Today I got home after being in Surrey for a few days, working on a party for Snow Business. It took place in a large marquee, set in the grounds of a polo club. The marquee was decorated inside in the style of a frozen woodland. Ironically, the event had been canceled before because of snow causing the usual kind of havoc it does with our country’s infrastructure.

Friday – the prep. We (Greg and I) arrived early and went about snowing the various fake trees and real foliage with our machine dressing rig, as on Saturday, the caterers would be in and the tables would be in place and set with silver service and all sorts of loveliness. It’s always a bit of a tricky job dressing events such as these, as the materials we use are often dusty, and so working after the tables are set would be a very difficult thing to do. Although the office is very good at explaining this point to the client, it has happened before and will no doubt happen again. We left on Saturday, with only the more finer hand dressing left to be done. We stayed in a Premier Inn in the town of Horsham.

Saturday – the big event. No big surprises, although the event crew had put a large amount of extra foliage around one of the water features, we explained that to dress it would be a big deal, and we agreed it looked nice as it was. Come Saturday night, we had dressed everything with a nice subtle covering of snow, which frosting over the top to give it some sparkle. I should explain here that the snow we use isn’t the fickle watery kind, but a mix of plastic, paper, and other chemical artificial snows. Outside the entrance were two large falling snow machines which looked really good with the lights and fire effects the organisers had in place. We left with the party in full swing at about 22:00.

Today – the big clear. It only took a few hours to empty the marquee of virtually everything that had taken a week to set up. We cleared away the bulk of the snow, and made our way home.

After work on Friday, we went into Horsham town centre, and had a wander about. We had a couple of pints of Tanglefoot, at a pub called The Stout House. It was a rarity amongst pubs these days….no loudspeakers blaring out inappropriate music; no TV sapping people’s attention; no food service (just lovely booze); people actually having fully-engaged conversation with one another; a calm, relaxing atmosphere. One really cool thing was a window which let you look into the small cellar where all the good stuff was kept. We sat at a table next to the window, though no barrels needed changing, so it was fairly uneventful in The Stout House cellar while we were there.

Then we ended up at an Indian restaurant. It was nice enough, and the food was really good. I don’t think they’d be trading for very long, as everything was very new and clean. They had something I’d never seen in an Indian restaurant before: salt and pepper shakers at the table!

They also had a customer care poster….in the customer toilets….

When we arrived at about 19:30, we were the only people there. After a while a couple in their 50s arrived and were seated at the other end of the restaurant. Later, another couple arrived, this time in their early 20s, they were to be the entertainment for the evening…

Edit: I just rediscovered this after perusing my new iPhone 4. Thought I’d post it even though it’s old and unfinished.

We went back into the foyer and met a few special effects guys who worked on it, along with a few production peeps. The auditorium opened up and we went inside to take our seats. The production put on complimentary popcorn (which I don’t really like at all) and ‘soft drinks’, which was actually just bottles of water. Nice thought all the same, and I was thirsty so it was appreciated.

We all sat about, watching more and more people fill up the seats, until, at last, the lights dimmed a little and a spotlight found a man in a tidy suit standing just in front of the screen, microphone in hand, ready to make an announcement. He explained that Joe Johnston, the Director, couldn’t be with us tonight as he’s getting ready for the LA premiere which will be happening within a few hours of me typing this. He went on to read out a message from Joe thanking everyone for their help through the project, which was a tough one, starting with Joe coming on board just 3 weeks before shooting began, after original Director Mark Romanek left for some reason or another. He went on to say Joe hoped we enjoyed the film, then sat down to let the film start.

The lights went down, and the curtains opened to show the Universal logo…

The film ended and everyone clapped, then clapped again as their names went up in the credits

It’s not a bad film at all. It’s quite different from a lot of horrors from recent times, feeling quite old-fashioned in many ways. It has some quite strong characters in, though I didn’t really like Emily Blunt’s character all that much, Del Toro and Hopkins were pretty damn good. The blood factor is just right, and I think any more body parts removed or intestines disemboweled would have pushed it too far into more of a gore fest. We did a lot of blood work which often just gets cut out, but they left a lot in, which is nice, because blood is damned expensive

All in all, I enjoyed it, although some of the pacing of the film made me wonder, it all gels together fairly well.

Marty and I drove back, stopping at the Hammersmith flyover BP petrol station to get some rations for the journey home. After I dropped him off at his place and unloaded the car at home, I discovered he left his lemon drizzle cake in the glove compartment….bad luck, Mart.

