I've been meaning to give this one a propper mention. The idea is that Robert Llewellyn drives a famous person around and talks to them. You can see them all here. very interesting stuff, from the viewpoint of me being a artist who doesn;t often meet other artists. Llewellyn is extreamly good at adapting to all the various different people.

This is also wonderfully important from a documenting history point of view...think about, when these people die, this will be a slice of them talking.

NOTE: Beware there's often quite a lot of swearing and somtimes some very open crude talk...so i would say if easyly upset by that, then maybe its not for you...but I feel it is incredible to see people talk about sex.

Also, I love the music.

TWITTER = ?
TWEET = a message of 140 characters and no more
TWIBE = a group of people

So what is Twitter?...It's almost like a big massive social experiment in peoples behaviour, but then, isn’t everything?

Some people tweet what their eating or what they are about to do, some people keep it very much to just plugging their work...a sort of a constant advertising. I myself entered into it by ways of internet friends and liked to see / get news on when the radio people at simply syndicated were going to go live for a show.

Twitter is very dual purpose. It can be used to instant message each other (which some people do a lot of, and some people don’t do much of at all)

I have been so surprised about three or four times now by how it can be used to direct people to something, it can get very interesting very fast. Here’s a list, they are listed below with numbers next to them.

1) I happened to see a three hour live (very low budget) chat show that was absolutely great...just by seeing a tweet and clicking on a link. It was a Levar Burton tweet. He was a guest on the show and was tweeting about it at the time.

2) It led me to Robert Llewellyn’s Carpool show, now this thing really does have no budget and I have to add is extremely good.

3) I joined a Twibe for Cinema 4D (a Twibe is a group) (also while we’re at it, a Tweet, is a message) and then I was presumably kicked out / thrown out of the Twibe...now I don’t know why this happened, but I think it was something to do with my silly tweets on my own personal main page...nothing really to do with the group...I suspect, I was checked out by the admin and he thought I was a fool. So all of this was very self reflecting...I felt very stupid...but the thing is why shouldn't I talk freely and honestly on my personal twitter page...it's just who I am.

4) It’s led to communication with some interesting people / continues to surprise me with the people who use it.

5) If your very isolated like I am, Twitter has kind of helped to deal with the isolation. Well that’s not strictly true, I'm not what I would call truly isolated...I have interaction with my mother and father every day, I live with those two people and so that’s not true isolation. I also go to a physiotherapist / spine expert once a week for a hour, and so that again is interaction (that’s a recent thing mind you)

APOLOGIES HERE FROM ME ON WHAT IS A COMPLETE FAILING TO GET ANYTHING DONE RECENTLY

I don’t know but I think I’ve hit burn out again. And just cant seem to get into anything...the thing is I don’t ever really have holidays and so maybe I need to do that?...I know there was quite a few people annoyed that I stopped working on While They Slept to go off and start a children's picture book, but really I get so fatigued and just simply non functional (eventually) when I’m working on a animation. I did do the making of thingy though (and there is another version of that coming too).

So recently I’ve just been trying hard to do nothing, watch some films in the evening (which ridiculously I hardly ever seem to do...its ridiculous cause I really love seeing films, I love the medium to pieces)...so I’ve been enjoying that...but been getting a lot of headaches recently.

As for the future?...well who knows?...its all so stop and starty...it was looking like I might go back onto While They Slept, cause maybe that should be completed, but if I’m feeling ill maybe I shouldn’t do anything for a bit. I get really restless not doing anything though.

DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT LOOK TO THE DRAWING – THE CONFLICTED MIND CONTINUES

Have done a bit more to this drawing now. also photographed this one at night time with the angle poise lamp shining on it...which brings out the lead.

3D VS DRAWING

The craziness continues...as I explained last night to somebody, I have this terrible habit of doing multiple versions of things and then agonising over it all.

The thing is that I’m fighting a war with myself these days...the war is about me doing 3D and if I should be doing 3d or not...i have major issues with it, for reasons stated before that I feel there needs to be somthing less perfect about things.

In this case here, I actually created the 3D version first, because setting up the scene and looking through the camera is now something that’s such a big part of my entire creative process. I seem now depend on using the 3d cameras to get the compositions I want. This was drawn as I looked at the 3D one...giving me something to look at as I draw…was done pretty fast, because I seem to draw fast, and I couldn’t see the monitor very well because it was daylight...its come out very different as you can see.

