CoopCam Studios News

It's done!! I finished the film last week and we had a small premiere in the newly renovated Trumbull TV room! It went really well... it seemed like everyone enjoyed the film and many people have said it's my best work yet. I hope everyone agrees because I put so, so much effort into it. Now I'm going to "tour" the film around a little... haha. What I mean is I'll go to boston and watch it with Kohta and Athena and some others there... Then maybe I'll hit nyc. Also, my hometown of Naugatuck, of course.

Unfortunately most of the cast is spread out all over the country. The good news is that I've already done the DVD! (complete with 20 minutes of outtakes!!) so I will be making copies and sending them out to cast and whoever wants them. Here's an image of the DVD insert:



The next step is to wipe the soundtrack (since I used commercial music) and do an original score, use music done by friends, and maybe work in some public domain stuff. Then I will upload the film in episodes. I'm not sure if I should upload to youtube or to one of its competitors... we shall see...

Other than that, I've got like half a dozen short projects lined up for the summer and the possibility of becoming an editor for a TV show on car customization! A lot of things are still up in the air but one thing's for sure... expect to see a Beach Cops 2!!

Well, well, well... I'm nearing the end! I'm currently editing the climax of the movie, which is fun and exciting but... also filmed out of order. Which means I have a ton of footage on different tapes which I will have to sort through. I must say that I am quite pleased with how things are looking and I'm hoping to actually have the film done perhaps next weekend -- as long as law school doesn't get in the way too much. In case anyone hasn't seen it already, here is another sneak peek clip!



In other news, my friends Arun and Lina just recently put on a fashion show for Commons, their new line of "green couture" and I filmed and edited footage of the show. It was a good experience and a fun addition to my portfolio. It feels good to look at my youtube page and see that I've amassed a pretty large body of work in a relatively short amount of time, especially considering that I've been working on the Ryuken films all the while.

In even bigger news (for me, anyway) I might be getting some corporate funding from Scion to do a series of short films for them, promoting their cars and the next Bounty Hunter event. I've done a rough draft of the first screenplay already and I'm just waiting for a go-ahead from corporate to do a rough, low-budget version of one of the films. They said they could give me a couple grand just for the rough version, so that's pretty exciting already! I'm hoping it all comes together for the summer -- it would definitely keep me busy!

I finally decided to upload my original attempt at an action flick to youtube... I made this back in my Jr. year and it was my final project for the first film production class I ever took. It holds a special place in my heart because all the EP's are in it (Bianca, Farley, Nick, and me) and it kind of capped off the crazy year we had together. Also, we spent 3 days on the fight scene alone so it is actually one of the more elaborate ones i've shot to date, even though it was the first. Sadly, I didn't know much about sound effects at the time so I used some sounds from a cheesy Bruce Lee video game, hahaha... The story is a little ridiculous, I know, but hey... in my defense we were only given 3 weeks to write, rehearse, shoot, and edit!

here it is, split up into 2 parts... Enjoy!

Well, I've gotten to about 25% done with postproduction on Ryuken 2 and it's really starting to come together. It's been taking me a while, I know, but I want to make sure I don't half-ass any scenes like I did with the original. In the meantime, I've uploaded a sneak peek clip of one of the fight scenes I've finished so far:



In other coopcam news, I've founded a Naugy Film Workshop with some of the guys from my homnetown. Our group consists of writers, actors, an awesome music composer, and a cgi special effects guy... We've started throwing some short film ideas around and will soon decide on a project to collaborate on... or projects, rather.

In order to fund our endeavors, I'm thinking of registering CoopCam Studios with the state as an LLC or partnership and getting some business credit cards. Hopefully that will help us to get some higher quality production equipment and give us the time to pay it off later

Finally, I've finished the trailer for my upcoming action/comedy/film noir/western, Ryuken 2! Check it out here on livejournal, or on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5bd3MN9ms

you can even find it on my facebook profile page! Enjoy!

So! Looks like I can't host my site on my own computer anymore ever since I changed ISPs. Therefore, until I find a server to upload all of my pics and files to, I'll be using this blog as my main Coopcam site. If you'd like to watch any of my videos just check out the link below to my YouTube channel. Enjoy!

The Program - Starring Farley and Chris Letton - is done! It's just 5 minutes long but I think it's one of my best shorts yet. The special effects made the editing go very slowly, but I finally managed to finish it... And just in time to submit it to the 1st annual CT Film Festival! This is my first serious film festival submission and I'm really hoping it gets selected to be screened. I entered it as a student film since I was still a film student when I shot it.

I also entered Beach Cops! Haha. Anyway, for more details on the festival, check out http://ctfilmfest.com

I'm also going to submit it to http://thelot.com

I'm not going to post the film itself online just yet, but here's the trailer in case you haven't seen it yet. (the title used to be Player One)

Derrick (my long time buddy and CT radio DJ at 98.3 and kiss 95.7) and I were chosen to be one of 8 finalist teams to compete in the Scion bounty hunters contest for Scion owners! (i drive a Scion tC)

This means that during the week of Sep 10 - 16 we're gonna road trip from DC to NY, tackling challenges and finding clues to lead us to the missing Scion - with $10,000 in the trunk!

