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Good night, and good luck
Oct. 13th, 2005 02:09 pmSo, I'm still listening to the WWII radio thing. Currently running is a newscast from Edward R Murrow. Reminded me that I'd seen a trailer for a movie about his battle with McCarthy coming up soon. Looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes and _YOW!_ It's got a 96% Fresh rating. I am completely stunned. I can't even imagine something this politically charged getting a rating that high. There are a lot of reviewers who would ding it just because they don't like the message.
Stunning! Now I really can't wait to see it.
PS: Discovered that the demo for tomorrow is a LOT less than I thought it was and that even despite hardware issues, I'm way ahead of schedule. Woot! That means I might actually get to sleep tonight! ^_^
Stunning! Now I really can't wait to see it.
PS: Discovered that the demo for tomorrow is a LOT less than I thought it was and that even despite hardware issues, I'm way ahead of schedule. Woot! That means I might actually get to sleep tonight! ^_^
Just another brick in the wall.
Oct. 8th, 2005 10:54 amAs I watched The Wall last night, it occurred to me that I should have tried to capture Ashy and take her with us to it, though I imagine she's seen it before. I think Pink (Bob Geldof) looks a little like her.
The animation is simply incredible. Sadly, I'd missed that fact the last time I saw this film. I was too annoyed by the misogyny in the animation to really pay attention to just how freaking well it's animated. Things move in 3D space in the most incredible ways. It looks like CG only with great texture! Coloured pencil, airbrush, etc. It's just totally amazing.
Alternate ending: Our viewing of The Wall had a slightly different ending than the one I'd seen before. The film came out of sprocket, caught, melted, cracked, and almost caught fire. Surprisingly this ending is rather more upbeat than the original ending, and the timing was right on a scene cut so for a moment you're left feeling its intentional.
Now I gotta get this programming work done so I can go home and animate while I'm still hot.
The animation is simply incredible. Sadly, I'd missed that fact the last time I saw this film. I was too annoyed by the misogyny in the animation to really pay attention to just how freaking well it's animated. Things move in 3D space in the most incredible ways. It looks like CG only with great texture! Coloured pencil, airbrush, etc. It's just totally amazing.
Alternate ending: Our viewing of The Wall had a slightly different ending than the one I'd seen before. The film came out of sprocket, caught, melted, cracked, and almost caught fire. Surprisingly this ending is rather more upbeat than the original ending, and the timing was right on a scene cut so for a moment you're left feeling its intentional.
Now I gotta get this programming work done so I can go home and animate while I'm still hot.
Yay! Looney Tunes Golden Edition Volume 3 on DVD at the end of October!
List of contents
But YIKES. $65!?!?! Damn the american dollar is f***ing worthless now! Thanks Shrub! :( The first two volumes cost $40 each.
List of contents
But YIKES. $65!?!?! Damn the american dollar is f***ing worthless now! Thanks Shrub! :( The first two volumes cost $40 each.
Between the dark queen last night and watching the new trailer for MirrorMask which ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mharpold8 linked to, I'm suddenly playing Sasamui again. Alas, no one is really on right now but.. At least I'm moving.
I think I'll have to abductprickvixen and drag her to SF to watch MirrorMask with me when it comes out next month. Maybe paka too. This movie is still looking hot!
mharpold8 linked to, I'm suddenly playing Sasamui again. Alas, no one is really on right now but.. At least I'm moving.I think I'll have to abduct
prickvixen and drag her to SF to watch MirrorMask with me when it comes out next month. Maybe paka too. This movie is still looking hot!Before the Show
Jul. 16th, 2005 05:59 pmI tend to watch a lot of old movies and when I do, I often wish the movies were presented the way they originally were displayed. Like, I'd so love it if they included the cartoon and newsreel that would have gone with the film when it originally broadcast. Probably not practical for copyright and licensing reasons alone, nevermind that the same news/cartoon may have got played with more than one film or varied regionally so it might not be practical. But something at least from the same month would be really cool. Add a lot of the feel of the show.
On a related note, I was thinking about how sad it was that they no longer put cartoons in front of films and I wonder... Do you suppose it was really cost that made them drop the cartoons or was it that the actors and directors got tired of frequently being compared to the cartoon by negative reviewers. I don't know this is true but I imagine it. I bet if one looked up old papers that many of the negative movie reviews would compare someone's acting skill to Daffy Duck or handling their lines like Porky Pig.
Anyhow... That concludes this random musing.
On a related note, I was thinking about how sad it was that they no longer put cartoons in front of films and I wonder... Do you suppose it was really cost that made them drop the cartoons or was it that the actors and directors got tired of frequently being compared to the cartoon by negative reviewers. I don't know this is true but I imagine it. I bet if one looked up old papers that many of the negative movie reviews would compare someone's acting skill to Daffy Duck or handling their lines like Porky Pig.
Anyhow... That concludes this random musing.
War of the Wars.
Jun. 29th, 2005 10:09 pm| So. Stacey and I went to see War of the Worlds tonight. Not sure what I should say about it. The machines were designed closely off The Tripods Woe that the story had not been. Speilburg takes a prefectly good, dark, human-slaughtering film and makes sure that the tension of a real drama is broken every couple of minutes with some ignorant chuckle scene, none of which made me laugh. The aliens got little screen time, instead, he (ironically) goes for the 'human' angle by spending 98% of his camera time on Tom Cruise (A man who believes he's part alien.) The scientology and religious intervention stuff is tangible and overstated in about half the scenes, giving me a (what's the opposite of feel-good moment?) Spielberg also makes an ass of himself by replaying images of the World Trade Center disaster (dust, smoke, falling shredded materials) and in a lot of ways glorifying the noble sacrifices of the military and, much like in Iraq, hides their utter failure off-camera. |  |
This movie was just utter propagandist crap and the few seconds of sleek alien spacecraft vapouring (not nearly enough) pathetic quivering humans does NOT make up for it. He also goes with the ham-handed 50's ending where it was GOD who planned all along that the aliens would be defeated by our viruses! 1) Wells was a hard-line atheist and the whole POINT was that we'd evolved to handle our bacteria and the bacteria had evolved along with us and the alien's data was incomplete. 2) That idea played well in Wells' day when people died left and right of seemingly mysterious diseases but the story seriously needed to be updated to take into consideration things like remote controlled drones, biotechnology, and the rest. In the book, Wells explains the gap in the alien's technology by giving other examples where they have gone in a different direction from us and not made the same discoveries. The movie does nothing of the short. It's all Mystical Shit
All in all, it COULD HAVE BEEN a fantastic movie as awe-inspiring as Close Encounters and it could have scared the crap out of you and made you feel weak, powerless, small, and insignificant. Instead you feel like 'I want to strangle these kids, Tom Cruise is an ass and DUDE! Where's my WAR OF THE WORLDS WE NEVER EVEN SEE ANY FUCKING WAR! ARMY VERSUS ALIENS!?!? ALL OFF CAMERA! There's only massacre of a few humans who are running in less than convincing 'terror'.
