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| Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | | 2:18 pm |
Important news!
Been awhile since I’ve posted in LJ, but I wanted to wait until I had something very impressive to say. I didn’t want to just write something like “Cleaned my apartment today.” And think I was being profound or interesting. Something has happened now I feel I must share. It was a long, long time in coming, but it finally happened. And I do acknowledge it was just a baby step really, but it is a step in the right direction. As some of you may remember from my earlier posts, I’ve been trying to break into writing for a living. I’ve already has some success in that respect, with three of my scripts snapped up. Not done on spec, they actually handed over three checks to me. That’s what really made me think that I had some talent. You do not fork out money to a relative stranger for hack writing and then make some films based on those scripts just for fun. No, someone thought my writing was good enough to take hard earned cash and pay me for it. But since those three scripts, not a single one has been sold. Granted, I haven’t pitched my ideas to studios beyond that one (I’m hoping to rectify that soon) and I realize the studio was going through some rough financial waters at the time, but I was heartened to know that the director, the head writer and two other writers all loved my stuff and thought they should make it. Unfortunately, the man who controlled the budget was lacking a sense of humour, or was willing to risk money on my story ideas. After a couple of years of writing script pitches, reading all I could about the art of scriptwriting and getting nowhere… it gets a bit disheartening. Curious to see if my selling those scripts was a fluke or not, I decided to do something a bit more daring: try to get published. Now, I don’t mean I wanted my letter to the editor to appear in the paper, nor do I mean getting self published. Sure, if I scraped together enough cash I could pay some publisher to print my stories, put them up on Amazon and someone, somewhere would buy a couple of copies. Self publishing can be a great start for a struggling writer, but it is not at all indicative of good writing by any stretch of the imagination. I wanted to know if my writing actually had some real worth. I spent a few months writing a couple of articles for a RPG magazine. I didn’t want to jump in head first with a novel, a few articles would be perfect. It was an unsolicited piece of writing, something that would likely end up on a pile with a ton of other dusty works of fiction that they would get to reading… sometime. If they were having a slow day. Maybe. It was a test really, to see if I could grab their attention and maybe get published. Even a rejection letter might be something. But I wanted to try it, to see if I could grab someone’s attention. Specifically the attention of an editor that sees a ton of writing in a given week, and out of that has to choose something that he thinks will help sell the magazine. It took a lot longer than I thought. Ten months passed before I heard anything about it. After a couple of months, I shrugged and figured I wasn’t a very good writer – at least gaming articles - it got shelved or put in that round garbage bin by the desk. But ten months later, after I’d pretty much forgotten about it, I get an e-mail: “Hi, Mark. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you regarding your submissions to The Rifter. I am interested in using both of the Chaos Earth files you sent in an upcoming issue of The Rifter. Please send me your current mailing address and other contact information, and we'll get contracts sent out to you shortly. Thanks. Wayne Smith Palladium Books” I think my exact response to this e-mail was a very loud “WHAT?!?” or something along those lines. I just know it was loud and shocking enough of an outburst it made my girlfriend jump. Even though I got this e-mail in March, I didn’t post this news on LJ. After ten months of hearing nothing, I was still a bit slightly doubtful about when it would be published. After all, an upcoming issue could be the next one or eight months down the road. Who’s to say when it would be published? Well, two days ago, I got a package in the mail. Inside were my copies of the Rifter with my one article in it (my second article must be being saved for later) So, now I can finally announce it: I am officially published, my work was good enough to have a complete stranger say he will pay me for it. I have the proof right in my hands. I’m keeping in mind it’s just one article, I’m not going overboard with glee or ego. But I can say that I am a writer now, both in scripts and magazine articles. I’ve not been idle since I got the e-mail either. Upon finding out my writing was worth their time, I’ve begun a second article. This one is much more ambitious, far longer and will have illustrations done by me. I hope that my previous good writing and illustrations will move me to the front of articles for selection for the next couple of issues. I do hope I’m right about that. In the meantime, if anyone wants to see an example of my work head on down to your local gaming store. Rifter #46, in stores now! Current Mood:  ecstatic | | Friday, September 19th, 2008 | | 10:03 pm |
| | Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | | 8:42 pm |
Time for a change?
