journal page 17

may 24, 2001
midnight
not too much to report. talked to yet another film class today and the professor declared that the bleeding/dance scene in 'rejected' is the "single most disturbing, creepiest scene i have ever watched in all of cinema"... she saw the fluffy dancing critters as being some sort of sheep and went on to describe to the class the scene's commentary on social conformity and nazi mass mentality. i thought that was pretty cool

may 21, 2001
clarity
no refills
2:01am
was at the drug store buying antibiotics last week and it was very busy so it was rather hard to hear the clerk from across the counter. twice i had to say, "...i'm sorry?" to make her repeat what she had mumbled, after which she continued the conversation in a really loud, slow, over-enunciated tone, assuming that i was hard of hearing. when i sat down waiting for my order to be filled, she yelled at me from behind the counter, "DO-YOU-HAVE-YOUR-CREDIT- CARD?", vigourously miming the motion of a little card being swiped.

the nights are getting later. the animation is coming along fine, very slow, etc. i feel like i end up writing the same thing here lately but that's sort of just the way things are right now. animate, sleep. animate, sleep. nothing too exciting. julia was over the other day and cut my hair. there is a creepy stuffed kiwi looming over the corner of one of the booths in the australian restaurant that i am determined to make off with and mount over my bed. problem is they have his feet bolted into the booth. so i will need a screwdriver and some considerable stealth. had trouble getting to sleep last night because i couldn't stop lying there thinking about the end of the universe. umm, yeah. STRESS? somebody wrote in recently and revealed that gas mask guy is really just a screwy drug addict. well, that sort of takes the magic out of it all, doesn't it.

my apartment gets stuffy really easy. back to work..

don

april 30, 2001
your television will show you anything
that will get you to watch more commercials
3:08am
my hair is getting long. taking a break from animating. have slipped easily back into the good ol' nocturnal animator life, which will kick in fully through the next few months. draw until 4 or 5 in the morning, sleep until noon. there's really no other way to get into this stuff other than when there are no distractions. it's rather nice to be the only one awake in the building and it's wonderfully quiet. was intimidating as all hell to get thru the very first few characters last week and i was really nit-picking everything apart, but i've finally loosened up and am well into the flow of things. 500 drawings down, several thousand to go...

went to the art museum the other day and enjoyed a wall-sized oil painting of a screaming bear attacked by five dogs. i'm sure it was a metaphor for something. the bear looked real upset

i was spending much time in the cereal aisle last night making a difficult decision that finally was narrowed down to which cereal offered the best toy. the rice krispies box has a little donald duck stuffed animal picture on the front -- inside!, is all it says. on the back it says, collect all 4 characters in specially marked packages! free inside! so i buy the box, figuring i can give the doll to tim's kids or something. open the box. nothing free inside. there is an order form printed on the inside of the box. mail in three box tops plus three-fifty and they will send your 'free doll' in 6 weeks. what the hell is this? isn't it supposed to say, "hey kids! not-free doll order form inside!" all these little kids are buying this cereal just for the free doll promise, only to take it home to be disappointed. how hard is it to really just put the little things in the box? i'm not sure what my point is other than that i need to lighten up, but i guess it sort of serves to illustrate a larger picture. sort of like the screaming bear getting mauled by dogs. yeah

consumer advocate don

lies! lies! lies!!

rob says: i just love the fact that you actually thought there'd be a stuffed animal in your cereal box.

april 18, 2001
geographic tongue girl
squeak squeak
9:42pm
the weather has been really beautiful and it's warm and everyone is smiley. the fed ex lady lectured me today about boxes. my box was apparently 'sub-standard'. she was pretty upset about it. then the supermarket was selling little frozen pizzas 2 for 1 and my freezer is now a mountain of little frozen pizzas. i am still sick but i am less sick so that's good cuz this is the worst sore throat i've ever had. in fact may i be so bold as to reason that if pain was symbolically represented by semicolons, i would have like three of them! ---> ;;; tHAT'S RIGHT! i lie you not!! ...yesssss indeedy, spring is here

the opening sequence, which is really just 10 seconds, is now more or less wrapped up, just needs to be inked. spent a little time with tim to make sure that every beat of animation will synch up perfectly to each music note. it should look rather nice i think.

don

april 9, 2001
important instructions
printed inside wrapper
7:07pm
feeling very upbeat. came up with the opening sequence of the new film last night and i think it will work perfectly. this may be the first time ever i've actually had the beginning and ending to a project firmly in mind this early in production but then again we have been slowly plugging away in pre-production on this thing for almost a year now so i guess that's misleading. meeting with tim tomorrow night to go over some music cues for the opening bits and make sure that i have the thing plotted in my head right. meanwhile the pencil tests, all 6,000+ pages of them, are still coming along really beautifully and tho they are tremendously painful to slog through, there's no other way to approach the project; can't wait to see them all composited/traced together in the finished version. amazing, amazing, amazing. best news of all, brian was a rock star and finished off our last batch of dialogues to be broken down. with this final piece of the puzzle in hand, i will finally be ready to BEGIN animating with pens and pulling it all together. i cannot believe that it's already been nine or ten months of this preparatory work! i've wanted to make this cartoon for many years now, even before 'billy's balloon', but never knew exactly how to pull it off. it's been bouncing around in my head for very long and it wasn't until mid-way thru 'rejected' that i decided to bite the bullet and attempt to tackle it next. it's going to be a very special film and i'm all riled up and excited anew for it...

i am sort of sick. there has been a little nest of pure evil sitting in the back of my throat since the weekend and it is really painful. i hope it doesn't spread to my ear. i have now built up an admirable immunity to this red numby throat spray. i saw gasmask guy twice recently, he was walking along the freeway the other day and just this afternoon i saw him staggering around outside the jiffy lube. i'd have given him a ride if not for his wearing a gasmask and interest in eating me.

don