THE BiG HONKIN'

THE DEFENDERS OF STAN 19...and then some

2008-11-25T01:17:00.006-05:00

Okey dokey. So here's the thing.

we KNOW we actually turned in the last episode of "The Defenders Of Stan" a few weeks ago to channel101:NY (where, i might add, we got second place--losing only to OUR OWN SHOW). But we wanted to space apart the uploads, as the next screening of channel101:NY won't be until early next year (boo! hiss! boo!)

so without further ado, the comic book cover from "The Defenders Of Stan 19: The Curse of Dr. Unstoppable!"

It's been uploaded to http://www.defendersofstan.com/ and THE BiG HONKIN' youtube & channel101:NY

But wait...what's this? I've clearly already uploaded the comic book cover for this month's episode. So what's that comic book cover doing down there?

Well, friend, i'll tell you. That comic book cover is the cover to an actual comic book! That's right. And just in time for the holidays!

Sure, the 2 year anniversary was a few months ago...Sure, it took us a little while to make this available online. but good things come to those who wait (note...i should point out that everyone who attended the last live screening channel101:NY screening got a FREE copy...but it's cool. you were busy).

"The Defenders Of Stan - Bring Your Brother To Work Day" on sale now!

i found this funny.

2008-11-12T17:28:00.005-05:00

when we log into our web-hosts control panel, one helpful little feature is being able to see where most of our traffic comes from.

for instance, last month:
-4501 hits to our site were direct request, meaning 4501 people typed it straight into their browsers.
-2410 hits came from this very blog, http://thebighonkin.blogspot.com, which means we know you're reading and clicking...you just never say anything. the silent treatment, eh?
-932 hits were directly from http://www.defendersofstan.com/
-416 hits came straight from http://www.thedefendersofstan.com/ (we own both, though they all go to the same place).
-and so on and so forth

one other neat thing is being able to tell what people are searching for when they end up at our site.

i logged in today to see if we'd gotten any traffic from our appearance on Dr. Blogstein's Radio Happy Hour, and when i'd scrolled through all the referrers, i noticed the search strings.

now, it's early in the month, and we've yet to put up the new Stan episode, so thats why the search numbers are low (by the end of the month, we'll do much better). but i saw this and just started laughing.

click for larger:

for starters, i'd love to see how dissapointed the guy searching for "big honkin' tits" was when we stumbled to our site. Captain Ultra's man-boobs hardly count as tits. thanks searcher, for restoring my faith in humanity.

secondly, i'm going to be blunt here. there is no Jesus Christ Supercop 7. there will never be a Jesus Christ Supercop 7. we got cancelled from channel101 NY on episode 6, followed by a racial-slur shit storm on the 101 forums, and with that, we'd made up our minds to end it there. we just want to make people laugh. and sure, having Jesus play a foul-mouthed cop and dating a tourrettes-ridden girlfriend is irreverent. But causing a big ta-doo in which people act hateful towards other people is not our cup of tea. and to be honest, Meredith is the only one of us that drinks tea.

speaking of Meredith. I see this come up in searches a lot, so i'll answer this here. The song in Jesus Christ Supercop 6 is Meredith Bragg and The Terminals - My Only Enemy. it's a beautiful song.

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THE BiG HONKIN' on Dr. Blogstein PT II

2008-11-12T16:54:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone,

listen to us sound like idiots, fumble trying to be funny, and generally not provide any useful information!

THE BiG HONKIN' on Dr. Blogstein

2008-11-10T21:13:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, November 11th) at 9pm, THE BiG HONKIN', the jackasses that make the show "The Defenders Of Stan," will be on Dr Blogstein's Radio Happy Hour!

All you gotta do is tune in and listen:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/DrBlogstein

http://www.drblogstein.com/

thanks,
THE BiG HONKIN'

Stan 18 production stills

2008-11-10T16:28:00.008-05:00

An episode like "The Defenders Of Stan - ep. 16," the one with the four guys playing cards and telling stories, has a LOT of actors and locations, which meant that each little bit would take up less screen time because there were so many other little bits that we had to cram into five minutes. So when we're on shoots like this, often times driving to a location for the sake of something that will only have 10 seconds of screen time, we get our coverage and then have a little bit of time to take photos and do alternate takes, etc., because we get into a "well we drove all the way here, might as well have some fun" mentality.

But when we shoot an episode like "The Defenders Of Stan - ep. 18," we're shooting in less locations but for a lot longer time. And when that happens, we end up making people hang around for a lot longer. And when that happens, we get into a "let's get our coverage and let these people go home" mentality, during which we often forget about things like making sure we take production stills or making sure we have all of the dialogue in close-up. you know, trivial stuff like that.

so we're really grateful when other people, often times extras who are just waiting around out--of the kindness of their hearts--for us to get to their bit, snap some photos for us.

so here, without further ado, are the few photos we have from "The Defenders Of Stan - Ep 18: Two Men and a Super-Baby???"

Meredith, the super-stud that he is, showing off his studliness and probably acting as a lighting stand-in. Tickets to the gun-show: $14.99. get 'em while they're hot. Photo by Josh Gross.

Running through a scene while Captain Ultra's face blurs off. Another one of Josh's famous "photos of the viewfinder while we see what's IN the viewfinder in the background" shots.

Stan and Captain Ultra get some heavy news.

Stan is really excited about a floating logo.

And the following are cell-phone pictures taken by Amanda Crelia. They're tiny, but between NO production stills and TINY production stills, i'll take what i can get.

Across the street after Stan hops out of his car.

Super-Sean reliving the glory days from high school.

Now, i've mentioned before, THE BiG HONKIN' is a three man crew. here's a great example of this: Meredith running camera, Austin on camera, and Hunter in a very uncomfortable costume being boom-operator outside and in public.

And another example, Austin is running sound for our super-lawyer to serve Captain Ultra.

Brand New Series!

2008-11-07T20:19:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone!

in an effort to expand our horizons past prancing around in tights, we made a brand new web series simply titled "Roommates."

we're excited to finally share this with you all.

click linky watch the fun fun.

thanks everyone!

now with video!

2008-09-18T20:37:00.001-04:00

more stan stuff soon!

THE DEFENDERS OF STAN 18

2008-09-17T22:01:00.010-04:00

why, fancy seeing you here!

here's the comic book cover for "The Defenders Of Stan" episode 18: "Two Men and a Super-Baby???"

this is a note to myself: Hunter...if you ever THINK about having kids, look at the above cover. ~hunter

The episode is online now at
ny.channel101.com
www.thedefendersofstan.com
youtube.com/thebighonkin

we have a few production stills, and a LOT of cool prop stuff coming soon!

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"blog, blog, blog!"

2008-09-17T22:01:00.005-04:00

okey dokey.

really quickly:

"THE DEFENDERS OF STAN" episode 17 was shot in one day, i believe, with a few reshoots spilling into a second. it was all in one location, so there weren't many exciting things to take photos of, or props to build.

because of that, i only have a small handful of production stills.

SO, here they be.

this was the basic setup for the whole shoot. we got a fun LED light panel earlier, and got to really use it here, to sort of mimic the cool-tinted light that comes off of a computer monitor when someone is on their webcam.

Stan receives a traffic ticket for being a douchebag. this is actually MY traffic ticket...for being a douchebag.

two of my favorite bits, together at last: the fake Stan beard (originally from episode 12...we had to dig through a lot of boxes to find it), and the Stan blog mask.

Ultra-Stan, Stan-Stan, Stan-on-a-stick.

AAAAAAAAAND, below, you can download and make your very own Stan mask!

Seriously...do it. print it. make a video blog and post it as a response to episode 17...that would be awesome.

i'll have episode 18 stuff up soon.

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see STAN 18 before everyone else!

