It’s part of the job to have to pull an all nighter every once in a while. Deadlines have to be hit and time has an annoying habit of not slowing down when the pressure is on. I’ve done my fair share of all nighters so here is my guide to making it to the morning in good spirits.

1. Have a good playlist set. Make sure you have some tunes that are going to keep you awake and limit those chillax tracks for when you’re just about to finish.

2. Have a good hot pot of coffee brewed and midnight snacks prepared.

3. Keep the end in sight. Never do an all nighter early on in a project. (Not sure why you would ever need to.)

4. It is much easier if you’re enjoying the job. Nothing sucks more than an all nighter on a project you wouldn’t even show your Nan.

5. If you are working an all nighter on a job which sucks then make sure you’re getting paid the over-time. Counting the cash you’ve earnt will help that 4am pass a little easier than a swallowed fork.

6. Switch on your preferred social network. It’s good to chat and someone is always up and working amongst the online community.

7. Except madness usually sets in around 3am but leaves in time for disillusionment to set in around 4am. Eat some more of the midnight snack and brew another coffee to get you throw to bird call.

8. Enjoy the sunrise. Hey, it’s not often you’ll see it. Might as well enjoy it.

It’s been a good year. Lots of great things have happened in 2010. The best, obviously being the birth of my daughter, Laila Sapphire. I have always had a bucket list, since before the film came along, and tried to tick off at least one a year. Recently I came across ‘A list of Awesomeness’ – which is basically, rather than a list of want’s to do’s, it’s a list of appreciations for…

So here are a few of mine.

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My daughter (When she laughs, smiles, snuggles on my shoulder to sleep)

Watching my wife and daughter playing and laughing together

My wife’s Sunday roasts

Getting nominated for an IVCA and AMA award

A piping hot coffee first thing in the morning

Discovering a new album that just makes you feel happy when you listen to it.

LookListenFeel being promoted at OneDotZero

Exporting out a file with ‘Final’ in the title

Putting up the Christmas tree

An email from a client or producer saying ‘Well done, good job’

Walking in the woods near where we live when the sun is at it’s golden hour and I have my camera with me.

Buying yourself a treat (usually a gadget)

Cream teas

That first Friday pint after a hard weeks work with good friends

When my wife says she ‘Loves me’

That feeling you get when watching a great film.

Dinner out with my girls

Dinner with friends

Powering up the mac early in the morning where an awesome project awaits me

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The big project recently was for IBM. I worked with the same team that made the IVCA award winning films for Actelion and who I worked with on the Vodafone project recently. This time it wasn’t at the Edge but with commercial company Glover Films. We had 2 weeks to deliver 4 films and a title sequence with a pretty open brief. Richard Crombie (Dir) shot the amazing footage which follows a number of IBM employees as they contemplate IBM’s future and the company. The concept was that through all the chaos of information and data that we consume, there is a simpler and more effective way to approach things. To illustrate this Paul Trewartha and myself developed the use of light particles and explosions which triggers data streams. The results worked really well and the extreme depth of field within each shot really helped sell the effects. Practically each shot had effects added and within only 2 weeks, we had our work cut out. Paul also edited everything while I created the title sequence. The films were shown for a huge IBM global conference and according to the event organisers went down really well.

Before she was born and inspired by my good friend Gerry Alexis I decided to photograph my daughter every day for 365 days till her 1^st birthday.

Here are the first 28 days of Laila’s life.

I created an animated film for a very worthwhile charity DKMS for a special night they were putting on to help raise more awareness and funds to help with it’s fight against Leukemia.

I also finished work on the new brand film for Coty Perfumes. This time I managed to bag some of their product too for a shoot. The producer and I will have Xmas sorted this year for sure.

I’ve also been working on the animated film for Land Rover which is yet to be released, but while at Tangerine Films I was asked to create a new promo for Jaguar’s futuristic concept car C-X75. The twist was I had the client hand cuffs removed. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth i always say! (oddly, as I’ve never had a horse as a gift before). The outcome is on my front page this month.

I’ve also been pitching quite a lot on some TV show title sequences, more on that as it develops.

Awesome news… OneDotZero has accepted ‘LookListenFeel’ into it’s ‘Adventures in Motion’ International Festival. It will be included in the Sprites showcase which is on Sunday 14th Nov at BFI Southbank. I’m very excited by this news as it’s the first time I’ve been accepted into a festival and OneDotZero has to be one of the finest.

Sunday 29th August happens to my wedding anniversary, which is the reason this date is marked in my calendar. Why it should be on your calendar is that a show I worked on for BBC1 called ‘Trackers’ is on at 22:25pm. It’s all about tracking people, their relatives and your money. It’s an emotional story and there is a possibility it’ll become a series if it’s well received. Tell me what you think. I’m pretty pleased with these graphics. I was playing around with depth of field a lot in after-effects on this project. You also might spot some of my website code in the scrabbled message at the beginning. Can’t beat a little bit of subliminal marketing!