Each of us has a destiny... » inspiration

More press…

Jason N. — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:56:24 +0000

Great recent article in The Austinist talking about the trend at Fantastic Fest in presenting live performances in addition to films. There’s a really nice shout-out to my pal Connor Hopkins at Trouble Puppet Company and their recent production of Frankenstein, which got some great reviews. The gist of the article is that Fantastic Fest should consider presenting more Austin-based live performance as it relates to the nature of the festival and if the quality is high enough (which the writer suggests sometimes is the case).

Here’s an excerpt:

Consider Frankenstein, the comedy/horror regularly re-animated and revived by Trouble Puppet mad scientist Connor Hopkins. The puppet show would be a perfect addition to Fantastic Fest: It’s a genre piece, like most of the festival’s films, games, and performances. It’s fastidious in its aesthetic consistency and production value (more so than your average Troma-inspired South Korean revenge picture, even). It’s funny when appropriate, takes its story seriously even while it pokes fun at the tropes, and is packed with novelty — when was the last time most film festival attendees saw a live puppet show by a Henson Foundation-supported company? In short, it’s high quality work that speaks to a very specific crowd, and it’s the same crowd as Fantastic Fest. And while Frankenstein didn’t struggle to find an audience for its most recent run at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, it’s clear that there’d be potential for it to break to an even bigger crowd, if a festival like Fantastic Fest decided to include it in the programming.

Click HERE for the whole article.

New video added

Jason N. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:34:56 +0000

The past week has been an education in Final Cut Pro and I’ve got two videos to show for it. The first is a shoot of the Alamo show we did a couple of weeks ago. On each of the three nights we shot from a different angle, so we got pretty good coverage of the performance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEz73m9vuUU

The other video uses footage I shot of Graham Reynolds, the composer, a couple of years ago, combined with recent footage of the production. In the video, Graham talks about the creation of the music, with samples showing what he’s talking about. I think it’s a pretty good behind-the-scenes look at the project. Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOtoQW4_4Yg

Treasure Island

Jason N. — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:53:17 +0000

Okay, I admit it. I never read Treasure Island. It was a big book, a classic, written over 100 years ago, hence, probably boring. Boy, was I wrong. This book is GREAT. Ever wonder when the phrase “shiver me timbers” entered the common lexicon? Ever wonder where the image of a pirate with a parrot comes from? Ever wonder where “yo ho ho and a bottle of rum” comes from? Ever eat at Long John Silver’s? Well, you’re smart, you put two and two together already: it’s all from Treasure Island. You could never make this into a movie nowadays because it all became such popular imagery that now it’s cliche. But I read it this past weekend and simply couldn’t put it down. There’d be no Intergalactic Nemesis without this book because Treasure Island is like the granddaddy of pulp adventure stories. Go to the library, get a copy, and read it!.

And, of course, I can help but think of another island that’s deeply in need of treasure, so below is pasted from a message I got from Austin Film Society. Do your part!

Austin Ventures & Entrepreneurs Foundation Match Gifts for Haiti Relief

In light of the devastation in Haiti, Austin Ventures (“AV”) and the Entrepreneurs Foundation (“EF”), have launched the High-Tech HelpHaiti Fund. $600k has been raised from Austin high-tech leaders to match 1:1 donations. The match is open to everyone. Donors to the match include Philip & Donna Berber, Isabel & Dave Welland, The Meredith Family, The Garber Family, Silicon Labs, Inc., EF and friends, and AV.

Given the critical nature of this past weekend, we wired $250k on Friday, even before receiving the match donations. These monies were split evenly between Partners in Health (@PIH_org) and Concern Worldwide (@ConcernWorld). Both groups have long histories in Haiti and are making a difference on the ground today.

HelpHaiti – consider donating to Haiti relief services and having your contribution matched by Austin High-Tech leaders ($600k available), click HERE.