The race continued as time marched on and I started to panic: what would be the future of our country? What world would I wake up in tomorrow? And then 11:15pm happened, and Barack Obama was announced as the next President of the United States of America! Then, collectively from all across my city, cheers, yells, and a sense of collective hope could be heard and felt.

I was able to see John McCain’s speech while at work, and I have to say, that was the most sincere and honest concession speech I have ever heard - calling for his supporters to embrace his opponent and reminding them that we are all ONE country, ONE nation, and that together we are strong; it gave me chills and it made me remember why of all the republicans I saw, I liked him the most. Though I differed with him on several issues, though I felt mistakes were made, I congratulate him on a great run and I look forward to hearing more and more from him! After that, it was home through the screaming masses to hear Obama’s speech replayed, and I have to say that I have never been so moved - so excited for a new leader!

The most refreshing part for me was the honesty, stating plainly to the American people that the job is big and will be hard and that we may disagree but we are bringing this country to a better place! It was amazing! I have never before been moved to tears by a speech; it was so refreshing to be talked to like an adult, to be reminded that we are a nation of innovators, intellectuals, and freethinkers! And, that together, we make this country great! Needless to say, I am happy with how things worked out and I am hopeful! I cant wait to see what the next four years bring!

So, this weekend Dogtoon Media participated in the first ever Nor’Easter Film Festival. We had two entries, our “Code Monkey” Music video, and the until then unseen extended cut of “Family Treasure.” It was great to hear the reactions to each and I really had a blast! A BIG thanks to all that came out for the fest! Not only was I glad to see the reactions to our stuff, it was great to get two days of really good movies to enjoy! Sadly, we didn’t walk away with any awards, which I would have liked, but we did make some great friends and connections. Over all, it was a great weekend!

The Film fest itself was run really well for its first year - wish that it had been marketed a bit more to get more of a turn out, but it is its first year. The After party was very nice; next time a bar would be even better! All in all a really great weekend event!

So, this week I completely missed my comic deadline. I started back on the moving in story-line and it needed a few landscapes, which take some insane amounts of time to do, and right after I got all my backgrounds set.. BAM! computer had a “hiccup” and I lost all my work :(. So I’m back at the tablet working hard to get it ready for this weeks update. Hopefully I’ll get my computer back up to snuff soon. I’m sorry to disappoint, but if all goes well, I should be on track to keep up with my updates from here on out! Thanks for sticking with me, and check back this Wednesday for a new comic!

Thanks for all the responses; if you have sent an email, I am trying to collect them to maybe start reading on our podcast (yes something else I will be working at keeping up regular.)

Have a great day!

I have been away a bit and now its time to get back, and start fresh! I got the office all clean and tidy, it was really great to get the place all organized! Next up is a bit of redecorating, making the place I spend the bulk of my work time comfy and interesting has been a HUGE thing for me. At some point I will be sure to have photos up!

So I hope most of you have seen the Paris Hilton response video to the McCain ad. It was AMAZING! I totally changed my opinion of that girl. If you haven’t seen it take a peek, it’s on youtube; she basically points fun at herself and offers a solution to our growing energy issue. And the kicker is, it’s better then the current options offered by either candidate. So amazing! I think this really shows how absurd the race for president has gotten. I mean, once upon a time, Paris was just a starlet who got famous for showing up and acting like a ditz, now she has a viable political opinion. It’s a strange day when I think about the possibility of Paris as president!

Yesterday I was up at 6:30am and off to work for the day shift, soon as that was done I rushed home to meet with Steph to review a few of our projects. Even though she was still really under the weather she trudged over to the Dog House and we spent about 4 hours reviewing, re-hashing and reworking 2 of our current projects. The first being our new music video “Code Monkey” the next being our extended cut of “Family Treasure” our entry into the 2008 48 Hour Film Project. It was so good to have a sounding board and a fresh set of eyes.

So that was all wrapped up and it was off to work again for the midnight shift. After that ill be heading home for a bit of editing and then some well deserved sleep!

So its more than about time for the production blog for our last shoot to be up. So here we go:

Day 1 Friday- Prep day. Equipment is all set thanks to RCTV for the use of the 2 A1’s and thanks to my Papa for helping get it all. Costumes, and props are all paced away. I am just one stop and shop trip away from ready!

Day 2 Saturday - Shooting. So after some excitement in almost losing my phone…. yeah I almost pretty much died. We are all set and ready to go. Our awesome sound people Steve and Will are getting all the gear into the studio wile Steph goes over costumes with our actors!