Right now, I’m trying to decide what I want to do with my life…

In July last year, I finished working on The Wolfman, and tomorrow I’m going to the cast and crew showing in Leicester Square, London. I’m looking forward to it quite a lot. The job was a huge learning experience for me, and a position which came with a lot of responsibility. It was great to work on the production side of things for once, as opposed to being on set all the time, and it gave me the chance to get to know what goes on behind the scenes, and how decisions are made and implemented.

I’ll write a blog about the screening tomorrow night when I get in, hopefully I’ll get a credit on this one. The last film I worked on, Body of Lies, the production company didn’t give a few of the FX guys credits

The person I did the buying for has another film coming up, which is good news as I’m pretty penniless again, the downside is that he doesn’t want to use me in the office this time. It’s a film where there will be some snow, so he wants me to be a technician on the floor. My initial reaction was of shock, he had always said he’d use me again as his buyer since we finished on Wolfman, but this time he said he would be using another person who used to work for his brother.

My main worry which remains after having thought about it all for a while, is the fact that a buyer is a pretty safe position to be in, unless you fuck up, there’s no reason to be replaced, and you get one of the longest runs on a production, as you need to be there to set up all the accounts before the technicians turn up. However, the woman who’s taking my place is a family friend of theirs, and I can work the floor while she goes in the office, so I can see why he’s made that decision. On the other hand, being a technician is not a safe position. If there are cuts to be made to the budget, it’s likely people’s weeks will be cut, this added to the fact there are a lot of other technicians more experienced than me on his list, makes me worried I’ll be on the film for the shortest amount of time.

I know there is supposed to be snow in the film, which is another reason he wants me on board as a technician. It’ll be nice to be out on set again, and it’s not that I don’t want to do that, it’s something I enjoy a lot, but I loved the buying job and all that came with it.

Along with all that, I’ve just realised I have no money to last me past the end of March. This isn’t good.

I’m gonna wrap this up now….more later…

* * *

So, just got back to Stroud from Brighton. Not a bad run, stopped at Reading to see Jim’s sister and brother-in-law on the way. I’m going on holiday to Austria with them all in March. Snowboarding in St. Anton, which should be great. They’ve been there a couple of times and say the snow is pretty damn good. It’s an all-inclusive deal which, with lift pass, is about £1000. This has all been paid for, so luckily doesn’t take anything from the pittance I have left in the bank.

I went to Brighton with Jim, as he was going anyway to have a small crash course in PHP. I decided to go with him, to get away from my usual distractions, and to get my taxes up to scratch to send to my accountant. The taxes were done the first day at the office, I just need to print off some bank statements and it’s all ready to go. Once that was done, my plan was to get some After Effects work started on my HUD project, which was going to be based on the chat UI, but will now be a fancy weapon’s HUD for the zombie film I’m working on with someone. I decided to change because there’s a lot more scope for design as far as weapons go, and the footage from chat isn’t something I’d want to reproduce for the film anyway, which this AE play is meant to be getting me ready for. The AE work was short-lived, however, as I got into web design and programming/development mode after seeing Ben and Jim working on it. I started to learn HTML a while ago, and a tiny bit of CSS, but it’s something that still interests me. So, I’ve decided to start learning it again. I have a few personal targets now…

1. Learning more After Effects
2. Learning HTML and CSS to go with Jim’s PHP and MySQL
3. Start on the Spanish again
4. Write more for the zombie film
5. Get some money

Normal distractions aside, I had a really nice time. Ben is a friend I don’t see anywhere near enough, and we all just hung out together, until Jim got ill and decided he wanted to be in his own bed tonight. I don’t blame him, being ill and away from the comfort of your own home isn’t nice. I prefer being at home even when I’m not ill!

My friend in Brighton, Ben, is just about to buy his first house. It sounds like a really nice place, and for about £300K, it ought to be! He’s having trouble with the mortgage companies though, and I’m not sure he’ll get the money wired to the vendor before their deadline in a couple of days time. Fingers crossed. Ben works for a telecoms company of some kind, and has been working on his own billing platform for a few years now, which a few companies use, earning him a small but respectable commission on any invoices put through the system. He’s a clever kid, and hopefully we’ll all be able to work together on some project in the not too distant future.

What is a shame about us coming home early is not seeing another friend who lives in Brighton – James. James runs Futurlab, which has had a roller coaster history so far, but it doesn’t look like going away just yet. James has put so much into the lab he’s a real inspiration. He’s left a lot of people eating their hats, though that’s not (entirely) why he’s worked so hard to succeed. He’s always been passionate about music, and the move into web/games territory was a natural one. He’s always seemed to know what he wants to do, and which direction to take his work in….something which eludes me. Ben also has dealings with the Lab and used to work there full time. He and James started the billing program together, too.

