Tag Archives: Science-Fiction

New “Solomon” Update from Joe Carlson

Hey everybody, Joe Carlson here, head of 8-Leafer Studios here in Duluth, MN, and the last you heard from me was an update on my latest project, “Solomon,” featuring my first attempt at creature effects. The film is a story-driven PSA about the mutation epidemic of the 90s and the dangers of wreckless science and pollution, and “Solomon” happens to be one of the first characters I ever invented, back when I was in first grade. Long story short, the film was supposed to be a quick gag project that could’ve been produced in a month, basically with a heavily decorated sock puppet, but the more I worked on the project, the more I cared about it. I spent an unscheduled 6 months on the puppet pieces, and there’s about to be a second reshoot for 3 new shots, but those aren’t the reasons I feel the need to drop this update: Like I said, originally this was supposed to be a goof project, so I didn’t plan on taking every step to make it perfect, I’m just one guy with a really hardcore hobby, so I was going to edit it in different programs that could handle different editing techniques, render my scenes, and load those videos into premiere pro, which would cause an inevitable slight drop in quality. Well, instead, I’ve decided to start the edit over entirely in the newest version of premiere pro, and get it all done in one place.

Joe Carlson and Solomon seeing “Strange Nature” at the Duluth Zinema with its director, James Ojala

Although I’ll be starting the edit over from the beginning, I’ll be doing my best to stay on track, as I’m also trying to schedule another shoot with Erika Adams for our next episode featuring “Nixie,” and we’re quickly coming up on that one-year mark in October, from when the cameras first started rolling for “Solomon” on that windy day. I hoped it wouldn’t take this long, and I’m not sure the final product will match my effort, but this is a real passion project that hopefully will keep an important topic alive.

8-Leafer Studios Is Back!

Hey everybody! It’s Cloverman Joe Carlson again, with an announcement of a new video project from 8-Leafer Studios. If you don’t know us, to be honest our group is mainly just some friends helping me art like I gotta art. I just love doing these videos and I love how happy it makes my friends to star in these projects. I have a film degree and very little art related work available in my area, and certain family related reasons keep me where I am, so these videos keep me in the craft I love.

Now that we have the self-promotion out of the way, I’m excited to tell you about our new project. We will be introducing 3 new characters, Nixie the sprite, a yet unnamed character referred to as “wisp” who will be played by Christina Lindquist, and the space-troll Jonathan Crumbonion, who will be played by our very own Eric Blair. Nixie will be played by our first special guest star, noteworthy writer and radio-show host Erika Adams (https://www.elatales.com/). This will be her acting debut and we are so happy to have her helping out with this project. We attempted to bring her character to life before, in a project called “Character Pilot,” but a filming oversight made it our first project to fail. Despite the ups and downs for the character, we can finally introduce her to you in this new project.

In this new short, we will also be expanding on our established universe even further. You won’t recognize this reference without having seen our other videos, but our story will begin in the “Triton Territories.” We haven’t named our universe yet, but our science consultant and actor Jack Schmidt calls it “the Gummiverse” and that’s acceptable for now. These videos always have an experimental element to them, so we will be attempting some stop-animation for the first time, as well as our first “action sequence,” if you consider chases action. I had a lot of fun sculpting the scenes and making the music, but the true joy is when I actually get to sit there with my friends all done up in their goofy costumes. All scenes and backgrounds have been shot successfully, and now there is just a lot of editing ahead of us, but when I say “us” I mean me from this point forward lol so it might be some time until it releases.

This new video is not our endgame, not by a longshot. We hope to assemble our videos into an anthology series we can pitch. The overall premise is still up in the air, but we will keep you posted. Check out this playlist (https://youtu.be/BEnVFwu2Vs0?si=KZ-D5vYq-i26BPC5) like and subscribe, and if you really wanna help out, try donating to our patreon when it gets up and running!

And here it is, the 25 second trailer for our biggest project yet! We hope to see you Halloween when the full video releases!

Cloverman and the Catalyst Festival

Hi friends, it’s Cloverman Joe Carlson.  This has been an intense week for 8-Leafer Studios, probably its most important week so far since I started it in 2014.  I was recently lucky enough to represent 8-Leafer Studios at the 2019 Catalyst Content Festival.  It was an amazing ride.  I saw tons of pilots and panels, secured a few business relationships, and was able to put the work belonging to my team and I in front of the eyes of several potential new contacts from all over the US, as well as representing some other locals who were unable to attend.  It was a real dream come true for me no matter how you look at it.  There were VIP parties that broke local records, and I met Nancy Cartwright after she gave an amazingly compelling speech, all in my city, at a yearly festival just for creators.  It was awesome to see some new friends win their awards, I saw a lot of dreams come true.  We at 8-Leafer studios will be working towards a submission for next year, so wish us luck!

Here’s an inside look at the festival!

The Catalyst Symbol projected onto Glensheen Mansion for the second VIP Party.

Cloverman Joe Carlson running around Glensheen.

Cloverman Joe Carlson Catching the exhibits at Glensheen.

Cloverman Joe Carlson meets Actress Dana Weddell from “Inpatient” at the Glensheen VIP Party.

Nancy Cartwright accepts her Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nancy Cartwright with Cloverman Joe Carlson.

The Catalyst symbols projected next to the doors of the Duluth Depot for the third VIP Party.

Cloverman Joe Carlson on his way into the Depot VIP Party.

