How to Make Love to a Woman

Well, I'm sure that title got your attention! But, no, this is not a blog entry on pick up lines or scented oils! This is an announcement and an invitation to everyone interested in seeing Dog & Rooster Production's latest feature film!

I executive produced this film last year, and it will out this summer. But it has it's LA premier this week, and I would love for all of you to attend! It's a romantic comedy about, well, how to make love to a woman! It was a script my producing partner, Sheri Bryant, fell in love with a few years back, and we are so excited to finally have it hit the big screen. We have a stellar cast, including Josh Meyers (That '70s Show) Krysten Ritter (She's Out of My League) Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries) Eugene Byrd (Bones) James Kyson Lee (Heroes) Ken Jeong (The Hangover) James Hong ( Balls of Fury, and of course, Blade Runner and Big Trouble in Little China!) and Jenna Jameson (Yeah, the REAL Jenna Jameson!)

We also amassed a killer soundtrack, with many of the bands actually appearing in the film! It was great to hang out with all of them and watch them perform. The line up includes Yellowcard, Ludo, Hello, Goodbye, and Mayday Parade, just to name a few!

Watch the trailer here:

Our movie is the "kick off film" for their Los Angeles United Film Festival, Thursday, April 29th, at 7:00pm. It will screen at the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas. Click here for additional details!

Hope to see you all there!

And I apologize for not updating my blog more this month. I have been extremely busy on Legend of Neil, season 3! I can't wait to tell you all about it! I have had the opportunity to get some new blog videos shot, including one with James Kyson Lee, and another with the beautiful America Young! As soon as we wrap next week, I am going to get in the editing room and have those ready to upload.

Gotta go! We are filming today!

Lil' Guildies

Greg's Latest Project.



And a Deleted Scene

Labou Blog Part 1

Wow! What a week already! And it’s only Tuesday!

I’d like to start by thanking the winning bidder of the Codex Staff that Felicia Day and I made in my first video blog. The auction closed at an astounding $5,319.00! The full amount went to the Red Cross to help in the effort to aid Haiti, Chile, and other places around the world that have suffered from recent natural disasters.

I would also like to thank all of the competing bidders who help get the final donation up so high. I’m sorry you didn’t win the prop, but the fact that you all valued it as much as you did means the world to me. I intend to do future projects like the Codex video blog, and donate the proceeds to charities in need, so hopefully some of those items will be of equal interest to you.

Along those lines, I am prepping for several new video blogs, featuring interesting projects and very exciting guests. But as you may have guessed, the video blogs take a lot of time to set up, shoot, and post. I will need to space them out a bit, or this blog will become a full time job! So, for the moment, I’ll post copy and pictures to show you what I’m up to.

There are all kinds of new things going on. I can’t wait to talk about them! But unfortunately I can’t talk about them yet. But if you liked what you saw in the last few videos, you are going to love what I’m up to next!

OK, time to focus on this blog. Looking at the clock, it’s an hour before my birthday! Which means, by the time I post this, it WILL BE my birthday! And I believe that means I can talk about anything I want to!

I know I have a list of open topics, like SPD, Guild Xmas props, and BarnYard History. @geekyfanboy will have to figure out how to link all the parts together, since I seem to enjoy skipping around so much! But, hopefully, it keeps it more interesting that way!

I thought about all of the new things I have to talk about, but since it is my birthday, I’ve been thinking about all of the things I have done. Maybe I’ve had TOO MANY birthdays, but it seems that gifts and parties aren’t as important anymore. What really matters are the things you do in life that make you happy, and the people that you do them with. I thought about writing a blog about all of the people that are so important to my life, the people that make me who I am, and KEEP me who I am, and help me do what I do so I can show you all of these cool projects. But I realized that that list would be way too long for a blog, and I still would end up leaving people out. And that is truly the best birthday gift I could ever ask for.

Since I wrapped up BarnYard History Part 1 with Labou, I’d like to spend the first few hours of my new year talking about that. The film was one of the most interesting experiences of my life, and it will always be near and dear to my heart.

Photo #1: Labou’s First Trip

This image is one of the reasons I decided to write this blog tonight. I was looking through some photos earlier today, and came across this. That’s a very early rough sculpture of Labou, strapped into my jeep for one of the first meetings with potential financiers. As with most of my writing, I usually lock onto several visuals within the story and start developing them visually as I am putting the words onto paper. The physical realization of the elements in the story help me wrap my mind around what I am trying to say, and usually help me understand the characters and setting better. They also help others understand what’s in my head, hence why Labou is going for a ride!

Photo #2: BFFs

I know, that’s a ridiculous caption, but its true. The story of Labou is about friendship, and it got made because of friendship. That’s Sheri Bryant, my actual best friend in the world. She is also my producing partner. We have a company together, Dog & Rooster Productions. We met at San Diego Comicon many moons ago, and we share a common geek interest in all things alien, futuristic, and cartoon. We have stacks of scripts and stories to produce, but when we put our heads together and tried to boil down what elements really made us respond to the movies we loved as kids, Labou was the end result.

Photo #3: Producer Rooster

Sheri studied business at Stanford, so she is obviously the brains of the group! (I got a t-shirt from the gift shop there once. But I don’t think that qualifies for anything) While I wrote the script and started designing the look of the film, Sheri wrote the business plan and created a strategy for getting the movie made, and more importantly, SOLD!

Photo #4: Monitoring the situation

The single greatest thing about making Labou was that I got to do it with my friends. We had all talked for ages about someday breaking away from the studio pictures we all worked on and forging out on our own to create something that was ours. It was a great honor for me to be able to make those calls and tell my friends that the time had come. And it was so very fortunate for me that so many of them came! But it was a whole different world making a movie as opposed to working on a movie. Even the past things that I directed or produced had infrastructure above me. This time, Sheri and I WERE the infrastructure! Everyday, people would come to me with problems, and I would say, “Well, who do we talk to about this?” and they would say, “YOU!”

Photo #5: Suiting up

There are so many components to putting together a feature film. What I’ve learned is that each next part is the hardest part! Coming up with a winning idea seems so hard, until you begin writing the script, which you tell yourself will be the biggest hurdle. But it pales in comparison to raising the money, which seems easy when you haven’t slept more than a few hours during 20 days of production, which becomes child’s play in the eye of the distribution deal storm. To make it worse, a good friend and famous director once told me, “By the end of a production, you learn everything you should have known to do that movie better, and none of it will apply to your next film!” Unfortunately, he was right! Fortunately, that doesn’t stop Sheri and I from making more movies. There is always more to learn, and greater challenges to take on. But working with Sheri and our amazing team always makes it worthwhile. I couldn’t imagine doing a movie without her. Here we are with Zack Ward, suited up in the desert . But that’s another story…

Photo #6: The Main Man

I don’t think there will be any way I could ever say thank you enough to Mr. TG Solomon. He was the gentleman that financed Labou. He wrote the check and let Sheri and I do our thing, and for that I will be eternally grateful. TG loved visiting the set and socializing with the cast and crew. Here he is with Kelson Henderson, in character as Clayton LeRouge.

Photo #7: Clay Basics

With money in the bank and a script in hand, the next step for me was to finish Labou himself. Wow, my studio looks empty and clean here. It’s kind of freaking me out…

Photo #8: Parting Lines

Once the sculpt was done, my buddy Scot Erb helped me make a silicone matrix mold on Labou. The finished mold went to Mark for foam, and Scot packed up a 5-ton truck with props and junk from the yard and drove off to New Orleans.

Photo #9: Whistling Dixie!

Labou communicates through whistling. I wanted his whistle face to be very distinct, so John Criswell suggested that I have a separate “whistle head”. Here’s the sculpt in progress.

Photo #10: Kisses for Labou

To make sure Labou’s whistle lips were right, I had a very dear friend model for me. Can anyone guess whose lips are whistling in this photo?

