VGA+Ying-Yang

Cody here, just thought I'd upload two thoughts.

You catch the VGA awards? Did you see the Watchmen trailer? Did you wanna throw your shoe at the tv? So did I! But I sat with a huge smile on my face in amazement for, Brutal Legend! Truly greatness as to be expected from my number 1 Favorite game creator, Tim Schafer.

Well to be 100% with ya, i kinda thought the trailer was "Meh", up till Eddie Riggs(Jack Black) started talking to the evil nun. Here is a link to the trailer if you missed it. http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43624.html

Okay, also i want to upload my background i made for my pc(Got annoyed with searching yahoo).

Here is a tiny one so you can see what it is, but the ones you'd want to use are below

two links to my photobucket for ya, one is 1024x768 and the other is 800x600.

Cody Out!

In-Advertising

Look at that poster. Really nice, isn't it? Subtle, evocative, emotional, and above all, well designed.

Yet anyone who's vaguely familiar with the Madea character (and I stress the word vaguely) will know that the films about said character are not AT ALL subtle, evocative, etc. They're basically Big Momma's House movies (and if I am mistaken, and only the trailers for the film make them seem to be low grade cheese, let me know, as I have yet to see a Madea movie).

Now, seeing this poster got me wondering what other grossly inaccurate posters are out there? Posters that do a terrible job of representing the film they're championing, whether through gross incompetence by the designer, or straight up lying by the marketing team.

This could be fun.

I know, I know, it's an awesome poster, for sure. But we're not talking about bad posters, we're talking about misleading ones. Look how fucking hot Leia looks! Her dress tarp is NEVER torn during the movie, I can assure you. Look how buff Luke is! Almost enough to get me to stop looking at Leia. But where the hell is Han? And why is the Death Star lit up like a Brite Lite?

No sequel? Bullshit motherfuckers.

This poster misleads you into thinking this movie might be good.

While not neccesarily mis-leading (I'm breaking my own rules fast), so many sci-fi and adventure movie posters that used art had the same problem: the film could just never, never be as awesome as the art promised. Here's another example:

Look for a post later devoted to this particular subject. And finally:

Look at the size of that fucking jeep. Godzilla's foot was nowhere NEAR this big in the movie.

"Can you dig it!?"

Yes! It is I, Cody! here to bring you the one and only final cut of "Obey the Altar Native: Flash Photography" music video!

Okay, first off I'd like to say sorry for how long it took me. I want to thank all the people in my family that put up with all my putting them down just so I can do the video. Thanks for all the people who kept me sane while doing it. And thank you Obey for letting me use your song and for being so cool about not really knowing how the video would end up.

If you happen to enjoy the song don't forget to add Obey to your myspace friends list using this Link http://www.myspace.com/obeythealtarnative

If you enjoy the video go ahead and add my myspace or youtube friend list/Subscription which you can find on the right side of this web page.

And now without more time wasted please watch the music video by using the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9uz4jqJGPI

Some fun stuff ;]

Okay cody here with a some cool info.

The main reason for the post is, *Drum roll* The Obey the Altar Native music video will be done by late night Saturday! Or early Sunday (Unless a massive unstable slip up happens like I get a virus that eats data.)

So be ready by Saturday night!

Also on a coolieo side note, Tim and I are going to go see cold play live tonight.

Yes these guys,,,

But it's all good.

I'm sure tim or I will come back with pictures or a funny/retarded story about someone in the parking lot. Well back to the animation! so close to finish, I can nearly taste it!

Cody OUT.

Make it a "Grand'e"

Cody here with the strange fascination that is called "Starbucks"! But first let me tell you how I came to be at this "Starbucks" place.

So there I was at PetSmart at 4:45 in the morning waiting for Jamie to show up and open the door so I could work. But Jamie becomes a no-show and ended up leaving me in the freezing cold with no jacket. So I waited a hour and then said "I'm freezing, I waited and now I'm leaving." so I bounced over to our hight of this post, "Starbucks".

