M dot Strange's blog

I was sitting eating breakfast here in Ireland overlooking the river Shannon a few minutes ago... Some overhanging trees were reflected in the water... it got me thinking about the "reality" I am creating with HSM and just overall at the worlds I create... I'm not interested in portraying reality as it is... I'm more interested in how it is reflected in the water... the reflection is always undulating and changing slightly... To me its much more beautiful and exciting because of the constant change and it can quickly be transformed into something totally different but it always returns to its original base form... If the glimmering reflected form is the reality I create the ripples in the water are caused by emotion... because that is my guide when I am creating anything... some times the emotion is so strong is temporarily destroys the image and causes chaos before eventually returning to its original shape... just think about what strong emotional reactions do to yo

Its funny from time to time I'll post some music or something online and peoples will message me asking if i am "still working on HSM" or "if I will be a rapper now" haha... Well I guess from most peoples understanding a person can only do one thing "professionally" maybe thats right because I do like 9000 things UNprofessionally ^ ^ But just so you don't worry that I'm not working on the film.... I've always done everything all at once... I pretty much just do what I feel like doing from day to day... The film is my priority but if I feel like making music I'll do that...if I feel like chatting with weirdo's online I'll do that...if feel like making a short film or music video I do that....or I might do all those things at once... but I never "stop" because its all part of the same thing... art is a conversation and I use several different forms of media to express myself... but I am always communicating the same thin

I guess one of the most difficult things to do when working on a film alone is to seamlessly switch hats without letting one job affect the other....So these days I'm constantly switching back and forth from Director to modeler/art director and then to Producer to end the day... So I start the work day by sketching in my sketchbook...scenes and ideas.. then I look at the work list and make notes as to what I want to try... and then I act out some scenes in my head over coffee... then... I turn on the computer and become modeler/art director... I look at my work list and model and texture things... I'm only thinking about how it looks...I don't even really care too much about poly count or scene optimization cause some other personality can do that later... So I push my computers hard for hours then stop... Then I turn into the Producer... I look at the list of things I need to buy before production...Plugins, hard drives and maybe a new Mainboard+Proc+ram (HOPE NOT) but yeh

Some time ago from poking around /b/ I found a video from the Ukraine that was shot by some teenagers as they physically destroyed a living human being with hammers and screwdrivers...easily the most horrible thing I have ever seen... after looking into it more I found out they killed 21 people in a month summe r 2007... I thought it was ODD that there was NO news stories about it anywhere in English and why not? Mass media LOVES to sensationalize EVERYTHING so why were they avoiding this? The only organized kinda press place that covered it in English was at boingboing . Immediately when I saw the video I thought of the "torture porn" films such as Saw and Hostel and they various sequels and spinoffs... these kids did exactly what has been portrayed in the films but in real life... What disturbed me about those "torture porn" films when they came out is that I knew that people would copy them... As a filmmaker you have a great responsibility...you need to choose c

The d00ds at this awesome art/clothing shop in SF gave me a bag of free stuff when I saw them at youtube live... one was an art book by Alex Pardee... I was looking at the book last night and decided to look the guy up and found this trailer to an animated series he was developing using the Unreal 3 Engine... Then I remembered someone sent that to me like last year... anyway when I saw it then I didn't know it was Machinima... but looking at it now and thinking that machinima is looking pretty great... I know some of you like my pal Ricky out there in LA are deep into Machinima... i don't know much about it myself but I have a feeling it won't be long before I'm using similar tools to make my films... If its easily customizable and already has the physics and environmental stuff built in why wouldn't you want to use it? Hmmm I'm thinking that in the future I will always make "handmade" 3d films like I am now BUT I could be doing quick machinima series

So a while back I decided if too many Friday nights went by with me being bored in this town I would start performing my music again... So yeh another boring Friday passes and I has decided to staRT performing live again ^ ^ Working on the film I reach a high level of excitement... then when I go outside to get fresh air and the like the lack of excitement in this city brings me down... so I will have to start doing crazy shows with me doing live electro+rapping+crazy visuals+standup comedy stupid routines... That part of myself is getting too powerful and I have to give him something to do... My friends band keeps they PA in my studio space so I have something to practice with...so odds are when HSM rolls into your town with me ...you can get further mindfucked by seeing my live show ^ ^ And it wouldn't be like some movie person deciding to make music...cause I've been putting out albums since 2000... The new songs I'm working on are "Pwn with a capital P" , &quo

So a few days ago I modeled and textured THE main character of "Heart String Marionette" to those of you who thought I was talking about High School Musical all this time... Ya know being into video games, manga and anime can make you a bit skewed when it comes to designing your main character... you approach it as if he/she has to be the most amazing looking like hero/anti-hero ever... at least I do... Working with real substances with WATS severely limited the complexity of my hero..Rain... as I made him out of sculpey, latex and wire... BUT in the end it was better that I focused on what his character did... rather than how he looked... How many games/films/whatever have you seen with an awesome looking hero with a cape flowing in the wind and like all that and he's like flipping around pwning everyone with amazing weapons or whatever and then he stops and like you dont care... less is more... For a good contrast watch the ridiculousness that are the hero's in the

So like if you know that sites like myspace and facebook get paid by advertisers based on the amount of time its users spend on the site... you realize that they goal is to waste your time...and they are really good at it... they want you sitting on they site all day everyday clicking on meaningless shit cause its making them money... and like a bad breakup where the other person needs you more than you need them things get emotional and desperate.... click on the pic so see what it says... Isn't that creepy?!? So they have some script that runs when you try to delete your account that seeks out photos that has tags on it with you and one of your "friends" then it shows you that page and says they will "miss you" Isn't that fucked up?!?! Sorry bookface ex-time waster I'm outta here! As with all these new "must have" or "must join" sites and services like Twitter etc... You have to really step back and look at how they will benefit you

Due to increasing pressure in my personal life whilst working on the film I will need to stop all my online social activity EXCEPT this blog. So much like while working on WATS this will be the only place to get any info about the film I am making. I have to do this so I am able to remain sane and not fail epicLY as it were. Speaking of epic and not fail 0_0 I have my new "Str8nime".... that is to say I have developed the new animation style that HSM will be made in.... Making a film... especially alone is a constant struggle... its constantly demanding... more and more time and energy... and just when you think things are going smoothly...BOOM hardware problem... BOOM software problem... BOOM BOOM... and then when you bring living humans into the equation 0_o Now I'm not asking for mercy but just know that most all of the outside world doesn't really care about your film until its done so you have to be the energy reactor for it all... and since we humans are selfi

As I'm sitting here reading the book "Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire" that a nice d00d from Uruguay recommended I read a random thought popped into my head... We all know what the academy awards are jah? Well have you ever looked into what a feature film has to do to qualify for one? Long story short the film needs a theatrical release in the US and it has to play for a certain amount of time... So that locks out internet filmmakers like myself... Now up until recently film studios looked down at internet releases and they were hesitant to do them... they had to let people like me test the water first ^ ^ But anyway I want to make up some new awards and the only way a film qualifies is if it is released in its entirety online for FREE within a year of its completion ^ ^ So this would lock out all backward thinking studio films and highlight forward thinking true independent films... Another note... With HSM I will list the "Country of Production" a