Photo #11: The Eyes Have It

Next up were the eyes. They weren’t modeled after anybody! But they were a very difficult part of the process. The “white” of the eye is cast first, and the pupil and iris get painted onto it by hand. Then that is put into a second mold, and the clear "lens" is cast around it. They often get ruined during that last part, so you have to make a lot of extras. It’s hard to paint them all so meticulously knowing that every other one won’t make it!

The funny part of this photo to me is the Santa sculpture to the right. I did a few side projects during Labou to make some money! (The perils of low budget filmmaking!) This one was a Santa popcorn bucket for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show. I know, you threw yours out!

Photo #12: Eyes Wide Open

Here is the prototype Labou almost completely assembled. I used this model to help me keep all the various versions of puppets looking uniform. This fiberglass copy still sits in the main room of BarnYard FX. Maybe one of these days I’ll give you a tour!

Photo #13: It’s A Sign!

We are finally in New Orleans. Well, at least Sheri and I are! The first big hurdle is to set up a functioning production office. We were lucky enough to get space at the Nims Center, New Orleans’s largest production facility. I remember having butterflies in my stomach as I took this photo of Sheri putting our production company name on the marquee. It was finally all real! We were making a movie!

Photo #14: Drew drew that!

Speaking of butterflies, as I was setting up my office, I got this piece of artwork in the mail. Drew Struzan had done this for a prop in the film, but it was first used as a sign on my door. If I had ever dreamed a dream, this was it.

Photo #15: The ONE Sheet

Drew also did the original poster for Labou. This is kind of skipping to the end of the filmmaking process, but I was excited to show you since I already brought him up! I will hold back from what I want to say about Drew Struzan until I can give him his proper forum. I could do a whole series of blogs on this man and his art and still not cover everything I would want to. In short, Drew is a great friend, the most amazing artist I have ever seen, and the single most influential person in my life. I have known Drew personally for more than half my life now, but his art inspired me to take the path I chose even a decade before that. Drew has the uncanny ability to capture all of the excitement, emotion, and splendor of a 2-hour film in a single, perfectly composed image. I consider the quality of his art to be my brass ring, and although I may never be able to grab it myself, it is just as satisfying to sit and stare at it and warm in its brilliance.

If you think I’m exaggerating, go check out his site. There’s a link to the right. Don’t worry, this blog will still be here when you get back. Although, I assure you, you will be on his site for hours once you discover the mass amount of incredible work he has done!

Photo #16: New Orleans is Big

Back in the Crescent City, Sheri and I started scouting for possible locations. It was hot! Like 100 degrees, 98% humidity hot! We had to comb through the city to find all of the different sets, and locations that looked like locations we wanted but couldn’t shoot at. For instance, we needed a city hall for all the stuff with the mayor. Although we actually had the REAL mayor, we couldn’t use the real city hall. There was too much traffic and business going on. We ended up shooting at Gallier Hall, an old courthouse on Poydras St. I liked the look of the giant columns out front, and the statues of Justice on the stairs.

Photo # 16a: Not So Ittsy Bittsy!

We also had to spend a lot of time outside the city, scouting the swamps and bayous. There is a lot of wildlife out there! A lot of wildlife that wants to eat you! And it’s not even the big things, like alligators, that are the creepiest! These Banana spiders were my personal phobia. Sheri discovered she was allergic to mosquitoes! And, man, did they love her!

Photo #17: Blass from the Past!

No, not a spelling error. That’s Dave Blass. If anyone is responsible for me being alive today, it’s Dave Blass! We have know each other for a very, very long time, and Dave has been one of the biggest supporters of my career. He got me my first professional directing gig. He has kept projects flowing through the BarnYard continuously for 15 years. When you look at my IMDB and go, wow, that guy’s worked on a lot of stuff!, most of those projects were by recommendation of Dave Blass. And how do I repay such a great friend? By dragging him down to New Orleans for a fun filled art directing adventure featuring swamps, heat stroke, mosquitoes, and hurricanes! In this photo, Dave is very intrigued by an alligator. Later that summer, when Dave accidentally found himself chest deep in a swamp, the tables had turned. I still so owe you!

