Matt Skilton's Blog of Wonders

New artwork, shock, horror!

2011-06-25T11:28:00.004+01:00

Rejoice!! Some new artwork. As previously explained on this blog, my original Wacom graphics tablet pen was on its last legs and had been for a long time. It finally succumb to death and so a pursuit for a new one beckoned. And here are the fruits of my pursuit.

The first piece is experimental, depicting the fight between Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul on Tatooine from The Phantom Menace. My original plan was to have them in the far background but it just didn't work. So I brought them into the foreground dramtically.

This second piece is all to do with my Highlander high concept. When I say Highlander, I am referring to the films of which I'm a huge fan of. My idea is that the Immortals are fallen Angels, they just can't remember. Now if I were to rewrite Highlander I would never emphasis this fact. It would be very much in the background, transparent and merely hinted at for the eagle eyed. The start of the film would show this scene, only the camera would be falling through the sky and the Angel would only be seen in a couple of frames and barely visible. Basically you'd have to wait for the DVD to come out and do a frame-by-frame scan to see it (I've put a lot of thought into this). I just love film engimas like Blade Runner and that's what I would have done if I was writing this film. But sadly I'm not but I can still think about it at least.
Check them out properly at www.mattskilton.co.uk

Hopefully my next update wont be too far away.

Live Journal, aka livejournal, aka lj

2011-06-25T00:25:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I am now indeed posting stuff on livejournal and my jounral can be found here:

http://mattsmudge.livejournal.com/

This blog shall therefore return to being used as an output for my artwork, of which I hope to add two new pieces to very, very soon. So please keep checking this bog, but for my intimate news then check out my lj.

Cool man!

At last!!!!

2011-05-20T15:41:00.001+01:00

I’ve only gone and done it!! I’ve only gone and finally bought a Wacom pen!!!! After losing out on an auction on ebay for £28, I feel into a lull of depression. I then forgot to bid on another ebay auction. But to my amazement, another one came up at a ‘Buy Me Now’ price of just £20. And it came with the 4D mouse thrown in. So I snapped it up and it arrived this week and it feels like it’s been a revelation. I can’t believe that I put up with my broken one for so long. So this is great news.

To continue the trend, I wasn’t quite successful with my job application the other week but the actual interview went very well, so well in fact that something else is being planned for me which is both exciting and a relief as it means I should remain employed for a bit longer at least (just been very distracted by a leggy women walking past my house with very orange legs).

I also completely failed to talk about my great theatre experience last month, in which I went to see the Danny Boyle directed Frankenstein at the National theatre. It was blooming amazing!! I’m only 29 (yes, ONLY) but it’s going to be very hard to find something that’ll satisfy me as much as that did. However, if anyone/thing can do it, then it could well be the Terry Gilliam directed opera The Damnation of Faust, which I’m seeing next Friday and has been receiving right good reviews. And best of all the day before that I’m seeing the amuzing Brit Electropunk band Robots in Disguise (which doesn’t have anything to do with Michael Bay, Roast Beef or Megan Fox, even though she’s not even in the third travesty that will greet us in July). (Sorry, just been distracted, again, by someone who works at my cinema and lives near me who’s just walked past my house with a big, heavy coat on, all zipped up and with the hood on despite it being bright and warm outside). Anyway, can’t wait for both and I shall blog my opinions after next week.

Then in June I’m off to the Sud de Francais!! This will be good, oh-yes!

I’m also considering moving my blog to a livejournal account too. This requires me to investigate exactly what livejournal has to offer me but I guess there’ll be no harm in using both, certainly initially, or maybe return this one as an output for my artwork which was its original intension.

Okay, final bit of news; I may have had an idea for my 30^th Birthday bash in August. More to be revealed soon and I’ve now gotten to that point where turning 30 does not seem that bad after all.

A Grand Fail!

2011-05-04T00:22:00.004+01:00

It feels ill timed and a stupid idea for me to write about me failing on the eve of an important interview but I’ve been meaning to post this for the past few days and haven’t quite got round to it…. until now, on the eve of an important interview. This time last year I set myself the target of generating £1,000 through various means, namely the sales of goods on ebay. I was inspired to do this for a few reasons, for which I shall now explain: This time of year is very expensive for me, as a car owner, because I have my insurance to renew, my road tax to also renew and this year due to the Alfa being two years old, a full service to fork out for! So immediately I’ve spent over £800 and that’s on top of my other monthly bills and rent.

This time last year I won an iPod from work, which I duly sold and thought to myself ‘Great, free money!!’ I then promptly got a double refund for some mouldy Loyd Grossman Naan bread (which I’ve never purchased since, I should sue for damages really) and that gave me the idea to see just how much money I could gain by being clever. Granted, there’s not much clever business involved with putting something up on ebay or unknowingly buying some mouldy bread, but I had a stock of Star Wars toys that I wanted shifting and now seemed the perfect time to shift it. And so my £1,000 target was born, because I knew a thousand pounds would cover the vast(ish) expense I’d face the following year.

A year has passed…… the total has been counted….. and verified……. the total is………….£255.12.

Okay, I fully accept that this hasn’t gone according to plan. I lost some motivation after some big items that I predicted would do well on ebay actually didn’t sell at all. I then couldn’t even shift a new Sony DVD player (another prize) for next to nothing and then work decided to get ridiculously busy. But while I haven’t been able to generate £1,000, with the amount of over-time I’ve done this past year, I have certainly accumulated well over £1,000 extra, so we shall now end this silly game!

I do intend to sell more stuff on ebay though, so when I do actually reach £1,000 I will let you know. I also have yet to fork out for that Wacom pen. Sometimes even I suck!

Time to concede defeat

2011-04-13T13:09:00.002+01:00

It was the Summer of 2002. Attack of the Clones had been released and the ‘Art of ….’ book was truly amazing! The reason why it was so amazing was because it was full of new (to me) exciting illustrators, whose medium of choice was digital! Prior to this point I was a bit sceptical about this medium, especially as my main influences at the time were Alan Lee and Arthur Rakham. If you mention ‘digital illustration’ it tended to conjure up dark and dank images of semi-clad pale skinned women confined to SF novels, likely to be ogled by virgin men at the back of Waterstones. I was getting ready to start my third, and final, year of my degree. And then I made the rash decision to give digital a try. It wasn’t cheap mind. Thankfully it was my birthday though and so I managed to wangle my parents to buy me a lovely A4 Wacom tablet and Painter 7 software.
I spent many hours that Summer getting to grips with it, hoping to have an array of stupendous illustrations ready to show off for the start of term. And I did. In fact it took ages to convince everyone that they were actually 100% digital illustrations because they didn’t look it (because they didn’t feature semi-clad pale skinned women).

Digital suited me well because I was always too precious with my pencil marking & paint brush strokes. I didn’t want to waste a single gram of paper. The real beauty of digital is that it allows you to try something and easily delete it if it doesn’t work out, or if you go wrong. Since then I’ve never really looked back. I was a bit of a trendsetter at college because I was the first to turn to the digital medium in the illustration department. I bet they all do it now.

To cut an incredibly fascinating story short, last year my Wacom pen broke. This is a critical tool for my illustration work and also very expensive to replace. I’ve tried wrapping it up with rubber bands, masking tape, hair ties, glue, made splints for it using kebab skews; all only providing a temporary fix. Last week I was working on a new piece and it breathed its last breath. And so I’ve taken the plunge to buy a new one! It wont be as fancy as my original one but it’s half the price and will do the job. Once I’ve got it I’ll be able to get back to doing some work and I’m hoping it will spur me on a bit more.

On the plus side I’ve had more time to catch up on watching stuff. These past two weeks I’ve watched the following: ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, ‘Sky High’, ‘Scott Pilgrim’ (several times), finished ‘Supernatural’ Season 1, watched all six episodes of ‘Nathan Barley’, 'Red Riding' Part 1 and now I’ve started ‘Skins’ season 3. Not bad for a Wacom pen-less person.

The Demise of 2 & 4

2011-04-04T14:42:00.004+01:00

As mentioned in my previous blog, the other week we had two new Sony Projectors installed at work. This meant that two of our lovely 35mm Cinemeccanica Vic-5 projectors were unceremoniously thrown onto the floor and dragged out of the way.

Late last Wednesday night, I gathered the energy and took some snaps to depict their current state in the casting shadows of the Sonys and the future of cinema.

WARNING!!: These photos may induce a tear to the eye for all those that love a bit of good old 35mm.

Click this link to be taken to my photos

We've been to Wembley, we've been to Wembley etc etc

2011-03-31T16:05:00.001+01:00

In a desperate bid to manage two blog entries for the month March, I’ve rather hastily knocked this one up to temporary satisfy my blog count needs. I did have a blog entry all written, but then realised I can’t post it until the end of April (which now inadvertently has added some tension and drama to what that may behold….prepare for disappointment).

Anyway, you can guess what I’m going to say next; the last few weeks have been beyond ridiculously busy! Last week we took delivery of two new Sony Projectors. This required me to spend pretty much all of last week in the Projection booth, to the point where it would have been worthwhile re-directing all my post there. The install went on for longer than expected, but we’ve had the equipment up-and-running for just over a week now and I must say I’ve very much warmed to it. So far so good then, the only upsetting part is seeing our old 35mm Projectors just lying on the floor, seeping out oil as if it were blood. I took some photos last night which I’ll put up on my website next week.

Away from work, I managed to accomplish something on my imaginary bucket list; I saw England play a football game at Wembley. The game in question was the friendly against Ghana. The atmosphere that greeted me as I walked out of Wembley Park station was amazing, heightened by seeing the Stadium booming in the background. Inside the stadium was very impressive. The view was excellent despite being very near the top, and it felt like an enclosed arena. At some point I might actually write down my bucket list, but I can now say that I’ve watched England play at Wembley :D

On Sunday I went to Natbat’s birthday games day. It involved eating cake and playing board games. Being the competitive soul that I am I took things very seriously and didn’t like losing. It was a great day and a welcome relief from work. I then got to meet Basil, Fiona’s dog, later on as I drove the Essex contingent back to Essex. A real honour and he very much liked my watch. Meeting Fiona’s parents was great too.

All that and I’ve now got a (much needed) holiday in the South of France booked up courtesy of Fiona and Ross. I’m really looking forward to it, namely because I should finally get to wear and use the swimming shorts and goggles that I bought last year in a vain attempt to start swimming again.

I’m hoping in a couple of weeks things will calm down a bit and I can then start looking at having a bit more of a life away from work again. Wish me luck!

Uncle Smudge

2011-03-09T11:31:00.001Z

I wanted to start this entry by listing a series of long and interesting words that you may have only encountered once or twice in your life to try and describe what my life has been like these past two or so weeks. To do this I used a thesaurus, upon which I became re-acquainted with the word, or rather the phrase, ‘cock-a-hoop’ and it made me smile, so much so that I then thought I’d start this entry by telling you this rather uninteresting detail of my writing process. So basically the last couple of weeks have been cock-a-hoop!