We filmed some of the rock out scene and almost lost our lead to traffic from the pride parade. But all is well and we ROCKED OUT! I feel so glam rock god like! (stills coming soon)
Lunch Break and then its back to work. Moving to our second locations down the road, we set up for all our office scenes. We all had a lot of fun goofing in the meeting, and now we wrap all the extras while Steph, Jim and I get some B-ROLL and close ups.

Sarah cant make it back so we pack up and set up a date for a pick up. Now it’s home to rock out the editing! More to come after its logged!

Doug

Well lookie-here, the new site is live! There’s a lot going on here and I’ve still a few bugs to fix but I promise you we’re workin’ on that.

We’re trying to highlight all that Dogtoon has to offer you here from the stores, to the videos and don’t forget the dog blog and the dog cast.

We’ve thrown around a bunch of really great ideas for the site and if you have any more ideas or complaints direct the all to Doug, harass him about them actually!

So a little bit about Gossamer the First installment: the first episode alone took over a year to make from Idea to episode. It was an amazing ride, and though rough at times, a fantastic experience over all. I really want to thank everyone involved with this project and I hope you all enjoy the final product.

So it’s rather late the day after the premier and I am exhausted!! So I’ll be toddling off to bed. Night All!!

1. This summer I will be performing in a professional production of “The Real Inspector Hound”—as a dead body. That’s right; you’ll be able to see me at any of the free performances in a park somewhere in Chelsea (I’ll let you know details at a later date) as I lie on the stage for the entire length of the show. Several of the performances will be presented in Spanish, but lucky for me, dead bodies don’t have to speak Spanish. This should be an interesting experience…but it’s professional, and I’m sure that I’ll get to meet and work with a lot of cool and talented people.
2. I’ve recently been cast in one of the house teams at Improv Asylum. I’m very excited about this. Starting April 23rd, I will be performing improv comedy at IA on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. for a six week run. Please, PLEASE come see this! Oh, by the way, I’ve been taking Improv classes at the Asylum for a while now and that is going great.
3. Just over a week ago, I co-wrote and acted in Dogtoon Media’s 2008 submission to the 48 Hour Film Festival entitled “Family Treasure.” It came out pretty good, considering we had to make a road movie in 48 hours and then cut it to hell in order to meet the seven-minute maximum requirement. Unfortunately, the film was turned in at three minutes past the deadline so we are out of contention. But if you’d like to check out “Family Treasure” you can find it on my myspace page and on youtube.
4. The other day I went to a brainstorming meeting for Improv Boston’s October production of “Gorefest VI!” For those of you who are unfamiliar, every year IB puts together a new musical featuring copious amounts of blood and guts. I performed in last year’s “Gorefest V: Blood on the Bayou” and had a blast. Anyway, as it turned out, everyone loved my ideas for an ocean adventure themed gorefest, so I am delighted to say that not only are my ideas being used, but I am helping to write the book for this year’s show!
5. Lastly, I want to mention that I am working on a stand-up comedy routine, and gradually gathering up the cahones (sp?) to perform it. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but was too afraid. I’m telling you all this now so that you will all hold me to my word so I don’t back down from this. I miiiight already have a gig booked, but that’s not until late June, and I’m hoping to get started before that.

So that’s my artistic life in a nut-shell right now. I strategically left out all of my ill-fated auditions of course. Please let me know if you have any interest in anything I just mentioned. I’ll be sending out detailed information on a lot of this stuff as it gets closer and…are you still reading this? My god, you must have had to quit your job. Sorry ’bout that!

~Bryce

Feels like I haven’t posted in forever! Just had so much going on and my 9-5 schedule has been running me ragged! But who wants to hear about that? On to more fun things!

Our Entry into the 48 Hour Film Fest Boston 2008 is showing tonight, I am nervously awaiting seeing it. The 48 hour cut is up on YouTube, and for your viewing pleasure here!

Hope you enjoy it! Leave a comment if you please.

Now that the madness of the 48 hour film fest and it’s sleep deprived fall out are behind us, we are re-focused on our new web page, and all the happy shimmering content to go on it! It’s been slow going, mostly as its hard to balance a 9-5 not Dogtoon with the 5-midnight that is Dogtoon, but very soon we will have a brand new Dogtoon web page brimming with new fun things for you all to enjoy. I’m really so glad you all are sticking it out and still checking in with us! The emails, comments and messages are always a pleasure! By all means keep them coming!

