Sam's Comics: Behind the Comic Relief

My two biggest hobbies have always been drawing and video making, so when I can combine the two, I'm always happy. That's exactly what I did this past week while I was on break in between semesters at Flashpoint. I've been working hard on a new season of Sam's Comics for my other blog, and when I decided that this upcoming season would be the last one, I knew I wanted to do something special for it. On Sunday afternoon, I came up with the idea of making a documentary about the series. This is something I've never actually done, not even when I did the behind the scenes videos for Sam's Comics: The Movie, which I had just recently re-released. From Sunday night to early Friday morning, I've been working on it and it's finally done. My tribute to a series that's lasted eight years, seven seasons, and one feature film.

Okay, I'm getting really annoyed by how this whole Google-combining-with-YouTube-and-Blogger thing doesn't actually make my life any easier, because I used to be able to link videos from my YouTube channel directly into my blog posts, but now when I go to do that, it tells me no videos are found. When I try the search option, it won't find my videos, so I just have to again, give you the URL and you'll have to follow the link the old fashioned way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUjDoa7Z5vo

Sam's Comics: The Christmas Special

I love it when my film making and my comic drawing cross over, and this holiday season, they have done so in a new way: Animation! Special thanks to Zach Jarom of Misconduct Films for doing a voice over!

Cast in order of speaking first:
Sam Shenberger - Sam
Shannon Asprooth - Shannon
Amelia DeWane - Amelia
Frank Padour - Frank
Zach Jarom - Zach
Sam Shenberger - Santa

Again, like I said on my Comics blog, Blogger/YouTube/Google is being buggy and I have to link it via URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglrTw-5uIA

Merry Christmas, one and all!

CLUTCH

Today, I finally got to shoot my first film school project. There's quite the story involved, let me tell you. It all started out as a horror film/comedy short, but evolved into something completely different and much more.

The original story was this: A young girl (Annie) and her friend (Claire) are watching horror films together. Annie makes fun of Claire for being afraid of the movies, saying "they're too fake". However, when she returns home that night to find her house empty and the lights not working, she begins to think she herself is stuck in a horror film. Just when she's the most afraid, the lights come back to reveal it was just a surprise birthday party. But wait! Plot twist, there WAS a killer in the house with her who now feels cheated out of killing her because of so many people.

That was the original. It turned from a house to a school due to location agreements. Then today when we got to filming it, we had to drop this story completely due to our actresses backing out. Determined not to back down, I wrote a new script on the train ride to the city and finished it before reaching the school. I'll wait to give you more details about the story until after I put it out, but here's a summery.

A girl cannot find the inspiration for her script, until a friend comes by and provides her with just the thoughts she needs.

The film stars myself and my assistant director, Amelia DeWane. She did an amazing job and I can't wait to share the whole film with you. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

NEWLY ANNOUNCED - Chronicles of the Chronicler 4: The Search for Life

It has been announced that a new season of Chronicles of the Chronicler has been secretly in the works. As most of it is super secret, I can only confirm a few things. Firstly, I am happy to say that Shannon Asprooth and Frank Padour will be returning to voice Hahli and Tahu respectively. Secondly, this story will be highly different from the previous ones, more humor, more mystery, and more focus on the characters. Thirdly, confirmed characters are Takua, Jaller, Tahu, Matoro, Nuparu, Nuju, Altair, and Hahli, who will be the main character of the story. Fourth, a new original character will play an important role, but I'll keep who she is secret for now. But I can say she will be voiced by my friend Sarah Kusz.

Other than that, here are some new photos for you.

Takua and Jaller go on an Adventure

For three years now, I have been making stop-motion Lego Bionicle videos. Truth be told, these videos are my main source of subscribers on YouTube, and easily my most viewed videos... I've always felt a bit conflicted about them though. When I started them, I was nineteen and just using them to try something new with videomaking that I hadn't done before. It took me by surprise the popularity of these videos, and prompted me to make a series of serious stop motion films, which of course became the Chronicles of the Chronicler series. Aside from that, I still would try new things, and would fall back on stop motion to try them, and so The Adventures of Takua and Jaller were born. These don't get as many views on YouTube as COTC did, but viewers still love them. Now, I'm twenty-two and still very much conflicted about playing with Legos in my basement, but in the end, it's all about making new videos and keeping my viewers happy.