GODDAMNIT! I wanted this movie to be good! AT _LEAST_ It could have been half as good as the 1950's version but I'd rather watch that than this again. Fucking assholes. *sigh* I wish I had the comic.
Insipid Art Film Idea
Jun. 25th, 2005 12:15 amSo... I have this really great (and by that I mean great in the sense that surely would be great to the mind of a freshman film student, so I should be ashamed) idea for an experimental film.
So... Here's the concept, though I have no idea of the story. Basically, there are people in all the shots but their audio is muffled or drown out and they are out of focus but they are somehow important to the story. The focus, framing, and clear audio, however, is not focused on the people but some object in the foreground or background. Incidental sound and the body language of the people and maybe the audio track tell the story. Perhaps it's a romance between an aging sofa and ghastly lamp with a macrome' shade. Something like that. The story of the objects could be reflected in the story of the people but the idea is to make the people inconsequential; props and metaphors to tell the story of the things in the focus.
Clearly, the easiest way to do with and add to it's weirdness is with a fisheye lense (gets a very narrow depth of field and makes everything look weird. Now I just need to figure out the story.
So... Here's the concept, though I have no idea of the story. Basically, there are people in all the shots but their audio is muffled or drown out and they are out of focus but they are somehow important to the story. The focus, framing, and clear audio, however, is not focused on the people but some object in the foreground or background. Incidental sound and the body language of the people and maybe the audio track tell the story. Perhaps it's a romance between an aging sofa and ghastly lamp with a macrome' shade. Something like that. The story of the objects could be reflected in the story of the people but the idea is to make the people inconsequential; props and metaphors to tell the story of the things in the focus.
Clearly, the easiest way to do with and add to it's weirdness is with a fisheye lense (gets a very narrow depth of field and makes everything look weird. Now I just need to figure out the story.
Daily recap
Jun. 24th, 2005 11:13 amWork went blindingly quick yesterday, which is frustrating because I got in early, left late, and still feel like I got nothing done.
Bicycled home. Funny, that used to be such a major thing for me that I'd write about it and be sore for two days afterwards. (It's ~11 miles) but now I do it at least once a week and when I get home, I go right on to doing other stuff. I think yesterday I did overdo it a little though. I went skateboarding immediately after biking home and quickly ran out of steam.
Made dinner, folded laundry, and watched, Fantastic Planet FP is really pervy. The animation in FP is definetely limited, although I'd point out that it was made in 1972 with heavily inked and airbrushed paper cutouts and yet it's still got more animation than say Dragon Ball Z which has nothing exciting or artistic going on in it.
It would be interesting to attempt to approach this kind of film with more modern techniques. Programs like ToonBoom will allow me to put bitmap textures onto vectorized art and layer it. For instance, I could lay down a layer of paper texture and then drop a transparent gradient or hatched layer over that and build up a textural look similar to what's on the screen in FP but the process would be a lot quicker (airbrushing, hatching, and cutting out precisely are all very slow processes) and I could focus more on putting life into the animation.
Although, it's possible the heavy texturing of films like Fantastic Planet only work well with limited animation because they become too noisy when played at a faster speed. I guess though that I didn't feel like there was too much crawl in Free as a Bird It was all shot on 2's but I was also doing it all by hand. I think I could actually get tighter control using the method I suggested in ToonBoom. Definetely something worth experimenting with. *sigh* Not that I'll get to do much animation in the next month or so. :(
Bicycled home. Funny, that used to be such a major thing for me that I'd write about it and be sore for two days afterwards. (It's ~11 miles) but now I do it at least once a week and when I get home, I go right on to doing other stuff. I think yesterday I did overdo it a little though. I went skateboarding immediately after biking home and quickly ran out of steam.
Made dinner, folded laundry, and watched, Fantastic Planet FP is really pervy. The animation in FP is definetely limited, although I'd point out that it was made in 1972 with heavily inked and airbrushed paper cutouts and yet it's still got more animation than say Dragon Ball Z which has nothing exciting or artistic going on in it.
It would be interesting to attempt to approach this kind of film with more modern techniques. Programs like ToonBoom will allow me to put bitmap textures onto vectorized art and layer it. For instance, I could lay down a layer of paper texture and then drop a transparent gradient or hatched layer over that and build up a textural look similar to what's on the screen in FP but the process would be a lot quicker (airbrushing, hatching, and cutting out precisely are all very slow processes) and I could focus more on putting life into the animation.
Although, it's possible the heavy texturing of films like Fantastic Planet only work well with limited animation because they become too noisy when played at a faster speed. I guess though that I didn't feel like there was too much crawl in Free as a Bird It was all shot on 2's but I was also doing it all by hand. I think I could actually get tighter control using the method I suggested in ToonBoom. Definetely something worth experimenting with. *sigh* Not that I'll get to do much animation in the next month or so. :(
Movies movies movies
Jun. 23rd, 2005 11:06 amSunday we took a trip over to Santa Cruz to return Spike and bummed around downtown for a while, eventually drifting into StreetLight. For the sake of amusement, I wandered into DVDs, and promptly found a stack of things I never thought I'd find on DVD. o_O At the very top of the list, Suburbia, this film I'd been babbling about. Right there in the discount bin, never even opened. Also found, The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love (I have a pirate VHS of this, it was time I bought it even though it was twice as much as every other film I got), Desert Hearts O_O Talk about a rare find. _TWO_ lesbian movies in one bargin bin. More on DH later. And finally... The throw-away film with which to torture my friends, Waking Life (It was cheap and I'm sadistic)
So.. When we returned from Santa Cruz, I was hot to watch Suburbia but I'd promised Stacey Howl's Moving Castle so we went to that instead. It was a decent film. I don't think it was the best Studio Ghibili has done but it was alright. Also, my movie experience was tainted by Assholians from the planet Uranus. (Straight couple ducked into the theatre about 10 minutes after the movie started and, in a mostly-empty theatre, decided to park his 8ft tall arse right in front of me and then gesture wildly and blither to his girlfriend. Stacey convinced me to move back a few rows, and which point, they GOT UP AND TOOK THE SEATS WE WERE IN. Fucking straight people. Next time I just kick the back of his chair throughout the movie. Stacey held me down so I didn't bite his head off and I instead just chucked ice cubes at him during the film. Too bad my fucking aim is lousy. A good solid cold wet thwack int he back of his head woulda made me feel a LOT better.
