Here we go again

Once again it's the end of the month and that means it's finals week over at OurStage.com. The Monster Cops trailer is once again in the top 20. Just yesterday we were in the top 10. We need help to get in and stay in the top 10 through midnight tonight in order to stay in the contest.

Some of you don't know what Ourstage is so lemme splain. Ourstage is a monthly contest for aspiring video and music makers with several different categories that you can enter. I've entered the Monster Cops: The Midnight Special trailer in the COMEDY category. You can go to Ourstage and judge videos in order to help determine who gets a hire ranking. It's a little crazy to explain how it works so just click on the banner below and know that whenever Monster Cops: The Midnight Special comes up, vote us up by selecting us the best by far. And if you've got the time to kill, you can continue to vote for us over and over. $1000.00 is up for grabs.



If you're still confused, you can go to http://www.ourstage.com/ and click on HOW IT WORKS to figure it all out. Then come back and click the banner. :D:D:D

XlntAds Harold and Kumar Winner!

Guess who just won The Harold and Kumar Video Contest. That's right bitches. My NPH Obey The Master Video won one of top prizes, $1,500. I even got some praise from one of the directors of the movie.

Now we can win even more money if we can get this video posted and seen by everyone. The higher the views the more prize money they'll send us. And even if you don't like Harold and Kumar, you'll be supporting me and Monster Cops.

I've uploaded the video to Youtube and Myspace, now all I need are high ratings, great comments, and a ton of views. Do me a favor, watch it, and spread it around.



Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanmo Bay: Obey The Master

Scene 12

It still blows my mind how something can go from an idea, to the page, and into production. Scene 12 (also known as the Mothman Conversation) was one of the first scene ideas that I would build the rest of the story out of. Scene 12 serves as an introduction to several plot points, introduces the majority of the cast, and sets up jokes for later punchlines. It's the first (and really only) scene that I had rehearsed the first time we had all met, and it's the scene that the majority of the cast is in.

As we were setting up I realized that we were about to put on to tape something that was really only in my head months ago. I was only really able to be excited about it for a few minutes. The rest of the time I was too busy remembering my lines, setting up the shots, and going over the shot list in my phone (that seems to be where I keep all my notes now.)

Solid shoot. Smoother than normal, thanks to the addition of Brian Tally. An experienced behind the scenes man who was on the ball the whole time. Eager to set up, first to start packing up after the scene wrapped. Thanks Brian. And thanks to Seth Tucker for working the boom mic. First time on sound, but an excellent job indeed. No really, I just checked all the sound and it's good.

A big thanks to the cast tonight, Jamie Bertman (thanks for letting us use Katy's Ass), Danielle Motley (A real trooper, walking as many times as she did even if she was in pain), Brandon White (funny as hell), Will Atwood (no one else is Chase), Greg Romeo (hilarious as always, great improv), Nicole Nastazzio (who looks great in camo and shines for the camera), and Chris Plouffe (who not only performed well, but also allowed us to destroy his office, thank you Chris).

It was the first and possibly the last time the whole NC cast would be together (for this episode that is), so that meant taking a whole lot of pictures. Here are a few of em.


















It was fun. But now we move on to the other 15 scenes that still need to be shot. OK guys, from the top. ;)

Picture Post For The Cast

I see some of you (the cast) are in need (and or want) of more pics of yourselves, so here are a few freeze frames and stills for your viewing (and sharing) pleasure.






This one is my favorite. Chris's mug shot, lol.

Shoot First Ask Questions Later

Started shooting last week. Here are a few freeze frames from what we've shot so far. Mostly interviews and dialogue scenes. More to come as I get the locations I need.


Cutter about to miss the trash can again.



Greenly being Greenly.



Weir talking about depression and toothpaste.



Windows and Jack talk about Cutter's gun jamming.



Windows offers Jack suckers he made himself.



Jack reacting to Windows telling her he keeps them in his pants.



Nigel and Bryce discuss smiley faces.



Bryce puts a smiley face on Nigel.



The consequence of putting a smiley face on Nigel.





Shooting continues throughout this month and possibly into May. If you are someone I talked to a while back and you expressed interest in helping, and you think you'd never hear from me ever again, be prepared, cuz I'm frickin calling everybody to help me get this done. Yes even YOU.

- Patrick

XLNT ADS AMAZING PITCH 2

Xlnt Ads had this great idea to have a contest to see if they could find a really great pitch or trailer for a web series. And guess who got a runner up prize?

Yup, that's right, MONSTER COPS.

Monster Cops got a $500.00 prize as well as the possiblity to get sponsors to help fund future episodes. Awesome. Really I was just aiming for the $500.00.

See the XLNT Ads blog about it.

Check out the Video that was submitted yourself.

