Magical Moments...and other updates!
I haven't been "on site" in a while - life has been a little hectic and crazy lately (but more on that later)...
Last weekend, I took my children + one of my daughter's friends to Disneyland for the day. It was the friend's first visit, ever, to "the parks", and it was a delight to see her reactions to things. Every ride, from Pinnochio (the first ride of the day) to Peter Pan (the final ride of the night) was greeted with the questions "Does it go fast?" - "Does it go high?" (thank goodness she never asked "Does it have any big drops?" or I could have never gotten her on Splash Mountain!) Everything was fresh and new, and wonderful to her, and "seeing things through her eyes", for the first time in a while I didn't even notice the chipped paint from handrails, and the trash accumulated in the shrubs or stashed in odd corners of the queue lines. It didn't phase me that I was congested beyond reason, or that I was a little woozy from my cold medicine - we arrived at 9:15 in the morning, and left at 11:52 that night. We packed in with all of the other "cattle" to get a good viewing spot for the fireworks show (celebrating the 50 years of magic that Disneyland has provided) - and I had tears in my eyes as I allowed that magic to sweep me up and carry me along on it's shoulders. I have so many wonderful memories, from my childhood and from taking my own children to the parks over the years, that are wrapped up in a bright "Disney" bow - it is totally geeky, and also totally cool!
On the work front - things are (overal) really good. My department is understaffed right now, so that means loads of extra work for myself, and the person that I split the daily responsibilities with - but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and should be able to breath a little easier within a few weeks (I hope!). I've also started on my first official Producer gig - working with an amazingly talented group of individuals to create our own independent animated short. Again, it means loading on more work, but it is SO worth it. I can't say much about it yet - but we may do a blog or website to track the progress (stay tuned...)
I'm reading (actually re-starting to read, for the 3rd time) William Goldman's book "Adventures in the Screen Trade" - what a great gem of a resource for insight on the machinations (both good and bad) of the industry. It is a little dated (written and published in the early 80's) but so much of the information is still relevant today. I keep picking it up, and then getting distracted 1/3 of the way through - but I am determined to finally finish it this time! I love Goldman's quip about "Nobody Knows Anything" - basically that there is no way to truly predict what is going to be a hit, and what is going to sink lower & faster than the Titanic. Audiences are fickle, and they are smart (a fact that seems to get lost in the melee of dumbed down, FX driven crap that gets churned out over and over). Big Star plus Big Budget does NOT alway equal Big Box Office (a fact that I believe some studios are finally starting to acknowledge).
My husband forwarded me a link to a great article/blog in 2 parts over at - http://artfulwriter.com/ - "A Widening Chasm, Part 1" and "A Widening Chasm, Part II" that has caused a bit of a ruckus with up and coming/hopeful writers. It's worth a read, so if you have the time, please check it out. It's a really interesting article on the widely varied perspectives that agents, writers, unions and studios have for how this business is, and potentially should, be working.
That's it for now - my mind is a bit muddled these days, but I hope that everything gets sorted very soon!
Quote for the day: "If I'm not always happy, that doesn't mean I'm doing something wrong; it means I am doing something real"
-Laurie Seligman
Last weekend, I took my children + one of my daughter's friends to Disneyland for the day. It was the friend's first visit, ever, to "the parks", and it was a delight to see her reactions to things. Every ride, from Pinnochio (the first ride of the day) to Peter Pan (the final ride of the night) was greeted with the questions "Does it go fast?" - "Does it go high?" (thank goodness she never asked "Does it have any big drops?" or I could have never gotten her on Splash Mountain!) Everything was fresh and new, and wonderful to her, and "seeing things through her eyes", for the first time in a while I didn't even notice the chipped paint from handrails, and the trash accumulated in the shrubs or stashed in odd corners of the queue lines. It didn't phase me that I was congested beyond reason, or that I was a little woozy from my cold medicine - we arrived at 9:15 in the morning, and left at 11:52 that night. We packed in with all of the other "cattle" to get a good viewing spot for the fireworks show (celebrating the 50 years of magic that Disneyland has provided) - and I had tears in my eyes as I allowed that magic to sweep me up and carry me along on it's shoulders. I have so many wonderful memories, from my childhood and from taking my own children to the parks over the years, that are wrapped up in a bright "Disney" bow - it is totally geeky, and also totally cool!
On the work front - things are (overal) really good. My department is understaffed right now, so that means loads of extra work for myself, and the person that I split the daily responsibilities with - but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and should be able to breath a little easier within a few weeks (I hope!). I've also started on my first official Producer gig - working with an amazingly talented group of individuals to create our own independent animated short. Again, it means loading on more work, but it is SO worth it. I can't say much about it yet - but we may do a blog or website to track the progress (stay tuned...)
I'm reading (actually re-starting to read, for the 3rd time) William Goldman's book "Adventures in the Screen Trade" - what a great gem of a resource for insight on the machinations (both good and bad) of the industry. It is a little dated (written and published in the early 80's) but so much of the information is still relevant today. I keep picking it up, and then getting distracted 1/3 of the way through - but I am determined to finally finish it this time! I love Goldman's quip about "Nobody Knows Anything" - basically that there is no way to truly predict what is going to be a hit, and what is going to sink lower & faster than the Titanic. Audiences are fickle, and they are smart (a fact that seems to get lost in the melee of dumbed down, FX driven crap that gets churned out over and over). Big Star plus Big Budget does NOT alway equal Big Box Office (a fact that I believe some studios are finally starting to acknowledge).
My husband forwarded me a link to a great article/blog in 2 parts over at - http://artfulwriter.com/ - "A Widening Chasm, Part 1" and "A Widening Chasm, Part II" that has caused a bit of a ruckus with up and coming/hopeful writers. It's worth a read, so if you have the time, please check it out. It's a really interesting article on the widely varied perspectives that agents, writers, unions and studios have for how this business is, and potentially should, be working.
That's it for now - my mind is a bit muddled these days, but I hope that everything gets sorted very soon!
Quote for the day: "If I'm not always happy, that doesn't mean I'm doing something wrong; it means I am doing something real"
-Laurie Seligman
posted by Virg. at 9:46 PM
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