Drawing the Eye

Correct Link

2011-09-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the link that I posted for my new blog is not working!

Try: http://itp.nyu.edu/~ep1243/blog/

Movin' on Up

2011-09-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gents...

While it's been a pleasure talking at you here on blogspot... it just so happens that I'm moving up in the world. I recently started school at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program [ITP].

Being that ITP teaches you how to computer program... I'm thinking that I'd like to build out a blog/professional site that live together. This will take some time, so, for the time being I'm just going to start posting on a new blog (same name) that, for the time will live here. [This may or may not be mandatory at ITP].

Eventually, I hope that this will bloom out into a whole site with a more robust blog....

I'm also working on some other projects part-time... you can find out about those on Twitter, until the site is up and running (likely early-mid January).

Biblion: Web Version

2011-08-31T13:38:00.001-07:00

For those of you who were unable to download Biblion when it came out for the iPad, you can now view it online!

2011-08-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

One Art

by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.



Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.



Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant 

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.



I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.



I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.





--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident

the art of losing's not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

... with an Italian Twist

2011-06-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, when I was home in Hammonton, I visited the opening day of the Farmers Market.

Growing up in Hammonton, I had a lot of access to 'farm fresh' food... particularly because my grandfather always had a garden full of produce and then, as I got older, my best friend worked at a local farmers market.

It was really lovely to see the whole town embracing local and sustainable food -- from local fruits and veggies, to wines, to locally caught fish.

I, of course, snapped some pics.

For more photos of the market, check out my Flickr set...

First Photo Show

2011-06-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from my photos at Casciano Coffee Bar and Sweetery.

Mom was psyched:

Twelve photos are up all month (and for sale!). Go stop by and see them if you're in Hammonton.

My little nephew will cheer if you do:

Also, keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming post of Hammonton Farmer's Market photos.

Food on Display

2011-06-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Starting tomorrow, some of my food photography will be on display in Hammonton's own at Casciano Coffee Bar and Sweetery!

It'll be there all month, but there will also be a reception from 6-8 tomorrow (6/16/11) if you want to come see me as well as my pictures!

Also, check out some of the photos that did not make the framing and printing cut below.

"A Strip of Papyrus"

2011-05-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

I would like you all to meet Biblion: The Boundless Library...the New York Public Library's first iPad app... and a project on which I have been working (as part of an excruciatingly talented team) for the past several months.

Biblion is a digital relaunch of a retired journal of the same name. In this first digital edition... Biblion: World's Fair, the Library has included more than 700 items from the Manuscripts and Archives Division's 1939 and 1940 New York World's Fair collection... through which you can explore in a "multilinear reading experience." By navigating through "links" that appear in yellow tabs throughout the stories, essays and galleries, you can jump "from stack to stack," hopefully encountering the same thrilling and serendipitous experience as you would have rifling through the boxes and folders themselves.

You can download the app from the App Store... and look out for a web version later in the summer.

Keep your eyes peeled for some of my favorite items:
A photo of the winner of the Handsomest Ice Man in New York, interviews with candidates in the "Typical American Family" contest, Babe Ruth's signature, an oversized map of the Fairgrounds superimposed over Manhattan, a retro Fair bumper sticker, a sketch of a fabulous hat for employees, the story of the near-doomed Czechoslovakia pavilion, and oh, so so much more....

[If you are curious about the title of this post... it is an original meaning of the Greek word "biblion."]

Culture... Part I

2011-05-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

I always mean to blog about cultural events that I see immediately after I see them. Especially the ones that I like. However, I am not nearly on top of my various charges as I should be... and thus I have been storing up performances and museum outings for the past six months... and mulling over them silently for good measure. But, I mean to change. And to start that.... I'd like to offer up the first of three posts with notable experiences from the past six months.

I plan to talk briefly about the things that I loved/I might borrow from each of these experiences... as, the more and more I think about it, the more and more I think that innovation comes from borrowing techniques from other mediums [re: video, of course]...

Though, I do warn you... I never know where I might actually go with these posts.

Anyway. Let's begin with November and December, 2010....

James Thiérrée's Raoul

I loved Raoul-- a one man show with James Thiérrée (clown, magician, trapeze artist and decedent of Monsieur Charles Chaplain) which was at BAM Next Wave last fall. I thought it was whimsical and magical and also thought provoking all at once. ... I also thought it was a little long.
But! My main takeaway here was from a moment towards the end. James Thiérrée "flies." Not "flying" like Peter Pan... Thiérrée glides above the audience, and then does circular flips through the air. He was dancing in the air...and the experience of watching began as such:
The background was black. Thiérrée came out and started doing collosual circles through the air-- like
hands on a clock moving at 50x speed. And this was magical.
But then...
One of the things about theater that always bothers me is when you can see the mechanics of a stunt and no one ever acknowledges that you can see the stupid trap door... or the wires holding up the man who is suspended in mid air.
So... when Thiérrée turned and the men who were manning the crane on which he was "flying" came into the light... I knew I was watching something special. The crane-dance lasted for a few more minutes with Thiérrée gleefully acknowledging the mechanics of his trick, flying up and over the audience while the crane occasionally took the spotlight. And that's when he really had me.
Not only did I recognize how the trick was done-- but I recognized how good a trickster he was. Because in the beginning it felt like magic... and then he had the temerity to show me that, not only was it not magic... but, the entire time, he had the upper hand. And that's when I started to laugh. ...

The Hard Nut

What struck me most about The Hard Nut (Mark Morris' reinterpretation of The Nutcracker set in the era of disco) was, actually, the way that the ballet played with gender. In the scene depicted above (which was astonishingly beautiful), every single member of the cast was a "sugar plum fairy." Men and women alike dressed in the same tutu. This was following upon the opening scene- the Christmas party scene, in which men were dressed as women and vice versa. While, at first, I thought this would be distracting, I think it instead forced me to focus on the dance as opposed to... everything else. The androgyny that was created by putting everyone in the same place encouraged me to look at all of the dancers simply as dancers-- and I ended up enjoying the performance more because the dancing was all that I was looking at. I suspect that the uniformity created by this masking, if you will, was a contributing factor. When everyone looked the same, I saw past the person and to the action.

Also- a note on the above scene-- the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. Each time that the fairies would leap- the would throw 'snow' from their hands. There ended up being a constant cloud of snow in the air, which created a really magical feeling against the plain black backdrop. Even though we could see the source of the snow (from the hands of the dancers)--which would seem to demystify the scene--it felt more like a blizzard than any other movie or play I had ever seen because the snow appeared to be truly hanging and swirling organically in the air.

There will be a brief interruption... and then, tune in at the end of the week for Part II--Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera from The Brooklyn Museum and The Nightengale and Other Fables, again from BAM.

Photo 1: http://culturebot.net/tag/james-thierree/
Photo 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/arts/dance/13nut.html

Food, Film and (self) Flattery

2011-04-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Whoa.

It's been a while.

I have a few links for you all today... all shamelessly self-promotional:

First-- I started a new bit of fun over at food52... Dinner and a Movie... the first installment being The Age of Innocence...

Bascially, this is just what it sounds like. ... I use the fabulous recipes from the food52 community to create a meal paired with a great movie. Keep your eyes peeled for more in the near future.

Second-- They did a profile of me a few weeks ago! In case you missed it.... Meet Me. And also be amazed at how cute I was:

Third-- This major project on which I've been working (for more than a year!) will be launching soon. More updates about that to come in May!

The Little Balerina : Shutter Speed

2011-03-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning thinking about this incredibly beautiful video from a few months ago--

Photographer David Eustace created this piece called "The Little Ballerina." I'm relatively sure it was shot with one of the Canons (5D or 7D) because of the motion blur, which I think was done with a change in the shutter speed...

"The Anthropologist," for which this video was made, says the following:
"_To capture the movement, precision and grace of ballerina Tomomi Sato, Eustace filmed her in action, revealing frame-by-frame the delicate beauty inherent in her mastery of dance.

Kind of reminds me of:

L'etoile [La danseuse sur la scene]

Degas, 1878

Fancy, what DSLRs can do.

"When I was a Kid..."

2011-02-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, I also started reading, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," by Peter Biskind.

In the second chapter, titled "Before the Revolution," he tackles the making of Bonnie and Clyde. Enter Robert Towne.

Towne would go on to write that unbelievable and near perfect script: Chinatown. But, on Bonnie and Clyde (on which he is uncredited, I believe), he had the following to say.

When I was a kid, I noticed four things about movies: the characters could always find parking spaces at every hour of the day and night, they never got change in restaurants, and husbands and wives never slept in the same bed. Women went to sleep with their makeup on and woke with it unmussed. I thought to myself, I'm never going to do that. In Bonnie and Clyde -- although, I don't think it was my doing -- Bonnie counts out every penny of change, and C.W. gets stuck in a parking place and has a hard time making a getaway."

And that, my friends, is the quote from my reading this week. I am sure... sure... more from this book will follow.

(Quote c/o "Easy Riders Raging Bulls" by Peter Biskind and Photo c/o artvehicle and this link).

Making Movies

2011-02-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Today is not a day for work.

Besides the fact that I'm wearing a red dress (I mean-- who can honestly press their nose to the grindstone [cubicle] when they are decked out in red?), I am reading the book "Making Movies" by Sideny Lumet and I am smitten.

