Crew'd

Here's a picture of the talented crew from Robot Chicken at the end of the season. A fun and friendly bunch of folks I feel honored to work with! See how many full beards you can count!

Another setup is completed....

I just shot the last animation and elements from the "computer console" set that has been up in the garage for the last few months. I'm always happy to finish a section of the film and move on to the next, but I have a hard time tearing down a set once it is built and lit. It takes so much work to get it looking good- and then it gets torn down! I don't have storage space enough to keep this set assembled, so I am going to try and take it down in chunks and crate up all the flats for safe keeping. Normally I'd just junk it, but I worry that something might come up missing in the final edit and I may have to go back for a few more quick shots.

I'm going to be building a couple of puppets and a small set over the next few weeks, including the rest of the body that hooks up to the robot arm below (this time in a small scale).

Images from the past....

There were four people in attendance at the Robot Chicken wrap party that were fellow crew members on my first stopmo job back in '95. "Bump In The Night" was a Saturday morning kids show that aired on ABC until Disney pulled the plug. Seeing part of the crew together again got me feeling nostalgic, so I pulled out the photo box to see what I could find. This was the pre-digital age, so taking mass amounts of on set photos wasn't as easy or cost-free as it is now. I was disappointed to find I don't really have many pictures from this great time in my life, but here are a few:

Mr. Bumpy, the star of the show. I remember this is one of the first shots I did using wires to fly an object:



The Closet Monster, an amazing life-sized puppet:



Here I am animating a shot with "Destructo" the robot character. Notice the beefy Mitchell rack-over camera:



Here is a shot of the replacement mouths for Destructo- the puppets on this show were top notch!



Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Misha Klein! This was Misha's first job as well!



There were always Polaroid cameras out on the stages for continuity shots, which were often abused for personal use. This one is for any old "Bump" stage crew out there:



Thanks for indulging in my past with me- now it's time to look ahead!

Robot Chicken 2 Wraps!

The crew from Robot Chicken celebrated the wrap of the new season last night with karaoke and booze- two staples of the stop-motion community. Amazing how fast these shows blow by, I can't believe we already have two seasons under our belts!

I should be posting more frequently about my own film in the coming weeks since I have a nice break before the next season of Moral Orel goes into production.