Two Headed Cop

I’m interrupting my steady stream of Two-Headed Cop updates (sarcasm is now my way of dealing with the silence on this blog) to bring you a legitimately cool development:

My good pal Bobby Beck has directed an awesome animated short called “Circus Jam”!

And while the film itself is worthy of your attention, the way the film was made is also quite novel:

Bobby is one of the cofounders of online animation school Animation Mentor, which has been producing talented animators for years, now. Additionally, he is also the driving force behind Artella, an in-development online studio, by which artists from anywhere in the world can easily and effectively collaborate on projects. “Circus Jam” is one of the first projects to utilize a beta version of Artella, and was created with the talents of many of the current students at Animation Mentor.

It’s a hell of a collaboration:

This short is about a year old, but I watched it for the first time just a few days ago, so I’m admittedly a bit late to the party but I had to post it regardless. 

It’s tough enough to make people laugh with animation, but to connect emotionally like this did with me is an achievement. Especially when you consider that the beauty inherent was created with yarn and wire, a frame at a time. (With the accompaniment of the sweet song “Moving On” by James.) 

The director, Ainslie Henderson, has some nice behind-the-scenes snaps at his blog. Henderson was nominated for a BAFTA for another of his animated films, “Tom Moody.”

Here’s “Moving On”:

Based on the woefully long time since our last update, you may have gotten the impression that not much is happening at 2HC headquarters.

Wrong again, friend!

The truth is, we have been SO busy with Two-Headed Cop production that I have struggled to find time in my day to break away and give attention to the blog.

Our recruiting efforts at the CTN Expo were very successful, garnering us a new group of talented young animators who are currently chipping away at two new sequences that have gone into production.

Our rigging department has also shifted into high gear to get all of our characters (roughly twenty, which is insane) ready for the other sequences making their way through the layout process.

The other reason I’ve hesitated to post is that the sequences we’re working on could be construed as “spoiler-ish”, so I haven’t had much visual fodder for the blog. However, I did find a still frame that, while suggestive, doesn’t really reveal anything:

What are they looking at?! Are they scared? Shocked? I will answer none of those questions!

So have faith, we are still toiling away, and we are still loving Two-Headed Cop.

Stay tuned,

Yes, we have inched our way forward to the point where animation production is right around the corner. Thus, we need to find a bevy of talented animators to bring our characters and story to life. We will be at the CTN Anim Expo this weekend in glorious Burbank, Ca, and would love to meet any and all interested parties. 

Does this mean you? Well, are you an animator? Than I guess it does, right? Just come by booth #B43 and introduce yourself, we'd love to get to know you. (Click below for a bigger map.)

If you are interested in becoming part of the 2HC team but can't make it to Burbank this weekend, don't fret. You can contact us at [email protected]. Send us your info and we'll start from there.

I realized I hadn't posted any stop-motion shorts so far, and felt it was high time, especially after being inspired by the phenomenal work done in "The Boxtrolls".

If you haven't seen "The Boxtrolls", go now. It's a beautiful movie, and the animation is spectacular. Also, 2HC co-conspirator Brian Ormiston contributed to the story efforts on the film. Kudos, Brian!

The Fave Film for today is "The Big Story", directed by Tim Watts and David Stoten. It's a spot-on caricature - both in appearance and performance - of Kirk Douglas, told in a quick vignette in a newspaper editor's office. Of special note is the insanely good voicework done by Frank Gorshin, TV's The Riddler!

When I checked the date of this film I could not believe it's twenty years old! I remember at the time everyone I knew in animation asking each other if they'd seen this film, because everybody loved it. When I was doing my (admittedly brief) research on the it, I found a great post on the film's history and making. Check it out.

As the summer draws to a close, (except here in LA, where it just stretches on and on) it felt right to post this lazy-summer-esque film, "Weather-Beaten Melody," directed by Hans Fischerkoesen way back in 1942.

Even now this film is a technical wonder, utilizing multiplane technology and subtle rotoscoping with a proficiency I don't recall seeing in any other films. For a hand-drawn film it's such an incredibly detailed and dimensional world.

