We have been making some great progress on our new machinima series planning to debute in early to mid March. We have completed some CG work for the first chapter, and pleased with the results, decided to saturate our computers with wallpapers of clips. We thought that maybe some people following the production might too, so we have decided to share them with anyone who wishes to try them out.

Just click on the images, a new window will appear and when the wallpaper loads, right click and save to your computer.

These images are not optimized for Widescreen monitors, but if you have one and want one compatible, send me the dimensions and Ill send you one that will fit your computer.

Take care!

“The Grey People” has been re-worked to be a web series to meet deadlines and to utilize every plot we have planned.

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION
This project has consumed the last seven months of my life. I have been developing story and playing with mods to see what I can bring to the table. I want to blow all of my previous films out of the water with this potentially great concept that continues (in my mind) to build on itself.

As some may know, the film has seen bad times. The loss of the first edition pushed the released back almost six months. If everything had gone as planned with it, we would have already seen it. Nevertheless, everything happens for a reason and I have already learned so much more then I had ever imagined I would since then.

One of the things that is being incorporated into the film is the “depth of field” illusion that is missing from too many “the movies” films. Yes, it takes more time but it adds a more realism to the picture.

This chapter and the ones that follow will also be initially rendered in uncompressed High Definition picture and audio. Some may find this unnecessary, however, this is so we can have the highest quality picture for the DVD.

CHAPTER I: VOICE OF DESPAIR OVERVIEW
This first chapter is more or less the prologue to the story. It introduces our main character, yes, however, almost every character other then that becomes a mere thought as his adventure begins…which made it difficult to cast.

Nevertheless, we got some great auditions and some fantastic fans. The story starts sometime in the near future where a futuristic Howard Hughes named Chris Pathopen’s has become the leader distributor of new technology which has revolutionized how the world works. In his most ambitious project, he has designed the first ever fusion reactor which could power the world even if the sun itself died out. Nevertheless, its creation does not come without risk, for a band of terrorists have sworn they will stop at nothing to stop the reactor being activated due to its deadly risk of over-heating and reigning devastation upon humanity.

This first chapter will run about 15 minutes in length.

THE CAST (for Chapter I only)
Nathan Allen Pinard – Nick Stratum
J.L. Jeremiah – Captain Fuller
Faires Rivers (aka WX_IVAN) – Greg White
Pookashells – Dr. Chris Pathopens
Johnny Ex – Cal Johnson (TV News Anchor) / PC: Omega Computer A.I.
BenTuttle90 – Crew #2
D.L. Watson – Scientist / Crew 1
Melissa Haney – PSASS Commander / Police Announcer

RELEASE DATE
We are shooting for an early March release. This is so we can maximize our special effects and have a head start on the new chapter entitled “TOMB OF THE FORGOTTEN PAST”

HOW TO SHOW SUPPORT
Sending your comments and your thoughts on the productions are always helpful. You can also get the Moonlight Pictures newsletter which not gives you updates on The Grey People but also our live action films including the identity to our “mystery” short film and 2010 live-action web series “Logans Exodus” by signing up at the official web page at www.moonlightpictures.org.

PROGRESS SO FAR

I have spent pretty much all day re-modeling and animating the opening sequence. We just wanted to update our cargo-ship to match the description in the script more and so therefore, what was going to be a simple change of ship turned into a whole re-model of the entire CGI scene.

This is the pre-viz video:
http://www.moonlightpictures.org/hom…nk&id=23#josc5

And since it will render tonight to consume the 9 hour render, I will share a screenshot of what the final product will look like rendered in full-resolution. Click on it to see in high-res.

Tomorrow will be the same story, just a different scene. Its where the ship enters Earths atmosphere.

Enjoy!

We at Moonlight Pictures present the brand new short film from

producer D.L. Watson and director Nick Blacketer.

In the dark,
Of ancient bearing,
There lurks a fearful presence.
It feeds,
On pain on fear,
On beating blood.
On man will come,
And fight the evil,
With tree, with earth,
With drop of blood.
He will take these things together,
And with them combat,
The Raven Mocker.

