The Great Comet of 1812

Posted on by Thor

The Great Comet of 1812 with music and lyrics by David Malloy is built around a 70 page segment of segment from Leo Tolstoy‘s War and Peace.

In the show, princess Natasha, though engaged,  becomes smitten with the young and handsome Analole who is a womanizer.

The musical is set in 1812 Moscow Russia. Theater West End does an amazing job of allowing the large cast to mingle and perform among the audience. The fast paced music is dissonant and often slips into spoke word set to the beat. I found myself swept away and moving to the beat. So many scenes are a profound joyous celebration while others question life itself.

Seated on the upper level of the stage, Pierre Bezukkov glumly overlooked the proceedings. is wife, Helene, played a role in entangling Natasha and Analole. So much is happening that I had difficulty deciding what to include in the sketch. The center stage spins and and often the entire cast is dancing among the audience cafe tables. At one point a purple egg was dropped on my table. I discovered it was filled with rice or stones and made a nice rattle to keep beat with the music. In this was the show is a bit like the Rocky Horror Picture Show set in 1812 Russia.

This show runs through December 8, 2024. Be sure to catch it. Tickets run from $33.85 to $40.27. It is a wild time.

COVID Dystopia: At Lincoln’s Feet

Posted on by Thor

11,223 Americans died the week I did this sketch.

Funeral homes in New York could not keep up with the number of dead that needed to be buried. Cardboard boxes were propped up between chairs as a way to store the dead in every room.

The former president wanted to be interviewed at the feet of Lincoln by Fox News because appearances are very important. Appearances are always more important than facts. People eat up appearances which often go viral.

This week the former president is pretending to work at McDonald’s at the fry counter for the sake of appearances. We will see if Americans truly buy the false gestures. They seem ready and willing to accept any and all lies as long as it promotes the new normal.

COVID Dystopia will screened at the Orlando Film Festival on November 1 and 7, 2024. It won the Best Animated Film Award.

The screenings were just before and just after the American presidential election. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen now at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection at the Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition

Posted on by Thor

COVID Dystopia is an Official Selection at the Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition. The festival helps with travel expenses, so I decided to go for one day to attend the Awards Ceremony. This will the the Pennsylvania and West Virginia  Premiere for the film.

My film is being screened online as part of the Chiller Theater 2 Virtual Block. I am actually pleased that COVID Dystopia will be screened virtual since it means the screening will not help spread the virus. I also suspect people could watch the film multiple times to catch all the detail. There are 8 films in the block and COVID Dystopia is the only animated film. Honestly the film works best when surrounded by edgy, hard hitting, live action films.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

The Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition Closing Night Awards Program, is Sunday, November 24th from ⋅7:00pm to 9:00pm at the Harris Theater (809 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA). I have learned that it is worth going to the awards ceremonies, because miracles can happen, and some people are seeing truth in my warped world view.

My plan is to fly into Pittsburgh on the morning of the last day of the festival, Sunday November 24, 2024 to see a few films and attend the Awards Ceremony. I booked a room at the hotel that is hosting the filmmakers and then I fly out late the next day. That will give me a day to just hang out in downtown Pittsburgh and do a few sketches. I do hope it is not too cold. Otherwise I will have to figure out a few indoor venues to sketch.

After the festival, I get a rest since there are no other festivals set up yet. I have 6 festivals who are still judging the film. An I have to search for more festivals that seem like the right fit for COVID Dystopia. The film has an 87% rejection rate but when accepted it tends to garner awards. It is just a hard pill to swallow.

Tech Romance

Posted on by Thor

While on a long road trip my iPhone would not take a charge. I was using Google Maps to go to a location deep in the Florida back roads, an hour and a half from where I am renting a home.

The red warning blinked on, saying “low battery. I had no idea if my phone would have enough battery to get me to my destination before blinking out and becoming a useless brick. I had an iPad but it was useless since it needed a Wi-Fi connection to show the maps. If the phone died, I would have no maps, and would not be able to call my friend for directions. I have grown so dependent on the pleasant voice of my female navigator. I stopped in a Dollar General parking lot and quickly wrote out the remaining series of directions on the back of a sketch. Sure enough the phone shut down after driving a few more blocks. My pencil notes got me to where I needed to go.

I conducted a virtual art class from what felt like a peaceful country cabin on my iPad. The trip back would involve even more twists and turns but more pencil notes got me home. Actually before going home, I stopped at the Apple Store in Millennia Mall. The place was packed. Clearly everyone’s charging ports had failed at the same time. I sat at the Genius Bar and a tech quickly helped me out. He took the phone out back to find whatever had clogged the port. I had spent hours trying to clear the port myself the night before with a toothpick, but every attempt failed. I kept plugging the phone in, hoping it might miraculously decide to charge.