2008-09-15T17:40:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone, this month, The Defenders Of Stan and ny.channel101.com are part of the New York Independent Television Festival.

this is gonna be a really cool screening, followed by a panel discussion featuring Mitch from "Mister Glasses," Curtis and John from Adult Swim's "Fat Guy Stuck In Internet" and Hunter from "The Defenders of Stan." (so you can all call Captain Ultra fat to his face, rather than the emails).

on top of getting to see the new episode before everyone else (suckers) in a theatre, the screening is free, and we're giving out a really cool, super secret "The Defenders Of Stan" surprise to the first 200 people. that's right. for free. all ya gotta do is show up, watch the shows and vote for your favorite 5...hopefully that includes us...right, guys? right?

hope to see you there.

Tuesday, Sept. 16 at the NYTVF,
340 W. 50th St, New York, NY
8pm
FREE

----
i will finally put up the production still we took and some other stuff from ep 17 before i do any other 18 posts.

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THE DEFENDERS OF STAN 17-Oh, (Big) Brother!

2008-08-05T16:55:00.004-04:00

hey everybody!

The Defenders Of Stan episode 17-Oh, (Big) Brother! screened at channel101 NY last night, and took second place!

thanks to everyone who came out and voted.

this is the comic book cover for this episode:

also, the episode has been uploaded to:
-The Defenders Of Stan official website
-THE BiG HONKIN' youtube
and
-channel101NY

a few production stills to come, as well as some MORE stuff from episode 16!

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see the NEW "The Defenders Of Stan" before everyone else!

2008-08-03T16:06:00.004-04:00

hello everybody!

if you live in or around NYC, and want to see the brand new "The Defenders Of Stan" before everyone else, you should come to:

Piano's
158 Ludlow St.
(at Stanton)
New York, NY

Monday, Aug 4 at 7pm and 8:30pm

it's FREE to get in!

come out, watch "The Defenders Of Stan," and a bunch of other really cool shows, vote for us (so we can keep making more) and chat with "Stan" and "Captain Ultra"!

otherwise, you'll have to wait til Tues, August 5th like everyone else.

hope to see ya there,
THE BiG HONKIN'

***that isn't the ACTUAL comic book cover for this month. fear not***

STAN 16 pre-vis

2008-07-24T17:36:00.007-04:00

in the world of small-time/low-budget/online video, it really pays to plan ahead. because, especially when you work under ridiculous circumstances like (1) trying to get an effects heavy web-series to feel like a bigger production than it really is, (2)get a new video done once a month EVERY month, while (3) still maintaining relationships with friends, families and significant others AND (4) getting all the other work that needs to get done finished, reshooting can be difficult, to say the least.

in the past, i've mentioned storyboarding. storyboarding is a great way to convey an idea, plan a complicated shot, or just be able to express to your team what you have in mind.

but what if it isn't getting the point across for a VERY difficult sequence?

take these for instance. i know that in my head, the crude drawings on the left will look something like what's on the right.

but in terms of working out what needed to be shot from which angle and why, it wasn't quite getting across.

so that's where it's helpful to bring in pre-vis. knowing just how little time we had to complete the recent episode of "The Defenders Of Stan," i prepared this silly little animation

obviously, there are oddities about the above. 1. for the purposes of demonstration, theres no burrito gag. 2. i obviously google searched "building texture" and used a watermarked image from turbosquid 3. i added the audio from the episode to make the pre-vis less boring. 4. because of the audio timing, i had to slow down bits of the animation which is why the results look a little jerky. 5. it's funny that it's Captain Ultra and twins, i'm guessing, and that one of the twins sounds like a super pimp.

also, enjoy this rant:
the nice thing about pre-vis is that it can more easily make sure that everyone is on the same page, and in certain instances, be a real asset on the set. for instance, we were hired by a company to write/direct/star in/post a pilot for a web-series. going into the cold opening of the pilot, we had two options: build a giant prop or build a 3d model. in the end, we decided on going CG because we'd end up having a lot more control. knowing that, i was able to build the 3d model BEFORE the shoot, pre-vis the entire scene, and since we had this whole thing virtually mapped out for us, we could literally stand there with a monitor next to our camera LCD display and set up shots knowing all of the limitations of the 3d model beforehand. it made an incredibly difficult and complex shoot a breeze. and to take it a step further: since i'd already animated the 3d model, all i had to do was tweak the work i'd already done, compensating for differences in timing, angles, fluidity in movement, etc.

YAY. coming soon, props photos, etc.

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STAN 16 production stills part 3

2008-07-20T20:52:00.007-04:00

to finish up our production stills for this episode (before we move into props, pre-visualization, etc.), we have a BIG ol' entry. so let's get right into it.

It's pretty simple. Cop wants photo with Captain Ultra. Captain Ultra wants $20. Cop gives Ultra $20, so the two take a picture. I love that we actually took pictures while we shot. If i'd just paid twenty bucks for this, i'd be a little bummed.

now, to give you an idea of just how many takes we do of stuff, this is a little slideshow of all of the photos we took while shooting. man, that's like 240 bucks worth! i love the one where he missed Captain Ultra completely.

This is us setting up for the beginning of the satellite sequence. it's always fun to block half the traffic on a street, with no permit, while cars full of people yelling "superman!" at you drive by.

here we are white balancing, or checking focus or something. the mic isn't even up yet, so i can't imagine this is during shooting just yet. as i said previously, it's hard to shoot with just three people sometime. it's even harder when two of us are in costume (meredith lent his looking and clapping talents to this scene). so sometimes little things like, oh i dunno say AUDIO, gets neglected til the last second.

Our second pregnant super-lady of this episode! it's that time of the year i suppose...

Holy Rugby Vest and Super Pimp! Notice the greenscreen leaning against the car.

Taking off, or landing. I can't keep track.

When i land, our Super Pimp is holding one headshot, and our Super Pregnant Lady Part II is holding another. i'm not sure which is which. But they sure do make Captain Ultra look even douchier than ever.

I'm gonna go on a rant here: Kinko's really needs to calibrate their frakkin monitors! Seriously. I opened these up on one of the design stations because kinko's charges you extra if they open anything besides a pdf behind the front counter (they can only print on thicker stock papers from behind the counter). So i go to convert it to a pdf, and suddenly i look at them and go "man. these are really terrible looking. they're so lacking contrast! i guess i was tired when i put these together. better fix the color." so i do. and i hand them to the guy and he prints them out, and they look TERRIBLE. they look borderline two-toned (like JUST black, white, and maybe ONE shade of grey). so i have to go back, fix them, and have the guy REprint them. in the end, it would have been cheaper to just incur the non-pdf fee than the ordeal and time wasted. thanks kinkos.

The epiphany. The life-changing event. A nudie pen.

Faster than a speeding bullet.

Speaking of being dressed up like idiots: It's funny. If you do it alone, you feel ridiculous. If you do it in a group, you feel like you can take on the world. That's probably why so many superheroes in ridiculous costumes work in teams. They're crazy solo, but together they just look like they're having a good time.

Stan's "date" in the park. This is another one of those "oh crap, i forgot to take a picture while we were in the actual location doing actual shooting," mostly because i was too busy worried about angles and timing for all of the impending doom that would befall this unknowing super lady, so i quickly thought "let's run outside and snap one against some green leaves and stuff so it kind of LOOKS like we took it during the shoot." though there wasn't a house in the park. I'll fix it in post.

coming soon: previs, props, and anything else i have the time and energy to scrape together.

any requests?

STAN 16 production stills part 2

2008-07-16T18:07:00.006-04:00

for me, production stills break into three categories:
1. stills taken WHILE shooting
2. stills taken before/after shooting (usually to highlight art direction, costume design, something slightly impressive that people might want to take a closer look at)
3. stills taken before/after shooting meant to look like they were taken WHILE shooting.

i wonder which category these fall into.

i'll go over playing poker, abiding by Capital City rules. 1. each player must have at least 8 cards in his hand at all times: even bathroom breaks.

2. third hands are a plus: helpful for snacking, scratching, and hiding cards under the table.

3. extra points awarded for showing off mad jug-band skills during a game.

