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 :)