For those who didn’t read my last entry, I compared my life to Batman. More specifically Batman from the Knightfall story, where he was generally put under the cosh. My week under the cosh was pretty intense, with the final act embarking on Uncle hood. Yes, I am now an Uncle! :D

On Thursday the 24^th of February at 00:16 (sorry to those I texted, I was misinformed originally by stating the time of 00:07), my Sister gave birth to Kai Gavin Robert Skilton. It was quite a dramatic birth that came about very quickly. I was also on the tail end of a 13 hour shift, running on mere fumes with really bad man flu (not that anyone actually cared about me at the time, and rightly so). In many ways it was of great inconvenience because I had just worked seven days on the trot and that Thursday was my day off! But to be honest, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. In some ways it was the most fitting and appropriate end to what was an almighty week for me. And I still got to have a curry on the Thursday evening as planned.

I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m now an Uncle and simply holding Kai in my arms, but it’s certainly an exhilarating experience that is the pinnacle of what you can achieve in life. Knowing that I’m going to have a relatively significant (and I’m sure wholesomely positive) influence on a relation’s life is quite something to behold. It’s even further exemplified by Kai’s middle names, which are late Uncles whom both had a significant influence on my life. It will nearly be a year ago since Uncle Gav died and it’s something I still think about a lot. I was really lucky to have someone great in my life at the time to help me through all that, and without them I really don’t think I would have coped so well, especially with the duties I was burdened with. I was worried that I might need someone special to cope with all of this but it’s actually been a welcome distraction from everything else that’s going on around me, namely at work. That said, even after all this I would like kids one day so I’m still in need of someone special, lol.

Work continues to be horrendous but despite the sheer amount of turds, in some cases literally, being thrown our way we’re managing to cope just about. I think my salary’s jump to 30k PA though with all my over-time, certainly feels like it should have done at any rate. I did make a horrendous cock-up last week though and did something I’ve never done in three-and-half of years of film weaving, but I think that’s just testament to how much pressure and strain we’ve been under. And I’ve still got man flu btw.

So I shall end this entry by summing up that being an Uncle is amazing. I went all retro at the weekend and took some 35mm black & white photos with my nice SLR camera of Kai and family. It felt really, really good using film again. I just hope they turn out all right; in focus, nicely exposed and no thumb or camera straps in frame.

Knightfall

2011-02-20T12:30:00.002Z

Are you familiar with Knightfall? It was a Batman comic book series from the early 90s that introduced us to the villain Bane (whom will be appearing in the next Batman film, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’) which saw the drug-induced muscle-bound geezer brake the very back of the Batman. He did this by deciding to blow a big hole in the wall of Arkham Asylum which saw all of Batman’s foes loose upon the city which took a very long time for him to gather up and put back (once they’d filled the hole in the wall of course) and basically knackered him out a fair bit. This was exactly what Bane wanted as it made his ultimate aim of breaking the Batman much easier. This is all relevant because I know how Batman felt back then.

A few weeks ago I was officially made the Projection Manager of my site due to my Manager officially being made full-time on another project away from site. Great, my moment of glory had come! However, we haven’t gone digital yet so what should be a four-man team has been reduced to a three-man team with no full-time replacement. We managed to get a part-timer for 8-16 hours per week, which does help a great deal but still makes things a little difficult. Last week we had a ridiculous 12 new films in which was a tall order given other technical limitations beyond our control. Somehow we managed to get through it all but then the real problems started; one of my full-timers has been omitted into hospital and will be out-of-action for a while. And so what should be a four-man team has been reduced to a two-man team….. and it’s half-term…. and I’ve got a cold developing!! Throw into the mix some other restrictions such as job interviews, uni assessments, babies and holidays, it’s been a bit of a nightmare couple of weeks for me.

So I’ve basically had to put my life on hold for a couple of weeks and just work my socks off. It’ll be tiring and stressful but I’m nearly half-way through my 7-day working week and after that I’m hoping things will get a little easier, except by then my Sister would have been given birth to my nephew and then things will be completely different again.

Enough of that though, for I must just give a quick mention to my great weekend last week! I spent it in Birmingham, as indicated by my previous blog, attending the Purple Mermaids Circus Society convention at the university (had to think so hard and not type Purple Nurples then). The University alone was very impressive and like another world to me, and the convention itself was brilliant fun. I came away with the aim to be able to officially declare that I can juggle with three balls by the end of the year (because I like making life tricky for myself and giving me all manor of challenges, most of which are beyond me). So thanks to Katie for inviting us and letting us sleep in your front room :D

Okay, I feel like I must now don my armour gear and throw myself back into the breach. See ya on the other side…. hopefully.

Brum, brum

2011-02-11T22:59:00.002Z

I'm off to Birm-ing-ham again tomorrow for the weekend. Not exactly jaw-dropping news but I'm really looking forward to it and just wanted to add another postal entry to my blog because I feel it's been neglected somewhat.

So a short (but inspiring) blog from me this week. When I get the chance (which will be at least another week), I will fill you in with more details.

Ta for now and have a good weekend all :)

Shit, shit, bum, bum!

2011-02-01T23:46:00.002Z

I tried oh so very hard to write something sooner, I really did. I wanted to write a new blog entry for each week of January, which is no mean feat considering that it’s one of those months that drag on a bit but the plus side to that is a very nice 5 week pay packet at the end of it. I have failed miserably in updating you all with my daily shenanigans, but that’s partly because my shenanigans have been plentiful.

Work, as always, has been very busy. I’ve taken on the role of interim Projection Manager as my Manager has been commandeered by head office to fulfil the role of Digital Champ for the roll out which will be happening very soon (still not sure when exactly yet). It means my responsibilities have increased further and I’m rather enjoying that. More paperwork, phone calls, meetings and pretending to be the admiral of a fine vessel.

I’ve also been doing some web design for Martin Lye, which I hope to have up and running, almost fully, in the next week or so. My own personal work has suffered somewhat, but to be honest I don’t really mind as I am still being productive in my spare time and it’s all good for the CV.

Two weeks ago I had a fine evening celebrating Ant Lamb’s 30^th. Now I haven’t shied away from telling you peoples how anxious I am about turning thirty later this year. The good news is that the closer I get, the more at ease I am about it. I’m also putting some serious thought into what I plan to do for my own 30^th. I want something a little bit different and possibly sophisticated, but apart from that I have no real idea. I’ve also been putting far too much thought into what car I want to get next, even though I’ll have my Alfa for just over another year. My heart is saying the Alfa Romeo GT, my head is saying something else. Of course it’s dependent on money and job situation, but a boy can dream (well, it’s more day dreaming really, and on a regular basis. I’ve already spent hours doing research).

Last night I went to a one-off performance of the comedy musical Gutted, at the Leicester Square theatre. Absolutely loved the show and the theatre was very charming too.

The other big news that I have is that I have also been dating someone. This does not mean, however, that I finally, finally took the almighty plunge and hefty seventy-odd quid and joined match.com. Oh no, I did it the old fashioned way of asking a girl out whom I liked and she said yes. It may have taken some time to get to the first date due to Christmas and snow deciding to be a pain in the arse, but get there we did and so far it’s been very nice.

So that’s my little update on my life and antics so far in the year of 2011. I really do hope to have some new artwork or film updates later this month but I’m having a good time which is surely the main thing.

I had a plan!

2011-01-13T22:59:00.001Z

I keep moaning on this blog about never getting many of my many projects completed. So just before Christmas I spent 10 minutes constructing a weekly timetable while at work in a bid to build some form of routine with, hopefully, the end result being able to tell you lot how brilliant I am come what December in my yearly round-up.
We are now nearly two weeks into the new year and have I been able to stick to this timetable? Like fuck I have. I haven’t even been able to stick to it for one measly day! Now before I roll out some excuses, I shall indeed roll out some very valid excuses. I knew the first week would be a write-off because I was heavily involved with helping organise a surprise party. This would involve spending days, literally, baking an array of impressive and tasty cakes. I knew that the second week would also be a write-off because I decided to make a short film of said surprise party. This is nearing completion but has taken a little bit longer than expected because I seem to have reached that age where if I haven’t used a piece of software for a good few months, when I do decide to use it and boot it up I find myself staring at it in a whimsical fashion trying to access the memory block in my brain that will suddenly cause my knowledge to come flooding back to me. Sadly this never quite happens so I end up having to re-read the guide book that I purchased from amazon. Then it comes flooding back.
So I have certainly been busy, just not doing exactly what I had initially intended. I’ve also been going out this week catching up with an old friend and becoming acquainted with someone new. So despite my complete lack of sticking to a timetable ability, I’m not too bothered and feeling pretty happy!

Next week I do intend to at least attempt to follow the timetable. Maybe for one day at least.

PS – The surprise party wasn’t quite a surprise but was really good :D

New Year, new bit of artwork

2011-01-05T16:43:00.004Z

I thought I’d get the new year off with a bang and upload my latest piece. Truth be told I actually finished this last year (well, in December) but only now have I had the chance to finalise it and get it uploaded, so as far as I’m concerned it counts as my first new piece of 2011!

I’d come to realise that I have never really done many space battle illustrations before. Not entirely sure why but after purchasing the fantastic ‘Art of the Clone Wars’ from Forbidden Planet (the shop in London, not the actual planet) for a mere £9.99, I was greatly inspired by some of the nose art that featured on page 50-51. Nose art is the term used for those things, usually involving scantily clad women in a sexual pose, painted onto the noses of ships, planes etc to give them a sense or personality and individuality. I took this as a good opportunity to do my own, and here it is. I’ve included a close-up of the nose art, otherwise you probably wont be able to make out what it is that I’ve cleverly done.

Click here to be taken to my Portfolio page.

This will be 2011 this will be.

2010-12-31T16:13:00.003Z

And so tomorrow will be the dawn of a New Year! I usually have the same three New Year resolutions at the start of every year, which are: get a girlfriend, get promoted and leave home. This year I had a girlfriend, nearly got promoted and seriously considered leaving home, twice. But sadly by the end of the year I still haven’t fully fulfilled any of these poxy resolutions. So I’m not even going to bother setting any for 2011, especially with the huge uncertainty with employment and therefore finances, which makes everything that little bit more difficult.

What I do know is that very soon into 2011, I’ll need to make a very important decision about my future. At the moment my temptation is to opt for redundancy and do a small bit of travelling, probably to Canada. The only real thing stopping me is financial commitments, which means I can’t really afford not to have a job, at least not for a lengthy period of time, as I don’t want to dip into my savings. At the same time, I want to be doing a job that I really enjoy and want to do and based on my Managerial experiences thus far, I can say with a degree of 99.98% certainty that Cinema Management is not what I want to be doing.

Another thing that I do know about 2011 is that I’ll be an Uncle :D This is another reason why I feel I really need a more routine job (Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5) so that I can then actually, for once, plan more than two weeks ahead and not live in constant fear of being called-in if someone’s ill or having my rota changed at the drop of a hat. That aside, I’m really looking forward to being an Uncle as, in my eyes, they’re always the best family relation. I also have many plans for young Kai. He’s definitely going to be a Star Wars fan and by that I mean a fan of the original trilogy. I’m even tempted never to show him the prequels, maybe pretend that they don’t even exist so his mind and memory cannot be tarnished. I envy him already.

