I love this *%#$@!!

I do I can't help it I'm a nerd for this stuff. Can't wait to do a movie about it.

Mandrews out

ANOTHER GRAPHIC NOVEL

Thats right true believers, I think I am crazy enough to do it again. Call me insane ( just not to my face 'cause I'm sensitive) but I have this overwhelming desire to do another one. I've had this story I've been kicking around way before COLOSSUS about this cowboy who gets...well...abducted. He wakes up in an enclosure that looks just like the wild west except its only a couple square miles, the rest is a hologram. Not to get to into it he meets up with different alien beings who have also been taken away from their worlds and want back. So our unlikely group have to not only solve the mystery and find a way home but survive each other in the process.

I don't know how long the book will take me to do but probably a year or so. It will be 200 plus pgs and potentially full color. I'm just starting to do some exploration with the characters and look before I lay into it. pgs will be updated on the blog as I go.

Takes a deep breath, wipe forehead aaaaaand..... GO!

Mandrews out

main character Blackjack



color or....



Black and white, I haven't decided yet.



a bad guy. automaton called the KEEPER.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Yup! Its that time again. more abstracts. I just can't get enough. trying something different this time with good ol' mr. square ass brush and opacity. But what are they? You the viewer decide.

guess I better break out the box O' oils and a canvas and get doing this for real!!!! Maybe one will be hanging in your house!

Mandrews out









couple of new ones

MAKING MOVIES

I've worked on several animated movies and when I was in high school and college shot goofy kung fu movies and stuff but really making a movie ( not that animated films aren't real you synical types) thats a whole new ball of wax that challenges your film making shot creating core. I've been fortunate to have been able to shoot two live action short films and have learned tons from each one. "VIOLET" I got to direct that. And I just finished shooting "TRIFLES" I was DP on that with some-well lets be honest-lots of help from my good friend Peter Sohn who knows his lights.



Trifles is Directed by Pam Walker based off a play that she adapted. SHe directed the stage play and loved the material so much wanted to shoot a short film. So she asked me if I'd DP. I said yes then called my crew from violet right away- Sohn and Patrick James. Pam got a great crew together everyone from Pixar- with the help of Sabine Koch (producer) and the set was run like clockwork by Stacey Hendrickson (first AD). The actors were great and we shot the film over three consecutive weekends.

The story is-in a nutshell- about some farmers wifes who solve a mystery their husbands can't. It's a real good piece and it was fun to shoot, moody and creepy. I dig it. You learn a lot shooting on a set being restrained to three walls, you put to use all you know about creating images when you're actually physically doing it. Its not easy. And I highly recommend it.

So here are some stills I took while on set.





We shot on High Def video with the Panasonic HD 24p and rented a lens package with 5 lenses from 18 mm to an 85 mm and also had the Fisher Dolly. Awesom Awesome Awesome. Made shooting so much fun. You could do almost anything with that awesome machine ( starting to sound like Micheal Bay). I highly recommend dropping the 3g's a day and rent one for your short film. heh heh



Of course this is the movie I'd prefer to shoot. heh heh





Well, maybe next time. I've got an idea for a WW1 short I may be persuaded to do. Looks like its time to sell some stock.






MANDREWS OUT

ABSTRACT CRAZY

So when I'm putting the kids down to sleep and I've gone through my emails. looked at posts on the blog, checked out my routine websites and blogs just waiting for the kids to fall asleep I doodle. abstract doodle. I go crazy with the lasso tool color distort filter layers. its fun and kind of consuming. so heres one.






Mandrews out

ALMOST DONE

This will be the END PAGE of my 18 pg short that will be in AFTERWORKS 3 coming out late this summer. Most likely the book-an anthology of comics done by artists at PIXAR- will be out for APE in San Fransisco.

Mandrews out

APPLE FOR TEACHER

Started this semester teaching VISUAL STORYTELLING at CCA. Up to my third week now, I think its going well, you'd have to ask my students what they think. each week is a 2 part assignment. watch the assigned movie and do a drawing assignment. so far they've watched 'Man who would be King' and this week 'Mad Max'. I have so much to teach and show its hard to figure out exactly what and since they are all beginners to really keep things basic at first. I'm working on teaching story hand in hand with boarding.

So I get my own apple thanks.


-special thanks to Dice Tsutsumi for the apple painting workshop-


Mandrews out