Cats in the water. Only, with no cat.

Apart from being more dynamic than the average episode, this month's issue of Calachurras contains one of my favourite moments of the series. It's what scriptwriting "guru" Blake Snyder (one of the most important people in my life :-o even though I never actually met him) calls a "Save the cat" moment. Hope you like it too!

Also, it's been 6 months now since we started! And hey, it will soon be Xmas, so a lot to celebrate! :)

The storytelling masters

Finally! Pixar's is going for "Best Picture" at the next edition of the oscars with "Toy Story 3". Not "Best Animated Picture", which they should already get by default, but the big "Best Picture" award.

And in my always humble although occasionally loud and overexcited opinion, if Pixar wants the Oscar they should be able to just have it. Not only is TS3 the best movie of this year (and one of the best movies of all time), when it comes to making movies, there really is no one else better than Pixar.

The audience has spoken, TS3 is the biggest box office hit of the last months. But of course, this can't be the only reason. It is a long time ago now that Pixar has gone beyond the boundaries of animated movies to find themselves a place between those who can tell stories better than the rest. Better, in fact, than anyone else. Pixar's professional policy to create only the best stories and to care for the audience is worth this award and more. It is not very often that one sees grown-ups laughing out loud, jumping at the edge of their seats and then crying their eyes out in the same movie. That's the emotional journey that we should always get with our ticket, and that sadly we don't. Why? Pixar are those guys who haven't forgotten what a good story well told should be like.

Oh. And trying and compare it with "Inception" is just obscene. There, I said it.

Calachurras character cards

For those of you that are following Calachurras, here is the first instalment of the characters cards that will make it all clear! Maybe.

What is CALACHURRAS?

Still making a lot of people guessing, doubting where it's going and just plain making them angry, the uncommon story of Calachurras keeps going and reaches its 5th episode this month (fact of which my bro and me, the Eskimo Effect combo, are chuffed about).

If you have never seen Noses and Ears fight, if you don't know who Mr Progress and Mr Maker are, or have never seen a brave 3-arm creature face a dangerous churra... well, you've never read Calachurras.

Sort it out here! Or not.

My hardly interesting thoughts on the latest Tron poster

Just saw that yet another Tron "2" poster is out. I thought it might be "interesting" to write my thoughts on it. It obviously wasn't. But here they are anyway.

"There's that hot girl again, sure worth watching 2 hours of film..."

"And that other guy, no idea who he is..."

"Where's that Bridges bloke? Wasn't he gonna be in this as well?"

"Oh, I remember those flying things from the first one. Cool".

"Oh, look. In fucking 3D again. As if it mattered".

"Yeah, she definitely is hot. Good choice".

"The script must be BRILLIANT too. Probably".

:(

The Sleeper Effect - First trailer

I find the trailer below very exciting for several reasons:

- It's a serious sci-fi project, executed by very passionate people.

- Doesn't tell you the whole story (as it's happening more and more frequently with trailers these days).

- I'm involved production and graphics wise.

- The best stuff is not even there!

- It has absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter.

Hope you find it exciting too. And if you do, what the hell, here's some more stuff.

Love.

Go Google! - Contact importing now

You should already have a Gmail (Google) account.

Really. It is the best thing you can do if you don't have your own domain and want to look professional. Also, Google accounts are easier to manage. hotmail, yahoo, etc.. they can all be a bit of a nightmare to spam-filter or sometimes even to find your Inbox! Plus they look kind of dodgy from a professional-ish point of view.

Also, you look cooler when giving out a gmail address. AND sexier.

Yes, you guessed it:

they ALL use gmail.

And since they have now made made available a feature by which you can import your contacts from your previous account (and most providers are supported) you can now change email address in 4 easy steps:

1. - Create yourself a gmail account
2. - Import your contacts from your old terrible soon-to-be-forgotten account
3. - Email all your contacts to let them know about it
4. - Be happier! :)

Voilá. Your old msn/yahoo/whatever is now an empty useless shell.