Whatever happens, 2011 will be a very different year for me and equally a very important one. My life will certainly change and I’m sure that change will be for the better and hopefully a very natural one. I may even get a girlfriend, get a great job and finally leave home ;)

Happy New Year to you and I shall be raising my glass to see in 2011!!!! :)

That was 2010 that was

2010-12-28T13:02:00.002Z

As 2010 draws to an end, it is now time to reflect on what has been. I’ve already stated that the year of 2010 has been the most significant of my life, with many highs, some very low lows but most important of all, plenty of real progress and getting to meet some of the most important people I’ve yet to meet in life!

I’ve also started vast amounts of projects this year, and continued to work on others that I started the year before. In one instance I went back to a project that I initially completed in 2001! But just how many of these projects have I successfully completed, you dare to ask?? Well…….

Artwork – I’ve managed to get a few pieces done this year, although as per usual not nearly as many as I would have liked. I decided that I wanted to branch out, both in subject matter and artistic style. I’ve done that to an extent, but ironically the latest piece I’ve completed is yet another Star Wars piece which I shall upload shortly.

Next year I will DEFINITELY do far fewer Star Wars pieces, honest Gov’ner. One project will certainly involve the Knight Perceval because I’ve already started work on it.

Bruised, Battered, Buggered – The idea of this was to churn out a series of short animations about a depressed, deranged, lonely old man and his adventures of depression, derangeness and loneliness. They were meant to be quick things to execute but after commencing with Episode 1, I very soon realised that these would be far from quick. And so it’s kinda been put on hold until I can organise my time better. It’s not dead; it’s just depressed, deranged and lonely.

£1,000 target – Hahahaha, I did say that if I go very quiet on this, then we’ll just pretend that it never happened. I think I reached the £250 mark, which is one-quarter of the way there but in my defence I did start this project in April so I think I should declare the final total in April 2011…. Which gives me a few more months to generate £750, by which time I may well be made redundant. Hmmmmm…..

Day 117 – I was looking forward to getting my teeth really stuck into this short film. I made the two spaceship models and was very happy with them. I sent my orders to Ant to build me a Mercenary Abarthe 3D model, which he hasn’t done yet so all blame should squarely be put onto him as far as I’m concerned! Only joking, Ant. No, I did some tests that didn’t go too well and so I need to really brush-up on my photoshop skills before I can really start doing the groundwork for this project. I did say earlier in the year that I would complete one shot and see how that goes. Well, I’ve yet to do that shot but I think it’s a plan that I will stick to. Just not sure when I’ll get round to doing it.

Unnamed Zombie Short Film – This one didn’t evolve into anything only because I’m struggling to find any new Hi-8 tapes for my camcorder. Yes, an incredibly lame excuse but also fact, so deal with it!

Unnamed, partly announced film project – I started this but had to resort to using my still camera’s video function for the same reason given above. I had a nice idea but the quality just wasn’t there so I scrapped it and had a major re-think. I’m hoping this project will happen and that I can spill the beans next year.

DICE - A Star Wars short film that me and my band of merry men made in 2001. After finally putting our first, triumphant Star Wars fan film, The Darkened Force, online this year, I wanted our second effort to get the same treatment. Sadly the only copy I could find had some sound issues and with it being 28 minutes long, I declared it un-internet friendly. I tinkered with the idea of re-working it, but realised that this would have been a too tall an order, especially given that we've aged nearly 10 years in the mean time.

Website – My site went under its annual reconstruction and I’m still happy with it. I will do some tinkering but I have successfully merged my two domains into one, and now exhibit both my artwork and film work in one convenient location.

My blog – At the end of last year I said (not promised, there’s a BIG difference between those two words) that I wanted to use this very blog that you are reading right now much more than I did in 2009. Thanks to the non-unique way blogspot works, you can see just how many blogs I’ve done this year compared to last. I’ve nearly doubled my total score, and that is an achievement well worth shouting about. Of course it should all be about quality over quantity, and if you may allow me to be arrogant enough to say that my blogging these past few months has been of a much higher quality than all my previous efforts, then there certainly is something that I’ve achieved for this year. I even now announce my latest blogs on my twitter feed, which is amazing :p

My next, and probably final, blog in 2010 will be looking towards 2011 and seeing what it may, or may not, have in-store for me. I’m scared!

Friends, Happy Christmas!

2010-12-24T13:04:00.002Z

No, you haven’t accidentally tuned into yet another E4 broadcasting of Friends. There’ll be no update on Ross and Rachel’s on/off relationship here I’m afraid to say. Instead my intension is to declare that 2010 has been the year of the friend for me!

I’ve never felt that I’ve had a vast network of friends. Maybe I’m doing myself an injustice with that statement, but whatever sized network of friends that I did have, 2010 has seen that network greatly expand and that is one of my biggest triumphs this year.

In recent years I found myself falling into a lull. I suffered from a social ineptness, which I think was largely down to being too fearful, confidence lacking and somewhat inherited. Having a fairly anti-social job hasn’t helped, especially one where you are exposed to working all alone at the dead of night in a cold, dark booth (although in fairness it’s not that cold but it helps provide an image of great distain). This year I’ve managed to realise my ineptness, confront it and get rid of it!! Thankfully I discovered that it wasn’t down to me just being a misanthropist, which is nice, init. I’m now in a far happier place and feel really good, both mentally and physically. The only downside is that I really had to go through something bad to reach this point and while I will never forgive myself for not doing this years ago, I’ve come to realise all this stuff had to happen to me in order for me to grab myself by the scruff of my neck and push myself to face and conquer my problems. It’s as the old saying goes; you have to learn from experiences and while my experiences have been painful, they’ve also been necessary and I’m both thankful and grateful for that.

I’d like to list all the friends and people that I’ve met this year who have been of great help to me but there are too many to list and I’m bound to forget someone. So I shall simply say to everyone that I’ve met and made friends with this year, and of course to all my oldie friends, thank you very much and happy Christmas J

I also lied slightly by managing to fit in two last bogs before Christmas. That's what happens when you have to wait hours for dinner to cook!

My top three of the year!

2010-12-24T12:12:00.002Z

At the end of the year I usually like to do a ‘Top Three Films of the Year’ open poll/discussion on various web forums. This year I haven’t. I suspect there are numerous reasons for this, partly because my love of cinema has dwindled ever so slightly but also because I haven’t seen as many films as I would have liked or indeed you would have expected me to of given my profession. I’ve been far too entangled with “the other side of projection” this year which, I admit, has been really good for me and even highly enjoyable at times. That said, I think I can just about muster a top three just for you lot.

In reverse order, we have:

3. Harry Potter 7.1 – I bloody love these Harry Potter films. Since number 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban) they’ve been proper films; full of heart, soul, drama, horror and even laughter. Thankfully this one was no exception, despite being a tad too long, but it’s a great way to arrive at the grand finale for next year! Like a good cup of tea, this one provides the perfectly dunkable biscuits.

2. Inception – Some were baffled by it, some lapped it up like a good curry with their Naan bread. I was part of the later crowd. Like a good balti, Inception had a great blend of spice, sweetness and aromatic flavouring to satisfy my arty farty needs. Quite why I’ve used a curry as an analogy I have no idea but it just bloody is, alright!

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World – Okay, I admit I’m swayed by fancying the pants off of Mary Elizabeth Winstead (then again I do also fancy the pants off of Olivia Wilde from Tron Legacy but that didn’t quite make my top three (nor top five for that matter, probably not even my top ten)). This film was just utterly brilliant and incredibly funny. At the time it was the perfect medicine for moi but I think you need to be a child/teenager of the 80s to fully appreciate it because I’m sure if I showed it to my parents they just wouldn’t get it because they are old. If it were a cake, it would be the best cake ever!! A chocolate Berliner meets carrot cake concoction.

Other more than note worthy films from MMX include Kick-Ass, Toy Story 3, Ponyo, Hatchi; a dog’s tale, Twilight; Eclipse, The Karate Kid and Cryus.

Films that I would liked to have seen but didn’t get the opportunity to include The Road, A Prophet, How to Train Your Dragon, Four Lions, The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, The Hole, Social Network, Monsters and Of God and Men.

Films of utter shitness this year include Leap Year, Sex and the City 2 and Fred: The Movie.

The ones to watch out for in MMX+1 are 127 Hours, Black Swan and Transformers 3……. Okay, that last one was a horrible joke.

And he was a good friend….

2010-12-20T15:30:00.003Z

The past week has been very busy. Work has taken up a vast proportion of it due to people being sick, techy problems and the sad departure of a one Thomas J Inglis (I’m not sure if his middle initial is actually ‘J’ but it just seems to fit in nicely). I’ve had the pleasure and misfortune of working with Tom for over two years and I am very sorry to see him go. He’s been of great help and influence to me and I hope that I can do him proud by eventually either joining match.com or finding a girlfriend by my own means. Now when I speak of Tom, I feel like Obi-Wan telling Luke about Anakin Skywalker from A New Hope. Thankfully Tom hasn’t turned to the dark side yet, but he was a useless and lazy sod these past few months but I can just about forgive him for that. He will soon be setting sail to Australia, where he’ll be spending the proceeding 5 months “working” along side his girlfriend, the lovely Andrea. I’m a tiny bit jealous, largely because it’s their Summer over there and I’m really fed up with the bitterly cold days that we’re having right now. I’m sure he’ll have lots of fun and I look forward to catching up with him at some point in the year 2011.

I also had a job interview last week which actually went very well but sadly I was unsuccessful. I’m a bit down about it because I really wanted the job, had good vibes from the interview and the timing would have been perfect. But on the plus side I can take a great deal from this experience and will keep applying for other jobs thick and fast! On my way to the interview I was asked an unbelievable question! I took my seat on the train by the window when a lady, who was sitting the opposite side of the carriage and several rows along from me, asked if I could open my window? It was barely above freezing outside and I don’t handle the cold particularly well at the best of times. I perhaps wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t for the fact that she wasn’t sitting ANYWHERE NEAR ME!! Why not open the window that she was actually closest to, on the side of the carriage and by the row that she was sitting on?? I was a bit dumbstruck by it and so politely said ‘it’s a bit too cold for that I'm afraid’. Now I strive to be a gent most of the time but I feel quite right in my decision to deny the opening of my window. Please reassure me that I was correct with my stance?

I’m going to fit one more blog in just before Christmas, and then a massive review of my achievements and lack of achievements before the year is out! Exciting stuff I’m sure you’ll agree.

ditl of a Projectionist

2010-12-17T16:37:00.004Z

I stole this from a friend who didn’t steal it from a livejournal community, or lj as these hipsters refer to it as. The idea is to show you a ‘Day in the Life’, hence the acronym ditl, using the powers of photography to keep a regular check on one's antics. It’s pretty neat stuff really as it allows you to get a very good insight into someone else’s life and either makes you realise just how boring your own life is or how exceptionally exciting it is.

I thought that it would be a good idea to do my own and give you good people the opportunity to briefly put yourselves into the shoes of a projectionist. I thought it more apt considering that my days of being one are numbered, one way or the other.