Production Update

After months of toiling with it, rewrites, re-rewrites, and re-re-rewrites. The script is finalized and ready to shoot. I still have a ton of people to contact. If you were one of the people I talked to months ago and you haven't heard from me in a while, I apologize, but I will get back in touch with you soon and let you know what is what.

And can you believe it, I'm still casting, but that notice will be out soon enough. In the meantime, I've secured most of the main cast, and the ones that I've been accesible to (meaning the ones that live near me) I've been doing some rehearsing with, trying on the gear, just generally getting use to folks, getting them get use to eachother, and getting them use to myself. Here are a few pics of what's been going down.

The completed MKX300 Gun Prop.

Side shot of the completed prop.

Brandon holding the weapon, while wearing a costume I mistakenly thought was a good idea at the time.

The incomparable Greg Romeo, playing the part of Carl.

Greg and Brandon.

Greg Romeo, Chris Plouffe, Will Atwood, Danielle Motley, Brandon White. Most of the main cast.

And when I asked them to pose sexy, this was the result.

More later.

Monster Cops Vlog 020908

Visual FX Test 2808

Gunfights are mandatory in Monster Cops. But good gunfights are a requirement. In all honesty you can't beat the real thing. And when I say real thing I actually mean blank firing guns. I've used them in the past and they are just amazing. I am fascinated by the use of prop nonfiring guns and then later compositing gun fire over the footage, but with blank guns you get the same realism you'd get with the real thing. The smoke, the blowback, the shell ejecting, and just that overall feel and sound.

However I do have to run tests to look at my options, because putting the gun effects in after the footage has been shot costs me nothing. Now I do have blank guns, but some of these scenes call for more than one gun firing within a shot. So here I am testing it out, gun flash composites, nightvision filter, I even threw in a neat little blast just for the heck of it. Let's see the 20 second test shall we.



So what do I think. I think it's rather neato to watch, but I still think it's not up to par for what I want. First of all I haven't put in the shells being ejected and for me that's a big minus. I like to see the actual action on the gun and the shells pop out with each shot. I think some of the flashes look fine, but too long on the shots and they look too produced. The gun sounds are fine, seeing as how I recorded them myself from real guns. I like the nightvision, should fit in fine with our other nightvision footage. The blast really sucks. Heck I'm looking for perfection here and I haven't found it. However some of this in small spurts cut in with the actual blank firing gun footage should do fine. Vince DeNiro I wish I could afford ya. Perhaps when we do the feature.

In other news I'm actually finished with casting for this episode, but if you were looking to be cast, not to worry, I've got so many great resources and people now that I've just got to do 2 or 3 more, so I'm actually still casting for two more Monster Cops shorts. But more on that later.

Video blog coming up on locations, fx, casting, rehearsals, and all of the behind the scenes goodness that is Monster Cops.

Monster Cops Video Blog 011808

Working it.

Figured I'd post some pics of what's been going down for the past month or so. Next I'll post the first Monster Cops Video Blog.

I'm still in the middle of casting, but below are pics of some of the actors that have for sure been cast.

Brandon White, showing off in one of the new costume pieces.


The Adorable Nicole Nastazzio


Comedian Greg Romeo


Doug Hanks, who is also loaning us the use of his guns as well as gun expertise and a location to fire these guns at. Thank you so much Doug.


Danielle Motley has been cast in the much sought after role of Greenly. Yes Danielle I'm using your headshot, and yes I stole it off your myspace, get over it.

And if you're one of the many actors who were looking to audition for the role of Greenly I'm sorry, but I am still actively looking to fill other female roles and will continue to keep in contact with all of the actors who have been emailing me.

Others cast but not pictured:
John Burcham
Lisa Molenda
Will Atwood
Jamie Bertman
more to come.

Secured almost all of the locations. Special thanks to Kelly Emerson for giving us her ranch to shoot at, which has an amazing backwoods area. She also put me in touch with the person who can get us in to shoot at this massive warehouse in downtown Winston.


Kelly's been a real Godsend, she's also contributing some possible props/costumes as well as giving us an in to a Helicopter.

I've been hard at work at creating one of the prop guns for the movie. I felt the Monster Cops needed a specialized weapon, not unlike the Ghostbusters proton pack, or the Plasma Rifle from Aliens. I took my inspiration from Indy Mogul. Everytime I see empty bottles now, I just see gun parts. A full video on how I'm making this will be done later.



Here it is with a final paint job, but still without the final parts and accessories added.


Here's our Special FX guy William Stine working on the Werewolf FX. I'm not going to post too many photos of it just yet, don't want to completely give it away. William you're doing an amazing job.





Still going through casting, still looking at locations, alot is still up in the air, but so much has fallen into place. Can't wait to shoot this one.