The whole contest is also being filmed... probably for the internet but possibly for other promotional venues (maybe TV?!)

check out details about the contest at http://www.scion.com/scionxbountyhunters/

and check out our winning video

During the first week of August, 2005, I visited my buddy Kyle as I always do during that time of year at the beach house that his family rents in RI. We decided, somewhat on a whim, to film a movie. Our other friends Derrick, Mike, Kiersten, and Amy were all there as well.

And so it goes that I sat on the beach and penciled out a script in Kyle's school notebook. He approved, and thus Beach Cops was born.

We set out to shoot, but we didn't have much time. Derrick would have to leave in just a few hours. Undaunted, we ran around the beach like maniacs, grabbing the bare minimum of shots needed. We had to cut a few corners here and there, but we did it. More or less. There was one scene, however, that we never did end up filming...

Flash forward one year.

August, 2006. We're back on the beach in RI. The Beach Cops footage has been sitting on my shelf, gathering dust. But we haven't forgotten it! We finally finish that last damn scene and I've spent the last week or so editing it into one heck of a hazardous situation. Check it out!

Last friday I went down to the parking garage in my building to shoot scene 22 of Ryuken 2, with Joe and Tones, with Melissa there to offer input and throw out some helpful directorial ideas.

First, we rehearsed the lines a few times upstairs. I think this was really helpful for the actors to feel more relaxed. Then when we got down there I was quite happy with their performances. We went through a ton of cigarettes, so maybe I should try to reimburse Tones for those. Joe really stepped up the acting from the first movie, coming up with small expressions that really made the whole mood come across and the bad-ass-ness of Boss Kurita come through.

Melissa some good feedback on dialogue improvements, and the actors felt much better with what they were saying, which I think also contributed to the great performances. We didn't run into too many problems, though the lighting was somewhat poor down there. Even so, it was enough for my little handycam to get the job done. We weren't sure how exactly to have Joe shoot Tones before getting shot himself. Melissa came up with the idea of having Boss Kurita physically bat the gun away to the side, which i think worked out very well. Tones decided he would try yelling out "you bastard!" as he tried to shoot, but I eventually cut the line because it didn't quite work when we took out the lunge and went with more of a close encounter.

I finished editing the scene already, using some special effects to make it look like Sin City. I even added in some blood effects using Photoshop. The freeze frame when Tones gets shot is kind of an idea taken from most anime. It came out better than expected. I'll have it added to the main page of the site later tonight. I'll also hopefully get to work on an official Ryuken 2 webpage soon, though my trip to Miami may get in the way ;)

for now, a variation on the scene has been uploaded to Bolt.com and has been entered in their 1 minute Film Festival. It's already gotten some positive feedback! Check it out!



In other news, I'm entering Universal Studios's Slug It Out contest. http://www.slithermovie.net/slugitout/index.php
Basically, they provide you with clips and sounds from their upcoming B-horror movie, Slither, and you make a 30 second TV Spot with them! If they choose your spot as the grand prize winner, you get $25,000!

The deadline is tomorrow night, so I will be editing alot tonight. If I win I can finally get some professional quality equipment! Then maybe Coopcam Studios will become legit!

Finally, it seems almost all of the props and costumes I've ordered for Ryuken 2 have come in. I'm just waiting on some police tape and a tactical vest from http://www.copquest.com. I've already gotten the buster sword, guns, duster jackets, an inmate jumpsuit, handcuffs, and more! It's kind of cool seeing these parts of my movie coming together.

Well, I'm nearly done with the script! I'm at the end of the climax, leaving just 2 scenes left after that. I've taken my time with this one, even pushing back filming by 2 weeks while I rewrite sections and change ideas about how the movie unfolds. I think the film will be much better for it and I'm really happy right now with the balance of action, comedy, and drama. The cast has ballooned up to 20 members but most characters only make brief appearances so I think it will be manageable.

Tomorrow I'll put the 600 bucks of funding I got from Yale to good use and order some props and costumes, including a peacemaker and a replica of cloud's buster sword!

In other news, Monday's episode of Help My Patients is going to be really funny (i just finished editing it) so be sure to check it out! If you haven't been keeping up with the series you can always check out older sessions on http://www.helpmypatients.com to give you a better feel for the characters. The new episode should be up after 8 AM tomorrow.

I just entered Boltfolio.com's 1 Minute Film Festival! I didn't have any films that short, so I made a music video of Saturday Night Underground which pretty much sums up the whole film in just a minute! I used the song "A Few Good Men" by The Desert Crew (my old roommate Ameer's hip-hop group). Anyway, if anyone has the chance it'd be awesome if you register on boltfolio and give my film a high rating! (if you like it, of course) They give away prizes for the highest rated films of every genre and the grand prize winner gets 5,000 bucks! Man, if I had that money I could finally get a nice camcorder! Ok well here's a link to the film. Enjoy!



and no... i don't know why boltfolio keeps using that image from "kickin it in the butt" for the link to every video i upload now....