Photo #18: Plush Bandit

Sheri found a critter of her own in the swamps. I love this photo. We had so much fun with that raccoon. He was super playful, and made a habit of sleeping ON my head while I walked around. I felt like Daniel Boone. I really wanted to take him back to the BarnYard, but raccoons like to, well, break things. I had flashes of him getting into my MOC original Star Wars 12 back case, and decided he was better of in the wild were he belonged. But, in the meantime, he was very inspirational in terms of movement study for Labou!

Photo #19: In the Bag

This was the first day I met Marissa Cuevas. She was a 12-year-old New Orleans local, auditioning for the role of Emily. I know it sounds like a made up after-the-fact story, but I swear I knew we were going to cast her from the second she walked in the room. She just looked like everything I had imagined Emily to be. At first Sheri wasn’t sold, because as good of an actress as Marissa was, she towered over the potential costars. Eventually, as we narrowed it down to Bryan Kitto and Darnell Hamilton, the height difference help fortify the awkwardness of being early teen friends.

Photo #20: Poised to Strike

Marissa rocked the part of Emily, and the role brought her a lot of attention. She moved to LA to pursue her acting career full time, and I am thrilled to be able to still be a part of it. Marissa has acted in several of my other projects, and not always as the sassy teenager. Here she is in a costume fitting for the 100 year old Alien Shaman from Battle Planet. You would never guess it was her!

Photo #21: Coat LeRouge

Every story has a villain, and in Labou, there is LeRouge. Captain LeRouge! He is a pirate, sailing the seven seas in search of heirlooms stolen from his family generations ago. Unfortunately, his journey comes to an untimely end. He is forced to haunt the bayous of Louisiana, trying to prevent others from stealing his treasure. I wanted the pirate to have a familiar yet unique look. Costumer Pam Robertson crafted these brilliant costumes for us. One hero, one to be distressed for the “ghost” look. Kinda broke my heart to tear it up!

Photo #22: Ahoy, Matey!

Where there are pirates, there be treasure. I wanted a very specific looking treasure, something harking back to Disney’s pirate ride. Yes, there actually was a ride before there was a movie. And when I was a kid, seeing those skeletons sitting on piles of gold and gems was the most amazing thing in the world. None of the prop houses had exactly what I wanted, so in typical BarnYard fashion, we made it! Here’s Scot creating some giant gemstones. He ended up making a few hundred of them. They looked amazing. The kids actually thought they were real!

Photo #23: Little Big Trouble

The other villains in the story are oil tycoons trying to tear down the swamps for a refinery. I knew we would never see the refinery for real, but I wanted to sell how ominous it would be if it ever got built. I had this idea that it would be like a giant metal spider, with legs sticking out everywhere, and a skull made of pipes for a face. I decided to make a “presentation model” of it for the scene in the mayor’s office. Timothy Lee Depriest came in and helped me make it. It had tons of animated parts, and smoke puffed out of the stacks!

Photo #24: Small Moving Parts

John Criswell helmed the animatronic front. There were six hero Labou puppets in all, and John machined hundreds of parts for each one. He packed over 20 servos inside each of Labou’s tiny heads.

Photo #25: Peas in a Pod

Yeah, that’s Labou and me. We both look pretty happy. For the moment! Wait till you see the photos from the next week! This is two days before filming. I was running some mechanical tests on this stand up puppet before spending the next 40 hours painting all of the Labous.

Photo #26: And Action!

We finally start filming. For most of the Labou shots in the film, I would control Labou’s body, and Sheri would puppeteer his face. Being that hands-on is the best part of this kind of filmmaking. I couldn’t imagine being behind a desk and just filtering and relaying information about a project. I like being in the trenches, making the film frame by frame, and I love that my producer is there with me!

