Rendering blackberries
The last few days have been busy. Horrendously busy. I had to do the two animations I thought I was doing (Nature luckily turned out not to want the illustration they thought they were going to need) – the first went very well. The second needed a couple of alterations – nothing too difficult, but it did mean I had to do more work and start the rendering from scratch.

This was OK – I expect people to want a certain number of changes to any project and the changes will make the animation better in the long run. I’m still rendering the changes, so we’re cutting the deadline very tight.

Both the deadlines were tight – just a few days - However, I also got an email from someone in the states trying to do a videogame based on Mexican Wrestling….

This originally started out as 2 illustrations of 9 figures each with their own costume… however the deadline was tight (one day) and unfortunately, the guy talking to me was using a blackberry – so could only communicate in one line text type messages.

Trying to get a complex brief (as it turned out to be) across using only a keypad an inch across while trying to do four other things at once is kind of tricky.

Anyway, the images worked out well, but it turned out that what he was actually after was a set of animations and pictures he could use to create a videogame (or at least a Flash pitch for one). The project started to spiral – suddenly there were 8 animations to do, and 9 more pictures… then there were another 8 animations…

But the deadline didn’t shift and it was still hard to find out just what was needed.

Eventually, I think we’ve got it (after a little re-negotiation on deadlines and fees) and the result is going to look great.

However, I’ve still got the deadline for the other animation looming – and I’m now trying to render two sets of animations at once on the same machine. It’s a bit of a nightmare and a bit of a panic. I’m having to be very firm about exactly when I do each part and how much time I allow for every element of the work.

It’s a bit annoying when you can’t be as fussy about the project as you’d like to because of time constraints, but I think I’ve still exceeded the expectations of all the people giving me these commissions, so I guess that’s a plus.

The thing is, when you’ve got deadlines like these you need to make sure the brief is clear and doesn’t change. If it does, you end up having to be less fussy about the finished result because there’s no time to change things if they’re wrong.

I was thinking of getting a Blackberry, but having seen how difficult it is to communicate properly through them, I’m not so sure…


I’ve now got the commentary through for “how to colonise the stars” – it’s sounding great – if only I had time to fit it into the edit… maybe this afternoon… but then I’ve also got a book to write….

I just got told that Digital Video magazine is closing. There was a lot of talk about this happening since before Christmas, but the closure kept being postponed. It was going to be replaced by a higher-end title aimed more at semi-professional videomakers – which would have suited me just fine – but it now seems that this has been abandoned and there’s not going to be a replacement.

Apparently although there was a good readership for the magazine, advertising revenue wasn’t justifying it, so it’s been cut.

It strikes me that there will be a lot of people that miss this mag – it’s been going for a long time (under different titles) – and there are lots of people who want to hear about digital video making and how to do it. Since Future brought up Highbury, there isn’t really much competition for the magazine out there, so there will be a bit of a gap in the market.

This is probably part of the economic slowdown, and part of the general turning off of magazines that most people in the industry have been predicting for some time (as more and more people get their information online).

The problem here is that online publications don’t tend to be as authoritative – reviews are often written by PR companies, features are shorter and therefore less detailed and information isn’t quite as well researched (primarily because the authors aren’t paid or commissioned in quite the same way)….

I’m sure something will turn up to replace digital video, but I don’t know what it will be. Highbury – one of Future’s biggest rivals collapsed a couple of years ago (I ended up suing them to get paid for my work) and Future ended up with many of their mags (including Digital Video. So now, if Future aren’t replacing Digital Video, that means there’s only a couple of other publishers who could replace it.

Hmm… I think I have an idea…

On top of that, Raoul just phoned saying he has a meeting with some people at the Natural History Museum tomorrow… one of them is looking to expand their audio-visual side and wants a producer. I don’t want to do this as a job, but maybe I could do it freelance… unfortunately, this means getting a CV or something like it together today.

I haven’t had a CV since 1998….

Work is suddenly flooding in – as it always does when you’ve got tight deadlines already. Somebody who’s seen one of my animations on istockphoto wants me to make a logo animation for a corporate event. Someone else who’s seen another animation there wants (possibly) another job done. In addition, it sounds as though Nature want me to do an illustration.

The thing is, they’re all tight deadlines (two of them are for Monday!)… and given that I’m already writing the book and now have to try to get publicity for the new documentary out in the next couple of weeks – it’s looking like next week will be a bit tight.

Still, a little pressure’s good….


I spent today designing a dinosaur (or more specifically a pre-dinosaur reptile) for another project. It’s going well, but I may have to avoid the feet during rendering….

A day of frantic writing today. I managed to finish off the first of my newsletters - although because it's essentially an advertising thing, there will probably be lots of re-writes as companies tend to be quite fussy about their most visible newsletters...

I also wrote the Digital Video helpdesk - lots of questions about transfering from one format to another and I seem to be getting quite a lot about camcorders too - even though they're not specifically my area - not that it matters - I haven't found anything I can't cope with yet.

I also roughed out another article I've been asked to do for digital video on turning stills into moving footage...

something which you can do with startling realism nowadays....

crisis over

looks like the crisis is over -I've now got more work than I know what to do with again. That's how it goes!

Yesterday I went for a meeting with a publisher who wants me to write a very simple guide to making digital video. The company seems a pretty good one – producing 100 new titles a year (that’s pretty prolific) on all kinds of subjects from travel to lifestyles to natural history.

It was a good meeting. These practical guides are quite new to them, but the first one – on how to do very basic things with your PC (like opening and closing windows and writing word documents) proved increadibly successful, so they’ve branched out into titles like researching family trees, building websites, and of course, Digital Video.

