Dreamleak update

After nothing for best part of a year, strangely, I get two whole emails in the same week from (as far as I can tell) two completely unrelated people. They asked about my old webcomic 'Dreamleak' and whether or not I'd ever be continuing it and if so when.

To be honest I was pretty surprised to find out anyone even remembered about it after all this time. However, I was even more surprised to discover (according to the stat counter) that I was still getting a fair amount of hits each day. I like to think that there are a whole horde of die hard fans religiously checking every single day for an update, waiting with an undying faith that one day Dreamleak shall return and with it, a second age of badly-drawn-barely-enjoyable-but-curiously-enticing comicery will come. Or it's just some bots.

Either way I don't think an update would hurt.



Basically I've gone back and actually written the thing this time. I have a massive script all written up and spangly looking and I've started roughing out the pages. There's a few of rough panels hidden in this very post! Can you spot them?



Being pretty busy with work these days I don't get much time to work on Dreamleak, but it's coming together slowly but surely. It's quite different from before but I'm certain it's for the better. It may not blow your socks completely off, per se, but maybe it'll loosen them from your toes a wee bit. As for when? How does early next year sound?



No? Well tough! :D

Another exciting update:

1. House move went OK. The only casualties were two of my favourite chunky tumblers and my bank balance.

2. The business is now on hold for a few more months until early next year, due to one of our team getting a temp job writing for CBBC the lucky bugger!

3. Because of this one of my new house mates, who is a founder of animation studio Polygon Fiction has invited me to work with them for a few months. They've been working on a stunning looking rotoscoped short for best part of a year now and I'm really looking forward to being a part of it! Check out this clip of theirs:



4. Out of over 700 entries to the E4 Estings competition ours was one of the 15 finalists! Hurrah! This means our work is now going to be shown on national TV for a whole year and we stand a chance to win the prize of £5000 and a contract deal with E4! Even more hurrahs!

5. I finally figured out a perfect ending for Dreamleak today after two years of it eluding me! SUPER HURRAH!

"But Greg," you might be thinking, "Everything seems to be going really well for you at the moment. What gives?" Well actually to balance it all out I have no money and I've just attended my first Job Seekers Allowance interview and it was just about the single most depressing, degrading and downright unpleasant experience of my life. And I have to do it every fortnight from now on.

GOOD TIMES

Update!

I can't believe how often I keep forgetting to update this thing...

1. So the pitch went well. We did indeed manage to get the full £16,000 grant to help set up our very own animation studio! Hurrah!

2. I finally went back home to Scotland for a couple of weeks and it was lovely and rainy. (I still went camping though!)

3. Whilst at home I made very good and exciting progress with Dreamleak so it shan't be long now 'til I can get cracking with it again!

4. Found a new place to live next year and although it's in a terrible area of Newcastle it's great 'cos it's dirt cheap! (And it actually is a rather nice house)

5. Just completed animating our entry into the E4 Estings competition! (still haven't been to bed though)

6. Here it is:




7. ALSO BONUS: Here's the short teaser animation thing we pitched with:

Twitter?

I'm not usually one to go along with these social networking things because I do infact hate everyone I've ever met. Ever.

So you may be suprised to find that I went and got a Twitter!

http://twitter.com/GregtheFraser

I've even put it on the side of the blog!

GOSH!

A long boring post

I graduated yesterday. It was great. I looked like some sort of hideous wizard in my ill-fitting gown and mortar. There was a procession of a load of important old people from the university all garbed in wonderfully colourful intricate robes being led slowly up the aisle and onto the stage by a man with A HUGE SWORD. However, despite weilding the impressive sword he didn't look very pleased, he seemed to just mope and grimace and then lay it down on a table before skulking away to sit down. They all sat at the back of the stage staring out over the audience silently, looking all very important and such. I think I was supposed to have known who they were.

I'd guess there was about 500 or so students graduating during that particular ceremony, it just so happened that my course had to be the very last one to go up and shake that important looking mans' hand. Every now and then the man would have a chat with the odd graduate and hold the handshake, during these conversations he would tap the graduate on the back of their hand with the index finger of his free hand several times. I hoped when my turn came he wouldn't do it to me. He did.

Before you moved out onto the stage you had to hand the announcer a barcoded name card from which he read your name and if you'd won any academic awards to the audience. Because I'd won the best animated film award I got a round of applause as I moved towards the old robed man, arm reaching out ready to greet me. I smiled as I approached and met his greeting, the applause thundering loud behind me. I thanked him quickly in hopes I'd get away quickly but then I felt the first tap on the back of my hand. He had me. And now he was talking to me. Don't get me wrong he was really genuinely nice and courteous and I would have really liked to have talked to him more but the fact was there were well over a thousand people staring at my back and by now their clapping had died down and all was silent. He asked me a few questions and I answered them, I think I even made him laugh at one point but I wasn't aware of anything other than all those eyes on my back and those countless taps on the back of my hand. Afterwards my Dad said I was talking to him for a good half minute. I believe the only reason it happened is because I actively didn't want it to happen.

So anyway, afterwards there was a speech or two and then that grimacing old man returned to pick up his sword and lead them all out again into the driving rain. I like to think that afterwards he'd be off to go slay an orc or two down Big Market. Or some chavs at the very least.

So there we go. My life in Uni and educashun has come to an end. With an unhappy man with a sword slowly wandering off into the rain.

Brill!

All the graduates that evening were no doubt out celebrating with friends and family long into the night. I, on the otherhand, went home, then left again to buy a sandwhich (in my suit) then went home again and worked on the the current animation.

Tuesday is the big day. We're off to Digital City to pitch/presentation out little hearts out and show this completed animation to a panel of investors, Dragon's Den stylee.

This'll be good.

The grumpiness continues..

I just saw an advert on TV for this:

What's the deal Hollywood? Are you TRYING to make me grumpy? Donnie Darko was a perfectly formed self-contained cult indie classic! This is quite obviously nothing more than a quick and nasty cash-in. The fact that it is a straight to DVD release says enough but the fact that I becasme aware of this films existence through an ASDA advert...

I cannot even begin to comprehend how bad this film will be.

Also, with a quick search, apparently the director Chris Fisher directed an episode of that Chuck program and so is in some way affiliated with "McG."

I am so unhappy right now.