Photo #27: And cut!

That’s Adam Lawson, my A.D. When he looks at his watch like that, it means it’s time to go! So, on that note, I will leave the rest of the story to future Labou entries. Believe me, this is just the set up to what becomes a very interesting story! And if you haven’t seen the movie yet, click on the image below and get a copy! Or go to the Labou stuff link to the right and buy some merchandise. It will be like my birthday present!

How To Build Codex's Staff Pt.3

All good things must come to an end. It’s sad, but true. Luckily, we saved the best for last! Not only do I think that this is the funniest of the three “Making the Codex Staff” videos, but this final entry also brings us to announcing the details of how you can own the very prop you have seen being made!

I think this video is particularly funny because Felicia and I had already done a full day of working at that bench, probably around 10 hours by the time this portion of the video started filming. We were both a little slap happy, and everything we did seemed funny to us at the time. Hopefully it seems funny to you now!

Despite all the laughing, we still managed to create an awesome version of the Codex Staff. It is exactly everything the original prop for the “Do You Want to Date My Avatar” video was, and, in my opinion, even better, because this one was hand crafted by Felicia Day herself! I can’t recall ever hearing about a collectible prop for a character in a show actually made by the creator and star of that show before. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to me that some lucky fan will actually own this! And it’s even better because all of the proceeds from the auction to win it will go to the Red Cross, a charity providing relief for the recent disasters in Haiti and Chile.

The staff is signed by both Felicia and myself, and is truly a one of a kind item. If you are a Guild fan, click on this link and bid for an amazing treasure and a great cause:

http://bit.ly/codex_auction

I will personally pack the staff and mail it to the winner to make sure it arrives intact. And feel free to ask me any questions you may have before you bid.

And for all of you who are making your own staff, here are the materials you will need for the final steps:

Gold spray paint

White acrylic paint

Tamiya Red clear acrylic

12”x12” leather

3/16” rough hemp twine

Cyanoacrylate glue and kicker

Spray 77 adhesive

Gather up all the parts you made last week, and grab these tools:

X-acto knife with #11 blades

12” ruler

Small paintbrushes

Once again, I want to thank my crew. You did an amazing job filming and prepping everything, and I look forward to working with you all on the next video blog. Brad did a particularly spectacular job this segment, especially in cutting in all the frames that show me at my geekiest!

This is so sad! I feel like I’m at an awards show with all these final thank yous! Luckily, I can promise more video blogs coming soon, with some very special guests. Of course, none can ever be as special as my first guest, Felicia Day! I hope she comes back for more. I had such a great time. I will, however, actively persuade her from using that table saw! (Cringe!!!)

And huge thanks to Fallbrooke for the use of their songs in all three videos. This video featured “The Best Thing”. You should definitely check out their whole album at fallbrooke.com

This segment also included another track from the LABOU soundtrack. “Without You I’m a Mess” was written and performed by none other than SPD Green Ranger Matt Austin. After you bid on the staff, go to Netflix and watch Matt’s new documentary on the late John Hughes, “Don’t You Forget About Me”.

Oh, and I need to acknowledge my dogs, Art and Print, for all the helpful advise they sprinkle throughout the videos! They really are rather clever…

I am sure you already have you copy of the Guild Season 3 on DVD. I got to do a special feature on "Making Vork's Sword". It is just one of many amazing bonus features. If you don't have it, go get one now! Click on the image below for details...

Lastly, it's the 1st of March, which means it's my good friend Simon Tams's birthday! Simon gave me my first art department job in Hollywood, and my life has never been the same. Everyone who knows Simon should give him a big hug today cause he's awesome. And everybody who doesn't know Simon can still leave birthday wishes for him in the comments! I'll print them out like a giant card! Happy birthday, my friend!

Alright, I gotta go start prepping for this next blog. Please sign up to be a member of the BarnYardFX blog by clicking on the "Follow" button to the right. Also, follow me on twitter @gregaronowitz to get updates about new topics and guests.

Thank you all so much for visiting, and good luck bidding!

Oh, and yes, Felicia, the Clove hitch is real!!!!!

How to Build Codex's Staff Pt. 2

Thanks for coming back! It’s definitely worth seeing Felicia wrestle with that Dremel! Part 2 goes through a great deal of the steps, bringing the Codex staff close to completion. As you will see, Felicia and I were still having a fun time, even though we had been working for about 6 hours at that point.

I hope you are enjoying the videos. Speaking of videos, have you gotten your copy of The Guild Season 3 yet? It has the full season, plus lots of amazing special features, including “Making Vork’s Sword”. You are only a few videos away from having your own Guild arsenal!

The Codex Staff part 2 involves the construction of a few key elements, such as the rings, the base, and the Orb. Building the “Orb” is probably the most complicated part of the staff.

Here are a few pointers I couldn’t fit into the video blog without it becoming a made for television mini series event!

*Make sure the two hemispheres that make up the inner orb (as seen in part 1) are thoroughly glued together. Any spaces or pinholes in the seam will allow the clear resin to seep into it, which will defeat the purpose of having it there in the first place. Plus, it will cause you to use a lot more resin, which is expensive!

*Don’t cheat and paint the outside of the inner orb. Remember when Felicia sprayed the lower half and painted her face green? Yeah, well, don’t do that either! But the reason we painted the inside of each hemisphere, then glued the halves together, is because the polyester resin that gets poured into the outer orb will eat through the paint if it contacts it. If you paint the outside surface of the inner orb, the resin will lift, streak, or dissolve the color away completely, and your finished orb will look hollow.

*We didn’t need this for the Avatar music video, but it might be fun to wire a light inside the inner orb with a switch on the winged ring. Just sayin’!

*Keep the pour hole that you notch out of the side of the outer hemisphere as small as possible. You will need about a ¼ inch to get the resin in and still allow air out as u pour, but any larger and you will see it in the final staff.

*Don’t over catalyze the resin! It will shrink and crack, which sometimes will yield cool effects (like in the case of the original prop for the Avatar video) but often will just look messy. It’s always good to do a few tests with new materials to understand how they work before applying them to a project you have already invested a lot of work into.

*Make sure that the outer orb is securely fastened to the staff before you pour the resin. If it breaks loose mid-process, it could end up getting really messy!

*Don’t spin the resin filled orb too much, or the light and dark resin will over blend, and you will lose any cool swirling effect that might happen. Make sure you re-fasten the staff to a sturdy object, like a chair or stool, so it won’t fall over and leak while the resin is curing, which could take hours!

*Oh, and after you spin it and secure it back down, remove the clay from the pour hole and fill the air bubble up with more resin! You may need to do this a few times as its curing, since air will find its way out and drop the level of resin away from the hole.

*The tape trick is usually pretty reliable when it comes to cutting tubes. Of course, you need to make sure the end you are starting with is already square! Try to always start with a factory edge. I had a few questions about why I do all my work with hand tools, and honestly, I cut the original prop’s PVC with a chop saw to make it fast and perfect. But I thought it would be good to show techniques that utilize more accessible tools so people just starting out can jump right in. But if you have a garage full of hardware, by all means use the best tool for the job! The easier it is to get through the steps, the more time you can spend finessing the final product!

*Also with the tape technique, don’t try to cut through the pipe straight through from one side. Take a few strokes, rotate the pipe, line your saw along the tape, and repeat until you wrap around to your original cut. This will prevent the blade from straying at an angle, and the shallow groove you cut will actually act as a guide for the blade as it cuts deeper into the pipe.

*I.D. vs. O.D.: I’ve called out the diameter of the many various tubes we used to make the different staff parts, but just know that I am usually referring to the I.D., or inner diameter dimension. When you buy a piece of PVC pipe, the size printed on the side refers to the diameter of the INSIDE of the pipe! So in truth, the actual width of a 2” pipe will be around 2-3/8”. Different states and counties have different building codes, too, so some areas may have thinner or thicker walled PVC. You can also get stock acrylic or styrene tubes from hobby or sign shops, so just keep all that in mind when you are plotting out your materials for this segment.