It’s been over a year since I posted to Livejournal, so I’m not sure anyone reads this anymore. I never did try to gather hordes of friends to hang on my every word. But whether anyone reads this or not, I have a couple of posts that I feel need to be up here. One is a rather extensive post about my time at Pennsic this year. That will come later when I’m in a better mood. This post will be about my day at work today, and will be a bit of venting so please bear with me. This morning marked my return from vacation, and I couldn’t imagine being in a better mood. I had just got back from the Pennsic War, I had bought several nice gifts for friends and family, spent a lot of quality time with my girlfriend, and bought some nice things for myself as well. I had fought in five field battles, went to some interesting classes, and generally recharged my batteries which were in dire need of it. Now I had my new helm, a Pennsic DVD, and a nice pair of gauntlets to bring into work. I almost skipped to work, and was looking forward to seeing everyone again. That’s a feeling I haven’t had in awhile, wanting to come into work and see everyone. I enjoyed it. When I got into work, things started to go sour almost at once. While my helm and gauntlets went over well with those I showed them too, I was told I needed to have a chat with the supervisor about my work. Specifically, about my work from the last show. Here I must explain I finished up the last show - and was working on the next show - before I left on vacation. I knew my work wasn’t as fast as it should be as I had only just started the show, but was feeling confident about the quality. The supervisor had approved most of my roughs with high compliments, and I could see them getting stronger in the style of the show as the days passed. I thought I needed a few tweaks and such and then could dive into what I had left on this show. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My good mood took a nose dive as my supervisor put example after example of where my style was so far off the mark it looked like another show. Where I had made basic, amateur mistakes in my trace offs. Where my style of cleanup was extremely poor, so much that the supervisor had approved my stuff just so he could do it himself so it would be done correctly. As each example was set down, my hands began to shake slightly. I was ashamed of the quality of my art, blindsided by the slap down after the comments on my work before, and downright worried I’d not be able to do this work. The show I’m on has a very unforgiving, almost punishing work schedule. It’s expected that the artists work late and weekends to get the work done. Working just a Saturday for a few hours isn’t enough. Drawing till seven each weeknight and working full days on the weekend is what’s needed to get this show out on time, and as good as they want it. All of it unpaid overtime. I was led to believe switching to backgrounds would lighten the workload I had in animation. It seems it will be about the same, or more likely worse. The thing that made me most ashamed was he was right about my work. When I compared it to the rest of the show, it was pathetic. What I hated most was after that chat, my confidence in my artistic ability was very low. I was second guessing myself almost at once, wondering if this was good enough, checking for what I could have missed, looking for errors before the clean-up was even done. It was upsetting enough my hands shook a bit, which made me wonder if I could even draw this morning. Still, I persevered and managed to draw a bit before lunch. At lunch I decided I needed some comfort food and wandered over to a restaurant I have enjoyed many nice meals in the past. I used to go there so often the waitresses knew my order and had it punched in before I even sat down. But in trying to save money and eat healthier, I had not been there in some time. The place sadly did little to calm me down. The waitress got my order wrong, the prices had gone up for the food, and a hyper four year old boy was bouncing in the aisle beside me. I finished my meal and shuffled back to work, feeling a bit less hungry and calm enough my hands were not shaking anymore. I hoped to make a good effort in the afternoon. The afternoon was more productive, but had other stresses. The receptionist came by at one point to talk about my toys. I should explain over the years working at this studio, I’ve acquired a number of old G.I. Joe toys, mainly the vehicles and a few figures. I have them scattered about my desk, which while not very functional do make me feel like I’m at home in that spot and have a unique character. But with the recent influx of employees we’ve had, some have come by who have severe allergies to dust. My little plastic vehicles are prime dust collectors and since I am situated directly below the ventilation intake for the air conditioning, my little dust collectors have to go. I may keep a couple of my favourites, but the rest are to be shipped back to my apartment. I can fully understand the reasons behind this, but it didn’t help my mood any. Still, I couldn’t let a bad mood ruin my productivity and I soldiered on. Normally I enjoy some kind of music or noise as I’m working, so I tried to put on something funny to cheer me up. I found an MST3K vid on youtube and hoped it would help. It did actually, a few of the jokes made me smile, and into the sixty minute mark, I actually laughed at a couple of jokes. My mood was starting to lift a little. Then the penny dropped. While I had been on vacation, the IT fellow in our office had forbidden the use of streaming video on our now strained internet connection. So, I had unknowingly been using youtube when it wasn’t allowed anymore. I was told to shut it down, and the reasons why, so I apologized and explained I had not heard of this. He didn’t seem very