Just had a great conversation with a creative and funny fellow with whom I am engaged to do a project of which -- naturally it seems these days -- I may not speak in detail. Actually, there are several people with whom I am working upon this latest whirlygig, and what an absolute delight it is that they are all 1) funny 2) smart and 3) adept. You always want that when you take a job, that your collaborators have the wherewithal to run and gun at least as fast as you can. Sometimes, that doesn't happen; you always make the best of it anyhow, but when the slot machine's wheels whirl and you can feel the bars about to line up?
Such a delight you just have to wave it around: Look! Look! How cool is this?
Of course, as the cynical voice in the back of my mind always allows, the world turns, you never know how things will wind up in the end, don't go off babbling about how that glass is half-full and not half-empty, fool! -- but still; there are some projects that start out iffy and you know they aren't likely to get better. When you have one that starts out great? Might not be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but for now, at least, there is a rainbow.
C'mon, Steve, come clean with us.
ReplyDeleteAll this talk about secret projects and things you can't discuss is just an attempt to drum up interest, isn't it?
(Just kidding... though the teasers are kind of cruel!)
I think Steve's working his way up to an IPO. At least that's how we do it in my indutry...
ReplyDeleteWhen I do my own stuff, I can blather on about it endlessly. If I'm working with somebody in a shared-world or tie-in, there are good reasons why such projects are kept hush-hush. In the realm of industrial espionage, sometimes being able to hit the market a few weeks or even days before a competitor can make the difference between a success or a failure.
ReplyDeleteRecall there were guys offering ten grand for an hour with a iPad a week before it hit the racks?
Most of the time, when we are talking about this stuff, it really won't matter. I did a tie-in for an animation movie once and wasn't brought onboard until the movie was almost done. It was cell animation, which meant it took years to get that far, and if somebody else wanted to steal their thunder, they were too far back to possibly catch up. But even so, they wouldn't let me have a video of the footage even though I signed an NDA.
Now and again, it does matter, and I always play it straight when I'm party to this. If you develop a rep as somebody who can do the work and keep your mouth shut, you tend to get more work.
Me, I never say more than my bosses offer for public consumption.
If you blab? You get fired and not rehired. Some big name franchises sometimes leak phony information just to see if it will show up in public, and when it does, they know who to nail.
The glass isn't "half full" or "half empty".
ReplyDeleteThe glass is a crude but effective weapon.