Devils started out in the skies between Sydney and London. I’d spent years trying to get into film after five years studying animation, followed by seven years working in games. Finally I got an opportunity to work on my first film for a meager four months or so in Australia. The risk I’d taken to walk away from my games job to do this seemed immense at the time, and it was meant to be the beginning of something big. But what I came back with wasn’t an incredible new reel or a foot in the door at a film studio, I wasn’t rich, and I hadn’t learned much more to further my animation skills. Instead I came back with an insight into how much further I had to go, how much harder I had to work, how much more I had to climb to get to where I wanted to be. But I also got a glimpse into how much competition there was and how far I’d fallen behind the curve. I’d left University at a level I felt was well above the norm… later in life you realize that’s how a lot of bright graduates feel only to be crushed by the real world. In my case, I’d walked into a big company in the countryside that acted like a protected bubble and I had no idea just what I was missing elsewhere in the world. I worked for seven years away from good internet access, before broadband was really taking off. I had an email address, but I was lucky if I checked it once a week! Those few months working amongst so many animators inspired me to take an even bigger series of risks. On the plane coming back from Sydney, I put aside the feature length story I’d been toying with over the years, and started dreaming up ideas for something I was actually going to be able to make, and the inspiration for ‘Devils, Angels & Dating’ was born.
I think i know that big company in the countryside that acted like a protected bubble!