Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Where I Am Headed in Life

     When I was a kid, I saw my name in lights. The singer everyone would be talking about. I wanted to be a star, an opera singer. I had a fascination with the sound of the loud voices these sometimes small people possessed. 
      And then my views changed. I wanted to be a teacher. I would line my dolls up, keep a roster, correct them when they were wrong, have them take test, the whole thing. I knew what I wanted, and I practiced at it every day. 
     But then my ideas changed again. Film. I want to make movies. And so I would. My first short I ever created from start to finish was entitled Aliean Attacks! (alien spelt wrong and everything). It envolved crudely animated aliens creeping across the screen and freezing everyone they came into contact with. I still have the poster my friend and I made for the film. It hangs proudly on my wall along with my other prized posters. Whenever I see this poster, I remind myself that we all have to start somewhere.
     And where do I want to start when it comes to my future profession and my passion filmmaking? I want to inspire people. With a look, with a character's behavior, with a sound. I just want to tell stories, something that will immerse the audience and leave them with some kind of feeling, like shock or happiness or thoughtfulness. 
     The more work I do, the more I realize my style and what I want to convey to an audience. I have come to find that I enjoy exploring human vices and downfalls. Human nature is something that is extremely important for me to show to the audience. I want people to realize what they are doing in every action that they make. Again, this leads to inspiration of a person.
     With this examination of human nature in mind, it is my goal to learn as much as I can about exploring different techniques I can use with a camera and to learn more about lighting and how it affects a scene. Different ways to use the camera helps convey human nature so well, since the camera is the unseen eye watching. Lighting can make something look either totally ridiculous or true to how it would actually look. I want to be able to keep as true to a scene as I can while still showing a person's actions.
     Although Aliean Attacks! isn't something I would put on a reel to show to a potential employer, it does remind me that I have come a long way and have an even longer way to go. But I'll start somewhere by trusting in my stylistic abilities and abilities to learn.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

It Is Simply Moving

Narrowing down what moves me is hard. I am so inspired by so many things, mainly music and writing. Every day, I find something new that is simply awe inspiring. But I will try my best to narrow down to visual inspirations.


The first time I saw Madame X, she was on display at the Met in New York. I was sixteen. And I simply had never seen anything like this painting. So beautiful. So sexy. So French. According to history, the woman that is depicted was of some royal blood. During the time the painting was first debuted, it was scandalous. So much so, the painter left France, and the woman had a damaged reputation for the rest of her life. The "deflated" color speaks volumes for a painting that was so taboo at the time it was brought into focus. Her stance, her dress, everything is so simple yet speaks volume. In our time, a painting like this would not turn a head. It would be simply cast off as another piece of art. However, it cannot be put off this way. Not only is this painting beautiful to look at, in person, it is absolutely huge, taking up room from floor to ceiling at the Met. Perhaps it was the scale of the painting or the simple out-spokeness that caught my eye. But not a day goes by without me thinking about Madame X. 

I also have this minor obsession...actually pretty large obsession with Fantastic Mr. Fox. I believe I have an attraction to "deflated" coloring as I said for Madame X. However, rather than the blacks, grays, and whites, it is tinted an orange. The sense of humor and the choppy animation is what makes this movie. 

Something I have the privileged of seeing every day while I eat is this bad boy. This is a table that I bought from Cafe Venice when they went out of business. I apologize it is a little bright, but this table speaks volumes to me and what type of person I am. It is so incredibly simple, yet so incredibly inspiring, something that I could do myself if I had the time. But what makes it so special is that it makes a bold statement without having to say much at all.


Surprisingly, as a child, Dr. Seuss was part of my life, but I simply did not garner a thing from him. Until recently have a become a Seussaholic. His drawings are whimsical and create a world that simply does not exist. He exaggerates our world for children, as they exaggerate our own world.


I do A LOT of stumbling on StumbleUpon. One day recently, I was looking around, and I found this: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1id1cM. It is a collection of photographs a father took of his daughter throughout her life. They are so intimate and convey so much emotion; they are a look into someone's life. The relationship of father-daughter, photographer-subject can never be seen in these pictures. I love the intensity of the photos.


Fashion sometimes moves me as well. Take a look at this dress.
It is so dramatic (I would never wear it. That thing probably weighs a ton!). I know I have mentioned simplicity and coloring as inspiring, but occasionally, I feel the need for the WOW factor. And fashion, like this one, gives me that WOW I need. Drama like this pushes me to remember that every little detail counts; they are what makes the drama.


