Cats in the water. Only, with no cat.



Apart from being more dynamic than the average episode, this month's issue of Calachurras contains one of my favourite moments of the series. It's what scriptwriting "guru" Blake Snyder (one of the most important people in my life :-o even though I never actually met him) calls a "Save the cat" moment. Hope you like it too!

Also, it's been 6 months now since we started! And hey, it will soon be Xmas, so a lot to celebrate! :)


The storytelling masters



Finally! Pixar's is going for "Best Picture" at the next edition of the oscars with "Toy Story 3". Not "Best Animated Picture", which they should already get by default, but the big "Best Picture" award.

And in my always humble although occasionally loud and overexcited opinion, if Pixar wants the Oscar they should be able to just have it. Not only is TS3 the best movie of this year (and one of the best movies of all time), when it comes to making movies, there really is no one else better than Pixar.


The audience has spoken, TS3 is the biggest box office hit of the last months. But of course, this can't be the only reason. It is a long time ago now that Pixar has gone beyond the boundaries of animated movies to find themselves a place between those who can tell stories better than the rest. Better, in fact, than anyone else. Pixar's professional policy to create only the best stories and to care for the audience is worth this award and more. It is not very often that one sees grown-ups laughing out loud, jumping at the edge of their seats and then crying their eyes out in the same movie. That's the emotional journey that we should always get with our ticket, and that sadly we don't. Why? Pixar are those guys who haven't forgotten what a good story well told should be like.

Oh. And trying and compare it with "Inception" is just obscene. There, I said it.

Calachurras character cards



For those of you that are following Calachurras, here is the first instalment of the characters cards that will make it all clear! Maybe.


What is CALACHURRAS?



Still making a lot of people guessing, doubting where it's going and just plain making them angry, the uncommon story of Calachurras keeps going and reaches its 5th episode this month (fact of which my bro and me, the Eskimo Effect combo, are chuffed about).

If you have never seen Noses and Ears fight, if you don't know who Mr Progress and Mr Maker are, or have never seen a brave 3-arm creature face a dangerous churra... well, you've never read Calachurras.

Sort it out here! Or not.


My hardly interesting thoughts on the latest Tron poster


Just saw that yet another Tron "2" poster is out. I thought it might be "interesting" to write my thoughts on it. It obviously wasn't. But here they are anyway.


"There's that hot girl again, sure worth watching 2 hours of film..."

"And that other guy, no idea who he is..."

"Where's that Bridges bloke? Wasn't he gonna be in this as well?"

"Oh, I remember those flying things from the first one. Cool".

"Oh, look. In fucking 3D again. As if it mattered".

"Yeah, she definitely is hot. Good choice".

"The script must be BRILLIANT too. Probably".

:(



The Sleeper Effect - First trailer


I find the trailer below very exciting for several reasons:


- It's a serious sci-fi project, executed by very passionate people.

- Doesn't tell you the whole story (as it's happening more and more frequently with trailers these days).

- I'm involved production and graphics wise.

- The best stuff is not even there!

- It has absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter.


Hope you find it exciting too. And if you do, what the hell, here's some more stuff.

Love.

Go Google! - Contact importing now


You should already have a Gmail (Google) account.

Really. It is the best thing you can do if you don't have your own domain and want to look professional. Also, Google accounts are easier to manage. hotmail, yahoo, etc.. they can all be a bit of a nightmare to spam-filter or sometimes even to find your Inbox! Plus they look kind of dodgy from a professional-ish point of view.

Also, you look cooler when giving out a gmail address. AND sexier.

Yes, you guessed it:
they ALL use gmail.

And since they have now made made available a feature by which you can import your contacts from your previous account (and most providers are supported) you can now change email address in 4 easy steps:

  1. - Create yourself a gmail account
  2. - Import your contacts from your old terrible soon-to-be-forgotten account
  3. - Email all your contacts to let them know about it
  4. - Be happier! :)

Voilá. Your old msn/yahoo/whatever is now an empty useless shell.

I know what you are going to say. People may still email you at your old account. When you move houses, you can always take steps to receive correspondence from the old address, but at the end of the day people may not listen and keep visiting at your old place. Which is just silly.

No, they won't be visiting you.
Or emailing you, for that matter.

Of course, if feeling nostalgic you can still visit your old account now and then. That way you can also tell any confused/slow friends AGAIN you already changed your email address. Obviously, if they keep persisting on emailing you there, you'll just have to stop being friends with them.

Love Google.

The Sleeper Effect


TSE is a sci-fi web series based on a daring concept with its own visual style. It takes place in Manchester in a worryingly close future.

It is not often one gets to get involved in a project that one genuinely loves and that exudes so much passion. Hope that shows in the 4 teasers below (corresponding to the 4 main characters) and hope you love it too.

We will be done filming the pilot in about 1 month time. Then off to editing it together put it out there and look for funding for completing the series. You can follow the progress on the Facebook page, including regular video blogs full of energy and enthusiasm :) There isn't a website yet, but there will be soon.


