416film - Toronto Film and Video Community

Don't know what we're all about? Click on “About Us” for details, but the short of it is that 416-FILM is a community of local and world-wide film makers interested in having fun making and sharing information about the craft and art of films.

People of all skill levels are welcomed, so start clicking on links and get out of my face!

Aug. 2008

- Rebuilding Ricky 3 is now done shooting! There's still a good deal of post production to go, but a significant milestone has been reached.... The one I was aiming for 6 months ago.

- Still don't know the details of our deal with Movieola, so I am unable to post our award winning short, "A Keychain of Events." As soon as we know what's going on, you'll know.

- I helped out with a music video for a band called End Program. It was pretty wild. The crowd was nuts. One of my jobs was to protect the camera operator for stray bodies flying out of the mosh pit. My feet got nicely trampled. One of the exciting things about the shoot was that it was shot on the Red camera. (And a GL-1, which these images are from). We quickly learned a very important lesson about the Red cam. If you want to know what it is, check out the Production Report here.

- Progress is being made on Ricky Episode 3. As always you can check out the latest updates in the Production Report. In fact I just added some info on how to remove green "fringing" from you chroma keys. Check it out.

- I will be assisting with a co-worker's project soon. It's a heavy metal total rock out music video! It's not an official 416-Film project, but I'll be reporting on it anyway. The big thing is that it's going to be shot on the Red camera. If you don't know what that is, check it out here.

April 2008

- Production has begun on a new project called "It Came From Planet Earth!" It's directed by Rob Paul and will be an interesting mix of live action and miniature backgrounds.

- You can check out the progress of "It Came From Planet Earth!" in the Production Report section of the forum.

- You may not have noticed, but there was no month of March this year!

- Okay. I promise this is the last time I'll talk about Pulp Muppets. It's broken one million hits on YouTube alone. If only all of our films were this popular! If this is the first you've heard of Pulp Muppets, then get with the rest of the world and check it out HERE. And if you're wondering how it was made, check out the making of HERE. So that's it! Pulp Muppets will always be here, but this is the last time I'll mention it. ...Unless something else really cool happens with it.

- Happy New Year from the gang at Rebuilding Ricky Episode 3. (Still in production.)
- Read my comments on the lighing of the above shot in the Production Report.

Dec. 2007

- Here's what it looks like outside as of the 16th of this month. I guess winter is here.

- What do you do when you have the urge to make movies, but hate shooting in the cold? You make sure you've shot all your exterior scenes the month before, like I did with Ricky Ep.3, so you can shoot the rest of your movie indoors. Now you see the method to my madness.

- The first interior scene I shot for Ricky Ep. 3 involved my new green screen. Check out my failed attempt to use it HERE.

(On location of Ricky 3)

- Rebuilding Ricky Episode 3 is in production and it's making history! This is the first episode of Ricky to ever have a crew. Truly an amazing achievement.

- There's a new section in the Forum called Production Report. This is where you can keep people up to date on the status of your production.

Sept. 2007

- 416 Film is one year old!

- Pulp Muppets has exceeded half a million views on YouTube alone. I don't know how many views it's generated on other sites, but I suspect it may be greater than the total number of atoms in the universe!

- There are a couple of new projects in development, but they haven't solidified enough to post them in the Projects section. But keep checking.

Aug. 2007

- August is a little slow for news, so I though I'd dig into the vaults and dig up a movie I made almost 10 years ago, “To John Woo... Thanks for the Ammo!” It's the first effects heavy movie I made. All the muzzle flashes, smoke and bullet hits were added in post. It's fun gun violence for the entire family. Check it out!

- For some reason, The Mighty Blowfish has been the least viewed movie at 416film. But in the last couple of weeks it has grown in popularity and has become our MOST viewed movie. Well, next to Pulp Muppets, of course.

- Rob and I have given CNN an interview for Pulp Muppets. It was aired July 21 & 22 at 12:30pm and 5:30pm EST in a segment called "News To Me". We tried to get Wolf Blitzer to host it, but he was very rude to us and asked us to stop calling him at home. Good news is we managed to get a special guest host and co-CNN anchor Brian Todd agreed to make a “walk on” cameo. Check it out HERE.

