just Just Withnail's short films

Started by Just Withnail, June 16, 2010, 12:57:38 PM

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Just Withnail

#60
Hello everyone!

For those who would like to watch, here is a new grade and a new cut of Good Machine Gun Sound. As you see from the screens the changes are quite substantial. I've done some nips and tucks to the edit as well, bringing it down by almost two minutes.

Watch it here.

PM me for the password.

Now it's finally done in my eyes, I was never really quite satisfied with the original cut.

In a few days I will also give you guys a secret sneak preview of my new short.



jenkins

bumping this for just withnail duh^

i guess we've had a week of too many personal accomplishments here at xixax. i mean, well, great problem, but idk if i was just withnail i'd maybe think no one gave as much of a fuck about mine. i give more fucks than numbers can express my friend

i think it's pretty obvious there are wildly differing movie tastes here, so no it's not movie tastes i come here for, it's people. which is weird but whatevs. you my peeps. deal with it xx

Just Withnail

#62
Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 12:16:00 AM
i give more fucks than numbers can express my friend

hahah, thank you! Though after the last pages of incredibly exciting and in-depth thoughts about the film I'm more than satisfied with numbers.

And here is that mentioned secret link to my new short film, that was completed just a few days ago. It's a thematic follow-up to Good Machine Gun Sound, and hopefully the second installment in a longer series of coming-of-age stories. It's also another Xixax-film with "bodies" in the title.

VERY SECRET LINK RIGHT HERE

PM me for the VERY SECRET PASSWORD.

Reel

This is why I need vimeo on my tv. Looking forward to this, man. Congrats!

Drenk

Once again, I'm in awe. When you respond so emotionally to something it is hard, after, to analyse it properly. But I'll try to say something.

First: it looks beautiful, from the VHS to the computers or the board games, it's the nineties. The colors feel warm? Something intimate. The way you manage to follow the child, like you did in the last short, allows us, by your film-making, to enter his state of mind. Something violent and troubled. We had death, now it's sex. Childhood can be violent.

Adults are always around but we feel the distance, it was also true for the last shot where, if I remember correctly, we didn't see their face as often.

The computer is the monolith of the house. The child looking at it, scared. The pages loading. You made drama with an internet history and it's very, very good. The scene where the father is in the kitchen, and his son realizing that he was checking porn...We feel the discomfort.

The opening shot is fantastic, you capture this moment in a way I can't describe: movements feel natural, the camera moves and, yes, there is movement, life.

"But I'm not." is a very strong way to end the short-film; parents often make us ashamed, and few have the courage to say "But I'm not ashamed." The very last scene, with him masturbating on his bed, feel a little bit unnecessary to me, but the way it is cut with shots of children playing adds...okay, I'm not sure about how I feel, but it's as if you show how something begins, continues, that it goes on. (yeah, I know, I'm not really clear.)

Fantastic. Consider me as a big fan.
Ascension.

wilder

So amped and inspired every time you release something new -- unbelievable what you're able to do with these short films. Betting Bergman wants to have a word with you from beyond the grave.

jenkins

Quote from: Just Withnail on October 11, 2014, 04:31:08 AM
Though after the last pages of incredibly exciting and in-depth thoughts about the film I'm more than satisfied with numbers.

And here is that mentioned secret link to my new short film, that was completed just a few days ago. It's a thematic follow-up to Good Machine Gun Sound, and hopefully the second installment in a longer series of coming-of-age stories

first part about most appreciating people engaging with your short on a direct level: ahh. you're the real deal man. i always think of who i always think of when i think of something like this -- kieslowski, who said he felt most proud of the double life of veronique when a girl told him what the movie meant to her personally. i do think that's the goal to have, and it's so nice to hear it

your new short: what i most respect is the consistency of your focus, without the feeling that you're the master of your puppets. i feel like you're discovering things along with your characters. which you're not of course. so i think you're operating at a level of talent that's unfakeable. i think you actually have to be this good to make something this good

