Today I finished up my Typography project for my Motion Graphics class. I chose to do it on the 90s action film, The Long Kiss Goodnight. Oh, how I could watch that thing over and over. Ha ha. Well, here is the video. Enjoy.

So I stopped blogging over the past months. But now that the spring semester is over, I will hopefully have more time to devote to this blog. As of right now, I’m thinking about doing mandatory posts every Sunday. This way I will at least post once a week. Sound like I good plan? We’ll find out…

I found something that is relevant to us filmmakers and other creative peoples of the world. As we start a new semester, let us take a look at this inspiring message…

The Secret to Being Insanely Creative

Posted: 23 Jan 2009 04:00 AM PST

Article by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead; follow him on twitter.

What’s the secret to unleashing your creativity?

I’ll tell you, but it’s not what you think…

As an aspiring artist, I’ve spent a lot of time trying figure out how to be more creative. I’ve explored the traditional paths to creativity; painting, drawing, playing an instrument, creative writing, poetry, etc. I connected with creative souls; artists, and people living off the grid (away from the mainstream).

While I found this sparked my creative spirit, it only went so far. I was hacking at the branches rather than the root.

To truly tap into your creative nature, you only have to realize one thing…

You are already an artist.

You don’t have to create exquisite sculptures or breathtaking sonnets. You’re creating all the time simply by being alive. Every decision you make, every time you move, breathe, or speak you are creating. In fact, you couldn’t not create even if you wanted to. It’s simply impossible.

Just think about it: you’re the main character in your life story. Each day you develop and further the plot of your masterful performance. You interact with other secondary characters in your story that support your role. These are your friends, your lover, family and coworkers. They’re the supporting actors or actresses in your drama, and they also help mold your life’s narrative.

You can change the course of your story at any time by making new choices and walking down new paths. You can drop a secondary character and choose new ones, if they’re not supporting the story you’d like to create (except, perhaps, family members).

You constantly direct the play called your life; and that makes you a magnificent artist.  So if you’re creating your life all the time, wouldn’t it be more empowering to view yourself as an artist, rather than simply a passively living person?

I know you’re thinking, That really doesn’t help when I’m chopping celery or washing the cat… but it does. It makes all the difference.

See, when you know you’re creating artistically, you get more involved in your life. You start to live more deliberately. You wash your cat with love because deep down, you love him even if he smells terrible. You cut celery with joy, because you’re making the choice to put something healthy in your body.

So, enough foreplay; here are some practical ways to embrace your inner artist:

• Work. Are you making choices to further your deepest desires? Are you moving in the direction of your dreams? Much of our lives are spent working, so it makes sense to be conscious of the career we create. Find a career that pays you for being you. You may have to create one if it doesn’t exist.
• Money. Take a close look at where your money is going. Are you spending your money unconsciously? Are buying lattes and chasing trends keeping you from those yoga classes you’ve been meaning to take? Reevaluate how you spend to live by your own design.
• Goals. Are the goals you have ego driven, or heart centered? Are they furthering the life you’d love to create? See where you can simplify and remove the clutter to create room for authentic endeavors.
• Relationships. Are your relationships assisting you in your desires, or holding you back? Or perhaps YOU are holding yourself back. Be honest with yourself and make the necessary changes to fearlessly go with yourself (instead of against).
• Information. Are you addicted to info porn? Who’s dictating what you should think, you or the media? Consciously decide the input you accept and discard that which doesn’t serve you.
• Routine. Most of our days we’d consider normal. A random Tuesday spent watching TV game shows is more eventful than the day your spouse proposed to you. If most of our days are common, it makes sense to make the most out of them. Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing. Be there completely. While doing this, you’ll find that you naturally enjoy those seemingly tedious tasks much more (like washing the dishes). It’s amazing how much non-resistance and presence changes everything.

All life really is, after all, is a collection of stories. But you’re the only one that can create the story of your dreams. It’s your story.

So what do you want to create? A film noir or a fairytale? You can choose a daring adventure or a comedy. It’s up to you as long as you accept that you’re the artist. You’ve got the brush, it’s up to you to put down the colors you like best.

The question is: What will you create?

