Trilobite documentary
Finally the trilobite documentary is ready to send to the client. It was supposed to be last week, but I had a problem. The motion on the DVD flickered in an unpleasant way during pans and fast movement.

I realised this had something to do with the fact that I’d shot it at 24 frames per second and was burning a DVD at 25 FPS, but I was really surprised by what turns out to be the industry standard solution…

Apparently, the way to broadcast 24fps footage is quite simply to speed it up! That’s right – play the programme 1/24 second faster. In other words a 2 hour film will run five minutes shorter on TV than at the cinema.

I’m still a little unsure if this can really be the answer. It just sounds like such a bodge.

Anyway, I’ve done it and it seems to work (despite my commentary sounding a little squeaky – which I’ll be able to correct with a pitch shift apparently).

We’ll have to see what the client thinks….


Work is definitely picking up – I’ve had a couple of enquiries this week, (I’ve now put my google advertising up to £300 per month) – one of them ( a charity animation) required my first attempt at actually pitching for work.

Pitching is fairly common in animation, and basically means the client gets a load of companies to come up with ideas and styles for an animation and compete for the job of doing it.

Of course, that’s only usually possible if you’ve got a decent budget – otherwise animators will judge that it’s not worth risking the time you spend developing the idea. On this occasion, it’s a charity, so there isn’t much of a budget, but it is a strong idea and a worthwhile cause, so I do want to get involved.

I’m not at all familiar with what a pitch really involves in this context, so what I’ve sent it a plot outline, a budget breakdown and a couple of rough pictures to give an idea of the visual style.… in fact it’s not that much more than I usually provide when discussing an idea with a client – it’s just that this time, I know it’s a competition. Will the pitch be enough? I’ll find out next week….

From the client’s point of view there are advantages and disadvantages to running things like this. It does allow you to get a range of ideas and choose the one you want to work with. However, it also means that very little time can actually be put into devising the essential themes on which your project is based – because the production company knows they stand only a one in four or five chance of ever being paid for the work they do.

That said, I think I’ve come up with a really good idea for the pitch – which is another annoying side to the process. If you come up with an idea you’d really like to make and then you’re told you don’t get to make it, it’s a real disappointment!


UPDATE
Well, I did the pitch for the charity, and I think my suggestion was pretty good. Nevertheless, I found out today (Friday) that I didn’t get it. I’m actually really disappointed – it would have been a tough job, but I’d have liked to have been involved.

I did get a sale for my “how to colonise the stars” documentary – (Portugal – 700 euros), so I had to quickly do the script and music cue sheet. Transcribing the script meant listening to the film play back, and repeating everything that was said for the benefit of the voice recognition – pausing every few seconds to correct whatever it had miss-heard. A really tedious job, but better than typing it all….

The pop video (this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XidI2qz10as) needed to be put onto digibeta for the TV stations – and that turned out to be a hell of a hastle – for no good reason. Two hard drives went to Stanleys (who I use to dub projects onto tape) and neither worked – I eventually had to spend half of Tuesday and half of Wednesday in London wasting my time…. Anyway, eventually it all worked, so that’s done.



And, this leaves me in the strange, unfamiliar situation of having no work… Ok, I’ve got the book coming up and various articles I know I’m going to have to write, etc. etc… but for the first time in months (actually since the beginning of the year) I’ve actually got nothing in my in-tray.

It’s a strange feeling, and leaves me with no excuses. I’ve got to finally make a start on my “project” documentary – or give up on it. Looking over my scene breakdown, it’s looking like a huge challenge with no guarantee of any kind of payback. It’s complicated, scary and a huge undertaking.

Unlike my last docs – which have been pretty basic science movies, this one is an issue. It puts me as the narrator right at the centre of it and it will either work, or it won’t.

Can I afford to spend the time? Can I even do it? I just don’t know….

This week, it finally happened. I ran out of work.
Actually, that’s not really true. In fact I’ve got loads, but enough of it was on hold or out of my court by Friday that I actually had a chance to do some work on my new documentary idea….I’m doing a scene breakdown which should allow me to decide soon whether it’s a viable project for me or not. This is a big step. I haven’t had a full day to work on this since the beginning of the year, and it’s beginning to feel like I might actually get to start on it.

