…if I may so bold as to quote the title of Graham Roumieu’s poignant and soul achingly profound book about Bigfoot.

Close call though.

So, I’ve been out of touch with the interwebs for over a year now. It was a time of moving and renovations and family stuff and frame by frame covering up Emilie’s goddamn tan lines for Magellan. I learned alot about the wonders of After Effects and the unfortunate reality of limitations.

I made a Star Wars fanfilm.

I knew it’d be fun and I’d kinda like more than just the folks on my Facelurk friends list to see the upcoming chapters of Magellan and Meridian. As it turned out, entering the George Lucas Fanfilm Challenge (the winner of which is chosen by George hisself), became a true homage to Lucas. He nearly died making A New Hope, and so did I making just a ten minute fanfilm. Like most of my stories, this one has lots of amusing bits at my own expense. Over the next week, I’ll share the sorrid tale. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned. I dunno.

So, I’m back at it and have a good deal of stuff to share with you over the next little while. Stuff like…

Star Wars: Myth & Legends

A slicer and her droid companion find themselves on a holonet run gone all kinds of wrong.  The first 7 or so minutes became our entry into the 2010 Fanfilm Challenge. The action sequence conclusion is done and will appear here on this site, and maybe Atom.com. I’m not sure.

The Magellan Affair

Our retro sci-fi noir. More Bogart than Blade Runner, and more Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid than anything else. Did some changes to Part One and have Part Two ready to go (damn tan lines). I promised myself I wouldn’t shoot any other projects until Parts Three through Seven were finished.

Meridian

A supernatural comedy set in the Canadian prairies. Corner Gas meets X-files. Filmed as a 22 minute pilot to be released in three bite sized chunks.

There’s other stuff (although there really shouldn’t be). Maybe a new script for a full length feature once Magellan’s done. Maybe a webcomic based on the Teen Titans comics of the 80s. Maybe even some more Mosquito. I sure did appreciate the few kind words I got asking for more when I kinda crapped out there.

And I was worried about somebody coming up with something like “The Magellan Affair” AFTER we started to get it out there…

So, I’m sitting at my cushy government job surfing for any mention of “The Magellan Affair” like a needy puppy and come across this. I’ve kept myself from looking at much, but it seems like there’s a 90’s videogame that bears a scary retro sci-fi resemblance to what we did. It’s creepy, and to a copyright nazi like myself, a little disturbing. To show that I’m not just a copyright nazi but also a hypocrite, here’s a pic of the game I lifted off the net.

It’s strange. I’ve dabbled in PC games in the past.  Sam & Max Hit the Road and Grim Fandango were pretty awesome. Later on, I played the hell out of Freedom Force and Battle for Middle-Earth. Now, I’ve got Bob’s copy of Sam & Max: Season One that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for over a year. Not having the time to play it burns at my soul like a thousand packs of matches. On top of which, almost all of my friends are video game junkies. How the hell had I never heard of Tex Murphy?

I came up with The Magellan Affair during a party at Adrian’s (which I may or may not have named The House of Sin). It was just after Mosquito, and a drunken Adrian, Bob, and myself were leaning on the same wall hold us up. Bob (a CG wizard and sci-fi super freak) says, “what’s the next project?” Fedora wearing Adrian pipes in with, “Yeah, man, but it’s gotta have some blues in there!” In my drunken stupor I put both of those comments in a bowl with the fact that I’m an absolute nut for Bogart movies and Flash Gordon serials, mixed well, and served. The script was written in less than a week, and without any knowledge of Tex Murphy.

Odd? You bet. Maybe there is a collective consciousness and there really aren’t any new ideas.

I’m gonna go out of my way to not learn any more about Tex Murphy (other than an eventual post on that message board) and carry on with Magellan as is, just to see how close the end results end up being.

Bob Green and I have been working on Magellan for what seems like ever now, so it floors me that he can still floor me. I’ve clearly imagined the ballroom for Chapter 2 (and like to think I have a pretty good imagination), but then Bob sends me a pic of the 3D set he’s made and it ends up being better than I could ever have dreamed.

Now how cool is that? Epic (like, Lawrence of Arabia epic) props to Bob and all his high cholesterol glory!

There’s a little bit of insight and Serenity RPG Character Sheets in “Crew Backgrounds.” Bit of a cop out as a strip, but it should certainly lend some depth to all the cast over the next couple of weeks.

In other news, there’s an updated version of Chapter One on the website and YouTube.  It fixes a couple of small problems and one inexcusable, glaring error. 

10 points to whoever can guess what it was.

We’re currently putting Wainwright’s ballroom together, and removing Roxie’s out-of-control tanlines. 

On a final note, I just wanna extend some love (as filthy as that sounds) to the crew of ‘the Signal.’  They’ve been fantastic supporters of everything I’ve done, and their Magellan shout out warmed my cold and bitter heart.

The first chapter of The Magellan Affair is ready for viewing!

In Chapter One: Bourbon and Betrayal, down-on-his-luck private eye James Mortimer Stone is hired for a case that’s clearly too good to be true.

The Magellan Affair is a no-budget retro sci-fi noir filmed almost entirely on bluescreen in Brandon, MB. It’s a black and white mix of Bogart, Buck Rogers, Blade Runner, and Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. The feature will be released in serialized webisodes every couple of months throughout 2009.

I’m planning on posting project updates, production stories, and other tid-bits at least once a week from here on in. While there are YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Digg pages for the film, I’m still going to make this blog the main spot for up to date info. 

It’s been an absolute blast pulling together something of this calibre with local talent from a place you’ve probably never heard of. I’m eternally grateful to Derek Gunnlaugson, Adrian Kuryliw, and Curtis Wachs for all their help over the last few months. And as always, kudos to the Bob.

Coming Soon! Chapter Two: Crashing the Party

Stone drags Roxie to Wainwright’s lavish, high society shindig, where he begins to discover just how out of his depth this case is going to get.