Jumping Off The Cliff
For the past two years I’ve been doing animation projects on the side and posting them online. My eventual goal was to be able to turn an animation out at a respectable rate, like one or two a week, by developing my skill and using my own tools. Granted, I haven’t done much work lately as I’ve been busy with trips to foreign lands and website updates, but I think if I wanted to I could actually make some pretty good stuff once a week; I’d just have to give up my day job.
To most filmmakers this would be a no brainer: “Leave my dead end job to make internet short films? Sign me up!” The first problem for me though is that I like my day job. It pays me money for things I like doing. The second problem – which is a big one – is that nobody really watches my films. They’re cute and I love making them, but my most popular short has one one-hundredth of the views on youtube than a cat that boxes; though to be fair that cat is precious. One could argue that if I put out videos more consistently I could develop an audience on my own, and I would agree, but I’m not sure I want to be that guy.
I think it may be time for a change in direction, and I think I have the answer. I’ve been afraid to do a longer form project ever since The Emperor’s New Clothes wrapped years ago because of the sheer amount of effort that went into what ended up being a somewhat mediocre result, but doing the Movie Monkey shorts has taught me a lot about what makes interesting viewing and I think I’m ready to try again. It will take a long time – possibly years – and I may exhaust every resource and friend I have in the process. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
While I’m working on it I will try to blog about the progress I’m making, if only to give myself something to look back on. I can’t say what the end result will be, but life isn’t a hero’s journey; that’s what makes it interesting.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Rarely are there major victories, or even battles, in the average life. The days are much closer to Sissiphus than to Hercules, but that is the nature of the world.
Having been lucky enough to work with you, I am sure you can churn out your dream project. Feel free to tap what meager talents I have to help.
And, having written a lot of stuff for ‘teh interwebz’ and taken a lot of pictures (the most popular of which is this gem, I can sympathize with publishing something you worked dilligently on and having it vanish into the void.
July 4th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Oh, you and Jason are already cast. You just don’t know it yet.