THE KORG SHOULD BE USED AND I DO WANT TO USE IT

I'm closer I think, to doing some experiments with the Korg, but also recording other instruments and then manipulating the sound files / slowing it down etc. I will be experimenting with guitar, that can be confirmed.

As you can see here it's a beautiful, beautiful piece of equipment, and I’m blown away by how good the sound is on it...it's really seventies synthy sounding.

THINGS THAT COME BACK TO YOU IN YOUR MEMORY PART 3 OF 7

Passing the driving test.

Yep, well you knew this was coming and had to make it onto the list didn’t you?...I actually remember bits of this day very clearly. I remember being extremely nervous, having to go into the Driving test centre (which seemed be like a freakin maze of tight corridors and doors...once you had turned three rights one left, one right and two more lefts...and gone past the chicken soup machine...I was told to sit down and wait in this tiny, tiny sort of hallway that I wouldn’t even really classify as a waiting room, another very nervous person was also there...they seemed friendly, then, two driving examiners appeared...then, I was asked to lead the way to my vehical...so, there’s basically three people behind me at this point, I got completely lost and lead them straight into a cupboard...this was rather embarrassing...but pretty funny.

I finally sit the test, and am really very nervous at this stage...and miraculously, and I’ll never be able to understand this one...PASS the test first time...THEN, the driving instructor gets out of the car and bashes his head on the way out of the vehicle.

THE INSPIRATION FOR MY COLOURS ON THE CURRENT FILM

I really have no secret to hide here on this...the two images below are what did it for me. Such wonderful colour work, that I was very inspired to and had to do a film in colour...I was compelled to. However I think when you film these colours with a real camera on celluloid with real lights...they really show up much better.

STUBBORNNESS AND DETERMINATION POSSIBLY BEING EITHER A VERY GOOD COMBINATION OR VERY BAD

I cant help but think here about well...my parents, and how both of them are very, very stubborn and determined people...and this has led to well, its led to me and my sister turning out to be very, very stubborn and determined people. Now, one side of this I say to myself...If I wasn't this way then I wouldn’t have completed any films at all...or even be doing them you know?...that’s the determination part...and the determination part is very, very good...but on the other side of this thing...I’m damned stubborn...and this means that it takes a long time to get what I want...now that’s either... good or bad.

DEFINITELY FRUSTRATION

This last interior (the second one, and previous blog post) set is really not acceptable to me...so I have been working on a third attempt...there’s still a lot of frustration on this though…I cant seem to get what I have in my head out of there and into the 3d software...I feel I’m slightly closer to what I want...but I feel I’m just not quite there on it...

TAKEN OUT A LIGHT AND SOME DETAILS

It's a common saying in art, that everybody knows or everybody should know, that "less is more"...but at the same time in every director, there should be a nagging thing constantly going on in your head saying "put more detail in this" and "theres not enough detail in this".

I've taken out a light and some details and I think it looks better.

SECOND ATTEMPT

This is the new replacement set for the interior that I wasn't happy with. I'm not sure how I can get some of the shots to work on this without the big window I had in the first set. It may change again knowing me.

REMAKES OR REAPPEARING CHARACTERS

I have a thing about remakes and discovering how many times a thing has been remade...or how many times a character has appeared across the whole of cinema and television.

Jesus Christ

A possible 273 actors have starred as Jesus. Now I dont know how many films have focused on the biopic elements, but i suspect it's a lot. lot of TV stuff mind you too.

Adolf Hitler
A possible 243 actors have starred as Hitler.

Merlin
A possibly 147 actors have played Merlin

Oliver Twist
11 times for cinema (I think)
11 times for TV

Sweeney Todd
4 times for Cinema
5 times for TV

INAUGURATION DAY

This was a incredible day for me...very hard to explain without making a very long post here but here we go.

I hope it doesn’t read that I’m a lunatic...but, well, it's a big thing when I have to drive into town...which is what we did on this 20th January...which also happened to be Inauguration day for Mr Obama.

Unexpected drive out into town I add here. My mum wanted to get her pension photo done and to do some shopping...so off we went...I know I keep bringing this up like some sort of a stuck record, but I hadn’t been out of the house in a very long time (again) and its quite amazing to go out into a populated place when you haven't for such a long time...mind you, I didn’t bump into any shitty people this time round, so maybe that was part of the reason why it was so enjoyable.

