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.

THE FLAGSHIP SHOT

This shots been one of these very long going on things that has i feel has gone on for too long...but I think I'm impatient actually...but, it's been real tricky to do with the explosion (which cant be seen here...posting that next)


Flagship from Michael J. Dowswell on Vimeo.

INCREDIBLE AYN RAND QUOTE I FOUND TODAY

“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.”
--Ayn Rand - Writer and Novelist (1905-1982)

Just amazing...it's like Ayn Rand tapped into my soul when I found this today, and saved it.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT MY ANIMATION SHORT FILMS PART 1 OF 3

This has to be done...and I hope it doesn’t come off or sound like a rant, because really it isn’t, it's just a series of facts that I want to get out there...make people aware of.

So here I go with it.

I don’t love robots...and I don’t have a particular love for CGA (computer generated animation), really I don’t...and I want this made clear now...lol...I do the short films this way (which, by the way have been made with no money) because I don’t see how I can do a film shot on film with miniatures...well, you know?...big-iatures as they say in New Zealand...(they would be big too) and I don’t see where I would put them or how I would construct them.

I make the films with a view to them being remade with miniatures / big-iatures / real actors / real sets / real light...one day...I just hope...I HOPE that I’m not wasting my time with it all...all of these things I’m making (and this may sound odd) are done with that in mind...I don’t fully understand it myself now...other than I’m compelled to do it...i cant sit around and do nothing, so I do somthing?

And as for the robots...well, the reason I have little peg leg robots that look a bit silly, is because my technical skills are really poor, and the little peg leg robots are quite easy to have walk across the screen...for a long time I want just SOMETHING that would be able to walk across the screen...it all sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.

But don’t let this fool you into thinking I don’t love the process of making these films.

Setting up the shots compositionally, editing the shots together to see the sequence start to be born in front of you, and then putting the music ontop...all of that stuff I LOVE to pieces. And those are definitely the three things that excite me the most (at this stage in my life with making these things) about filmmaking and keep me going. That and of course the lighting...I absolutely love lighting scenes.

GANG PLANK VEHICLE

Couldn't resist putting the old one next to the new one. I’m very happy I made this change to the gang plank vehicle...as you can now see...it badly needed it!

Theres quite a few changes, even the blue itself has been altered because the orrginal was just way too blue. Its funny how little things like that make a big differance.

ANIMATION UPDATE: JUST A LONGER CLIP NOW WITH A RUNTIME OF 02:53

It's finally starting to take better shape I think.


Clip 4 from michael dowswell on Vimeo.

Not exactly sure why I upload in little chunks like this, but I think it's because of the sheer longevity of these animation projects...with every new bit added to it I feel a sense of achievement and want to show it to the internet audience and my very small fan base. I think it’s a good thing in the long run as it has the potential to attract new fans

THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK ARRIVED TODAY

This Year and last year I’ve been gradually buying the things that I love dearly...the original Star Trek films...which, I have seen many, many times and have on VHS recorded off the TV. But, what I’ve not really seen, are the films in their original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio...well truthfully here, I’ve seen them like this once...and it was way back in about the mid nineties (so thats quite a while back there...lord!)

But today a special thing happened because now with the arrival of the Search for Spock...the trilogy is complete...the II, III and IV films are united together...pretty awesome.

On every very excited arrival of a new two set of SE discs (I now at this stage own II, III, IV and VIII) I jump straight to the extras every time...which have been pleasantly wonderful on each film.

II has been very special for me because i hadn;t until the other day there) ever seen the extended version of...so I was sat there seeing things I'd never seen before and in widescreen.

SOME INFORMATION

So what’s going on now?...well, I don’t know if I said...well I think I did say at one point, but the animation cuts from a big outside shot to a huge interior space port sequence...and it's been a endless amount of trouble for me...with me redoing it three times with three different designs...each of which have their nice things about them...and each of which have some darn annoying things about them...I try really hard to get each shot as good as the last shot?...I don’t know if this goal is even reachable?...I’m notoriously fussy about the way things are done.

I’ve also started to draw a lot recently because of a possible music video chance. This has been really wonderful...but knackering as I’ve been doing drawing and my animation at the same time.

LOOKS NICER LIKE THIS I THINK

Just been tweaking the colour balance here, and i think this is a far more larger range of colour going on, and a nice sort of washed out look too.

THE BLUE BRIDGE

I'm starting to progress at a better speed with the animatino...the blue bridge has been done quite fast...it's changed slightly as I've gone along, but is getting there.

THE WHOLE LOSING WEIGHT THING

I saw a really good documentary a while back. What I came away with, the information I came away with from seeing it was that, and this is in the simplest of forms here...are, that, there seems to be about five groups of people.

1) People who love food, and therefore eat it a lot, they eat too much, they put on the weight.

2) People who are apathetic about food, they’re genuinely not fussed about food...don’t really eat much and don’t really put on weight.

