Ray Bradbury's The Groon: Speed Sculpt

Christopher Moonlight Making Of Ray Bradbury Groon from Christopher (Moonlight) Cooksey on Vimeo.

For Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey (liveforeverthemovie.com/) I had to show Ray's childhood monster, The Groon, which he used to imagine seeing at the top of the stairs, late at night. The solution was to build a rod puppet, which was then shot against a green screen, and added to footage of a staircase, shot by Scott Smith (lighthousevideoservices.com) under the direction of Micheal O'Kelly. O'Kelly and smith were also responsible for videoing child actor Zachary Meade (imdb.com/name/nm5282501/) against a green screen for me to composite with the other footage for the final moment in the film. 

Watch until the end for a special comment from Malcolm McDowell.

Music by Bartok, Roumanian Dance No. 1 musopen.org/

If you have trouble viewing this video CLICK HERE for the You Tube version. 

The Official Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey Website!

IT'S HERE! The official website for Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey. 

CLICK HERE to Enter

Click Here for more info on this blog.

Opening Night at Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey

I was in Austin at the time of this opening, but it's nice to see how well received the film was. These are interviews with Michael O'Kelly, Malcolm McDowell, Joe Mantegna, and many more:


"That creature that they did on the stairs. They did a great job with the effects, I mean, for what this costs, I mean, it's a staggering piece of art. It's a living piece of art. It really is. I must say." 
~Malcolm McDowell, talking about the puppet and visual effects I did for Live Forever.

Special thanks to Malcolm McDowell for acknowledging the visual effects I did, at the 10:35 mark of this video. You can see some of the VFX he was talking about here:


For more information, click HERE below or go to http://liveforeverthemovie.com/ (coming soon)

Camera and Lighting Test

This is just a little lighting test for an upcoming short film I'm working on. I'm the "actor." For more examples of my video work, click here.

This other video is a quick camera test for shooting green screen outside. The actor here is my Austin camera man, Greg Johnston and his son. You can see his work at www.filmingaustin.com He's very talented and great fun to work with.  

Yeah, we're going to work on that mussel flash.

The Sandman: 25th Anniversary Painting

Some of my earliest desires to take part in the world of comic books, were because of my time spent anticipating the next issues of The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by (for that run) Jill Thompson, and with beautiful cover artwork by one of my very favorite artists, Dave McKean. I related to these comic books, not because of the magical beings inside their pages, but because of the misfits, whom from my point of view, were much like me. There I was, 16 years old, with Robert Smith/Edward Scissorhands hair (much like Dream, I was happy to see) reading stories where the "freaks" acted like real people, with thoughts, feelings, humor, and souls, that I knew I and my outcast friends had inside us, just like everyone else. It was very refreshing to my young mind. So, when the opportunity came along to submit artwork for this year's San Diego Comic Con 2013 souvenir book, for the 25th anniversary of the first Sandman comic, I felt it was only natural to do this piece. I owned it to that young reader who is the foundation for the man I am today.

...and I thought an animated GIF might be fun to throw in, too.

2013 Show Reel for Christopher Moonlight Productions

Christopher Moonlight Productions 2013 Show Reel from Christopher (Moonlight) Cooksey on Vimeo.

Having trouble viewing the Vimeo version? Watch the You Tube version by CLICKING HERE.

It's been a busy and trying year for Christopher Moonlight Productions, with the completion of the Michael O'Kelly directed documentary, Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey and the production wrap of my all green screen sci-fi short film, Girl In The Window (directed by Christopher Cooksey and Jeremy Hanes... now in post) but I wanted to make sure and get a few examples of my work on the web for 2013. Also on the way, Moonlight Art Magazine, featuring interviews and comics, which I show some of the pages of in this video, and at the bottom of this post.

For more info, go to: christophermoonlightproductions.blogspot.com I am available for hire.

Please, contact me at christophermoonlightproduction@gmail.com

Thank you to Rich Goddard, who originally taught me how to use After Effects, and is always there to talk through the creative process with me. I couldn't have done it without him. Also, to Jeremy Hanes for being a brilliant an invaluable co-director. Also, to Michael O'Kelly for giving me permission to use footage from his authorized documentary about his friend Ray Bradbury in my reel. Lastly to Tara Mackey, for being so beautiful and amazing, as the co-star of Girl In The Window.

 Special thanks also go to associate producers Jennifer Lewis, Jack Ritchie, Jackie Estrada, Batton Lash, Jonathan Levit, Heather Lowe, Michael T Malve, Cindy Ventrice-Pearson's son Hunter, and Courtenay Stallings.

