May Day! May Day!

Happy May everyone!

I have no idea why none of the other Krej people aren't blogging. I like how we are midway through May and Steven hasn't announced the winner of April's D-Bag contest. He shall be flogged for this.

OK, so as always things are very busy for Team Krej. The past two weeks we have been doing table reads at the Relapse Theater for our new movie "Of Rats and Men". It has been going amazing, we have recruited a wider range of actors this time around. And they have been awesome.

One of the things that I noticed during the readings though was the story was a bit lost. It was funny, but I feared the audience would have a hard time figuring out who they were supposed to cheer for. I had myself flogged for not being a good writer. The good news though was that this had been figured out early on.

During pre-production on "Tim and Katie" I had a gut suspicion that the relationship between Tim and Jimmy needed to be worked out more. But I ignored this as I was to busy just trying to get the movie made. That was a big mistake. And after the first table read I got that same gut feeling, that something in the script wasn't right.

So now that I have learned from my mistakes I reworked the script. This afternoon I finished up what I hope will be close to the final draft. What was wrong was Steven and Grantz's characters were drowned out, so I gave them an opening scene and reworked how they interact with everyone else. With a bit of luck the audience will now know they are the central story.

In other "Of Rats" news we filled out the cast and locked in one of the locations. We were hurting to have access to an actual exterminator office. Good ol Jeff Grantz came through and found us one. Now we just need to find a house we can film in over a weekend and all locations are locked.

So far pre-production has been much better then it was on "Tim and Katie". At this point last year we had one location and lot's of question marks. All we need now this year is one more location and a director of photography (and camera). Both of which we have some options for. It is a very good feeling, and I am somewhat on guard. Normally things don't go this smoothly for us, so I am sure something bad is about to happen.

Outside of that not much has been going at Krej Productions. We have been hyper focused on "Of Rats", which doesn't leave time for much else. With production slated to begin at the end of June, it's time to dig in and get ready. Going to get onto the other guys for not posting more, stay tuned for more Krej Heads!

Your Hero,
Jeff K

Cutting it Close

Hola,

As I promised I would try and get around to posting more then once a month. And here I am at the last moment fulfilling my promise. Cutting it close? Maybe, but that's how we roll at Krej Productions!

So what's been going on at the scuttlebutt? As always a lot!

Starting casting for my new movie "Of Rats and Men". I have just a few roles left to fill. The big difference between this production and "Tim and Katie" is we are going outside our pool of friends to bring in actors. Thankfully Steven, Trent and Grantzy have been taking improv classes and have met new/talented people to help fill our ranks.

Another big change is the use of more locations. Which is proving to be the Achilles' heel. We are desperate for a house we can film in for a weekend, and a Pest Exterminator's office we can film in for about a day. The idea with all this new stuff is to up our production value. We want each film to be better then the last in some way.

In other production news Hannah Davis has begun story boarding the "Hero Sandwich" short. With a little bit of luck we will be able to show you more much sooner then later.

How about them Braves? Been hard to watch the 8 game loosing streak. But it's only April, and I have this deranged gut feeling that they are going to turn things around on May. Go Bravos!

For the three of you who keep up with the "Douchebag of the Month" competition, I have some news. Young Steven Tuechert is well on his way to clinching his first win. He easily has my vote. So if over the weekend he declares himself winner, he has my support.

As for the long lost "Director's Critiques" of "Tim and Katie" I will be honest with you. I haven't worked on it one bit. Not enough time on my end. Pre-Production for Rats has been taking up my time. And I feel that is infinitely more important. But if the stars align and I find some free time I will try and finish it up (when I last stopped I was about halfway done).

Last but not least, Jerry did a great job adding the "Talents" page to the website. Just needed to give him some props. Also if you want to help out with our summer productions let us know!

Peace out Krej Heads!
Your Hero,
Big Daddy K

P.S. You STILL need to listen to Titus Andronicus, that band has been getting me through a very craptastic week.

T&K Update 9000

Greetings and Salutations to you all! It's been a while since I've Scuttlebutt-ed, so I thought I would type up a little something something to keep you all abreast of what's been going on here at KREJ HQ.