Beth

Ryhs

Glenn

Mac


Never write on napkins


I realise with horror that I haven't posted any nonsensical posts in nearly 2 weeks. So just a quick one to try and save my soul from the particular circle of hell where all those bloggers who don't write on their blogs for so long rotten in -surely-.

Right now I have several piles of paper of all sorts on my desk. Paper with little notes on it, that is.
Torn notepads pages, half-torn notepads pages, post-it notes (in several colours). Supposedly full of powerful ideas for the different comics and films I have in progress, silently looking at me with the promise of something genius. Or at least bearable.

Like the dodgy-looking man in the even dodgier-looking picture.

In fact most of it is just gibberish, or senseless scribbling. Or both. I could probably set the whole pile on fire and I'd never miss it. Oddly, I think I'd probably get some delight out of it too. However, my mind tells me there probably is something of value there. Or something I somehow, at some past point in time, I thought to be valuable. "Why would I spend time on them otherwise?", I reason misleadingly.

The moral would be: set your notes on fire regularly rather than let them taking over most of your space. OR not. Up to you, really. And try and copy those notes into your computer more often. Obvious? Well, next post may make some sense then.

Expectations versus Experience


In the words of William Goldman, "nobody knows anything". It's interesting how sometimes you go watch a film expecting brilliance and finding disappointment, or the other way around. You never know. The fact that it may happen at all levels -and with any budget- is to me kind of refreshing, and I just wanted to give a quick example with 3 of the latest films I've seen.


Inception: A film I couldn't wait to see and that most people seem to love for reasons that escape my comprehension. A superb idea brought down by the unnecessarily numerous rules imposed by the writing and the endless explanatory movie-stopping sequences. Dreams where possibility is purely a reflection of physical forces and not human, limitless imagination. A spectacular visual effect-packed feast wasted in a merely passable experience. An experience, however, instantly turned into religious dogma by the touch of Saint Christopher Nolan, the man who made the first realistic superhero movie (apparently, the ones before don't seem to count) and became a god in the process. In short, you expect 9, get just a 5... Oh well.

The A-Team: A film I wasn't so excited about but I HAD to see (it's the A-Team, yey!). You can tell has been done for the fans, crafted with love and respect for the original characters and the TV series. Not perfect at all, but thoroughly enjoyable. See? Expect 4, get at least 8! Lovely.

And of course there's Pixar. As usual, beyond any labels or classifications. You expect 10, you usually get 12. Damn it, Toy Story 3 is a film so brilliant that makes you both laugh out loud and cry your eyes out in less than 2 hours. A story that you experience intensely, caring about the characters and living it all with them. That's what cinema should be all the time! All that despite being a 3rd part. A 3rd! Seriously, who else can make not a great 3rd part, but even an acceptable one?

You can't beat Pixar. That's the moral here, I guess. Or maybe not.

New comic CALACHURRAS!


So here it is finally: our new webcomic CALACHURRAS.

If you think the title is somewhat strange, wait until you see the comic. Calachurras tells the story of a very unusual type of battle, written by yours truly and drawn by my brother, the other Eskimo Effect half.



"Noses and Ears are at war. Will our heroes be able to master the complex folklore of Calachurras before they all end up dead? Or worst still, swept into the darkness by the big wave the profecy talks about?".

Please support this ambitious-ish comic production by SUBSCRIBING to the updates right here or/and/for/by leaving your extremely valued comments on the blog or the Facebook page. Do it soon though, before the Ears are upon us!



Deadtime full trailer


Again, I am delighted to bring some news on Deadtime, the slasher horror feature film I worked in last year as a Production Manager. Along with a bunch of wonderful -if a little crazy- people.

The complete TRAILER -nearly four minutes of footage packed with love, kindness and feel-good music*- was released last Sunday. And there has been much rejoicing since among the people involved in it. Which of course doesn't mean much, since we can't help being kind of biased.

But then something else happened: people with no involvement in the project whatsoever started saying that it did look good, and actually texted/called/sent carrier pigeons to say so. In short, I couldn't be happier about it and really do hope YOU like it too and feel somehow compelled to go watch it when it hits the theatres! (next year, in principle).


Website here. And an up-to-date full picture of what is happening with it in its Facebook home.


* Very little love in it, actually, but loads of heads "rock'n' roll"-ing, which in a way is much better! (don't let your children see it until they can grow a moustache though, or they may hate you for the rest of your life).

"The bigger monster" ending


As a life comic reader, I'm now living the dream, watching the endless series of comic book adaptations and looking forward to some more. Still, there's one thing I think could definitely be better: the endings! Hollywood-size endings are one thing, the careless elimination of all emotion attached to the film at that point is another completely different!

