HAPPY CHRISTMAS (i)

Christ! There are eight zeros in the thought bubble...

Plan on reading Cheever's memoirs (or should that be his miscellany of misanthropy?) over Christmas. It's bound to lift the spirits!

Looking forward to whatever dramas 2010 presents after all it can't be any worse than this year... could it?

BBC PROGRESS

We've a lot of work to get through over the next month. By February, I've got to have an entire series outline and scripts written for our 'make or break' meeting with CBBC.

Down to the last four from about four thousand submissions, so very close to a result.

While I've been writing, Henry's been working on character development. Really happy with the darker direction our show is taking.

A lot of work has gone into the project - with major involvement from artists, animators, composers etc. from all over the UK.

Hope to repay them all for their help. But seeing as we're all broke, the only way we can is by getting commissioned.

PEOPLE WALKING IN CIRCLES.

I was cycling around town today looking for see-through shower caps (you'd be surprised what a task this is) and saw loads of people out on strike.

Fair enough, it's a National Day of Protest - but what struck me was that in most cases people marched heads down, shuffling around and around in circles. How passive and mind-numbing is that? 

COWEN RENTS COUNTRY OUT TO PRODUCERS OF 'I'M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE!'

NOTE TO SELF - donate this idea to Dept. of Finance for 2010...

Another (uncoloured) sketch of Fred...

Here's another quick drawing. Not sure about the wallpaper. Who wallpapers their house these days anyway? But then, his mum probably decorated the room. It's a night scene so it'll be interesting to see how I get on with the fall of moonlight. Anyway I better get back to sketching and cleaning up another rhyme. Sending the 'Cribben' manuscript off to a few agents today. Expecting quite a few knock-backs before I get a result. In the meantime might get a read recorded just to work over whatever blemishes there might be hidden. I'm thinking David Kelly will be my first port of call.

More scamps to follow...

I've been having quite a bit of trouble looking for someone to illustrate my book.

Perhaps it's a wayward combination of vanity and indolence or my innate pedantry that has me now working the characters in pen and ink.

The chap above is Fred.

He's a sickly fellow who's come undone on top of a tree with some cats - actually, he was supposed to be saving them but a series of unfortunate events have seen matters take a turn for the worse.

Clearly I need to revisit Fred's head but apart from that it's okay for a first attempt.

A STILTED CONVERSATION...

I'm rubbish on the phone.

Utterly rubbish.

A recent monosyllabic conversation with a Creative Director gave me cause for reflection. Later that night, as my mind was replaying the day in a style reminiscent of Gil Scot-Heron, I got to thinking about men on stilts and the conversations they may or may not also have.

So in the drawing, that's me on the right...in the yellow pants.

RED SOCKS GO MISSING

So this is a really, really rough sketch for a rhyme I've been working on. In short, it's about two socks.

Two evasive socks.

Looking at the washing machine now, I can't explain why it's the colour of a Wibbly-Wobbly Wonder.

Perhaps it's a special washing machine that only washes coloured clothes. How's that for a contrived explanation?

Well it doesn't convince me so it's back to the drawing-board for me, the socks and the washing machine.

The rhyme, however, is a rattling good read and features an angry Great White Shark. Don't know whether I should get it animated or filmed?

If you can recommend any good shark voiceovers contact me.

BBC PROJECT

Here's a fraction of a smidgin of a scintilla of a hint of a story for a piece of animation I've been working on with Henry at studiocheese.co.uk. I think the character movement is great. I hope the BBC chaps back the idea soon.

THE TOUR OF IRELAND...KICKS OFF NEXT WEEK...

Irish cycling gets something of a 'shot in the arm' with the participation of Lance Armstrong in this year's Tour of Ireland.

But if you're out on the road try lending your support to the lads in the Seán Kelly Cycling Academy. I shot this ad with Jason Morgan while they were competing in Mallorca. We didn't have much money but we wanted to get right into the peloton so we had one of Real Madrid's cameramen ride backwards and pillion on a motorcycle.

