• After a short absence, the great Chris Graves returns with another gem of an interview, exclusively here at News Askew. This time, Chris queries Brad Graeber from Powerhouse Animation, who had a hand in that fantastic famous web short “Heroes”, which so brilliantly spoofed Clerks…And in turn did some interesting custom video game work for Kevin, as well as that wonderful “Lost Scene” from the Clerks X disc. Read on for more details on those mysterious View Askew arcade games than we’ve ever seen before — The games, last we saw, can still be seen (possibly even played) at Stash East and West:
  
  AN INTERVIEW WITH BRAD GRAEBER (FROM POWERHOUSE ANIMATION)

  
  BY CHRIS GRAVES

  
  CHRIS GRAVES: How and why was Powerhouse Animation formed and where did it’s relationship with View Askew begin?

  
  BRAD GRAEBER: Frank Gabriel , Bruce Tinnin and I all worked for a “dot com” in Austin , TX. The company was going to make an online children’s entertainment site, with games and short cartoons. They hired former feature film and television animators and formed a unit to make the cartoons. Like all the other “dot coms,” it started going belly up at the end of 2000. The three of us decided, instead of going back to what we were doing before, we would try our hand at starting a little service studio.

  
  We animated a cartoon that I wrote called Heroes. Things were a little slow at the office, so Frank, Bruce, and some of the other guys helped finish the animation. The cartoon was for a contest Wizard magazine was having, and Kevin was a judge. When we finished the short, Frank sent it to a friend. His friend sent it to a friend, who from what I understand sent it Joe Quesada at Marvel…who sent it to Kevin.

  
  It spread quickly. When I came into work the day after we finished the short, my inbox was full and we were several hundred MBs over our bandwidth quota. The company was still young and struggling, and I was scared. I think the fines were adding up to several hundred dollars at that point. I was in the process of ripping down our website, trying to figure out what happened, when I got an e-mail from Kevin. I didn’t believe it was him, I figured it was a friend pulling my leg. But I ended up talking to Kevin on the phone later that day.

  
  I only got 2nd in the contest, but since the point of the cartoon was to get Kevin’s attention; it was pretty successful. I talked to him before I had even submitted the piece to Wizard, if I remember correctly.

  
  CG: What is your background in the world of animation?

  
  BG: When I was in the 3rd grade, I was assigned the standard “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I wrote that I wanted to be an animator. I figured once I said it, I had to stick with it; or look like a quitter. I went to graduate school at Texas A&M, in the Visualization Sciences program, which is just fancy for computer graphics programming and 3d animation. While I was stumbling through the program, trying to figure out how do get to do traditional animation, and have it count for credit…I came across FutureSplash (which would become Flash) and have been working with it ever since.

  
  At Powerhouse, we have a wide variety of backgrounds. Bruce worked at Fox Animation on films like Anastasia and Titan AE. Frank has worked as an animator on tons of projects from characters like Bugs Bunny to a variety of commercial, film, and TV properties.

  
  CG: Can you explain the genesis of the Heroes short film with Captain America cast as Dante Hicks and DareDevil cast as Randal Graves?

  
  BG: I was trying to come up with ideas for the Wizard contest. A friend, Brandon Bollom, suggested doing Clerks with comic characters; which made a lot of sense, since it was a Wizard contest and Kevin was a judge. I think I wrote a whole bunch of scenarios and gags with various characters, and then put it together in a script. The characters were who they were, just for the sake of gags. For instance, I used Daredevil so I could reference the Ben Affleck movie that was filming at the time. I was and am a huge fan of the Clerks Animated Series, so I guess that was where most of it came from. We animated it in a very short amount of time and did all the voices. I voiced Captain America , and Frank was Hitler, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, and a few others. It is kind of hard for me to watch now; things are much easier to create in Flash these days. But I got to put “Run’s House” in a cartoon, so that is cool…

  
  CG: Does Powerhouse prefer working in traditional 2-D animation or the more state of the art 3-D computer stuff? Which do you prefer?

