Happy 4th Guildversary!

The web sensation "The Guild" has been thrilling fans for four years today, with the fifth season premiering this week. It's star and creator, Felicia Day, talked to Hollywood Reporter about the show's journey from a "kitchen production" to a world wide phenomenon.

The article was, as Felicia always is, very inspirational. The story of one person with an idea going against the odds and beating the system is always fascinating, and in the new media industry, THE GUILD is the David that took down Goliath.

Along the path, Felicia assembled an amazing cast and crew, including producer Kim Evey, Director Sean Becker, and of course, Amy, Jeff, Sandeep, Robin, and Vince.

I was fortunate enough to come aboard right at what could be argued as the tipping point for the show, with the "bonus feature" music video "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" The video broke records, and went No.1 on several charts, including iTunes. People who had never played a video game or watched a web series were suddenly aware of The Guild, and the cross-over audience catapulted the show to numbers that previously were reserved for network television.

I had a great time working on the music video, but I had no idea at the time of the opportunities and adventures my association with The Guild would lead to. After reading Felicia's article, I thought it might be fun to chronicle my involvement with the show on this special day. I went to my iPhoto, opened The Guild folder, and realized that I have over 4,000 photos! So I cancelled my lunch meeting, and put this quick run down memory lane together for you...

Photo 1: This is the first thing I made for the Guild. I started several of the Avatar weapons at the same time, but since Zaboo's Ram Staff had so many processes to go through, I focused on it from the get go.

Photo 2: The finished staff. Despite all the crazy dancing and gymnastics Sandeep did, the ram skull survived the entire video shoot unscathed. It wasn't until the green screen day on season 4 that he smashed it to bits...

Oh, but I fixed it! :)

Photo 3: Clara's wand was the next item to be finished. Kenny from Knights of the Guild Podcast actually came by the BarnYard each day that I worked on these, and filmed the whole process. You can watch me build the Vork sword on The Guild Season 3 DVD. Maybe I will be able to release the other prop "How To's" in the future.

Photo 4: I had seen the Guild on line prior to becoming involved, but it was still amazing to see the Avatars come to life!
Photo 5: By far, Tink's bow was the most difficult to build within the short schedule.

Photo 6: The Avatar video happened to be shot on Felicia's birthday, which just made being involved that much more exciting. She got this awesome treasure chest cake, but the schedule was so busy, there was hardly time to celebrate.

Photo 7: A short time later, when production was wrapped, Kim threw Felicia an 80's themed "Birthday Prom". I volunteered to decorate, and we transformed a school auditorium into a flashback bonanza. One of the pieces I did was this Nagel style portrait of Felicia.

Photo 8: I also brought a ton of my 80's props, and set up little photo ops around the room, including an Indiana Jones temple, The Muppet Show stage, a Miami Vice backdrop, and this Jedi scene. Kenny and Jenni from the Knights of the Guild podcast pose with Jabba and 3PO.

Photo 9: This is one of my favorite pictures. Felicia and I with my Delorean. Yes, that is the dress from Pretty in Pink Felicia is wearing. Costume Designer Sarah Trost made it for her. And yes, sadly, I used to dress exactly like this in the 80s.

Photo 10: The next big Guild event for me was Comicon. The Avatar video was premiering, and I brought the weapons down so the cast could appear at the panel in full gear. I helped them get ready back stage.

Photo 11: This was the same Comicon panel where Kim announced that Wil Wheaton was joining the cast. It was also when Kim coined the phrase "Sneak Preak!"

Photo 12: I am not the most tech savvy guy, and one of the things I have gotten from my Guild experience was new insight to a computer driven world. Felicia convinced me to join twitter. Kenny talked me into starting this blog. Brian Kameoka taught me the value of social media marketing, and the fact that there are ways to do it everywhere, all the time! Here, he is live in the Guild's chat room during the panel via a wireless tether.

Photo 13: After the madness of Comicon died down, I was having lunch with Felicia and mentioned a story line idea I had for The Guild involving faulty merchandise. She felt that the concept could be a stand alone video, and possibly focus on the Internet rumors that the show had "sold out" due to it's popularity. We decided to turn the whole thing into a Christmas special, and I wrote and directed a series of mock commercials for Guild products.

