Donnie Darko and Frank watch the Jack and Jill Trailer

So I've been very concerned with the Jack and Jill (2011) trailer I stumbled upon the other day...I mean, hey we are all expecting a groaner for any Adam Sandler movie, but this was just too much. After seeing two video mashups of George C. Scott and Sam Neil watching the trailer, I decided to give this one a go, and created the Donnie Darko mashup. (Later saw a Nic Cage version as well - possible meme picking up steam?!)

Anyway, I made this in iMovie '11. Put the trailer on one track and slapped some Darko cutaways on top. The scene is perfect - I constructed it too look like Frank had already seen the trailer one or two times, and Jake Gyllenhaal is all like "You gotta be kidding me right?! This is a sick joke right?!)

Alas...it's real, as is Al Pacino's role in it.

Honest Ape Productions Presents: Zoo Fling 3D

I'm currently in a class called IM 313: Intermediate Interactive Media Authoring, which as it turns out is a big fancy way of describing a class that goes through the complete process of creating, designing, developing, and promoting a video game. There were three local "topics" to randomly chose from which required various levels of involvement or thematic punch. My group, upon naming ourselves Honest Ape Productions, received on a slip of paper the simple words Peoria Zoo. 


I took charge of the 2D art of the game, creating a GUI, menu screens, buttons, etc., in Photoshop that were given to our programmer. I also created our app icon, and dabbled in some sound effects.

The real brunt of the work actually came from creating the website, which I designed off of a free template and made various modifications. I learned a few new things for this, including some basic Java editing for the dynamic slider on the home page. I also used anchor tags for the first time, to link to sections on the page (so I only had to create 4 pages instead of 7.) I did all the artwork for the site, and wrote all the copy besides a few programming paragraphs and bios. I'm very happy with the website, and if you want to learn more about the game and the art for it, check it out!

http://honestapeproductions.com

Nic Cage As Everyone

*Modified Photo

I have several thoughts on the acting caliber of Mr. Nic Cage...but won't go into them. I was bored and happened to do one of my favorite activities: face-swapping. Nic Cage as a (female) body builder. This one took a record 8-minutes!

Click Here for more info on the meme.
Click Here to see the original picture.

Offerbug.com

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy - the folks over at PulseTV.com asked me to design and develop their latest deal of the day website - Offerbug.com. I was part of the creative process from the beginning, forming the logo and solidifying a suitable tagline "We take the "bite" out of retail!"

The logo went through several changes, and that cute little bug initially started out as a bee - but it turns out there was already a similar mascot for a different deal of the day site. So I created this hybrid-beetle-thing and selected the color scheme of black and green.

I eventually created a Photoshop mockup of the page layout, playing off the established color scheme and strove for a minimalist site, since there really is not too much going on besides product description. The mockup was then sent to the developers and coders over at PulseTV, and they reproduced the look as faithfully as possible while we collaborated on updates, and necessary graphic work.

Check out the site here http://offerbug.com

Wes Anderson Desktop Wallpaper

I remember the first time I watched Bottle Rocket. My roommate said it was one of his favorite movies, and even though I had things to work on, I figured I'd at least sit down and do things on my laptop. Within a half hour, I had shut my laptop and focused solely on this movie - it was just too funny, quirky, and engrossing. I wasn't a huge fan of Owen Wilson at the time (Shanghai Noon?) and I had only seen Luke Wilson in Old School. But the movie was awesome, and introduced me to the world of Wes Anderson.

In this world, there are often stupid, yet life-affirming characters who desperately combat all kinds of psychology-fueled defense mechanisms and depression. In this world, comedy comes from normal people doing slightly abnormal things, and being gosh-darned proud of it. In this world, people wear shorts. After watching one, I had to finish, and watched the rest - Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited. I decided to make a sweet desktop wallpaper with a collage of his films just for fun. They're all there - Bill Murray, the Wilsons, Gene Hackman, Adrian Brody, and the rest of the bunch. I made this before Fantastic Mr. Fox came out, but I probably wouldn't have included the puppetry anyway.

I really tried playing with the flow of the images, and even made Jeff Goldblum wrap his arm around Owen Wilson just for the heck of it.

Trigun/Hellsing Guitar

Before I get too carried away here, it should be said that the guitars below are NOT actually real guitars, they are merely Photoshopped mockups that I did for fun one day. I snapped a picture of my sweet red/black electro-acoustic (3/4 scale) and thought about what I would do to modify it. I made these in 2009.

That first picture is of the original guitar (strings

removed of course) And next is the Trigun version I did. The black and red scheme made me think of the overall imagery of the series, so I thought it was a natural choice. The Trigun guitar was made with various images grabbed from the web, and the "bullet holes" were also just grabbed online, probably from those window decals for your car. I also decided if I were to do this, I would spray paint the inside black to make it extra cool.

After making the Trigun one, I instantly thought of making a Hellsing guitar, since I just got into the series around this time, and thought Alucard (it's Dracula backwards!) was pretty badass, and deserved his own guitar. I used mostly the Multiply layer effect, though some were Darken. I also Colorized a few, to make sure that it was completely monochromatic with red and black. I thought about adding bullet holes as well, but it would have been too busy. I also added the magic pentagram thingy from the show in the sound hole.

I'm not exactly sure how I would go about doing this in real life...perhaps create some transparent .pngs onto sticker paper and then apply some kind of gloss to the whole thing.

