the vorpal sword

Posted on May 7, 2012 by itsRichardJLee

We are approximately two weeks away from the Wonderland Photo Shoot and I have been keeping it pretty hush hush about it only because I wanted to make sure all of it was coming to fruition without any hiccups.

Luckily (and also with good planning), everything is coming together nicely and I thought why not show y’all some images of what’s to come.

Now as many of you have guessed, Wonderland is the reference to Alice in Wonderland.  But I am using Zenescope’s Graphic Novels Return to Wonderland, Beyond Wonderland, and Escape from Wonderland.  An interesting twist with hyper-violent and hyper-sexually charged visuals, it seemed like a great project to sink my teeth into.

So along with getting all the wardrobe custom made from scratch (some preview images in a future blog) We are making props and miniatures as well.  For this blog, I am going to focus on the famous Vorpal Sword.

Check out the images below:

As you can see, a great, great start.  The Vorpal Sword is completed and assembled, but lets face it… gotta leave a couple of surprises up my sleeve for later!  :)

Major props to Alex Cabunoc for helping out and getting the SolidWorks design done amazingly and Chris Simone for the painting and finishing.

Next blog will be the amazing wardrobe being created by Manee Leija!

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rendezvous post production

Posted on April 24, 2012 by itsRichardJLee

Things are moving forward wonderfully with Rendezvous.  Picture lock should be right around the corner and then on to color correction.  We have just booked our composer for the project, Michelle Toh.  If you have a chance, you should definitely check out her site.  Some amazing work done by her.  It makes me really excited to see the final product.

It’s looking like we are on schedule for festival submission by the end of May, which means that we should be having a screening/viewing party for the friends, families, cast & crew shortly there after.  :)

Stay tuned for more updates as my major photo shoot, Wonderland is full speed ahead and three weeks away!  I’ll be posting some behind the scenes photographs and rendering as they come available.

Till next time!

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hello north carolina!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by itsRichardJLee

On Sunday, I hopped on a plane and had the opportunity to go to North Carolina and direct a national commercial for Aspen Dental featuring NASCAR’s very own Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Location scouted on Monday, shot the commercial on Tuesday and then visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum (research purposes of course) before flying back to Los Angeles.  It was an amazing experience and plus getting all expenses paid travel isn’t so shabby either!

Downside… getting used to east coast time and then getting jet lag all over again, west coast style.  I’ll post the commercial in the commercial section once it has been finished.

Until the next journey!

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behind the scenes of scattered

Posted on June 10, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

Just a quick update. Scattered is well into post-production now and we are in the throws of developing the effects as well and getting ready for color correction.

While that is happening, to keep you guys entertained, here are some images from the shoot. Photographs are from Jonathan Lewis.

Hope you enjoy them!
























All right… that’s all for right now… more will come along soon… but for now, BACK TO EDITING!!!

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the building of the orb

Posted on April 25, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

Just a really quick update. Though it’s really in the beginning phases, I wanted to give you guys an early look at how the orb is being created. Our master prop maker Chris Simone thought up the design and concept, which is already a thousand times better than what I was originally thinking.

The Orb and the box that holds the orb will be completed in the next three weeks. As I get more pictures, I’ll leak them out!

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Cast and on our Way!

Posted on April 20, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

We are cast!

YaY!!

One of the things I love is going through the entire process of filmmaking, such as casting, and getting to meet such an array of talented people in the business. With such a high turnout and a wide selection of talent to select from, I am incredibly excited about who we have selected for our two main leads for Scattered. I don’t think I could have dreamed a better pairing or be blessed with such talent for my little project.

Our female lead is a beautiful and amazing actress who has appeared in such television shows as CSI: NY, Eleventh Hour and Grey’s Anatomy and is in a project called Knight to D7, currently touring the festival circuit. Say hello to Meg Cionni!

For the male lead, as I have mentioned before, is none other than Maxwell Glick!