Smitten with his writing, smitten with his movies... even though I think The Pawnbroker is the most depressing thing I've ever seen. But mostly, I am, again, just smitten with just the process.

[It doesn't help that I was on set two weeks ago while I was on vacation and I've been to some preview screenings to help friends out recently.... le sigh.]

But anyway, since I have to be content to be distantly smitten at the moment, here's something to feed into the movie-making-development-production-editing lust:

Making a movie has alwasy been about telling a story. Some movies tell a story and leave you with a feeling. Some tell as story and leave you with a feeling and give you an idea. Some tell a story, leave you with a feeling, give you an idea and reveal something about yourself and others. And surely the way you tell that story should relate somehow to what that story is.

Because that's what style is: the way you tell a particular story. After the first critical decision ("What's this story about?") comes the second most important decisions: "Now that I know what it's about, how shall I tell it?" And this decision will affect every department involved in the movie that is about to be made.

Let me vent my anger first, so it's out of the way. Critics talk about style as something apart from the movie because they need the style to be obvious. The reason they need it to be obvious is that they don't really see. If the movie looks like a Ford or Coca-Cola commercial, they think that's style. And it is. It's trying to sell you something you don't need and is stylistically geared to that goal. As soon as a "long lens" appears, that's "style." ... From the huzzahs that greeted Lelouch's A Man and a Woman, one would've thought that another Jean Renoir had arrived. A perfectly pleasant bit of romantic fluff was proclaimed "art," because it was so easy to identify as something other than realism. ...

Good style, to me, is unseen style. It is style that is felt.

(quote c/o making movies, chapter 3, "style"... picture c/o imdb)

India - Analog

2011-02-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

Final set of india pics-- taken with Holga, because I'm just that indie.

38 photos on my flickr.... enjoy.

Temple in Amravati

Women preparing sweets for mass wedding in Amravati

Preparing rice for mass wedding in Amravati

Making Roti for the mass wedding

Eggplant for the mass wedding

Prepping flowers for the mass wedding.

Outside of Victoria Station

Gateway of India

Choor Bazaar (The Thieves' Market)

Oranges in the Thieves' Market

I had a bit of an issue with exposure and lost one roll.... but my first time with a Holga and first time with medium format-- I think they turned out really well.

And that's it, ladies and gents, for India. See the whole collection on my flickr.

India - Digital

2011-02-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Photos, set 2... taken with my Canon 1DMarkII--- thus, "India Digital."

These were taken all in Mumbai, mostly in Bandra West (Kishori's 'hood) and Colaba (the touristy 'hood).

If you'd like to see all 38 photos.... visit my Flickr.

And keep your eye out for further adventures in India Analog (coming later this week)... in which we visit Chor Bazaar and take an overnight train to Amravati to see the largest mass wedding in India's history.

Evening in Bandra West

A building in Colaba

Kishori with Chaat, street food.

Sunset on Marine Drive

Souvenirs outside of the "Gateway of India"

Me, outside of the "Gateway of India"

A pile of peppers on the street in Bandra

Around the corner from Kishori's place.

A Tailor in Bandra West

Birds flock around the Taj

Texting in Bandra

Construction in Bandra

If you like what you see... there's more here!

India - Mobile

2011-02-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

This is the first of three posts of India pictures.

Obviously, this one is the lamest-- as the few photos it includes were taken with the Hipstamatic App on my phone when I couldn't get a camera out of my bag/was just messing around...

but I hope it whets your appetite for India-Digital and India-Analog posts, to come later this week.

Window view in Amravati

Another view in Amravati

Street in Amravati

Waiting for the Overnight train back to Mumbai

Midnight on the platform near Amravati

What to do?

2011-01-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

I am off to another continent in a few days for a big trip. Total travel time both ways is roughly 40 hours. So... I need to get some goooood books.

Trick is, I read very quickly so I want to bring several, but I also don't want to travel too heavy, so I want to bring few.

If you have any sympathy for my sanity-- please help me choose from the following:

1. Let the Great World Spin
McCann's sweeping new novel hinges on Philippe Petit's illicit 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers. It is the aftermath, in which Petit appears in the courtroom of Judge Solomon Soderberg, that sets events into motion. ... McCann's dogged, DeLillo-like ambition to show American magic and dread sometimes comes unfocused—John Corrigan in particular never seems real—but he succeeds in giving us a high-wire performance of style and heart.

2. Jane Eyre
...On the surface a fairly conventional Gothic romance (poor orphan governess is hired by rich, brooding Byronic hero-type), Jane Eyre hardly seems the stuff from which revolutions are made. But the story is very much about the nature of human freedom and equality, and if Jane was seen as something of a renegade in nineteenth-century England, it is because her story is that of a woman who struggles for self-definition and determination in a society that too often denies her that right. ... Jane Eyre is full of drama: fires, storms, attempted murder, and a mad wife conveniently stashed away in the attic. This is very sexy stuff - another reason Victorian critics weren't quite sure what to make of it.

3. Cleopatra: A Life
For those who think they know enough about Cleopatra or have the enigmatic Egyptian queen all figured out, think again. ... Rather than a devastatingly beautiful femme fatale, Cleopatra, according to Schiff, was a shrewd power broker who knew how to use her manifold gifts—wealth, power, and intelligence—to negotiate advantageous political deals and military alliances. Though long on facts and short on myth, this stellar biography is still a page-turner; in fact, because this portrait is grounded so thoroughly in historical context, it is even more extraordinary than the more fanciful legend. Cleopatra emerges as a groundbreaking female leader, relying on her wits, determination, and political acumen rather than sex appeal to astutely wield her power in order to get the job done. Ancient Egypt never goes out of style, and Cleopatra continues to captivate successive generations.

4. The Once and Future King
Quartet of novels by T.H. White, published in a single volume in 1958. The quartet comprises The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness--first published as The Witch in the Wood (1939)--The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (published in the composite volume, 1958). The series is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, from Arthur's birth to the end of his reign, and is based largely on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur.

5. Volumes 4 and 5 of The Sandman Collection
In many ways, Season of Mists is the pinnacle of the Sandman experience. .... Here in volume 4, we find out about the rest of Dream's Endless family (Desire, Despair, Destiny, Delirium, Death, and a seventh missing sibling). We find out the story behind Nada, Dream's first love, whom we met only in passing during Dream's visit to hell in the first book. When Dream goes back to hell to resolve unfinished business with Nada, he finds her missing along with all of the other dead souls. The answer to this mystery lies in Lucifer's most uncharacteristic decision--a delicious surprise.
...
You may have heard somewhere that Neil Gaiman's Sandman series consisted of cool, hip, edgy, smart comic books. And you may have thought, "What the hell does that mean?" Enter A Game of You to confound the issue even more, while at the same time standing as a fine example of such a description. This is not an easy book. The characters are dense and unique, while their observations are, as always with Gaiman, refreshingly familiar. ... In almost every way this book sits at 180 degrees from the earlier four volumes of the Sandman series--although the less it seems to belong to the series, the more it shows its heart.

6. House of the Spirits
A best seller and critical success all over the world, The House of the Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family -- their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all.
We begin -- at the turn of the century, in an unnamed South American country -- in the childhood home of the woman who will be the mother and grandmother of the clan, Clara del Valle. ...
It is the supreme achievement of this splendid novel that we feel ourselves members of this large, passionate (and sometimes exasperating) family, that we become attached to them as if they were our own. ...

....

Plus 3 issues of American Cinematographer and one issue of Savuer.

If you could only bring 3 of the books... what, oh what would you pick?

[each synopsis stolen from amazon.]

"That's Roman Polanski"

2011-01-12T10:05:00.000-08:00

In the 1992 documentary "Visions of Light," William A. Fraker, ASC discusses his experience as DP on "Rosemary's Baby," a particular favorite of mine.

I found the following anecdote really instructive and entertaining.

“Most pictures were really breaking away from the Hollywood System [in the 1960s]. And you had the influence of the east coast, you had the influence of foreign markets now, and you had directors like Roman Polanski…. Roman had a magnificent background. He went to the Polish film school and he had a magnificent background in photography. He understood photography. He understood images—and also with people and emotions. He was tied with emotions.

There’s a shot in Rosemary’s Baby—[Ruth] says “Where’s the telephone?” And Mia says, “In the bedroom.” And Ruth says, “Oh, good,” and she exits.

Roman says, “Billy, give me a POV of Ruth.” And I got them framed perfectly, beautifully—we see her on the phone talking. And I say, “Ok, Roman, we’re ready.” He comes over and he looks and he says, “Billy, no no no, Billy move move move… move to the left.” So the camera moves and I look through and I see just the back of Ruth Gordon, seated on the bed and you can’t see her face or see the telephone. And I said, “But you can’t see her.” And Roman says… “Exactly.” And I said.. “Oh, ok?”

So now, we go to theater and 800 people in theater all go [mimics someone arching their neck to the right]… to see around the door jam.

That’s Roman Polanski.”

Top 10, 2010... but not really 2010.

2011-01-10T07:21:00.000-08:00

Ever since starting to work 9-5 I don't see as many movies in the theater as I used to... or would like to---especially because I can no longer attend mid-day free screenings like I used to. They are the single biggest thing that I miss from my free-lance life.