While I waited for the tech to come back out with my phone, I sketched. It felt good to have this low tech option to record the moment. Pencils never run out of charge and they never crash. The tech brought the iPhone back out and plugged it in. I kept sketching while the phone charged. Thankfully there was no cost for clearing the port.

Back out in the parking lot, I plugged the phone back into the car charger. I turned on Google Maps and set a course. The first thing the pleasant and familiar female voice said was, “Head North to Conroy Road.” Sigh… She understands my every navigation need. She had me at “head”.

COVID Dystopia is an official Selection of the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival

Posted on by Thor

COVID Dystopia will be screened in the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival between November 14 and November 24, 2024. It will be available to watch in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. It is one of the short films in the 40V – Chiller Theater Block 2 – VIRTUAL -Shorts24. A general admission ticket is $18.

I will be flying into Pittsburgh for the final day of the festival to attend the awards ceremony. You never know. It should be a fun black tie and black N-95 mask affair.

Hopefully I will have time to watch a few films that I haven’t seen at other festivals.

COVID Dystopia: He Shot Us All

Posted on by Thor

Being unvaccinated is like playing Russian Roulette with just one chamber empty.

With the presidential election fast approaching,  we have a candidate running for president who was responsible for trying to overturn the results of a fair election.

Will we have a free and fair election this time around? Of course not. The only advantage this time around is that he does not have the power of the office behind him.

This scene only had a depth map applied to add dimension. Spinning the chamber would have been far more complicated than it was worth. The shot lasts less than a second which is just enough time to register an impression of what is happening.

COVID Dystopia will screen at the Orlando Film Festival on November 1 and 7, 2024. The November 1 screening is at 4:15pm and the November 7, 2024 screening is at 2pm, both in theater 9. At 8pm on November 7 is the Awards Ceremony which I will also attend in case I need to pick up another award. The Orlando Film Festival runs from October 31 to November 7 at the CMX PLAZA CINEMA CAFE 155 S. Orange Ave, Downtown, Orlando FL. A one day pass is $20 and you can see a whole lot of films in one day. When I attend a film festival I treat it like a movie marathon. If you go to a screening, I will be easy to find as the one person in a KN-95 mask. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.

COVID Dystopia: Black Lives Matter

Posted on by Thor

The Black Lives Matter shot is a straight forward pan down the street towards the White House. D.C. Mayor Murial Bowser is screen left. It is a fast pan and I had to pause long enough to give people a chance to start reading Black Lives before the fast camera move. The shot still might be too fast, but that is true of most of the shots in the film. This isn’t a leisurely stroll , but a fast paced fever dream. The shot feels complete.

Yesterday I was editing the 30 second trailer for the film, and the computer crashed while it was open. This morning I opened up the complete edit of the entire film. A window opened asking if I wanted to save the file that was open when the computer crashed. I accepted, of course I want to save every version of the film that I had worked on.  I just discovered that the 30 second trailer overwrote the entire long edit of the film. WTF.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh!!!!!!!!! The shot shown here had to be re-edited to get it to work correctly.

The convoluted way Adobe Premiere Pro force saves files has been a major problem throughout the process. I now have to go over a much older version of the film and start making repairs. Adobe updated the software and many scenes moved partially off screen. The programmers must have decided ti change  the way X and y coordinates are calculated. This will waste an entire day to recover and is par for the course for Adobe.

COVID Dystopia: Corpses Clogged Up Every Creek

Posted on by Thor

The animation in this scene from COVID Dystopia simply has the two hazmat suited people hugging. The previous shot has the audience looking at that area of the screen and this motion should catch their eye.

The background is a watercolor sketch I did on location at Harry P. Leu Gardens. There is a blue tarp on the roof because a tree fell on the roof destroying it.

The annual plant sale was going on that is why there was a tend on the path next to the building.

COVID Dystopia will screen at the Orlando Film Festival on November 1 and 7, 2024. The November 1 screening is at 4:15pm and the November 7, 2024 screening is at 2pm, both in theater 9. At 8pm on November 7 is the Awards Ceremony which I will also attend in case I need to pick up another award. The Orlando Film Festival runs from October 31 to November 7 at the CMX PLAZA CINEMA CAFE 155 S. Orange Ave, Downtown, Orlando FL. A one day pass is $20 and you can see a whole lot of films in one day. When I attend a film festival, I treat it like a movie marathon. If you go to a screening of COVID Dystopia, I will be easy to find as the one person in a KN-95 mask. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.