Photo 14: To go along with the concept of "selling out", I wanted to fill each segment with celebrity cameos. I called in my friends, many who were already Guild fans. Here I am directing David Blue and Brea Grant for the Tink doll commercial. If you have never seen any of these, check them out!

Photo 15: Here is the prototype for the Zaboo pheromone spray. The commercial stars Kevin Thompson, Alley Baggett, and America Young.

Photo 16: So not safe for children! The Bladezz Switch blade work in progress. Alex Albrecht plays the dad.

Photo 17: Clara got the Mommy and Me cookie jar. Monica May from Power Rangers SPD shows us how to use it! Oh, and that framed photo in the background is STILL hanging in my kitchen, two years later!

Photo 18: The Vork Unbreakable Bank sculpture. I am lucky as an artist to be able to have direct access to the actors, allowing me to have the best reference you could ask for to get the best product possible.

Photo 19: Of course, not everyone is always cooperative!

Photo 20: Felicia got the Codex Answer Orb. I started with a scaled printout.

Photo 21: Layered on some clay..

Photo 22: And made this fake toy!

Photo 23: One of the things I love about directing is being able to create the illusion that we are somewhere else. With the exception of the toy store for Tink, all of the Guild Sells Out spots were shot at my house. Here, we are transforming part of my yard into a White Trash Winterland.

Photo 24: My living room was decked with Guildie goodness.

Photo 25: The last shot of the day was the intro video with Felicia and Sandeep. Here, Felicia wraps gifts with money! I am being freaked out by the creepy half Santa...

Photo 26: My favorite aspect of the Guild is the sense of family, and how everyone is involved hands on. Sometimes quite literally! Here, producer Kim Evey steps in as the hand model for the DVD plug at the end of each commercial.

Photo 27: My next Guild adventure was centered around another holiday, April Fool's Day. By this point, the show had established a reputation for hijinx on the 1st, and the Knights of Good had to come up with new and clever ways to prank people who were most like expecting something.

Kim cooked up "Lil' Guildies", a fake animated Guild spin-off. I designed and directed the show's opening, paced to the Paul and Storm intro song. The joke was that the opening was all there ever was!

I have to imagine people liked it, especially with fans such as @jesreaves sending us these amazing Lil' Guildies hand made plushies!

Photo 28: The "How to make Vork's sword" video resulted in a lot of people asking me for pointers on the other weapons, particularly Codex's staff. Felicia dropped by the BarnYard and helped me build one, the video of which can be found on this blog and on YouTube. The end product was signed by both of us, and was auctioned off to raise over $5,000.00 for charity!

Photo 29: I was just finishing up on "Legend of Neil" when The Guild season 4 started up. At first, I thought I was only going to be able to squeeze in a few specialty props, such as this Wig Warmer that Zaboo buys for his mom. But schedules alined, and I was able to assume Production Designer duties for the show.

Photo 30: Most of the sets were already established from previous seasons, but I was able to sneak in a few new additions here and there. I wanted to create a character that Tink would be into, a sort of angry Hello Kitty, so I could have a common thread of design weave through her presence in the season. I came up with B!TCH KAT late one night, and after surprisingly quick email responses from Felicia and Sean Becker, I was able to make a few posters to hang in Tink's room by morning.

Photo 31: One of the new sets for season 4 was Ollie's Cheesy Beard office, which was actually built in my living room! I tried to dress it like a maintenance closet that Ollie attempted to spruce up, adding little touches like this cheesy ocean mural.

Photo 32: The biggest set design for season 4 also happened to be the smallest set for the Guild! I built the Knights of Good Hall in miniature so we could offer scope and scale on a web series budget.

Photo 33: The cast was shot against green screen and composited into the miniature. Since they were playing their avatars again, the weapons were employed once more. Simon Helberg made a guest appearance as The Kevinator, and I built his suit of armor.

Photo 34: After a late night storyboard session the day before we shot, Sean decided Kevinator needed a helmet so Simon could be a big reveal. I started sculpting this in WED clay about 8pm, and had the final painted fiberglass copy on set 6am the next morning. Simon said wearing it was like huffing glue...