I've discovered that YouTube.com is a truly amazing site. It allows you to upload as many videos as you want as long as they're smaller than 100 mb! So amazing! I've already got 2 on One, the Player One trailer, and the Beach Cops trailer uploaded, as well as the entirety of Saturday Night Underground!

Better yet, members of the site can also comment on and rate the videos that they watch! What a great way to get feedback! and a ton of people watch videos on this site, seeing as Saturday Night Underground has been viewed 120 times in just a few days.

So, if you're interested, you should totally join YouTube! And while you're at it, rate my films!

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Coopdog

Take a close look and you'll notice I added a links section to this livejournal. I also added a few new ones to my coopcam studios home page. then, i joined myspace and i added some links there. i included not just coopcam studios, but the other internet things ive been involved with. namely, the vlog at helpmypatients.com and the podcast i occassionaly take part in at geekexperience.com.

turns out the myspace film thing isn't quite up and running yet. they've got a ton of problems like having to create a new profile to sign up as a filmmaker and only being able to play videos in windows media format, which sucks. i think i'll hold off on joining it for a while. in the meantime, i really should work on this paper....

Check it out! I've finally added the Beach Cops trailer to my Boltfolio! the only reason why it took me this long was because i originally filmed and exported it in widescreen, but boltfolio doesn't support that aspect ratio. so i had to stick it into a normal video 4:3 aspect ration but when i tried doing that it would just squeeze the picture vertically to make up the difference, rather than just leave black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (the way it does when you watch a widescreen movie on your tv set). eventually after a while of playing around with the settings on final cut i was able to fix it the way i liked it and here we are now. why boltfolio attached an image from one of my other videos to the link, i cannot fathom... but oh well, here it is.


oh, and i just spotted this film festival thing they're having on myspace.com! why didn't anyone tell me? now i'll have to finally give in and join myspace. but hey, that's cool. soon, coopcam studios films will take over the internet! mwuhahaha!

anyway, if you check out any of my videos on boltfolio, be sure to add feedback and whatnot! that way more people will get to see it. hmm, you might have to become a member to do that, but hey... its free!

ok so i lied. i went and changed my site yet again. i decided to drop the whole "digitalronin" thing and leave it as coopcam studios. instead of using that picture of a ronin, i drew a similar picture using Uriel, the main character of my graphic novel, Rapture (which i will hopefully get to work on this summer)

anyway, i really like the way the picture came out with the flaming sword and the glowing fist and all. and i wasn't a big fan of the green i used in the last incarnation of the site, so i went back to a black/white/red color scheme. i also uploaded the picture to show off on boltfolio.

i've finally finished the new layout for my site. the only new thing i added tonight was a new welcome page. it should load faster now because it doesn't use that huge background image anymore. instead, it features one image that includes some of my favorite snapshots from my films. actually, i wish i could have included snapshots from a larger variety of my movies, since most of them came from ryuken and saturday night underground, but i didnt have uncompressed versions of many of my films on my harddrive anymore. i wouldn't have been able to get any resolution worth working with for the images. but oh well, hopefully no one will be too offended that they aren't on the welcome page.

i got the idea from http://chooseyourscandal.tk , my friend Lina's site for her ultra ambitious interactive soap opera show, which i recently helped with by shooting, directing, and editing two of the scenes from the first episode.

that site's image is a little cooler because they put different color filters on each snapshot, but i kind of wanted to just go with a color vs black and white theme. i think it came out pretty nice. check it out! http://www.coopcamstudios.com

alright, i finally made the switch to the new layout! hopefully the site will be loading much faster now and im pretty happy with the way the home page, films page, and trailers page all have the same look.

i havent changed the welcome page yet... i suppose i should do that at some point.

im playing around with the name digitalRONIN productions... i kinda like it. we'll see how it works out.

ugh! i spent all this time working on the site and ive got like nothing done for school! i have a ton of homework and haven't even looked at it yet... and i still have to edit today's episode of helpmypatients ( http://www.helpmypatients.com )

eh, at least im done with this now http://www.coopcamstudios.com

Okay so I stumbled upon this site, www.tomatopatch.com, which doesn't seem to be up and running anymore. Looks like it used to have something to do with short films, though. anyway, i thought the design was really kind of cool and it inspired me to change the layout of my current website.

ok so the old layout is still up at www.coopcamstudios.com, but ive got a sample homepage for my new layout at http://64.252.23.115/%7Eapple/newcoop2.htm

one of the main points was to make it so that i could work the google ads in there in a way that makes sense, and so that they're someplace people can see them. if you click on them, i get money!

at any rate, what do you guys think? joe seems to think im going in the right direction but melissa and derrick said they like the old layout better.

im thinking of changing it so its more dominated by a picture of a samurai that i draw myself.. kind of like the tomatopatch page. would that look better?

I just joined a totally sweet blog site thingy called uhh what is it... Boltfolio! it allows you to post videos, so i'm going to start uploading my trailers and stuff there, too. Player One has been added already... any ideas for a new title for that, by the way?

I'll add beach cops tomorrow.