Gordon McAlpin's Blog: Updates from Multiplex: Deleted Scenes, page 12

Learn More. (non-fiction PSA)

As most of you know, I’m in grad school now, getting an MFA in Graphic Design. So I figured I could share some of my class projects with you, if Multiplex is gonna start being late all the time or whatever (which hasn’t happened yet, but who knows?)…

The following video is a PSA promoting non-fiction books, movies, and TV created for DES 8114 Graphic Design Studio (University of Minnesota; Steven McCarthy, instructor). The URL at the end is fake, although I do own it (it points to the Multiplex site), since I would like to eventually do something with it along these lines.

Music: “Eveningland” by Hem

Footage: Craig Smith, Life, Blue Planet, Chimpanzee, Planet Earth, Romano Archives, The People Speak (trailer), Baraka, For All Mankind, Wonders of the Universe.

Designed and edited by Gordon McAlpin using Final Cut Pro X and After Effects CS6 (for the titles).

Shpadoinkle! Watch Cannibal! the Musical NOW

Cannibal! the Musical is a 1996 (pre-South Park) film by Trey Parker, starring Parker, his South Park comrade-in-arms Matt Stone and several familiar faces from Orgazmo: Dian Bachar (Choda Boy), Maseo Maki (G Fresh), and Toddy Walters (Georgi).

It’s distributed by Troma Films, which has officially put over a hundred of their films on YouTube — free.

If you’re a fan of South Park or Parker’s other movies (Orgazmo and Team America), you’ll probably love Cannibal!, as well. It’s absurdly, insanely hilarious, if a little uneven. Well worth at least one viewing — I still find myself catching small details when I revisit it: listen for Dian Bachar jingling his keys while he hits on the “Indian” woman.

Shpadoinkle!

No no no no no nonononono…

I forgot to include an embed of this with Thursday’s comic (Multiplex #733: Sick to My Stomach), but reader inezco reminded me:

The Multiplex: Chapter 9 eBook is now available!

The Multiplex: Chapter 9 eBook is now available! Chapter 9 contains strips #165–189 from the Multiplex archives, plus seven bonus comics not found in the archives, fleshing out the narrative and adding so many lulz you wouldn’t even believe man.

I’ll be starting on Chapter 10 as soon as I finished Thursday’s comic.

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ParaNorman making-of featurette: “Hand-making the World”

I posted the trailer for Laika’s ParaNorman last October, and while the film still has a little way to go before its August 17th release, Focus Features has posted a making-of featurette on the official website.

I’m a huge animation nerd, and I love behind the scenes/making-of stuff, so I thought I’d post something other than a trailer or a short film just this once.

A synopsis for the zombie flick follows after the cut:

ParaNorman is set in the town of Blithe Hollow, whose locals profit from mining the town’s history as the site, 300 years ago, of a famous witch hunt. 11-year-old Norman Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee of Let Me In and The Road) spends much of his days appreciating the finer points of scary movies and studying ghost lore. In fact, Norman is gifted with the ability to see and speak with the dead, such as his beloved grandmother (Elaine Stritch). Most days, he prefers their company to that of his flustered father (Jeff Garlin), spacey mother (Leslie Mann), and deeply superficial older sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick). At middle school, Norman dodges bullying Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), confides in the impressionable Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), and tries to tune out his blowhard teacher Mrs. Henscher (Alex Borstein).

Norman is unexpectedly contacted by his odd uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman), who floors him with the revelation that a centuries-old witch’s curse is real and is about to come true, and that only Norman will be able to stop it from going into overdrive and harming the townspeople. Once a septet of zombies – led by The Judge (Bernard Hill) – suddenly rises from their graves, Norman finds himself caught in a wild race against time alongside Courtney, Alvin, Neil, and Neil’s musclebound older brother Mitch (Casey Affleck) as Sheriff Hooper (Tempestt Bledsoe) chases them all. Worse, the town is up in arms and taking up arms.

Norman bravely summons up all that makes a hero – courage and compassion – as he finds his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

“Lake Beast” by Vance Reeser

“Lake Beast” is a short film funded in part by an early Kickstarter project by Vance Reeser, and it’s one I’m proud to say I contributed to. (By “early,” I mean the pre-2011/2012 explosion where people started making millions of dollars. It was up around the same time that my Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show project was up, in late 2009.)