CLICK HERE FOR THE CHRISTOPHER MOONLIGHT PRODUCTIONS STORE.

If you missed my 2012 Show Reel, this is it, below...

Christopher Moonlight 2012 Show Reel from Christopher (Moonlight) Cooksey on Vimeo.

...and there's plenty more to see on this blog, so have fun and keep coming back. More exciting stuff is coming this year.

From Painted to Digital (Before and After)

Just a quick post, about what I'm doing to build my portfolio. This piece is best viewed by right clicking it, and opening it in a new tab, so that you can magnify.

These days, I don't paint a complete picture, now that I consider myself a more digital type artist. I paint just what I think I'll need as a foundation for my Photoshop work. As you can see, the difference is vast. This is from no particular comic. I just felt like doing something metaphorical for my current state of mind as an artist and a human being. Interpret as you like.
#christophermoonlight

Designing Bradbury's From The Dust Returned

By way of Live Forever producer Michael O'Kelly's friendship with Ray Bradbury, I had an opportunity to pitch my idea to him, on how I would interpret his book, From The Dust Returned, into a low budget movie. Of course, I was thrilled to be able to do this and wanted to also possibly pitch this to the stars who are in Live Forever, including Edward James Olmos, Malcolm McDowell, and Joe Mantegna. Sadly, while I was working on this, Ray's health took a turn for the worse and not long after, MGM acquired the film rights to the book.

What fallows are an introduction video I made, to show how I would have liked to incorporate puppets, animation, and actors together, using green screen, as well as dummy posters for the movie pitch, and a select few designs I did, all with the hopes of showing them to one of the most brilliant writers in the last one hundred years.

I also owe a huge shout out to the band Death By Dolls and Dame Darcy at damedarcy.com for letting me use her brilliant music for this demo video. It has been a long time dream of mine to have her score one of my films, and I think her music would have been perfect for this movie. Go to her website and buy one of her albums. You won't be disappointed.

Here are the dummy posters:

Beyond the would be posters, were these designs for Timothy's Egyptian mummy cat, his mother, and a random family member that might be a gorgon.   

This sketch would have been the beginnings of my Timothy design as well as another family member, but I never got around to putting it into Photoshop. Still, I like the design. See the rest of my PORTFOLIO BY CLICKING HERE.

I did send these designs on to the producers working on the film right now, but never heard back from them. That's not unusual. My understanding is that the film is already in production. I look forward to seeing it.
#christophermoonlight 

1st Mr. Electrico Storyboards

Just a quick post showing my early storyboards from when Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey was a stage play, meant to incorporate video (which you can read about by clicking HERE) with actors in the theater. This was for the legendary Mr. Electrico scene. Of course, this was before I knew that there was no money in the budget for "lovely assistants" or even an electric chair. I had to throw together one of those using a dinning chair, cardboard, and an aluminum lamp for the cap.

Dave Grave played Mr. Electrico back then, rather than Malcolm McDowell, but in my opinion he did a damn good job. We shot it in his back yard with a green screen with the help of Jeremy Hanes and producer Summer Potter and creator of the project, Michael O'Kelly. You can see these storyboards put into action in a pitch-viz video on THIS POST. It's the first video. Forgive the quality. I did it a long time ago.

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS TO THE SNEAK PREVIEW! 
#christophermoonlight 

Get Your Tickets NOW!

Get your tickets for Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey. 

CLICK HERE TO BUY!
(Christopher Moonlight is a third party and assumes no liability for ticket sales)
Like Live Forever Facebook Page. 

When Hollywood Greenlit Comic-Con: First Trailer

First Still from LIVE FOREVER (and my Comic Con documentary)

Just released is this still from my work on Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey, with Malcolm McDowell as Ray Bradbury's childhood idol, Mr. Electico.

This is a moment where the two characters are flying through space (I won't give everything away) and go in front of the sun. I'm only one visual effects artist and I had about four weeks to do what should have had four months, but that's Hollywood, and I think it turned out well for the deathly deadline I had. The two actors were shot on HDV tape in front of a green screen, the bucket they're sitting in is a model, the books were also shot DV on green screen, and I had to do the rest. Can't wait to see how it looks on the big screen.

Below are some stills from my upcoming mini-documentary

WHEN HOLLYWOOD GREEN-LIT COMIC-CON

(it's going directly to You Tube, where you can watch it for free)

Here's David Mack, in his interview for the movie. 

