I just realized I have not done a Rickety Rat update in awhile! I've actually been busy what with ComicCon and all. But I did get a chance to playtest the boardgame, and I even got to have the animatic critiqued! Here are some pictures of us playing the boardgame:
So what needs to happen now is that I need to tweek the boardgame(I'm leaning towards making it less boardy and more tabletop roleplayingy) and I need to rewrite, redraw and rerecord parts of the animatic until I'm sure it's amazing.
Hey there Ricketeers! I've finished the animatic! Now I just have to watch it several times and see what needs to be cut or changed. I can't upload the whole thing because a) It's way too big, and b) I really don't want to spoil anything. BUT I can give you a taste of it! Here's a scene at the Rodential Bar and Jazz Club:
And also, here's an alternate version:
I'm still experimenting with camera angles and such. I like the shot of the messenger running up, but I feel it may be unneeded. Thoughts? Thoughts on the story/characters/pace/voices so far?
Also, the music and lounge singer voice was Richard Cheese, who is awesome, and who you can check out here.
Credits: Rickety/Announcer: Lucas Ciarlante Rascals/Stumbles: Sean Faye Digby: Joshua Daniel Donna: Alanna Dukes
Wow, I have not done a post in awhile. Well, I have been working on it, but I don't always have stuff to post. Been working on the animatic, but I can't show too much, don't want to spoil any of the story. Also, I've started character sheets for each of the characters and concept art for the settings. Here's a quick sketch of The Rodential: Bar and Jazz Club: A little jazz bar where Rickety works and drinks. Mostly drinks.
I'm always on the look out for sites and books that have references to interiors and exteriors of 1920's buildings (especially bars and night clubs) so if you find anything or know of any, drop me a line.
I recently saw Assassination of a High School President and while I wouldn't outright call it a noir, it does have noir elements. I can't help feeling it's trying to be Brick but it's just not that stylish.
It's almost Brick's opposite or counterpoint; instead of a noir wrapped in a high-school drama, it's really a high-school coming of age story wrapped in a noir. But, it's still really funny and even though it's obviously a coming of age story, it's still enjoyable to see the main character go from downtrodden miserable nervous teen to confident badass man. And Bruce Willis is exceedingly funny as the War veteran principal. I'd highly recommend picking it up for a viewing.
Hey there Ricketeers! It's been awhile since I've had a post, but I return bearing progress! I finally finished the animatic of the opening title sequence. Check it out!
This is only a preliminary animatic. I like where it's going, but I already feel it's going too fast. It should probably be at least another minute longer, but for that I'm having my sound guy do it. There's only so many different punches and "ahs" I can take. Although, I do like adding different cartoony sound effects to it and making the audience go, "Pop? What the hell went pop? What are they doing to this poor guy? Was that a frying pan I heard?"
Also, the music is Big Shell West Bristol from the amazing BenCousins at OCremic.org. It's just a placeholder for now until my sound guy comes up with a killer theme, but this is one of my all time favorite Trip Hop songs. Actually, it's the song that turned me on to Trip Hop and bands like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Hooverphonic. Ahhh memories.
I think I'll ace the posters. Not that I won't do them, but maybe one a week. There's too many to catch up on.
So finally I'm bringing back Noir Review! This week, a double helping of Ernest Hemingway's The Killers!
I got a chance to look at both the 1946 and 1964 versions of The Killers and I'm REALLY leading towards the 1946 version. Two hired killers come to town and off some guy, but the guy doesn't run, almost like he's expecting it. The whole movie is the mystery behind why this man was killed and why he was so accepting of it.
In the 1946 version, it opens with a great dramatic score and introduces us to the actual killers as they talk about who they're going to kill in a quaint little diner. These are my two favorite characters in the entire movie, and I was really hoping the entire movie was going to revolve around them planning and murdering the guy. They're menacing and psychotic, the kind of unique characters you don't see in normal life. "What're we gonna do? I'll tell ya. We're gonna kill the Sweed." Sadly, they kill the guy and go off screen after twenty minutes, only to return an hour later for a short (though easily the most dramatic)scene near the end.
