Work toward the sci fi series is slow, but is going at least. Watching some sci fi off of Netflix Instant View and taking some screen shots to use for reference for stuff. I have no plans of duplicating anything, but it does help to get an idea of things. Especially some of the lower budget series.

Next week I’ll try to work on things that I can sell to hopefully get everything I need for starting filming of the series. Next week I’ll probably also start work on some props and digital elements. But today and the rest of the weekend, the most I’ll do towards the series will probably just be research. Possibly some mock up sketches or sculptures.

And later I watched Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour. I’d say it’s about on par with an episode of Goosebumps (though I’ve only seen a handful). The tone is kind of like a lesser episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Of course I didn’t expect too much from it with it being rated PG.

On the way home this afternoon, there was construction. It got down to one lane for maybe 1/4th of a mile. If people had any intelligence at all, it wouldn’t have been a problem at all. But due to selfishness and/or stupidity, it took almost 10 minutes.

I’ve started researched and a bit of writing for a web series I’m thinking of making. The easiest way to describe it is a merger of  Farscape, Red Dwarf, Space Cases, and Johnny and the Sprites. Of course it won’t be limited to that, but it gives the easiest to explain format. Basically, it’s one guy (me, since I have no one else) who will have some sort of adventures with 2-4 aliens, who will be puppets. The stories and humor will be influenced by various scifi I’ve seen over the years, but will also be my own. Unfortunately I have to raise a bit of money before I can start. Somewhere between $20 and $100, so not too bad. The bulk of it will go toward backgrounds and lighting. If I can raise enough, it’ll include a green screen and maybe some purchased props. Special effects will be a combination of real world stuff, miniatures, 2d graphics, and possibly 3d graphics. All of the main characters will be me. I’m looking at May or June to be when I’ll start filming. This will probably replace the Eyegore in Wonderland project since it will require fewer puppets to be made and will still use the same sort of techniques.

And the last news is that the glue I normally use for paper mache has gone from around $.70 to $1.20 in the last month. Luckily I’ve tested glue from Dollar General which works almost as well that was $.50 a bottle last I checked. Hopefully it hasn’t gone up too.

Watched The Men Who Stare At Goats as planned. It was an okay movie, but far from great. Honestly, the best part of it was the irony of the mention of Jedi so often when Ewan McGregor played Obi Wan in the Star Wars prequels. I’d place it about the same level of You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. A movie worth watching once, but probably not really worth watching ever again.

And last night I watched Dune, which I borrowed from my brother. I had only seen the versions from the Sci fi Channel up until then. This was different from both. There were some scenes in it that I guess were cut in the tv versions and there definitely weren’t things in it that were in the Alan Smithee Version (which I admit is still my favorite). Despite all the negativity toward it, I still think it did a decent job. Sure, there were several things that were changed that shouldn’t have been (Duncan Idaho’s death and weirding modules being my two biggest gripes). But then again, to have done the story justice, the movie would have had to have been 4 or 5 hours long. Even with the sci fi channel miniseries, I still prefer the movie. I’ll admit that the miniseries does have a better script, but the scenery, costumes and actors for most of the characters are all better in the movie. Yeah, the Harkonen’s do have some odd clothing choices in the movie, but the Japanese inspired costumes in the miniseries make no sense at all!

Here’s a character comparison as I remember it: both Pauls are about equal, but give quite different performances. Still, I prefer Kyle McLachlan. Both actors who play the Duke are decent. I do like William Hurt in a lot of things, but he seems a bit too subdued, so I have to go with the movie’s actor. The Baron in both movies fits the role well. Ian McNiece plays a more intelligent and less over the top Baron. So, this one is a tie… And honestly, I can’t even remember the acting skills of any other characters from the miniseries. I do know that in the later miniseries I hated the guy who played Stilgar, but I’m thinking the Stilgar from this miniseries was just kind of… there.

I also watched The Specials on Netflix Instant View. It was okay I suppose. For the kind of story that involves super heroes, but never shows their powers (okay, it did once or twice), it was only so so. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog was much better. Admittedly I do take some points away because of how badly made the costumes were. I could use fun foam to make better looking costumes… But ah well. The story wasn’t all that great either and Jamie Kennedy’s character just seemed like an obscene version of Nightcrawler. As good of a movie could be made for $1,000-2,000 and any special effects done with After Effects.

Tonight I’ll probably watch The Men Who Stare at goats and work on armatures and forms some more. They’re taking longer than I planned, but in the end they’ll hopefully be worth it.

Also I admit that I’m still clueless on what more to do for the magazine. I wrote a short “intro” and have done most of the layout, but I at least need a cover. It would be best if I could think of an article or story to add too. Hopefully something will come to mind in the next couple of hours.

Tonight I’ll probably watch Darby O’Gill and the Little People, since Netflix sent it to me… Luckily they sent out The Men Who Stare At Goats today, so I don’t have to wait months for it like I feared.

Got one more thing for the magazine today and I have all plans of working on and finishing it tonight.

I haven’t accomplished too much this week. Pretty much I only have a general sculpting armature and am working on an armature for sculpting zombie puppets. Tomorrow I’ll probably start work on a hat form to go on the general armature.

The magazine isn’t looking too good this month. The only thing I have for it is a single article from someone… There’s no way to really salvage it, so I’m not going to really try. This month’s magazine will probably only be 4 pages long unless I magically think up an idea.

Yesterday I watched Okse on Blogtv for awhile and saw some of the interesting things he did with Anime Studio. Makes me glad I own it. I just wonder if I can do all of what he showed with my version or if the Pro version is needed. I’ll start doing stuff in it soon, but probably not until Wednesday until the soonest.

This month’s magazine still hasn’t been worked on. I have one article for it and have someone else saying she’ll do something. So, it’ll be a short one this month. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it tomorrow.

Last night I watched two movies: Penelope and Full Moon. Penelope was kind of a fairy tale in a modern setting, with Christina Ricci playing a young woman who was born with a pig nose. It was pretty good and fit with what it was meant to be. Full Moon was pretty much what I expected. It was neither as good or as bad as all the hype has made it out to be. Bella is a completely useless character and Jacob Black was the only character I cared about at all. But in all the negative reviews I’ve read/watched, none mentioned the werewolf bits very much. Sure they looked quite fake, but that part of the movie was at least enjoyable.

I’m undecided if I’ll watch a movie tonight or not. If I do, it will be from Netflix Instant View. I should probably work on some stuff tonight, but with the day I’ve had, I just want to relax. Perhaps I’ll read. I haven’t  done that in too long, getting busy with other stuff.

The puppet block went pretty well last night. Thanks to Sir Ian, everyone got featured for a bit. I still find I prefer Friday nights over Saturday, but ah well. Maybe because it’s more formal on Saturday night.

I’m currently watching Okse work on some animation related stuff and he showed some of what he’s done with Anime Studio. I had already planned to use it for animation anyway, but seeing what’s he done shows me that I could probably use it for some of the stuff I had planned to have to use Blender for.

I’m probably going to rest most of today, though. I’ve had a headache since Friday and research tells me it’s definitely a tension headache. I probably will watch Full Moon tonight just so I can see if it’s worth the strong feelings people have for it. I have a feeling I’ll find it okay to good, but not have strong feelings either way.

My new computer came early and was there today. So far it’s working well. The video which I couldn’t get to play decently on any other computer plays beautifully. Sunday I’ll try editing some video and hopefully get stuff on Youtube. I’m unsure if any of my software will work with the HD videos, though…

40 minutes until socks puppet’s show and an hour after until mine. Looks like I’ll have to take apart the armature I built yesterday so I can put my background back together.