JACK YAEGER SKETCH

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.

FAN ART: ZACK FINFROCK

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.

MAD MERCURY MEN

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?

PHOTOS FROM THE SHOOT

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

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

MAP PROJECTOR

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

ORBITAL MAP

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 LUMIÉRE

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

STORYBOARDS

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.

PRODUCTION STILLS