and i think the way it's divided into sections allows the short to operate within the twin dimensions of story and emotions. for example, i feel inside of mads's emotions by the point of the confrontation with his parents. that scene vibrates at a tonal frequency that's hard to get to, for sure. you gotta work to get there. how you worked to let me know what the dad is feeling and thinking — you did it perfectly, imo. you're aware of what the details of your short will mean

even the sound of a modem dialing in! it's funny how the title "loads" at the end. and cultural/social values present feel universal, which to me is a sign of a good piece of art. i don't have to know local norwegian culture to understand the line "Would you mind knocking before entering my private sphere?" and goddamnit i think we as people all wonder about the dinosaurs

looking forward to the entire series. world wide woven bodies and good machine gun sound being impressive has nothing to do with you standing in front of me right now in this imaginary way. nope. they're impressive because they're impressive

Garam

just watched this in the basement of an internet cafe and it almost made me cry, haha.

One of the most real portrayals of childhood i've ever seen. Too many artists portray childhood as this idealised state, as something that we've slipped away from rather than evolved from...either that or just with a totally patronising simplified cuteness, like they're just puppies with zero inner world, or conflict, or fears, or anger and confusion. Like they're incapable of doing bad things, or making mistakes. Their stakes are often lower but the struggle is just as real. This just totally brings me back 15 years...it's so real. They're not characters, they're people. The parents reaction to the finding of the web history is perfect, the dad smoking the cigarette to ease his anxiety over choosing an allegiance to his wife or to his son, wanting to mediate and appear both sympathetic and authoritative but failing to convincingly do either.

And i got all that from a 3 second shot. The whole film is like that.

I don't want to gush too much but i truly fucking loved it. Breath of fresh air, makes me feel inspired and in love with film again. Seems like Scandinavian directors have something in their DNA that prevents them from making bad films. Can't wait to watch the others.

And yes, such an incredible period piece! Everything is so perfect, not kitschy or tacky in the slightest, just totally spot on. Such a rush of nostalgia.


edit: ending is golden too. That feeling of 'i will never leave this room'. I think everybody can identify with that.

Frederico Fellini

Damn dude. That was fucking fantastic. Looks gorgeous. Love the way you use silence. Little kid is a hell of an actor. What camera/lenses did you use? I cant get over how good it looks and the way the camera floats through the environment on some Pta/malickian beautifulness.
We fought against the day and we won... WE WON.

Cinema is something you do for a billion years... or not at all.

Axolotl

More people should be freaking out about how good this is.

Some of these shots, man, like the one where he's sitting there paralysed after seeing that pop-under, that feeling of I'm-fucked-and-this-charade-is-over that you experienced on a daily basis combined with the 56K modems and CRT screens and slow loading pixelated images, that Macbeth-y guilt-ridden scrubbing after his first full realization that his sister is a female, you've managed to get at something inexpressible here. 

Thank you for sharing this.

Just Withnail

I am again overwhelmed by your responses, thank you all for taking the time to write down your thoughts!

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
First: it looks beautiful, from the VHS to the computers or the board games, it's the nineties.

We had a fantastic production designer, who brought many of her own leftovers from the 90s. Wonderful how much placing a Jumanjii board game in the frame can do. Sadly, we ended up ruining an old DuckTales poster that she valued quite highly. In the last scene I gave Heine, the main actor, free reins to destroy what he wanted in the room and he ripped the poster of the wall in the most beautiful way. He showed some very authentic aggression, but in the end I felt it became too violent of a reaction to the scene before and cut out that part, sadly rendering the tearing of the poster completely unnecessary.

Again we shot in a house that was very familiar to me, it was my aunt's house this time, and it used to be my grandma's, so I've spent an incredible amount of time there. The drama in my films is very often centered around the specifics of their locations, and it was interesting to feel how the screenplay suddenly changed pretty drastically when we decided to use that location. A funny note is also how the cinematographer, when reading the screenplay before we landed the location asked me if I had been thinking about the location we used for Good Machine Gun Sound when writing it, which was absolutely true. He'd guessed it from the way the scenes were written.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
Adults are always around but we feel the distance, it was also true for the last shot where, if I remember correctly, we didn't see their face as often.

