Behind the Chicken

Want to see the sexiest bunch of animators, fabricators, model makers and other stop-motion glitterati that Hollywood has ever seen? Here is a whole mess of behind the scenes pictures from Robot Chicken Season 2. Prepare to swoon.

PS Let us know if you dig the new design. I'd love some feedback!

Raiders of a Lost Art

Here is an interesting article about the good old days of when movie posters were done as
illustrations. Those days are long gone, and now we are stuck with digital realism and digital blah blah.




"It’s happening all over again; this time to the illustrators whose artwork graced a generation’s worth of movie posters. It’s next to impossible to think of Raiders of the Lost Ark without recalling Richard Amsel’s whip-wielding portrait of Harrison Ford, and Bob Peak’s nightmarish image of a blood-tinted Marlon Brando for Apocalypse Now is equally unforgettable. Rick Meyerowitz’s in-a-nutshell rendering of Animal House’s plot and characters is as iconic as the film itself — but don’t expect to see their likes again anytime soon....

One reason for the switch may be the increasing importance of DVD sales to a film’s revenue stream: the finely detailed, densely populated illustrations of a Davis or a Drucker are close to impossible to enjoy — or even decipher — once they are reduced to the dimensions of a video box. Back in the VHS era, distributors reused the original theatrical posters; today, those films’ DVD re-releases sport original package art designed to stand out on store shelves. The “Double Secret Probation Edition” of Animal House for example, replaces Meyerowitz’s famous poster with an angled, oversized logo containing photos of the supporting cast behind a close-up of a toga-clad John Belushi that dominates the cover. While the new Animal House cover conveys the film’s anarchic spirit, the cascade of cast photos on the It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World DVD doesn’t even hint at the spectacular chaos so beautifully captured in Davis’ classic poster."

Read the rest of the AWN article here.


And Hug your pencil and kill your computer.

After the nerding

Even though Harv and I were unable to attend ComiCon this past weekend we were lucky enough to see what had to have been the highlight of the convention for all of the stop-motion nerdlings in attendance. Our dear friends Mark, Seamus and Chris of Screen Novelties were comissioned to restore actual puppets from the actual Rankin Bass Christmas special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". We got a sneak peek of the duo before they went down to San Diego.
Needless to say, the puppets were amazing and the SN fellows along with Sea's wife Robin, did a wonderful job bringing them back to their original glory. Apparently the puppets were in the possession of a former Rankin Bass secretary who put them out every Christmas so they could be battered and abused by who knows how many sticky fingered, gift happy children. We'll see if we can weasel some "before" pictures out of Mark, Sea and Chris to show you the horror.

i love egg

Oh where to begin...If you liked the last egg friend that I found for the Unbreakables you're going to love this!

I Love Egg is a series of Korean, Flash Animated shorts. I don't know much more about it than that. Maybe it is the Korean Egg Board's way of selling more eggs, a la Incredible Edible Egg. I don't know. What I do know is you have to watch The Egg Song. And if that's not enough for you, you can visit iloveegg.com, the Korean site or the English verion (which is even cuter and flash based!).

Ask A Chicken...follow up.

Even though Liz and I are working on Moral Orel right now, we still make time to talk with the talented writers of Robot Chicken. Most of them are real busy doing Hollywood stuff, but not writer/director Tom Root. Actually, that's not true. He's so mega busy you wouldn't believe it, but seeing him at Moral Orel everyday make me remember about a previous post; Ask The Chicken. I forgot to post the replies for that, so here are some of my favorites.
____


SOME ASK THE CHICKEN:

____


I was wondering if Robot Chicken will ever get like action figures. You guys have done skits with tons and tons of little figures and I was wondering if some would ever be released. I'd love to have like a foot tall Scientist on my desk. So awesome. - daREMONSTRA

Tom: I want a PVC set of about 200 characters or so, all an inch high. I'd divide them into armies and make them fight. So far, I don't think this is happening.

Doug: Ironically, if we air a sketch with toys in it, we automatically get the rights to produce those toys. So look for us to make our own figures of He-Man, GI Joe and the Transformers soon.

Matt: First, Doug's lying. Second, I love Tom's idea!! Hear that Adult Swim licensing!

How long does it take to make an episode of RC? - Jimmy M.

Tom: Sometimes it feels like nine lifetimes. More often they take six days to shoot, six days for effects and six days to edit. So that's, what? Like fourteen days.

Matt: Tom forgot to include writing time. Building sets time. Building puppets time. Lighting. So like fourteen days. Where do you get all these action figures from?

Did you and everyone else in the staff personally own them all or did you have to order some? -
Steve from NY

Tom: One Voltron used in season one belonged to animator Kelly Mazurowski. We bought it off him because we needed it pronto and couldn't find the version we wanted anywhere else. It was one of his treasured childhood possessions and we [edited] destroyed that thing.

