New Company, New Job, say hi to Wildseed Studios

In the whirlwind of activity since my business partner and I announced our new Company with this feature in WIRED Magazine I have been criminally negligent of my blog.

This comes from being the webmaster for our temporary website, managing director of the company, accountant, para-legal, head of production and operations ....

It's been non-stop since we announced. This week we are in the middle of a 9 day shoot for our first live action sci-fi/horror project. It will start off as web series and we'll see where it goes. It is directed by the outrageously talented Drew Casson who has been making YouTube Videos since he was in his early teens. Here's the vid that caught our eye and made us get in touch with him.

We are also in the last week of production of our first animated project, making the wickedly funny comic strips of Ralph Kidson walk and talk ....

There will be a proper blog post in a week or two when we the dust has settled on the shoot and I am not out of the office for 14 hours a day making lunch and booking extras and filling in health and safety forms and talking to investors ...

Suffice to say that, aside from Jesse (co-founder and creative director of Wildseed Studios and myself) the average age of the people we are working with this week is 19 and the amount of energy they have, the stuff they know, their willingness to do things so very differently is utterly inspiring and I am already proud and very happy to be in business with them.

What this also means is that I am no longer really available as a consultant. Just in case you were wondering.

And here is a link to a great piece in Forbes about what we are doing.

Moving on and Starting-Up

'Do one thing every day that scares you'
Eleanor Roosevelt
US diplomat & reformer (1884 - 1962)

to cheer my dad up, I thought I’d wear a tie on my first day
in my new job, working for myself

Can I ask, Eleanor, if you do something that really, really scares you one day, can you have a few days off being scared afterwards?

I ask because after nine years at Aardman I have decided that it’s time for a new challenge and so today is the first day of the next chapter in my professional career.

I left the Company at the end of June and as of today I work for myself.

I am fortunate to still be working with Aardman as a consultant in a freelance capacity but no longer exclusively.

It was a hard decision to make. Aardman is an amazing Company which has given me extraordinary opportunities to work on world-class projects, meet exceptionally talented people and get involved with huge campaigns.

But, I’m not getting any younger and I still have the energy, time and the hunger for another professional adventure.

For now I am out there as an ‘Independent Media Consultant’. I will be consulting, teaching (which I love) – anything that takes my fancy where I can add value.

At the same time, I’m writing a business plan for my own project. I say ‘project’ to be cryptic for now, partly because I am still figuring out exactly what it is.
It will almost certainly be something that brings together my passions and experience – chief among them digital media, comedy and animation.

It’s an odd time to be getting back into the labour market and looking to raise finance for a new venture. The UK is in a double-dip recession, the Eurozone is flirting with meltdown, banks aren’t lending etc. etc.

But, once the urge gets hold of you to get out there and start something new, there’s no stopping it. It’s like falling in love, it can happen at the most absurd and inconvenient moments.

On the bright side there are plusses to starting a new business venture in a recession, so I’m going to be thinking mostly about these:

• Everything is cheaper in a recession: office space, people, second hand equipment, interest rates
• It’s a great PR story – ‘bucking the trend’, ‘taking matters into your own hands’, ‘beating the odds’
• If you can survive and prosper during the lean times you can flourish as the good times return
• Investors still want to invest, they are still looking for growth stories and solid propositions to get involved with.

Something like half of all start-ups fail within three years. Bizarrely this needn’t be a problem. Apparently your chances of succeeding are significantly increased if you have previously failed as an entrepreneur. I wonder if I should open with that in my investor pitches …

So Eleanor, I’m definitely shit-scared but in the good way that you were talking about. I’m also unfeasibly excited. And you can’t be excited without just a little bit of fear.

To be continued ….

Miles Bullough - Exective Producer

MILES BULLOUGH– EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CREDITS

TV
Squawkietalkie - 6 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C4
Armstrong & Miller Series - 28 x 30 mins - Absolutely for Paramount/C4
Mac - pilot - Absolutely for BBC2
Troma Basement - 16 x 10 mins - Absolutely for Bravo
Barry Welsh is Coming Series - 50 x 30 mins - Absolutely for HTV
Scotland v England - 1 x 30 min - Absolutely for C4
Stressed Eric - 13 x 30 mins - Absolutely for BBC2
The Jack Docherty Show - +/-350 x 40mins - Absolutely for C5
The Preventers- 1 x 30 min - Absolutely for Carlton
Disneytime - 1 x 50min - Absolutely for Disney
The Creatives - 12 x 30mins - Absolutely for BBC2
The Morwenna Banks Show - 15 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C5
Jesus Green - Pilot - Absolutely for C4
The Strangerers - 10 x 30mins - Absolutely for Sky
Trigger Happy TV - 15 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C4
Being Dom Joly - 1 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C4
Dead Air - 1 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C4
Pub Quiz - 19 x 30 mins - Absolutely for BBC
Model Actress Whatever - 1 x 30 mins - Absolutely for C4
The Announcement - 1 x 90min - Absolutely for BBC3
History on Toast - 13 x 2 mins - Absolutely for Disney
Meg and Mog - 52 x 5 mins - Absolutely for CiTV
Creature Comforts - 13 x 10 mins - Aardman for ITV
Creature Comforts USA - 7 x 22 mins - Aardman for CBS
Angry Kid - 1 x 23 mins - Aardman for BBC3
Planet Sketch - 39 x 11 mins - Aardman for CiTV/Teletoon
Big Jeff - 10 x 2 mins - Aardman for 3
The Presentators - 10 x 1 mins - Aardman for Nickelodeon
A Town Called Panic (UK Version) - 20 x 5 mins - Aardman for Nickelodeon
Chop Socky Chooks - 26 x 22 mins - Aardman for Cartoon Network/Teletoon
Shaun The Sheep - 80 x 7 mins - Aardman for CBBC/WDR
Purple & Brown - 20 x 1 mins - Aardman for Nickelodeon
Pib & Pog - 5 x 2 mins - Aardman for AtomFilms
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death - 1 x 30 min - Aardman for BBC
Timmy Time - 70 x 10 min, 2 x 22 mins - Aardman for cBeebies
Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention - 6 x 30 min - Aardman for BBC1

FILMS – SHORTS
Dancing - 1 x 20min - Absolutely for BBC2
Skin & Blister - 1 x 12 min - Absolutely for BBC2
Meat - 1 x 11min - Absolutely for C4
Ramble On - 1 x 5 min - Aardman for SWS
The Pearce Sisters - 1 x 9 min - Aardman

FEATURES
Stella Street [co–EP] - 1 x 90 min - Absolutely for Columbia Tri-star