Shooting GRIP

Last Sunday I gathered up a small guerilla unit of actors and crew, borrowed a location and spent the night shooting my first proper dramatic short, a tight little microthriller called Grip.

Grip concerns the fate of the unfortunately-named Jacob Fell, whose attempt to escape execution at the hands of professional killer Mr. Creed has left him dangling from the rooftop of a building, his grasp slowly weakening, as Creed watches . . . and waits.

We're editing this week, and with any luck (assuming the visual effects don't take up too much of the schedule) Grip should be ready for its premiere in late August. Watch this space. But until then, a selection of behind-the-scenes photos (courtesy our lovely and talented makeup effects artist, Tara Murphy):


The Grip Crew: (top) actor/co-producerChris McCawley, actor/co-producer Todd Doldersum, makeup effects artist Tara Murphy; (bottom) sound recordist/boom operator Sean Armstrong.

Clockwise from top left: actor/co-producer Chris McCawley, writer/director Joe O'Brien, makeup effects artist Tara Murphy, actor/co-producer Todd Doldersum.


Writer-director Joe O'Brien lines up his shots.

Discussing a crucial moment with the actors while boom operator Sean Armstrong figures out where to stick his pole.

Some of Todd's injuries are makeup. Some of them are not. Can you spot which is which?

Chris McCawley psyches up his inner psycho to play Mr. Creed.

Mr. Creed (Chris McCawley) discusses the meaning of life with the unfortunate (and unfortunately-named) Jacob Fell, played by Todd Doldersum.

"Cranes? We don't need no steenkin' cranes!"

Low-budget means the director is also often the camera operator. And the script supervisor. And the art director. And the cinematographer. And craft service . . .

Jacob Fell (Todd Doldersum) hangs in there while Mr. Creed (Chris McCawley) waits for fate to take its course.

Thanks to Todd, Chris, Tara and Sean for coming out to play, and more importantly, sticking with it all the way to the end. I couldn't have done it without you guys.

October O'Neill - Finished Colours

I don't know what I'd do without Brian Haberlin's digital art tutorials. Half the techniques I used on this piece were from a CD I bought between starting and finishing it.

Introducing October O'Neill

Among the myriad other things that happened at the Toronto Comicon two weeks back, I managed to talk MR Comics publisher Steve Ballantyne (and, I think, myself) into letting me write and illustrate a new horror title.

October O'Neill: Everyday Is Halloween will be a self-contained one-shot "pilot". We're following a TV model here; if we like the response, we'll go ahead and make it a regular series. Steve was confident enough in the sales of horror comics in general to greenlight this with an untried illustrator (as opposed to sales on crime comics, which is why I'm doing October first instead of The Vengeance Machine), but once I showed him an illustration of October in action he was completely behind me.
I've been trying out some concepts to decide the look and tone of the book while writing the script. This is a work-in-progress of an image that occured to me while I was writing. It'll wind up as a pinup or something in the final book. Attila's agreed to do the cover and and illustrate a backup story, and Ty Templeton's editing.