*Putting the Magic Sculpt in the oven is one of the best tricks ever! It really does make it cure solid in 10 minutes or less! But don’t over heat the oven, or the epoxy will bubble and burn. And, I know the dogs already mentioned this, but DO NOT leave the parts in too long, or the plastic will warp and melt.

*Lastly, for the most fun you can possible have building props, invite Felicia Day over to use power tools! It seriously never gets old!

Okay, so in addition to all the pieces you built last week, here are the materials you will need to do the steps in this installment:

Magic Sculpt Epoxy Putty

Clear casting resin

Resin catalyst

Polyester resin dyes (green and red)

Paper cups

Stir sticks

Two 1-1/2” clear plastic hemispheres

2” PVC pipe

1-1/2” PVC pipe

Cyanoacrylate glue and kicker

Sand paper grits 80, 100, 120, 320, 400

8”x8” piece of 1/8” Sintra plastic

1-1/8” inner diameter plastic tube

Hot glue

Modeling clay

Paper tape, 1”, 1-1/2”, and 2”.

Evergreen styrene stock, various sizes

Primer spray paint

And these are the tools required:

Dremel (Don’t panic, Felicia!)

Dremel bits, preferably sanding drums

Hot glue gun

Fine tooth hobby saw

Xacto with #11 blades

Circle template

Band saw

Rough files (flat and half-round)

Hammer

Small right angle ruler

Sharpie marker

Okay, so I think that covers everything. I really appreciate all the comments, and I look forward to reading more! I’m excited that so many of you have started or are planning on starting your own Codex staff! Send me pictures at gregaronowitz@gmail.com when you are done, and I will post them on this blog. Oh, and I did get a few mentions that the video wasn’t working. We’ve investigated this several times, and can’t seem to find anything wrong. I would just recommend refreshing the browser a few times. But let me know if it keeps happening!

Special thanks again to Felicia, who makes this video worth watching! And to the crew, editor Brad Allen Wilde, cameramen Pax S. Franchot, Brad Allen Wilde, Mike Houghton, Seamus Donahoe, art department Bryan Fulk, Brock Potter, and still photographer Marissa Cuevas.

Some great music in this segment!

The score is excerpts from my movie LABOU, composed by Nathan Wang.

“So Much to Gain” by Guy Harrington, from the LABOU soundtrack.

“Take me Under” by Fallbrooke. You may recall that video…

And of course, “Do You Want to Date My Avatar?” by Felicia Day and Jed Whedon.

Thanks for coming back, and make sure you check out the final installment next week. We will also post the info on how you can have the chance to own Codex’s staff made by Felicia Day herself!

How to Build Codex's Staff Pt.1

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!! I know, I know, so many people hate this holiday because it’s a completely fictitious, commercialized holiday created by the greedy corporations to force everyone into spending money on shallow tokens of love. But, I’m the first to admit that I’m a sucker for commercial holidays! And Valentine’s is one of my favorites! I think any opportunity to express feelings for the ones you love is well worth taking. A dozen roses are fine, but if you want to take the less commercial route, it will probably make a bigger statement! I personally enjoy much more personal sentiments. I’m no expert, but I think things like participating in your loved one’s favorite activity, or making their favorite dessert (even if you despise it!) will always get a bigger smile than a teddy bear or chocolate heart. The more uniquely personal the gift, the better the surprise.

What’s not surprising is how much love fans have for The Guild! That’s why Felicia Day and I cooked up this heart shaped box of laughs for you! I hope it makes your day brighter than any corporate greeting card could!