I don’t think people are going to believe this, but there we go!

MOON DIRECTED BY DUNCAN JONES

The trailer can be found here. And I have to say, it's a corker!

You have to get excited when you see something that’s so well made, using miniatures, a thing that I keep going on about...but I think with good cause, because if they are well done miniatures then you will have the best special effects that will last forever (look at something like 2001...mind you, thats 70mm)

But not only this...it has one of my favourite actors too!...Mr Sam Rockwell. It's a Sci-Fi persons time to get officially excited.

I don’t know but it’s a odd thing really, I cant think of any other film that has been set on the moon...which is totally ludicrous when you think about it...oh wait no, there was Moon 44 made in 1990 by Roland Emmerich (I don’t think I’ve seen that one actually, wonder what that’s like). But yes, I find it odd that it's not something that’s been done until now.

MULITPLE VERSIONS OF THE FOREST APPROACHING THE CRASH SITE PICTURE

That whole multiple versions thing has happened again here with this!...man i get frustrated when that happens. Some mistakes here with these, but thought I'd show. I reckon the top one is the best one. That's all for today.

SAUCER CRASH SITE

Gonna have to go to bed now...I dont think this ones quite as good, i think i might have to rework the lighting. Thats all for today though.

FOREST AT NIGHT

being very much inspired by Oliver Jeffers and Marc Craste here.

MY WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE STORY

This was a odd one.

I being me...ever since the year 2000, when I discovered the apple trailers page at college (bit of a nostalgic thought there) I was instantly hooked at viewing movie trailers (it’s a wonderful place)...and so anything that looks like animation or science fiction live action...or fantasy live action...or documentary, and I'll be wanting to see the trailer straight away...anyway...I sit there watching the Where The Wild Things Are trailer...and the final thought with me is this.

“Ok, that was odd”

So a couple of weeks go past (or days) and discover through a friend of mine that it was a short story (or a kids picture book, or maybe not?) and he sends me the link to somebody reading the story with illustrations on youtube. I then bookmark it (but don’t watch it until today)

here it is...



I then, also discover that the big film discovered at apple...is, directed by Spike Jonze (bizarrely here) who directed one of my all time top two favourite films (and I’m completely serious here about that, I freaking love Adaptation)

So I’m sitting there watching this thing (the narrated illustration thing above) thinking this...

“hehe, this is pretty funny stuff...the illustrations are pretty amusing...hey, this thing is great, isn't it!”

THEN - I go back to see the trailer...because I now know what the thing is about (which makes the trailer for the feature film (if it’s a feature film?)far more interesting because I know what’s going on!...And I’m then left thinking this...

“If this is a feature film, how on earth are they going to pan this all out?...and surely this could flip either way...it could be a disaster...what amused me so much in the illustrations I think was the boys expression as he’s grinning his entire way through the story...and that’s not really here in this trailer”

Now for obvious reasons here we have to wait and see...and the movie does look nice. I hope it’s great, I really do.

THE MORE DETAILED CAR IN THE SCENE

There's still nobody in the car yet, but I couldn't resist a render anyway.

UPDATE ON THE CAR

Here we go...but is it just me or does it start to lose somthing when you start to add more detail to it?...iether that or I've just looked at it for too long.

MY PORTFOLIO SITE BEING RE DONE

Starting to re-do my portfolio web site with much emphasis on a more basic subtle and straight to the point layout.

So you can pop over and have a look there at that by clicking your mouse here.

I'm findind it very interesting placing my drawings next to my 3d work...well, interesting nad very frustrating.

BATTLE OF THE MIND

It seems that there’s three things that torture a artist (or at least a artist like me)

1) What to do with your damned web site.
2) Not being happy with any of the work you’ve done because you know its not good enough.
3) Not where you want to be

1) The web site one seems to be this reoccurring thing that surfaces from time to time...you think to yourself “yep...my web site is dull, and it has about a thousand html pages on it...surely that’s not good???”

2) The work never seems to go how you think or want it to go...sometimes your happy for a little while...but it always resurfaces in your mind that you strayed from the path...you strayed and have gone off in a different direction from what you were initially trying to do.

