The Searchers: shot construction










Not that long ago, I had some down-time and my officemate at the time, Brian, recommended I watch THE SEARCHERS. I couldn't remember if I had seen it, regardless, I thought it was amazing by the end. A different style of filmmaking from where I think we have evolved to now, (since it was obviously intended for a VERY large screen) but an incredible example for deconstructing and understanding shots...used in the most direct way, and by no means out dated. To let it sink in further, I did some tracing and drawing over shots, trying to mimic the shading without using the desaturate tool and point out for myself why things work. Here are a few of results. Whats interesting in the shot of her watching John Wayne ride off, is that the clouds even work in the composition to lead the eye... pretty amazing, and probably accidentally intentional... which seems to be something only live-action can do. We create intentional accidents.

Comically Crude






I was cleaning up my harddrives and found some scans of storyboards. These are from an early version of Lolly's Box. Thought they were crude but get the gesture... it was hard cutting out a lot of moments when condensing the film to a managable size. In the end its a better experience overall though... the headache and turmoil of a longer, less condensed thesis proved that. C'est la vie... simple is nice.

Comic for the Day



So, when I get the chance, I'm going to draw up some random memories and put them up. I'd like to start doing a series of comics that are more on the happy side, in a post-documentary style recapturing some moments. I'm still debating on the idea of putting "Jaune" up as a web comic sort of thing... more on that later... let me know what you think. I guess if making it into an actual book doesn't pan out....

East coast Autumn is Ingrained


With Fall at hand and its absense in California, I drew this out of my memory. A little homage to the Mennonite farm, Bergy's Dairy in Virginia Beach, VA. Which no longer sells their delicious ice cream and produce since they were sadly shut-down.

Amy Cutler


I happened upon a book the other day in a little bookstore. Its called "Amy Cutler: Paintings and Drawings." It is essentially the book from an exhibition of this artist's work and it is incredible. Amusing, disturbing, brilliant... her work seems to feature women in laborous situations, sometimes with "things" for heads (such as teapots and birdcages). I found a link about her:

http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/cutler.html

As I'm wanting to get more into painting now, I'm finding her work pretty inspiring.

The Neverending Thesis IS ENDED!

Its finally over! The misery that is creating a thesis film for the Animation Masters Degree is finally over. Next week I'll stand before the committee and deliver SUMMER STORM. With that said, I suppose its okay now to start promoting it and letting people know about it. There isn't much on my website yet... going to take a bit of time to get to that... but here is some info in the meantime:



The inspiration for this film came from my own childhood and the unique climate of Virginia Beach, Va... the Southern, East Coast: with its humidity and storms, the climate is a character in itself, constantly changing. I miss it a lot. Here is a photo collage, one of many pages of the dozens of photos I took as reference back at home. I put these together for the documentation part of my degree. This one has the best feel for the story:

First ever Drawing post


Ok, So here is the first drawing. I was inspired by Eric's Indian shirt with all the thousands of different Indians... so I started drawing some Girl Scouts.... lots of different attitudes toward the "quiet symbol", which is also the gesture you do when you are saying the Girl Scout Promise and what not.