Anyhow.. The next day, we had to go do some stuff anyhow so I took Stacey to see Batman Begins at a matinee. I think maybe all my friends saying this was a great film made my expectations too high. Also, Scarecrow is the one batman villian that really makes me want to punch him in the head (hmm, there seems to be a theme here) Wooooo. I'm Scaaaaaaaaary! So, I guess the movie was well made and such but it didn't really click with me. I guess I like either the super-heroic action or the pednantic detective and this version fell between those.
So that evening, I finally got to see Suburbia for the first time in 15 years. Not sure how I feel about this film in retrospect. There was definetely some negative to it. The main characters were a little racist and homophobic, though considering it was made in 83, that's hardly surprising. And as for the movie itself, the black cop is probably the only clear-cut 'good guy' in it. (Jack's step father) and Joe's gay father isn't as bad as most of the other kids' parents. Still, this movie is very slow, and honestly, a bit scary because it made me realize a few things. One: That while I always though of myself as a poser and a wanna-be, I was actually pretty freakin' punk and two. Aurgh! There's a lotta stuff I'd like to forget. (My friends lived in abandoned houses and I partied with them/slept there off and on. I remember the groups of people staring at the TV and just kind of doing _NOTHING_ Sure there's some fun memories but there's a lot of drek too.
The next day, Stacey had her wisdom teeth taken out and, so I would suffer as much as she did, she made me go with her to see The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl This was another marginally OK film. Nothing new, nothing exciting, it kinda fizzled in the same way Spy Kids 3D did but not as bad. I think I'm giving up on Rodrigez now. Spy Kids was a one-hit wonder. It was pleasantly weird and surreal despite the soccer-momness of it. The movies he's made since then haven't really captured the same glory.
Before the movie, I had my terrifying anime moment. I took Stacey to get a banana shake and she sat there, dazed from the drugs, her lips rimmed with blood and tried to eat her drink. A river of red spilled over her lip, down her chin, and dripped onto the table. Really creepy-looking.
After the movie it was time for... ANOTHER MOVIE! Desert Hearts If you haven't heard of this film, that's of little surprise. This was a real actual lesbian film produced in 1986. It's set in the 1950's and is about a college professor getting a divorce from her husband. She's moved from New York to Nevada and established residency because it's the only place she can easily get a divorce in that time. While there, she meets a woman who changes her life and breaks through her icy facade. This movie is about the same pacing as Irreconcilable Differences and is rather unique in being possibly the only lesbian movie ever which does not end with someone dying. Slow, and full of Patsy Cline music but a really good film. I think Breis and Atara would both really enjoy this one.
And last...Freshman Philosophy 101 uh, I mean RotoFlash: The Movie er... um.. Waking Life Why did I buy this film again? Oh, right! Torture! Not ME, you fool! Augh! Too late. I watched it. Well, really, I stayed in the kitchen and cooked while Stacey and Peggy watched it. I can only assume it embedded them with brain-rotting spores because they were laughing and seemed to perversely enjoy this horror.
My copy of Fantastic Planet arrived the other day but Time Masters iswaswere being delayed. Err wait. The iswaswere thing was Light Years. Ohwell. Anyhow, I may watch it soon but my eyes are all googly. I've watched more movies the past week or so than I have in the past several months. I guess that probably means I'm stressed about this moving thing and also it's made me halt working on projects so I'm out of project space at the moment and need something to fill my time. :/ Gotta start packing. :(
So.. When we returned from Santa Cruz, I was hot to watch Suburbia but I'd promised Stacey Howl's Moving Castle so we went to that instead. It was a decent film. I don't think it was the best Studio Ghibili has done but it was alright. Also, my movie experience was tainted by Assholians from the planet Uranus. (Straight couple ducked into the theatre about 10 minutes after the movie started and, in a mostly-empty theatre, decided to park his 8ft tall arse right in front of me and then gesture wildly and blither to his girlfriend. Stacey convinced me to move back a few rows, and which point, they GOT UP AND TOOK THE SEATS WE WERE IN. Fucking straight people. Next time I just kick the back of his chair throughout the movie. Stacey held me down so I didn't bite his head off and I instead just chucked ice cubes at him during the film. Too bad my fucking aim is lousy. A good solid cold wet thwack int he back of his head woulda made me feel a LOT better.
Anyhow.. The next day, we had to go do some stuff anyhow so I took Stacey to see Batman Begins at a matinee. I think maybe all my friends saying this was a great film made my expectations too high. Also, Scarecrow is the one batman villian that really makes me want to punch him in the head (hmm, there seems to be a theme here) Wooooo. I'm Scaaaaaaaaary! So, I guess the movie was well made and such but it didn't really click with me. I guess I like either the super-heroic action or the pednantic detective and this version fell between those.
So that evening, I finally got to see Suburbia for the first time in 15 years. Not sure how I feel about this film in retrospect. There was definetely some negative to it. The main characters were a little racist and homophobic, though considering it was made in 83, that's hardly surprising. And as for the movie itself, the black cop is probably the only clear-cut 'good guy' in it. (Jack's step father) and Joe's gay father isn't as bad as most of the other kids' parents. Still, this movie is very slow, and honestly, a bit scary because it made me realize a few things. One: That while I always though of myself as a poser and a wanna-be, I was actually pretty freakin' punk and two. Aurgh! There's a lotta stuff I'd like to forget. (My friends lived in abandoned houses and I partied with them/slept there off and on. I remember the groups of people staring at the TV and just kind of doing _NOTHING_ Sure there's some fun memories but there's a lot of drek too.
