Wednesday Means...

...a new episode of Airship Daedalus!

Each Sold Separately

Although the core parts of The Collectibles have been cast, we did manage to lock down Dennis Kleinsmith as the evil Doctor Flaming Skull.  As he wrote in his email, "What actor would ever refuse a character called 'Dr. Flaming Skull'?"

I know, right?

Dennis Kleinsmith

We're even talking about installing a lighter in the back of the action figure we're making, so that when the lever is flicked, the flame pops up out of the doll's head.  Of course if it were a real toy, it'd be a lawsuit waiting to happen, even in the 1970s.


Readers of this blog might remember Dennis played Lucifer in Ordinary Angels.  He's a lovely man and a genuine talent - an actor casting directors should be taking more notice of.


So our cast is looking good...

Brian Sutherland

Brian Sutherland (who you might have seen in the Washington State Lottery commercial) is playing the team leader in crisis, the patriotic hero called Super Star.  One part Captain America, one part Superman, one part Megalith, and several parts Evel Knevel. 

Lisa Skvarla

Actress/stuntwoman/martial arts instructor Lisa Skvarla is the Amazon warrior princess known as Ultrafemme.  She's culled from the archetypes of hardy characters like Xena, Sif, Wonder Woman and a little dash of She Hulk... without the green skin.

Dan Humphrey

One of my favorite partners in crime, Dan Humphrey, is stepping in front of the lens as The Quick, faster than fast, caffeine fueled hypoglycemic speedster that is a direct style parody of The Flash, Kid Flash, Impulse and Quicksilver.  Some might remember Dan from his brief appearance as Cyclops in our music video for Kirby Krackle's "On and On".  Hmmm. Typecast much?

Wonder Russell

The lovely and talented Wonder Russell is portraying the insecure Shield Maiden, who makes her living as a "bubbler" (a term used in superhero MMOs to describe defender archetypes, who will often project defensive or power boosting bubbles of energy on teammates).  She is based on defenders such as Sue Storm, Violet from The Incredibles, Stargirl and Maxima.  Wonder is also an alumnus of the "On and On" video, having played Rogue.

Frank Acosta Jr.

Veteran actor Frank Acosta Jr. is playing Aguaman, Latino Lord of Atlantis.  An eye injury involving a commercial albacore hook caused Aguaman to be put on injured reserve, and now he mostly does filing and data entry.  He, of course, is based on the iconic masters of the deep, like Aquaman, Submariner, Tempest and Man From Atlantis.

Joe Downing

My favorite badass (and no relation, I swear), Joe Downing is playing the sociopath vigilante Death-Wish.  Relying on physical training and gadgets instead of superpowers, Death-Wish has a conspiracy theory for everything.  The character is equal parts Batman, Punisher, Deadpool and Deathstroke the Terminator.  Joe was also seen in both Ordinary Angels and "On and On" (as a ninja of The Hand).

Trish Loyd

Of course the Power Posse need someone to man the front desk, and that someone is the psychic receptionist called Receiver.  Our own Trish Loyd will be getting her psionics on with this role, which is based on a long history of comic book telepaths and mega-psychics like Jean Grey, Raven, Psylocke and Scarlet Witch.

Casey Kinared

And then there's the Power Posse's agent and corporate liaison, Vance Vermicular, portrayed by Los Angeles based actor Casey Kinared, who has done several Seattle film projects in addition to his work in SoCal.  Vance is based on every corporate tool who has ever uttered buzzwords like "leverage our human assets" or "shifting the paradigm".

Also...

It's amazing how out of shape I am after our long, soggy, indoor winter.  We spent the beautiful sunny day yesterday doing yardwork, pruning the tree over our front walk, and digging up the top of the rock wall in order to plant some ground cover.  It wasn't like we pushed ourselves.  We wore our big bucket hats and our gloves and sunglasses.  We took our 1-liter water bottles.  But I guess simply bending over becomes problematic after age 40 if you don't do a lot of gardening year-round to stay flexible.

And today, I feel like I've run the 100-meter hurdles. With a full pack.

Yikes. 

Time to get back in shape, he murmured under his breath for the seventeenth time this month.

The Collectibles

This is the new webseries being co-produced by Dan, Landon, Cherelle, Jonelle and myself.  If you like awkward docu-comedies like The Office, Modern Family, Arrested Development and Parks and Recreation, or costumed superheroes, or both, you'll want to check this out.

We just locked in our main cast, and we're currently in preproduction for a mid-August shoot.

Meanwhile, I'm revising and honing the OA pitch.

And I finally got a new phone (after carting around my slider for a couple years).  Loving the Android.

Busy as a Triple-Booked Bee

As you can see, the schedule has been a bit full as of late, and it shows no sign of letting up any time soon.  Between coloring and lettering a couple Airship Daedalus strips a week, there have been almost nightly Skype teleconferences with production partners and advisers both near and far, a new web series project, revisions to the OA pitch, and end-of-year school events/family plans. 