Since this was all shot with two very cheep little consumer style video cameras, with no additional sound equipment, I knew I had to do something to really liven up the footage I shot. I decided to go black and white, with dashes of color, and do what I could to make the footage look like it was shot on something like 8 milometer film.

Here is Camilla d'Errico at her Comic-Con booth.

For more stills from the movie, go to my Facebook page.

Birds of  Play at their modeling shoot.

The spectacular Billy Martinez of Neko Press Comics, and one hell of a live painter. Check out how the light catches his necklace.

Realistic? No, but I didn't want this to be another boring old You Tube video from Comic-Con. I wanted this stuff to look hot.

Batton Lash at his booth for Exhibit A Press. Another case in point. The light above him looked pretty average, so I decided to rev it up a little, as if JJ Abrams was directing.

Here's Constance Hall from Monsterman, as I work on her interview footage. I interviewed her for another project, which is not a part of this documentary, but I just loved this shot. 

The movie should be out soon. Stay tuned.

On one last note, I have two Girl In The Window T-shirts available for order. Just click the image and get yours today.

Updates for October 3rd 2012

There's a lot to keep my busy, ever since I moved production over to Austin, TX. There has been little time to work on my baby, my all green screen short film Girl In The Window, but I did manage to get this little look development test done.


I'm really excited to find some time to get this movie done. I think it's going to be really great, if I do say so myself.

With Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey almost done (but not almost finished, it's a long story) I just may have some time.

Live Forever is going well. If you're interested in seeing an advanced screening of this sure to be classic documentary about the legendary writer, you can order them by CLICKING HERE.

It stars Ray Bradbury; Joe Mantegna; Hugh Hefner; Edward James Olmos; and Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Electrico.

If you happen to be at the Austin Wizard World check the schedule for us there. We're currently talking to them about doing a panel and and showing some sneak peaks.

If you can't make either, then at least we can show you the new trailer for the movie.

 ...and for an extra bit of fun, here's an interview with Malcolm McDowell from the opening of the original Live Forever stage play.

More press on the movie and Ray Bradbury can be found at Variety, News Blaze, The Ventura County Star, and The L.A. Times.
I wish I could show more at the moment and talk about another potential project that I'm very excited about, but I'm all bound up in non disclosures. Thanks for reading. I hope to post more soon.

CM Productions: Busy As Ever

Things are moving along, faster than we can keep track of, so look for a lot more from us, coming soon. As you can see from the picture below, things are progressing nicely with Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey. Also check out Variety's mention of me, in THIS ARTICLE announcing the movies winter release.There's also News Blaze.

In these photos: Live Forever producer and writer Michael O'Kelly with Edward James Olmos, Devin O'Kelly (Michal's son), with actor Jeremy Hanes, and Malcolm McDowell. Joe Mantegna at the green screen studio. Michael O'Kelly with Jeremy Hanes.

Also in Production, Girl In The Window. I'm directing this one myself, and it stars (in order of photos) the beautiful Tara Mackey, the amazingly bad ass Jeremy Hanes, the multifaceted Michael A. Thomson, and the ridiculously good looking Christopher Moonlight. Who writes this stuff? Oh yeah! Me.

Girl In The Window has almost wrapped production, and will be going  into post in July. It will be an all green screen, R rated, sci-fi, short film, integrating models, puppets, and computer effects.

Note: All photos have been enhanced by me.

RIP: Ray Bradbury 1920 - Forever

Today, the summer morning felt like October, Venus crossed the
sun, and a poet of a story teller has died.

Ray Bradbury.

He was the first author that I ever read that made me realize that books could be more than
just entertaining stories. When I picked up my dad's paperback copy of The
Martian Chronicles, as a kid, I realized that a books could speak to you
about your own inner thoughts and feelings. They could show you that it
meant something to have integrity, aspire to ideals, that you weren't alone
in your fears, and that we could live in a world of higher value than what
reality television, corrupt politicians, willfully ignorant people, tabloids, and cell
phone dependency had to offer.

 On one of the many times I met him, he said, "I charge you with making sure

that we go out into the stars, and continue on." He cared about what
happened to us, as a people, and knew that it was all in our own hands.



 For the past three years, I have been privileged and honored to work as
production designer and effects supervisor on the documentary about his
life. A movie, that he told his close friend and producer of the film,
Michael O'Kelly, will be, "The fireworks at the end of my life."

Even though he did see much of my work for the film, I am very sorry that he
did not live to see the finished product. I really wanted him to. I wanted
to know, that after he charged us with such great responsibility, that he
would see it, and be proud, not only of us, but of himself for showing us
all, that through our works and our deeds, and our desire to make the human
race a better one, that we can all Live Forever.

