Shirts are here!

The t-shirts are now in! I'll be getting the Shirts already ordered by people to them in the very near future. I do have a small inventory built up now, so people who want to purchase one can now received their shirt within just a few days. In the future, I may go to one color printing. It would save a few dollars per shirt, and I'm thinking of adding something besides just the logo but I'm not quite sure yet. That would make the current shirt a discontinued collectors item, so be sure to get one while they're still around! ;-)

Good news & bad news

The good news: the animated FDP logo is alive once again! Instead of trying to extract it from my backup disks and risk over-filling my hard drive (which I guess wouldn't have happened, but I didn't know until after the fact), Matt extracted it from his backup disks and e-mailed it to me over the weekend and I promptly inserted it into the movie.

The bad news: SodaNation, the group who gave us the song "Computer Life" to use in the film, has disbanded. We'll still be able to use the song, but I was going to promote them a bit in the credits.

What? Almost done, you say???

Since Shawn was taking up all of my LOTRO time today, I continued editing the movie from this morning. I now have the majority of it completed. Abbie's reshoot is the only major item needed. Other than that, I have to grab the Flaming Death animated logo from backup disks. Then it's finished! Yes, Matthew, you're voice-over is no longer needed! Turns out that the boom mike noise blends in with the background ambiance sound file I'm using, so it's all good. I'm going to change the film from color to black and white, but I haven't made a solid decision on that yet. I'll have to create one of each and compare them.

And oh... by the way, Happy New Year!

Shirts ordered

T-shirts have been ordered! I put in an order for two small, two medium, four large and four extra-large shirts last week, so I should have them in a couple of weeks. One medium and two extra-large are now spoken for. I do have one extra-large from the first batch on hand right now, however.

The first two minutes and 17 seconds of "Luke & Leia" have now been edited. I'm going to try to get everything done this weekend with the exception of the items that need to be redone. Looking good, though. I have it in widescreen format now as well.

Editing, shirts, and more

After a minor little setback, I was able to start the editing process over the weekend. One thing I did notice that was previously NOT seen was that the boom mike got into the shot. I haven't gone through all of the video to see how many times it makes an appearance, but hopefully I'll be able to crop that out. If we had filmed in letterbox format, it wouldn't be an issue. However, I believe the program I'm using can accomplish that task as well.

We also have Abbie's re-shoot coming up at some point soon. At some point we'll have to get Matthew's short voice-over recorded, and then a photo shoot for promotional purposes (DVD cover, etc.). I haven't picked a time frame for the photo shoot yet, but Matthew and Mitchell should start thinking of what days are free for them in the first quarter of next year if at all possible.

Flaming Death Productions t-shirts: who wants one?! You know you do! Hehe! I'm going to be submitting an order in at some point soon, and if the facility I go through still has a minimum order number then I need seven more shirts to order that haven't been spoken for. I could go and order the rest and sell them later on, although it would be easier on my finances if we could get enough to cover at least half of the full order. If you've been a part of the cast or crew in either "Yoda's Treasure" or "Luke & Leia", I'll sell them to you at cost plus shipping only if needed. Just a little bonus for being part of the FDP gang.

Annnnnd if you haven't noticed yet, FDP is now on Facebook! Just do a search for Flaming Death Productions and we're listed there.

That's it for now. Thank you for reading the mega-post!

Movie progress?

Since it's been asked, I thought I would address the question of how the movie is coming along. At this point, I have each of the individual shots ready to be edited together except for the scene with Abbie that needs to be re-shot, the music, and any files needed to edit the thing together. I would have been further along in the process and completed the majority of the editing already if it wasn't for two things: 1) busy weekends, and 2) Lord of the Rings Online's expansion pack "Mines of Moria". Poor excuse, I know, but it's addicting. I just have to sit myself down at some point and tell myself "You ARE going to do this today." Unfortunately, today isn't one of those days since I'll be out of town. Maybe I can find some time tomorrow.

Maybe. :-P

Congratulations!