  
  BG: We do traditional animation, using Flash most of the time. We also create and program Flash based games and interactive pieces. We don’t really do 3d animation. We have found a nice little niche, holding onto the concepts and principles of traditional animation and applying that to Flash based work. We still use traditional methods to do the animation, but these days we may be animating straight into the computer using a Wacom Cintiq. To be honest, I consider what we do to be as state of the art as 3-d computer stuff…just in a different way.

  
  CG: Were there any special instructions you got from Kevin in terms of The Lost Scene short film that was included on the Clerks X special tenth anniversary DVD?

  
  BG: If I remember correctly, we used the comic version of the story that Phil Hester and Ande Parks illustrated as a jumping off point, and created storyboards based on that. We sent the boards to Kevin and he gave us notes. He did have several additional suggestions like having Julie Dwyer float “ass-first” to the surface of the pool in the flashback. Kevin is very specific in his direction, and has a good eye for cartoons.

  
  We only had about a month, a limited budget, and a small crew to create the8 minute piece. Because of this, we wanted to send things to Kevin regularly, so that we could get notes on the fly, and keep the production humming. We had a really good time working on the piece. If you look, you can see all of us in the backgrounds.

  
  CG: What are some of the other projects Powerhouse has been involved with aside from View Askew?

  
  BG: Before traditional feature animation production ceased to exist, we did some service work on projects like Adam Sandler’s 8 Crazy Nights. We also worked on shows like Disney’s The Proud Family, when some overseas studios did sub-par work (which happens all the time). These days we create Flash pieces for ad agencies, television commercials, viral marketing pieces for PR firms, interactive content for educational companies and a lot more. For instance, we have done pieces for Microsoft, Ruffles, Mountain Dew and a country music video called Mr. Mom. We also do character designs, and work on pilots from time to time.

  
  CG: Is it true that Powerhouse created some View Askew video games for Kevin? And if so, what were the titles and what were the plots of the games?

  
  BG: The arcade games were the first thing we did with View Askew. One of the programmers who worked for us at the time and I had converted an old Galaga cabinet into a Flash powered game kiosk that played old games and new Flash games. We did a cartoon about it, and sent it to Kevin. He hired us to make two of the cabinets, one for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as a wrap present for Jersey Girl and another one that was for the Secret Stash. The Stash arcade machine had two custom games: one based on Dogma and the other based on the Clerks Animated series. In both you could play as Jay or Silent Bob, if I remember correctly. The games were both side-scrollers, similar to games like Double Dragon. You fought your way through thugs to get to a boss. In the Dogma game the bosses were the Golgothan and Azrael. In the Clerks game it was Mr. Plug and Leonardo Leonardo. The “Benlo” box had 1 custom game. You played as Jennifer Lopez, and fought ninjas to save Ben Affleck who had been mysteriously kidnapped. The mastermind behind the plot turned out to be Kevin. The main selling point of the games were the cinematics, (short animated bits you watched after you completed a level). We sent some rough outlines to Kevin, who wrote them out and added dialogue. In the “Jen Saves Ben” game you fought a big ninja, Matt Damon (who was like his character in a Bourne Identity. For some reason one of our employees, Steve Parker, was convinced was a robot so we animated him as one), and finally you fought Kevin to save Ben.

  
  We drove both of the Arcade machines to New York from Austin , in a U-Haul hooked up to my Jeep Cherokee. It was a crazy road trip, because we were literally still coding the games on the way up, and had very little sleep for several days before hand. We drove into Manhattan on the last night of Jersey Girl shooting and presented the game when they wrapped a kissing scene that took forever to shoot because of the paparazzi.

  
  CG: Besides the Clerks: Sell Out animated movie test footage, did the company do anymore work on this long talked about direct to DVD cartoon flick?