Luckily, Netflix is making my life wonderful, especially with instant play. And since I actually got to see a lot of older movies via streaming this year, as well as things in theaters-- I thought I'd mix it up and throw out the top then things I'd seen overall in 2010... instead of just the top ten new movies that I saw. I mean-- the old stuff was new to me anyway, wasn't it?

So- Top 10ish movies (etc) that I saw this year:

1. Metropolis - This movie blew my mind. I saw the new recently discovered "original" extended edition. Holy Fritz Lang. It was unbelievable. The flood sequence literally had me on the edge of my chair. And! This movie, from 1929, still got cheers at the end. That, my friends, is great cinema.

2. 127 Hours - I walked out of this flick and my friend turned me and asked, "Is your heart racing?" Well, yes, it was. Another movie where the last 30 minutes totally took me on a ride-- in a way that no film ever has before. Somehow-- even though I closed my eyes for the actually cutting off of the arm bit--Danny Boyle made my adrenaline rush, while I sat in a chair and did nothing. That's an accomplishment, I say. If I could write another thesis, it might be on this.

3. Toy Story 3 - I'm not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoy Pixar movies. So much so, that I do my best not to find out anything about the film before going to see it or I try to see it early. I don't watch trailers, I don't read reviews, and I walk out of the room when someone starts to speak of the movie. So when I walked into Toy Story 3 with only the understanding that it was "brilliant..." I may or may not have been a little too prone to suspend my disbelief. What I mean here is that in the moment where they all grab hands and.... I'll stop because if you saw it then you know... I actually thought that Pixar was just that brilliant and I started to sob. And, ok... maybe they aren't that brilliant, but the cleverness of the deus ex machina totally made up for it.

4. Double Feature: F is for Fake/Exit Through the Gift Shop: I decided to watch these two films on the same day, which was a stroke of curatorial genius on my part [ok... maybe it's pretty obvious]. First-- Orson Welles does more with a still image of Picasso than most filmmakers do with 120 minutes of moving images. Second-- "The Banksy doc"was really remarkable to watch. Great, unique footage-- and, in the end, left me really thinking about art and artists. It was one of those movies where I walked out of the theater and couldn't really talk to anyone for a while because my head was swimming.

5. I am Love/The American - I put these two films together because in my mind, they feel kind of the same and, frankly, I loved them both and couldn't choose. Both feature a well know star from American movies in a film set in Europe and made by a European. While they both look very different-- they are both mesmerizing in their pacing. Really-- they both put you into a trance, in a way. And they're both about a repressed adult discovering or embracing passion/real emotion. So they are both #5.

6. Umbrellas of Cherbourg - What more can you ask for than Technicolor, a hummable melody and a bittersweet ending? ... Well... the ever amazingly fashioned Catherine Deneuve.
oh... but have I mentioned the colors?
And the music?
Just watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs1NmsA-n-Y

7. The Curse of the Cat Woman - I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I got this from netflix in 2009 and finally watched in in March of 2010. My screenwriting professor had mentioned this movie once and I was curious, but I was never in the mood. But the boring Friday night on which I did, finally, watch it was totally incredible. Really clever and suspenseful and deliciously cheesy in only the way that a great b-horror movie can be.

8. The Lost Finale - This was, overall, my favorite "viewing experience" of the year. I went to a bar where there were "Lost" drinks with coconut and liquor and fun. And I made friends with the random people who joined my "Lost" Trivia team before the show. And then, when it finally started-- the room was silent... until the commercials-- when everyone collectively mused over how amazing this experience was. There was just a vibe in the room.
(And I totally loved the ending. I was a big fan and refuse to call it a cop-out.)

9. District 9 -I first saw District 9 at about 3 in the morning last March, during a 24-hour marathon of all 10 best picture nominees. And, after seeing it against 10 other movies, I was totally prepared to walk out of the theater and declare it the best picture of 2009. I went home and watched it again-- much more awake-- and still, was astounded. I loved the effects-- they felt seamlessly woven into the world and not too showy. I loved loved the main character and his transformation. It felt really fresh and bold, even though the story was of a type we'd seen before. This film deserved every moment of hype that it got [and their marketing campaign was pretty brilliant, to boot].

10. The Kids are All Right - Out of all of the "Oscar Contender" movies that I saw, I have to say that The Kids are All Right was the one that I thought about most after I left the theater. I thought this film was understated in a really beautiful way-- and that the performances were incredible. It was really solid, and felt like it was of our time-- which is an accomplishment that is highly underrated.

10b. Sita Sings the Blues -This movie was impressive if only for the story behind it. After running into huge music licensing problems, Nina Paley decided to go completely creative-commons and offer up her film to the masses-- see more here. You can also watch the film on this website. And definately, definately watch it!
I saw this film with a q&a with Nina Paley after and it was really inspiring to hear her speak about her experience and frustrations. I also thought that the paring of the Ramayana with Annette Hanshaw's music is really clever and that Nina's humor really shines throughout the film.

Notable absences that I just didn't think were great/had an issue while viewing: The Social Network, Black Swan, In the Loop (I couldn't hear it well).

Other Awesome Things that I Saw--
Voices of Liberty Exhibit - A sound-scape exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage that explores the immigrant experience. I visited on some research for work. Totally transporting and impeccably designed. Go check it out.
The Barnes Museum - This was the most overwhelming experience of my existence. The largest post-impressionst art collection in the states. I was particularly struck by the groupings-- arranged for teaching and lecturing-- Barnes put things together based on color and form and s-curves. If there is a perfect collection of art... this is it.

The Master Speaks

2010-12-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

I'm reading this brilliant book:
Rodin on Art and Artists "Conversations with Paul Gsell"

Auguste Rodin by Edward J Steichen

Generally, it's an amazing book where Rodin talks about sculpture, poetry, painting, great artists, Balzac, religion and many other brilliant things.

And here-- is my favorite quote so far, from a chapter called "Thought in Art."

"Let us understand each other," Rodin said, laughing. "There are certain admirers of such complicated brain that they attribute most unexpected intentions to the artist. We are not talking of these. But you may rest assured that the masters are always conscious of what they do." And tossing his head, "If the skeptics of whom you speak only know what energy it takes for the artist to translate, even feebly, what he thinks and feels with the greatest strength, they would not doubt that all that appears shining forth from a picture or sculpture was intended." A few moments later, he continued: "In short, the purest masterpieces are those in which one finds no inexpressive waste of forms, lines and colors, but where all, absolutely all, expresses thought and soul.

"Yet it may happen that when the masters animate the Nature of their ideals, they delude themselves. It may be that it is governed by an indifferent force or by a will whose design our intelligence is incapable of penetrating. At least, the artists, in representing the universe as he imagines it, formulates his own dreams. In nature he celebrates his own soul. And so he enriches the soul of humanity. For in coloring the material world with his spirit he reveals to his delighted fellow beings a thousand unsuspected shades of feeling. He discovers to them riches in themselves until then unknown. He gives them new reasons for loving life, new inner lights to guide them.

"He is, as Dante said of Virgil, 'their guide, their master, and their friend.'"

Brussels Sprouts gone wild...

2010-11-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

Over at NYPL, not only do they take books seriously-- but, more importantly, they take books about food seriously.

Check out the above, where Jean Strouse, director of the Cullman Center for Scholars, and former Cullman Fellow Melanie Rehak make a crazy, bacon fueled Brussels Sprouts recipe that Melanie said was "the most important thing she learned from Jean"-- and which eventually ended up in her new book, "Eating for Beginners."

Catching Up

2010-11-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

Hello there, empty space!

This morning, I decided to use this chilly November day to plow through my twitter favorites, which I basically use as a lame version of instapaper.

Anyhow-- I had marked about a million articles "to read later" over the past several months... and, having seriously just gone through about 75-80 articles... I'm walking away with a sense of internet writing as a mostly vapid endeavor (my own attempts included, here). Everyone poses questions, but the brevity of the 'post' format doesn't seem to give anyone enough space to answer any of them.
Maybe I'm just noticing this now because of the long series of disappointing articles that did nothing but probe at subjects without dealing with them in any seriousness... but... really, right now, I'm craving immersion in the form of a Dickens novel...

But, anyhow... in a totally hypocritcal move...

Here are a few good nugets of info/pretty cool experiences:

Above everything else today-- a great and wonderful Keynote at this year's Film Indepedent Filmmaker Forum from Lionsgate's Joe Drake

Scott Macaulay's initial thoughts about Amazon Studios over at Filmmaker Mag

Interesting interview with DSLR DP Chris Marino

A Beautiful Monet Exhibit

Collapsus-- "Annotated Narrative"
(watch the intro video)

Trying to re-invent the book with MyFry

An Interactive Documentary about highrises called "Out My Window"

Selections from this year's National Geographic Photo Contest

Amazing photos from the Atom Bomb tests in the 50s

Oh... and--general absurdity in the universe.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I watched Adam's Rib which was totally worth 2 hours of undivided attention.

Two More Awesome Interactive Videos

2010-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

1) Anthropologie Stop Motion Shoe Shopping:
(click on the picture to jump)

Not totally interactive-- but a fun little video that leads you to the shoes in the end. They also list all of the shoes as characters in the credits. Love.

