Mike King

Idea file

A few things that stuck with me today:

Possible background info for a story…
Dead zones in the ocean
The spread of oxygen-starved “dead zones” in the oceans, a graveyard for fish and plant life, is emerging as a threat to the health of the planet, experts say.

Thought provoking stuff over at David Brin’s site.

A book review The Progress Paradox
A challenge to the cliche that our wisdom has lagged behind technology.

Another David Brin article, mostly talking about the Matrix. The key concept here is that that we are all sheep programmed to believe we are individuals. A quote:

You have to sit there and accept one of the most galling things that a bunch of dedicated individualists can ever realize — that you were trained to be individualists by the most relentless campaign of public indoctrination in history, suckling your love of rebellion and eccentricity from a society that — evidently, at some level — wants you to be that way!

Thought of the day

“I believe licensing usually cheapens the original creation. When cartoon characters appear on countless products, the public inevitably grows bored and irritated with them, and the appeal and value of the original work are diminished. Nothing dulls the edge of a new and clever cartoon like saturating the market with it…I don’t want some animation studio giving Hobbes an actor’s voice, and I don’t want some greeting card company using Calvin to wish people a happy anniversary, and I don’t want the issue of Hobbes’s reality settled by a doll manufacturer. When everything fun and magical is turned into something for sale, the strip’s world is diminished. CALVIN AND HOBBES was designed to be a comic strip and that’s all I want it to be. It’s the one place where everything works the way I intend it to.” – Bill Watterson, CALVIN & HOBBES

It’s away!

Finished my last shot for the star wars fan film. Hopefully they’ll like it and it won’t require any revisions. Life has gotten to be very busy again after a brief lull. I think it was my starting to relax that lowered my defenses and allowed me to catch a cold. When I’m in work-mode, I very rarely get sick. That kind of thing is reserved for weekends and vacations.

Almost there…

Finally got a chance to work on my last fx shot for the Star Wars fan film. Hopefully this week will give me enough time to polish it off.

I’m zonked on Nyquil, but am starting to feel better. Looks like I’ll be kicking this cold soon. I probably shouldn’t have tried to work on the shot, I suppose. But I didn’t push myself too hard. And even though I’m tired, I think I’ll avoid a relapse.

Things are getting busy and I don’t want to leave the filmmaker hanging. So I’m really trying to finish the shot for him this week.

i hate getting sick

Caught a nasty cold or something. Lost my voice and am very tired.

I barely have enough energy to check email. I thought maybe I’d sit down and work on one of my stories. But my energy level just isn’t there.

Where did today go?

Another day is ending, and I’ve barely sat down to write anything. I seem to be awfully good at busy work that keeps from working on my stories. Will I have enough self-discipline to make it as a writer? I hope so! But there always seems to be housework and chores and email to write and any number of things that need to be done. And if I don’t do them I feel guilty. I’m working on getting over it.

where did 2003 go?

So what have I been doing since leaving Pixar? Well, putting my life together mostly. Helping some friends start up their own company. Doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Some volunteer FX work for a Star Wars fan film. Helping my brother with artwork for his production company.

I still can’t believe where the year went.

update: The Incredibles

IGN Filmforce reviews some clips of The Incredibles &nbsp that debuted at ShoWest today.

Some history: I worked on this film from late 2001 through April 2003 as the sequence team supervisor. I had an amazing time putting the team together and figuring out how to pull off this very ambitious action-comedy. I think it’s going to be one of the best movies ever, can’t wait to see it — and that’s even after watching it a zillion times in rough form.

I miss Pixar and the team a lot. But had to make some tough choices back in 2003 about what was important to me in this life. So I’m totally excited to see how the film is turning out and still feel connected in some way. But at the same time it makes me quite sad not to feel part of the magic anymore.

Oh, did I mention that working with Brad Bird is an amazing experience? Seeing how he approaches a movie and considers all its component parts and their final effect on an audience… Well, it’s astounding. He puts an enormous amount of energy into a project and has a movie fanatic’s knowledge of film. I can only hope that I’ll get to work with him again someday.

proud of my boy

My brother Gary started his own production company and made his first short film. It turned out really well, and now he’s entering it into a bunch of film festivals.

I helped out with the poster and other graphic design for his project. Made the logo for his company too. Kind of a hack job on the logo, but it’s all I had time to do.

You can visit his site here and check out the trailer to his film.

website updated

Took more time than I should have. But I revamped the main page to my site. Got rid of the extraneous graphics. Now it looks mostly the same, but has actual text instead of images. Hyperlinked a few things.