I really like this! I guess it is a by-product of very strictly following the child all the time, not seeing their faces. I feel it's a way of narrowing in the focus. The confrontation is the first one where the camera lingers on the parents, and while editing I was a bit afraid that we might not have enough empathy for them at this point, since we've barely seen their faces before, they just seem to float around him, so I'm glad it works for you.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
The computer is the monolith of the house. The child looking at it, scared. The pages loading. You made drama with an internet history and it's very, very good. The scene where the father is in the kitchen, and his son realizing that he was checking porn...We feel the discomfort.

That makes me very happy to hear! I really wanted the computer to be felt as a character. We amped up the sounds so that it's loud as hell in the frame everytime you see it (almost in a parodic way when we swish-pan to it as his parents come home and it's incredibly loud for half a second and then it disappears, like in a horror film where we just catch a tiny glimpse of the beast before the protagonist runs away again).

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
The opening shot is fantastic, you capture this moment in a way I can't describe: movements feel natural, the camera moves and, yes, there is movement, life.

Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 05:36:56 PM
your new short: what i most respect is the consistency of your focus, without the feeling that you're the master of your puppets. i feel like you're discovering things along with your characters.

These ones make me breathe more calmly. I'm constantly afraid that I might be constraining the actors too much because of the choreography of the camera. Especially in something like the first shot in the living room and when the parents come home. Hopefully there's enough chaos in the movements to hide the very planned steps.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
"But I'm not." is a very strong way to end the short-film; parents often make us ashamed, and few have the courage to say "But I'm not ashamed." The very last scene, with him masturbating on his bed, feel a little bit unnecessary to me, but the way it is cut with shots of children playing adds...okay, I'm not sure about how I feel, but it's as if you show how something begins, continues, that it goes on. (yeah, I know, I'm not really clear.)

Haha, no that's perfectly clear. Admittedly I always had a bit of a problem with it in the edit, it felt like the big punch came in the confrontation, and that in many ways it could have ended there as well, and that the last scene was more of a grace note. But I really liked the thought of just finally seeing him masturbate, completely naturally, with no filters, just show the normality of it. There was also the aspect of seeing him masturbate without porn, which I felt focused the story more towards sexuality in general, and not really porn as a phenomenon. 


Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 05:36:56 PM
and i think the way it's divided into sections allows the short to operate within the twin dimensions of story and emotions.

Happy to hear the chapters worked for you. It was a decision I made in the edit, when I was looking for the structure. It was clear from very early on that the screenplay had a very odd pace, and that it took on a bit too many threads parallel to each other, so I ended up parcelling it all out into "episodes" instead, which slowed down the drive of the film in it's own way, but made the dramas much clearer and gave them room to breathe.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
just watched this in the basement of an internet cafe and it almost made me cry, haha.

Oh man, that is great to hear! And what a setting to view it in. Very meta.


Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
One of the most real portrayals of childhood i've ever seen. Too many artists portray childhood as this idealised state, as something that we've slipped away from rather than evolved from...either that or just with a totally patronising simplified cuteness, like they're just puppies with zero inner world, or conflict, or fears, or anger and confusion. Like they're incapable of doing bad things, or making mistakes. Their stakes are often lower but the struggle is just as real.

Thank you! It was always very important to me to take the children seriously, but not make Mads a depressed and sulky child either, but see that these things affect him. Which is why it was important to me to show that even after he's had a pretty dramatic scene with his mom, when he tells her not to touch him, we can still see him laughing with his friends (and also being touched by them). I felt I wanted to show how this was a problem isolated around his relationship to his parents, and that the drama could and would continue inside the house the minutes he goes back, but still not something that makes him shy away from all bodily contact ever. It seemed more real that way.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
the dad smoking the cigarette to ease his anxiety over choosing an allegiance to his wife or to his son, wanting to mediate and appear both sympathetic and authoritative but failing to convincingly do either.