The Swing Band at the Depot VIP Party.

A friend I went to school with wandered in off the street past the checkpoint with no idea what was going on. Highlight of the evening.

The Red Carpet from the Catalyst Award Ceremony at Greysolon Plaza.

Cloverman Joe Carlson takes a Bathroom-Selfy before attending the Awards Ceremony.

The reception area of the Moorish Room at Greysolon Plaza before the Ceremony.

The Catalyst Festival Award Ceremony in the Greysolon Ballroom

There is a red carpet photo of me in someones camera at Getty Images but I’m not sure how to get a copy of it 😦  But I was so happy to be there and hope to go again with a submission next year!

8-Leafer Studios Lands Childrens Book Trailer For Local Talent, Erika Adams *UPDATE BELOW

Good evening, and welcome back to the 8-Leafer Studios Blog!  I’m Cloverman Joe Carlson, and a lot has happened in the past weeks concerning my team and I.  As you may know, our last film project had a digital disaster and we had to cancel it until we all had the time.  One of our new team members, Erika Adams, would have been playing the role of a space-farer named Nixie.  Although she is still scheduled to appear in another project, she’s been so on board I consider her a part of 8-Leafer Studios already.  She is a local radio talent here in Duluth, and recently she had her 50th episode of her show as champion to the art of storytelling, and recently wrote a wonderful children’s book, called “New Moon’s Family.”  She came to me with some wonderful illustrations by Eric Soderstrom, and asked me to animate them into a trailer and whip up a music track to accompany them.  I felt really connected to this project, I have some scheduled to reach the moon next year on the Moon Arts Ark, so you can imagine how I like the recurring theme here.  You will find the final trailer below. It went through a last second re-rendering because I wasn’t available to fix something properly but I don’t think it lost enough resolution to matter. It was a really fun project and I hope she writes many more books!  Find copies on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, and Itasca, and check out her site at elatales.com!

SEE UPDATE BELOW!

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQ1ehxH_lg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0Y_1Q1il9XJW5fuWGczHDEDsnJv4SVWR9fq-NozblurekPLxwTWMNNpGI

*** UPDATE ***

The “New Moon’s Family” Book Trailer has been moved!   

Here’s it’s new location: https://www.elatales.com/new-moons-family.html

 

8-Leafer Studios to Begin Filming Another Sci-Fi Comedy Piece This Spring *UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Hi potential fans, we’ve missed you!  It’s a cold winter here at 8-Leafer Studios, and it’s been a while since we last brought you into the world of Captain Tombstone, the depth of Cloverman, and longer since we first heard the golden writings of Eric Blair.  Well, life is complicated, but a few months ago, we got the ball rolling to bring you an all-star installment wrapping this whole world together.  We bought some new equipment, stepped up our costumes, got a local guest star, and are even aiming for a longer product.  Let’s get the sum of things:

First, I want to go ahead and announce our joy to be working with Duluth local radio personality, Erika Adams, who agreed to star as our first female character, “Nixie.”  Erika is a local author and radio host here in Duluth, Minnesota. Erika’s radio show on 99.5 KTWH, titled “The Tale Collector,” acts as a shining tribute to storytelling in all of it’s wonderful and unexpected forms, and we’re honored that she steps out of the mic booth and front of our camera to help us tell a tall tale about goofballs in space.  You can find her youtube channel here.

Our next project will be our biggest yet, with the biggest sets, longest scripts, biggest cast, and most complicated shots and effects yet.  You could say that the only real difference that matters is the bigger budget.  Eric, Jack and I all went in on a 16×20 ft. Bluescreen (I love those guys), and since this is all pretty much my baby I went and bought some more accessories for our familiar characters, so you have those aesthetic upgrades to look forward to, but my greatest and most unique challenge for this project (also most expensive) was designing and costuming a space pixie (designing and costuming are different lol).  Erika and I worked together to come up with a great character and we’re all excited to have Erika bring it life when we try again.

Yes, again.  We actually started filming in Deceber 2017, at an almost astronomical alignment of our schedules, and we got most of it filmed until somebody slept through a critical shoot (Jack lol), and on top of that, we had some formatting errors that we blame on 2 years of inactivity (all me), but the kinks are ironed out and come spring we hope for smooth sailing.  We’ve never had to start over before, and it was humbling, so we can at least promise no repeat mistakes, as long as everybody shows up, knock on wood.

In our next video, we will be bringing out some old characters from the 8-Leafer Universe, like Captain Tombstone, Cloverman, and Dane Kirschnott, cramming them together into one of the most unlikely places.  What possible circumstances could bring these minds together in one video?  And what role could Erika Adams’ Nixie play in the 8-Leafer Universe?   We hope to show you later this year, in “Pilot Away!”

https://josephcarlson77.wordpress.com/

 

*UPDATE:  This project became our first cancellation due to a catastrophic data failure.  A reshoot is probable, but it would need significant changes to be an entry at the Catalyst Content Festival next year, but that is the plan, for now.

Thesis Film Complete! Joseph Carlson Presents “Cap and the Giant”

Captain Tombstone returns in this all new adventure, starring Jack Schmidt and Eric Blair.  Having only 2 months to make this huge project, it is rough around the edges, but I think you will enjoy it.  This is Captain Tombstone’s 3rd adventure, and we hope to see many more in the future.
https://youtu.be/x7AUNNXle0U

(coming soon in 1080p!)