Tag: film

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Unveiling the Magic for 2023: It’s Almost Time for Gothtober

The Moon is out, and so is all that goes bump in the night

Hold onto your hay bales, we’re about to bring you our annual anticipated countdown of spooky and artistic Autumnal delights!

We’re pleased as pumpkin pie to report that Gothtober is now 21 years old. Gothtober is old enough do drink! Our 2023 edition contains creative offerings catered to this new milestone through the theme: “Potions and Elixirs” (in addition to the usual theme, which is simply “Halloween.”)

At the strike of midnight our calendar unveils a new contributor each day of October. In case you’ve never experienced it before, we’re taking you on a lil’ artistic journey.

Enjoy a celebration of the holiday’s rich traditions, and eerie charms, with an ability to stir the cauldron of your imagination. I don’t censor anyone, so it’s kind of a blend of both dark and delightful. For example, you can expect just about anything! There will be many short movies. Gothtober’s also got recipes, and crafts! We’ve always got a diverse ensemble ranging from veterens like Jenny Walsh, an artist who has been in the calendar since 2004 to her son, Harry, an emerging talent, who is now a Gothtober artist as well!

Best thing about the Gothtober Countdown Calendar? You don’t have to go anywhere or do anything. You can find Gothtober.com on your Desktop, tablet, or phone! While older parts of the calendar (dated all the way back to 2003) are not accessible yet, we’ve worked hard to make sure the NEW version of Gothtober can be accessed by anyone with a computer screen. As Head Candy Corn of Gothtober, I welcome you to the mysteries, the magic, the madness of this thing we build every year, brought to you, just a click away.

Yours in goblets of gross gooey gulps of rat’s blood and kitten eyeballs,

JP Head Candy Corn

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Gothtober Day 11 Cash 4 Organs!!!

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 11 to find out more about Cash4Organs!

Today’s gothtober day was proudly sponsored by Cash4Organs.com, the premier organ sales site.

Surely you have an extra kidney, lung, or eye laying about. So do Millions of Americans! Maybe you are already an organ recipient and don’t need it anymore. Maybe it has sentimental value but you won’t ever need that kidney. Wouldn’t you like to get cash for that organ?

Cash4Organs.com is the original online organ buyer.

We’ll give you CASH for your organs. Our process is Secure. Fast.

 

Find out more about Day 11  here! 

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Gothtober Quinceañera Day 10 with Moonhouse Productions!

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 10 to see quite the party from Moonhouse Productions!

Day 10 is brought to you by Moon House Productions, also known as Paprika Clark and Emily Hansen. Emily and Paprika are multi-talented creative types. They met after college and have known each other for over 20 years – but they never played with dolls together until they brainstormed the idea for their Quinceañera-themed Gothtober project.

The characters starring in Dia de La Quinceañera started out as previously loved Bratz and Monster High dolls tracked down on Ebay and garage sales. Each was carefully auditioned and screen tested, then hand painted and costumed in (mostly) custom made clothing. The Moon House crew managed to spend weeks designing the characters and crafting the look and style of the film without dancing the dolls around and talking for them…. Much.

In the end our favorite character ideas were the ones that filled out the film as background artists – the Ghost of Frida Kahlo and our Dia de los Muertos figure, who are both at the party repping the ancestors. Long live our honored forebearers!

After many layers of artist’s acrylic paint and Mr. Super Clear sealant and some strategic use of polymer clay, the dolls were ready for their closeups. Emily’s son, Trenton, improvised and performed the musical score, and Emily put her magical effects and editing skills together to make the gem you see before you.

We enjoyed these creations immensely, and look forward to making many more variations on these themes in the future. If you would like to see more on the doll-creation process (and possibly buy one of the “actors” for your own collection), please visit http://castlesintheairfoundation.org/moonhousedolls/

Find out more about Moonhouse Productions and other Gothtober contributor bios are here! 
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Gothtober Applications Close at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!!!

Ask not for whom the bell tolls… it tolls for THEEEEEEEE!!!!

Midnight TONIGHT the door creeks closed, the vault is locked, the tomb is shut, there is NO TURNING BACK.

When witches go flying,
and black cats go MEOW
the moon laughs and whispers,
“Apply for Gothtober NOW!”

Join your fellow autumnal enthusiasts! Share your pumpkin collection, your autumn gardening tips, a recipe for severed finger soup!

Here’s the FAQ for 2017 (theme, tech specs, etc.):
 
READ THE FAQ!
 
Here’s how to fill out the Gothtober Application by August 29th:
 
APPLY TODAY!
 
Participants will be notified of admission on September 1st, 2017.

Upon acceptance, a $25 registration fee is required.

 

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Gothtober’s Application Deadline EXTENDED to Sept. 1st!!!

GOTHTOBER APPLICATIONS EXTENDED! 

 

We’re so close to our roster being complete, but we are still seeking new blood!

Make Public Internet Art and achieve worldwide FAME!!!

APPLY BY SEPTEMBER 1st!

Learn about and Apply for Gothtober, here’s the FAQ for 2017 (theme, tech specs, etc.):
 
READ THE FAQ!
 
Here’s how to fill out the Gothtober Application by August 29th:
 
APPLY TODAY!
 
Participants will be notified of admission on September 1st, 2017.

Upon acceptance, a $25 registration fee is required.

 

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5 Reasons You Should Make Art for Gothtober 2017

AUTUMN WANTS YOU! 

Less than SIX days remain for you to join this happy haunted hovel of depraved creative souls called GOTHTOBER! Why should you sweat and toil to make some kind of artistic offering for the Gothtober Countdown Calendar?

1.) It’s ALL Art! Music, Photography, Recipes, Singing, Dancing, Acting, Gardening, Performing, Fencing, Drawing, ANYTHING can be art! The definition is wide open, we have some perimeters for movie and slideshow length, but other than that, there’s nothing to keep you from being as fabulous and weird as you want to share!

2.) Yes huh you can do it! You’re a human being, which means you’re just naturally curious about stuff, and creativity is an inherent part of your nature. Making, doing and sharing things is your legacy as homo sapiens. You were born to create, use those opposable thumbs and give us a whirl!

3.) Find “You Time” Who has time to make things anyway? NOBODY. That’s where getting your butt kicked by me, Gothtober’s Head Candy Corn, will help you figure out how to carve out time like a pumpkin to meet your Gothtober deadlines. You’ll begin and finish to completion something of yours, for you, for the good of the Halloween season.

4.) Fire Up Your Passion Is your guitar gathering dust? Did you forget what it’s like to spend hours working on paper puppets with joints made of dental floss? When’s the last time you shared that awesome recipe for Fall Flavor Allspice Cookies?  What happened to those ghost throw pillow crafts you were going to make and share? Get back into that feeling of making something from your hands, and feel profoundly alive and happy.

5.) Give Something to the World When you make art for Gothtober, along with your fellow Gothtober contributors, you bring something new to thousands of spectators waiting to see what you made! You might get fan mail, you might get weird comments about your work, you might inspire someone, you might surprise yourself with what you’re capable of making!

So come on down, send in your application, commit to a thing even though everything’s crazy and there’s no time! We wanna see what you will do!

Learn about and Apply for Gothtober, here’s the FAQ for 2017 (theme, tech specs, etc.):
 
READ THE FAQ!
 
Here’s how to fill out the Gothtober Application by August 29th:
 
APPLY TODAY!
 
Participants will be notified of admission on September 1st, 2017.

Upon acceptance, a $25 registration fee is required.

 

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Day 17 with Christine Panushka

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-12-29-24-am

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 17 to see animation by world famous animator, Christine Panushka! This piece is called “Greed” it involves some pumpkin-type character/creatures, and a certain dynamic that is all too familiar in today’s society. Perhaps this dynamic has always prevailed, but it does seem that lately it’s more pervasive. However, not to worry, as you can see, greed can only go so far, it has an end, just like everything else. But what happens next? Hmmmm!

This author (Head Candy Corn of Gothtober.com) would like to point out that Christine Panushka has been my mentor for 30 years. The guidance, patience, and teachings from Christine as my instructor and mentor over the years has helped me to be the artist I am today. With Christine’s support, I have grown up to lead and take part in projects that not only push my own quest to learn, but to delight in collaborations that help my fellow artists push themselves to make art.