The rest of the movie involves an insurance agent tracking down people connected with "The Sweed" and piecing together a tale of a robbery gone wrong. Each character he meets has a little flashback of what happened. They handle this in a great way, not making the flashbacks too long and are careful to make sure the audience only sees what the person flashbacking(is that a word?) sees. It's a nice little noir story with a couple of great characters, a good twisting story, and some nice camera work. I would wholly recommend checking it out. I think I'd give it a solid 32 out of 39.
Then I started to watch the 1964 version. I say started because I honestly couldn't get through the first hour. And no, not because it's in color. Similar to the first movie, the killers off their target, but almost as reluctant heroes they go, "Hmmm, he didn't run. How odd. Perhaps we should investigate this mystery." which seems rather strange to me. What kind of hired killers are these? They do the job, it's an easy job, and they want to find out more? If they were so curious, why didn't they do this before?
So they find a mechanic that's connected to the guy they just offed and ask him what happened. And so begins the real movie, a love story involving race cars. What? Didn't I sign up for a noir? Why is everyone so bright and lovy dovy? The flashback goes on for way too long and the mechanic suffers from "And this part I wasn't there for but I remember it perfectly" syndrome, which I can't stand.
It seems like the noir mystery was just a framing device for the movie they really wanted to make(or the movie they though audiences would really want to see). I just stopped caring. I can't really recommend it for hardcore noir fans.
Hmm. Would anyone want to become an actual Ricketeer if I made an official fan page? I think it would be an interesting promotional idea. Now, how could I make it viral?
Hey Ricketeers! Sorry for the late post, but I'm considering moving Rickety Rat Update day to Fridays. Also, I don't really have anything this week. I haven't had much time to work on any more posters or concept art, but I have scanned in all my storyboards and am in the process of making an animatic. Actually, several animatics. Since it's such a big one, I figure I'll break it into scenes (also some scenes have alternates), then splice it together in one huge monstrous animatic.
And then I have to remember how After effects works. Yay.
So this week I have another short animatic for you! If it's too small here, then you can see it HERE. It's Rascals saying one line four different times! I'll be using it as an animation test in the coming weeks.
Also, because of a few people have been badgering me about how to do it, I'll be doing a video tutorial about how to make those nifty looking textures in Flash. I'll be doing at least three of them. One showing how to draw with the line tool quickly in flash, another showing how to make the textures, and then another showing how to use those textures in animation.
And perhaps if I figure out something new and exciting or if someone is wondering how to do something, I'll do more!
Stiiiiiiillllll doing Storyboards. Actually I kinda had a halt because I was working on the title sequence animatic, but I'm gonna have to start back up again if I want to get done before never.
This week I wanna talk about two Noir movies! Double Indemnity and The Singing Detective!
I'll start off with the classic, Double Indemnity. And it is! This is one of the most suspenseful noirs I've watched, especially for a story where the main character practically tells you the end at the beginning! It's about a fed-up wife getting an insurance salesmen to help her kill her husband.
There are so many moments where they almost got caught and your heart just stops. That is how you define suspense. The dialogue is incredible; one of my favorite bits is when the wife and the hapless insurance agent are flirting and comparing the whole thing to speeding tickets. Seriously, THIS is how dialogue is done. Fred MacMurray does a wonderful job as the narrating insurance agent, and Edward G. Robinson steals the show as his ranting raving boss. I completely recommend this to any noir enthusiasts.
And then there's The Singing Detective. It has Robert Downy Jr. as a burn victim who's a famous pulp writer, Mel Gibson as a eccentric doctor, Katie homes as the hot nurse, and Adrien Brody as a thug. It's got fast dialogue, plenty of gratuitous sex, a nurse accidentally "getting off" a burn victim, and on top of all that, song and dance numbers. All of which I had no problem with. What I had trouble was the nonsensical story. There wasn't any real big mystery, no real suspense, and you never had a sense of what was going on. And there were a lot of things that just never got explained, like why he got burned in the first place. Apparently it was based on a BBC series, so I'll have to check that out. It's a quirky movie and definitely not for everyone, but, uhhhhh where else are you going to see a burn victim in a dance number?
So this week I'm still working on the Storyboards and the title sequence animatic. I was hoping to have the title sequence done this week, but some problems arose and it will have to wait until next week (hopefully). Buuuuuut I do have stuff to show this week!
