Writing on Xmas Eve...

Just spell-checking something, and WORD suggested I replace "Dreadgeist" with "Deadbeat."

That's awesome.


Merry Xmas!

Halloween Cupcakes 2009!

From cupcakes_2009

Aw yeah…it's almost Halloween, and MF and I are getting ready for our annual CUPCAKE HUNT! Basically, we take Halloween day to drive around town, visiting a pumpkin-load of bakeries, buying cupcakes, and then bringing them home to taste and rate them using absolutely no criteria whatsoever. The only rule is that they be Halloween themed in some sort of way.

Then we pick a winner and go watch spooky movies to get through our sugar comas.

(I always wait till the following Halloween to post our results, mainly because I have no interest in talking about Halloween after the 31st, and posting the results a year later gets me excited all over again. )

So this was 2009:

Now for those who don't remember, Halloween was actually pretty warm last year, and since we spend about 4 hours driving around town, I was worried that our cupcakes would melt in the car. Our solution? Pack a cooler full of ice-packs.

From cupcakes_2009

Portable cupcake carrier is GO.

Our first stop was Sweet Lady Jane's on Melrose.

From cupcakes_2009

This place makes THE most incredible cupcake frosting I have ever tasted. It won our little competition the first year, and we usually go there first, because they tend to run out of Halloween cupcakes by early afternoon.

After that, we swung be Thee's in the Farmer's Market.

From cupcakes_2009

These guys won the year that we got to Sweet Lady Jane's late, and all they had left were carrot cupcakes. Thee's usually turns in a solid Halloween cupcake, and there's really something to be said for the little plastic witch sticking out of the top.

Then, we took Kimberly's advice and hit Joan's on Third for the first time ever.

From cupcakes_2009

This place was AWESOME, and we came away with a yummy looking Snickers cupcake with a little ghost on top.

From cupcakes_2009

After that, we headed to another new spot on Beverwil called Famous Cupcakes.

From cupcakes_2009

Steph mentioned this place, having never been to it, hoping that our professional analysis would let her know if it was good enough to visit. All I can say is, this was their packaging:

From cupcakes_2009

Evidently, a thumbs-up from the Kardashian Sisters.

What?

Okay. They also didn't have any Halloween cupcakes when we got there, but a nice girl behind the counter said they were getting more in an hour in case we wanted to come back. That was cool, so we headed to Santa Monica for two of our favorite standbys:

From cupcakes_2009

(Nosferatu T-shirt by Threadless!)

Vanilla Bake Shop always has a solid cupcake, and I can't sing them enough praises. The first year we stopped in, they didn't have any Halloween cupcakes, so they couldn't be in the competition. They almost won last year with their "Black and White" cupcake, and this year, they happened to have a little ghostie sitting on top of their Bittersweet Chocolate cupcake, (which is one of my favorites.)

From cupcakes_2009

One block down the street is their arch-rival, Yummy Cupcakes!

From cupcakes_2009

(Okay, I may have just said that to increase the drama, but it's fun to think of them as rivals.) Yummy was overly impressive this year with FIVE Halloween cupcakes. And these weren't their normal flavors with a little pumpkin on top…these were special cupcakes DESIGNED for Halloween. Now that's the kinda spirit we're looking' for! My pick was called the Blackout Cake!

From cupcakes_2009

Mary Frances' choice was Peanut butter with a spooky cat.

From cupcakes_2009

After the Santa Monica leg, we went back to Kardashian Cupcakes, where they had two special selections waiting for us.

From cupcakes_2009

From cupcakes_2009

Thanks, girl behind the counter...that was awfully cool of you!

By that time, it was getting to be rush hour, so we skipped our usual ritual of seeing what the grocery store had to offer, and took our cooler full of cupcakes back to spooky town.

From cupcakes_2009

MF did the arranging.

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I dug in.

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I tasted and tested...

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They were all exceptionally good, with one surprise FAIL. From Thee's!

