The Ghost of Garganta has been in progress for nearly 4 years and features just about everyone that has ever been in a CultRetro movie... Aliya Hayes, Nicola Rae, Maria Paris and of course Garganta herself, the amazing colossal Brenna Barry! It is easily the biggest budget spectacular that we have ever attempted, and at long last it's all starting to come together. Fans have been asking us for YEARS when it will be available... and the answer is... very soon!
It is MASSIVE! We have no idea yet just how long it will end up being, but it will most likely be released in 25-30 minute "chapters" as they are completed, with the intent to get atleast the first chapter out by year's end. We have gathered all of the footage in one place and we are currently sorting through over 50 AVI files of raw footage to create a rough cut of the film. From that we'll have a better idea of what the total runtime will be and we can finally begin to complete giantess scenes as required for the first segment. A good chunk if the initial editing is complete and very soon we'll have a watchable cut of the film that we can begin to tweek and enhance.
If you liked The Amazing Colossal Woman, then the Ghost of Garganta is going to blow your mind!
And in other CultRetro movie news, we'll be filming additional scenes for Stormy Tempest: Fight for the Future on November 7th with Aliya Hayes. You will believe a woman can fly! :)
Later,
John
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Bloodfiend DVD! Stormy Tempest Preview!
Hey folks!
The complete Sangor Syndrome: Bloodfiend from Outer Space is available now on DVD! 2.5 hours of goodies on the disc!
In other news, today I edited a sequence together from Stormy Tempest: Fight for the Future for the purpose of seeing exactly what we are missing and what we might need to flesh out the scene a little more. We have made arrangements with Nicola Rae that will enable her to film a few quick pickups on her own without needing to return to Florida to do so. By editing this scene now I'll know exactly what to ask her for in order to fill in the gaps. There are a few minor things that could be better, but generally it already looks good to go. Anything that we add to it now just makes a good scene better.
Below is a screencap from the scene in question. Stormy is either afraid for her life while being trapped by an unseen foe, or she's singing the finale to an exuberant showtune! With Bill Black movies, one is as likely as the other. :)
Later,
John
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
New Photos!
Howdy folks!
We're still tinkering with the website, adding some back-end goodies that aren't visible changes to the site, but they make things more friendly for Google and other search engines. We're also starting to figure out our new social networking tools. We're dinosaurs when it comes to this sort of thing, but we're figuring things out and getting them all up to speed one at a time.
On our new Photo Galleries page you'll find a nifty little slideshow presentation that displays our most recent Flickr photo uploads. We're planning to update this daily to show off some of the behind-the-scenes pics and production stills that we've taken during the development of our original films. If you click through to our Photo Gallery page you'll find a small icon on the bottom right of every photo in the slideshow. Click on that and it'll take you directly to the larger picture on our Flickr photo stream where you can read our comments about the image as well as leave comments of your own. It's basically a mini-photo blog. Cool beans!
The Sangor Syndrome DVD is almost ready for release. Only 35 years in the making! :)
Keep an eye out, it's coming very soon.
Later,
John
We're still tinkering with the website, adding some back-end goodies that aren't visible changes to the site, but they make things more friendly for Google and other search engines. We're also starting to figure out our new social networking tools. We're dinosaurs when it comes to this sort of thing, but we're figuring things out and getting them all up to speed one at a time.
On our new Photo Galleries page you'll find a nifty little slideshow presentation that displays our most recent Flickr photo uploads. We're planning to update this daily to show off some of the behind-the-scenes pics and production stills that we've taken during the development of our original films. If you click through to our Photo Gallery page you'll find a small icon on the bottom right of every photo in the slideshow. Click on that and it'll take you directly to the larger picture on our Flickr photo stream where you can read our comments about the image as well as leave comments of your own. It's basically a mini-photo blog. Cool beans!
The Sangor Syndrome DVD is almost ready for release. Only 35 years in the making! :)
Keep an eye out, it's coming very soon.
Later,
John
Friday, October 1, 2010
CultRetro Reborn!
Howdy!
The all new www.CultRetro.com is online now with a new look and an improved shopping cart system that everyone should find much easier to use. And we're celebrating in style! For a VERY limited time ONLY, all DVDs on the AC web shop and CultRetro.com are 25% off!! That's all serials, TV collections, SF, horror AND original Bill Black productions, reduced in price by one-quarter!! Act fast, as this sale could end at any time!!
You'll also notice that we are expanding our social networking presence. We'll be adding more exclusive content to each social site in the coming weeks... so friend us on facebook, fav us on DeviantArt and follow us on twitter and you'll get to see more free stuff! And don't miss our Flickr photo gallery where we plan to add a new pic every day! You'll also find a link on our new photo gallery page that will take you to our Flickr photo stream where you can read our comments about the image, as well as make comments of your own. Cool!
Later,
John
The all new www.CultRetro.com is online now with a new look and an improved shopping cart system that everyone should find much easier to use. And we're celebrating in style! For a VERY limited time ONLY, all DVDs on the AC web shop and CultRetro.com are 25% off!! That's all serials, TV collections, SF, horror AND original Bill Black productions, reduced in price by one-quarter!! Act fast, as this sale could end at any time!!
