Tag: culture

Taking it to the mat

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In recent weeks I feel like I’ve been swept up by a tornado and been whirling around in a haze of projects from mundane daily paperwork to creative projects that only months ago were something I was merely hoping would come to fruition.  Well my wishes certainly came true and even though I’m constantly “on,” I couldn’t be happier with how things are going at the moment.

BUT, with the ever growing to-do list and never seeming to be able to cross anything off, I find myself overwhelmed at times.  I’ve found that I have a somewhat constant need to center myself and refocus and that doesn’t come easily while sitting at my desk.  Enter my yoga mat.  I don’t know if I’ve rolled it up at all lately, other than to tote it along to an actual yoga class.  Most of the time I take a quick break while video files are rendering and head to the mat to stretch out and hope to return to some sort of mental sanity.  Sometimes having a well loved older and slower computer is a god send… well sometimes.

I hope that in the next few weeks I will be able to share some of what has been keeping me so incredibly busy, but until then I’ll be taking quick breaks to breath…

prana

And dreaming of my next vacation that hopefully looks something like scenes from this video.

The Breach is on Tour!

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I’m beyond excited to announce that The Breach is officially on tour!  Now I know that I’ve posted dates already, but here is the full list, as well as links to tickets etc.  And in case you need a small reminder of what The Breach is, here’s the trailer:

New York, NY – 04.25 6pm – The Rubin Museum of Art – GET TICKETS  Panel to Include: Chef Tom Douglas!  All the way from Seattle…

Boston, MA – 04.26 – 2pm–  Theatre 1- GET TICKETS

Washington D.C. – 04.28 – 7pm – Goethe-Institut – GET TICKETS

Raleigh, NC –04.29 6pm  The Rialto Theatre – GET TICKETS

Miami, FL – 04.30 – 630pm –  O Cinema – GET TICKETS

Chicago, IL – 05.03  12:30 pm – Gene Siskel Film Center – GET TICKETS

Minneapolis, MN – 05.06 7pm  Showplace Icon Theatre — GET TICKETS

Denver, CO – 05.07 630pm  Landmark Mayan Theatre -— GET TICKETS

Boulder, CO – 05.08 – E Town Hall – GET TICKETS

San Francisco CA – 05.12  530pm – The Bay Aquarium – GET TICKETS

Berkeley – 5.13 630pm – Brower Center/Goldman Theater – GET TICKETS

Seattle – 05.15 630pm  – Seattle Art Museum (SAM)  – GET TICKETS

Portland – 05.18 6pm – McMenamin’s Kennedy School – GET TICKETS

Salt Lake City – ****Special Additional Screening**** 05.19 – Utah Film Center Tickets forthcoming from Utah Film Center

Santa Monica, CA –05.20 7pm – Cross Campus – GET TICKETS

All sorts of screenings

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All sorts of things are happening in my work life at the moment.  All sorts of good things, but also overwhelming at how fast they are moving.  I promise that I’ll have something to show you soon, but until then…

There are several more screenings of The Breach and now one of Out of Print!

So here we go…

Out of Print makes it’s UK TV Premier on the Community Channel at 10 pm (GMT)!

The Breach at Portland Eco Film Fest: April 11 at 6:30 pm.  Tickets here.

unnamed

Tickets for various cities can be bought here.  More locations to be announced!

The Breach in Dublin

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I haven’t been able to share screening dates for any of my projects in a while, but finally, I have another for you:

The Breach is screening at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival on March 24th at 8 pm.

Apologies for those living in Alaska and Vancouver BC who were interesting in seeing this as the Alaska tour and Vancouver International Film Festival have passed.  However, I will try to do better on notifying everyone in the future.

House Key

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Filmmaking is about stories and I feel like I have forgotten that in the last few months.  When you work behind the scenes, one film takes months, if not years to plan, produce, edit and finally get it out into the world for people to see. When you’re worrying about the minute details, like I often have to, it’s hard to remember the bigger picture – that you are telling a story.  Stories are what caught my attention in the first place, and so I’m trying to go back to the base element of what I do.  I tell stories.  Or at least I try to.

In trying to keep up with a posting schedule that I made for myself for this blog, I’ve found that I’ve moved away from finding work that inspires me and that makes me want to tell stories in new and different ways.  Instead, I’m sharing whatever I can find to fill the space, and that’s not what I want this to be about.

This shift has exhausted me (like so many other bloggers out there) and I find that I’m struggling to find content that I feel goes with what I am about.  To be blunt, I’ve started to resent the pressure that I’m putting on myself.  Stupid, I know.  The good news is that I’m not going to stop posting, but I am going to stop with my monthly themes.  I may even stop with the weekly posts.  I’m not going away.  Just getting more picky about content but NOT about what month each item fits into.

So with this new freedom that I give myself, I’m sharing whatever I find when I want to.  And, I won’t have the pressure to find weekly content when I’m at my busiest with other work.  Yahoo!

So for my first week of my new found freedom, here is something that I found a while ago, but had never found a good time to share it:

Mackenzie Sheppard

I love the camera movement, and the sentimentality of what so many of us consider an everyday object.  I myself have so many keys on my keyring, that I tend to only think of it as another thing not to forget as I run out the door.  This little short reminds me to stop and appreciate even the seemingly mundane objects in my life.

