We’re working on a pretty secret, pretty badass project. Not going to go into all the details but Ben and I are doing some concept art for it. Here’s a sample – not colored, obviously.
Into the Whole Concept Art
gimme some Tags: art, austin, Ben Doeckel, bleutuna, Chris Potter, concept art, drawing, feature film, india ink, ink, into the whole, music, paul gandersman, pen, video
Bleutuna & the Lumix
gimme some Tags: actors, austin, bleutuna, bleutuna limited, camera, coffee shop, conflict of interest, downtown, gh-1, lumix, panasonic, paul gandersman, qmanning, reshoots, shooting
Bleutuna, thanks to Paul Gandersman, has a new camera! The Panasonic Lumix GH-1! This joker is great and actually provides a much better image than the Panasonic HVX-200 that we’ve been using for years, and most imporatantly, allows us to easily use real lenses in the process!
Thasright! No more crazy rotating glass adapters with their own batteries, making everything hard to move and pan without dealing with a ridiculous amount of shakiness!
Paul and I will be headed downtown to shoot some footage for a couple of projects we’re doing right now, one being the feature film Conflict of Interest! So note to our actors who we contacted last week – get ready, cause we’re gonna’ shoot with you pretty damn quick!
We’ll be back with some nice new footage here soon – so stay tuned!
Editing Conflict of Interest
We’ve done a test screening and have more on the way. The feedback has been pretty good so far, but the work still continues. Today Paul and I will be going out and shooting some various insert shots that we think need to be there to really sell the whole thing. Its funny how the shot of a coffeeshop can add so much clarity.
Monday, June 15, 2009 | bleutuna, film, interactive, portfolio
Outraged Blog Design
gimme some Tags: austin, austin web design, blog, conflict of interest, designer, director, freelance web design, garcia, mobaire, mordire, movie, outraged, rohamba, stan, website, writer
For Conflict of Interest, the main character is the author of a ridiculously popular blog that begins to make big waves in the political world. So if you’re going to have a movie that is about a blog, you should probably at least have a blog design. And shots of people surfing it.
I wanted it to feel a little militaristic – representative of the grass-roots sort of revolutionary mindset that Outraged influences within his readers. It also had to have a sense of Mombaire. The logo features the Mombarian “star” prominently, the star that’s seen on both the Mombarian flag and the Kimaiyo flag during the film.
To view a “live” version of the design, Go here! Otherwise, just look at the design below:
DubLab & Ringo Deathstarr
gimme some Tags: austin school of film, bleutuna limited, brian younce, dublab, mack "frosty" mcneil, paul gandersman, ringo death starr, video
Paul Gandersman and I went out and helped with an Austin School of Film shoot yesterday for local band Ringo Death Starr. LA based DubLab was heading up the whole thing. It was a great time.
Thanks Frosty, Bryan & Jennifer! Fun stuff!
Check out the video below. You can see my behind the camera wearing a Wilco shirt and later saying “Rolling!”
Monday, June 15, 2009 | film, interactive, portfolio
John Mordire Computer Login
gimme some Tags: aqua, blue, computer, font, interactive design, john mordire, login, logo, madsen, michael madsen, mordire, motion design, password, protect, q manning, qmanning, ranch studios, screen, web design
Quick “computer login screen” made for the film Conflict of Interest. We needed computer inserts of the main character Stan breaking into a computer. The easiest way was a simple, quick HTML walk-through.
Live Demonstration
Note the background is huge – as it was meant to be viewed full screen.
5 Tips of Screenplay Writing
gimme some Tags: characters, do's, dont's, film writing, how-to, movie writing, screenplay, script, scriptwriting, teleplay, writing advice
In the world of film and screenplay writing, there are literally hundreds of books and tutorials you can find to help you refine your craft. Every author has their own ways to help you get started.
Many times this doesn’t equate to simple suggestions, but to actual rules and structures to make sure you are hitting the appropriate beats at the appropriate times.
Ron Garcia BELIEVE Campaign Poster
gimme some Tags: austin, barack obama, blogger, campaign, campaign poster, conflict of interest, feature film, feature motion picture, francesco quinn, general ansu kimaiyo, general kimaiyo, joe estevez, john mordire, lee majors, michael madsen, Mombaire, mombaire africa, obama poster, obey, political drama, political thriller, president rohamba, q manning, qmanning, ron garcia, shepherd fairie, stan rohamba, texas, thabo rohamba
Conflict of Interest Movie Poster
gimme some Tags: austin, blogger, conflict of interest, feature film, feature motion picture, francesco quinn, general ansu kimaiyo, general kimaiyo, joe estevez, john mordire, lee majors, michael madsen, Mombaire, mombaire africa, political drama, political thriller, president rohamba, q manning, qmanning, ron garcia, stan rohamba, texas, thabo rohamba
Number Seventy Four in E-Flat Poster
gimme some Tags: austin movie poster design, brandon buck, dystopia, e-flat, fiction, kate heckman, movie, movie design, movie poster, paul gandersman, photoshop, poster design, savannah college of art and design, scad, sci-fi
7 Moves Poster
gimme some Tags: 7 moves, austin, austin movie poster design, chess, creepy, lucifer, movie poster, photoshop, poster, poster design, rock and roll, satan, scad, short, short film, steven walker
Director’s Reel 2009
gimme some Tags: acting, bully, clocky, color correction, conflict of interest, demo reel, directing, director, director's reel, example, francesco quinn, james q. manning, jen blair, joe estevez, klondike, michael madsen, mobius, nanda, paul gandersman, q manning, reel, sam eidson, starbucks, the farm, writer, zombies
Just finished editing my Director’s Reel for 2009. I’ll be changing this site and all that jazz soon eonugh, but I wanted to get this posted.