You'll also notice that we are expanding our social networking presence. We'll be adding more exclusive content to each social site in the coming weeks... so friend us on facebook, fav us on DeviantArt and follow us on twitter and you'll get to see more free stuff! And don't miss our Flickr photo gallery where we plan to add a new pic every day! You'll also find a link on our new photo gallery page that will take you to our Flickr photo stream where you can read our comments about the image, as well as make comments of your own. Cool!
Later,
John
Monday, September 27, 2010
Let's Try This Again!
So, uh... clearly I suck at blogging. Last update was January 12th and here we are at the end of September already. As you may have noticed, we've had a busy year! 2010 has so far seen the release of Stormy Tempest: Unmasked, Chapter II of Nightveil: The Sorcerer's Eye, Bloodfiend from Outer Space and Bikini Bloodbait, 3 Editions of Damsels in Distress and Stormy Tempest: Rogue Justice as well as the release of many, many DVD's!
So what's up next?
We have recently filmed a good portion of our latest Stormy Tempest adventure titled Stormy Tempest: Fight for the Future. We still have another day of shooting left to go, but what we have completed looks amazing so far. The plan is to finish the shoot in October or November and get part of it out by the end of the year.
The giantess epic The Ghost of Garganta continues to move forward... though slowly due to its massive effects requirement. But we still plan to release the first part by years end also.
We also have a few new projects in pre-production that we intend to tackle this fall and winter as the Florida weather cools off, but we'll have more to say about those as the time draws closer.
In the meantime we are ramping up our marketing efforts by expanding our social networking presence on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, DeviantArt and YouTube and adding people to our links pages, so please friend us, follow us, like us, favorite us and tell your friends about us!
We'll also be working on enhancing our own websites, making them easier to use with some additional fun (and FREE!) new features. We're sitting on a ton of photos and behind the scenes videos and it's time to share them with the world! Keep a close eye on CultRetro.com as it'll be getting a major facelift very soon!
Later,
John
So what's up next?
We have recently filmed a good portion of our latest Stormy Tempest adventure titled Stormy Tempest: Fight for the Future. We still have another day of shooting left to go, but what we have completed looks amazing so far. The plan is to finish the shoot in October or November and get part of it out by the end of the year.
The giantess epic The Ghost of Garganta continues to move forward... though slowly due to its massive effects requirement. But we still plan to release the first part by years end also.
We also have a few new projects in pre-production that we intend to tackle this fall and winter as the Florida weather cools off, but we'll have more to say about those as the time draws closer.
In the meantime we are ramping up our marketing efforts by expanding our social networking presence on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, DeviantArt and YouTube and adding people to our links pages, so please friend us, follow us, like us, favorite us and tell your friends about us!
We'll also be working on enhancing our own websites, making them easier to use with some additional fun (and FREE!) new features. We're sitting on a ton of photos and behind the scenes videos and it's time to share them with the world! Keep a close eye on CultRetro.com as it'll be getting a major facelift very soon!
Later,
John
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Big progress!
Howdy folks!
So between working into the wee hours last night and pretty much all of today, I have managed to edit the ENTIRE set of sequences that occur on the jungle planet. This represents the majority of the film and is a good sign that we might actually be able to complete this thing by the end of the month.
As expected, and described in a previous post, we'll need to return to the woods for a few pick up shots of Clayton the Sleeper in order for all of the pieces to come together as they should, but the Stormy stuff is all GREAT! It's pretty fun to watch as it is right now, even without the special effects and audio work. So it just gets better and better from here.
Today I took this edit of the jungle footage to Bill to get his take on things. He always has his own ideas about what should be changed or adjusted, so now I have a few tweaks to do so that we're both happy with it. Not much though as we have now worked on several films together so I have a pretty good sense for what he likes to see. This is a good system as it provides the opportunity for an outside perspective of the scene that the editor has assembled. For example, I cut together the swordfight footage at a pace that I felt was both slow enough to understand and yet fast enough to be exciting... but after looking at the same footage for hours it becomes difficult to tell how the pacing "reads" to a first time viewer. So by showing it to Bill I get the first feedback on whether it was a little too fast or too slow or too confusing. But so far we're in pretty good shape and it's time to move on to editing the cockpit scenes to complete the first full edit of the movie. Still aiming for a full edit of the film to be complete by Friday.
Below is a shot of Stormy on the wrong end of a tazer-like device.
Later,
John
Monday, January 11, 2010
Fight Scenes!
Currently I've got about 8 solid minutes of the film completely edited. Doesn't sound like much on paper, but this footage accounts for the first three hours of filming that we did in the woods. It's also one of the major fight sequences of the film.
