For some reason I had an urge this week to create a new version of the trailer for my independent film Port Washington. The original trailer was a bit old and I thought it’d be fun to make one that has all the usual Hollywood trailer clichés. Here it is:

Port Washington Trailer Revision 2

Now it’s quite professional (sarcasm intended) and includes all the mainstays of a modern movie trailer, including:

    1) A Smash Mouth song
2) Sappy love music
3) Someone being punched or falling down
4) An explosion
5) Shots from every action sequence three times over
6) Giveaways of all the gags
7) And most importantly… “O Fortuna” (You’ll know it when you hear it)

  So if you haven’t seen Port Washington yet, why not check out the trailer and see if it’s up your alley? Then you can hit the official site and download the whole movie. (A normal Ben-style trailer is also available) Enjoy!

I have completed a fancy 2 disc DVD set of Port Washington. It includes:

       DISC 1

• The movie itself. Progressive scan compatible, Dolby Digital AC-3 Surround.
• Audio Commentary #1 – Director Ben Heckendorn and co-star Jason Jones
• Audio Commentary #2 – Co-writer Dale Nauertz, actors Derek and Michelle Novy.
• Text Commentary, written by yours truly. Basically covers stuff I forgot to mention in my audio commentary.

       DISC 2

Behind the Scenes

• “As If Your Were There” – Candid outtakes, bloopers and shenanigans that give you a “fly on the wall” look at the production. Well, sort of.
• “The Cutting Room Floor” – Montage of scenes that didn’t make it into the final movie.
•  Production Notes – The step by step diary kept by me during the, ug, SIX YEARS between the original idea and the completion.

Storyboarding Section – Split-screen animated movie-to-storyboard comparisons. Scenes covered:

• Theatre Booth Fight
• The Kitten Scene
• Entire boat / jet ski chase

Visual Effects

• “Special Effects Deconstruction” – See how many of the special effects were put together. With audio commentary by me.
• “ChromaKeyArama” – A montage of all the blue and green screen effects photography that was done for the movie.
• Effects Log – Browse through the log containing all 220 special effects shots for PW, with notes.

• Production Videos – Mostly shot with my backup (ahem destructible) DV camera. See the early “Suck Cam” car mount tests, footage with the camera mounted to the jet ski, early water effect tests and equipment. Also included are parts where we scout out locations, allowing you to see them in their original unaltered forms. Includes the cool-looking but unused test footage with a camera mounted under a truck’s front bumper.
• Musical Overture – Sit back and listen to the entire musical score in uncompressed PCM audio. Includes the “Mime of Mine” trailer audio heard during the projection booth fight.
• Original 2004 Teaser Trailer – With optional text commentary. Strange, yes, but the commentary touches on issues such as why movie trailers contains scenes and dialog not found in the final film.

I plan to include a free Port Washington DVD with all future portables – what a deal! Videogames and a show! (Dinner not included) – Note: Excuse me if I’ve forgotten to include this.

I have encoded a Playstation Portable version of Port Washington and you can get it right here from my site.

Video File    Thumbnail

Right click on links and select “Save Target As” to avoid opening inside a browser window. Then, place both items in the MP_ROOT/100ANV01 folder of your PSP, or whichever your default media folder is. You’ll need about 320 megs of free space on your memory stick. Enjoy!

Hope you’re all enjoying Port Washington, and if not, hopefully it didn’t take too long to download 😉

I’m working on a DVD of it using Wisconsin’s own Sony Pictures Digital’s DVD Architect, a full featured program with a lot of powerful features. This will allow the DVD of the movie to include:

• 2 different audio commentaries
• Behind the scenes text commentary
• Bonus features including deleted scenes, chromakey footage montage, bloopers/outtakes and a production log
• Animated motion menus and transitions

Look for this to become available in the coming weeks. I’m also using their software to create a full-frame, high-quality PSP version of the film (Port Washington Portable) which I hope to have available for download by April 21st.

There are a few backburner videogame projects in the works as well, I’ll get back to those after I get these last few movie-related things out of the way.

You can now download my independent film “Port Washington” from a variety of servers in several different formats. Just click below!

Port Washington Downloads Page

Port Washington Main Website

It’s a fairly dark comedy about a group of friends and the pains they go through finding love in their mid 20’s. But fear not! There’s also plenty of action, chases, and even a few explosions. Content-wise it’s similar to a PG-13 movie, with some mild violence and slightly-rougher-than-TV language. You’ve seen my videogame portables, now see the results of my OTHER hobby!

Enjoy!

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.