His face there is so fantastic, Anders did an incredible job with that scene. I love the way he lights the cigarette right after the mother says "is this what you're watching", like he's getting ready.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
edit: ending is golden too. That feeling of 'i will never leave this room'. I think everybody can identify with that.

Very glad to hear it, that might be the part of the film I am most unsure of.

Quote from: Frederico Fellini on October 12, 2014, 03:20:04 PM
What camera/lenses did you use?

We were lucky enough to be able to shoot on 35mm! We used an Arri. The lenses are the same as on Good Machine Gun Sound, that I posted some specs on a few pages back. I am a lucky bastard to be working Benjamin Loeb, an ridiculously talented cinematographer. We think the same about most things.

Quote from: Axolotl on October 12, 2014, 07:06:42 PM
Some of these shots, man, like the one where he's sitting there paralysed after seeing that pop-under, that feeling of I'm-fucked-and-this-charade-is-over that you experienced on a daily basis

Our main actor Heine is incredibly talented, he so damn calm and assured. I have some funny stories that I'll share soon.

max from fearless

THIS WAS FUCKING DOPE.

I didn't read anyone else's notes for fear of spoilers so sorry if I'm repeating stuff others have said.

Some notes. First off.....

The ape motions/chasing games (boys and girls) at the start, the discovery of ones body, that private space where we can touch ourselves, check ourselves, try to discover our limits, tastes, desires, try to get a grip on what we are physically, how the fuck we work. Shit, all captured so fuckin' well. I loved how you gradually teased out this space.

The physicality of this was beautiful. The sound design made this film so tactile, so intimate, sometimes delicate, sometimes rough. But I could always FEEL IT. Him washing his face (trying to get clean again?) feeling his parents bed sheets, breathing/smelling them (looking for sex? is this what they do?)

Followed by the photos on the wall and him in the reflection in the mirror - ahhhh, this is what sperm and sex is. Fucking awesome simple clear storytelling.

The tension of when the imaginary world of projected intimacy, discovery desire, fucking (adult entertainment) and cumming (and the guilt/confusion/joy that comes with that first load) was going to meet the world of play, discovery, physicality, boys+girls, innocent family touching games. All this made the last scene great.

And also how his own thoughts, his feelings and confusion on intimacy, post-porn: the way his male gaze lands on some breasts (his moms?) the way he doesn't want to be touched by her in his bedroom. Loved this scene, the lighting especially.

The computer literally sexualises his world. Fuck I loved how this virus infected the characters and how you painted this infection with your camera: cutting back to the wide of the dad in the kitchen BG and the son in the foreground, who now understands his dad's transgressions and is a unknowing accomplice.

The steadicam work as the boy touches his dad's feet, followed by his dad tickling him - the floaty freeness and innocence of touching at this point is lovely and inviting and again telling the story really fucking well.

The push in shot onto the computer at night, with the red screen and the pattern on the computer screen growing (what is that?) - is this a monster movie, in which a 256kps modem posses/infects a father and son via porno? Leading the son to a more honest wank?

Performances of the father and son were great. The shot of the dad, fumbling to find words and support the mother at the son's court hearing was great.

On a personal note the Hornets Starter jacket made me immediately swoon and brought back a ton of memories. As did the slow loading porn images (the anxiety and joy that used to come with waiting) and the sound of the modem.

This is a real strong piece of work.

I've sat in on several short film programmes at the LFF this year, and you mr. withnail and you mr. gooses are straight killing all the shorts I've seen by a country fucking mile. And that's just me trying to hide behind a critical privileged p.o.v., (oh look at me seeing all these shorts) cos on the real, and on the honest humble, I've thought about ripping both these films off vimeo, just to study the craft, to think about how certain moments were arrived at, to ponder the questions you discussed with your collaborators and to show friends and to say to them, "I know these guys!!! These are my friends." And in some strange disconnected-internet-way I do know you guys, and through the films, I know you even more so, and those are my kinda films, through and through, and definitely my kinda filmmakers.

