Creative Ghost

3-5 Minute Shoots

2011-12-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

Links to Senior Project Shorts
All Videos and the photo portions are on Flash Drive

The Road I Travel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M99T0iQQ1Bg

Moonlight Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUzLQZ_t3dg

Cross Roads and Intersections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRUFELjqtMg

Munchkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvmY5f2B894

Tape Paper Scissors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RivQbayqjGk

Purin Reflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vusJQgsfAU

Milk and Sugar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKHb-Kp8GY

Storm Brewing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylvNGu6D_Y0

Holiday Time

2011-12-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

We had to have our family Holiday party a bit early this year. It was kind of a hybrid between Thanksgiving and Christmas because some of my family work out of state on and off and their schedules only overlap for a few days each month.

What was really special about this holiday time was it was the first time that my family has all gotten together since 1998. My grandparents got divorced and my grandpa moved away to Alaska with his new wife. This was the first time that everyone was on good terms to be able to be together.

Not to mention it allowed us to welcome our two new babies into the family. We also got to welcome the extension of our family as my mother, my older, and my younger cousin just got engaged. It was a true time for family and I captured moments from food to pictures together.

Collisions of Dialogue

2011-12-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

An idea came to me the other day while walking around campus from class to class. I always seem to hear the most obscure things from peoples conversations. This sparked my idea of doing a sound track to sounds of conversations, mixing and matching them to narrate an exploration of a space. I think back to walking down the halls of my high school and no one there, but the voices of those who had left these halls still echo. I would like to take a look at a space or a place in depth getting the texture and relationship of the space amongst itself, when it is empty. I would like to revisit the space when it isn't empty and record the conversations that arise in the space. I would take the conversations that I have recorded and mix them into each other as if it was one long conversation amongst several different people. I would like this sound track to echo throughout the piece of the exploration of the space.

I would even like to take the hallway in Micthell Hall that goes past B56 as there is so many doors and people always walking between one room to the next, entering from the stairs, or walking through. It has such life and interaction throughout the community that has been built here and to bring that to life even through exploring the conversations that occur there and how one hall way can bring so many people together. Just sitting there today I noticed so many people surprised to see someone or have arguments or casual conversation all in such a small space.

Don't Let Go

2011-12-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

I have been working on this idea of an animation based on the fears of someone being let go and left alone to their own thoughts. I had watched the Trevor Project red carpet event and it reminded me of a time when I had felt so alone and was searching for something to hold onto. The image I have is this hand reaching from the darkness for another hand to hold. While the whole scene is spinning darkness the hand continues to reach for the light and as the light gets further away another hand reaches in and pulls them out. To show them that they are not alone, that even though it may seem like a dark time and there is nothing to hold on to, that no one should let go of hope. To reach out for help and remember that there are people out there to help you. I want to do a series of short animations of reaching for hope and getting help. I know sometimes it is about just finding something you love that can really help you through tough times like art, so art works created to help with that I think is important.

The image I have attached is part of what I would like to see the animation be like but done more digitally. It is this idea of not letting go because there is hope at the end of the tunnel and there is a way to make it through to the next day.

Engagement

2011-12-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

A project that I am thinking about getting started is doing a documentary for my mother on her recent engagement. My mother spent the last several years giving up on love and being in a relationship so that she would be able to afford the things in our life to help us grow and make sure we were in a good neighborhood and good school district. She gave up so much for my brother and me, it has always just been the three of us. I think it would be really neat since today she just got engaged to a man she has been seeing for the past two years. After we moved out to go to college she was able to meet the man she has always deserved. Now that she is older the process of what she always thought her wedding would be is drastically different. She is now much more focused on the people she is with and making it a day with the ones she loves and not so much this huge event. It would be amazing to document her through this process, as many girls dream of their wedding day and my mother sure deserves one to remember.

Images and moments I would love to capture is her going to pick out her dress or her wedding band. The different dresses see tries on and the moment when she is in the one that she falls in love with. Being there for the process of picking out the ring and how much joy she had I would love to be there for the dress. Also picking out the venue and food tasting. There is so many rich images that I could gather through all of these moments that really are leading up and make up what is suppose to be one of the happiest days of someones life.

