Light Observations

Inside my apartment: with snow and ice blanketing the parking lot and clouds covering the sky, the little light that seeps through the open window is soft; a luminescent glow fills the living room before fading into darkness in the kitchen. Because the glow is so soft, there does not seem to be much patterning, though the light tries to softly illuminate through the cracks of the window blinds. Also, the contrast is very low. My cat sits upon on the table by the window, staring out at the snowy abyss; her back is facing me and full of shadows, while her front is softly illuminated. It is almost as if the front of her body is glowing.

Outside my apartment, on the balcony: Still filled with clouds, the only source of light is tucked behind the overcast sky. There is very low contrast, no patterned light, and no pools of light. The lighting is very diffuse and only dully illuminating the snow and ice-covered parking lot. As it is late afternoon, there is no darkness, only lightness thanks to the white sky and ground. The light is bouncing off of each patch of snow, filling the entire space with just light and no shadows.

I included pictures of both situations but they actually don't do justice to the actual lighting of the scenes...

Filmmakers Statement

     In this course, I hope to learn the skills I need to create well-put-together films and further prepare myself to become the filmmaker I aspire to be.

     A lot of the film related experiences that I have had, have all been at school. Most recently, I took the Computer Animation course last semester and was involved in the making of two short animations. Both shorts were thought up by students in the class who then went on to direct and oversee the various shots being put together. I animated a shot in one of the shorts where a shooting star is seen falling through the main character's eye; it was probably the most challenging shot since I had to figure out how to make the eyes reflective enough and then position the star in such a way that it was both visible and appearing to be falling.

Starry Night Shot 5a  (this shot is sped up in the actual animation so it looks smoother & goes by a lot faster)

     Working with animation is a lot more work than it seems. I learned just how much work goes into it during this class and also during a class I took over the summer with Andre. 6x1 was my first film class at UNCW and it was also the best class - it was lots of fun learning hands on how to make different experimental types of films. The funnest I had was making the stop-motion animation. My group used Harry Potter legos as we created a far off sequel to an incredible book/film series. We ended up taking a million photos just to create only a mere minute of an animation, spending hours on hours editing and adding sound later on, but it was still my favorite assignment and the most fun. 

Harry Potter vs. The Pinecone

     Outside of school, I've put together my own little shorts here and there. Most of them were just for fun with my sister when we were in high school. I used to bring a camera with me everywhere and just record my "adventures" and then edit them to put onto YouTube, but it's been a while since I've posted anything on YouTube, not to mention recorded anything just for the fun of it.

     Something unique about me, would probably be that I play guitar...and sing. Recently I've been doing mostly only covers of songs but I used to write my own songs and put them on YouTube. It's a hobby that I love and lost but would love to find again when I find the time and motivation.

   I honestly have no idea where I want to be in 10 years, not to mention, where I want to be as a filmmaker; but I definitely know I want to be making my own feature films and working on set of a movie, either as a cinematographer, editor, or script supervisor - it doesn't matter to me! As long as I'm on a set, working towards someone's (or even my own) dream and enjoying it, I will be happy.