convinced, just told me to shut it down over and over. So… I had a very silent last few hours at work. I hate dead silence. What does this all make me think? A few things really. First, I’m convinced that I have gone as far as I can with an artistic career. I’ve enjoyed some success with animation and for that I’m grateful, but the way my work isn’t meeting the quality of a truly grueling schedule makes me think I’m burnt out on it. Not just the show I had been working on before this, but on animation in general. I just don’t think it’s for me anymore. I want to try writing. Writing scripts is one thing I was praised extremely highly for my work, even with no formal training. I’ve been told repeatedly from many people my writing is top notch and I should pursue it. Now, I fully intend to. I just think if I want to write, I can’t do it at this studio. I have done a great deal of writing for them, some of it paid for but most of it not. All on my own time, with only some feedback. My ideas for shows and series are not considered for production by the big boss, but I’m always encouraged to keep writing – on my own time, with my own resources. Only recently, I completely overhauled and rewrote a one hundred page script for the studio. I had no pay for this work, and have yet to hear anything back from them, though in the studio’s defense, they have been busy with this current show’s scripts. I did send a note to the head writer and the big boss about that script today, underlining I want to switch to writing. I don’t expect to hear from them for at least two weeks or more, but it felt good to send out that e-mail. If I was single, I think I would be searching around for other studios hiring writers long before now, but I’m not single anymore. I have a girlfriend who I’ve been going out for nearly a year now. There’s been talk of getting a house together, and she has a very good, stable job here in the city. I can’t just up and leave as I could before. But more and more, I feel less valued by this studio. I don’t feel like it’s mindful of how much work we have to do to put out the stuff they want produced. The schedules are very harsh, and the strain on the internet leads me to believe they cut corners and are pushing to do the most they can for the least amount of cash. I am certain if they actually had to pay us overtime, the work schedule would be extended to a more reasonable length of time. The removal of my toys, while admittedly for a good reason and quite a minor thing really, just makes me feel like more of a drone. It’s been a long time in coming, but I think this studio isn’t where I want to be. But this city and the people I know here are. As I dust off my resume, I find myself questioning how I can remain here and not work for the studio. There’s quite a long list of tasks and shows I’ve done for this studio to be added to my cover letter, and my resume is already fairly extensive as is. But is it enough to let me write for a living? | | Sunday, November 18th, 2007 | | 10:50 pm |
MEME stuff
Don't normally like these, but hey... A deal's a deal. So, reply to this in the commenst and I'll do the following: 1. Tell you why I friended you. 2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc. 3. Tell you something I like about you. 4. Tell you a memory I have of you. 5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you. 6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours. 7. In return, you must post this in your LJ. | | Saturday, June 16th, 2007 | | 7:29 pm |
Old friends...
Looks like I just missed the thunderstorm that’s been looming over us all day. Good, I hate getting caught in the rain. Just spent my entire Saturday shopping and relaxing since tomorrow I have to work. Ah well, can’t work next weekend, I won’t be here. Last weekend I wasn’t here either but it was for a good cause. An old friend of mine from college (which means I’ve known him for more years than I care to count right now…) had come up from California to Toronto. First time I’d have a chance to see him since my college days, though sadly it wasn’t a vacation. Recently his mother had become quite ill and without going into details, she had taken a grave turn for the worse. When my friend arrived the entire family was present when she saw them one last time before dying. I sadly could not come down for the memorial but I could make it down for the last weekend he’d be in Toronto. I admit to being a little nervous, I am not the most people oriented person and wasn’t sure how to help someone who had a recent loss. But fortunately the memorial had helped and he had a week of out fishing with his father to help work out his emotions, so his greeting to me was running up behind me and pretending to punch me in the back. Everything went swimmingly from then on. Hooking up with another friend from college who lives in Toronto, we went shopping for gaming books and comics, then to HMV for DVDs where I stunned my friends but expressing wonder at finding the movie “Cannibal Women of the Avocado Jungle of Death” and not only being glad to have found it but also said the title without cracking up. I also picked up a ton of bad movies like Night of the Lepus, Galaxina, Starcrash and others. I just love ‘em! Oh, and if anyone knows where I can get a copy of “The Warrior and the Sorceress” let me know! From there we had dinner and spent it going through each other’s sketchbooks, handing out gifts and just talking about good times back in college. Wondering how the people back in college are doing now, talking about those few we had contact with, and verbally bashing the morons we knew. Maybe we bashed an ex-girlfriend or two, I don’t know the night was a blur… We talked about our families, new friends we made, our jobs, relationships, talked about how we’d changed since college and how we’re aging (not very gracefully) about working out, just a ton of fun stuff. After dinner we got ice cream and milkshakes and took a long walk down to a quiet pub for even more chatting about old times and new. It’s not like I haven’t talked with these guys daily about things, we see each other regularly on MSN and Yahoo. But actually sitting down to talk with them is great, you just can’t substitute that with online messaging. I wished I could have spent a lot more time with them, just talking about stuff until we were out of old jokes and people to gab about. Sadly, six hours was all the time we had to spend together. Maybe I should be more proactive about this, take some money and actually fly down to California for a change of pace and visit. Might be something to plan for later on. | | Sunday, May 20th, 2007 | | 10:58 pm |
