Kid Can Drive ~ Blog

Freelance Positions Available for Animators

2010-03-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

KID CAN DRIVE IS HIRING ANIMATORS.

We're getting ready to blast ahead with new episodes of Ledo and Ix. Hiring animators for three positions:

Lead Animator
The Lead Animator will be responsible for completing each episode using elements supplied by the Character Animator and Background Artist and, and incorporating the work of the sound designer and composer. You must be a skilled user of the Adobe Creative Suite, especially Flash.

Background Artist
The Background Artist will be responsible for creating unique pixilated vintage videogame-style environments.

Character AnimatorThe Character Animator will work closely with the Lead Animator and Writer/Director to create and animate the series’ characters, bringing complex and believable motion to tiny pixilated sprites. Should know Flash or be a fast learner.

Please submit a resume and cover letter telling us a bit about yourself to: josh@kidcandrive.com

Hetzler Sings Cash

2010-01-22T15:55:00.000-05:00

This is Josh singing Johnny Cash in the back of a karaoke taxi.

Emily transforming into a swan

2009-12-24T16:54:00.004-05:00

Production video from KCD's latest film The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting. Most beautiful writer/director/swan-princess EVER. -JH

And here's the shot we were working to create:

Our House

2009-12-21T10:59:00.012-05:00

We are right near the F to 7th Avenue in Park Slope.

We have three floors: We enter on the first floor (where there is bike storage.)

On the second floor there is a big kitchen/dining room:

AND an equally big living room (TWO common areas.)

We also have a WASHER, DRYER, and DISHWASHER. IN OUR KITCHEN.

On the third floor there are four bedrooms: for Jesse, David and Emily, and the fourth and largest bedroom which is currently unoccupied.

The room is available furnished with a single bed, desk and bookshelves, but arrangements can be made if you have your own furniture.

Rent is $1060/month, plus utilities.

Production wraps on Hunter and the Swan!

2009-12-17T22:19:00.002-05:00

KCD's latest film, The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting, has just moved into post production! Enjoy the stills and check back for more updates!

2009-12-17T22:10:00.001-05:00

Ledo and Ix 2!!!!!!

2009-11-03T10:02:00.001-05:00

Ledo and Ix go to Town is slated to appear at Slamdance, so the online viewing period is over.... but if you'd like to have a look you can always drop me a line.

FYI: My favorite movies

2009-10-13T13:46:00.003-04:00

okay this was a list of Netflix movies that I had rated 5 stars circa 2006.

In NO WAY an interesting or unique set of favorites.

But look... the DATA! The conveniently compiled, quantified DATA!

FIVE STAR MOVIES

Amadeus (1984)
PG
Drama

Azumanga Daioh (6-Disc Series) (2002)
NR
Anime & Animation

Being John Malkovich (1999)
R
Comedy

The Boxer (1997)
R
Drama

Brazil (1985)
R
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Casablanca (1942)
PG
Classics

Chinatown (1974)
R
Classics

Election (1999)
R
Comedy

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
R
Comedy

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Hauru no ugoku shiro
PG
Children & Family

I Heart Huckabees (2004)
I Love Huckabees
R
Comedy

The Incredibles (2004)
PG
Children & Family

L.A. Confidential (1997)
R
Thrillers

Lilo and Stitch (2002)
PG
Children & Family

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
PG-13
Comedy

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Porco Rosso (1992)
Kurenai no buta / Crimson Pig
PG
Anime & Animation

The Princess Bride (1987)
PG
Romance

Pulp Fiction (1994)
R
Action & Adventure

Run Lola Run (1998)
Lola Rennt
R
Foreign

Shakespeare in Love (1998)
R
Romance

Spider-Man (2002)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Spirited Away (2002)
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
PG
Children & Family

The Usual Suspects (1995)
R
Thrillers

X-Men (2000)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

X2: X-Men United (2003)
X-Men 2
PG-13
Action & Adventure

FOUR STAR MOVIES:

12 Monkeys (1995)
Twelve Monkeys
R
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

24: Season 1 (6-Disc Series) (2001)
TV-14
Television

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
UR
Comedy

Adaptation (2002)
R
Drama

The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Ladri di biciclette
UR
Foreign

