Bunny Blog

We are a hurricane of doing things over here at Psychic Bunny. As you can see below, we just completely finished a horror feature, and have now also completely finished our first web series, “Coma, Period.” It’s an existential comedy starring Rob Delaney, who we don’t know if you’ve noticed, has been blowing up all over the internet, starring in “Warner Bros Responds to Christian Bale” and this Mad Men parody from Funny or Die.

We have just completed 10 episodes comprising the first season, and are distributing them through Strike TV. They’ve been getting great writeups from Tubefilter, Markee Magazine, and NewTeeVee. Jill Weinberger, the reviewer at NewTeeVee Station, actually said that the result of all our work “fueled by Delaney’s pitch-perfect and exuberant performance, is a satisfying blend of dark humor and goofy whimsy - a fusion often attempted in web video that’s rarely done as well as it is here.”

Please watch a few of the episodes over at www.comaperiod.com! We’re very proud

Much thanks to Lawrence Everson (Sound Designer), Jeff Waldron (Cinematographer), Ringleader Stages, The Maybe Happening, and everybody else (and there are tons) who made this production possible. I think you’ll be hearing a lot more about Coma, Period. in the future, so stay tuned!

Fleshmap, a nice little piece of data visualization from Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg.  (may be NSFW)

Fleshmap is an inquiry into human desire, its collective shape and individual expressions. In a series of studies, we explore the relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation.

Broken down into a handful of experiments on the themes of “Touch”, “Look”, and “Listen”, each explores a different aspect of our relationships to our bodies (or, more usually, to others’ bodies).

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The Echo Game cast and crew screening was last night, and a grand time was had by all.  We were at the Downtown Independent,  an extremely cool new theatre just blocks away from the PB office.  We had most of our cast and crew in attendance, the movie looked gorgeous up on the big screen, everyone had a blast, and to top it all off, it was Melissa (the young actress who plays Sarah) Lee’s first R-rated film.  We’re honored.

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You might not know this about me (which means we’ve probably never met) but I am a sucker for pulp fiction of all sorts.  Here at Psychic Bunny we’re big on short form content and freewheeling creative expression, so it’s no surprise that I’ve fallen a bit in love with Popcorn Fiction, a website created by Hollywood writers as “a place where new popular short fiction could flourish.”  The stories range from macabre to humorous to action-packed, as any good pulp compilation should, and who knows, this is meant as a lab for new ideas, so you might just be seeing the seeds of the next hit TV show or blockbuster film.

Their latest story is from Patton Oswalt, and it’s a delight.  Check it out.

These teenage friends, and Susan Lucci, are hunted by a mysterious killer who does not wear a mask and thus is quickly identified as James Cromwell!  That’s right, James Cromwell (Babe, Croms) is out for their blood!  Starring Jared Padalecki, Ellen Page, Susan Lucci, Raven Symone, and one of the the Jonas Brothers.

If you’re reading this blog, I can’t imagine this is news to you. But it feels good to write it, so I am:  our first feature film, The Echo Game, is 100% finished, exported, run off to HDCAM tape, warm, cozy, and happy.  Moreover, it is ready for our first public screening, a VIP affair next week at the beautifully renovated and neighborly Downtown Independent theater.  This is a closed, invite-only event, so I can’t just say “show up”, but if you’re interested in an invite get in touch and we’ll see if we have tickets left.

Congrats to all of our hard-working cast and crew on the efforts that have led us to this point, and here’s to much continued to success for the film and to each of you!  We look forward to working with you again soon!

Just in case you’ve never heard of the star-spangled majesty that is The Echo Game, here’s the trailer.

Just when we thought it was totally dead, The Golden Egg was invited to screen at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Friday, October 2nd.  It will be screening at Midnight, which I think is about the time of day I first had the idea for the film.

I will be on hand at the screening as well, so if you’ve got folks or family in Milwaukee, tell them to come on out! It’s going to be a rip-roaring good time. If you ARE going to the screening, email me at rick (at) psychicbunny (dot) com and let me know. It’d be great to meet you.

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Just wanted to put up an addendum to my last post on Instant Gratification, as I had the pleasure of experiencing the level-up mechanic I described for Call of Duty, but in real life.

When I recently go SCUBA certified with SSI, I had to smile when I noticed how their system is set up.

Awesome Level System At Work!

SSI smartly designed their log system using the level-up technique I described before.  You start out your training at Level 1.  After completing your Open Water Certification (complete with certification card, and a sticker for your log book!), you become a “Level Two Diver.”  Five more dives and you get another sticker, and you level up to “Level Three.”  It’s a great application for the instant gratification system, because it keeps divers coming back for more.

A typical boat dive consists of two dives.  Two boat dives, and you’re at four dives - only one away from the next level!  Go out one more time, maybe a quick beach dive on the weekend, and you level up.  Awesome!  Rinse your gear, and repeat.  In this way, SSI has added a mechanic to an otherwise mundane process, keeping you renting from SSI shops and making you feel good about it in the process (in addition to the awesomeness that is SCUBA diving to begin with).

Avatar just got all nostalgic on me in an unexpected way.

Sure, I’m a sucker for all things Cameron (yeah, that’s right, my 16th birthday party was a trip to see Titanic. We all dressed up. You wanna make something of it?) but, like everyone else, I’ve been underwhelmed so far. However, I just learned that Wayne Barlowe worked on creature design, and, well, my geekmeter just went off the charts.  You see, for a certain subset of the populace, Barlowe’s Guide To Extraterrestrials was a little handbook of pure awesome.  Published in 1979, it contains Barlowe’s designs for a vast number of creatures from sci-fi literature, complete with write-ups.  My ratty old paperback version has been thumbed through on countless rainy afternoons, and inspired me to read more than one great sci-fi book. In fact, in my head, “Barlowe” was more some mythical chronicler of alien species than a dude who could draw real good.  He felt like my own personal shopkeep in the Neverending Story.  It’s almost funny to think of him having a concept design job on a movie, rather than traversing interspace searching for new species to document.

So way to go, Barlowe.  You’ve suckered me into another story.

YouTube has been beta-testing their new channel layouts. Eventually all YT channels will look like this, but in the meantime they’ve let some channels switch over to the new design, which I really, really like. Since we were rebranding our YouTube channel anyway, we decided to take the plunge.

So first of all, why are we rebranding our channel? Well, our YouTube channel consists mostly of original content - be it web series pilots, short films, animations, or trailers for our films. Since we now have launched an entire original content brand, we decided that it made more sense to convert the present channel rather than creating a new one. So here it is!

They allow you to upload your own banner now, fitting across the entire length of the screen, and also upload your own background.  The main design change is that now people can watch all of your videos without clicking away from your channel.

For the most part, the change-over was really easy. Sometimes the design editor wasn’t very responsive, however. I had to upload the background about three times before it actually kicked in. A lot of the font color pickers were the same way. The nice thing is that YouTube saves your previous channel, so if things really aren’t working out, you can just switch back. I haven’t tried this, however, so no promises that it works perfectly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new look!

To learn more, go to this explanatory video from YouTube.