Reflections

2011-12-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

One idea that I have been playing with is capturing reflections to convey an image. I have been walking around campus especially with the rainy weather and it is amazing how looking even at a puddle on the sidewalk can reflect so much. It almost feels like looking beyond the world of your own. I would like to try and do a hunt of capturing images through refelctions. I would like to do reflections through water mainly just because it is looking into a looking glass that is created by nature and being able to see the man made world through this lens. It often seems so peaceful but so easily disturbed. The image that can be crystal clear one minute and shattered the next by the slightest drop into the water. Although I wouldn't want to do this on campus but to travel down town to capture the reflections of the buildings and the city scape all in the world of puddles. I think it would give the city a different worldly feel. I would also like to get images of reflections at night as well because often the way light hits water it can almost be a perfect mirrored images day or night but capturing images at night would really give it another worldly feel beyond its own.

Shutter

2011-12-03T20:51:00.001-08:00

Union Art Gallery
I found out that the Union Art Gallery got new displays of art that I wanted to check out. I had heard that it was about how an image can say a thousand words and each viewpoint can be different.

While I was in attendance the first image I saw was of a distant view of a bridge that was crossing a contaminated river. The Mayans were helping each other make it through the now town apart village, that was destroyed by a rain storm which washed garbage from a city up the mountains. This image really shows the different view points because I would have never known that the city in the picture use to be lush and lively until I read the caption. Instead it looked destroyed and you see a dog over looking humans as they make their way through the mess.

Another group of images that really was powerful for me was a series of being caught in the crossfire of gangs in cities like New York by Barbara Davidson. One images that really stood out to me was a young girl who had staples in her stomach on each side. It was hard to see and even harder to image myself just playing basketball when suddenly you are pierced by a bullet. Another images which was of a bathtub full of blood and it spread out on to the floor. It was a black and white images but you could still see the vibrant red that covered the room. It was a mess left behind in an attempt to save a child who had been caught in the cross fire and died.

University Band and Symphony Band

2011-12-03T20:47:00.001-08:00

This week I had the pleasure of getting to go to the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts and see the University Band and Symphony Band preform. I had always gone to my high school band performances but had never taken the time to go see the band concerts at the University level. The bands sound great and I was actually at the performance that was being recorded which was really interesting to see the recording equipment set up for a performance like that one. The music that the University Band played in particular the performance of Rondeau by Henry Purcell/David Farnon had an amazing ability to paint the picture of a film in my mind. I have never been to a performance that just the music alone was able to make me feel the emotions and pacing of it on such a deep level. Taking to a friend who was in it said that it was often known as an opera piece which often really plays on emotion It honestly felt like the heroine had fallen and the hero gets there to lift them up and carry them through the wreckage to safety where hope is able to shine through one last time. It was also very interesting to see each piece played was being conducted by a different conductor and to see how each of their style variety and how they were able to really get into each song and their movements connected with the music.

Drawing Exhibate: Impressionism

2011-11-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to revisit the Milwaukee Art Museum with my aunt who is an art teacher. She really wanted to attend the Impressionist exhibit on drawing and I thought it was a great chance to get some influences for my own drawings and to see the different styles. I was surprised at how many of them used different pastels and oils to draw. What I really enjoyed about the exhibit was how many pictures up close to them you could see each individual layering of the process the artist went through to get to the final piece. Especially with the pastels, how there was pencil underneath and than layered with each piece of color. Up close those strokes held such beauty and strength even though more often than not the closer you were the less the picture felt like a whole piece. That was what else I found interesting was how when you stood back and looked at the images how much movement and form it had producing the image you saw but when you stood close the image as a whole showed all the imperfections that made it perfect from a distance.

One of my favorite drawings that I saw was Portrait of Gustave-Lucien Dennery by Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec. It was charcoal on white laid paper, and the black and white image stood out to me from across the gallery. I really like this drawing because it was simple just of a man but they were able to capture the man with such few lines and such straight forward strokes that it produced such a bold image on the white canvas. It is a style I really admire to have such control over a line that it can show so much detail without loosing its form.