The next day, Stacey had her wisdom teeth taken out and, so I would suffer as much as she did, she made me go with her to see The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl This was another marginally OK film. Nothing new, nothing exciting, it kinda fizzled in the same way Spy Kids 3D did but not as bad. I think I'm giving up on Rodrigez now. Spy Kids was a one-hit wonder. It was pleasantly weird and surreal despite the soccer-momness of it. The movies he's made since then haven't really captured the same glory.
Before the movie, I had my terrifying anime moment. I took Stacey to get a banana shake and she sat there, dazed from the drugs, her lips rimmed with blood and tried to eat her drink. A river of red spilled over her lip, down her chin, and dripped onto the table. Really creepy-looking.
After the movie it was time for... ANOTHER MOVIE! Desert Hearts If you haven't heard of this film, that's of little surprise. This was a real actual lesbian film produced in 1986. It's set in the 1950's and is about a college professor getting a divorce from her husband. She's moved from New York to Nevada and established residency because it's the only place she can easily get a divorce in that time. While there, she meets a woman who changes her life and breaks through her icy facade. This movie is about the same pacing as Irreconcilable Differences and is rather unique in being possibly the only lesbian movie ever which does not end with someone dying. Slow, and full of Patsy Cline music but a really good film. I think Breis and Atara would both really enjoy this one.
And last...
My copy of Fantastic Planet arrived the other day but Time Masters iswaswere being delayed. Err wait. The iswaswere thing was Light Years. Ohwell. Anyhow, I may watch it soon but my eyes are all googly. I've watched more movies the past week or so than I have in the past several months. I guess that probably means I'm stressed about this moving thing and also it's made me halt working on projects so I'm out of project space at the moment and need something to fill my time. :/ Gotta start packing. :(
Hit and Miss
Dec. 5th, 2003 12:14 pmSo... Most of the week has been kind of down I guess. I've been sort of depressive and angsty. Anyhow, yesterday I got Stacey to come visit me for a very very late lunch. We went and wandered around Palo Alto a little. Poked in a bead store and they had a sort of 'drawing sale'. You pull a random card and that's the discount you get on whatever you purchase that day. So... I drew their maximum discount 40%.
So, okay, it's a gimmick and that store is way overpriced but they do have a lot of the sort of beads I like. Rough-cut semi-precious stones. Their tools on the other hand are actually reasonably priced. So I got myself a strand of labradorite stones and a carbide-tipped auger and some little files. Even at 40% off, the labradorite was 2 to 3 times ebay prices. On the other hand, ebay has shipping costs and you can't be certain of the quality/clarity of the stones . So the 16" strand cost me $10 and I'm happy with that. I got some antiqued silver beads to go with it and I'm going to have Stacey pick out a moonstone pendant for a center piece and build it all into a necklace. I think it will look pretty sharp when its done.
After that, we went to school. For a change, my instructor didn't totally hate my work. I guess ostriches are a cartoony-enough animal for him. Or maybe he was surprised that in one evening I could build an ostrich, rig it (with no prior experience) and animate it. Anyhow. not so bad. Last night was one of the best classe sof the quarter I think. He was just discussing stuff with us and talking about the actual animation instead of standing in the front poking at things weirdly.
After school I told Stacey I wanted to unwind and go watch a movie. So we went to see The Haunted Mansion It was fun and I was really enjoying it right up until the climax scene, when I was really into the movie and suddenly... The fire alarm went off and they made everyone exit the movie theatre and stand outside in the cold for a half hour. With the spindown time of the project and the spin-up time of the projector we missed like THE 10 seconds of the movie, and while I could piece it together, the mood was totally utterly shattered. I asked before they started the movie up again if they would rewind like 2 or 3 minutes of it so the audience would miss it and they said 'no'. so I whinged and got two free movie passes out of it. Still kind of sucked. I got all wound up again. Ohwell. I guess I can look at it as just like the beads, I got something massively over-priced at around half-priced making it acceptably overpriced. :)
In retrospect, all in all it wasn't a bad day.
So, okay, it's a gimmick and that store is way overpriced but they do have a lot of the sort of beads I like. Rough-cut semi-precious stones. Their tools on the other hand are actually reasonably priced. So I got myself a strand of labradorite stones and a carbide-tipped auger and some little files. Even at 40% off, the labradorite was 2 to 3 times ebay prices. On the other hand, ebay has shipping costs and you can't be certain of the quality/clarity of the stones . So the 16" strand cost me $10 and I'm happy with that. I got some antiqued silver beads to go with it and I'm going to have Stacey pick out a moonstone pendant for a center piece and build it all into a necklace. I think it will look pretty sharp when its done.
After that, we went to school. For a change, my instructor didn't totally hate my work. I guess ostriches are a cartoony-enough animal for him. Or maybe he was surprised that in one evening I could build an ostrich, rig it (with no prior experience) and animate it. Anyhow. not so bad. Last night was one of the best classe sof the quarter I think. He was just discussing stuff with us and talking about the actual animation instead of standing in the front poking at things weirdly.
After school I told Stacey I wanted to unwind and go watch a movie. So we went to see The Haunted Mansion It was fun and I was really enjoying it right up until the climax scene, when I was really into the movie and suddenly... The fire alarm went off and they made everyone exit the movie theatre and stand outside in the cold for a half hour. With the spindown time of the project and the spin-up time of the projector we missed like THE 10 seconds of the movie, and while I could piece it together, the mood was totally utterly shattered. I asked before they started the movie up again if they would rewind like 2 or 3 minutes of it so the audience would miss it and they said 'no'. so I whinged and got two free movie passes out of it. Still kind of sucked. I got all wound up again. Ohwell. I guess I can look at it as just like the beads, I got something massively over-priced at around half-priced making it acceptably overpriced. :)
In retrospect, all in all it wasn't a bad day.
Tobias the Adequate
Nov. 17th, 2003 02:46 amWell... So... I'm still working on the video for Tobias the Adequate and I'm discovering that editing live video is a lot harder than working with a plan. I'm finding I'm needing a lot of things I don't have. Close-up shots, crowd shots, and a boom mic.
I think I've finally gotten into doing what I can with the footage I have though and I finally have something like a plan to finish up the rest of it. Here's sorta a rough first-pass of the first few minutes. Any input would be majorly appreciated.