Maxwell has guest starred on shows such as The Office, Life and Mental, but is well known in the web world for his work in Night of the Zombie King and as Spencer on Lonelygirl15. He currently has a new project Rigamortis: A Zombie Love Story which just premiered at the Cedar Rapids Film Festival.

If you want to learn more about these two wonderful actors, you can click on the images to go to their web pages, otherwise click here to go to Meg’s IMDB page and click here to go to Maxwell’s IMDB page.

Next stop, rehearsals! We are about a little over a month away from production. You know what that will mean… less and less of me writing and more and more awesome pictures are on it’s way!!! :)

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round two… fight!

Posted on April 5, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

Finished the first round of casting last friday and heading into the second round of casting tomorrow. I am in awe with the level of talent that has turned up for this project. Choosing the one among all of them is going to be so hard to do and already our callback list is growing really long.

I am taking notes and mentally making a queue sheet with these talented people in the effort to bring them back when we do the full up of Scattered. It would be a shame not to use them in some capacity.

But in the mean time, we are trucking away. Once everything is casted, I’ll make a new post announcing the talent.

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Getting Scattered…

Posted on March 16, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

I am currently in pre-production with my new project Scattered. This is probably by far the most ambitious project to date as I mentally try and wrap my head around a sci-fi drama flick with special effects up the wazoo.

Since it is such an ambitious project, I am also being smart about it. We are shooting an initial teaser to get out there and promote. It’s a two day shoot that I have had almost a three month long pre-production on. And it is such a good feeling. I have also have had the good fortune of casting Maxwell Glick (LonelyGirl15, A Good Knights Quest, Night of the Zombie King) as the male lead and whittling down casting selects for the female lead as we speak.

The biggest table we are facing right now is locking down the location, but I am not worried. I have an excellent production crew that is so passionate of this project as well. As the production continues in the upcoming months, I’ll post more here.

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Hmm… Upgrade.

Posted on February 13, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

Being an independent filmmaker has its perks. You are your own boss, you control the final output of your projects, you make the choices that you want and the entire creative process is fit into your hands. It’s great.

The downside? Insane amount of hours, little to no pay, and having to stretch the dollar into a hundred.

So it doesn’t come as a surprise that we all have to have side gigs to muddle through until we make that transition from Independent to Studio. But there are blessings to this process. I can’t speak a lot about it right now, but I am in the process of being vetted for potential career move to a nice upgrade in position and status. It will be a change but also a chance to experience new and sometimes ground breaking opportunities. As the process moves forward and I can reveal more, I will.

Til then, onward and upward.

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Steampunk Jewelery By CB Designs

Posted on January 22, 2011 by itsRichardJLee

In the past two or three years, I have become more and more obsessed with the Steampunk culture and have been trying to figure out how to cost effectively make a Steampunk show and/or movie. Now, I know it’s been done (albeit horribly) with Wild Wild West and more recently, the ABC show Castle did an episode with a Steampunk theme (much, much better than Wild Wild West).

About a year ago, through mutual friends, I had the privledge to meet Cathy Baron, who, among being a talented actress, also hand makes uniquely awesome Steampunk jewelry.  I can’t really describe in proper words the feeling that comes with seeing her jewelry.  It might be the old fashion in me that loves handmade items.  There is a level of care and, as corny as this sounds, love that goes into something that has be handcrafted rather than assembly line made.  To me, it’s almost the same feeling you get from those really, really expensive watches from people like Ulysse Nardin or Louis Moinet.

Luckily for me, and for you, Cathy Baron’s Steampunk jewelry doesn’t cost a fortune. Modestly priced, these eclectic and original pieces can be yours for purchase at her Etsy store. Take a look at some of her jewelry below and if you like what you see, just click on the image and it will take you to her webpage.







Since these are all one of a kind and hand made, CB Designs comes out with new jewelry designs often so for the latest information on when the next piece comes out, you can follow her twitter page at @steampunkgal or her facebook page.

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