I’ve decided to put everything up on my own personal website because at times I show no sign of restraint and may have gotten a little carried away. Ditl also come with warnings, so to prevent you from seeing anything you really don’t want to see, my warnings are as follows:

A dog, gracious semi-cladness, Tron, bright Xenon lamps and clearly an obsession with clocks to indicate the time of day.

Click on this link to go to my ditl:

ditl of a Projectionist by Matt Skilton

Roast taters

2010-12-13T16:38:00.002Z

I like to cook. I took an interest in cooking when I was but a very young teenager. I’d like to say that this was down to having a natural flare for all things gastronomic, the truth is I was too impatient to wait for Mum to get back home from work in order to cook my dinner so I decided to take matter into my own hands. Admittedly my early days of cooking were simply putting things from the freezer into the oven and waiting 30 mins or so. Not exactly gourmet but compared to my school friends, I was miles ahead of them.

In my early twenties I started to add a bit more flare to my skills. I also developed a passion for baking and started to become an avid watcher of Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein, Hugh Fernley Whittingstall and most other TV chefs that happened to have a weekday programme on BBC2 or C4 between the hours of 6-9 pm.

The point of all of this chit-chat and reminiscing is that with Christmas on the way, I thought I’d share my methods of producing the perfect roast potato!

The potato of choice – The best sort of potato to use for roasting are the floury ones, as oppose to the waxy ones. You can’t go wrong with Maris Pipers, so that would be my tip-top recommendation (or should that be ‘chip-top’ recommendation **can laughter track**). King Edwards are also good and very common this time of year.
Peeling – You don’t have to peel potatoes in order to roast them but when you want that special roast potato then I definitely would recommend peeling them. However, don’t be too anal about it. The perfect roast potato is an imperfect roast potato. There is no need to remove every microscopic trace of potato skin. I encourage a bit of potato skin in fact.
Par boil – This is the real secret of making a good roast tater. I like to par boil mine for 10 minutes. I also like to steam them rather than just chuck them in a saucepan full of water. Once they’ve been par boiled, I like to allow the potatoes to dry off for a few minutes and then give them a good shake to rough up the sides.
While all this is going on, in a nice sized baking dish put either a good lump or two of goose or duck fat, olive oil (if you’re vegetarian or vegan) or Rapeseed oil (if you’re cheap). You want this to heat up for a good 10 minutes on a high heat of around 200ºC (for fan assisted ovens) or 220ºC (for non-fan assisted ovens). Sorry, I don’t do ºF or Gas marks.
Meanwhile, take some whole garlic cloves and some fresh sprigs of Rosemary and give them a good mash in a pesto & mortar. Smells lovely.
Right, your potatoes have been par boiled and roughed up. Your fat/oil has been heated up, you’ve got your garlic and rosemary on standby. Carefully place the potatoes into the baking dish and make sure all of the potato sides are well coated. Scatter over the mashed garlic and rosemary, season well with flaked sea salt and black pepper. And now the final touch. Sprinkle about a tablespoons worth of semolina over the potatoes. This will really help crisp things up.
Now pop them in the oven. They’ll need at least 45 minutes, but an hour would be very good. Turn the potatoes about half-way through. If you're cooking any meat, then it’s always nice to add some meat juices into the mix when they become available.

And there you have it, my method of creating the perfect roast potato for your Christmas dinner. Follow these instructions very carefully, or else you might regret it.

It's mah job 2010 - Part II

2010-12-06T11:42:00.003Z

I’ve stolen this from the intermittent sprocket because it’s a great idea. It’s my story on how I became a Projectionist, although I must stress that it’s in no way as interesting as the intermittent sprocket’s, the swine!:

July 2007, I’ve just finished organising a fan art exhibition at the ExCel centre during the Star Wars Celebration Europe event. I’d put a lot of hard work & effort into it and the outcome was very pleasing. I was chuffed that I could allow some fellow artists to share their work to a very large crowd. One of these artists happened to be a projectionist. I knew this because by chance I had asked her was she did for a living, and the moment she told me I became very intrigued. I’d always wondered what it was like behind that wall where the projector sat, and the main thing that she told me was that it was a great job! At this time I was looking for a permanent full-time job because I was fed up with freelancing due to lack of reliability and money. And so with my intrigue and desires, I set about looking for a projectionist job. A month later, just before my birthday, one came up at my local multiplex. I couldn’t believe my luck really, the timing and location were near perfect. I applied and with good intensions (because I really, really wanted this job) I told a wee white lie on my application form. I said that I had 6 months projection experience. What??? Where from, you may demand!! A month ago I knew hardly anything about it, so where did this 6 months worth of knowledge and experience suddenly come from? Well, when I was doing my degree I did a bit of animation. For one of our projects, we used an old Steenbeck 16mm projector. I laced it a couple of times so in my eyes, this was good enough to warrant as “experience”.

I got an interview. I decided to turn up without my full suit and attire because it was Croydon. I’d never been to an interview without my full suit on before. I was a little late due to road works. I’d never been late for an interview before. But that was okay because I was left standing in the foyer for a good 20 minutes before my interviewer finally came down to greet me. That interviewer would soon be my employer and Projection Manager, John.

We went into the training room to commence with the interview. My first impressions of John were good. I’d been coming to this cinema for many years and to be honest I wasn’t expecting much, because it was Croydon, but I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased and safe with the knowledge that this was the guy who’s been responsible for all my cinematic treats these past 12 odd years. The interview was going well. It started by John asking me about plugs. Thankfully I knew the answers (240V, 13 amps if you’re wondering). I told him why I was interested in the job, confessed my little lie in the application form and said my last cinema experience was at the Odeon West End no less and that it was a digital presentation of The Bourne Ultimatum. I think he was impressed with my knowledge and observations. But then disaster struck. I began coughing. Coughing really badly. It was one of those dry cough moments. The ones that come up all of a sudden and puts you in a coughing fit for 5 minutes. The ones where you can’t talk or breathe. The ones where your eyes start to water. The ones where you look a right idiot and complete pansy. The ones you don’t want to get in the middle of an interview for a job that you really want.

John rushed out to get me a drink. He returned a few minutes later with a Cherry Coke. If there is one fizzy drink that I do not like, then it would have to be Cherry Coke. He apologised by saying that he couldn’t find any water and this was the only form of liquid that he could find. Cherry Coke. Cherry bloody Coke. The one fizzy drink that I can’t stand. I mean I like Cherries (I love Cherries) and I like coke, even though I rarely drink it. But I never found the combination of the two very enjoyable at all. Being the very polite chap that I am, I did not mention my hatred for Cherry Coke. I was indeed very grateful that he’d gone to the trouble of getting it for me. The thing is that I really needed to drink it or else I was in danger of dying. So like a brave soldier, I drank it. It did of course help and a few minutes later I was able to finish the interview. But I wasn’t confident at all that I’d get to stage two. I could just imagine John writing on the interview form ‘Ungrateful, pathetic, coughing wanker who doesn’t like Cherry Coke!’

A week later I got a phone call. I’d made it to stage two, my test shift. The test shift went very well. I was told I’d be informed whether I’d got the job on the Friday. Friday came and I had heard nothing. Saturday and nothing. Sunday, nothing. Monday morning and nothing. I then got a call in the early afternoon and I had pleased someone because they got to tell me I got the job :D And then I got another phone call a few minutes later from someone else to tell me that I’d gotten the job, again. Ha, old news, I told them.

Two weeks later I embarked on my first shift as a projectionist and it felt good.

It's mah job 2010 - Part I

2010-12-05T17:18:00.002Z

As my profile says, I’m a cinema Projectionist. I’ve been working at my site for 3 years, 1 month and 5 days now. The job of a Projectionist is thwart with many dangers. I feel lucky to have escaped with just some minor cuts and bruises really. I love being a Projectionist. It’s a cool job and great to declare at parties; ‘So what do you do for a living?’ says an attractive lady in a shiny red cocktail dress. ‘I’m a Projectionist.’ I reply in a suave, sophisticated manor clutching my Martini glass complete with olive, ‘Oh, and I drive an Alfa.’ Okay, that’s never actually happened to me but I’m sure it’s happened to someone, somewhere.

This year I was intent on getting promoted. I was ready for the next step up and pretty hungry for it too. My opportunity came right at the very beginning of the year with an official senior role at another site. Sadly I didn’t get the job but the experience was a very good one and it was very nice to have come incredibly close. There were also a few managerial positions that were potentially coming into play but sadly none of these materialised either. And so I continued, hoping that something would eventually come my way. Sadly the only thing that did come my way was the threat of redundancy!! At the end of August, it was announced that the company I work for were on the verge of signing a deal to fully digitalise the circuit. This could mean only one thing; the role of the projectionist would become extinct!

In September I was elected to represent all the London based Projectionists (which I dubbed the LPCM; London Projection Crew Massive. I wisely did not share this with any of them though, it remained just in my head) for a series of consultation meetings in which we would try to iron out the best course of action(s). The experience of this was a very good one, even though the outcome wasn’t exactly joyous.

In October I helped out at the West End for the prestigious London Film Festival. I heard many a tale of woe and despair from the event last year so was gearing myself up for a nightmare. While it would be fair to say that some of the equipment at the West End is in desperate need of attention (and money), I really enjoyed working there largely because I was working with a great bunch of guys and girls. It was great being part of it all and yet another confidence booster. An added bonus were the parties and free alcohol that went with said parties, but hey, that’s show business!!

So to conclude, 2010 has been the most significant year of my professional life. I’ve experience an array of things all of which have been a real character builder and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. As for the future, who knows? I’m currently in the process of management training just so that I‘ve got that under my belt before I need to make my final decisions about my future. The only good thing is that I should have something to fall back on when the time comes, it just won’t be doing the job that I love to do.

In Part II I shall tell you a story….

It's now December

2010-12-02T00:34:00.003Z

When I started writing this entry it was still Wednesday the 1^st of December. This is relevant because I was going to start by saying it’s just turned into December which means one more month left of 2010 and Christmas a mere 24 days away! That doesn’t seem quite as punchy when it’s actually the 2^nd of December.

I’d like to spend most of this month summarising the year of 2010 for it has been quite a year for me. Without a doubt the most significant of my life for many reasons. It’s had some truly wonderful moments but also some incredibly bad moments too. I’ve pretty much experienced it all this year.

I’m going to get the bad shit out of the way first. Without doubt the worse thing to happen was the death of one of my Uncle’s, Gav. Quietly I’d tell you that he was my favourite Uncle because there was a good chunk of him in me and he’s the one that I looked up to the most. He lost his life in March, the day after Mother’s day, and getting that phone call was pretty terrible. I knew what had happened without being told. I just knew when the phone rang what had happened.

