So it looks as though my time on Once Upon a Time is coming to an end. It is hard to believe that it has been six years since I climbed on board and commenced doing graphics on the show.
This is the last season of the current story arc. There is talk about melding the lore of the franchise through a different funnel into some manner of continuation, but I find that the prospect of that appeals little to me. For as wonderful as the visuals on the show can be, as a graphic designer, it has become creatively stale.
Month after month, this is how it plays out:
1.) A protagonist wants to change the fate of themselves (or another) so they pull a spell book to achieve said aim.
2.) Someone has to go somewhere, to, say, sequester a magical object from a magical realm. Yes, a scenario that requires a map to get there.
It has got to the point that I feel as though my spell book and map-making day must come to an end. It is starting to drive me seriously batty.
Guess what I am making today? Yeah, 10 points, another freaking spell book!
There is a lot I will miss about the show. I will miss the work environment - my excellent colleagues and the quiet sanctuary that is my office / studio. I will also lament the loss of freedom that ONCE has bestowed upon me. I have felt valued and trusted insofar as I have been able to keep my own hours and freely come and go as I pleased. The prevailing attitude has been 'as long as you get the work done, we do not care what you get up to.'
Privileges like these are a rarity in the business and they have been almost enough to keep me in my seat. But then I hear those words: "Yeah there are two new spell books in the upcoming episode." It is then that I know, deep inside my being, that it is time to move on. It is a hard thing to do. Like many of us, I am adverse to change.
It is a good time to meet and work with different people and be in a stream where different opportunities may avail themselves to me. I would like to work on some feature films, for starters.
So, I am headed into a very different world. One of reich adlers and mildewed propaganda posters. One where the demands on me, on my time, are inevitably going to be a lot more restrictive. Yet I do this for the sake of the journey.
My days of easy-come, easy go, are kaput. Hard work lies ahead. But there will be no maps of the Enchanted Mountains - hopefully, in the Greater Reich of the Amazon TV series, The Man in the High Castle.
