The Mercury Men

THE NEW MERCURYSERIES.COM

2010-06-08T16:31:00.006-04:00

We've got a new site at WWW.MERCURYSERIES.COM!

When you visit you won't notice too drastic a design change, but the site has actually been entirely rebuilt from the ground up. The biggest change is that we've incorporated our blog into the site itself which means we will no longer be using this blog. So make sure to update your links and RSS feeds.

To get future updates and see all our behind-the-scenes stuff, visit WWW.MERCURYSERIES.COM. We've made it MUCH easier to find all our videos, photos, and digital props, so you can easily check to see if you've missed any over the past year.

PAPERCRAFT MERCURY ENGINEER

2010-06-01T15:41:00.006-04:00

We can't let Papercraft Edward and Jack just sit there in your cubicle with NOTHING to do! They need something to shoot! Luckily a target has arrived: Papercraft Mercury Engineer. All you need is a pair of scissors and a glue stick (or Scotch tape).

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

2010-05-24T23:51:00.014-04:00

A few days ago I was part of the web series industry podcast New Mediacracy discussing the future of storytelling, along with the talented group of Mark Gantt, Bernie Su, Nicholas J. Robinson, and series regulars Steve Woolf, Zadi Diaz, and Chris McCaleb. We discussed the possibilities and limitations of storytelling on the web. While much of the conversation was aimed at the untapped potential of the medium, there was one advantage I personally feel very passionate about: the story and people behind the story. New media, more so than say TV or film, fosters both a greater look behind-the-scenes and a deeper relationship between creator and viewer. I'll elaborate on the example I used on the podcast.

When The Bannen Way (created by Mark Gantt and his partner in crime Jesse Warren) hit the web last year, the quality and production value shocked a lot of people, myself included. In an industry filled with low budget fare, a well polished series causes heads to turn. First impressions, once again including my own, incorrectly judged this series as Sony using it's power and money to dominate a space filled with mainly struggling artists by putting a television series online. But just a few months after it's premiere, series creators Mark and Jesse appeared on New Mediacracy to share their story. Little did the greater web world know the long struggle and sacrifice that these two and their crew went through to bring this project first to Sony and then to the web. This was no series by committee, this was the labor of several talented creators. Throughout the course of that podcast I counted myself among their biggest fans. THEIR story was equally as important as the fictional one they were telling and I found myself rooting for them even more so than the colorful characters they created. THAT to me is one of the great advances in storytelling fostered by new media: the creator has become part of the story. HOW has become just as important as WHAT.

It has become woven into the standards of web video that creators communicate directly with their viewers, sharing their inspirations and struggles, answering questions and comments. No more must the storyteller be hidden away behind the gates of Hollywood, they're just a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or blog page away. If you've been following The Mercury Men for any amount of time than you've noticed this is a sentiment we greatly share. We spend just as much time and energy trying to take you along the journey with us as we do creating the story itself.

While this single element is not the definitive future of storytelling, to me it's a pretty important step.

COLLECTOR'S GLASS NOW FOR SALE

2010-05-10T08:39:00.011-04:00

You requested it and now they're here! New Mercury Men limited edition collector's glass, just like restaurants used to offer for those nostalgic summer adventure films! A pair of collectable 16oz drinking glasses with retro styled artwork featuring Edward Borman, Jack Yaeger, Mercury Invader, and Mercury Engineer. Glasses are generously sized, thick cut glass, and measure 6" tall (common pint size).

$13.99
set of 2 glasses
plus shipping + handling

COMING THIS MERCURY MONDAY...

2010-05-05T01:35:00.010-04:00

We're lining things up to make the collector's glass, and the fun retro commercial we shot for it, available this coming Monday. The commercial was an absolute BLAST to film. It was a quick shoot with some of the supporting cast of The Mercury Men, and the editing has turned it into ridiculous retro goodness. While the actor's and humor are a giveaway, the VHS artifacting, synth soundtrack, and neon graphics will have you swearing this was recorded from TV in the 80's.

As for the glasses themselves, I'm really impressed with their quality and I'm really excited for some of you to see them first hand. (I've been drinking from no other cups or glasses since I got my hands on one!) These glasses really were inspired and motivated by you core viewers/readers. I view these glasses as a fun and memorable item from The Mercury Men world for that core group, and therefore we're trying to price them as low as possible, just enough to cover the cost. Trust me when I say they are VERY limited edition.

So make sure you stop back here Monday morning for a look at our goofy commercial and a chance to pick up some sweet bar ware.

*Photo by/of my agent George Ruiz claiming his glass a week early.

RETRO COMMERCIALS

2010-04-27T14:50:00.008-04:00

Since we've got these neato collector's glasses set to arrive at any moment (They've arrived and they're AWESOME), we've decided to shoot a retro commercial for them and want your help. Please point us to one of YOUR favorite retro commercials for inspiration. We're looking for great, and unintentionally funny commercials for old action figures, games, which will gives us a great compass to shoot and edit by. Simply share the link in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook. I've included some favorites below. Question: why is Dad always the villain?

BACKYARD FX

2010-04-26T21:53:00.002-04:00

Several months ago we had an incredibly cool piece of fan art sent to us by Zack Finfrock, artist, FX artist, and now the new host of an equally cool show, Backyard FX. Backyard FX is a DIY show for indie filmmakers which shows how to make props and FX on the cheap. Check out Zack's winning submission video below. Best wishes on the show from all of us here at The Mercury Men.

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: SOUND DESIGN/A.D.R.

2010-04-22T11:00:00.004-04:00

Director Chris Preksta discusses sound design and A.D.R. along with Damon J. Claus (Sound Engineer) and Curt Wootton (Jack Yaeger.)

What movies do you think have GREAT sound design?

SOUND RESOURCES
Freesound.org
Sound Rangers
Sound Dogs

How bout you other filmmakers, any sites you use for sound resources?

CELEBRATE THE WEB

2010-04-17T15:44:00.007-04:00

An impromptu web community event, Celebrate The Web (organized by Jenni Powell and Kim Evey of The Guild), was put together in LA just days ago as a follow-up to this year's Streamy Awards. It was a night to honor the work of the 2010 Streamy Award winners and nominees by providing a bit more time for them to share thanks and insight into their award winning projects. Being that this community has been both incredibly gracious and supportive of my own work, I felt strongly compelled to contribute to the event in some way, even though I was on the other side of the country. So for a few hours at 1:00 AM on a Friday night, while on vacation, I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop to do just that.

Although the event is now several days passed, I'd like to offer a poster design commemorating both the nominees and the industry itself. It's a stylized illustration of the evolution and convergence of film, television, and web, free for you to download/share.

Download Poster (Hi-Res)
Download Poster (Small)

And from myself and the rest of the cast/crew of The Mercury Men, we share our sincere congratulations to all the 2010 Streamy Award winners and nominees.

AGES 5 AND UP

2010-04-14T22:50:00.009-04:00

Had a chance to show half of my family episodes one through nine of The Mercury Men tonight. Not only was it great to finally be able to share what had caused their son/brother to disappear for so many months, it was also a blast to experience it with my 9 year old brother. He shouted suggestions on how Jack and Edward could defeat the glowing invaders, smiling proudly when he guessed correctly a few times. He desperately wanted both a Lumiere light revolver and a brain-in-a-jar for himself. And most importantly, he wanted to know more and more about the world of The Mercury Men, eager to see the further adventures of the League.

While I assume the average age of web series viewers is probably a bit higher than elementary school, and the vast majority of web content is aimed at 16+, it was very important to our team that our story and fictional world be both fun and appropriate to children. (After all, younger viewers that may miss it online will have the opportunity to see the series by other means, such as DVD.) Part of our goal is too capture and share even a fraction of what we felt watching Star Wars and Indiana Jones years ago to both those who remember it first hand and a younger generation of viewers. While I realize my family is not a completely unbiased test audience, tonight was a really good confirmation that we aimed in the right direction.

COLLECTOR'S GLASS ARTWORK

2010-03-26T11:43:00.003-04:00

Here's a look at the artwork I've been working on for the collector's glass. Trying to maintain that retro/vintage look. The image should wrap most of the way around the glass.

WHY THE GUILD COMIC IS IMPORTANT

2010-03-25T01:26:00.006-04:00

For those of you that don't know, The Guild released their first comic issue today (written by Felicia Day, art by Jim Rugg). It should be available at your local comic shop. For those of you who are fans of The Guild or web series in general, then you understand how utterly cool this is. But for the rest of you, here's why I think this is a big deal:

This is a nationally distributed comic book from one of the major publishers based on a WEB SERIES!