First, if you look to the right, you'll notice I've added an "about" page describing the basic plot of the animation for anyone who started checking out this blog and has no idea what it's for. Plus I added a characters page to tell give you a little insight and backstory on the cast. With pictures!
Second, I did I semi-final version of Wally the Willow! At first I wanted him without a mouth because it made it seem like he was just part of the background rather than a real character(how would you feel if you were just a tree in the background?). But the more I think about it, the more I think a mouth and nose look better on him. What do you think?
I like that he has branches sticking up in the middle as if he were balding.
Third, I'm starting a test animation with Rascals. Rather than start an 11 sec animation with all the other stuff I have to do, then not make the deadline, then not caring about finishing it, again, I'm doing a multiple line animation.
This is what I'm talking about: If anyone saw my Dirk Headstrong animation I was working on last year, you may have caught my video of Squidula saying the same line but having the action being interpreted different ways. If you didn't, you can watch it here!
So there's one line from Rascals that the actor said it multiple times and can be interpreted multiple ways. I love animating these because it shows the different ways someone can act out such a simple line and the range of different emotions one can exude from a reading. Yay acting!
Also, this doesn't have anything to do with the animation, but for those of you know about it, the everyday detective is coming! We did an old fashioned radio play about a detective doing mundane things in dramatic ways. It's been a blast working on it. Right now I'm waiting on my sound guy Lucas to add music and sound. I think anyone interested in noir is really going to enjoy it. And if it gets a good enough reception, I'll have to make more!
So for this week, on Noir Review, I'm going to talk about Roman Polanski's Chinatown with Jack Nicholson. There's two reasons to see it right there! It's a real classic neo-noir. It's about a detective, Jack Nicholson, who gets involved with a big conspiracy with the water system. The cinematography is some of the best you'll see anywhere. If you're an animator, filmmaker, or comic book artist wondering how to make your shots interesting, this is the movie you should see.
Storywise, it starts off slow, and it's a long haul, but the climactic ending is well worth it. Jack nicholson does a great job as a sleazy with a heart of gold detective and pulls off some great tricks every good noir detective in the 1940's without a computer and gps tracking system should know. Overall I'd give it a 19 out of a 21.
Man have I got a bunch of stuff for you! I have stuff up the wazoo! Having stuff up the Wazoo should be considered a serious medical condition for what I've got for you!
First off, I've got brand new all new pictures of the rest of the gang! Rascals, Roofie, Dolly and Digby! I might still tweak the textures and such, but on the whole I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Check them out!
Rascals in his swanky suit. EDIT: Thanks from Sean letting me know I forgot his whisker Mustache.
Dolly in her classy pokadot dress
Digby I'm still working on the textures. Something strange.
Dolly in her fishnets.I love how they turned out.
And not only that!
I've also got a rough animatic of the first part for the animation, Stumbles' Cartoon, "How to be a Noir Detective" which I might release as a promotional piece to hype the project up. The voices and sound effects are rough, but Lucas, my sound guy is gonna make it sound Beeeeautiful. Also, the music is "Frankie and Johnny" by Bunny Berigan, from the Brick Soundtrack. So even though I think it works pretty well for the mood, I probably definitely can't use it. But I wouldn't want to anyways, because my sound guy Lucas who's done all the music for my previous animations is making an amazing score from scratch! So take that copyright infringement! I think it's coming along pretty nicely.
EDIT: if you wanna see it bigger than two inches by two inches click here.
So this week since I'm using music from the soundtrack and also because it's awesome, I feel I need to talk about Brick. Brick is Noir + high school. You'd think that given so many teen angsty revamps these days it would be a bad idea, but it is truly one of the greatest Noir movies(and movies in general) ever. It's got a great cast of characters that are high school versions of their older noir counterparts, Dialogue seemingly ripped straight from Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, a haunting mesmerizing score, AMAZING cinematography, and a twisting winding story. The best part are all these little mundane moments you would see in high school life but come off as comical in a noir story. I can't recommend this enough. Check out the trailer and also these awesome character posters I recently found:
Well that's enough for this week. Don't get used to this luxury, I won't always have stuff jammed up my wazoo. I need to sit down sometime!