4. the key to victory is a stern, solemn poker face. also, for whatever reason, you play counter-clockwise.

5. posing is a must.

6. if you lose all of your money, other types of chips can be substituted for poker chips in lightning rounds. oh yes. in Capital City, there are lightning rounds.

7. write a script, then play out the game in a totally scripted way so that everyone knows how much they will be losing that night.

hopefully this has been helpful in getting you up to speed on playing with CC's "finest"

more stills, etc. coming soon.

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STAN 16 production stills part 1

2008-07-14T20:04:00.007-04:00

hello, internet. at last, we meet again.

well, internet, my old nemesis. i have a few things to show you. for starters, i'll dazzle you with a slew of production stills. that's right, internet! you may have underestimated me, but we actually took photos this time! then, i'm going to pummel you with props pictures! and then, when you've already had enough, i might even do an effects breakdown, show some of our 3d pre-vis work, and maybe even a deleted scene or two. who the heck knows, i'm feeling nuts.

you still wanna rumble with me, internet?

fine. i mess you up.

as you can tell, blue face paint isnt the easiest thing to use, nor is it the most enjoyable thing to smear all over yourself. we usually try to do as little as possible, often times only painting half of a face, etc., based on the shot. (note the back of the neck). but we realized that this wasn't gonna work after all, so here our lovely makeup artist is ready to apply more liquid crib death.

this was a ROUGH shoot, trying desperately to cram all of the flashback into 3 hours of shooting. and usually, it's a little easier when you have all three of us there. but it was Meredith's birthday that day, so it was just Austin and I running around like chickens with no heads to do an extra person's amount of work. luckily for us, all of our actors are real pro's, and we love them.

Our cobalt pimp, in action. (it's a lot easier to pick up a chick if you're already married to her, apparently).

Capital City's newest LEAD anchor, Vicki Valiant. gosh, it seems like only episodes ago she was a field reporter. movin on up!

of any color, why would he paint himself green? the answer: because her dad is a racist, and he really wants to make a good impression.

so this is what it looks like when you take production stills after shooting one of the two scenes for that day, and between them an actress changes back into her clothes.

country love: Flamer and his baby mama on the vehicle of their first date. a sears tractor.

mmmmm. melted and charred whitmans sampler: sure to win over any angry, slightly violent, pregnant, hormonal super-ladies' heart.

so we have plenty more production stills coming soon. stay tuned, and maybe if you all bug us enough, we'll make Captain Ultra t-shirts.

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THE DEFENDERS OF STAN 16

2008-07-09T17:57:00.006-04:00

hey hey hey everybody.

well. it's that time again, so prepare to be bombarded with behind the scenes photos, quirky and pointless references to how things were done, and tons of other stuff no one cares about!

SO. first off. "The Defenders Of Stan" episode 16-Royally Flushed screened at channel101NY on monday and took first place. the episode can be seen there (channel101NY), at THE BiG HONKIN' youtube, and at the official website in high quality.

we'll get with the production stills later. but first, here's the cover:

boomtown.

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HAPPY 4th OF JULY!

2008-07-01T16:56:00.001-04:00

hey everyone, we are neck deep in post production on "The Defenders Of Stan" episode 16, and decided to put this video together to say "Happy Birthday America!"

enjoy

(new "...Stan" on or around July 7th)

"thank you"

2008-06-03T16:30:00.002-04:00

this was a video we shot to thank everyone for checking us out at THE BiG HONKIN' YouTube when we were featured on the front page.

so, thanks. and we'll have a new Stan up the first week of july. YAY

A-KON and STAN, sittin in a tree...

2008-05-27T22:25:00.004-04:00

A-KON is an Anime / Cop Culture Conference held in Dallas Texas from May 30 - June 1 this year, and is the oldest continually running anime-based convention in north america: 19 years straight.

The attendance can be upwards of 15,000 people, with most dressed like their favorite Anime/Manga/Video Game/Comic characters. Maybe next year, Captain Ultra will strap on his spandex and strut the scene. Besides demo's, presentations, special guest speakers, seminars, contesets, etc., one of the really awesome things they do for conference attendees is have their own TV station, A-KON TV, running throughout the hotel, with programming that's geared towards conference goers.

This year, The Defenders Of Stan is going to be featured on the channel. That's right, anyone attending the conference can check "...Stan" out! The Defenders of Stan will be showing on the A-KON TV channel at the Sheraton Dallas. Current plans are to show the full block of Stan twice a day, once during the midday "primetime" and again on the overnights, for 4 days (starting the night before the conference, and ending the evening after). How freakin cool is that?!

thanks so much to Seth Richardson from A-KON for making this happen. We're really excited for a whole new group of people, who probably wouldn't have ordinarily known about us, to be introduced to our show!

click here to check out the A-KON TV demo reel: highlights of what's being featured on the channel this year.

and click here to check out A-KON's official conference website.

YouTube

2008-05-21T15:45:00.008-04:00

We just found out The Defenders of Stan will be featured on the YouTube homepage today at 6 p.m. EST.

Zanzibar19, we owe you one.

Rachelle, we owe you two.

THE BiG HONKIN' interview

2008-05-19T19:05:00.004-04:00

hey everyone. just wanted to let you know we've been interviewed about The Defenders Of Stan and ourselves for Tilzy.tv, a really cool whats-going-on-in-the-land-of-entertainment-on-the-web type website.

click here to read it.

thanks so much to Josh Cohen for putting this all together for us.

we've also updated (prettified) THE BiG HONKIN' myspace, The Defenders Of Stan myspace, and the Captain Ultra myspace. go check-check-check 'em out!

STAN 15 production stills part 2

2008-05-08T17:52:00.005-04:00

once again, i'm here to share a few more production stills from The Defenders Of Stan ep14-"terrible twos."

every episode, we strive for doing something new, challenging ourselves in some way we havent before. this particular episode was a lesson in 1. writing and 2. subtle effects.

for the writing aspect, we decided early on that it would be fun to have the two Captain Ultra's relationship sour based on it's own merit: no outside influences. this meant that we have our title character, Stan, silent for about 75% of the episode. in fact, these are Stan's only lines:
1. "i'll get it in a minute."
2. "yeah, i said i'll get it in a minute!"
3. "i love you, Ted."
4. "shouldn't we take him apart?"
5. "great."

and for the effects aspect, we really strived to make an episode that is, at it's core, an effects episode that doesn't FEEL like an effects episode. in fact, there are 23 effects shots (two got cut for time), and really there are only a handful that FEEL like effects sequences...at least i hope that's the way it came off.

but sometimes, the most effective visuals are done in camera. like drawing balls on someones face.

as you can tell, i'm extremely exciting to be covered with ink. that and the fact that i had to sit in a box for 30 minutes almost dead still with my eyes open for good chunks of time didnt help (originally the shot at the end was going to be a dolly in, but this was changed to a progressive zoom in cut sequence for time and effect).

there's probably a reason that it looked like i hadn't slept in days. the basement scene was filmed days after the rest of the episode.

so, back to what i said: 20+ effects sequences. meredith was kind enough to do the majority of rotoscoping on 4 of those shots, and austin got in on two (he loves his vector painting, so rotoscoping made him unhappy...not that ANYONE is particularly happy to be rotoscoping), but i did the rest of the sequences...when you work, you get hungry. and when you work a LOT, you buy things that are easy to make...this is what i ate almost every night. YUM

when you rotoscope, you work a lot. and when you work a lot, you buy things that you THINK are easy to make until you realize way too late that you hit an extra "0" on the microwave timer, and the house fills with smoke. YUM.

i'm sure there are one or two more production stills floating around here or there, but i'm not sure how interesting they are. that and i'm not really sure that anyone actually READS this thing anyway.

STAN 15 production stills

2008-05-07T21:14:00.002-04:00

hey folks, some production stills of The Defenders Of Stan ep 15: Terrible Twos.

we had a lot of fun working on this one, even though it was a lot of work. maybe i'll get into that later. who knows. anywhoot. lets see pictures!

here's our favorite anti-hero and his robot clone enjoying a nice, relaxing smoke after a long day of shooting. we shot for 4 days total i believe, which is relatively short for us. but they were LONG days.

going over some lines and timing before the couch shoot. austin was off getting ready to sit still for hours.

to sing, one needs to warm up their vocal chords and make sure your throat isn't dry. OBVIOUSLY, because of how freaking beautiful the song worked out*, diet soda is the beverage of choice for singers.

* i'm humoring myself here.

again, sharing a lighter. it's amazing how much a clone actually looks like the real deal.

i'll have a few more production stills soon, and will upload the video to youtube this week.

"you'd do the same for me..."

2008-05-06T23:38:00.003-04:00

The Defenders Of Stan, episode 15 screened at channel101 NY last night. it's been uploaded to the official The Defenders Of Stan website.

here's the special double issue's cover;

also, we added The Defenders Of Stan theme ringtone, from episode 6 (where Super Stan is getting chewed out by his boss) to the "downloads" sections of thedefendersofstan.com so all you crazy kids with your fancy mp3 playin' phones should download it and annoy your friends whenever you get a call.

seriously, they'll want to strike you with something.

youtube and production stills coming soon!

STAN 14 props

2008-05-06T23:22:00.006-04:00

so here some props of note from The Defenders Of Stan episode 14. by "some," i mean "the only," and by "of note," i mean "that we bothered to take pictures of."

Harry The Herring loves his cereal. Nothing says production value like kinkos and gluesticks. i realize now how weird it is that i gave a fish eyebrows.

as Stan flies, in Captain Ultra's body, to Ultra's place of business, the League Of Extraordinary Justice, we get a glimpse of this sign which i modeled in Cinema4d. it makes me smile, though i'm sure it gets overlooked. those are the best kinds of effects: the ones nobody ever sees.

****EDIT****

i totally forgot about these, so i've added them to this post rather than a whole new blog post.These are the cigarettes that Stan, in Captain Ultra's body, unsuccessfully endorses. Ultra brand Ultra Lights. now, for any of you that are smokers, everyone knows that whether you're talking about $6.00 Nat Sherman's to $2.15 USA's (i'm from VA, so prices may seem low), EVERY single box says "20 Class A Cigarettes." i just find it amusing that the cheapest of the cheap, the ones that you KNOW are giving you instant cancer and taste like the bottom of a week old ashtray from waffle house, STILL say "Class A."

which just leads me to think: "what would a Class B cigarette be like?" surely, it's whatever is making Stan hack up his lungs and his lunch. Maybe just ground glass and sand and turkish blend burlap reside in Class B cigarettes along with hypodermic needles and sars. who knows. but i'm sure its this lack of care and quality in a product that Captain Ultra would sign off on.

STAN 14 production stills

2008-05-06T23:13:00.003-04:00

a lot of times, while we shoot, we get so wrapped up in the "get in, get what we need, get out and let our friends stop dressing like idiots" mentality that we forget to take a lot of production stills. this is especially true with The Defenders Of Stan episode 14. this shoot had us going all over the place, on top of the fact that we're working on other things at the same time.

Stan, in Captain Ultra's body, Captain Ultra in Stan's body, and Vicki Valiant on a date.

Stan's office buddies look about as thrilled to be listening to Captain Ultra as Stan is being related to him.

Captain Ultra in Stan's body, hits on a coworker. This was a scene from the alternate cut.

Setting up. Thanks to WIT for letting us rent their amazing camera again. this was our third ever time shooting on multiple cameras. it made for a faster shoot since we could do reverses at the same time, and we had time restraints in The Blue Moon Diner in charlottesville, Va.

"Staaaaaan! That's like a week!"

2008-04-08T22:50:00.002-04:00

The Defenders Of Stan, episode 14 "Freakin' Friday," premiered at channel101:NY last night and took 3rd place.

here's the comic book cover:

also, we've uploaded a high(er) res version to the official site: www.thedefendersofstan.com, along with a super special exclusive alternative cut, that's got TWO minutes of additional footage, deleted scenes, and a slightly different ending! go check it out!

production stills and more fun stuff coming soon!

THE DEFENDERS OF STAN-EPISODE 13: MINDGAME

2008-03-22T22:22:00.003-04:00

look at me go...embedding video and shit.

this and all the other episodes of "The Defenders Of Stan" are available at THE BiG HONKIN' youtube.

.

STAN 13 props

2008-03-22T18:58:00.005-04:00

we've only really got a few things to post for props this month, because, besides the chess board, there wasn't really much we used.

after Captain Ultra lands in Stan's kitchen, he gets a brew out of the fridge, revealing a shopping list. "hey, what should we put on the fridge?" "oh, i got it." **grabs marker, comedy ensues**

i take absolutely no credit or blame for this. in interest of time and "that's not funny," we ended up cutting a bit where Stan is sitting at the chess board panicking because he's losing to Captain Ultra, while Ultra is making dirty rhymes on the fridge. lyrics to a new Captain Ultra single maybe?

as will hines pointed out at the last screening, we really made a few holiday cards based on the one that is seen in our Holiday Episode, The Gift Of The Magi(c Cards) in lieu of a comic book cover. this is was also on the fridge.

this could really be filed under "special effects" rather than props. but it's a 3d model of some jelly that i threw together for the bit where Captain Ultra is tossing things out of a cabinet toward Stan. if anyone cares about this kinda stuff, i'll explain. 1. We shot the scene with me pretending to toss the jelly, panning across the room, and ending at the wall. Then i motion tracked the camera movement, modeled the jelly, and composited in After Effects.

i WILL get some fun deleted scenes from episode 12, that i still have to compress, one of these days.

Stan 13 production stills...

2008-03-08T19:14:00.006-05:00

we're a bit behind right now. we, at THE BiG HONKIN', are working on something like four projects right now. and we're exhausted.

here are some production stills from "THE DEFENDERS OF STAN-EP 13: Mind Game."

this episode deals a lot in the inner monologues of our two "heroes." to work this out, we ended up recording the voice over for these lines first, and then meredith would play them offscreen so that we could react to them onscreen, rather than the other way around.

i, personally, have such a hard time delivering lines or reacting if i dont have some sort of interaction or someone to talk to or something to make me react, so this method worked much better for me than shooting the scenes first and reading voiceover in post. it also allowed for some fun timing things that would have been much harder to sync up.

Austin looks thrilled to be delivering another take of voiceover.

i believe this is during the circus music/monkey noises bit.

with two or three other projects going on, we wrote this script intending for it to be a one day shoot. then reality kicks us in the pants that we spend forever lighting, mic-ing, and doind take after take to get the right feeling, look, emotion, or speed (a five-minute time limit has forced us to reshoot SOOOO many times). so this would be our second re-shoot (shoot day 3), and i'd given up putting the stupid uncomfortable spandex pants on.

Who made a pretty? WHO made a pretty? Austin made a pretty.

halfway through a battery life, and a new tape (TC: 0:00:00:00).

As i've mentioned before, we own two Shakespeare busts. One was purchased for "The Defenders Of Stan-Episode 8: Bat-Phoning It In," our 67 Batman homage, and one was given to us by our friend Wendy, because of said episode. Whenever we shoot Stan's living room, we try to make sure we get at least one of them in the shot somewhere.

Ok, i'm sure this comes as a big surprise to everyone, but i don't know how to play chess. So this episode was as much a learning experience for me as it was a shoot. So if anyone wants to play me, i'll take you on as long as you move your pieces in the exact same moves that Austin did. Also, if you look very closely, the baby we shook in "The Defenders Of Stan-Episode 12: United We Stan," is in the top right corner, laying face down under a greenscreen.

Sleepy Austin.

"farting contest!"

2008-03-04T22:25:00.004-05:00

SO, "The Defenders of Stan" episode 13: "Mindgame" screened at channel101 last night and took 1st place!