Photorealism and the tree of life

2011-11-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

In one of my classes we have been talking about the idea of photo realism and the ability people have to draw, paint, or some other form create a realistic reflection of the real world. The original goals of artist was to create this real life look while doing their master pieces. We have looked at a few examples of some painters and their abilities to capture the real world through a brush stroke. I would love to attempt a photorealism project of a tree against a clear blue sky in november. I am fascinated by trees and their deep history. Their textures and forms just amaze me and they are such a pure form of life. The live and work with the world around itself and have such beauty. I want to one day just sit and draw a tree and capture it for its pure essence through a pencil. I know my drawings have a long way to go before then but it is a nice goal and idea to have for a long term project.

Munchkin

2011-11-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

While I was at home over Fall break I decided to document my dog, she is such a huge apart of my life and has so much character and personality to her even though she spends most of her days just laying around or playing by herself with her tennis ball. Her name is Alley but we often call her Munchkin.

Sustainable Jewelry Sale

2011-11-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

I was able to attend the Sustainable Jewelry Sale in the UWM Union as it is part of the annual Object Jewelery Sale. I figured this event would be a great way to not only support part of the arts department but serve as a unique time to get early holiday shopping done with.

The Jewelry sale was done by the Jewelry and Metalsmithing students here at UWM in the Art and Design program. Their goal was to design jewelry that was made out of non-precious materials to use as their medium. They did this through all sustainable material of the innovative use/reuse of materials and the processes in which to make the jewelry. When I attended I saw artist use anything from shoe laces, guitar strings, legos, and even pop tabs.

While there I had the chance to talk with artist Ashley Erdmen who is in the sculpture and metalsmithing program here at UWM. She was one who designed necklaces, earrings, and rings made out of lego pieces. She said that she went to Good Will, garage sales, and dug through her family and friends old toys to have enough pieces to make her jewelry. She was inspired to use the legos because it was something that she had always loved as a kid and knew that for a lot of people it would be a great retro/bringing back to their childhood. It really goes with the Urban style that is out today.

It was really interesting and unique to see all the different ways that these artist were able to take mainly every day things and construct them into jewelry to sell. Not only does it reuse things and gives them new purpose but it really helps the environment in fun and different ways. Which makes it easy for people to give back and help the planet.

This Road I Travel

2011-11-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

I wanted to capture the Milwaukee cityscape as it holds the place I have called home the last three years
Ive came searching for an identity, a place to guide me on my way to the man I will be come one day.

One of my side projects captured the city scape as I took several videos of the city in motion and overlayed them
This is the poem that has inspired me, that I wrote

This Road I Travel
In this city all quite and cold
I wonder streets desperate and alone
I look out my window and watch below
A city full of possibilities yet I sit and question why
Why I am here and why I cry
This city here I’ve called home
longing for something more
searching for a meaning
a purpose
the light at the end of the tunnel but nothing
nothings left
stripped and bare to the bone
The wind nips at my aching soul
This city isn’t my home
I can wonder aimlessly
but I must escape to a world
of endless possibilities
As the only light I see
is through my window as I leave
passing buildings and city lights
This will be my last night
While the city sleeps
I shall escape and free my body heart and soul
I say goodbye to all these things
That this city keeps from me
Holding on to memories
As this road I travel on
Dark and long
To continue my search for where I belong
hear these words
hear my cry
As i leave it all behind

my thoughts and prayers go out to all
the souls out there desperate and alone
Keep on searching
Don’t let go
Theres a road out there that will lead you home
The journey long and daunting
will lead you to the place worth searching

It gets better

In this city all quite and cold
I make my peace and let you go

Doll Face

2011-11-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

Doll Face (Andy Huang, 2007.)

I recently discovered this short called Doll Face by Andy Huang. It is about this robot who is somewhat like a jack in the box with arms and she sees a television with the reflections of a beautiful face. The robot that tries to reach to the television soon building the desire to replicate the image and making itself look very similar. The robot than starts to pull out makeup and dressing itself up. Making itself more and more attractive. Giving it human characteristics including a face and the emotional agony displayed through the facial expressions. As the doll face gets closer and closer to perfection and reaches past its reach, it comes crashing to the ground. The doll ends up trying so hard to be this perfect image that it ends up destroying itself. The doll tips over and falls to the ground crashing and ruining the figure. It plays into this deep meaning of what effects the media plays on ourselves as consumers. We continue to look in the mirrow wishing you were perfect, trying to do what it takes to be considered perfect. Yet no one is perfect but we all try to be better versions of our selves. With technology these days things are able to be like that, models are able to be skinny and have healthier skin than they are, the simply hide behind all those masks and under all those skins. Some people push themselves too far towards perfect that they themselves fall flat on their face. Yet when you do if you forget about everything and everyone around you, at that point you are left alone on the ground in countless pieces.

