Fire-Wired Blog

We did it. For the first time, Tiny Explosions took our circus on the road and participated in the Kansas City 48 Hour Film Project . While we didn’t make our film in KC, a small crew of Exploders did attend the kickoff and screening. What did we create? “Jelly Jar Man.” Jelly Jar Man is a bit of an anomaly. First of, it was the only idea pitched . Brian brought it up in the car after kick-off –a bizarre childhood boogeyman/invisible friend named the Jelly Jar Man returns to get revenge on the kid he used to terrify– and I said “Absolutely. Say no more, we’re making that.” We drove to the KC Costco, bought a bunch of jelly, filmed one shot on a KC landmark that we didn’t end up including, and wrote the full film on the drive home. No writing party, no brainstorm, no whittling down of ideas. We simply took the first idea and did it. Beyond that everything else is the regular serving of absurdity. We pulled Revenge & Comedy as our genre options and decided to make both. Jelly Jar Man...

Tiny Explosions 2025 Horror 48 film "Jeff" (which screened as Decafitation) was a big winner. In a surprise turn it won't Best Film Runner-up and Best Director . having seen all the films in the competition, I thought we maybe had a chance at third place. I never know how these things are going go. I should not even attempt to guess and spare others the hype. Either way, very proud of our team and the weird, disturbing film we produced. Now winning Best Director, this is actually the fourth time we've won this award out the last five competitions . I'm quite humbled. There is no artist I revere more than feature film directors. To have my work as a director recognized with an award at any level is wonderful. When we first received this prize for Wheel of Death in 2023 I accepted the prize by saying the film was not my work but a team of artists who carried the project to that moment. I meant it, but not just for Wheel but every film we produce. Whether they ...

First things first, Junk Mail is out and available for home streaming ! Go watch it with your kids and then awkwardly explain the main conceit. Or don’t… but if you do, know that is exactly what happened at the official 48 screenings. We laughed a very meta laugh. 2025 DSM 48HFP has been something special. Spoiler alert, we won Best of City for the second time , took home Best Directing for the 3rd time, BEST ENSEMBLE for the first time (lots of thoughts on this), and audience award for Group C. The hardware this year was also super cool. It should be mentioned Chris Kottman, new DSM 48 City Producer, nailed the assignment. Were there differences from a Sam 48, certainly but nothing to complain about. I can’t wait to see what Chris comes up with. The important parts are the big screen showings are still in place and the Best of City felt like a serious event for the people who are invested in 48. So Junk Mail, when we were announced as Best Film of the competition I was surprised of co...

For the last couple years, in the hours before the 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines kicks off I've spent too much time thinking about how the next two days will be a wild mystery that produces a fully unknown film . Our 2024 film is a perfect illustration of this, I mean who would pre-plan to make a movie about a secret plot to force the dissolution of a homeowners association. And now nearly a month later, I get to break down the ridiculous short "Defund the HOA." Those who know Brian Hogan, know he is something of a collector of the nostalgic and peculiar. Somewhere along the line he purchased a flag that states "Defund the HOA." During our regular 48 brainstorm, this flag was brought up and the all other ideas were out the window. Given our penchant for ensemble pieces a plot formed about an HOA board and a terrorist-like threat. Just reeking in Tiny Explosions trademark of demented flair. Production and editing went smooth, the result is probably our best p...

On set of "Essential Essence." Tiny Explosions did something we have never done before; we pre-planned an important element of our 48 Hour Film Project film. I am a bit of a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to the rules. I don't care if it is a month, week, or hours before the kickoff- if you have an idea for our film, keep it in your head. Does that box have a logo on it? We need a different box. Can you see that Kohl's signage in the shot? We need to reframe. In fact, I get rather cranky when other teams break the rules and pre-write their film. What's the point of 48 if not for the constraints? Still, we kind of massaged the rules a bit in that we made puppets.  For as long as I can remember, my family has watched the "Muppet Family Christmas" on or around Christmas Eve. It originally aired in December 1987 and I still watch the original recording my parents made on VHS. It is one of my favorite things; the songs, all the Henson characters, the gags, th...

Making "Elf Off the Shelf," photo by Erin Hogan. I love the experience of watching something great. It could be film, TV, a stage play, live music, and many other arts, that feeling of you and a piece of art meeting for the first time is exquisite. There's only a couple things that top it, one is actually creating that art. When I discovered the real power of movies around 13 or 14, I think I watched my favorites on a loop. I would toss in new discoveries here and there, and it quickly grew into an obsession. But then a funny thing happened, I borrowed a camera from my media production classes in high school and one Sunday afternoon my friends and I made a mockumentary mixing skate culture and free-style walking called " Midwest Money Money. " This rush was similar to watching movies but the intensity was jacked to the nines and I carried that feeling for weeks. I showed our film to everyone and anyone who would sit in front of a screen with me. The filmmaking ...