So I’d like to just have a tribute to my Uncle because he was a great man and probably the most generous person I knew. I’d like to pay tribute by telling you a trick he played on me. In 1999 all I could think about was The Phantom Menace (obviously before it actually came out). For some stupid reason the film was released in May in the US but we in the UK had to wait until July. Consequently it wasn’t difficult to get hold of a pirate copy of the film. I’d made the very conscious decision that there was no way on Earth I’d succumb to a) obtaining a pirate copy and b) watching it. No, no. I had standards. I wanted my Phantom Menace experience to be a highly memorable one and experience it the way it was meant to be experienced. About two weeks to go before its BIG UK release, Gav called. He was on his way over to stay the night. He had a pirate copy of The Phantom Menace on him! I was in an utter state and heading a major dilemma. Should I watch it?? Could I watch it?? I had standards after all. I called my good friend and fellow Phantom Menace enthusiast Anthony and told him the news. I thought it only fair that I'd also burden him with the same dilemma because I'm nice like that. We pondered things like we’ve never pondered before. Fuck it, we concluded. We should watch it! So it was all arranged; my Uncle would turn up with the pirate copy of The Phantom Menace, I’d then toddle over to pick Ant up and we'd come back with an array of snacks and watch the film we’ve been religiously following for the past 12 months in substandard quality. Perfect!

Gav turned up. ‘Well then, where is it?’ I ask. ‘What?’ He replies. ‘The bloody film of course’, I bark. ‘Oh, I was joking, I don’t really have it.’ He jests. ‘Haha’ I respond, ‘Really, where is it then?’ I say with a slight whimper to my voice. ‘I was joking, I don’t really have it.’ He says, not jokingly. ‘YOU BASTARD!!’ I cry.

Secretly I was relieved. My Phantom Menace experience would remain untarnished (until I actually saw the film that is). The hardest, and funniest, thing was having to phone Ant back up and tell him the bad news.

And so that sums Gav up pretty well. He certainly liked playing tricks on people and did it incredibly well. He is sorely missed.

All hail the food mixer

2010-11-19T15:17:00.002Z

I got my Christmas present early this year. There were important and valid reasons for this, which I shall now digress; a few years ago I bought a very nice Kenwood Kmix hand blender (one of those retro looking ones). It was great. Looked fantastic and worked very well thanks to its 300 watts of POWER!! Sadly it broke a few months ago and was out of warranty. I was a tad upset about this :( I do enjoy my cooking, especially baking, and so I was very much in need of a replacement. I saw this as a great opportunity to finally take the plunge and buy one of those big fuck-off food mixers. I've always wanted one but the ones that I were spying cost over £300 (although it's very typical of me to have expensive tastes). So I put my glasses on and did a bit of research.... turns out the fancy pants retro looking ones that cost upwards of £300 are a bit shit! For half the price you can get one with twice the POWER!! I was going to go for the Kenwood Chef special, the base model of the Chef range and a mere snip at £157.50, but I found my eyes constantly falling for the next model up, the Kenwood Chef Premier. It cost £60 more but for that you got an extra 200 watts of POWER!! A lovely, metal brushed silver finish and a much nicer looking mixing bowl. And that was that. Decision made. This past week I've been putting it through its paces and it would fair to say that I've fallen in love again. I've made Chelsea buns (and puns), pastry for samosas, cornish pasties, carrot cake, Dorset apple cake, pizza dough, a Guniness & apple bloomer and some flat breads. All that in just three days!! It does make life so much easier, seems to create far less washing-up and it's just a very nice piece of equipment to use (oh-er misses).

So there you have it. If you like your baking and equally been longing for one for ages, go for it! You simply wont regret it.

Outraged!!

2010-11-17T23:33:00.002Z

I feel a great need to urgently express some rage at Windows Word. Firstly I need to, with great haste, explain why exactly I'm using Word in the first place. Well, it's company policy, allegedly, that all created paperwork needs to be done in Word so that someone at head office can edit it if he/she chooses to. Fair enough, you may argue. Not when I'm trying to do something that requires some graphic design though. Using Word for that is a bloody nightmare. It's like trying to navigate a jumbo jet through the crack of your arse while singing Lady Gaga's latest shit tune. It just ain't gonna work. So my question is why can't someone at bloody head office invest in an actual desktop publishing programme for this kind of thing which will then still give them the ultimate power of editing said material until their heart is content. I demand to see this bit of (Windows Word created) paperwork that says I must use Windows Word to create this bloody thing!! Anyway, I've given up on it for now. Time to watch some more Glee.

Bugger, Bugger Bumdrops!!

2010-11-16T22:24:00.003Z

No, that's not some sort of gay moto I've picked-up this week, it's an expression of frustration that I haven't updated this blog as regularly as one would have hoped for. I'm going to give the classic, but ultimately very true, excuse of being very busy (one day I will have a different excuse). My last blog entry was pre-London Film Festival, which for me now feels like an absolute age away. So without further ado....

The London Film festival was a blast!!! Hard work indeed but I was working with a great bunch of guys (and one girl) and it made an incredibly nice change actually working with other people. I used to like the aspect of solitude that naturally comes with the role of being a Projectionist. But now I've come to realise that working all alone in a cold, empty, dark booth isn't all that. Sure it has its advantages when it's 2 'o' clock in the morning and you've got a nice mug of tea and a book to read. Now though I crave for working with living, breathing people for at least a good chunk of my working day.

I also had a great night at the wrap party, which saw me win a cheap Sony DVD player that I didn't really deserve but also a 20th Century Fox goody bag which contained a DVD of Glee season 1 (well, half of it at least). I started to watch it last night. I bloody enjoyed it too. Bugger!

Last weekend I also helped celebrate my Cousins 30th birthday (ha, that'll be me next year)! The day after that I helped celebrate another birthday in Billericay, Essex. We went to a nice pub that did karaoke with a live band. Was a great night and Billericay left a far more positive impression than neighbouring Basildon (sorry Basildon folk, although I have been to your Toys R Us and found a 32" Boba Fett doll which wont be forgotten). Three parties in one week. I think prior to that I only attended three in three years!!

And the good news is that there are no signs of me slowing down just yet. I have a lounge pants party that I'm attending this Friday which will see me don a fetching pair of lounge pants that I acquired from Primark no less.

Right, I'm leaving it there for now but I do have more to say which I'll save for later this week. I'm going to sneak in another episode of Glee before bed........ that's hardcore that is.

Holy crumbcake!!

2010-10-15T22:58:00.003+01:00

I hadn't realised it had been a wee while since my last blog entry. I ain't going to apologise because I'm sure you're all used to it by now. Anywho, I've been very busy these past few weeks with meetings, presentations, training, cleaning and having some fun. I've been on holiday this past week and it's been great!

Last Friday I got to see Mark Kermode once again (I'd previously seen him at the New Forest Film Festival a few weeks ago, which was a fantastic evening), this time at the legendary Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley. It was a special recording of the weekly film review show on radio 5live. I've been an avid listener for well over three years now and to witness it live, in Mark Kermode's favourite cinema in the World, where he saw The Exorcist for the first time, was a brilliant experience. Saturday was spent touring round some of London's finest galleries and museums, allowing me to get my J.M.W Turner fix and more. Monday I got a little bit tipsy with some fellow projectionist for our London Film Festival de-briefing and on Wednesday I went to Birmingham and had a great evening with some friends. I came away impressed with Birmingham too. Today is my Mum's birthday and tomorrow we'll be meeting up with my Uncle and his girlfriend and going for a nice meal in the evening at a country pub. I've also had my gaming interest reignited courtesy of Sonic the Hedgehog 4. It's a real harken back to the good old days only with lush HD renderings. I love it!

The London Film Festival soon beckons too as next Saturday I shall start my first shift. Despite the fact that it will be relentless I'm really looking forward to it. And because I clearly can never have too many projects on the go at the moment, I've just started work on another one. I can justify this one though as it'll be a very long term project and only takes up a few minutes each week. It's for a short film that I plan to make and, hopefully, submit to next years New Forest Film Festival.

So my diary is pretty full for the next couple of weeks. I'm basically already making an excuse for my next blog entry to be late.

Introducing BBB

2010-09-27T00:17:00.006+01:00

It's taken longer than I had anticipated to get round to doing this but now that it is done, I am pleased to introduce to all you lovely people another new project that I'm working on (I'm collecting them, obviously).

Bruised, Battered, Buggered will be a bit different to what I usually do. The aim is to create a short, episodic animation series which will be a mix of still and live photography with vector-based illustration. The stories will revolve around Jimmy Stainforth, an aging man who hasn't really had the best of lives but is now quite content within the world that he has created for himself and will see him through until his death. It will be my attempt at some dark comedy. I have several episodes already written and I'm liking what I've done. Whenever something still looks or sounds good after a few weeks of writing it, it's a good indication that it might actually be good and I'm pleased to say that this has passed that test.

However, don't get too excited just yet. I'm not going to rush this through so it might be a while before Episode One makes its grand debut and there will be a steep learning curve during its making I'm sure of it. But as soon as I've nailed the style and techniques, I hope to churn them out at a consistent speed. I'm looking forward to getting stuck in with this one I must say.

Matt Skilton the Writer

2010-09-15T13:28:00.003+01:00

My work has taken a bit of a tangent for I have embarked on writing a book! Yes, a book!! I hadn't even contemplated writing a book before, let alone actually attempt to write one. I've written scripts before, but that's different and far easier. I also have only vague ideas of what to do with it once it's nearing completion for I shall warn you it may never see the light of day. Now when I say book, it's more of a diary. And when I say diary, I guess it's like this blog really. So why not just write it on here? That's a good question and it might end up going that way, but the aim of the book is really just for me. It's a personal exercise that might prove entertaining (and dare I say inspiring) to others. So who knows what's going to happen. I'm just enjoying the experience of it right now and hopefully I'll learn lots from it.

In other news, I might be getting heavily involved with something at work (work-work, that is). If that happens it'll also be a great experience (despite its negative nature, of which I wont go into details on here) but will mean my work load will increase, giving me less time to do other things. I'm also going to be working at the London Film Festival which will be tough going but a challenge I'm very much looking forward to.

If you're wondering what the situation is with match.com, then I'm afraid to say I still haven't subscribed yet. With everything that's going on, I don't really have the time and also part of the reason for writing my book is to get to that point where I feel that I'm absolutely ready to date someone again. It all makes sense once you've read my book ;)

match.com (or rather matchaffinity.com)

2010-09-03T23:19:00.006+01:00

So, I've been giving this an awful lot of thought of late. I think, nay - know, that watching Scott Pilgrim (which is AMAZING!!!) did something to me. That and a heap of other stuff, but that triggered something for certain. I realised how great it was to actually have a girlfriend, or at least pursue getting one. And so I thought 'f**k it, I shall finally subscribe to match.com and shut Tom up once and for all!". Before I go into further details, I should point out that match.com has now turned into matchaffinity.com which is geared up at being a bit more serious and "accurate" in finding the right person (a girl in my case) for me/you/everyone.

I had written a profile a few weeks ago (an honest, charming and mildly amusing one, naturally) so all I had to do now was upload some carefully chosen photos (non-photoshoped manipulated, naturally) and then ponder paying for it all (naturally). As luck would have it, they were having a free weekend. And so I gave it a go. I hated it. I felt like Simon Cowell, instantly judging all these women who genuinely seemed like nice girls. There were of course some that shone out for me, but then you feel like a total perv requesting photos or trying very hard not to write a corny, smutty sounding message. Anyway, they are now offering a 1 month subscription for a mere £14.99 which is mighty tempting because at least it'll give me enough time to see if I actually get on with it without spending a small fortune and I have some holiday coming up which will give me the opportunity to actually go on some dates.