Rejected

2011-11-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

Rejected Cartoons by: Don Hertzfeldt (1999)

In one of my classes the animator Don Hertzfeld was mentioned, we saw some sample images and a few shorts he had done and his style and his humor really sparked my attention. One of the ones that really grabbed me was his shorts he made for the "Family Learning Channel" they are these animations that were far from what a learning channel would want if this one so existed. They became labeled the Rejected Cartoons. Hertzfeld uses traditional animation techniques for creating these shorts. Even using tradition cameras used for early animations to capture these hand drawn images frame by frame. What I enjoy from these is how he takes these simple images and pushes them a long ways. It is really what I want to do with my animation project. The characters themselves are rather misleading as they seem like the simple clueless characters but their actions speak otherwise. I really enjoy the humor in these as it brings the characters even more to life.

One of my favorites is one where a guys spoon is too big. The character just doesn't understand why he has this big spoon and what to do with it. The character continues to state the obvious over and over again. Than along comes a banana who says "Im a banana" Its a mocking the fact that this character is stating the obvious by bringing in even more obscure things than a large spoon, like a talking banana which than a large spoon is a smaller problem.

He has created a world where the unusual is normal and the normal is unusual making it even at some points an outcast. There is a shirt where it is a silly hat gathering and when someone walks in with a normal top hat they are literally beaten to death. The film continues to play off itself more and more referencing other shorts throughout. Don pokes fun at his own animation throughout with the title pages. It ends with saying that his cartoons are so far out there that the world in which the rejected cartoons existed became so unstable that they started to fall apart.

Swing Dancing Lessons

2011-11-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to attend a workshop to teach people how to swing dance. I have always been a fan of dancing and have tried a few times to swing dance and this opportunity really appealed to me as it really engages and challenges both my mind and body. They started off teaching us the basic steps which muscle memory kicked in and it felt pretty natural to when I learned a bit of it back in high school. They challenged us and had us switch partners for each new thing they taught us and than go try what we learned with someone new. It was really cool because we got to meet people and it showed how much you may think you have the moves down and right until you do it with someone else. It was interesting to be working with another person and leading their movements, most of my dance partners were very controlling because they had already knew how to swing dance so when I got the chance to practice with someone who had let me lead it was kind of fun. I spend a good hour or so just swing dancing after they taught us the basic moves. The challenging part was the different swings and figuring out how to do it all at different speeds with the music.

Duck Amuck

2011-11-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953.)

This was the first time I have seen this Warner Brother's animation featuring the lovable Daffy Duck. This is a really self-reflective piece. It is an animation about Daffy arguing with his creator as he continues to get into character and scene and it disappears only to be replaced by a different setting. It shows the scenes being drawn and Daffy even directly asking his creator what is going on. It even plays on the medium showing a projector slip where Daffy interacts with himself from the next frame. It plays on this idea of how with animation really anything is possible and it is up to the animator just to draw it and come up with the story. Compared to live action films animations have the ability to create their own world from scratch and often have to.

I also learned that this animation was done during a time when Disney really had all the resources and Warner Brother's were a lot less fortunate. Where Disney could play into fairy tales and really bring to life stories, Warner Brothers kept it simple a played off people's sometimes cruel thoughts and behaviors. Leaving out things like backgrounds and keeping things more simple allowed for them to save money and time in production of each animation. It ends with the animator being revealed as Bugs Bunny, as he was the one messing with Daffy the whole time. This played with the cruel things we sometimes imagine doing just to mess with people, as Bugs continued to mess with Daffy throughout all of Duck Amuck.

Coffee Stains

2011-11-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated by drawing coffee cups, they come in different forms, shapes and sizes. The designs of them and how many people use them either from Starbuck, Alterra, the Grind or even the cup from the cupboard. I have thought about doing a project on napkins from different coffee shops and places and using them as a canvas to draw countless amounts of coffee cups. I would like to even stain a few with tea and coffee to add texture and depth to them. Maybe even play with how I draw them and what I use to draw them. I thought about even taking a coffee stir stick or straw and getting black coffee and drawing on the napkins with the coffee as my ink. Even maybe trying to use it to shade the images.