A fan funded, indie to it's core, web series. To my knowledge it's only been done once before and that was for another Felicia Day series, Dr. Horrible.

This is important for a few reasons. First, as Felicia and The Guild continue to break new ground, new opportunities will become available for us other creators. Should this comic perform well, comic companies may begin to take a peek at other properties, hopefully including ones with black-and-white, ray gun toting heroes.

Second, isn't it just thrilling to watch somebody make so much starting out with such meager resources? This isn't like some video game comic tie-in where EA throws some money at Dark Horse. What began as a YouTube series funded through PayPal donations, became a Microsoft sponsored show, a smash at Comic Con, a number one selling artist on iTunes/Amazon, and now a legit comic series. While reading the comic today I wasn't just taking in the story I was internally cheering Felicia and her team on the entire time. Their hard work and humility has broken them through into some pretty cool realms. Hats off! Or since this is a pulp sci-fi site, perhaps I should be saying "aviator caps off!"

THE FINAL TWO WEEKS

2010-03-24T01:09:00.002-04:00

Friday, April 2nd. That's the day I hand over the full picture locked season of The Mercury Men. Right now we're finishing up music, along with the first pass sound design, for episode 10. (I do the first round of sound design myself before passing it off to the much more talented guys at Market Street Sound.)

Tomorrow will be final adjustments to the score/sound of episode 10. Thursday I'll be previewing the entire series on DVD, since you tend to miss stuff while looking at it on a computer monitor the entire time. And then this weekend will be preparing and packaging the episodes for delivery for final sound mix and contrast correction. That much closer to being able to finally show you the series.

I've had the opportunity to watch the entire series through a few times and I've noticed a few things. The best word I can describe the series is FUN. It's like a live action comic book. Cliffhangers, sense of humor, ray guns, and all sorts of great science fiction. Other times the series feels like a science fiction fairy tale. A crazy, over-the-top 12 hours in the life of Edward Borman.

I've already got an outline together for season 2, which is turning out to be a bit darker and more intense, but before we get there I'm really excited for you to share in the FUN of season 1.

JACK YAEGER SKETCH

2010-03-13T13:21:00.002-05:00

I've been doing some Mercury Men sketches during large video rendering sessions. These include characters, props, scenes, etc. My plan is to give several of these away in an upcoming contest so I figured I'd give you a preview of our ray-gun-slinging hero Jack Yaeger.

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

2010-03-10T20:34:00.006-05:00

Today, while previewing episodes one through nine, before shipping them off for final sound mix and contrast correction, I had the opportunity to watch the entire completed story arc of The Mercury Men Vol. 1. What most of you don't know is that while we originally shot ten episodes, the climax was unwisely split over the final two, which KILLED momentum, leading us to combine the final episodes into one. That left us with nine episodes, an unusual number to try and sell. Therefore, we shot a tenth "epilogue" episode this past January, which is a great lead-in to our hopeful second volume/season of episodes. So that's a long way of saying that the nine episodes I was able to watch are the original "full" story arc.

While there was some mild frustration about the few nagging things I wish I could change, but unfortunately can't, I was immensely proud to see our vision beginning it's final transformation into it's finished form. Over the next weeks, before the rest of the world is invited into the story to both enjoy and critique, I get to watch these characters take on the obstacles I've been laying before them for nearly two years. And before we get bombarded with YouTube comments both great and terrible, I get to appreciate the incredible craftsmanship of our cast and crew

One of my great motivations for enduring what it takes to produce a story is just that I want to be able to see it myself. Today, after countless days and endless hours, I was able to do just that.

My other motivation? The community and discussion that's building around The Mercury Men world, so thanks to all of you for your incredibly kind comments and encouragement here, on Facebook, and Twitter. I can't wait to kick open the door and let you all see what I've been seeing.

Now to finish up episode ten!

COLLECTOR GLASS

2010-03-10T15:42:00.006-05:00

UPDATE: We're making it happen! From the moment we posted we've been getting lots of comments and emails of people who'd love to purchase a collector glass. We did some research and found a site that'll print them up for us at a reasonable rate (around $5 plus shipping). While it won't be the specific glass pictured below (need to include more characters), it'll definitely be vintage styled. We'll share the design and details with you soon!

We haven't had a digital prop in quite a bit due to the fact that we're using every spare minute to complete the series itself. But I thought I'd give you a look at something I was trying to put together. Collector glasses!

Nearly every blockbuster film of the 70's and 80's was celebrated by limited edition collector glasses usually for sale at a fast food joint. While dreaming up digital props to offer, our own Jack Yaeger (Curt Wootton) suggested collector glasses. Genius! The plan was to get a couple made and make them available on ebay for a few lucky fans. Unfortunately the cost to produce these is incredibly prohibitive (just one alone would cost nearly $100!) so this won't likely happen until we've got greater resources to draw from. In the meantime here's a peek at a mock-up I put together for it. (Click the image for larger version)

ANOTHER CONTEST

2010-03-05T11:09:00.002-05:00

We love giving stuff away, so we're running another quick contest to do just that. All you have to do is tell us how you first discovered The Mercury Men, either in the comments section below, on Facebook, or Twitter. A few of you will be selected at random to win an autographed poster! It's that easy.

THE FINAL LAP

2010-03-01T13:50:00.005-05:00

Nearly a year and a half after we wrapped on production, we've finally hit the home stretch! And while many of you are VERY excited to see the series, it can't measure up to mine to show it.

I try to use this blog to give you an inside and accurate picture of what it's like to build this world/story. I stumbled upon a great visual of what it feels to finish up our series. While watching the Winter Olympics this year, I couldn't help but notice the great similarity between working on this project and cross-country skiing, which is the great level of endurance it requires to reach the end. If you've been following me on Twitter you've probably seen quite a few tweets of 18 hour work days ending at 4:00 AM. In fact I haven't gone to bed before 2:00 AM in the past month. But please don't interpret that as complaining (it's a privilege to be able to work on something I love), just an acknowledgement of the enurance often needed. Now that we're coming in to the final few weeks of post-production it's lit quite a fire in me to finish strong. I continue to visualize the day when The Mercury Men finally makes that transformation from "project in production" to a story we can all watch and discuss. Thank you to everyone who's been sharing incredibly kind words of encouragement here on the blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Those messages truly do inspire us.

So all that being said, where are we? We've finished editing and VFX for episodes 1 - 9 (woo hoo!) and are currently tackling episode 10, which I anticipate being completed by the end of next week. The completed episodes are already in the hands of the great guys at Market Street Sound who are handling the sound mix.

So are we saying the series will be released in the next few weeks? Unfortunately...no. We're still working out where The Mercury Men is going to land as far as distribution goes. All I can tell you about that is there are a lot of great places in consideration and we will share the news as soon as we have it.

And lastly, as an aside, congratulations to all of this years Streamy Award nominees! Some really great projects featured, and best of luck to you all.

Now back to work for me!

A TOAST

2010-02-21T15:57:00.008-05:00

I can't think of a better poster that sums up why we're making The Mercury Men, than this piece done by a favorite artist of mine, Alex Toth, who is best known as the creator of Space Ghost.

SCI-FI MAGAZINE

2010-02-12T14:40:00.003-05:00

We're in print! Sci-fi Magazine to be exact. Make sure to pick up this month's issue (labeled April, which I'll never understand) which features a small article on our black-and-white adventure. It even has a few pics and reveals a bit of plot which hasn't previously been released.

You can find Sci-fi Magazine at Borders and Barnes and Noble. And a special thanks to writer Jeff Berkwits for helping to draw attention to our series.

MERCURY MUSIC

2010-02-02T01:26:00.008-05:00

I often listen to music while writing and storyboarding. While I'm doing research for a film, I find music which fits the story mood and atmosphere and typically have that playing in the background while I work throughout pre-production. Here are some tracks which were an inspiration both for the tone of The Mercury Men and it's eventual soundtrack.

Vertigo and The Day the Earth Stood Still
You can't make a 50's styled black and white sci-fi series without drawing a little inspiration from Bernard Herrmann. While our score doesn't feature any theramin (we chose a more organic sounding and equally eerie violin in its place), there are small touches which draw from Bernard's style.

Vertigo - Prelude - The City O...

The Day The Earth Stood Still ...