Okay first off I'd like to say, "Wow, who the fuck goes to Starbucks at 5:45 in the morning?" Rich-ass-old-people-that-were-once-and-or-are-currently-super-busty-models. I felt like a homeless guy at a dinner party. Out-a-freakin-place. I got in there and looked at the menu and was chattering my teeth together from the low temp outside, I thought "Oh hey, a hot Grand'e Mocha coffee would be slick right-a 'bout now." So I picked one up at a chunk of change 3.89 cents! I sit down near the back of the store and I begain to watch people flow in and out of the building, I thought to myself two things, 1:"who in their right mind wakes up at 5 am and says to them selves, "A-hem, a lovely Starbucks coffee seems to be beckoning my ear drums right about now." 2: Now I'll admit not everyone that went in there seemed like they were rolling in cash or have recently posed half nude for the front of maxim magazine, but she must have been down on her luck just like I was, lookin' to get some place warm.(And yes there was this one woman who looked as if she puked her last meal just before steppin' off the breast implant table.)

By the way, this Grand'e Mocha coffee(cup is fucking small no matter what you call it) is the worst coffe I have ever fucking tasted.

Thirst Buster!

Sup!? Cody here giving a update on two things, #1: all about Obey the alternative's music video.
And #2: My chosen Podcast of the month.

Okay so lately I have found my self trying like crazy to finish the music video of "Flash Photography" for the underground rap group "Obey the alter native". So I have spent a few hours of my night tonight just getting some stuff done. It turns out I have gone through 3 storyboards on paper and tonight I made my last one digital, worked out pretty well. I also have been making the magazine covers for the song. Hopefully the band doesn't get bother by a fake label all over in the video, well kinda fake. Gofio happens to be the label.
In the video there are many sections where magazine like this one will pop up according to the song. I have finished all the 3d sets and camera movement, most of the animated movemnt has been finished but I will say I feel greatly rushed and feel the need to just finish this thing! So I just worried that it doesnt turn out as good as I want it to.










On another note! My choice of the month for Podcasts is in fact Dead Pixels! they are some funny guys who just talk about horror games and yada yada. It's funny and great for info about the horror games that are big at the moment like dead space and silent hill. Click the picture below to be linked over to the bloody-disgusting.com podcast page.

REAL Shots

This past week, Cody and I rented a camera, constructed an outfit, and set out about the greater Phoenix area taking "proof of concept" shots for my independent film, "REAL: Documentary of a Superhero". I'll use these shots as part of a presentation with the purpose of raising money for the film. I'm taking a unique angle with the presentation, as it will be all web based. There will be a post here detailing the details as soon as the website is up.

I'll post some more shots later, as I haven't had much time to edit them, but here's two:

I'll update as time goes on, and keep an eye out for the "REAL" website, which will be going up next week.

Peace out.

midnight Meat Train = life inspiring?!

Sup yo, Cody here to bring some freaking sweet news! Oh and a bit of bad.

So my girlfriend and I were watching a movie called Midnight Meat Train(I still think it sounds like a porno) about a photographer that is sent on a creative goal of getting pictures with emotion. But he ends up stumbling onto a midnight murderer.
I highly recommend this movie and am pushing it on you if you like H.P. Lovecraft.

But anyways while watching the movie my girlfriend pointed out to me that I was criticizing the photos he was taking nearly 80% of the time, and she asked me why I kept talking more about the pictures more than the movie itself.
I ended up telling her that a long time ago I used to take my dads camera and take pictures of anything I could find. This lead me into a long conversation about how when I was around the age of 7 I used to want to grow up and be a photographer. After I told her that she asked one thing, "Why didn't you do it?" I had to answer her with nothing more than a shake of my head.

So I thought about it and ended up saying to myself, I could always do photography as a side thing for fun while I still chase my dream job(3D animator/modeler).

This Friday(24th) I got paid from my job and then went all over the web and ended up finding a sweet camera for a decent price of $139 dollars(In the store they charge $230), well with tax and shipping it landed at $152.34 but still pretty cool.

Today I ended up going back to walmart.com and I looked at it and noticed that they jacked the price UP to $149.99. I found that pretty badass that I bought mine two days before a price jump :D

Check it out, well online pics for now. I'm sure I will post a picture of me with the camera as soon as I get it, or it with pics I will be shooting.


The bad news in this post is, my second Xbox hit the grave yard this week. and right during the prime time of game releases (Homecoming, Dead Space, Gears of war, Mirrors edge, Left 4 dead? will it still be gone by then?) so I guess I won't be playing any online games for awhile. just PSP and Wii. if your wondering how my xbox died, Yep you guessed it.

Yo, Cody here. I was feeling the need to explain my amazement for a feature film that some how got past my film scope(most likely due to it being PG and had low reputation).

