We've begun a new daily feature on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  We're posting one new behind-the-scenes picture from The Mercury Men every weekday.  Nearly all of the photos are previously unreleased.  So make sure you're following us to see each new picture.  Here's the pictures from this past week!

With the premiere of The Mercury Men fast approaching, thought we'd share a few previously unreleased behind-the-scenes photos.

Director Chris Preksta and Lindsey Phillips (Assistant Camera) doing a last minute touch up on "The Brain."

Curt Wootton (Jack Yaeger) and Devin Reilly (Mercury Engineer) rehearse a fight scene.

L to R: Ben Shull (Assistant Director), Chris Preksta (Mercury Engineer), Tyson VanSkiver (Gaffer), Ricky Lyle (Costumes) review a shot.

Shooting a scene with Amy Staggs (Grace).

Director Chris Preksta discusses a scene with Curt Wootton (Jack Yaeger) and Mark Tierno (Edward Borman).

Although The Mercury Men is a clear throwback to the old cliffhanger serials of the 1930's and the sci-fi B movies of the 1950's, I've always tried to steer clear from basing TOO much of our branding on the cheesy, over-the-stop advertising those genre's employed.  This is why our trailer doesn't have titles flying at you that simply read "DANGER" or a nasaly-voiced announcer belting out "Will our heroes survive the attack of The Mercury Men?"  While I love those classic film elements, and always enjoy seeing a modern project recreate them, I didn't want The Mercury Men to strictly become an homage to old cinema.  There has been one area however, which I've always thought it would be insincere for us to stray from: the posters.  We've paid tribute to the great Saul Bass with our teaser poster and I thought it only fitting that we also offer our version of the classic sci-fi posters, like you might have seen at a 1950's drive-in.

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I've been doing some Mercury Men sketches during large video rendering sessions. These include characters, props, scenes, etc. My plan is to give several of these away in an upcoming contest so I figured I'd give you a preview of our ray-gun-slinging hero Jack Yaeger.

My inbox is still recovering from one of the coolest emails I've received since embarking on this journey of lightning bolts and glowing men. Zack Finfrock of Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter sent us this amazing piece of fan art featuring all the Mercury Men characters.

Zack NAILED the characters, from the Containment Suit Invaders scrawny necks and lifeless stares to the lacing on the side of Jack's jacket. Since I've got a hi res version of the file, we're making it available for YOU to download as well!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ARTWORK

You can check out Zack's artwork HERE, and his webseries Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter. And let this be an open call to all you artists out there. Send us some Mercury Men inspired artwork and we'll gladly feature it and your other work here on the Mercury blog.

 

Found this great little promotional site for newest season of Mad Men, an amazing show which I've unfortunately seen little of. I do hope to one day hire their production designer to design my home. If you go to http://www.madmenyourself.com you can make a nifty little 60's Shag styled character of yourself, like the one I made above of our beloved Edward Borman.

So far we've released three posters: the advance and two special Apollo 11 anniversary editions. I'm currently working on one of the official one sheets. These posters designs will feature the actual characters, as not to confuse people into thinking this is an animated story. I'm not quite there yet with the design, but thought I'd give you a quick peek into the process.

We wrapped on our week long pick-up shoot yesterday, and I wanted to share some photos (taken by Jonathan Cooper).

You can see more photos on the Twitpic accounts of The Mercury Men, Aaron Kleiber (Daryl the Janitor), and Lindsey Phillips (Assistant Camera).