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From cupcakes_2009

I don't know what the deal was, but the normal baker must have had a stroke that morning because this frosting was made by an Ugnaught. It had NO taste! It was like eating whipped orange lard! FAIL.

Apart from that, the choice was difficult, but it came down to two...Yummy and 2 time winner, Sweet Lady Jane.

From cupcakes_2009

Yummy's Blackout Cake had a layer of chocolate fudge frosting, topped by a layer of cocoa powder, and finished off with a chocolate drizzle and zombie hand. It was amazing.

From cupcakes_2009

Sweet Lady Jane always has good moist cake, and like I said, their frosting is something RIDICULOUS. Plus, it had a bat, which speaks to the Vampire in me.

Ultimately, I had to give it to Yummy.

From cupcakes_2009

The cupcake was outrageous, and the fact that they had designed several cupcakes SPECIFICALLY for Halloween was exactly the extra bit of love that this contest celebrates.

From cupcakes_2009

Who will take the cake this year? Will Yummy turn in new Halloween designs? Will Sweet Lady Jane just beat the trick or treat out everyone else with their incredible frosting? Or will one of the other bakeries surprise us? We have a few new places to try this time around, so really...anything can happen!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

From cupcakes_2009

So, this was MY weekend...

Helped my friend Aaron out with a shoot. Went a little something like this...





Ya can't say no to that.

COMIC-CON Film School 2010 is a WRAP!

The dionysian marathon that is Comic-Con is over, and I have finally slept.

This was year seven of the Film School, and I dare say this was our best year yet. The audience was fabulous, everybody had great questions, and my panelists were superb.

I also find it funny that even though we all live in LA, Comic-Con is the only time I see most of these people. What's awesome, is that there's now a group of folks who come by every year to hang out at the Film School, and I find myself looking forward to seeing them each time. I feel bad, because the class is pretty much the same every year, but they still come by every morning. Out of all the things I wind up doing at the convention, this is, I think, the best part. Walking into that screening room each morning and seeing my friends, (both attendees and panelists,) makes me wanna do this forever.


(I have no idea how Doug Jones wound up in the photo with us.)

Comic-Con also did a fabulous job programming this year. I went to several very cool panels, and got to hear some of my favorite creators talk about how they do what they do.

And as an added bonus, the premier of Lost Boys 3 took place at my hotel on Friday night! Now, obviously, that in and of itself is some Vampire badassness, but the coolest part is that my friend Kent Kubena PRODUCED the thing! The movie's a whole lotta fun, with some nice additions to the genre, including some very creative ways of killing Vampires. I walked out of that screening very happy, and when a WB guy grabbed me and said, "Do you wanna give your reactions on camera?' I was like..."Yeah, I've got somethin' to say about this movie."

And it looks like I made the final cut. (My part's near the end.)



I would have gone to see this movie even if Kent hadn't had anything to do with it, because, VAMPIRES, but it was fun to sneak into his EPK without him knowing. :)

1st PERSON SHOOTER

1st Person Shooter from Sean Rourke on Vimeo.

It's been a long time coming, but I have finally uploaded 1st PERSON SHOOTER to the web!

This, my friends, is a feature.

It's a full 90 minute film, which is why it's taken so long for me to post it. Until just recently, there was no video upload site that would take something that long. VIMEO to the rescue!

This little project started shooting in 2003, finished in 2004, and debuted at the Comic Con International Independent Film Festival to the kind of reception that will make me die happy.

What's the story? It's about a small video game company that is trying to produce their latest, and possibly last video game. Problems thwart them at every turn, from clueless producers, to primadonna artists, to crazy playtesters, to unauthorized cheat codes. Everything is riding on them hitting their delivery date, and it's all captured mockumentary style by Video Game news reporter: Traci Nessi. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that one of the two game designers has had a secret crush on her for years.