The Big Lebowski (1998)
R
Comedy

Blue (1993)
Trois Couleurs: Bleu
R
Foreign

The Bourne Identity (2002)
PG-13
Thrillers

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
PG-13
Thrillers

The Celebration (1998)
Festen
R
Foreign

The Constant Gardener (2005)
R
Thrillers

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Wu Hu Zang Long
PG-13
Foreign

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1 (2-Disc Series) (2000)
TV-MA
Television

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
R
Thrillers

Donnie Darko: Director's Cut (2001)
R
Independent

Fallen Angels (1995)
NR
Foreign

Fight Club (1999)
R
Drama

Finding Nemo (Widescreen) (2003)
G
Children & Family

Firefly (4-Disc Series) (2002)
TV-PG
Television

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
R
Comedy

The Fugitive (1993)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

The Gold Rush: Bonus Material (1925)
NR
Classics

Good Bye, Lenin! (2003)
R
Foreign

The Good Girl (2002)
R
Independent

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
PG
Drama

Good Will Hunting (1997)
R
Drama

Head-On (2004)
Gegen die Wand
R
Foreign

Hook (1991)
PG
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Hotel Rwanda (2005)
PG-13
Drama

House of Sand and Fog (2003)
R
Drama

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
PG
Comedy

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

The Insider (1999)
R
Drama

The Iron Giant: Special Edition (1999)
PG
Children & Family

Sort By
Title
MPAA
Genre
Star Rating

The Italian Job (2003)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Junebug (2005)
R
Independent

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R
Action & Adventure

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R
Action & Adventure

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Gong Fu
R
Foreign

The Lion in Winter (1968)
PG
Classics

The Lion King: Special Edition (1994)
G
Children & Family

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Lost: Season 1 (7-Disc Series) (2004)
TV-14
Television

LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Ed. (2001)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

LOTR: Return of the King: Extended Ed. (2003)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

LOTR: The Two Towers: Extended Ed. (2002)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Ma Vie En Rose (1997)
R
Foreign

Mansfield Park (1999)
PG-13
Romance

The Matrix (1999)
R
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Memento (2000)
R
Thrillers

Millennium Actress (2002)
Sennen Joyu
PG
Anime & Animation

Monsters, Inc. (2001)
G
Children & Family

Sort By
Title
MPAA
Genre
Star Rating

Moulin Rouge (2001)
PG-13
Romance

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
PG
Anime & Animation

Ocean's Eleven (2001)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Ocean's 12
PG-13
Action & Adventure

Our Hospitality / Sherlock Jr. (1926)
UR
Classics

Princess Mononoke (1997)
PG-13
Anime & Animation

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
R
Romance

Quiz Show (1994)
PG-13
Drama

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
PG
Action & Adventure

Rear Window (1954)
PG
Classics

Red (1994)
Trois Couleurs: Rouge
R
Foreign

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
R
Comedy

A Scanner Darkly (2006)
R
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
Innocent Moves
PG
Drama

The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
R
Independent

The Secret of N-I-M-H (1982)
G
Children & Family

Secretary (2002)
R
Romance

Seven (1995)
R
Thrillers

Seven Samurai (1954)
Shichinin no samurai
UR
Foreign

Shrek (Full-screen) (2001)
PG
Children & Family
Sort By
Title
MPAA
Genre
Star Rating

Sid & Nancy (1986)
R
Drama

Sideways (2004)
R
Comedy

Singin' in the Rain (1952)
G
Music & Musicals

Star Wars: Episode V: Empire Strikes Back (1980)
PG
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
PG
Sci-Fi & Fantasy

The Station Agent (2003)
R
Independent

Talk to Her (2002)
Hable Con Ella
R
Foreign

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
PG-13
Foreign

Toy Story (1995)
G
Children & Family

Toy Story 2 (1999)
G
Children & Family

Traffic (2000)
R
Drama

Trainspotting: Collector's Edition (1996)
R
Independent

The Transporter (2002)
PG-13
Action & Adventure

The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Les Triplettes de Belleville
PG-13
Foreign

Waiting for Guffman (1996)
The Christopher Guest Project
R
Independent

Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
G
Children & Family

Wallace & Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures (2001)
NR
Children & Family