You guys are killing it and instead of being filled with dread/jealousy/anxiety at making my own stuff in the wake of these films, I'm filled with an overriding amount of joy and happiness to be around these films and their makers. Tbh, I'm just proud of you guys, and anyone who says xixax ain't as good as it used to be or xixax ain't about shit, well they can suck my dillsnick. This retarded shit is a part of my self-taught filmmaker's curriculum and this is the perfect film (intimacy being the key) for me to declare all my emotions about this place.

PS. I haven't spoken about how funny this film is: The boy nearly getting caught by the modem delivery guy. The mum: "Come here and i'll kiss it off" i.e. the wine that is actually her son's sperm that is actually dad's understanding because he is effectively still a wanker. Dope. Also the cinematography is Killer. How the fuck are you getting the $£$ to shoot this shit? You got some Robert Elswitt shit going on here. Damn. I need to watch this again and think more about technique as this is just a one watch write up...and I need to continue making and learning.

You two are killing it.

Cloudy

Just reading all of these feelings and reviews after watching your movie...you have a way of opening people up, and I think that's.... your personality, the only way you know how...- anyway, this note may be a bit of a digressive: but this movie showed how absurd it is that people our age are now at a point where we can finally point and say, hey that's the exact same pipe screensaver (!!!!!!) I had on my slow-porn spouting computer fifteen years ago... I don't know why I find that so jarring. It's the first time it's actually happened through movies, the Earth keeps turning, and we'll keep getting older, and this will keep happening, as well as the main characters in your short series...

Also, your childhood was littered with beautiful homes in amazing landscapes. I'm so happy to hear from you that this is your aunt/grandmothers home. Is it chance that it's your aunt's home.... because the aunt in the previous short passed away... all of these homey details are what do it for me. You're collecting all of the dust and details and memories of your past and letting it settle ..

And on an immediate level... I love the purple. The mood of this piece is so god damn purple, the mood of it is like sperm in between the fingers, and that sensual feeling is connected to the color purple. This short in general had a chewy pulpy quality to it, that also leads to purple... I was just bummed he didn't taste his sperm (like some of us.... curious cats)

I may be projecting, but your father characters always get me. They fucking bite out of the screen straight into reality.

Just Withnail

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The physicality of this was beautiful. The sound design made this film so tactile, so intimate, sometimes delicate, sometimes rough. But I could always FEEL IT. Him washing his face (trying to get clean again?) feeling his parents bed sheets, breathing/smelling them (looking for sex? is this what they do?)

Physicality, tactility, is always an aim for me, I'm very glad that shone through. The 35mm was incredibly rewarding in that sense, and the sound designer did an incredible job in getting us close to the characters. And it was great fun being able to ask for "more ball-flapp".

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The computer literally sexualises his world. Fuck I loved how this virus infected the characters and how you painted this infection with your camera: cutting back to the wide of the dad in the kitchen BG and the son in the foreground, who now understands his dad's transgressions and is a unknowing accomplice.

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The push in shot onto the computer at night, with the red screen and the pattern on the computer screen growing (what is that?) - is this a monster movie, in which a 256kps modem posses/infects a father and son via porno? Leading the son to a more honest wank?

I love this. The virus and monster feelings are definitely something I wanted, without ever wording it exactly like that. The surreal quality of the pipe screensaver I thought was very fitting, and thematically resonant. This ever-growing chaotic pattern seemed to mirror the increasingly conflicting relationship to the people around him. He's caught in a web of movements in this house with his parents and some interactions are bound to feel strange after becoming more sexually aware. It's a web, as in the title.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The steadicam work as the boy touches his dad's feet, followed by his dad tickling him - the floaty freeness and innocence of touching at this point is lovely and inviting and again telling the story really fucking well.

I have completely fallen in love with dancey steadicam work. Choreography has always been something that attracted me to films, as a thing in itself. I remember being 17 and watching that scene in Band a part where they're all gathered around the table and they keep changing places and drinks and just being smitten by the mere movement and wanting to create a similar energy.

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
On a personal note the Hornets Starter jacket made me immediately swoon and brought back a ton of memories. As did the slow loading porn images (the anxiety and joy that used to come with waiting) and the sound of the modem.

