episode 9 production stills...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

and for those that want a sneak peak.



hurray