Wedding Crashers (2005)
UR
Comedy

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
PG-13
Drama

White (1994)
Trois Couleurs: Blanc
R
Foreign

The Wings of the Dove (1997)
R
Romance

28 Days Later (2002)
R
Horror

2046 (2005)
R
Foreign

Men Don't Use Calculators

2009-10-07T13:13:00.001-04:00

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/595693-help-me-convince-my-friend-not-take-math-iic-without-calculator.html

So Downhill

2009-10-06T23:39:00.003-04:00

Somehow in the midst of catching Josh up on the whole flesh-eating robot situation, I caught sight of this INCREDIBLY PROMISING headline:

Hugh Jackman Might Join Robot Boxing Flick

Key words here? This sentence is composed ENTIRELY of key words.

However, keep reading:

In between performances of his new Broadway play, Hugh Jackman is negotiating to star in DreamWorks ‘bot flick Real Steel for slapstick auteur Shawn Levy. Should he decide to sign on, Jackman would play a former boxer who promotes matches between 1-ton android gladiators.

Sigh, sigh sigh.

Here, just in case it's not clear why I'm diaspointed, are examples of acceptable loglines for a Hugh Jackman robot boxing movie:

"Hugh Jackman stars as a down-and-out weapons fence offered one last chance in the cuthroat world of ILLEGAL ROBOT BOXING. With Viggo Mortensen."

"Marooned in deep space for 7 years, Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen lead an elite cyborg paramilitary wing whose only outlet is BRUTAL INTERNECINE ROBOT BOXING. But as the men's psycological turmoil simmers they seem more an more hell-bent on their own destruction, until an army of deadly clone assassins (played by Milla Jovovich) must remind them of their will to live--the hard way."

"Hugh Jackman is a robot that boxes."

Amazingmark

2009-10-03T16:00:00.001-04:00

So good
So so good

Ledo and Ix 2: Casting Call

2009-09-29T08:55:00.004-04:00

The second adventure of Ledo and Ix is in the final phases of production!

Not to give too much away: In this episode our heroes arrive in a town. A town which, as of now, is woefully underpopulated!

I would lovvvvvvve you to contribute a character (or a few!) to fill up the town! It's easy:

Save one of the files below and open it in Photoshop, or just make a new file that's about 50 pixels tall.

Create a new layer for your character and use the pencil tool to start drawing! You can turn the original bottom layer on and off if you want to have one of the exisiting sprites as a guide.

Save your new layer as a .png and e-mail it to me or post it to the comments!

Guidelines:

Characters should be approximately to scale--to give you an idea, Ledo is 49 pixels tall (counting her black outline) and Ix is 45 pixels tall counting his.
You can make a few poses or just one
Styles are a mix of medieval European/Japanese/pan-Asian/really kind of anything goes!

Below are the original, full sized pngs:

Also, if anyone gets an urge to decorate the town--signs on the shops (in japanese or english), pixilated flower boxes, anything--that'd be awesome! Just open the .png of the town and start a new layer for your edits--that way I can put them right on top.

Boyfriend In A Coma

2009-09-27T14:14:00.002-04:00

Josh has had Girlfriend In A Coma on repeat for 15 minutes which prompted a string of tweets from me about why, exactly, "girlfriend in a coma" is such a perfect 4-word pitch for a pop song, and subsequently such a great pop song.

Is it, actually, serious?

I guess I've always heard it as a smooth, infectious joke, but am I wrong?

I feel like I understand deeply and precisely the degree to which for instance "No One Else" is serious. That wasn't true the first time I heard No One Else, actually. Me and my brother had the following conversation:

Me (pubescent feminist rage): This song is DISGUSTING.
My brother: It's brilliant.
Me: Have you HEARD it? "Who will laugh for no one else?"
MB: It's about male jealousy.
Me: "When I'm away she never leaves the house"???
MB: It's a COMMENT.
Me: It's-- oh.
[long pause.]
Me: So it's like... making fun of that/
MB: It's--rrr--it's not--
gaah--
you don't understand.

Josh's Tumbltape

2009-09-23T17:16:00.002-04:00

or here...

What People Read on the Subway

2009-09-06T11:14:00.003-04:00

I'm always interested in what other people are reading on the subway, which is why I found this NY Times feature so fun to read.

