Somehow this all seems so unfair but then again they make millions and I get nothing to bag on them.

MILO COOKS

I've been back in Milwaukee for two weeks now, and so I thought I should talk about it. And when I say Milwaukee, I mean Milwaukee area. And when I say Milwaukee area, I mean the friggin' suburbs.

Don't let the smile fool you.....I know it's a serious matter.
Waiting on hurricane Ike.....
Certain to lose power soon.

We just put on our sixth NoBrandCon this last weekend. Here are the highlighted sections I was able to actually catch on video (as I was incredibly busy).

Milo spits his verse

<b>WARNING!! THIS IS A LONG ONE.</b> Showing you the entire collection of improvised greensuit items, most of which were gleaned from thrift stores or discount outlets..

A quickie inspirational video on how to create a high-tech sci-fi environment using pre-formed styrofoam packing, some art supplies, and some creative thinking.

Early trailer to our underground/independent backyard monster movie "Night of the Necroluna". Written, Produced, and Directed by Larry Lo Presti. Executive Producers: Larry Lo Presti &   more...Baron Dixon. DP: Baron Dixon. Creatures and Special make-up Effects by Larry Lo Presti. Editing and Digital Visual effects by Baron Dixon. Special Sets Created by Larry Lo Presti. Musical Score by Baron Dixon.

Synopsis: A former altar boy comes to the small desert town of Happening, AZ to investigate the violent death and dismemberment of his brother, and finds that the town is under the control of a murderus cult and the monster-gods that they worship.

I play the villain in the movie...the one doing the over-the-top Ricardo Montalban impression. That's also me doing the husky Movie-trailer-guy Voice-over. We're still in production on this project and should hopefully be having our premiere in October 2008. Meanwhile, I'll have a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff for you to check out, for those of you undie/indies out there who enjoy seeing how movies are made by people who don't know what the heck they're doing most of the time.

Larry, myself, and several others involved in this movie are also members of the local underground alternative Fine Arts community here in Phoenix as well. Much of our handiwork is tossed into the movie in the form of set decorations, props, and costume pieces. The cat paintings behind the Bartender are mine, along with the large ornamental book... the Joe Arpaio portrait behind the Sheriff is by "American Alien" Director, Jeff Cochran....and Larry's own papier mache' sculpture permeates the entire movie from whole sets down to costume pieces and hand props like the tooth knife and the Jar.

This started out as an experimental project built around stuff Larry and I already had. His monsters were cannibalized from other projects, the gold book (our "Necronomicon" of sorts) I had built for someone else's failed project, The actor who plays my main goon and I both have long black trenchcoats so we became the bad guys. Plus, we all brought in our respective gifts and skills to create more new stuff for the movie. Since I have 3 cameras, we were able to shoot multi-cam, which really saved my ass in the editing process! Larry and I call our houses "Movie ranches" because we frequently shoot at both locations as well as host shoots for other local budgetless filmmakers. We have frequently put "Necroluna" on hold just to help out someone else whose project was moving forward, because we believe in supporting local culture, and because we wanna see THEIR films as well! Sometimes...we even get paid!

You can see more of Larry's fine sulpture for your home at http://loprestigargoyles.tripod.com  less

What happens when Brandon goes to Wendy’s house and finds her smoking pot?

All I Have

xtc quick idea - very english<a href=http://photo.livevideo.com/photo/rh_18FF1EA272CB4EAB9DF9A8F7D75CED80.aspx><img border=0 src=http://cdnl3.livevideo.com/image/15/564815/790952_po.jpg></a>

Highlights from a year of video sharing. Music is "Video" by Jeff Lynne and Giorgio Moroder from the Electric Dreams soundtrack.

