New Improv Short Coming Soon

We shot a new improv short on Christmas Eve. Be on the look out for it after new years. Along with two new editions of Through the TurnStyle featuring Smoke Screen and Krill.



Until then,
-Jon

Gag Reel

Here are a bunch of outtakes from our last two shoots (Santa-Size Me & Wild Cat Chase). NSFW for language. Take a few minutes to laugh uncomfortably with us.





-Jon

Smoke Screen/Santa-Size Me Winner Announcement

Hello!

Doug Benson just tweeted that he has picked the winner and that we will find out on Friday (12/23), when he uploads the newest edition of Doug Loves Movies.



Last night we shot our second episode of Through the Turnstyle with Smoke Screen. I'm going to try and have it cut by the end of the year. If I can't make that date then it will be a great way to start out the new year. Until then, here is a preview of what you're going to see.



GagReel coming soon. Keep an eye out for it!

-Jon

Santa-Size Me Trailer Post 2

I'm sure posting this breaks some sort of rule about Twitter edicate, but damn it, I was too excited!

Thanks for the personal message Doug.

Fingers crossed,
-Jon

Santa-Size Me Trailer

Here is Turnstyle Films' entry in the Doug Benson Santa-Size Me Trailer contest. The prompt was: "While examining the influence of the Christmas Cookie industry, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely milk and 7,000,000,000 Christmas cookies for one magical night". I think we executed with flying colors. Fingers crossed. If we win we get to be guests on Doug Benson's podcast Doug Loves Movies.



CAST:
Morgan Spurlock: Billy Palmer
Doctor: Kevin Tasker
Mrs. Spurlock: Jamie Overstreet

CREW:
Jon Nix: Director/Editor
Ralph Miller: Assistant Director/Camera Operator
Yoshi Andrego: Director of Photography
Jamie Overstreet: Producer
Anthony Snitzer: Camera Operator
Kayla Muller: Camera Operator
Brad Burke: Camera Operator

Original Score by Jim Curtis & Billy Palmer

www.SantaSizeMe.com

-Jon Nix

Through the Turnstyle - Wilderness of Manitoba

Here it is! The first installment of Through the Turnstyle. An ongoing series of interviews and exclusive live performances by every band we can get. The Wilderness of Manitoba were nice enough to take the dive and be our first band. They were incredibly friendly and patient for how cold it was that night. Also thanks to Prosperity Social Club for letting us shoot in and around their classy pub.

Through the Turnstyle - The Wilderness of Manitoba


The Wilderness of Manitoba - O Come O Come Emmanuel (Song Only)


Be sure to check out their holiday tracks on itunes!

The Wilderness of Manitoba is:
Stefan Banjevic
Will Whitwham
Melissa Dalton
Scott Bouwmeester
Sean Lancaric
www.thewildernessofmanitoba.com

Director: Kayla Muller
Camera Operators: Kayla Muller, Anthony Snitzer, Yoshi Andrego & Ralph Miller
Audio Technicians: Anthony Snitzer & Ralph Miller
Boom Operator: Jamie Overstreet
Editor: Jon Nix

Thanks to everyone for watching.
-Jon Nix

NEW SHORT: Wild Cat Chase

The new improv short shot by Turnstyle Films. We got the itch to shoot a short a couple of weeks ago but when we showed up the only knew that the short was going to be about a guy looking for his lost cat. Everything came about organically and to me ended up pretty well rounded.

Might be NSFW due to language.

CAST:
Owner: Billy Palmer
Catsputin: Pteradactyl
Milk Guy: Jim Curtis
Girl: Kayla Muller

CREW:
Director: Jon Nix
Assistant Director: Ralph Miller
Producer: Jamie Overstreet
Director of Photography: Yoshi Andrego
Camera Operator: Kayla Muller
Editor: Jon Nix

Original Score by Jim Curtis

Thanksgiving Update

I'm thankful for all my friends, and great movies, and the great movies I'm going to make with my friends.

Below is a drawing I did of Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood. Feels like one of those days.



-Jon Nix

Things to come:

Sorry for the lack of posts. There's a lot in the works right now and we will have a couple videos out in the next few weeks. Until then, here's a preview:



-Jon Nix

KVML Blog Post

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library asked Jim Curtis an I to write a short blog for their site. They posted it this afternoon. Check it out!



I urge everyone to head to their site. Make a donation. Buy some swag. Just show some support in any way you can.

-Jon Nix

.....................................................................................................................................

As two extremely dedicated Kurt Vonnegut Fans Jon Nix[animator] and Jim Curtis [composer] decided that they wanted to use their personal talents/professions to create an audio visual experience in Kurt’s memory.

For the animation, the library gave me a blank canvas. I’ve always been a fan of minimalist animations but didn’t want to leave it feeling flat. So for a background used multiple paper textures and stains to give the piece and textured feel but left all of the graphics over top somewhat clean. Each screen is a pivotal event or aspect of his life that I thought best described his character. I wanted the animation as a whole to feel like a worn book found in the rubble at Dresden.

