Reflection Time

 So, there we have it - "Feeling Sheepish" has been released to the world and seems to have gone down well. And that's good! Believe me - I kept wondering whether it would be well received, whether I still had it, and even if anyone would care. But there have been some very nice things said in the comments which has made it all worthwhile.

There was a lot going on for this project. Visually, the sets were much improved, and I hope to continue this with future episodes. They'll never be perfect as space at home is limited, but I will make good where I can. The story was properly written and re-written too, with several draft versions before we reached the script for the final cut (which was actually tweaked during the recording session, led my Michael Evans of ThomasFan8 fame.) I had originally intended Thomas and Duck's roles to be reversed, but I was quite drawn to the idea of Duck getting into a scrape for a change.

Overview of the Market Station set.
The bin and boxes would be used to prop
up the sky backdrops.

Now, this episode's existence can almost be accredited to one thing. Some months back, MKTheInstrumentalist released an edit of Duck's theme without the iconic lead. There was something about this piece that instantly captured my imagination - I couldn't help picturing Duck on a journey somewhere after a scene with another engine, and that got my mind thinking; who, what, where, when and why? The segment of Thomas and Duck heading to their respective jobs had originally been edited to that piece of music, but ultimately I decided I would try something risky - commissioning an original score.

As is no doubt well-known by now, the fabulous Mavis M composed the score for this episode, and it was a delight to be able to secure their talent to bring this new era to life. I'm keen to work with them again in future, and I'm sure there'll be some interesting compositions for the episodes to come. I'm sure everyone can agree that what Mavis produced is sublime, and the full score can be heard on their YouTube and Soundcloud channels.

So, now lets look to the future.

Episode ideas are slowly forming and being written. I'm working to an 'as long as needed' basis for runtime; writing for a short duration is quite a challenge (a good challenge, as Feeling Sheepish shows) but I don't want my stories to feel rushed or have crucial elements cut. They shall be as long as they need to be, whilst still being 'short' stories. This will also help TTMA become its own thing, rather than trying to entirely emulate the classic stories on which they draw inspiration.

Set up to record a Fat Controller close-up.

The episodes will still be divided up into 'series' of sorts (or is 'chapters' a better word?) Series 1 is very much for testing the water, and centres around the branch lines and the engines that work on them. Series 2 will then expand slightly and moves on to re-introducing properly some of the original characters I created; kudos to those who spotted Benny the crane and Beth the brake van in the background during 'Feeling Sheepish.' As mentioned previously, many of the models of my own creations have been sold, but a select few remain; whilst not all will re-appear, I have another one or two in mind for a comeback. Beth and Benny will see roles too in some form.

Most of the stories will be written by myself, however I am delighted to say that some ideas have been put forward by ThomasFan8 and CombineHarvester01 (whom I both know personally in real life) and subsequently these are being developed too.

All in all, I have felt something that I haven't felt in a very long time - accomplishment! Things are looking good, and I shall be starting production work on Episode 2 very soon indeed.

The Farmer's Crossing set. Very basic, but did exactly what it needed to do.

Until next time, thanks for your support.