Neptune the Mystic (from Holst's Planets Suite)
Of all the music, the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst has had the greatest influence on The Mercury Men. So much so that several pieces of it are actually used in the score. For a series about space and beings from another planet, Holst's celestial suite is a perfect fit. Neptune in particular has a great sense of mystery, wonder, and uncertainty about it.

Holst: Neptune - The Mystic - ...

The Map Room (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)
I've made no secret about my love of Raiders, or it's great influence on our series. And while the entire John Williams soundtrack was looped endlessly during writing sessions, this track in particular captured the tone I was aiming for in several scenes.

The Map Room: Dawn - John Will...

The New World Symphony No. 9 in E Minor
Antonin Dvorak's American inspired symphony captures the adventurous spirit of both our great frontiers, the West of the late 1800's and space of the 1960's. In fact, Neil Armstrong even took a recording of this symphony to the moon with him. Like the Planets suite, selections from this are used in The Mercury Men score (both of which are public domain). This track has a slow start, but when it gets going you'd swear you were listening to a great serial soundtrack.

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 In E Mi...

Do you listen to music while you write? What songs do you listen to?

CONTEST WINNERS

2010-01-19T15:44:00.003-05:00

Announcing the winners of our Dialogue and League Member Name contests! The pair of winners will have their submission used in the season finale of The Mercury Men. All winners and runners-up get an autographed poster.

Thanks to everyone for entering. There will be PLENTY of more opportunities for you to contribute to the world of The Mercury Men.

Winning Line of Dialogue - "What were you expecting?" submitted by Havoc
While it's a relatively simple and straightforward line compared to some of the other entries, and we made a small adjustment to it on set (changed to "Is it what you were expecting?"), I really like Havoc's submission because it worked on multiple levels. Not only did it work in scene, it speaks to the viewer (Is the story heading in a direction you expected?), and it spoke to me as a creator (Was the experience what you expected?)

Winning League Member Name - "Patrick Glen" submitted by Matthew McLachlan
Nearly all the entries where a combination of real American astronaut names and after trying many of them on set, Matthew's submission fit the character the best.

Runner-Up League Member Name - "Joe Semar" submitted by Virtualbri
Great real world connection. Virtualbri's grandfather was an engineer during the Apollo 13 mission. We're hoping to use this name for a character in season 2.

Runner-Up League Member Name - Elliot Malgam submitted by Carol
For the incredibly IN DEPTH backstory to the character name.

CONTEST: NAME A LEAGUE MEMBER

2010-01-12T15:38:00.008-05:00

We're adding a second contest to coincide with our dialogue entry contest. We've got a League character (the very one you've been contributing dialogue for in our contest), we need YOU to name him! Simply enter a name for our new space explorer in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook. If your entry is selected you are now the proud parent of a character in The Mercury Men and the owner of an autographed poster. Make sure to include some sort of contact info along with your entry.

Here's some hints:
-As I've mentioned in the production journals, the League is based on American astronauts. Check out some of their names for inspiration.
-While this is a pulp series, we're steering clear of over-the-top names like Blake Jetsetter and Max Moonbeams.
-This League Member is younger and not as high ranking as Jack.

CONTEST: WRITE A LINE OF DIALOGUE

2010-01-08T11:52:00.011-05:00

If you follow The Mercury Men on Twitter or Facebook, than you've probably heard that we're a few days away from filming an epilogue to close out the first volume of episodes. We've shared the evolution of our prop building and now we're sharing an opportunity for you to contribute.

Below is a section of the script. You'll find the very first line of dialogue is missing. We'd like you to come up with that line of dialogue. Should your line be selected, not only could you win a Mercury Men poster, but your line may be included in the final episode. Post your line in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook. We understand that having not seen any episodes you'd be coming up with something completely out of context so we'll be commenting to let you know who's on the right track. Good luck and remember to leave some type of contact info in case you win!

INT. MERCURY LAUNCH COMPLEX

A DARK FIGURE enters, a silhouette in the large facility. The beam of his flashlight scours the dark room, scanning over dead and dusty equipment. An empty brain jar. A rocket diagram. Plans to the Gravity Engine. Old and bent photographs. Clearly this place has been abandoned for some time.

The figure, dressed in flight gear, carries a shoulder strapped oxygen unit which connects to his mask through a long tube. He turns and lifts his aviator goggles up onto his forehead. It is JACK YAEGER.

A quiet radio echoes throughout the large chamber, broadcasting Russian voices indecipherable to Jack.

Behind Jack, a second LEAGUE MEMBER arrives, also silhouetted.

LEAGUE MEMBER
Your dialogue here!

Jack turns towards him. The league member approaches.

LEAGUE MEMBER
Control signaled your landing. I
arrived just before you. Hell of a trip.

The pair shake hands.

LEAGUE MEMBER
I was assigned to Captain Spears
on the Mariner 10 project when
he discovered Mercury base.

INFLUENCES: O HOLY NIGHT

2009-12-10T14:25:00.005-05:00

What? How in tarnations can a Christmas carol influence pulp science fiction? Well, inspiration can come from the least likely of places.

At a Christmas Eve midnight candlelight church service in 2007, while singing O Holy Night (one of my favorite Christmas carols and the very first song to EVER be played over radio), a single lyric jumped out at me. At the time I was in the middle of writing the screenplay for The Mercury Men and was trying to figure out what the story was REALLY about. Sure, it's about glowing men shooting lightning, space heroes, and all that fun stuff, but what is the story REALLY about? The lyric that laid it all out for me?

"Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth."

That single line was a key driving force in the screenplay. Edward is worthless. He is irresponsible and unreliable. And while Jesus will not be showing up in our series to change Edward's ways, the appearance of Jack (along with another character I must leave as a surprise), will most definitely challenge Edward to discover his worth.

So what is YOUR favorite Christmas carol? And please don't say it's that Christmas Shoes song :)

SCI-FI BLOCK AND CELTX

2009-12-09T10:55:00.002-05:00

Two great sites posted some great coverage of The Mercury Men today. First up, The Sci-fi Block, which I did a lengthy interview for (5 pages!). Lots of info about the series in there. And lastly, Celtx, the software company I mentioned in our storyboard production journal, did a quick write-up of the video on their blog. If you're an indie filmmaker and don't already know about Celtx, you should give their site a visit.

Sci-fi Block Interview
Celtx Blog Post

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: STORYBOARDING

2009-12-07T16:03:00.005-05:00

Today's Mercury Monday post gives a look at the storyboarding process behind The Mercury Men.

STORYBOARD RESOURCES
Celtx
Toon Boom Storyboard
FrameForge
The Art of Storyboard

WHERE ARE THE MERCURY MEN?

2009-12-03T12:37:00.006-05:00

UPDATE: Got a bunch of great emails asking how people could help with the series. There's a BIG way you can help spread the word about the series. Email your favorite sci-fi blog or website and let them know about The Mercury Men. The more voices they hear talking about the series, the more likely they are to cover the different things we're doing with it. Below is the contact info for some of the top sci-fi/film blogs.

io9 - tips@io9.com

Sci-fi Wire - http://scifiwire.com/tips.php

Aint it Cool News - http://www.aintitcool.com/contact

I (Chris) get a lot of emails and Twitter messages all asking the same thing: WHEN IS THIS SERIES COMING OUT? (On some occasions I've even been literally shaken by people as they shout this.) It seems that every release of a digital prop or production journal is greeted with both a mixture of joy for something new and frustration that it's not the first episode. Believe me, I want the series to release even more than you do! (Especially episode 6. I REALLY like episode 6.) So I figured I'd give an update on our progress.

The Mercury Men's post-production period is MUCH longer than most web series because the great number of visual effects (over 300 shots). We're a small company so the task of editing and compositing lies on myself and my co-editor Tyson. (On a side note I constantly sing while I edit, so poor Tyson has to listen to me warble everything from Here Comes Santa Claus to the theme song to Reading Rainbow.) The good news is post-production is winding to a close. We intend to have the entire series completed by the end of the year if not early January.

Well if the series is almost done, why no premiere date? A release date has not been announced because we are currently considering offers for a distribution/sponsor partner. We want to make sure that we can release it to as wide of an audience as possible and that we can afford to produce a second volume of episodes (season 2 is shaping up to be pretty kick A). We've got two fantastic agents at ICM, George Ruiz and Shan Ray, getting The Mercury Men in front of the right eyeballs. Even this week we've been having a barrage of studio meetings and the reception has been ridiculously good. So while these things do take time, it won't be much longer until the series lands in the right home.