For starters, things are in full-swing for pre-production for 'Of Rats And Men', our short-format version of Rat Bastards. We are gathering actors and actresses, and the script is almost finalized, and we have begun scouting for locations. We still need a couple more Actors and one Actress, so click up top under the Scuttlebutt title to go to our talent page, or just click here for details on the project, as well as more in depth information on what, or rather whom we are looking for.

In Tim & Katie news, we have made a new edit of the film, trimming some fat so to speak. The new run time clocks in at 50 minutes ( the original was 59 ), and in addition to a faster pace, there is more color correction and a better look and feel to the video, as well as better sound work. We'll be sending out this new version to film festivals as early as this/next week! So cross your fingers! Below are a couple pictures to show off the new look.

(It should also be noted, in payment for the quick turn-around on this baby, Steven bought me a chocolate cake. <3 )

One Love,
-Matt

Want news? Oh I can get ya some news!

Hellowski from the polski!

I trust the nice spring weather is treating all you very nicely. It's been a while since I have posted, but I assure you this has been because of a busy schedule and not laziness. So, where to start, where to start...

OK first things last, I've been doing A LOT of writing lately. Finished up a 1st draft of my summer project "Of Rats and Men". Going to refine it some more in the next few weeks. Also started pre-production on the project. Trying to round up actors and locations. Was able to get Trolle (Tim and Katie gore master) to sign on to help with some special effects stuff we will need for it.

If you happen to know anyone who works at an "Exterminator Company", please let me know. I really need to lock down that location before the end of spring. Also here is some concept art for Steven's character in the film.Pretty neat huh. We have Hannah Davis to thank for that! Everyone give her a round of applause. And while your at it give me one to, I figured out how to post a picture without Jerry having to tell me how to do it.

In more writing news last weekend I also tried an experiment. I wanted to try and see how much of a script I could write over the span of a weekend. The story has been in the back of my head for the past couple of years, and it seemed like a good time to flesh it out. I was able to get the story done and about 60 pages of dialogue. It was fun pushing my mind and body to the limit, there was very little sleep on my end. But it was worth it, I really like the story and can't wait to finish it.

In other Krej writing news, Jeff Grantz and myself have been working with another company developing a TV pilot. It's been an interesting process. We had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to start on the project. So legally I can't tell you anything story-wise about it.

What I can tell you is that it was originally to be a feature-length film. A few companies said they would rather do it as a TV show, So the company put out a call for writers. Thankfully someone Grantz and I had previously worked with, put our names in the hat.

So we have been trying to turn the full-length script into a short TV pilot. It's been pretty fun. The producers kind of gave us cart blanche to develop new characters and story arcs. We will be sure to keep you posted on what we can. The plan right now is spend the weekend trying to get a rough draft (last night we finished up a strong outline) done and in the hands of the producers.

In "Tim and Katie" news, Jerry is very close to finishing up a re-edit of the film. This new one should be faster-paced and cut some scenes down that may have dragged on a bit too long. He also did some really nice color correction on it that makes it look amazing.

Also I am going to try and finish up my critique on Tim and Katie in the next week. I am about halfway done with it. Unfortunately it has been somewhat of a low priority as my plate is very full at the moment. You will be able to read this critique in the newly-implemented Critique section of our website. There, KREJ Directors will self-critique their projects, and offer up all sorts of insight into the various stages of production. Rumor has it Steven is writing one up for Saving Suburbia, KREJ's first short film we worked on.

Whelp time to be hitting the ole dusty trail. I will be doing my best to post more this month, but no promises. Take it easy Krej Heads!
-Jeff K

P.S. If you haven't heard of the band "Titus Andronicus" go listen to them right now. They have an album named "An Airing of Grievances", like from the "Festivus" episode of Seinfeld. If that hasn't sold you on them, you might be in dire need of intense psychiatric help.

Hey there!

So a lot of little things going on in full and half swing, got a couple films in writing and heading for pre-production phases, as well as Hero Sandwich work chugging along.


Make sure you head on over to the KREJ video page to check out our newest item, the trailer for Tim & Katie as well as Saving Suburbia if you haven't yet seen it. which if you don't know what that is, or haven't yet seen the IMDB page, go here.



Headed to Savannah, GA for the weekend & next week, will be hanging with Hannah all next week, yay! So smell ya later!
-Matt

Here You Go... Hot Off The Presses...