2) Vevo-Andy Grammer's Choose Your Own Adventure Video: "Keep Your Head Up"
(the embed link was broken, but click on the photo again)

The video really does follow a "choose your own adventure" track pretty faithfully in both structure and aesthetics--but there are several things about it which are still fascinating:

a) the video has sign posts throughout where things remain the same regardless of versions. It has an over-arching structure and then little loopholes in between. So, regardless of which path you take you end up the same place about three or four times throughout.

b) they didn't just rely on the gimmick. It's well shot and there are some other cool camera tricks thrown in. Even Rainn Wilson makes an appearance (though you need to choose one path to get the most Rainn Wilson screen time... which involves two very specific choices). But--still, strip away the choosing your own thing, and it's still a fun video to watch.

c) They shot it in such a way that you feel as though the ending is personalized for you even though it may be generic. Each time I watched the end, I noticed different people in the crowd shots. One reason for this is because I just met different characters individually throughout the video... but also- they never focus on one person in the crowd "close-ups." So, in the group of two or three upon which they focus, I am going to notice the character that I met individually... and so I'm going to feel as though the shot was reflective of my journey, even though it will likely be the same every time you pick that choice regardless of how you got there.

d) They use jump cuts as a motif throughout the video as a seemingly stylistic choice that is common in pop-music videos... But these jump cuts also mask the substitution of the different "Reels" that you choose as you go. So they use the style of the video and editing to mask the technical mechanics of switching the options.

That's all I've got for now. Pretty cool.
(You can read more about it over at Mashable, or read more about the design firm-- Interlude-- which works specifically with interactive video)

A (Very Short and Early) Theory of Web Video

2010-10-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Having worked on several videos for various blogs recently- my work has got me thinking about web video and content-- specifically: context and content.

I am going to attempt to keep this as short as I am able- but here's my general theory on making video for the web:

If the piece that you are making will live on a site with strong informational or aesthetic point of view--and not simply on youtube or in a black and gray video player-- web video should not focus on providing too much context. It is merely part of a larger whole of the site-- which includes the text above it, the photos beside it, the design behind it and, ultimately the comments below it. It becomes a piece of a larger puzzle- a piece that you need to experience in concert with everything else on the page to appreciate it.

A complication arises when the video gets embedded, or removed from the above mentioned context. But I don't believe that this encourages more contextualization in-video.

Embedding does in fact strip the video from its original context-- and it would thus seem that the video would loose it's informational and/or aesthetic value. However-- my experience with embedding is that there is always new commentary attached to the embed, because the impulse of the embed is to re-appropriate.

Often, bloggers "appropriate" things from other sites that they feel embodies the aestheic of their own space. So- when they embed a video from another site-- even though they may be stripping the video of its original content design by removing it from its page-- they are re-contextualizing it so that it becomes part of their own expression, thus gaining a new meaning and aesthetic value on their own site. The video gains new value and also new meaning-- and thus it is, again, important not to include too much "proprietary" information in the video itself. [Here- by "proprietary" -- I mean overt pieces of information or expressions-- things that will prevent a re-contextualization because they are too personal or convey too much of a sense of ownership].

Blogging is about a dual interest in personal expression and community expression. I know that I started blogging because I wanted to both express my own views on design, art, food and culture, but also because there appeared to be a strong dialogue between the community of bloggers that I read. Embedding, borrowing photos, and other re-contextualization become a key part of that dialogue because it mutates and evolves the content itself according to the personalities of the bloggers involved.

I suppose, my frustration here is that photos and links have evolved the blogging space so that they are always a part of a whole-- see, for example-- The City Sage and how she re-appropriates and curates photos with her text into a post that is an aesthetically complete self-expression using borrowed content (expressed particularly well in "Palette Lust: Thunderstorms").

Because people are so used to watching video in a stand alone context-- they are not trained or simply refuse to see video in such a fashion-- as part of the whole. There is an expectation for it to feel like mini-television. But, hopefully, as more video appears in innovative and interesting contexts, the expectations and reception for pure web video as I describe above will become more adaptable.

Before and After

2010-10-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

For the past several weeks I've been working with the lovely Amy Azzarito and Nightwood on the before and after of Amy's bedroom. Nightwood's furniture is really beautiful and organic looking and watching the transformation of Amy's room was incredible. Check it out:

The video is featured on Design*Sponge--which has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It's a total dream to see my work featured there and all of the ladies were really wonderful collaborators-- great ideas really just enveloped this project. Check out more in Amy's post.

Taking it to the Next Level

2010-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Anthropologie has finally done it. They've conquered video.

A few months ago I talked about Anthropologie's digital brand strategy and how much I admired the way they use various media tools to integrate their lifestyle into the everyday. And now they've taken web-video and exploited the 'reality' of the moving image to add even more contextualization to their product. ... and oh what beautiful contextualization it is.

Check out their moving display of October Outfits (or click the photo above). It really is taking 'catalogs' to the next level.

[Their ANTHRPOLOGiST exhibition this month also has so beautiful web video in it-- they visit P.E. Guerin, the nation's oldest decorative hardware firm].

Deliciousness

2010-10-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

My very good friend Kishori, who I have mentioned many times here, had a great post last week about Autumn cakes on her fun blog I Can Be Jello (which I assisted in naming, thank you very much).

The photos were taken by me-- so this is just a tiny bit of self promotion. But the cakes were also seriously seriously delicious. So you should visit and then make them both anyway.

Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain DVD Release!

2010-09-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen- you can finally own a copy of the wonderful anti-aging documentary "Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain"

If you need further convincing beyond the fact that I co-wrote and co-produced it...

Watch this trailer:

Promo

Now--- Buy it!!

Whatt'a ya looking at?

2010-09-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

I found this photo today while prepping my grad school apps --
Don't know why I didn't include it in the Lady of Mount Carmel post. That guy is fantastic.

You know you want to...

2010-09-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Documentary that I co-wrote and co-produced - Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain -
comes out on DVD next Tuesday.

You can buy it.

Or... save it to your queue in Netflix so that it will become avail.

Regardless- it's awesome. Just get it, already.

Upbeat/Downbeat

2010-09-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

I like The Weepies a lot.

I think it's because they often pair lyrics of songs with contradictory beats and melodies. i.e. - my current song obsession, "When You Go Away:"

There's something that makes it more poignant because it's not a ballad or something equally slow and sad-- like the lyrics would seem to call for.

Kind of like this scene in Sense and Sensibility- which is totally heartbreaking, because Marianne gets crushing news while dance music is being played. [The 2nd half of this scene is oh so much better, but I can't find it online].

I can't explain why the contradiction works, but-- for me-- it does. Maybe it feels more honest? Really- I have no idea.

Any other examples? Or general thoughts?

I'm curious about why the upbeat music/down beat content resonates.

Things that Make Writing Eas(ier)

2010-09-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

I am working on graduate school applications and have, more than ambitiously, decided that I plan on writing 3-5 versions of each "sample scene" we're suppose to submit before I pick the ones to revise.

This Sunday evening, at 7:50pm, this endeavor seems very stupid.

But something made me think of it in the first place-- so I shall plow forward.

In the mean time-- Here's a few things that make writing easier.

1) Homemade Tea consisting of Earl Gray, Lavender flowers and a splash of milk. No honey. No sugar.

2) "Old Country Fairy Tale" by The Appalacian Trio - Mark O'Connor, Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer

3) The following quote that I clipped from an unknown magazine while in college:

"I don't teach writing. I teach patience. Toughness. Stubbornness. The willingness to fail. I teach the life. The odd thing is most of the things that stop an inexperienced writer are so far from the truth as to be nearly beside the point. When you feel global doubt about your talent, that is your talent. People who have no talent don't have any doubt." -- Richard Bausch

A bad case of fridays

2010-09-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

Serious.

Why haven't I been posting more about my short?

Well... It got a little something I will refer to as revision disease.

What is revision disease, you ask?

It's when you start out with something that has a really good spirit, but isn't quite finished. After you show it to too many people and think about it way too much... you slowly start to chip away at everything you think is bad and... it gets all splotchy and feverish and no longer resembles its former self.

Basically, you suck all of the life out of it. This happened to me... around revision #5 1/2.

By #6... well... my screenplay had Gangrene.

The only thing to do once this happens is to step away for a week or a few, let it sit and recover... and then come back to the first draft and start over with that once you feel like it isn't contagious anymore.

So that's what I've been doing. I've been staying away from it and instead I have been throwing myself into grad school apps.

And right now I have a bad case of Fridays- not focusing on writing anything, not focusing on editing photos, not focusing on editing videos-- but instead, focusing on skipping around the internet at a previously unheard of pace.

In case you're curious... here's what I've been looking at--

Orangette - whose book I am reading (it made me cry at lunch today).

This amazingly rich looking video of HDR video shot with two Canon 5D Mark II cameras.

And a very early review of the Panasonic AF-100.

And... in the spirit of tangents....

A few pictures of my Grandfather, who turned 91 this year (whew), that I took last week.

Something Sunny on a Gray Day

2010-09-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Inspiration Part 1 -- Concept

2010-09-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a very long time to finally come up with a short that I want to make. Desperately. Want.

See-- I've always been of the mind that you need to be in love with something you create for it to be really great [especially if you weren't necessarily going to have the money to make it right away... lets say...]. So I kept writing things and not making them because, frankly-- they weren't stories that I loved and wanted to invest my time in.

Then, finally...

