KC Indie Film Scene

Wow! It’s been a long time! Sorry for the two-month delay! Life happens, you know …

Nothing much new has been happening on the animation side of life. Square Peg screened this last weekend as part of the New Orleans Int’l Children’s Film Festival. And I’ve still been doing some freelance work to pay the bills.

As far as personal projects, I’ve been working on a new one with some friends of mine … a show that will showcase local Kansas City Music & Musicians … it’s a bit of process and we’re slowing things down just a bit because one of the core members of our project was recently diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer … hence the title … I thought that might get your attention.

I didn’t know anything about Inflammatory Breast Cancer … it’s a sneaky S.O.B.! And it often gets misdiagnosed by doctors at first! Please visit my friend Abby’s page about it, where she has a blog about her experiences with kickin’ it’s ass! And there’s a few information sites about the disease. You can visit it here - http://www.thegaslights.com/pages/hope.html

In support of Miss Abby … a bunch of us cut our hair. Here’s a pic of the new do!

Got a little of both in me ...

Don’t we all have a bit of both in us! And here’s all the hair that went to Locks of Love!

Wow! I had a lot of hair!

I recently got the privilege of being asked to do an interview with Toni Pennacchia, the host of Spoiler Alert Radio. Now if you don’t know about Spoiler Alert Radio, it’s a very cool podcast about all things film, locally and globally. She interviews filmmakers and such from around the world about their films, their processes, how they finance their projects, and more: basically, all the stuff you want to know!

Apparently, she had seen my short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, on B-Side and e-mailed me about a possible interview and sending my short animation to their film festival The MergingArts Short Short Story Film Festival, which tours the New England area in November 2008. I, of course, said yes to both! Then realized, “OH (Insert Your Own Expletive)! I’ve never done a radio interview before!!” Fortunately, though, I didn’t have too much time to think about it because a couple of days later I was on the phone with Toni doing the interview.

I would love to say I was as cool as a cucumber during the interview, but I was extremely nervous! But Toni does a good job of putting you at ease and I just tried to do my best to give more than the one-word answer … an interviewer’s worse nightmare, I’m sure. We basically talked about my first short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, my music videos for The Gaslights, Last Dollar & God, Guns & Glory, my day job career as a Designer/Video Editor/Animator and if I have any upcoming projects. I think I did okay … I definitely learned a lot from it! And if I’m ever privileged enough for another interview I think I’ll be more ready for it … although I’m sure my first thought will still be “OH (Insert Your Own Expletive)!!”

It aired live on Sunday, June 8th from 7-7:30PM EST on 88.1FM, WELH, Providence, RI, streaming at Brown University Student and Community Radio. And you can now listen to the podcast at Spoiler Alert Radio’s website by clicking here.

If you listen to it … well, first off, THANKS! and remember it’s my first interview … so be kind! ;b

Still Animated,
Mary

Hey Y’alll!

For your full resolution TV viewing pleasure you can now download my dvds! Just go to www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html and download one or more today!

Check it out today! And keep animated!

-Mary Mary

A little blurb about God, Guns & Glory on Present Magazine.

http://www.presentmagazine.com/full_content.php?article_id=1178&full=yes&pbr=1

My new music video for the Gaslights song God, Guns & Glory is being featured on Yahoo! Video!

Go to http://video.yahoo.com/

and click on the music button

Yahoo!

-Mary

Read this article on AWN about how you could lose the rights to all of your artwork …

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605

Then read this article in response to Mark’s artcicle … http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html

Mark Simon’s Rebuttal - http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3615

Mark Simon’s article - Does Congress Care About Your Creations

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole will be screening this Saturday April 12 at the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival. So if you or any of your friends and family will be in the area, check it out!

Also a new Gaslights music video and DVD with lots of extras is coming soon! Be on the lookout for it in the coming weeks. In the meantime visit www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html to get a t-shirt and/or poster of the artwork, or visit The Gaslights website to download some desktop wallpaper.

From the upcoming God, Guns and Glory animation, “You Have the Power Voice It & Vote” with the American Flag quilt T-Shirts are now available!

Voice It & Vote T-Shirt

Click here to get yours today!

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole and Last Dollar are now available on DVD at www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html!

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole is a cute little children’s animation your little ones will love! And with Last Dollar you’ll get your Gaslights fix and remember how much fun they are to see live!

And from How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole get your little one a Gordon T-Shirt or get your own Gordon or Square Peg T-Shirt for yourself! And from the upcoming God Guns and Glory animation, get your “You Have the Power Voice It and Vote” with the American Flag quilt T-Shirt!

Visit www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html Today!

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole will be screening on Oscar Day Sunday the 24th - 12:45pm-1:15pm at the San Francisco Int’l Children’s Film Festival as a part of WonderCon 2008. So if you or any of your friends and family will be in the area, check it out!

