Oh, yeah… Director. I remember you! You were fun! A royal pain in the ass to troubleshoot sometimes, but fun nonetheless.
After some heart-to-hearts with Sheryl and Aaron, I responded to the e-mail regarding a potential freelance gig. I explained what I know, what I can do, and what I’ve still got up my sleeve. I got to feeling pretty good about myself, too; even if this person doesn’t care for the two Shockwave presentations I uploaded (the ResNet CD and my Director portfolio), at least my portfolio was worth a second look. Even if he was just hoping I was somebody who knew somebody, and not necessarily the person he wants, I’m OK with that.
It’s been a while since I did any real Director work. Honestly, it’s hard to make multimedia presentations without… well… media. A website, sure, I can pull content out of my ass for that. Video and audio and other content that doesn’t suck and won’t get me sued? That’s a little harder.
Anyway, I sat down with my two Director source files (thank god I managed to save those) to clean them up and make them internet-friendly.
It took all goddamned evening.
Part of it was remembering the nuances of how Director looks for linked files, and part of it was fixing little things like typos (I can’t believe it!) and formatting errors and anti-aliasing inconsistencies and general last-minute crap that I didn’t get to do to the actual presentations back in the day.
I can see how my design style has changed in just the past four years. I can also see the elements that form the core of my current style. Simplicity. Clean lines. I think I’ve improved a little over time, though; I can see the things I would do differently now.
Even if this gig doesn’t work out, I won’t be upset. If I do get a callback from this gentleman, I’ll actually be a little surprised, as it would be on the merits of work I did four years ago as a college Senior. I’d love to have an opportunity to do some real work for real money, but just being contacted about it at all was quite an ego boost for me.
I needed that.
