Intro of death

Before I get into the intro, I just want to point out that the first Bolts of Thunder video is now up in its entirety on the blog. The intro to the video and my first part were taken off youtube because of music, but I was able to get them back up, and things are good now. So click on the page to the right to see the video. Enjoy!

Ok, now lets talk intro. I've been excited to talk about this intro for a long time now. We kept the intro top secret while we were making the video because I wanted to see the looks on people's faces as they watched it at the premier. Kind of like how exhibitionists flash themselves just for the sake of getting a response. It's kind of like that. I'd say that the intro fulfilled its purpose; people had some pretty funny looks on their faces. Mostly laughing, a few confused... I had the idea for this intro back when I was in Geneva on an internship. I was there for 4 months last year, and I'd get bored sometimes just hanging out by myself. So I'd listen to my ipod all the time, especially at night when I was just hanging out. So I was listening to this album from Patti Smith, and I was half asleep. When this song came on, I got this image of the Bolts of Thunder crew as skeletons chopping people's heads off of and blowing things up. Pretty messed up, eh? But it wasn't for the sake of being violent, it was showing the world how utterly hard core we are. That's all... I started laughing pretty good, half asleep, when I thought of this, and the idea saw its way to the bitter end. That's usually how I get good ideas: I'm half asleep and my mind wanders to some weird idea. You can't force it, it just has to show up all of a sudden.

I don't remember exactly when I got the idea to have a baby alien rip out of Bolts of Thunder's chest, but I think that was another half asleep idea. I had just watched Alien, and that's what caused it. I thought of a baby alien ripping out of our chest, but it couldn't end there with a dead Bolts of Thunder and an angry alien. That's when I had the idea to have Bolts of Thunder Gone Wild rip out of the baby alien. Like I said, I wanted the intro to show just how bad-A we are. Alien doesn't rip out of our chest, we rip out of his chest!

So I started drawing the intro back in January, and I worked on it for about 7 months straight. I put more time into the intro than any other part of the video. Literally hundreds of hours of drawing. I drew each frame, and I had to redo several parts because I drew them wrong. I had to draw the alien ripping out a couple times before I got it right, and that took a long time to do. So I would work on the intro when I had a good idea for it, and I did that for about 7 months straight. In drawing and editing the intro, I wanted to make it like the intro to an action movie or cartoon or something. Like the intro to X-Men, the old cartoon, something like that with a bunch of explosions, lasers, people flying through the air, beating people up, and all that good stuff. But being Bolts of Thunder Gone Wild, I had to emphasize the gone wild aspect of the video and take it too far with the violence and all that. So that's what I did. It was fun to do though, and of course, it's all in good fun. Kids, don't try to reenact what you saw in the intro. It will cause you pain, regret, and sorry, and be costly in court fees. Actually, if you're ever able to throw a haduken, like Ken or Ryu on Street Fighter 2, go for it. But don't do the other stuff.

A last word on the intro. I'll say that it came out pretty much just like I had hoped for. Those disturbing images I suffered from back in Geneva were able to crawl their creepy little way onto the silver screen, and now you get to suffer from them as well. I'm really happy with the intro, and I think it sets a perfect tone for the rest of the video. I think it also shows the world who we are and that we are not messing around any more...