Until then we're going to continue to produce and release as much as we possibly can aside from actual episodes. We've even got plans for a few short prequel episodes which (fingers crossed) we may be able to release before years end.

Our endless thanks for being an early viewer/supporter of the series. We're really aiming to share a great experience with you. And as always, if you've got a question/comment, post it in the comments section, on Facebook, or Twitter.

PAPERCRAFT JACK

2009-11-09T10:04:00.005-05:00

Help has arrived for Papercraft Edward! Download, print, and fold our pulp hero Jack Yaeger. I mean really, what else are you doing on Mercury Monday that's so important? This one is just as easy as the Edward model and can be cut, folded, and protecting your desk in only a few minutes.

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: JACK YAEGER

2009-11-02T02:39:00.007-05:00

Today's Mercury Monday post takes a look at daring aerospace engineer Jack Yaeger.

Some of this covers some similar ground as the last production design journal (we filmed this a day before that one), but there's also some new insight into the multiple inspirations for the character.

Got a question about the character? Post it in the comments section or on Facebook and I'm sure Curt will make an appearance to answer them.

MERCURY BASE

2009-10-25T22:16:00.007-04:00

On September 21, 1974, the Mariner 10 space probe conducted its second fly by of the planet Mercury. It transmitted images of the planet's surface along with atmospheric data. Among the images captured by the spacecraft was a disturbing image which was not publicly released.

The following recording captures the moment the images were first relayed to League Control by Captain Spears, who had been monitoring Mariner's transmissions at the time.

SOUNDTRACK SAMPLE: EPISODE 4

2009-10-23T10:33:00.007-04:00

Working on the score for Episode 4, which opens with a short fight sequence featuring Edward (who is doing a pretty lousy job of defending himself). Thought I'd share brief snippet of the music.

Last time I posted a soundtrack sample I asked what your favorite movie soundtrack is. So we'll switch it up this time and ask what's your favorite video game soundtrack?

PAPERCRAFT EDWARD

2009-10-16T15:11:00.008-04:00

Bored at work on Mercury Monday? Adorn your cubicle with a papercraft model of Edward Borman! Simply print the template on cardstock paper (you can use regular if don't have any), carefully cut it out, fold on the dotted lines, and glue the tabs using either a glue stick or regular ol' Elmers.

And don't give me that "seems like a lot of work" guff. It's a really easy model, only takes a few minutes, and then you can get back to watching Hulu with your headphones on...er...I mean working hard.

Send us pics of Papercraft Edward guarding your desk/office and we'll post 'em. More papercraft models to come, including Jack and a Mercury Engineer.

Want to try your hand at other models?
Marshall Alexander
Cubeecraft
Paper Foldables
Desktop Gremlins
Toy-A-Day
Paper Robots 1999

PRODUCTION DESIGN

2009-10-12T14:42:00.016-04:00

For today's Mercury Monday post we've got our first production journal highlighting production design. If you've got a question or area you'd like to see in an upcoming production journal, post it in the comments here or on Facebook.

The production journal even got a GREAT write up from Marc Hustvedt over at Tubefilter.

UPDATE: Here's some sci-fi production design resources.

VISUAL REFERENCE
Library of Congress Flickr Photostream
NASA Image Exchange
Great Images In NASA
Pulp Cover Gallery
Comic Cover Browser
Paleo-Future

HOW TO
Indy Mogul
Studio Creations
TK560.com How To Guides (Star Wars)
H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Prop Documents
How to Become a Production Designer
The Prop Shop Bookshelf

INFLUENCES: MYST

2009-10-06T21:10:00.012-04:00

If you owned a computer in the mid-90's, you more than likely played Myst. It was the best selling PC game for well over a decade (upstaged by The Sims in 2007), ushered in the CD-ROM era, spawned a number of Myst-clones, and has been ported almost as many times as Tetris. All from a grassroots game made by 7 people! And while the makers of Myst (Cyan Worlds) have recently fallen on hard times, it doesn't take away from the great style of storytelling they introduced, a style video game designers should consider revisiting. So how has this screen clicking graphical adventure influenced The Mercury Men?

EXPLORATION
Myst was different from most video games. You weren't under a constant barrage of enemy attacks, dodging fire, or leaping over lava pits. You weren't given some lengthy backstory. In fact, other than a short opening monologue, you weren't given any backstory at all. You were thrown into a mysterious situation and simply began to quietly explore the island and its ages. The story was told non-verbally through the exploration. You'd open a desk drawer and learn a lot about it's owner simply by its contents.

While The Mercury Men has much more leaping, dodging, and shooting, you will find moments where there is little to no dialogue, only the characters exploring their environment and situation. Rather than have a character talk us through what every little thing is, we allow the viewer to simply watch and form their own theories. It's nice to have a little mystery and curiosity in storytelling.

A LARGER WORLD

"We started our design work and realized that we would need to have even more story and history than would be revealed in the game itself. It seemed having that depth was just as important as what the explorer would actually see."
--Rand Miller on developing Myst's fictional history

We spent months developing the larger world of The Mercury Men before writing a single line in a screenplay. I could bend your ear for hours. (Unfortunately my wife has had to listen to hours of the history of the "league" and the "first men of Mercury.") While this wealth of backstory does hopefully give some depth to the events, out of it comes our digital props as well. We can reveal little pieces of the world while still leaving some room for you the viewer to fill in the blanks with ideas and theories of your own.

ANOTHER STORY
And finally, Myst holds a special place with me for an entirely different reason. I didn't meet my father until I was 16 years old and Myst was one of the very first gifts he bought for me. We spent an entire weekend hunched over an old Compaq computer monitor exploring that world together. Immersive and interactive storytelling was cemented in me instantaneously.

AND ANOTHER STORY
Like every video game, the idea of a film based on Myst was tossed around for years. But unlike every video game, Cyan Awards chose to do something unusually spectacular. They awarded the movie rights to THE FANS! Not all fans mind you, but a few filmmaker fans. You can check out their project at http://mystmovie.com. Really looking forward to what they're putting together.

It’s an amazing thing to witness a process like that - a “bootstrap” kind of operation that by sheer force of will and fan excitement manages to pull off something big.
--Rand Miller on Myst film project

SHORTWAVE

2009-10-04T23:02:00.010-04:00

Our first Mercury Monday post, an audio digital prop.

At 11:35 PM on August 26th, 1975, Donald Collins of Baltimore, Maryland, a radio enthusiast, discovered a strange foreign broadcast on an unusual frequency. The 30 second broadcast was on a repeating loop which lasted for only 7 minutes. Luckily, Mr. Collins had the foresight to record it.

While unable to make out the speech patterns, Mr. Collins easily recognized the Morse code overlaying it. He submitted the following translation to authorities:

The recording and message were both forwarded on to the FBI (and later to the NSA) for investigation. While neither the source of the broadcast nor its intended recipient(s) were determined, its meaning was horribly revealed on the night of October 2nd, 1975.

ONE YEAR

2009-10-03T00:40:00.003-04:00

One year ago today we began principal photography on The Mercury Men. (I know what you're thinking, "And it's still not out?" We're going as fast as we can!) I'm actually a bit shocked it's already been a full year since we had our great cast/crew together and I'm eagerly looking forward to the day when I can hopefully pull them all back again for round 2. While principal photography is typically the most stressful part of filmmaking, it's also the most rewarding. For a brief period of time you have a small family working together over long hours every single day, pushing themselves to tell as good as story as possible. Late nights, sleeping on living room floors, eating a homecooked dinner donated by a crew member's mother, shots that sometimes take forever to get right, and the shared joy when you finally do. Any other filmmaker or stage/screen actor has similar experiences I'm sure. Glowing men from Mercury and lightning bolts are great and all, but the relationships you build are far more important.

One year later and we're deep into post-production. (About halfway through and gaining speed.) And while it's in this phase that I finally get to see everyone's hard work come together, they're not all around to share in it anymore. They head back to day jobs or other film work. It's just me, an editor, and a computer. Sure, I share rough cuts when possible, but it's a different atmosphere. We've already lived the experience, now we're just trying to recapture it and share it with a whole new audience, you.

We're really proud of what we're creating and we really think you're going to enjoy the ride. We are honestly working ridiculously hard to not only give you a great story and unique experience, but an invitation into the Mercury Men family. To see who, how, and why it's made and to contribute some thoughts and creativity of your own.