Now the wall has been completely coated with Professsional-Grade ROSCO Chroma Key Green VideoPaint (Also avaialble in Chroma Key Blue). We paid around $72.00 US for a gallon of this stuff, but ONE COAT   more...gets the job done, where I previously used THREE coats of Behr Premium house paint. If time is money on your set, then the Rosco paints definitely save you money. It's a cost versus value argument. Big thanks to my best bud Larry Lo Presti for coming over on his days off and helping me get this project more and more completed.  less

Baron suits up in complete greensuit attire to try to disappear from a real environment. Like everything else prior to this video, this is a quickie test shot just to see how well the greensuit works   more...under less than optimal conditions, in this case, direct sunlight creating very dark shadows on both the suit and the ground. Still, the results are good enough to persue shooting under more carefully controlled conditions in the future.  less

On my front driveway I time-lapse myself painting a carpet green for what will be the floor of the backyard greenscreen stage. The carpet has been primed with two different primers on its underside,   more...which is the surface that will be used for the floor. Of course, I couldn't resist having a little fun in post-production...heh-heh!  less

My friend Larry prepares for his very first foray into Chroma Key videomaking with the "Spirit Of Passion" creature who will narrate (with MY voice, incidentally) the upcoming erotic creature-feature,   more...<i>Dr. Trimrose's Cannibalistic Sex-Crazed Blood Island of the Tiki-Bot!</i>  less

I put some match-move dots on the greenscreen. ALso we see how Larry's "Spirit Of Passion" puppet works!

Female action heroes are the best.

<b>(The Link to Pt.2 is below in the description)</b>This is a hard look at the fascist agenda and how its being enacted on us. They go into how our government has dismantled the constitution   more...right before our eyes the same way Hitler did.
<a href="http://www.livevideo.com/video/genefire/A41E6012739140F8B56BCD2A560E1D4E/illuminazi-911-pt-2.aspx"><strong>Click me for PT.2</strong></a>  less

Making-of documentary of Larry Lo Presti's "The Flea People." 1999 was the year Larry first brought me onto one of his movie projects. Larry knew me from the Gallery and Theatrical scene and   more...knew I was a filmmaker and a performer, and Robert and April Anderson (the then-future stars of "American Alien") had worked previously with Jeff Cochran on "Punk James." I brought in Jeff Cochran, along with my wife, to help shoot this documentary footage of one of the first nights of production on "The Flea People." Officially, in the movie, I was to play April's redneck father, hence the full beard. But tonight, I was "the guy in the suit". I always wanted to play a monster in a movie and I relished the experience of working the creature costume.

As you can see, at this point, Larry is shooting on 16mm film. But after seeing this edited documentary footage, he became a convert to video, and planned to start production all over again on Hi-8. However, we lost our lead stars when Robert and April moved to Taos, New Mexico along with Jeff Cochran. The wind sorta got knocked out of the project's sails. In 2000, Larry and I would reunite on a new project, "Night of the Necroluna" and I would also be reunited with Jeff, Robert and April (This time as my girlfriend) in "American Alien", a talking-head mockumentary about the disappearance of a UFO fanatic (me).

Some notes about the Flea-monster costume: Laryy built the prototype mould full size iin his usual papier mache' fashion. THEN, with a coat of Viva paper towels and liquid latex painted over the creature, the sculpture became a POSITIVE mould to shape the costume. Oncetthe latex skin has cured, Larry carefully cuts away the skin from the mould, then carefully reassembles it with more liquid latex.

The Mine entrance set is another large-scale corrugated/papier mache' construct, which you can see plainly in the shots behind the set where I as the monster am waiting to crash through and attack the unwitting humans.

On this night, we shot all the monster stuff first, so I could get out of the costume, then shot the simpler stuff with just the two human characters walking onto the scene afterward.

You'll see my poster art for the movie at the very end, but you can view a picture of it in my Photos section.  less

Larry asks Baron, "How do you make a green bush red?"

One of those random movie vlog things. Suspiria is actually from 1977. Forgive my mental lapse.

kickin Emily's butt with my pillow....or wait, maybe she kicked my butt..can't believe she pulled a WWF move on me....oh well, 10min of fun!