Like sands through the hour glass...

Hello,

It is with a soggy eye that I am forced to part with my trusted mentor of three months as we reached the end of the Advanced Acting class. Jason was a great great mentor to whom I will always carry around a little golden nugget of debt to for being a part of my journey to wherever. That guy is super fun, laid back, friendly and I'd love someday to buy him some beers somewhere. So again, I have to cut the cord and move on. However, it’s hard not to be excited about what lies ahead. So I tarry not, on to the newses.

My final departing criticism from Jason Schleifer was mostly positive, with the note that I should work a bit on my confidence and not be afraid to let the character settle a bit. Well, valid points all around, I know. My confidence seems to wane and wax all the time. I seem to get something done in a shot that I’m happy with, but the next week, it can all seem to fall apart. The quality of my animation is my looking glass to my ability to do this, seemingly at every step along the way. And I know, that I have a very harsh eye when it comes to my stuff. I think the point that Jason made was a good one. I have to believe more in my ability to do this, even on the bad days. The bad days are just that, and I will come back at it and get something that I’m happy with at the end.

Well, that is something that I have to work on. I hope it will come with time as I get myself out of more and more animation jams. This last project was a toughy for the soul but I pulled it out of my shame pile and put in on my needs slight tweaking pile.

As far as letting the character stay still, I knew it all along in the back of my mind. Now I just have to execute. It’s hard for a bit of a show off like me not to pack every second I get on the screen with a new gag or a new attention getting bit. But I will make sure to not over do my animation from here moving forward.






So onto my new mentor…Gavin Moran! Gavin is one of the favored mentors at AM as well. An Irish fellow relocated here to California, he’s worked on films at Disney, Wild Brain and now at Sony Pictures. He’s known for giving you a no-nonsense good swift kick to the hole approach to his mentoring. I can’t wait.

We are tasked to come up with three short film ideas and casually present them to our mentors for this week. Well, technically next week, as I’m in “group two.” So I get to watch group one-ers squirm first. Honestly, I can’t help but feel a tinkle of schadenfreude glee about not having to go first.

Visit again now, ya’ hear?