I am not the only one who feels this way, there are hundreds of us. She has built armies of animators, instructors, artists, and film makers, so here’s a 21 Pumpkin salute from Gothtober to Panushka Power!

Find out more about Christine Panushka by visiting her Wikipedia Page! Wow! 

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Lori Meeker and the Lava Lady for DAY 15

lavalady12

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on Day 15 and watch this dear sweet tribute to one of LA’s historic eccentric personalities who passed away in September of 2016. It’s Lori Meeker’s puppet vignette about Rae Susan Strauss! Sometimes you’d see her in the crosswalk, never in a rush, gliding past, one of the regulars, always a curious human to witness. She lived in a black lava covered house, thus, her nickname was “The Lava Lady.”

Not many of us understood her, but we liked her. We liked her a lot, she wore her hair in a tall spike, wore bellbottom pants and extremely tall platform shoes. She was a poet. She was many things. Find out more about The Lava Lady by reading this LA Weekly article.

Find out more about the wonderful work of Lori Meeker by visiting her website! 

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A Glorious Stop Motion Explosion with Gothtober Day 7’s Harold!

screen-shot-2016-10-10-at-6-29-29-pm Visit www.gothtober.com and visit DAY 7 for a remarkably tremendous stop motion love letter to the 1995 film “Sense and Sensibility” from Sony Studios.

Harold has admittedly seen this movie more than 100 times, and decided that it was high time a bit of art should be dedicated to a certain celebrated cinematic moment. If you have seen this movie, you know exactly what we’re talking about, and if you don’t… well, perhaps it’s time you rented it on Netflix!

Upon watching this elegantly gorgeous and grotesque build-up of paper parts animation, enjoy the satisfaction and release accompanied by some finely drawn gore that just makes me give an unfiltered, unfettered hat’s OFF to our animator! Undoubtedly, the young and capable and entirely talented Harold spent way beyond any acceptable amount of hours to build this work, and it’s just breathtaking. As you may or may not know, the theme of this year’s Gothtober Calendar is “Metamorphosis” and I dare say, this theme is quite gallantly on display for day 7, we kid you not.

The spirit of this short film is a perfect visual response to both the literary and filmic concept of repression, the classic real kind from 1795 and perhaps the modern, current repression we’re watching while an orange-faced candidate for the presidency makes brains explode merely by saying things out of his face hole. screen-shot-2016-10-10-at-6-35-07-pm

The age of original, soul-crushing good-old-fasbioned Jane Austen-era repression was so strong, mind you, that Ms. Austen remained the anonymous author of Sense and Sensibility until after her death! This woman wrote in a room that had a squeaking board outside the door so that if anyone approached while she wrote, she could quickly hide her manuscript and disguise what she was doing by twiddling her thumbs or knitting lace or whatever people were doing to get themselves through the Napoleonic war. This was not a time to be getting your social vision on, it would be decades before the ethics, passion and exploratory notions in Sense and Sensibility would be truly appreciated.

In Lettres Philosophiques, Voltaire writes

What we find in books is like the fire in our hearts. We fetch it from our neighbor’s, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

And so we’re seeing some of that deep appreciation here in a multi-level artistic accolade from a dedicated fan to a moment, a moment that encapsulates the synthesis of sense and sensibility, in an outrageous transformation followed by a quiet and faithful heartbeat, a bloody, happy heartbeat.

Thank you, Harold Harold, for the blood, sweat, and tears!

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DAY 9: TAKE OUT

abstraction

Click on DAY 9 on www.gothtober.com

From the depths of pipe cleaner nihilism arrives a one minute film called Take Out.

Though a brief foray into the avant-garde, it is everything, and it is nothing.

You might say it’s viscerally alive. You could say it was designed by the inventor of Tetris.

One might say it’s jalapeños in your pancakes.

It can be experienced as a smörgåsbord of sight and sound.

Refreshingly free of narrative, the joy of this film exists in it’s complete abandonment of constraints and a whole-hearted embracing of raw, spontaneous energy.

Take this journey, go on a one minute musing of whatever you will, whatever you have. What’s going on? Only the disco ball knows for sure.