As I’m sure all of your are anxiously awaiting Port Washington, you might be interested in checking out my previous film “The Lizard of Death” It’s an emulation of a 1950’s B&W horror movie, complete with old film grain effects and fake credits. It was completed in December of 2000.

I’ve created a iPod video-sized version for anyone interested. (It’ll also play in QuickTime 7) Here’s the link:

TEMPORARILY REMOVED… Check back later…

Right click link and select “Save As/Save Target As” to copy the file to disk so you can view at your leisure. It’s only 186 megs, a mere trifle in this day and age. Enjoy!

OK now you can check out the official Port Washington website! It’s www.benheck.com/pw

Some items on it aren’t available yet but will come online as the release approaches on April 1st.

For the web premiere versions, I’m using the amazing slow encoding H.264 codec of QuickTime 7. I have created the following:

   378 megs (320×240 resolution) iPod Video. M4V format, stereo AAC audio at 44.100 kHz. Can also be easily adapted for use with Playstation Portable (PSP)

   1.3 gigs 640×480 (Full DV resolution) QuickTime. MP4 format, stereo AAC audio at 44.100 kHz (Requires a fast computer for playback)

   Possible Divx version…

Both versions will be full speed 30 frames-per-second. There will be about 5 different servers hosting the files (thanks guys!) externally of this site. I have also re-encoded the trailer using QuickTime, and it’s now bigger in frame size but only 9 megs. Click the link on the right to watch it.

Note: Due to time limitations with uploading and shipping, these versions are probably the only ones I’ll have time to encode personally. If you’d like to create a different version, such as Divx or WMV, you may do so using one of the files above and your own software. If you host it, send me the link and I’ll include it on the Downloads page.

The headline I never thought I’d see. Yup, at 1:15 AM Central time my movie Port Washington was finally finished. Officially the last things done were some brightness filter checks and the music for the “Kitten Scene”. Sorry about that “News Bulletin” page you had to slog through, but I felt very large type was required for this event.

Look for an official PW section coming soon, along with more information on the live and web premieres. Now I need some sleep.

Alright, all the music for Port Washington is now done. Just a few odds and ends to tighten up and the movie will be finished. Naturally they’ll be a big announcement on this site the day it occurs.

In the weeks leading up to the web release I’ll be bringing a special Port Washington section of this site online. It’ll include the links to the downloadable QuickTime versions of the movie, plus trailers, assorted info and an MP3 version of the soundtrack.

In other news…

PW has consumed almost all of my time for the last month, but with it drawing to a close I can begin work on other projects and continue others. Including:

1) A new low-budget horror movie! Yes, out of the frying pan and into the fire. This will be along the lines of “Lizard of Death” but be an emulation of a modern crappy direct-to-video movie. Think something you’d see on the Sci Fi channel, but with more blood, guts and guns. We’re also going to try and film it entirely in 1 weekend, which would be a far cry from the time spent on PW 😉 Probably will film in July. Should be fun, more updates as we progress.

2) Hey I might have found a good source of NOAC’s! (NES on a chips) Sounds promising, I hope to do a prototype within a month or two, and perhaps roll out larger numbers of them by summer. Stay tuned!

3) The Ghost Town documentary shoot has been moved back to August/September. There were weather concerns for a March shoot, and this gives us more prep time anyway. I’m doing both the ghost documentary and the horror movie with the guys from One Man Down Productions, the idea is that doing the quickie horror movie first will give us some warm-up time working together.

Work on the music has been going very well, right now it’s at about the 85% point. Because of this progress I’ve even had time to add incidental music through the movie, beyond the main sequences I originally had planned.

Thus I am putting a release date down now – Saturday April 1st, 2006. This is no April Fool’s joke, the movie will be done by then.

We’re still working on the details of the live premiere, but it will definitely be in central Wisconsin. Likely Madison or Richland Center, but also possible Wisconsin Dells. News will be posted as soon as we have it, and I’ll be updating this site a lot between now and then.

For those of you in cyber-space we’re also having a “Web Premiere” on the same date. Using a variety of hosts, I’ll offer free downloads of Port Washington in QuickTime format. Likely a 1 gig version, and a 540 meg iPod Video version. More details to come, so stick around!

In the meantime, check out the trailer!