(watch the episode in Quicktime)
Sometimes I wonder about my own sanity.
It was some time after midnight, watching the final render of this episode. I didn’t mean to be this late, and I don’t really want to make excuses for being late, either. I did wake up with an allergy attack, and I did have to take antihistamines, and I did end up falling asleep for three hours this afternoon because of it. And my poor, belabored computer has taken to shutting down randomly, a fact I plan on addressing very soon, as I have just discovered my AppleCare is valid for another month. But the real reason this episode was late is because I was just completely devoid of ideas this week. As my Twitter posts this morning will attest.
That said, I feel pretty darn good about the end result of today’s efforts. And weirdly distant as well; it was while checking the final render for glitches that I looked at Kranium displayed on the screen-within-the-screen, and for a moment, I forgot entirely that he was my character. I became a viewer for a moment, and frankly, it was pretty great. It also had me ready to shout “What the hell is wrong with this guy?”, but for the most part, I was happy. Still am.
I have always maintained that this show, in these first few years, has been an exercise in teaching myself how to make video, and in that regard, I have to say I’m really happy this week. I built that new wall today (been on my to-do for at least three months), and suddenly I can do lovely reverse shots in the lab. So I did. The black&white insert shots in this week’s episode are the “thing I’m trying” for this week, and I’m pretty damn happy. Also the first time I’ve ever worked with a live animal. The original insect was going to be a weird beetle that lives in my window. But crickets invade our house all the time, and this particular specimen was in the bathroom when I went to prepare it for the bathtub scene. Seeing as the beetle was way up in the corner of the windowframe, and the cricket was easy to trap under an old CD cover, I decided to use the cricket. The dark contrast against the chrome platform ended up working better than the beetle would have, and the cricket was surprisingly patient. Frankly, was easier than some of the human actors I’ve dealt with.
Anyway, I remembered today the idea that my characters could fill in for me on weeks when I hadn’t the time to write extensive episodes. Kranium’s videoblog has been untouched since 2006, when I really intended to update it every few months. We both forgot. From now on, I expect I’ll revisit K’s blog once a season, and will fill the off-season time with occasional puppet posts as the muse dictates.
As always, comments are beloved. Make some.