Charmed, I'm Sure: filmography of Wendy McColm & Steven A. Soria

Because of the collaborative overlap, I’m combining two fantastically talented artists in this post: the beautiful and plucky actress/director/writer Wendy McColm ... and the innovative and evocative director/ cinematographer/writer Steven A. Soria (of The Indie Work Force Production company).

Wendy has an extensive portfolio of dramatic and comedic shorts she has produced, and also often works with Steven. One such remarkable project is The Seasons Series (Wendy appears in the ‘A Summer Adventure’ short)

As well as the charmingly awkward short film entitled
SOUP

I’m looking forward to their new film together, about a girl and her imaginary friends, appropriately called Frankie & Friends.

Visit the sites of Wendy McColm and Steven Soria for many more entertaining and well made videos.

Kamecke Designs Art From Old Circuit Boards

Utilizing patterns in the horizontal and vertical grids of old obsolete circuit boards, Theo Kamecke builds exquisitely decorated chests, sculptures and boxes — some are even functional.
Painstakingly crafted by hand, each item is unique and literally one of a kind.
Awe inspiring in their exotically Egyptian design, evoking an eerie sense of the divine, with a “futuristic-yet-ancient-technology” aesthetic that seems extra-terrestrial.


(I can easily see these items in the reliquary... or even data storage devices... in my Arcanum fiction)

Light In The Darkness of Star Wars fan films

As Wil Wheaton might euphemistically say, Star Wars has inspired a non-zero number of fan films.
Unfortunately, most of them tend to be derivative, having all the temerity & celerity of a Civil War re-enactment. Or LARPing.
A very few of them rise to the level of being capable of genuinely expanding or evolving the SW mythos with a story that is both truly original and concordantly authentic.
One of those few is A Light In The Darkness— a high quality, low budget Star Wars fan film with a great story, directed by Fed Wetherbee and written/ co-produced by Fed Wetherbee & PJ Tamayo.

Firefly fan film “The Game” is shiny

The folks responsible for making a minimalist Firefly fan film entitled The Game deserve to be commended for their unlikely achievement.
Not the making of a fan film, but a fan film all the more impressive despite & because of its low budget limitations.
Although the acting is atrocious, the essence of each character still shines through as recognizable, with a cast that delivers consistency in dialogue, behavior and appearance. Which is a significant accomplishment on its own.
Particularly remarkable, is that the story reads and plays out exactly as an actual Firefly episode would, and could easily have been part of the series.
Writer Connor Wilson and Director Ryan Geffert impressively manage to authentically depict the characterization of the Serenity crew, as well as the intrinsic spirit, thematic tone and visual style of the Firefly ‘verse as presented by Joss Whedon. Even down to faithfully and well duplicating the split-screen intro sequence with new casting.
But none of that would matter-- would even have been possible-- if The Game didn’t proceed from a good story and solid script.

Art Officially Flavored: Charles Holbert

Apparently, there are many exceptionally talented illustrators who are not working “professionally”... by which I mean they are not getting steady or even intermittent work in the comics industry proper. (It’s a very crowded/limited market.)
Independent illustrator Charles Holbert, aka KidNotorious on Deviant Art, and creator of the Hawt Girl mascot at Comic Oasis in Vegas, is clearly not unskilled in the drawing arts. Marvel at the unique and uncanny stylings in the vast & impressive portfolio of magnificent sketches Charles has accumulated, featuring a multitude of comic book characters.
This may be a case where words just get in the way, and aren’t really needed, so I’ll just say go look in awe and wonder at the splendiferous... uh, yeah, shutting up now...
http://kidnotorious.deviantart.com/gallery/#

Fashionably Sci-Fi: Tara Reich

One of my favorite parts of genre conventions is innovative costuming on display.
Tara Reich is cleverly taking cos-play to a whole other level!
With a fantastic array of Doctor Who inspired clothing, she is bringing beautiful high fashion to girl-geeks and showing there is high fashion to be derived from sci-fi that can express fandom in a subtle way… instead of wearing a costume or tee shirt.
I adore the concept of sci-fi inspired fashion design, and wish there were more designers willing to engage a science fiction sensibility.

*image credit-Tara Reich*

See more stellar sci-fi styling from Tara here .
... but what are the guys to wear?