go go speed racer

hi kids.
i saw speed racer the other day in wichita, in between shows. wow. umm. i think it was a pinata of flourescent cg candy. some of it is still in my eye. there's some really cool stuff, some great moments. but all in all, a pretty stinky film. i'm probably 25 years past their demographic though. the effects were on par with a sega dreamcast game, and the compositing looked like it was done in the trial version of after effects. but jack, from lost, is in it. and he was cool. and he did kungfu.

on a similar note, i saw 'redbelt' last night, and it was really good. slow, and not a lot of fighting (for a movie named after the highest butt-kicking accessory). but chewatel (the bad guy from 'serenity'), was fantastic. he's a great, honorable, likable character, but maintains a calculated calmness that implies tremendous confidence. the confidence of a jiu-jitsu mastah! in any case, if it's in town near you, go see it. tell me what you think. maybe me and billy zabka will remake it =)
-pete

"iron man" is superawesome

did anyone else see it? i totallysuperloved it. rdj is fantastic in it.
i want a metal suit now. and a pony.

soo, i'm going to wichita this week. that will be fun. neil is still playing guitar with us, which is ubercool. like a little mini nmk reunion.

indiana jones is out soon. woohoo!

-pete

vocals

lead vocals were fun. we usually get through a song a day. neil doesn’t like me to sing for more than 2 hours or so each day. usually he gets up early (waaay earlier than me) and edits together the stuff from the previous day. then i’ll get up. we’ll grab lunch, and then start tracking.
the first few takes, we run straight through. just for me to get a feel for the song and mood. neil gives me feedback on things to change, or things to push. then we take the song piece by piece. verses, choruses, and bridge. all separate. finally we do a few passes to get any parts that i didn’t do very well.
these songs have been a lot more challenging for me, vocally, than the songs on the first album. the range is a little wider. the highest points feel higher. we tried to get a little more character into the performances. things like that are tough to nail down.
all in all, i’m pretty happy with the way everything is coming out. i’m really excited to hear what these will sound like with horns and background vocals.

[video clip]

sheep in the woods

apparently this is old, but it made me laugh a lot when i found it today.

http://vimeo.com/99317

kristen schaal is on one of my favorite new shows, flight of the conchords.

how are you all on this rainy friday?

-pete

horn arranging

neil and i went down to nashville yesterday to meet up with our friend max. max is writing and arranging some brass and string parts for the album. he’s a great guy, and really funny. neil and i did our mouth-trumpet versions of what we had in mind and he asked, ‘what do you need me for? just do that!’
every time neil and i drive down to nashville it rains. downpour. buckets. only while we are driving. once we get there, it’s fine. and then, when it’s time to drive home: flood. monsoon.

go fish cards

hey pookies.
i made a couple sets of ’go fish’ cards for my niece and nephews for christmas, and i had to make a bunch. so i had a few sets left over. we decided to put them up for sale on the astonish store, here.
i might do a normal deck of cards, nmk-style, depending on how many of these we’re left with =)
anyway, check em out. and let us know if you’d like to see more stuff like this. i like making things. that, and ice cream. i like ice cream too. maybe more.
-pete

happy april foo’s day

yo foos. check it. no one played any april fool’s jokes on me today. i’m sad.
-pete

background and layout design

i’ve never been good at drawing backgrounds. for some reason it just never works out for me. i guess i’m more interested in drawing goofy characters. thankfully ghostbot is brilliant at both. roque whipped up some beautiful background designs that completely stand on their own as art pieces. his sense of color and space make them really engaging. in the video, it’s hard to focus on the background because of all the wonderful action happening in the foreground. but it’s definitely worth your time to watch it again with an eye bent towards the great environments.
in ghostbot’s timeline on any project, they usually jump right on backgrounds and layout just after the animatic is complete. layout involves positioning all the key elements in the frame to create an interesting and functional composition. if this composition doesn’t work, then the entire scene can fall flat. sometimes layout are done in black and white, or shades of grey, just to block out the light and dark and large and small areas.
for this video, the backgrounds had to be relatively simple. strong graphic shapes, pleasing subdued colors. they couldn’t conflict with the action, but had to enhance it. enhance the mood.
here are a few layouts from roque:







-pete

next: the art of collaboration

terry fator on oprah!

hello egg-finders..
my friend terry fator (last season’s winner of the hit show ’america’s got talent’) was recently on oprah. they played a great little intro video about him, and then he performed a short piece featuring three of his impersonations. you can see the segment here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw91DGOpNrI

he’s an amazing guy, and absolutely deserves all the success on the planet.
-pete

happy easter!

hello my little chocolate bunnies.
i hope you all have a wonderful easter. wear cute little pastel dresses and carry little wicker baskets around all day. i’m going to wander around looking for rabbits to dip in chocolate.

since there’s almost nothing out in the theatre world these days, i’ve been renting a bunch of movies (thanks itunes!). some good, some bad. i thought i would give you my quick reviews to save you from repeating my potential bad decisions.

the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford: very good. slow, but good. great dialogue, shot beautifully (if not a little forcefully artsy).

gone baby gone: holy crap, this was good. ben affleck has been on the wrong side of the camera all these years. this is where he belongs. the story is pretty heavy, pretty dark stuff. but the writing is smart, the performances are great. pretty weighty stuff.

then my streak ended. the following movies should only be rented if you won the lottery and are running out of things to spend money on: war, chaos, next and death sentence. i was warned about most of these by rotten tomatoes. i was warned and i ignored them. i have since clawed out my eyes.

then a surprise: 30 days of night. i thought this would suck (ha! a pun!), but i have a thing for zombie and vampire movies. thankfully i was wrong, it was very cool. the ending cheesed me out a bit, but i forgave it. it had a great look, it was well-acted and paced.

and then there are two that i feel weird about. the nines: pretty confusing (intentionally), but well acted and sort-of well written, except its premise is so silly that i don’t think it needed to be a film. certainly not a feature length film. it’s one of those endings that pees all over the audience.

and then last night was ’martian child’, which i wanted to see when it was in theatres, but it got slammed by rotten tomatoes. so i didn’t. but my curiosity got the better of me. i didn’t hate it. but it definitely could have used a re-write. maybe? i’m not even sure if that’s what was wrong with it. i mean, john cusack is always good, so it wasn’t that. i think the dialog, while smart, was a little goofy? or something. not sure. i liked it, mostly, so i would recommend it to you, oh dear chocolate bunny.

well that’s it for rentals.

then neil and kate and i took story to see ’horton hears a who’. it rocked! i laughed out loud several times. several embarrassing times. louder than i should have. the thing is, steve carrel and jim carrey aren’t particularly funny in it. in fact, i might’ve liked it more if someone else were in those parts. but the secondary characters are so charming! and the animators looked for every opportunity to punch up a gag, or make a moment. anyway, i am looking forward to seeing it again. that’s two times seeing.

-pete