3) People who live in a perpetual state of hunger...but are hell bent on not gaining weight...they don’t eat much and are thin.

4) People who love food and eat loads, and don’t put on weight because they dash around a lot during the day.

5) People who are on medication which is making them gain weight.

It is of course much more complicated than all of this, but I find it all quite interesting. I’m trying to lose a bit of weight at the moment, and one thing I’m finding is that if you just try to lessen the amount you eat at dinner time you body does start to get use to it...your stomach starts to remember.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE MINIATURE MODEL MAKER STEVE HOWARTH

On looking at models from the 1994 TV show Space Precinct I discovered miniature model maker Steve Howarth's portfolio site...a man I would hire in a instant if I could. He's exactly the sort of person I would need. His work is extreamly good and his site's a very interesting thing...it even led me to the discovery of the film Moon starring Sam Rockwell which comes out in June 2009.

I hope he’s ok with me taking these two photographs from his site. I'm just amazed at his skill with adding details such as grime, oil, rust. And the below before and after is incredible.

COMING ACROSS OLD WORK, AND THINKING “YEAH, I THINK THAT IS THE BEST WORK I EVER DID”

I don’t normally say this about my work, usually I’m very quick to shoot it all down for one reason or another, but I do believe these two were the best I ever did.

I distinctly remember at the time pushing very hard to really go for detail, taking that extra amount of time. It does of course pay off.

THE MUSIC I'VE DONE WITH KORG AND (AT ONE POINT) BRASS TABLE

Follower of the Blog / internet friend / fellow director Paul Caggegi asked to hear some of my music a while back. I don't think I've ever really talked about how I do music on here, and am only starting to be a bit more forward / open about showing the animation development on here too.

You can listen to the music I've composed here. theres not a huge amount and it's not very long running, but you'll get the idea.

CAKE #02

At this point, your probably thinking “these people eat a lot of cake” but really, we don’t...but, I am known for sometimes going on about cakes a lot...but, cake of course, and tea...are wonderful things.

Well the story about behind this one was this cake cost a staggering fifty pence...because apparently it’s not good enough to be sold full price which would have cost the buyer a one pound and forty pence...all I can say is, there not many things in this life you can get for fifty pence any more that are this good.

MY MOTHERS 60TH BIRTHDAY

My mother turned sixty the other day there. She seems very happy about it...shes very excited about the free bus pass, and for somebody who has a chronic illness seems to be pretty ok...shes not falling apart with depression...and even turning sixty didn;t seem to phase her.

Here is the coffee cake...which I have to say, tasted incredible...there’s actually a history of our family buying these things which spans quite a number of years, but we hadn’t had one in a very long time.

THE WHOLE SELF PORTRAIT THING OR WANTING TO PHOTO YOUR ROOM THING PART 2 OF 2

Also...photographing yourself is completely different to somebody photographing you spontaneously. Much more planned of course, and often I’m not smiling in the photo...which I have to add leads to a common misconception that people (or I least I feel this is the case) respond differently to seeing a photo of a person not smiling. The majority I feel don’t seem to respond well to it...maybe I shouldn;t say that though, because I'm not a mind reader.

THE WHOLE SELF PORTRAIT THING OR WANTING TO PHOTO YOUR ROOM THING PART 1 OF 2

It’s no secret that (or now it isn’t) that I take photos of myself and my room...occasionally.

Every now and again over the years (I think it all started round about 2001 when I live on my own for two years) (I’ve not done it in a long time now mind you (until two days ago's Korg photo)...but, I’ve always wanted to write about this topic...I cant help but notice that a lot of people in the history books have done this thing of photoing themselves too...is it just something that comes with being a Artist / Director?...for me, if I was to go into explaining about it...I would have to say that there’s two possible reasons behind it. The first being, that, I would really like to photograph some people...because, I think photographs of people are fascinating, you cant beat it...peoples faces are always going to make for interesting photos, because it’s what we as human do on a daily basis, we talk to other talking heads.

But because I’m very shy and hate asking if its ok to photograph another person...that’s another topic, but it’s a real thing I struggle with that one….but anyway, when it comes to photographing yourself, you have the right to do it no questions asked...I honestly kind of feel bad about asking somebody if they want to be photographed...cause your putting them on the spot about it.

Plus...If you photograph yourself or your room occasionally...when you look back at ones six or seven years ago...you do stop and go “wait what, I’m actually getting older aren’t I?”...or... “ha, yes, that’s what my room looked like when I lived there” and that creates a very odd feeling of realisation you know?...and a bit like putting on a track of music, a photograph of a room can spark off memories of the past.

Somebody once told me that your life can basically be looked back upon as being split up into chapters.

And sometimes I think that...well, I think that, I’m one of these people that has to do something each day in order to feel that the day hasn’t been entirely wasted...I seem to have a thing about that...so I go into a thing where it usually turns into a task you can pick...that can be in the shape of all sorts of things...a bit of text, a photo, a 3D set or prop. Each one of these things seems to somehow help.

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.