* * *

When I got home I had some post bits and bobs…one of which was a dvd I ordered – Dolls. I watched Dolls when I was a little kid and it scared the shit out of me, so when I saw it online I had to get it! The Stuff is a film a friend told me about, which sounds kinda cool, too.

One last thing, I found out about Firefox Personas today. I chose the Cookie Monster one to start with, but settled on the Snow Leopard one for now. They’re kinda like skins, but with a more modern name… <.<

Night night.

In other news i’ve got a days work lined up for next Tuesday. It’s a snow job at Harrods in London. Should be good as I get to see a friend who I haven’t seen for ages, but it does involve a 04:30 start from the snow mill. Nice. Something I certainly don’t miss.

Going to sleep now. More soon.

My last entry on my SG blog was a pasting of lyrics of a Pink Floyd song. My sister’s boyfriend of 8 years had just died of cancer, which had killed him within 6 months of first being seen by the doctor. It started out as just a mole on his chest which had changed over time and was itchy a lot. My sister had asked him a few times to go and get it checked out, and in the end, she booked him an appointment and made him go. After that first visit, he went back several times to have more tests to ascertain how far it had spread. Once they knew it had spread into his lymph glands it just seemed to do a quick finger at the doctors and went about it’s business of completely destroying him from the inside. By the time he died of tumors on his lungs, it had spread to every part of his body and to every major organ.

Before he died on his youngest daughter’s 4th birthday at the end of March, he and my sister organised his posthumous business, such as his will and funeral. He had a love of Egyptian and ancient cultures, and we had tried to organise a holiday for him to go to Egypt, but he was too ill to go. His boss really came through for Damian after he heard the news, and even gave him £2000 to take his kids on holiday, as well as putting on a great reception for the funeral party after the service. By the time that holiday came round, he was in a wheelchair and on oxygen most of the time, not to mention the morphine for the constant pain. He insisted my sister go with a friend and take the kids anyway, so she did, though this was near the end, and I know she just wanted to be with him.

It was clear to those who knew him the funeral was following Damian’s instruction. The Dark Side coffin design being taken to the crematorium in his Land Rover, and the service itself, was all Damian through and through. I was a fucking mess the whole time! I’ve never had to deal with someone dying so quickly so young, Damian was only 36, or from such a vicious illness.

I’m not sure what else to say about it. He was a brilliant person, pretty much a brother to me, a true soul mate to my sister, and a fantastic father to 2 daughters and a son.

Last week, my sister ran a race for life, which is basically a 5k run for Cancer Research UK. The pics can be seen HERE. There are other pics in the main gallery of other things. I’m going to try to take more pics and post more regularly, too.

—

Also since my last entry, I haven’t worked The person I work for has been working on his brother’s film for a while, but the next film he has for himself, doesn’t start until October! One of the problems with being a buyer, is that each supervisor has their own one. It’s not like being a technician where they may need 20 or 30 of you at a time. It’s a waiting game from now on…..

I’ve been out of work since April, but I’ve been trying to keep busy; I’ve started learning the drums, which is great fun, and not as completely mystifying as I thought it might be. I’ve also started learning Spanish, and I’ve started learning After Effects from scratch on the mac, which is going well.

I had become a chat resident again, but I could slowly feel my days just blurring into weeks into months….so I had to put a stop to the constant chatting. I don’t think I’ve been in for about 10 days now, though, which is a bit too long. Besides main chat, for a while there was Chat2: an excellent altChat room, which only opens up when the moon and Uranus are in my third eye. Chat is great, but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’re in a quiet kinda mood. Chat 2 was only small, so most of the time there was only one conversation going on at once – which is nice – where everyone could get involved and have a think before typing a reply, without the topic of chat changing five times before you hit the enter key. It has it’s share of haters, and I can see why, but it’s not the enemy, just an alternative, and if alternatives can’t be accepted on this site, I think we’re in trouble. Whatever. Not important.

It’s now 03:35….I’ve stayed up a little longer than I wanted to. I’ll try to write in this thing more often. I love good quotes, so I’ll end with this one. Enjoy.

”This is my creed: For man the vast marvel is to be alive. For man as for flower and beast and bird the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive. Whatever the unborn and the dead may know they cannot know the beauty, the marvel of being alive in the flesh. The dead may look after the afterwards. But the magnificent here and now of life in the flesh is ours alone, and ours only for a time. We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh and part of the living incarnate cosmos.”

