Bits and Pieces...

If you read my last installment of the blog, you're aware that I made a trip out to the West Coast for Comic-Con.  Well, after leaving the Con we traveled up north to Oregon to see my family.  But this trip was more than a vacation, it was also a research trip for my newest project, "Slide", which takes place in a lumberjack town, high in the mountains.

As you may know, it's very common for the Disney studio to send concept artists and designers out to far-off locations to do research and preliminary sketches to create a film's environment and mood.  Well, this is what I did - Sandrine and I reserved a 3-night stay in remote Detroit Lake in Oregon, about 40 miles from the state's capital, Salem. 

Although, with a name like Detroit Lake, I expected run-down factories and burnt-out houses - and surprisingly that's close to what I found.  Even though the scenery is gorgeous, with miles and miles of evergreen trees and a crystal-clear lake.  But when I went to one of the few grocery stores, their basic selection consisted of beer, beef jerky and chips - I never knew there were so many choices in chips.  And the customers all looked like refugees from "Twin Peaks".  And sure enough, there were rusted warehouses and burnt-down houses.  What a contradiction between the poverty and the natural beauty of this place. 

In any case, we hiked to a nude hot springs, to sit in a hollowed-out log, and we were so overwhelmed by the beauty of the place.  We got more than enough photos and ideas for the logging village scenes, so much that I can't wait to get started with the backgrounds and storyboards for "Slide".  Here are some photos from the Oregon trip:

A couple of screening notes:

"Cop Dog" is going to screen at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles, which runs August 10-19.  Then it's going to have its theatrical premiere in L.A. at the NuArt Theater for one week, starting on August 18. It's going to screen in front of the feature "Lemon", which will help qualify it for the Academy Awards, so we're very excited. 

And then in September, we're going to screen "Revengeance", my new feature co-directed with Jim Lujan, in a FREE sneak preview at the SVA Cinema in New York, on September 13 at 7 pm. 

Watch for more info on these events on my social media channels - and please help us out by forwarding our tweets and Facebook posts - or let your friends know about them via e-mail or even in person.  I won't be at the L.A. screenings but I will be there at the SVA screening in New York to give a seminar in independent animation.  Be there or be trapezoid! 

--Bill P.