After seeing the animation I was ready to start working on the score. For me the animation set the tone and I needed to create a piece that would fit my own experience of Vonnegut’s work. Simply breaking his style down into two categories, serious and humor. I used these tones to split my piece on one guitar. I chose to make half of the guitar parts in a major key (Indicating the humor in his writing) and the other half in a minor key (serious). The introduction of the marching presents a rhythm that gives the piece an odd but fitting unbalance.

We are very proud to have collaborated to create such an impacting piece for Kurt. It’s a small contribution to his memory but we hope that everyone who views it will appreciate and understand his incredible impact on our lives.

Jon Nix & Jim Curtis

Smoke Screen Blogroll

Over the past week we've been getting picked up left and right by music blogs. Here's a list of them.

deathbydecapitation.blogspot.com


inaudiowetrust.com


theonemic.com


thecoventrykids.com


vintagemediagroup.com


hashtaghiphop.com


therhythmreport.blogspot.com


hiphopruckus.com


Thanks to all the blogs posting our video. It's getting us a lot of attention.

-Jon Nix

A/V Experiment 2

Hey everyone!

Real quick here is the new A/V Experiment that I did with Billy Palmer. It's quick. It's light. It's colorful.



-Jon Nix

Smoke Screen - Melodies of a Silhouette

This is coming a little late, but here is the new video we did Smoke Screen. A Coventry based hip-hop group. I'm very proud of this project. I think it's one of the best pieces TurnStyle has put out so far. And that makes all those hours of rotoscoping worth it. Also a big thank you to Smoke Screen for pushing the video so hard for us. As I'm writing this blog we are rapidly approaching 700 views on vimeo.



A second big thank you to the whole crew who worked on it and made the shoot go so smooth.

A third big thank you to all the blogs that have picked up the video gotten us more exposure. Among them:


Headnodz.fm


GetLiveMag.com


More stuff on it's way soon!
-Jon Nix

Thank You Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library

Just sharing a screenshot of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library's facebook page from when they posted my video. I just want to give them a big thanks for letting me work on the project and for their continued support. I'm starting work on a blog for their site explaining my interest/love of Kurt Vonnegut's work. So, be on the outlook for that in the coming week.



So it goes.
-Jon Nix

Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library

New video up for the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library!

It was a huge honor to work on a project in memory of Kurt Vonnegut. For those of you who don't know he is one of my favorite authors, to the point that he's the only author I have a tattoo for.


I'll let the work speak for itself.

As per usual, the awesome music was created by my friend/roommate/collaborator Jim Curtis.

-Jon Nix

Closer Than They Appear

Without any further adieu, here is TurnStyle Films' entry into this year's 48 Hour Film Competition.

We won three of the six award nominations we received.

Best Film Runner Up*
Best Cinematography*
Best Use of Prop*
Best Actor: Max Ryan Mayson
Best Actress: Kristina Michelle
Audience Award
*=won

I was co-writer, Assistant Director and Editor on the piece.

Hope you enjoy it!
-Jon Nix

Out of Reach now playing at TUFF

Our short film Out of Reach is now playing on the Toronto Urban Film Festival's website. Please, go over and vote to support us! Everyone can vote once per day until the 16th of September. We need everyone's help to win this!



Our film will also be playing on the last day of the festival as part of the instant gratification group. Our film will show once every ten minutes for the 1.3 million commuters of Toronto!

http://www.torontourbanfilmfestival.com/films/out-reach

Thank you for your time!

- Jon Nix

A/V Experiment 1

*WATCH IN FULLSCREEN*

Here is the first of the a/v experiments that I've been working on with Jim Curtis and Billy Palmer. My job was to prompt them with abstract images that they would score. I created the visuals in After Effects. The music for this one was done by Jim Curtis. There are more on the way.

-Jon Nix

Out of Reach accepted into the Toronto Urban Film Festival

It's official! Our 1-minute silent short Out of Reach has been accepted into TUFF. We are one of 63 films selected from 375 submissions. Congrats to everyone who helped on it! You should all be proud.

-Jon Nix

Jesse Jusek Design

You're looking at an illustration of me, done by none other than Jesse Jusek. I was the winner this week of his weekly portrait victim contest. Go to his Design Page, "Like" it, and vote for one of your friends so they can have one just like mine.

Jon Nix

PS: Tomorrow is the 48 Hour Film Project Screening. I will be posting a blog about that soon and will keep this feed up to date on when the digital premier will be posted.

The 48 Hour Film Project

The 48 Hour Film Project starts in just a few hours. I'm nervous and excited. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a serious genre. And above all, I hope we can come up with something that surpasses our short from last year. More Updates on the 48 will soon follow.

TurnStyle's 2010 Submission to the 48HFP:

Ted Hope's Post

The other day I was ecstatic to see one of our videos linked on Hope For Film. It's a blog run by none other than Ted Hope. If you don't read it already than you should get on it because he posts some amazing stuff. I just want to thank Ted from everyone here at TurnStyle Films and esspecially thank Anthony Snitzer for shooting it.

