CM Productions: Busy As Ever

Things are moving along, faster than we can keep track of, so look for a lot more from us, coming soon. As you can see from the picture below, things are progressing nicely with Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey. Also check out Variety's mention of me, in THIS ARTICLE announcing the movies winter release.There's also News Blaze.

In these photos: Live Forever producer and writer Michael O'Kelly with Edward James Olmos, Devin O'Kelly (Michal's son), with actor Jeremy Hanes, and Malcolm McDowell. Joe Mantegna at the green screen studio. Michael O'Kelly with Jeremy Hanes.

Also in Production, Girl In The Window. I'm directing this one myself, and it stars (in order of photos) the bad ass Jeremy Hanes, the multifaceted Michael A. Thomson, and the ridiculously good looking Christopher Moonlight. Who writes this stuff? Oh yeah! Me.

Girl In The Window has almost wrapped production, and will be going  into post in July. It will be an all green screen, R rated, sci-fi, short film, integrating models, puppets, and computer effects.

Note: All photos have been enhanced by me.

RIP: Ray Bradbury 1920 - Forever

Today, the summer morning felt like October, Venus crossed the
sun, and a poet of a story teller has died.

Ray Bradbury.

He was the first author that I ever read that made me realize that books could be more than
just entertaining stories. When I picked up my dad's paperback copy of The
Martian Chronicles, as a kid, I realized that a books could speak to you
about your own inner thoughts and feelings. They could show you that it
meant something to have integrity, aspire to ideals, that you weren't alone
in your fears, and that we could live in a world of higher value than what
reality television, corrupt politicians, willfully ignorant people, tabloids, and cell
phone dependency had to offer.

 On one of the many times I met him, he said, "I charge you with making sure

that we go out into the stars, and continue on." He cared about what
happened to us, as a people, and knew that it was all in our own hands.



 For the past three years, I have been privileged and honored to work as
production designer and effects supervisor on the documentary about his
life. A movie, that he told his close friend and producer of the film,
Michael O'Kelly, will be, "The fireworks at the end of my life."

Even though he did see much of my work for the film, I am very sorry that he
did not live to see the finished product. I really wanted him to. I wanted
to know, that after he charged us with such great responsibility, that he
would see it, and be proud, not only of us, but of himself for showing us
all, that through our works and our deeds, and our desire to make the human
race a better one, that we can all Live Forever.

CLICK HERE for more about our work with Ray.

 "Would you not admit, child, that forty billion deaths are a great wisdom, and those forty billion who shelve under the earth are a great gift to the living so that they might live?"


-Ray Bradbury

From The Dust Returned 

Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey (Extended Trailer)

This is (as the title says) an extended trailer for the documentary Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey about the life of the writer, himself. Originally it was to be a short film, boiling down his life into fifteen minute for the You Tube Your Film Festival. Due to what was felt to be very one sided contest rules, dealing with ownership, it was decided not to enter to contest, so the movie was re-edited into what you see here.

 (Sorry, we had to take it down, due to re-editing. It'll be back soon.) 

Unfortunately, the continuity of the effects I created were meant for a short film, so they aren't entirely what I would have done for an extended trailer. However, now there is this sizzle reel, which shows (somewhat) what I had originally intended for the individual scenes, and their continuity.

(Sorry, we had to take it down, due to re-editing. It'll be back soon.) 

 This project was done on a micro budget, and wouldn't have been possible without the help of some super talented artists and producers, who's photos are below. I'll try to explain these photos, the best I can.
Here is producer Summer Potter, sitting on stage with Mr. Electrico (Dave Grave) projected behind her. Summer was a major contributor to the production, and did many thing to keep it from stalling.
Here's me (Christopher Moonlight) with Live Forever creator, writer, producer, and good friend of Ray Bradbury, Michael O'Kelly. What are we doing? Trying to figure out why his Mac isn't working how it's supposed to. Seriously, that took up half the production time.

 ...and this dapper fellow (he's single, ladies) is the AMAZING Rich Goddard, who acted as FX supervisor for the video portion of the original stage play, and consultant to me, for the extended trailer. He's a little camera shy, so this is the only photo I have of him.
Here is Mr. Electrico himself, Mr. Dave Grave. Not only is he front man for the death rock band Frankenstein, the builder of that epic Ferris wheel you see in all the videos, the actor who plays Mr. Electrico, but he's also a fantastic grip. Oh, and we shot all the green screen at his home.
These sketches are an example of Dave's mad genius. I give him the simple task of building a spooky old Ferris wheel, and suddenly I'm getting page after page of notes and design ideas. If you want a model builder who can take an idea and run, and run, and run with it. Get Dave Grave.
  Jeremy Hanes (who is first and foremost and actor) was also instrumental in the production of this project, working as director of photography, sound recording engineer, and stand in actor. Like Rich and Dave, I couldn't have made this project happen without him.
Here's some more on set silliness for you, (makes a great desktop) of us sitting behind the fish tank that was used for all of our puppeteer work, as well as the dining room chair that was converted, using cardboard, into Mr. Electrico's electric chair. I know, it's way budget, but did you notice, when watching the video? I don't think you can honestly say you did.

