Month: March 2009

Why You Blogging?

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I’m just full of questions these days, aren’t I?

So I guess I’ve started a bit of a series here. Sorta.

It started with watching what you do on the internet so you don’t look like an ass. Then it was about being lost and found on the internet.

And because I still have more to say about the whole portfolio/blogging thing, I will.

First, a bit of a disclaimer.

I’m not picking on anybody in particular. You can turn off that tiny paranoia button. I’m just talking out loud and all of this is just ‘food for thought’.

I’m not talking to other ‘bloggers’ here (OK, Friar? 🙂 ). People who blog because they like to write about whatever. That’s awesome. Keep doing it if it makes you happy. Read no further.

I’m talking to the young animation artist (or any professional artist for that matter). The artist that has a blog up on a free service like Blogger. Because there are a LOT of you. It’s to you I pose this question and offer some advice.

Why do you have that blog?

There could be many reasons.

  • Is it just a fun thing to update family and friends to what you’re up to?
  • Is it a place to discuss your favorite movies, comics and animation?
  • Is it to show off your latest sketches and share some fun videos you found?

If it’s any of those, feel free to keep doing what you’re doing. Those are the perfect reasons to have a blog. That’s putting the blogging platform to good use. Enjoy and have fun.

But.

  • Is it your internet ‘business card’ to showcase your portfolio and your resume?

Then that free Blogger blog (that looks so much like everyone else’s Blogger blog) may not be the best place to do that. And if you’ve combined this reason with any of the first three questions I posed, you might want to think twice about mashing it up all together.

Finally, do you have a Blogger blog just because everyone else has one?

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Why You Hiding?

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So a few weeks back I wrote about your internet presence and how it can bite you in the ass.

About what would happen if you Googled yourself and some nasty, embarrassing stuff showed up that you can’t erase. Not so good.

But there’s a flip side to that.

Last night my manfriend wanted to show me a blog of a colleague of ours. He’s been in the animation business for a very long time and is super talented.  And apparently he has a little blog where he posts up some work and writes stuff now and then.

You know. Like you might be doing.

So we Googled him.

I found some politician in Australia, and a few entries that might have been him, but no blog. My manfriend then remembered he called his blog something else, it wasn’t under our colleague’s own name.

Which is fine. But my manfriend couldn’t remember the other name.

I went searching again today and found a site that mentioned his business name. So I went on the lookout for that and I finally found his blog. He used the business name before the blogspot.com.

So it didn’t really take too long when I knew what to look for.

But it got me thinking.

What about you?

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Lazy Lessons for the Week

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You know you’re getting old (*points at self*) when you’re going along your merry way and all of a sudden you look up and say, “Waa? A whole friggin’ week has gone by? How did that happen?”

Then you realize you haven’t got a clue what to write about in your little blog yet still feel the need to post something. Anything.

Now, I could post about how I don’t have anything planned and humbly apologize and say I’ll have something super-awesome-keen next week and please don’t leave me sob, sob, sob.

But that would be stupid.

And lame.

So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do. I searched the internet for other stuff to show you and get my lazy ass off the hook.

Ta da!

So here’s what I scrounged up discovered. And they’ve all got a neat ‘teach-y’ feel to them too.

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The ‘Coraline’ Effect

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© 2009 Laika Entertainment.

I took my little ten year-old companion to see ‘Coraline‘ last weekend.

So why not give my two cents about it? (Plus, I didn’t know what else to write about this week.)

Much like my little review of ‘Igor‘, I won’t be going the normal ‘movie review’ route. As in, no story synopsis and naming all the people involved and all that. You can search that stuff on Google.

I prefer to talk about the experience of seeing the movie. First impressions. My impressions. Story stuff.

But not give it all away or anything.

I have not read the book or the graphic novel. I went in cold with no expectations.

And I have only seen it once. When I watch a movie for the first time, I’m all in ‘viewer mode’ and not thinking too much like a storyboard artist or industry person. I like to let that go and just watch.

And hopefully enjoy.

I enjoyed.

While I can name a whole whack of things that stink about going to a matinee full of kids with a kid, sometimes it’s a delight.

This time was a delight. Yippee.

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