Seth Martin & Friends: Day One of Shooting

I haven't talked about this stuff for a while, so I feel the need to reintroduce myself as a member of Brainwrap, a film making group comprised of my friends and I. Most notably we have done some shorts and an award winning feature-length movie Johnny Boy.

The latest project we've been working on is Seth Martin & Friends, a program that parodies a children's puppet show. It's not exactly for children, but it's not raunchy adult humor either.

Preparing for something like this is a long process, and we've been at it for months. And when I say "we," I don't mean myself as much as a few key members of the group, hah. Kyle, who had never built a puppet before in his life, took it upon himself not only to learn how to build puppets but build them well, and the job he's done is beyond amazing. Oh, and he also built the set. Ian is head writer and has come up with scripts that are always very funny and smart; Mike has produced music for the show and will provide all voices and do the editing, Seth is well...Seth (our star!) and Max is sorta like me in that he contributes to a little of everything with some technical expertise thrown in. My expertise is in graphics, but like everybody else I've contributed to whatever I can, coming up with ideas, jokes, puppet designs, etc, but I mean to stress that everybody who has a specific job on this thing has done a ton of work.

Since the pieces of a project like this take a while to come together, I suggested to Kyle that we do a short film featuring the puppets so that we have can have something to show off and enter in festivals and such, and I'm sure the other members had already been thinking about this possibility. So the script was written, and this weekend we had a twelve hour day of shooting that couldn't have gone better and included help from friends Josh Edwards and Nicole Lawrence. Josh is a professional camera and production guy so his help always proves invaluable.

Here are a few photos from the shoot, but if you want to see a ton more you can join the show's Facebook group:







There is a scene in this short where Seth tells a scary story around a campfire, and I had the idea to illustrate this story with a series of on-screen drawings, so that's what I'm working on currently. I'll update more as we progress and of course when it's done!