The jacket was another great detail from our production designer. I didn't quite know what to have him wear, except it had to be purple. That jacket was her own, actually. I love how it's too big for him too. The slow-loading porn was one of the first keys into the story, that stayed there from the very beginning, a montage of not-quite loaded porn.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
I've sat in on several short film programmes at the LFF this year, and you mr. withnail and you mr. gooses are straight killing all the shorts I've seen by a country fucking mile. And that's just me trying to hide behind a critical privileged p.o.v., (oh look at me seeing all these shorts) cos on the real, and on the honest humble, I've thought about ripping both these films off vimeo, just to study the craft, to think about how certain moments were arrived at, to ponder the questions you discussed with your collaborators and to show friends and to say to them, "I know these guys!!! These are my friends." And in some strange disconnected-internet-way I do know you guys, and through the films, I know you even more so, and those are my kinda films, through and through, and definitely my kinda filmmakers.

Thank you so much for that! There really seems to be a lot of exciting projects going on, and your very own TRIM is one of those.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
instead of being filled with dread/jealousy/anxiety at making my own stuff in the wake of these films, I'm filled with an overriding amount of joy and happiness to be around these films and their makers.

My thoughts exactly!

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
Dope. Also the cinematography is Killer. How the fuck are you getting the $£$ to shoot this shit? You got some Robert Elswitt shit going on here. Damn.

Thank you! PTA and Elswit are of course huge inspirations and by now a part of my DNA in a way that will take a long time to shake off. Both this one and Good Machine Gun Sound were funded by the Northern Norwegian Film Center and the Arts Council of Norway, which is just another way of saying "oil". We had about $84 000 on each, so we've certainly had quite a bit to work with! I've been extremely lucky in getting to do what I do the way I do it, but these two would never have been made hadn't it been for all the projects I've done for no budget whatsoever.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
how absurd it is that people our age are now at a point where we can finally point and say, hey that's the exact same pipe screensaver (!!!!!!) I had on my slow-porn spouting computer fifteen years ago...

Yes! This very first inspiration was a just a feeling of how ridiculously much has happened in these...not even twenty years. How incredibly changed things are by now.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
Also, your childhood was littered with beautiful homes in amazing landscapes. I'm so happy to hear from you that this is your aunt/grandmothers home. Is it chance that it's your aunt's home.... because the aunt in the previous short passed away... all of these homey details are what do it for me. You're collecting all of the dust and details and memories of your past and letting it settle ..

This was actually another aunt, but it certainly a way for me to preserve something of them, even though this one we changed very drastically in the production design (for instance, we put in that huge book shelf). The house in Good Machine Gun Sound might now be sold, so I am extremely happy that I got to document it in the way I did.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
And on an immediate level... I love the purple. The mood of this piece is so god damn purple, the mood of it is like sperm in between the fingers, and that sensual feeling is connected to the color purple. This short in general had a chewy pulpy quality to it, that also leads to purple... I was just bummed he didn't taste his sperm (like some of us.... curious cats)

Yes baby! That underlined part is exactly what I was after. Also - damn! That is indeed a missed opportunity, he should have tasted it. Truthfully I was a bit unsure of whether I was pushing it too far just with having it on the fingers, but I see now that it just reads completely naturally in the final film.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
I may be projecting, but your father characters always get me. They fucking bite out of the screen straight into reality.

Thank you. I am always a bit unsure of whether the father in Good Machine Gun Sound is too one-sidedly harsh, so I'm glad to hear you think that.

JG

just wanted to reiterate what everyone has been saying - great job, beautiful stuff! your most recent is my favorite, the fluid camera works so well for your material.

i'm jealous because i too have written a bunch about childhood and those early days on the house computer. its a generational thing, so i'm assuming i'm not alone. there are so many easy jokes to be made, dull ironies to be drawn out, comparing our relationship to computers then and now. but you have a deft touch and focused on all the right stuff.

i also admire that you seem to be making shorts at a pretty quick clip (at least one a year?).. keep doing it! don't view them as stepping stones to features, these are the real thing.