D.H. Lawrence

Today was a good day despite ending up in a funk. The job was easy, but a nice one to get me used to working with snow again. Saw some of the other guys back at snow hq and all seems well.

Going to bed sleep now. I’ll leave you with a picture of the toasted seed, bran and cranberry bagel, with Dijon mustard, soft cheese and avocado on top, which I had for a snack earlier. That’s a glass of ginger and lemongrass cordial by the way. Yum !

Bye for now.

In other news…

Erm… I guess I’ll write some more later.

I like my new car. It’s taken me a while longer than I thought to get used to it, but now I have I really like it. It’s a fair bit heavier on the fuel than my old car, but that’s ok. I guess I should post some pics of it on here. I’ve been doing my daily Geohash on my iPhone to try to get some interesting coordinates to visit, but as yet they’ve all been too far away to visit. It’s a random coordinate generator, and I think there are websites dedicated to it so once you get to your random location you can take and upload a photo of it. Once I get some coordinates which are remotely feasible, I’ll go there and post the results.

The woman who lives across from my window I’m sitting at has bingo wings. You know, where the skin under the arms hangs down and flaps about in the breeze. She was putting things away in the cupboards and I got a good view of them. I have a healthy gut forming…I need to get out and exercise more. I have a gym membership with Virgin Active which I haven’t used for a few months now, so I’ll try to get some sort of routine going. I prefer road running to running in a gym to be honest, so I’ll only use it for muscle building and the sauna etc. I don’t like my body as it is, I’m not obese, but I am overweight, and I know that exercise is also a great way to get my energy levels back up. I want so much to be in the ‘Don’t do tomorrow what you can do today’ club, but at the moment it’s always ‘I’ll just wait until….’, or ‘I don’t want to start this until such and such is finished.’. JUST GET ON WITH IT!!!

Things are changing though. I can feel it. There is one major thing I need to get done, and that’s my tax return. It’s what I avoid most. I need a full week to get into it and get it all sorted, so whenever something else comes up it’s the perfect excuse not to do it. I will get it done soon. I have to. Mum has said when it’s done she’ll give up smoking, so that’s more of a reason than any to do it!

That’s all for now. Ciao.

At lunchtime I met up with a friend, Jim, and we headed off to Cheltenham as he needed to buy a dress shirt for the wedding on Friday. We spent a couple of hours there, and even met up with the bride and groom to be as well. They had both been to have haircuts and we met with him first whilst she was in having a tan applied. When she got out we left, as I needed to get home to meet the plumber and electrician at around 5pm.

The plumber called while I was still out, so he’s coming round again tomorrow to sort the toilet out, but the electrician came on time and sorted the cooker hob out no problem! I can finally cook my own meals again. I can’t wait! My diet has been suffering badly recently so being able to cook my own food again properly will change all that.

Tomorrow I’ll be tidying the flat some more and going out to find a small whiteboard or something to make daily task lists on so I don’t fall behind.

I’m tired now…night night

I woke up a little later than I had hoped. I think this was because the rain woke me at about 6:30am and I had a bit of trouble getting back to sleep. Once I was up and about I starting putting the day’s plan into action.

I have a one bedroom flat which means space is at a premium and I have to try not to hoard things too mch, or else it quickly becomes a mess. Just recently I finished working on a film and have brought home a load of files and other things I’ve picked up over the course of the job, which meant I had to gave a big clear out to make some space for the new stuff. I had a load of old boxes which I threw out, and gave some old audio separates to a friend because I have no need for them now. I made a whole load of new space which always makes me feel good.

In other news I booked a plumber and electrician for tomorrow to come and fix my toilet and cooker hob, and sorted out some aspects of a wedding I’m going to (and filming at I found out yesterday), and also looked into booking my full practical motorcycle test. Soon it’ll become much harder so I need to do it in the next month or so. Plus I have the time to take it now, if I get stuck on another film I won’t have the time.

Plans for tomorrow include further tidying up of the flat, and organisation of some of my receipts and things for my tax return. This is something I’ve not been looking forward to, but is probably the most important thing I should be doing as it determines how much money I have to play with. Once it’s done I can stay on top of it easily, it’s just because I’ve let it get behind by so much that I’m avoiding it.

I feel good I got some things sorted out today, and it’s turned out to be the same situation as usual – I put things off for ages, then when I finally get around to it I actually enjoy doing it! Stupid really, but that’s just the way I work at the moment I guess. I’m not going to fight it. Instead I’ll lull it into a false sense of security before flanking it and taking it unawares!

Until tonight…