The rendering has finally finished for the effects shots in “the fossil hunters”. It would have taken half the time, but my 2nd (64 bit) render PC couldn’t be used because I had to order a new network thingy for it. when that arrived, the power supply on my main render machine blew up, so I had to replace it with the one from the 2nd PC, so I still couldn’t use it. Now that the replacement power supply has arrived, the rendering is finished and I don’t need it…. typical.

This week I’ve been writing articles (one, ironically enough on how to make your render farm more efficient!). and a couple of reviews (which means I’ve now got to play with Vue, EIAS, Quidam and speedtree – all very clever packages actually...) anyway, I’ve also been asked to build a couple of spaceships – which is always fun, so I’ve shunted that job to the front of the queue!

These are REAL spaceships – or at least proposed designs for interstellar craft based on known physics – i.e. they’re things we could build if we had the cash and the inclination, so it’s quite inspiring to see them take shape…


My meeting
Anyway, if you were reading last week, you’ll know I had a very important meeting scheduled with myself in which I decided to strategically plan a few things about my strategy for the next few months… I like to stand back every once in a while and try to work out where I actually should be going rather than just following where I end up going….

Anyway. here, in semi-ironic management speak are my ideas (or action plans, or mission statements or whatever) – these are notes to myself more than anything else:

Finances:
Having got my books (sort of) up to date, I’m on schedule to earn probably 16% less this year than last – but that’s not as bad as I thought – and there’s certainly the opportunity to catch that up – I’m not in a dire situation, or anything like it. In fact, I saved more than that last year anyway. I’d planned to grow – but global downturn and all that….

Mailing lists
I haven’t really done anything with the mailing lists I had made at the beginning of the year. I really should pursue this – and it’ll probably take me a day or so to come up with a couple of offers to send out .

New documentary
I’ve emailed a friend to see if he’s willing to help research the new doc I’ve got in mind. It’s a full length feature, and I’ll need to be fully committed if it’s going to work, but it’s a cracker. I need a little backup (if not funding).

Other documentaries
On the back of my last two docs being fairly popular, I’ve emailed my distributor to find out if there are any possibility of securing pre-sales or other funding, and what I’d need to do to get it. I’m waiting for the response on that, but we’ll see…

Google adwords
I’ve had my google adwords account switched off for months now because at the beginning of the year I spent about £2,000 and got nothing from it. I’ve now turned it back on, but at a much lower level and with more targeted keywords – just to test the water.