Well, ... like all amazing things in life- I think inspiration comes when you lease expect it. When you aren't trying and just let yourself be open to what's around you in the world. When you sit and try and try and try... well - that never works for me.

So, one day, when I was watching "His Girl Friday" for the second night in a row and trying desperately not to think about life, work and everything-- a spark lit up in my brain that I could not ignore.

And... out of the blue... there was an idea that I loved.

"Why not make this movie about bloggers?"

So I thought about it for a few days... and then stopped. I didn't want to out-right remake "His Girl Friday." That's stupid.

But, after a few more days... it lingered. There seemed to be something there, that was akin to the spirit that I see in young people [myself, maybe?] in blogger/self-employed environments... a similar... I'm not sure... Just... something that I can feel around me on occasion.

So, I plowed forward. My first instinct was to start by inverting the male-female roles, and setting it in cafe culture instead of an office...and see where I went.

The end result is not really His Girl Friday... or anything close. I'm afraid that my general obsessions took over. But-- still--

I can not do enough to credit that lovely amazing movie [and all those who made it] with getting me to a place where I'm finally excited to make something. Hopefully - the homage won't be over powering and the idea will still seem fresh. But that will be accomplished in the production...

I hope.

And... apparently, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube. How about THAT for progress.

[On a side note. I am not nearly of the mind that every story has been told before and there are no new ideas-- I think there are always new ideas-- but I think they are also always a product of everything that's come before. I think that, especially in film, the way that you tell a story-- the space, the movement, the music, all of the things that color the film are just important as the scene, story, etc. The same story can fit in different place and say complete different things. So don't accuse me of stealing or anything.. yet.]

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3

On a total and completely seperate note:

2010-08-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

I love this poem:

Adapted from Neruda's "Que dispierte el lenador"

by Allen Ginsberg

Peace for all twilights to come,
peace for the bridge, peace for the wine,
peace for the letters that look for me
and pump in my blood tangled
with earth and love's old chant,
peace for the city in the morning
when bread wakes up,
peace for Mississippi, the river of roots,
peace for my brother's shirt,
peace in the book like an airmail stamp,
peace for the great Kolkhoz of Kiev,
peace for the ashes of these dead
and those other dead, peace for the black
iron of Brooklyn, peace for the letter carrier
going from house to house like the day,
peace for the choreographer shrieking
thru a funnel of honeysuckle vines,
peace to my right hand
that only wants to write Rosario,
peace for the Bolivian, secret as a lump of tin,
peace for you to get married, peace
for all the sawmills of Bio-Bio,
peace to Revolutionary Spain's torn heart
peace to the little museum of Wyoming
in which the sweetest thing
was a pillowcase embroidered with a heart,
peace to the baker and his loaves,
and peace to all the flour: peace
for all the wheat still to be born,
peace for all the love that wants to flower
peace for all those who live: peace
to all the lands and waters.

And here I say farewell, I return
to my house, in my dreams
I go back to Patagonia where
the wind beats at barns
and the Ocean spits ice.
I'm nothing more than a poet:
I want love for you all,
I go wander the world I love:
in my country they jail the miners
and soldiers give orders to judges.
But down to its very roots
I love my little cold country.
If i had to die a thousand times
that's where I'd want to die:
if i had to be born a thousand times
that's where I'd want to be born,
near the Araucanian wilds'
sea-whirled south winds,
bells just brought from the bellmaker.
Don't let anybody think about me.
Let's think about the whole world,
banging on the table with love.
I don't want blood to come back
and soak the bread, the beans
the music: I want the miner
to come with me, the little girl
the lawyer, the sailer, the dollmaker,
let's all go to the movies and come
out and drink the reddest wine.

I didn't come here to solve anything.

I came here to sing.
And for you to sing with me.

-----

Movie things to come soon! I promise.

I think this is the beginning...

2010-08-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

...of a beautiful friendship. With you, my readers. ... All 2 of you.

See, I've been holding off on a big[ish] announcement (for me, at least)...
I am embarking on the making of a short film, tentatively called "Friday," but hopefully to be renamed.

I'm letting you all know because I am very excited about it [having not made a short since college], and I want to chart the creation of the film for you online- first, here, at drawing the eye-- but hopefully, once I get my crew together, we'll create a space online for others to contribute.

My dear friend, Kishori, will be working with me. (She is awesome and you should read her blog.)

Tomorrow, I'll start my posts about the process -- starting with talking about writing and revising the script.

Things won't get really rolling until the middle to end of September, but you should keep checking back here for updates on where we are... also-- if you know how to find me the next one of her:

That would be helpful.

Here's a snyposis for your enjoyment:

On the eve of their rehearsal dinner, Rae and Scott are trying to wrap up the loose ends on their soon-to-be-ended News and Gossip blog. But, just as she is finishing her goodbye column, Rae gets an email she can't ignore and convinces Scott to follow one last lead...

Photo from the NYPL Digital Gallery.

Mini Edit Away

2010-08-23T11:35:00.001-07:00

This is awesome.

Powered by Polyvore

Limitations...

2010-08-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

I like to extol the virtues of digital cameras.

Sometimes I question my own reasoning though.

If someone is "a photographer," in the great all mighty 'artistic' sense... then one should be able to take a great photo with whatever instrument they have available (see these amazing photos taken with iphones).

When I think about this and also about the limitations I feel with my old Canon G9 point and shoot-y type camera, and the results I get... I tend to think that the above is not true about me. A friend told me some of my pictures were 'obvious,' so I've been trying to find some more subtle things. But occasionally there is really low light and my camera gets all grainy regardless of what I do and I get super frustrated. So I give up.

But I continue to practice. As I did today with a visit to the Cloisters... before I gave up, as described above.

[Also, a benefit of not being preoccupied: when I stopped taking pictures, and started reading about the art there, I learned about the existence of Lilith... alleged to be Adam's first wife... blew. my. mind.]

Totally beautiful, regardless of my above attempts, which I didn't even really feel like touching up or correcting. These are raw..... But, anyway, you should go and see for yourself.

A Taste of Hammonton

2010-07-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

When I go home, I can look forward to fresh produce, italian delicacies and most importantly things made by this woman:

This is my Grandmother. Lucia Ezzi Curcio... and these are her amazing Pizzelle

I grew up around lots of farms and farmers markets:

With lots of produce:

And flowers:

And lots of little Italian Markets.

We like things to be delicious.

The 135th Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival

2010-07-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, the little town from which I hail... Hammonton, NJ (also known as "The Blueberry Capital of the World") holds this yearly festival on the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

While I don't know too much about the history... I do know that it started with a few farmers in 1875 and that I've been going since I was a child. You can get a more detailed, if not necessarily definitive, history of the Saint and feast (though not really Hammonton's version) here.

The feast is celebrated every July 16th with a procession of the saints. Some of you may or may not have seen something similar in a certain revered gangster movie sequel. In our little town, it is less about the intrigue and more about simple faith. You have money pinned onto the saints and in return you receive a scapular or prayer card.

It's quite a thing to see, though not as well attended these years as I remember (or, for that matter, as my mother remembers when it was an event in the 60s).

Here are some of my favorite moments and tidbits of the day:

If you are dying for some more Our Lady of Mount Carmel action... you can see more images here.

Lessons of a One Woman Crew #2 -- "Shooting to Edit"

2010-07-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Or- How to Stop Worrying and Love your SD Camera

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Panasonic DVX100B. This was my graduation gift in May of 2008.
It made me super, incredibly happy.

Alas-- 24 months later, DSLRs that shoot incredible HD are now running the same price as the lovely little SD Camera above... or well... ok. Some of them are cheaper.

What, do you ask, is the difference?
Let me show you:

Panasonic - SD

Canon - HD

The differences are many. They include not only the fact that my SD doesn't shoot in native widescreen. In terms of picture, in strictly non-technical language: The light bleeds a lot more. The colors are not as crisp. The pixels in the image are not as defined, so you can't zoom, etc.

What isn't apparent here--is that the movement actually looks different. With multiple compressions, you loose some of the smoothness- I've found.

Anyway- quite simply- the quality, in terms of "life-likeness" in SD is not as striking as HD.

So, why-- do you ask-- have I not switched?

Well, first of all. It's expensive. I simply can't afford to buy an HD camera in the way that I would like. I want to do it right-- buy the right lenses, arm myself with the right tools. It takes some savings.

But-- there's also certain advantages that I'm beginning to understand about the use of SD. Primarily:

-- ACCOUNTABILITY

In HD, if I need a close up to cover a dialogue edit or slip, I can zoom in and crop and create fake movement that you can [mostly] not tell that it was changed in post -- See Above.

In SD-- not really possible. You can't zoom into the image without significantly degrading the quality, thus you can't cover your ass by adjusting your shots in post-- what I call "faking" above.

In SD- you are forced to shoot like a storyteller.

By "shooting like a storyteller" -- I mean-- you have to force yourself to make the picture constantly interesting and think like an editor in terms of your composition. You must give yourself options between close up shots, wide shots, different angles in wide, smooth movements. With HD, you don't have to shoot this way- because all of these things (save a wide shot from a close up) you can really, honestly, fake. So, SD makes you accountable for what you shoot in a more immediate way. And you are forced to act like a storyteller as you are capturing the image, as opposed to leaving it to whoever is doing post. I call this "shooting to edit" because, in a way, you are creating an assembly as you shoot. You are limiting your edit to what you capture, and thus you are essentially "storyboarding" even during doc shooting.

