ughhh

man, i really hate coding. i'm trying to get my portfolio updated and... its frustrating. i could go on and on, but i won't. the good news is that i should hopefully have fresh new portfolio up in the near future.

i'm also on the verge of finishing up a project that i've been just very slightly working on for a long long time. its almost ready to show.

i've decided to post a little bit of personal memorabilia from the coraline production in honor of the dvd release this tuesday. neil gaiman came to visit the studio a couple of times and signed stuff for us on both occasions. i got him to sign my copy of the coraline book on his first time through, so when he came back i had to scrounge for something for him to sign. so i improvised. i think it worked out well. i got him to sign my sketchbook and a test casting of miss forcible. that's what i had to look at all day for several months, by the way.



also, this may be of interest to any of you who are planning to attend san diego comic-con this week:

Friday, July 24
10:30-11:30 Coraline— Visionary director and screenwriter Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Newbery Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman discuss the making of the LAIKA/Focus Features 2009 breakout animated hit film Coraline. In celebration of Universal Studio's Blu-ray Hi-Def and DVD release of the critically acclaimed stop-motion film, Selick and Gaiman will be joined by lead animator and LAIKA CEO/president Travis Knight, producer Bill Mechanic (CEO of Pandemonium and producer of Dark Water and The New World), character fabrication supervisor Georgina Hayns (Corpse Bride), and voice talent Keith David (Crash). Panelists will offer an in-depth, behind-the-scenes glimpse at how this astonishing and suspenseful adventure—the first stop-motion animated feature originally produced in stereoscopic 3D—was painstakingly brought to life. The panel is moderated by IGN movies/DVD editor-in-chief Eric Moro. Room 6A

maybe you can corner george and try to get her to explain how they made those crazy head mechanics on corpse bride. if you do, tell her i sent you!

ghost town

dang.

i'm tired.

out of the blue i got called back to work for a few weeks to get puppets ready for some publicity appearances. there is an exhibit at the cartoon art museum in san francisco that we are preparing stuff for, and there is a whole bunch of other crap that needs to be done for the premiere. its a madhouse. i hadn't really expected to be back at work any time soon, so i guess i'm going to be a little light on free time at least up until around the time the movie comes out. it is nice, but kind of weird to be back in that giant building which is now a ghost town. i think we had somewhere up around 60 people working in character fabrication at the height of production, and now there are about 5 of us working. needless to say it feels a little different. its good to spend a little time with coraline though. i kinda missed her.

(i just realized this is going to be a pretty coraline-centric post... sorry about that. i DO have a life.)

in other related news, boxes 21, and 28 have surfaced. there have also been several button boxes showing up at different places. i can't really tell if all of these (admittedly cool) word of mouth marketing schemes are resulting in much mainstream awareness. i don't have TV so i don't really know how much presence there is on air right now, but i know they are cranking things up starting this week. i also don't live in a huge metropolitan market, so we don't have massive billboards or plastered storefronts. at least not yet. i've had a couple of relatives send me emails saying they've seen TV promos and stuff. pretty cool.

it seems like people who are into sneakers are liking these coraline dunks. i've actually seen these in person and they are pretty nice. the sole glows in the dark. (just let your soul glow!) you guys probably already know about the contest for winning these.

speaking of coraline swag, there are some strange goings on over at ebay lately. most notably, there have been a ton of black coraline keys popping up and selling for up to 70 bucks a pop. that's a lot! i think those keys are pretty badass, but i don't think they're worth 70 dollars, especially when you know they are just being picked up off the ground by the people who are selling them. whatever. one guy has a listing that states that the keys were given to VIPs and people on the crew. RIGHT. and what's this scavenger hunt business all of the auctions are claiming. i think it is obvious that the scavenger hunt is to find the frigging keys. anyway, i think they're cool, even if people are getting ripped off. if you have one of these keys and want to part ways with it, send it to me and i'll make it worth your while.

GO TIME!

it looks like the big push for coraline has officially begun. most notably, the coraline movie website is finally completely open. no more passwords. for now. first and foremost, it looks great. it can be kind of a pain to explore, but that's all part of the fun, i guess. i think kids will dig that aspect more than most of us old farts. poking around coraline's house pays off though. there is a lot of hidden content in the different rooms. i don't want to give too much away. i will say that the design work these guys are doing is pretty amazing. you don't often see film promotion that, you know... looks good. if you can find the desktop wallpapers on the site (look in the foyer) you'll see what i mean. very tasteful, and just NICE. they're not beating you over the head with logos or huge characters' faces and all that ugly stuff you normally see. speaking of exploration, make sure you find "the well" on the site. there are a bunch of cool production stills that show various crew members at work. sadly, i'm not is any of these, but it is just as rewarding to see so many of my pals getting some coverage. if you are especially attentive, you can see some pretty cool things in these shots that probably won't make into trailers, at least until after the film is released. i'll also mention that the music on the site is pretty cool. i'll admit that i was never a huge fan of the temp score that was being used during production (sorry, dudes!) but the final mixes, which i'll assume are what we are hearing, are well above and beyond my expectations. so a round of applause for composer bruno coulais for some amazing music. hopefully it will work even better in the film. another fun thing you can do on the site is visit the other mother's workshop, where you can upload your picture and sew buttons into your eyes. yeah, sounds kinda goofy but it is strangely satisfying.