Arthur and the invisibles, wow. This movie had slipped by in early 2007 and I had no idea. Which in return bothers me more because of the voice actors in the movie are some cool people. Of course I could start with the main actor, that being - the young boy from Charlie and the Chocolate factory(Freddie Highmore) Also Madonna(Selena) is in it, her "Minimoy" is sooo well built, but I would like to point the one character that had me poking my girlfriend in the side rapidly while saying "Oh my God look at his


face! It is amazing in the detail, the bumps and pores in his face, his hair oh my God!" Evil M is his name in the movie and get this, he is voiced by none other than David-freakin'-Bowie. Oh yeah and it was perfect.

Aside from the cool voice actors in it, the movie was a CGI movie, well half way into the movie anyways. And it was really good, sorta like a early Pixar movie or a better dream works movie. it felt like a good and hard worked film. If your like me and love watching/buying many CGI films like Finding Nemo or Madagascar, then I highly suggest picking this one up, great fun for you and your kids.

Oh and by the way Snoop Doggs voice over in it is just great!

Toyama was a Neuroscientist

Hey guys, Tim here.

With the recent release of Silent Hill 5 (they call it "Homecoming", but we know motherfuckers, we know) I've been thinking about the series past, and how it bends the expected style of a survival horror game, and gaming in general.

Upon listening to the most recent episode of 1up Yours, Sean Elliott brought up a book called "Proust was a Neuroscientist". It's about the relationship between science and art, and how in many cases, a very direct correlation can be drawn.

For example, the composer Igor Stravinsky wrote a piece that, in effect, broke down classical music strategically. He peaked when musical tradition said he should valley, and vice versa. This angered his 18th century audience, and the first performance broke out in a riot.

Fucking hard core.

Anyway, that 1up Yours conversation lead to how great it would be if this technique was brought over to videogames, which got me thinking, has it already?

Surely no one has done it on the level of Stravinsky, but there are numerous examples that can be taken from gaming. Silent Hill 2 does it on multiple occasions. To illustrate, the players first meeting with the creature known as Pyramid Head (because he has a pyramid for a head) is not a meeting delivered with much fanfare. After the game prepares you for what the player would think is a huge battle, the Pyramid Head simply stands behind a gate, staring at you, giant blade in tow. It's a tense encounter not because of the danger of in game death, but because of the lack of it. That whole meeting simply feels wrong. This is not how a game is supposed to be. The player expects a battle (which does of course eventually come) but for the time, your enemy just stares at you. And it is unnerving.

The second example from that same game is the giant stairway to nowhere. Upon locating this deep stairway that leads into the depths of Silent Hill, you begin your journey down. And you continue down the steps. And the music builds. And builds. And you keep walking. And walking, and then... nothing. All that anticipation that was built up has nowhere to go, which then makes that anxiety simply dissipate, leaving the player waiting for that eventual payoff, which does eventually come, but from a different place. Good stuff.


So, I think it would be fun to look into the games we play, and find examples of this kind of craftsmanship. There's no one game out there thats sole purpose is to confound it's audience (at least not a mainstream one) but there are many smaller examples in front of us.

So keep your eyes open.

Gamer tags

Yo! Cody here with a slick info grab. Wanna Game with one of us? Well go for it! Add our gamer tags for Xbox 360 (Phantom is me)




Also we put the tags in the side bar so you could always see them instead of scrolling around.

A Note of Things to Come

Hello, I am Tim. I'll be the other contributer to this blog, and as such, I'll give you a little update on what goes on.

So, as you saw below, the poster for Marketorb is up. All I can say is it would not have been half as cool if Photoshop had not been involved. That's a great program. I hear it's pretty successful.

Anyway, Marketorb is a short I just finished writing ("finished" being a relative word, as any writer always changes things, even at the last minute. Like clay).

I got the idea from the old Battlefield 2142 In-Game advertisement fiasco, in which the game, or to be more precise, software within the game, reads your internet searches to find out what products you've been interested in.  Credit must be given to the Penny Arcade Podcast for talking about this subject, and making a great comic (involving Ostrich sex somehow) which alerted me to the subject.

As a filmmaker/writer/artist/gamer/huge penis/ my first thought whenever I hear something interesting like that, is "how can this be made into a full story".  In the case of this one, I just figured add in some characters and a setting, and you've got a story.

So, Marketorb takes place in the near future inside of your average grocery store.   Everything about this store is normal, except for two things: there are large HD Televisions placed on the end of each aisle, and there are large orb like cameras on the ceiling.

These cameras, Marketorbs, if you will, give a video feed back to a small observation room in the store.  This room is manned by two people, with the intent of observing the customers.

