Matthew Ballen

I produced this behind the scenes look at America’s most important cartoonist, Stan Kelly. I’m pleased to see that it’s getting some very thoughtful and deep Facebook comments, and that an important conversation has been started about this vital issue.  Written, directed and voiced by Scott Dikkers, drawn by Ward Sutton, and animated by David Amichai.

fuckyeahbehindthescenes:

Filming at the Monroeville Mall took place during the winter of 1977-78, with a three-week reprieve during the Christmas shopping season (during which other footage, e.g. the TV studio, was shot). Filming at the mall began around 10 p.m., shortly after the mall closed, and finished at 6 a.m. The mall didn’t open until 9, but at 6 the Muzak came on and no one knew how to turn it off.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Our second THIS WEEK IN HISTORY is up! I loved the script for this one, and the still delightful Seth Reiss directed again. I produced and edited.

Check out the FDR section, with FDR’s corpse voiced by the one and only Scott Dikkers!

Get your daily goblin fix!

My first video producing for The Onion is finally up! It’s called THIS WEEK IN HISTORY, and I produced and edited it but had a ton of special FX and graphics help from about a dozen amazing people, including VFX whiz JJ Shebesta. And directed by the delightful Seth Reiss! 

Enjoy, and please go to http://www.theonion.com so you can see it on their homepage and watch an ad for something so we can make another one!

Holy crap! Our short screened today! Still waiting to hear from Casey if people liked it or became angry and ripped each other apart like wolves.

caseydonahue:

I AM ROOT BEER TODAY AT 3:00 PM IN THE LA COMEDY SHORTS FILM FEST

Here is a behind the scenes picture from I Am Root Beer, if you come to the Downtown Independent in LA today you can see the in front of the scenes of this picture!

Hey, I’m the airplane expert in the Onion’s Week-In-Review this week!

Check out my in-depth airplane knowledge about airplanes!

caseydonahue:

I Am Root Beer screening in the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival TOMORROW!

Come!

HEYUGUYS!!!!!!!! Our screening is in LA tomorrow!  Please, please come and get frosty with us! 

Stills from DJANGO UNCHAINED!  Hurry up and get here, Django!!!!!  

caseydonahue:

Well damn, thanks Tumblr!

Yay! Tumblr Radar! Hope this leads to someone going to our screening that’s not a friend or a family member! Or someone drinking a wildly refreshing Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Root Beer (they’re our sponsor)!

Go see our film at the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival! At minimum, you’ll get out of the house for a bit. 

caseydonahue:

TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE LA SCREENING OF I AM ROOT BEER

Hey everyone in LA! You can now buy tickets to the LA Comedy Shorts Film Fest screening of I Am Root Beer. 

The screening is on April 28th, 3:00 pm @ The Downtown Independent.

BUY TICKETS HERE

I will be there and you should come and say hi if you want, or you can just come and watch the movie and not say anything to me. Either are ok depending on your social comfort levels!

Behind the scenes of DRIVE: Ryan Gosling and director Nicholas Winding Refn discuss a key scene just before the cameras roll. (This one’s dedicated to you, Casey)

Whoa! 

A screenplay I co-wrote the story of, CELEBRITY GREENLIGHT, and a screenplay I developed as a producer, WHITE’S TRASH, are both finalists in the LA Comedy Shorts Festival at the same time as I AM ROOT BEER is screening in their short film competition! 

Big congrats to the main writer, Greg Porter, and our fellow collaborator/producer Adam Turner!

Man, now I gotta get my ass to LA at the end of April!

hollyhocksandtulips:

The girls out for a root beer….

The girls out for a root beer sounds like the beginning of a beautiful film. Or a neat horror film. Or the middle line of a very solid haiku.

A how-to-guide on accepting a Golden Globe.

caseydonahue:

I am excited to announce that I Am Root Beer is an official selection of the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival!

See you in a month, LA!

Yay! If you live in LA come to our screening in late April!!! We’re even going to pressure our root beer sponsor Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda company (https://www.facebook.com/wildbillssoda) to give us some root beer stuff to give away, so stay tuned for more! ‘Til then, stay frosty America! Or the 5 people reading this!

REVIEW: THE HUNGER GAMES

I saw this last night and it would’ve been somewhat cool for me to review it before it was officially out, but I’m not very cool and so I’m writing this now.

I gotta say, I liked this movie. I haven’t read the books, but I have seen BATTLE ROYALE, THE RUNNING MAN and other similar “Dangerous Game” movies. Even though the movie is somewhat epic in some respects, Director Gary Ross works mostly with close-ups to make a very intimate movie that kind of fetishes how awesome Jennifer Lawrence is. And Jennifer Lawrence is awesome. She doesn’t really kick much ass here, but she has a great screen presence and I love her for recently saying she doesn’t give a fuck if she’s a few pounds extra for camera. She’s got this great mix of boyish, smart, strong and feminine that is just not very common. Most actresses seem like they’re out of place anywhere aside from acting school, but she just seems like she realizes there’s more to life than being a star, if I may be so bold as to completely make shit up about her.

There are a couple of downsides to this movie though. The first is that anytime you have a competition set-up like this, and one clear protagonist, there is very little you can do to make the climax very surprising. I would have loved a little more from the third act here, but go in with reasonable expectations – not expecting this to blow your mind – and this is a great popcorn movie.

That being said,  there are some laughably terrible moments in this film. Just stupid, unintentionally funny parts.  Like three really big ones, and a few smaller ones.  But they’re pretty great if you like stupid things that stick out in movies.

Lastly, and this is probably better explained in the books, but there is very little reason that Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence’s character) is a favorite to win the competition early on. The story does a weird job of setting her up both as underdog and as a favorite, and it seemed most weird to me when she was seen as a favorite. Not worth elaborating on though – just see it and you’ll know what I mean. 

Overall, I give THE HUNGER GAMES an A-.  I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, actually, which is rare for me, and I’m totally happy this is kicking ass at the box office. I’m a little sad they’ve barely started making the sequel yet.

Just won 2 tickets to see The Hunger Games tonight thanks to Tumblr and Capitol Couture!  The rest of you suckers will need to wait, oh, just a few hours longer to see it. Hahahahahahahahahaha I’m drinkin’ your milkshake!