Ok, so I was gonna wait a little while to unleash this news, because I knew the press would just have a field day when the big announcement breaks, but since Jerry already “leaked” it in his last blog post, I figured I’d go ahead and man up.

The rumors are true. Young Trenton and I are starting a Comedy Gangsta Rap group. We don’t have a name for our group yet, so we may like to hear suggestions, if you got any. We do however have our individual rap names: I am henceforth to be referred to as Baby-J and Trent will answer to T-Lean and/or Caveman.

We’ve been working on some material. We have 2 songs completely written, and several more concepts for songs. We’re doing all the music and beats ourselves, with a little help from Josh Thompson (who you might remember as Kevin from Tim and Katie), a fantastic musician in his own right. We’re planning on cutting a demo (I understand that’s Industry Talk for Recording a Demo) at KREJ headquarters in the next couple weeks. We suspect you might be able to download the EP straight from the KREJ website (Psst… Jerry start working on that technology!!).

Unlike a lot of White Comedy Rap artists, such as The Lonely Island, we’re not really going for the whole “white 80’s rapper/Vanilla Ice/Beastie Boys” sound. We’re slightly closer to the Rap/Hip-Hop stylings of such artists as Outkast, Eminem, Ludacris, Dr. Dre, Goodie Mob, and Busta Rhymes, all of which we’re huge fans of (Not to say we don’t enjoy the Lonely Island, we do a good bit, but Come on, we’re from the A).

T-Lean and I are really excited about this new undertaking. We have another band who we understand is looking forward to having us play some shows with them. We’re planning on getting the EP out of the way first, and then doing some local shows here and there. And, since we do tend to make films and whatnot occasionally, there may be some music videos heading your way soon. We don’t have any shows scheduled just yet, but stay tuned, because you’ll hear it here first.

Sincerely,

Your boy Baby-J

P.S. This in no way affects the work we are doing with KREJ Productions. We still plan on working on our scripts and films and all that, even when we blow up like Hiroshima. :D

And the winner is...

Yes, I know. I haven’t blogged in a minute. Been way too busy watching way too much LOST. So, I figured I’d take this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: to give an update on what’s going on with me, and to announce the January Winner of The Douchebag of the Month Award (albeit a few weeks late). Last things first…

The winner of the KREJ Douchebag of the Month for January is… our very own Trent Whitmire (naturally). You can come claim your prize of an old trucker hat I found, a bag of Skittles, and a good old fashion ass whoopin at KREJ headquarters.

Ok, so as for me, I’ve had some crazy stuff going on with me lately. I got a new car yesterday, and it’s about time. I forgot what it was like to have a car with working windows, seat adjusters, ac vents, and an overall lack of old rain towel stank. Now, I just need to get the stereo replaced with the one in my old car. Luckily, the dealership said they’d do that for me for free. I know Trent won’t mind taking another trip up there, seeing as he has a fondness for a certain ”Baby Girl” that works up there.

I just had some family in town, so I haven't been able to get too much writing done. I did however get to spend some quality time with my ten-year-old cousin, Nick, who you may recognize from the Cheese Bit in the Behind-The-Scenes Doc from Tim and Katie. He's almost a bigger fan of zombie movies than I am, and most definitely a better video gamer than I.

Lately, I’ve been working on getting the script for the Tim and Katie Redux up to snuff. I’m gonna do one more formatting pass, and then all it needs is a good dialogue pass. After that, it should be ready to shelve and move on to the next project. As for my next writing project, I’m not sure what it will be. I’ve got a few different ones in the works.

The voice recording for the very first Hero Sandwich short went very well and was a lot of fun. You can see evidence of all the fun had at the below link: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694285532&ref=ts#!/profile.php?v=app_2392950137&ref=ts&id=694285532

And lastly, Trent and I took a little Valentine’s Day trip to the park. We took an assload of pictures which we’ll be uploading soon. Stay tuned. It was cute. Warning: NSFA (Not Safe For Anywhere)

That’s all for now. I just bought Skate 2 for the XBOX 360 machine, so I’m gonna go play the shit out of that until the sun comes up... or at least until I finish downloading every episode of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant."