For all the extended behind the scenes work, click here and scroll down. Being resourceful on a budget is my specialty, and the specialty of all of my crew. There's plenty of videos, photos, and links that will show you just how brilliant they are. You can also read news stories on the project HERE and HERE. Enjoy.

Cartooning for Passport To Explore (The TV Show)

A while back I had the honor of doing some cartoon designs, to be turned into cartoon segments, for the TV teen travel show, Passport To Explore... or PTX for short. I also designed the basic outline for their logo, which their animator added an earth behind, and the lettering.

Because the budget was extremely low per episode, I couldn't financially justify spending a lot of time on background paintings or cartoon people, who were only going to appear on screen for about 30 seconds, in between segments. I had to play it down and dirty, creating characters with interchangeable limbs so that the After Effects animator could make them do what the script called for, in a short amount of time.

Backgrounds, believe it or not, are easier for me to paint, rather than draw and put into photo shop for coloring. Again, they had to be painted fast and lose. In many cases, the concept drawing was what I painted over, to save time, using water colors, ink, pastels, and acrylic. When it cam to references Google Images was my friend.
Check out below, where I had to tell the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken, pioneered by Colonel Harland Sanders.

...and here are a few more of my favorite images from the show.

Special thanks go out to my wonderful intern at the time, Rebecca Kim. I couldn't have done it without her, scanning all of this stuff, and helping out with the Photoshop coloring.

Christopher Moonlight Productions Sizzle Reel for 2012

Christopher Moonlight 2012 Show Reel from Christopher (Moonlight) Cooksey on Vimeo.


This is my Sizzle Reel for the first part of 2012. It contains scenes from my upcoming short film Girl In The Window, staring Jeremy Hanes. I also hope it shows my skills as a production designer, digital composite artist, matte painter, model builder, and puppeteer... just to name a few. I've worn many hats and my only regret is that I couldn't put the other two thirds of the projects I've been working on, in it. I'd like to submit (in this post) a few stills of the models and puppets I've built, so you can spend a little more time looking at them. I find its always best (for me) to find practical solutions to visual effects challenges first, and let the computer be there to enhance what those solutions are. When working on a budget, I find that the blend can be better than satisfying.

e mail me:
christophermoonlight (at) gmail (dot) com

Be sure to "Like" Girl In The Window on Facebook.

Let's start with a few of my digital matte paintings. These are a combination of digital painting, and photography... with the last pic being a concept painting to be developed into a two and a half D matte painting.

Next up are my models and puppets, which I create from Sculpy and latex (as in my monsters and goblins) painted with acrylic and polyurethane or in the instance of my space ships and robots, are put together from found objects. It's the best way to work, on a budget.

  My daughter really enjoys my work, by the way.

Storyboarding isn't an intricate part of what I do, but I do like to rough out a general idea of what I have in mind for a scene. These days, it's more practical to rough out ideas in Adobe After Effects, animate them, and let them evolve within the computer.

From drawing, to painting, to digital, its always good to visualize not only the look of a character but that character's mood. Sometimes choosing a medium will dictate that mood.

Painted:

Sketched:

Digital:

Bloom by Christopher Moonlight

Special thanks to Rich Goddard who has been my adviser in a lot of my work, and did the 3D background for the vampire bride puppet, and Dave Grave who built the monster head (to my specifications) which I animated. Also, to Jeremy Hanes who not only acts for me, but has been my director of photography, though all of this. Also, thank you to Richard Hines for loaning me one of his DV cameras and light kit to shoot my short film. You can learn more about their work, by checking out other posts on this blog.

Girl In The Window Part 1: Designing Everything

Working on my own no budget, indy, sci-fi, film requires that I pretty much to everything, including props and monster design. Here are both, that I've designed and built for my short film "Girl In The Window." Shooting starts next week. I give you two ray guns, and the Anigav Beast.

 ...and for a bonus, one of my early story designs and a couple of idea sketches.

Check out our Facebook page HERE.

My Videos

As many know, I've done my fare share of interview videos. I have fun putting them together from shooting to editing. Here are a few examples of my work over the years, from then 'till now.
In the early days, I just used Windows Movie Maker (a good place to start for anyone, I think) but now, as you see in the top video, I'm using Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Premier.

There's plenty more at the Moonlight Art Magazine You Tube channel, if you care to see more.