*crowd cheers*

thank you, thank you!

anywhoot. here is the cover image, and we have uploaded the episode to our website: www.thedefendersofstan.com

and since internet video and even the above picture can't show the minute details of faking 3 color printing, here's a detail:

production stills, props, and a deleted scene from ep 12 coming soon!

STAN 12 props: part 3 of 3

2008-03-04T22:13:00.005-05:00

so this is a little different.

this post deals with props that were digitally created. and since there are only really two i'm gonna discuss, this will be brief.

so this is our SCBS Evening News correspondent, Dan Raptor. And i know: Dan Rather quit. but we couldnt pass up using "raptor." anyway, we needed a background for our anchor, so i put together the "set" from above, loosely based on the picture below. (loosely=poorly)

why would someone take a picture of a tv?!

so as the episode goes on, Captain Ultra gets more and more "America"ed out. so we decided he'd have his own version of the flag. the above is the first 3d model i ever built from scratch. (impressive, i know) but i'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

here is a detail, since it gets lost in tiny internet video.

and here is the whole thing without the Ultra logo obscuring it.

STAN 12 props: part 2 of 3

2008-03-04T21:44:00.006-05:00

hey everyone, we've been really busy working on a few new projects as well as getting Stan 13 done, and i'm a douche and am just now getting to all this stuff. so, besides the newspaper, this post deals with all of the props we built for this episode.

so, according to meredith who enjoys smart things (yeah...i know), in the documentary "the war room," which follows bill clinton campaigning, james carville wrote a bunch of stuff on a whiteboard, and in efforts to make Stan's living room look more "campaign headquarters"ey, we made our own version and then took a terrible photo of it. enjoy!

so early on, austin called dibs on putting this together: this is our balloon drop for the end of the episode. now, it's pretty technical, as i'm sure you can see, and i don't wanna give away all of our trade secrets, but here we have professor bragg at work, with his blue lab assistant, re-rigging his invention.

the printed materials for the campaigning were really fun to put together. i liked that we could be meta for a second and put the series web addy on the signs.

both Stan and Captain Ultra had campaign stickers for everyone. and if you look closely to see them you will strain your eyes and sue us because i'm not sure you can even tell.

i'm not sure if he called it or was short-strawed this, but meredith hand-painted these banners to put up in the campaign nerve center, and the paint was still wet as we hung them up. we're like that. we wait til the last possible second to do anything. because it's more fun if it's stressful. they now decorate mer's office.

okay. so obviously we didnt make this, but our friend dyna asked about it, so here's a close up. i spent DAYS trying to find something like this (honestly i wanted something that covered the whole head and the wearers face pops through the front, but i figured that i'd take what i could get). this was purchased from megachess.com and are apparently intended for some group of idiots with nothing better to do to set up a giant chess board and have kids strap these things on and act as the pieces while two other nimrods live out some weird 'gamemaster' fantasy. why, you ask? because chess simply isn't fucking big enough. and everyone knows that games aren't worth playing if they involve any less than 34 people.

yep.

STAN 12 props: part 1 of 3

2008-02-12T21:56:00.007-05:00

As we make more and more web shows, one simple rule occurs to me: do it right the first time so you don't have to go back and do it again OR have to spend a life time in post fixing mistakes.

this "rule" has often lead us to do MORE work than we need to prior to a shoot, to sell a shot, because if youve done your job right people won't question it. they accept it.

it's this sort of overcompensation that lead me to do this: a full newspaper front page, complete with articles that no one would ever read. why? because i wanted people to accept it, rather than getting distracted by the crappy looking special effect, or poorly glued together newspaper, i wanted to make one that actually looked real.

a lot of crazy research went into this. not only from a design and typography point of view, but also in terms of production. obviously, my first reaction was that i wanted to do a short run of these on actual newsprint, and then hand out the extra 99 that we wouldnt need at the screening. needless to say this didn't go over too well with our bank account, plus nowhere would be able to turn it around fast enough for us.so our second thought was buying newsprint, folding it over and printing one half, then the other. note to the reader trying to fake a newspaper: do. not. do. this. it's stupid and messed up our printer pretty bad and didn't work.long story short: large scale printing at a nationwide printing chain. it costs an arm and a leg, but it's nice to not have to shoot around anything or hide the glue or tape, etc.

photo of the top half.

and a photo of the bottom half, that CAN be seen in the episode, but only for a moment, and upside down.

below are copies of the design file (click for larger)

next time, more practical props.

stan 12 production stills

2008-02-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

hey everyone. here we have a few production stills from "The Defenders Of Stan-Ep. 12"

when two brothers run for office, the phones dont stop ringin'

Captain Ultra's fake family. Kids in spandex=comedy. i also love that all three of them (Amanda, Pat and Josh) have blonde hair in this shot, and Ultra clearly doesnt and just found a random family to pose with.

Superheroes, pose!

Stan and Fantastic 4 News reporter, Vicki Valiant. this is what it looks like if your camera is in your car in 20 degree weather, and then you bring it into a house and take a picture with it. it fogs up and looks like a hazy dream sequence from Saved By the Bell.

The saddest thing about this scene is that in the two earlier takes, i'd been singing into one of the combs that Ultra gave Stan in our holiday episode. looking at this photo, it's no wonder people find Captain Ultra so attractive.

Mike Setti makes his way back to Capital City this month, going batshit crazy screaming "yeaaahgghhh!" which, in fact, IS written in the script. At least he wasn't on fire this time.

posers. i'd love to know what made Austin and I decide to look so concerned. because then, maybe, i'd have something interesting to write under this.

"The Defenders Of Stan-Ep 12: United We Stan" is up on www.thedefendersofstan.com (high res.), channel102.net (med res.), and now our youtube (little-to-no res.).

props photos, including the entire newspaper (articles and all), coming soon.

To The Limit.

2008-02-05T20:06:00.001-05:00

Hello hello everyone.

We wanted to thank everyone who voted for "The Defenders Of Stan" ep 12 last night at channel102.net, where we took second place.

The video has been added to www.thedefendersofstan.com, and will be uploaded to you tube and channel102 soon.

expect production still and lots of prop photos soon, but for now here's the comic cover.

booyah

i got fan mail, part 2

2008-01-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

very similar to an old piece of fan mail i got i got a new piece of email today. it was from a kind soul who decided to lift my spirits.

FROM: auto263082@hush.ai
TO: me
SUBJECT: yes. it's true

In the following attachments, is a little "fan art" if you will.
Enjoy

dear auto263082@hush.ai,

you forgot the fucking cape.

onwards and upwards

2007-12-28T23:14:00.000-05:00

so...

we were watching all of our episodes and decided that they didn't look shitty enough.

so we've uploaded EVERY episode of "The Defenders Of Stan" to THE BiG HONKIN' YouTube.

the holidays continue.

STAN holiday behind the scenes stuffy-do

2007-12-24T15:56:00.001-05:00

let me first start out by saying "happy holidays" and "thank you for watching our The Defenders Of Stan Holiday Special!" We all really appreciate it. Remember to share it with someone who has never seen it before this holiday season.

So here are some production stills from the episode, along with a THE BiG HONKIN' first: an effects breakdown video.

productions stills:

Mike Bass weaseling his way out of painting his hands blue by wearing gloves. we'll get you next time, Gadget! next time.

the mantle at Stan's new place.

Mike, still putting on gloves. I'm not sure if that's Austin's leg or my leg in the bottom, but it gives this shot a very "casting couch" feel.

The official Shakespeare bust replica from the "Batman" tv series. we didn't have this for episode 8, unfortunately, but we'd like to thank our friend Wendy from WB for sending this to us. We try to work it into as many episodes as we can.

Stan's stocking. The glitter paint was still wet...and got everywhere. i tried to make it as reminiscent of the Stan logo, going so far as to print out the letters and tracing them.

a blue Super Santa. Evil children, take flight!