I’m just looking at the calendar and it looks like I haven't been out of the studio in five weeks. When I got there to the town, it was of course...new faces of people you dont know...it's really very interesting...difficult to explain...very new is the best way I think I can explain it...but also somewhat makes me feel like a fish out of water...I tend to probably not blend in...in fact I know I don’t blend in...because my behaviour is probably pretty odd on these journeys out there...I tend to look at a lot of things...architecture, peoples faces...I saw tree army men...one of them looked very friendly and happy, non threatening to be exact...then there was a lone policeman who looked a bit nervous and was kitted out with a heck of a lot of modern day gadgets on his uniform...(looked pretty cool)...and some lovely looking women...I really probably shouldn’t look at the women so much but I cant help it.

RETROSPECT: It's only when you get back home and start to think about it that you realise you maybe stared at the women in the bank sitting behind the glass too much...but, I hadn't seen one in five weeks, and they are after all the most beautiful creatures on the planet...but that woman that I passed on the street...she was looking at me way before I glanced at her...she also had a very intriguing expression on her face.

We went to a lot of places...this really old very interesting building that felt like something out of a post apocalyptic TV series, a Polaroid camera was used to take a photo of my mother...a huge Polaroid camera...I have to say that uncontrollable feelings took me over... the photo they have taken is really hilarious. I’m sorry about that mum.

We then go to a shoe shop...like a old fashioned shoe shop...there’s a really nice smell and the inside of the shoe shop feels very old fashioned...this again was very nice.

And while walking around these places (of which we went to a few of)...I couldn't help but feel that the people who run these shops are the type of people who might get excited about Fridays...or Friday at five PM...they might be or might not be the type of people who ask you if you have any plans for the weekend...they also might be the type of people who complain about Mondays...and honestly, seem to have a weight about them...and I have to say, it makes me feel sad...you can see there’s a weight of the nine to five job about their person... that they have to do because they have no choice...

"Everything comes at a price"
--Unknown

...Maybe though, the question about what plans have you for the weekend is just something people ask because they are trying to 1) Start up a conversation 2) Showing a interest in your life 3) Don't know what else to say

But why do I get a bit tetchy about that particular question?...this one and also "have a good weekend"...I shouldn't but I do...and it's a good question as to why I get miffed...my weekend is exactly the same as my week days...I never plan anything...I've never planned anything in my life ever...but...they dont know that though...and, it's a positive thing being said to me too that I shouldn't respond in a negative way to...so I shouldn't be upset about this...and... it is after all entirely my own fault that I do the same thing seven days a week.

I'm either jealous of the people who have their independence, having money, going out for meals, going out to the cinema, going out to the pub, having a girlfriend, having a wife, having their own house...and maybe upset that they have striked at the root of one of my problems...that there should be more to me than just sitting in front of a screen animating away (mind you, that’s not strictly true, I do try to exercise, talk to my parents and watch films / tv series / write / talk to people on the internet) but of course there’s a bit more to life than this...and I don’t seem to work towards building that life...or maybe I am, and it's just going to take a long time. But here we strike on another important topic...time, there’s not much of it...dear heavens, it's going fast.

I'm not living in a war zone though, I'm not homeless in the cold...and have food and a bed...and am happy about that...I have no right to complain.

Then came disaster, as we were walking back to the car...my mother falls off a double curve pavement into the gutter...into a big fairly deep puddle. She cuts her knee and is also covered in mud. The weather during this entire day was really nasty, the rain was like ice water being thrown at you, but also pretty cold wind.

We then bumped into two people we knew whilst doing the shopping at Tescos...one of which is the dude who has sent my film off to a film producer...I said some things in there about how I have problems with feeling that my films just aren’t good enough to be sent off out into the world and lord knows what he thought. What’s coming up next is the inauguration of the new president which ties in with this mess.


We get back home and unload the car...and eventually decide to watch the inauguration...which was a really interesting and at times a lovely thing, that I have to say surprised me.

The American optimism amazes me...there is a LOT to be said about this optimism...and really they should capture some in a tube syringe, and inject it into me, cause boy oh boy...I could do with some of that stuff!...
I hate to do this...but we are of course talking about me and my ability to hide my films from the world (not the online world, but from the film industry itself)

I must try to be more positive in my life….to try harder at not giving up so readily...but, at the same time I’ve always felt to be somewhat of a realist…when I might be misunderstood and targeted as being negative...because I’ve spotted that there definitely is confusion with some people in the world who can sometimes think that being realistic is being negative...it isn’t though, its being realistic...I want and know that my films would be much better and could be much better if they were done with miniatures.

