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….