Word to the biggest bird,

-Grantzy

A Break to Blog

While I wait for some delicious chicken wings to arrive at my doorstep, I'll find a way to entertain you for a time.

When I was a kid, I drew on my walls, on desks, on tables and whatever was within reach. One would think I'd be a great graffiti artist but instead I decided (after a numerous few time-outs and no supply of drawing materials) drawing on paper kept me out of trouble and I could actually KEEP it rather than watching it get wiped from previous surfaces.

When I was a kid, I was not your average girl. No barbies for me, please, let me have a GI Joe or He-Man. Ghost Busters or Ninja Turtles. When I grow up, I want to to have a Transformer as a friend! No skirts, I hated dresses and frilly things, please don't perm my hair or scar me for life with make up kits. I liked bugs, I liked snakes, lizards, bees, mud, getting dirty. I liked bringing dead things home to show my dad, "Look what I found!"

As an adult (Hahaha, I'm old) who's gone through art college, marriage, I haven't changed much. Actually I'd say I haven't changed much at all. Admittedly I've grown a little fonder of "girly" clothes like skirts and flattering shirts, but all in all I would still rather be outside playing in my vegetable garden, watching birds, and drawing whatever comes to me.

As an illustrator I've worked a few times in the industry, note worthy of mention would be World of Warcraft (Blizzard) where I produced spot illustrations for their Lands of Mystery and Alliance Players Guide table top RPG's. I've also been lucky to provide over 170+ illustrations for Dreadmire of Spellbinder Games. I've done work for OrbisGames.com, where an amazingly enormous userbase can raise, train, breed, sell and event their virtual dogs, horses, and other animals. Older works were part of Elements of Magic from way back in the day.

My Ancient of Lore, still my favorite!



My personal work in progress is www.TalaNynn.com, an ever growing fantasy world which has been trickling through my mind since forever. On the side I take private commissions from pets and wildlife to fantasy from anyone who's interested, and since I work from home doing artwork is normally pretty straight forward and no nonsense, www.SummerDragoness.com contains those works.

From Tala'Nynn, Abigale and her family friend, Chris


Doing artwork is like breathing, so I am happy to be part of the KREJ group, participating in character designs, storyboarding, and all that jazz. Oh, and being a crazy Gypsy Woman, that's fun!

As for my interest in wildlife/pets/things that go bump in the night- I own 3 widow spiders. Two brown widows and one very large black widow. Yes they have names, yes they are quirky, and no I don't give them belly rubs. We have a "zoo" room, specifically for the two large fish tanks, the 6 year old bearded dragon BobaFace, and our hissing cockroaches. For anyone who scoffs or eeks over these monstrous bugs, let me say that they have the silliest most charming personalities.

We also own 4 cats, 1 potato dog, and one day I swear I will get my hands on some laying hens.

So, my next stop is chicken wings which have dutifully arrived on time and look mighty tasty. But I look forward to working on Hero Sandwich and future KREJ Production material- Considering I've known these nuts for ten years, there's nothing I wouldn't do for my extended family ;)

Oh Zombie Chef, this is only the beginning.

Greetings and salutations!

Yes, it's true, lately I have been under the weather. It looks like I got a wicked case of Streptococcal Pharyngitis. I thought I was getting better yesterday, but when I awoke this morning, I was in a lot of pain, my left ear hurt like the dickens, a painful ear infection, and I could no longer even swallow pills, due to my throat being in excruciating pain.

So I went up to Clairmont road to see the wonderful folks of the North Atlanta Urgent Care establishment. Within about 10 minutes of arriving I was already in visiting a nurse and getting my vitals taken. They diagnosed me, gave me a shot of some steroids and sent me on my way with 2 prescriptions; one being liquid Augmentin, antibiotics, and the other being liquid hydrocodone (which by the way, RULES), to numb the maddening pain in my throat. Liquid prescription medicine, of course, because I couldn't even swallow a tiny ibuprofen this morning. So I left there and went to the kroger near KREJ HQ and came home with my meds, dosed up and passed out.