- Rebuilding Ricky Ep. 2 is finally done!
- Check it out in the Films section.
- A big thanks goes out to Devlin, Adam and Scotty for their work on the audio. You really need a good audio setup to appreciate the details they've put into it.

- I thought May would be the end of Pulp Muppets, but it just seems to keep coming back for more. There was a spike in traffic after a link appeared on the front page of IMDB.

June 2007

- Well, May was certainly the month of the Pulp Muppets. It's hard to say exactly how many people watched it last month, but I think 500,000 is a fair estimate.
Most loved it. Some hated it. But those were obviously some very bitter, bitter people. Let's have a moment of pity for them... (Sighs, with an understanding look on face.)
There were a few cameos that people caught, such as some Fraggles, Guy Smiley and Alf. But no one mentioned Rizzo the Rat or poor ol' Snuffleupagus. I guess people still can't see him.

- Looks like May is going to be the month of the Muppets... Pulp Muppets that is!

- I always thought Pulp Muppets was one of those quirky little movies that could go viral, but after 6 months of very modest traffic on YouTube, I was loosing hope. Suddenly, in just this past week it has exploded all over the Internet. Just Google it and you'll see. So long as the series of tubes that the Internet is constructed from can hold out, we can expect Pulp Muppets to pop up in all sorts of places. For the remainder of this month I'm going to post any Pulp Muppet sightings of note...

- I can't be sure, but I think what started it all was a list of the top 10 Pulp Fiction Parodies on YouTube posted on 10 Zen Monkeys, April 26. I don't know if the list is in any particular order, but thanks for putting us at #1, guys.

- Film Threat put this flattering item on their front page:

- Pulp Muppets will be mentioned in an upcoming issue of Rockstar magazine.

- This one blows my mind. I don't even know what it is, 'cause I don't speak German. But some hot chick does a web-news piece on Pulp Muppets. If anyone can translate this for me, I'd love to know what she's saying. All I can make out is, “Muppets” and “mit Kermit und Fozzie Bear.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZJw3S1CYr0

- I now have a translation of the above German web-news piece. The previous news piece had something to do with aggressive children, so they used our gun toting images of the Muppets to make this joke...

"By the way: the best way to prevent aggressive behaviour of children is to NOT let them watch violent movies. Most suitable (is to show) only such funny things like the Muppets. For many years this helps best. It is nearly impossible to do anything wrong with (by showing) Kermit and Fozzie Bear (to children). "

Big thanks to Rolf Brandt for the translation.

- eBaums World has kidnapped Pulp Muppets and is generating more hits than YouTube.

- The chicks seem to really dig Pulp Muppets. Maria Sansone of Yahoo TV did a news bite raving about the casting.

- Apparently cute(ish) Spanish speaking boys also like Pulp Muppets. We were mentioned in this web news piece by Telurica TV.

- Local TV station CityTV showed clips, but never bother to mention the name of the video in the Web Bizarre segment of their WebNation show. But they did give 416film an on screen credit and linked us on their web page.

Pulp Muppets goes VIRAL!

-After incubating on YouTube for 5 months, “The Pulp Muppets Take The Internet.” The last three days alone have seen a sudden increase of 8,000 hits, and we can only assume it's just starting to gain speed. Watch out Star Wars Kid and Numa Numa Guy, for Pulp Muppets will strike thee down with great vengeance and FURIOUS anger!!

March 2007

- Production on Ricky Episode 2 continues. ...Very, very slowly.
- Check out the production blog here.

Feb. 2007

- It's too damn cold! Nothing is happening.
- Pulp Muppets has surpassed 3000 hits. Check it out if you haven't already.

Nov. 2006

-The Forum is now up and running.

- The Giggleshorts Film Festival is running from Nov. 16 - 19. Check out the link below for show details.

Sept. 2006

- Our first batch of films are encoded and on-line. Check out the Films section!

- Web page is now up and running!
I've been picking away at this for some time.
I'm so happy it's working. Look how happy I am.
You can't get much more happy than that.
I know, I've tried.