Featuring the return of Kelly Maxwell as Chapel's arch-enemy, Burke, this episode also features guest appearances by Kathy Lynn Sliter, Matt Schrader, Collin Erickson, Adam Williams, Casey Sean Grimm, Katherine Boomsma, Jordan Peterson, and Celia Lohr.
It's a two-parter, and the second part, "Neutralized," is also up on Vimeo:
This one has a ton of cameos in in, mainly because it's got the biggest body count we've ever had on the show.
It also features a guest voice: Mike Schmidt of the 40 Year Old Boy Podcast! Mike was cool enough to record his voice as a character who will, at this point, remain nameless. Will we see/hear more of him? Time will tell. Special thanks to Lili Von Schtupp for recording Mike. She now has the unique distinction of not only having a credit in an episode, but being referred to as a character (Labyrinth refers to her in the episode "Loaded.")
With some special makeup work by Dawn Marie Svanoe, some wonderful music by Meghan Rose, and a kickass track by DJ Pain 1, this one we pulled out all the stops.
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It happens.
You spend all your time making something, and absolutely zero time promoting it.
So, here's what's up with Claymore so far:
Chapel has returned to YouTube!
You read that right...oh, we're not leaving Vimeo (we love the layout, presentation, and quality Vimeo offers), but we did want to put the whole series up to this point back up on YouTube, where we first started.
This, of course, was announced with a video:
Also, in the meantime, was our second episode of the new season, "Loaded," which had a teaser...
...which was immediately followed by the episode itself:
And then, we had episode three, "Matched," which had a teaser...
...followed by the episode itself:
And also, this month, I added annotated commentary to the first episode, "Audited:"
So, lot of "Chapel" stuff, but that's not all.
This past weekend also featured a reading of a couple of scenes from my novel, "Knock Knock," at the Madison chapter of Naked Girls Reading's show, "Pulp Diction!" The reading, performed by Cheeky Friday, got a lot of laughs, and about two minutes after the reading was over, I'd sold all the copies of the book that I brought! Many thanks to Cheeky and the other performers (Babe Lincoln, Valentine Smith, and Encyclopedia Brownie) for doing a wonderful job and thinking enough of my book to honor it with a performance.
Those of you wanting to pick up a copy of 'Knock Knock," by the way can do so here.
Also, for those of you that don't know, I co-host the Film101 segment on Forward With Kurt Baron on WTDY 1670 AM or online at wtdy.com. As of this year, we're now simulcast on WJQM, 106.7. That's Tuesday's at 10am! Tune in and hear Kurt and I talk about movies as fast as our lips can move.
Later this year, I've got another play at Broom Street Theater, called "900," which will be directed by Kathy Lynn Sliter (who Chapel fans will know as "Dr. Vet"). That'll be in April, so more details to come.
In other, non-me-related news, Emily Mills will be performing with Little Red Wolf this coming weekend (Feb. 5th) at Olbrich Botanical Gardens! It's free, and the details are here.
That's all for now, and we'll be back next month with the new Chapel, titled "Neutralized," which will have, no question, our highest body count, like, EVER.
--rob.
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If this is your first time watching the show, this episode is a good place to start. It's a mostly stand-alone story, and if you like it, go ahead and check out the rest of the series here.
]]>Madison, Wis.-based Claymore Pictures is excited to announce the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the production of season two of their action-packed, dark comedy crime series "Chapel."
Season one of the groundbreaking web series filmed and wrapped in 2010 to much acclaim and featured a host of some of the best acting and technical talents in the area. From gun fights on skateboards to an epic finale shot on location in New York City, the show that "runs on Facebook and the Dollar Store" did it all on practically zero budget. Now, in order to film season two and continue to grow/improve the show, Claymore Pictures is turning to the community of incredible fans and supporters of super independent film in the hopes of raising a small budget.
The "Chapel" Kickstarter campaign to raise a mere $1,000 begins TODAY, June 20, and will run for 30 days (until Wednesday Jul 20, 10:49am CDT). We have to reach $1k otherwise we get nothing at all - so please help us hit our goal! We'll use the money for better sound equipment, higher quality effects, locations, etc. and if you pledge there are fabulous prizes in it for you, too!
For pledging $5: A hearty, personal thank-you via the impersonal medium of email.
$15: A personalized video thank-you.
$30: A signed copy of the comic book version of "Inked" by Rob Matsushita, and a signed copy of the Chapel back story novel, "The Fix Up" by Emily Mills.
$50: Everything from $30 plus a copy of the Chapel Season One DVD!
$100: Everything from $50 plus a co-producer credit, and a character named after you (this character will die horribly).
$500: Everything from $100 plus a walk-on role in an episode!
$1,000: Everything from $500 (but a full producer credit instead of just co-producer), PLUS a very real beat down from your choice of Emily Mills or Kelly Maxwell (note: you will not be allowed to fight back).
To watch the complete first season of "Chapel" please visit our Vimeo page, or our home on the Web Series Channel. Chapel also has a Facebook page! More information about Claymore Pictures is available at our website, claymorepictures.net.
Gunfights, fist fights, drums, New York City, mobsters, cool moms, and hot dogs. What more could you want? We're proud to share the season one final of "Chapel" with you all and hope you've enjoyed the ride. Also? Tell your friends!
Expect a season retrospective post at some point in the near-ish future - and then we'll be putting our noses to the grindstone to work on planning out season two for 2011! Thanks for coming along on the ride with us.
]]>Look for the thrilling conclusion the week after Christmas. It's action-packed (seriously)! And please remember to move your subscriptions on over to the new "Chapel" Vimeo channel. We'd love to have you there!
]]>First, the upload to Youtube kept crapping out around 96%. Then, through a mind-bending combination of user error and really terrible backend design on Youtube's part, EVERY ONE OF OUR VIDEOS (save the oldest 7) WAS DELETED FROM THE ACCOUNT.
And it turns out there's no tech support for Youtube. So that was fun.
After a sufficient amount of teeth gnashing and banshee-like wailing, we decided to take this opportunity to start fresh - emerge, pheonix-like, from the binary ashes. So! What does that mean? Well, aside from a metric f*ck-ton of extra work here at HQ, it means this:
Chapel is moving to Vimeo!
That's right, we've decided to give Chapel her very own page/channel, and Vimeo's higher video quality and general ease of use had us sold. We want to seriously thank everyone who has followed and/or subscribed to Chapel on Youtube in the past...and GROVEL LIKE MAD in the hopes that you'll make the switch over to Vimeo with us and follow the show there.
We're still in the process of uploading all of the older episodes so please bear with us - but! The good news is that the brandest newest episode, "Inked," is ONLINE NOW! So check it out in all it's comic book glory:
Chapel, Episode Seven: INKED. from Rob Matsushita on Vimeo.
You can also download the companion comic book and mp3 file of the audio:
Then get psyched for PART ONE of the season finale, "Jacked," next week!
]]>The Madison AV Club has recently been very supportive of our little show and for that we're enormously grateful.
Stick around for "Inked" later this week, and the season finale, "Jacked" (parts one and two) before the end of the month! It's like Christmas in December!
...um, yeah.
]]>This one took us a bit longer to finish due to a plethora of scheduling conflicts, but we think it turned out pretty dang well. Plus, marvelous cast! Thanks for being patient with us, and check back soon for the next episode, "Inked" - a motion comic (we know, right?).
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