  
  BG: Not really. We have talked about it in some form or another since we delivered the arcade machines in 2002. The initial idea was that it was going to be a theatrical piece. The main reason we did the test was to prove that a 35mm film could be done using traditional animation techniques and Flash, because nobody had ever really tried it at the time, as far as we knew. We had already completed an animation of the Flying Car piece Kevin had written, but it was decided that we needed a bit with action in it as well for the test. Jason Mewes was not available for dialogue, and we were in a time crunch, so I suggested just ripping audio from Empire Strikes back. We made a 35mm print of the test and showed it at a theater on the lot in LA that View Askew was using at the time.

  
  CG: What is Powerhouse Animation currently working on?

  
  BG: We just finished a bunch of cinematics for the new Penny Arcade video game. We are also working on a few commercials and educational projects. As strange as it sounds, we are also working on some political animation for elections in Australia …. Some of us also have personal projects. From time to time, I work on a web-series called Captain Capitalism, Frank has a character called Webb Jackson, and Bruce does fine art painting.

  
  CG: And finally, is the company working on the mysterious new untitled View Askew direct to DVD animated movie?

  
  BG: I hope so. We owe Kevin and View Askew a lot. Things were tough for new small companies after 9/11. Especially a company that specialized in producing a product, that at the time, folks were saying was killed by 3d animation. Kevin’s projects kept our name out there, and helped keep us afloat a couple of times. Kevin is probably the nicest person I have met in the entertainment industry. He is as genuine as they come. We would love to work with him again.

  
  Another one for the books! Thanks to Chris and Brad for their time. Best wishes to Brad and Powerhouse for continued success! Their work continues to amuse and amaze.

• Retro alert! You can now view the full video (and audio, of course) for the original Clerks review from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert via their site archive. Watch for the Ebert praise which caused so many folks to seek the original out back in 1994. It’s a great watch, you can see that Ebert immediately connected with Kevin and the world of View Askew — The late Siskel also heaps similar praise. It’s great to see this online after all these years — A welcome addition to the multimedia archive.
• Thanks to YouTube, you can now peep out Kevin’s brief appearance on the DVD extras of “Hot Fuzz”. The segment featured is a brief moment from the Q&A session held after an early screening of the film. Seek out Fuzz on DVD now, another inspired entry from this brilliant team. Can’t wait to see what they do next (and secretly hope Kevin might be invited on board for a cameo in it somehow).
• /film takes another route in confirming that Jason Bateman is not attached to play any roles in “Zack and Miri Make A Porno”, despite rumors that were running rampant otherwise. A couple weeks back, we checked with Kevin and
  confirmed that the rumor was just that, and now, the /film guys have briefly spoken with Bateman as well. So, the entire cast of the film, even the desired cast, remain a total mystery. Speculating’s always fun, though — We’ll keep you informed of any whispers going ’round.
• FREE EARL! The new season of quite possibly the best sitcom on TV right now, “My Name Is Earl”, starts back on NBC soon. Fans of the show recall our hero was left in the slammer at the end of last season — Now, word has it that he’ll remain there for the start of the new one, and NBC’s got a great campgain running to promote it. You can watch the complete “Free Earl” music video (done “We Are The World” style) as well as a web-exclusive “behind-the-scenes” both courtesty of NBC.com. Earl returns to NBC with a 1 hour season premiere on September 27th.
• Over at his blog, promoting his new film “The Nines”, director John August releases a theatrical podcast commentary which they’re promoting for the film. He does, however, mention that Clerks II did it first (though this likely will be the first time it’s out coinciding with a theatrical release, as the Clerks II track did get pulled and saved for the eventual DVD due to fear of it interfering with audiences). Here’s the entry:
  “But in the age of iPods, there’s really no reason why audio commentary has to be relegated to DVD. That’s why Ryan Reynolds and I recorded one last week for The Nines which is now yours to download. (47MB, right-click to save to disk)

  
  This isn’t an original idea, by the way. Kevin Smith recorded an in-theater commentary for Clerks II, though I can’t find confirmation he released it into the wild. (Someone in the comments section will know.)”