Episode One of Stingray Sam!

2009-09-05T21:37:00.004-04:00

KCD, lucky kids that we are, got to screen Ledo and Ix with this super-amazing serialized feature at CineVegas. Episode 1 (and an MP3 from the soundtrack) are available for free here.

2009-09-02T11:38:00.006-04:00

I have a lot of travel coming up in the fall of 2009 - mostly for work, some for pleasure. The pleasurable parts include trips to Louisville and Dallas for close friends' weddings. My usual airline doesn't fly to Louisville, where the first wedding takes place in October. But hell, it's not that far from New York. Why not take the train?

I'll zip south through the Mid-Atlantic, through fields and forests with cows and grass and trees just starting to turn golden. I'll stretch out, have a glass of wine, maybe take a nap. I won't have to take my shoes off unless I want to; I can brush my teeth with a jumbo-sized tube of toothpaste; I can clip my toenails with abandon. I might even be able to spray paint something. I'm sure I have lots of things around my apartment that need spray painting.

Training: it's the wave of the future.

I visit the Amtrak website and request a trip from Penn Station to Louisville. The following itinerary pops up:

At 9:30 AM on the 10th of October, I'll take the 141 Northeast Regional from New York to Washington, DC. It's a three-and-a-half hour ride.

Then, at 4 in the afternoon, I'll hop on the 29 Capitol Limited and head for Chicago.

Yes, the one in Illinois.

That leg of the trip takes over 17 hours and arrives the following day, Sunday, at 8:40 AM.

Granted, the wedding takes place that day, but I'll have seven hours to wait for my next departure, so I might as well visit the MCA. Maybe get some Indian food on Devon.

At 3:55 PM, around the time I imagine my friends will be exchanging their vows, I'll hop on a bus - a Greyhound bus - and head for Louisville. I guess they don't have trains there.

I'll get in at 11:55 PM and hitch a ride (hail a cab? Do they at least have cabs in Kentucky?) to the reception, where I'll proceed to get drunk on the fumes of the other guests' bourbon breath. Because by that time, the open bar will be closed.

Trickier still, I imagine the newlyweds will have taken off to do whatever newlyweds who've lived together for years do on their wedding nights (watch Nick at Night reruns), but I'm sure I can just text them a congrats message with clinking champagne glasses or something.

It'll all work out in the end.

Oh, and the price? For my 28-hour trip, which, incidentally, will last sixteen hours longer than it would take to drive?

$164.00. One-way.

I go to Expedia. There's a one-way from La Guardia to Louisville for $108. It will take two hours.

I buy the fucking plane ticket.

Cause honestly, I don't know how well that congrats text would go over.

Thesis Research

2009-08-30T11:20:00.010-04:00

Last week I drove out to Lucerne Valley, a hot patch of sand, craggy peaks, and Joshua trees in the California desert about an hour north of the San Bernardino Valley (where I grew up). It's home to miscreants, misfits, misanthropes...

And Bob. He's an old family friend.

A few years ago, Bob got sick of living in stagnant, gang-infested San Bernardino and decided to break free.

He began to build a home - an ecologically friendly dome - that would provide a safe haven and a new beginning for himself and his son, Eli.

Bob and his older children, Sarah and Louis, learned to mix concrete with earth and stuff it into long recycled plastic tubes that they coiled, tamped down, and secured with barbed wire.

The shots I've posted here are two years apart: they date from August 2007 and August 2009.

One year from now, in the fall of 2010, I plan to shoot my thesis film at the dome. There are a lot of stories to be told in the desert, and I might trek out this November to do some research.

Question is: can I come up with anything more unique, more dramatic than what's already there? (It's a question any filmmaker must ask herself.)

The answer is probably no.

In which case I would have no choice but to make a documentary.

I wonder what will happen?

Laughing River

2009-08-17T05:03:00.001-04:00

10%20Laughing%20River.m4a

I like this song because it's about an older person who feels hopeful for the future, without being secretly about death.

Holy Frak!

2009-08-14T13:24:00.005-04:00

BSG the movie!

In a word: YES

2009-08-04T21:20:00.005-04:00

I'm really, really tired of the assertion that humor can't exist without offending someone, or when stated by Jack Shaffer as a question: "Can humor exist without routine crossing of the line?"

