And Lo, There Shall Be An Ending

(Okay, I admit to being a comics geek as well as an Oz fan...)

I got Movie Maker working again, so the re-edited Wonders 11 should be coming soon.

And, I guess, if you haven't noticed, the Wonders series is coming to an end. Some Oz fans have responded "Why? You aren't doing anymore Oz videos?"

Well, to answer number 1, Wonders has been briefly covering history, and really, you can only do history for so long.

Another reason is that I've been doing the series for what's getting to be a year and a half, and really want to try something else.

The second question isn't so easy. While Sam Milazzo has more video ideas that I'm interested in (though he's getting into video editing himself), I have plans that kind of go outside of Oz.

I'm trying to get a handle on Adobe Flash, which is some pretty good animating software. Currently, I plan on adapting one of Baum's non-Oz fantasies for it. (This also means I can cross-post my videos on Newgrounds.com as well...)

So, there are no current plans for another stream of Oz videos.

If you remember, yes, Sam and I are working on screen adaptations of Baum's Oz stories, but we would both like to try our luck getting them optioned before deciding to make them into independent animated movies. (Though, I did note to him, the creative control would be a plus.)

Wonders 12 is currently titled "21st Century Oz," and it will cover pretty much all of the areas of the Oz phenomenon not covered in the previous eleven episodes.

After that, Sam Milazzo will be presenting a very special episode that will be covering the Land of Oz itself. He'll be onscreen and doing all of the narration, and I hope to try out some blue-screen effects to more effectively show Oz illustrations from the original books.

There are ideas floating for other special episodes, about Oz publishers, illustrators, and a very good chance that there will be one about Oz websites that Aaron Pacentine has contacted some webmasters for. (As I have no material in hand for these, the chances of production vary.) I might do some later on, we'll see. (And if anyone wants to take a shot at making an episode on their own, I'm all for it.)

Then, there's the finale coming. I'll be showing video footage of Sam, Aaron, and myself talking about making the series, and there will be a very special cover of the theme song that I got the demo for a week ago (SOME of you may have gotten it, as well), and I think it just sounds great! (So much so, I got a little excited there.)

I would love to say "You can expect all of this soon!" but I and everyone involved just do these videos and our other projects alongside of our personal lives. We all have jobs, we all have bills.

OH... and I have a very special Oz-related video project coming up, more on that when it's ready... if you haven't seen it before the time I blog about it...