Congratulations to Emma Lazenby for her BAFTA nomination! Her new film Mother of Many has been nominated in the Short Animation category. Well done Emma!



In unrelated news, I hosted a Ghostbusters evening on Saturday night. Both Ghostbusters films, Chinese takeaway (representing the last of the petty cash), marshmallows (pretended they were Stay Puft) and gin (because, you know... it's a spirit). It was the sort of evening I always imagined I would have to enjoy alone until I suggested it. Most exciting of all was that the evening was attended by a BAFTA nominee!

what I have been doing and what I wish I could do

I have just finished a two and a half minute animation for Friends Provident insurance that I have been working on since just before Christmas. It was all about ribbons representing our journey through life. I will post it at some point if I am allowed to.
 

Now that is done I have a few short films scripts I need to get written while I have a gap between jobs. I am quite anxious to make another short film now and have a few ideas and oppurtunities that I need to follow up.

On an entirely unrelated but far more blog worthy note here is a fantastic video I just found, depicting a journey through the known universe. That is a journey I would like to take. It's produced by the American Museum of Natural History which is one of the significant reasons why I wish I lived in New York.

Even though I have embedded the video it is best to watch it on youtube in HD.



You see? Fantastic.

Watching it made me think of a book I really love and will now recommend - Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

the life and death of salary man snowman (kim)

What follows is a sequence of pictures depicting the snowman I made last week when it snowed. I was on my way to work and found this big almost untouched area of snow. I decided to build the biggest ball I could manage and two hours later the ball had become this snowman. I was quite pleased with him and was hoping to depict his slow liquid demise over the following days. I decided to call him Kim. Sadly he came to a decidedly violent end...

06/01/10 Morning

For scale purposes here is a picture of me standing next to the snowman Kim soon after completion.

06/01/10 Evening

 

That evening I was pleased to see that the snowman Kim was still intact, although he had gained anatomical accuracy at some point during the day, as well as the words 'save me'.

06/01/10 Evening

 

Here is a profile shot showing the aforementioned anatomical application. Note the tire mark of a bicycle tread at the base.

07/01/10 Morning

 

The following morning snowman Kim had lost his gender specification. It is unclear how.

07/01/10 Evening

 

By the evening snowman Kim was no more.

 07/01/10 Evening

 
Having surveyed the scene of the crime I pieced together what I believe to have taken place. Having decided to ignore the words 'save me' a group of at least two (two being the minimum required to form a group) people attacked snowman Kim violently from the right hand side (snowman Kim's left) with a succession of kicks and punches (maybe even a drop-kick or two). The head probably went early on and was subsequently stamped to pieces, leaving nothing but an eyebrow and a bit of nose left for identification. Snowman Kim was also whacked with bits of evergreen tree, leaving various remnants of pine needles and trigs lodged in his neck and torso. Having failed to fell the remains of snowman Kim's body the group moved on. Probably to knock down a carefully stacked tower of cards or put cigerettes out on an infants birthday cake.

It is unclear what time snowman Kim was destroyed but he barely lasted past 24 hours, if that.

The good news is my new year resolution is to update this blog more often. It looks nicer now so I can bare to do so.

salary man snowman

I couldn't get the blog link on my website working for a while. It is working now though.

It snowed today (and a bit last night). This is a great event. It took me three hours to walk to work. First I strolled around the park, then I stopped to make a snowman, and then I threw snowballs at the ice on the river.

I built this salary man snowman as a tribute to all those who have to work today. Technically I am one of them so I have a few hours to make up.