i also found what may be the very first full review of coraline. i'm not sure where it would have been screened, but it certainly seems like this guy saw it. he liked it, and that's what matters.

finally, in conjunction with the full launch of the website, a bunch of exclusive alphabet "cards" were sent to different online media recourses. yeah 26 in all, good guess. cool idea, (maybe?) but the images are pretty underwhelming in contrast to the beautiful boxes that have been going out, and nice look we've now seen on the website. hmmmm. these alphabet cards look more along the lines of that international poster i posted a while back. whatever, it is what it is. the alphabet stuff is linked below.

if you follow one of the links and it doesn't work, copy and paste the address. i was able to view all of the images that way. i found this list over at x-realms. thanks to admin "sith happens" for doing the hard part!

A: AICN (720x1067)
B: Bullz Eye (400x550)
C: Collider (719x1067)
D: Dread Central (525x779)
E: Eclipse Magazine (690x1024)
F: Fearnet (469x694)
G: Geeks of Doom (721x1067)
H: Happy News (325x480)
I: IGN (486x720)
J: JoBlo (719x1067)
K: KOL (600x889)
L: Latino Review (540x801)
M: MTV (600x889)
N: Neil Gaiman (719x1967)
O: Obsessed with Film (337x500)
P: Premiere (300x445)
Q: Quick Stop Entertainment (720x1067)
R: Rotten Tomatoes (439x652)
S: Sci-fi (400x594)
T: Twitch Film (500x740)
U: UGO (520x770)
V: VFXWorld (337x500)
W: Worst Previews (719x1067)
X: X-Realms (720x1067)
Y: Yahoo! Movies (446x660)
Z: Zap2It (720x1067)

Mysteries!

sometime last week i started noticing some strange things popping up around on the net. if you are reading this blog i'm sure you have realized by now that i am watching the evolution of coraline's marketing campaign pretty closely. in one of my standard coraline searches i came up with this link. over the next couple of days more boxes were showing up elsewhere, and there seems to be a steady stream of them showing up every day or two now. it goes like this: random internet guy gets an email from "the coraline team" asking for a mailing address. if internet guy complies he gets a mysterious parcel a few days later. he opens up the box to discover a varied assortment of detritus from the movie: stills printed on aged paper, props, bits of puppets, or costumes, a personalized letter, henry selick's autograph, and a key with a password to unlock hidden content on coraline.com. they are each numbered in an edition of 50, so there are still potentially lots of cool bits yet to be delivered. i knew something like this was in the works, but i am quite impressed by the execution of this campaign, not to mention pretty damn envious of the people who are designing and assembling these packages.

since i've been digging around looking for more of these packages online i figured i'd just keep a list of them here for you lot. hopefully all 50 will surface before all is said and done. maybe i'll copy this list to the section on the right for better access in the future. have fun looking at this stuff, it's pretty cool.

::1::2::3::4::5::6::7::8::9::10::
:::11::12::13::14::15::16::17:::
:::18::19::20::21::22::23::24:::
:::25::26::27::28::29::30::31:::
:::32::33::34::35::36::37::38:::
:::39::40::41::42::43::44::45:::
:::46::47::48::49::50:::::::::::::

as for the passwords to coraline.com, these are the ones that are known at this time. i'm pretty sure there are at least a couple more that have yet to surface. most of the content you will see was shot during the last few weeks of shooting. the crew that was hired to shoot these spots did an amazing job. not only did they document what is already inherently cool, (stop motion, duh!) they added a whole other dimension of coolness with how they photographed and edited the footage. i got to help them out with props, and build some little rigs and stuff for some of the shots and it was a real pleasure to help out. my hands are in there somewhere.

stopmotion
an overview of "stuff". the point is its a "handmade" film.
buttoneyes
an introduction to the cast of the film. that's my sketchbook in the beginning!
puppetlove
henry talks about what a puppet's inner life might be like. includes a great piece of animation/pixilation/time lapse by, and featuring phil beglan.
armpithair
suzanne moultin talks about hair. she and jess were miracle workers. mad props!
moustachio
bo henry was the set construction supervisor. i guess people think his mustache is funny. we wired it up. there's an interesting story that goes with this one.
sweaterxxs
this lady knitted some crazy tiny sweaters for coraline, working from her home. its a shame there is no mention of deborah, margaret, paloma, elodie, heidi, fiona, or any of the other foxy costume gals working with us at the studio.

JETLAGGED!

i just got back from england last night and i am so out of it. my pay-as-you-go cell phone's alarm just went off... i should be getting up now, but i'm just about to go to bed... i'm OUT of it.

but it has been a busy and exhilarating week or so, and i'll go into it in greater detail on my trip here very soon. a lot of coraline related stuff happened during the time i was gone, but i'll just mention the trailer for now. you can go here for high res and downloadable versions, or just watch it below. they pretty much show you the 2 minute version of the first two acts, which is kind of spoiler-ish if you ask me, but hey, nobody did. i hope you enjoy it. tons of awesome people lost their minds so you could see this!