Christmas, Squirrel King style

Merry Christmas one and all!

Imbibing, Squirrel King style. Alien One shows the Trouble and strife how extra-terrestrials enjoy Christmas cheer.


Stay tuned for images of a white Christmas.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Alien Nursery Shoot

Saturday's sustenance: Alien One's blueberry marshmallow man.


And once the batteries were charged, it was off to costuming!


Costuming complete, Alien One waited patiently while Alien Two delicately tended to the acorns on the nursery floor.





The Trouble and Strife called for lights ...




Tom and I checked the shot ...



The masks went on ...





... but for action, you'll just have to wait for the series.







Much later came the painstaking frame-by-frame work of stop-motioning the Alien babies to life (look carefully below and you can see one of the babies crawling out of it's crib by the top of my arm).


Where we go from here is anyone's guess, but what a way to finish the year!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The Cruel Tragedy of Life

In a cruel twist of irony, one of our own guppies took an unexpected turn.

The translation, of Alien One's eulogy (for those less familiar with "best-guess spelling"):

"Baby Spark, that's who I love. Just one fish to love."

As we've seen before though, new life follows death as surely as the sun rises. Stay tuned for images from today's shoot in which the Aliens' nursery came to life.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

The world of The Squirrel King

A forest with a river running through it ...






And fish swimming happily in the river!

The Aliens were so excited to see the world, that they went where all rivers go to celebrate after the shoot.


Alien Two stood waiting for the fish, and when they came, she shrieked with joy.




More Alien footage to be shot this weekend!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

True Recycling: Return Paper to Trees!

To reforest the world:

1) Find some paints, paint some paper and cut some cardboard trunks.






2) Give your resident Aliens scissors or a knife and have them deconstruct the paper.






3) Voila, you have leaves ... lots of them!!


4) Take the cardboard boxes you've slashed and painted in the interim.

5) Stand them and apply said leaves.

6) Keep applying leaves ....


Tomorrow we'll add some wildlife for good measure!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Sneak Peak

The Squirrels are coming!

Vivian just gave me this sneak peak. Tomorrow they arrive to meet their advance party. And by the end of the week, at least one of them will have a tail, because we're shooting a dream forest scene in which it's threatened by a malevolent cat with a knife!

Back on the ranch, Alien Two watched over the construction of sheep.




While Alien One carefully picked out the perfect potato for stamping trees with.

More soon!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

PS just a reminder that The Squirrel King is now on Facebook. Friend us there and stay abreast of updates!

Every Ten Thousand Mile Journey

They say every ten thousand mile journey has a first step.

So, I guess, every forest has a first leaf. Alien One and I are now well past the first leaf, in fact I think our tally-counter recently ticked over the fourth digit.

And every leaf needs a branch, and every branch a trunk! ... And to fill a forest you need a lot of trunks!




Meanwhile, Alien Two has been working on the life-blood of the forest: water, rivers to be specific.

The truth is every ten thousand mile journey has a three thousand two hundred and forty second step, and a three thousand two hundred and forty third step, and a .... Time to tape the blister on my thumb and get back to the trunks. For some reason I set the target at 80 trees, sounds small for a forest, but I'm getting nervous.

More soon.

Chin chin Ruthless Whims