The Hundredth Hour

After finishing OldSchool Revolution, one question I seemed to get frequently was "How long did that take you?" The best info I had to offer was that I started in September and finished in December. So, beginning with Batman, I started to clock my hours on my projects, just for reference and out of curiosity.

Last night I hit the hundredth hour of work on The Girl and the Ghost. It seems really strange to have a hundred hours of work in before any voicework is even recorded. With that much time and energy put into it already, it freaks me out a bit how incredibly far from finished it is. It's already taken longer than the Sex Love and Honey music video did and it's approaching the halfway mark for how long Batman took to animate.

The main reason this one's taking so much longer is that the style is much more complex than my previous projects, both design-wise and animation-wise. The process can be (and usually is) mind-numbingly slow, but judging by the clips I have finished, it'll absolutely be worth it, so stay tuned.

In related news, I just saw that iFilm featured Sex Love and Honey again this past Friday. That gave me a nice little motivational boost.

Okay, back to work now.

Four

Today marks four years.

Miss you.

Animation and Amigos

I've been putting my nose to the grindstone and getting some great stuff done on the animated films this week.

Larry sent over a ton of dialogue for The Greatest Fan Film Ever and it sounds incredible. I've been cranking out designs and working on animation, I love what I've got so far. This thing's going to be awesome.

When I'm not working on that, I've been plugging away at The Girl and the Ghost. I lost some steam on the project for a little while there, but it's recently been revitalized in a big way. While going through some unread MySpace messages, I saw one about the Los Angeles Animation Festival. I read on to find out that their theme this year is "Ghost Story." Talk about a happy coincidence, eh? That's added some major fuel to the fire. The entry deadline is September 3rd, so now I have a date to shoot for, which helps.

To add some tasty whipped cream to this delicious sundae, it's looking as though the cast of voices is finally rounded out. I'll make an announcement here as soon as things are a little more official. For now I'll just say the cast consists of friends, old, new, and in between and I'm ecstatic about this lineup.

Speaking of friends, I just heard Chantal Kreviazuk is performing on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson this Monday night. Tune in and check it out!

"If You're Looking for Wonderful..."

Chantal swung through town on Tuesday night as she's opening for Five for Fighting on their tour. I got my tickets a while ago and was really happy when the night finally arrived to offer up some relief from the daily repetition.

It was a nice (though slightly chilly) evening as Mom, Kris, Jessi, and I headed up to the House of Blues. The upstairs wheelchair seating there doesn't allow for much of a view at all, luckily we were able to talk the usher-type guy into putting us right down by the stage. That worked out great, I had a perfect view of the stage.


Chantal sounded fantastic, even though she said her voice is bugging her so close to the end of the tour. Another familiar face joined her on stage: Kevin Fox, who I had the pleasure of meeting back in St Catharines and Windsor. Along with drummer Randy Cooke, they played Time, Spoke in Tongues, Surrounded, Feels Like Home, Wonderful, Ghosts of You, and All I Can Do, though the order may have been a little different. They all seemed to be having a blast, as was I.

Chantal told everyone she'd be signing autographs in the lobby after her set, so we went out when she finished. I got in line with everyone else and couldn't help but crack up when I got to the front and Chantal just looked at me and said "...What are you doing waiting in line?"

We chatted briefly and I headed over to the couches and waited for her signing to be over so I could give her some little early birthday gifts (her actual birthday is today). Before too long, all CDs were signed, all pictures were taken, and she came over and joined us. I gave her the gifts and we chatted for a little while. It was excellent to see her again, she's such a sweetheart and always so kind to my family and me. Eventually, she left to go rest her voice and get ready for a hectic day of traveling the next day. As she left, she stopped, grabbed something off the floor, and set it on my lap. It was a dime, she gave it to me and called it my "lucky dime". Simple and small, but it made me smile.

By the time we got back into the concert hall, Five for Fighting was already a few songs into their set and all the good vantage points were taken. I like the band, but I'm just a casual fan, so we only hung around for a couple songs and took off. It was a relatively short night, but a wonderful one.

The drive home was rainy and crazy due to the aftermath of a several-car accident caused by someone who stole a car. The freeway was closed down in both directions and our detour ended up aiming us back toward Cleveland at one point.

Once we got back on track, we all stopped for a quick bite at Denny's and headed home.

I Need a Neckwarmer

I got my hair cut on Monday. Aside from a couple little tidy-up trims, it's my first haircut in about two years. I like how I look with long hair, but it was getting to be a pain and I've been wanting to donate to Locks of Love again for a while.

Wanting to get it over with, I decided Monday was the day and headed up to Imagine Salon & Spa. I'm always nervous when it comes to haircuts, dreading a ridiculous looking do on my fat Irish head.

Before

Before long, the snipping began.

During

I'll admit, I was a little unsure of the result at the time, but it's definitely grown on me.

After

The only downside is that the back of my neck's been freezing cold. Is this how a poodle feels?

Dirty Birdies

Nope, haven't fallen of the face of the Earth, I've just been really busy lately. I've been doing double duty, working on both The Girl and the Ghost and The Greatest Fan Film of All Time (the sequel to Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face) at the same time. They're both looking great, but coming along slowly. I really need to buckle down soon and push forward on these, it's great stuff and I'm loaded with ideas for them, just running a bit low on the creative energy.

Spring's definitely hit Ohio. It's been sunny (though a bit chilly), the trees are getting their leaves, and everywhere you look, birds are doing it like rabbits. Frantic, feathered, winged rabbits.

I saw Spider-Man 3 on Friday, which was fun. It had a few parts that bothered me, but the rest sat so well with me that I didn't even care, I had a blast watching it and I thought it wrapped up the trilogy nicely.

I've been on a pretty steady diet of British entertainment lately. I saw Hot Fuzz with Jeff last weekend, which was hilarious, I watched the first season of Extras, and I finished The Office last night, which ened up blowing me away. I enjoyed watching the whole series, but as it ended and I saw how things wrapped up, it suddenly hit me how great the whole thing really was and I was sad to see it end. The bit when the microphone gets turned off was absolutely brilliant, if you've seen it, you know what I mean.

It left me really wanting to make something of that amazing quality. It's a tall, tall order, but it's something to work for.

I'm going to try to blog at least once a week, even if only to update how the projects are shaping up.

I leave you with a photo of my encounter with a giant strawberry.