February was a BIG month for both me and the project.
I celebrated my 36th birthday, I’m still getting settled in at my new job AND had some pretty big developments take place for Millennium Exile; with a sudden influx of work now ahead of me.

Earlier this month, I received my first real rejection trying to pitch Millennium Exile…

It was an extremely large company, and technically I wasn't entirely ready to sit down and officially pitch, even if they were interested. However, I was approached by a member of staff mid-last year, and introduced to several people within the company. Eventually, my materials were handed over to the head of original content and told that someone would be contacting me sometime early 2020.

Well, that day came…....on my birthday of all days hahaha.
It was so disappointing.

The email informed me that the timing wasn't right for their company to make my type of story. I was also specifically told not to read into anything more than that, and to take their words quite literally.
The company just wants to focus on different genres at this point in time but urged me to stay in contact.

Now, although I'm sad, this is definitely not a bad experience…in-fact, just the opposite.
This experience is more valuable than most realise and therefore, something I really wanted to share.

I always knew this would be tough, and you don't attempt to get into this industry without expecting rejection, hurdles and hardship. Far better stories than mine have been rejected for far less.
And honestly, I have way too much respect for the industry to just think I could just luck my way into it on my first attempt.

Never the less, rejection never feels great, and this is a dream I've worked damn hard to try and achieve for a long time.

I took a hit and got my ass knocked down.
Thankfully though, I'm quite experienced in smiling with dirt in my teeth.

I replied to the email, thanking them immensely for their considerations and requested any advice/feedback that may have held me back in this instance. But regardless if I get a response or not, this is a valuable experience and an awesome time to put some polish on this project and take it to the next level.

To all my fans and supporters, your faith and kindness won't stop here with a mere bruised ego. Some of you have even donated your hard-earned money to support this dream of mine, and it only gives me more determination to keep moving forward.

The way I see it, every ceiling put over my head is made of glass.
No matter how thick, or how long it takes me,
I'll keep smashing my way through.
Just who in the hell do you think I am?

Much love guys.

Yep, that’s right…earlier this week I taught at another school and these kids were over-the-top excited!

As I walked through the school grounds, I heard children in the higher grades talk among themselves about Millennium Exile, with some asking for a selfie hahaha. For someone like me, who hasn't even made anything officially yet, it's a surreal experience....I'm so very grateful.

Despite it being an all-boys school, an 8-year-old girl got special permission to come for this one class and her mother told me that her daughter cried when she found out she could go. It was awesome seeing her mixing it up with the older kids and even out-drew a good number of them! :)

One of the kids even drew me as I taught the class. It was so great to see so many of our youth interested in Anime.

Okay, so….
As I mentioned earlier, Millennium Exile got rejected for the first time and I’m taking this as an opportunity to further improve my demo reel and pitching materials. Growing from adversity and learning from your experiences is the very essence of failing forwards.

I showed the current cut of my demo reel to a new test group and got some really good feedback regarding the Meister Lord markings. It was suggested that these stills looked too out of place compared to the rest of the footage.
Great Scott, they were right!
Well, off to the drawing board…

After playing around with a few concepts, I decided to go with a stylized noir approach to displaying the markings.
I really like these designs, and I personally feel they are MUCH more relevant, now hinting at just who the Lords are who possess them. Elmer came back on-board to help out and I’m so grateful for his help, despite his busy work schedule :)

Only two have been completed so far, but what do you think?

Old Versions:

New Versions:

Furthermore, I reached out to a good friend who was so kind as to put me in touch with a professional video editor, who’s had more experienced gigs than I’ve had hot dinners lol. The editor looked over my materials and suggested that we cut things down. 24 hours later, we were back in a conference call comparing notes. I was happy to see that we both decided to cut the same things, and he has successfully got the Demo Reel down from 6 minutes to a little over 4!

The editor is extremely talented, so we will be working closely together and I’m really looking forward to seeing what magic he can do.
I’m also working on getting a new score to accompany the revamped footage, but all this is costing me a pretty penny.

I’m so very grateful to everyone who has supported to project thus far, however now we need one last push…
I would never ask anyone who has previously donated to contribute even more, but if there is anyone out there who supports this project and would like to see it succeed; I would ask for your support at this crucial time. The Patreon, while still fairly strong; has dropped in numbers substantially over the Christmas period. The closer I get to being pitch ready, the harder it becomes to retain Patreon numbers, as the amount of content going out to the public slows down drastically.

If anyone can help, I would be forever grateful and your names will go into the art-book upon it’s publication. I’m also looking into developing a section of the website, dedicated to the amazing fans who have contributed.

This month, and by popular demand, Hary reworked Zero.
This looks so good, I’m really happy with the result…Kyo’s up next!

As always, I'd like to thank the following amazing Patrons from the bottom of my heart: