As of 9ish tonight it will have been a year since this little thing was shot (and I asked Anne to be my wife).

It has gotten a little internet press (most notably featured on some Chilean national news site haha). Since the posting, I’ve talked several people through what my process was, both technically (to fake the film burn despite a digital projection) and logistically (Q: How do you get a movie theater to show your wedding proposal? A: You ask them nicely.)

For the record: no Quantum of Solace didn’t have any special significance (only screen with a DVD player/projector in the theater), and yes we did stay to watch the whole thing haha, I don’t think we paid too terribly much attention to it though. Watchmen trailer was selected because we were both nerding out over it at the time waiting for the release.

Anyhoo, I have some other cool genre shorts lined up for next week (and maybe a sneak preview of a news short actually made by us) so come on back!

Click HERE to check out The Kill Vampire Lincoln Productions Youtube Account

While thinking about Tempbot (see below) I was reminded of another very different, but very great, short from 2002. Directed by Rob Schrab, Robot Bastard! features, as expected, robot ass-kicking action coupled with amazing production design that really has to be seen to be believed.

Schrab has a background in illustration and snappy, pulpy, writing (most notably the cult comic book Scud the Disposable Assassin) and it really shows. The blend of stopmotion, live action, and off the wall set/prop/robot design aesthetics come together in a nightmarish kick to the face. Another video project he helmed you may have heard of is Heat Vision and Jack – featuring Jack Black as the smartest man in the world (during the day) and Owen Wilson as his wisecracking best friend, who is (no joke) also a motorcycle. Rest assured I’ll likely repost that gem as well.

As for Robot Bastard!, you can also download a higher quality version of the short and/or learn more about the amazing people behind it at its official site, or take a look at its IMDB page

Before Neill Blomkamp brought us District 9, he directed this awesome short film.

Although Tempbot was written by Mark Fitzloff, you can see a lot of the common threads between this and Blomkamp’s District 9 -most notably the themes of (ha ha) alienation. Tempbot is certainly more accepted (and ignored) than the Prawns were, and even though I really really liked Christopher and his son in D9 I felt a lot closer to this guy. (to be fair though, that might have just been some latent emotion left over from WALL-E/a recent viewing of Short Circuit)

Together with really well done (especially for a short film budget in 2006) CG incorporation, the production design on the Tempbot is freaking great. That fan is such a nice touch. As much as I like our robot, Tempbot’s busy cobbled together look makes me want to go out to the junkyard and weld together one of my own.

To give all credit where credit is due, the IMDB page for Tempbot is here.

To start off the great genre short film series I present “Super Powers” by John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker. I know it has been around for a while (2 years is ancient in internet time), but it’s still great.

Anyway, don’t let the awkward framing on the video thumbnail fool you and check it out!

To give all credit where credit is due, the IMDB page for Super Powers is here.

One of the reasons I started up this blogamajig is to take a closer look at some of the great genre short films you can find online. Short form productions, while becoming more and more popular due to the rising Youtube Generation and the falling attention span, are not nearly as lauded as their feature film counterparts. I know a lot of that is economics risk/return and all that, and its sad their isn’t a larger market for them.

Especially since I don’t plan on jumping into a large scale production for at least 10 months (Bar Exam), I find it nice to keep thinking about what makes these movies so darn neat. I want to try and focus specifically on what has become known as “genre” films, ie give me the horror comedies, the superheroes, scifi, apocalypse stories, etc. How the situations, characters, and plot work within the time constraints is fascinating.

OK this is going to seem like quite the sponsored advertisement, but some people have been asking us where we had our Transient DVDs made. Both in price and quality (seriously) Kunaki (www.kunaki.com) beat out everyone else we looked at – plus they send a free DVD proof with no obligation!

We also used them to order our wedding favor dvds – might post something about that later – its another story, unrelated and rambling.

ANYway, Kunaki is great. If you are looking to do a really nice short run production of 20-200 disks at a time they are perfect. I know that prices for this small of a run aren’t a huge issue for all but the most micro-budgeted projects, but you’ll never know when you’ll be in a situation where you only need a small run for a freelance gig or your budget is in a place where you only feel comfortable ordering a few dozen units at a time. If you do use their store instead of hosting your own, the shipping for individual DVDs seems (to me) to be a little ridiculously inflated, but here at killvampirelincoln we like mailing the DVDs out ourselves -makes us feel like legitimate small business owners. So we order a fair amount and send/give them out from here.

Kunaki.com …too cool for a real logo

Now our discs for University of Illinois vs A Mummy were duplicated in a 1000 disk print from another company. If you can justify a one time printing of 1000 or more, the game changes entirely and some real deals can be made. We knew we could sell quite a few copies of Mummy immediately, so there was a lot less risk from dropping the “bank” needed to do a print of this number. Also important to note: duplication is a better process, the DVDs come out a higher quality and, among other benefits, look more professional without the home-burned look on the back. Not say that there is anything wrong with the Transient disks, technology has come a long way. Just something to be aware of.

I know companies/tech is always changing, this is just our current preference (although by a large margin) what other Indie-friendly options are out there? Leave a comment below or get in touch and we’ll repost!

Instead of carving a pumpkin this year I put together a video mash-up using some shots of The Mummy Ted Johnson (from The University of Illinois vs a Mummy of course ) and the always-quotable-for-every-occasion scene from The Monster Squad

It’s only 18 seconds, so check it out!

I mean we had the shot of Rudolphe kicking the Mummy “in the balls” anyway, so it would have been harder to not make the edit.

Sloppy masking job aside, I think it turned out pretty well! My endearment to The Monster Squad has only grown over the past few years as I think about the kind of story I’d like to tell in whatever my next major project turns out to be. What is the adult version of ‘the 80’s movie’? Have all the kids who grew up with this (and similar films like Goonies) completely moved on, or is there still that spark of imagination when dealing with the unbelievable supernatural forces of evil, that can surely only benefit from an R rating?