CLICK HERE for more about our work with Ray.

 "Would you not admit, child, that forty billion deaths are a great wisdom, and those forty billion who shelve under the earth are a great gift to the living so that they might live?"


-Ray Bradbury

From The Dust Returned 

Rod Puppet Test Video (for un-named project)

This is a test puppet, for a project that I can't talk about right now, but hope to soon.

Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey (Extended Trailer)

This is (as the title says) an extended trailer for the documentary Live Forever: A Ray Bradbury Odyssey about the life of the writer, himself. Originally it was to be a short film, boiling down his life into fifteen minute for the You Tube Your Film Festival. Due to what was felt to be very one sided contest rules, dealing with ownership, it was decided not to enter to contest, so the movie was re-edited into what you see here.

 (Sorry, we had to take it down, due to re-editing. It'll be back soon.) 

Unfortunately, the continuity of the effects I created were meant for a short film, so they aren't entirely what I would have done for an extended trailer. However, now there is this sizzle reel, which shows (somewhat) what I had originally intended for the individual scenes, and their continuity.

(Sorry, we had to take it down, due to re-editing. It'll be back soon.) 

 This project was done on a micro budget, and wouldn't have been possible without the help of some super talented artists and producers, who's photos are below. I'll try to explain these photos, the best I can.
Here is producer Summer Potter, sitting on stage with Mr. Electrico (Dave Grave) projected behind her. Summer was a major contributor to the production, and did many thing to keep it from stalling.
Here's me (Christopher Moonlight) with Live Forever creator, writer, producer, and good friend of Ray Bradbury, Michael O'Kelly. What are we doing? Trying to figure out why his Mac isn't working how it's supposed to. Seriously, that took up half the production time.

 ...and this dapper fellow (he's single, ladies) is the AMAZING Rich Goddard, who acted as FX supervisor for the video portion of the original stage play, and consultant to me, for the extended trailer. He's a little camera shy, so this is the only photo I have of him.
Here is Mr. Electrico himself, Mr. Dave Grave. Not only is he front man for the death rock band Frankenstein, the builder of that epic Ferris wheel you see in all the videos, the actor who plays Mr. Electrico, but he's also a fantastic grip. Oh, and we shot all the green screen at his home.
These sketches are an example of Dave's mad genius. I give him the simple task of building a spooky old Ferris wheel, and suddenly I'm getting page after page of notes and design ideas. If you want a model builder who can take an idea and run, and run, and run with it. Get Dave Grave.
  Jeremy Hanes (who is first and foremost and actor) was also instrumental in the production of this project, working as director of photography, sound recording engineer, and stand in actor. Like Rich and Dave, I couldn't have made this project happen without him.
Here's some more on set silliness for you, (makes a great desktop) of us sitting behind the fish tank that was used for all of our puppeteer work, as well as the dining room chair that was converted, using cardboard, into Mr. Electrico's electric chair. I know, it's way budget, but did you notice, when watching the video? I don't think you can honestly say you did.

For all the extended behind the scenes work, click here and scroll down. Being resourceful on a budget is my specialty, and the specialty of all of my crew. There's plenty of videos, photos, and links that will show you just how brilliant they are. You can also read news stories on the project HERE and HERE. Enjoy.

Cartooning for Passport To Explore (The TV Show)

A while back I had the honor of doing some cartoon designs, to be turned into cartoon segments, for the TV teen travel show, Passport To Explore... or PTX for short. I also designed the basic outline for their logo, which their animator added an earth behind, and the lettering.

Because the budget was extremely low per episode, I couldn't financially justify spending a lot of time on background paintings or cartoon people, who were only going to appear on screen for about 30 seconds, in between segments. I had to play it down and dirty, creating characters with interchangeable limbs so that the After Effects animator could make them do what the script called for, in a short amount of time.

Backgrounds, believe it or not, are easier for me to paint, rather than draw and put into photo shop for coloring. Again, they had to be painted fast and lose. In many cases, the concept drawing was what I painted over, to save time, using water colors, ink, pastels, and acrylic. When it cam to references Google Images was my friend.
Check out below, where I had to tell the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken, pioneered by Colonel Harland Sanders.

...and here are a few more of my favorite images from the show.

Special thanks go out to my wonderful intern at the time, Rebecca Kim. I couldn't have done it without her, scanning all of this stuff, and helping out with the Photoshop coloring.