As you can imagine, having a baby and a pre-schooler has been putting a serious drain on my free time. So, not too much has gotten done since last we spoke. I got a new version of my Demo Reel that has a couple of shots from the Pitch Reel. I’ve been spending more time with Anastasia, our 3-year-old, and that’s been lots of fun. She’s old enough now that she can help out with some projects, so I got her involved with what little work I’ve been able to do on the Pitch Reel.
We recorded some audio to use on the shots in my demo reel, and Anastasia went out to actor Kevin McGuire’s house with me to lay down the tracks. I ran the camera (recorded the lines on-camera because I don’t have a fancy audio setup. I usually go to a studio for this sort of thing, but thePitch Reel is being done on-the-cheap), and let Anastasia call “Action.” Though, ultimately she got sick of that and refused to say “Action!” because she felt it was a bad word, and that “Stop!” would be a nicer word to use. I convinced her that “Start!” would be more appropriate, but ended up calling the last few takes myself. Once we got what we needed, we headed home and she sat with me and helped me pick the best take. The one she picked really was the best, so I think I may have a new collaborator under my roof.
Lately she’s been helping me turn an old swivel-chair into a rig for shooting the miniatures. I have a good toy pirate ship that’s fairly large that I think will work for the air ship, but I will need to paint it to give it character and figure out if I can make mechanical propellers to sit on top of the thing and spin, or if I should attempt to do them as CG elements. I’m philosophically opposed to doing them in CG, but it may be a necessary evil. I also need to find a good miniature biplane. Tom lent me one of his kids’, but I don’t think it will work. It looks a little too toy-ish in a bad way, and I couldn’t use it with the propeller it has, and it’s his kids’ toy, so I can’t very well break it off. I found a very nice hobby shop near my day-job that has some good model planes for under $30, so I’ll probably end up getting one of those and painting it.
Also I turned 30 last week. Disney has a promotion this year where you can go into one of the parks for free on your birthday, so I took a day off life and went to the Disney Hollywood Studios to reboot. I think I saw Samuel L. Jackson entering the park at the same time as me, so that was a cool way to start the day. I had a great time, and got some much-needed relaxation. I wanted to bring a laptop so I could do some writing, but my wife put me under strict orders to just have fun and reboot. Which was wise.
I went on Star Tours (just days after Tom shot an interview with George Lucas for a documentary about Drew Struzan), and realized ole George must have forgotten that this existed, because he hasn’t marred it with his CGI crayons. And I noticed a big difference in the way it felt. Everything on screen felt real. Sure, it uses optical tricks, but everything on the screen exists (or at least existed) on the planet in tangible form, and it showed. It made everything just feel right. That is when I decided that I never want to use CG to emulate something real. CG is great for cartoons (as long as it doesn’t completely replace hand-drawn animation), but not as a tangibility substitute. Which is the root of my philosophical problems with using CG propellers.
After Star Tours, I went into the Writer’s Corner shop fully intending to obtain a bottle of Coca-Cola and indulge myself in caffeine to fuel the rest of the night. However, they a machine with red slush swirling seductively inside its chilled chambers. I could not deafen my ears to its song, and I dashed myself upon its icy rocks. Looking for a cozy place to consume my chilling concoction, I spied what is perhaps the most comfortable chair at Disney, stationed strategically next to a small televisor televising Goofy cartoons. I sat. I drank. I shivered. I smilied at animated shenanegians. And then I fell asleep. Right in the chair. In front of the TV. In the middle of the store. Right across from the counter. For about an hour. Eventually I woke up, peeled myself from the leather bed, and tried to walk out innocuously. I was almost out the door when one of the nice old ladies working the store asked me if I had a pleasant nap. I sure did.
So, Disney day aside, things have been really busy at my day job. I’ve had to start working Saturdays (yay for extra income! Boo for not having time to work on personal stuff!) I have a fairly long commute, so when I get home it tends to be rather late. I give Eva a bit of a break by hanging out with one of the kids for the rest of the evening. Then we put Anastasia to bed, which usually results in Daciana (the baby) waking up and staying awake until 1 AM. So, I hang out with her and Eva, and by the time she goes to sleep it is way too late for me to start working on stuff. So, things are proceeding slower than I would like. However, I am bonding with both my girls stronger than I have in a long time, so maybe having less time to myself is really a blessing after all.
Though I haven’t been working as much as I’d like, my fame does continue to grow. GALLERY OF DOOM, without my involvement at all, has been invited to screen at the Screen4 Shorts festival in England this summer! Also, it continues to tour with Heather Henson’s Handmade Puppet Dreams for Kids. It will screen on April 26th at the Newport Beach Film Festival, which it looks like Kevin and I will be attending, then again at the Del Ray Beach Film Festival on May 25th. Hope to see you there!