• And finally today, on a light note, with a name like Kevin Smith, you know there’s gonna be others — This “Kevin Smith Show” features a gentleman of that namesake doing a podcast on the paranormal. Enjoy, perhaps between SModcasts? See ya next time!

• Just a quick word here, for those who can read this – Since last night, we’re again experiencing some major errors on our web server that are having a negative effect on the performance of the News Askew web server. We’re waiting word back from the server gods (i.e. Ming) on a fix — So hang tight. The server also handles all the scoops mail traffic, so stuff you’ve sent may need to be resent from the past day or so once we get back to a more manageable speed. We’re continuing to look into other solutions for this strange problem, which seems to only be affecting our site despite others that run on the box. Our database is massive due to the ten years of content, so we’re thinking that could be part of it. Anyway, we do apologize for the slowness and wanted to let you know that we’re aware and doing the best we can to get things resolved. Thanks in advance for your patience. A full news update is on the way once things get back to normal, as well. See you with an update soon.

• Kevin posted a couple of new blog entries over the last day covering a variety of topics including Red State, Zack and Miri, and the upcoming release of Kevin’s new book “My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith”. Check out some choice bits here and as always, check out the blogs (Silent Bob Speaks or MySpace) for the full posts…
  
  It’s another barely-leave-the-house kinda day, as I spend the morning checking email, IMing and blogging. My brother calls to talk about “Red State” (I forwarded him a copy as well), and we wind up chatting and bullshitting for three hours. He’s a good guy, my brother.

  
  After that, I spend a majority of the day working on the “Heroes” script in my bedroom office while Harley has another play-date and Jen runs errands.

  
  …

  
  Wake up to the following email, from Brian Lynch, who I’d sent the “Red State” script the night before.

  
  

  
  That was bold. And a great read. Seeing the movie would be a completely different matter, as I think I would watch most of it through my fingers. It would scare the living shit out of me. What a tense, shocking and insanely downbeat time at the movies that would be.
  

  
  

  
  And remember, it’s only about 2 weeks until the release of “My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith”. Reserve your signed copy from the Stash now!

• Kevin’s taking advantage of his expansive DVD collection this week as the latest blog entry goes over some of the classics that he and Jen are taking in, along with online poker woes, and yeah, more about “Red State”, the flick that’s got a lot of attention over the past few days. Take a look at a coupls passages here:
  The GPS device was a gift from Mewes last Christmas, which sat in my office for eight months before I finally mustered the courage to investigate it further. Having become a big fan of the Nev-R-Lost GPS system in most Hertz rental cars, I figured it was finally time to plug in the Mewes-gifted version to see if I could program it. As it turns out, all the programming I had to do was turn the unit on. Now, I live and die by this machine, which allows the user to choose from different accents and genders for the vocal prompts (I chose the British woman’s voice). Even when I know exactly where I’m going and how to get there, I still employ the unit – if for no other reason than to hear it say “Recalculating” when I deviate from the suggested path. Indeed, I’ve stopped listening to the satellite radio or the iPod in the car, as I find the polite-but-firm GPS commands so soothing.

  
  …

  
  Based on Scott’s notes, I take the script from 96 pages to 89 pages. It’s easily the shortest feature script I’ve ever written, since there’s not nearly as much dialogue in “Red State” as in my other flicks, and it’s the dialogue that usually gets my page count up around the 120 average. But that 89 pages is somewhat deceptive, as there are long stretches of descriptive text that will skew the page-a-minute ratio. In other words, the flick won’t be 89 minutes; it’ll probably be closer to two hours.

  Gotta love it, as the GPS thing is totally relatable. It’s details like those that continue to make this blog such a gem. Just as well as the big news comes along, those little anecdotes about the day to day will never get old. Surf over to Silent Bob Speaks or the Myspace Real Kevin Smith page for the latest (and all) blog entries from the beginning.

