Working the Weekend

Ah.. So here I am, September 1st, working the Labor Day weekend. What exciting times. Our deadline for the show is in a mere six or so days, and I've got some work ahead of me, so the crew is in today and the rest of the long weekend to hit our mark by next weekend. I don't have the most shots on this show, luckily, only four out of less than fifty or so. There's a good crew on the show, and everyone is really quite competent. After this wraps, I may be going onto The Golden Compass, or something entirely different. I won't know until we actually wrap.

Coming up next weekend is the VFXTalk usergroup gathering! It's going to be pretty neat, I think anyway. We're doing this on a limited budget, thanks to the guys over at VFXTalk who are funding it. We've lined up two guest presenters, and we're hopefully going to get two more, which I'll here back from early next week. We've got a good RSVP list, so make sure you do that, if you haven't already.

On a slightly different note, I was awarded a Patent Pending on one of my products in development last Friday! It's been a hectic journey, from the time I came up with the idea about a year and a half ago, to now. I'm not going into much detail about it, since it's not vfx related, but I thought I should share what else I've been doing outside of visual effects. I'm also currently reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, a great book (so far!) about the rise of civilizations and why certain ones surpassed others. Additionally, I'm trying to finish The Intelligent Investor when I can. I'm about 1/3 through that one. Aside from the copious workload, somehow I managed to get into several books.. Sometimes there is just not enough time to do everything I want to do!

Over the previous weekend I went up in a R44 helicopter with a coworker who's getting certified for her commercial license. We had a great time, and it's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time now (flying, not just being a passenger!) Unfortunately, the price is steep, roughly double what a regular plane license will cost, so we'll see when and how far I can get on that.