News of the week
*whew* Long trips are rough on me, especially when you’ve driven eight hours… Or was it nine? Well, a lot of hours in a car in one day. It was worth it, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Lemme rewind to my birthday celebrations. Wednesday four people came over to attend the birthday party. It wasn’t going to be a large affair since I wanted to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 for my birthday. That stopped a bunch of people from coming since I’ve tried to show them my taste for bad movies before. Those that survived without major brain damage declined my invitation. Still, we had a fun time. Watched two classic MST3K’s, we had chips and oreo cookies, and I got presents! That was a major surprise really. First there was a present from Alaska, a nice fleece scarf. I admit I wasn’t expecting that, but it’ll come in handy during the winter. You can use all the scarves you can get then! Then there was a small balloon, the nice foil kind. And a couple packages of M&Ms. Chocolate is always welcome in this house! A few more packages arrived over the next couple of days. My brother sent me three manga novels, very much appreciated. And a couple DVDs of Clutch Cargo arrived, gifts to myself. They’re about as lousy a cartoon series as you can imagine, as campy as you can get! That’s why I love ‘em! And another present to myself arrived before the party, another B movie, this time a female Conan rip-off. I should be getting a couple more things later, and of course some birthday sketches will be delivered later. With luck, I'll have maybe four or five new pics for the wall! There’s no real news on the writing front of late, but I am getting together a proper package for my show. Scripts and write ups for the show are actually fairly easy for me. I can whip off a fairly good script and some write ups in half a day, it’s much easier than sketching for me. And I keep a growing list of show ideas and gags to use in the show. I really feel I’ve got a winner on my hands here! If only the boss can be convinced… Now, about all that driving. It seems an old friend who had to move out west was visiting, and of late had been feeling a bit down. So all of us who could planned a road trip and drove all the way to Peterborough to meet him. It was an ainteresting trip, we saw a black bear by the side of the road and got dive bombed by an eagle on the way! We talked and cheered him up for a few hours, gave gifts and all. Then we drove him to Toronto for his plane. We gabbed and talked more at the airport, then started the long drive back. The trip was fun, but it really screwed up my eating and sleeping routine, and man did I crash hard after devouring a huge dinner! Slept to almost one in the afternoon, but I feel terrific now! Oh, one last thing. It’s been awhile since I added another chapter to the Weird People of Sudbury. Since I don’t want to make this too long, I’ll put this chapter behind a cut: ( Weird People ) | | Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 | | 10:52 pm |
May 16th
Happy birthday to me. :D Current Mood: happy | | Friday, May 11th, 2007 | | 5:37 pm |
Five days to go
Some good points I just had to post about. First off, five days till my birthday. So far it looks like I’ll get a few sketches for the Wall, and on my actual birthday I’ll be having an MST3K night with half the gang. The other half can’t stand MST3K and will be boycotting the event in the interests for preserving brain matter from bad movies. That just means more birthday wishes stretched out over the course of the month. Being born in May seems to mean you don’t get all the gifts and well wishes in one shot, they’re sort of spread over a couple of weeks. Fine by me really, just means more to look forward too. There’s no real word on the writing meeting (which hasn’t happened yet) except to say the bigwigs in the studio are trying to plan a time to get together in June. In a way that’s good since I’ll be able to get more write ups, character designs and script ideas done so I can have a neat little package for everyone to see. I did hear from the head writer again though, wanting to talk about the show idea a bit more. In his e-mail he said some of my ideas for gags were brilliant (yes, he actually used that word) and wanted to see any scripts or more stuff for the show as soon as it was done. He also said he wants to sit in on this meeting and give the show idea his support. That is really unexpected since he is out of town and doesn’t get out here much (I think he’s been here like three times in four years) Of course I suppose he could have meant he’d sit in with a conference call, but still… I’m getting support! Speaking of show ideas, a script I had written way back has finally been made into a show! I’m on the web baby! I’m broadcast! Okay, it’s a three minute short cartoon but it’s something I wrote for the studio, was paid for and now YOU can vote to give the show a good rating! Hmmm… too much of a shameless plug? Actually, I would really appreciate any feedback on the short. It’s the first of my scripts to actually get made into a full cartoon, I’d love to know what people think of it. All I did for this was the script, none of the animation. You can find the short here: http://www.ilaugh.com/shows/series.php?series=18To celebrate the upcoming birthday and my first script made into a show, I decided to pick up one of those nice Sara Lee cakes at the grocery store. Sadly, they didn’t carry those. So I opted for vanilla ice cream. But they were out. Well, whip cream is just as good. And there’s something decadent about just eating is with a spoon while watching a bad movie. Hey, only comes round once a year, why not? | | Sunday, April 29th, 2007 | | 11:42 am |
