Jul 19 2008

Brain…Hurts

Luth Brodie

So the past few months I’ve been animating like a crazy woman. I wake up, watch a couple of eps of TV with breakfast and tea, work, eat dinner (at the desk), more work, watch a film or more TV eps and then go to sleep. Sometimes I’ll take a break to do things for the holiday coming up on Monday. Like converting films to my iPod Touch, getting all the files and programs ready, looking for my passport and US mobile, or whatever random thing I think about. But mostly, I’ve been glued to the Captian’s Chair (hubbies nickname for my huge plush leather desk chair).

You saw part of it during the opening and the rest will be released while I’m away. What I really wanted was enough items to put out stuff consistantly where all I had to do was make the ads. I don’t mind laptops, but animating on them is probably the worst thing possible.

By the time I leave, I will have (hopefully):
3 AOs - Casual Female, Casual Male, and Party Dress.
4 Pose Sets - Posh, Fashion Series 5, Shoes (you know.. show off the shoes in an interesting way) and Material Girls - for showing off the jewlery.
4-6 Couple’s Poses. 4 have been made, the problem is that I’m waiting to hear back from Trinny about standing in for Alle while I make them. If not, I think I can come up with something else to make for the rest of the weekend.

But do look out this weekend as I’ll be releasing something new before I leave :P

Cheers
Luth


Jul 16 2008

Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Luth Brodie

First episode is up! 2nd will be up on the 17th and act 3 on the 19th. However, they will be only available until midnight on the 20th! www.drhorrible.com

Never heard of it? Well then…

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

During the writers strike, Joss Whedon (Writer/Creator/Producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and the upcomming Dollhouse) decided to do something new that circumvented the studios. At least something good came from that huh?

So the entire thing is seriously low budget. But for once, its showing how low budget can actually be very good. Who better to give us something not only entertaining, but something to shove into the studio execs face, then Joss Whedon who’d been screwed over by Fox with Firefly? (If you haven’t seen Firefly, I highly suggest renting it)

It’s a “supervillain musical.” With Neil Patrick Harris as the geeky semi-competent supervillian Dr Horrible. Do I need put his past stuff in parentheses? Who can forget Doogie Howser, M.D.? (laugh) Or his recent brilliance in How I Met Your Mother - the only show with a laugh track that is not only watchable, but really good. Then you have Nathan Fillion - Captain Mal from Firefly!! - as Captain Hammer the over the top sex symbol type hero.

The writing of course is brilliant. From Act 1 (the set up) we see Doctor Horrible doing his video blog - “wow sarcasim…how origional.” We learn he’s trying to get into the Evil League of Evil. There is (of course) a girl whom he fancies, but can’t talk to. He sings about his freeze ray gun (and the girl) - the first song with brilliant lyrics. Doctor Horrible gets a response to his application for The Evil League of Evil from the leader - Bad Horse -, calling him to pull off something big. And hilarity ensues.

The editing is so subtle that I didn’t even notice it - and that’s what good editing is. Costumes are perfect - I love Captain Hammer’s T-Shirt with a hammer on it. The camera work, sound, everything is just right. The quality of it is rare in large budget productions and even more rare in low budget - just look on youtube for thousands of examples of bad amateur crap. Anyone ever see quareter life? That webisode series was just plain bad. This however is anything but bad.

Now, there are a lot of people who can’t stand musicals. My husband is one of them - I still can’t twist his arm enough to see Moulin Rouge. But, this isn’t one of those kinds of musicals. It’s over the top, campy and very very funny. Definitely reminiscent of “Once More, With Feeling,” that great musical Buffy episode. The songs are just humourous and catchy. I keep watching it over and over.

Not only would you be missing out if you didn’t watch them, but I hope you try it a 2nd time. For me, it gets better each time I view it. Also, if you want to support these types of ideas of new media you can buy them off iTunes and a DvD will be available later.


Jul 16 2008

New Catagory - Cinema/TV

Luth Brodie

People tell me that I don’t blog enough. Most of the time it’s because I don’t have anything about SL to actually talk about. How many posts can I write - “Today I made poses?” I’m a bit slow on the news front and there are just better blogs out there. I’m not into leaving my sim, so I can’t really do yet another fashion review site.

Alle and I are working on the SL machinima review site, but that’s one of the projects I’ll be finishing while I’m away for the next couple of months.

Pre SL, Reel Geek used to be my blog for film reviews. I had stopped blogging and couldn’t think of a better name, so I nicked the blog of the SL stuff and deleted all the old posts. But there are still a lot of times when I really feel like writing my thoughts on something I’ve seen that I really enjoyed or hated.

