Home Sweet Home...

Well, I'm back in Homer, Alaska and things are going swell! "The Contract" was successfully premiered and it was a huge success. I've been thinking about ways to continue making films here in Homer for the past few days now. The idea of a movie "built" by the small and unique city of Homer intrigues me. The unique art structure, the vast priceless beauty of the vicinity, and the amass of creative people that this city has produces makes me think that this idea is quite possible. If this plan could be executed anywhere, it would be Homer.

PRND321 --- do you recognize this? do your drive a stick, or automatic?

Books books everywhere and not a time to read. However I did find time and recently finished "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers. A fascinating read that I would highly recommend. I read another one of McCullers books this summer. I find she has a uniquely pure and real sense of the world that is refreshing. A sharp and dangerously honest knife she wields through her characters and their actions. What she shows is simply who they are.  I find that I like writing like this. I like movies like this. I like everything like this. Simplicity returns to us to the mystery of things. It hasn't been figure out for us, it's still raw. We have to do the cooking.

I find I like things this way. As simple as they can be. Furniture, architecture, design, stories, movies, art in general. This idea of simplicity even permeates my other partialities. Mathematics, sentence structure, fashion, diplomacy and politics, and coffee. Latté, no flavor, just plain. Better yet, maybe just the espresso.

The Contract: An Allegory of Love & Respect

Tomorrow at 1pm at the Homer Theatre, a movie that I have been working on for the past two years will be shown to the world for the first time.

You can find more information at loveandrespectmovie.wordpress.com

It should be a lot of fun tomorrow. I have no clue how many people are going to come, or how it is going to play out, but sitting here typing this now I am quite excited for the big event. After the showing tomorrow I will work as quickly as I can to get the movie up on the website linked above so the whole world and not just Homer can enjoy it.

Hope to see you there!

The Next Four Years...

Today in my FYE class I got my first real view into the next four years of SCAD. These elusive later years of my life that seem so distant are brought right up to my face for me to try and create a plan around. It is shocking, but extremely exciting as the anticipation to take a class called "Digital Form, Space and Lighting" or "Concept Development for Animation" grows and becomes a closer goal.

Those are just two classes in a long list I am tentatively planning to take here. Taking them would result in a Minor in Technical Direction and a Major in 3D Computer Animation. 220 hours.

I got quite excited thinking about this so I ate some lunch and drew a chair.

The lesson was to visualize the chair as it's basic shape: a cube. Draw that, and work up. Also, we were to find the midline, top and bottom of the chair before we drew it.

I was pleased with my chair and hurried to class and found myself drawing PVC pipes. Later we went outside and drew the trees based on concepts we had used drawing the pipes.

Tomorrow I might be helping out some people from SCAD film a movie. I'm either an extra or if they need some help I told them I knew some technical stuff and would love to help. More on that later I hope!

     ^ Chair and Shadow ^

October Begins With an "Oh"

So this past weeks has been good. I'm not sure when I last posted something but I figured I'd do something now before I forgot and the amount of things I had to talk about went through the roof. I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time this last weekend when I went to Tybee Island with some friends. There is a pier that extends out into the beach and the water and I walked up and down it a few times. Very pretty beach, very flat, very white fine sand. I was there during the dark but I think it would be even prettier during the day. It was nice to smell that reminiscent "ocean" smell after the smell of humid Savannah has become so everyday.
Worked on some drawings for both class and for out of class work. I'll take some pictures and put them up here later.

Wrote an essay for my composition class that I am posting up here as well. It may not be as interesting as the photos, but it's art and I thought I'd share it. Here!

Pictures...

Savannah O.1-O.6

Quick Update and more photos

Well it's been a busy week but one filled with much satisfaction. I was having difficulty last week drawing paper, the folds, the creases, the shadows, and so I aborted the drawing I was working on and drew an old mixer they had in the drawing studio. But this week I tried to do it again and I think I did. I took about 6 feet of paper towel, wrapped it loosely around my hand and stuck in a pewter mug I found. Sat down for about 3 hours and worked it out. There is a nice retro 50's cafe next to Anderson Hall (that's where I was drawing) so after I finished I got a tasty cheeseburger with bacon. Bacon is good down here.
Speaking of Bacon... it seems that nobody has come down with Swine Flu yet. They have part of one of the dorms quarantined for people to go there should they come down with the symptoms associated with Swine '09, but so far it's been empty up there.
Weather: The weather is cooling down a bit. It's nice in the evenings and mornings, definitely light sweater weather. The days are still quite hot though. I took a nap laying in the sun on the bridge yesterday and the day before. It was so relaxing!
I'm eating some Ramen and I'm about to go to bed. That's all that's going on in my life...