On the plus side, my profile has produced some good, nice responses which is a confidence booster. Typically the best one is a smoker which is my top deal-breaker (sorry Tom, can't do it I'm afraid - for one thing I'd be constantly worried about their health which ain't healthy for me plus it's just a horrible habit with no redeeming qualities so I'm happy to be fussy in this respect). When all is said and done, I mainly want to do this to get the experience. To meet new people because you never know what or where it may go. I need the practice because I'm shit. I'm not being negative by saying that. On the contrary. By realising how shit I am shows how much growing and contemplating I've done this year. It's been one heck of a year I must say. On one side the worse of my life. On the other the best. And those two reactions are linked. Either way, I know what needs to be done and I'm chuffed with how I'm dealing with it and progressing, which is the main thing.

In conclusion. Don't worry about me. This is the best I've ever felt. Physically and mentally (he says writing on an internet blog, lol). All this has been building up inside me for a while now and it fells really good to release it all. And given that my creative talents are very much related to my emotions, I guess it is relevant to post this on here :)

EDIT: Sorry for some (now corrected) typos. I really shouldn't write this at the dead of night after a long day. And when I say shit, I mean I'm shit at certain things but pretty bloody good at lots of other things. So if I can improve on my shitness then I can become even more awesome and happy with ones self.

So much to write about

2010-09-02T22:56:00.003+01:00

I had intended to write a new blog entry much sooner but the fact that I haven't is a good reflection on how busy I've been of late. There's a great deal I would love to express on here right now, but for now I shall just do a quick taster with the aim of writing a fuller, fatter blog entry tomorrow evening (once I've done a ton of other stuff).

The main thing to report is that the BBQ went very well. The weather just about managed to hold-out and I was very pleased with my cuisine. I hadn't realised just how much work would be involved with it all, not helped by the fact that I had to do it all on my lonesome due to my Mum being out-of-action due to a broken wrist ( :( ). But I just about survived it all and was glad everyone had a great time.

Work has been busy too. I've been doing quite a bit of reading of late and so my artwork has suffered but I am in the process of working on some bits so once things have calmed down a tad next week I shall try very hard to get something finished!!

I have also just realised that this blog has turned into a more personal blog which wasn't my initial intention but I'm happy to go with the flow as long as you lot are happy to read about my daily trials and tribulations (?).

My fingers smell of garlic

2010-08-21T00:16:00.003+01:00

I'm now bloody 29, less than 12 months to go now before I'm bloody 30! I've got a lot to do and achieve therefore in the next 12 months, lol.

Anyway, I had a pleasant birthday. Inception at the IMAX was great (except the contrast wasn't quite right and the Xenon was flickering. Digital IMAX isn't as good as film IMAX imo). Got some nice presents and I'm working very hard on a BBQ this Sunday hence why my fingers smell of garlic because I've gone through 2 whole garlic bulbs with my marinades. It's bound to rain but I'm hoping it will go well regardless.

I've been taking it easy this past week, going out with the folks and my Sister to some nice places and eating far too much stuff. Next week I plan to get back on track with some work though. I aim to announce a new project I'm doing which will be a little different (as I keep promising, at least I never change my tune). I also actually started to transfer Dice onto my Mac but soon realised it was a version with sound problems. More urgently though, I realised that the film itself isn't quite internet savvy because it's a whacking 28 minutes long and full of so much dialogue it makes War and Peace seem like a short story (if I'm being honest, it's shit basically, but I still like it). I did seriously think, for a couple of late shifts at work at least, about completely re-editing it which would involve filming some additional shots (yes, additional shots 9 years after making the thing) but I think it's a tall order and would serve little purpose, and so I might let this one slip away only to make it out on very special occasions. Feel free to change my mind (financial incentive is the best way).

Birthday Week

2010-08-14T13:31:00.002+01:00

From Monday I shall be on holiday with the intent of celebrating my birthday on Wednesday. One step closer to 30 and I can't say I'm liking that prospect very much but I shall try and make the most of still being a twenty-something over the course of the next 12 months!
To celebrate my Birthday, I shall be seeing Inception again at the bfi IMAX. It's been over two years since my last trip to the IMAX, which funny enough was for Nolan's last film The Dark Knight, so I'm looking forward to this one. Meanwhile, next Sunday I shall be hosting a modest BBQ, of which I've just set a £100 budget for which I'm hoping to meet although it might be tough. As usual I've probably gone over-board but I rarely get the opportunity to really show-off so I feel that I'm allowed to go to town a bit. I just hope people do actually turn-up for it :p

Work wise, I've been a bit slack this past week although I have been working on another Bananaman sketch which hasn't quite gone to plan. I did have a brainstorming session last week though which was both fruitful and very enjoyable, and I'm hoping to put some of the ideas into action very soon.

I've managed to locate Dice on my 8mm camcorder tapes, so now all I need to do is import it into Final Cut Express, wait an hour or two for it to do something digital with it then fine tune any of the editing, then compress it and upload it onto vimeo. Give me a month I'd say ;)

Batman

2010-08-06T15:16:00.003+01:00

I found myself doing a rough Batman sketch last night while watching Masterchef, only to realise that I'd already started an identical piece over a year ago on my computer. So I dug it out only to be very pleasantly surprised by how near-finished it was. Less than 24 hours later, here it is and on my website too:

Dice

2010-08-02T00:57:00.002+01:00

Dice, WTF is Dice, I hear you mutter under your breath?? Well, Dice was the second Star Wars short film that me and my fellow band of Star Wars fanfilm film-makers indulged in which funny enough we started to make after The Darkened Force and actually managed to also finish before The Darkened Force. Admittedly the main reason for this was due to there being hardly any VFX shots, just several long-winded conversations with lots of aeroplane background noise to cover up poor sound recording. Anyway, to get back on track it is now my aim to also get this film onto the internet after the success I felt for getting The Darkened Force onto the interweb.

ETA 1-2 months, or sooner..... or later.

I've also tweaked my website, adding some of my older pieces and adding some external links to other projects that I've worked on in the recent and distant past.

Finally thing, Inception is amazing and The Karate Kid is also pretty special.

Website, done!

2010-07-25T12:35:00.004+01:00

Ha, told you it was nearly there. And here it is:

www.mofozombie.com

I was trying to recall how many carnations my site has now had, and I think this might be the sixth one. What can I say, I like to change and shake things up. Now I have encountered a small problem. For some reason the Firefox web browser refuses to use my tiled background image. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this but for now it's best to use either Safari or google Chrome to view it as it's been tested on those browsers and works fine. Basically if you can't see the graph paper background, you're using the wrong browser!!

My next step is to work how how to link my mattskilton.co.uk domain to this site....

EDIT: Problem fixed. Site now works in firefox. Wahoooo!!!!

Good intensions

2010-07-23T22:46:00.003+01:00

Howdy folks,

I really did have good intensions this week, but sadly I've been distracted with too many other things and consequently have fallen by the wayside. But it has been a great week. A life changing week almost. So I shall continue to put my best foot forward and really start to achieve some things and be happy with ones self :D

I've decided to really organise my current work load and come up with some kind of plan. The best and easiest way to do this is just put things into sub-categories and tell you what I've got schemed for them, so here it goes:

Day 117 - My latest Star Wars short film

I've decided to work on one shot (a particularly key and tricky shot) and see how well it turns out. If it turns out well, then I shall continue on with the project with real gusto. If it turns out shit, then I may abandon the project altogether as I don't see the point wasting any time or money on something that I'm not going to be happy with.

Website

It's not far off now, honest. It'll be different but I'm very pleased with how it's shaping up. Should be live next week certainly.

£1,000

Okay, this is failing badly. A great start yes, but I was left slightly deflated by my last ebay outing and finding it difficult to get back into it. I will, just need to think of some new strategies.

Illustration work

I've just realised that I've yet to update this blog with my latest offerings. Not to worry, when the website is finished they will be on there. I do have some projects in the pipe-line; a simple Bananaman illustration which I'm itching to do, and a potentially exciting on-going comic-strip come flash animation project that will depress I'm sure.

As you can see, I'm going to be keeping myself busy. All this and still going out and enjoying myself. I love it!

Artists block!

2010-07-07T12:27:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the late blog, yet again!! I've decided to really re-work my website and I'm currently struggling to come up with something I'm 100% happy with, so I'm going to keep plugging away in the sun while also trying to improve my sun tan (that's multi-tasking that is). Anyway, once I've settled on a design I will quickly throw it together and hopefully be able to show off my latest pieces, which are now finished and currently on my facebook page.

I've also been out having a bit of fun which has been great. Met a great guy last week in St.James' park...... Steve the resident Pelican (photos also on facebook). Fear not, I haven't turned, he really was a pelican and joined us for our picnic. Thanks to Naff & Ant for a very good day too.

Okay, back to the website designing, then dinner, then work. I even did some topless sunbathing the other day in the garden. Haven't done that for many, many years and it felt good, lol.

My week of creativity

2010-06-22T10:53:00.002+01:00

Well, my holiday is nearly over and it's been a very good week. While I don't actually have too much to show you all at this very minute, I can assure you that I've been a busy, organic bee and will very nearly have a few pieces to show off. I have however managed to achieve something pretty BIG which I can show you now; I've finally put our Star Wars fan film on da web. I've even embedded the video file to the bottom of this blog (at least I hope I have, given that I'm writing this before actually doing it).

I've also managed to have some fun on this holiday. Thanks to Naff I saw a great band called 'The Wave Pictures'. It was also my first gig for far too long. I've also spent a couple of evenings with friends and family which has been good, and played scrabble for the first time courtesy of Ant.

In a major development, I had my hair cut short too, so I guess I'd better update my profile drawing. It has to be said, I really like it short so I don't plan to grow it back any time soon. Thanks Tom for twisting my arm so much that I caved in.

My third wave of ebay sales were a mixed bag, so my £1,000 target has suffered slightly but I'm going to explore different avenues to generate money, none of which involve selling my body, just my mind.

So that's about it for now, but I promise, promise, promise to have some new updates incredibly soon, and in the mean time here is our fan film for you to all marvel at!

Star Wars : The Darkened Force from Matt Skilton on Vimeo.

World Cup Begins

2010-06-11T14:55:00.003+01:00

Now I used to like football. Really liked it. Would play it every evening after school up the park, followed Arsenal through thick & thin, even been to a few matches. As I've gotten older though, football has become less and less a priority in my life. I'm looking forward to this World Cup to a degree, but I'm pretty fed up with all the football themed adverts, the non-stop news reports about fans and the false hope that we might actually win it. So, I'm actually looking more forward to it all being over..... in a month's time. Despite all that, good luck England and South Africa will prove a great back drop.

I've been busy going through all my old files, reminiscing about old adventures and projects. It's been a pretty good experience and given me a bit more drive to pursue new things & ideas. Consequently, I've got a lot more projects lined up (which I do aim to finish) and I'm being a lot more sharing. I'm planing to have a creative holiday next week, so hope to have even more things to share with you in the coming weeks!