So to commemorate our one year anniversary, I've got two new things to announce:

1) MERCURY MONDAYS. We will begin consistently releasing new content every single Monday. Behind-the-scenes videos, digital props, sneak previews, and more. That doesn't mean we'll be limited to one thing per week, just that we want to make sure there's AT LEAST one thing per week. We're also really hoping that our series encourages viewers to contribute items of their own, be it fan art or digital props. So if you've got a talent, please feel free to add to the Mercury Men world.

2) CAST AND CREW. I'm going to begin highlighting different cast and crew members by sharing a bit about them and their previous work. I'll share links and videos, and when possible, give you access to ask questions about their specific field.

And lastly, a THANK YOU to you the viewer. I'm absolutely thrilled to have you along and hope that you both enjoy yourself and join in the conversation. We're always talking here on the blog, on Facebook, and Twitter about not only Mercury Men, but other great sci-fi films, books, and games. Introduce yourself, post a question, answer a question, or just simply say hello!

That's all for now. Happy Anniversary to all the Mercury Men team. And to everyone else, see ya on Monday.

DIGITAL PROP CONTEST

2009-09-30T14:15:00.005-04:00

You've seen our digital props, from trading cards to blueprints. Now's the chance to contribute or create one of your own!

Submit your idea for a Mercury Men digital prop and not only can you win a signed poster, your prop will be made and posted here on the Mercury-Atlas blog!

Do you have to be a crack at Photoshop to win this contest? Absolutely not. Just submit your idea for a prop in the comment section below, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter (mentioning @themercurymen). If you ARE a crack at Photoshop and would like to submit a picture of your idea, that's great too. If it's good enough we may just use it.

Ideas will be judged on originality, general coolness, and our ability to actually make it. The winners name will be included in the prop and it's story, making them a part of Mercury Men lore. It's even possible that the prop will appear in an episode!

For inspiration check out our other digital props, the trailer, and our photo gallery. Make sure along with your submission there's a way to contact you, either by email or Twitter.

Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

ATARI LABEL MAKER

2009-09-16T12:31:00.005-04:00

Interested in making some Atari artwork of your own after seeing yesterday's Mercury Men for the Atari 2600? Here's two great resources.

ATARI LABEL MAKER
Fill in the info and provide a picture and this web based program will produce a hi-res face and spine label for any Atari 2600 cartridge.

ATARI BOX ART LIBRARY
A collection of great Atari box art to use as reference.

MERCURY MEN: THE VIDEO GAME

2009-09-15T02:15:00.007-04:00

Break out the old 2600 and hook up the console TV because here come The Mercury Men! In 1982, after the success of the arcade and console hit Berzerk, video game makers raced to get out a shooter of their own. The Mercury Men console game had players firing on invaders and dodging lightning all while climbing the floors of the building to reach the "brain."

Print out the game box art and cartridge for your DIGITAL PROPS collection. (Click on images for hi-res versions.)

NOTE: There was not actually a Mercury Men video game. We're just having some fun. But while were on the subject, what is your favorite Atari game?

Console television photo courtesy of webshots.

TRADING CARDS: ROUND 2

2009-08-28T12:30:00.004-04:00

Here's another pair of trading cards to add to the collection. You'll notice that we're providing card numbers 5 and 11, but what about 6 through 10? Can't give all our characters away just yet :)

FAN ART: ZACK FINFROCK

2009-08-24T11:46:00.005-04:00

My inbox is still recovering from one of the coolest emails I've received since embarking on this journey of lightning bolts and glowing men. Zack Finfrock of Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter sent us this amazing piece of fan art featuring all the Mercury Men characters.
Zack NAILED the characters, from the Containment Suit Invaders scrawny necks and lifeless stares to the lacing on the side of Jack's jacket. Since I've got a hi res version of the file, we're making it available for YOU to download as well!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ARTWORK

You can check out Zack's artwork HERE, and his webseries Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter. And let this be an open call to all you artists out there. Send us some Mercury Men inspired artwork and we'll gladly feature it and your other work here on the Mercury blog.

POSTER CONTEST

2009-08-18T10:51:00.007-04:00

To help spread the word about the series and the release of the new extended trailer, we're holding a second, even bigger, Mercury Men poster contest! You could win one of FIVE autographed prints of the advance poster. And there's two ways to win. Here's how:

1. Share the new extended trailer in your blog. Post the trailer in your blog using one of the embed codes below. Then point us to it with a link in the comments section of this blog. If you've already posted the trailer in your blog, you're still eligible, just make sure to post the link in the comments section.

Small (500 x 311) Standard Definition

Large (640 x 390) High Definition

2. Share the link to the trailer on Twitter. Don't have a blog or just want to increase your chances? Share the official site link from below on Twitter using either @themercurymen or the hashtag #mercurymen in your Tweet.

http://www.mercuryseries.com

Five winners will be chosen at random on Monday, August 24th from among both the blogs and Tweets. If you're excited to see The Mercury Men, help us spread the word and give yourself a shot to win a pretty sweet poster!

PICS FROM GENCON

2009-08-18T10:10:00.010-04:00

We snapped a few pics at GenCon, including a few of myself (Chris, on right) and Ben, our First AD (on left), with some nifty costumes.

There were people dressed as Death Eaters.

People dressed as Hogwarts students.

People dressed in a homemade Cobra Commander costume that looked better than the million dollar production's "Michael Jackson with a gas mask" or "I have a jellyfish stuck to my face" versions.

And even some guy dressed up as our gaffer/editor Tyson!

No Face and Princess Mononoke

Even the Norse god Thor rolls D20's.

Q&A following the screening.

GENCON WRAP UP

2009-08-17T17:01:00.019-04:00

One long trip back from Indianapolis and we're home from GenCon. Beyond two great screenings and Q&A, sessions here's some highlights and links from the weekend.

We screened alongside the RPG web series GOLD. It's a great series for gamers by gamers about gamers and contains this hilariously nerdy bit of dialogue: "I'm gonna crush you like a glass golem at a stone elemental convention." Watch the series at http://www.goldtheseries.com and get that great quote on a t-shirt.

We discovered another black and white sci-fi web series AIDAN 5. Not only were the creators really great to talk to, their series has a neat "Blade Runner meets the A-Ha Take On Me video" (their words) look to it. You can watch the first episode of AIDAN 5 at http://www.aidan5.com.

Played a great game called THE ADVENTURERS that's just dripping with Raiders of the Lost Ark goodness, complete with giant rolling stone ball, closing walls, and dangerous tile paths.

Although I didn't get to attend their screening (where they sold out of all their DVD's), I did get to meet the creators behind THE TRANSIENT. What is The Transient? The only thing you need to know is Vampire Abraham Lincoln! Watch it now at http://www.killvampirelincoln.com.

Two more games that I absolutely loved: MONSTERPOCALYPSE (giant fighting monsters ala Godzilla or Ultraman) and WINGS OF WAR (biplane dogfighting!)

And lastly, my friend Geoff came to the convention and he looked like this:

We love him for that.

If you've never been to GenCon and ANY of this sounds intriguing we urge you to attend. Always have a blast. And a special thanks to everyone that attended the screenings.

Any other conventions out there we should be checking out?

WE'RE GOING TO GENCON

2009-08-06T19:34:00.009-04:00

It's our fourth annual trip to GenCon! If you're planning on attending make sure to stop by our screening/panel. We'll be preview screening the first TWO episodes for the very first time! In addition to that we'll be discussing the production, how to make a web series of your own, and giving away posters. The screening times are:

Friday, 8 pm - Westin Capital III
Saturday, 3 pm - Westin Capital I

The screenings all take place across the street from the convention center on the first floor of the Westin hotel. You'll also be able to see the RPG series GOLD, which screens directly after both Mercury Men screenings.

Beyond the screenings we're really excited to demo/play some games as well, especially Settlers of Catan, Savage Worlds, HeroQuest, and possible a little Star Wars Miniatures.

UPDATE: We'll be selling posters at the screenings for only 5 BUCKS!

TUBEFILTER ARTICLE AND TRAILER

2009-08-04T15:33:00.010-04:00

There's a great article by Jacob Nahin about The Mercury Men over on Tubefilter, which features a NEW exclusive extended trailer. Go check it out!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE NEW EXCLUSIVE TRAILER

Here's a short snippet of the article:

"Preksta gave us a private viewing of the first episode, and while it would be premature to give a full-blown review, I can say that what I have seen blows my mind. The production quality, the acting, the music, the directing, everything presented in this first episode should have mainstream studios take notice."

