I wanted to write a little blog about my good friend Aaron Gaffey not only because it’s his birthday today, but also to celebrate the man himself. I first met this “creepy teddy bear” (I just quoted myself having never actually said that term before) when he auditioned for my horror film, JOSHUA, back in 2003. We were really backed up and made him wait in the courtyard for hours. Then we called him back twice, put him through Hell. He got the part and we’ve been working together ever since. After JOSHUA, he took on a number of roles both on and off camera. He even helped produce my film Lo and built an entire light grid for the production. In honor of his birthday I present to you one of my favorite pieces from his acting catalogue of doom! Enjoy Aaron Gaffey as BARTOKULAR!
Bartokular: Stoned

Happy birthday and much love
Travis

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[flashvideo file=http://travisbetz.com/video/JanSvankmajer.flv width=550 height=330 frontcolor=a63054 lightcolor=bf5c7a skin=stylish image=http://travisbetz.com/video/jan-svankmeir.jpg /]

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech surrealist who makes some of the most interesting live action/stop motion blended films ever. One of my favorite works from him is a modernized version of Faust, in which a man is tormented by puppets and clay beings as he searches for the Devil in order to gain knowledge and power. This movie is responsible for a large part of my inspiration for Lo (my own feature about demons). Svankmajer also adapted a version of Alice in wonderland in which he surrounded a live action girl with an array of horrible and fascinating stop motion creatures. 

The short film above has always made me happy and is a great introduction to his style. If you enjoy this then I recommend you check out one of his feature films.

Much love

Travis

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