Hulk 1, Hulk 2, Iron man 1, Iron man 2, Spiderman 3. they all have painfully done the same: after generally taking the plot in a good direction, things start getting interesting and such... and then all you get in the end is... well... a big monster! Or rather, a BIGGER monster, courtesy of yet another meaningless visual effects feast.

A representative example of "The bigger
(and in this case much uglier) monster" film practice.

"So what do we have? Iron man? Hell, let's use a larger-framed armoured guy for the final battle then". "What about the character we have been developing until now?" "Forget it, waste of time".

"Hulk, huh? No problem, we'll just use a slightly more ferocious/dangerous-looking monster for this one. Easy".

"Spiderman?" "What can we do with this interesting Sandman character? Should we add another beat here and there for his relationship with her daughter...?" "Rubbish, let's just have him grow BIG! and "big-punch" Spiderman in the face. That should get people involved in the story".

(Sigh)

Not only comic-based movies do it though. Clash of the Titans presents a delightful example of it, among other things. It doesn't make it right though.

(Deep, bigger sigh)

Deadtime teaser trailer


Just a quick entry about DEADTIME, the horror feature film I was involved in last December.


We have a TEASER TRAILER out now and are all very excited about its horror-packed 80 seconds :) If you like slasher horror films, don't miss this one. If it's not your cup of tea... well, would be nice of you to still watch it, really...


You can join the Facebook group too for regular updates. Come on, you know you want to :)

Heads will rock'n' roll!

Webcomics!


In Eskimo Effect, we keep on going with our crazy, nonsensical production of pretty webcomics. Cristobal-98's latest episode is out (one one more until the end). And Calachurras is coming!


If you enjoy comic-books, or simply the occasional original story (OR you've been wandering around the internet for hours without really doing anything), come visit us! Anyway, that's the message today. Drop by, say hi!

Now you can also subscribe to the updates by email and even join the facebook page/group/thing, so couldn't be easier, really...

Love.

The Entity!! - Teaser trailer (-ish)


Well, the long-awaited video is finally up on the site, as you may now. Or not, if you haven't seen it yet. Which you should, really.


When confonted with the shocking, horrid images, remember that there's still hope for humankind. The Entity!! is on its way, and will make everything okay.

I can't believe you still haven't watched it.

Love.

Busy times!


Together with a bunch of crazy, wonderful people from Manchester, last week I survived a film making marathon, called Kabaret.

I made two short films in these intense 10 days. One of them will go up next week as a trailer (ish) of The Entity!! (what!? Really!!??? Yes, finally! ) There's a lot more happening with The Entity!! but it is all too exciting for this post :)

The other "kabaret" short film, I'll still be doing a little tweaking with the help of some of the wonderful people I met there. I'm especially excited about this one.


On the comic front, Calachurras is already in production and will go up in a couple of months on the Eskimo Effect site (what!? You don't know it, shame on you, go visit immediately!), right after the last episode of the current webcomic, Cristobal-98.

Calachurras is the most complex comic-book project my brother and me have worked so far. It's also weird, fun (if we've done our job right) and -we think- definitely different! I'm very happy with the results. Also, I must say it's a great opportunity for satisfying my natural inclination towards making up strange-sounding names (and a translation nightmare, but that's a different story!). Hope you are looking forward to seeing it. We certainly can't wait to start. For now, here's the first sneak peek.

Thanks for reading!

Clash of the Titans. Oh yes.


"Release the kraken!"


Awesome, hope you have seen it too. Although it wouldn't be fair to judge and epic film on just a fantastic onscreen moment, the whole thing is actually really funny and pointless for 106 painful yet delightful minutes.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything original, but apart from the lack of script, the obvious mix between pirates + mummy + starwars + transformers + lordoftherings + godknowswhatelse simply blew me away, too obvious not to notice. But wait. The ending WAS original. Andromeda and Perseus don't end up together. They just can't, since they don't bloody know each other. They've been busy doing... like... other stuff. What a load of... whatever this film tries to be.


Of course he's not singing opera. He is... releasing the kraken!


Now that I think about it, if you had NOT seen the film and think it can somehow be spoiled (ha!), you really shouldn't have read the above comments.

Incidentally, the original 1981 trailer IS awesome too, especially the motion graphics. Enjoy it here.

"Clash. Of the Titans"

Eskimo Effect is here!



For several thousand years now, my brother and myself have been meaning to get our web ready.

Excuses such as "Forget it, the current technology is not advanced enough" or "NO, that is not the perfect blue either!" would come one after the other endlessly until one day, for no apparent reason, there it was. Bizarre.

You can see the result here. Or HERE, if you hate lower case.



If you like it, rejoice silently/scream it to the world. Check out the films and the comics, play with the little eskimo (not in a bad way). If bored, visit every now and then too, we will be publishing new online comics every month, except those months in which we don't. Needless to say, it is also your chance to learn about eskimos: those fantastic, not quite human, nearly legendary creatures.

If you do not like it, don't panic. Just move on to something else that makes you happy.

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Weirdo.