News of writing
Ugh… I *despise* having to work on a weekend. It couldn’t be helped though, even though it wasn’t my fault. The show is on a two week schedule (tight!) and I only got half my work at the start. The other half got lost and had to be located in the second week, so Saturday I was there for nine hours plugging away at my scenes and then my redos, and the doing a scene for another person who was behind… Never let it be said I didn’t do my fair share of work! Despite the rough weeks, some good news did come out of all this. It has to do with my writing of course. Remember last month how I said I had this really neat idea for a show that everyone loved, but the boss said I should do on my own? Mainly because no money was in the budget. Well anyway, I had sent this idea to the director here long before the boss got wind of it. The director is one heck of a busy guy, so he didn’t get around to reading it until this week, weeks after the boss had said no to helping produce the show. But when he did get around to reading it, this is what he said: “Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this. I just finished going over it and I love it, I think we should see where this can go. I'll send it to the boss to have a look at too. He'll be back down in about another week so hopefully we can meet and discuss when he's around.” At this point I had to let the director know the boss had seen it, and said no to helping with it but I hadn’t given up yet. I was going to see about doing a very short film about it with some help with others from the studio. In our spare time, so it would take a long time to produce, but we can try it anyway. He comes back with “You, I and the boss are going to sit down about this next week and try to work it in somewhere.” So, the director of the studio is behind me on this it seems. He’s actually trying to set up a meeting for us so we can all chat about it. Gotta admit, I didn’t expect that. But wait, it gets better! After my chat with the boss about my show idea, he suggested I hack down the script to a 30 second slot. While I’m doing that I figure I might as well send it to the other writer we have in the studio. Again, it takes him forever to get back to me on it, but when he finally does get around to it he actually comes over to my desk to chat with me about it. Basically he says the idea of gold and is so freaking tight a concept it should really take off with a number of different audience groups. It’s funny without being in your face or offensive, it’s witty, visually it should be interesting, and overall sounds like a great show. We hash out ideas for the show for a bit, then I ask him if he’d like to sit in on this meeting with the director and me. He says he’d love to. So that’s two in my corner pushing for my show. Ah, but we ain’t done yet ladies and gentlemen! This week I get a surprise e-mail from the head writer. I say surprise because while this guy is a brilliant writer with tons of advice, he’s also so freaking busy he never gets back to me about any inquiries I have about writing in general or show ideas. So when I sent everyone my show idea I neglected to send it to him. I didn’t know if it was a good idea yet, so I figured I wouldn’t bother until I knew the idea was tight. Turns out the director sent the head writer a copy of my show idea to get his opinion of it. Here’s what he had to say about it: “I saw the script you did and I really liked it. You're good at animation, but if what you really want to do is write, you've got a real shot at making the switch. What other writing have you been working on lately? What's in the hopper?” I have to admit, this floored me! I was not expecting a note from the head writer, doubly not expecting the show idea to be this well received and doubly that not expecting to be told if I wanna switch to writing (and I do! I really do!) that he thinks I have a real shot at it! So, I have the director, the studio’s writer here and the head writer all liking my show plus the head writer thinks I can be a writer professionally now. I sent him an e-mail telling him about other writing I was working on at the moment, and other ideas I’d had since we last talked. No reply as yet, but that’s fairly typical. The meeting is this week sometime. I’m not holding my breath on any of this since I have no idea what the odds are of my show getting produced. But… Well, with this much support behind me, I’m hoping the show will at least be considered. And I’m *really* hoping I am asked if I want to switch to writing! Wish me luck! Current Mood: hopeful | | Friday, March 30th, 2007 | | 8:50 pm |
MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Ooooo... Okay, not my first choice, but I have to admit I could probably be an awesome villian. Your results: You are Dr. Doom| Dr. Doom |
| 47% |
| Apocalypse |
| 39% |
| Dark Phoenix |
| 39% |
| Lex Luthor |
| 36% |
| Juggernaut |
| 36% |
| Mr. Freeze |
| 36% |
| Magneto |
| 34% |
| The Joker |
| 28% |
| Riddler |
| 28% |
| Kingpin |
| 28% |
| Venom |
| 27% |
| Mystique |
| 24% |
| Green Goblin |
| 24% |
| Poison Ivy |
| 21% |
| Catwoman |
| 17% |
| Two-Face |
| 8% |
|
Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.