About 13 hours and 2 doses later, I am already feeling better, my ear doesn't hurt, and I can actually eat food other than soup and yogurt!! But it will still be a few days longer before I am back to 'normal'. But tomorrow I am going to hopefully finish the Tim & Katie trailer, then begin scanning character designs for Hero Sandwich and sending them to our lovely friend Hannah; who, as you all should already know, played the Gypsy woman in the first Tim & Katie.

...

I just ordered a new, more-better usb microphone for recording audio/vocals and whatever else we decide to do, but for right now we'll begin recording audio tracks for the first pilot episode of Hero Sandwich sometime next week. After I thought I was set on ordering a Blue Snowball mic, I kept reading reviews, and listening to samples I found online, and decided on purchasing a Samson G Track USB Microphone:

It's pretty snazzy. I got a cradle mount too. Stoked to give it some test runs this weekend! will be uploading samples on this here blog.

 Late last week I was even testing out a script for use in Adobe After Effects, for setting up rigging and controllers to apply Inverse Kinematics into 2D animated characters. below is a quick little sample I made watching a tutorial in a couple hours. I put in the Flying V cause I had been listening to a ton of Jay Reatard (RIP <3).

I cant freakin wait to do some work on backgrounds for Hero Sandwich! Also, with the onset of production for HS, Hannah will begin blogging on here as well!! YAY!! There is also talk of fan art and concept art for Tim & Katie being released in the future. So our media section of the site is going to be expanding to suit the different categories.

...

In other, more annoying news, my slingbox has started to malfunction, so I did a bunch of online research and found out its a pretty common problem, like red rings for xboxes. Weak. So tonight I took mine apart to find that, yes indeed, my capacitors were pretty much fried and need to be replaced. Aforementioned capacitors:

:NERD RAGE: It really upsets me nowadays when companies are such jerks, that in order to save micro-pennies per unit, they use crappy components. This contraption cost like 100 bucks, and while it's a great unit when its working, the fact that something so simple and relatively easy to avoid is what leads to it's downfall, just pisses me off.

Also check out this free sample track Yeasayer are giving out -  Yeasayer - O.N.E  - from their forthcoming album, Odd Blood. Their debut album, All Hour Cymbals, was pretty excellent, and Odd Blood is starting to sound like it's only gonna get better with this wacky psychedelic / experimental Brooklyn trio. The initial single from Odd Blood, Ambling Alp was already a great release. Their music videos are just absolutely insane too. Check them out!



With nothing but love and 'tweenage angst,
-Matt

 ...
(PEE. ESS. - It should also be noted that our google adsense ads are finally related to our intentions! so feel free to click stuff!)

Hellowski!

Despite the lack of inter-web activity I assure there has been a lot going on for the Krej team.

First and foremost good ol Jerry is down for the count with some infection (I can neither pronounce nor spell it, so don't expect either from me). He just got a lot of meds, so I am sure he will be back up to snuff in no time.

Hero Sandwich!
Monday night Grantz, Steven and myself finished up a short script to test our animation prowess. And by "our" I mean Jerry and Hannah get to draw stuff while we have fun goofing doing voice overs. The plan is to record said audio next weekish. As for the final product, it will probably take months to animate. But then we will shop that around and send it to festivals, getting that puppy on adult swim would be sweet (but that is probably just a pipe dream)

Tim and Katie v2
Had a successful second reading and we patched up some minor plot holes. After a few more dialogue polishes we will probably shelve the script and start some new projects.

New Projects
Speaking of which, I am looking into shooting an actual film (on 8mm) over the summer. Got some ideas floating around in the ol noggin. Probably going to try and do a serious non-comedic project. Going to need a budget for that though, but I am not to proud to beg.

Well that appears to be all for now, I have been yelling at the other guys to post more. But until they do you have to put up with me and my inane babble.

Your Hero,
Jeff K

Writing what have you...

Just finished working out the 3rd draft of the new Tim and Katie script. Saturday afternoon we are doing a live reading of it. Based on how it goes will edit/trim/cut/add what we need to finish it. This new version is pretty awesome, our best writing yet (yes even better then the fabled Team Proof script).

For once we have a plethora of projects to be working on over the next coming months (for writing anyway). Looks like actual production is shut down until the weather warms up (which it is, but shouldn't be because it's still January).

