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hell toupee is finished

8/28/2013

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When the world's first genetically engineered living toupee runs amok, can the local barber save the world from HELL TOUPEE?
HELL TOUPEE, my graphic novel, is now finished.  It will soon be available for sale on Hammination.  It turned out to be seventeen chapters long and 434 pages.  I am at work on a trailer for it that will appear on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.  You will soon be able to use PayPal to buy it here.  As soon as I get an email from PayPal, I will send you the PDF via WeTransfer.com.
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"CREATED EQUAL" KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN ENDS.

8/23/2013

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My Kickstarter campaign for "Created Equal narrated by Julie Newmar" ended today.  I thank the people who pledged $220.  Since we didn't reach our goal of $6500, you will not be charged.  I really appreciate it.  It's the thought that counts.  

This film about how adult mentally and physically challenged artists see themselves and the world was originally envisioned as a feature somewhere between 70 and 90 minutes long.  Since we didn't raise the goal of $6500, I won't be shooting new interviews.  The film will still be made, but on a smaller scale.

This was the first year I was privileged to see all the shorts nominated for Oscars.  I saw the animated short category (PES' animated Fresh Guacamole was only 39 seconds long, the shortest film ever nominated), the live action short category and the documentary short category.  I was amazed to see that some of the "shorts" were nearly an hour long.

So "Created Equal" will be a "short".  When I get through assembling the interviews already filmed and animating some of their artwork, the film will be somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour.  This actually might be good news.  None of it will be filler.  It will be a lean movie with no fat.

Now to the editing process.  I will keep you posted on progress.  I need to cut it all together, and send it off to the wonderful Julie Newmar for her to record her voiceover. 
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Gene on the radio

8/3/2013

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I was on Valerie Branch's radio show Something To Talk About last Sunday.  She is a bright funny hostess.  It was fun talking to her and Kells Lynch.  Here is the link:  http://www.fccfreeradio.com/?page_id=11715
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KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED FOR "CREATED EQUAL" NARRATED BY JULIE NEWMAR

7/24/2013

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A new Kickstarter campaign just launched today for Created Equal.  Just 30 days to raise $6500 to finish the film.  It's the documentary about mentally and physically challenged artists and how they see themselves and the world, told through their own words and shown through their art.  Here is the link to the Kickstarter campaign:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/614160996/created-equal-narrated-by-julie-newmar
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June 29th, 2013

6/29/2013

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HELL TOUPEE ALMOST DONE!

    I am completing Chapter 17 of HELL TOUPEE, my graphic novel.  It is the final chapter.  I've been seeing it in my head like a movie, and using that metaphor, it is like I am in the last five minutes of the movie and it is a roller coaster ride right to the end.
    Stay tuned more news about it.
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INDIEREIGN.COM IS NEW DISTRIBUTOR OF "COOK FOR YOUR LIFE"

3/30/2013

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Picture
My 18 minute short COOK FOR YOUR LIFE is now being distributed by New Zealand based IndieReign.com.  When Youngy Henman, Terry Bull, and Mack Swine wake up to find they are the only three farm animals left that the farmer haven't eaten, they hatch a desperate plan to turn the farmer into a vegetarian before lunchtime.  Part comedy/part cooking show, they are like the Three Stooges in the kitchen, but they do show you how to make a killer chili recipe.
The other characters are Farmer Mullet and his hound dog Elvis.
This is a pilot for a series with more episodes planned.

Do you have your own killer vegetarian recipes?  You can post them here in the comments.

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Created equal kickstarter campaign coming closer

1/20/2013

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About two weeks from launching the new Kickstarter campaign for my documentary CREATED EQUAL:  THE ARTISTS OF ALCHEMIA.  I have a new blurb for it:
DO MENTALLY OR PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED ARTISTS SEE THEMSELVES AND THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY THAN THE WORLD SEES THEM?
The answer is obiously "Yes" or I wouldn't have bothered starting this project.  If this film gets funded and completed, I hope to make the world see them differently too!

This campaign will have some exciting new rewards
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upcoming Created Equal kickstarter campaign

1/13/2013

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I am currently putting together a Kickstarter campaign for CREATED EQUAL.  The Indiegogo campaign and I am getting perks out to the wonderful contributors.  The rewards for the Kickstarter campaign will have some nice surprises.  I am getting advice from friends who had successful Kickstarter campaigns.  Stay tuned for more information as it happens.  I will let you know when it launches.
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the mechanics of laughter

1/3/2013

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Probably the most unfunny book I ever read in my life was Sigmund Freud's Jokes and The Relationship To The Unconscious Mind.  Boy, that man knew how to kill a joke.  E.B. White said, "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog.  Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.""