I recently finally read the amazing book "Hitchock" by Francois Truffaut in its entirety.

(If you look closely - you can see that the book above has a picture from Notorious. I like to accompany my education with margaritas. It makes the knowledge go down easier...)

In it (I warn that this is broad paraphrasing), Hitch talks about how he used to shoot sequences in such a specific way so that only he was able to assemble them. In this way- not only was he economic in his shooting, but he also prevented the studio from recutting his footage, and occrance that would likely destroy his vision for presenting the story.

I like to think that using my SD forces me to act the same way. If I have to shoot with the edit in mind, it is likely that I will be the only one to put it together. Thus- the piece is always "my" way of seeing-- and it forces me to be more aware of the story I want to tell from the outset.

Cohesion.

Lessons of a One Woman Crew #1 -- The Line

2010-06-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, I shot this little video for NYPL with a few friends. The goal was to try and create a vague semblance of a story-- a hint of a story-- so that the conceit could honestly be that the whole minute and a half was about the kid at the end, as opposed to the chase in the beginning.

I wrote a script, I got it approved, I wrangled some friends... and I set off.
The one thing I did not do.... was finish my storyboard before the actors got to my apartment.

This, ladies and gentlemen, proved to be a problem. Because regardless of the fact that I've been shooting video since I was 16 years old... I still fall prey to ridiculous mistakes when I have not planned.

I thought I could definitely wing it. I knew what everything wanted to look like in my head. So I just set up the camera, made the colors look pretty-- attempted to get the exposure perfect with the clouds changing every 10 minutes... Should'a all been ok. But-- without that shot list...

Do you know what "the line" is? It's one of those silly thing things that people learn about in Film Production 101 and then make fun of people for screwing up. For all of you lay individuals here is a brief explanation, with LOVELY in-design mock ups by-- yours truely (so i'm not a designer. Sue me).

When two individuals are talking (here, seen from above) "the line" is drawn between the middle of their faces. Across this line, the camera SHALL NOT cross, for continuity to be correct. Basically-- the reason you keep the camera on one side of the line, is so that the eyes of each person talking look in the correct direction. When you cut-- one person will look to the left and the other to the right- and they will appear spatially accurate in the frame. The audience will know that the characters are talking to each other because, as person two will appear on the right side of the screen looking left, and person 1 will appear on the left side of the screen looking right (see below).

And all is right with the world.

However-- if you cross the line with the camera--

Then you get this:

And people get confused, and pulled out of the picture... and etc.

So-- why is this relevant? Because I crossed that line. I was all good and fine up until they turned the corner. But, after the running boy (Carl) turned the corner -- and the evil feet person (Gabe) followed-- the line that had been created between the two changed. And-- as I controlled the color and exposure, people in the background and actors in the foreground all by my lonesome... without a diagram of where the relationships between the bodies were ... I shot Gabe's close ups on the wrong side, so he was look right, when Carl was on his left.

So- Gabe. I am sorry that we lost your great moment. Because it was really excellent. And Amy's great face-scar makeup.

The lesson learned here-- is that you should ALWAYS prepare. ... Even when you aren't by your lonesome (but especially, especially when you are).

Since then, I have even diagrammed out the potential movements of the Food52 shoots, which-- actually, has helped editing significantly.

And that, is my first Lesson from a One Woman Crew. I am SURE this will become a weekly, if not bi-weekly affair.

Itching for Travel

2010-06-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last several hours attempting to plan a vacation. Since it's not working out so well... I decided to relive my previous adventures and found some really great pics from when I went to Ecuador in March of 2009.

These are a very very small fraction of the trip-- but it was, sincerely, the greenest place I've ever seen.

And, at night, the stars actually appeared in relief. In the states, they always seem 2D. Alas- no photo would do those justice.

All Things Peachy

2010-06-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

As some of you may or may not have gathered--

I've been shooting and editing some video for the lovely Amanda and Merrill over at food52.

You can watch lots and lots on their website (and make some serious delicious recipes)... but I was particularly proud of the peach cake video that was posted this afternoon.

Simple Summer Peach Cake from Food52 on Vimeo.

I feel like this video shows some really fun jump cuts-- seriously-- the brevity of these are growing on me-- and tight editing -- and my arms were not tired for most of it so my notoriously shaky hand isn't as obvious at it used to be. I've been working very hard to improve my filming- and this video felt like a step up for me. So, enjoy.

Morbidity, Humidity, ...

2010-06-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

exclusivity? ...

No. There is no third "ity" word that fits my weekend extravaganza--which consisted of a Sunday trek out to Greenwood Cemetery.

Took some pictures, felt pretty creepy.

But-- really, Greenwood was super beautiful, and I would love to go back with a much better camera and a little less humidity.
Or... as my fellow visitor said, "if you like history, art, and nature..." it's well worth a visit.

Can't we just embrace--

2010-06-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

I hate hate hate it when people comment negatively about how affordable digital cameras make everyone claim that they are a "photographer." I say-- yes. Finally-- we're all photographers.

Yes. There are those out there who can't claim to be professionals, who over-aggrandize their own work. But-- truth is-- that, for the first time in history, anyone who wants to can speak in images.

We can all attempt to communicate how we think and feel and what we believe is beautiful in the visual instead of written or spoken word. And we don't have to spend a million dollars to do it.

I say-- it's about damn time.

And, in the spirit of this sentiment-- I'm posting a few photographs from the weekend that I took with a Canon 7D that I rented for $100. Hot damn, I love that it allows me to appear more professional than I actually am.

[I also take much affront to the "not everyone is a photographer" statement because, as someone who went through 12 years of enrichment and AP classes in a public school system and then 4 years of a bloated "liberal arts" education -- I was never, once, taught how to correctly operate a camera. So- as someone who has to do her own teaching, before 9 and after 5... you gotta give some credit to the fact that these cameras make it a little easier for all of us who were denied that art education to practice and learn and improve. I like to think-- I'm not a photographer or a cinematographer... yet. But the 7D and the 5DMarkII and, oh... that XH-A1... they're helping me get there a lot faster than anything would have in the old days.]

Online Ventures and Decaying Theaters

2010-05-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some brainstorming about what I want a professional website to look like.

I know that, functionally, it needs to serve several purposes. It needs to showcase my work, provide contact information, and house my blog. What I would like it to do, which I think is more unique, is also serve as an online production scrapbook/development platform for my personal projects. -- A place where I can put up inspiration boards, pieces of my scripts, storyboards and other things to share the creation of my films with those who would be interested. [And, ultimately, the final product as well].

Aesthetically, I think that the website has to balance a fine line. I want to communicate both a fidelity to classic film [both in the experience of the theater, the development of the camera and film as a medium, and all of the movies from which I draw inspiration], while also establishing a commitment to the media in which I currently and will continue to work [digital imaging, online streaming, and all of the technologies and developments to come].

So I've been searching for inspiration and here is one thing that really started the creative sparks flying.

Yves Merchand & Romain Meffre's photography series of abandoned theaters. First found via the NYTimes Lens blog.

You should click through -- but here are three images that I found particularly stirring:

RKO Keith's Richmond Hill Theater, New York

Uptown Theater, Chicago

Fabian Theater, Paterson

I love the idea of the decaying grandeur -- how it is heartbreaking, but still majestic.

These images capture a tone I think is fascinating and beautiful.

Do you think there is a way to capture the majesty of these places, and celebrate them -- while transitioning to an online space? I would love to have my website take the beauty of the images above and translate them into a beautiful online environment.

[All photos from Yves Merchand & Romain Meffre.]

Happy Birthday "From Me To You"

2010-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to talk about one of the blogs that, actually, inspired me to start blogging a few months ago.

In honor of her blog's birthday-- Jamie is giving away some postcards of her photography. And I am writing about "From Me To You" not only because I want some lovely pictures-- but also because, well... I really do admire and adore this blog.

And let me tell you why:

First: I really admire how Jamie is able to communicate her lifestyle through her photos. Not just pictures of what she does-- but the way she frames and styles and lights communicate so much about how she chooses to live.

And I want that life. I do.

Second: Jamie makes photography accessible. Not in "I can totally do that" way -- but in "this is an every day part of being and I'd like to be more of a part of it" way.

Third: Jamie gave me this hairstyle.

And, as we know, I want to look like I stepped out of 1890. So...

Fourth: "From Me To You" (and also "The City Sage") made me feel like there was a community of really talented, creative women blogging -- and I wanted to become a part of it. The enthusiasm for beauty and art is infectious in these blogs... really.

Fifth: I really just think that the pictures are beautiful. They brighten my little cubicle worn day.

So... Jamie, Elena over here at Drawing the Eye wishes "From Me To You" a very very happy first blog birthday.

We hope to follow in your footsteps!

[All photos from Jamie, From Me To You]

A Package from India

2010-05-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Literally. We got an envelope shipped from India in my office this morning and it was the coolest thing ever.

So, obviously, I took some pictures:

They just don't make mail like this anymore.

Beautiful.

Welcome, Internet, to 1940

2010-05-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

We had Tillman the Skateboarding Dog come visit us over at the NYPL.

After cutting the footage together, it just wasn't as entertaining as it could have been...

