Wow! Another blog in only a few days. Yes, wonders will never cease. Of course there are no guarantees that frequncy will improve quality, but it should help with the quantity.

I can't remember if I've mentioned that DW and I began the year with the usual flurry of New Year resolutions. This year, DW had the brilliant idea of watching a new movie (that is, one we hadn't seen before) every week and reading a new book each month. Well, we have now both exceeded the requisite 52 new movies for the year which is impressive given how much of the year remains, and the fact that we also watched the whole of the Buffy and Angel series, three seasons of Scrubs and the first season of Veronica Mars. We both love watching movies and ever since Princess was born we have let that part of our lives slide, so this has been a big achievement for us.

However, it has taken up a considerable amount of time. Over the last several years DW and I have been producing short films, more recently with our co-producer, Shnarelle. For nearly ten years now we have produced at least one film per year, but this year we have yet to. Trying to find time is just about the hardest thing to do these days. Over a whole weekend I rarely find two hours together to do anything that doesn't involve cleaning the house or dealing with a child. As the kids get older, I know that will change, and I am also fooling myself. I know why parents live vicariously through their children - that's all they have left.

So back to the whole filmmaking line of thought. I have lots of ideas for films and taking away all the ideas that require budgets unlikely to be approved by DW (i.e. > $8.50) it still leaves a lot of ideas. Admittedly most of them are crap but I've always operated according to the "give 'em heaps" rule - which means lots of ideas means lots of crap and eventually a good idea will creep in and probably get smothered by the crap but maybe not.

The most successful short film we made was a computer generated animation and because I did most of the work, many people who would like to be involved in the making of a film but don't really want to have to do anything, tend to say "Just make another computer animnation - only this time, make it look more like Shrek." Uh huh.

The thing is, I did enjoy making my CGI film but I also enjoy making Live-action (with actors) films. Live action takes lots of planning and rehearsals but the shooting is over fairly quickly. CGI doesn't require any actually filming but can take a lot of time - especially if you are animating on your own. And to all those people out there who aren't aware, more than one animator worked on Shrek.

So, I guess it remains to be seen as to what we are going to do this year. We have a live action script and a couple of CGI ideas. If only I could take a couple of months off work and dedicate myself to it, I'm sure we could make something fantastic, or at least as good as our previous efforts. If only I had long service leave owing...

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: Life is short. Unless you're not enjoying yourself. Then it can drag a little.