Yes.

I mean, duh, yes. Go read Calvin and Hobbes. Go watch Juno. Go watch Much Ado About Nothing (and um... close your ears when cruel comparisons are levied at female anatomy. Or when equations are made between virginity and female worth.) I mean Jesus, read my stupid comic strips (and then post comments being like, yo, why aren't more comics online.)

And you know what, I'm trying to pick really carefully here (so no Pixar movies, which we all know are casually fascist,) but if the only criterion is that something be neither racist nor sexist then um... most of the celebrated comic output of the past 100 years is once again back on the table.

(For the record I have ABSOLUTELY NO OPINION AT THIS TIME about whether or not it is offensive to suggest that Mad Bitch is an appropriate beverage choice for Hilary Clinton. I DECLINE TO OFFER COMMENT.)

There are many, many more jokes than just "ohmigod! I'm violating a racial taboo!" and "women in pants make us feel wierd!"

Okay there are not many more. There are like seven. But they're the seven best ones.

Also, unrelated: are the words "shameless" and "self-promotion" robust enough to be surgically separated at this point? Because they're approaching puberty, and they want to start going on dates.

Addendum: What am I saying. It is clearly sexist to call Hillary a mad bitch. Especially with the "Mad" modifier, which suggests she has flipped off the prime minister of a potential nuclear power or attempted to bring a gun into the senate chamber. I'm not very up (um, up at all) on the political happenings of the country in which I live, but it seems to me all she's ever done is wore some pants, referenced her balls, and been slightly more hawkish then her democratic opponent in the primaries.

Very Old Posts: sins of graphic design

2009-07-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

Okay. So all this contemplation of my limitations as a blogger has brought one more thing to mind--my tendency to obsess over perfecting posts until I lose interest in them and they lose all temporal relevance (such as they had.) In that spirit, I am shoving all my backlogged posts into the world, no matter how unfinished they may be.

1:

I really, really like giving my opinion on things. I want to even when not invited or even allowed to do so. I frequently click "contact" links to, for example, advise the designers of these posters to use the popular English contractions "he's" and "what's."

But this is bad, and I should not do this. So I'm just going to use this space to say the following:

It is not, in my opinion, advisable to put fake sparkles on your products, even if those products are, in their best light, sparkly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Okay so since this timely, vital post was first conceived, the company responsible for the offensive confections, and for many other more egregious examples of faux sparkelry, has apparently disappeared. THE ORIGINAL SPARKLES WERE FAR, FAR MORE UNACCEPTABLE.

Women In Refrigerators

2009-07-23T20:06:00.003-04:00

Okay here is one of my problems as a blogger.

I'm not like, current. I don't scan the web each day to be the first to republish and spread interesting information and media.

For example, I JUST ran into this description of Women in Refrigerators, which is a decade old as of last March. I've always had the feeling that women end up unconscious on camera far more then men. Not that men don't get knocked out plenty, but we're just more likely to wake up with them instead of lingering over their beautiful prone forms. (The meeting of Wolverine and Jean Grey in X-men being a notable exception. Hey Jackman, nice prone form!)

Anyways, enjoy the links if you are like me and it takes you a billion years to know about things.

The Magic of Google Alerts

2009-07-21T08:37:00.002-04:00

Google Alerts is a lovely, inscrutable service that lets you know when someone blogs about you and when yet another imdb clone springs up which refers to your films. (It also, in the charmingly piecemeal and desultory fashion of a highschooler discovering Bhuddism, informs you that you have a webpage.)

However, nothing previous could prepare me for the following gem. (link is below, but I actually feel sort of bad driving traffic there so check out these screenshots. Click to enlarge.)

Begin forwarded message:

From: Google Alerts
Date: July 21, 2009 6:25:48 AM EDT
Subject: Google Alert - "That's My Majesty"

Google Web Alert for: "That's My Majesty"

film That's My Majesty trailer
film That's My Majesty trailer. 2008 Short, Comedy, Fantasy,
This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

For All Time

2009-06-12T12:36:00.001-04:00

The man on the right is Dennis Hopper. The man in blue is taking his
picture.

The people in the background of that picture are Kid Can Drive.