SELECT SCREENSHOTS

VISIT WWW.THERAVENMOCKER.MOONLIGHTPICTURES.ORG TO WATCH THE SHORT FILM IN HIGH-RESOLUTION, TO WATCH THE COMMENTARY FROM DIRECTOR NICK BLACKETER AND PRODUCER, EDITOR, AND VISUALFX ARTIST D.L. WATSON, TO SEE 9 MINUTES OF CUT/DELETED/ALTERNATE SCENES, AND TO SEE AN EXCLUSIVE TRAILER TO A NEW WEB SERIES IN DEVELOPMENT CALLED “LOGANS EXODUS“!

If you were using Chrome and you were to access the official webpage for Moonlight Pictures you would get a message “Chrome not Supported”. Why? Well, we at Moonlight Pictures believe in having as much privacy as you can while browsing the internet and its come to light about how Google has tried to make their new shiny browser give them nonexclusive right to displays and distribute every bit of content transmitted through the browser.

We are aware that since the controversy emerged, Google says that they will change the Terms of Service and the correction will be retro-active, however, they still have not responded to Chrome “Omni-Bar” which records keystrokes and IP addresses and stores that information into a database, which in our opinion in a direct violation of Americans privacy.

Therefore, until some changes are made, we will no longer allow users to browse our site using Chrome. We continually provide support with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

One possible alternative is the Chrome-Clone Iron from SRWare, which is based on the Open Source Code of Chromium but without the data-collecting functions of Chrome. And with this Browser, you will be able to enter Moonlight Pictures because its not registered as a Google Chrome product.

We do apologize for the inconvienance, but this is purely to protect the privacy of our visitors and members.

D.L. Watson has a special message for all of the fans, members, subscribers, and family of Moonlight Pictures.

Well as fast as the official web page for “The Grey People” went up, the quicker it fell. My web host has to disable my entire site because it appears to be taking too much of their CPU status. This is not because of the visitors or even because of the web pages themselves, this is really because the web pages are being attacked by a spammer. But this isn’t the typical spammer, this spammer is mimicking the result of what would be millions of visitors accessing the page all at once, accessing all of the data from the web page all at once, which is literally draining the memory from the server.

So temporarily, both Moonlight Pictures and its other hosted sites, including the grey people official webpage will be shut down. We will be re-releasing the sites very soon that will prevent such occurances from happening again.

We are slowly learning the webhosting can be very frustrating. If I had only purchased a Joomla firewall…

We will keep you all posted on the updates.

“Wow…this movie looks epic. I’ve only read about it and seen the screen shots, but I don’t throw the word epic around like it’s nothing. Especially for The Movies movies. It looks like it may end up being, in many people’s opinion, the greatest movie on TMO. It’s not only 1 hour and 30 minutes or more, but look at all the extremely hard work that’s been put into the CG. I can’t wait until it’s released. It’ll probably make me forget that it’s being made with The Movies (along with other things, of course.) luck with it.” -OnlyRevolutions

“Oh wow!! This is gonna be a brilliant film and then to make it better I’m gonna be able to watch it on DVD over and over again. This is a brilliant idea Moonlight!!” -burkey1993

“Wow, Moonlight this really is taking the movies to the next level. I can’t wait! Good Luck” -sbhedges

“Nice screenies, looking forward to this. Loved the other posted screeneis as well..some well executed set design, which i am a huge fan of” -Jase180

“Wow, everything about this movie looks top class… great, great screenies! Can’t wait for more updates (and the film!)!” -sisch

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MACHINIMA FILM-MAKERS AND AUDIENCES ALIKE…THE OFFICIAL TEASER TRAILER FOR “THE PATHOPENS PROJECT: THE GREY PEOPLE” IS HERE!

This marks the first teaser for the brand new re-film after the harddrive fried and all previous footage was lost. This trailer not only gives us a taste of the hard work being spent in this production, but also for the first time subtly introduces our main character (voiced excellently by Nathan Allen Pinard) and how he was effected by the presence of “The Grey People”. While the trailer is not explosive or does not reveal alot of footage of the film, it will certainly leave some questions and hopefully intrigued you to see more.

