April 2008

The Archives

• 04.29.08
  Ready for My Clothes Up
  2008, Photography, Other Peoples Work (0)

  Ryan Moulton took some awesome pictures from the Ms. Perkins shoot.

  
  (Click photos to enlarge)

  

  Natalie loves Mr. Falcone

  

  

  

  Mr. Falcone’s class photo - Freshman English, class of 1997

  
  
• 04.21.08
  Photographic Evidence
  2008, Other Peoples Work (0)

  So yesterday, we had the first day of shooting for the series I’m “co-producing” with Ryan Moulton, Hawaii Girl. We came out with this after the first day.

  

  Jennifer Francis was an inspired casting choice.

  
  
• 04.13.08
  The Yolk’s On Me
  2008, Video (2)

  (6.84mb)

  About three months ago, I got a video commission for (what I’m told is) the largest food-based social networking website in the world.

  What I Thought Would Happen?
  The idea I proposed was a pretty simple one. Two eggs fight over a frying pan. One defeats the other and gets scrambled.

  What I didn’t know is how I would do it. Stop-motion got ruled out pretty quick (too time intensive), as did animation (too difficult to make it look good). I felt like I should do what I know, and I know puppets.

  
  Shaun knows puppets! This hippo couldn’t get any more dopey looking.

  Wrapping my head around how I was actually going to do the idea I proposed really got to me. By the day I scheduled us to shoot, I never made a storyboard, I never drew out what I wanted the miniature set to look like, and I never really had a plan except that I wanted to shoot it on top of Nora’s stove. Without any preparation beyond shopping for props at the supermarket, I figured the shoot would be interesting– most likely a total failure.

  what Actually Happened?
  It wasn’t a failure. Everyone brought ideas to the table that gelled pretty well. The whole adage about how surrounding yourself with smart people makes you smarter by proxy is pretty accurate.

  Ronnie came up with the idea to make the fight a brown egg, versus a white egg, and the idea that we should blow on the trees to simulate wind (which you can only really see in the second to last shot with the brown egg in the pan).

  
  And of course, the brown egg is the evil one. Perpetuating stereotypes!

  My two regrets: In my effort to dress the stove set, I massively over-dressed it. You can’t even really tell it’s a stove anymore. Plus, I never got any far-away establishing shots with the surroundings in it (the countertops and the fridge) to establish it’s a stove.

  I also made a mistake that I never thought ever actually happened. I taped over the ending footage (the egg being scrambled) by mistake while I was capturing the video.

  So now it’s this weird situation where you can tell it’s two eggs fighting, but you can’t tell it’s on a stove above a pan and you also don’t get to see the punchline (the scrambling). One day I might add it in, but for now… whatevs right?

  In Conclusion…
  The miniature set turned out awesome. Other than the Gear Up, Buckle Up shoot I did earlier this year, this was definitely my favorite shoot. It’s kinda disappointing that Ryan was sick that day and couldn’t be there or take photos– the whole thing was totally bizarre.

  
  The cast

  WHO?
  Starring: Danny Djeljosevic (good egg), Andrew Tan (bad egg), Nora E. (Mrs. Maryweather Egg), Nick Boisson (Mrs. Helen Egg), 12 brown eggs, 12 white eggs
  Written/Directed: Shaun Spalding
  Assistant Director: Danny Djelosevic
  Crew: Nora E., Rafael Gaitan, Nick Boisson, Ronnie Hink

  
  
• 04.10.08
  Its lots of shorts. With musicals to fill in the time.
  2008, Writing (0)

  I have this ongoing project called Please Respond that recontextualizes Craiglist ads and forum posts into monologues, so I’m always on the lookout for interesting ads.

  This ad was too good for it to expire without anyone seeing it.

  ** STARTUP CARTOON LOOKING FOR ARTIST MUSICIAN 50/ 50 Split **

  ---

  Reply to: gigs-623396574@craigslist.org
  Date: 2008-03-29, 3:58PM PDT

  I have a cartoon i want to make involving lots of parodies. Its lots of shorts. Possibly a full length movie. With musicals to fill in the time. It will focus on video games and lots of popular movie references. I have some characters created. Not too worried about copyright infringement since this will be an internet based cartoon! Actually negative notoriety and litigation might actually help us… Its like free advertising!!

  Influences (by order of humor Im looking for) include Salad Fingers by David Firth — Drawn Together — Ren and Stimpy — Aquateen Hunger Force — Southpark — Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. Family Guy.

  The prototype name of the cartoon is Troh Jann and Ghiz! I also have a robot idea and another project for an anime I’d like to make in the future.

  This will be my first large project cartooon wise and I am looking for a fellow musician, artist, and sound effect maker to collaborate with in this cartoon. I am queer minded. I do strange things… Wanna cross dress with me. YAY!! free advertising!!

  • Location: SAN DIEGO
  • it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
  • Compensation: no pay

  
  PostingID: 623396574

  I’m really a fan of the syntax of spam emails and non-native English, so this whole thing just made my day.

  If anyone is in the San Diego area who wants to make shorts, musicals to fill in time, or video games with popular movie references, I suggest you contact him!