Happy Birthday Justin!

Today is the fictional birthday of the fictional "Tracy" film character Justin Pooge, played by the very real character Jeff Pidgeon.

As Tracy's biggest fan, Justin's character hosts the tracy movie myspace page. Check it out, and wish a fake person a Happy Birthday!

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.

"I got the idea duck hunting. I’m hoping it will attract other naked women."


I like to make a list of about ten possible captions on Sunday night and then pick my favorite... Here are some from this week's list.

1. How was the sexual harassment seminar Friday? I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.

2. It’s “Bring your Horribly Humiliating, Shameful Secret to Work Day.”

3. I hope to see you at my CPR demonstration this afternoon?

4. Hey if they’re going to make me work this weekend…

5. Hey Bob, we could use a third for the carpool lane.

6. I lost my hemorrhoid pillow.

7. It’s just temporary until we can hire a new secretary for the boss to have an affair with.

8. I’m just trying to make my workspace feel more homey.

9. I hate having to bring work home with me.

Wish me luck!

Dan's Found Caricature / Auction Update!

As you may have seen in my earlier post, my friends and I created some artwork for an auction to fund new digs in the office. I'm happy to say the auction was a lot of fun, and a huge success! My paintings did well, and I even entered a last minute piece I'd been holding onto for awhile in a "buy now" $25 instant purchase pool. I drew this picture two years ago for a different auction, and I'm glad it found a good home tonight.
But perhaps the most interesting moment of the evening was the unexpected, slightly unfortunate, and incredibly timely, FOUND CARICATURE of me discovered at the auction by a few friends. The rather racy piece was created by my friend Chris and is entitled "Italian Dinner".


See you next week!

Tracy Comic of the Month

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

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.

"I don’t care how cold it is, I told you to wait for me outside."


Michele's entry was much better... "I’m sorry, I meant a cabernet."

Batsh*t Glam!

Michele started a new blog!

It's called Batsh*tglam. The old blog Shoepatrol, was just too specific. Batsh*t will cover all things fashion and beyond, (including shoes, of course). So if you like Babescanlon you'll love Batsh*tglam!

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.

This me dressed up nice, this is a drawing of a waiter on a "fancy" menu.

Carol Relaxing

Here's a painting of Carol I did for Carol's doggie daycare provider. Carol loves them more than she loves us!

New Drawings

I've been drawing more lately, and really enjoying it!
Here's a sketch of Michele picking some Bon Jovi and ACDC songs on the digital Jukebox at the Bigfoot.

Self portrait at the Hemlock Saturday night.

This is a drawing of the kind of guy that would fight every year at the end of the Clawson Fourth of July fireworks where I grew up. I'd like to do more of these, maybe with less blood.

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.

"I got out due to overcrowding."


That's the one I entered, and these are the ones I thought of today!

"You don't go to hell for masturbating, but it's not completely over looked."

"This is what happens every time a bell rings at Ronnie James Dio's house."

"I'm going through a mid - after life crisis"

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.

This weeks is extra sleazy!

Another Carol Painting

Here's a 4 X 6 inch painting of Carol killing her toys on our crappy Ikea couch. This was done for an auction taking place in two weeks. Let's hope Carol brings in the big bucks!

Interview with Dan about TRACY in this months FLIP!

I did an interview in this month’s issue of FLIP. FLIP is an online animation magazine created by animation director Steve Moore. Each month Steve has great articles, essays, and project updates from people working in the animation industry. This is the first full interview any of us have done about Tracy! It’s very exciting to start putting the word out on this film that has been so private and personal for so many years. Check out the interview as well as all the great back issues of FLIP!

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.

Snowman story ready for winter

The new Afterworks has been moved to sometime around November of this year. It's good, that date works better with my snowman story.

http://e-villepress.blogspot.com/"

Green Screen

This week we shot one of few "special effects" for the film. This shot will only be on the screen for four seconds but it's taken me a few years to get it together to shoot it.

Tracy Winter Shooting

We've been shooting every weekend this month in hopes of wrapping up principle photography for "Tracy". Though most of the film is already shot, there are many still photos that need to be staged for the movie, like the one below. More shoots are planned for March!

Shoe Patrol!

Michele has a new blog about all things shoe related!

Check it out here

http://www.shoepatrol.blogspot.com"

Justin Pooge re-shoot

We did an extra shoot with Jeff Pidgeon's Justin Pooge character for Tracy, adding an extra minute of his character into the film. Can't have too much of a good thing. Click here to read justin's blog
http://www.tracymovie.com"

Drawings of Carol

Here are some drawings of my dog Carol. These aren't the first and they won't be the last.

Snomman Story Update

It seems the 3rd Annual Afterworks comic is chalk full of some pretty great stuff, so it remains to be seen if the snowman story will be chosen to be included in the book. Also this years book is being pushed back from this December to perhaps July. Hopefully in time for next years Comic Con!

http://e-villepress.blogspot.com/"

The Babe

Check out some of Michele's latest writing at splendora.com! Michele writes her blog under the name Babe Scanlon with really funny short stories and articles about fashion, shoes, life, laziness, oral sex, and shoes again.

Check out the Babe by clicking the link below then clicking on "Read My Diary"

http://www.splendora.com/members/babescanlon"

Tracy Merchandise Online Now!

Merchandise from the movie "Tracy" is online now! http://www.cafepress.com/tracymovie

New Song from Tracy online

If you'd like to hear the song from the trailer without all the talking and yelling over top of it, it's now online!
The song is is called "Life and Death of Tracy Knapp" and is part of the films original score written by Alex Mandel.

http://www.myspace.com/alexmandelmusic "

Tracy Trailer!

The full 2 minute trailer for Tracy is finally here!

Check it out!

How to write a six page story in just seven years!

Seven years ago I started working on an illustrated story for a comic book compilation. I thought it would be cool to oil paint each page as there were only six. Turns out that takes forever. By the time I finished three pages the comic book I was trying to get published in was cancelled. I picked away at the other pages for no real reason over the next few years, and I'm happy to say I finally finished it! It's a story about a group of snowmen and their view of the children who created them. I'm also happy to say that it's going to be included in a new comic book compilation due out next Christmas. That gives me only eleven months to come up with a title!

Here's a panel from the story...

Tracymovie.com is finally up! (sort of...)

Not much to look at yet, but it's up...

http://www.tracymovie.com"

Imagination Train Station Theme Song Online Now!

The Imagination Train Station Theme song is online now in it's 53 second entirety!

http://www.myspace.com/tracymovie"

First Clips from TRACY Online!

Take a look at the first clips from TRACY as well as some of the first photos of the lead characters at http://www.myspace.com/tracymovie"

The full blown trailer is still a few months away, but in the mean time check out these three 40 second clips from the film!

2006 Shooting Finished

Last Saturday night we wrapped up shooting for 2006 after nearly five consecutive weekend shoots. A lot of really great stuff came out of that push, a lot of which were simple re - shoots that are going to make the film much better. The plan now is to take the holidays to rest and schedule the next big push at the start of 2007 with the hope of finally finishing principle photography a few months into the year. We're getting there.