It actually felt a bit of a cheat - like I wasn’t really working – because, of course, this is a zero-budget project with no commission and no idea how it’s going to make me any money… anyway, more of that later – I might even reveal what it’s about soon, but until I know what I’m doing, it’s a bit sensitive.

So what’s all this about having no work? – well, it’s a lie. A complete lie.

The music video is now with the client – fast work, and there may be adjustments to be made, but it’s to all intents and purposes, done.

The zoom from deep space I’ve just got to complete a couple of renders and cut it together, so I can’t do anything more to that for now.

The first cut of the trilobite documentary is rendering as I write – very slowly, and because Premiere doesn’t seem to be able to handle it, I’ve had to break it into chunks (can’t work that out – a quad core 8gb machine should be able to handle it – HD or not!) – anyway, by the end of the weekend I should have a DVD I can send to the client.

Finally, the two reviews I’ve just had to do on Poser 8 and Director 11.5 have been done (a bit of a panic there because of tight deadlines, but done nonetheless, and I’m really glad to have been able to take a look at the new version of Poser).

Book
There’s more work on the horizon though. I may have a banner animation to do, but it also looks like I’m going to be writing another book in the “really really really easy guide” series - with a deadline of November. I’ve already done one on video editing using windows movie maker – so I know what’s expected – and at 20,000 words, it’s a relatively small book…

It’s also a relatively small fee. Books – or at least factual books – are much less well paid than you’d think. Typically you’ll get an advance followed by royalties depending on the sales. My advice to anyone thinking of writing one is to treat your advance as if that’s all you’re going to get – because it usually is. I’ve never had any royalties from any of the 5 books I’ve written.

Anyway, if this one happens, I’ll let you know more as I go along…

This week was a week of finishing things… or at least getting things to a reasonably finished stage.

The music video is more-or-less done – there were some changes to be made on the first version, but that’s pretty normal, and the results look really good – especially considering the budget wasn’t massive.

I’ve also done – or more-or-less done a documentary intro sequence for another client – a zoom from deep space to the Earth. There’s still a bit more tidying up to do on this, and I’d like to add a few bells and whistles to give it some spice, but again, it’s looking good.

In addition, I’ve done a couple of illustrations for a book on interstellar flight by one of my interviewees from my last documentary (“How to colonise the stars”) and he seems happy with the results….

Finally, I’ve got the first draft of the fossil hunting documentary done – or more-or-less done. There’s still some balancing to do on the sound, and some tidying up, but this project has been going on since February, so having it in a watchable state is a massive deal.

I’ve learnt a lot on this project – most significantly about shaping a story you don’t have before you start and working with lots of material which you’ve shot reacting to events rather than as part of a plan…

Also, it’s really brought it home to me how important it is to create significant “moments” and then build the structure around them. Just telling a story full of interesting material isn’t enough. You need to pace it and create a kind of punctuation in which things are brought together.

Also, the places where I’ve managed to take out the narration and interviews and just let the visuals and music tell the story are the best bits of the film… Not having the shots to do that is the biggest frustration in the project… but a lot of that is down to the chaotic nature of the shoot.

I’m not saying I’ve succeeded in doing these things in this project – only that their importance has really come home to me!


All of which means I now have – or think I’m going to have some space in my working schedule – some time to think about the documentary project I’ve had on my mind for most of the year, but haven’t had time to do anything about.

This is the big one – a full length feature project that I think could be great –and a story I think needs telling in a popular form… but can I do it? do I have the nerve to take it on? and how can I make it happen given that it requires masses of interviews, a placebo controlled drug trial and the building of a battery farm for pixies….


Anyway, a couple of notes on the space documentary I finished earlier in the year: the distributors told me there’s a slight problem with the audio levels – they’re peaking at -6 rather than -8 – whatever that means… I think I’ve persuaded them to adjust them at their end rather than having to re-do the master tape which would be expensive and awkward.

More importantly, the documentary has been accepted by HD fest in New York – I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go (Lisa is expecting in October and the festival is in September, so we’ll see!), but It would be interesting.