A Piece of My Heart

2011-10-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

UWM Peck School of the Arts Kenilworth Performance
This was a show that was about the women who served in vietnam. This was the first time I had ever seen a show done like this before. It was an open floor plan and had very few props, a couple of boxes, chairs, and the actors. There was 6 or so women and 1 men made up the cast. The show was about how all these women became a part of the war and their experience as nurses. The first half was how hard the war was and how they were just thrown into it. The women did a great job capturing the emotion and terror of being placed under such stress and having to see such horror a war wounds. It showed the transition of each woman as they moved from civilian to nurse in the war and the way that the war changed their character and their spirits. The second act was how life was different and the hard transition into life after the war. How people treated them different how they never felt like they belonged back in the world. The lighting of the show really helped capture the emotion as it had very direct lights with spots and highlighting and emphasizing the shadows of the space to play into emotion. My favorite part was the end when they were giving monologues one by one reflecting and paying respects to those gone. They treated the audience as the war memorial wall, talking directly up close and personal to the front row. Holding their hand up as if it was on the wall, audience members would put their hands up as if they were being spoken to. It was a very emotional and well done show.

Love at First Fright

2011-10-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Love at first fright is a musical production put on by a cast at Six Flags Great America. This show is not something you would have expected at an amusement park. It starts off with two kids being dared to spend the night in a cemetery. Once the clock strike twelve the place was crawling with the undead. This show was able to seamlessly bring together cult movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show, classic halloween music like Thriller, and pop culture references throughout. The set started off with this cemetery scape with a giant willow tree in the back ground and a house on a hill where the bell rings at midnight. The characters enter from all craves of the stage from beneath rocks and moss to out from under tombstones. Halfway through the show it goes black and there is a set change, here the set is than stripped away of everything just revealing a grand stair case down into a mansions basement. This show was done with such energy that the characters all seemed so lively and interactive making it feel less of a performance but more of watching something unfold beyond a stage. This is amazing for the cast has to preform the same show about 5 times a day, and for this being the last show they still seemed to be full of energy.

Weekend

2011-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

I was able to attend opening weekend of the Milwaukee LGBT film festival seeing the screening of Weekend by Andrew Haigh. This film did an amazing job of bring the characters to such a realistic level that you could help but be taken into the film. The film mainly took place in this small apartment and utilized shots of observation of interactions and the space that really brought the apartment to life. It focused on what felt like real people and how they live their everyday, but it did it in such an engaging way that I never found myself bored. This one night stand turned into a weekend affair really brought to life the question of what is love all about and how do people define love and their relationships. It brought such a realistic and emotional tie between the two men that it was hard to see it just being the weekend. The close shots of how the two interacted and the dialoug brought the relationship forward. The main issue I had with the film is like most LGBT films it focuses on the use of drugs as if it is a neccessity of the LGBT life style. I understand when it is over coming a struggle or plays into the plot and isn't about them just using drugs but learning from it. In this film the use of cocaine didn't move the film forward at all. The characters did line after line, it not only was unneeded to give the characters the feel but it wasn't even responsible use of drugs as that much would probably kill someone in that short of time. It made it so unrealistic making it feel like it was just in there to show drug use which I do not agree with. The characters met through a drunk one night hook up and it turned into something more and it wasn't because they were high it was because the connection between the two of them. Overall it was a great movie and would see it again but hated the drug use.