3) You look around at what’s going on elsewhere and it hits you.

So where do you go with all of this? You come up with a new list to combat the old list.

1) the web site really isn’t all that important, it’s the WORK BEING DISPLAYED on the web site, that’s the most important thing!...However, I do think its best to keep things simple, and I feel I’ve got too many Html pages...it may be the answer to reduce it down to THREE html pages, or even one.

2) Shut up…you gonna whinge all you life?...nobody likes a whinger Dowswell!...what you gonna do about that?...you either accept what’s been done and try and put some sort of positive-ness on it...or go crazy. Find a way to do what your after via new techniques and experimentation. And [erhaps you are simply somebody who just wont be happy with anything...perhaps its just not possible...perhaps you have to come to terms with that...and accept it.

3) Cant help you on that one...but try to understand that your making life tough on yourself...you;ve always like it tough though, haven't you?

KIDS PICTURE BOOK - SOME IDEAS

I starting thinking, that I really wanted to do a children's picture book...and so (with ideas in my head that have span ten years now) I started to move into a second stage of thinking about it. I did some drawings first, and then got frustrated and moved into 3d...I think (well I’m not sure at the moment if the final thing will be 3D or drawings...but I quite fancy maybe drawing the 3d compositions) its quite a interesting way to go about it...this being said I really quite like how the 3d stuff has turned out. I’m deliberately going for a very basic stylised look.

SOMETHING THAT GOT THE OLD BRAIN THINKING

Just listened to Episode 18 of Tom Racine’s Tall Tale Radio Podcast featuring Tom Dell’Aringa and Steve Ogden (which I highly recommend) (very interesting) Mr Ogden talks more about how studios could (and are now) looking at a graphic novels and saying “yeah we like this, this could make a great movie”

You see if you think about it, he’s absolutely correct...take something like Lost and Found...it’s a children's book that eventually got made into a film (loved that one) and now we’re seeing this Where the Wild Things Are has also been made into a big film and was also a childrens book I think.

It certainly gets the old brain thinking. I just would really like to do a story with dialogue in it.

Listening to these three talk was a real pleasure.

What’s odd is there was a stage in my life where I was heavily into comic book / novel type of things...the two big ones in my life were Tintin and Asterix (I read quite a lot of those and loved them to pieces) and I even did my own comic in about 1996 or 1997 (a guy who was into comics and was doing his own comic at art college somehow saw it and really liked it) (strange how these memories come back to you)

THESE WILL CHEER YOU UP!

I found these today, I cant stop smiling as I watch them.

NEGATIVITY OR ZERO PERCENT CONFIDENCE AND HOW ITS NOT GOOD

I recently started to bump into a very famous (or well he was very famous in seventies Britain) actor Ian McCulloch, who (very bizarrely) is one of the main characters in one of my favourite things in the universe

the post apocalyptic TV series survivors.He would visit our house quite a lot to do recordings of his songs (demo tape sort of things)

Each and every time I met him and went away from the conversation I thought to myself “oh fuck!...Michael, your so negative aren’t you!!!”...he seemed to evoke that reaction in my mind...he seems to have quite a confidence about him, or certainly a directness and a belief that what he’s doing must be sent out once its been recorded...and then he sets fourth and DOES it.

Now I really admire how direct he is too, and admire somebody who sends their work away off in the post.

And this is the part where I feel really stupid, because when you think about it...if you don’t have that belief in you that what your doing is good, then why not give up altogether?...so its really very stupid to go around saying “oh I don’t really like what I’ve done, and I don’t really want to send it anywhere” and yet...THAT, that is exactly what’s been going on for nine years now.

He genuinely wanted to see one of my films (something's that I’ve never come across before) (I've never actually met a actor now that I come to think of it) and so (my dad who isn’t shy about going on about how he did the score for Errans Alba) insists that Mr McCulloch sees that one. He sees it and seems to really like it. And then asks if its been sent anywhere, to which the answer in my head at this point is “well, I don’t really like the film and don’t really want to send it anywhere”

Eventually he seems to want to send it off to a producer he knows, and with a awkward moment in the corridor I agree to let him do this...and he’s right you know, what’s the point in it not going out there to be seen.

