Ride out the election in style!

No matter who you're for, Obama or Mccain, I think we can all agree it's time for change. What better way to show your support and hope for the future than by puttin' it on a T-Shirt?! (designed by yours truly.)

Check it out at our Zazzle Store!

Help support us and this great place in which we live, spread the word! Help us sell some shirts!

Act now and save three dollars on all shirts by entering the zazzle promotion code: 3OFFZAZZELTS

Change for 08'!

Back in Action

This past weekend the actors of Argos reunited on the set with the Quandary team for some final pickup shots for the film.

We threw them into their old costumes and straight into the action, nabbing not only the much needed footage, but also some pretty pictures! These pictures, taken on a fancy high powered camera, will supply us with all the publicity photos for posters, DVD's, web promotion, lobby cards, and whatever else we decide to slap their faces on.

As absolutely fantastically fabulous as our actors look in these pictures... I can't post them here yet. Don't worry, they'll be released as the movie gets closer to completion, it'll be worth the wait (hooray for hype!) So instead I'll post the next best thing... behind the scenes pictures of the crew on the shoot!

Enjoy!

(click to enlarge)

"you're in space... aaaaand action!"

"twin lights! oh and people too"

"you're on a mountain... no, a canyon!.. no, the moon!...this'll be epic, trust us."

"Basil is doin' fine!"

"Space man Joe"

"shenanigans!"

"I loves my gun"

"Ben! ...and close pins..."

Quandary out!

QTube

You may have noticed the silly intro on the Heart of the Argos website. We also made a separate one for a promo DVD for the Saturn Awards.

The intros were actually filmed in my room, because for some reason I decided to go with a white motif (complemented by blank accents) so it's a little like living in my own personal cyclorama. The only problem is, my room is just large enough for me to inhabit, and is not exactly set up for filming.

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Just another excuse for us to put on our bubble wrap jump suits.

Oh, the foolishness.

Building From Scratch

We've been hinting at the Argos model for awhile now, and so I figured I'd take this opportunity to hint a little more (maybe even show you some pictures!). Over the past few weekends Spenser, Dylan and I have been working diligently, trying to translate our paper version of the space ship into the real thing.

To cut down on costs we bought a few large sheets of super thin plywood, and have begun cutting out the pieces that will be the base for the ship. It's a bit like one of those kits I used to play with as a kid, you know the ones with the little popsicle sticks that you glue together to make a dinosaur?

(click to enlarge)

Like the full scale set the Argos model will feature many practical lights. Also like the set, these lights will need to turn on and off as well as flicker, meaning it will need to be controlled via an external lighting box. However, some of the shots will demand that the model be mobile, so we're also including an option for it to run on internal batteries. This means, lots of complicated wiring for Dylan.

(click to enlarge)

Right now, it just looks like a strange wooden kite with about a half a pound of wiring and hot glue stuck to it, but in the coming weeks it'll begin to take form. Stay tuned.

Also, click here for more on the crazy stuff we're building for Argos.

(click to enlarge)

34th Annual Saturn Awards. Awesome.

When I first heard we were going to an award ceremony for Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror films, I didn't quite know what to expect. Who founded such an awesome academy? Why hadn't I figured out a way to attend sooner? Would there be anyone famous there receiving an award? And were we supposed to wear a suit and tie, or dress as our favorite Star Wars character?

Truth be told I was extremely curious. For all I knew we could really just be going to someones basement to sit on bean bag chairs in a cardboard set to drink rootbeer while wearing rubber Vulcan ears. Don't get me wrong, we're huge Sci-fi Fantasy nerds, and we love rubber ears (and Rootbeer) I just wasn't sure what kind of affair this was going to be.

The 34th Annual Saturn Awards turned out to be hosted at the prestigious Universal Hilton Hotel, and lets just say the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror knows how to put on an event. Celebrities trickled down the red carpet into the main lobby, posing for the cameras as they passed by an imposing Cylon Centurion and a looming green leafy creature (we're still not quite sure who he was).

