Where has the week gone?

A week working with my four and half year old son... a new found love with Playmobil...  and storyboarding against the clock...

This week has been so hectic, but I like it like that! I'm just wondering where it went... it flew by so fast. I have had my eye stuck to a viewfinder for most of it with a string of photo shoots... but the highlight has been 3 days at Playmobil shooting the Fun Park, the plant and the figures. I loved Playmobil when I was a kid and I have fallen in love with them all over again. Thankfully, I have a four and a half year old son, so I have a good excuse to find time and play with them.

Talking of my son, Rio... he was one of my ‘models’ for the first day’s shoot. They say never work with children or animals. Well, the kids were a delight, as were the adult cast, but maybe I should have been a bit more cautious about working with my own child. He was very excited about the whole thing and was as happy as the proverbial swine in excrement... and (probably because I was shooting) he had an abundance of confidence which made him difficult to control. I was left stunned and amused when he turned to me, mid-shooting, held out a hand and insisted “No more photos... okay? I don’t want anymore!”.

I managed to get him back on side each time he went all A-list on me.

Asides from all the shoots, I also had to work with a new storyboard artist to pre-viz a TV commercial concept for a client in my regular collaborator’s absence. I really value working with a consistent team when possible because communication becomes a kind of short hand. I know how they work and what they can do... and they understand me (both in terms of what I mean and what I expect).

My new storyboarder was very good but the process took much longer than I am use to because of the afore mentioned reasons and the deadline was fast approaching with our meeting coming up soon.

In the end, we just made it... only to find out at the very last minute that the meeting had to be postponed. That was frustrating... but hey... it happens!

Now there’s going to be a busy week ahead as we finally reveal the storyboards and – hopefully – we begin development on the series of subsequent TV commercials and photo shoots for a major national campaign. Then there are more photo shoots for other clients, the Playmobil shoot is put to use in an urgent publication job, planning the next Pjazza magazine fashion shoot, attending the launch party of the Malta Fashion Week (I have pictures selected for the fashion photography exhibition running during the week) and I need to budget for new projects.

God knows what else is going to come up! There always seems to be a curve ball pitched in my direction at some point.

Somewhere along the line, I need to get back on track with a new draft of the screenplay ‘Shadows’. Yep... despite feeling I had all but got there a while back... I did another draft... and I still feel there’s some more tweaking to be done. Nothing major, but every little adjustment makes it that little bit stronger.