Getting Unstuck (Hopefully)

Well, would you look at that?  It's been forever since I last sat down and really wrote anything in this blog.  I'm well aware that it's not the first time this has happened and I always say I mean to write more.  And I do.  I really mean to write, I want to.  The thing is, life has been crazy for a while now.  Honestly, it's been a very extended stressful period and personally, I haven't felt like writing about all the chaos going on.  When you're living in craziness, living it is enough, you don't necessarily want to write about it too.  At least that's how it is for me.  I know a lot of people are able to take turmoil and shape it into their creative outlets and create something good from it, but that hasn't been the case for me. I tend to get overwhelmed and it creates a creative block.  Frustratingly, this applies to both my blog and my other creative outlets.  I've done a few small art projects here and there, but the animation front has been extremely slow for a while.  It's not for lack of desire, I've been wanting to make something, but the spark just hasn't been there.  I've been aware of it and trying to overcome it, but it's easier said than done.

Even though I haven't really done any animation in quite some time, something I worked on was recently released and I can't say enough how proud I am to be part of the project.  A few years ago, America Young asked me to do a tiny bit of animation for a movie she was making.  America is one of those people who is so fantastic on every level, I'll jump at the chance to help her out in any way I can, so of course I did just that.
A couple months ago, The Concessionaires Must Die! was finally released into the world.  It's currently available pretty much anywhere you might find yourself digitally purchasing a movie.  ITunes, Amazon, Xbox...  Have a look and you should be able to find it!
It's good, heartfelt, nerdy fun and I'm so happy I got to have even the tiniest hand in bringing it to life.  Seek it out, take a look, enjoy, and when you see those dancing snacks, well, you'll know that that was my little contribution.

While things have been slow and difficult on the creative front for a while now, I feel like the tide is beginning to turn in unexpected and potentially exciting ways.  Over the past few months, ideas have been beginning to spark.  New ideas that range across several different, tones, intended audiences, and types of media.  It feels strange that after spending so many years primarily focusing on animated projects, nothing I'm doing right now has anything to do with animation whatsoever.  Though strange, the change is nice.  I feel like I'm suddenly working with a much broader canvas.

I don't want to prematurely go into too much detail regarding the things I'm working on, but I will say this- while one of the projects is still heavily centered on me creating visual art, the others, so far, have had me focused on writing.  I haven't actively written a story since I wrote The Girl and the Ghost.  The shift has been a bit bizarre, but honestly, I've been loving it.  I don't think I've ever experienced something like this where the story has just been pouring out of me and all I can do is try to keep up with the words.  I really feel like something special might be happening right now and I can't wait to share it.

So, yes, that's where things stand right now.  It's a short blog post and I don't have much to show at the moment, but after a long drought, I feel like new, hopefully good things should be coming to light in the not too distant future.

Fingers crossed.

Time, Frames, and Time Frames

Funny to think that one year ago our basement was subaqueous. It really seems like all of that happened ages and ages ago. Why does this year seem to be dragging along? Maybe because I've kept consistently busy, though I'd think that would make time fly by.

Busy is how The Girl and the Ghost has been keeping me. I had a period of a couple weeks where my creativity put up the "Gone fishin'" sign, but I'm back in business. More voice work is on its way from afar and I'm a big mix of nerves and excitement to finally hear it. The animation's looking great, though I'm starting to doubt I'll have it ready by the Los Angeles Animation Festival. I'm not going to sacrifice the quality of it just to submit it to one festival, I'm still going to try my best though, we'll see.

This week has been fairly interesting, as I've done most of my animating while under the influence of Benadryl, thanks to an annoying allergy uprising. It gets the job done wonderfully, but the drowsy factor can be a tricky thing. I'm surprised how well I've managed to work through it, it's like the drowsiness doubles as an automatic-animation-mode and before I know it, hours (and a depressingly low number of frames) have passed.

I passed the 300 hour mark today.

Back to work. Full steam ahead. Kick the tires and light the fires. Go Team Venture!

Odds and Ends- Ghosts, Batman, and Ric Flair

Seems I've suddenly got a surge of creative energy as of late. I've now got two new animated projects on my plate. Currently, I'm tweaking one I'm writing on my own, tentatively titled The Girl and the Ghost. It's just a weird little ghost story I came up with that actually loosely ties in with an older script of mine.

The other project lined up is...brace yourself...an unofficial sequel to Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face. It's gonna be crazy, nerdy, and a sight to behold. We've got some wild stuff lined up for it, just wait and see.

I recently did a tiny bit of animation for a skit Aaron was working on. Well, that skit's now finished and online, so check out WOO! and prepare yourselves for this random ode to wrestling legend Ric Flair.

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2827436

And now I'll be quoting a bit of insanely cool news from Larry's blog:

I was on page 12 last night when I told Jake (our animator) that I hadn't checked my bullcrank.com email in weeks and that I was about to. I opened it and flipped out. There was an e-mail from Mark Ordesky, the Vice President of New Line Cinema and executive producer of Lord of the Rings. If you remember or have read the other blogs, you know that Aaron and I met him in LA and that he's been a fan of our stuff ever since.

He had seen "Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face" and "The Losers Have a Junkyard" upon returning from the UK where he was working on Nicole Kidman's "Golden Compass" trilogy. He loved both, as well as "Nintendo: Oldschool Revolution" and "Blow Pop" and he asked me to send every short film I do to his office from now on on DVD. Also, he reminded me that he's waiting to read the script to our feature film. Here I am with the damn second draft open in front of me and I'm so amazingly happy with it and I get an e-mail from Ordesky reminding me that he wants a copy right away. I flipped out. I didn't even read the other emails until a few minutes later.