After having drinks in the first hall surrounded by fifteen foot posters and LCD screens playing promo material for Hellboy II, we entered the main banquet room only to be greeted by remixes of all the great sci-fi classic themes, from Lost in Space to Doctor Who. After an amazing dinner (and cheesecake, whoa, crazy delicious) and good conversation with our table the ceremony began, and one by one the winners took the stage to receive their shining Saturn Award for their contributions to our favorite genres.

Be sure to click here and check out the entire list of honored films and award recipients.

After the ceremony we ambled off to the after party, and schmoozed with celebrities and other Hollywood professionals, able to turn around to anyone in the room and ask their thoughts on the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. It was great fun saying hello to John Voight, Niel McDonough, and Matt Reeves, and getting to talk to Guillermo del Toro and Doug Jones, who are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Thanks to Andrew for hooking us up, and Victor for coming with us! We would also like to extend our very special thanks to Robert Holguin for the invitation, it was a blast, we hope to see you again next year!

Quandary Goes West

In a slight change of pace from spaceships and alien crabs, Quandary does cinematography and production design on Richard Heredia Arriaga's western short, Borderlines.

Filmed on the San Francisco University sound stage, it was a great opportunity to delve into the old west, and the production was a great collaboration of friends and ideas.

Principal photography was completed over four days, where a full blown saloon and actors decked out in period costumes were captured on film, and shipped in and out in record time. The finished film is expected to be completed in December 2008.

Be sure to check out pictures from the set.

and Click here for more on the production design.

Saturn Awards & Website Extreme Makeover Edition

June 24th, Quandary will be attending the 34th annual Saturn Awards. In preparation for the event we have given the Heat of the Argos website an overhaul, and made it look as fancy as we feel!

Also for the event we are burning over 500 promotional Argos DVD's that will be included in gift bags being given to the attendees. In order to give them that special, personalized touch (and in order to cut down on costs) we decided to burn them all by hand. So if you are one of the recipients of the these gift bags and happen to be reading this, perhaps keep this in mind as you casually toss our disk into that shoebox full of old AOL CDs and turbo tax floppies from the early nineties. We thank you.

Lastly, we are greatly honored to be able to attend our fellow sci-fi enthusiasts, good luck to all the nominees. And as always, be sure to spread the word, and join the Argos newsletter to stay up to date with events and news!

Also, Pow!

Argos, With Puppets!

Last weekend Spenser and I created the placeholders for the FX shots for Heart of the Argos. Using our newly realized talents with foam core and hot glue, we had constructed mildly accurate scale models of the different space elements that will be seen in the film. With these we lit and filmed them as if they were the actual shots, so that we can have an accurate representation of their duration, and how they will fit in the flow of the movie.I think I had a little too much fun doing the puppeteering of the small scale Argos spaceship as it zooms around in space. We attached the model to a bit of stiff wire and puppeteered manually by me, while some long black woman's opera gloves (which are oh so sexy). Surprisingly it created a very convincing effect, my hand and the wire was invisible on the video. Old school is sometimes the best school.

I think the best part was when we took the whole operation to the park and started flying it around the sandbox.

Last Chance to Party!

Thursday, March 27th Quandary is hosting a spring break shindig at the Milk Bar - 1840, Haight Street, San Francisco.

Event starts at 8:00pm, featuring DJ Nyce, and of course the ever popular $2 beers (and some sort of cocktail)

Proceeds from the door will go towards completion of Heart of the Argos, so come on out and party with us, and others from the Argos crew!

Special thanks to Milk, and Argos producer Aaron Zaragoza for coordinating all this.

Don't miss it!

Models to Scale

Hello everyone!

Well it's pretty much been business as usual around here at Quandary. After returning from a brief adventure to Legoland I'm back to work at our headquarters, and have got some cool stuff to show off that we completed before I left.