Jenna Drive

2011-10-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

A boy returns to the streets that he has spent a lot of his time on through much of the time he was growing into the man he is today. The street holds priceless memories and he can't help recall them with each step he takes. The memories are filled with emotions across the board from joy to heartbreak. He reflects on the fact that even during the hardest and darkest times they allowed him to grown into the man he is today. The boy returns to the street one last time before he puts the last box in his car and drives away to create his new life after college. He gets out and walks down the street and takes pictures to remember each spot and the memories that it holds. He takes the pictures in efforts to remember how things use to be, just incase it all changes or is gone one day at least he will have the images to remember all the emotion in that space. With each photograph he takes, he recalls a memory as it fades as it replays in his mind. He recalls when the girl next door moved in and they locked eyes for the first time. The spot where he said I love you for the first time, just after the girl he loves couldn't understand why he would always just leave. The first time he learned how to ride a bike. The place where he tripped on his shoe lace on the worst day of his life and everything fell to the ground and he broke down. To the end of the street where he comes to a stop sign and he looks up at the street name "Jenna Drive" he turns around as his name is called. It is the girl next door calling him to the car. They hug for the last time and he gets in his car and drives away. As he stops at the stop sign at the end of the street as he drives away a tear rolls down his face. He wipes it away and pulls away, leaving behind the street, the girl, and the memories.

Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween

2011-10-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

This year I was able to attend the Orientals screening and play of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had seen the movie once before but this experience really brought to life the movie in a new way. I think it really helped that I was going on one of the best themed nights for such a film, the Halloween screening. There was countless people dressed up like the characters and wearing clothes way to thin for such weather but it all was part of the spectacle that is this cult film.

While standing in line we were able to buy the goodie bags which they called Survival Kits, as well as everyone who had never seen the show before was labeled as a Virgin. I was a lucky one and didn't get the mark, but its because I lied and counted seeing the movie with friends as being to the show. Pre-show was actually really amusing as they had all the "virgins" get on their hands and needs and crawl between the legs of the cast to get spanked. They than also brought up everyone who wanted to partake in the costume contest up on stage and had people do challenges and than the judging of the best costume.

During the show the cast present reenacted the scenes in front of us which really brought to life the movie. The show had endless audience participation as people were screaming out the lines and throwing things left and right. It sure wasn't the film I had saw a few years ago, especially since it was hard to actually make out what the dialogue was.

Taryn Simon: Photographs and Texts

2011-10-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

I attended the Milwaukee Art Museum, the first time I have been back since I helped work on American Idol and we filmed there. This time around they had an exhibite called Photographs and Text by Taryn Simon. Overall I didn't particularly understand the aspects of this exhibit layout and how they really related to each other beyond being by the same artist. "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar (2007) comprises photographs and texts revealing objects and sites that are integral to America’s foundation, mythology, or daily functioning but remain inaccessible or unknown to the public." It was kind of a life and death contrast that I found as it seemed that the things we consume both the life of animals and products all placed in what seemed to be a morgue autopsy table.
One images that still is stuck in my head is the image of a tiger that was breed to produce certain types of genes through inbreeding. This image I couldn't believe was real, the tiger looked like it was in so much pain and that it had been mutated into a state that made it hard to function. It is an example of something that was born into this world into a life destroyed and it was beyond its own controls. It really brought into question do the ends out way the means when someone is getting hurt. Not to mention the life this animal is now reduced to and how it is locked away in an empty cage.

Blinkity Blank

2011-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

Blinkity Blank By: Norman McLaren (1955)

This film is described to be a surreal story of a bird and its cage with both their conflict and union.

This film is an animation of a bird that is scratched on a film script frame after frame. It is very interesting because it not only makes use of the scratches to tell this story and transformation of this bird but it also makes use of the negative space and adds time to the film through extending that making it feel like blinks.

The animation style reminds me a lot of fireworks going off, as a lot of the images start off smaller and than grow to their form and are done with quick burst of color and light on the black plain that it reminds me of the fireworkds going off in the night sky. This animation uses lines to their fullest really bringing to life the characters they create through their quick movements and their vibrant colors. What also strikes me is the powerful use of sound throughout as it plays and helps the pacing of the animation as a whole.

Office Supply

2011-10-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

I work with a lot of office supplies in my job from cutting things, stapling, gluing with glue sticks, hot glue guns, elmers glue, super glue. I use paper clips and binder clips. Pens, markers, crayons, sharpies, and pencils. I photo copy, trace or simply draw. There is so much in a world of office supplies. I love thinking of things having a life of their own, I love inanimate objects coming to life. I came up with this idea of taking a desk full of office supplies, one of which is a broken old stapler. The owner comes home with a brand new staple fresh out of the package and places it on the desk. He than takes the old stapler and throws it in the trash and leaves the room. Suddenly all the supplies on the desk come to life and go to see this stapler lifeless in the trash can, the fall did it in. Than they all look at this new stapler, and that stapler slowly comes to life. They all hurry back to their original spots and become motionless.