About a 5M Quicktime movie of Tobias the Adequate
Okay. I see several things to fix already. That weird edge flicker at the beginning and the first part of 'The women are laughing for different reasons than the men' is missing and needs to be put back in. The audio is rough but I think it's as good as I'm gonna be able to get and so far at least I've been able to cut out all of the revving trucks, airplanes, cel phones, screaming children and other weird background noises that are around. I've also developed some new talent for working WITH ambient noise. The 'Theme Song' is completely unique one of a kind mixing music from Matthew's show, the parades at Ren Faire, and the people laughing in his crowd. There's also some great ambient noise in the introduction of 'The Coat of Loki' with these deep horns sounding mystically in the background as he talks about it. Also, the ringing of a bell when he's talking about the ship's bell. So... I'm learning to make the noise my friend rather than my enemy. Or perhaps it's just 3AM on a work night and I've lost my mind.
Anyhow. I think I know how to finish up the rest of it and get it done in a day or two. Any input, suggestions, feedback, etc would be much much much appreciated. Also... Tobias the Adequate is AKAroon just for those that don't know!
-Samantha
I think I've finally gotten into doing what I can with the footage I have though and I finally have something like a plan to finish up the rest of it. Here's sorta a rough first-pass of the first few minutes. Any input would be majorly appreciated.
About a 5M Quicktime movie of Tobias the Adequate
Okay. I see several things to fix already. That weird edge flicker at the beginning and the first part of 'The women are laughing for different reasons than the men' is missing and needs to be put back in. The audio is rough but I think it's as good as I'm gonna be able to get and so far at least I've been able to cut out all of the revving trucks, airplanes, cel phones, screaming children and other weird background noises that are around. I've also developed some new talent for working WITH ambient noise. The 'Theme Song' is completely unique one of a kind mixing music from Matthew's show, the parades at Ren Faire, and the people laughing in his crowd. There's also some great ambient noise in the introduction of 'The Coat of Loki' with these deep horns sounding mystically in the background as he talks about it. Also, the ringing of a bell when he's talking about the ship's bell. So... I'm learning to make the noise my friend rather than my enemy. Or perhaps it's just 3AM on a work night and I've lost my mind.
Anyhow. I think I know how to finish up the rest of it and get it done in a day or two. Any input, suggestions, feedback, etc would be much much much appreciated. Also... Tobias the Adequate is AKA
roon just for those that don't know!-Samantha
Elvis battles 5,000 year old mummy!
Sep. 24th, 2003 02:22 amThat's the plot synoposis of the new movie starring Bruce Campbell, 'Bubba Ho-Tep'. IBruce Campell places an aged Elvis who secretly traded lives with an Elvis Impersonator (the guy that died on the lieu in the 70s) and now makes his living impersonating himself... Then there's this battle with this evil mummy wearing cowboy boots... So. This movie is on my 'will see' list.
Um. Other than that. I'm alive. I've been Maya geeking hard and work geeking. I think I've been getting home from work around 1:30AM lately. :/ Bwah. Lotsa stuff I've wanted to talk about but been too busy to write and forgot. Haven't written in my paper journal either.
So lotsa stuff happening. Biggest issue ATM is work. Followed shortly by school started today (I left work at 7, went to school, and came back to work at 10 and stayed until 1:30. Bwah) I STILL haven't gotten my promised 3-day weekend. It keeps slipping away from me. *sigh*
Guess that's everything too exhausted to do much more than note that I'm alive. (And a couple other things in a locked post)
Um. Other than that. I'm alive. I've been Maya geeking hard and work geeking. I think I've been getting home from work around 1:30AM lately. :/ Bwah. Lotsa stuff I've wanted to talk about but been too busy to write and forgot. Haven't written in my paper journal either.
So lotsa stuff happening. Biggest issue ATM is work. Followed shortly by school started today (I left work at 7, went to school, and came back to work at 10 and stayed until 1:30. Bwah) I STILL haven't gotten my promised 3-day weekend. It keeps slipping away from me. *sigh*
Guess that's everything too exhausted to do much more than note that I'm alive. (And a couple other things in a locked post)
American Splendor
Sep. 1st, 2003 12:38 amThis movie was awsome. Went and saw it after a 30hr weekend of work (with more work tomorrow) So much for my 3-day weekend. ... I can SO empathize with Harvey Pekar. The movie itself was very cool slipping in and out of different modes and styles much like the comic itself seems to. Worth tha box office price. I'm off to do art now though.
On a quasi-related note, A couple weeks ago I finally got around to sending in that 4 pager artwork I made for Genus a year or so ago.URL here if you really wanna see bad furry pr0n So... A couple days ago I got my first rejection letter! W00T! It was even annotated that the story was great but the artwork sucked green monkey dicks.
Okay... I'm the first to agree with that, even 'n' no biggie but... Um... Wow. Compared to some of the stuff I've seen run in Genus? I feel dissed. :) Heehee. Well. Guess I'll just haveta work harder in the future. :) the hand-written critique in addition to the check-boxed form letter was nice. Businessy-wise, what's the proper protocol here? Send back some sort of 'thank you for the honest criticism, it gives me goals and a direction to work in' type letter? I haven't really got any aspirations to send them anything else, but as a wise man once said, "Be careful of the toes you step on today for they could be attached to the ass you might have to kiss tomorrow."
Anyhow. Off to study and make more crappy art.
On a quasi-related note, A couple weeks ago I finally got around to sending in that 4 pager artwork I made for Genus a year or so ago.URL here if you really wanna see bad furry pr0n So... A couple days ago I got my first rejection letter! W00T! It was even annotated that the story was great but the artwork sucked green monkey dicks.
Okay... I'm the first to agree with that, even 'n' no biggie but... Um... Wow. Compared to some of the stuff I've seen run in Genus? I feel dissed. :) Heehee. Well. Guess I'll just haveta work harder in the future. :) the hand-written critique in addition to the check-boxed form letter was nice. Businessy-wise, what's the proper protocol here? Send back some sort of 'thank you for the honest criticism, it gives me goals and a direction to work in' type letter? I haven't really got any aspirations to send them anything else, but as a wise man once said, "Be careful of the toes you step on today for they could be attached to the ass you might have to kiss tomorrow."
Anyhow. Off to study and make more crappy art.
