Frank & Zed: All Puppet Monster Movie (Feature Length!)
Created by Jesse Blanchard
The first all hand-puppet movie in 30 years needs your help. Practical effects, zombies, monsters, and tons of gore -It's 90% done!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Practical Magic - Creating the Storm Cloud
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 01:21:39 AM
Hello There!
How can I __________?
This fill-in-the-blank question has dominated every step of this film. Recently, I was asking myself: How can I create a Thunderstorm? The answer: Cloud Tank!
Cloud Tank: Practical Storm Cloud Effect
A cloud tank is technique that dates back to Charlton Heston and the Ten Commandments for creating storms and weather. You've seen it in tons of pre-CGI movies from Ghostbusters to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
We decided to use this for the Thunderstorm on Frank & Zed. Once we did, a whole slew of new 'How can I' came into effect. (How can I purchase 20lbs of salt? How can I drill a hole in glass? How do I light and focus on something that isn't there?)
Tank set-up with wiffle ball for focus and lighting
To create this effect, you fill a tank halfway with salt water and then, very carefully, pour freshwater on top. If you do it just right, the two layers won't mix. Then when you shoot a liquid (heavy cream in our case) into the top layer it stays above the salt water giving the effect of a cloud forming.
What do you think? The above is just the begging of the effect.
Finishing up insert shots
Jason and The Priest plot murder.
The film continues, as always, to go way better than I expected and way slower. Thank you so much for your patience. We are getting close!
Jesse
New Quartet Scene in the Can and Final Frank shot?
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 01:47:46 AM
Hey There Everyone!
Lots of great progress over the past two months. Of course, the big news is we screened a roughcut of the film for the cast & crew. It was great finally seeing the film up on the bigscreen.
Since then, we've been tackling lots of inserts shots as well as getting started on the final sound and visual effects.
Lance tweaks the chair mech.
We finally got shots of the 'starting mech' for Frank's chair.
We've also added a whole new scene with the Quartet (of Shine fame). I decided I wanted to bring them in a little earlier in the film to fill the audience in on the story and give us a couple laughs.
The numbers at the bottom are Timecode which we use as a reference when working on the film.
Last set-up with Frank?
Finally, in another potential milestone, I peeled off a couple insert shots of Frank. After wrapping I realized that this may be the final shots for our star? Is his four year film career at an end? Bittersweet indeed.
Thanks so much for your patience, I promise it will be worth the wait.
Jesse
Cast & Crew Screening Next Week! You're invited
almost 8 years ago
– Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 12:06:14 AM
Hello Again,
We are one short week away from our cast screening. All of you lovely people are invited to attend.
I can't make it to Portland; I live in the Netherlands for F#cks sake! Is it done? When do we get our Blu-Rays?!
You have every right to ask and the short answer is: I don't know...but, we're getting close. I committed to the screening next week in part to help push the film faster. It's worked really well and we have made tremendous progress in the last months.
Frank's Heart Mech - A new insert shot
Land Lord backer Sci-Fi-Sci-Earth's Decrepit Windmill!
Still to do is the original score, visual effects, and lots and lots of sound. Everything continues to go really well but really slow. Thank you for being so patient. I'm very excited that those of you that make it next week will get a look at everything we've done.
More good stuff to come!
Jesse
Surprise Screening Of Frank & Zed Roughcut, April 19th. You're Invited!
almost 8 years ago
– Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 09:30:24 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
More Miniatures
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Mar 05, 2018 at 10:42:51 PM
Hey Gang!
A few nights ago, I was hard at work on the Miniatures for Murder Village alongside Jason Ropp and Erin DeBray and I realized that this was an evening I had been looking forward to for four years!
It has been super-fun bringing this little town of blood to life.
The Krampus Temple arises in the background!
We've also added more layers of detail to the Moroi's (formerly Dark Maker) castle including the gargoyle, mountains, and the beginings of the Feral Wood.
...of purple mountains majesty...
Gargoyles!
Wanna get a gargoyle for yourself? There's still time, check out our work-in-progress Backerkit Store here.