This new stapler doesn't understand its purpose, so he ventures this desk in search trying to engage the rest of the office supplies but they all reject him. He keeps trying and trying with no luck at all. When suddenly the owner returns and uses the stapler to staple a piece of paper, and leaves the room once more. The stapler becomes to life and just starts stabling the air over and over again. He than sees a pile of papers and just starts stapling them all together. The stapler gets out of control and seems to be crazy when it runs out of staples. He than feels lost and returns to his spot on the desk. Ending on a desk now a mess with staples all over.

Commercial Static

2011-10-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

I would like to play with the idea of the media and technology and the effects it has on our minds. How we grew up being told not to watch too much television or how media puts all these negative images in our minds. I would like to play with the complaints about television being all the same thing, and how there is nothing on yet we continue to watch the things we call garabage.

The images I have in my head for this idea is to have someone in a room that is a disaster. Nothing has been put away for weeks and their are dirty clothes all over the floor and the hamper is over flowing. I would like to build the feeling of the space, how much of a disaster it is. How much it hasn't been taken care of but not to the point it has become a health hazard but enough to be a problem to live in for annoyance. I would like to play with a lot of close ups building a closed feeling of this room as if the walls could start moving in at any time. Than you find the person, just sitting there on a chair in the middle of the room. Not moving at all but eyes wide open staring straight a head. Lost in gaze at the television, yet all it is playing is the white noise. I would like to build emotion using the static sound of the white noise, snow. I want to leave it very open ended just showing this person lost on this screen and their eyes glossed over.

Rain Storm

2011-09-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

The story of a young boy or man wondering in the dark through a rain storm. I would like to convey the emotion of sadness through rain. Emotions are a powerful thing and one thing that some people find it hard to do is cry. It is hard to face those types of emotions and allow yourself to show weakness; especially around other people. I remember one time when I was really sad and I didn't want anyone to realize just how upset I was. It was raining outside and I just walked in the rain and allowed it to provide a shelter for me, a way for me to open up. Storms themselves represent hold a lot of power as do emotions. The distract people and allow people an escape. The weather itself also has a huge influence on people's emotions.

I would like to do an animation about a boy wondering down a street at sunset. He looks sad but is bottling his emotions. A rain drop falls from the sky and runs down his cheek. He wipes it away as if he is wiping away a tear. The sky gets dark and the sun goes down and the street lights guide his way. The drops come down more and more, the boy wipes his face again until it is at a full rain and he just accepts it. His face tightens and his eyes swell and a tear rolls down his face. He continues down the street allowing himself to cry and the rain continues to fall down. He makes it to the end of the street where there is a bridge that over looks water. He leans over the edge to gaze out at the dark sky. Suddenly the rain lets up and the clouds show the sun setting. The boy runs out of tears and just gazes at a rainbow in the sky as the sun disappears.
I would like to do this with a lot of shadows and more of a cut out animation style. I don't want fluid movements or rubber hosing effects. I want the boy to feel ridged and stiff, as he fights the emotions. I want it to feel dark.

Persepolis

2011-09-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

In one of my classes we had the chance to watch the film Persepolis, it is an animated film that is an adaptation of a graphic novel by the same author. It shows the growing up of a girl in the middle east and how her she saw the world and how it was around her. It is really interesting how this film really takes on such a heavy topic and puts it into a medium that many think of is for children. This film proves to go against that as it really addresses several issues in even todays world. The film really showed how in western culture there can be a tendency to dilute a point of view, which we presume that one view is how everyone views it how we make assumptions on other culture off of no grounds at all. This idea that ignorance and fear feeds hatred and it goes beyond just stereotypes. It shows a side of how politics not only effect adults but also effect the lives and way of living for children as well. There is a scene where the girl just got from a black market all these hip trends and music from America when two nuns see her and question her. There is so much censorship that the girl was almost taken away to be corrected. It is so interesting how similar the adaptation of an animation is to the graphic novel. It also really brings into question these mediums and their own stereotypes they hold.

Fuel

2011-09-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Josh Tickell, 2010

FUEL is the journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil. It even takes references to how much the world events are effected by the dependency on fuel.