Photo 35: My favorite part of season 4 was painting Team Cawkes. Wil and Felicia came over to pose for a photo session. My Boston Terrier Print tried so hard to get in on the action that Felicia and Sean cast him as the result of Kevinator's spell on Zaboo's mom.

Photo 36: I painted what Felicia would call "lady porn" in acrylics on canvas. The image was used on buttons for the 2010 Comicon panel give away, and is available as a poster at ThinkGeek.com. You can also watch a featurette on how I painted Team Cawkes on iTunes.

Photo 37: I also production designed the Guild's next music video, "Game On". There were quite a few sets I put together, but my favorite thing has to be the fake elephant that Felicia and Zaboo ride on.

Photo 38: Well, painting Amy Okuda gold ranks pretty high up there, too...

Photo 39: I was invited to sit on the panel to present the Team Cawkes episode, and Game On at Comicon that year. It was very overwhelming to sit in front of 3,000 people! Luckily I had Jeff Lewis next to me, making everyone laugh and calming the nerves! It was an unforgettable experience. Plus, I got a purple squid hat!

Photo 40: The span of time since season 4 till now has been filled with Dragon Age, Rock Jocks, and Guild season 5, all of which I cannot show anything from yet. But trust me, there is plenty to show when the time comes! In the mean while, check out the comic cover I painted for the Kim Evey penned Clara one-shot from Darkhorse.

Photo 41: If you are still reading this after over 40+ photos, I imagine you are a fan of The Guild. If you aren't, it's probably only because you haven't seen it yet! Jump over to watchtheguild.com and see what all the excitement is about.

I have definietely made a concious effort to not have my blog be Guild-centric, and talk about as many of the other projects I work on as possible, but as you can see, The Knights of Good get a lot of my attention. I have been blessed with a successful enough career that I can work on almost any Hollywood project I choose, but when Felicia calls, it's hard not to sign on for what she has planned. Her attention to detail, ability to craft a story, and understanding of the medium make everything she sets out to do a worthy endeavor.

Photo 43: And if there is one thing I learned from Miss Day that rises to the top as the most important rule of good entertainment: It's all about the fans!

Thanks for your support in making this show what it is, and Felicia, thank you for letting me be involved! So looking forward to watching season 5!

The Guild "Game On" Video

It’s not every day you get to work on an independent music video that goes #1 world wide, and I’ve had the good fortune of doing it twice thanks to Felicia Day and the awesome Guild team.

I was introduced to the concept of this “Guild goes Bollywood” video via a series of conversations with Guild producer Kim Evey. She was very excited about the concept Sandeep Parikh had come up with, and made plans to co-direct it with Sean Becker, who just wrapped directing The Guild season 4. But they really wanted to push the boundaries of low budget production, and capture as much of the Bollywood style as possible. Kim asked me to design the video, and well, this is what happened…

Photo #1: We tried to make the sets look as lavish as possible, but as usual, the process started by looking around the BarnYard to see what was readily available. This always helps speed things up and keeps costs down. Luckily, I have a lot of handy things on my lot. You know, like elephants and stuff. I never really think about how ridiculous my world is until I actually write sentences like that!

A great way to cheaply expand the scope of sets and still keep them rich looking is fabric. My art director, Alina Khanjian, collected bolts and bolts of bargain fabrics and discount cut-offs from the fashion district. We had a loose color palette, and made final decisions based on the majority yardage in the colors she found.

Photo #2: We had a few weeks to put everything together, and Kim and Sean dropped by often to discuss concepts and get a sense of where everything was going visually. We usually talked while I was building, painting, or sculpting. This particular time, Sean jumped in on the fun and created a new character.

Photo #3: Tombie the tombstone! What shows that Sean is a true director is the fact that during the course of the 10 minutes he spent sculpting this piece, he created an entire back-story and vividly describe scenes with the character. Next time you see him, ask about the Tombie movie!!!

Photo #4, 5, and 6: Felicia and Sandeep wrote the song, and although it has a Bollywood rhythm to it, the lyrics are about gaming. Felicia asked me to incorporate video game themes into the Bollywood visuals, too. So we decided to bring in some 8-bit elements, such as these statues of Ganesha, Shiva, and the monkey god, who looks very much like Donkey Kong!!!

