OMG Stanley, they’re ruining your films...(Warner better release open matte versions or this is BAD)

I really hope this isn’t true...but I’ve read that new HD DVD of The Shining is going to be released in 16:9 widescreen and not the open matte 4:3...This is a complete outrage, and for people like me who are use to viewing it in 4:3 to trim the top and bottom off upsets me...wiether Kubrick himself wanted it this way or not nobody seems to know. The shots are so stunningly beautiful in full frame though, and now these people dont have Mr Kubrick to say what he wants done, it looks like it might get cropped.

Stanley Kubrick's reoccuring 1.33:1 decision, without a doubt has had a major influence on me, I think about it all the time now as I’m setting up my shots. I even stopped doing my animations in 2.35:1 and started to do them all in 1.25:1, and i was really adamant about 2.35:1 there too for a long time.

Lets hope that they launch both versions of his movies that have been done this way...for me its a crime not to.

Below you can see (by clicking on it)(urge you to click on it) the beautiful use of the ratio with equally beautiful natural daylight….at least I presume its naturally daylight, it may not be?...

More hurt

Hurt hurt hurt...one of these situations where theres just endless amounts of hurt...do nothing in a attempt to be peaceful and it is misunderstood as a attack...it is NOT a attack...why is it wrong to take a bit of time away...to think. I spose mind you maybe communication should perhaps not go down fully the way it has...it should be stated that you want time on your own to think...maybe?...maybe that is it. And I shouldn’t say what I want to say at the moment, its not the right time to say it...I believe in not speaking when people are going through important times in their life...happy times in their life...what right do I have to come in and make them unhappy with what I would write (which would happen I think) there is however nothing spiteful in what I have to say...there was however (I feel) something spiteful in what I witnessed the other day. I am not going to move though, however hurt, angry and upset I am I refuse to do it. I’m a considerate person and refuse refuse to talk at this time...I mean I see history and the importance of things as they happen.

Projects

Projects that are in swing at the moment are Servus (thats going on right now) Errans Alba is on hold because of the sheer amount of stress it causes, this is not however a) what I wanted or b) a good thing

I hate unfinished projects...but I cant seem to look at this with a view to it working at the moment, because my dad is so busy. when hes LESS busy (which is very hard to see happening) I will see if we can complete it.

Erráns Alba: part 1 extended can be viewed here below

Finally reached the date for my film to be shown locally for a one off screening alongside five other short films. This has been the most stressful thing I've done to date, I did not reach my goal of completing the fifteen minute film, and I've been told that I had a bit of breakdown towards the end of the deadline. i myself dont know what it was and i still get it a bit to this day, its a fatigue problem where you get very fatigued suddenly if front of the computer, battle fatigue my mum says.

I had to stop altogether and then after quite a bit of rest I went into a slow workflow and it really did crawl along as I directed my father with putting sound effects onto the last sequences.

This is what's going to be shown in the theatre is nine minutes long (and is what I am posting here) but there is further five minutes of completed animation with no sound been done that can not be shown, it is the most frustrating thing, but I will have to be happy that something is being shown instead of nothing being shown.

It is true I think that i was inspired by King Kong a bit with the whole great wall aspect, however I do however have a fascination with archaeological ruins as well, I find them very inspiring.

Pixar

It just blows me away how good Pixar really are, I downloaded the new Ratatouille nine minute preview and it really doesn’t disappoint. Why are they so good?...because they have cottoned onto the fact that if you make cg stylised then its got something to it...but I mean, they also know how to light a scene, its got some of the most beautiful lighting you will ever see in a raytraced (computer generated) film.

So does Monsters.inc and Finding Nemo though too. Its this continued - oustanding, fived star quality that impresses me.

Proving once again that Pixar really are the best in the world at this.

The dream coming true

Cinema screening of the nine minutes was three days ago now...

..it was a emotional one for me as I've driven the last four years of my life towards this.

The screen was a lot bigger than I thought it would be...and wonderful thing was, the public seemed to be there, that’s really what I wanted. It was also nice to be put next to 5 other films.

It was nice to see it on the big screen and with a decent sound setup...and those 6 days of torture spent on getting the sound nice and clear (though is still appalling on this online one) certainly paid off, god the sound was hideous before it got fixed. It's yet to be fixed for the internet (internet version pretty appalling) one of the things I need to fix.

It was now that I come to think of it, another bullet point in the whole story of me getting closer to what I want. It was my first professional screening and was a emotional one for me as my entire life has be driven towards this. The cinema was bigger than i thought it would be, but still not gigantic, 67 seats i think they said...but it was very nice to be there siting next to the 5 other short films.