All the guys over at Tubefilter have been incredibly supportive, not only of our shows, but of the web series industry in general. Between their site, the monthly meet-ups, and the Streamy's they've all done a lot to help creators like us. We were thrilled to be able to offer them an exclusive trailer to premiere.

CONFESSIONS OF INDIE WEB CREATORS

2009-08-04T13:29:00.009-04:00

Interested in shooting a web series of your own? Check out this Tubefilter article by Rochelle Dancel which addresses a few of the issues you're likely to face. A snippet:

“Networking and marketing aside,” Latimer contends, “I’ve learned more about production, website building and digital formats in the past year and a half creating this series than I ever learned in film school.”

UPDATE: Also found this great blog post by The Guild creator Felicia Day which poses the 4 questions you ought to ask yourself before starting a series.

UPDATE 2: Another complimentary post from Tubefilter, "10 Lessons from a Studio Exec."

MAD MERCURY MEN

2009-07-28T11:17:00.009-04:00

Found this great little promotional site for newest season of Mad Men, an amazing show which I've unfortunately seen little of. I do hope to one day hire their production designer to design my home. If you go to http://www.madmenyourself.com you can make a nifty little 60's Shag styled character of yourself, like the one I made above of our beloved Edward Borman.

So far we've released three posters: the advance and two special Apollo 11 anniversary editions. I'm currently working on one of the official one sheets. These posters designs will feature the actual characters, as not to confuse people into thinking this is an animated story. I'm not quite there yet with the design, but thought I'd give you a quick peek into the process.

What's your favorite movie poster of all time?
What's a RECENT movie poster you really like?

THE GRAIL DIARY

2009-07-27T23:23:00.009-04:00

I've got an 8 year old brother named Peter. (Which means my six siblings range from me, 29, all the way down to 8!) For the past couple years Peter has been at that age where the films I make aren't just stories that his big brother filmed, they're adventures his big brother has lived. He thought I was a super-hero for three years after seeing Captain Blasto. So part of the inspiration for our digital props series is that for every piece I make, I can print it out and give it to him as a relic of some great adventure out there. Tomorrow he'll be getting a few posters, an orbital map, and a blueprint for a ray gun.

Do you remember Indiana Jones' leather notebook from Raiders? The one he used to calculate the position of the Staff of Ra? And of course any Indy fan would remember the Grail Diary. Well every time they would crack open one of those books on screen, even to this day I can feel my body sitting up, trying to peek over. This guy has been on great quests. That little book has to be filled cover to cover with notes, sketches, and artifacts detailing every dangerous catacomb and ancient puzzle. I just wanted to snatch the book right out of his hands. In fact a few people have come as close as you can get - Indy Props and Quest for Gear.

While we've only released a few so far, I really hope our digital props can capture some of that for you. I hope they're as mysterious and fun for you to see as they are for me to make. And if you're enjoying what you see of Mercury Men thus far, I'd encourage you to actually print the props out. Or at the very least make a folder where you can save the images for yourself. We've got a great big story to tell, a story that pours over the edges of the videos themselves.

Is there some film prop you've always wanted to snatch out of the film, aside from the obvious lightsaber and Hoverboard of course.

INTERVIEW: PULP 2.0

2009-07-26T13:51:00.004-04:00

I did an "Almost 20 Questions" interview this past week for Bill Cunningham's great Pulp 2.0 blog.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

Many thanks to Bill the "mad pulp bastard." If your a fan of pulp or retro sci-fi, I suggest checking out the blog.

If you would like to have an interview with any of the cast or crew for your site or blog, feel free to let us know and we'll gladly schedule the time.

WE NEED YOUR ART!

2009-07-21T19:09:00.009-04:00

I'm going to begin filming some behind-the-scenes videos (featuring some of the questions you asked HERE on the blog), but as you can see from the picture, my home office is in need of some serious work if it's going to serve as a film location. So I turn to YOU for help!

Calling all artists out there to submit a great sci-fi, pulp, or film art print.

Submit your work, whether it's a piece you've already made or a Mercury Men inspired print, and help turn the walls of this home office into "Mercury Control." As a thank you, I'll feature your work in a behind-the-scenes video and provide viewers with a link to your site.

To submit, either post a link to the image here in the comments section or email me directly at chris [at] mercurymenpictures [dot com]. Please make sure that the image resolution is high enough to print.

Not an artist? That's okay too. Do you know of some great art online? Post the link!

SPECIAL EDITION POSTERS AND TEASER

2009-07-20T08:25:00.004-04:00

To celebrate today's 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we produced a short teaser video along with TWO special edition Mercury Men posters which are FREE to download and print. You can either print them on your home printer or toss 'em on a flash drive and take them to your local print/copy place. Happy Anniversary Apollo 11!

DOWNLOAD POSTER 1 JPEG
DOWNLOAD POSTER 1 PDF

DOWNLOAD POSTER 2 JPEG
DOWNLOAD POSTER 2 PDF

DOC MONSTER

2009-07-17T21:57:00.009-04:00

Since releasing the trailer for The Mercury Men I've been exposed to numerous great pulp and sci-fi projects (which I hope to continue to share through this blog). One that immediately stood out was Dave Flora's DOC MONSTER comic. I mean look at that picture below! It just grabs you by the eyeballs and starts pouring mystery and adventure into your brain.

Here's the skinny from the official site:

It’s 1954. Communists are everywhere, and UFOs fill the night skies. Our government asks super-scientist DOC MONSTER to help, but can he discover what’s behind the UFOs in time to save the world?

Check out Doc Monster HERE or Dave Flora's other comic, GHOST ZERO.

"WE CHOOSE THE MOON"

2009-07-16T16:13:00.005-04:00

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA and AOL have put together an AMAZING site that recreates the amazing event in real time. (I've been listening to the live transmissions all day!) I can't think of a human endeavor greater than what they accomplished back on July 20th, 1969, and for it to be this well documented is equally amazing.

Being that the story of The Mercury Men is heavily based on the Apollo 11 mission, it may be a great primer to the series to watch/listen for a while.

WWW.WECHOOSETHEMOON.ORG

INTERVIEW: SCYFI LOVE

2009-07-15T09:19:00.007-04:00

Recently did a short interview for the ScyFi Love blog about the development of Mercury Men.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

Update: The Sci Fi Scoop blog picked up the interview as well.

THE CLIP SHOW

2009-07-08T10:13:00.003-04:00

The Clip Show, a great web series/podcast review show, highlighted The Mercury Men trailer in their most recent episode (embedded below, starts around the 3:00 minute mark). We're thrilled to hear how excited they are for the show! They also previously reviewed our first series, Captain Blasto.

MERCURY MEN TRADING CARDS

2009-07-02T11:52:00.006-04:00

Our newest release in the Digital Props Series is this set of vintage trading cards featuring the main characters from the series. The cards are hi-res and standard sized for you to print out and place in card sleeves, so break out that old binder! We'll be releasing cards throughout the series. And make sure to read the card back descriptions which will often feature back story elements not seen in the episodes themselves.

UPDATED: We've added a stick of stale gum (scanned from an actual pack of 1982 Smurfs trading cards).

PHOTOS FROM THE SHOOT

2009-06-29T22:15:00.011-04:00

We wrapped on our week long pick-up shoot yesterday, and I wanted to share some photos (taken by Jonathan Cooper).

Curt Wootton as Jack Yaeger

Mark Tierno as Edward Borman

Jack and Edward

Jack sets an ambush

Director Chris Preksta

You can see more photos on the Twitpic accounts of The Mercury Men , Aaron Kleiber (Daryl the Janitor), and Lindsey Phillips (Assistant Camera).

TWITPICS

2009-06-16T23:39:00.006-04:00

Thought I'd direct those of you NOT following The Mercury Men on Twitter to our Twitpic account where we've been posting random photographs for weeks, such as the one below of props being unpacked for next weeks pick-up shots. Also, remember to post your questions for the cast/crew in the comments of the PICK-UPS post below to make sure we videotape an answer for you!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TWITPIC GALLERY

PICK-UPS

2009-06-15T10:01:00.006-04:00

The Mercury Men crew will be getting behind the camera again next week to shoot pick-up shots, also known as "reshoot stuff we messed up the first time." We've also come up with some new shot/scene ideas that we'll be adding (like Jack's lost conversation with Jabba the Hutt in docking bay 94).

Since I'll have nearly everyone together again, I thought it would be a great time to shoot some behind-the-scenes stuff as well. So what questions would you like to ask the cast/crew? Post your questions in the comments section of this post. Anything from "what's your favorite screen villain" to "what's it like acting scared of glowing men that aren't really on set?" We'll record the cast/crew's answers and post the videos here. I'll also be sending updates and photos throughout the shoot on Twitter.