The book will be aimed at the complete novice – and it sounds like many of their readers are older people who have missed the technological revolution. In other words, I’m writing a book aimed at my Dad.

I can see exactly how the book should work and fleshing out the chapters and tutorials was very easy because it’s so clear what the novice needs to know about digital video. I’m also quite passionate about it – I think video is fast turning into a medium which is as natural to some people as writing. I also think that being video literate is soon going to be almost as important as being literate with words – if you can’t post to youtube, or carry on a video skype conversation or communicate your business online visually you’re likely to be left behind.

Strangely, I received a copy of the last book I wrote (or rather updated) this morning (you can see it here, if you’re interested - http://www.amazon.com/New-Digital-Video-Manual-Date/dp/1847320457/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204134233&sr=8-3 )


Anyway – writing a book for my Dad makes me a little nervous because although he’s the target market – he’s also almost impossible to reach with new ideas. He has (and I think it’s fairly common among the older generation) a view that you don’t just start playing with a piece of technology, you read the manual and understand it thoroughly before you start. You have to know what every button does.

So, for example, my Dad won’t use Word because there’s a whole row if icons at the top of the screen which he doesn’t understand. I, on the other hand, use word every day. looking along the row of icons at the top of the screen now – I still don’t understand most of them, but I know that it doesn’t matter. I’m not scared of any of them (except that mirrored P icon which does something very odd to my whole document).

I have to key into a mindset which says “unless I understand everything about how something works, I can’t start messing around with it” and that’s tough.

I guess the only way is to go step by step very slowly through everything and make every tutorial lead to something obviously and instantly useable.



I’ve also got the go-ahead to start work on another new venture – a newsletter for one of the main manufacturers of budget video editing software and hardware. It’s going to be a monthly email sent out to subscribers giving them tips and ideas on how to expand their use of the software…. So lots of small but highly focussed articles, and 30-40 word news items. Writing for the web is always an exercise in minimalism (apart from this blog – in which I frequently ramble on for ages!).


As usual, deadlines here are tight. Part I of the newsletter is to be in by the end of the week. The book needs to be finished by the end of April.

It’s all do-able – or appears so now!

A publishing company approached me today wanting me to write another book on digital video. This one’s aimed at complete novices. It’s quite short – 20,000 words, but sounds like a good project.

Just to set the record straight – you don’t get rich writing books. I’ve written (or contributed to) 4 so far – this will be my 5th – and I’ve learned that:
1) the advance is generally pretty small because you’re also offered royalties on sales
and
2) the advance is all you get because specialist factual books rarely if ever sell enough to start paying royalties.
So you need to negotiate an advance that will pay for you to write the book.

That’s not to say that writing a book isn’t a good experience – it is – and it can allow you to explore areas that you can’t in the tightly word-controlled world of magazine writing and you can be a little more in-depth, exploring the issues behind whatever it is you’re writing about.

This one looks like it’s going to be basically a set of extended tutorials showing people who are just discovering youtube how they can make their own digital videos, so it’s fun but not too technical. The emphasis will be on being creative not on obeying all the rules of TV.

Anyway – it will give me enough money to pay for the narration on a couple of documentaries – so that’s one problem sorted. I’m just not expecting to retire on it.
More on that as it develops, and eventually turns into a panic…(the deadline is 2 months – which seems do-able right now…

Financial crisis
Ok – things not going too well financially this year so far. Two of the magazines I write for have gone through complete re-designs. This has lead to in one case nobody knowing if the magazine is to survive and in the other the reviews section (a major part of my work) being replaced.

Another magazine (Imagine FX) has decided to take its reviews section in-house. Added to this, George’s arrival has meant I have had to take lots of time off. Now, the poster I’ve been doing of the human body has been abandoned.


So – needing to get some work in I’ve spent today phoning round and finding out what’s going on with all the magazines, invoicing for the work I’ve already done and not yet got paid for and trying to come up with ideas for features and articles to try to get things going again.

It’s not easy since the re-designs of the magazines mean that nobody – even the editors – are entirely sure what kind of articles they want right now.

Still, I’ve made a good stab at it and I’ll have to see what the response is over the next few days.

I’m not as concerned this evening as I was this morning, but I’m a bit worried that I need to start doing more commissioned work in order to pay for the documentary projects I’m working on (the first one looks like it’s heading for completion – which means I’ll have to find 1500 for dubbing and narration…. Then there’s the rest of the documentaries I’ve got planned for this year which I don’t even want to think about.

It’ll be a while before any money starts to appear from any of this work – typically 3 months between having an idea and getting paid after it’s published… still, if I can get through to next month, the regular cheque from my royalties on science photo library should come in (I hope it’s a good one) and that should keep me going for a bit.

It’s not all bad though….
One of the manufacturers of domestic digital video stuff has come to me asking if I can write them a regular newsletter – this will bring in 500 a month and unlike most of my work, I’ll actually have the people making the products actively involved without having to pester them.

In addition, I’ve now got somebody renting my property in Manchester, so that’s another £400 per month coming in.

Tutorials and helpdesksAnother two tutorials – both video based – and a helpdesk had to be done this week as well as an article for PC plus on 3d videomaking (the kind of 3d where you have 2 cameras and wear 3d glasses to watch it – I’ll have a video up in a couple of weeks!)There were two After Effects tutorials – both on After Effects, but for magazines aimed at different markets – one for Digital Video needed to be quite simple – allowing people who’d never touched After Effects to get to grips with it.

The other was for animators and filmmakers who really know their way around the package and want to know how to use the new tools in a really professional way. It requires a little mental gymnastics to switch between the different styles of writing. Still, I think I managed it.


I also took advantage of the commission to do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages – to construct a logo screen for my documentaries.