This Week's New Yorker Caption Contest

Here is my entry in this weeks New Yorker Caption Contest. Each week they provide the image and you provide the caption.

"Wow, nobody throws a party like the Donners!"

Carol with Her Toys

I did this painting of Carol for Michele's birthday.
It's oil on canvas stained red with acrylic paint. I stick pretty close to the line drawing, letting it show through where I can. I like painting with a single color key when I need to work fast. Full color is just too complicated.

Again, they'll be many more drawings and paintings of Carol because I've become the kind of person who draws and paints pictures of their dog.

Shooting Kids

We had a great shoot this morning for TRACY with the Stanton family. It was a lot of fun, and a good lesson in shooting with children. A good rule of thumb is to shoot a master and let the child do what he or she wants to do. As much as you'd like to think you can prepare or figure out what the staging should be, you can't. You just need to let them have fun and tell you what the shot will be about. The take I ended up using had a lot more energy than I'd planned on because the little girl in the shot jumped into her mother's arms during the take, causing her mom to laugh in a real fun natural way. Again, something I couldn't have planned on. So remember, let the children run the show, other wise you'll just be the jerk yelling at a small child who doesn't care about what you think you want.

Dan's Found Caricature

Every now and then you find a picture, photo, plant or mineral that looks just like you. I'm going to try to post a new FOUND caricature of myself every Saturday morning for the next few weeks. Please let me know when you find them successful, or when you think they’re crap. To start things off I’m going to post and easy one…

See you next Saturday morning.

This Week's New Yorker Caption Contest

Here's this weeks New Yorker Caption Contest entry. Michele realized you can enter Sunday night rather than Monday morning. You gotta be quick!

"I’m trying to eat more heart conscious meals."

Or Michele's entry " He called me a pussy".

Michele's Birthday!

Michele’s 41st Birthday was spent relaxing by the pool at a local spa. Michele got a manicure and I got a massage. It was very nice with exception of a few strange whispered comments from the masseuse. The first being, “It’s been over 10 years, but I still giggle.” Not sure what that was in reference to. The last came as she finished the massage, slowly caressed my forehead, her fingers drifting off my temples, as she leaned into my face to whisper, “ Thank you SOOOOOOOO much.”

Happy Birthday Michele!

Michlele turns 41!

Michele's 41st Birthday is this Saturday!!
That's right, one half of Caveat Productions turns 41 this Saturday,and the other half turns 14 in June. Happy Birthday Michele Scanlon, you are the patron saint of lady's fun, expensive shoes and creative happiness! I love you, and so does anyone who's ever met you. Come on, you met her on the bus 24 hours ago and you already know what I'm talking about.

Happy Birthday Carol!

Our dog Carol turns the big 0 – 3 Tuesday. That’s 21 in dog years, so stop by Applebee’s after work and buy Carol a shot of 151! Happy Birthday Carol!

This Week's New Yorker Caption Contest

Here's this week's entry in the New Yorker Caption Contest. These are getting harder, and less funny. I'll do better next week, I promise!

"Please Mrs. Sherman, feel free to use the tear trough."

Tracy Comic of the Month

Here is this month's vintage Tracy comic book cover!

Debby Coleman Production Stills

Here are two production stills for the film taken by Debby Coleman. Debby is a friend, and exellent photographer. She was nice enough to volunteer her time and talent to shoot some stills during the last days of principle photography for the movie's main characters. Luckily all the production photos were taken just seconds before I gained 20 pounds and Brian lost 30. Debby also photographed my wedding and did a lovely job.

This Week's New Yorker Caption Contest

Here is my caption for this week's New Yorker caption contest.

"This is working much better than the flares."

Doesn't really make sense does it? Oh well, got to sumit each week no matter what. That's part of the fun.

Wrap for Brian!

Today we wrapped Brian Fee on the movie TRACY as the character Tracy! Brian has been involved in the film since the very beginning, and though his role as and actor is over, he will still remain involved as a producer. Brian’s first shoot as the character Tracy was back in May of 2003, appearing as the younger clown version of the character,and coincidentally this afternoon we wrapped Brian again playing the younger clown version for one extra shot. Here he is matching his make up to that of the original clown Tracy from five years ago.We also shot Steve Purcell and Rob Gibbs as Tracy’s clown companions. Steve and Rob, are also the only actors in the film other than Brian to play more than one part in the film.

Tracy production turns 5!

As of this Wednesday the process of making this movie has turned 5 years old!
I wrote the treatment for the film on March 5th 2003 with the hopes of finishing it by 2005. So naive.

We'll be celebrating appropriately this weekend, shooting a photo for the movie featuring a staged birthday party.

Thanks to everyone involved in this project for their patience and dedication over the past 5 years.

This Week's New Yorker Caption Contest

I've decided to make a habit of entering the New Yorker caption contest each week! That's the contest on the last page of each issue where they publish a CRAZY cartoon drawing without a caption and you have to come up with the witty, slightly confusing New Yorker brand of humor to accompany the picture. The captions are judged every Monday. Here is my caption for this week's drawing.


"pepperoni on one side and a rotting coyote on the other."



Wish me luck!

Money Shots

After Effects artist Patrick Siemer has been helping me out over the past several months with a few of the special effects shots for "Tracy". There aren't many effects scenes in the movie, but I wanted to make sure that the few there were didn't stand out as obvious "Effects". Patrick has done a great job weaving very sophisticated work into a very unsophisticated style of film.