No, that title is not a typo, Tiny Explosions transformed into Tiny Possessions this month to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines Horror and things did not go as planned. Sam Pace-Tuomi hosting Screening Group A. Our filmmaking weekend started pretty normally. Friday night kickoff, brainstorm, and writing session. Around 10:30 we broke all set to make a film called "Death Wizard," then Saturday morning about 2am I woke up to a screaming child who didn't want to tell us why she was up but didn't want to go to sleep, so we watched cartoons for 10 minutes and she ran off and started to cry. Meanwhile, I was just feeling dizzy, lethargic, and had a sore throat. Next thing I know I'm running to the only 24 hour Walgreens left in Des Moines to get kids ibuprofen and I get back to sleep around 5am. Kiddo number two wakes me up at 7am and I am a big ball of yuck. I told the squad I was out, Tiny Possessions crumpled like a wet shirt, and Death Wizard vanis...

After participating in the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project for 11 years, Tiny Explosions has won the big prize; Best of Des Moines . This was an absolute shock, for everyone on the team.  I think we all have gotten used to attending Best of City just to see our film on the big screen one more time. To see our film called as the big winner knocked us all out. There were legit WTFs flying and tears falling. Our 2022 submission "The Run" is in no way a traditional award winner of any sort. It is a broad comedy that relies on body humor that frequently gets associated with middle schoolers, with some moments that will seriously make your brow furrow, turn your head, and ask the open air "What the hell did I just watch?" And I love it. See what I mean? I am pretty proud of the edit, the look, the performances, but for this story to take home any prizes is surprising. The top prize? Just typing that makes me shake my head and wonder if there was a ballot counting error...

One month ago Tiny Explosions made it's 10th 48 Hour Film Project, The Special. Good times were had and here is said film. For the third time in our ten year run, a Tiny Explosions film did not make Best of City and you know what, I was totally cool with it. Why? Because for the last four months my life has been a blur of packing, moving, work, unpacking, and parenting two silly little girls. I've been so busy I was barely able to carve out time for 48. Our old house closed the day 48 kicked off and our new house closed the day The Special screened. I love 48 but the timing this year ended up being counter to practically every responsibility in my life. I barely managed to carve out time to write, shoot, and edit. Our film was written in one hour, filmed in five hours, and edited in eight. In May, I had all these plans for camera tricks I wanted to try, goals I had set for this year's film, and hopes for it's post-48 life. As soon as we accepted an offer on our house I...

 Here it is, Tiny Explosions best (?) film yet, El Engaño! Made as part of the pandemic version of the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project 2020, I am really proud of this film . It's the best shot film we've made, it is paced really well, there's no over-the-top acting, no gross out humor, it is a stand alone story not a sketch, it has actual visual effects (an explosion...), And oh yeah, it won the award for best editing. Plus I was told it was the runner up audience award for our screening group, always cool. It was nice to win an award that I felt the film was worthy of , and truth be told, this online release is an even better edit on all accounts. To repeat my annual refrain, these awards are almost always mystifying and quasi-meaningless outside of winning it all. And once again there are some head scratchers in the final awards. One difference this year is 48HFP shared their scoring criteria: Artistic Merit 45%, Technical Merit 30%, and Adherence to the Assignment 25% . ...

If there is any silver lining to the crisis that is Covid-19, it is the creativity is running wild. I am one of the lucky multimedia people out there; I have a job, I am essential, and I have a lot of work to do. Still I'm trapped at home most of the time and have many hours to fill. So sure I've watched my fair share of streaming TV and movies, but what works better at passing the time than watching? Making! Week one: make a short featuring two lines of dialogue. One from a classic film, another from 48 years past. There are a LOT of quarantine film challenges going around right now. Locally,  Iowa has a local weekly cellphone film challenge and internationally, the 48 Hour Film Project created a variation of their theme called " Stuck at Home 48 ." With the Tiny Explosions crew more or less trapped in their houses, we decided to hop on the bandwagon with more than 1,800 filmmaking teams worldwide.  Two weekends in, we've had a blast ...

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would allow me the distinct pleasure to present you; the eighth 48 Hour Film Project short to be released under the Tiny Explosions banner... red flag . Assuming you watched the film, red flag is easily the most Tiny Explosions-y film of our nine years working together as a crew (nine years in the event, but eighth T.E. film because the engine of our 2012 crew was a good deal of the creative juice behind a 2011 film "Side Effects," by Team Mystery Box) . For an explanation of why red flag is basically Tiny Explosions plutonium look no further than; our ensemble of actors, absurd characters, producing ridiculous things for the movie screen, tons of big laughs, some truly gross out moments, improv style comedy, characters sitting and talking, and Brian Hogan willing to do something spit-take worthy for the greater good. No need to rehash my feelings on 48HFP awards  or how films like ours get handled by judges. So I'll skip over...