And then they believed us that Red Moon was the prettiest movie we have ever made

New photos posted to the Sirocco Research Labs' Flickr. I told you we were making cool stuff.

Red Moon Poster by Sidearm Design

Everyone needs to take a look at Karl Peterson's blog immediately. Sidearm Design was sweet talked by Sirocco Research Labs to create the Red Moon movie poster. Below is the first round. It is so fantastic. Well done, Karl. Excited to see the final product. I also vote that you make posters for all the other SRL productions. The series would be so gorgeous.

the werewolf has paws

progress on the werewolf!

check out the Red Moon Flickr set for the making of the werewolf.

muppet to werewolf; project time

Cleo in the Universe provided The Sirocco Research Labs with a large array of projects. We built spacesuits and muppets and beautiful spaceship sets. And now we are ready for movie number two. Prepare yourself, blog readers. The next month will be a wild ride of project madness rolled up in a movie called Red Moon.

Red Moon is the next installment of the line of short films we are aiming to help produce this year with our dear friend Jimmy. It is a movie about a submarine, love, werewolfs and Soviet Russia. It's going to be fantastic. Jimmy has really done it with this one, folks. Real good stuff. Ben and I will be heading back to LA, home of the Sirocco Research Labs Headquarters (The Hang Zone), to film Red Moon the beginning of December. And by beginning of December I mean next week. Hot damn ... we've got some work to do!

First project on the docket is to build the werewolf suit, played by Mr. Sellon(B) himself. Ben, Annie and I are all chipping in to make this one materialize. It's a doozey. Ben and I started the mask last week and bought oodles and oodles of fur at the Fabric Depot -- all adventures that seem to be par for the course these days now that we are devoted Research Lab Assistants.

This week we need to turn this ...

Into this ...

Can it be done!? Of course. We are Sirocco Research Labs -- making a werewolf costume is like making waffles. No big thing.

Well, it's sort of big thing considering we all are super slammed with many, many other project happenings. Oh and did I mention I am finishing college this week? I give my last marketing class presentation Tuesday, pack up my Seattle apartment, move back to Porltand, return to Seattle for my last Sullivan meeting and final exam, check out of my apartment to then hop on a plane and fly to LA to begin the shoot week for Red Moon. It's happening! Pretty good graduation trip, don't you think? Kicking off my "adult life" with a week filled with sleep deprivation, friends, werewolfs and LA movie making magic. I love it. I really do.

CLEO IN THE UNIVERSE TRAILER!!!

CLEO IN THE UNIVERSE teaser from Sirocco Research Labs on Vimeo.

LA in review

 

 

Let me just say, I was skeptical. Not so sure how I felt about our dear, lovable, creative Jimmy moving to such a smoggy, mall-tastic city. But let me tell YOU. LA WAS MAGICAL!

My god. Our one week in LA was by far one of the best trips I have ever been on. Maybe it had nothing to do with LA? Maybe it had everything to do with matching pink tank tops, productivity, adventures, producer necklaces and movie making madness?

Nested away in the wonders of the Warehouse District was the Hang Zone, Jimmy's killer loft that is now home to all the Sirocco Research Lab film productions. It smelled like movie magic (and tuna, sometimes). There was not a night the whole entire week that was not spent making sets/costumes/sketches/laughter or all of the above. And to boot, we stayed up late most nights sipping wine and watching YouTube episodes of Are You Afraid of The Dark. And to double boot, we made the most wonderful new friends, Adie and Martin, who we've deviously pulled into our circle of movie making love. Really, it was one long week of taking full advantage of our young adulthood -- no bed time, access to power tools and Funfetti cake for dinner. BOOM!

We are going back. Not indefinitely, but certainly wholeheartedly. New movie in the works. Cleo in the Universe will soon be fin and then it's on to the next. Which is great, because Jimmy has ingrained in us such a heightened level of creativity these days I think I need another movie to work or I. Just. Might. Burst.



*Photos courtesy of Mr. SellonB / more here      

space and love

I took a break from internship happenings for a project of a different sort.

This past weekend I spent nearly three days 'round the clock producing Jimmy Marble's latest short film, Cleo in the Universe.The experience (my first on a working set) was surreal, rewarding, exhausting, intensely filled with good friends and, did I mention, exhausting?

The film, I am sure, is going to be gorgeous. We filmed the whole piece in Super 8. Mind you, the film is set in space. Cleo in the Universe will be the most dreamy, soft rendition of space exploration you've ever seen. This I can guarantee.

I played Cleo, the captain of the SS Sweatheart who toils with the juxtaposition of finite love in an infinite universe. I wore a blue spacesuit, took advice from Karl, the onboard computer system, co-stared with the muppet known as Lt. Baby Baby and dreamt about a girl named Duke Jupiter.


Note worthy details from the weekend:

CLEO LEAK from Benjamin Bearclaw on Vimeo.

The warehouse we commandeered.




A picture from one of the many Twitter reports from production.

Big thank you to Jimmy for letting us all be a part of his amazing art. I am very inspired by your unbridled, absurd creative expectations and want to make shit with you for a long, long time. Good luck with post-production!

More to come on the Cleo in the Universe premier. Until then, think really hard about space and love. It'll be good for your imagination.

Trekkies

More amazing than the ending of th new Star Trek movie: the fact that Ben and I have successfully completed our, count it, SECOND year of dating. Oh boy.

As the dutiful, dorky girlfriend I am, I surprised Ben with midnight tickets to the opening night of the new Star Trek movie. The beauty of this gift was that the show actually premiered at 7pm; we just went at midnight for an extra one-two punch of awesomeness. Joining us on the excursion were some of our good buddies, including Mr. Chris Kissel, the most die-hard Trekkie I know.


It really was a fabulous anniversary. The candy was plentiful, we got to be in-awe of Kissel's Trekkie knowledge and the movie was epic. Oh! And to boot, I think I now have a crush on young Spock. Sorry, Ben. It's the eyebrows...and the ears...and the heightened level of logical thinking. Gets me every time.

Trekkies x2

where the wild things are

THE TRAILER IS OUT!

Gosh, I really am very excited for this. Really. The typeface on the poster alone makes me happy.

Click below for supreme happiness.

you could have told me

I know I've been gone for a while and I know for all intents and purposes I've been living under a rock, but you guys could have told me they made Q&A into a movie.

I read Vikas Swarup's Q&A by recommendation of Maddy while I was in India. Buying this book used and tattered from a old book vendor in a crowded Indian alleyway was the perfect set up for this story. It's about a young boy from the slums of Mumbai; an unlikely winner of a billion rupees on a Indian game show. The book is essentially a collection of short stories that all weave around the circumstances of the boy's newly found fortune. Quite clever. I loved it. In fact, I made Ben read it as soon as he got to Kolkata. And he loved. I think you'll love it too.

And now, unbeknownst to me sooner, it's a new movie called 'Slumdog Millionaire,' directed by Danny Boyle. And! MIA is on the soundtrack.

Watch the trailer, read the book, go see the movie.