I'm also going to tweak my website (yes, I know, I only did that a few weeks ago but that was always going to be a quick, temporary fix so it's justified).

So as I always say, watch this space........ I promise to fill it up soon.

Ant Lamb's website

2010-06-05T14:30:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone!

I'm gradually getting back into the swing of things and to kick-off, I'm pleased to announce that work on my good friend Anthony Lamb's website is now more or less complete. Please check it:

www.antlamb.co.uk

Ant is responsible for all the design work and content but I chipped in with all the coding work and general (good) advice. We're both very pleased with the outcome, so much so that I've pinched some of our new discoveries and implemented them into my own site. On which note, my www.mattskilton.co.uk webspace is on the verge of disappearing but fear not, you can find all my work on my www.mofozombie.com website.

I finally saw Avatar last week (in 2D), crazy I know considering my occupation. I found it to be enjoyable and at times, amazing, but I'd struggle to say that I loved it and even I'd admit it would benefit from being seen in 3D (shock! Horror!). For me the main strength of the film is really experiencing a whole new environment which looked and worked a treat in blu-ray but would really hit the mark in 3D. That said, I also saw UP again which I had originally seen in 3D and I have to say the 2D version is even more satisfying imo. So there, I've made amends for saying Avatar would be better in 3D, phew!

My £1,000 target currently stands at £183.56. A good start but a looooong way to go ;)

New look site(s)

2010-05-22T13:58:00.003+01:00

My new look website is now done and live. There's still some minor tweaking needed, but the gist of it is all there. Basically my dedicated webspace for my mattskilton.co.uk domain will not be re-newed in June. So instead I will keep the domain name and just re-direct it to my mofozombie.com webspace. Consequently I've literally split that site into two. Nice & simple:

mofozombie.com & mattskilton.co.uk

I'm now also using a new gallery, which I discovered courtesy of Ant while working on his site (which will be complete very soon).

In other news, I've decided to put my other projects on hold for the time being. I need a bit of time for myself as I have a few mountains to climb and need to reserve my energy. I hope to kick start everything in the very near future but in the meantime I will continue on with my £1,000 target.

Thanks everyone :)

More changes afoot

2010-05-10T23:14:00.003+01:00

My £1,000 target has got off to a good start. The current total stands at roughly £112 thanks to a strong ebay performance and a nasty incident with some Loyd Grossman Naan bread. So I'm already over 11% there (laughs in the face of the doubters)! A further £22.95 will be added to this by not re-newing one of my webspace accounts. Consequently this means some changes will be made to my websites. None of these will affect this blog, so no need to panic there (all 3 of my regular readers). These will all be implemented in the coming weeks and will be duly noted here first.

£1,000

2010-04-29T13:02:00.000+01:00

I've set myself a small but daunting challenge; to generate £1,000 by the end of the year!
This will be done by several means. The main one will be through the selling of goods on ebay. These will mainly be games, DVDs and old Star Wars stuff I no longer really want nor need. The other mean will be through what I'm calling virtual savings. A virtual saving is where I end up saving money by buying something cheaper than I usually go for. For example, when my phone contract is up for re-newal, I plan to go on a cheaper tariff thus save myself some money each month.
The £1,000 will then be invested into something that will hopefully generate even more money, such as a high interest account or something else that sounds like I know what I'm doing and will make me feel like I can retire at 50.
So far I've already got £50 thanks to winning a competition, and I'm hoping to add another £50 with my first batch of ebay goods.
I'll keep you updated with my tally, unless it all goes to pot in which case I wont mention it in the hope it'll be conveniently forgotten. I'm even going to create a spreadsheet for it. Go me!

K-Spark's Jedi Starfighter

2010-04-20T22:21:00.003+01:00

I've been a busy boy! Here are some juicy pics of K-Spark's Jedi Starfighter. As you can see I opted for the one-stripe scheme, and I'm really pleased with the results. I'm now in the process of doing some proper photo tests to see how to get the best out of them. Once I've found that out, I can then begin the nitty-gritty work.

Part of the costume for K-Spark also finally arrived last week (a pair of motorcycle goggles). I ordered them ages ago from Hong Kong and the first pair must have got lost in the post. Now that I have them, I can finally buy some material for the rest of the costume. Still loads of work to be done but it feels good to be making some form of progress.

1 million and counting

2010-04-16T16:19:00.002+01:00

One of my youtube videos has hit over a million views now!! It's the Lego Star Wars one I posted a while ago (August 2009, if you want to look it up). Quite a milestone I'm pleased to have achieved, except it does show up just how many idiots there are out there if you read some of the comments. Oh well.

In other news I've been very busy painting, cleaning and making ice-cream. The Jedi Starfighter is well under-way and should be done early next week.

I've now finished giving the Alfa it's first major deep clean. Looks great :D

And I've just made a batch of vegan ice-cream. My first attempt didn't go so well, but this one seems to be the business. Go me.....!

White paint

2010-04-14T23:23:00.003+01:00

At last, the search is over! I finally managed to purchase a can of white matt finish spray paint, from Games Workshop of all places (thanks for the tip-off, Tom). The model has now been sprayed, so all I need to do now is make a decision on the black stripe(s) and get cracking with it. Shalln't take long.

Meanwhile the Alfa has been having a big birthday clean. Part III will take place on Friday where I aim to take the wheels off and give the alloys a darn good clean and wax.

Another boring post

2010-04-07T11:21:00.003+01:00

Sorry everyone, no new news to report. I'm still searching for some paint for my Jedi Starfighter model and I just haven't been able to find the time to get it. My next post will be far more entertaining, promise. Although I did watch all three Lord of the Rings films (the extended editions) on Easter Sunday as part of a LotR marathon. It was great :D

Getting there

2010-03-22T12:10:00.003Z

Hi all. I had a topsy-turvy week just gone so have been very much pre-occupied dealing with urgent matters. I can assure you that work on Day 117 has not ceased. The new Jedi Starfighter has been purchased, filed and ready to be painted. Should be done in the next 1-2 weeks. The paint scheme will be very similar to before (white with black stripes) but I might just have one big black stripe going down the middle now. Once the crafts are done I can start thinking about photographing them. I still need to make a costume mind, part of which should be arriving soon courtesy of ebay (well, I bloody hope it'll arrive soon, it's been a month already)! So, still lots to do but progress is going in a forwards direction at the very least :D

Mercenary Abarthe's Ship

2010-03-09T13:10:00.005Z

Here it is, Mercenary Abarthe's vehicle of choice. Originally it was a modified Darth Maul Sith Infiltrator but then I thought 'Nah, let's go for something a bit different' and so I latched eyes on the V-19 Torrent Starfighter (I had no idea what it was either) from the CGI Clone Wars series (which I still haven't seen yet). But that wasn't enough.....

The name of the character is based on the in-house FIAT tuning company Abarth, whoms logo consists of red and yellow with a black, isometric scorpion. I couldn't quite get away with a scorpion emblem, so I considered what was the Star Wars equivalent (of sorts) and concluded that the Acklay from Attack of the Clones would do the job nicely. And so here it is; a red and yellow ship with a black, not really isometric Acklay.

I'm pretty chuffed with how it looks. Next up is Kay-Spark's Jedi Stratfighter mkII.

The ship is 50% complete

2010-03-04T22:52:00.002Z

Howdy all. T'is been a very good day for me and I'm pleased to say that work has commenced on my new model ship. I'd say it's just over 50% complete now and looking good so far. Hope to get it completely finished early next week and then I might treat myself to another model kit :p

I've also bought a vital part to one of the costumes, except I'm still awaiting its arrival from Hong Kong (don't get excited, it's nothing flashy). So things are most definitely on the move :D

New ship coming soon

2010-02-20T12:32:00.002Z

I've knuckled down and commenced serious work on my new ship for 'Day 117'. I'm hoping that by the end of next week it'll be (almost) done. Photos will be posted I can assure you as I'm really looking forward to seeing how it's going to turn out as it's completely different to the original idea!

Sadly I haven't been able to do much other art work but once I get this ship out of the way then I do plan to do something new. I know exactly what it'll be too, wow!

I've been....

2010-02-12T22:40:00.003Z

.... very busy, ill and going out getting a social life these past couple of weeks, so I'm afraid I just haven't had the time or focus for anything else.

You'll need to be patient with me :p

Under the weather

2010-02-03T22:39:00.003Z

I caught a horrible stomach bug that caused me to become very ill very quickly. The timing of which was pretty damn unbelievable too. The good news is that is was only a brief illness, and I'm now gathering my strength back!

I've decided to change one of the ships in my latest Star Wars fan film 'Day 117' (and I'll probably change the other one too because I like doing things like this). The new ship model kit has been purchased and I've begun working on it. It will be quite different to the original version but I believe such a bold, striking move will work well. I hope to have it finished soon.

I'm rubbish....

2010-01-26T22:39:00.004Z

.... at blogging. There, I've said it, it's official. Anywho, work is now complete on http://www.mofozombie.com so feel free to check it out. I hope to re-ignite work on my latest short film projects in the coming weeks (being typical of me I'm thinking of re-doing some vital elements, which means everything will be pegged back a fair bit but I think it's the right thing to do).

I've decided that I want to do some kind of Highlander based illustration too. I've never done one before because I've never really thought about it, but I have an idea which could be good.

So January is nearly over and I've only managed two blogs so far :p

A good start

2010-01-15T16:34:00.002Z

Okay, when I said in my end of year post that I hope to post a blog once a week in 2010, what I meant to say was that I hope to post a blog once every two weeks. I do have plenty of excuses as to why I just haven't had the time to post one yet, but you can probably guess it's because I've been really busy. Well, I have! I've been working hard on creating a website for mofozombie.com, which I hope to upload next week. I've also had many other things to contend with, including the highs and lows of a job interview. So all-in-all 2010 has already been a hectic year for me. I promise my next blog will be next week.... hopefully :p

2010 is nearly upon us!

2009-12-31T16:41:00.002Z

Happy New Year everyone!! 2009 has been quite an interesting year for me and in some ways I'm sorry to see it go, but hopefully things will continue to move forward into 2010 which could/should make it even better!
I aim to use this blog a lot more for starters. And I'm hoping to become more prolific in the work department. I can't guarantee anything, but I've got plenty of projects currently underway so I'm bound to have something finished in 2010.
Two key projects are my next two film projects; Day 117, which is well underway but slightly in limbo, and a new Zombie short, which I hope to really start working on in January. I also hope to get lots of artwork done and as always, aim to progress my style and ideas.

So I face 2010 with an aggressive smile on my face. Hope you all have a good one too!

Thanks for reading :)

Happy Christmas everybody!

2009-12-23T11:38:00.004Z

Shock, Horror!! I've completed another piece of artwork. I knew this one wouldn't take too long as it's pretty simple. It's an illustration loosely based from the book 'The End of Mr.Y' by Scarlett Thomas (which I'm still reading but have found very enjoyable thus far). Anyway, there's a part in the book that explains that in order for something to happen, in this case the big bang, it needs to be observed by someone, or else it just wouldn't happen. Ergo the old man watching the tiny speck which is about to explode and create the universe, could be God himself. Of cause it begs the question where did the man come from, but those are minor details.