 Didn't think I'd have one of my videos on indieWIRE until much longer down the line.



Here is the video he posted:

Out of Reach with Original Score

Without further adieu here is the updated version on Out of Reach, now with with Score.


I'm totally blown away by the depth and subtlety of the music. Jim Curtis and Billy Palmer really knocked it out of the park. I'll have more projects I'm working with them on out soon. It'll only get better from here on out.

If you enjoy the video, please like it on Vimeo and share the piece with others.

Starring Joshua Rex

Jon Nix: Director
Jamie Overstreet: Writer
Ralph Miller: Assistant Director
Yoshi Andrego: Director of Photography
Kayla Muller: Production Assistant

Original Score by Jim Curtis and Billy Palmer

More to come,

Jon Nix

Out Of Reach

Here is our 1-minute silent short for TUFF (Toronto Urban Film Festival) 2011. TUFF is a public film festival that reaches 1.3 million daily commuters on the ONESTOP TTC subway platform screens. If selected our silent short will play along with dozens of others for millions of people in Toronto.

It stars our good friend, and local artist, Joshua Rex. He did a great job, despite his fear of heights. Which, to me, makes the piece even better. For the most part the shoot went of without a hitch. It only took about three hours to get everything. The only small hang up we had was some unexpected company you can read about over on Jamie Overstreet's Blog.

I will be uploading another version of the piece once it has been scored by Jim Curtis. I'll be excited to see what he comes up with, and even more excited to share it.

If you enjoy the video, please like it on Vimeo and share the piece with others.

Starring Joshua Rex

Jon Nix: Director
Jamie Overstreet: Writer
Ralph Miller: Assistant Director
Yoshi Andrego: Director of Photography
Kayla Muller: Production Assistant

More to come,

Jon Nix

Lilith Kickstarter

Hey guys,

I just wanted to throw out a link to this Kickstarter. It's for a book of collected art from the film 'Lilith'. An indie psychological-thriller I worked on as an Art PA last year. If you've got a few dollars to spare this is a project that really deserves to get funded. If the project itself isn't compelling enough for you, the incentives are great on it. At the very least, take the time to watch the trailer. It's definitely a project I'm proud to have my name on.



Most posts coming soon,
-Jon Nix

The Sewing Circle - Love Games

I just finished editing our second video for The Sewing Circle, a great band out of Sandusky, OH. It's for a song of theirs titled 'Love Games'. I'm very proud of the video and want to thank everyone involved. I think it's a major step forward from our last video for them. With every shoot it seems like we get better and better. If we all stay on this track, we're destined for greatness

Love Games


Making Of 'Love Games'


Five Cigarettes


Enjoy!

-Jon Nix

Welcome!

Welcome to my Film Blog!

I'll give you a little bit of background on why I've started it.

About a month ago three filmmakers that I really look up to came to Cleveland for The Sixth Annual Lockwood Thompson Dialogues. This year's guests were Producer Ted Hope (The Ice Storm, 21 Grams), Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Jackass), and Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, The Kids Are Alright).

My friend and collaborator, Ralph Miller, has already written a fantastic blog for it over on his site. So, I'll direct you there, rather than waste my time trying to say something that's already been better said.

The big take away of the night was when I got the chance to ask a question to the panel. This, I think, produced the best content of the night and I'm not just saying that because it was something I asked. Their answers really showed a lot more emotion than the prior ones. Maybe because they could put themselves back there.

Not only that but I have them on film. I can go back and hear the answer forever. (Thanks to Ralph Miller and Anthony Snitzer for recording it!). Don't mind my gushing to Spike Jonze.



So, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I need to be prolific as hell! That's why I've started this blog. Not only to document but to pressure me into writing or shooting on the nights when I might just be too tired or lazy to get motivated.

Unfilmed, I managed to talk to both Spike and Ted afterward. Both were more supportive and warm than I could have ever asked for. Ted somehow managed to give even more valuable advice.

For the past couple years I've been considering selling my screenplays in hopes of them being produced or just for the money I'd be able to use on another project. I have seven full-length screenplays in total. All of which, I am constantly redrafting in hopes of making them better. When I told this to Ted, he very confidently told me not to sell them. Instead, produce what I'm able to (Shorts, Music videos, etc.). Once I've worked up some clout and people start knocking on the door I'll have go-to material. So that's what I plan to do.

Since the Dialogue I've managed to get some irons in the fire. These include sound/abstract visual experiments with my roommate and collaborator Jim Curtis and a web series (of which, almost a full season has been written) with my girlfriend Jamie Overstreet. I also will be starting on the process of reworking one of my first screenplays into a limited web series. Broken down into ten 10-minute episodes it will be a less daunting project to put out. And, with luck, it will come out great. I don't want to spoil details on the projects. Suffice to say that they'll be posted when they're ready.

I look forward to writing more and I hope that this leads to something really amazing.

-Jon Nix