Lastly, The Mercury Men Facebook page needs 1,000 followers before we're allowed to get a username, so if you haven't "friended" us on Facebook now is a perfect time. Just CLICK HERE. (That just sounded eerily similar to a PBS/NPR pledge drive request.)

THE THREE PHOTOGRAPHS

2009-06-12T11:45:00.009-04:00

Third release in our digital prop series.

Three photographs have sat pinned to a small bulletin board in the Wright-Patterson Terminal Building for several decades. They have generally gone unnoticed and current generation pilots would be unable to identify the men in the photographs or the events in which they were taken. An older generation of pilots however, well into their seventies, regard the photographs fondly and spend countless hours over coffee, discussing their historical significance. There originally was a fourth photograph which has since been removed.

MAP PROJECTOR

2009-06-11T13:51:00.002-04:00

As promised, here's a look at Jack's Orbital Map Projector. (Click the image for a slightly larger version)

ONFRONTS NYC

2009-06-11T12:28:00.005-04:00

Back home from the Onfronts NYC, a showcase of web series for various press and advertisers hosted by Tilzy.TV, where a 2 minute preview of The Mercury Men was screened. Here's what NewTeeVee had to say about it:

"The Mercury Men [...] did for retro-cool in one brief preview what “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” failed to do in an entire film..."

Thanks to Wilson Cleveland of CJP for including TMM in his presentation.

As a side note, while in NY I also got to meet up with over one hundred other Pittsburghers to watch our Pens force the Red Wings into game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Can't tell you how fun it is to cheer and celebrate with your home team (especially after that embarassing game 5). Could the Stanley Cup and the Vince Lombardi trophy take up residence in Pittsburgh in the SAME YEAR? We were just voted America's most liveable city!

ORBITAL MAP

2009-06-06T01:58:00.005-04:00

After designing the orbital map for Jack's map projector (I'll post a picture here soon), I figured I ought to offer a print version here as our second digital prop.

League members carry a small collection of photographic slides detailing the orbital and rendevous paths of various celestial bodies. This particular chart depicts Earth (center), it's Moon, and the several satellites and comets that intersect it's orbital path during the month of October.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRINT

THE STORY WE MAKE TOGETHER

2009-06-05T13:33:00.014-04:00

As I mentioned on Twitter the other day, I recently finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I really enjoyed it. But beyond the good story, I found these great excerpts from Card's introduction (condensed by myself):

"This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The "true" story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. [It] is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears. Think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together."

Card's introduction touches on a new dynamic which has begun to take place in the relationship between the creator and the audience. For decades we have elevated directors, writers, actors, and musicians. Should we enjoy their work we give ourselves a common label, fan. We have no ability to effect or take part in the creation of their work other than to consume it. Thankfully that hierarchy has begun to dissolve.

The internet has not only revealed endless amounts of insanely gifted and talented people, it has pulled back the curtain and given us a true view of the people that tell the stories we enjoy, and in many cases provided us the opportunity to contribute.

- Do you enjoy Felicia Day's The Guild? If so, you can do more than just watch. You can see the process or you can go one step further and actually help out. Better yet, take Felicia's advice and make your own series.

- The first Iron Man movie was great. See how director Jon Favreau's holding up on the sequel.

I bring this up because this is how I hope The Mercury Men to be. I'm not George Lucas locked away in some glamorous ranch. I'm sitting in the spare bedroom of a duplex. I'm sure you know the crew and actors didn't have personalized chairs or trailers. In fact they slept on my living room floor throughout the entire month long shoot. And just like you, we have day jobs and incredibly understanding wives. We want to share the whole story of Mercury Men, not only the ray guns and glowing men, but the difficulties it takes to make the series possible and our dream to someday soon make an actual living doing it. On top of that, we want YOU to contribute to that story. We hope to provide many opportunities for you to share your ideas, talents, and more to the growing Mercury Men story.

Think of this, not as something I created, but rather as something that we make together.

THE LUMIÉRE

2009-06-01T11:47:00.008-04:00

We're proud to release our first digital prop: the Lumiére! Jack's trusted weapon was created by N. J. Schnur, a League engineer who developed a new type of bullet and delivery system upon discovering the light forging process from the lightsmiths of Mercury. We've provided a hi-res 8 x 10" file for you to print out on your own.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRINT

KEVIN DART AND YUKI 7

2009-05-28T22:12:00.007-04:00

While this doesn't fall under the category of pulp or sci-fi, it is amazingly retro, swinging 60's to be exact (my personal favorite design decade.) The ridiculously talented Kevin Dart released the trailer to his new art project/book Yuki 7. He's following the George Lucas Shadow's of the Empire model: everything but the movie. It's a shame really, because based on the trailer and posters, if there were a film I'd be there for the midnight screening.

Trailer below, and much more at http://www.kevindart.com

TILZY.TV

2009-05-28T09:45:00.003-04:00

The Mercury Men is a featured show on the front page of the internet video guide, Tilzy.TV. Thanks to Tilzy and Wilson Cleveland of CJP for highlighting our show!

SOUNDTRACK SAMPLE

2009-05-21T17:12:00.008-04:00

We're currently working on music for a preview of the first episode of The Mercury Men for The Onfronts. Figured I'd share a small sample.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

And while we're on the subject...what's your favorite movie soundtrack? While nearly any John Williams score deserves the credit, The Empire Strikes Back in particular takes my top spot.

GREEN SCREEN

2009-05-19T14:57:00.009-04:00

Inspired by comments from Alex Albrecht's review of Angels and Demons on the Totally Rad Show, Slashfilm.com posed this great question: What are some of your most hated uses of CG in movie history? Good movies ruined by bad CG or just unnecessary CG that took you out of the story. For my money, the plane crash at the end of Air Force One takes the cake. (And believe it or not, there is NOT a single green screen shot in all of The Mercury Men.)

So I ask you: what is YOUR most hated use of movie CG?

Girls Entertainment Network

2009-05-18T23:09:00.003-04:00

The lovely ladies of the Girls Entertainment Network are some of our biggest supporters, and none more so than the talented comic reviewer (and fellow Pennsylvania native) Stephanie Carmichael, who recently posted a preview of The Mercury Men. I suggest checking out their site along with their great superheroine costumes.

INFLUENCES: THE THIRD MAN

2009-05-12T02:12:00.005-04:00

I recently held an impromptu poll on Twitter asking people what their favorite black and white film is. The top spot went to Casablanca. While my favorite goes to Seven Samurai, it would more than likely be in my top 5 films of all time even if it was in color. But a great film that is defined by black and white, and would lessen should it be in color, is Carol Reed's The Third Man.

While the cinematography and production design of The Mercury Men is generally influenced by all the great classic black and white films, the high contrast, sharp angles, and use of shadows in The Third Man played heavily into our storyboards. Orson Welles has often noted black and white as the superior format for an actor, as it draws attention to them, rather than a colorful background. If you haven't seen this film yet, I highly suggest either buying or Netflixing the latest Criterion edition.

STAR TREK

2009-05-10T13:10:00.004-04:00

Like the rest of the world, I really dug the new Star Trek. It felt really refreshing to see well done science fiction set in space again. It seems like fantasy and super heroes have ruled the box office for over a decade now. Highlights for me were J.J. Abrams fantastic direction (did GREAT things with his space action sequences), Chris Pine, and of course Karl Urban's great take on Bones McCoy. I'm more of a Star Wars guy myself, so my Star Trek knowledge is pretty limited, but the movie really made me want to go back and watch the original series, especially being the retro fan that I am.

What's your thoughts on the film? And also, is it work seeing again in IMAX?

PULP PROJECTS

2009-05-06T12:01:00.015-04:00

Since The Mercury Men trailer has premiered we've been exposed to countless other incredibly cool pulp and sci-fi projects. Here's a few I caught today. If you know of others, share a link in the comments.

IRON SKY
http://www.ironsky.net

"Towards the end of World War II the staff of SS officer Hans Kammler made a significant breakthrough in anti-gravity. From a secret base built in the Antarctic, the first Nazi spaceships were launched in late ‘45 to found the military base Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) on the dark side of the Moon. This base was to build a powerful invasion fleet and return to take over the Earth once the time was right. Now it’s 2018, the Nazi invasion is on its way and the world is goose-stepping towards its doom."

