The Winter was spent...

finishing the Musikvideo of "Just Passing Through," a tune by * RaggedyAnarchist. This work was begun early last Fall but had to ferment a while before it all came together. The characters and settings came easily, but I ran into trouble when I had to figure out what to have them do for the duration of the movie. Other than sit there and look pretty, of course.

beginning a three-part serial based on the Ray Bradbury short story "Mars is Heaven," from THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. The soundtrack is the publicly-owned broadcast of X-MINUS ONE from May 8, 1955. All in all, the work will be just shy of thirty minutes long. The first episode is complete and almost bug-free. Almost six minutes in length, it is the longest and most complicated thing I've done with Flash. I can't begin to emphasize how important organization and convention are to this process.

creating psychedelic animation for my band, Takimoto, to play along with in projection at our gigs. I have been deconstructing the movies I have made so far using a process that comletely distorts any recognizeable element of the original movies into wild riots of symbols and colors. Pretty heavy stuff, man. I have been working on a series of four: "Passing Out," a version of the "Just Passing Through" Musikvideo; "Thee Untertaker's Treacheri," using elements of "The Undertaker's Treachery"; "Skeleto," featuring Skeleton Guy and his crew; and "Mars is Heaven Musikvideo," the original and only finished piece. Each is meant to be able to stand alone as a Flash Animation or be converted to .avi format for projection or DVD burning. Each will also feature an original soundtrack by Klausmusik.

In the coming weeks, I will:

release "Mars is Heaven Musikvideo" as a promotion of sorts for the first "Mars is Heaven" movie. The soundtrack incorporates (mostly unrecognizeable) elements of the original broadcast of the radio program.

convert the Musikvideo series to movie clips and rock out along with them at the Takimoto CD release gig here in Eugene at the end of April. Maybe do a flyer for that show as well. I need to branch out of Flash here at deviantART and post some scans of our flyers.

post some scans of Takimoto flyers

release "Mars is Heaven: Landing," the first part of the MIH series

complete "Mars is Heaven: Arrival," the second MIH movie. As of now, this movie is completely laid out, but only about 20% of it is lip-synched. Long hours ahead...

begin the third and final MIH movie, as yet unnamed. Don't push me!

END OF REPORT