Check out the new photo gallery of the Yucatan on the Foxhall Films' website by clicking here or by going to flickr.com. Joel took these shots during a recent week long trip to the peninsula.

Ukelilli meets Zappos!

Check out the new Zappos.com spot featuring music from Ukelilli!

Paris Gallery

Check out the new photo gallery of Paris on the Foxhall Films' website by clicking here. Joel took these shots during a recent two day trip to the city.

'Derren Brown' by Ukelilli

Check out the new Ukelilli video above - we shot this a few weeks ago here in New York. The set up was simple, involving a large green screen and three 1K Arri lights. We put 1/4 CTB (color temperature blue) and diffusion gels on the lights to give everything a whitish color. Two of the lights were bounced off the ceiling and the third was used as a backlight. To create fill on Ukelilli's face, we put up a large reflector opposite of the backlight.

For sound, we used two separate mics. We were concerned the primary shotgun mic wouldn't pick up her voice well over the ukulele, so we gave her a wireless lav as well.

Editing was handled by John Ott back in Los Angeles and it looks like it turned out great!

President Obama Handles the 3am Phone Calls...

We just finished the 4th episode of Pennsylvania Avenue - check it out on youtube above. When I started to write this episode, I threw in a lot of jokes about tax cuts, but ironically, we cut all those out because we thought Swiffer pads were funnier.

Zappos spot

Our good friend, Matt Manson, who creates internet video content for Zappos, asked us to film a ping pong contest between designer Stuart Weitzman and a Zappos contest winner. We shot the action as it unfolded in Weitzman's office using a Sony Handycam and recorded sound on a PD4 timecode DAT. It was good we brought along a shotgun mic, for with the music pumping and Weitzman's staff cheering in the background, getting good sound was a bit of a challenge. Naturally, no one owns DAT machines anymore, so we ended up digitizing all of the sound and putting it on a CD for Matt, who edited the footage back in LA.

It didn't turn out too badly for something shot with a consumer camera and without the ability to take any second takes!

George Bush shows President Barack Obama The White House

In celebration of inauguration day, we've finished Obama's tour of the White House in episode 3 of Pennsylvania Avenue (above). The new segments of the video were filmed in front of a green screen, and inserting backgrounds was easy with the help of Final Cut Pro's Chroma Keyer video filter.

With each new episode, we've increased the sophistication of the setups. We're now using a PD-4 timecode DAT recorder for sound and using multiple 1K Arri lights. The lights have made a huge difference - you can really see the difference between the flat lighting we used in the map room and the dirctional lighting we used for the new segments.

Hope you enjoy!

Pennsylvania Avenue Episode 2!

Check out the second installment in the series on youtube!

Pennsylvania Avenue!

We've started a new series of shorts, entitled Pennsylvania Avenue. What's better than mocking the presidency? Mocking the presidency with puppets! In episode 1 (above), George W. shows Obama the presidential bedroom.

Each puppet took about two weeks to complete. We started by whittling their heads out of foam. After gluing felt to the outside using spray adhesive, we made color foam eyes and cut up a bunch of fluff balls of different colors to make the hair. The noses and ears are made from soft foam (the packaging that comes from our grocery deliveries from Fresh Direct) that was sewed into the correct shape and then covered with felt. To make sure they stayed in place, I cut up a wire hanger and pinned them to the head. We then used a hot glue gun to close up the seams.

Each puppet's body is made from felt stuffed with pillow fluff and sewed together. To clothe our presidential alter egos, we found a few on-line stores that sell cheap baby clothes (0-6 months).

We're still figuring out the best filming methods. Episode 1 was something of an experiment. The first thing that became apparent was how important it is for you to be able to clearly see what you're doing with the puppet on the video monitor. We'll probably have to get creative about wiring monitors up if we need to shoot on location anywhere. We'll also start using wireless lav mics for the puppeteers to make sure we get useable sound. For now, we're just shooting things in standard definition, since we intend to distribute these on the internet. Until there's a reason to use high definition, we'll avoid the hassle of large files and slow processing.

More to come soon!

Schmoos!

For Halloween, Kit created some creatures from pumpkins and vegetables. After photographing his creations, he then sent a series of emails detailing their adventures. For the fun of it, we used his text & photos to create a short poem - check it out on youtube below!

New Photo Gallery!

Check out the new photo gallery of Ireland and the United Kingdom on the Foxhall Films' website by clicking here.

Also make sure to check out Ukelilli's new video:

"Rain in the Mountains" to screen at the 2008 Red Fork Native American Film Festival

We just found out that "Rain in the Mountains" will be screening at the 2008 Red Fork Native American Film Festival in Tulsa, OK on Friday, October 24 @ 8:30pm. For more information on the festival, you can go to http://www.myspace.com/redforknaff.

This is the 26th official selection for the movie!

Ukelilli Music Video!