And the shot of Tillman and co walking up the stairs of the Library just reminded me so much of an old newsreel shot...

So that-- is what I did.

Mes Amis

2010-05-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

So I have great friends... who like to meet me for impromptu 3 hour long dinners at lovely little restaurants in brooklyn. Who watch me steal food off their plates with little to no hesitation (at least, not anymore)... Who like to sing bad songs with me at the table... who encourage me to hit on the cute irish waiter (I didn't)...who can explain things like why beyonce is a legit artist and who say "elena's got that look on her face..." and know what that look means.

I've got friends... who don't like to be photographed...

But, I snagged a few photos of our pretty evening together:

Ok, fine. Mostly I took pictures of the food.

So sue me.

BBG #2 -- Better Late than Never

2010-05-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

So I missed the cherry trees. Which is super upsetting.

I had been looking forward to going to see the cherry trees in bloom at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, but I missed them-- due to busy weekends for the entire month of April. I went by today for Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom/Spring Festival... Alas, all of the pretty pink trees had greened.

But below are some photos I managed to get in between managing to get sunburned beyond recognition. (Irony, if you like it: This morning, I decided to wear a bright red dress... )

As usual-- you can see more... here.

The Past, The Future ... "The Sorter"

2010-04-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

Last week, my incredibly generous boss managed to get one of my little videos onto nytimes.com

I can't embed it because of music licensing rights [grrrrr music licensing] -- but you can watch it by clicking below:

The general "aesthetics" I was working with were the concept of "Library for the Future" and an 80s vibe that I got from the machine itself.

Main lessons learned were that red on black text artifacts HORRIBLY. Well, I knew this already, actually-- but thought that the image of the red laser/bar code scanner was too good a motif to pass up because of bad compression blah blah blah. So this is how the light-scanning of red letters began and ended. Anyone have thoughts on that type of situation? I sacrificed clarity/quality for what I thought was a perfect visual motif. Would you do the same?

Anyway, enjoy/let me know what you think if you haven't already.

(More videos will be coming soon.)

Let us, for a moment, discuss--

2010-04-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

Love aesthetics. The aesthetics of love.

Well... yes... ok. I will first acknowledge that this post is going to a) be undoubtedly overly sentimental and cheesy, b) potentially be a touchy little topic for the few diehard romantics out there like yours truly, and c) may or may not seem kind of trivial. So let me define this thing up front.

There are a few things in this world that, whenever I encounter them, make me daydream of love. I'm not talking about with a specific person. Something that I shared. No.
There are a few things that, empirically, a priori, make me feel like love exists. The abstract concept becomes concrete. With only the vague semblance of a picture of another person-- unidentifiable. It's more about the feeling.

Curiously, most of the things that do this have to do with a certain shade of light-- yellow light, to be specific. Warm light in which you can see the dust swirling around....

Songs layered with an infintely repeating short theme...

Super-imposed, out of focus shots...

(similarly... Kaleidoscopes...)

The pressure points on my palms...

and

The smell of honeysuckle...

The point of this short list is to demonstrate that none of these things either make sense or seem remotely connected. But they all dredge up the same feeling.

I'm not super eager to figure out why these things inspire these emotions, but I felt like throwing them out there for you all. Perhaps-- much like that love potion in Harry Potter that makes you smell specific things-- everyone's list will be very different. I suppose it has to do with subliminal attachments made in childhood-- but I'm no psychologist.

Funny thing is that, often, I end up finding these little things embedded in art where they endeavor to inspire the exact feelings that they do, in fact, make me feel.

Take, for example, my favorite perfume:

After a few hours, it smells exactly like honeysuckle.

Or:

Poster, selling the movie as a romantic love story... look at the light.

So, I suppose, my question is-- are these "love aesthetics" as I'm calling them-- specifically mine, or is there something universal that my subconscious is tapping into?

I think it's a little in between. Which is why these aesthetics, being not the feeling themselves but tangential spring points, can be used for trickery, irony... and we all can get duped.

Oh... Woody Allen. Teaching us a little something about mistaking perfect light for perfect experience...

[Photo 1 from Bloom, Grow, Love, Photo 2 from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Photo 3 from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Flickr, Picture 4 from Lollia]

Butterflies.

2010-03-31T20:20:00.000-07:00

Saw this post on Design Sponge.... and got super inspired about the vacant space that was left open when I discarded the horribly broken microwave that shorted out one of my outlets.

So, AmyCatB came over and we got thai food and did this:

The Blank Wall.

The Onlooker.

Final Product

I know, I know... it's not:

But it's close.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden

2010-03-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

I'm attempting to improve my photography skills. Here's some shots from The Brooklyn Botanical Garden this afternoon:

I think I was about 2 weeks early...

Here you can see, at least, a little bit of color.

Fictitious Implications of "The 6 Tenants of Non-Fiction"

2010-03-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Richard Holmes visited NYPL last week and, of course, I sat with rapt attention as he spoke about his fantastic and amazing book, "The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science."

I first picked up the book after I read a review in Time Magazine last summer. It's some seriously fantastic storytelling -- not to mention, pretty revelatory. Purchase yourself a copy, asap.

(Great cover, right?)

Listening to Holmes speak was very much like reading his writing-- you become infected with his enthusiasm, not only for the subject, but for the way he describes it. He is one of those rare, fascinating creatures who is able to make even the malfunctioning of a microphone seem epic and philosophical.

But the golden gems of his talk were "6 Tenants of Non-Fiction Writing," which he sprinkled throughout the hour and a half with characteristic storytelling prowess-- foreshadowing the principals and then demonstrating with lovely anecdotes from his books and experiences. And, yes-- the ideas make his non-fiction absolutely dynamic-- but I also found that they stimulated my own thinking about my fiction writing.

See... I've been having a really rough time writing a short film. Usually, I can just put stuff down on paper. It's not always good, but I can put it down. However-- this short.. has some heavy implications.
And I was stuck. On page 3:

And I just, couldn't move forward. But then I sat down in this talk, and my mind started racing.

Holmes outlined 6 points:
1) Vertical Footnotes
2) Starting in the middle
3) Creating a relay race
4) The "Titanic Principle"
5) Big Window/Small Room
6) The significant anecdote

I'm going to take a stab and describing #1 because this is the one that I found most useful. (Mr. Holmes: If I massacre this, I significantly apologize.)

The concept of verticle footnotes is based on the idea that you engage your audience in a story written (basically) in chronological order. However, in "Age of Wonder" Holmes is dealing with ideas that benefit from historical and contemporary context. So, in order not to break the reader's engagement with the primary story-- he uses a footnote to jump vertically through time to provide contextualization. Essentially he makes his ideas timeless by using the footnote to add the wisdom of the ages-- while allowing his story to continue progressing in its own time-governed world in the body text. Literary Time Travel.

I found this device particularly useful because it provides you with opportunities to add significance to your story by juxtaposing it with the knowledge of time. It reminded me of why the first season of Lost was so good: the flash backs let you gradually understand characters' actions while they were isolated on the island by contextualizing people with their own past. You come to really see that, even though these events are happening vacuum, characters are informed by previous experience. And-- the previous experience also gains significance- because it becomes a defining event. Both stories gain more importance because you are watching one person--analogous to the scientific concepts in Holmes' vertical footnotes-- at different stages of knowledge and experience. So the gap between current and past becomes the story.

(so sue me, I might have a secret thing for Jack)

Long story short (not really if you watched the clip...) is that it got me thinking about how to tell a really good short story that focuses on communication of experience as opposed to a traditional "story arc..." yet still matters for the audience. Using that idea of the "gap" being profound may, in fact, be the "Why" that I've been looking for... I think.

My story is about an older couple, on the day that their last child leaves for college, dealing with the fact that they are now alone with each other. By juxtaposing that with a couple, perhaps the same couple, when they getting to know each other for the first time seems like it will add some heft that I, previously, couldn't muster.

Then again... perhaps I'm trying to make a career out of adding profundity to things that don't need it...

Thoughts?

Picture one from The Guardian Online.

Inside the Monster's Mouth

2010-03-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, my fantastic friend Jen invited me to join a visit to the Tim Burton exhibit currently at MoMA.

While Tim Burton's movies are always incredibly visually interesting, I don't think I ever really envisioned him as an "Artist." Yes, I tend to view filmmakers as artists in their own right-- but I don't think I had ever really thought of Tim Burton this way, for some reason. Maybe because his films are playful, even (or especially) when they depict the grotesque.

However-- seeing him on paper opened him up in some way. The exhibit not only displayed his evolution from sketching to film making, but also did a phenomenal job of laying bare his process. The most fascinating pieces were those around the creation of the short film "Vincent." Burton's character studies and storyboards were really excellent.

My favorite two individual pieces in the exhibition were a legal pad of notes from the making of Beetlejuice ... on which-- get this-- he reminded himself to remember Virginia Woolf during the story construction. How about that for a mind flip??

Also-- there was a glass display case with some of the Nightmare Before Christmas characters. I wish that I had a camera, because they had Jack-- and about 20 different versions of his head, with different facial expressions on each. I always thought that the models were mold-able. Luckily-- someone else got a partial pic here.

Overall-- my main reaction to the exhibit was that I wished MoMA regulated how many people were inside more closely...