I also like the simple story, and the general cheeriness of the whole thing. It's a bit old-fashioned in a way that I find refreshing.

I'm so, so, soooooooo excited to announce that we have recorded voices for the character(s) of Two-Headed Cop. Also, I'd like to announce that they sound super-cool and badass!

I put together a little clip of one of their exchanges. In this scene, they're surrounded by a pack of felonious carnies, and are having a dispute over whether C-Ray should utilize his firearm. Have a listen:

A-Ray is played by Paul Nakauchi, and C-Ray by Fred Tatasciore, both fantastic voice actors that I was very fortunate to work with.

Paul Nakauchi has had many roles as an actor and voice actor on TV and in games, and also does a lot of stage work, including on Broadway. (The dude can sing!) He's recently joined George Takei in the cast of "Allegiance," a musical about the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Fred Tatasciore is best known right now for his work as The Hulk in several Marvel animated shows, but also seems to have a credit on virtually anything that requires voice acting. He's everywhere! Like a scourge!

Both these guys killed it during the recording and gave me the great problem of having too many fantastic takes to choose from. They were also both a joy to work with.

Oh, I was gonna post their pictures, but thought it was better to hear their performances with 2HC as the visual. Also, I totally forgot to snap a pic of them while we were recording.

The tumult of the San Diego Comic-Con has finally receded and I've started to feel normal gain. It's like getting your feet back under yourself after riding a giant wave that broke right into the hard, sandy bottom and then into a whirling rinse cycle, popping you out into a miasma of foam and salt. Except the wave is riddled with people in cosplay and long coffee lines and hours and hours of (very fun) conversation.

Also, the wave may contain an impromptu appearance by former astronaut and legend Buzz "holy-crap-that-guy-walked-on-the-moon" Aldrin.

I saw Buzz Aldrin! And one of our 2HC cohorts, Bruce Freeman, actually approached and shook has hand! Good stuff.

For this year, we added a little more to watch at the booth, so I wanted to post it here for all to see. (You've already seen a coupla bits, but here's the whole thing put together with music and a fancy bit of logo zestiness at the end.)

Plus, I have a fairly huge announcement coming in the next few days. Very, very exciting.

One of my favorite things to come out of attending Comic-Con this year was the fact that we inspired some bona fide fan art. I'm so pleased by this! When I was five years old and first saw Star Wars, I went home that night and drew every character I could from memory, because I wanted to keep seeing them again and again.*

And now, talented young Max Baxter - coincidentally also five years of age - who was, according to his folks, "entranced" by the imagery he saw from our booth, has drawn his completely awesome interpretation of Two-Headed Cop.

Behold!

Super-cool, right?

And here's the artist, preparing to tuck into a truly massive dessert:

I can't thank you enough, Max, for sending me your fantastic take on 2HC! It really made me happy!

Greetings from the San Diego Comic-Con! In prepping for this year, we wanted to showcase a few more characters from the film, like the Happy Fat Guy clip from last week's post, and this angry little fellow:

Again, stay as far away from "Carny Justice" as you can. It's dark stuff.

There are a few more clips that I'll post in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned.

We also have spanking new t-shirts, this time in bold, beautiful color! Just like real life! Here's the design:

Something else new and exciting about this year is we've partnered our booth with longtime friend Chris Williams, who's just finished a stunning new graphic novel called Red Fog.

Do you like zombies? Do you hate Nazis? Then you must find this miraculous new tome and purchase it, post haste! Its got zombies and Nazis! It's "Band of Brothers" meets "The Walking Dead!" Why are you still reading this instead of purchasing the aforementioned book?!

More updates soon, including some exciting announcements about the progress of "Two-Headed Cop!"

You are all welcome,

In preparing for our annual presence at the San Diego Comic-Con (next week!) I've been putting together some bits and pieces to show off some more of our characters in action. High on my list of faves is this clip of Happy Fat Guy jauntily strutting his butterball body across stage.

Watch him bounce! Look at him glisten!

We've received copious amounts of helpful feedback on the first version of our storyreel. In response, after lots of deliberation and creative spitballing, we've decided to simply stand pat. No changes necessary! To all those who chipped in with your insightful thoughts, ideas and criticism, we'd like to offer a very hearty "You're wrong!"