Mike: I (Mike Fasolo) crafted and own every single one of the puppets that is seen on the show. The others will claim there's a "puppet department" for Robot Chicken but that is all a lie. I do all the work and I build all the sets, animate all the scenes and write every skit on the show. Don't let the others lie to you! I do everything! Everything!

Matt: The self-proclaimed "Man of the People" is now taking credit for our puppet department's jobs. Interesting.

Here is the rest of the article. Enjoy.

Egg Art

I just happened upon this comic called "Eggpants" by C. Walker. I'm sure you can see why this caught my eye!
Unfortunately I don't think that a new comic has been added in sometime.

Comic Con-Nerd Paradise

Everyone who's anyone is at Comic Con in San Diego this weekend. Why are we not there? Because I chose to get a haircut this weekend. I'll show you a picture later.

"The Clokeys will be joined with Gumby answering questions form the audience, where they will talk about upcoming Gumby projects and promise to make a big announcement that will have fans foaming at the mouth. On a related note, we know for a fact that a pair of original Rankin & Bass stop-motion animation puppets will be on display at Comic-Con. We can't divulge any more information as we are sworn to secrecy, but you definitely don't want to miss the opportunity to gaze upon these beauties in person!"

Read the rest of the article here.

Avoid nerds here.

Slowin' Down

So things at Make Out City Studios have slowed down a bit, do to the Moral Orel. But this weekend we made huge strides in the set department, which is really coming along. We have most of the sets done now, which means we can start shooting soon.


Above is a picture of me with a hammer. I seem to use that tool a lot. Here are some more pictures of one of the houses we are working on, as well as our sky...Without pretty clouds.

Never mind the spray bottle sticking out of the hills. That won't be there when we shoot.






That's all you get for now.

Greener By The Bay

My sister sent me a link to this article the other day, and I thought what a better way to share the love then with the huge Make Out readers out there. It is on everyone's favorite clay dude, Gumby.

The article talks about Gumby's creator, Art Clokey, and the two shows he created; Gumby and Davey and Goliath. Davey is what Moral Orel is loosely based on, which it makes a reference too. It also talks about an exhibit coming later this year in Beverly Hills, which will be showing Art's earlier work.

Here's the article, please enjoy. But don't thank me, thank my sister.

"John Boy,

Hello. I saw this article in the St. Paul paper today on Gumby.
Love ya,
Shari Jo

Posted on Sat, Jul. 15, 2006

The little, green, clay boy turns 50

Gumby, the little green clay boy, is celebrating 50 years in show business. In 1956 he made his first appearance on television, on "The Howdy Doody Show" and he's looking as young as ever. There's not a wrinkle on him, and if there were, you could smooth it out with your thumb.
It has been a long time since I've thought much about Gumby and Pokey too, his pony pal. But he has never really left my head. He is parked there, in his sporty toy car, with other strange, disturbing things of childhood."

The rest of the article is located here.

Information on the "First of the International Clayboys: Gumby and the Animation Legacy of Art Clokey" here.

Last Day of Freedom

Well folks, Liz and I go back to Moral Orel tomorrow...so I guess we have to live it up today. Which is a good thing we are in a party mood, because B-Dogg turns 30 today, and he's going to really come out and throw a good time. Good for you Dogg!









Since we are going back to Moral Orel, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on Robot Chicken, and move forward. So here is Ethan's new behind the scenes picture page from season 2. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Bend It Like Beck

Make Out City Studios good friend Rob Saunders just appeared on my internet the other day. For those who don't know, Rob Saunders is a puppet master who worked on Crank Yankers, Spiderman 2, and Team America. He also worked on A Freezerburnt Christmas with me at Wreckless Abandon Studios in Connecticut, although he may never admit to it.

Right now Rob is on tour with one of the most amazing artists of our time, Beck.


Here is an article from Blender that talks about the life of a puppeteer roadie. He's living the rock n' roll dream. Below is a sample from the article.

Rob is pictured in the middle.

"They're not roadies, musicians or tour managers: They're puppeteers. Throughout his summer tour, Beck's show is recreated onstage on a nightly basis by four L.A.-based puppeteers who until now worked primarily on films like Team America: World Police. We caught up with three of them backstage during Elvis Costello's set at Bonnaroo — just before they were set to play with puppets in front of 80,000 people — to see how life on the road was treating them. Unsurprisingly, they were a bit ecstatic.

Have you done anything like this before?

Rob Saunders: I think this is a first. There are touring shows for puppeteers, but nothing near this big as far as audience. We're onstage for 80 minutes straight, and performing the whole time. That's incredibly different than what a normal puppet show would be. And it's rock & roll. The fact that Elvis Costello is right there… "

As a bonus for reading this far down, and kinda on subject, here is a link to the (not official) Beck music video Liz worked on last summer with Tennessee. Enjoy.

Widowmaker

Progress has been made on The Unbreakables, no thanks to this nasty. I found a couple black widows hanging out around our studio. They met my foot.

Liz's sister came out and did a brief internship with us. She left very tired.










