Below is a little peek at just what kind of work goes into creating Moonlight Art Magazine, and why each issue take so much time. This is a speed sculpt of a Cthulhu creature for the first installment of my comic book story, Negative, which will be featured in issue #2. Yes, it's a very typical Cthulhu design, but Cthulhu is just so Cthool! What? It's my magazine and it's gonna be free to download, so don't complain.
I am sad to announce that due to creative differences, that I
Christopher "Moonlight" Cooksey (artist, production designer, and visual
effects artist) am parting ways in all of my creative capacities with
Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey, and will no longer be actively
involved in the project. I would like to wish Michael O'Kelly and the
rest of the producers on this project well, and hope that the next
chapters in the completion of this documentary are as enjoyable and
fruitful to them, as they are worthy of the name Ray Bradbury. I thank
each and every person involved in this project for the opportunity and
honor of being a part of it for so long. Ray Bradbury will always be one
of my heroes, and it is my hope that his legacy shines as brightly as
possible for as long as human beings draw breath in the universe. God
bless you all, and may you live forever.
Read interviews with Eisner
Award nominee David Mack, Eisner winner Eddie Campbell, Billy Martinez,
Christy Lee Rogers, and Oscar winning special effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr.
Also, the first installment of the comic book story, The Temp, written
by Frank Kane and illustrated by Christopher Moonlight and updates on
the indie films, coming from Christopher Moonlight Productions, which include My Little Zombie, Girl In The Window, and a collaboration with Michael O'Kelly Productions on the authorized documentary, Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey. Download it for free.
Special thanks to original MAM staff member Beth Ashby (www.fotojedi.com)
Contains depictions of artistic nudity. Reader discretion is advised.
I am happy to announce that Christopher Moonlight Productions has decided to stand behind Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. (ADI) to help promote the Kickstarter for their movie, Harbinger Down. It will be directed by ADI's own Alec Gillis and produced by Tom Woodruff Jr. It will star the amazing Lance Henriksen.
This is a project of passion for everyone and that's why we've thrown our support behind it. The money will go towards creating the same caliber of practical effects that won Gills and Woodruff the Academy Award for Death Becomes Her and also got them nominated for and Oscar for Alien 3. They are asking for $350,000.00 which must be raise by June 7th, 2013. This may sound like a lot of money, but in a world where movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, it's really nothing. I'll post the press release below, but I want to say that on a personal level, I really care about this project. It means a great deal to me that there are creators like Alec and Tom, who are not in this for the money but for the joy of realizing their art. They need it. We need it. Why? Because work like this is not a means to an end. It exists for its own sake. Like all art, it is meant to fill our lives and bring us together, like a tribe gathering around a fire to hear the elder tell tales in the dark, and not put money in the pockets of investors, who don't care what the final product is, as long as they get theirs. So, if you are the kind of person who believes that the meaning of life is to make it as full and happy for all, as you can, please do so by joining us in pledging to this project.
...and now, a small sample of the incredible amount of work that has already gone into this project:
...and my own contributions to the cause:
...and here's how we did it:
Academy Award-Winning Team Attempts to Resurrect Lost Art of Classic Horror Film Through Launching Kickstarter Campaign
In the spirit of classic films such as Alien and The Thing, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. aspire to bring “Harbinger Down” to the silver screen with the help of fan support for their independent project
LOS ANGELES, CA – Academy Award-winning Visual Effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., co-founders of Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.) have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their science fiction/horror film celebrating animatronics and makeup FX, “Harbinger Down,” to the silver screen. Gillis and Woodruff hope fans are excited to help not only make a new horror classic, but also to uplift an art form. The filmmakers’ goal is to raise $350,000 from fan support via the Kickstarter campaign by June 7, 2013 to get the project off the ground.
Harbinger Down, set to star notable sci-fi and horror film actor Lance Henriksen, depicts a group of grad students have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things quickly become deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. After being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship.
“Animatronics and Makeup FX have been utilized less frequently in recent films, but this is not because of audience disinterest,” announced Gillis, who will write and direct the film. “In the spirit of sci-fi/horror classics, Alien and The Thing, Harbinger Down is a tense, claustrophobic full-length creature film that will feature only practical Animatronics and Makeup Effects. Fans of the art of Animatronics and Makeup FX know this technique is currently overlooked by the big studios; I'm hoping the fans will help us remedy that by supporting this labor of love.”
“Our company, Amalgamated Dynamics, will create the kind of Oscar caliber Creature Effects for which we are known,” commented Woodruff, who will produce, along with Studio ADI’s Jennifer Tung. “Traditional techniques still have a place in modern genre films. We didn’t give up painting, when cameras were invented.”