Check it out!

Top Cook 2!

“Top Cook” has returned! Christine has finished animating the second episode, which you can view on the Foxhall Films website, or our youtube channel, www.youtube.com/foxhallfilms.

The first “Top Cook” short has been viewed over a quarter of a million times, and after receiving many requests to continue the series, Christine took some time off of working on our next feature to put together “Top Cook 2.”

The concept:
The first “Top Cook” was an experiment. We wanted to create a short specifically for internet distribution which would create interest in and awareness of our company and other projects. While we figured we’d never make a dime directly off of “Top Cook,” we were hoping it would help bolster sales and rentals of our feature project, “Rain in the Mountains.”

Although a live action short probably would have been easier to make, we also wanted to see how easy it was to make an animated film with the tools we had on hand. Christine has always had an interest in animation, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to test some theories we had on how to make some low-cost cartoons. We didn’t want to invest in a fancy animation program or take the time to learn to use one. We also didn’t want to spend more than a few months working on the project.

Making the shorts:
Both shorts were made using a Wacom pen tablet, Adobe Photoshop, and Final Cut Pro. Using the pen tablet, Christine created each character and background in Photoshop. Each body part (even each pupil) was given its own layer so that it could be moved independently of the rest of the body. Front and side views were made for each character as well. While we knew the short would be viewed at low resolutions, we created all of the artwork at a very high resolution. This allowed us to zoom in on characters and backgrounds without any loss in definition. After importing the layered artwork into Final Cut Pro, Christine used the motion tools to plot the movement of each body part and the camera.

The voices were recorded using an ME 67 Sennheiser shotgun mic, which was plugged into a mixer that fed directly into Soundtrack Pro. We also used Soundtrack Pro in tandem with Apple’s GarageBand to create the film’s score. GarageBand may not be the best program for the job, but it certainly was a quick and easy way to make a silly, techno-style compilation. As another shortcut, we used a CD sound library for all of the film’s sound effects.

After putting all of the elements together, the finished project was exported using Final Cut Pro’s Quicktime conversion tool.

Distribution:
When we finished the original short about a year ago, Sony had just launched its new multi-platform video network, Crackle.com. Intrigued by their approach to web video, we put “Top Cook” on their animation channel and sent out a mass email encouraging people to watch the video and vote on it.

Within a few days, the video had a few hundred hits, but it wasn’t taking off as quickly as we had hoped. The whole point of the project was to get it seen by as large an audience possible with minimal promotion on our part, so we decided to upload it to youtube.com, blip.tv, and Google video. We attempted to post it on funnyordie.com as well, but that website seemed to have problems converting the Quicktime file.

In the first few months, the short was viewed a few thousand times, but it really took off a few months ago. We have no clear idea why (we think a few links from various blogs and websites helped), but thousands of people suddenly began to watch the video each day. Soon, after, it was featured on youtube’s home page, which in turn increased the viewership even more.

Encouraged by this turn of events and spurred on by requests to continue the storyline, Christine decided it was time to try a second episode. The making of “Top Cook 2” went much quicker than the original, for Christine had already created all of the character drawings and many of the backgrounds. We also decided to make the second episode shorter than the first, because let’s face it, internet surfers, including myself, tend to have pretty short attention spans.

So if you have two minutes to spare, please take the time to check out the cartoons!
To view the first episode, click here.
To view the second episode, click here.

East River Gallery

Joel has added new photos to his gallery based on the East River in New York city. To check it out, click here.

Youtube Branding

Foxhall Films has signed a Content Partnership with YouTube! Check out the new Foxhall Films channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxhallFilms. Eventually, we'll spruce up the site some more, so stay tuned!


Also, Joel has started a new photo project based around the East River of New York City. To check it out, click here!

Welcome to the blog!

Due to the popularity of the other blogs associated with our company, we've decided to start a general Foxhall Films blog to keep everybody apprised of what we're up to. You can check out this page for all of the latest updates about our projects.

Here's some recent news:

• For you fans of our parody, "Top Cook," you can look forward to seeing a new episode soon. Christine is hard at work on the animation right now!
• We're currently in the process of finalizing the script for our new feature, "The Carrion Eater."
• In October, look for a new photo gallery on foxhallfilms.com for Ireland, England, and Scotland.
• You can now purchase music and songs directly from the website for Ukelilli, http://www.ukelilli.com
• Ryan is busy stirring up political debate on his recently-created cartoon blog, http://www.ryanmetlen.blogspot.com
• The "Art" page on the Foxhall Films site is finally up, check out some of the current works posted at http://www.foxhallfilms.com/art.html
• "Rain in the Mountains" has been doing well in the home video market since its release back in February
• Additional photos by Joel can be found on flickr.com by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/24134424@N06/
• The first episode of "Top Cook" now has over 200,000 views of youtube.com! Check out the video below