Movies movies movies
Jul. 9th, 2003 11:10 amBeen trying to pick up DVDs of things that I like or interest me when I see them but lately I haven't had a chance to watch the things I got. So last night and today I've been using my notebook to work (since I'm doing work work and not animating) and watching some of these DVDs. Yay! Of course, my interests are pretty weird I guess. So far I've watched Watership Down, Castle in the Sky, Heavy Metal, and up next Plymptoons
I'm very happy witht he DVD copy of Heavy Metal I had only seen it as a very battered original release movie print and a copy of a copy of a copy VHS. There is so much more detail to the artwork than I could see.
So, okay, I know, a lot of people consider it a schlock movie. I have a keen interest in old animation which is not mainstream. Sure,s ometimes the motion isn't so good or the stories aren't so good, but it's original and it was made because the people making it were really geeks on that particular topic, not mad after 5 years of market research and a toyline. So some of my favourite non-japanese animations are early Disney movies, and stuff like Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, Yellow Submarine, Watership Down, the Plague Dogs, Ralph Bakshi's various works, etc. I dunno. It's work that inspires me and makes me believe that I can tell my own stories and so, maybe not so many people see them, or maybe it's not as c4rystal clean as Disney, that's not what is important to me. It's telling the story that counts.
-Sammi
I'm very happy witht he DVD copy of Heavy Metal I had only seen it as a very battered original release movie print and a copy of a copy of a copy VHS. There is so much more detail to the artwork than I could see.
So, okay, I know, a lot of people consider it a schlock movie. I have a keen interest in old animation which is not mainstream. Sure,s ometimes the motion isn't so good or the stories aren't so good, but it's original and it was made because the people making it were really geeks on that particular topic, not mad after 5 years of market research and a toyline. So some of my favourite non-japanese animations are early Disney movies, and stuff like Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, Yellow Submarine, Watership Down, the Plague Dogs, Ralph Bakshi's various works, etc. I dunno. It's work that inspires me and makes me believe that I can tell my own stories and so, maybe not so many people see them, or maybe it's not as c4rystal clean as Disney, that's not what is important to me. It's telling the story that counts.
-Sammi
Whirlwind of Film
Jun. 23rd, 2003 03:19 pmSo... Watched The Hulk this weekend.... HATED it! :/ Worst editing I've seen in a long time and I watched student films for several hours this weekend! I could have lived with the effects and even the really unsympathetic characters were it not for the editing.
But, much like Shrub, I've fallen off my Segway. So... Backing up to student films, I segway to my student films! (See what a nice topic transistion that was?)
So.. I went to the student film guild thingy on Saturday. They chose about the ten best films submitted and played them for us. I'll try not to get too full of myself here but... They opened the show with 'Wirehead: Physics' and played a rough-cut of 'Free as a Bird' as the next to the last piece. I was the only person to have two submissions get played. *^_^*
I also listened to people talking in the hall after the show and two or three people identified 'Free as a Bird' as their favourite of the films played that evening. (I didn't identify myself, I was just ease-dropping. :) Geepers!
So um... If you see my head floating in the clouds, lasso it and haul it back down. I need it to do more work this evening! I'm way behind schedule on WireHead's Revenge The editing for 'Free as a Bird' took all night Friday (though worth it to learn After Effects) but anyhow, due to a lack of sleep and a couple glasses of 'Cheap Red Wine' (that was the label on the bottle) I passed out and didn't wake up until about 12:30 the next day.
Then I went shopping with Stacey to buy her some sunglasses and get myself a new Wacom tablet. Ultimately, I talked myself out of buying the tablet until we return from our trip and my dental stuff is taken care of. But now I see the new G5s are finally out and I have something else entirely to lust for.
At any rate, I didn't get to start animating until about 9:30 last night. :/ I've done about 30 seconds of animation and at that most of the 'hard' stuff. The next set of shots is mostly lipsynches and matching motions. It should go reasonably quick (with any luck) Still. Looking tight for finishing by tomorrow.
But, much like Shrub, I've fallen off my Segway. So... Backing up to student films, I segway to my student films! (See what a nice topic transistion that was?)
So.. I went to the student film guild thingy on Saturday. They chose about the ten best films submitted and played them for us. I'll try not to get too full of myself here but... They opened the show with 'Wirehead: Physics' and played a rough-cut of 'Free as a Bird' as the next to the last piece. I was the only person to have two submissions get played. *^_^*
I also listened to people talking in the hall after the show and two or three people identified 'Free as a Bird' as their favourite of the films played that evening. (I didn't identify myself, I was just ease-dropping. :) Geepers!
So um... If you see my head floating in the clouds, lasso it and haul it back down. I need it to do more work this evening! I'm way behind schedule on WireHead's Revenge The editing for 'Free as a Bird' took all night Friday (though worth it to learn After Effects) but anyhow, due to a lack of sleep and a couple glasses of 'Cheap Red Wine' (that was the label on the bottle) I passed out and didn't wake up until about 12:30 the next day.
Then I went shopping with Stacey to buy her some sunglasses and get myself a new Wacom tablet. Ultimately, I talked myself out of buying the tablet until we return from our trip and my dental stuff is taken care of. But now I see the new G5s are finally out and I have something else entirely to lust for.
At any rate, I didn't get to start animating until about 9:30 last night. :/ I've done about 30 seconds of animation and at that most of the 'hard' stuff. The next set of shots is mostly lipsynches and matching motions. It should go reasonably quick (with any luck) Still. Looking tight for finishing by tomorrow.
Feelin' Fine
Jun. 12th, 2003 11:38 amYay! I'm finally feeling better. Amazing what a little sleep will do towards stopping a cold.
Also, Stacey really pampered me. She even rented Godzilla movies? How could I not feel better after an evening of snuggling 'n' eating fruit and cheese 'n' watching Godzilla and Rodan duke it out with Ghidra (Monster 0)
I'm impressed by how good the physics are on their miniatures. It seemed like someone put a lot of thought into scaling the materials to break and crumble in the same way that life-sized ones would. You never really notice this in Godzilla movies. Most people focus too much on the rubber suits. Anyhow, I like the rubber suits! Go go go Godzilla!!!!!! RAAAR!!!!
The second surprise for the evening: Horseradish cheese is quite good. :) Okay, I like cheese and I like horseradish, so it seemed worth the try, but I generally done like things like garlic cheese or pepper cheese. They just dont' combine so well. Horseradish was pretty good though. Especially with salami and sourdough bread. :)
So... I guess this evening I'd better get back to work on the cat animation and I need to come up with some final idea to do with Wirehead for this quarter. Also, Film Finals are on Friday but Stacey has a game and won't be able to go. Eee. Should I go it alone and see about hanging out with classmates or should I try to track someone down to go with me, or should I skip it? I sorta wanna see what other people have been doing, even if I didn't make it in time for the competition. I guess I should look at how much work I have to do between now and then though.
