Dave Working in Narnia

There's a lot of confusion about Dave and his position at Framestore in Soho, London, England. I'll do my best to summarize how it all came about.

Dave has a friend, Peter, who told Dave that Framestore was looking for someone who knew a computer animation package called Houdini. Dave not only works with Houdini, but he used to teach classes on Houdini. Peter was in London working on the movie based on the second book in the Chronicles of Narnia ("The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was the first book) called "Prince Caspian." When Dave found out the job was working on a C. S. Lewis book, he had to know more!

For those of you who may remember, Dave interviewed for an animation position on "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" a few years back at Sony Pictures. Because he has zero film experience, he couldn't get on. He almost accepted a job working on another film just to gain film experience, but it's not film Dave wants to do. It's been a dream of his to make a movie based on The Chronicles of Narnia for almost 30 years, since he was in high school. He even wrote those who had the rights to the books (quite few years ago) to find out if he could make a movie based on them. They said no.

Several years have passed and Dave still has his dream to work "in Narnia." When Dave told me about the job in London, we knew he had to pursue it! Whatever it took, we had to do it.

Dave had a few strikes against him, including zero film experience. BUT the fact that Peter highly recommended him, he knew Houdini, AND the gal he interviewed with at Sony Pictures a few years ago was now working for Framestore, he had a chance.

Negotiations with Framestore took place in a very short time frame, his current job with Northrop arranged for him to work part time from London, Dave got his papers in order (work permit, Visa, passport, etc.), the five of us got our passports, we rented our house a week before we left (thanks Ron and Cindy!), and we flew. It was a whirlwind departure.

Dave arrived in London a month before the kids and I got here. He found us a place to rent (no easy task) where we all spent our first few nights in an empty house full of love and totally happy that we were finally together again. Dave and I took a couple of trips to IKEA to get mattresses, bedding, kitchen supplies, two kitchen table and chair sets (one for the kitchen and one for Dave's desk), two book cases, and a chair - my chair. : ) When we save up enough money, we'll get a couch.

Dave was hired by Framestore to work on the river god, a character in Prince Caspian. Water is the most difficult subject to animate, so he was thrilled to be able to take on the challenge. He and a fluctuating team of eight to nine people who worked on the river god sequence for several weeks. To everyone's surprise, another company (Scanline in Germany) was also working on the river god. The other company knew Framestore was working on the river god, but Framestore didn't know they were also working on him. For three weeks, Dave and the team worked around the clock to create the best river god they could. Every other day, they were told they'd know if they got the piece or not. That went on for three weeks.

Finally, they all got the news. On the 19th of November at 5:01pm, I got this email from Dave: "Just got word, we lost the river god. Talk to you soon."

Again, we raised the situation up in prayer and waited. We were up for whatever God had planned.

Today, the 20th of November at 4:03pm, I got this email from Dave: I just had a wonderful chat with Fiona. She said that they were hoping I would stay and that there is a short list of people they want to keep on for Prince Caspian and I'm at the top of the list. She was concerned that I was here for the river god specifically, and that since we didn't have that anymore, that I might want to leave. But when I explained that I was here for Narnia in general, she was quite happy and said that fundamentally, nothing would change, just the content of what I am working on. Woo Hoo!

Dave's status with Framestore hasn't changed, just his assignment. He's gone from FX TD on the river god sequence to FX TD on Prince Caspian in general. He'll know more towards the end of the week how many shots he'll have and specifically what is involved. They still need to sort out their staffing issues.

Is that so cool or what?!? Dave didn't ask to work on the river god, he just wanted to work on Prince Caspian. Since the river god is in Prince Caspian, he took it. Now, he gets to stay with Prince Caspian and live out his dream. Simply awesome.