Visually, food can be so absolutely beautiful. Cooking is what I do to blow some steam, because the end result is so satisfactory. There is nothing like beautiful colors that make a meal taste so good. Nature holds the most vibrant colors, and fresh vegetables with a medium rare steak makes for a colorful delight.




                                                                      There is nothing quite like a mountain to get my creative juices flowing. These are the Three Apostles, part of the Sawatch Range. They are arguably the most beautiful things an eye can behold. My father and I climb like crazy during the summer in Colorado, and one of these summers, we decided to climb up the first half of Mount Huron. As you come to the end of that segment, the trail meets a plateau. And if you look to your left, you will see the Three Apostles. The first time I saw them, my breath got taken away. I'm not sure what is so perfect about them, perhaps that they are three peaks so incredibly close to one another. But something struck me as naturally beautiful.                                                          





Don't judge me, but I love the Canadian children's show Calliou (I have a three year old sister, so that's the only way I know what it is). The colors are vibrant and eye catching. However, what really makes me go gaga over this show is the white space that is around it, making it look like a page from a book. Another kid show that I love to watch is Kipper. This too has an immense amount of white space, however it is not like a page from a book. Instead it focuses on the action of the characters rather that the surroundings. 






 David and Goliath's simplistic art pulls at the strings of my heart. It's so crude, so "unanimated." Yet, it states exactly what needs to be said in order to get the laughs out of people. Simple, easy, fast, yet still provocative is what gets to me, and David and Goliath nails it on the head.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Story Begins...

Welcome to my totally tubular blog! I would like to invite you into the mind of one of the who-knows-how-many struggling filmmakers, which, if you haven't figured it out by now, would be my own crazy one. And without much further ado, I have created a list of ten things you should know about me in order to go along with what comes out of my insane mouth.


10. I am super sarcastic and have a somewhat twisted sense of humor...which in turns makes me laugh at myself. It's really embarrassing when you start busting out laughing, and no one else is around you.






9. I like to cook. It calms me down. And the most fun thing to do after cooking would be? You guessed it! Eating. Here is a terrible video I made for German class imitating Dan Aykroyd's imitation of Julia Child. And as you have suspected, it's all in German. However, I will have to say that I did a fantastic job making the blood!



8. I am Vice President of Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity. Although it is a lot of work at times, I do enjoy it.



7. I'm a DJ at 90.7 The Capstone. Again, this does require a lot of work, but I thoroughly enjoy it. Music is one of my passions that I could not live without. My show is all indie, so I'm constantly getting into the band scene, especially with the prospect of going to South By Southwest (SXSW) this spring break. Shameless plug: My show plays Mondays 10PM-12AM. You can listen at 90.7 or wvuafm.ua.edu. Below, I have one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, Up Up Up by Givers. They are also from Lafayette, so I have some nepotism.





6. I'm a Creative Writing minor, which means one thing. I like to write. Probably more than I should. And SURPRISE! I like to read, too.


5. My favorite quote: "Being creative makes you a weird little beast, because everything seems so bloody interesting for some strange reason." There is also a Lady Gaga quote I like: "Your career can never wake up in the morning, roll over, and tell you it doesn't love you any more."


4. I am the oldest of three. My sisters are eighteen and three. Yes, there's a large gap, but the three year old is the apple of everyone's eye. I can't imagine life without her.




3. I am an extremely hard-worker. I like work, I like structure, and I like to be extremely organized. Type A would be my professional personality...but when you come into my house, it's a totally different story. I live in organized chaos. Things are just EVERYWHERE. It is fantastically awful.


2. I am from New Orleans. This is number two, because it is so embedded into my every day life. My roommate says never talk to me about my home town, because my head might explode with the amount of ego I have about it. It's just a N'awlins thing. We're proud of where we are (we have to be...to be honest the place is a dump at times).




1. And the number one fact about me is...drum roll...the most obvious thing on the face of the planet...doodoodoodoo! Film is the most important thing to me. Without it, I feel there would be no joy in my life. This is where I want/need to be. I love telling stories (again, why I write). I love people to understand and appreciate things that may not be appreciated unless seen through a camera's eye. I'm not sure where film will lead me, but I hope for a bright future. Don't we all.

My hope for this blog is to share the inner workings my artistic mind. I want to reach out to people and possibly inspire them to experience the art and beauty of film. It is incredibly moving and cannot be described unless properly studied and experienced. Thank you for reading and Roll Tide!