But, more importantly, I thought the exhibit ultimately not only fantastically showcased Tim Burton's creativity, but also made the artistic process really accessible.

i.e. One of his early animations was in a condition where it still had lines in the picture showing how Burton was figuring out the form of his characters. Much like the below sketch-- but animated.

As someone who is currently trying to negotiate a day job and other creative efforts, I took particular notice of and interest in this earlier part of the exhibit-- everything before the "Beyond Burbank" [read: career as a film director] section-- where you could see Burton channeling his creativity outside of his (apparently frustrating) job at Disney-- but also utilizing his time there to contribute to his career-- i.e. his really fascinating Hansel and Gretal video adaptation which played only once on the Disney channel.

It was inspiring, as a relatively young artist, to see this development and negotiation. The online exhibition (though fantastic in its own right) does not do justice to this aspect of the physical exhibit. The experience of walking through his works -- seeing not only his notes and creative process on paper, but also their development as he aged -- is really worth actually going to see.

So if you are a young or aspiring artist-- get yourself to 53rd street, I say.

[I would argue that MoMA would agree with me on this point, as their Family Activity Guide for the exhibition utilizes the experience of the instillation to encourage children's understanding of creativity and process.]

"Untitled (Trick or Treat)," Tim Burton, 1980

On a side note... the phsyical objects on display were so richly deatailed and painstakingly crafted, one wonders if (what I believe is) the decline in quality of his films have something to do with his more frequent use of computer generated imagery (think Big Fish, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland) as opposed to phsycial fabrications (Beetle Juice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands). But, that is a question for another day...

Picture 1 from NYtimes.com, 2, 3, 5, 6 from MoMA online exhibition, 4 unkown.

Up to Innocence

2010-03-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

Back in January, I did my one and only "Best of" for 2009:

"The Best Little Piece of Film Making I Saw"

Consistently, I have heard Pixar praised for being able to tell a story without dialogue-- which they do here, and, perhaps more notably, in the first 30 minutes of Wall-E.

The admiration attached to these very well crafted segments got me thinking about sound and storytelling. Are these pieces of film successful and especially emotionally evocative because they are operating exclusively on a visual level? I'd say no-- because by no means is Pixar making silent pieces of film. Music and sound effects play a hugely important role in your experience of the story. What then, makes the absense of dialogue notable?

Being the huge dork that I am, I went back to my massive, massive film theory book from college and looked up a few essays on sound.

(It's all beat up and pretty, isn't it?)

Anyway, one particular explanation caught my eye:

"If a man is heard speaking, his gestures and facial expression only appear as an accompaniment to underline the sense of what is said. But if one does not hear what it said, the meaning becomes indirectly clear and is artistically interpreted by muscles of the face, of the limbs, of the body. The emotional quality of the conversation is made obvious with a clarity and definiteness which are hardly possible in the medium of actual speech. ... The absence of the spoken word concentrates the spectator's attention more closely on the visible aspect of behavior, and thus the whole event draws particular interest to itself. ... If the words are omitted, the spectator surrenders entirely to the expressive power of the gestures."

-- Rudolf Arnheim, "The Making of a Film," Film as Art, 1933.

Pixar is doing exactly this-- but they are also using the sound to bolster the image. The sounds are pure in a way that dialogue is not. Sound effects and music are manifestation of direct emotion. Where-- dialogue....

One thing that I think we tend to disregard about the importance of speech is our ability to use words to hide what we are feeling instead of actually expressing ourselves. Which is one reason why, by removing dialogue, the gestures become expressive. The characters have nothing to hide behind.

However, the camera can change this-- adding a level of artistic expression that is even more rich than the 'definite' and 'clear' presentation in the absence of dialogue.

For example-- one of my favorite scenes of all time:

(You need only watch until around 6:00)

We look at the beginning of Up and are able to recognize the story for what it is in it's purest sense-- an expression of bare emotion-- because there is no dialogue to either muddle our perception or to distract us from the gesture. But-- The Age of Innocence-- forces us to reconcile what is being spoken with the character's true meaning in their body language and the way it is revealed to the audience by the camera. It uses form to express meaning.

So, yes-- Up is lovely filmmaking-- economical and emotionally stirring. But, The Age of Innocence reaches an entirely different level. It is...impressionistic.

[Disclaimer-- this post was mainly written to help me figure through some writers block. You may enjoy it for whatever you so choose.]

Peices of Tactile Experience = Brand Gateway Drugs

2010-03-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I can talk for years about Anthropologie and how everything that they do is brilliant. And I think that my dedication to this brand not only comes from the fact that I want to look like I stepped out of 1895, but also because they engage me in an incredibly tactile way-- not only through their photos (the way that they channel the baguette brown above makes me hear the crackle of the crust), but by providing me with glimpses of the lifestyle that I want to embody.

What Anthropologie has managed to do to hook girls like me--who don't make enough to routinely spend $138 on a phenomenally beautiful dress-- is provide ways to insert their lifestyle into my daily existence... for free.

The examples below, I think, are incredibly instructive for anyone trying to build up a brand--what you are marketing is a feeling. And if you give people tiny pieces of the feeling for free, it's like a gateway drug. And then they will buy your products. Even if that amazing purse is out of their price range. They need the hit.

i.e.--

1) Their catalog

Anthro works for each of their catalogs to be as rich with beauty as Vogue. And I don't need to go and buy Vogue to see it. I get it delivered to my mailbox, for free, every month.

Currently, I am staring at their 89 page long March 2010 catalog, in which they are providing me with not only one, but 5 visual stories featuring their products.

The important thing, though-- is that they let me construct, for myself, meaning behind each series. They put together pictures that are rich enough with detail, that it allows me to lose myself in trying to construct a narrative for each one. That way-- I get to spend a significant amount of time daydreaming myself into these worlds-- with their products as my props. So yes, I will purchase that dress eventually... especially if it means that it will transport me from my no-windows cubicle into a mini-greenhouse.

Similary-- their wish list function... lets me build my own stories out of their props.

2) The Anthropologist

The Anthropologist was started late last year and basically showcases artists that fit the Anthropologie aesthetic. The first three artists were Photographer David Eustace, Filmmaker/Photographer Andrew Zuckerman and Filmmaker Jane Campion. Each section has an online gallery that represents an experience which Anthropologie has curated with key words.

Interested in "Passing through alright to get to wonderful..." Andrew Zuckerman.
How about experiencing "Quiet moments where nothing is said..." David Eustace.

(The Eustace section is particularly wonderful)

Each gallery is Anthropologie curating art for you-- and saying "This is our aesthetic. We know good art and we want to share it with you. We are not just selling a product. We are opening up doors to new experience." Both by introducing you to new artists and curating the artistic content into stories-- you start to associate cultrual taste with the brand.

3) Facebook Exclusives-- Music Playlist

They also curate music for me. I won't lie, I downloaded this playlist-- paying for all of the songs I didn't already have.
And every time I play it on my iPod I think about the experience of being in their store-- which is a journey unto itself. (I often go into the store just to make myself feel better after work.)
Again-- it's about taste, about culture, about adding little pieces to my day that make me feel like I don't spend the majority of my time staring at a computer screen-- but that I am experiencing something else.

Listen to "Pencil Full of Lead" by Paolo Nuntini and tell me that you are actually still sitting at your desk and not having late afternoon lunch in a Caribbean cafe.

The point is-- Anthro compounds their dresses and purses and shoes with all of these other elements. Every time they post something, music, pictures, etc.-- I will relate it back to the things that they sell. They are endeavoring for a totality of involvement. Sound, image, touch of the cloth. Creating a lifestyle and drawing you in by engaging every sense possible.

Next thing: Original Short films? (I'll make them for you Anthro!! Call me!)

Photo 1 from Anthropologie January 2010 Catalog, 2 from Anthropologie March 2010 Catalog, 3 and 4 from www.thanthropologist.org, 5 from facebook.

Welcome to "Drawing the Eye"

2010-03-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

I see a lot of movies. I'm just throwing that out there for you up front. So, you can't say that I didn't warn you that 70% of my conversation revolves around these movies-- and another 5-10% around the creation of my own.

But, that is because I think that movies are the most complete form of storytelling that we have.**

And, in particular movie-centric fashion, I want to use a quote from a particularly beautiful movie from the past year to introduce my little blog and what I hope to do here.

"A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore, but to be in the lake. To luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out. It is an experience beyond thought."

-- Bright Star, Jane Campion

Here, at Drawing the Eye, I want to look at how we understand stories and emotion through our sensory perception. Why is it that the variations of purple in the still from Bright Star make me feel the same all engrossing interest that the letter brings to Fanny? Is it about lust? Or is this about just being-- total. The letter makes her whole-- the colors, mirror?

I don't know. And while it may seem like I am trying to 'work the lake out,' here-- I don't want to probe too deep, but rather to identify the senses that are engaged by this image. For my own practical purposes, if not anything else, I want to understand how to use color to make people smell flowers.
And, part of me thinks that just surrounding myself with all of the things that engage me... that I will be able to get some element of transference into my own work. So, I won't just be talking about movies, but about pictures, paintings, design, clothes, perfumes... anything that I think tells a story by engaging me in an experience beyond thought.

In the future-- posts will not be this text heavy. Hopefully, we'll all just be able to immerse ourselves in experience.

**We can talk about video games another time, but I think they're still working on figuring out that whole story + interactivity bit...