If you’d rather see it in all it’s 720×405 glory in QuickTime rather than on Vimeo, Just Download the Quicktime!
Q Manning Director’s Reel 2009 from Q Manning on Vimeo.
The Curious Case of Katie Douglas
gimme some Tags: believe, conflict of interest, danielle rene, david cuddy, director, film, joe estevez, john mordire, jon boatright, katie douglas, michael madsen, q manning, ron garcia, writer
I just finished directing my first feature film. The movie’s called Conflict of Interest and for a self-professed political junkie like myself, it was right up my alley.
The film was initially the brain-child of David Cuddy, owner of Ranch Studios in Kyle, Texas, a place where filmmakers can go, work, foster their ideas by utilizing the numerous set-houses by day and the hot-tubs (6ft deep) for relaxation at night. Elements that can help inspire some seriously creative ideas.
David brought me onto the project to help fill in some of the gaps and the organic process of creation spurned the Case of Katie Douglas.
What’s in a Name
Katie Douglas (Danielle Rene) was previously named Katie Combs, a name that caused me much chagrin due to it’s similarity to the name Katie Holmes. Within the course of the film, Katie witnesses a major crime and serves as the sole witness to the incident. The only one that took time to pay attention instead of just taking information at face value. But this brings her to the attention of some heavy people, in particular crooked Senator John Mordire (Michael Madsen).
Originally she was handled a little haphazardly. I nearly made the same mistake, but realized that an integral scene with her needed to be rethought. As often happens, the best things lie in the execution and not in the conception. Once the scene was shot, it was clear that its emotion resonance and significance were much stronger.
As a result, other planned scenes were modified to match the gravity of the reborn Katie Douglas scene, creating a strong seeming sub-plot which directly changes everything. One can sit down, plan out, think they know the ultimate outcome of a situation, but once the collaborative process of film starts to work its magic, greater things are born.
Only in filmmaking is it okay for artists to so heavily rely on each other in a primordial bath of ideas.
New Additions
gimme some Tags: birds, directing, fate, filmmaking, fortune, healthcare, hubris, icons, jinx, links, misfortune, obama, q manning, reshoots, taxes, thumbing nose, twitter, writing
My situation’s been interesting for awhile. Interesting in that it was not necessarily the most conducive for updating this blog.
Sure, I could find time to talk about politics, since that’s a major passion and knocking out some long-winded diatribe about Obama, Republicans or Tax Breaks takes no more than 5 or 10 minutes. But when it comes to adding the work I do…that I’ve been bad about. That’ll change soon.
My situation’s changed, and though enough people know about it, I’m not one who likes to talk about things because I fear the dreaded JINX. For some reason, and this is probably one of the few things I’d say I’m superstitious about, I’ve always disliked talking about the prospect of good fortune.
Until that good fortune is in my hand, talking about it seems more like thumbing your nose in the face of God/The Universe/The Spaghetti Monster/Fate. Things have a way of falling through, even at the last minute, even when everything is seemingly set in stone. Counting your chickens before they’ve hatched, as it were, comes across as hubris. Or at least it has in my experience, and accordingly, the offender (me) is punished.
So once things get going, like officially, like there’s a check in my hand and I know it’s happening, then I’ll start blogging about the experience. In fact, there will be a lot of graphic design/motion design/art design that I’ll be doing which would and should be posted here.
On another, smaller note – I’ve added a “Follow Me!” on Twitter graphic to the page. I think he’s a cutie :p
W = P
gimme some Tags: 2000, Bush, film, Gore, GWB, iraq war, John Kerry, Josh Brolin, movie, Palin, review, Stone, W.
Last night, I went to the wonderful Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and attended a screening of Oliver Stone’s new film, W.. As is usually the case with Drafthouse, there were various related bits of media shown before the film, to entertain the audience.
If you’re uninitiated, Drafthouse is a great chain of theatres here in Austin that serves great meals during your moviegoing funtime and has strict ’shut the hell up and keep the kids outta’ here’ policies that make it one of the best places to watch movies. One of the things they do is find interviews, televisions shows, web videos, etc. that are related to the feature, and play them before the movie starts for the audience as they’re sitting there waiting.
So last night we were treated to Colbert’s Presidential Roast from 2006 (I think that’s when it was), as well as the web video for “Oliver Stone’s P.” – a flash trailer that jokingly shows us what an Oliver Stone biopic about Palin would be like. I’d seen it online, but it was interesting to see it on the big screen. All in all, that’s Drafthouse.
The main show came on, and I sat there, enjoying Brolin’s turn as George W. Bush, Dreyfuss as Cheney, not loving Tandy Newton as Condoleeza Rice (but not hating it either) and just soaking in Stone’s particular viewpoint on what the life of GWB must have been like. As a film, it did it’s job. It entertained me, it made me laugh, it gave me a protagonist I could sympathize with, and while it didn’t give me an ending, that was okay, because the ride had been good enough.
But something about the movie didn’t sit right with me. I’ll confess I was a W. supporter in 2000 and 2004. In fact, in 2000, I was a John McCain supporter, but when he lost the bid, I became a Bush backer. I lived in Texas, our surplus was high, the state was in a good position, and everyone loved W. Most of all, the guy was likable, and while he fumbled his words on occasion or maybe made up a few of his own, he seemed to understand the problems the country was facing and had an idea of how to fix them.
Imagine a film about your life, where the director & writer ignored how you got to where you were, what you had done right, and the good about you – and focused only on the mistakes, and hid your journey. This is W.