I think what one of my problems is, that I don’t look to what is good about the film (because there are things about it that I like a lot) and that this really means, that there is something of worth there (even if its just a couple of sequences your happy with)

BIG CONFLICT GOING ON IN MIND

Ok, so why do I feel depressed?...well it’s just that whole thing to do with the earth shattering podcast that Steve Ogden did (the one about how one person shouldn’t take on an entire animation?...you know the one?)...the reason it’s earth shattering is because it's true, it's correct...you can't really channel it out because it’s the equitable truth...the painful truth...even though my situation is nothing like Steve Ogdens, it's still insane to take it all on yourself...but, there’s much more here to what he’s saying in that podcast that moves me into the next bit of this blog entry (that shatters things further)

1) Being true to yourself as a artist / story teller.

This is the big one that I’ve been battling with since 2003...there is NO WAY I am being true to myself when I make these animations. In fact if you really take the time to think about...I’ve steered quite far away from the important things what I should not have steered away from. Yes, what I’m talking about here is, story...dialogue...and what I myself want to see created by me.

2) I can draw...and yet, I’m not drawing. Now this to me seems REALLY wrong.

This to me seems like such a waste of my talent...I mean how many people can actually draw well?...and here I am, I have this talent, and am not using it. Recently I’ve been going through my old stuff (the stuff I did when I was much younger from the nineties...the early nineties to late nineties) (I drew a lot)...here, I’ll show you some of it.





3) If I can draw, then surely this means that I should be doing that, and that it will go a lot towards a much more accurate spitting out of my mind of my ideas into physical form of my ideas. perhaps?...I would be able to do human characters and dialogue.

The not quite complete While They Slept - A Brief Making Of video. But I wanted to upload anyway. Just one of those days where I'm a bit depressed and feel the urge to upload somthing (even if it's not completed yet, I really dont care)


While They Slept - A Brief Making of from Michael J. Dowswell on Vimeo.

THE THREE ERAS OF RED DWARF, OR (IF YOU WANT TO GET MORE ACCURATE) THE EIGHT ERAS OF RED DWARF

Red Dwarf has to be the stand out show that has the biggest changes to it I’ve ever come across.

I’d like to write out about this because I feel its important or I feel I have to. Quite a few people have this terrible habit of stopping watching a thing, when I feel if they marched on with it, maybe they would gradually get into it, as it gradually changes and develops, and change and develop Red Dwarf certainly does. It also shifts into something different I feel when you go from series VI to VII...it’s major, major change in the writing style that is as big as the change from series II to III.

Series I and II stand very much on their own, for a number of reasons. The show at this stage is much like theatre and is wonderfully creative and talky. It’s very much all about Rimmer and Lister talking to each other...and with series two the cat is far more developed and he really becomes a great character too.

When you go from II to III...the show changes big time, its far more about getting out and about in small transport ships...its got grander set pieces and more elaborate Sci-Fi stories with special effects, which makes it a completely different thing...there’s no Norman Lovett, which was to many people their favourite character...a new holy is brought in played by Hattie Hayridge and Kryten is brought in played by Robert Llewellyn (but hasn’t quite developed fully at this stage) (he’s much more developed in series four, and fully developed when you get to series VI)

I love series VI, and it saddens me that people would abandon viewing after series II and never see series VI. Six is very, very polished and is one of my favourites along with series I and II. But, there are truly excellent episodes in III, IV and V. I love the first six series very much...but, I can understand the outrage of the change from II to III. And I can understand everything from the writer and film crews perspective for doing such big changes too.

Series VII and VIII I have a very hard time talking about, I loved the ace rimmer episode in VII, but these two series are extremely different again and I just cant quite make the adjustment on them...and to me the show wasn't as clever from this point on. It was far more slapstick. This is all the more reason though that people should keep watching, because maybe they would enjoy VII and VIII if they didn’t enjoy the second era (which I call III to VI).

1) series I and II
2) series III and VI
3) series VII and VIII

OR

1) series I
2) series II (cat more developed)
---------------------------
3) series III (Kryten brought, Cat even more developed and new Holy)
4) series IV and V (Kryten and Cat get more developed)
5) series VI (Kryten and Cat fully developed)
---------------------------
6) series VII (Kochanski brought into it, Rimmer leaves) (much more slapstick)
7) series VIII (Rimmer back) (again much more slapstick)
---------------------------
8) Bran new Red Dwarf arriving 2009

THE THING ABOUT BABYLON 5

I’m a big B5 fan...I would say that there’s about six eras of Babylon 5.