Kayleigh, Raechelle and I performed our first "gig" as Heartsick on Saturday, as per Raechelle's post.  It was a nice, low-pressure way for Kayleigh to unveil her guitar skills in a public setting.  Afterward, we went to Steve & Steph's to celebrate Steve's birthday and serenade him a bit as well.

The Northern Empires book has been submitted to Amazon for POD, and pending a minor issue with the spine text, should be available soon.  The first proof looked gorgeous.  It's a good addition to the Arrowflight Second Edition line.

Screened The Whisperer in Darkness during SIFF with production partner Landon.  There was a lot to like (especially the lighting and photography).  There were also some questionable choices made (the bane of being a filmmaker is having an opinion on everything).  But overall, another achievement for the HPLHS.

The next few weeks are heavy on the preproduction for the aforementioned web series, as well as nailing down the OA pitch a bit more.  Mad props to high school filmmaking buddy Scott, for his patience and amazing insight on said pitch.  We're fortunate to have his assistance, and grateful for it.  On the web series, we're joined at the producer level by the Gore Sisters, with whom I've worked twice previously.  They did costumes, makeup and props for my music video "On and On", and costumes and props for Darlene Sellers' "Second Season".  They are crazy good at what they do, and their spirit and enthusiasm is infectious.  Really looking forward to doing this project, which I will fill you in on as is appropriate.

Until next time...

Take a Deep Breath and Look Around

I don't like it when software I depend on to produce product for my livelihood decides not to work.  Fortunately, while Adobe Acrobat Pro is deciding to be a whiny bitch, there is a plethora of tasks I can get done.  Like write a blog post while my CS4 installer copies from my work box to the external hard drive.

Had a splendid meeting with Landon yesterday, chatting about upcoming projects in addition to OA.  We've revised the pitch to be much more salable and dynamic, more capable of creating the kind of excitement we need cable network people to feel. 

The brain trust of Landon, Dan, Trish and myself is also generating a slate of new projects to work on, to keep us practiced in our craft and relevant in the Seattle indie film community, and to serve as a creative distraction while awaiting responses to the new OA pitch.

Also, we have raccoons in West Seattle, as you know.  But it's not an everyday occurrence to see a big adult moseying through our side and back yards in broad daylight.  It actually came down from the giant tree in the neighbors' yard, down our side of the fence, up onto our back porch (where we stage the scooped cat litter for transfer to the alley cans), then ambled nonchalantly around to the back, and finally disappeared into the bushes.  The cats lost their little cat minds, freaking out in the kitchen window while I took some snapshots.

Checklist.

Arrowflight - Northern Empires sourcebook: done.  As soon as Gavin gives the pdf a pass, I'll be putting it up for sale online, and arranging the POD run through dtrpg.com and Amazon.  Next up, Shriek X, Star Legion XPG and The Mystic East supplement for Arrowflight.  I also have gear splatbooks for Arrowflight and RADZ started, but they're victims of work-on-'em-when-I-can syndrome.

Airship Daedalus: is it in you?  Are you following it?  Are you decoding the ciphers?  For a secondary learn-as-we-go webcomic project, this thing is proving to be a blast and a half, and has led to a few expansions of the property.  Firstly, we've been given ten pages in the next edition of Mash Tun.  So that's cool.  Then I have the script for a ten-page one-shot story in the following issue.  We also are happy to count actress/singer/producer Wonder Russell (Rogue in the "On and On" film I directed for Kirby Krackle), who has put in a bid to play the character of Doc in any screen venture we attempt with Daedalus.  Although I'm a bit gun shy to go all out on a Daedalus film just yet, Ms. Russell did indeed encourage a teaser/trailer/proof-of-concept project which we could showcase at ECCC next year, as well as using as the basis for a Kickstarter campaign to fund a web serial.  In the meantime, I've already translated Chapter 1 of the webcomic into an old-time radio drama.  We'll set that up this summer and post it to the website.  There's also an RPG of the property in the works (with plenty of legwork already done from the first time I tinkered with the setting back in the late '80s).

Ordinary Angels: We got some incredibly helpful feedback from an old high school filmmaker buddy who now works at Disney.  I'm adjusting the pitch this week.

Spent Raechelle's birthday being sick.  Possible ulcer and a sinus infection.  Recovered enough to co-host our combined birthday bash at the Mop & Bucket, and promptly relapsed.  Spent my own birthday in the doctor's office, but bucked up enough to go see opening night of Thor with the fam and some friends.  Finally went on antibiotics and both issues seem to be clearing up just fine.  But now Raechelle and Kayleigh are both sick with what I've termed The Snot Monster - so much so that we had to skip the trip to Bellingham for May Birthdays.  We're rescheduling for June.

Tyler turns 17 tomorrow.  I don't feel old enough to have a 17 year-old son.  Hopefully I never will feel old enough. I will say that Tyler has undergone an evolution, emotionally as well as physically.  It's such a far cry from where we were just last year (and especially 2008-2009).  We're all breathing a huge sigh off relief and are very hopeful about his future.

It's amazing that I found the time to put up this post, but now I need to get back to the checklist...