• With a completed script, the hype’s building for “Red State”, with some fans now salivating for this one even moreso than “Zack and Miri”, quite the flip from comments we’ve been hearing as well as our recent poll here at News Askew. Seems that the promise of new territory and a very risky subject and plot have us all looking for more info. /film took the time to gather up ALL the post-scripting questions from the boards, answered by Kevin himself, and shares it up today at their site . If some of it sounds familar, we’ve ran a few tidbits before, though this presents a nice compliation and a few other posts that you may not have seen just yet. We’ve got a few highlights dead ahead:
  “I have a hard time classifying it as a “horror flick” because, while it shares some of the genre conventions, it’s just not what most would consider a horror flick. Horrific, yes, but not a horror flick in terms of the general definition. Let’s put it this way: if “Rosemary’s Baby” can be classified as a horror flick, then “Red State” can be as well.”

  
  ““Requiem for a Dream” is a pretty bleak (but insanely well-made) flick. This is more bleak than that.”

  No View Askew regulars are in mind for any parts in the film at this time. Kudos to the folks at /film for putting this together. We’ll of course keep up with the latest news on the film right here at News Askew.

• GREAT news about the DVD release of “Live Free or Die Hard” comes to us via Movieweb today. While it seems that the previously mentioned Blu-Ray version will only include the theaterical version of the film, there WILL be a fully UNRATED cut of the flick as part of the two-disc special edition on standard DVD. Hooray! Not only that, but disc two of said edition will indeed house the complete conversation held on the Fox lot between Bruce and Kevin. The running time’s listed at 23 minutes, so it’s a bit shorter than was filmed, we believe, but still, better than nothing!

• Scott Mosier returns triumphantly to SModcast this week, bringing the original duo back behind the mic. Of interest this week, a contest! Yeah, WIN SOMETHING! Not only that, but another contest that will accompany a LIVE edition of the program. Coool. Take a look at the very brief loglines for this week’s ‘sode:
  

  
  SModcast 27: Scott-Land

  
  In which, after too long an absence, Mos finally returns… and has his heterosexuality repeatedly called into question. Also: a contest!

  
  As always, SModcast is totally free and exclusively available for download through Quick Stop Entertainment.

• As promised, Kevin’s blog updates on his day-to-day continue at the usual spots online. We won’t be doing a daily alert to each posting (we urge you to visit the official sites for that), but we will be clipping any tidbits relating directly to the news aspect of upcoming projects, or other items of interest. Sort of a blog Cliff’s Notes, if you will. Thursday’s blog featured the most extensive report of the week, where Kevin relates the Battlestar Galactica saga (and shares some jealousy-inducing photos). We also hear a bit more about “Red State”. Here’s some Galactica tidbits for ya:
  A few months back I got a call from Endeavor (where I’m repped) saying the folks at “Galactica” were asking if I’d wanted to direct an episode. I asked for some time to think about it, because while I love that show, I honestly felt there was nothing I could bring to it. When I directed the “Reaper” pilot, we were creating the world/tone/look from the ground-up. “Galactica” has been on the air for a few years now, has a genius staff of writers who’ve created a brilliant mythology and many hours of compelling television, and sports a distinctive look that’s never deviated from. In truth, I’m more a writer than a director, but I wouldn’t be writing my “Galactica” episode (nor would I want to; I’m not a good enough writer to tackle a “Galactica” script, to be honest); and in terms of directing… well, when a show’s been up and running as long as “Galactica”, and the look is established and distinctive, it’s not like a visiting director jumps aboard and says “I’m gonna change everything for my episode…” – particularly for a show that’s gonna be in it’s final season.

