Coming Soon...

"It's scary to put yourself in a situation where you feel like you should feel something, because you feel that if you don't feel that something that you really should have felt it and something just went terribly, horribly, unbeleivably wrong."

-Line From An Upcoming Screenplay

Matisse

I'll spare you the "reasons why" and let the work of Henri Matisse speak for itself. (Random Factoid: I had a pet fish named Matisse. He died, quite tragically, this past summer.)

Faerie Tale Theatre

This show was one of the defining elements of my childhood and inspires me to this day in my work. Faerie Tale Theatre was a television program that would take a different fairy-tale each week and let a different director and celebrity cast transform it into a play-like story. Sometimes the stories were comedic (like in "The Frog Prince" or "The Princess and the Pea",) sometimes they were lyrical and poetic ("The Nightingale" "The Snow Queen"), or frightening ("The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About the Shivers" "Beauty and the Beast"), or just plain corny ("Thumbelina".) These one-hour shows intruduced me to the work of artists I wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to at such a young age, like Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton, Helen Mirren, David Bowie, James Earle Jones, Matthew Broderick, Angelica Huston, Billy Crystal, and Christopher Lee. These directors, actors and writers didn't treat fairy tales as something just for children (a la Disney,) but rather as wonderful adventures in their own right that the whole family could enjoy. Their enthusiasm inspired me even at the age of five to put my own spin on the stories that I heard, and so I started to create stories of my own (which I would act out with the neighborhood kids on my back porch.) Even to this day, my work is influenced greatly by folk tales and legends. The stories that we tell as a culture defines who we are. But the way each of us individually interprets these stories defones who we will become.

Some favorite Faerie Tales Theatre Quotes:

Cinderella: Do you know anything about kissing?
Prince Charming: I'm almost certain it has something to do with the lips.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prince: I need something warm and soft and gentle...like a hamster!
Fool: I think what you mean is a wife.
Prince: A wife? Is that better than a hamster?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Narrator: ...the prince was thrown into the dungeon and the princess was sent to a very strict boarding school, where she was forced to learn latin and play hockey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mythbusters

This show is completely fascinating. The cast takes "urban legends" and conducts experiments to determine their plausibility. Some of the myths they've tackled? "Is driving with a cell phone the same as driving drunk?" "Is the brace position really designed to kill you?" "Can you wipe a credit card with an electric eel?" The show is hilarious and creative. I would totally love to intern with the Discovery Channel.

Impact

It's funny how sometimes things that we think don't impact us really do. This past summer one of my film teachers at Interlochen told me to see the movie "A Room With a View", because she thought I'd really like it. However,a certain scene in the movie involving very much NOT dressed guys frolicing in the woods wiped from my mind any good associations I had with the film (and caused my brother to laugh uncontrollably.) But as I was working on my current film project, I remembered some of the other witty (non-nude) moments in the film and they inspired aspects of my own project. It's funny how stuff like that happens. And here I thought that "A Room With A View" was just a movie with a bit too much of a "view."

Good Taste/Bad Taste

Cool house, isn't it? It belongs to Joel Shumacher, a film director known for his entertaining albeit poorly executed movies (such as "Phantom of the Opera", "The Number 23", and the "Batman" movie w/ George Clooney.) I wouldn't have expected his house to look like this...but I love it!

Photography

Photo from TeenVogue. I love the whole mood of this photograph.

"Know"

Is it possible to really know someone? A person is made up of so many facets, so many differing thoughts and experiences that it would be impossible for another person to know and understand them all. We can know pieces of people, and with enough pieces we might feel that we understand someone. But to say "I know you" is a lot stronger of a statement than we often realize. To say "I know you" is to say that you understand the other person on such a level that their experiences, their hopes, their thoughts are plain to you. That what they do won't surprise you, yet you won't get tired of their company. Sometimes it's easy to forget the meanings of words. Words like hate, or love, or blessing. We use them so often. Sometimes, it's good to look back and think about what we really understand. What we really know.

Movie Inspiration

My most recent film was set in the 1930's South. One of my incredible friends found these photos for me, and they provided a lot of inspiration for the look of the film.

Illustration: Jane Eyre

An illustration by Dame Darcy for the book Jane Eyre. I feel like her work really ties together the Gothic literature of the past with the current Gothic cartoonist style. Very haunting, yet modern

Calling

"Let us probe the silent places,
Let us seek what luck betides us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night wind,
There's a star agleam to guide us,
And the wild is calling, calling,
Let us go."

-Robert Service

Quote of the Week, Thursday, April 19th

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
-Anais Nin

Kisten Dunst @ Spider-Man Premiere

Sense and Sensibility

Many a person has ruined a Jane Austen adaptation. A lot of movies focus on the drama, and lose the witty, satirical edge. But this one...this one is prectically perfect. Emma Thompson's script is so subtly funny...I love the scene when Edward is proposing to Elinor as she cries hysterically. Here the poor guy is pouring out his heart, and all she can do is bawl and hiccup. Kate Winslet is also incredible as Marianne...very ethereal and wonderfully romantic. The guys were all perfect, too..Alan Rickman, Greg Wise, and Hugh Grant were all right-on. Okay, so enough of my praises. I love this movie! (Sans the ending.)

Yes, it's a door knob.

Yes, I am blogging about a door knob. But who knew they could be so cool? This one is meant to look like an antique (apparently earlier generations were cooler than us and actually thought about what their door knobs looked like.) I love the design. It reminds me of The Lord of the Rings somehow, with a bit of Japan thrown in for good measure.