Fights take a long time to film. You end up with a lot of really great footage and you also end up throwing a lot of it away. The more you throw out, the faster the fight moves, which makes it more exciting and more cinematic. There's a lot of perfectly good footage that gets tossed, but it's mostly just variations of a particular move that you need. For example, if we have Stormy kick Clayton and he falls to the ground, you only need to see the kick once in the movie... but we may FILM it 4 or 5 times looking for an angle that makes the hit convincing, or that looks particularly powerful... or just looks cool in general. That's not to say that the ones that get tossed are bad, we just keep the BEST one for the movie.
We're getting better at this in stages. We once deliberately minimize fights scenes in an effort to avoid the mess of putting them together. The first big fight production was a major catfight in the upcoming Sangor Syndrome. Maria and another actress, both playing vampire babes, basically just started wailing on each other for hours. The result was about 2 and a half hours of footage that cuts together into a 4 minute vampire catifight. VERY cool, but slow to produce.
Nightveil: The Sorcerer's Eye has another major catfight... even more complicated since it's Maria Paris fighting against herself as she plays Nightveil, Blue Bulleteer and Alizarin Crimson all in battle at once in the big finale.
Stormy Tempest: Perils in the Past was the first time that we managed to do a major fight sequence in a reasonable amount of time...mostly due to necessity. We were at a comic book convention. It was the ONLY day we could POSSIBLY do the scene. We were down to one camera and about 1 hour of film... and we had no ENDING to the movie that we had been shooting all day. So we just went nuts, making it up as we went along with no plan whatsoever and no second chances... and it actually turned out to be pretty spectacular as Stormy faces off against three attackers at once. It was exactly the finale the film needed and we learned that if push comes to shove, we could film a fight sequence fast.
Getting braver, we next tackled Nyoka. Nyoka was designed to be ALL action, with minimal dialog and plot in the style of the old 40's cliffhangers. Nyoka has proven to be very popular and we're very proud of the results. It has the kind of sexy action that we now strive for in all future films.
So here we are with Stormy Tempest: Unmasked... and our goal this time around is to make a "Nyoka-style" film with lots of action and combat, but with the special effects and sci-fi craziness necessary to make a live action comic book. So far, it's working out pretty great!!!
I should also mention that one of the reasons why our fight scenes have improved so much lately is because Nicola Rae is FABULOUS! She doesn't actually know martial arts or anything, but she has training in stage combat and she's an EXCELLENT physical performer, plus she's gorgeous and over 6 feet tall in the Stormy boots. She'd look cool just reading the phone book... let alone kicking some bounty hunter's butt.
That's all for now. I'll add another picture to the blog tomorow.
Later,
John
Fights take a long time to film. You end up with a lot of really great footage and you also end up throwing a lot of it away. The more you throw out, the faster the fight moves, which makes it more exciting and more cinematic. There's a lot of perfectly good footage that gets tossed, but it's mostly just variations of a particular move that you need. For example, if we have Stormy kick Clayton and he falls to the ground, you only need to see the kick once in the movie... but we may FILM it 4 or 5 times looking for an angle that makes the hit convincing, or that looks particularly powerful... or just looks cool in general. That's not to say that the ones that get tossed are bad, we just keep the BEST one for the movie.
We're getting better at this in stages. We once deliberately minimize fights scenes in an effort to avoid the mess of putting them together. The first big fight production was a major catfight in the upcoming Sangor Syndrome. Maria and another actress, both playing vampire babes, basically just started wailing on each other for hours. The result was about 2 and a half hours of footage that cuts together into a 4 minute vampire catifight. VERY cool, but slow to produce.
Nightveil: The Sorcerer's Eye has another major catfight... even more complicated since it's Maria Paris fighting against herself as she plays Nightveil, Blue Bulleteer and Alizarin Crimson all in battle at once in the big finale.
Stormy Tempest: Perils in the Past was the first time that we managed to do a major fight sequence in a reasonable amount of time...mostly due to necessity. We were at a comic book convention. It was the ONLY day we could POSSIBLY do the scene. We were down to one camera and about 1 hour of film... and we had no ENDING to the movie that we had been shooting all day. So we just went nuts, making it up as we went along with no plan whatsoever and no second chances... and it actually turned out to be pretty spectacular as Stormy faces off against three attackers at once. It was exactly the finale the film needed and we learned that if push comes to shove, we could film a fight sequence fast.
Getting braver, we next tackled Nyoka. Nyoka was designed to be ALL action, with minimal dialog and plot in the style of the old 40's cliffhangers. Nyoka has proven to be very popular and we're very proud of the results. It has the kind of sexy action that we now strive for in all future films.
So here we are with Stormy Tempest: Unmasked... and our goal this time around is to make a "Nyoka-style" film with lots of action and combat, but with the special effects and sci-fi craziness necessary to make a live action comic book. So far, it's working out pretty great!!!
I should also mention that one of the reasons why our fight scenes have improved so much lately is because Nicola Rae is FABULOUS! She doesn't actually know martial arts or anything, but she has training in stage combat and she's an EXCELLENT physical performer, plus she's gorgeous and over 6 feet tall in the Stormy boots. She'd look cool just reading the phone book... let alone kicking some bounty hunter's butt.
That's all for now. I'll add another picture to the blog tomorow.
Later,
John
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)