I know what you are going to say. People may still email you at your old account. When you move houses, you can always take steps to receive correspondence from the old address, but at the end of the day people may not listen and keep visiting at your old place. Which is just silly.

No, they won't be visiting you.

Or emailing you, for that matter.

Of course, if feeling nostalgic you can still visit your old account now and then. That way you can also tell any confused/slow friends AGAIN you already changed your email address. Obviously, if they keep persisting on emailing you there, you'll just have to stop being friends with them.

Love Google.

The Sleeper Effect

TSE is a sci-fi web series based on a daring concept with its own visual style. It takes place in Manchester in a worryingly close future.

It is not often one gets to get involved in a project that one genuinely loves and that exudes so much passion. Hope that shows in the 4 teasers below (corresponding to the 4 main characters) and hope you love it too.

We will be done filming the pilot in about 1 month time. Then off to editing it together put it out there and look for funding for completing the series. You can follow the progress on the Facebook page, including regular video blogs full of energy and enthusiasm :) There isn't a website yet, but there will be soon.

Beth

Ryhs

Glenn

Mac

Never write on napkins

I realise with horror that I haven't posted any nonsensical posts in nearly 2 weeks. So just a quick one to try and save my soul from the particular circle of hell where all those bloggers who don't write on their blogs for so long rotten in -surely-.

Right now I have several piles of paper of all sorts on my desk. Paper with little notes on it, that is. Torn notepads pages, half-torn notepads pages, post-it notes (in several colours). Supposedly full of powerful ideas for the different comics and films I have in progress, silently looking at me with the promise of something genius. Or at least bearable.

Like the dodgy-looking man in the even dodgier-looking picture.

In fact most of it is just gibberish, or senseless scribbling. Or both. I could probably set the whole pile on fire and I'd never miss it. Oddly, I think I'd probably get some delight out of it too. However, my mind tells me there probably is something of value there. Or something I somehow, at some past point in time, I thought to be valuable. "Why would I spend time on them otherwise?", I reason misleadingly.

The moral would be: set your notes on fire regularly rather than let them taking over most of your space. OR not. Up to you, really. And try and copy those notes into your computer more often. Obvious? Well, next post may make some sense then.

Expectations versus Experience

In the words of William Goldman, "nobody knows anything". It's interesting how sometimes you go watch a film expecting brilliance and finding disappointment, or the other way around. You never know. The fact that it may happen at all levels -and with any budget- is to me kind of refreshing, and I just wanted to give a quick example with 3 of the latest films I've seen.

Inception: A film I couldn't wait to see and that most people seem to love for reasons that escape my comprehension. A superb idea brought down by the unnecessarily numerous rules imposed by the writing and the endless explanatory movie-stopping sequences. Dreams where possibility is purely a reflection of physical forces and not human, limitless imagination. A spectacular visual effect-packed feast wasted in a merely passable experience. An experience, however, instantly turned into religious dogma by the touch of Saint Christopher Nolan, the man who made the first realistic superhero movie (apparently, the ones before don't seem to count) and became a god in the process. In short, you expect 9, get just a 5... Oh well.

The A-Team: A film I wasn't so excited about but I HAD to see (it's the A-Team, yey!). You can tell has been done for the fans, crafted with love and respect for the original characters and the TV series. Not perfect at all, but thoroughly enjoyable. See? Expect 4, get at least 8! Lovely.

And of course there's Pixar. As usual, beyond any labels or classifications. You expect 10, you usually get 12. Damn it, Toy Story 3 is a film so brilliant that makes you both laugh out loud and cry your eyes out in less than 2 hours. A story that you experience intensely, caring about the characters and living it all with them. That's what cinema should be all the time! All that despite being a 3rd part. A 3rd! Seriously, who else can make not a great 3rd part, but even an acceptable one?

You can't beat Pixar. That's the moral here, I guess. Or maybe not.