Gillis and Woodruff have over 60 years of experience between them and have worked with many top filmmakers, including James Cameron, David Fincher, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp, Robert Zemeckis, Joe Johnston, Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols just to name a few. The filmmakers are utilizing Kickstarter to ask supporters of “old-school” visual effects to give them the opportunity to show it.
Contributors to the Harbinger Down Kickstarter Campaign will receive unique, amazing, thrilling, one-of-a-kind incentives for supporting the project. More details about the project can be found on the Harbinger Down Kickstarter website: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1117671683/harbinger-down-a-practical-creature-fx-film
About Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.)
Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. was founded by Academy Award winning creators of special characters and character effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. Calling upon a diverse range of talents and techniques, Studio ADI creates prosthetic make-ups, animatronic puppets, actor duplicates and replica animals. With over twenty years of professional experience, we bring “real” character effects to the set to interact with the actors, lighting and practical atmosphere. We pride ourselves on working with the industry’s leading Computer-generated imagery (CGI) companies to find the right balance of digital and practical effects. For more information and a resume of work on past productions, visit the Studio ADI website: http://www.studioadi.com/ or, the Studio ADI YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/studioADI
For Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey (liveforeverthemovie.com/) I had to show Ray's childhood monster, The Groon, which
he used to imagine seeing at the top of the stairs, late at night. The
solution was to build a rod puppet, which was then shot against a green
screen, and added to footage of a staircase, shot by Scott Smith (lighthousevideoservices.com) under the direction of Micheal O'Kelly. O'Kelly and smith were also responsible for videoing child actor Zachary Meade (imdb.com/name/nm5282501/)
against a green screen for me to composite with the other footage for
the final moment in the film.
Watch until the end for a special comment
from Malcolm McDowell.
Music by Bartok, Roumanian Dance No. 1 musopen.org/
If you have trouble viewing this video CLICK HERE for the You Tube version.
I was in Austin at the time of this opening, but it's nice to see how well received the film was.
These are interviews with Michael O'Kelly, Malcolm McDowell, Joe Mantegna, and many more:
"That creature that they did on the stairs. They did a great job with the effects, I mean, for what this costs, I mean, it's a staggering piece of art. It's a living piece of art. It really is. I must say."
~Malcolm McDowell, talking about the puppet and visual effects I did for Live Forever.
Special thanks to Malcolm McDowell for acknowledging the visual effects I did, at the 10:35 mark of this video.
You can see some of the VFX he was talking about here:
Some of my earliest desires to take part in the world of comic books, were because of my time spent anticipating the next issues of The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by (for that run) Jill Thompson, and with beautiful cover artwork by one of my very favorite artists, Dave McKean. I related to these comic books, not because of the magical beings inside their pages, but because of the misfits, whom from my point of view, were much like me. There I was, 16 years old, with Robert Smith/Edward Scissorhands hair (much like Dream, I was happy to see) reading stories where the "freaks" acted like real people, with thoughts, feelings, humor, and souls, that I knew I and my outcast friends had inside us, just like everyone else. It was very refreshing to my young mind. So, when the opportunity came along to submit artwork for this year's San Diego Comic Con 2013 souvenir book, for the 25th anniversary of the first Sandman comic, I felt it was only natural to do this piece. I owned it to that young reader who is the foundation for the man I am today.
...and I thought an animated GIF might be fun to throw in, too.
Having trouble viewing the Vimeo version? Watch the You Tube version by CLICKING HERE.
It's been a busy and trying year for
Christopher Moonlight Productions, with the completion of the Michael
O'Kelly directed documentary, Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey and
the production wrap of my all green screen sci-fi short film, Girl In The Window (directed by Christopher Cooksey and Jeremy Hanes... now in
post) but I wanted to make sure and get a few examples of my work on the
web for 2013. Also on the way, Moonlight Art Magazine, featuring
interviews and comics, which I show some of the pages of in this video, and at the bottom of this post.
Thank you to Rich Goddard, who originally taught me how to use After
Effects, and is always there to talk through the creative process with
me. I couldn't have done it without him. Also, to Jeremy Hanes for being
a brilliant an invaluable co-director. Also, to Michael O'Kelly for
giving me permission to use footage from his authorized documentary
about his friend Ray Bradbury in my reel.
Special thanks also go to associate producers Jennifer Lewis, Jack Ritchie, Jackie Estrada, Batton Lash, Jonathan Levit, Heather Lowe,
Michael T Malve, Cindy Ventrice-Pearson's son Hunter, and Courtenay
Stallings.
