oBsCuRe StUdIoS

So, we at Obscure Studios have been a little busy this last month, if you couldn't already tell from our frenzied Facebook updates and tempestuous tweets. We've been buried with work, literally. Somewhere in all this craziness, we have managed to unearth some of our best creative ideas.

You may have already heard, but we've submitted a short film to the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival. We're very excited to be making our big festival debut (fingers crossed) and we're very proud of the work we've put in on this one.

"Border Line" is a visual and musical puzzle, told in a non-linear fashion, that beautifully unravels as it reaches its climax. It is 7 minutes and 40 seconds you do not want to miss. We like to keep things local, so all of the locations in the film are within 30 minutes' drive of Flagstaff, the score was composed by an NAU graduate and the editing was all done in-house (literally, in my house).

We were rushed for time, so we pulled together fantastic actors and an intriguing script, threw it all in a blender and had a finished film in just 18 days! Talk about working under pressure.

And did we mention that we're excited?

In addition to that, we've beeb partnering with Theatrikos Theatre Company to film some of their plays. We're putting the finishing touches on the DVDs for their production of "Annie, Jr." as we speak.

Sometime in the near future, we are planning to sleep. Maybe.

So, you may recall how we promised you a lot of great videos for the spring semester. At this point, I guess you've moved beyond "What gives, guys?" and have moved on to "FILTHY STINKIN' LIARS!" I don't blame you. I'm disappointed in us, too, but rest assured, we've already done our time for this heinous act.

Now that we have that out of the way, I have good news, which will hopefully be enough to redeem us in your eyes. It is nearly summer. For us starving college students, this means later nights, jobs requiring us to wear funny aprons, and an explosion in both time and creative energy. It is this explosion that we intend to harness for the good of your precious time-wasting time.

Unfortunately, I am bound by a strict blood oath not to reveal what we have planned for the summer. The repurcussions are severe, trust me.

(This is Killer. He does not accept failure.)

Rest assured that we have a few very promising ideas and we're hoping to see some real movement in the next few weeks. You've waiting this long — you can wait a little longer. It will be totally worth it.

So, stay tuned here, on Twitter, and on Facebook for sneak peaks and more news.

Take it easy,

Jonny

'Tis the season to be watching Obscure Studios! Rest assured that your hunger will soon be satisfied. All of us at Obscure Studios are excited about our current projects. Think uyou can handle it? We'll see.

Coming up this joyous holiday season is Obscure Studios' first all-out holiday special. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus - we've got you covered. So, stay tuned for more information as we choose to leak it.

Secondly, we're pleased to announce that filming for our new sitcom, American Creepers, is about to get underway. Bathtubs, cuticles, puppet fetishes, gambling addictions, and roommate hijinks are all coming your way!

Keep checking back here for more updates and from our Obscure Studios family to yours, we wish you a very Happy Holiday Season!

Exactly one week ago, we, the crazy maniacs at Obscure Studios, were down in the trenches creating a short film for the NAU 73 Hour Film Festival. We had 73 hours (just over 3 days) to write, shoot, edit, and score a film less than 5 minutes long. Insane? Yes. Fun? Absolutely.

We were required to incorporate a theme (Anxiety) and a line of dialogue ("Where were you last night?"), but other than that, we were free to do whatever we pleased. So, we did. Our final film, Cold Read, is probably the most awkward and risque short we've ever made. We produced such cinematic gems as, "It'll be like 2001: A Space Odyssey, except with mud wrestling and a donkey" and "Okay, but no cocoa butter this time." Needless to say, we're very proud.

Now, as much as we enjoy making art for art's sake, there is a prize at stake here. The winning film goes on to be screened at the highly prestigious Sedona International Film Festival — an accomplishment that's nothing to sneeze at.

The winning film gets announced on Friday, November 19th at 6 pm at the film festival screening at Cline Library Auditorium on the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff, AZ. We would love to see you there. All of the competing films will be shown, so don't miss this chance to see Will McDonald scandalized by Jonny Eberle's "art film" director, the debut of the lovely Hanna Spence-Schehr, and the hilariously deadpan narration of Ron Poe in a comedic tour-de-force that will leave you feeling very dirty.

If your sense of humor is a little twisted and you have a soft spot for supremely awkward situations, then you're not going to want to miss Cold Read! We'll see you at the afterparty!

Take it easy!

I recently watched the film, "Be Kind Rewind." In the movie, the main character works for a small video rental business on the verge of losing everything. When all of the VHS tapes in the store are accidentally erased, they remake the films in a nearby junkyard and become local celebrities.

Watching this film reminded me of Obscure Studios. We're small and the budgets of most of our films are less than $10 or $20. I know that we're not the greatest filmmakers that ever lived. We have technical problems and time constraints that hold us back, but when you watch an Obscure Studios short film, you are watching a labor of love.

Hollywood is in the filmmaking business to make money off of you. To take 90 minutes of your time for the price of a movie ticket and go live in oppulent mansions far from people like you and me. At Obscure Studios, we have yet to turn anything akin to a profit off of our work and that's okay, because we don't do this for our wallets or our egos. We do this because this is what we love.