Photo #7: The 8-bit gods were used in the temple, each surrounded by the wheel of life. I originally intended for the wheels to be animated, but the art department was already way over tasked, and I was afraid it would slow production down during shooting, so I drop the idea. The wheels were hung up in the shop to keep them safe, guarded by the Lyke-Lyke from Legend of Neil!

Photo #8: One of the elements I really wanted to do was turn Amy Okuda into a golden goddess. I needed to do some make-up tests, but Amy was busy, so Marissa Cuevas stepped in as my model.

Photo #9: Here’s Amy fully golden! The entire make-up process took about 45 minutes. I used Kryolan bronze body paint, and highlighted it with gold Ben Nye Lumiere Luxe powder. I also used Ben Nye metallic crèmes to add a little color to her eyes, cheeks and lips.

I capped it off, literally, with the 8-bit headdress I made, and Alina created an impromptu costume out of gold lame. Then Amy was off to tear up the dance floor. Or, uh, temple…

Photo #10: And if you are wondering what Marissa looks like when she’s not painted gold, you may have spotted her amongst the dancers in Game On. You definitely would have noticed her in the royal tent, where she presents Bladezz and Clara with the guilded X-Box.

Photo #11: What you might not have guessed is that Marissa also bejeweled all of that herself! I like to call her the official bedazzeller of the Guild. Here we have the serving tray that she uses to present the game console. It’s actually made out of a clear punch bowl and a cheap plastic party tray, cabinet handle attached, sprayed silver, and bedazzled. We did this because we couldn’t find a real set that could house an X-box.

Photo #12: And this is the royal X-Box. And yes, it’s actually a fully functional console! We masked it off, sprayed it gold, and then Marissa went to town with the jewels. I made the controllers from plastic genie lamps from an Aladdin costume. I sculpted the buttons and put a ball and socket joint on the top to create a joystick. Sean and I decided to have them corded, even though X-Box 360s are wireless. The genie lamp turned controller just seemed to read better with a cable coming out of it!

Photo #13: To complete that set, I made a pair of royal thrones. Believe it or not, these where actually dinning room chairs found on the side of the road a block from my studio. We used plywood to make the bases solid, Sintra plastic to create the 8-bit details, and reupholstered the existing cushions with red fabric. Of course, Marissa added the jewels, and we had dumpster royalty!

Photo #14: We assembled the sets the day before shooting, and built and painted all of the fine details on location. Once we had all the walls of the temple standing, I realized it needed more purple! You can never have enough purple! So Kat and Gabby spent the rest of the day painting purple squares into the pattern of the columns.

Photo 15: The temple was actually a 3-walled set, no ceiling, and built outdoors. We could only have one location for the shoot, and the need for exteriors was as strong as for interiors. I came up with the solution of finding an exterior that was large enough for me to build a few interiors on! Luckily we had a friend with a yard big enough. If you look closely, you will notice that the “altar” the 8-bit gods are being placed on is actually a brick BBQ! And if you look on the left, you will see the fence that surrounds the pool…

Photo #16: …Where the royal tent was built. Alina really helmed this project. It is constructed from 2 10x10 pop-ups, draped in many yards of fabric and detailed with all these cool fringes she found. We covered the floor with pillows, and littered it with jewels and goblets.

Photo #17: When I saw the pool during the first location scout, I instantly imaged the tent and a wide camera angle revealing 8-bit lotus floating in the water. Kim rearranged the schedule so we could shoot that scene at night and maximize the cool blue illuminated water contrasting against the warm reds of the tent. The lotus flowers floated perfectly all day, until we where ready to shoot! Then they started bunching up, or floating to the wrong end of the pool!

Photo #18: Sometimes you lose track of time when you are crazy busy on the set. But luckily, I had the pups to remind me that I was gone 20 hours on the prep day. Nothing says, “Where were you!?!?!” like a demolished pet bed!

Photo #19: I wasn’t kidding when I said I had an elephant in my yard! Not a real one of course. That would be weird. But a full size one, for sure! This is a relic from a movie long ago, and I have been saving it for years, assuring everyone that “some day I’m going to need it!” Well, that day came when Kim called about Game On. She said, “It’s going to be a Bollywood video, so we need things that you would find in India.” And my first thought was, “I have an elephant!”