The best writing on the subject of the mechanics of laughter was a chapter of Desmond Morris' book Manwatching:  A Field Guide to Human Behavior.  Morris said, in essence that a laugh is combination of two rapidly successive emotions.  It is a cry quickly followed by a sigh of relief.  This makes a lot of sense.  When we are born we come out crying.  We had a nice rent free apartment for nine months and suddenly we are evicted and thrown out into this scary world.  When you are a baby, everything is scary.  Noises upset you.  Feelings of hunger upset you.  Shitting yourself scares you.  So you cry.  And at first your eyes aren't fully developed, so all you see of people are big scary shapes.  So you cry.  But there is one big shape that seems to take care of you and protect you.   It's different from the other big scary shapes.  That shape is called Mom.  So, this shape approaches you and your first reaction is to cry, but almost immediately after that reaction, you realize it's Mom and you sigh with relief.  Mom makes you laugh.

So laughter is a reaction to something that seems threatening, but turns out to be safe.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

When most people ride a roller coaster, they scream because they are scared.  When I ride a rollercoaster, I laugh for the whole ride.  People think I'm nuts.  But I am reasonably assured when I'm on a rollercoaster at Disneyland or Las Vegas, that I am going to survive the ride.  That feeling of safety is my sigh or relief.  No matter how threatening that ride seems to be, my feeling of safety lets me relax and laugh.  (Now if I was riding a rollercoaster at a County Fair where I'm not sure if the tatooed ex-con working for minimum wage who is running the ride, and just set it up last night and has to set it up in the next town in a couple day, so he might not have tightened up all the bolts, then I'm not sure I'm going to survive this ride and I will definitely scream).

Or your big brother might start tickling you and it makes you laugh.  It is an assault on your person, but you know you aren't really getting hurt, so you laugh.  You tell him to stop.  He doesn't stop.  You are still laughing.  You ask him to stop again.  He doesn't stop.  You aren't laughing so much.  Then you plead with him to stop and he doesn't stop.  Now you are crying, because the threat is getting serious.

Comedy is an tickling assault.  If i actually tickled you, I could be arrested for assault.  But if I do it right, I can stand up on stage and tickle somebody in the back row of the theater with my words.  Underneath comedy is an implied violence.  If a comedian makes the audience laugh, they come backstage and say things like, "I killed them.  I slayed them".  If the audience doesn't laugh, the comedian comes backstage and complains, "I died out there."

There are two parts to a joke.  The first part is THE SETUP.  This is the part where I talk about something everyone is familiar with.  This is usually followed by a pause, where you let that sink in and know everyone is on the same page.  The second part is THE PUNCHLINE (more violent imagery).  This is where you give it a twist.  You subvert everything you just said in THE SETUP.  THE PUNCHLINE is an assault on the audience's logic.  So they go through the stages of "Hey, wait a minute.  That wasn't what I was expecting.  Oh, he's only kidding."  The audience is safely attacked, so they laugh.

My Dad used to watch all the comedians on TV.  He had a million jokes and loved telling them.  He lectured me, "Never laugh at your own jokes.  People kill jokes by laughing at them.  They start laughing and tell you 'This is the funniest joke you ever heard".  So they are making your expectations too high and no joke can fill the expectations.  Just tell the joke straight and if they don't laugh, move on to the next joke.  My Dad burned that advice into my DNA so that anyone who knows me can see the clues that I am going to tell a joke.  I get very serious and then deliver the zinger.

In the very first college animation class I taught, one student pissed me off all semester.  He picked up on when I was about to tell a joke and sandbagged me every damn time.  I would tell THE SETUP and pause.........From the back of the room, I would hear him go, "Two, three, four."  He fucked up my timing on every joke the whole semester.  I wanted to kill that kid.  But every semester, I would assign my animation students to do their own short piece of animation.  They had to come up with the idea themselves and execute the animation on their own.  Of all the students, he was the only animator whose gags had perfect timing.  Every slapstick gag, went two, three, four bang, two, three, four bang, two, three, four bang, etc.  The timing had sunk in and I gave him an A.

I will write more about comedy in 
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Hammcamcaricatures.com

12/29/2012

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Check out my new website:  http://hammcamcaricatures.com/.  I do caricatures either in person at parties or events, or via Skype, I can be a live virtual caricaturist at an event anywhere in the world.  Just plant your guest in front of a webcam.  I can see them and they can see the caricature seem to draw itself on your computer screen.  Since I'm only virtually at your party, you won't have to feed me.  And I don't have to drive.  It's a win-win!
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    Gene Hamm

    Animator Gene Hamm worked on Ralph Bakshiʼs Lord Of The Rings, Hanna-Barberaʼs Smurfs and Superfriends, Art Clokeyʼs Gumby, Roger Cormanʼs Battle Beyond The Stars, MTVʼ Liquid Television, Segaʼs Dick Tracy game, and Living Booksʼ Arthurʼs Birthday Party, Tortoise And The Hare, Harry and The Haunted House, and Behrenstain Bears Get In A Fight. 

    His own projects include the animated feature The Dream Hat, Cook For Your Life, Cartooning Shortcuts, Formulas And Cheap Tricks, The Professional Cartoonist Kit and the book How To Get A Job In Animation And Keep It. 

    He taught animation at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

    He currently teaches animation, game design, podcasting, and screen-writing at Alchemia in Novato, CA.
    He also animates and does illustrations for Wonderscape Entertainment.

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