I am, of course, jesting. I was thrilled with the notes we got. They were extraordinarily helpful, and I think the changes those notes inspired have made the film wayyyy better. We removed a sequence, added roughly two others, and tightened a lot of things up. It feels a lot more noirish now, and I think the story has a better flow. 

Many thanks to everyone who contributed, I am truly grateful.

Here's a tiny clip that demonstrates one of the revisions. It occurs at the beginning of the Jail sequence (see here for the earlier version) and was a way to inject a little more exposition into the story. It was vaguely inspired by the "go to the mattresses" montage from The Godfather, whose approach I liked more than the standard spinning-newspaper gag.

I only recently stumbled upon this short while perusing the internet, so forgive me if it's old hat to anyone. (I'm in my 40s and have accepted that my finger is no longer anywhere near the pulse.)

"The Music Scene" grabbed my attention mostly because it's so unrelentingly visceral. The combination of the song by the Blockheads and the pulsating visuals by director Anthony Schepperd's works perfectly. And you rarely see this style of free-form abstracted animation very much, especially not done this effectively and while still maintaining a narrative structure.

In the middle of the 1980s, television programming still had pockets of spontaneity and independent flair. For example, watching tv after midnight usually meant crazy old movies that you'd never see anywhere else, as opposed to the cornucopia of truly depressing infomercials that dominate nowadays. Local cable programs would mine cheap content from wherever they could, and every once in a while out of all that coal would drop a sweet little gem like this, which my friend Mark and I stumbled upon while channel surfing.

For this installment of animated-films-that-inspired-me-to-make-animated-films, I'm going with the episodic, surreal and darkly funny "Revolver", directed by Jonas Odell.

The art direction is stunning, but it's the hypnotic looping of the haunting vignettes - plus the great sound design - that made this so memorable for me since I saw it back in '94.

Watch!

You may have noticed that the posts have gotten a little sparse lately. This is partly because the current phase of the project - creating and editing storyboards and storyreels - is something I'd like to keep under wraps as much as possible. And partly because it's keeping me incredibly busy.

I hope to pick up the pace on more posts as other characters get finished and animation tests get completed, but in the meantime, it occurred to me that I could kick things up a notch with a series of posts highlighting some of my favorite animated shorts. That's right, the work is already done, I just have to link to it. Eureka!

This kills two birds with one stone in that I've always wanted a place where I can easily find all of my favorite animated shorts, the ones that have inspired me over the years or that I've simply found unique or overly entertaining. This will now be that place. You are all, of course, welcome.

The first film I'd like to show is "At The Ends of the Earth" by director Konstantin Bronzit. I originally saw this at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2000, and loved it immediately. There's so much personality in virtually all of its many characters, and the comedic timing is genius:

Anyone who knows me socially will ask at some point during a conversation: "Hey, how's 'Two-Headed Cop' going?" While that often feels like an almost existential question about the nature of my happiness, for the past year, my response would usually boil down to this:

We just. Need. To finish. The ferchrissakes storyboards.

Because once the boards are done, we can finish the storyreel. And then we actually have a watchable movie, start-to-finish, and that’s when we can REALLY get started.

As you may have guessed from my long lead in, yes, that time has finally come. (Or maybe you didn’t guess that. That’s okay, this isn’t a test of your reading skills. There is no pressure here, my blog-reading friend!)

The boards are done! And I've finally been able to watch a version of this film from start to finish, and have already shown it some trusted friends to get their thoughts and opinions. The first rough storyreel clocks in at a daunting twenty-six minutes and change, and the next step is to refine and strengthen the story, and hopefully shorten it, if possible. The oodles of notes and suggestions I'm already getting from my cohorts will help greatly to that end.

To mark the occasion, I'm posting a teeny, tiny bit of the last sequence we storyboarded, the Carny Fight sequence:

I know, it's only a few seconds, but don’t worry, there’ll be a lot more fisticuffs for you to enjoy. (Frankly, a little too much, based on the notes I’m getting. What can I say, I like seeing carnies fight!)

 Thanks for tuning in.