GHOST ZERO
http://www.ghostzero.com

"Ghost Zero is an amalgam of two people…the body of Eddie Quick and the ghost of Charles Pallentine. Using the mysterious 'Spirit Ring', Eddie can allow Charles to 'possess' him for limited times. During those times, Eddie’s skin turns spectral (transparent) and wisps of ectoplasm 'bleed' from his eyesockets. Typically, when the possession occurs, Charles is the one ‘driving’, in that his conciousness supercedes Eddie’s. Eddie ‘blacks out’ and has no memory of what happens in the Ghost Zero form. Outside of the possessed state, Eddie is pretty much a typical, athletic, american teenager."

PULP SUNDAY: THE ART OF FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com

Check out Francesco's great pulp art, featuring fantastic characters like Black Beetle, Max Malone, and even Zorro. Incredibly authentic style.

BLOG ROLL II

2009-05-06T10:20:00.018-04:00

Here's a few more great blogs that shared the Mercury Men news:

MAJOR SPOILERS
BEYOND THE IRON SKY
GHOST ZERO
IN THE MIND OF A MAD MAN
COMIC MIX
DESIGNER MONOLOGUES
GEEKTOPIA
THE MENTAL CAVITY
ACTION TYPIST
PULP HERO
LIVE FOR FILMS
LOST IN SCHLOCK
HERO PRESS
A GRAIN OF SAND
MATERIA OSCURA (Spanish)
FLUZORAMA (Spanish)
OPIUM (Polish)
S. SCHLEICHER

*List Updated 5/13/09

ZONA FANDOM

2009-05-06T10:10:00.004-04:00

The Mercury Men was featured on the Spanish language sci-fi fan site Zona Fandom. You can read the post HERE and you can translate what it says HERE.

BLOG ROLL

2009-05-05T22:51:00.006-04:00

Our trailer was posted on several great blogs today, so we wanted to make sure and return the favor by pointing you in their direction. Each link will take you to their Mercury Men article, but I suggest checking out some of their other great content as well.

REVEREND JETSTREAM
QUIET EARTH
PULP 2.0
PYR-O-MANIA
CHRIS ROBERSON RAMBLES
SECRET LAB X
WORSHIP THE GLITCH

TWITCH

2009-05-05T12:22:00.004-04:00

The Mercury Men trailer was featured on the film blog Twitch this morning. It's a really great site that covers a lot of film news standard film blogs do not. You can read the article HERE, although the author wasn't too keen on our actors based on the 4 lines they speak in the trailer.

INFLUENCES: STAR WARS

2009-05-05T11:04:00.018-04:00

Nearly every filmmaker of my generation was influenced by Star Wars in some way or another, so no surprises there. But there is one aspect of Star Wars in particular that greatly inspired the story of The Mercury Men.

Imagine standing before a giant fence. On the other side of that fence is a great world you've never seen before. Luckily, you discover a small knothole and peek through. Though you can't see everything, you catch small glimpses of fantastic people and places. THAT is the original Star Wars film. George Lucas' Star Wars screenplay hinted at many things, mostly through the stories of old Ben Kenobi, which wouldn't be seen during the film's running time, including the powerful Jedi, the Clone Wars, the great Anakin Skywalker, and the evil Emperor to name a few. Han spoke of dangerous bounty hunters and a great crimelord, Jabba the Hutt. While many of these things have since been revealed (unfortunately so), at the time they created a deep sense of mystery and curiosity. It engages your imagination. As a viewer your mind starts to wrap a story of your own around these names and places.

Beyond flying laser bolts and masked villains, the first volume of The Mercury Men is similar to Star Wars in it's knothole approach to the greater world. We will reveal bits and pieces of the grander story, which we will explore further here on the site with digital props and even more so in volume two of the series. We'd even like to have the community of viewers contribute to the story. Can you imagine if George Lucas had asked one of us to come up with Boba Fett's backstory?

Here's a loaded question: best Star Wars movie?

UPDATE: Scott Parker shared his own fantastic take on the Star Wars "knothole" experience, which included these great excerpts:

"Of all the thirty years living with Star Wars, my favorite time is still the years between the first two films, after those chunks of imagination had been opened."

"There is something fun about having to rely on magazines, comics, and trading cards and not having an Internet with the world’s knowledge at one’s fingertips. It was like searching for treasure in every new issue of Starlog just to see if they had some new photo of Star Wars."

Read the post in it's entirety HERE.

CINEMA SUICIDE

2009-05-05T09:32:00.004-04:00

Bryan White was kind enough to highlight the new Mercury Men trailer over on his great site Cinema Suicide. Check out the post HERE, and stick around for his other great articles.

INFLUENCES: HITCHCOCK & THE TWILIGHT ZONE

2009-05-04T20:00:00.008-04:00

While The Mercury Men will no doubt draw comparisons to the last serial revival attempt Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (mainly in part because we're in black and white and feature a character in aviation goggles), I wanted to quickly set the record straight on the films that truly did influence the creation of our story. Therefore, throughout the week I'll be posting a look the inspirations for The Mercury Men.

TMM is originally born out of the old Hitchcockian idea of a normal man in extraordinary circumstances. In fact, the original concept short on which the series is based, was written around one simple question: what if you saved the entire world and then had to go to work the next morning? Like the classic Hitchcock characters, Edward Borman is no super-hero. He has no skills that would make him suitable for a mission of this sort. I'd go so far as to call him incompetent. Audiences will truly be wondering "how could HE possibly get out of this?" These themes are fully inspired by great Hitchcock films such as Saboteur, North By Northwest, The Wrong Man, and of course by the classic TV show The Twilight Zone.

A few weeks back I asked (via Twitter) what were people's favorite Hitchcock film, and the general consensus came to Vertigo. What's your favorite Hitchcock film?

SPECIAL EFFECTS

2009-04-28T16:19:00.012-04:00

Compared to most web series, which premiere a few short months after principal photography, The Mercury Men has a long period of post-production. In fact, leading up to it's release this fall, post-production will have run just shy of a whole year. So what's taking so long?

Effects, effects, effects. TMM features quite a few of them. There's FIFTY special effects shots in just the FIRST episode! As a point of reference, the original Star Wars (pre-special edition) featured around 300 special effects. We're already a 6th of the way there with 9 more episodes to go. I (Chris) promise you haven't seen a series like this one.

Now mind you, a great story special effects do not make. We've seen too many empty and soulless films with outstanding effects. But like Luke & Han dodging blaster fire and Indy surrounded by the mysterious power the Ark, they can make a good story really exciting.

What other great movies were complimented with stellar special effects?

POST YOUR COMMENTS

2009-04-15T22:31:00.006-04:00

Well...what do ya think? Now that the trailer is posted and live at www.mercuryseries.com, post your comments, thoughts, and questions about the trailer/series below. We'd love to hear from you!

GET THE ADVANCE POSTER

2009-02-27T13:15:00.008-05:00

You can buy your own print of the classic styled advance Mercury Men poster, inspired by the great film designer, Saul Bass. Get yours now by clicking HERE.

STORYBOARDS

2009-02-24T12:39:00.006-05:00

If you've watched the behind-the-scenes features on nearly any DVD, you've probably seen storyboards, the series of drawings that plot out each and every shot of a film. While most web series and independent films skip this step, due to time, budget, or artist access, I (Chris) have drawn storyboards for every single film I've produced, both short and feature length. Beyond the script, there is no better tool for a director to communicate exactly what he's looking for. As you can see from my sketches, they don't need to be flashy or high art, just something to help everyone visualize what you see in your head.

Here I've included some examples of The Mercury Men storyboards, along with their final frame counterparts.

Many times, either due to spacing, location, or for creative purposes, the shot won't be framed as storyboarded. In this example, the original storyboard calls for Edward to be framed with the gun in the foreground. The way the desk was situated in the small office made this impossible so a quick change was made to the shot on set and the camera instead pans from the gun to Edward, linking the two.

All in all, some 600+ illustrations were drawn for the storyboards over the course of one (long and tedious) week of pre-production.

A CLASSIC CLIFFHANGER

2008-12-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

The Mercury Men marks a modern return of the classic cliffhanger serials. “The web video format seemed the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the old serial style of storytelling,” says writer/director Christopher Preksta. “Not as an homage with cheesy dialogue, corny characters, and bad special effects, but as a modern story with the great suspense, danger, and mystery the serials were known for at the time. With the short form of digital media, movies are simply coming back to their roots.”

PRODUCTION STILLS

2008-12-10T01:26:00.009-05:00