GOSSAMER
I am Proud to FINALLY announce the Premier for GOSSAMER! Friday May 9th at The Callan Theater in Salem, MA - Doors open at 8 pm; we will display the first segments of Gossamer. We are still working out if anything else will be shown, but we will be showing the complete 1st episode with no breaks! And, of course, festivities to follow!

More on that for sure, but on to other news: I’m hoping you are all enjoying the comics! Once I get my week to week figured out I will be jamming them out regularly!

So that should about do it for me! Hope you enjoyed the update! I will be posting again after the screening of “Family Treasure.” Wish us luck!

~Doug

This past weekend we had our first Photo Shoot for Dogtoon Media’s new merchandise line. I am so happy with how it went and the photos looked AMAZING! Soon we will be adding them to our re-designed web page. Can’t wait to add some things up there for you guys, as always shoot your feedback or comments to us either here, or at Dogtoonmedia@gmail.com. We have really loved all the support!

That’s about it for me,

~Doug

The point…? Oh right… sorry. I got myself off track with Spartan Adventure book talk. Anyway I guess I’m just trying to say that in my opinion movie reviews are becoming a bitch session. I never base what I’m going to see on them, and if I had I would have missed 300, Beowulf, Transformers, Boondock Saints, and I wouldn’t have Cloverfield on my “Oh my god I must see this movie or death will ensue!” list. In summary, I think movie reviews should be reviewed! See how they like it. Someone who has never reviewed a movie ever, telling them they are having a rough go of it. Wouldn’t be fun to see something like “Well I thought the review started off good but it got a little too wordy in the middle. And the use of the word ‘Goriffic’ seems out of place and frankly made up.”? Armchair quarterbacking is bad enough. And you can’t tell someone you’re in filmmaking now a day’s without hearing their “fantastic idea” that they worked out while waiting in line at Starbucks the other day. So in conclusion, I think that movie reviewers should get up off their thing and go do something creative! And I don’t mean write about what someone else is doing… because that’s not so much reporting, as it is whining.

Check out the comic at:
http://www. dogtoonmedia. com

~Doug

“I was really excited to open the store NOW because I would like to start Dogtoon being self sufficient as soon as possible, and that means paying for its own stuff. You know like kicking a teenager out of your house and watching them pay rent…. But really it’s a goal to have this company make its own way as soon as possible. So yeah, I’m sort of tossing it out the nest a bit. The other reason, and the reason the first wave of merchandise is Dogtoon Logo stuff, is because I think this will help get the buzz out as well.”

Yeah, that WOULD be something I would say. So for those of you asking, wondering or maybe even just now jumped on the wondering wagon because you hadn’t really thought about it till now (Johnny come lately’s.), there you have it. I guess the bottom line here is you should check out the site, and check out the store. Much more to come and if you like what we do, well, buy a Tee Shirt!

Check it out though,
Go to http://www. dogtoonmedia. com then click on “Store”

~Doug

Ahem…

Once upon a time in the house of Dogtoon there lived a G5 who’s editing powers did bloom,
it frolicked and played in the usual way and its brother’s it invited to croon.
Now on one faithful day a few months from May the G5 was working its best,
it sat there happy at play
making Gossamer frays,
looking very good I must say of the rest.
When all too fast,
the lighting would dash, and the power in the house went away.
The Power came back,
and the computer stack
flickered back to its previous way.
But the poor G5 just stood there all grumpy and dark,
a far and sad cry from its usual lark.
And I could only look on with dismay.
So now the G5 sits on the table all dull, and undone.
Its poor little drive took a hit right upside its head, and you know that’s not fun.
So I’ll wait all the same, for the next poem refrain., when I take it to the store so they can make it happy again the right way.

Yes at times I can be rather poetic, but just incase my little story was too cryptic for you the deal is my house took a surge because my space heater kicked on without my knowing. Taxed the houses rather… shaky electrical system, and caused a surge and a shutdown. (Sadly this has happened a lot.) We have a microwave that is big enough to cook a turkey! And it draws enough power to launch a probe into deep space. So yeah… you put in your oodles of noodles, or your chilled coffee for a re-heat and it goes too long… BAM! Lights out. I can’t count the number of times I have lost a render or 3 steps in a project because my roomies needed to reheat leftover steak tips from Friday. I can’t blame them though. I mean its not their fault the power system in our house is teetering on a razor edge of ability, but man… it sucks when your work is set back due to a power surge. So yeah, that’s where I am. I got a temp solution working well so I’m still plugging away. We will see how well it does.
But that’s all from me tonight.

~Doug