Captain Ultra's stocking. i love how it's too long to see all of it in the episode.

In printing this out for the episode, i realized how confused people must have been when words contained both 'k's and 'f's in olden times, because the letters look almost identical. fucf that.

This is the "before" and "after" shot's of my favorite comic panel for the holiday episode intro. nothing says Merry Christmas like Santa getting decked in the face.

AND, here is the video of the "before" and "after" footage for the track into Stan's new house. its extra nerdy!

higher res quicktime available here

happy holidays, everyone!

happy holidays, douchebags!

2007-12-18T20:46:00.000-05:00

we, here at THE BiG HONKIN', love the holidays. because we're greedy.

but this year, we thought "let's not be greedy. let's give."

we all laughed a lot at the thought of that, and i think milk even came out of meredith's nose, but then it hit us: we can be greedy BY giving. you see, we make something for you, and you watch it and show it to a family member or friend who's never seen it before and you all "oooh" and "ahhh" and laugh. so we get back what we gave three-fold...suckers.

so, in the spirit of giving, we've made a super-exclusive holiday episode of The Defenders Of Stan, available only at our website. that's right, we aren't even competing with this in channel102! this is to you, from us.

you're welcome.

"The Defenders Of Stan: The Gift of the Magi(c cards)" can only be seen at the official website, www.thedefendersofstan.com.

i'll have some production stills and maybe even a before and after effects shot soon.

website

2007-11-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

www.thedefendersofstan.com has been (poorly) redesigned for your "enjoyment." check it out!

EW likes Stan

2007-11-24T20:40:00.000-05:00

On page 111 of the new Entertainment Weekly you’ll find The Defenders of Stan alongside Steve Martin, Miles Davis and The Beatles.

If we had known it would get this popular, we'd have put Hunter in tights years ago.

***as a side note, to anyone finding us because of EW, or not, channel102 (the website and screening where new "Stan"s compete every month) crashed, and theyve lost some data, including our episode 11. we're going to get all 11 episodes up on our own sites this week.***

Meat Beats

2007-11-24T18:10:00.000-05:00

Three Big Honkin’ Rules for Licensing Your Song to Network Television

Step 1: Write and record a song.
Step 2: Have the people in charge of the music for “Chuck” ask if they can use it.
Step 3: Double check to make sure the episode deals with salami.

Note: You can replay Meredith's song “My Absent Will” here. Select Episode 109 (Chuck vs. the Imported Hard Salami). If you want to skip right to the good part, it's played during the make-out scene (naturally) around the 5-minute mark, and again towards the very end of the episode when Chuck and Summer from the OC break up.

backlog pt4

2007-11-16T18:41:00.001-05:00

we, here at THE BiG HONKIN', are not good people. we're incredibly lazy, short-staffed, and refuse to shave on a regular basis. it's because of these things, particularly the last one, that we are oft prevented from doing what we promised.

so, here we have some production stills from THE DEFENDERS OF STAN, episode 11.

starting with the cover.

a lot of times, it's very apparent what the cover should be: we tend to pick some sort of climactic moment or, more importantly, a moment that could make a cover without ruining the element of surprise in the 1.9 seconds it's featured on the screen. and we were really stuck as to what the hell to draw for this one. so we just took a bunch of photos and i started sketching a bunch of crap before i gave up and just basically did what everyone probably knew was coming: Stan and Captain Ultra turning against one another in a fit of good ol' fashioned sibling rivalry. slap on a "witty" title, and you're good to go.

*it should be noted that once the covers are drawn, we deliberate for MINUTES as to what the title should be before dropping them into the intro project and hitting render.

thanks to technology, these pictures were taken DURING an actual take with the help of a flash-free camera.

Once our souls had been wrestled out of the camera, the photographer was banished into the control room.

in actuality, this episode was basically 3 takes (the intro between Stan and Ultra, the game show introduction, and the actual game) each done live-to-tape. then a few inserts were added ("Switch!", Team Galactus), and voila! An episode is shot in under five hours. it actually took longer to draw the comic book cover then it did to shoot the whole episode, which is incredibly new and scary for us.

what production photo blog update is complete without meredith behind a camera?

"woah. it's like you see it, and then you see it again...but smaller...and blown out."

the obvious tag line here is: "three INCREDIBLY attractive guys."

Stan looking suspicious.

Captain Ultra looking ugly/confused.

The Defenders of Stan, episode 11 took first place at the channel102 screening, narrowly missing the highest voter percentage. sometime soon, we'll have updates about our other goings-on, and we are thinking about talking about uploading the episodes to our youtube one day maybe.

LINKAGE
channel102
the defenders of stan
the defenders of stan episode 11
the defenders of stan on myspace
the big honkin on myspace

102 is famous!

2007-11-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

It was brought to our attention that, even though we weren't specifically mentioned IN the actual article, Time Out NY put "The Defenders of Stan" as the face of channel 102 in their article outlining the 50 essential New York Secrets!

congrats to all of our 102 peers and, specifically, John and Curtis for their nod in the article.

here are some scans.

the cover.

the page containing a frame from The Defenders Of Stan episode 10.

and with that, we'll have some news about some of our other projects, and some production stills and the cover from The Defenders Of Stan episode 11

backlog pt3

2007-11-08T17:23:00.001-05:00

ok, drum roll please. we're about to do something we've always been far too embarrassed to do: share storyboards. this is usually because we dont make storyboards often enough, or they look like prison tattoos. but regardless, here they are.

one of the things we'd always wanted to do was a marquee, showing that Ultra had claimed full ownership of Stan Kong. we ran out of production time to come up with a shot, and it's a good thing too, because it would have probably gotten cut from the final edit anyway for running time.

a character that has made two appearances throughout the run of our show was a character that we call "Flamer" --or "fire-guy" when we realize that "flamer" sounds offensive. to disclose a little insider info, we actually wrote episodes 9 and 10 as one, self-canceling script, and we wanted to bring back all of our favorite characters. so "flamer" was one of those guys we just love seeing and wanted to make sure he made a final appearance. needless to say, we chickened out of self-canceling (ego prevailed), and we split up the script in two, AND "flamer" actor, mike setti, was unavailable. but the idea of a man ablaze looking irritated at Stan as he exits is hilarious to me.

A lot of this page changed. originally we were going to have Kong take a swipe at Ultra, after breaking free from the chains. But once we realized just how much of this episode was green-screened, we started scrapping things that were just unnecessary. also, it's really hard to take a clean plate shot of a street during the day, so we ended up making the whole bit in which Stan drives away looks as if the camera was mounted to his car, and built the streets in the computer. it's not my favorite post work i've ever done, but i was really strapped for time. if only i had ONE more day...

Every time i come up with some ridiculous shot, we always have a back-up or an "oh shit, we're fucked" shot that is much simpler. above you'll notice "hunter's crazy ass shot" along with "hunter's oh shit shot" and "meredith's oh shit shot." we ended up scrapping all three to make room for Blue's observation of Kong climbing the wall.

here are some side-by-side comparisons.

Blitzer-Wolf.

In episode three, we had Stan watching the tv, with the back of his head visible like the above storyboard frame, and i've always loved the way it looks. i dont know how we did it back then, but we've never been able to frame it as well, and usually end up going for something like the above final product.

i love how i always draw myself much skinnier than i really am, as if ink on legal pads makes the hours and hours a day i spend sitting behind a computer and the toll that takes on my physique disappear.

in the previous post i mentioned the way the audience was only six people. in the above screen shot, you can see the fruits of their hours of clapping and gasping. this is another one of those "4 hours of work for 2 seconds of screen time" type things.

this was one of my favortie shot's to do. i'm not sure why. i love the fact that if you watch closely, i gave our spotlight operator the beginning stages of Parkinsons.

