Coming Oh-So Soon: Purgatory Pizza

The flash version of Purgatory Pizza is coming soon!
Creator Christian Taranto, AKA MC Death Bear, took a twelve-hour bus ride from Virginia up to our studio last Friday, and he’s been working non-stop since he arrived.

Talk about dedication! But what would you expect from a guy who’s almost finished with a concept he started in ninth grade? That’s right, Purgatory Pizza was first conceptualized when Christian was a freshman in high school. Back then, it was a comic strip. It’s gone through many revision since then. At the beginning, it was known as “Outcasts,” and there wasn’t even a pizza place! But over the years, he’s worked at several pizza places, so he eventually decided to put his work experience to good use (or bad, who knows? It’s Purgatory).

Now at 22, Christian’s thrilled to see his teenage doodles come to life in magnificent moving media magic, not to mention that he’s at the helm of it all. But Christian isn’t the only one working. Chris Davidson’s been leading the animation, and he and Jeff Hellman have been hard at work on the sound design.

In fact, it was because of Chris Davidson that Purgatory Pizza got started on the road to cartoon-dom. Back in December 2007, Christian had an art show at Pixel Lounge. During the show, he mentioned how he had an idea for a cartoon and wanted to make it, and he was referred to Moving Box Studios by local DJ Chris Capulet. Christian had always be interested in animation, but he never got the chance until he and Chris teamed up.

Just like The Elephant’s Lullaby, Moving Box will be putting together a “making of” video for Purgatory Pizza. It’ll include commentary from those already mentioned, plus Christian’s cousin Law Tarello, the co-writer of the cartoon. Law will be arriving at the studio this Saturday to share his thoughts.

We're in the final pruduction stage of the final cut, but if you need something to do before Purgatory Pizza is released, head to SickDamage.com where Christian is a staff writer. No kidding, Christian isn’t just an artist and budding animator; he’s a talented writer as well.

Need something else? Get a Purgatory Pizza refresher – watch the teaser for the cartoon on Newgrounds.

Purgatory Pizza Premier!

Hey Everybody! Christian Taranto aka MC DEATH BEAR is back in town and we're going to be finishing the Purgatory Pizza Pilot! Some of you may have seen the rough cut of Part 1 on Newgrounds. The premier will be the first showing of the full first episode, so be there!

The Premier is at 9:00PM, a Pixel Lounge in Collegetown! If you plan to attend, let us know on Facebook!

The Internet release of the full Purgatory Pizza is scheduled for later this month, so SEE IT FIRST AT THE PREMIER THIS TUESDAY! We're looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Update 10/28

This year, Halloween is anything but scary for us here at Moving Box. Between Olympus Burger, Chalk Outlines, Java, and Mike Brindisi, the studio is more exciting than ever before.

Mike Lazzo of Comedy Central’s Adult Swim wants to see the pilot for Olympus Burger, so we’re putting together a press kit for him. Chris is returning to all of the source files of Olympus Burger, fixing any problem he ever came across. He is adding new music composed by our very own Dave Livingston, including Joe Zohar’s smash hit, Dewey Dewey. The most exciting part is that Chris is reanimating the pilot to a true widescreen 1920 X 1080 HD video.

The first trailer of Joe’s Chalk Outlines is coming soon. All but one or two shots are complete, and the film is in for sound design touchups with Ryan Mauk. Joe is working hard with Nicoli Schwiep and Liz McLelland to finish the Rotoscoping for the film.

Matt Lenz is finishing up the lip-syncing for Java. The front shots are complete and the only thing left in this fun for anyone film is a few profile shots.

In addition to all of this, Dave is working hard with Mike Brindisi and the New York Rock. The group has been in and out of the studio for a few weeks now. There are only a few songs left to record guitar on and the album is pushing ahead.

Possibly the coolest thing going on at the moment is the show reel being compiled for the Olympus Burger press kit. A show reel is roughly 20 seconds of each project Moving Box has completed, chronicling the last year of our progress. The show reel will be released online and will include Java, Chalk Outlines, Olympus Burger, Repentance, Bacon Samurai, Purgatory Pizza, Girls will be Girls, and a selection of documentaries.