Also, Stacey really pampered me. She even rented Godzilla movies? How could I not feel better after an evening of snuggling 'n' eating fruit and cheese 'n' watching Godzilla and Rodan duke it out with Ghidra (Monster 0)
I'm impressed by how good the physics are on their miniatures. It seemed like someone put a lot of thought into scaling the materials to break and crumble in the same way that life-sized ones would. You never really notice this in Godzilla movies. Most people focus too much on the rubber suits. Anyhow, I like the rubber suits! Go go go Godzilla!!!!!! RAAAR!!!!
The second surprise for the evening: Horseradish cheese is quite good. :) Okay, I like cheese and I like horseradish, so it seemed worth the try, but I generally done like things like garlic cheese or pepper cheese. They just dont' combine so well. Horseradish was pretty good though. Especially with salami and sourdough bread. :)
So... I guess this evening I'd better get back to work on the cat animation and I need to come up with some final idea to do with Wirehead for this quarter. Also, Film Finals are on Friday but Stacey has a game and won't be able to go. Eee. Should I go it alone and see about hanging out with classmates or should I try to track someone down to go with me, or should I skip it? I sorta wanna see what other people have been doing, even if I didn't make it in time for the competition. I guess I should look at how much work I have to do between now and then though.
Mactabulous!
May. 23rd, 2003 01:36 pmPC users might want to skip this post, it's all about how fabulous my Mac is.
I so totally love this machine! Yesterday I downloaded iStopMotion and played with it. It wasn't as good as Frame Thief but it is freeware and it has cool voice-activated frame-grabbing. meaning that I could in theory pixelate myself into animation with no assistant, which is amusing. Anyhow, sticking with FrameThief for now. :)
So... Crissa bought me a DVD yesterday. Fritz Lang's 1927 classic, 'Metroplis'. fantastic movie. I remember how bad the first print of it I saw looked. The restoration people have done a beautiful job restoring this movie and you really start to get a feel for how incredible it was when it was made. Lang was a genius with film. Every shot is framed and lit equisitely, every camera angle and movement is very deliberate and artistic. Even the titles are made so that they add to the feel of the movie. The text takes on shapes, scrolls up or down or sideways or crossfades, whatever fits the mood and tone of the current point in the movie. This movie is just fantastically made!
So... I wanted to watch the movie, I wanted to animate. So... I popped the DVD into the Mac. I love how Macs just automatically recognize different things and will react accordingly. Like open the DVD player for a DVD or set you up to write to a CD-R if you stick one in the same drive, or automatically open up iPhoto when you plug in a camera on USB. It's just so cool. :)
So anyhow... It plays DVDs! :) It plays DVDs full screen with Premiere running in classic mode in the background and Internet Explorer, Trebuchet, Terminal, and Frame Thief running too. It popped twice during the whole movie. My display is set at 1600x1200 BTW. O_O Anyhow. 'm happy. I so totally lurve the cube!
And Stacey! :) (That goes without saying though, probably)
I so totally love this machine! Yesterday I downloaded iStopMotion and played with it. It wasn't as good as Frame Thief but it is freeware and it has cool voice-activated frame-grabbing. meaning that I could in theory pixelate myself into animation with no assistant, which is amusing. Anyhow, sticking with FrameThief for now. :)
So... Crissa bought me a DVD yesterday. Fritz Lang's 1927 classic, 'Metroplis'. fantastic movie. I remember how bad the first print of it I saw looked. The restoration people have done a beautiful job restoring this movie and you really start to get a feel for how incredible it was when it was made. Lang was a genius with film. Every shot is framed and lit equisitely, every camera angle and movement is very deliberate and artistic. Even the titles are made so that they add to the feel of the movie. The text takes on shapes, scrolls up or down or sideways or crossfades, whatever fits the mood and tone of the current point in the movie. This movie is just fantastically made!
So... I wanted to watch the movie, I wanted to animate. So... I popped the DVD into the Mac. I love how Macs just automatically recognize different things and will react accordingly. Like open the DVD player for a DVD or set you up to write to a CD-R if you stick one in the same drive, or automatically open up iPhoto when you plug in a camera on USB. It's just so cool. :)
So anyhow... It plays DVDs! :) It plays DVDs full screen with Premiere running in classic mode in the background and Internet Explorer, Trebuchet, Terminal, and Frame Thief running too. It popped twice during the whole movie. My display is set at 1600x1200 BTW. O_O Anyhow. 'm happy. I so totally lurve the cube!
And Stacey! :) (That goes without saying though, probably)
I finally got paid last Friday 'n' went shopping for the weekend. I guess that's what I wanted to do for my birthday. Crawl thrift stores and bargain bin type places. (Okay, I can't be perfect, I have a few bad habits.) Anyhow... My spouse abandoned me. :/ I thought she was gonna crawl thrift stores too but she elected to call some gamer friend fo hers and hang out with him, leaving me alone. *sulk* She hates to shop. I don't know what's wrong with her. She shops like a man. Then again, I'm weirdo. When I do the thrift store thing, I like to try on at least one TOTALLY AWFUL outfit and see just how bizarre I can make myself look and giggle that someone actually once paid money for this thing.
Anyhow, because of the downer mood, and being dressed way too warm (It was cold and rainy in San Jose so I figured it would be colder and more rainy in Santa Cruz, but it was sunny. Who knew?) I didn't find a single thing I liked and spent most of Saturday afternoon feeling mopey. (A rarity for me. I usually come away with at least one good outfit.) I think Stacey realized she'd blown it and apologized for ditching me.
Then we spent the evening at the drive-in and stuffed ourselves on hotdogs and cheeseburgers. Watched X-Men 2 and Daredevil (well.. I fell asleep during Dare Devil but we'd already seen it in the regular theatre)
Sunday we continued our gluttony and sloth and went to dim sum for lunch, and then to Ross. I got a sleek new leather portfolio type bag to carry all junk in. (Think gigantic purse of doom!) Much mroe stylish and professional-looking than the green hiking back-pack I'd been carrying stuff in. Aso got some jogging clothes. (Uh-oh)
The only other birthday type thingy I got was a present fromtigrise and Tanan. A Negativeland CD. Yay! It was a really nice present actually. very well thought out 'n' I like it a lot. Stacey hadn't heard any Negativeland before (my ex sold all of my CDs to support his smoking habit) but she liked it. 'n' I gotta say...