When a customer walks in, these two observers assess what product would suit him/her.   Say for example, a scruffy, unshaven gentleman walks in.  The observers would probably place an ad for a new Gillette Razor or something on the HD Screen, thereby marketing a product solely to that man.   Marketing on a personal level.

Of course, this film carries with it an anti consumerist message (to a degree) but it's not meant as a "lesson" film.  Really, it has a lot in common with something like Clerks.  These two "observers" sitting in their observation room, crack a lot of jokes at the expense of the people they're watching.  That's the core of the story, two people making fun of the quirks of other people, but there is an overall message to the movie.   It's not just entertainment, it's not just baseless complaining. I like to think there is a line which I walk.   Hopefully.  Maybe.


Anyway, thanks for reading.  Buy a shirt.  Or something.

Peace.

Poster makin' Damn it!

Okay so I gotta admit it, Tim makes one killer poster! I recently made a poster for my scripted short film called "YoshiFish" But I'll admit it doesn't add up to even half as bad ass as Tim's poster for "Marketorb" Of course the two short films are a huge difference in style and tone... yeah I'll leave my poor excuse as that for now. I will let Tim write up the info and everything on "Marketorb" but I am willing to tell ya about YoshiFish. "YoshiFish is a short film about a news reporter that goes to a small school for a report on the local science fair, but when a young man pours a mixture of unstable chemicals into a fish tank, a green tad pole begins to grown into a horrible monstrosity." Yeah, it sounds kinda "blah, same old goosebumps horror story" well if that's what you thought then Thank you because that's what I was going for :D. The short film will be shot in a serious tone but be funny in a twisted sense also like a documentary. The film will not start shooting till some time after "Marketorb" most likely, due to the fact I have my hands full with the "Obey the alter native" music video and my animated short "Boxes"(Has not started shooting or even started building sets yet only script)



My girlfriend and I went back to this and made this poster better.

Music video: Flash Photography

Yo, Cody here just giving a over due update on the status of Obey the alter native - Flash Photography music video. Tim and I were working on a live action chunk of the video but due to a extremely painful and time wasting error we could not mesh the 3D and reality video footage together, But I don't give up on things without a strong fight ( And that would be why I wasted nearly a month trying to get this live action part to work). So today I took some time out and re-drew the storyboard into a all 100% 3D animated video, sadly this does mean the video will take at least one or two months to finish due to my poor PC power and animation speed. I will be trying to upgrade my PC with a better video card sooner or later so it renders much quicker and will shorten the waiting time but for now I must say sorry and be chill, you will watch it sooner or later. For now just chew on these photos of the stage scene. And don't forget to check out the kick ass myspace music page of "Obey the alter native" to hear Flash photography and other song that rule!( Just click their name.^^^)

Hey! Cody here, just to keep you all posted on the current happenings, the site is still under construction and all that but for a few good reasons. I'm currently making a new logo for "Gofio", and am busy with other animations such as a music video for a kick ass local(If you live in Arizona) rap group called "Obey the alter native" (click "Obey" for link to their myspace page) witch brings a new and fresh style to rap, we need more like it. I'm also doing other much smaller test projects so I can keep getting better at 3D animation/CGI. As for Tim he is making the T-shirts that can be bought at www.cafepress.com/Gofio (Click the URL for a jump to the website), at the moment there are very few T-shirts, but! I personally have seen a few unreleased shirts that even I can't wait to get my hands on. He is also writing up a bundle of new short films that hopefuly we can put into film soon. I have been handed one of his most recent scripts (Marketorb) and I'll go ahead and say, If it goes well in shooting, we could be looking a very good short film. Be on the look out for updates on "Marketorb" such as posters or filming production clips and podcasts. I don't want to over post here with a page of text, so I will save my poster, and plot for my short film "Yoshifish" for another day. Thanks for reading, go buy a shirt to help get the real Gofio site off the ground. Click the picture for a jump to Gofio's shirts.

The start of something new!

Hey! Cody here, this is the test site for Gofio, we would like to do a massive improvement on the site for example, a URL of our own and not a Blogspot. Help us make that possible by showing us you care even a tiny bit, post comments, send us E-mails. Gofio is a small Indie company made by Tim Senzee and Cody Reader. We make short films, a web show called "Merc 4 Hire", animations, T-shirts, and every so often a song. We will try to do weekly updates about our short films and other things we are working on, be on the look out for podcasts as well.