Wow! It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged here so I thought I’d better do a little update on my goings on … I’ve been workin’ hard on my new animation to The Gaslights song God, Guns and Glory. It’ll be a little retrospective on the Bush Administration’s terms in office. Below is a sample of some of the initial artwork. Barring lots of freelance work, I’m still looking to get it done by some time in February … fingers crossed! Wish me luck!

2000 Debate - The Beginning Of It All

So them rich old white men can dream up wars for the young poor kids to die

Holy COW!!!! I don’t know what I did to get on the front page of Yahoo!
but Woohoo!!! Yahoo!!! My friend Bryan took this screen capture of it …
check it out!!!

Yahoo Front Page

-Mary

Well Alright! The Gaslights music video for their song Last Dollar which I just finished up is now online for y’all to see! Please check it out and feel free to rate it and/or leave comments, we’d love to hear how y’all like it.

And if you’re diggin’ the video well enough that you just feel the need to forward it on to friends and family, please go right ahead and do so. Here’s the url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRdD5p_luFs

But, don’t stop just at the video … come on out to The Gaslights CD Release Party at Davey’s Uptown in KCMO on Friday, November 30th.

Well it’s been a couple of weeks since The Gaslights video shoot and I’ve finally found the time to post ‘em up. Thanks to Cody Donelson for taking just about all of ‘em! They’re some fun pics and it was definitely a fun day!

The Gaslights were spot on good! We could tell they had really rehearsed to the song, which makes my job of synching up and editing the video much easier! Thanks Gaslights! You rock!

As far as the crew for the shoot … we had me, Miss Mary, taking on the role of producer/director, Chris Overholt as the videographer, Collin Martin as the grip, and Kyle Hamrick and Cody Donelson as production assistants. Everyone did such a great job, working hard all day on a Sunday to help out! Thanks guys!!!

I’m now working on editing the “Last Dollar” video which will be a nice mix of the footage we shot at Davey’s Uptown and home video footage the band took while on their tour last year through the midwest & northeastern U.S. and Belgium. Hopefully the video will be as fun to watch as it was to make and show off the fun personalities of the Gaslights along with their rockin’ stage presence.

While we were there we also got some reference footage for their “God, Guns & Glory” song for which Kyle, Cody, & I are creating an animation for.

L.A. Screening Sat. Oct. 6

If you happen to be in the L.A. area this Saturday, Oct. 6th and are looking for something to do … my short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, will be screening at 1p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the Los Angeles Int’l Children’s Film Festival.

One Night Stand is a one day film competition held every year in Kansas City. You arrive at 9 in the morning, they draw out of a hat an object, a theme, and a piece of dialogue that must be in everyone’s movie. This year’s essentials:

Object: Mask
Theme: Redemption
Dialogue: A person is smart … people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. (Men in Black, 1997)

You then have 10 hours to write it, film it, and edit it … and watch it that night.

This was mine and my nephew Nick’s first time participating … Nick’s first time acting! Didn’t win an award, and we didn’t get everything in so it’s not as clear of a story as we wanted … but not bad for our first try and people laughed, so something worked! ;b

Check it out here http://www.maryctaylor.com/ons-063007.html

It was definitely a fun way to spend a Saturday with my nephew … of course now he has a huge ego! Enjoy!

Well, I had another glamorous weekend of movie-making. I helped out again on clean-up crew for the horror film Last Breath.

Last Breath

While I might just be on clean-up crew, it is very satisfying to be able to help someone in any small way to bring their stories to the big screen. And considering I spend most of my hours sitting in front of a computer, it’s good I get in a real hard day’s labour every now and then for both mind and body.

Now that the cleaning up of the warehouse is done, the production crew can really get going. Some of the make-up people were there discussing their options. And the set design people were working away on how to get blood to drip from the walls. I believe actual production on the film will begin in late March continuing through April. If I am able to help out in any other capacity, I will keep you bloggers up to date.

I highly recommend helping people out in your local communities to make their films because no matter what your role you get to meet some great passionate people who might help you out on your projects and you get to learn a lot about the making of movies. Plus, it’s just fun!

One of the newest independent films in production in KC right now is “Last Breath.”

Last Breath

Directed by Ty Jones and produced by Aaron Laue, this is a horror film about a marriage built on shifting sand, where a husband and wife find themselves imprisoned by a sadistic killer-forced to make choices that will ultimately determine their family’s survival or demise.

I had the enviable job of clean-up crew last saturday … shoveling away the debris from a soon-to-be demolished warehouse so the crew and equipment could move around without too much trouble. And who said making movies wasn’t glamorous?

I hope to help out more when they actually start shooting in March/April. I can’t wait to see the finished product … just being in the abandoned warehouse was creepy enough … add in spooky lighting and other effects and you got the makings of a scary movie.