As I'm sure you'll see, we had a LOT of fun making this. It took a year's worth of shooting mostly weekends, in exotic locations like Comic Con, Santa Barbara, and my back yard. The main location was the Kodak building in Hollywood where several of us worked at a company called Cinesite. When I first handed the script to Bill, Cinesite had just announced that it was going out of business. We had roughly 4 weeks to prep a shoot for Memorial Day weekend, which would effectively be the last week that the company existed. As a result, we had the entire run of the place to do whatever we wanted...as long as we could get it done in three days.

An awful lot of great people worked really hard on this project, most of whom can be seen on our IMDB page here.

Have a watch, download it if you want, and let me know what ya think! Oh, and here's the trailer...just in case you wanna see what you're getting into. :)

1st Person Shooter Trailer from Sean Rourke on Vimeo.

COMIC CON!

Comic Con Film School is back for year SEVEN! (Wow.)

Me and the crew will be doing our four-day panel in order to teach the geek nation how to make their own movies! The schedule looks like this:

THURS: 10am - 11:30am - Pre-Production
FRI: 10am - 11:30am - Production
SAT: 10am - 11:30am - Working with Actors and a Crew
SUN: 10am - 11am - Post Production

So if you're gonna be at the Con, come on by and say hi!



Valerie Perez (Paula Peril Series,) Michael "Dorkman" Scott (Ryan vs. Dorkman,) and myself on stage at last year's panel.

VAMPIRE CON!

Vampire Con was last weekend!



What do you mean, "What the hell is Vampire Con?"



VAMPIRE CON

This was year 2 of the convention, which is basically a big gathering of people who love Vampires. There are Vampire products sold, costume contests, and best of all: Movie Screenings!

Imagine just how goofy the smile on my face was when I found out that they were showing Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of Nosferatu!



The only way I've ever seen this movie was on an old VHS copy, so I HAD to see it projected on a real screen. Film geek aside, the coolest thing about seeing it at this venue was sitting in a theater packed with Vampire fans. It was like watching it with a crowd of myself.



They were even selling Vampire chocolate and Vampire water at the concessions counter!

WIN.

Countess Lotti throws this event each year, and she really does a great job. It's so much fun hanging out with a breed of fan who are familiar with more than just Twilight. Don't get me wrong...I'll be at the theater this weekend to see Eclipse, but there's definitely a difference in the vibe.

And Vampire WATER!

Who knew?

The Book of Eli is on video!

I know a lot of people missed this one while it was in the theaters, so I wanted to recommend it as a rental...not just because I worked on it, but because it's a damn fun movie. When I came onto the project (which was toward the end,) the first thing I asked was to see the film. The opening seven minutes were great, I was excited by the end of the first twenty, and when it was all over, I was thrilled to be working on a GOOD movie.

So by all means, rent it, netflix it, iphone it. It's a lot of fun.



My Mom took this of me over Xmas when I was in Omaha. I was excited because it was the first poster I'd seen for the movie in an actual theater. No idea why I look so somber...maybe I was getting psyched up for being snowed into the house for the next 3 days. :)

At last, a KRAKEN explanation!

Yes.

Lost

Boo.

Eyjafjallajökull

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Absolutely amazing.

Kraken Proverb...

Was just forwarded this little bit of wisdom by my buddy, Deepstructure:

Ancient proverb: "If the only tool you have is a Kraken, every problem
looks like an excuse to release it."




So true.



Everybody go see Clash of the Titans. Deepstructure worked on it.

New Tron!

New Tron Reboot episode by my buddy Ben Hansford!

Kraken Xmas Presents!

My sister wins! Her gift to me this Xmas was a pair of t-shirts:




Now, obviously, I love t-shirts. I've spent more than a lot of money at Threadless.com, but these are particularly apropos for a show-nerd like myself! The Kraken t-shirt is taken from a French pen and wash circa 1801, which makes it extra cool in the pedigree department!



The Nosferatu shirt is obviously an image of Herr Maximilian from Murnau's seminal film. AND IT GLOWS IN THE DARK. (Who wants to touch me?)



I also got a bit of chuckle when I saw Max peeking out over the top of my sweatshirt.



(I feel like a Vampire Kangaroo.)

I didn't get my sister anything nearly this cool. :(