The scale model of the Argos is complete! Not quite sure what scale it actually is any more (it kinda changed as we made it). Spenser and I have made the decision to create all the ships and space objects in the film using models, as opposed to digital 3D.
We like the idea of doing things outside the computer. Remember how cool the spaceships looked in the original star wars? Those we're models made from plastic and hot glue, and they still look awesome! For the most part (there are exceptions) we've never been fully satisfied with the 3D 'look', and at our current level (with no money) it would be near to impossible to get something to match our vision. With physical models however, where Spenser and I can physically control the lighting, camera, texture and background, we can create something that fits with the rest of the film (fingers crossed)

Our animation director Ijah Garfield has been hard at work engineering the little space critters that will inhabit the ship. The stop motion filming will take place over the course of the next few months (pending funding) where Ijah and his team of animators will create the extra footage we need involving our beloved little space crabs. His awesome concept art and animation test footage coming soon!

And lastly I figured I'd tack these on because they're great. Spenser found these on an old roll of film, character pics from our music video Charlie!

Argos Teaser Trailer - Take 2

So you may have already noticed the new Argos teaser trailer, which now uses actual footage from the movie and not just the crappy video tap thankyouverymuch. But I forgot to mention it before, so I'm doing it now! (yay!)

The quality is still less than half of what it's going to be when we get the full resolution scan (it's even less of course here online because your watching it with youtube quality) but basically it's going to look awesome. The only thing we are missing are the funds for these last steps...

Our effects department is counting on you! If you'd like to contribute and play an important role in the completion of the film, please stop by the donate page, or send us an email to talk to us directly at Quandary@QuandaryFilms.com we'd love to hear from you!

And without further ado, here's the new teaser trailer:

Quandary's In Camera

As you casually flipped through the latest issues of your favorite 'industry' magazines this month, you probably noticed a certain feature! Wait... you don't spend all your time reading about the latest technology in film production? Well that's okay, now's your chance!

Kodak's January (2008) edition of In Camera Magazine was kind enough to publish a story on Heart of the Argos. As you flip past pages featuring the television show, "Chuck" and the latest film with Phillip Seymore Hoffman, you stumble upon a concise, well-written article addressing both creative and technical aspects we used to film Heart of the Argos. It was great to have a chance to discuss topics like, the choices that were made to create a visual style, and why we prefer shooting on film over digital.

(Click the image below to read the full article)

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Gail Sanchez, Sally Christgau and all the fine folks at In Camera for the attention!

Pimp My Spaceship

Hey everyone, happy new year! It's time for a nice juicy Argos artwork update that has been a long time coming. You've now seen a taste of what the Argos looks like on the inside, and I know you're wondering what this crazy spaceship looks like on the outside. Well for those of you who are curious, here's a first look at some of the designs.

(click thumbnails to enlarge)

Spenser and I each spent some time on our own doodling various spaceship possibilities, then we came together and tossed our ideas around. Some ideas got stuck in the ceiling fan, some were a bit outlandish, but after many iterations we came up with something that we both liked.

After the design meetings and the doodles I went off to my lair in the garage and tried to pull the ship off of flat paper and into three dimensions. For some reason the medium I felt was best suited for this task would be popsicle sticks (don't ask me why, they felt less intimidating). I was somewhat successful, enough so that we decided to take it to the next level.
What we have next is a work in progress. It is based on the second design sketches, and the version I've been drawing for special FX placeholders in the rough edit, which include the large cylindrical engines on the side (those are the tricky part). These side engines, two more from the back (there are seven total) the cockpit and the bottom "rudder" bit still need to be added. For this model we are using foam core, some sort of heavy poster board I found in the garage, and hot glue (which I believe is like the force, because it binds the galaxy, and everything it touches together).
In conclusion, work continues, more updates to follow! We always like to hear what you think, and be sure to join the Quandary newsletter and stay up to date with the latest news and events! (don't worry we won't spam you, we're too busy to do it unless it's announcing something cool)

Enjoy the new year!