The big news everywhere is the fires in Victoria. Today my principal asked if I knew about them, I had seen the news stories online yesterday and it looked terrible. But this mornings news was much worse.
We had wild winds over here, Gunma is famous for wind but I was unprepared for yesterday morning. The big plastic rubbish containers (like a small skip) were blown across the carpark and over near the gym. It sounded incredible. I dragged them back into cover in the afternoon and they stayed put.
I have submitted Flip to around 18 festivals so far, no news yet, but it'll take a while. I'm hoping for a 20-25% strike rate. If I get 4 or 5 screenings I'll be extremely happy. Of course I may get none at all, the star wars influence isn't stunningly original, I hope that programmers can see beyond it to the actual animation and deeper story.
I think I may have an idea for my next film, I might do a version of Cinderella in similar style to Flip, but more influenced by the original Grimm brothers version. Just a thought at the moment, but it's intriguing. It certainly wouldn't be the cutesy Disney version, it's a dark and disturbing story and I have a few twists of my own to spin on it.
Well, I have heard from a couple of people back home, and it seems as if friends and family are ok, so that's a relief. I still haven't heard from everyone, but those who were in the most dangerous locations are ok.
We had a small volcanic eruption over here last week, I felt an earth tremor in the morning, next day someone told me about the volcano. It was a brief moment of excitement, but most of the people I know slept through it. At first I thought it was heavy wind, but then I realised it was the internal doors that were rattling. Didn't last long and it wasn't powerful enough to knock anything off a shelf, but it was my first earthquake, or at least the first one I have actually felt, so it was exciting.