I dunno how much I’ll post with it, but who knows…

Cheers
Luth


Jul 16 2008

July Flickr Contest - 4 day reminder

Luth Brodie

Just a reminder…

You guys have 4 more days to add photos to the group pool to be submitted for the contest. (July 19th)

The winning photo will be displayed in the main store lobby for a month and the photographer will recieve a gift card good for any pose set.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/reel_expression/


Jul 12 2008

Summer Holiday

Luth Brodie

Dig it Kats n Kittens - Luth will be on holiday in the States from July 21st - Sept 13th. It’s why I’ve been rather quiet lately as I scramble around to make sure I have products to release while I’m away!

Business Related Stuff:
I will be bringing all the things I need in order to work while I’m gone. At least in the evenings. I will also be dealing with customer service issues, except for the weekends when I’ll mostly be too busy running around seeing people.

Reel Life Stuff:
Why so long? A number of different reasons actually…

Have you heard about London summers? *grumble* The only difference between the summer and winter here is that the sun is a bit brighter if it does peak out of the clouds and you don’t have to bring out your scarf. Ok.. it’s a bit warmer then that, but not by much. Last week we actually had to put the 2nd blanket back on the bed because of the cold! It’s July! You shouldn’t be freezing at night in July! That’s just not right at all. Then you have the constant rain or the just about to rain. That’s why it feels so cold! The lows are in the 10’s C - thats in the 50’s in Fahrenheit. Now I do love the rain, but not this almost constant overcast. Drives me nuts all winter long then it has to be so dreary in the summer too.

Next up is that a long holiday doesn’t feel so rushed when you have a zillion people to see and jet lag to get over. Granted I may go out of my mind 1/2 way through in the extremly hot, humid and very boring Nebraska. However, my parents have a pool. There really isn’t anything like a lazy summer day on a raft with a good book in your hand. Then there is the added bonus of my mother constantly making sure I have a cold beer waiting for me in the shade. It’s like heaven, if there was such a place.

And then there is my neices and nephew. Every time we go, it seems that I see them once for a rushed couple of days usually as I’m still getting over the jet lag. Not this time! I will see them at least twice! They will be driving down to see us for a weekend. Kids + swimming = fun! Plus hubbie and I bought them a wii for a combined b-day and x-mas pressents that we’ll be giving them then. And of course Labor Day (I actually had to delete the “u” in there) will be in Iowa with my entire family. And the best part of that weekend will be Adventure Land. Hubbie’s never actually been to anything like it or on a rollercoaster. Plus the kids love it. Fun huh?

Ok.. in all actuality, the only real reason why I’ll be there for so long is because of logistics. A really close friend of 10+ years is getting hitched in early Aug. They aren’t actually having the entire best man/ maid of honour thing, but as the psudeo maid of honour I’ll be throwing the bachelorette party the first weekend of Aug. Yay for a bar crawl in the city that I turned 21! I so can’t wait for the kamakazis at Cliff’s. It’s this dive in the back of a cigar shop which is decorated like new years from the 1970’s. Plus we’ll have to have fish bowls at the bar I can’t remember, but I know where it is :P And of course many Lemon Drop Shots - which is what we drank when she took me out for my 21st.

Typically I hate going to weddings, but this might be a fun one. It’s a cinema themed wedding where we get to dress up in costume and I’ll be going as Annie Hall. Should be entertaining. If not, there will be booze.

So when I bought my plane tickets, I had counted wrong and am actually getting there a week early. At least I’ll be mostly off the jet lag and the booze won’t hit me so hard!

Then you have SLCC in Sept. I don’t actually have to go, but it’s a damn fun drunken time and a business expense. I’m excited to hang out with Trinity and Nala. Hopefully Lordfly will be able to go so we can make fun of everyone else and talk like pirates again. Plus I have to buy Keiki a pint as payment for writing a script for me. Last year she had pulled me over as I was bringing a beer back to Trinny and I didn’t have time to talk.

This year will be a lot less frantic I hope. Just the fact that I won’t be speaking again will make it oh so much better! That was a nightmare and let everyone know who I was so they’d scare me by coming up and talking to me. It was a bit on the creepy side, especially the drunker I got. I love that people love my work and it is very nice to hear, but I have no clue what to say afterwards. Thanks? I try? Um.. I don’t know.

I’m a bit of a recluse who hates large groups and despises small talk. And by the end of the night, I’m usually close to punching anyone who asks what the tat on my right arm means. I know its interesting and its pretty obvious everyone thinks its a cleaver way to start talking to someone, but it does get annoying quite fast. In fact it’s probably the worst conversational piece. I really only have a couple of options with it… either say it’s personal (which it is), that it’s a poem written in san scrit (true), explain the rather depressing reasoning behind it, and/or say that if I wanted everyone to read it I would have written it in English instead of a dead language. Each version stops a conversation cold.

However, if you see a chick with short red hair, black rimmed glasses, labret piercing and a film strip tat around the left forearm, I’m not opposed to people buying me beer - I prefer Beck’s or Carlsberg.