Until next time…

Championship :: Film Awards

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In two days, it’s the finale of the film awards season.  I don’t think I’ve seen many new films this year, not to mention I haven’t had much of a chance to see any films that have won or been nominated at various award ceremonies. Yet the Oscars are only two days away.

One of the films that I did manage to see: The Imitation Game

I loved it.  I was initially drawn to the story because being a film about WWII and that being a topic that I’m extremely interested in, it seemed like a no brainer for me.  But that aside, I thought the story was beautifully told, one that has only surfaces in the last few decades.  The acting and the filmmaking were also breathtaking and I’m interested to see how many awards it takes home.  It’s not easy to make the story about the first computer’s creation during a desperate time appealing for the masses, but I think this film has done that.

This is a tough year to be nominated for film awards.  There are a lot of good ones (or from what I hear) that came out in 2014 and it’s too bad that there aren’t more awards to go around.

So here’s to those champion films that have even been acknowledged by the masses.  Wishing those films that have inspired us, brought us to tears and made us laugh out loud the best during this last competition of the season; bringing home an Oscar.

Championship Season

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February, for whatever reason is blessed with several big events when it comes to trophies and red carpet events.  It’s the end of the film and tv award season, ending with the Oscars.  It’s also the end of football season, ending with the Superbowl.  The Superbowl is one of those events were sports fans and non-sports fans alike, gather, eat copious amounts of junk food and watch the TV for two reasons.  1) To watch the championship football game and 2) to watch the commercials.

This sounds silly, I know – especially to those who have never witnessed such an event.  The commercials. Once a year companies pay an obscene amount of money to show 30 seconds of advertising during peak commercial breaks throughout the game and then the public review and scrutinize them for months afterwards.  Get ready for a lot of puppies, scantily clad men and women, cars and lots and lots of beer.

Usually, I’m more of a college football fan, but when your local professional team makes to the Superbowl for the second straight year after winning the year before (for the first time ever), it’s a pretty big deal.  In fact, it’s a huge deal and one can’t help but jump on the bandwagon.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the professional football but until I started playing Fantasy Football two season ago, I’d never been this devout a fan.  And when I say devout, I mean that I pay attention to scores and best players each week, but I still don’t watch very many games.

So for those who have no idea what this game is about, here you are.  The basics of American football:

Cub Studio

Yes, the pace is a little fast, but I love the graphics and it explains the whole thing so well in such a brief amount of time that you really have to admire this little short.  I could have used this back in high school when I was moving back to the US and really didn’t have much of an idea of what happens in a football game.

I am going to miss football season when it’s over tomorrow, but then I can move on to other things. Like hockey!  And hopefully, with my fingers and toes crossed, winter will finally come and we’ll finally get our usual snowfall in the mountains so that I can hit the slopes.  This is the first time in a long time that I’m able to head to the mountains for ski season and we’re having a severe shortage of snow during this very mild Pacific Northwest winter.  Humph.

Come back next week for the first of the “Championship” series.  Until then… GO HAWKS!

Rejuvenation :: Putting it on Paper

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There are two things that I’ve found that help when I’m stressed.  1) Working out any frustration with rigorous exercise and 2) writing it down.  Just getting whatever is bothering me off my chest and taking a few minutes for myself makes all the difference.

Now this is going to sounds silly, but the notebook or journal that I write in makes all the difference as to how much I like to write and how it makes me feel when I do it.  Paper quality is a huge thing.  No one likes to write on rough paper that makes the process even more difficult than it needs to be – because if you’re like me, I can’t seem to write fast enough sometimes.  I need smooth paper for quick pen action.

Another thing is if the paper has lines on the page versus a plain sheet.  If the lines are spaced too far apart of too close together, I have no desire to read write on that kind of page.  The page color, the pocket in the back for storing small moments and even the  cover changes the way that I write and the inspiration can be gone in a second if I don’t like my notebook.

My favorite notebook in a long time has smooth plain pages, perfect for sketches, notes and a nice big pocket on the back cover.  It even has a nice elastic band for keeping the pages together when the additional pieces of paper get too much for the spine.  Recently, it’s been something like these notebooks:

Enrico Mazzanti

I love the diversity of locations that people take these notebooks and that the can inspire so much creativity.  They say that Hemingway used these notebooks when penning his latest work.  This video inspires me to go somewhere new and note my observations.  Perhaps the whole point of Moleskine notebooks?

What inspires you to get your stresses out?

Rejuvenation :: Blom & Blom

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I love finding new uses for old items laying around the house.  I can’t say that I’m overly skilled at making things look seamlessly renewed (usually they have a “handmade look”) but I like to know that I’m not giving up on something that has plenty of life still in it.  For instance, my old doll house now houses books and my grandpa’s old army trunk is acts as my coffee table.  Family relics repurposed that house old memories of times gone by.

One thing I don’t dabble in reusing (usually) is anything that needs electrical repairs.  Not knowing how to repair lamps etc. is a little off putting.  However, the gentlemen at Blom&Blom have found just the way to do it:

iGNANT

I love the history of each part that the gentlemen at Blom&Blom use in their creations.  The history of Eastern Germany always seems a little bleak, or at least during the years of communist rule, but the fact that these lights can be made into something original yet practical just proves that anything, however old or seemingly mundane can be made into something beautiful.