Jurassic milk.

obviously, scale is something that i have problems with on paper.

this was one of the few shots with no post work. and therefore i love it, although i believe in the concept stage we were going to have a more military look about this set up. but this was shot on the saturday before 102 (which came on monday) so we were just happy to get it done.

it's at this point that i stop showing storyboards, because we started to be so short on time that they all started to look like (or worse than) this one. which, some may say, is a good thing, since if any rival company tried to steal our storyboards, they wouldnt have the slightest fucking clue what the hell we were actually shooting.

we don't have rivals. but it would make for better blog posts.

NEXT time: episode 11 stills!

backlog pt2

2007-11-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

alrighty, fellow bloggers...as promised, our good friend josh gross has sent me a few production stills from episode 10.

lets do this.

not many people know this--or if they do notice, they're kind enough to pretend not to--but we end up using the same people over and over and over again in each episode. it's because we don't have any friends. i love the fact that our cameraman is smoking. something about people in capes smoking and drinking i find hilarious.

here, meredith enjoys a snack between takes...or he's about to throw up.

here, 'blue,' with very UN blue hands, fights an invisible bear. this scene was cut from the final episode.

Ultra, Blue, Bat-Lass.

backlog pt1

2007-11-07T21:17:00.001-05:00

THE DEFENDERS OF STAN episode 10 came and went, and then we got swamped. but we took another first place for it, and for that we thank you.

some fun facts:
1. the whole thing was shot and posted in 12 days, thats TWO days less than episode 9.
2. the majority of us here at THE BiG HONKIN' camp were really sick.
3. last count, there were about 5 shots that didnt have some sort of crazy post-production in them.

So this is the cover for the episode, posted over a month late. it's mean to echo the previous one, as 9 and 10 were two parts of the same show. these are all pretty much hand-drawn, and since i'm really slow, take about a day each to do.

here are some production stills from the episode:

"Stan Kong" all pretty-like. truth be told, i think this was actually from episode 9, but until a friend forwards some pics he snapped, we'll all just have to pretend this is REALLY interesting.

austin was pretty miserable walking around as Kong. he stuffed his cheeks with cotton, wore fake teeth, had about 20 minutes of makeup to put on, and walking and hunching like an ape gave him pretty bad back pains. and we had two identical shirts for Stan and his ape-counterpart. One was austin's size, and the other was too small, although i'm not sure it reads on camera. it's all in the details, people. the details that no one but us pays attention to.

add all that to the fact that we were acting with vague ideas about where things be in the final product (60% of this thing was shot green-screen), and you have quite a full 12 days.

So the funny thing about this is that THIS was our whole audience. These six kind people drove an hour out of their way to sit around for hours in a mall comedy-club to make up an entire audience, even though about half of them hadn't even seen the show before.

Here you can see a horde of capes and wigs off in the distance that the actors would switch in and out of. we'd shoot each vertical column of people and then combine them in post. it's like cloning, only without the stem cells and crying.

NEXT, i will have some of our crappy storyboards to check out.

episode 9 production stills...

2007-09-06T21:23:00.000-04:00

well. sadly, because of the extreme time restraints we underwent to produce this episode--despite having THREE months to use during the channel102 break, we shot and edited the whole thing in 14 days--we only have TWO production stills.

that's right.

two.

so here they are. our TWO production stills.

so. this is captain ultra playing the drums on the streets of Capital City to raise money since he hasn't paid taxes in 4 years. the difficulties of this entire shooting day (which included drums on the street from which a lot was cut for running time, the outdoor scene between stan and captain ultra from three angles, the jib shot on the roof of the building into which shadows were later composited, the exterior of dr. mindbender's lab/capital city copy, and the background plate for Stan Kong jumping off of a building and walking up the road) were only magnified by the fact that shooting with a one person crew (meredith) makes for rough audio-posting. stupid cars that keeping driving by. and let's not forget the sheer number of people who, luckily, feel obligated to stop and shout out of their windows or honk whenever they see a man dressed in a super hero costume playing drums like it's "new" or "weird" or something.

actually, my favorite encounter of the day was the elderly couple walking their dog. as they walk past me on the sidewalk, they split up. one went behind, one in front. i apologized to them, because elderly people tend to like it when you apologize for "inconveniencing" them, and the gentleman said "oh, it's alright. we always make room for super-music."

comic gold. i kinda wanted to get that guy to help us with last minute rewrites.

ok. so this shot, which we didn't even take because we suck (this was snapped by Brian Long...thank you!), is our first glimpse at Stan Kong. A lot of math went into this. fo' real.

we figure this: Stan Kong is roughly 4 times the height of Stan. This way, he's big and scary but not "we-need-a-wide-angle-lens" big and scary.

the wall on the plate (the background) is 14' high. the camera was 6 feet up. multiply by 12, divide by 4, divide by twelve, and factor in that our tripod will only go as low as 2'5" or something, we have to raise the wall up to compensate. it made sense at the time...shame i didn't save our storyboards or shitty calculation drawings. then you'd REALLY think we were losers.

anyway. we end up with this. lots of frame-by-frame rotoscoping went into this; for composite purpose, shading and highlighting purpose, etc. and it sucked bad. the final shot is about 12 layers of things all going on at once to make one 'seamless' shot.

but enough, i'm ranting. maybe one day i'll do an effects breakdown or something.

maybe.

the pod people...

2007-09-04T21:09:00.001-04:00

really quickly...

just wanted to send a public "thank you" to the following:
-mike, tyler, and all the guys at W.I.T. for trusting us with their camera.
-the guys at fanboyplanet.com for mentioning "The Defenders of Stan" in their latest podcast somewhere around the 44:30 mark

also, i should have one or two production stills up sooner or later.

we didn't want to ruin the suprise...

2007-09-04T17:47:00.000-04:00

we didn't post the cover to this episode of "The Defenders Of Stan" before the screening this month, even though we usually do because we just didn't wanna ruin the ending for those of you that like that sort of thing.

but, it's been almost a week. why not?

also, because we're lazy--it's part of THE BiG HONKIN' credo--we are wishing "The Defenders Of Stan" a belated happy birthday. "...Stan" premiered August 28th, 2006 at Anthology Film Archives in channel102, taking first place of twelve.

we've been doing this show for over a freakin' year! we can't believe we have gotten the opportunity to go for as long as we have. so thank you! and happy birthday, Stan...ya douchebag.

in other news, we've shot and edited one of two web-pilots for some new friends of ours, and we just finished writing what seems like our 3rd draft for the second. we're excited and really hope the opportunity comes to show everyone our work. we hope to have more info to share soon.

we're really proud of these two. it's good to know we can still be funny not dressed in primary colors.

LASTLY, the aforementioned documentary is about to go into post-production. we're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of new equipment to get the (foot)ball rolling. more on that soon too.

on top of that, we have a few other things in the works...but we can't give out ALL of our secrets just yet.

last week

2007-07-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

so, we've been busy little big honkers.

we decided to do something a little different than our usual two jack-asses sitting on a couch.

we put them at a desk.

this is our first stab at doing a webshow for superdeluxe.

and happy tuesday.

POWER PLAY

i got "fan" mail

2007-06-13T21:38:00.000-04:00

gotta love it when someone says something nice about your show...

FROM: spamholder@mindspring.com
TO: me

Captain Ultra,

Love ya much buddy, your Channel 102 show is awesome, but you have to lose some weight. The Defenders of Stan is one of the greatest pieces of comedy media ever and I can handle an out of shape Captain Ultra, but not a flabby one. You are a good looking guy, you shouldn’t let yourself go.

Sorry, but you are too awesome to be out of shape.

Yours Truly,
A harsh, mean fan.

FROM: me
TO: spamholder@mindspring.com
it's all done in post.

anywhoo... a few more production stills.

Ultra, Blue & Stan at the museum. with one of the un-used props.

xoxo,
fatty

images are fun

2007-06-10T11:18:00.001-04:00

hey everyone, we wanted to once again thank everyone for voting for us. it feels good knowing that 96 out of 101 people voted for our show at the screening. and then we wonder who those other five people are and what the fuck their problem is.

asses.

anyways, here are some production stills from this past episode. YAY.

everyone in the Quizzlers Lair.