At long last, the short has been completed. It’s a dream-like short about childhood vision that “compels a man to explore the bottom of a toxic lake,” and I highly recommend investing the seven(-ish) minutes of your life to watch it. It’s also up on Vimeo and you can purchase it (for however much you’re willing to give) via Gumroad, as well. Or, just watch it here:

Check out more stuff from the animator at Vance Reeser’s portfolio site.

Thomas Jane is back as the Punisher (unofficially) in “Dirty Laundry”

Thomas Jane previously starred in Lionsgate’s 2004 The Punisher, which didn’t do very well in the theaters or with critics — at least, not well enough to warrant a sequel by the same team. But the 2008 Punisher: War Zone fared even worse.

At this year’s SDCC, Jane premiered a ten minute “fan film” starring himself as Frank Castle once again, called “Dirty Laundry.” Jane explained: “I wanted to make a fan film for a character I’ve always loved and believed in — a love letter to Frank Castle & his fans. It was an incredible experience with everyone on the project throwing in their time just for the fun of it. It’s been a blast to be a part of from start to finish. We hope the friends of Frank enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.”

Honestly, it’s… uh… not very good for most of its running time — but once the killing starts (oh, and it’s pretty violent), it gets fun. Sorry to spoil the fact that he’s the Punisher, by the way. It’s mean to be an awesome reveal at the end, but… really, it doesn’t make a difference.

(via Coming Soon)

The AV Club’s Stand Down: Patton Oswalt’s magical black man

My friends (and former co-workers, in fact) Dan Henrick and Kate O’Leary animated this new web series for the AV Club, Stand Down, which features stand-up comics talking about horrible gigs (and how they handled them). This first one is an adaptation of an anecdote from Patton Oswalt.

It’s a fantastic execution of a brilliant idea, and I hope you’ll keep it on your radar. New episodes are posted every Wednesday. Next week, will feature Maria Bamford.

Daniel H. Wilson on “How To Survive A Robot Uprising (aka Robopocalypse)”

Epipheo spoke with Daniel H. Wilson — Robotics PhD and author of Robopocalypse — to find out how to survive the inevitable robopocalypse, and the result was a very funny animated short.

Relevant: Steven Spielberg will start shooting the film adaptation of Robopocalypse this summer in Montreal. The film is targeting a July 2013 release.

The Avengers: What did you think? (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT CLICK THROUGH IF YOU WANT AN UNTAINTED FILM-GOING EXPERIENCE. I’M SERIOUS, DAWG.

As I said in the Notes for today’s strip, I absolutely loved The Avengers. It exceeded my expectations by a wide, wide margin.

The plot was kind of unremarkable, sure — standard-issue, super-villain plot with some MacGuffin-chasing thrown in — but the character moments were beautifully handled (always Whedon’s strong suit); the action was amazingly good; and it was funny as all hell, without ever undermining the urgency of the story.

The alien villains were a little on the faceless side, but I think in this first movie that’s good, because it let us focus on the team much more than if we had a more front-and-center villain. If they follow through with the Thanos tease in a second Avengers flick, this shouldn’t be an issue again.

Some quibbles:

1) The score. Cool (if not spectacular) theme, but the score never really did much for me throughout the film. I barely noticed it, and as a huge fan of movie scores, I generally try to notice the music.

2) What’s up with the Hulk anger issues? This one is more of a question, really, because I loved how the Hulk was used in the film more than enough to overlook this, but in the first scene with him, he’s raging at everything and fighting everyone. In the finale, he’s in control enough to cooperate with the others. Why?

3) Getting knocked unconscious breaks the magical mind control? I guess so.

4) What, was Thor standing in that field waiting to pick up the hammer for like five hours while everybody else got their shit together?

5) When the mothership goes down, all the aliens just shut down, too? Really? Cheap.

6) More of a marketing complaint, but I wish — oh I wish — that Hulk catching Iron Man hadn’t been in the trailer. Such a great moment, and coming after the climax of the film, practically, it should have been kept as a surprise.

Minor quibbles, all, don’t get me wrong. If I were still reviewing movies, I’d still give the film a well-earned 5 star rating. (Remember: I don’t do halfsies, and that doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect — just that I loved it.) As soon as I can get my girlfriend caught up on the earlier Marvel flicks (she’s seen two of the five), I’ll be seeing it again.