With this launch of a new trailer also comes the launch of a brand new official webpage for the film. It hosts production photos, downloads and its the only place that you can see the teaser trailer in the magnificant Cinerama 2.59:1 HD ratio. What does this mean? Well, it simply means you get to see the full picture!

Here is a clip of the teaser trailer upload to TMU, Vimeo, Youtube, and WeGame:

And here is the exclusive Cinerama 2.59:1 HD ratio:

So where can you go to see this Cinerama HD trailer? Go to www.thegreypeople.moonlightpictures.org and it will be on the frontpage for streaming. If you have trouble playing it, then click on downloads and download it for free!*

We highly recommend you to click on the “Subscibe to Updates” to get all the up to the minute news on the production and have access to the upcoming backstage page which will feature interviews, making-of featurettes, and so much more!

So where else can you view the trailer? We have uploaded a stardard definition converted to a standard 1.85:1 aspect ratio to WeGame.com, Youtube.com, Vimeo.com, and TMUnderground.com! There links are below!

We hope you enjoy the teaser trailer and dont forget to tell us what you think!

VIDEO LINKS

Cinerama 2.59:1 HD Teaser Trailer: www.thegreypeople.moonlightpictures.org

TMUnderground: www.tmunderground.com/watch/f85df22e9377d6c4f755/

WeGame.com: www.wegame.com/watch/The_Grey_People_Teaser_Trailer_1/

Vimeo.com: www.vimeo.com/2106178

Youtube.com: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsx26X4N3kk

*the video file is a compressed HD mp4 and will not properly represent the uncompressed HD format.

The film will depart from traditional vampire stories.

Nick Blacketer and D.L. Watson have begun development on a brand new short film entitled “My Eternity”. It tells the story of Dalos, an elder breed of Vampyre, and his introduction to the human emotion of love. “Its really a heart warming tale for being such a dark tale,” D.L. states, “It definitely sets itself apart from the cliche of most vampire stories.”

This wont be the typical damsel in distress who encounters Count Dracula, nor will this film be a re-hash of the widely popular Twilight series. It will be very melodramatic with references to silent films, focusing primarily on the emotion and desires of Dalos.

So far, only three people have been officially cast in the roles. They are: Brittany Studer (Starred in “Dreamless”, Uriah Hollis (Starring in upcoming “Garden” film), and Nick Blacketer (Co-Directed and Starred in “Regretfully Mine”).

Founder and Director D.L. Watson will produce, co-direct, and co-edit the film along with Nick Blacketer. Shooting is tentatively scheduled to begin in the coming month. We will give everyone updates as they arrive.

Also, check out the just released second edition design for the webpage of Moonlight Pictures.

We are finally back up and running (a day early) after an unsettling set of events which caused our server to crash and our database to become corrupted. The incredible admins at our host worked relentlessly with us to clean the system and start from fresh. However, due to our own un-satisfaction of the previous design, and with the CMS’s limited customization, we have turned back to the traditional html/css webpage to showcase our work.

So what does this mean for the sites previous members? Don’t worry, we have a new site in the works to bring inspiring filmmakers together. We cannot say much as of right now due to the fact that not much has been discussed about it, but we can say we are looking to create a massive filmmaking community that would be a doorway for users to upload videos, take part in dicussions on forums, have a personal profile, have their own production blogs and domain names, ftp accounts, photo galleries, etc etc for free!!!! We want to revolutionize the Continue Reading » »

With our major goal of revolutionizing the film industry, Moonlight Pictures has taken a new step to bring itself closer to the norm of film and video editing. We have been using the platform of Sony Vegas to complete our films and shorts, and while it has been a great product to use, we wish to challenge ourselves to use a professional software more recognized by the executives across the united states. In time, we plan on having many fully functional Final Cut Pro stations here, in the Eugene, OR office. To help us get to that position, we are teaching ourselves the basic user interface of Adobe Premiere Pro, which much more reflective of Final Cut then Sony Vegas’ interface.

We, however, urge any inspiring filmmakers and or machinima filmmakers that if you are starting in film editing, start with Sony Vegas. Its smart, intuitive, and easy to use.

Thank you and have a great week!

P.S. Yes, this mean “The Pathopens Project: The Grey People” will be the first film to be edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.