Stan & Ultra press photo.

in the studio

the ULTRAPHONE™

another from the Quizzlers Lair.

smoke break.

the ULTRA-POLES™

the studio mess. sometimes it seems like we spend more time cleaning up the messes we make than actually shooting.

table full-o-props.

rear-projected wall climbing. by far one of the most ridiculous things to set up and shoot, considering it's only given about 2 seconds of screen time. note the high-tech rope holding device.

austin in the studio riding a bike that doesnt like to give rides. we had about a week and a half of preproduction on this episode, polishing the story, gathering props, finding actors, etc. we were having a hard time finding a bike, much less an OLD bike for the shoot. meredith found this at a yard-sale on the way from charlottesville to arlington on the day of the outside shoot.

press photo #2

THE BiG HONKIN' climbs a wall.

still from the animated intro. between writing, finding props, shooting, scoring the entire damned episode, our full-time jobs and everything else, this intro took me about two weeks in all of my free time to draw. drawings were hand-drawn, scanned, then colored, animated and effected in the computer. two words: never. again.

and the cover, for those who like that sort of thing;

this particular cover was modeled after the cover for BATMAN #9. if anyone knows what i'm talking about, then i probably dont have to explain it anyway. because youre a nerd.

lastly, you can watch "THE DEFENDERS OF STAN episode 8: Bat-Phoning It In!" and all the other episodes over at channel102, and we also are proud to announce that www.defendersofstan.com is live. just not VERY live.

This One's For The Fellas...

2007-06-06T18:08:00.000-04:00

The 8th episode of The Defenders of Stan took first at Monday night’s screening. If that isn’t a testament to the power of graft, I don’t know what is.

Please enjoy.

Stan 8: First Blood

2007-06-03T16:10:00.000-04:00

Deep in the Big Honkin’ Lair, we are putting the 8th episode of The Defenders of Stan through quality control. It’s a lot like those car commercials where they smash SUVs into brick walls while ethnically diverse scientists in safety goggles stand around checking things off clipboards… except we're all white guys who don't give a damn about highway casualty statistics.

Nevertheless, tomorrow night the newest installment of Stan will be unveiled. If you are in New York City, make your way to Tribeca Cinemas. This will be the last Channel 102 show in three months, so get it while it’s hot.

back stage pass to a gold medal

2007-05-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

so for anyone interested, this is what about $150, two hours in kinkos (stupid jamming printers), and a long time ironing on iron-ons looks like...

and this is what it looks like when $150, two hours in kinkos (stupid jamming printers), and a long time ironing on iron-ons is on fire.

pretty sad, huh? i got so exciting makin all this schwag that i ended up writing a whole thing for the back of the book that you never even see.

yeah. i am lame.

here is a detail of the back.

and here are some production stills.

thanks to everyone that voted for us. it makes us feel right at home, even though we're the outsiders.

stan ep7 preview

2007-04-30T13:45:00.001-04:00

and for those that want a sneak peak.

hurray

Episode 7

2007-04-30T13:07:00.000-04:00

In less than an hour we’ll be jumping into the BigHonkinMobile and driving up to New York for the Channel 102 screening. Like The Beatles on Ed Sullivan or the 1893 World’s Fair, I have no doubt tonight’s screening will be one of those rare touchstones that mark a seismic shift in American culture. We can even get tacos afterwards.

and while we are at it...

2007-04-17T18:09:00.000-04:00

i totally forgot to put up the covers from last month's STAN.

because i am a tool.

and lazy.

a lazy tool.

so much to everyone's anticlimactic excitement; the covers.

"The Defenders Of Stan" Episode 7 is currently in production, and we're all very excited about it, despite being very tired from two 6-7 hour shoots.

a blast from the past...

2007-04-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

so. this came out over christmas. which i find funny. happy birthday, jesus! we're bastardizing you.

so thusly, i post this. because, even though it's been over a year, and we never saw our vision come to an end on our own terms, people are still talking about it.

in british smut mags.

thanks to harrison and mac for letting us know our show was in here.

"Jesus Christ, Supercop" on Channel102.net

Silver...

2007-03-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

The Defenders of Stan Episode 6 is #2 this month at channel102.net. We're honored, humbled, and extremely excited to be sandwiched between a show about a porn shop and a show called "The Man who Loved Lesbians."

God Bless America.

ahh, production stills

2007-03-15T19:22:00.000-04:00

just a few pictures from "The Defenders Of Stan-episode 5: nobody's purrrfect" we had yet to post.

gearing up for episode 6! all seems well.

Acceptance Speech

2007-02-27T12:42:00.000-05:00

Thank you. Thank you. Just a second, just a second. OK. Take it. OK. I wrote something down, because I thought if it would happen that I would be a little overwhelmed and I am. So, OK. When I was a kid, the only way that I saw short internet content was by building a worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computers that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). At the drive-in. And, it wasn't my reality to think I would be making short-form video for the World Wide Web, so receiving this honor tonight tells me that it's possible. It is possible for three kids from Virginia, raised in Washington, D.C., who believes in their dreams, commit themselves to them with their heart, to touch them, and to have them happen.

Because when I first started making short online videos, it was because of my desire to make nipple jokes. To that thing inside each of us. That light that I believe exists in all of us. Because short online video for me is about believing in nipple jokes and it's a joke so strong, it's a joke so deep, that we feel it. And through our combined belief, we can create a new reality. So I want to thank my fellow believers in The Defenders of Stan: Episode 5. I want to thank Will, and Rachelle and all the extras who put on spandex for us. I want to thank the people of Uganda, who helped this film have a spirit. And finally, I want to thank my mom and my dad. I want to thank my wife, my children, my ancestors, who continue to guide my steps. And God, God who believes in us all. And who's given me this moment, in this lifetime, that I will hopefully carry to the end of my lifetime into the next lifetime. Which -- since I made Jesus Christ Supercop -- I assume will be Hell. Thank you.

Show Time

2007-02-26T13:13:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the Channel102 screening. Since -- as usual -- we're just getting the new episode finished, we're rushing up to New York today.

For those who want a sneak peak... here is the new cover:

hurrah

cover art

2007-02-22T17:39:00.000-05:00

one day, when i have free time and extra money, i will actually print these all out and hang them on my wall, as a remembrance of all of the hard work i put into them.

ahh dreams

oh. i also want a pony and a hang glider.

thats all i got, yo.

Another Early Night

2007-02-22T03:57:00.000-05:00

It's 3:56 a.m.
Austin is editing the final Defenders of Stan scene, Hunter is hard at work making Captain Ultra's eyes shoot lasers and Meredith is blearily updating the blog before he goes home to sleep.

Ain't TV glamorous?

The Night of 1000 Takes

2007-02-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

The bulk of last night was spent shooting the 5th episode of
The Defenders of Stan. At around 4:30 a.m. we called it a night. I remember it being funny, but then again, it was 4 in the morning.

All Work and No Play

2007-02-17T23:47:00.000-05:00

The Big Honkin’ boys work their nefarious magic.
With sheet cake.

Stan-urday

2007-02-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we began shooting The Defenders of Stan: Ep.5

It's on days like these that you see who your true friends are. Sure, everyone comes out if you're playing a rock show, drinking beers downtown or throwing lavish parties, but only a handful will take a good portion of their weekend to dress up in Spandex and underwear for you. That, if nothing else, is love.

200 plus

2007-02-14T23:25:00.000-05:00

This is what 200 plus hours of documentary footage looks like.

The Dawn of a New Age

2007-02-14T14:11:00.000-05:00

The Big Honkin' is being updated, resurfaced, and relaunched. We know you loved the old site and all the content there, but the new Honkin' is 10 pounds thinner, wears a D-cup and doesn't talk so much.

Welcome to The Big Honkin’ 2.0

-Management