The exciting news for this week is that the first 3 Toys”R”Us: C’mon Let’s Play commercials that I’ve been post supervising are now airing on TV, and online. You may have already seen them on TV, or if you are following me on Facebook or Twitter you might have seen them there. If you have not seen them in either of those two ways I included the videos here(click play all to see all 3 spots).
It was exciting to see the first one on TV, since I was not expecting to see it so soon. They posted them on their Toys”R”Us YouTube channel on Saturday, so I wonder if they will be posting 3 more this weekend. We have been delivering 3 commercials a week to them, so that seems to make sense in my head. It is also really cool that these all came from the fun videos my friend Daniel Hashimoto did of his son, and posted on his YouTube Channel Action Movie Kid. Toys”R”Us loved these videos(like many), so they asked Hashi to direct these 15 commercials for them. I owe Hashi a big thank you for bringing me on to help out. It has been a fun experience, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of them turn out.
In addition to working on these commercials I have also been updating my website, since I have not done so in awhile. I tend to update it, and then a week later decide I hate it, and start all over again. It is a vicious cycle that never seems to end. That pattern got interrupted. I was using DreamWeaver to make my site, but it stopped working when I upgraded my computer awhile back. I had no way to update my website until recently when I decided I would just use Apple’s iWeb. I don’t have all the flexibility that I had with DreamWeaver, but at least I can update my site now. It is still a work-in-progress, but you can check it out here. I always have the most difficulty with the wording I put on each page. If you have any suggestions to improve what I wrote, and would like to volunteer your words please let me know.
I have also started the search for an attorney to make sure I’m not doing anything illegal, and also help me get some contracts written up for working with clients, and freelancers. This stuff is so foreign to me, and it is very draining trying to make sense of it. I guess that is why lawyers cost so much. I found a guy that has years of experience in animation, and really knows his stuff, but not sure I can afford him. I guess the big question is can I afford hime, or afford not to have him? He brought up a lot of interesting points that sent me back to the drawing board on how I’m structuring my company. It is the little things that you don’t think about that can ruin you if you are not careful.
This week I had several friends reach out to me, and it was great hearing from them. They also wanted to talk business to see how we could maybe work together, or help each other out (forgive my vagueness, but I’m excluding their names for their privacy). One of them was an animator that I worked with at DreamWorks Animation on Kung Fu Panda 2, and since then he has left DWA and has been working as a freelance animator. He is also interested in starting his own animation company, so he wanted to meet up and talk about that. A good friend of mine that is now back at DWA has a friend that might have a project for me to help him with. He plans on calling this weekend to discuss the project, and it will also give us a chance to catch up on life. It will be interesting to hear what his friend is looking for, but it will also be great to catch-up since we have not talked in awhile. Another friend of mine that I have not had a chance to talk to in awhile called, and wanted to see if I could meet up with her and her business partner to talk about how our two companies could work together. They run a film/television production company, so there seems to be a lot of potential for us to be able to help each other out. On top of all that I might also be meeting with an intern that is interested in getting into animation that I agreed to meet with to talk about my experiences. As you can tell next week appears to be the week of meetings for me. It should be nice though since besides my wife the only adult interactions I get is over conference calls.
If you have not already, I hope you will join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog. If you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.