Another convention report, my apologies! I haven’t thought that I would be on so many (= two) conventions in the field of digital film in such a short span of time. But attending the Digitale Cinematographie convention this Thursday in Munich was something way out of the ordinary because a little dream never dreamed came true: Seeing my work on the grandeur of a real IMAX theater silver screen.
Somehow I’ve all made it through many hours of very interesting presentations — still my spirits weakened: Four hours of sleep a day just isn’t enough for conventions like the FMX where one should be as sharply focused as a Pong-player in order not to miss anything: Today it was everything about games mostly.
Recruiting day for me! Yesterday I was too tired and lacked of motivation getting some of my demo reels to the important representatives of Some Great Company. And I even shook hands with one of the people who got me into VFX at all.
At 4:30am my cell phone tried to wake me, without success, but it succeeded ten minutes later shortly before I stuffed in some clothes, my ten portfolio DVDs and my bag of hygiene products. Then I tried giving Martina, who was one of my two passengers, the ordered wake-up call, unanswered twice. The third time she picked it up and sounded not even as sleepy as me. Donsch, my other passenger, was waiting outside the campus building patiently for me to arrive, 18 minutes late for I forgot to print out the addresses of the convention center and my hotel which really saved my ass.
Currently the fmx, the Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media, resides for the 13th time in Stuttgart. Big woo because this year I’m among the participants. But my trip actually started on Sunday when I was getting ready, also mentally, for my upcoming days of celebrated geekdom.
Ever played Audiosurf? That addictive little fucker! I’ve downloaded the demo because I was a little bit curious as I always am when there’s some hype ebbing away and I feel “underground” enough to give it a try myself. But what is Audiosurf anyway? It creates from a song of your choice a unique race track resembling the tempo, intensity and dynamic of that song. Nothing really new. But the community connection via Steam evokes some Trackmania United atmosphere: If there’s somebody who’s played the same song as you then the game automatically compares your scores and performance. As a competitive grunting male I am prone to scoreboards… If you already know what it is about please refer to the last paragraphs — there’s a challenge for you…
This Saturday was a big day for me: My first Visual Effects supervision job apart from anything related to my education. Magic Movie hired me for the visual effects to their documentary for national TV which will be aired some time in fall. I can’t tell you about the story (because I’ve signed a non-disclosure contract) but I can tell you about my day.
Yesterday I was asked how many applications I had sent out so far and I could easily count to two: My application at Scanline, that I delivered personally in mid-February at their facility on the Bavaria Studios, and the online application as an intern at Digital Domain a few days ago, as you already know. And now I am getting more and more concerned that I won’t get a decent internship - preferably in the US. So today I began spreading some more emails to California, namely to CafeFX and The Orphanage. I keep my fingers crossed that one of them will at least contact me. I’m feeling angsty!
I’ve been practicing and strumming the past four days and this is what I came up with. It’s very rough and my technique is very amateurish, of course, but it’s already setting a mood which I am very comfortable with. Maybe I switch completely to jazz music for a while? If you guess and tell me on which song the chords in the background are based on, you’ll get a little surprise — provided you tell it to me personally. Let the competition begin!
The picture to the right is just a visual help for you to get in the right mood for this tune. texx sound - Green Grass. 2008.
Somehow I’ve all made it through many hours of very interesting presentations — still my spirits weakened: Four hours of sleep a day just isn’t enough for conventions like the FMX where one should be as sharply focused as a Pong-player in order not to miss anything: Today it was everything about games mostly.
