Dear Blog, sorry for neglecting you, but I have been busy/lazy when it came to the net lately. No promises on getting back on track with updating you, but I think there’ll be things worth saying soon enough.

I showed my sister some Maximum the Hormone videos last night, and we shared a common moment for an urge… no, a need to mosh to the music. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to tour anywhere outside of Japan at the moment. So I guess I’m just going to have to go to Japan then to see them live

Quick Summary of To Do’s -

• Follow up on ‘Talking to Strangers’ anth (read ‘poke people lots’)
• Finish Editing ‘Clarence’ short film by Aug ‘08
• Complete ‘184′ pitch by Dec ‘08
• Write up ‘A Second Sky’ pitch by Jan ‘09

Had a hectic film shoot weekend (some behind the scenes pic’s posted here). It was very educational to say the least. I was cursing myself for taking on such a huge project when things didn’t go smoothly during those 2 (and a half) days, but now that the hard part is over, I find myself thinking “What should I shoot next summer?”.

I figured I’m going to write something about the film once it’s done, so I may as well do an in depth post once that’s ready to go live, save me blabbering twice about it.

In Other News -

Hmm, let’s see… Oh, FreakAngels just got a little more interesting. It’s free to read, so you really have no excuse not to be following it. I ran into Paul at the DFC launch and we had a nice catch-up. Apparently this comic is taking up a lot of his time, and it really shows why. He’s gone all out on it. Cool stuff. It’s still weird seeing London submerged in water

Sweatdrop Podcast was down for a month due to ODEO’s transition to their new website. It’s up and running again and Episode #13 is now live. Should hopefully have #14 with you by Monday! I just need to finish editing it this weekend.

More up and coming Shakespeare Manga from SelfMadeHero, and Emma announced her involvement with the title “Much Ado About Nothing” and showcased some concept colour art on her site. I must say, that when she showed me the characters in sketch form, I was already sold. It looks like it’s going to be a hoot! There’ll be a plethora of titles coming soon but I can’t really announce any until the artists themselves make them public. You are SO shunned!!

And finally, was invited out to see Hancock tonight. I know that’s not technically news worthy, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film for a while, so I’m a little excited XD At least I didn’t do a write up about my 6th viewing of ‘Brick’ and how I really enjoyed listening to Clute and Edwards discussion on their “Out of the Past” podcast, where they broke down every element of the story and the filming of it to show me things I hadn’t even considered before. Like how the introduction scene is so intricately delicious with it’s subtle muted colours and the similar details between the first scene of when Brendan is kneeling down near… woah woah, almost fell into that one!

Okay, end transmission!

I was going through a bunch of print outs of character designs, thumbs and plans earlier at work today, and I quite liked how they looked together. When I got home this evening, I fanned them out a bit to take a picture

This is the first public peek anyone’s had at the anthology so far. I’m still working on the last two scripts, but I figured thing’s are moving along nicely so it’s fine to divulge some artist info finally.

Here’s the list of the artists and stories in the book:

• Michael Kachar - The Seconds
• Selina Dean - Malignant
• Nana Li - Girl in a Box
• Gillian Sein Ying Ha - What is it?
• Wing Yun Man - Static
• Sonia Leong - Hero

Having some real fun with this so far, especially with the piece I’m working on with Wing. Which also happens to be one of the unfinished scripts *cough* So uh.. yeah, back to work.

I’ve been sending out books at the start of the year for reviews and a rather lovely one came out today at Sequential Tart, by Sheena McNeil.

Each new twist and turn had me fully captivated - I literally could not put it down till I’d read every last page! The art is vibrant and energetic […] Every detail adds realism to this spectacular world, and each character stands out as important and unique - each with a story to tell. […] The story is compelling and entertaining with an excellent flow that makes it fun and easy for such heavy topics of death and sadness.
# read the full review

She awarded it a Grade 9 out of 10. Stunning! My report card has never been so good

In other news, today I went out to meet and interview two ‘Set Production’ Designers concerning my little film project. Everything is being shot on a budget, so the first thing we needed to do was to find a Set Designer so we can discuss costs for building the set and try to keep things affordable.

It was very educational. The two ladies I met today had a lot of experience in the industry, shooting for both Film and Television, and as I explained to them what it was I wanted to capture, in terms of Set Design, they offered a lot of advice and concepts. I was really thrilled by it all. What I thought was very humble about them, was how even though they have all this experience, they’re still very much into working on Indie projects for free, purely for the love of the challenge and to get more items on their Show-reel’s.

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A while back, I’d visited my parents and my mum told me how my sister bought Yoda (our pet cat) some Tea… Yes. Tea. In bags shaped like mice! He didn’t like it though. I guess he’s a coffee drinker.

I’ve been doing stuff, other than playing games and such, but I just didn’t feel comfortable talking about any of it, as it’s all still in its very early stages. Even though it’s all pretty solid stuff, nothing is ever definite in this world until it’s done. But I can at least share some details.

Been planning out a series of short stories, some old being rewritten and some new written from scratch. My goal is to release an anthology by 2008 with artwork from a collection of artists I’d hand-picked, so to speak, for each story. I’ll mention more on this when things have further developed. Suffice to say, it’s very exciting, yet also quite daunting. I’m having to juggle somewhere in the region of 6 to 8 stories and artists. I started off with just 4.

I was given the opportunity to work with Emma on a paid commission, where for once, I’m actually getting paid if the story is accepted. But there’s a tiny catch. I have to write a short 5 page children’s comic. For the ages of 8 to 12, to be exact.

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