Shadow of the Colossus

Taking a brake away from my own film, with a extension on the deadline now meant I could play a game I had wanted to play in a long long time. I ordered the game back at the very end of December 2006 with a view to playing it over the new year, but unfortunately it took about 10 weeks to get here, but this was ok...the timing on its arrival ended up being a very good time for me to sit down and play it.

Director and lead designer Fumito Ueda and his team have once again amazed me.

Travelling around the large beautiful landscapes on the horse called Agro is just wonderful, they nailed the horse animation and controls...incredible, its amazing how the horse moves, and its refreshing that there is no music during the parts were your exploring and trying to get to the next colossus. The sound of wind and horses hooves hitting different ground, and the rains of the horse jingling and so on is all spot on. And when you do arrive at your destination, beautiful music starts up, and tension is created. This is like the equivalent of perfect pacing in a film.

Every entrance to every colossus has a beautiful stair followed by beautiful ruins and is done in a different way to keep it interesting...and every large space, be it cave or open space where you do battle with a colossi is unique too...not to mention the puzzles which are different each time to destroying them. That had to be one of the best things...it was so fresh each time.

When a completed the game I was further impressed by the ending which had both happy and sad closing story animation. And it is wonderful that Fumito Ueda has indeed created two masterpieces here now, Ico and now Shadow of the Colossus.

Livevideo Lite

Just a test here to see if this works...[edit]which it seems to, im not sure if i like that featured videos button on this though.[edit/]

Get your LiveVideo Lite now!

Why blow the trumpet?

Blowing your own Trumpet

Meaning
Act in a boastful, self-promoting manner.

I’m not sure that I’m being boastful, what the intention is or was here...is that some people I know tend to be a bit um well, they say things like “film is a nice hobby Michael, but you wont make money out of it.”….now that gets me a little bit pissed off, and is the reason why I post the quotes from articles written about me. I like to believe that someday I will be making films that might bring in some money. I’m not going to be beaten anyway.

I’m definitely acting in a self-promoting manner though, but you HAVE to. My massive self promotion campaign across online video places and forums brought these two good things to me. It seems the more you go out of the way on the promotion stuff, the more good things come your way.

Blowing the own trumpet again

This was again...totally out of the blue for me, not quite the same as the last story, the last story was that I...well I go on these publicity campaigns on big forums...they delete your post sometimes because its braking their rules, but they asked me if I gave them something they would write a small article and put it into their news. Anyway, that was last time...THIS time its totally 100% out of the blue, and is in a print magazine, which is always a nice thing to happen. Many thanks to whoever sent them the link to my video, because I did not.

"Independent filmmaker Michael Dowswell shot this film in south-west Scotland, when his town was completely covered in snow. Though not much happens, the majestic imagery and thought-provoking imagery more than makes up for a lack of real story."
--Digital Video magazine



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The frustration in my mind I have with CG

I said to a good friend of mine a while back...that “this was it, that’s me finished with animation...no more, I quit”...lol. And I was at the time and still am today, sometimes quite passionate about that. Forever is a long time though.

The pull factor of CG is the fact that it doesn’t cost any money, you can do anything you want with the camera. This has always sucked me in.

BUT…I HAD, to go back to Erráns Alba though, because I had done SO much hard work in 2005 on it. Its not good to leave something like that unfinished, and for all its faults, its got some nice things that I’m happy with going on in it. But one thing that haunts me is how I’m constantly compromising the story for my film. Its upsetting because the STORY is the MOST important thing, and it’s the story that’s constantly being altered because of various technical difficulties...you should never ever be concentrating 100% of your effort on cinematography (guilty of doing it a lot).

Bus Uncle

This film on youtube is the proof that something with bad quality image and bad quality sound can still be classically entertaining and funny...I mean seven minutes is a long time to keep a audiences attention...and it really DOES keep your attention. Its amazing this, shot on a mobile phone, and all in subtitles...it’s a strikingly good example of how content or story shines through bad sound and picture quality.

The John Butler Trio

Amazing, simply amazing...his music which I listened to way back in 2006, I came back to the other day, it’s a odd thing sometimes I don’t listen to music for quite a while, then have a music orgy, and just staggering how good he really is…

Lively, diverse and uplifting music. He goes straight into my favourites. Superb bass and voice...cant recomend these four songs highly enough.

http://www.purevolume.com/thejohnbutlertrio

Erráns Alba: part 2

part 2 is now online...

To view part 2 of Erráns Alba, or part 1 for that matter, click here. Its been quite some battle, very draining, and I seem to jump in and out of hating the final thing to loving bits of it. Sometimes I hate all of it. then i realise that the wall shot is prtty good. Still though, cg LOOKS like cg...and this whole thing looks a bit like in game computer graphics...but I spose I shouldn't be too harsh on myself.