Orlando Film Festival Awards Ceremony

Posted on by Thor

Last night I attended the Orlando Film Festival Awards Ceremony. COVID Dystopia had screened earlier in the day. That morning Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the presidential election. Trump appears in about 10 of the darkest scenes in the film. The horrific first months of the pandemic came flooding back.

I found it odd that no one stood on the red carpet as we all waited for the doors to open to the awards ceremony. It got incredibly crowded as time went on and the red carpet seemed like wasted real estate. One couple did have their picture taken and they stayed on the red carpet afterwards. The theater entrance was at the end of the carpet, so I made my way up there. Since I was alone it was easy to move anywhere I wanted.

Then an announcement was made that we should all line up n the red carpet. I was second in line behind a couple. I offered to take a picture of them with the long line behind them. Tech issues inside the theater kept the doors closed. Any time I am forced to stand in a crowd I get uncomfortable. How was the seal on my KN95 mask. A man coughed as he walked past. Maybe my goatee was too long and would break the seal. Masks work but they aren’t inflatable of no one else is wearing one.

We were finally let in. I made my way to the very back row of a decent sized theater. Most people crushed together up front. Where I sat gave me plenty of social distancing and made sure no one was breathing down my neck. Trailers were to be shown of the top feature films. Unfortunately, a screen kept cropping up accusing the user of being a bot. He would have to log in. We have all been accused of being a bot at some point and were are used to proving our humanity  by picking out photos of bikes or bridges. The audience went wild shouting to the tech to log in. I started singing “Send in the Bots” to the music of “Send in the Clowns” in my head. “Where are the bots? Send in the bots.”

When the time came for the Best Animated Short category, I was so pleased to see COVID Dystopia on the big screen as a nominee. I had to scramble to get a photo, I have trouble figuring out how to use the camera. I am more used to sketching but there was no time for that. The audience applauded all the nominees.I had seen maybe half of the nominated films. Scavengers was an awesome film from the UCF animation students. A small army had worked on that film, so it was a real contender.

Then the winner was announced and it was COVID Dystopia! I wasn’t expecting that. I had to walk all the way from the back row to the front of the theater. The steps on the way down were oddly spaced and I didn’t want to trip. Daniel Springen, the executive director of the Film Festival filled the time by explaining to the audience that they needed to see the film, he liked the pacing and how contemporary it was. I wish I had turned on my voice recorder to save the moment but I was numb and in shock.

Upon acceptance I was handed a microphone. I my Disney Feature Animation background and someone from the audience shouted out, “I loved Brother Bear“. I mentioned my collaboration with local musician Andy Matchett and talked about how I sketched rehearsals for his Apocalyptic play Key of E. After handing the microphone back to Daniel, he said something that lead me to shout out how the election of Donald Trump had made the film suddenly very relevant again. I said something bout how the 45th had mishandled the early stages of the pandemic and Daniel rightly chimed in that the festival does not support any one political viewpoint.

I had paid $60 dollars or so for a foam core mounted movie poster. I was sad the poster had not won an award for best poster. After the ceremony I worked to unstick the poster from the movie theater hallway. There were eye hooks screws into the top of the poster but they were unutilized. Then I walked around and collected COVID buttons and cards. Quite a few buttons were picked up, I was surprised. Everyone I passed congratulated me. I am not used to being the center of attention. I realized that all recognized me since I was the only person wearing a mask. They might think of the mask as a bit of theater, but it is my new reality, I wear it to all indoor events and think of it like a cummerbund of bow tie. A well fitted mask it my new formal look.

COVID Dystopia: Shot Us All in the Dick

Posted on by Thor

In this shot, all the sperm tails were animated in sync to the beat of the music. I considered offsetting the timing, but decided that having them working in unison made more sense. The added benefit of course was that I only had to animate the tail wag once and then I could duplicate it and move each to their respective sperm head.

The added depth map and camera move makes the sperm swim to screen left.

COVID Dystopia will screen at the Orlando Film Festival on November 1 and 7, 2024. The November 1 screening is at 4:15pm and the November 7, 2024 screening is at 2pm, both in theater 9. At 8pm on November 7 is the Awards Ceremony which I will also attend in case I need to pick up another award. The Orlando Film Festival runs from October 31 to November 7 at the CMX PLAZA CINEMA CAFE 155 S. Orange Ave, Downtown, Orlando FL. A one day pass is $20 and you can see a whole lot of films in one day. When I attend a film festival I treat it like a movie marathon. If you go to a screening, I will be easy to find as the one person in a KN-95 mask. We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.