I know I had a great time filming this. Felicia worked over 12 hours in the shop with me, and we spent most of that time laughing! I swear to you that there was not a single dull moment of footage, but Brad somehow managed to cut it down to three 7-minute segments. I will post the others each a week apart. Believe me, you won’t want to miss the end result! Speaking of which, check out the Part 3 post for details on how you can own the Codex Staff that Felicia made!

I hope you enjoy my first video blog! I have to give very special thanks again to Felicia, for taking the time to do this with me. I always relish any chance I can get to work with her. Felicia is the real deal: rocket scientist smart, movie star beautiful, renaissance talented, laugh out loud funny, and, honestly, the hardest working person I have ever met. Felicia is the sole frontrunner of her career, which spans television, film, web series, comic books, video games, acting, writing, producing, 24 hour a day social networking, and somehow she still finds time to play Xbox till all hours of the night. She makes me feel like a slacker!(And you guys know how many hours I put in!) I consider myself very lucky to have gotten so much of her time for this blog!

Fans of the GUILD are fans of her show because, well, it’s HER show! Felicia Day is on the front line of the future of entertainment. She is really changing people’s minds about how Hollywood should be run, and it’s an honor to even be in the same room as that’s happening.

And for all those who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out The Guild: Season 3 on DVD! It is available tomorrow, February 15^th. If you think this 7 minutes is funny, you may never take that DVD out of your disk drive! It’s the best.

As for the Codex staff, you will need these supplies if you are going to spend your V-Day building what we did for part one:

One 1-1/8 “ wooden dowel, 48” long

Two 6” clear plastic hemispheres

Two 4-1/2” clear plastic hemispheres

Sandpaper, grits 100, 240, 320, 400, 600

Plastic polish, scratch remover

Soft rags or shammies

Green pearlescent spray paint

Cyanoacrylate glue and kicker

One 1-3/4” drywall screw

12”x12” piece of 1/8” Sintra plastic

Magic Sculpt Epoxy putty

Drawing Paper

3M Spray 77 adhesive

Paper tape

And these tools:

Xacto knife with #11 blades

Pencil

Scissors

Ruler

French Curves

Ruled circle template

Dental wax spatula

Files

Cordless Drill

Drill bits

Screw tip

There will be more supplies needed next week, but I guess we’ll take this one step at a time. Alright, no sense doing all this typing when there’s video to watch! As always, feel free to ask me any questions about the process in the comment section. Enjoy, and I hope to see you back next week! Oh, and save me some of those chocolate covered strawberries…c’mon, you can hate the holiday, but you know you love those strawberries!

Credits:

Guest Director: Sean Becker

The legendary director of THE GUILD dropped by to say hi, and was kind enough to stick around for the first few hours to help me put all the pieces of the puzzle together. My head was spinning, and Sean’s presence and suggestions got things off to a great start. Thanks!

Camera Crew: Pax S. Franchot, Brad Allen Wilde, Mike Houghton, Seamus Donahoe

These guys lit the set and helmed what ended up being a 4-camera shoot!

Editor: Brad Allen Wilde

Brad couldn’t stay for the whole shoot cause he had a film playing in a festival, so he was shocked to come back and find over 20 tapes worth of footage! Mike digitized it all, then Brad tirelessly spent the next week whittling it down to what you are watching. If I can convince him to give me another day, there might even be an out takes reel posted!

Art Department: Bryan Fulk, Brock Potter

Originally, I was going to film this blog like a cooking show, where Felicia would start a part, then these two guys would finish it off camera as I introduced the next part. I thought it would save time. But Felicia was so into it, she actually followed through on all the work herself! So these guys help shave some time off by making sure we had everything we needed standing by, and they both even jumped in to man a camera from time to time!

Still Photography: Marissa Cuevas

When she isn’t busy being a movie star, Marissa loves taking pictures. She stood by all day and grabbed some great moments, along with a complete step by step of the process, which I will post at a later date.

Music:

“Do You Want To Date My Avatar? “

By Felicia Day and Jed Whedon

“Losin’ It”

By Fallbrooke http://fallbrooke.com