Blowing ones own trumpet

Don’t know to post in here or not about this...BUT, it is a record of what I've done and whats going through my mind at the time of posting, though don’t like to blow the own trumpet...but does make you feel that all the hard work and perseverance and starting to pay off when they write a article on your efforts.

"In a world of increasingly larger budget fiction and fantasy it isn't easy to get people to stand up and pay attention, but with inexhaustible patience and effort some individuals and groups create something unique with only their sweat and determination. Errans Alba is just such a work"
--sffworld.com


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Asking friends for advice

Why do I ask my friends opinion on important matters in life?...because I need to gather the minds of who I know to be wise and look at the problem from many different angles, I do not see this is a bad thing. I believe that EVERYBODY has something to bring to the table, fair enough, some people are lacking in first hand experience but I find it striking and continually amazing what people have to say, all people on this earth seem have this thing where they are extremely wise one minute then extremely stupid the next, its incredible. I believe everybody is a specialist at some topic, because everybody is living a different role in life.

We’re all continually developing, we’ll be developing when we’re 80 years old, and we’ll all have a different knowledge too. But it’ll be the people who take risks in life that’ll be the ones to get good advice from and have a interesting story to tell...though i still say everybody has somthing to say.

Major change of plan

Some major changes going on over here on the film I’m directing, the score which I myself was doing has been ditched, though the music on the teasers is still mine, the music for the final animation will be all composed by my father Harold J Dowswell. There was an awful lot of pressure for this to be done all by me for March, health was failing (still feel shattered) and what he has done is very good so it makes the animation better, which ultimately is what its all about. Lets just hope the two of us dont kill each other in the process...lol.

Discovering what a press kit is, and some perseverance that paid off

Only just found out the other day what a press kit is. Amazed at how much you learn about something when you really throw yourself at it, it’s a very interesting process and is really rewarding to move from not knowing about something to knowing about something.

The story of perseverance also very interesting for me at this moment in time over here. I’d been getting a lot of deletion posts at science fiction forums, posting promotion/awareness posts about my animation...so I changed my plan to mention the truth, that I’m really not making much money out of it...yet. I mean $12 in a month really is not good, I really don’t know if I ever will make sufficient money out of this either. I hope I do. Anyway, changing the post to mention the struggle I’m having resulted in me being contacted by somebody saying that he/her would like to do a article on their site about my film. So that was fantastic news, and proof that perseverance works.

Something odd...

...that I’ve just thought about/been reminded of.

In November and December 2006 I had a lot nightmares, I was pretty stressed at that moment in time and they were quite bad ones in that you would physically wake up.

Now the odd part for me is that I’m very stressed again at the moment, but have not had a dream in a long time, I didn’t seem to dream in January, and have not had a dream this month either. I don’t understand this.

Problems sleeping

I cant seem to get to sleep or remain asleep for very long, thoughts are running wild, it was quite a few 5 or 4 hour a day sleeps and I was feeling very rough , and finally I’ve just had a much needed 9 hour sleep.

Saturday Morning

I seem to feel better today, more at peace for some reason (I don’t know why) I can speculate, I was extremely extremely tired and needed sleep badly, it never seeses to amaze me the power of some sleep (though was not good last night lying in bed trying to get to sleep) they say that lack of sleep is extremely bad, and induces heavy depression.

Speaking to her and hearing at the end of the last conversation that she wants the same as I do...for the depressing talk to end, for there to be a positive vibe in our talks as friends...I feel better that she is at peace, Its always been the way that I’m upset when I see that she’s upset and vice versa. To be honest, I still don’t understand her, she’s a complete puzzle to me.

10:38am Saturday

Feeling really rough very again, I cant seem to concentrate on anything. Everything's getting to be too much. I must try to get this press kit to SFF World regardless of how I feel.

Overwhelming feelings of remorse and hurt

People say no remorse Michael, shut it out, but how can I?...I’m a human being with a set emotions built in there, its very overpowering. I have always thought too much. Can't shut out thoughts. One of my main focuses in life is to be a good person or to become a better person.

Its now more clear than ever it was before, you make a mistake in your life then followed by another mistake, and then you run away in the opposite direction where you may have had the chance to sort the mess out after the second mistake, though she did say that was it over...I made the decision to accept that, cut myself off from every living soul in the world and gradually went off and had another love affair with animation.

I can see how this leads to people committing suicide now. Because I can only imagine that much further down the years in life...if you continue to make big mistakes, then the number goes up and the odds become slimmer that you will make a right decision to find happiness, but I’m not sure it may well all hinge on making the one big mistake in the past for them. This is just a theory.

And this feeling hurt part of me that’s going on and continues to go on has been quite huge, I cant even go into the details of it in here, its very very powerful, and visual too, cant seem to shut out imagery of it and its causing a lot of problems sleeping at night. I don’t know what to do.