  
  I mean, does anyone remember when Quentin directed an episode of “E.R.”? When all was said and done, even with a genius like Quentin at the helm, that episode looked like every other episode of “E.R.”. The same can be said of his recent stint directing “C.S.I.” (Quentin, apparently, only directs shows with initials as titles). And that’s not me criticizing Quentin – not in the least; that’s me saying that, when a successful television show is up-and-running (not in the pilot stage), nobody is allowed to come in and alter the status quo.

  
  Kevin goes on to explain what happened from that point, including a reprinted e-mail from David Eick (one of the geniuses behind the show). In short, due to the uncertainly and their thinking Kevin would be a tough get due to the “Heroes” gig, the position for the episode was filled while Kevin was contemplating the gig. There’s so much more, and it’s a much better read, so be sure and check out the full entry.

And a taste of the “Red State” stuff:

…I check email, where I find a few more thoughts from Dan Etheridge on “Red State”…


I have to say, I haven’t really been able stop thinking about the script since yesterday. That’s surely one sign. Malcolm and I were IM’ing this morning, debating points about it.


He made one good point, in that he’s read the other movie you’re shooting (apparently a tonal opposite of RED STATE). He said making that movie first might make the subversive nature of RED STATE more possible. True, I think.


Anyway, you sure did write a helluva provocative script.

The script for “Red State” will be officially submitted this week. Everyone who’s read it so far has had a very strong reaction, and that’s a great sign. This one sounds bleak and so different than anything View Askew has done before — It’s going to be tough resisting reading this or spoilers before we see the film, as we’re already intrigued beyond belief.

For the latest, complete, unabridged posts from Kevin Smith, subscribe yourself to his Myspace blog or visit the “My Boring-Ass Life” blogsite.

• Coming Soon checks in with the DVD specs of the upcoming Blu-Ray release of “Live Free or Die Hard” (November 20th in North America, an earlier October 28th internationally). The big extra we’re all waiting for is the extended chat that Kevin held with Bruce Willis on the FOX lot, though no specific word on its inclusion here. Of interest, though is an exclusive video game that will only be available on the Blu-ray disc, which features (we believe, at least) Kevin as The Warlock:
  …actor and director commentaries and the exclusive high definition BD-Java multi-level strategy game “Black Hat Intercept!”

  
  “Black Hat Intercept!” begins with a warning from ‘The Warlock’ (cult-classic writer, producer and director Kevin Smith) that a computer virus has been placed inside an unwitting Internet company’s mainframe by the infamous cyber-terrorist, Thomas Gabriel. As the team leader from inside the surveillance van, players must guide an agent into the building, outwit the building’s security systems and personnel without being detected and then wipe the hard drive clean before the virus destroys the U.S.

  
  Additionally, the BD debut of the “Die Hard Trilogy” comes locked and loaded with numerous bonus features including deleted scenes, featurettes, actor and director commentaries, visual effect breakdowns, alternate endings, side-by-side comparisons and much, much more.

  
  We were hopeful for an edgier cut of the film as well, after the whole R vs. PG-13 debate, though it looks to not be the case here — We’ll see that stuff as extra scenes. No word on Kevin’s involvement with the DVD commentary due to his cameo role, though the guy never met a DVD track he didn’t like — We’re hopeful that the man’s involved as much as possible on this one. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

  
  And by the way — The disc will also support the new D-Box chair which, believe it or not, rumbles and moves in sync with the film. Basically, it turns your living room into a ride! Pretty nifty, though at over $10,000 for the system, not an accessory we’ll be able to afford anytime soon. Ah, technology.

• Some kind, albeiet brief, words about Clerks II’s DVD release in South Africa are here courtesty of the “Tonight” website.
• Aint It Cool runs a positive review of “Gone Baby Gone” including some praise for director Ben Affleck (minor spoilers in their review) :
  If this is an indication of his skills, I’d like to see more from Affleck. He has pace, shots, and construction down.

• And finally today, has the Flying Car become the Flying Saucer? We’ll take two. See ya next time!