Creative Association

To me, there's more to just the name of a studio, or media group, or creative collective. There's association. Either good or bad, it's there. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the studio name "Bad Robot"? For me, it's Star Trek 2009, which is a fantastic movie and instantly associates Bad Robot with something great. "Giant Killer Robots" with Fantastic Four; "Industrial Light and Magic" with Star Wars and Indiana Jones; and now "Weta Digital" with Lord of the Rings (and now Avatar).

MindBend Studios has been my cover name for all my creative endeavors since the beginning, since around late 1999. I still like that name and I still plan on using it. However, I have felt the need for a different identity when it comes to motion graphics and visual effects in film, something that raises an eyebrow and causes a question from the viewer. It doesn't need to be epic, or cause the viewer to say "OMG!! That's awesome!", actually I would prefer it not to. It just needs to be able to stir a double-take, to show something to the viewer that is unexpected. That's enough to take interest, to associate everything that follows to that first unexpected moment.

This year is going to be a year full of changes both professional and personal, and I think I'm going to enter this new year under the guise of "Angler Digital", although I'm not 100% on this. I'm already working on a graphic that involves the Angler's lure swinging across the screen to reveal the "Angler Digital" logo. This is definately something that will make people say "W... what?".

Kicking off the new year...

2010 hasn't even started yet and I'm already going through a whirlwind of various projects.

The producer of our last film, Quantum Immortality, is also a popular Chicago radio DJ, and he's called upon me to create some graphics and promo material for a live "top 25" countdown show this New Years Eve. Unfortunately he called me while I was on vacation in Minnesota, so we just got together for the first time today to discuss this project. So, now I'm rushing to get it all done, though I shouldn't have any problems getting it done, rendering it will be the most time consuming and I already have the design laid out.

In other news, before I left for vacation I had a one-on-one with a director that I met in my film group. He's looking for someone to do special effects for several projects he has lined up starting next year, and he was really impressed with my work so far, so there's a very good chance I'll be working with him early next year.

And other things are really starting to shape my Film career, and making me really thrilled to be a resident of the Chicagoland area. The largest studio outside of Hollywood is being built really close to me and should be ready sometime in 2010. A friend of mine from my film group knows the guy responsible for bringing this studio here, and he's worked for Digital Kitchen and on some big movies like Terminator Salvation. I am super excited about this!