To save even more money, I found a band from Waterford on MySpace called The Arrangements who had just broken up. We liked their track, and I suppose a few quid and some recognition interested them, so they let us use their track 'It's Alright'. Post was done by Juniper at ScreenScene.

1:2 FEET (and a frog)

I was doodling earlier trying to draw a frog when I had a thought to paint the kid's feet. 

So I did. 

The frog looks pretty cool. So I guess that's mission accomplished. 

However, my search for an Edward Gorey-esque illustrator for my epic rhyme, 'Ernest Cribben: the woeful tale of a dastardly curmudgeon and his inevitable demise', continues. 

Any thoughts, mail me.

KIDS' TV PROJECT

Here's a rough visual from a project I've been working on with Henry Coate at Studio Cheese, Brighton. 

Henry's been busy putting himself about London, and the BBC, in the hope of grabbing some more animation commissions.

From a huge number of submissions to CBBC, this one has made it down to the last few. So right now we're official contenders.

It's been a really interesting project for me - writing for tv is an altogether different challenge to writing a 30-60 second ad... especially when you're dealing with savvy 8 year olds. 

To put some manners on the project, I've just finished outlining the ten, ten-minute episodes. This was fun to do because it helped us define the characters and develop their stories within the series' arc. Fingers crossed it all works out.

IDMA GOLD & BRONZE '09 - WHO'S THE MAMMY?

The polymath Jason Morgan, of Javelin fame, emailed me back in May with news that he and I had won a shiny gold gong at the IDMA's for a DM version of this cheeky press ad for John O'Connor at Independent Radio Sales. 

I also discovered I'd won a bronze for a direct response tv campaign I'd worked on with Cathal O'Flaherty for the National Adult Literacy Association (NALA)* - another clever initiative taken by Mr. Barney Whelan at An Post.  

Anyway, for the Gold - we retained our IRS 'Housekeeper' press copy, packaged it on real wooden spoons and sent it to a selection of media buyers. Simple! We must've piqued plenty of interest because IRS were inundated with calls. 

I miss working on that IRS account with Jason - they're a great client with a heart-warming           attitude to shin-kicking their competitors.

*You can see that series of ads in the tv section of my website: www. cultured-insolence.com. 

  

THE SUN: CANCELLED THIS SUMMER

It's always a pleasure to get a call from Jimmy or Adam at The Hive.

Back in March they gave me the opportunity to have some fun working on The Sun's GAA Championship campaign with fellow Dub's fan Marius Herbert (the Ciaran Duff of art directors to my Joe McNally). 

The positioning we came up with was 'Keep it County with the Irish Sun'. 

For us the line gave us a great platform to demonstrate The Irish Sun's understanding of the GAA and all aspects of inter-county rivalry/mania. 

In short, something unexpected and 'knowing' from what might be described as a  'blow-in' tabloid in hardcore GAA circles. 

Anyway, the press and radio recordings (CSI Louth* - featuring 'The Town's' very own Pat McDonnell) ran for a weekend before getting pulled almost as quickly as a nurse in Copperface Jacks...

*I'll post the mp3 as soon as I can figure how!

I'VE A PAIN IN ME BISCUITS...

I pitched this direction with Kick Communications back in February. 

Luckily, they won the business and the campaign proved really effective for the client. 

Here's what the Sunday Business Post reported: http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MEDIA+AND+MARKETING-qqqs=m

ediaandmarketing-qqqid=41926-qqqx=1.asp

If I'm honest, I think they're fair in their criticism of the lines. 

I can't help feeling that the ones the client chose to campaign were about as flaccid as Jeremy Beadle's right hand.

So what did I learn as a newbie-freelancer?  Well, just as in agency life, there's often a disparity between what's pitched and what goes public. Secondly, when you're freelancing, campaigns don't always take the direction you prescribed or reflect the positioning you intended... but of course all that's forgotten if the client gets a result - in this case, a bump in sales by 30%.

NEW RECRUIT

A quick sketch of the nipper, Senan. He's three weeks old tomorrow. I didn't have a camera when he popped out, so once I got home I drew this character. Right now he's into disruption in a big way, but the TBWA icons would've looked rubbish on his babygrow so I went old-school and chose Anarchy instead.