How the job of a children’s photographer
took me to the jungle of the game developer…
First of all – let’s talk about my studio Woodlime.
What we do now? Well…
1. Creative, working with sound, design, computer games and even full-length movies
2. Development of games, scenarios and dub. (additional voices and acting base)
3. Posters, wallpapers, banners and other stuff, including trailers, commercial and promo clips.
Well, we can go on!
It’s hard to believe, but my first job – is a simply photographer. Once I was interested in photography. I shot (wow, what a word) smiling children and their proud parents, I captured sunsets and sunrises from dusk till dawn, I really tried to find my style in photos of gothic ladies and modern witches. I raised my level of skills, like in some RPG. The work of the photographer brought me a lot of pleasure and gave me truly emotions … but soon it all went downhill.
My soul was seized by another desire. By guilty pleasure. By something new. It became boring for me to spend time just behind the lens. And I found something unexplored. Truly hard – and from that even more attractive. The photographer’s profession no longer lifted me to far sky heights, like in the good old days. Even the impressive profits could not rekindle the flame of interest in me – coz I’ve been always a creative person, far from the cold and calculating worldview of a businessman. I was more interested in constant development. Self improvement. And the pictures no longer seemed to me as unconquered Everest. The game is over, there are end titles.
Every day and every night I threw myself new creative challenges. Like Icarus, I was ready to soar into the sky and fly to the Sun, if it gave me inspiration! Just a little! But don’t think that I suffered from a Messiah complex – in fact, I was always very self-critical to my work and never considered them unique or kind of. Simply, like any artist, actor, director, or other creative personality, I wanted to realistically realize my own vision of beauty. And form wasn’t important to me. But content was. My worst enemy – and at the same time the most sincere critic – is my perfectionism. Because of my maniacal desire to bring everything to road of perfection, and readiness to improve the finished work almost to infinity, I rarely remained satisfied with my creative attempts… yeah, that was bad days. Same old story, you know. Sometimes I felt really shitty. And that were one more knife to the one that already stuck in my heart. But it was necessary to move on – despite any regrets. Move on. Without fear.
One of my hobbies (at that time) was the profession of the operator. In it,
I reached certain heights, and soon found myself in the field of view of the organizers of
the exhibition, called simply: “Film Industry”. In 2015, I happened to get to it in the “Palace of Youth”,
where I’ve got not only bright impressions, but I was able to communicate with the media, present
my most successful work, and moreover – to declare myself a huge audience of all ages. That was amazing! That was like a dream!
Surrounded by experienced studio workers, like a lone soldier behind the enemy lines, I didn’t break under pressure – and turned the exhibition into an entertainment ground, where for long four days I held various master classes and thematic competitions. In this way, I not only attracted visitors and journalists to our stand, but I was able to leave a trace in the history of the exhibition (of course, with the friendly hands of my talented and young support team) – fresh and daring ideas came from me like a firework.
And then I discovered a big movie.
I will not dwell on how I studied and practiced the basics of directing, dramaturgy and acting. The main thing – I set out to make a movie. Not a pointless studio crap without soul and inspiration, but crazy and fantastic view. Based only on that raging and burning sea of ideas that swarmed in my head and needed to be splashed out – right on the screens.
And here I was faced with barricades at the time. Budget constraints. Special effects. Suitable locations for shooting. Even among the actors, there were few genuine talents – and that’s all. Almost no diamond shone in the pile of broken glass…
Since then, my script is waiting for an hour when I will return to it ready to go to the very end. To the final of my long and brightly daydream.
At the moment, I have very impressive stock of props and technology, with which it is possible to make a film. “Six-string Samurai,” “In Bad Taste,” and “Monsters” is another proof of this. Yeah, these was a trash movies, but who cares? I really love movies, like «Iron Sky», «Robocop», «Star Gates», «Lexx» and others, and others. I like flying of fantasy, I like retro and steampunk, I like sci-fi and space operas. Now I have not only a shooting pavilion with the notorious “green screen”, but also a recording studio with the latest equipment, and even a small office where we can create games! Yes, yes and another one yes!This is another of my passions! Now my house is a huge creative platform, which needs only one thing. Well, actually more than one. Talents. After all, being alone, I’m unlikely to get all the work on myself. But, no matter what, I will create games, make movies and produce music. I’ll do it. I want to make my works, like the best works of Kubrick and Fellini, to look like separate worlds, with the interesting and unlikely characters, with deep storylines – deep, like an oceanic abyss. Personal dramas, fates and tragedies will be intertwined into a single whole, and all for the sake of one goal – your pleasure, mates.
Trust me – I have really insane vision of art. Without improving of my skills, I can’t feel myself normal. I must go straight forward, I must do something unbelievable and original. That’s who I am – the artist of my mad dreams and fantasies. True, I never did and will not do “pop garbage”. For this, there are enough other creators of “pop art”. I’m afraid that my specific vision of history will not suit everyone. I’ve never done something popular. All my projects – photos, games or movies – are not designed for a wide consumer, coz I have a bizarre vision of my characters. Even the wardrobe for them I mostly bought or created myself (even from improvised materials). How would you like a self-made crossbow? Or a miracle cannon with a stuck kitchen knife instead of a bayonet? Oh, I’m afraid “Mad Max” left an indelible impression in my mind… And this is not counting a lot of costumes, hats, gas masks, glasses and other steampunk attributes!
As if it was not enough for me to work as a main director, casting director and sound engineer, I also volunteered for the role of game developer – thanks to my cinema and video experience. And of course – literature. My finances are limited (of course), but there is enough fuse for ten Hollywood studios. If you knew how much time I spent on casting, finding suitable types, the design of everyone and everything in my own fantasy world, embodied so far only on the script sheets…
But damn it, I did something to the end! I can present my own project! And this is my game Bubbles! You can read about it in one of the sections of our site (oh yeah, the site is also my brainchild).
Now, I have all resources and technical effects for making really creative, exclusive and quality content of all kind – from video (trailers, promo-clips, commercial) and audio (sound design, instrumental, OST, etc.) to big projects, like movies and computer games.
A great journey begins with the first step. I made them already a thousand – and a million more ahead. But I’m going ahead.
I hope, we’ll see you again!