A little late on the news here, but congratulations go out to a few Flaming Death Productions people. Wade and Amanda Wolkenhauer had a baby boy, Paul Arthur Wolkenhauer, on October 20. In addition, Chris and Tina Marler had a baby girl, Emma Ruth Marler, on October 25. Feel free to send any congratulatory messages via the e-mail button on the left side of the web page, and I'll make sure they are forwarded on to the happy parents. :-)

And now for something completely different

Just a little promotional plug here for Kevin Smith's latest.

Sci-Fi Party and other news

For those of you looking for the website for my 17th Annual Sci-Fi Party, head on over to http://flamingdeath.net/scifiparty/.

In movie news, the beginning shots for "Luke & Leia" were filmed on August 24. So far it looks like I'll have one voiceover for Matthew to do, and unfortunately we have to reshoot Abbie's close-up. Hopefully we'll be able to do that at some point in the near future and then we'll have all filming complete.

In other news, you may have heard that Don LaFontaine has passed away. He was the BEST for voiceover work in movie trailers, commercials, etc., and was most recently seen in a few Geico commercials. R.I.P., Don.

Flaming Death Stockroom updates

I made a few changes in the way the Stockroom operates. All orders are now tied into PayPal, and it's pretty slick. For some reason, the donation button in the left menu isn't working properly in IE but works with Firefox, so if you're having issues when donating and don't have Firefox then just use the e-mail button and let me know so we can circumvent the issue. There's a couple other tweaks I need to make, but I'll save that for another day. Off to bed!

Sodanation news

"Computer Life", the song featured in "Luke & Leia", is getting its own video, and they've got photos from their video shoot. Check 'em out!

Updates & other progress

First of all, I've added a lot of updates to the Luke & Leia site. Pictures, cast, crew,...well, see for yourself!

Second, I've finished downloading all of the footage obtained so far and created clips from it. The next step will be editing the clips into a meaningful and flowing scene. The sound needs a little work, but that's to be expected. The good news is that almost all of it turned out great. There was only one line that will need to be a voice-over piece which compared to Yoda's Treasure is a vast improvement (which had the entire first act redone in voice-overs). I also have Sunday the 24th lined up for filming the intro scenes with Marshall, so I'll have all my footage before the end of the month barring any problems.

How it went

Sunday, I started downloading the film footage from Saturday and got as far as Marshall's lines. So far so good. I'm hoping that I didn't forget anything while filming. I might get Matthew and Marshall together again for a photo shoot, though. That should be easy enough to do locally. I should have thought of that while everyone was together on Saturday. Actually, there are a few things I forgot on Saturday, but they're nothing that can't be worked around. Like I intended for Marshall to wear his hat backwards and be chewing gum. Not too important, but the backwards hat thing I can do in the intro to the movie which I have yet to shoot with him, plus we can do it in the photo shoot as well. I also had intended for someone else to run the camera. It's a bit messy trying to find each take since I just kept the camera rolling in some spots, but it's workable. I'm planning on getting the rest of the shots downloaded by the end of this weekend.

Ouch!

Matthew Carlson, one of the two leads in "Luke & Leia", had a little accident last night on his skateboard ("I fell on my face"), and it is more than likely going to leave him with a nice black eye which he can mostly cover up with his long hair. Alan (his father) looked at it this morning, and it wasn't bad (yet). Swollen a tiny bit, too. If nothing else, maybe I can work it into the script. And no, his character won't be attacked by a wampa in the first act to account for his injuries.

I also received a call from Marshall last night to confirm Saturday's plans, and he informed me that the person that we were thinking of using for a waitress is having her wisdom teeth out so she will be unavailable for filming. Must be the time of year for yanking out teeth! My daughter Shelby lost two of her baby teeth in the past week, and my youngest daughter Savannah lost one of hers just last night!

We do have a second camera for Saturday (courtesy of Wade), but I want to use it as a behind-the-scenes camera instead of one of the main cameras. For one thing, it doesn't have an audio input jack and must rely on an internal mic. Second, I'd like to film everything that's going on to catch those funny moments that aren't always right in front of the main camera. It'd be a nice supplement to the finished film up on the website.