While reading the other emails I spotted one from a college student in Texas. He asked permission to show "Nintendo: Oldschool Revolution" locally and on Time Warner Cable. I said of course he could as long as he credited Jake, myself, and Bullcrank.com

How's that for awesome?

You might notice (but probably not) that I've played with the site's layout a little bit. Only the sidebar really. Now links to my various projects are more easily available just under my little bio box to the right. Below that, you'll find my recent ramblings, then links to my stuff and friends' websites, and finally, the blog archives. I think it's a bit more user friendly, let me know if you think otherwise.

It's looking like spring is finally in the air. The sun's out, it's warm(er), and the snow is melting rapidly. I even heard birds on a couple mornings this week. I did some running around to stores with Mom yesterday and barely even had to bundle up, it was nice. I may head out with Jeff tonight to see 300.

It's nice knowing summer's not that far off.

I'm Feeling It

It's been snowing like crazy here for the past week. Maybe longer. It had been a virtually snowless and very mild winter up until recently. I guess the Snow Miser was saving it up to just bombard us, the frost-bitten little creep.



As a result of the nasty weather, I've remained cooped up in the house and not too thrilled about it. I'm itching to get out and do something, but alas, there's not much to do around here. I'm going stir-crazy. As soon as the snow lets up, I need to go see Pan's Labyrinth. I've been waiting for ages to check it out and it's finally showing at the local theater, likely thanks to all of its Oscar nominations.

One fortunate byproduct of my cabin fever is that I've been feeling really creative these last few days. I've been writing (first time in a while) and I've done some computer art, or as I call them, cyber paintings. I'll post one or two of them as soon as I decide whether or not they're finished. On top of that, it looks as though I'm helping Larry and the guys out with a few seconds of animation for an upcoming short film. More on that as it progresses.

It feels nice to be productive.

Expect more cool news later today. Possibly tomorrow. Definitely sometime this week.

2006: The Year it Hit the Fan. Again. Hard.

Tonight, we find ourselves on the eve of 2007. All I can say is "it's about time."

I don't mean to be a downer, but I'm so happy to see 2006 go. I'm not saying nothing good has happened this year, but it sure has seemed everything good has come with a complimentary kick to the groin.

Behold.

The year started with the premier and surprisingly large success of Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution, but also with having to pay for repairs to my dear old iBook.

I spent a lot of time being creative and working on films, but ended up losing touch with friends, sometimes for months at a time, as everyone got caught up in their own lives.

I finished my work on Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face and our TV died after only 5 years.

I saw the fantastic final cut of Batman and the flood hit.

I went to Niagara Falls for my birthday and my iBook died. Again.

I caved in and bought a shiny new MacBook. Four months later, it had a drink and left me with the bill.

I went to Canada and had an amazing time with Chantal Kreviazuk & Raine Maida, but I was miserably sick the whole time.

My favorite holiday of the year, Christmas, came along and my brother had a nasty run in with some drunken, cowardly, lowlife thugs.

See what I mean?

2006 has left me drained, but I have high hopes for 2007. I'm going into the year working on a big, great project which will soon be revealed. It'll be followed up by more excellent projects, including helping Larry out on the upcoming sequel to Zombies in My Neighborhood.

Here's to a fantastic 2007 for everyone, filled with love, happiness, and success. Adios '06, see you in the funny papers.

The Dance of Creativity

It's come to my attention over the past few days that creativity controls you, not the other way around.

I've been sitting here with my trusty ol' iBook trying to force my brain into screenwriting mode. I have a lot of the groundwork laid for this script. I love the idea and think the finished product could be amazing. I've been playing with this story in various forms for a long time and I'm really eager to deliver this baby. There are just a few patches that need smoothed and a few gaps that need filled.

So, I sit here trying to get it going, get the story to flow from my fingers. I start typing and what comes out?

Poems.

I've written three poems this week so far. I'm not complaining, I really like two of them and the third one's not bad, I'm just saying creativity doesn't always cooperate. But hey, as long as it's giving me something, I'm happy.

Batman News and Other Updates

Hey gang, got some cool news! Last Thursday, I saw the finished version of Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face. I'm gonna be honest and I hope I don't sound too cocky, but this is going to blow Revolution out of the water. I'm extremely proud of how it turned out and I'm hoping everyone else enjoys it too.
Larry's talking about doing a premier for Batman and his new short film, The Losers Have a Junkyard. There aren't any details on the premier yet, but for now, you can view new trailers for both films over at Bullcrank.com

I also have to mention that late Friday night, Nintendo: OldSchool Revolution passed 400,000 views at iFilm and it's still going strong! It's like the little cartoon that could.

So, I've now been done animating Batman for almost two weeks. I'm definitely enjoying the break, but I'll admit, it's pretty weird not having a project waiting for me every day. After the initial aimlessness of the first couple days post-Batman, I haven't had much trouble finding ways to keep myself busy. I've actually been working on quite a few projects and hobbies. So far I've...

• Started rewriting a script of mine.

• Resumed reading Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors.

• Gotten roped into Monopoly madness with Mikey, Brendan, and Corey.

• Created some new artwork.

So, yeah, I'm keeping my hands full, but looking forward to the next big project.
Closing thoughts for now: Go see Clerks II, it's great. And while you're at it, see Superman Returns. That movie's amazing and beautiful and deserves more love from the moviegoing public.