Car Bomb is a GREAT song for driving over H-17! :) Will have to remember to take CD out of car before visiting family in Oklahoma though. I can't imagine some of the songs would go over very well with them.
So... All in all, not a bad birthday weekend type thingy. I tried not to art or work all weekend. Challenging, but I think I needed some relaxation time. All in all, this weekend was much too short. I wasn't really ready to come back to work today. Ohwell. Que sera sera. There's a 3-day weekend at the end of this month. I'll just look forward to that.
Anyhow, because of the downer mood, and being dressed way too warm (It was cold and rainy in San Jose so I figured it would be colder and more rainy in Santa Cruz, but it was sunny. Who knew?) I didn't find a single thing I liked and spent most of Saturday afternoon feeling mopey. (A rarity for me. I usually come away with at least one good outfit.) I think Stacey realized she'd blown it and apologized for ditching me.
Then we spent the evening at the drive-in and stuffed ourselves on hotdogs and cheeseburgers. Watched X-Men 2 and Daredevil (well.. I fell asleep during Dare Devil but we'd already seen it in the regular theatre)
Sunday we continued our gluttony and sloth and went to dim sum for lunch, and then to Ross. I got a sleek new leather portfolio type bag to carry all junk in. (Think gigantic purse of doom!) Much mroe stylish and professional-looking than the green hiking back-pack I'd been carrying stuff in. Aso got some jogging clothes. (Uh-oh)
The only other birthday type thingy I got was a present from
tigrise and Tanan. A Negativeland CD. Yay! It was a really nice present actually. very well thought out 'n' I like it a lot. Stacey hadn't heard any Negativeland before (my ex sold all of my CDs to support his smoking habit) but she liked it. 'n' I gotta say...Car Bomb is a GREAT song for driving over H-17! :) Will have to remember to take CD out of car before visiting family in Oklahoma though. I can't imagine some of the songs would go over very well with them.
So... All in all, not a bad birthday weekend type thingy. I tried not to art or work all weekend. Challenging, but I think I needed some relaxation time. All in all, this weekend was much too short. I wasn't really ready to come back to work today. Ohwell. Que sera sera. There's a 3-day weekend at the end of this month. I'll just look forward to that.
Projectimania!
Apr. 18th, 2003 02:57 pmOooh! I got a job. :)
Well, okay, I big on and successfully obtained sort of a comission to do pieces of a fake comic for student film. A color comic-book cover and two or three pages inside it. The catch, of course, is that it needs to be done by next Friday. Pays a whopping $25. :)
Still. I feel like its an accomplishment. I showed a portfolio, and displayed knowledge of the output media and arranged a schedule and beat out my competition. Little things like this make me feel like I could possibly make it as an independent commercial artist one of these days, though I'm still about two years away from that at the minimum. A credit on someone else's project is very helpful though. I think on eof the major things lacking in my experience is collaborative projects.
Anyhow... Winter is over! I can tell. My productivity is back up. I'm now at full capacity on projects. Making progresses on the project withpaka even if our meetings keep getting clobbered by my job. Making TONS of progress on Free as a Bird I'm going to cut a rough sound-track after school tonight so I can present the animatic in class tomorrow. During class, I'll work out the concept stuff for this comic-project. I've already got a bunch of good ideas for it and the whole 'in-depth-study' of Preston Blair is really returning huge dividends. After class tomorrow, I'll upload the roughs and get input from the director on what he likes/doesn't like and get his comic done. In the interim, I'll build the storyboard for WireHead, and knock out the woodcutter and some other ideas for the project with Paka.
I have some garden work and housework to do Sunday and then its pure creative time after that. I should be able to knock out the guy's comic stuff in a few hours and get final approval from him, well ahead of his Friday deadline. I think I can get a final cleanup of the Free As a Bird storyboard and timing. From there it's just a bunch of drawing. :)
Before I start on that drawing Free as a Bird I think I'll switch gears and knock out the video ofroon's magic act and the compilation video of stuff for my parents so I can get those off my task list. If I can keep up the pace I've been at this week, I should be able to get all those done and have only Free as a Bird, WireHead, and the project with Paka on my 'to do' list. No problem! :) I've cut down a LOT of projects this week.
Well, okay, I big on and successfully obtained sort of a comission to do pieces of a fake comic for student film. A color comic-book cover and two or three pages inside it. The catch, of course, is that it needs to be done by next Friday. Pays a whopping $25. :)
Still. I feel like its an accomplishment. I showed a portfolio, and displayed knowledge of the output media and arranged a schedule and beat out my competition. Little things like this make me feel like I could possibly make it as an independent commercial artist one of these days, though I'm still about two years away from that at the minimum. A credit on someone else's project is very helpful though. I think on eof the major things lacking in my experience is collaborative projects.
Anyhow... Winter is over! I can tell. My productivity is back up. I'm now at full capacity on projects. Making progresses on the project with
paka even if our meetings keep getting clobbered by my job. Making TONS of progress on Free as a Bird I'm going to cut a rough sound-track after school tonight so I can present the animatic in class tomorrow. During class, I'll work out the concept stuff for this comic-project. I've already got a bunch of good ideas for it and the whole 'in-depth-study' of Preston Blair is really returning huge dividends. After class tomorrow, I'll upload the roughs and get input from the director on what he likes/doesn't like and get his comic done. In the interim, I'll build the storyboard for WireHead, and knock out the woodcutter and some other ideas for the project with Paka. I have some garden work and housework to do Sunday and then its pure creative time after that. I should be able to knock out the guy's comic stuff in a few hours and get final approval from him, well ahead of his Friday deadline. I think I can get a final cleanup of the Free As a Bird storyboard and timing. From there it's just a bunch of drawing. :)
Before I start on that drawing Free as a Bird I think I'll switch gears and knock out the video of
roon's magic act and the compilation video of stuff for my parents so I can get those off my task list. If I can keep up the pace I've been at this week, I should be able to get all those done and have only Free as a Bird, WireHead, and the project with Paka on my 'to do' list. No problem! :) I've cut down a LOT of projects this week.