I certainly don't want to treat anyone like a dollar sign to be exploited. I want to remove you from reality for a few minutes and provide you with original entertainment. If only you could see the love and care that goes into everything we do here. People give up their time and energy, skipping out on leisurely activities and spending their precious free time making the little works of art that we feature on this site. Filmmaking is a passion and an addiction, and as long as you're enjoying it, we're happy and we'll continue to work hard to bring you more.

We're far from perfect. We haven't achieved the level of technical prowess as the big studios in Hollywood, but at Obscure Studios you'll find more originality and more heart. We're dreamers and storytellers, not corporate movie-making tycoons. If that makes the big studios better than us, that's fine. But they can't match our small studio where it counts.

I dare you to find a more talented and dedicated group of people than all of my friends who have bought into my crazy dream and turned Obscure Studios into a reality. I thank them for making this little business come to life and I thank you, our small band of viewers, for having fun with us. That's what makes it worth the time and effort. It's all for you.

- Jonny Eberle

Founder and CEO

The creative juices are flowing and the filmmaking gears are a-turnin' at oBsCuRe StUdIoS these days. We apologize for the long hiatus, but most of us are in college and that tends to take up a lot of our time. However, finals are upon us again, which means a summer of the great videos you've come to expect from us.

In the near future, expect to see:

• A new Othello & Quinn silent film adventure
  
  
• The second installment of the Fremont Tapes
  
  
• The triumphant return of Reilly, George, Julio, and the rest of the eccentrics from Mercer Hall at Fremont State University in a new Reilly's Dorm movie!
  
  
• A bunch of short films.
  
  
• And, finally, after almost a year of preproduction, the long-awaited, highly-anticipated first episode of our original scifi series, Bismillah.

So, keep your creepin' eyes glued right here on www.obscurestudios.net because things are about to get interesting...again. Feel free to email us at obscurestudios@gmail.com, join our Facebook group and jump up and down with frenzied excitement. This is gonna be epic.

Take it easy,

Jonny Eberle

Founder and CEO

oBsCuRe StUdIoS

Who needs an Oscar when you can win Prestige?

Obscure Studios is holding the first Annual Prestige Awards (date and time to be determined, so stay tuned for details)! These awards are just for Obscure Studios, to show our appreciation for the talented men and women who made the last year of productions possible.

So, here's the part you need to know: we have an online ballot set up on the Prestige Awards page on our website - www.obscurestudios.net, which you can only reach if you're logged in. If you're already a site member, you'll have no problem getting in. If you're not a member, it literally takes two seconds to become one.

On that page, enter your nominations for the best of the best from Obscure Studios' 2008 and 2009 productions. Then, we'll have a good ol' fashioned awards ceremony.

If you have any questions, please comment here or email us at obscurestudios@gmail.com.

BE EXCITED!!!!

Happy Halloween, my fellow oBsCuRiAnS!

You're really in for a treat (andmaybe a trick or two) in the next couple days - because Obscure Studioshas not one, but TWO Halloween-themed films ready for immediate release.

The first in our extravaganza of fright and mayhem is "Persona" - a psychological thriller about a murderer loose in a small mountain cabin. Who is the killer?

and then we are proud to present "The Fremont Tapes" - a documentary about a band of survivors of a deadly mutated virus and their struggles to survive.

We can't tell you anymore than that, but let me assure that our conclusion of the Month of Horror will quite literally knock your socks off. So, stay tuned here, on Facebook, and on our YouTube channel!

In Bismillah news, filming has begun and we hope to have the pilot episode out as soon as is humanly possible with our workloads. Keep checking back here for further updates!

Peace out!

Hello, our loyal fans! First off, a few apologies are in order. There have been a number of technical difficulties (see "The Camera's a Toaster!" below) that have utterly consumes, chewed, and swallowed all of our creative endeavors from the past couple months. Things like "Kayak Jousting" and "The Cold Dark Hand of Oblivion" that desperately need to see the light of day. But our camera simply refuses to give up the footage. We're working to fix the problem and ask for your continued patience.

Now, you may be wondering about the strange and mysterious symbol on the page above. It is, in fact, the title of our newest web series, written in Arabic calligraphy. Pretty cool, huh? The show is called "Bismillah" and it is a dark, gritty tale of life, death, politics, faith, technology, prejudice, and the torturous demise of human civilization in the not-so-distant future.

The script is written, the cast has been selected, costuming has begun, and set construction is about to commence. We're a little behind schedule, but we wanted to get it just right. You, our devoted fans, deserve nothing less. So, sit tight and we'll have some new entertainment for you soon!

Take it easy!

Attention, all you crazy Obscure Studios fans! All great things come to an end, and Reilly's Dorm is no exception. It has been a wicked cool ride and we are incredibly flattered (and downright surprised) by your enthusiasm for the series.

In the coming week, we will be releasing the final blogs in the saga that is the life of an underachieving college student named Reilly. All of your questions will be answered, secrets will be revealed, and the school year that refuses to end even in mid-July will come to its inevitable conclusion!

You can keep up with the final blogs on our Facebook group, on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/obscurestudios, and on our website - http://www.obscurestudios.net! On our website, you can also find our discussion forums, photo albums, short films, and exclusive behind the scenes content! Not to mention that you can buy our t-shirts to help pay for future Obscure Studios productions.

The final blogs of Reilly's Dorm. You ain't seen nothin' yet.