

All right, Lonely Episode 2 is done (Long Live Lonely Episode 2! Death to the new flesh!). What's next? My daily script idea exercise from January birthed two short scripts that I'm equally excited about. However, both have significant challenges.

 
See the World By Rail - Hobos ride steam trains in the 1930s (ish). It's a simple set up with a tiny twist at the end. 3 page script. Not a lot of dialog with 3 or 4 key visual moments. Would require some detailed small terrains (maybe the purchase of the terrain generator), an animated steam train (recently purchased) but the biggest challenge would be animating a hobo convincingly playing a guitar in two scenes. Also while it will be short (< 5minutes), the lack of dialog, my failings as an animator and decision to stay in IC8 as opposed to UE5 will likely make this a "one for me" project. Well, let's face it. They are all one for me projects...haha.

Windows - This one is a workplace horror (a common theme from me...) focused on a window washer working on a skyscraper haunted by ghosts of Covid's past. Not a lot of dialogue but I think the post-covid theme is strong (and that's coming from someone who does plenty of eye rolling at the term post covid). Three or 4 difficult special effects and the set pieces would be exteriors 40 stories high in a city with some significant interior sets on the other side of the window.

Earlier in the year I thought I would finish "Lonely Ep2" and hit the ground running fast and furious on "Windows" to get it out by Halloween. Now, I'm pretty sure that's not possible and have opted for a more relaxed schedule. So..."See the World by Rail" looks like the next.

At this point I've worked up 5 hobo characters (hobo clothing is hard).

Also been researching the Terrain Generator for some custom exterior sets. I'll likely purchase it and get busy living on the holiday weekend. More news soon.

Lonely Episode 2 - The Package Thief

Amidst all my social media neglect I managed to complete and upload my latest project!

It was a fun project with outstanding voice actors, some amusing moments, a reasonable runtime  and project length (4.5 months of hobby time).  Almost time to move on to the next...

The Idea Log

This year I started keeping a journal of daily story prompts/ideas.  I'm about 30 days and its been a pretty good exercise to get my creative juices flowing.  Since I'm re-reading the list every day many of the ideas have been reworked and (hopefully) improved several times over while other ideas have evolved into totally different stories using various pieces from the journal.  

So far I have managed to complete 1 short draft and have outlined several other ideas.  It also gives me an excuse to post to twitter on a daily basis (social activity!) and I might try to post a weekly group on this blog.  To wit:

1. While digging up dinosaur bones a paleontologist finds the bones of a murdered man.
2. A pet cat meows every time a person in the room tells a lie.
3. 
   A shared box of valentines chocolate turns a class of second graders into rabbits.
4. A haunted storefront window becomes a viral sensation.
5. A son rides the rails searching for his hobo father. 
6. A building cleaner finds their life in danger after leaving a silly/harmless note on an employee's desk.
7. A man is obsessed with confronting an awful middle school child.

Lonely; The Package Thief (WIP 1)

As I mentioned in my last post, my first project for 2024 will be a new episode of Lonely, tentatively titled "Tough Talk and the Package Thief".  In this one the Ranger's mask gets him mistakenly identified as his apartment building's package thief.  Mild guffaws ensue.

The script was finalized early January (7 pages) and I then posted a casting call on CastingCallClub.com with 4 speaking roles; An elderly couple, a sexy widow and a man making a funeral speech.  I decided to pay 10$ per role (sunk costs for a project that will generate zero dollars) which pumped up the number of auditions and I got a good range of actors for each role with a total of 93 submissions.  Last weekend I selected the actors and now I expect to receive the lines by the end of February.

I've got a draft of my three sets and all speaking characters complete.  Hoping to have a completion date mid 2024 if I'm lucky.  More news as we go!  

2024 Goals

 Gunderson is complete and I have some thoughts on the process and the results but they fade as I look forward.  Maybe it'll come back up later but for now...What are my goals for 2024?  

• A possible transition to UE5.  I've spent several hours this week watching tutorials and this weekend I managed to setup the live link plugin and actually imported a prop, character and camera into UE5.  Next up is figuring out the take recorder and render.  The learning curve is very big (and daunting) but I've managed to decrease my confusion level at least one small notch.  

Some issues bouncing around my head this weekend:

• I have a fair amount of RL assets that I would need to get the extended licensee or replace the asset.  I can get two widely used cloth bases updated for about 25$ a piece but the RL hair assets will likely be much more expensive.  Is this the road I want to go on?

• If all the UE5 clips get exported as images, does the audio get pasted back in later? 

• Upload some assets to the RL marketplace. I have not uploaded anything since they phased out the old uploaded application.  Partly because of tech issues and partly out of spite.  Its likely time to put up some of the assets I've created for my last batch of projects.  There's lots of small props that I can put up for cheap (or free).

• Get back to writing as I didn't do much of that in 2023 (Gunderson took up all the available air).  Had some ideas, created one outline and nearly drafted one script.  Should do more of this as I think its my favorite part of the creative process.

• Lonely #2 - This is the one script I nearly completed in 2023.  And as of today the first draft is complete at 7 pages.  That's my sweet spot for projects with a completion timeline likely looking like 4-6 months depending on the route I take for VAs and whether I decide to try my hand at UE5 for some or all of the scenes.  It's got 5 scenes, 3 sets, and 5 major (more than two speaking lines) VA roles.  Character and set development is well under way.  More on this soon!