Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Limitless Possibilities

Sometimes the ideas come faster than you can type them, other times you can sit here for hours and nothing comes.

Lately I'm having a hard time deciding on a next video. Its not that my head is totally empty... indeed, I've had one idea that's been running through my head all day.

Here's the problem: its totally undoable in my present setup, and totally unrelated to libertarianism. Its more something one would do with a proper animation program like the one I bought last month. Sadly, I'm still fairly early in the tutorial stage of that, and nowhere near ready to tackle something that complex.

So I sit here... writing dialogue, sketching character models, on something I might never get around to making. And yet, I can't bring myself to put the idea aside for a minute to make more of the machinema style videos that are what's getting me my audience. At least I got the DVDs out the door before I ran into this block.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring some better ideas for a short video I can make. I'd really like to dive into some actual production this weekend, which is something I haven't gotten to do in quite some time. I'll keep you posted.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Finally Finished

DVD production really takes forever. Thank God for the DVD label applicator I got off Amazon.com. I finished this morning though, now I can finally get back to making new movies. Probably I'll do another side project before tackling the prequel headlong.

Hopefully it'll get more positive reaction than Universalizability did. Though part of me wants to be a total contrarian and make Universalizability 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

So much to do


There's really an amazing amount of work involved in the creation of a DVD... this in spite of the fact that 99% of the content going on it was already created. Seriously, I don't recommend it as a hobby and I don't intend to tackle such a task again unless I'm damned sure its warranted.

But its nearing completion. All but a couple of the videos have been cleaned, exported, and the layout for the DVD itself is designed. I still have to pick out a song for the menus, but I've narrowed it to just a few choices. The big task remaining is to burn however many discs I plan to send, try in vain to get my five year old inkjet printer to spit out some labels that will actually work, and get all this over to the post office in a timely fashion. Sometimes it seems like I'll never make it!

Oh, that picture up there is from one of the deleted scenes. I spent the better part of the afternoon getting those cleaned up (and finishing one which was only partially shot). I'm really starting to regret that I didn't include those scenes in the original Koch Hit, because they look better than I remembered them.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Presidents Day Bonus Content

Wrath of Koch with Directors Commentary

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A "shame-on-me" weekend

I felt really uninspired this weekend, so other than a little work on the DVD labels I didn't accomplish much. Still plenty of time to get this thing finished I guess.

As I mentioned on the commentary track I uploaded on Valentine's Day... I recorded a track for Koch Hit 2 as well. It sort of got interrupted by a phone call but I managed to cobble together a half-way decent version. I'm still debating whether to use that or record a new version... but I guess there's no reason to keep this version a secret at any rate.

Not sure when I'll get time to upload it, but keep an eye out.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Actually (Movie 1 - I Can't Drive 55: The Stephan Kinsella Story)

It was exactly one year ago today Anarcho-Pacifist Films was born. To celebrate, here's one of those movies very few people have seen... the first in the series. We've sure come a long way.

A very busy week

I did some recording today... I'm really hoping to have some Valentines Day bonus content up, nothing special just a little something... but its really predicated on my having time somewhere in the next 48 hours to get it together.

Still working on research for the prequel, there's tons of great stuff out there, I'll talk more about that when I have some time.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

As the excitement dies down

The number of views for Koch Hit 2 really surprised me. While the first one started off really slow and sort of spread around over the course of a week or two, the sequel seems to have created a stir over its opening weekend. It does seem to have quieted down now though, and so its time to start looking forward at future projects.

There's lots of stuff I'd really like to do, obviously the promised prequel has to be written, new characters designed, etc. I'm also putting together some other stuff that hopefully will take less time. Keep an eye out for updates.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Lots of Views

In the 36 hours since the release of Koch Hit 2, we've got something in the realm of 1600 page views. The bulk, I'm guessing, came from the LRC blog posting.

And don't forget, we've still got the prequel coming... yes, it'll include more Murray, yes, it'll also have some new characters. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Koch Hit 2: The Wrath of Koch



Update: Here's the first one, in case you were having trouble finding it.

Miracles can come true

There's nothing like being trapped under a foot and a half of freshly fallen snow to give you plenty of time to finish up a major project. So yes, Koch Hit 2 is done... it'll be uploaded tonight, and released tomorrow.

15 minutes long... so set some time aside for it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Movie That Will Not Die

http://sergeantbrother.livejournal.com/71205.html

He found some great pictures, actually several of those are the same pictures I used to model the characters in the first place. Not sure if I'm going to have anything ready for this Friday (the movie definitely won't be ready yet)... my own fault for not realizing my computer doesn't have an audio-in. And I'm snowed in now, so the odds of getting to a store or anything are pretty low.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Topping Ourselves

There are two desires running headlong into one another lately: the desire to have fresh content available on a timely basis and the desire to make something epic enough for people to say "wow".

I mean, sure, I could make a 3-5 minute movie every week with a minimal cast doing something vaguely silly. That's tempting too because people like regular release schedules. On the other hand, I've made a couple of movies that approached the 10 minute mark, had big casts, so the ability to create such things is out there. So if I make a 3 minute movie about Karen deCoster beating up Ben Affleck now, people will go "sure, that's cute, but its no Koch Hit".

And at the end of the day, I'm a publicity whore. Sure, I hide it behind a near-transparent veil of anonymity, but what I'm really seeking is some validation. Seriously... I want to see people I don't know blogging about this shit, discussing it, people all over the world, discussing it in foreign languages like "look what those Americans are up to now". That's fun, and its damned tough to attract any attention to those shorter films. The Andrew Sullivans of the world must be satiated, and that necessitates epic sequels.

At this point, I have no clue how long Koch Hit 2 is going to end up being. Longer than the original, I can tell you that much. I also don't have a firm street date for it, not this week though, unless something miraculous happens. I've got an idea for a little interim content that might placate the impatient. Stay Tuned!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

A long day of shooting

8 hours of editing, 6 minutes of actual video.

The movie's really starting to take shape, its about halfway done. Not sure how much time I'll have to work on it over the week, but I'll keep updating as I progress.

Friday, February 1, 2008

This probably doesn't even need saying, but...

No movie this week... I've finished the script for Koch Hit 2, and have shot some preliminary scenes, but its still a long way from completion. No estimated street date yet, but I'll keep you updated. Right now it looks like I'm going to introduce two new characters for the sequel, one of whom will have a major role in the prequel as well.