One of the things my viewers have asked for is longer Takua and Jaller videos. Well, yesterday I finished filming the upcoming Takua and Jaller go on an Adventure film, which came out to just over eighteen minutes. I've got to say, it's been one of the whackiest videos I've ever made, but it makes me laugh, and not all my funny videos make me do that by the time I'm done with them. I just watched a first cut of it, and I think it's really good. Still needs a bit of fine-tuning, but it will be a blast.

12 Days of Christmas - Chronicler's Company Pictures Style

A new compilation video is here: Twelve Days of Xmas: CCP Style!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hML_9hR-qY&feature=g-all

Every year for around Christmas, I make a holiday-themed video for my YouTube channel. I'm not quite sure this really qualifies for that, since I did not actually shoot any new footage for it. It is inspired by an awesome video called "Napoleon Dynamite 12 Days of Christmas". It's been a favorite of mine for years and I was really excited to do a "parody" of it. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU81JeA4oH8

I'm still hoping to get a completely new video for the Holiday season out by Christmas, but just in case I can't, then I did get this. It's better than nothing and heck, it's better than the video I did in 2010!

Here's a list of the videos I used clips from:
Day 1. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 2. Takua and Jaller: Thanksgiving
Day 3. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 4. Chronicles of the Chronicler: The Fallen Order
Day 5. Sam's Comics (BTS Documentary)
Day 6. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 7. Home Run Inn Pizza (courtesy of MCC Film Club)
Day 8. Hollywood Grail (failed project)
Day 9. Sunday Night Activities
Day 10. Don't Look or it Takes You
Day 11. Sam's Comics (Filming Vlog)
Day 12. Hollywood Grail (failed project)

New Video - Don't Look or it Takes You

I've been trying to put together a Halloween video for a while now, and while the "Hotel of Horror" video I shot in my hotel in LeClaire Iowa does qualify as Halloween, it just wasn't doing it for me. That video was just something I put together on the spurs of the moment, and while shooting it I had no clue what it would end up being. This new video I shot last night takes the cake, and it deals with a computer game that's currently popular, "Slender: The Eight Pages". While I've never played the game myself, I've seen countless YouTube videos about it recently. "Don't Look or it Takes You" was an idea I was toying around with since the beginning of this month, possibly before then as well.

Don't Look or it Takes You

There are some subtle things in this video that refer to horror: In the tight shot of the flashlight being picked up and turned on, on the desk there is a "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack box set (I highly recommend these scores, they're amazing) with the Skull and Crossbones on an angle, but still facing the camera. Also there is an "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" collector's glass that the light first shines on. Although it's barely visible, the top of a CD case for the soundtrack of "Titanic" is right below the flashlight. While "Titanic" is not a horror film, it still deals with the horrendous disaster of the Titanic.

Also, I did a Behind-The-Scenes video to compliment it. I don't normally spend the time to do BTS vids (most of the time, the making of process is quite boring), but since this one I had to do some more technique-related things, I figured it'd be worth my while. Little did I know that doing this BTS video would lead to me going to war against my old computer... but I won the battle.

On The Road

Yesterday, my family and I took a one-day trip over to Leclaire, Iowa to do some antiquing (a family favorite). This town has been made famous by the television show, American Pickers. For those of you who haven't seen this show, it's about these two guys who "travel the back roads of America looking for rusty gold". They search all over for antiques they can buy and sell, with the help of Danielle, who keeps their shop (Antique Archaeology) and sends them leads.

While we were there, we got to go to the store where the show is filmed. While we didn't meet Mike, Frank, or Dannie, we did get to see several items that we saw them buy on the show. It was really cool, and for me, it was just about as cool as seeing the Harry Potter exhibition a few years ago, or when the Star Wars costumes and props were on display in Toledo when I was a kid. We also think we saw Mike's car downtown!

Also while I was in Iowa, I shot a short film in our hotel room. Busted out my new Antique Archaeology tee for it. :)