running dream

I'm at the library eying the table with an electrical power strip on one of the legs. I'm going to move to that spot when the guy there leaves. I'm very paranoid about my smell. I smell something not good. It's like BO and booze? OK it can not be me. I have not had booze since that karaoke night that Sara "sugar mama" paid for. And I just showered.

Last night I had a dream. I ran another marathon only this one was in the UK. I finished the race and felt pretty good about it. I was not in pain like I remembered in the Rome Marathon. In Rome, the last mile was complete agony without being actually injured. My feet, knees, hips, everything was in so much pain. But this time I felt great.

The end of the race took place on an Olympic size track. I didn't see my time after crossing the finish line but I was sure I made a PR. I went back to where the other Americans were set up and rested for awhile. The race had printed results of everyone's time sometime after their finish. That's very efficient now that I think about it. So I grabbed my sheet and took it to the locker room with me. I showered and got dressed in street clothes. Then I remembered that I hadn't looked at my time. It said 4:15:00. Oh shit, that can't be right. My Rome time was 5:25:** there is no way I shaved off more than an hour. So I was looking for an explanation and saw the distance 9KM. So I was trying to calculate the math in my head. That was about 6 miles. Oh great. It made sense to me now. My distance was missing about 6 miles.

So I grabbed my stopwatch and ran back to the track to finish my distance but I got held up by a security guy. I showed him the sheet and tried to explain that I somehow finished a while ago but somehow missed 9km. He tried to tell me that the 9km was probably the time difference between my Rome time and this time. That made no sense because it was a distance not a time. So when he realized what had happened he said it was too late to go back out there. Officially I had already finished and the clock would soon stop at 7 hours. Just be happy with my time. I still tried to plead with him that I came all this way to run a marathon and I am so close. That's when I woke up.

Ok I'm moving to the table with an outlet to work on my animation now.

this sucks

I'm at the NY Public Library. Looks like my stealin' wifi to work on projects via internet is not turning out. For the past 2 days I have not been able to get online from my place. Now I have to make nice with timewarner and give them a bunch of money I don't yet have. I so wish I could give them the argument "But if you give me internet I can make money to pay you for it" but they don't fall for that. Sprint will only do that if i get the right person on the phone. And I have to say it in Damsel voice. Operators usually only respond if they feel they are being my hero. I've learned that my angry voice does not scare people into helping me even when their company is screwing me over. Jose is so great at it. He can raddled off every 3 letter abbreviation threat, the better business bureau, the department of... I don't remember. I can only do it every once in a while like when Free Credit Report.com was screwing me for 15 bucks a month. I demanded and received a reimbursement but I had to prep a lot before making the phone call, then had to write a strongly worded fax.

However, when I comes to me just not having the money, I have to hope that I can charm the operator. So when I answered the call from timewarner today I was so ready to make nice and pay the bill I left 4 months ago and ask for a modem box. It turned out to be a collector. Oh no. I have heard that the worst way to improve your credit to pay a collector instead of the company. So I took down her information and said I could call back. But what I really must do to get that money to timewarner. I figure that I am closing out my mini storage in coming week so I will can "afford" internet.

I had a dream last night that my landlord removed the lock from my door because I have been so behind on rent. He didn't replace it. Just removed it so that it would not lock. So most of my dream was about me making a slide lock under the door so it could be locked from the outside but not seen by anyone. I don't think this will actually be an issue. I've let my landlord know whats been going on financially and paying him in installments.

In other news, I spent my last day on set yesterday. I had planned to stay only until 5pm but decided to stay longer. I know how I've complained about receiving my call-sheet at like 3am for a calltime of 11:30 or so. It's very annoying. But when I'm on set I have a lot of fun and feel like I'm learning a lot of making movies. Yesterday i showed up pissed as hell because I went to the Bronx on the 6 train to find the set. the day before they had been on 134th in the Bronx. I received an email via my phone that said the location was on W 138th. If i had real internet I could have looked at the map and saw that w 138th street was in Manhattan 15 blocks up Lennox ave. But no, I went looking for w 138th in the Bronx and had to call Cynthea to look up how I can transfer from the 4/5 to the 2 into Manhattan. So by the time I got there in the rain I was like ARG. But just a few minutes after I was happy to be there. Oh yeah they even used me as an extra a few times. I walked down the hospital hallway in one scene. In another I had to read a magazine while an car crash victim was rushed in the door.

The library is about to close. But at least I know where I can come send files from :)

yay vainity

I remember when I was afraid to use my name on my blog. Anyway, Cynthea sent me some jpgs that I had copied to her computer freshmen year at SVA. This pic is from a reference video for "The Toy" a 1 minute animation about a boy (who looks exactly like my baby brother) and his remote control airplane.

But of course I wanted to star in the opening credits so... I animated myself walking out to lean on the cloud title. It then evaporates and I fall threw but more clouds catch me. That is the pose I am making. The paintings in the background were my roommate's art.

Here is a picture of my desk in my apartment now. I like the style of my chair but can only sit in it for so long until I just work on my bed.

The Bawdyguard

I'm going to take a moment and talk about my "big head" theory. For years I've thought I had a small head, but I see from this picture that my head is a normal size. It looks small now because my body has grown wider. So yeah my Big Head theory was a scheme to inject something into people's heads to make them larger and give the illusion that their bodies are smaller. Big hair is supposed to do that without injections but it didn't occur to me.

Since I can't show my most recent work yet. I'm going to show horrible stuff that I worked very hard on.

