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The Summoning V

The Summoning was filmed in a two-bedroom apartment on 12th and Hemlock. Three people were living in the suite and they completely cleaned out the living room for the filming. This meant that couches and whatnot were crammed into a small kitchen, hall and bedrooms. It was a super hot day, made more hot by the fact that for the purposes of lighting, the windows were shut tight and cardboard was taped over them. A fan was brought into the room but of course we had to switch it off for sound recording purposes whenever the cameras were rolling. This isn’t news to people in the film industry, with a similar deal for having to scrub any shot where a motorcycle drives by. On set were the previously mentioned people, plus the sound guy, two “production assistants” and two of the people who lived there, usually crammed into the hall right next to the giant hot light. I think I got the better end of the deal being the actor stuck on the set.

I was supplied with knee pads which we stuck underneath the pants and we went through the shots in a similar but not exact order as the rehearsals. Ignasi ordered a Necronomicon-like book off eBay, but it didn’t come in time for the shoot, so we used an anatomy book. There was a related blooper where I couldn’t find a page that didn’t have a decidedly non-evil anatomical drawing on it as I was flipping through the book of dark magickal spells.

Overall the shooting went well, though a lot of it was very challenging for me and not just from the heat. I had to keep my hand and head perfectly still as I was supposed to be writhing in pain, more or less exactly the same from take to take. I didn’t start sweating until the climactic shots – the writhing ones – so makeup had to constantly be applied to me.

I’m intrigued to see how it all turns out!

2024 UPDATE – young me being self-absorbed never included the names of any other involved parties in the blog posts about this project. So now here they are:

Ignasi Duelo
Jiet Shern Neo
Margit Gassner
Michael Sun

Attila Kállai (photos)

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Hoverboy!

I don’t really consider myself a comic collector. I don’t pick up titles regularly. I don’t have a box at a local comic store. If it wasn’t for the fact that my studio is over a comic book store, I wouldn’t go in every week. But as it is, I have been checking out what’s on the stand (always wise if you’re getting into the business), and something came out this week that I am very happy to add to my comic pile.

In 2004 I was in contact with Marcus Moore, with whom I traded some Rocket Robin Hood episodes on VHS. He was at the time working on some stuff for Hoverboy: The Republican Super-Hero! The stuff I saw was great – he was working on cartoons that “borrowed” from Rocket Robin Hood, Spider-Man and the Fleischer Supermans. I won’t over-describe, you should just go [here] and see for yourself. The depth of hoaxitude with all the ‘archival material’ puts Spaceship Zero to shame. So when I stumbled upon Hoverboy #1 on the stands at RX Comics I snapped it up. And believe you me, it does not disappoint! This comic gets the Toren Atkinson Stamp of Approval. Don’t be a commie – shell out the $3.99 for good old American-Made (actually Canadian) product!
(Or if you’re weird and can’t make it to a comic shop, I can grab one for you.)

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Tracing

Inking a comic is really hard. Especially when you don’t know what you’re doing. I started working today but after a few hours I had to stop, because everything I touched turned to poo. I spent some of my time going through my “How to Ink Comics” books and making a list of tips, tricks, and preferred tools. My brush hand is shaky, flat and inconsistent. Using pens takes too long and doesn’t give me the look I want. (I don’t really have a “look” in the same way that I have an established “look” with my illustration – I think it’s pretty clear by my work so far that I am very much trying to find my footing, and that’s a look I don’t want.) My experiment with French curves was a waste of time and I manage to smudge the wet ink with some part of my hand a few times per page.

So I left the studio, played video games for an hour, and then went home to feed the cat. I planned on going back to the studio afterwards but couldn’t muster up the energy. I wish I had more time to practice on trivial things and work out my glaring weaknesses, but I’ve got to get four pages done before August. And tomorrow I’m in Chilliwack and you can’t ink on a Greyhound. Good thing I cancelled my gaming.

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Things I'm Working On

Art I’m Working On:

Rhinosferatu Comic (4 pages) for the Cloudscape Collective Anthology
The Underbelly: Luccias Special (4 pages) for the Comix & Stories comic convention special anthology
The Underbelly (untold millions of pages) for the web and eventual publication

Future Plans:
Finish that fifth page of the Spaceship Zero comic.
Do another World Wildlife Federation of Justice story, featuring Ant-Lion.

Get a grant from the Xeric Foundation for WWFJ
Get a grant from Canada Council to do a comic on the wendigo trials.

Music Stuff I’m Working On:

The next album by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, including some re-imagined Thickets classics.
Preparing for the Penny Arcade Expo and the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival

Future Plans:
The DVD portion of the album – I need help getting VHS footage digitized and generally putting together the package.
Making a music video for “A Marine Biologist” – yes it’s still on the table somewhere under everything else.

Where the Twain Shall Meet:

Thickets buttons and shirts.
Does anyone want to write a treatment for a Spaceship Zero movie? Stuart Gordon said he’d love to see one.

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You Got Served!

This morning I had the dispute resolution “hearing” between me, my ex-landlady (or landowner as Best would say) and the dispute resolution officer from the Residential Tenancy Branch. The landowner inferred that I had stolen the furniture that came with the suite when I moved out, which is of course ridiculous because a) I don’t steal and b) I didn’t even have enough room for all of my own furniture in the new place in Kits. Of course even if that were true it is immaterial to the issue of getting my security deposit back since the time for her to file on the security deposit issue is long since passed. She can still file to try to get damages out of me but I think the evidence weighs in my favour (I wrote a lot of very detailed letters and which I have copies of).

So now I will wait to receive a package with contains a monetary order which I must then serve to the landlady. So the drama continues and of course I will blog it!

On a related note, why to black holes have such strong gravity?