Test Footage

This is test footage only, the Ennio Morricone music is only a scratch track used to illustrate what I'm looking for. Also, please note that Mad Cow Pictures is no longer attached to the project, I am reworking this clip for YouTube.

FUND DRIVE for SOUND

INT. SALOON - DAY

A large grubby man, STINKY, stands at the bar slurping his poison through a straw. CAMERA angles around revealing the silhouetted BUNNY in the doorway - a Moriconi type musical sting punctuates the moment, a portent of things to come.

Well - at least that's the way I see the shot where our hero meets the bad guy. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP.

At http://www.indiegogo.com/BOUNTY-HUNTER-BUNNY

I have set up a puplic funding drive to raise funds for the music and sound.

MY PLAN

Is simple, to add the music and sound effects to the animatic. From there the animation will be created in time with the soundtrack - just like cartoons were traditionally made.

For those interested please follow the above link at which I have listed some 'perks' should you help. I do plan to take this character beyond the single 5 minute cartoon and I plan to offer more freebies as time goes by - I WON'T FORGET YOUR HELP.

I will be posting some test footage on YouTube soon.

                 

WHY A RABBIT?

Why a rabbit?!

No - that's not a lost line from a Marx Brothers movie but a question I can imagine people asking.

I mean, we've already had Oswald, Roger, Thumper, Max Hare . . . not to mention Bugs just to name a few. But then what out there hasn't already been done?

To be honest I just stumbled onto this character while drawing silly faces one day. I just tried out a few ears, cats, human, bunny - the bunny ears just looked right and with the frown spoke volumes.

At the time I was playing around with the idea of a goofy bounty hunter character type thing more as a spoof of the Star Wars bounty hunters than anything else - it didn't gel, but then it hit me while watching The Searchers, I thought a western parody would work. Inspired by the Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng western parodies I quickly gave my rabbit a cowboy outfit and BANG . . . it worked for me.

Now what? I have the look of the character? What do I do with him? and - more importantly who is he?

Without giving everything away, let's just say he is every bit as inspried by Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" as he is by the classic toons.  The name for this short says it all, he's tough with an attitude.

So in answer to why a rabbit? well - now it's the challenge to see if I can add something new to the long tradition of rabbits in animation.

WELCOME

Like so many people, I grew up with endless reruns of the classic Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons, not to mention Tom and Jerry and classic Disney shorts which were just starting to appear on video back in the early 80s.

For my 14th birthday my dad gave me his old Super 8 movie camera - I soon found it could shoot one frame at a time - yes, there were no PCs yet nor animation software. I knew immediately what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.

MAKING CARTOONS!!!!!

Maybe even make cartoons which hark back to the Golden Age.

I've worked in animation for 18 years now, over that time I've written and sometimes boarded out small shorts only to be thwarted by a lack of funds - don't get me wrong I spent most of my money getting projects started. Maybe in some way the time needed to be right and experience gained before I could pay homage to those classic cartoons which got me started.

I recenty finished my first gig as an episodic director on a CG action series and found myself wondering what to do next, how do I continue directing? An encouraging word of advice from the new managing director of Flying Bark Productions Jim Ballantine got me thinking - it was time to do something that is me.

It's funny how things work, I kept seeing the same writing on the wall, even my producer at Flying Bark  Avrill Stark had similar advice - I was galvanized, having heard what I really needed to hear - time to dust off one of my favorite projects and get going.

So, here I am having decided to document the journey and introduce my characters. In time I hope to show clips of the work in progress maybe even add a comic strip - thank you for joining me.

WELCOME.