 |
Click here to take the Supervillain Personality QuizLet's see what kind of hero I would be. Your results: You are Superman| Superman |
| 70% |
| The Flash |
| 70% |
| Robin |
| 62% |
| Spider-Man |
| 60% |
| Supergirl |
| 57% |
| Green Lantern |
| 55% |
| Hulk |
| 45% |
| Iron Man |
| 45% |
| Wonder Woman |
| 42% |
| Batman |
| 35% |
| Catwoman |
| 35% |
|
You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.
 |
Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...Okay, it says I'm Superman but I'm tied with being the Flash. I'd like to be considered the Flash, despite the picture. Thank you. | | Thursday, March 8th, 2007 | | 10:19 pm |
Writing problems
I have no idea how to break into writing, even though I’d been told I’m immensely talented at it. I had no idea I could write, I really never gave it any thought. I liked to roleplay with play by e-mail games and sometimes my posts were considered very good. And I played IM chat games with other people. But sitting down to write for a living? Nah… That’s just crazy talk! Then a couple of years ago I was asked to give some input on new show idea. The director took me and a fellow SCAer aside and wanted to discuss a medieval style show. Just take the basic concepts and turn it on it’s ear. So we hashed about ideas for a couple of hours, hammered out a plot, and sent it off to the big boss. He loved the concept, asked for a few details to be tweaked here and there, and then it was sent to a writer to turn into a script. Well, big mistake there. The writer totally butchered our idea. What was an amusing story idea became boring, bland, generic, and most of the characters totally changed personality. The big boss and director looked at it and were not pleased. The boss was so disappointed in it he was about to cancel the whole idea. The director felt it still had potential if they had the right script though. I stepped up to plate then. I asked for a weekend to take the script and rewrite it into something workable. It wouldn’t be good, but at least a real writer could see what the characters and scenario were supposed to be, and make it better. The director said I could try, and sent me off. All I had was a copy of the bad script and our original show idea. I’d never cracked a book on script writing, or even read a script. No script writing program, no training at all, just going at it blindly. Monday morning the director had a script. I warned him it wouldn’t be all that great, but felt it would be something to show the boss. After dropping it off, I went back to work. That afternoon I was called into the director’s office. He’d read my script and had sent it off to the big boss and his staff. Now he wanted to know how many scripts I had written before, because this was the best script he’d written all year! I thought he was joking, but apparently he wasn’t. He felt I had done a superb job. My timing was excellent, my dialogue incredible and my characters real. Further confirmation of my talent came later that week. Upon getting the new script, the boss set it aside, still thinking it was a lousy idea. The stigma of the bad script was lingering. Meanwhile, other people in the studio got a hold of the script and started reading it. Monday the boss had effectively shelved the script. Friday he took it out to read because everyone in the studio was asking who the new hot writer was on staff! So, my first realization that I had writing talent. A great deal of it! And… nothing came of the show. It was shelved, and I went off to do animating again. Later I was asked to help come up with ideas for a new short series. Little five minute shows. The director had come up with the concept, I was to provide scenarios for the episodes. Myself and another writer were working on it. I banged out double the amount of ideas requested, figuring a couple would be worthy of keeping. I was a newbie after all, the other guy was an on staff writer. Turns out when I submitted my ideas in, he had only one done. Other commitments and all had put him behind schedule for this. They looked over my ideas and decided enough were good they didn’t need anymore. Except for one episode in that series, the other ideas are mine. And three of the scripts from them are mine as well, since I finally got to write on this. My first time actually being PAID to write! And let me tell you, a script writer can make a lot of money if he’s fast and good at writing! After that, back to animation. I wanted to switch to writing now, but nothing was opening up. Shows were on the go, but they were all happening in Toronto. I was very much out of the writing loop up here. But, I kept plugging away, trying to get notes on how to improve my writing from the other writers by way of e-mail. This weekend I was inspired, I had a great new show idea! I banged out the idea in a couple of hours and submitted it on Monday. The response was overwhelming. The director and two others in the studio here loved it! I was told it was a very strong, funny premise that sounded like it would be a smash hit! Then the boss called me, he wanted to talk with me about my show idea. I thought yes, finally a show idea I came up with would get done. And I’d get a “created by” credit! The boss said again, my idea was extremely strong, sounded like a smash hit. He could tell it was a fun project for me to do, and sounded great! What’s more, he’s impressed I keep getting better at my writing and despite not actually being a writer I am plugging away to get into writing. Yep, he thought my writing for this show would be great! Would it get done? Nope… Not a chance. No money in the budget for it and besides, they have a similar show concept already in the works. Seems I have good ideas, I just have them too late! How am I ever going to break into writing scripts? | | Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 | | 8:02 pm |
Interviews
( Interview from Shenlo )----------------------------- THE RULES: 1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." 2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better! 3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions. 4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post. 5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. -------------------------- | | Sunday, December 24th, 2006 | | 10:41 pm |
What Christmas feels like for me...
