Continue? YES - NO

Big week, but not big enough considering I am within a month of leaving. I am running out of time and already I have too much to cram into 3 weeks.




After feeling sorry for myself because no-one is sending me emails I picked myself up with a can of Mother (half a litre of adrenaline) and went for another round of Camera shopping. Initially I was given some advice from some Doco camera guys to go with a camera that films onto tape, but after shopping around I found that they are going the way of the dodo and that airport scanners kind of screw them up. This time I thought I knew what I wanted; digital full HD camera with directional mic mount, 4 hour internal HD, full manual control and timelaps feature.


Turns out not.


My budget is really tight in every possible way, and despite vague the possibility of more work (phone call 3 weeks ago, no word since) before I leave it was not looking good as cameras with external mic jacks start at around $1400. However a suggestion was made by some honest young sales-dude that I look at filming on a Canon 550D SLR photo-camera-madoodad. But those are for JPEGS not .mov's, I thought to myself. Little did I know that an entire episode of House was in fact shot on the same model and that with technology's relentless march cameras were doing everything video cameras can do, only better. Sort of reminded me of iPhones and the failed N-Guage (scroll down). This is turning out to be a very attractive option.


But before I could go out and do something stupid my brother has graciously offered the use of his own rig which, considering his occupation as a cameraman, just goes to show that brotherly love is alive and well.


But it looks so fucking cool.


Feeling more determined than ever I sent out another round of emails, this one to everyman AND his dog. I tried to reword the email to look more honest, less like spam and with a touch of desperation. I am Mbau'nu Gmabini, African Dimplomatic Consort... it begins. I decided to contact games companies and you know what I've discovered? They probably get so much unwanted mail that they've just removed all contact information from their websites. I wrote a letter to the editor of Hyper Magazine (my fav.) asking him how he gets interviews set up when I can't even figure out how to contact games developers. I suppose it really is about who you know. I know a guy at Blizzard, looks like the doco might be a little bias. Just kidding.


Anyway I was all tuckered out from the futility of sending hundreds of emails to spam folders and ready to call it a night when I noticed a little white bar in my inbox. Thinking it was some kind of error I investigated further only to find out it was a punctual (5 minutes after sending) reply from one Mr. Madsen, the master of the ever popular Little Gamers webcomic. He wished me best of luck and agreed to mention my doco on his site. Finally the project might get some exposure to the gaming public (and hopefully other influential games media types, *cough* Penny Arcade *cough* will see it) and then it's just a question of if people really are interested. I have actually started to get no less than three people very interested and they are, at this moment, my heroes.


On a professional note, with only three weeks left I've done some math and realised I can't possibly finish all the work I've started for my Comic Con folio. I love having ideas and starting things but a fully finished piece of art is a difficult thing to nail down. I'll give it my best shot, once I finish FFXIII and my Warhammer subscription runs out it's just me and my tablet (and seeing everyone before I leave, family stuff and organising the trip... buying a new camera, learning to use a SLR and finalising plans, sorting out accommodation and travel routes/costs/dates AAAAAH). I almost feel like if my previous job hadn't collapsed I wouldn't have actually had time to plan this whole thing at all. Blessings in disguise.

Oh I'm also having a going away party at my place on the 3rd July. If you can make it feel free to come!

Continue? Hell yes.