1. The Pilot episode
2. Series I
3. Series II to IV
4. Series V
5. The TV films (5 films)
6. The Lost Tales (which I believe was sort of meant to be a sixth series)

It varies quite a bit between these six stages which is a important thing to realise. My personal favourite (like many others) is of course series II to IV...but, V is actually really good too when you revisit it. And the first TV film that was made “Babylon 5: In the Beginning” (once your in the know about everything you need to know about the main characters)...is a truly excellent film...they really did a first rate job with that...it’s a very, very high point in Babylon 5 history and remains (to me) the best (or one of the best) they ever did. It’s just a shame that they couldn’t take that to the cinema and have a huge budget on it, but they did the best they could and it’s a great bit of story telling.

1. The pilot stands apart from the rest because the whole thing feels somewhat different, the cast is different…we have Johnny Sekka as the doctor and Tamlyn Tomita as the first officer. The makeup on some of the characters is different, and even the guns are different.

2. Series one sees Claudia Christian replace Tamlyn Tomita, and Richard Biggs replace Johnny Sekka...It’s a big change because these two are on screen a lot.

3. Very big change again as we see the main character Michael O'Hare be replaced by Bruce Boxleitner.

4. This might not be as big a change as I think it is...but, I think maybe it is though, because of the new characters you get with it.

5. The five films are, the era of the five films.

6. The Lost Tales is the era where, The Lost Tales arrived.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT MY ANIMATION SHORT FILMS PART 2 OF 3

I just want to state now that I don’t hate computer generated animations...I do like them...I have great love for Monsters.inc and Toy Story I and II...and well, for all the Pixar films...they're beautifully lit, shot and designed...not to mention great stories. To add here I've not yet seen Wall-E, so I cant comment on how the very latest thing looks.

But, when I compare the computer generated animation to the stop motion animation of Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers I just feel that the miniatures have something very special about them...and if given the choice..."What would you do Michael, if you had the money?"...they are indeed the road I would choose...you can glance through lots and lots of miniature work...2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Star Trek I, II, III, IV, VI and VII, Space Precinct, Red Dwarf, Lost Cargo, Starship Troopers...the list goes on and on. Straight off when looking at these you’ll notice how the lights look when the camera is pointed right at them. And the grain of the celluloid is another thing you’ll notice, they’re two things that I absolutely love about it.

Whats very interesting is this idea of doing a really stylised look with miniatures, two examples here from Pieter Engels and Efim Perlis' "Lost Cargo" and Gerry Andersons' "Space Precinct". Love these very much.





I'm not sure which road I would go down though, if I ever had to choose between very stylised miniatures and slightly stylised miniatures. For my CG films though I definitely try to go down the very road.

GOOGLE-ING YOURSELF, YES, I DO THIS

I found something too...a guy called Ted keeps writing about Errans Alba...you know it’s a funny thing about that film...it seems to stand separate from any of my other work, for a number of reasons...


1) It’s the only film that went into a cinema (be it a one off screening)

2) It’s the only film that had a original score written for it.

3) It’s the only film that I really pushed and went out of my way to do a major online publicity campaign for...I was so determined to really step that up and get as many people as possible to tune into it.

Now this says to me (possibly) that number three on the above list has resulted in a man called Ted probably finding it (possibly).

He seems to really like it too. And this is well...I’m just amazed to be honest. He’s gradually found the animation bits (because I uploaded it in pieces), and watched them...and seems to genuinely like it. When I discovered this I get a mixture of feelings...he doesn’t yet know that that animation has not had any work done on it in a long, long time…(that it’s one of the many projects on hold) and so I feel that I need to finish that one. But I’m focused on the current one...but the current one is (becoming bigger and bigger all the time)

But thank you Ted for the free publicity...and the very kind words.

FLAGSHIP EXPLOSION

Quite a bit of further tweaking happened to this...It's now much brighter now than before, and the infamous explosion has been really tricky for me to do...I've literally taken about four days on this.


Explosion from Michael J. Dowswell on Vimeo.