Please visit my gallery page for a better look: mattskilton.co.uk/gallery

And finally, hope everyone has a great Christmas. I will post a new year's message next week :D

Clash of the Titans

2009-12-07T15:40:00.002Z

Well, after two aborted attempts, I've finally finished my third version of 'Perseus'. I'm pretty pleased with it, and apart from some (maybe) minor tweaks, I've decided to call it a day on this one! I will return to Greek mythology in the near future, but my next illustration will be far simpler (well, that depends on how you look at it though as it does feature God, lol). Please check out my gallery page for a better look. Enjoy!

It's December!

2009-12-03T15:05:00.003Z

Blimey, can't believe it's December already. Had a great week just gone, with my good friend, Jule, from Germany paying me a visit. Was a very busy few days and it was really good visiting London despite the bad weather and sheer chaos. I felt quite inspired even. Crazy to think I've hardly been into central London these past couple of years despite it being just down the road.

My aim is to have the Perseus illustration complete by Christmas day (well, hopefully a week or two before - I don't intend working on it literally on Christmas Day). It should be one of my (many) 2010 New Year resolutions to get into some kind of routine so that I can consistently produce new work. But as always, easier said then done.

Good luck everyone with all your Christmas shopping. Mine's nearly done, whoop-whoop!

Updates????

2009-11-23T15:49:00.002Z

I promise I've been working hard on my art work, but it's not looking like I'll have any updates by the end of the month, although I will try. The Perseus illustration is getting there and I'm very happy with it. I've also been working hard on sample pages for our projection manuals at work, which are now done and dusted so we await the verdict from the team. I've also been working on some other bits and bobs but nothing anyone well be that interested in :p

I'm also on holiday (again) from friday and will be busy acting as a tourist guide for a friend who's coming over to stay for a week. And then it'll be bloody Christmas and getting those last few presents sorted. I reckon I've got 60% of my presents already, which sounds highly organised by my usual standards.

Struggling on

2009-11-04T15:35:00.002Z

Hello everyone. Once again sorry for the severe lack of updates. I had been working on a Perseus illustration but it hasn't been going well so will be re-worked. I do have more ideas in the pipe-line, and of cause hope to get cracking with film project 'Day 117' and another zombie short film.

By the end of the month, I promise to have some updates..... promise ;)

Oh so quiet.

2009-09-27T12:09:00.003+01:00

I do apologize for not paying much attention to this blog. Been real busy with lots of stuff (as always). The truth is I don't even have much to report either. Work continues on various projects, one of cause including 'Day 117' but I've also been given the job of re-designing our projection manuals with my fellow co-projectionist, Tom of the house of Inglis.

I've also managed to save my Wacom tablet pen from certain death, and I've even done some artwork to test it out so I do intend to get something done at some point this year (or next).

New project has a name....

2009-08-19T23:07:00.003+01:00

.... Day 117. At the moment that means nothing but it's the name that I quite quickly decided upon for my new project.

The project in question will be a short Star Wars themed film, which (currently) will involve animated digital still photos and no spoken dialogue.

I have already purchased and started to build two model-kits for it, and I've even nearly finished designing the characters and costumes for the film.

As always I will keep everyone updated via this blog. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one will turn out.

Lego Short - The Final Showdown

2009-08-02T23:13:00.004+01:00

This is a short Lego film that I made a few years ago now.

It's an alternative final showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker from Episode III.

It is my plan to make a few more Lego short animations in the future, but for now this will have to wet your appetite.

Introducing my new site

2009-08-02T00:22:00.002+01:00

I've given my personal website a design overhaul. It's now been stripped right back and links nicely with this blog, both literally and aesthetically.

My artwork can now be viewed in a flash powered gallery, although I've greatly reduced the amount of work on display as I feel it's time to move on and produce some new, and hopefully exciting pieces.

Any updates done to the gallery will be published here, so you'll always be the first to know.

Enjoy!

www.mattskilton.co.uk

Changes a-foot

2009-07-13T22:51:00.002+01:00

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've gone for a new layout and colour combo for my blog. I'm currently finally getting round to sorting this and my website out, with the overall plan to merge the two together in some kind of perfect symbiotic love affair relationship.

The main aim is to create a nice new home/index page that will directly link to this and a new gallery site that will allow me to show off my art work and allow you, the user, to easily navigate through. It should be done in 12 months time.... but hopefully much, much sooner!

Filling the void

2009-07-12T00:05:00.003+01:00

I don't have much to say at the moment, but felt like creating a post just to let everyone know that I don't have much to report. I am currently working on a new film project. It's very early days but can't wait to get stuck in. I've already designed a costume for it, and acquired a model kit from Japan. Needless to say I will keep you updated.

Work has been incredibly busy this week, and will certainly be next week too with Harry Potter out. Looking forward to that one I must say, even though it'll be sheer carnage at work because of it.

I do aim to get some new art work completed in the coming weeks, and maybe even sort out a gallery for this blog and/or sort out my website. Argh, so much to do and so little time. Try, I will.

Isolation of the mofozombie.... has arrived!!

2009-07-01T10:53:00.003+01:00

It's been a very busy period over at mofozombie.com, as I've been working very hard to get my zombie film trailer finished. And after starting it last August, it's finally finished. Head over to www.mofozombie.com for the fruits of my hard labour.
And now that it's all done and dusted, I can concentrate on smaller projects which I hope to showcase here in the very near future. Many thanks.

Robots not in Disguise

2009-05-28T13:33:00.002+01:00

Howdy all. Been very, very busy of late, hence the lack of any kind of updates on here. While work has dominated my time, I have been able to sluggishly (sp?) continue working on one of my zombie projects over at mofozombie.com. And because I'm quite pleased with my efforts, I've decided to post it on here too. So without further a-do, here is a big robot:

Twiglet

2009-04-17T13:08:00.004+01:00

I apologize for not updating this blog for a while. The demands of life have prevented me from this, that and suddenly becoming obsessed with the Twilight film that I finally got round to watching on DVD for the first time last week. And I bloody well loved it. Yes, I've started reading the books and can now say I look forward to its sequel at the end of the year. What's happening to me??

I don't even have anything manly to say to make-up for it, other then I now feel competent enough with Final Cut Express to get stuck-in with my latest project (well, it's actually been in development for over a year now). And so far I'm very pleased with the early results.

I do also have a new Batman illustration well in the works, and I hope to do some kind of Clash of the Titans piece to celebrate the filming of the new version due out next year.

Anyway, back to the adventures of Bella and Edward for me.....!

More photos

2009-03-20T17:17:00.003Z

My anorak has gone into over-drive now; I've taken a few more photos of my new car, which can be found on my Alfa Romeo Mito album.

Meanwhile.... I purchased the video-editing software Final Cut Express 4 the other day, in order to breach more into film/animation-based projects, but after installing and opening it up for the first time, I realised it's a bit of a mind field which will require the aid of a guide book to learn my craft. One is on the way so next week I hope to really get stuck-in.

And here she is....

2009-03-17T16:24:00.010Z

Today is the day that the teddy bears had their picnic.... and I picked up my lovely new Alfa Romeo Mito.

It really is lovely. Great to drive, great to look at, great to pose in..... it's great!

If you want to see more photos of her & me, please hit this link:

My Alfa Romeo Mito album

Alfa day, next Tuesday!

2009-03-09T12:34:00.001Z

Next Tuesday (17th March) I shall be picking up my lovely new car.... the Alfa Romeo Mito. I ordered it last December so it's been a long wait but it'll be worth it, oh yes baby. Expect some blatant show-off posing photos next week. Alfa baby yeah!!!

Any zombies out there?

2009-03-06T17:27:00.003Z

Yeeeesssss, I've finally managed to sort out some domain DNS problems (techno-speak to make me sound like I might be quite clever) and I can now official announce the launch of my new website; www.mofozombie.com!

I'm quite excited about this as it allows me to go off in a new direction with my creativity, while managing to preserve the wholesome image and name of Matt Skilton. But worry not, this blog will not suffer as a consequence. I hope to produce work for both, at the same time and maybe even at a regular speed.

So I hope you will enjoy my new site, and continue to enjoy this one too. Happy zombie hunting!

Watched Watchmen

2009-03-05T13:52:00.003Z

Last night I saw the highly anticipated Watchmen film. I read the comic eight years ago when a tutor from art college introduced it to me, so it would be fair to say I've been waiting for this moment for quite a while. And I'm delighted to say that I wasn't disappointed. I think Zack Snyder has done us proud. By no means a masterpiece, it does however greatly respect the comic and manages to handle the storytelling very well, while looking fantastic and ticking many boxes. Well worth seeing.

Meanwhile.... I'm trying to set-up another new blog. I'm having a few technical teething problems though, but I hope to have them fixed with-in a week.

And finally, I'm getting my mountain bike back into shape in preparation for the London-to-Brighton bike ride. I've got new tires and inner-tubes, but it's been a real struggle trying to get the bloody old tires off the rim. I've had to abort that mission and buy some proper tyre levers, rather then our best cutlery set (oops).

Superman.... the end.

2009-02-25T11:08:00.002Z

Here's the first new bit of art work I've done for over 18 long months now. The piece was inspired by an article I read where writer Mark Millar explained his plans for a new Superman trilogy, with the very last scene of the last film portraying Superman as the last living being on Earth, with our yellow sun turning red and going supernova. Sounds amazing and this vision popped into my head after I pondered it.

There can be only one!

2009-02-20T14:05:00.004Z

I've finally completed my DVD boxset collection of Highlander: the series. I purchased my first one in October 2006 so it's taken a fair while, but I've been looking for ages to find a reasonably priced Season Six set and this week I managed to find one on ebay. About a year ago all seasons were pretty easy (and relatively cheap) to get hold of, but now they are far more scarce so I felt it worthy to include on my blog.

I also received my PS3 copy of Street Fighter IV today. Street Fighter II is my all-time favourite game, so the advent of another installment is a pretty big deal. I've had a quick go on it and while it plays like vintage Street Fighter, and looks gorgeous, I'm not so keen on all this focus attack, ultra combo, hyper armour, ex focus, ex special moves, etc, etc business! I'd much rather go for the very simple approach of just one energy bar, regular and special moves. Maybe that just shows my age **sigh**

And finally I got my haircut today. It feels much better now and I will have to update my bio picture.

Haircut

2009-02-15T23:37:00.004Z

I'll be getting my haircut this Thursday. Nothing drastic mind, just a good old trim and boy, do I need it. My hair has gotten far too long. I've been eating it with my dinner these past few weeks. Okay, not major news but it's nice to get it off my chest.

My first post!

2009-02-07T12:34:00.004Z

This is my first ever post on blogger, so I shall start by saying hello and a warm welcome.

I aim to use this blog to keep everyone updated with all the work that I hope to be doing in my spare time. This work will include illustrations, short films & animations, model-kit building and maybe more.

I'll be running this blog in conjunction with a proper website, which I will certainly blog details of in the coming weeks as I work hard putting everything together.

So for now I shall end by saying that I hope you enjoy the future fruits that my blog will bring to you and I look forward to using it too.

Bye for now!