The film talks about how he started using a veggie van to really promote a new source of fuel that was better for the environment and more dependent in our own country. He talks about how the more talk he did, he felt like he wasn't making an impact and than once 911 hit, things changed and we needed to look at new options of what to use and even with hurricane Katrina hitting our own supply chain, we needed to really re consider the choices we make. What really makes this film strong is not only the research and the documentary and history but also how everything that was being talked about was shown visually. Not only through live action but it also used really powerful motion graphics to even explain the process in which fuel is burned or made usable for us as consumers. It was a brilliant documentary that really brought to life the situation our country is in and the need to take action and really focus on making the world a better place.

Life of an RA

2011-09-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

One project that I have always been interested in doing is a documentary in what life as an Resident Assistant is all about. I am going on my third year as being an RA. Throughout the years I have come to discover that being an RA is that for those who stick around it is because the "job" is much more than a job. It is more of a life style, the way you learn to process situations, information, and people. Its about the connections you make and the lives you touch that makes it become much more than any job. This is why I am really interested in documenting the life of an RA and what they have to deal with day in and day out. How much work and effort they put into building a community all while trying to be a student. I know that it takes a lot of sacrifices to be in the position from social life, to school, and to your pocket. Most of this goes on without anyone ever really knowing everything that goes into the work they do and all the things that no one sees.

Images:
Images I would love to capture is interactions between residents and their RA. Following how a relationship is formed and built throughout the year. I would like to film the community that the RA lives in and how it changes through a month, semester, and year. Capture instances where the RA has to address problems in the community. Show aspects of the job that people may not realize gets done or how they do it. I also want to show the emotion and get an understanding of why others do it. A lot of this is based of my own experiences and I want to see how this positions plays into and effects their life. Also film things that are not job related showing how they seperate themselves and if they do? I would also like to see how their personalities differ from one situation to another and when they are on the job and off. There is also this concept of having a residents voice when you confront or try to be nice to someone and how you change the inflection in your voice without knowing it.

The Lion King

2011-09-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Rerelease in theatres

The Lion King was just rereleased in theaters in Digital 3D. This film was remastered and really allowed an already classic film to be rebirthed into the next generation. This film has been one of the hugest inspirations to me to become an animator. Seeing this film in 3D up on the big screen instantly made me want to turn back to those dreams and become part of the process that makes these classics. This film does such an amazing job to bring together the art of animation, the wonderful sound of music, and a rich sense of story. What I loved about watching this film in 3D was its ability to bring to life the characters even further than movies originally done for 3D. With the cell animation that was used to make Lion King you are able to really see every single stroke and sketch of the characters and its movement which brings to life the characters even more. The overall soundtrack of this film does wonders to propel the story. This film although a children's movie has the ability to touch the arts of all of its viewers. It doesn't sugar coat death or betrayal it really brings it to life through these animals. I love this film simply for its ability to really connect all elements from script, music, visuals, and editing. It does wonders for the world of animation and the fact that it was rebirthed to a new generation of children allows it to inspire more to grow up and create a world full of animation. It is a film that truely breaks the idea that a childrens film can not connect with the adult audiences as well.

Plastic Bags

2011-09-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today I was walking across campus and I noticed a plastic bad in a bush. I continued to walk in my usual hurry to Sandburg Hall there I see another bad being blown clung to another bush. Why I didn't bother to get these bags is beyond myself but that image has stuck in my head all day. It has me angry at myself and angry at the rest of the world for no one has picked it up and even more so someone let that bag go to just be trash in the world. I see these bags every where, you can't go shopping without them using a bag and most of the time the cashiers hate their jobs so much when you say I don't need a bag they give you one anyways. I myself at home have a bag full of just plastic bags, why I don't know. I probably won't use them but they are there. I think I feel bad if I throw them away. I would like to do a public art piece of finding bags people have just let loose into the city, and the collection of bags people have. I want to get images of all of these places I find the bags and than collect the bags. From there I want to tie all the bags end to end, and I want to see just how far the rope of bags will stretch. I want to show the harmfulness of the bags and even compare it to how much oil is used and plastic to make the bags. How it compares to driving and its impact on the world. I want to do art that inspires change.