The White Stripes Break Up

The White Stripes have won Grammys, made six studio albums, and sold millions of those records. And today, on February 2, 2011, they announced their breakup.

I found out when a Myspace(yeah, I still have a page, mostly to follow a handful of bands) email notification told me the White Stripes had a new blog posting. In it, there was a short, but well-thought out message to the world’s fans that the band had indeed “officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live.” With an elephant-heavy heart, I checked and rechecked the internet for confirmation, and wondered if this wasn’t some hoax.

I know in my heart I saw it coming earlier, but pushed it further and further away from my analytic brain, for fear of the truth. The band’s been on hiatus for a few years now, with their last album Icky Thump coming out in 2007. The album itself was a bit of a stretch for the band and Jack White’s maturation as an artist clashed with earlier aesthetics of the band. Put all six album covers in a row, and pick out the one that doesn’t quite belong – it’s the pearly king and queen of Icky Thump that have a slight air of weariness to them.

Album art aside, the band seemed to understand their position, and in a way to ease the transition they released the 2009 concert tour/documentary Under Great White Northern Lights. It is a beautiful tribute to the band as a whole, and a touching parting gift for fans. If only we realized it at the time.

The band’s farewell message seems all at once too vague and profound, as they wish to “preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way.” What exactly was so beautiful and special about that band in the first place? Everything. The childlike duo’s air of curiosity and innocence fueled their creative process and visual dynamics. What was great was that the band was growing up in the prime of its pre-conceived childhood. What they didn’t count on was the maturation beyond those years.

Jack White’s collaborations within the Raconteurs, and Dead Weather have given him the musical equivalent of studying abroad as a teenager – he’s grown up amongst different cultures and changed. It may not be better or worse; but it is different. He’s no longer the wide-eyed kid with a plastic guitar in a garage.

When I said the White’s had an air of weariness to them, it wasn’t as if they were weary of playing music, of being together. They were weary of pretending and keeping up the act and suppressing the creative maturation they know they have gained over the years.

The farewell letter states that Jack and Meg hope the fans see it as “a positive move done out of respect for the art and music that the band has created.” You have to appreciate the dedication of the band, to forcibly get back into their old mindset, and when they can no longer do it, they call it a day. A lesser band would continue using their name as only a vehicle for music no longer relevant to their original intent.

It should be said that I am relieved the band hadn’t waited til they put out a bad record to announce the breakup. They had six amazing records. I still wouldn’t rule out musical collaborations between the two (I suspect that they would simply say that it was done by Jack and Meg White, as opposed to the band name). Jack is of course always working on the next great project – he’s collaborating with Norah Jones and Danger Mouse for a March 2011 album.

Even though I fully understand it, and even applaud the decision, I’m still slightly heartbroken. I remember watching the electrifying Grammy performance of “Seven Nation Army” in 2004, before I even knew about the band. I remember listening to Elephant on a burned CD-R over and over on a portable CD player during a family trip. I heard the “Icky Thump” single on the day of my senior prom. I have grown up with this band and eagerly awaited each release.

The closing of the letter sums it up nicely. “The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you know and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to.”

I agree.

(Read the breakup letter here)

Published in the BU Scout

Kurt Cobain Tribute Poem

It's been a while since I last posted, I chalk that up to enjoying my last winter break. Can ya believe adults with careers don't have winter breaks!? I didn't quite grasp that til now...but I felt like I haven't been as creative (outside a few freelance posters and banner ads) as I usually am without professorial encouragement - so I decided to make a little art piece out of one of my poems.

I never would have thought it would work out as well as it did, but I took a creative writing course last semester just for fun, and it specialized in poetry (I found out a week before class started). I wasn't disappointed or anything, I figured I could get by. The class was taught by Illinois Poet Laureate, Kevin Stein, and was one of the best courses I've taken at Bradley. We were constantly creating and critiquing, and the class fostered a community of poets eager to help each other improve.

The poem itself is my personal favorite that I have written in my beginning life as a poet. I was almost afraid to write a poem about Kurt Cobain, since I didn't want to let myself down in failing to convey the right mood. I also just wanted it to be good - Nirvana changed my life in many ways, and I wanted to do both Kurt and the band the artistic justice they deserve.

I hunted around morguefile.com to find some photos with a Creative Commons license, and simply typed in "seattle." I sifted through dozens and on one of the last pages was this bench that I used. If I'm not mistaken there are a few benches in Seattle that serve as tribute locations for Cobain, and this one had a perfect close up that demonstrated the reverence, hero worship, sadness, and celebration of one person. Thanks to Kristine Kisky for the photo and making it available!

I lowered the saturation of the whole thing, to make it mostly black and white, til the flower colors were the only bits of color. I shrunk it a bit and added a black Inner Glow to the whole frame, as well as added some gradient layer masking to make the image fade on the sides a bit more. I toyed with the idea of adding all kinds of images of cardigans, torn jeans, and maybe a Fender Jagstang - but I thought it was better with this simple display. I chose a Courier-type font (American Typewriter) because it, presents the poem in a straight-forward way (thanks for articulating that for me Lauren!) Cursive-fonts made it seem too girly/sentimental, and that's not what I was going for.

I plan on submitting this poem, among others, to some journals and things eventually. A few of them are begging for artistic accompaniments, so I may do that!