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In This Issue:
Feburary 10, 2010

• Fan Friday V-day Special
• GITRD-FF February '10
• Caught In The Net: Etsy

Check Out Our Sites!

• ALM Talkies
• Dirty Step Upstage
• Girl In The Red Dress
• Catwoman: Resolution
• The new ALMT Blog
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Welcome to ALM Talkies!

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Fan Friday Valentine's Day Special

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we are offering a limited edition custom-made CD case, made of the same red latex as the Girl's dress!

Designed and constructed by Vex Clothing, the case envelopes an autographed edition of "Disguise", the debut EP from Girl In The Red Dress. Notice how the design mirrors her corset.

The case can also double
as a stylish clutch.

For $40 (plus S&H) we are offering the limited edition red latex case and the autographed 3-song EP from GITRD, which contains a 12 panel fold out poster with lyrics. Plus we are throwing in a special 3" Dirty Step Upstage mirror button.

Please contact us to order. There are only 25, so act fast.

Girl In The Red Dress - Fan Fridays! February 2010

Hi, hello there, and welcome to the second ALM Talkies Fan Friday newsletter. Apologies for the delay, we ran into some technical difficulties, but should be on course for timely GITRD-FF from here on out.

Each month in this space we’ll showcase some of the latest contributions to the Fan Fridays project, and chat about some of the cool related stuff that we’ve seen online and elsewhere.

We want this to be a place for you to hang out and see what the talented fans of ALM Talkies are up to. But we also want it to be a friendly, supportive spot where you can make new contacts and find ideas that boost your own creativity. We’re lucky enough to have some very artistic people in the ALM Talkies fan base, and Fan Fridays is all about introducing you to each other.

And you won't go away empty handed.
Everyone whose Fan Fridays submission gets featured will receive this signed 8x10 glossy pic of the Girl, as a Thank You from ALM Talkies.

Let’s get started!

First up, check out this Girl In The Red Dress poster by Ginkgo. You might have seen it before, when Amber featured in on her MySpace page. I love the Girl’s expression, and how Ginkgo’s taken the red rose motif and really made it come alive. Check out Ginkgo’s Deviant Art page to see more of her work. Some of the images aren’t for kids, but she’s got a great eye for the female form.

The big news about this picture is that it will be for sale as a poster from the ALM Talkies store, so you can own it yourself. And Ginkgo will receive a share of the profits from the sales.

That’s another long-term goal of Fan Fridays: For you to benefit from the work you do with us. That might be from sales of certain items, like Ginkgo’s poster. Or it might be from getting involved in some of the ALM Talkies projects that we’re cooking up for the future.

We said Fan Fridays is all about introductions. That includes introducing yourself to us!

Next, Martin from White Skull Studio sent us this pic of Girl In The Red Dress in action. It’s based on a photo from the New York premiere of “Dirty Step Upstage” last October, but Martin’s painted over the jpeg image with a simple graphics program to give her a eerie, indistinct look, as if she's an apparition.

Here at ALM Talkies HQ we've sometimes referred to the Girl as a ghost,
and the picture catches a flavor of that.

And Martin also made this video clip, a fake trailer for an imaginary Girl In The Red Dress movie. Mash-ups and re-edits of video is another area we’d love to see more of in Fan Fridays, and there's a Fan Fridays YouTube channel to show off your audio-visual work. (If you can't see the clip, click here).

Finally, “What If” scenarios are great starting points for Fan Fridays.

Paul J. Gitschner used Moviestorm software to create "GRD-1" a short digital animation clip imagining what first put the idea for the Girl into Amber's mind. The basic version of Moviestorm is free if you want to experiment, so why not give it a try? (if you can't see the clip, click here).

Caught In The Net: Etsy.com

On Fan Fridays, the floor is open to any and all kinds of creative work, whether that's illustrations, photos, videos, writing, sculpture, poetry, jewellery… Anything you like.

One area I’d love to see some examples of
is Girl-related handmade items and handicrafts.

Etsy.com is an online store for handmade items that aims to "enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers."

There’s a whole community of creative folk at Etsy producing handmade items of all kinds, and some of those are inspired by fantasy characters just like the Girl.

For example, these neat chibi-style “Emo Superfriends” acrylics by JSalvador. They’re so popular that they've sold out on Etsy, but you can still see the designs here. Alittle downbeat maybe, but still fun. What phrase would an Emo-Girl In The Red Dress be saying...?

And check out JSalvador’s versions of the Droogs from “A Clockwork Orange” on the same page.

Etsy can answer questions you never thought to ask, like: why aren’t there more bath toys based on X-Men characters?

The aptly-named Only Ducks makes a hand-made Wolverine rubber duck , along with a host of other fantasy characters turned into similar creations. You won’t look at Xerxes in “300” in the same way again. Not sure that the Girl's natural spirit animal is a duck...but maybe you think differently?

 And of course, there’s Catwoman.

Or in this case, MeerKat Woman, a hand-knitted figure from Niftyknits. She’s even got the whip. You can buy other characters too, including Wolverine, Batman, Captain America, and Meerkat Locutus of Borg

Etsy is a great site to browse around, to see what people with a talent for handicrafts can do when they're inspired by strong, iconic characters. Be sure to show us any Girl-inspired handmade creations you come up with, and we'll include them here.

Your Fan Fridays Man,
Tim Hayes

Want to be the next GITRD-FF contributor?
Everything you need to know is here. Come join the fun!