Stay Tuned.

Platypus!

Screenshot from Purgatory Pizza

What's going on at the Box

As wedding season comes to an end, festival season begins. With that said, Moving Box Studios is ready to show what we've got, and we've got a lot.

M.9. is a major project of the video department at Moving Box. They have entered their final stages of sound recording and music this week. Dave is alternating days between the two until they are complete, which should be sometime in September.

Chalk Outlines, is in the hands of Nick and Liz, who are making the first test images look great. The whole team here at Moving Box is really excited about the project, a contemporary take on the classic film noir genre.

Joe has taken the lead in pursuing festivals for the coming year to show off all the projects we've been working on this past year. The festival Fundraising Party is still in the works.

[Charm City Remix] is an interactive walkthrough of Baltimore told through stories, and was produced by Matt and Joe. The film shot entirely in Baltimore with a mix of musical composition and a conversational tone, leaves the viewer with the state of mind of having actually taken the tour. The video can be seen anytime in the next two months at the Contemporary Museum of Baltimore.

[Java], an animated pilot produced by Chris Davidson, will begin voiceovers on the 27th of September, and is projected to be released sometime in October. This is big news for all of us here at Moving Box, because [Java] was our first commissioned project and it is nearing completion, causing a lot of excitement at the studio.

[Purgatory Pizza], created by [MC Deathbear], is flying through production. The script has been edited and scene one is completely animated. Scene two is in the process of being synced, but what really shines in this animation is the character development. The piece is scheduled to be released in volumes, one of which should be available for viewing sometime next week.





All of the backgrounds have been completed for [Elephants Lullaby] and the shooting has begun for the upcoming video, The Making of Elephants Lullaby. We're ahead of schedule for this one and really excited about it.

We have just finished a commercial for The House of Zohar that came out great and are looking to make more. We also do wedding videos, all in HD.

our studio has been in motion for months now, with construction and work all at once, but an end is in sight with the final touches being completed.

Stay Tuned.

Purgatory Pizza Pilot Part 1 (rough cut)

Check out the all-flash 1st part of the Purgatory Pizza Pilot!

Update 9/9

Hey everyone, September is here! Most people associate September with the start of school, the start of fall, the start of a new year. Well, along with all that, Moving Box Studios has a few new projects we’ve been working on.

[Olympus Burger] is the flagship project of the Animation department here. The pilot episode has been on the web for over a year now, but if you haven't seen it yet [Watch it Now]. Everyone has been working hard and the trailer for the new episode is almost complete. The editing is all set and we’re working on sound design and music.

Chalk Outlines, the thesis project of Joe Zohar while at Ithaca College, is humming according to Joe. The work is being completed quickly and Joe will be placing some of his screenshots online, asking the viewers what they would like to see. Joe is really driven to get this project complete and release a trailer.

We are also planning a Festival Fundraising Party! Word will come soon as to the location and day of this event.

Nikolai has created Robobots. He is currently refining character designs and working on a backstory in order to put together a really solid foundation. We have a writers meeting set for this week to discuss script ideas.

M.9., a short experimental film directed by Joe Zohar, is almost complete. Sound production is scheduled to begin this coming Monday, September 15th.

[Java], an animated pilot produced by Chris Davidson, has voiceovers scheduled for later this month. All art and animation blocking is complete. It is projected to be released in October.

[Purgatory Pizza], created by [MC Deathbear], is coming along splendidly. The pilot episode is projected to be complete in September-October and a trailer can be seen at the website.

We here at Moving Box Studios have our work cut out for us, with seven projects currently in production. However, things are moving faster than ever with the renovations nearly complete. A studio warming party is also planned, but no dates available.

Stay tuned.

Purgatory Pizza Promo

Serving soon.

Purgatory Pizza Teaser

Watch (and comment!) on this video on your favorite video site! Newgrounds, YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh, Crackle and Stupid Videos

Pilot episode in production.
PurgatoryPizza.net