How much can you do in a year?

So the residency at Ciclic resulted in a first pass at the storyboard and an animatic. All done in 4 short weeks, with some story rewriting along the way. Some people question the value or cost effectiveness of a residency, especially one which takes you overseas. Why not just take the time out at home? Or at least in your own country? I agree there are many beautiful, peaceful and supportive spots where one could attempt this in SA, and I certainly hope more residencies spring up here. There seems to be nothing like an official residency to focus the mind, body and spirit. I look back at my overseas residency where the urgency to get things done, the lack of day-to day distractions, and the effort it took to get there guaranteed the kind of focussed, productive time I wish for again one day.

It has taken me just over a year to get the second draft of the Fairy Wheels animatic done to keep up to date with the script's changes which I did right after the residency. Of course, a deadline helps too. And I'm using this year's Annecy trip as a self-imposed deadline. Knee deep in a new film I'm co-directing and pitching at Animation du Monde and ankle deep on a new short film I'm developing with the NFVF, my focus is shared. But I've always known I have to have more than one iron in the fire. I've learnt a lot of things along the way and the one I want to highlight here is the value of time.

I don't wish unnecessary delays on anyone, but time has given me perspective. I'm able to truly wrap my head around and put into place the wisdom from Benjamin Renner (director of Earnest and Celestine and The Big Bad Fox) "Simplify!" Some scripts have come to me in a flash, fully rounded and written KLAAR (finished) in 15 minutes. (See my film Addicted to Popcorn made in 2006). Some, like Fairy Wheels have relied on input and collaboration from many people: Script editor Julie Hall, storyboard artist Kay Carmichael, producer Nick Cloete, script consultant Matthew Kalil and mentor Benjamin Renner. But it seems sometimes, and in this case for me, time has also helped this story. So whether you are drawing heavily from your inspiration well or struggling through the thicker stuff of the memory well, I wish you all divine timing in seeing your projects come to fruition, even if they happen in a strange order or in a different fashion from your expectations. [image credit: Dan Snaddon]