Christmas Eve at home. All in all, it’s going pretty well. A little better in fact. I had a bit of a shaky start getting to the train to get me home for the holidays. It took forever to get a cab to drive me to the train station (I have to take a cab since there’s no buses going out to it, and it’s way out in the boonies) and the cab I did get had a fellow who just wasn’t in any rush… I *barely* made it onto the train, but once on board we sailed through arriving early in Toronto. That’s pretty rare! A late train yes, but never early. In Toronto I hooked up with Miguel and we talked for a half hour and exchanged gifts. That really wasn’t a great deal of time to catch up, I wish we had time for dinner. But it was not to be, and after a bit my father arrived and drove me back home. Again, no delays… It was unexpected to have the roads so clear this close to Christmas. At home my parents showed me all the improvements they made to the house. Two redone bathrooms, new rugs, they’ve really done a bunch of work on the place. It’s pretty impressive, but is a few steps from what I remember my room from being. Not quite home anymore… But it feels home in other ways. I ate at Wendys again (oh sweet luscious grease…) and the presents are under the tree, awaiting Christmas morning. Well, Christmas late afternoon since that’s when my brother and his GF will be here. Also had a chance to go shopping and picked up a ton of DVDs. And the mall wasn’t all that busy the day before Christmas Eve! My father and I were shocked to see empty parking places and no traffic snarls in the mall parking lot. It was like stepping into the Twilight Zone. What I’ve mainly been doing here is watching cable TV, a privilege I have done without most of my life. Avoiding the Christmas specials, I’ve stuck to the history and discovery channels, watching interesting shows of criminal masterminds, and a great show on battles of old. A relaxing time really, which is what a good vacation should be. The bit that really made it feel like Christmas for me though is a story my father told me. My father is usually quite quiet, doesn’t like to tell too many stories but during the holidays if you catch him just right, he will start telling you an interesting tale that you never would have even guessed he knew. Short stories and legends of interest at Christmas. That’s what I enjoy. This year’s story was a legend about our family. I knew that on my mother’s side, my family is connected tenuously to the Black Donnelly’s. It seems my father’s side has a legend from the middle ages though, involving William the Conqueror. William was fighting a battle near one of the villages under his control, and during the battle he was unhorsed. As he struggled to stand during the furious melee, one of the peasants from the village rushed in and helped William to his feet and got him off the field. A short time later, the peasant was able to get another horse from the battlefield and brought it to the king. And off William rode into battle, and later, victory. After the battle, William found the peasant who helped him and asked him what village he was from. The peasant said he was a resident of the village of Vernon, so the king made him the Duke of Vernon right then and there. According to the legend, my father’s side is descended from that line. But being the descendant of a second or third son somewhere along the way, no title inheritance was passed along. I’m not laying odds on how true this legend is, but I like to think my family is connected to it in some way. Certainly, my family can trace it’s ancestry back to England and France for a considerable amount of our history. Makes me wonder what other stories my dad has to share yet. | | Friday, December 1st, 2006 | | 6:41 pm |
Just because I was bored...
You are The HermitPrudence, Caution, Deliberation. The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events. The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity. The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing. What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out. | | Friday, November 24th, 2006 | | 5:37 pm |
Just cause I haven't done one of these in awhile...
 | | The Slow Dancer
Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm)
Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer.
Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive.
Your exact opposite:
The Hornivore
Random Brutal Sex Master
| While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships.
ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe
CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor or The Sonnet |
Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating. |
My love life improves every year eh? Hmmm... Seems to me I am not doing much social wise. Does that mean no news is good news? | | Monday, November 20th, 2006 | | 5:50 pm |
Finally an update
Well, good news and bad news, and the bad news had an unexpected twist to it. On the good side, my blood pressure is dropping over all and I’m getting to the gym for my workouts. It’s hard to get back into the gym again. Sometimes I just really do not want to go. But, I go anyway. Even if I don’t feel I can do the whole routine, I have a secondary program for my cardio and I can at least get that done. Also work is starting up again. It’s not going to be full time with benefits like I’d prefer (wouldn’t we all like that?) but at least it’s got vacation pay and they take the taxes out of it so I won’t get slammed at tax time. I’ll be starting next week and the production should go till June. Then right onto another one. So it looks like my worries about being on the poverty zone are null for the moment. Bad news is today I went in to see the big boss about my show idea. This was my first real idea I came up with on my own. Something I could officially put my stamp on and say ‘that’s mine’. Well, turns out the boss liked it, thought it was pretty funny. But they aren’t going to take it. Why you ask? Well, here’s the unexpected twist to the whole thing. Anyone who has met me in person, gone to school with me, worked with me, etc. knows that I’m fairly straight laced. Once when I was in an ambulance being interviewed by the paramedics, the one fellow said this was kind of embarrassing to ask but they had to: Had I ever used drugs? The friend who had brought me to the ambulance (*waves to Bear*) had to laugh. The idea of me doing any sort of drugs, booze, etc. was ludicrous! So… imagine my surprise when I was told my show idea was good, but *way* too controversial to put on the internet. Let me say that again: Too controversial for the internet. I guess beneath this calm, cool, professional exterior lurks the pounding heart of a maniacal troublemaker. I like that idea. Current Mood:  weird | | Saturday, November 11th, 2006 | | 1:05 pm |
ARGH!!!
Yesterday was plus four, dry, nice day out. I relaxed, went to the gym for my workout (which seems to be working, the weight is staying off and my blood pressure is down) and generally had a nice time. Today I wake up and someone dumped a full FOOT of white gunk all over the place and it's still coming down! I want my summer back dammit!!! *sighs* Fine, fine... I'll dig out my long underwear again. At least I know my apartment is nice and warm. Didn't even feel the temperature drop in here. Radiators, gotta love 'em. On a brighter note, I have finally got around to uploading pictures from my trip. You can see them here: http://community.webshots.com/user/anchatThere's six galleries up right now, and nine more to upload. When they're all up I'll post the link again, but right now there's enough pics to keep you busy. | | Saturday, October 21st, 2006 | | 10:33 pm |
Work woes
Things are starting to get a bit rough here. I thought after the trip there'd be a period of readjustment, and there was. But things are starting to take a bit of a sour turn at work. When I got back from my vacation I went right into making content for our ilaugh.com site. Just let me pitch that here, everyone visit http://www.ilaugh.com It's our new website and will have some of the shows I wrote up there. If you could pop by and take a look it would be great. Anyway, I'm plugging away at my work, all freelance work. I hate freelance. It's good money, but you are paid check by check, and no tax taken out. It really isn't a steady job and I like the stability of a regular paycheck and not having to worry about extra taxes later. Later on, there was a meeting with the public relations person who went to the biggest animation business convention. Apparently our booth was the busiest at the place, our shows were loved by one and all, one is nominated for an Emmy, we've sold almost all of our shows to various broadcasters, etc. and oh money is still a bit tight. No regular salaries or benefits for a bit yet. Friday I was told that the show I was going to be working on next month has been delayed for a solid month, so I won't be getting ANY cash for that month. While it's not a real burden on me as yet, I don't want this to be a habit. I want to save my savings, not have freelance work eat into them! I didn't take this news lying down. I wrote the director and the personel supervisor to ask about my chances for writing that month, then I submitted a new show idea to the director for him to look over and make suggestions. He seemed enthused with the idea, but it remains to be seen if it ever gets off the ground. I have no idea how much is paid if they like your idea so much they do a show of it, but I'm hoping it's enough for rent! I've also got another show idea I'm tweaking up and hope to submit next week. I did get one reply from the folks in Toronto who got a forward of my request to do some more writing. They're winding down their script writing but still accepting new ideas for shows. If I have any ideas to pitch I'm to send them on in for sure. She also wrote if something comes up she'll keep me in mind. Apparently they think I did a great job with my last set of scripts. All in all, looks like a month off. Maybe it's for the best. I need to get on my diet and workout more, my blood pressure has been getting high (gee, wonder why THAT could be...) One other fun thing at work, I got trapped inside the elevator for forty minutes. I had to pound on the door to get help because there was no phone in that little emergency box. Yeah, that was fun. | | Saturday, October 14th, 2006 | | 6:23 pm |
| | Monday, October 9th, 2006 | | 7:00 pm |
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