Sad news, Tim and Katie didn't get into the South by Southwest film festival. We didn't really stand much of chance, it's one of the bigger festivals. But it still has my spirits slightly down.

Other then that not much more to report from Krej HQ, oh yea supposedly Jerry is going to splice together a demo reel for us with some old school footage from the IETV days (even though those skits have not aged well at all).

Vell zat is all for now...NEIN!!!

Rube-y Tuesday

Steven finally signed up to post on The Daily Scuttlebutt!! Yaaaay!

Speaking of rubes, head on over to the Media page! Where I've posted some exclusive KREJ pics from the past. Including a set never before seen from when we were filming Tim & Katie (A Nice Little Love Story, With Zombies) up in Lawrenceville (ew, outside of the Atlanta perimeter - scary stuff).

Today I've been working on the media page of course, among other things, like a proper about us page, perhaps with an embellished 'History of KREJ' feature. Last night I added yahoo's media-player functionality to our blog, so mp3's can be played within the page itself. This will perhaps be used in the future for the posting of rants/raves/podcast-type-shows from us. But for right now, let's try it out with a song.

Best Coast - When I'm With You

Tonight there will be another writer's meeting, followed by a KREJ general assembly meeting. On the agenda to be discussed - Tim & Katie : REDUX, future projects, the possibility of an animated short for Hero Sandwich, & moving outside our comfort zone; à propos film-making, i.e. making non-comedies. SERIOUS FACE.

In other news, the weather has gotten pretty nice up here in Atlanta. Which is both good and bad, good; because I was tired of cold weather and ready for spring, but bad because, well... it's 61 degrees outside and I'm wearing shorts in the middle of January.


Well, that's all for now - catch ya next time, Global Warming notwithstanding.

-Matt
(dictated but not read.)

Sunday Sunday Sunday!!

Spending most of today relaxing, watched some soccer earlier, and now watching nfl playoff goodness. Been thinking about what else to add to the site, and the idea of a KREJ origina story came about. Perhaps an animated featurette. Perhaps tales of fighting dragons and sketchy ex-bosses. Who knows. But big plans for this week, finishing up the Tim & Katie trailer, buffing up the about us/ media page on here, hoping IMDB finishes adding names to our production.

The Grub left KREJ HQ about an hour ago, and already, his presence is greatly missed. But we certainly had an interesting evening last night cooped up in the W hotel up in Buckhead. Supposedly Jeff K & The Grub were accosted by authorities due to their savage nature and standing out in a crowd in Buckhead. Upon our return we snuck in a quick viewing of Monty Python's Meaning of Life; always an excellent choice.

 So stay tuned this week for more KREJ updates, and more witty banter.

Smell ya later,

Matt

It's all fun and games

Until The Grub is puking in your bathroom...

ASSide from that last night was awesome. The live reading of Tim and Katie v2 went awesome. The Grub reading the roll of Katie was a magic moment. The romantic sequences between Grubster and Steven were beyond words.

Speaking of Steven, I want to point out this whole blog was his idea. And he has yet to sign up and/or post anything yet. Glad Steven is a team player

Oh yea finally got my directing credit on IMDB, go me!

The Daily Scuttlebutt!

Well, looks like this is what KREJ is going to roll with as far as a blog, you can view our full page at http://www.krej.tv, but it's still in progress.

I didn't get too much work done today on the trailer for Tim & Katie. And I found out IMDB wants 35 bucks to post one singular image on our movie's page as a poster. So eff all that. I did listen to a buttload of Jay Reatard while trying to get all this blog stuff sorted out. I'm pretty pleased with the current blogger template I've got right now, it took some editing, which was fun.

No clue what the plans are for this evening, but Friday The Grub will be arriving from Columbus, and we will be having a mid-sized table read for the newest version of the Tim & Katie Redux script.

Invites are out to Jeff K, Jeff G, Steven and Trent, so hopefully sometime soon those morons will check their emails, and start posting on here as well. I shan't hold my breathe though.

Gonna make a page with multiple twitter widgets some time late tonight / tomorrow, for easily viewing the twitter feeds of KREJ members, right now I think Jeff K and myself are the only ones on there very often, but perhaps with all this blogging and whatnot we can convince the other lads to tweet. But I'd settle for them posting on the blog if I have to choose.