It’s been a while since I updated t he blog but I’ve been manically busy with work and managing various aspects of my life that seem to have run out of control completely. You may recall a couple of weeks ago I was really quite ill with the Noro-virus and shed half a stone in weight in about four days. Well, last week I was struck down again by some bug or other (the doctor seems to think it was a severe group 1 strep infection) and spent two whole days unconscious in bed with a fever.
Lost another half a stone in weight. This is not the kind of diet I can recommend.
The penicillin has set to work pretty sharpish and I’m much better now. I think I just needed the rest to be honest I’ve been working like crazy since mid-February and, well, something has to give eventually.
Thank Heaven it’s finished
The DVD for the Thank Heaven charity was completed about two weeks ago and has just been duplicated and sent to the client. The final product is very good, if I say so myself, although the client was so keen to get the finished copies that they haven’t seen an approval. Of course, samples of the footage was available on the Client Management System on my business website but I usually insist on sending an approval copy for them to check out first. They didn’t want to though.
There’s nothing wrong with the finished product, but I’d’ve felt easier if they’d seen it before committing to have 100 copies burned onto DVD to issue.
Creative Partnerships
What a joke this has been.
I’ve mentioned the Creative Partnerships work I do through Cape UK on a number of occasions – working with young people in schools on projects to develop creativity and creative learning. I’ve been commissioned by two schools and working in one of them since Christmas. The school concerned refused to pay me according to the payment schedule and contract they agreed and so I have had to sub my business expenses out of my own pocket for three months while they get their act together. This has stripped me out financially and the past week or two I’ve had to do some teaching to make ends meet and stay afloat.
Needless to say the contract with said school was cancelled and it got to the stage whereby I had to threaten them with the Small Claims Court in order to get them to pay. They claimed there were certain administrative checks that needed doing first before they could pay me, but they’ve since coughed up without such checks being done. Sounds like a poor excuse from a badly organised set up.
The unfortunate thing is that I’ve now had to committ to some full-time teaching work until the summer, which has meant the cancellation of the other Creative Partnerships project; and obviously means that my corporate work has to take a back seat for a few weeks.
The whole situation, coming straight after my illness and run-down, has been very stressful. I’ve asked for the details of the head of the governors at the school because I intend to complain quite strongly about the whole issue and the way it’s been handled. Frankly it’s been an appalling experience.
Georgia’s Angel
Finally sat down to do a bit of work on Georgia’s Angel today after not touching it for about two weeks or so. I was really unhappy with the first shot we took – it was meant to be a wide, symmetrical shot of the station platform and yet we were unable to put the camera where we wanted because of a flowerbed, some rubble and various other obstacles in the way. We ended up with footage that was to one side and made the final image look lop-sided. I’ve been correcting that in After Effects and there’s a short video demo-cum-tutorial posted here to show what we did and the final outcome.
This is for the more technically minded ones amongst you and is the first type of vid I’ve done like this. I was going to do something like this when I was creating the animated title sequence for the Diversity festival but never got round to it.
Bit more editting on Georgia’s Angel over the holiday weekend, but then I’m spending the week on the A Shot In Time documentary I filmed ages ago for Lance Burkitt. It’s about three quarters finished and I really need to get that done. Lance’s been patient but it needs winding up really and preparing for various festivals.
Spring is coming…
Getting ready for an announcement about a significant film project later in 2010. More in the next blog, or the one after that…
Kubrick's Lens Cap 