P.S. The two photos in this collection of the angel with no head or arms and the torso are not mine, but you should see them. They were done with charcoal and conty stick (spelling?) on Mylar paper and they are absolutely beautiful. A picture can't do them justice but I try.

The past week

Here are some more photos of my past week, the weekend, the adventures I had and some pictures of a few assignments I have been given. All my classes have been exceeding my expectations not only in the level of individual attention but also the approach that every professor, be it drawing, composition, or 2-D design, has taken in terms of teaching us an abstract art. Unlike math and grammar, history or science, there is no right and wrong, yes and no. It's a focus more towards the quality of the work done. When teaching is done in this fashion it moves away from being thought of as torture to learn the world around you and more as a way of finding unique quirks in yourself.

Also, there are some truly excellent restaurants here. Five Guys Burger and Fries, J.O.'s, Betty's Café...

Too many to mention really!

Savannah S.14-S.21

An Introduction to Savannah

Here are some photos that I've been taking while arriving here and touring. Took them on my iPhone and was quite impressed with how they look for being taken with such a small camera. Enjoy!

Arrival to Sep.13

Filming Today

Finished re-filming some scenes for the yet unnamed movie we're working on. Filming was good with some help from both Clara's brother and later from our foreign exchange student Felix. The scenes turned out pretty nice looking. Need to get them digitized onto the computer and start editing them. We'll see how things go from here on.

The Endings (but not really)

About this time last year, before I was shipped of to Idyllwild, a few friends and I got together and made a movie called "The Endings". However, due to the level of activity and jobs I was inundated with as soon as I arrived in California, I was unable to concentrate much of my time on this quirky, neo-noir, film.

However, in the past few weeks I have gotten back on this horse and have started riding it towards a finish that not that long ago seemed an impossible task. Here now, sitting at my computer, finishing it seems to be no longer impossible, only formidable. That's good. We have been calling it "The Endings" since the first draft of the script, however I don't think that will be the final name. Hunter Multz-Matthews, the producer, was talking to me about the title and he said it was too vague. I agreed! The title of a movie, or of anything, is a very important part of the work itself. It is the name given to it by it's creators and it should have a meaning. It could be ironic, funny, explaining, even a plot device. I'm not sure what we will end up calling this current film, but it would be nice to take advantage of the title and use it as just another way to pull the film together.

Editing has been swell! I always forget how much fun it is and am always a bit scared to get going on a project. But once you get into the swing of things, it's hard to remove yourself. It's addicting really; playing with timing, and seeing how angles fit together. The film is coming along splendidly and I'll hopefully be finished with it in the next few weeks. At least before I leave for Savannah. We'll be showing it during Christmas break when all the cast and crew are back from their adventures to reunite in Homer. I'm expecting that to be a lot of fun.

Below is a screenshot I found while looking for some clips. It's not going to be used in the final movie, but it made me laugh.

Any more information that comes down the line will be announce here as well as on another website dedicated completely to the movie.

The cast and crew is made up of: Oceana Wills, Hunter Multz-Matthews, Ethan Martin, Nikki Ervice, Dan Westerburg, Ken Landfield, Clara Noomah, Jake Schmutzler, and myself. Allot of thanks also goes to Tom Taffe for helping us on the equipment side. Thank you to everybody!

yellow mellow

(Crimson eating soup)

Thai Coconut soup. My day has been divided into two parts. Before
eating Thai Coconut soup and after eating Thai Coconut soup. Needless
to say it was an incredibly delicious meal that I got at Natures
Wisdom, a small resteraunt in the middle of Idyllwild that serves food
made from the freshest of ingredients and prepared with flavor in
mind. If you ever visit Idyllwild, make sure to pencil in time to rest
your mind (hey that rhymed) at Natures Wisdom.