For the last seven months my friend Robert Benfer (or “Knox,” as many of you know him) has been working on a feature-length sock puppet movie.  When he first told me about the project it sounded like a “Ha ha wouldn’t it be funny if…” sort of deal rather than something I actually expected him to go on and make.  But then a few weeks later I got a script in my inbox.  And a little while after that he was actually filming stuff.

So here we are, seven months later, and Robert Benfer has made a feature-length sock puppet movie.  And it’s actually really good.

Super-low-budget movies are always hit or miss.  Often independent filmmakers will ignore the fact that they don’t have a professional lighting rig or trained actors and go on and film their movie as if they did.  The result is usually a boring, unwatchable mess.  I’m sorry, but your friend Ron isn’t a good enough actor to make us understand his inner torment through subtle glances and stares.  And no, those two work-lights you got at Home Depot are not going to make your basement scene “super creepy and awesome.”

Then there are the independent filmmakers who understand the limitations of their budget and use those limitations to make their movies better.  Robert has done this with “The Fracktaplots,” and to such a degree that I can honestly say the movie would probably be considerably less funny if he had somehow acquired a million dollars to film it with.

Take an early scene in the film where the main character, Mick, gets a call from his girlfriend.  His cell phone hovers up from below the screen, tied with rubber-bands to a large stick, and then stops near Mick’s head.  It’s so silly looking that you can’t help but laugh.  If Robert had a budget for this movie I guarantee you this shot would have been far less hilarious.

The entire movie is filled with similar visual gags.  In fact, “The Fracktaplots” is visually hilarious period.  Each and every sock puppet is funny to look at and funny to watch, and they stay funny for the entire length of the film.  Combine this with the fact that everything is actually well shot, and you have a movie that’s surprisingly entertaining just to watch.  Having read the script beforehand I knew that the dialogue was going to be great, but I really was surprised by how much the visuals added to the experience.  I expected the socks to essentially act as a blank slate to Robert’s writing, but they provide something new here, something that makes watching “The Fracktaplots” a completely unique and weird experience.

Beyond the insane sock puppet visuals is your standard “Robert Benfer Nonsense Story-line” driven by consistently funny dialogue and AMAZING VOICE ACTING (I do two voices in the movie.)  There really wasn’t a boring moment in the entire thing.  From start-to-finish I was entertained, and that’s far more than I can say about most movies I’ve seen lately.

“The Fracktaplots” comes out in March, and will be available for sale at:
http://www.badideapictures.com/

You can watch the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSG69jooQpM

And see a scene from the film (with me in it!) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYeYh7bUd3M

For those who don’t know, I will be speaking at ROFLCon II which is taking place April 30th and May 1st at MIT.  Registration for the event is currently open:

http://roflcon.org/registration/

It’ll be a fun-filled and adventurous two days of internet people talking about the internet.

In THREEEEE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Yeah so if you’ve got $65 bucks to blow ($45 for students) be sure to stop by.  I will be wearing a purple dress and holding a red rose with a ribbon tied around the stem.  Meet me in front of the old ice cream parlor.

I get requests for Llamas merchandise every week, so FINE, GOSH.

http://www.cafepress.com/filmcow/7073378

Also, speaking of llamas, Chris Alex (who voices Carl) is now on Twitter: @FilmCow_Chris

Anyway, here are the Llamas merchandise designs:

Making the universe safe, one prescription at a time.

QuickTime:
http://www.filmcow.com/doctorfabulous.html

YouTube (HD available):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2k7aoIGqTI

ENJOY, MY FRIENDS.

Well, the final scene of “Doctor Fabulous” is complete.  I’m just doing some touch-ups now and the movie will be released on Thursday or Friday.

The post-production on this video was considerably more difficult than I initially expected it to be.  In total there ended up being 112 effects shots (a couple of scenes take place in front of a green screen), and everything was done in full 1080p HD, so there was a crap load of work to be done.  In the end it was worth it, I think this is my favorite live-action short I’ve ever done.  It’s… fabulous HAHAHAHAHA SNORT.

Sorry, I got sick for a week, and then my dog got sick, and then I had a bunch of other projects show up that I had to get done.  I have one scene left to edit and then “Doctor Fabulous” will be finished.  Of course it’s also the most complicated scene in the movie so don’t expect this to be released before next week.

Also, to the few of you who occasionally make fake “Jason Steele” comments pretending to be me: the comments here have to be manually approved by me before going public.  So whenever you post as “Jason Steele,” or spam, or whatever, no one ever sees it but you.  So please stop, it’s gay.

Hey everyone, I’m still editing “Doctor Fabulous.”  I expect to release this in about a week.  Sorry for the delay, there’s just a ton of stuff I needed to do for this short.

More updates to come!

Well I’m back.  I spent the last week or so filming “The Cosmic Adventures of Doctor Fabulous”, the new live-action FilmCow short set be released around January 15th.  If you own the “FilmCow Master Collection” you probably recognize the title – it was one of the joke menus.  Well, now it’s an actual movie!  Hooray!  Death Bat 4 here we come!

LOOK AT ALL OF THOSE TAPES GOOD GOLLY

Doctor Fabulous will only be a 10 minute video, but I shot more footage for this than any other movie I’ve ever made.  There is, in total, around nine hours worth of raw video.  I’m importing the tapes now – it’s going to take me all day.

To put this in perspective, “World of Dentists,” which was 20 minutes, only had four and a half hours worth of stuff shot for it.  So this movie, which is twice as short, has twice as much raw video.

If we had shot this much footage on 35mm film stock instead of HDV, the film itself would have cost us 32 thousand dollars – and processing would have been about that much as well.  Three cheers for the digital age!  Screw you celuloid!  You’re not my real mom!

I’ll keep you all updated as to my editing progress.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I’ve been busy with stuff and things.  One of the stuffs that I’ve been busy with is Llamas with Hats 2, which is now COMPLETE.

ENJOY THIS LLAMA AND HAT FILLED ADVENTURE.

QuickTime:
http://www.filmcow.com/llamaswithhats2.html

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpjyH-LkEAg

This is the first FilmCow movie to be uploading to YouTube in HD.  Why?  Because YouTube decided to change their behind-the-scenes encoder and make non-HD uploads have crap audio.  I seriously had to re-render Llamas with Hats in HD just to get the SD version to sound right on YouTube.  SO IT GOES.

I’ve been asked to speak at next year’s “ROFLCon,” which is a conference for rofls.

Last year they had Andy Ochiltree from JibJab, Matt Harding of “Where the Hell is Matt” fame, Lemon Demon, Group X, moot from 4chan, Michael Buckley of What the Buck, iJustine, and lots of other awesome “people who are famous on the internet.”  Hopefully ROFLCon II will be just as swell.

I still don’t have a lot of details yet, but hopefully I’ll be able to give a paradigm-changing two hour speech about recent advances in hydrobiology.