I'm going to go back to my first "edited" movie, The Bawdyguard 1998. It was by far not my first movie, but it was the first one that could be called finished and screened. The video was made with Rebecca's hi-8 camcorder (because I fried mine while fixing the side panel...if i remember correctly), a disc-man/head phones, and two VCRs for editing. It was very Dogma 95.

My writing was horrible. My actors where lit from behind way too often so they were constantly silhouetted. The tape lost a lot of quality from the transfers: hi-8 to used VHS to soda spilled on VHS to local video shop physically splicing the tape to save it and transferring to new VHS. And now a bootleg via digital camera pointed at the tv. So it was bad but not originally as dark as it has become.

Editing... I only had one shot to "edit" each cut as to not rewind the tape and have a horrible snow gash. I'm guessing it took about 10 hours to prep and edit on my parents living room tv. I remember that I started in the evening and finished around 9am, skipping 1st period band.

This is the last scene. We tried to get the same shots as the Bodyguard by using the local airport. My original plan was to shoot it from the the parking lot with the planes far in the background. After a little white lie about it being a class project they gave us permission to use the tarmac.

The audio was feed through my headphones which fit sideways on the camera allowing one earphone on the mic. Rebecca (holding discman flat so it would not skip) and me (holding camera) both circled around Shausha and Tyson. That was fun.




Someday I will find my first stop-motion animation with playdoh and Wilson Phillips songs.

I think it's funny that I can write so much about a very bad teenage parody video but I can't force out words in a grant proposal about my personal art work.

Drawing class started up

I remember saying after class that the model had really good hand and feet gestures, but when I looked through my drawings the better ones didn't really capture that. I do like the pretzels poses most.

I miss walking around SVA with their stupid raw-side-of-a-pancake walls and creaky black painted floors . I wish I could afford to take a few classes. Painting and sculpture have been on my list since graduation, but I think I should take classes to advance my "career." Whatever that is. I'd like to take an advertising class, but afraid of a $500 mistake if it's just like the workshops my last job offered for free. Of course there are always more film classes or whatever has replaced actual film. The major should be called "Movies". The Movie department.

I should be animating a dancing dude now, but yeah. I need dance music. Disney and b'way tunes aren't inspiring for b-boying. Ok no more stalling..

Just got home

I have never has such delicious White Castle as I am having now. So good that I had to share that news before I watch an episode of the Tudors via netflix.

I spent the last 13 hours on a film set. Mostly standing up or running some place. They served lunch at 4:30pm. I ate standing up outside. Well it really wasn't that cold today.

I actually really like being on set. However, I am wondering what happened to the catered dinner we had the first week. I'm working for food...

OH yeah on the set I am surrounded by 5 year expired food in a dilapidated deli. Nothing is edible. Last week that was all anyone talked about. Now I see people digging into expired Doritos while fearing the ceiling plaster may fall again. I really hope I'm there when they tear down the set. I've been eying some Cheer, Tide and Palmolive. If you think I'm joking you are very wrong. That stuff doesn't go bad.

Here are a few storyboard backgrounds for a project. The character is missing. I will show the entire board once the project is finished.

I know I said I couldn't say much about the project but I don't think a few unfinished Storyboard frames will give it away.

Woo hooo a commission

So after about 4 days of watching 30Rock on my bed (I haven't felt well), I have finally agreed to a contract for a short animation due by Feb 26th. I can't say much more about the project now. But it will play on ADAsport.com. Yay guaranteed pay.

I'm working in the art department on a film set once a week for 2 (possibly 3) catered meals a day. That's right, I'm interning. It's a pretty big production and will hopefully lead to paid work. The best part is that I am not apart of the production crew(PA)like my last film gigs 4 years ago. No walkie-talkie, no actors running away to the bathroom without telling me, no AD yelling at me, best of all, no reporting back to anyone about what is happening around me. Nope. I only ask those in art department what to do. I think its like Tricia said, "It's better to be the bitch of one department than to be everybody's bitch." So true.

This is something that I've been thinking about recently. I think I like being the underdog. This is bragging, but I'm a quick learner although I often get bored and forget what I have learned. Anyway I tried to explain this to my brother, Anthony and to Tricia. Perhaps this time I will get it right.

In most every movie there is a "first win" for the heroine. I think it's called the narrative hook? It's been forever since I've taken a writing class and I don't feel like researching for the term. I will explain it with Sister Act. In case you don't remember the plot...

In Sister Act: the unsuccessful lounge singer, Deloris Van Cartier, witnesses a mobster murder and is placed in a convent by the witness protection program. While there, Deloris becomes Sister Mary Clarence and is appointed director of the awesomely sucky nun choir. She teaches them to sing Hail Holy Queen very well and blows everyone away. Then some plot stuff happens. The nun choir gets really good. Some mobsters throw Sister Mary Clarence out a moving car. Nuns go to Vegas and so on. Then, their equivalent of the "last game, bottom of the 9th" is singing a gospel version of a 60's pop song for the Pope himself.

OK so, I think my life is a lot like watching up where the nuns finish singing Hail Holy Queen, then rewind back to where they began practicing with Sister Mary C and watching the whole segment over and over. I actually used to do that when ever my family rented the movie. I always thought it was because Hail Holy Queen was a much prettier song. But when I think about it, that is the part I love in most movies.

I don't have a conclusion but I will leave you with this :)

yeah bored

The FAO Schwartz website lets you create a whatnot muppet character. Only I don't they have a great selection for $130.00. I would rather intern at the muppet workshop and try to make one for my self or at least see what they use.


Queen

King or just butch i guess.