In other news, after taking a look at the options I had available in PayPal, I added a direct link in the left-side menu to a PayPal donation page for Flaming Death Productions. I'll take a look at maybe getting the Flaming Death Stockroom set up with PayPal as well, but that'll be a little ways off. I'm assuming most of my time in the near future will be spent working on the editing of "Luke & Leia" instead once we have footage.

All set!

We're less than a week away from filming now! It looks like we're out one camera operator, but I'm sure we'll be able to find someone to fill in for that job. As for the wisdom teeth issue, Marshall has agreed to step in if Mitchell isn't up to it. Matt has his plane tickets, so I'll be picking him and his camera up Friday evening. Everything is finally coming together, and after two or three years of planning this thing it almost seems surreal.

It's always something....

I was informed earlier today that one of my leads, Mitchell, is having his wisdom teeth taken out August 8, the day before the shoot! How this will affect filming is yet to be seen, but I've asked if his brother, Marshall, might take his place. If all else fails and we can't get someone to fill in that role, I have an idea for alternates but I'd rather not think of that right now. Think positive! Do, or do not! There is no try!

Confirmed!

August 9 is now set as the date to film "Luke & Leia"! We'll be shooting at the Chula Vista restaurant in West St. Paul, and it's looking like we'll be starting somewhere around 8am. On top of this great news, Matt, my partner in crime, may also be here all the way from Michigan for the shoot! Not only that, but we'll also planning on hitting the Star Wars Exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul to fulfill a perfect day.

Yesterday I met with Mitchell, one of the two leads. We briefly went over the script, chose the proper wardrobe, and viewed the Kevin Smith short film "The Flying Car" for character observations. The extra role of waitress or waiter will either be filled by Mitchell's "significant other" (sorry... I can't recall her name!), or by Marshall (Mitchell's brother). I hope to meet with Matthew, the other lead, in one of the weekends leading up to the filming date.

In other news, I'm hoping to set up a small booth next weekend at our huge garage sale to present "Yoda's Treasure" to people and sell a few DVDs (at cost, mind you!). This will be a test of what we could do at other events in the future but on a smaller scale.

Updates!

Yes, there's been an update! I now have music that will be used in "Luke & Leia" from the band Sodanation in the downloads section of that film's website (although it's not exactly a download but streaming audio instead). There is also a link there to the band's website where you can hear the full version of "Computer Life" with vocals. Many thanks go out to Charlotte and of course Sodanation for use of this song which was exactly what I was looking for.

So, once again I'm going forth on the "Luke & Leia" project with the other two actors I had in mind for the main roles. Matthew Carlson is from Rochester, MN and is the son of a friend of mine way back from our college days. Mitchell Fratzke is from New Prague and is one of my twin nephews. I also have three roles up for grabs including a waitress and an elderly couple. I may have someone in mind for them, but I'm open to suggestions so give me a shout if you're so inclined. As for the location, that's up in the air at the moment until I can contact Chris and Tina Marler. Hopefully I can get that predicament handled soon.

This leaves us with a tight filming schedule. I'm hoping for August 9 to work otherwise we'll be looking at sometime in September for the earliest date after that.

Somewhere in this busy year I hope to get my annual Sci-Fi party scheduled, too.

DOH!

It seems I've lost all contact information for the Marlers since they've moved! So, if either of you two are reading this (crossing fingers), please give me a call or e-mail.

*UPDATE* I got a hold of Chris yesterday. Thanks Chris!

This year's Sci-Fi party

Some of you have questioned me about it during the past couple of months, and yes, I will be having my annual sci-fi party this year. I just don't know exactly when it will be yet. I have updated the webpage, though, at http://flamingdeath.net/scifiparty/.

This would also be a good opportunity to do some planning for L&L. By then, things should have settled down for me as far as the housing crisis goes, and I should be more available. However, then we hit the problem of getting people together again for filming. Just can't win....

I've also decided to keep the Google advertisements on the site. It's not making me any money... well, I take that back. It looks like I made two cents this past week! Anyway, it gives the site a certain level of credibility, in my opinion.