Speaking of tired, I stayed up the other night and beat Super Mario 2. Here is a picture proving my accomplishment as well as a video I made showing the ending of the game. That might have been my finest hour. I put it up on YouTube for the world to see.

And here is a little backstory of Super Mario 2 from Wikpedia, for you nerds out there:

"Super Mario Bros. 2 is the third offical sequel to Super Mario Bros., and the first to be released to on the NES outside of Japan, and was released in North America in October 1988 and in Europe in 1989.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a remake of Doki Doki Panic, a Japan-only game. Nintendo licensed Mario to Hudson Soft, who developed the first official sequel to SMB, the wholly obscure Super Mario Bros. Special and only released on the NEC PC88 Japanese PC. Nintendo then developed their own sequel to Super Mario Bros. and released it in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2. The Japanese SMB2 was released in America and Europe in Super Mario All-Stars as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and later in the Game Boy Color Super Mario Bros. remake. Nintendo decided that this game was too difficult and chose not to release the game in North America and Europe. They instead remade Doki Doki Panic as a Mario title. This game was later released as Super Mario USA in Japan in 1990."

Sliced of Life

Make Out City Studios recently caught up with the 15 year old DaggeH from Karlskoga Sweden of YouTube fame for a quick rap about his latest short, "Sliced".



MakeOutCity- DaggeH, your short film "Sliced" has done real well on YouTube. What really strikes me as interesting is you shot it on your cell phone. Why did you choose do do it that way?

DaggeH- I do not own a normal camera, I use what I have. Which creates some problems. It is harder, you know, to take a picture on a small cell phone. Then I cut the pictures together in the computer. I'm not always happy with the results, I hope it will turn out better than it does.

MakeOutCity- Seems to be very challenging. Have you been animating long?

DaggeH- Not very long, I may have started some years ago, so I know the drill. But I never have been into it seriously, I mean I could do one movie per half year or something. But now I have taken up the work again to maybe get into it more seriously...who knows?

MakeOutCity- Where did you learn how to animate, and what inspired you?

DaggeH- I'm pretty much self-learned, and movies like "Lord of the Rings" and Matrix inspired me.

MakeOutCity- Hopefully we will see more of your work in the future.

DaggeH- Yes, you certainly will.

MakeOutCity- Do you have any last words for the hundreds of readers out there?

DaggeH- Yes, I want to thank everybody for the wonderful comments I've received for my movies on YouTube.

MakeOutCity- And thank you, we will look forward to seeing more of your work.

Here is a link to his YouTube page where you can read more about him and see his other films.

Something Smells Rank'n

Did you hear the news today oh-boy! Warner Brothers Television is remaking my favorite holiday special "The Year Without Santa Claus" as a live-action movie. Sounds like a waste of money.

"When Santa's devious head elf, Sparky (Kattan), tells him that he must keep up with the times — no matter how materialistic — Santa Claus (Goodman) resists, fearing that the holiday has become far too commercial. Convinced that no one believes in him and that people have forgotten the real meaning of Christmas, Santa decides to take the year off and not deliver any gifts, much to the dismay of his two closest elves, Jingle (Suplee) and Jangle (Griffin). The two elves decide to prove to Santa that there are children left who still care about the true spirit of Christmas.

Mark Wolper (SALEM'S LOT, HELTER SKELTER) is exec producer and Ron Underwood (CITY SLICKERS, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG) directs the two-hour movie from the Wolper Co. in association with Warner Bros. Television. THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS will be filmed in Shreveport and Natchitoches, Louisiana."

Read the whole article here.

The Brew Crew

Some of you may have seen this crew picture before, so if you have, ignore it. If you haven't, then enjoy. This is a shot of the animators and some of the amazing crew that Liz and I work with at at Robot Chicken.

The ones with the beards are the coolest.

The ones with the red shirts are the most talented.

The Greatest 4th

To celebrate the birth of Make Out City Studios host nation and our cat, here are some pictures and links to The Greatest American Hero ever!

This show was first aired in 1981, and was both a comedy and a drama. A special "power suit" that only works on him is given to the teacher by the aliens, and he is paired up with the gumshoe FBI agent who keeps them both busy with his scenarios. The suit of "unearthly powers" gives the power of strength, flight, invisibility, flames, telekenesis, vision of events without being there, protection from bullets and fire . He also got chics.

Hiring Stop-Motion Animators

Okay, not Make Out City Studios, but Laika Entertainment is. They posted on AWN that they are now looking to hire stop-motion animators for their upcoming project. So send them your stuff...unless you don't want to, like this guy. Your choice.

This Stuff Better Be In Focus

Here are some pictures of the fence that I have been making....as I mentioned a few posts ago. Like I said, it seems a little similar. There are also pictures of the sidewalk as well as some unfinished hills. You can also see the sky has been put up, but not painted. You have to use your imagination...and pretend a pretty sky will be back there.

And as a special bonus, I included a picture of me cutting some wood.