TOP FOUR FAVOURITE POST APOCALYPTIC TV SERIES

I have to give these shows a quick mention...they’re all really great in my opinion.

Survivors (1975-1977)

Honestly think this is my favourite post apocalyptic series. First time I saw this it really sunk into my mind and I remember having a nightmare or two...it really got the old brain thinking a lot. Great characters and very well made series.

The Day of the Triffids (1981)

Just saw this recently, and really liked it a lot, very well made...if you like the 1975 Survivors you will also like this....because to be honest here, it's very simalar...there really isn't much in the way of the plants attacking people here...but you know, it does pop up every now and again.

Jericho (2006)

Jericho gets better and better as you watch it. It's got a nice balance with lots of different genres going on and is never dull...likable characters.

The Day After (1983)

This one's the full on serious one, thats really quite intence. Very well made though with the realism...it shows what would happen if you were caught in the fallout areas of the nuclear bombs.

MORE POST APOCALYPTIC TV SHOWS THAT I WILL PROBABLY CHECK OUT

I do want to check out a whole bunch more...The Stand and Jeremiah possibly being the two I would seek out, but I have no idea what those two are actually like.

Lord knows when I’ll get to see these two.

YOU GOTTO CHECK OUT THIS ANT VIDEO

Just been sent this youtube by a friend...pretty amazing video...

THINGS THAT COME BACK TO YOU IN YOUR MEMORY PART 2 OF 7

A memory that’s been keeping up the old surfacing to current thought...is this one of me at art school, in 1997...I’m sat there in the figure life room with lots of artists easels during a class, and I cant remember exactly what it was we were painting...but the lecturer for this class suddenly turns to me, and has this sort of odd manner about his voice...and simply says...“is this your handwriting?” he seemed to be very taken by it...or it interesting him in some way...and a niggling regret of mine is, that I don’t think (or at least I cant remember) I ever asked him back, what had got him so interested about it. I was only sixteen or seventeen though at the time. But, I sure would like to know why he said that.

All I really remember is the question and the look on his face...I mean honestly, it was almost a bit like he'd seen a ghost from what I can remember, the feeling at the time, which is now inside my head, processed, into my late twenties mind.

If we could go back in time here to this moment, and I'm now a far more direct person...I would certainly ask what it was all about.

Recently a friend commented on my handwriting saying it was very neat. and i think I'm going to remember that too.

THINGS THAT COME BACK TO YOU IN YOUR MEMORY PART 1 OF 7

Playing with my Lego.

Now, this is only something that I’ve suddenly realised as a person going into my late twenties, but, as a kid...well ok...I have to give you some back story here about my life. We lived in Edinburgh until I was eight years old with my sister, who would be seventeen or eighteen at this point, she was given the choice of staying in Edinburgh or coming with us to Dumfries. She decided to stay there and so really, and I have to add here, I don’t remember much about under the age of eight...heck, I don’t remember much in-between the age of eight and sixteen to be honest here...but, I do remember much, much more in that time than below eight time. Anyway so, this kind of made me a only child and, only recently I’ve had this memory of me playing with my lego a lot.

There’s even this memory of a competition I took part in where you had to build your own custom Lego something...and well I had this odd big tub of lots of lego that...well it was never anything too grand I think in this box...some of it quite old stuff. But I think I won first place at this competition and got this really lovely Lego harbour police station with a really cool boat.

I LOVED that Lego harbour police station...What’s odd here is that, now that I’m much older (and having found out I wanted to be a director at about age twenty one)...I'm now at age twenty seven with quite a few animations done... I find myself thinking back to this and how I was directing things even as a kid. But without any thought...all very instinctive...that's how I seemed to become a director too, it just happened. But I remember doing this very thing...boat chases and a story telling that is possibly much better than what I do nowdays. All privately in your bedroom...a bit like theatre really when you think about it...only...not really like a theatre at all...because there was never a audience watching...but what I mean by this is, it was never recorded in any way.

And it makes me feel / realise, that I seemed to have always, been a very introverted person, even to this day.

BATTLE AT KRUGER - WORDS FAIL ME

...if you’ve not seen this already, I don’t want to tell you what happens, but it’s one of the most amazing videos you’ll ever see.

WORMS NOSTALGIA PART 1 OF 2

Ok, now when something really nostalgic comes along, I’m always surprised and transported back in time with flashback moments of when I was young. We had the first Worms game in 1995 for the commodore Amiga and loved it to pieces. So when I came across the theme tune below here, well, I was really happy.