Big news and long post
Hey everyone, big news, I’m being hired to work full time for Machinima.com! While some of you may not care about that, this is likely to be good news for everyone who’s a fan of the videos. My official job title will be “segment producer” and will entail a lot of what I’ve already been doing (making my own videos), and also acting as a technical advisor for Machinima.com’s other projects, especially those that use the Source engine. Some may consider this as me selling out, and that could be, but I don’t think it will impact the videos negatively. I’ve discussed the job offer with them at length and I’ll still get to write and direct my own material and have final edit, and you’ll still get to watch the videos for free. The only real limitation they may impose on me is to have my longer episode ideas (which I haven’t gotten to yet anyway) split up in more of a mini-series format. However, they’re also cool with me distributing the final, unsplit version of those episodes to be watched as I would have intended, so I see this as a non-issue.
In case it’s not clear, Civil Protection WILL continue, as will the pilot episode I’m working on, as will Freeman’s Mind (though this one is more up to you, FM has become more of a fan-service for me than something I would continue without your interest), so none of this should jeopardize more videos coming out in the future. While nothing is quite certain, Machinima.com is offering me support to produce the more involved episodes like CP. I may actually have animators assisting that I can work with locally, which could be worth its weight in gold to me. While I think it’s possible I may actually have less time to work on the videos than I’ve been putting in, the additional help may make up for that.
Part of this job will entail me moving near Machinima.com’s headquarters, which is located in Los Angeles, California. I’ve currently been living in semi-rural Virginia, so this move may be similar to “The Beverly Hillbillies”, except that they were rich. I’d like to make it known that just because I’m working for an official company now, does NOT mean I’ll be getting rich from it. On the contrary, the cost of living in LA is monstrous. I anticipate a 1 bedroom apartment in the region will take up roughly half my income, and I’m going to be giving up my car and taking the bus to economize further. Also I can’t say LA is my first choice of places to live as I prefer forests, fog, cold climate, etc., but this could be a dream job for me otherwise. The level of creative control I’ll be getting is quite rare, something even most professional directors don’t get.
Finally, I may find I regret saying this, but I know NO ONE in the LA region. I don’t want to promise anything in case you’re a psycho (and not the fun kind), but if you live in that general area (I don’t know where I’ll be living yet, but M.com is located in the Hollywood area), are in a similar age range (I’m 26), and are interested in meeting me, go ahead and send me an email and tell me about yourself. It could take me quite a while to get back to you as I’ll be very busy initially and will have limited internet access, but I’ll try and respond to everyone who can write in complete sentences. If it helps (and I guess I have to stereotype here) here are some types of people I tend to get along with: artists, philosophers, intellectuals, easygoing people, goths, metalheads, horror movie fans, and people into surreal stuff in general. Bonus points if you’re willing to buy me food. Also if you smoke, I may not want to hang out with you much, simply because I hate the smell of cigarettes; it’s nothing against anyone personally. As for my own personality, I’m not sure how to describe myself, I’m maybe a little bit like a watered down cross between Mike and Dave from Civil Protection. Freeman’s Mind is more just acting. If you just think of me as some sort of goblin in a workshop, I think it’s hard to go wrong with that image. And for those that care, here’s a picture of me from last year , though lately I’m looking more like a musketeer or Guy Fawkes.
That’s all for now! There will be a delay on all videos while I relocate, but hopefully things can pick up soon after that.
Ross
P.S. I’ll try and get the broken download links for FM back up when I get a chance.