Somebody has to take the blame

I think I finally have to accept blame on what happened, somebody does…and I will go forward and say that it is has to be me.

I did not work at our relationship, and by god, you have to work at it a hell of a lot or it all falls apart, you have to realise this I think AT THE TIME or you are screwed... I walked away from it like a coward because?...I don’t honestly know, I can speculate...25 years of being single I think puts you into a extreme situation, one that your not ready for….and certainly I did dive into the deep end very much so, and ever since the age of about 19 I have fought depression...its there running along parallel with you in everyday life...you can push it away for a tiny while but it comes back. I would say that people have to be aware of this...that you cannot receive or give love when you are depressed, which puts extreme stress on your relationship, far away from home (very far away) adds to the depression I think (not altogether sure on this one) ...but it was communication that was the much needed thing, but then the person you love doesn’t want to hear what you have to say, and wont leave you alone either. It is a extremely difficult situation and anybody who goes through this has my sincere sympathies.

Unprecedented feelings of hurt

At the moment I’m not feeling good at all, I’ve got these blotches on my skin, mentally I feel extremely down, I’ve also had a stomach bug thing now for about 2 weeks. This is probably salmonella though I don’t know for sure. The blotches have to be Eczema as they are sandpapery.

It hurts when you step out onto new ground and attempt (and fail) to do what you hold as being one of the most important things to you at that point in your life, it hurts like hell. And also it stays with you to the grave...you also expand your knowledge on knowing who you are to the point of possibly knowing all there is to be known, which I personally think is a dangerous thing OR a extremely useful thing for the future. But I can tell you, it does not right now feel very useful at all.

Dreams part 2

Never ever underestimate the power of perseverance...it reminds me of that scene in The Shawshank Redemption where the guy sends a letter a week (not sure if it’s a week or something else) and finally after something like 2 years they give in and do what he wants, great film...with a lot of good examples of things in it like that.

Dreams part 1

Talent + Perseverance = Luck

I’ll say this...If you KNOW your talented, if your sitting there reading this and you KNOW outright that your talented at something, whether it be painting, drawing, photography, making films...do NOT give up on the persistence thing...the thing is... I’m in a unique position right now...I live at home, my parents are happy for me to stay here, continue on making this film...battle away at it, which you do for years...YEARS, but you do start to get some sort of a effect the more you throw yourself at the project...and like they say its 50% hard labour making the film then another 50% hard labour trying to get people to SEE your film. But DO NOT at all costs compromise your dream, the thing is though that not everybody, in fact probably few people have the parents that let me be in this unique position of working on my dream / allowing me to go on the very long road of getting to my dream.

The Hollywood Saloon

Andy Siems and John Jansens Podcast really is a great listen. If your heavily into film then this is for you, I bung it on when I’m working. They do a masterclass one on directors every once in a while and it looks like Stanley Kubrick is up soon, so that will be a great listen.

Check them out here www.hollywoodsaloon.com

Erráns Alba (Production Diaries)

This is something that I want to do very much, and am going to attempt to do some tonight. I love documentaries very very much and I always feel that the making of is far better than the film itself, there’s a wonderful realness to this stuff. Interviews are wonderful wonderful things, and I think that these production diaries also heavily inspire the passionate viewers in quite a powerful way. I know that every time I see Peter Jacksons ones it has had that effect on me.

Erráns Alba (soundtrack)

Selected tracks from the original score will gradually be uploaded to here. If your a fan of the 70s synth sound then you might like this. I'm a big fan of the original Dawn of the Dead sound and Day of the Dead synth sound and also The Shining, A Clockwork Orange and Thief sound. I'm not sure what equipment was used for those movies but I’m using a Korg Micro, which i have to say is a stunning beast that makes one hell of a nice noise.

To see trailers for the film click here



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Erráns Alba

Hi Everybody,

I'm the director/creator/composer of a unknown science fiction animation called Erráns Alba...well maybe not strickly true, some of the cinema 4d community know about it, and my friends and family know about it, but that is pretty much it.

Its created here in Britain and in my bedroom using CInema 4d and a Korg Micro. The project started way back in August 2005, and is still very much on the go right now. Its the 5th animation to be created by me but the first to have a original score being done.

Its hard work getting a really great and successful publicity campaign going on this...some forums I joined PC Format and SFX are not so keen on me plugging the animation...well again that’s not strictly true iether, I did not post in SFX forums but DID get a post deleted in PC Format because I unintentionally breached one of their rules. Unfortunately the SFX forum rules also say your not really aloud to plug your movie. This got me a bit worried as I really wanted to aim this at the die hard Sci-Fi fans. There are thankfully many ways to go about getting some attention however, the most important thing is for your persistence to not die.

To visit the site for Erráns Alba click here



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