He is made of latex with a fiberglass skeleton, and he breaks in half for transport. Or to create bizarre modern lawn art.

Photo #20: Once we got the elephant to the location, he needed to be put back together. Bryan Fulk climbed inside, and bolted the two halves together as a large group of us propped them up. The key phrase to remember is “as a large group of us propped them up”. When we wrapped, Bryan decided to climb back into the elephant and unbolt him. Without the large group propping up the two halves. Needless to say, the elephant split in half as he released the last bolt, crashing to the ground and taking Bryan for a ride he will not soon forget. Not far away from this incident, @geekyfanboy was interviewing Kim Evey for the Knights of the Guild podcast(Microcast #19: Quest for Bollywood). If you listen closely at 00:58:02, you can hear the elephant impact and a moment later, Bryan yelling, “I’m alright!” Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt, and the moment caught on audiotape makes me laugh every time I hear it! Again and again...I'm gonna go listen to it right now!

Photo 21: Speaking of things splitting apart, the first thing Kim and Sean locked down creatively was the video’s opening, where Zaboo would attempt to convince Codex to continue gaming through song. The scene would start in Codex’s room, as most Guild episodes do, but on Zaboo’s command, the walls would fly away to reveal the magic of Bollywood.

Photo #22: I designed the walls to break apart into sections that a single person could carry, so it would be easy to choreograph the break away. The back walls had wheels so they could roll smoothly off to the side. Nick Carmichael helmed the construction, and it all went quite easily.

Photo #23: The difficult part in recreating Codex’s room is that the real set isn’t a set at all, but producer Kim’s bedroom! And practically everything you see in the room during the show is really Kim’s. Paintings her friends did for her, furniture from her family. Her curtains, her pillows. Books. CDs. Treasured heirlooms. It’s hard enough to let a film crew invade your space, but to let them take your belongings out to a field!?! Kim is 100% dedicated to the Guild, so she trusted me to take everything we needed. I tried to pare it down as much as possible while still giving the illusion that everything was still there. In the end, we only broke one lamp! I’m sorry, Kim! I’m working on fixing it, I swear!

Photo 24: Michelle Dunn, the costumer, made Vork’s 6-armed suit, but I had to show it in my blog. It was truly the funniest thing I saw on set, and as usual, Jeff Lewis was hamming it up!

Photo #25: Although he wasn’t the only one!

Photo #26: Our friends that own the property where we shot have a pair of pigs, and they followed us around all day. I tried to get a shot of Game On music producer Jason Miller with an apple in his mouth lying next to the pig, but I guess it smelled a treat and jumped up. Jason jumped up even faster! When 300 lbs of pig moves that fast, cute is no longer a factor.

Photo 27: After the break away walls, we shot inside the completed temple. Once each set was ready, and shooting was underway, the art department would move on to the next set so it could be fully dressed when the production was ready to move.

Photo 28: As the rest of the crew worked on the elaborate dance sequences in the temple, we finished prepping the elephant. Marissa made a saddle and headdress out of an old comforter set, and Bryan constructed and installed new tusks.

Photo 29: The night before we shot the elephant scene, Sean came up with the idea of Zaboo giving Codex a blue 8-bit rose. I was able to put one together on set right before we shot. Luckily it wasn’t a dozen!

Photo #30: To help bring life to the elephant, Nick climbed inside and puppeteered it’s head with his feet. It wouldn’t have been that hard of a job, except that it was nearly 100 degrees outside, and probably 10 degrees hotter inside the elephant!

Photo #31: To keep Nick from passing out, Mazin Dajani passes wind through the elephant’s, uh, access hole…

Photo #32: Marissa assisted the elephant even more by flicking its ear with some fishing line.

Photo #33: The whole time we shot this sequence, Felicia kept saying, “You guys, I can’t believe I’m sitting on an elephant right now!!!”

Photo #34: I can’t believe we were able to do that much work in so little time. But it was so much fun, and it’s always amazing to work with the Guild. Thank you so much to my awesome art department crew. You guys worked so incredibly hard. Take a break! You deserve it!