This article was written by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. To learn more about how to reclaim your life, grab a subscription to Illuminated MInd

About a week ago I found this blogger on YouTube. His account name is WheezyWaiter. This man is hilarious. I discovered him through Toddly00. Not only is he genius, but he lives here in Chicago, so his blogging is even more relevant to us Chicagoans. If you’ve never heard of him, you need to go subscribe to his account, right now! He produces one video every morning of the work week. All of his videos correspond with what he is eating for breakfast and often correlates it with a popular song. Check him out…

On another note, this is my first week of class and I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the amount of editing projects I will be doing. Including sound, I will have around 12 projects this semester! Ahhh! And in addition to that, I am taking a writing intensive course.  I don’t know what I was thinking. So yeah, I’m freaking out to say the least… But I’m sure it will all work out in the end… (I hope so, ha ha)

Yesterday I had to buy this book for my Editing the Documentary class.  I was able to buy a used version of this 118 page book. And guess how much it cost… go ahead, guess… TWENTY SEVEN FREAKIN’ DOLLARS! What the hell people?! 118 pages! Used! $27?! This book better be more enlightening than Gandhi and as captivating as World War Z. I have to read the thing by next Tuesday, so I will be sure to right some sort of review on it. I have heard good things about it, but we will see…

To finish the blog post out, I would like to give a link to another blog. There was an excellent post a week or so ago from one of my favorite blogs, The Modesty Writers Guild. The post is called The Three Lies. Take a look. It’s full of good stuff: http://modesty.blogspot.com/2009/01/thr33-lies.html

During winter break I have found myself slipping down into a pit of laziness. I must admit that I do enjoy sitting around doing nothing but surfing the internet or watching videos on youtube. However, I need to snap the hell out of it and get ready for the next semester.

With that in mind, I decided that doing a “Moment of Zen” will get me into the right mood for my new semester. In preparation for this post, I went the usual route and looked under various Jewish texts. However, nothing really spoke to me. Then I had the idea of looking in the Bhagavad Gita. I realized that it had been over two years since I read any Hindu scriptures. It was the fall semester of 2006 that I took a philosophy class in world religions and was the first time I was introduced to Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Anyways, to make a long story short, for this Moment of Zen, I have decided to use some verses out of the Bhagavad Gita. I just found this passage this morning and it speaks some truth to my current situation. I need to get back into the swing of things and place more concentration on the important things in life… like cleaning my apartment.

The senses are strong and turbulent and may carry away in its wake even the mind of an Enlightened one.

Therefore it is the stable person who can control them , meditate , and then surrenders body and soul to Me.

One who begins to enjoy pleasures begins to desire them and develops an attachment which if not fulfilled, makes him angry.

From anger rises craving; from craving, confusion of memory; from confusion of memory, loss of reason; from loss of reason one goes to complete ruin.

One who practices self control enjoys worldly objects through his disciplined senses which is free from likes and dislikes and  achieves tranquility.

When you achieve tranquility your sorrows will come to an end and your mind disconnected from all sides will firmly anchor in God.

He who is not disciplined can have neither fixed reason nor belief in God and such a person can have no peace and without peace how can there be happiness?

Bhagavad Gita  2.60-67

Well, I haven’t made a new post on my blog in a long, long, time…. I apologize to all my viewers (all three of you). I really don’t have an excuse except for laziness and apathy, and those aren’t very good ones. However, I pledge to start blogging again! I will! I really will!

Its been about a month since my last class of the fall semester. And since then I have had quite a fun break. I’ve been doing a bunch of stuff to keep me busy. Before leaving Chicago in December, I tried to finish up a paintball DVD that I was working on, but failed at that. So I left to go live with my parents for 3 weeks and figured that I would finish it there by the end of the week. However, the world had better plans for me… My Macbook Pro decided to flip me the bird by letting its graphics card and mother board die. At that point I realized that I was not going to be able to get my project done by the New Years. But in a way, this allowed me more time to spend with my mom who has a bum foot….

…I’m sorry. Should I have given some warning before showing this picture? I probably should have… oh well. Anyways, my mom had to get the bones in her feet fused back together from arthritis. She isn’t allowed to walk on it for a couple months and therefore has to use a knee walker or wheel chair. So during my weeks off I helped her out here and there. We also went out and saw a bunch of movies. But don’t worry, her foot had a cast on it by then so nobody had to look at that beast.

Over the break I also had a pleasant time celebrating Hanukkah with the family. Ironically enough, as a Hanukkah present, I had gotten a new battery for my Macbook Pro that had just died. But thank HaShem that I have parents who are kind and monetarily blessed enough to get me a new notebook.

Below is a picture of my first neice, Emma. It was amazing to see how much she had grown since the last time I saw her. I’m thankful that I was able to spend time with family and friends over the holidays.

After Hanukkah, I went straight into paintball mode. I was hosting a scenario paintball game on New Years Eve and had little time to do last minute preparations because of my little laptop mishap. However, everything turned out great as far as how the game was ran. But, unfortunately we barely had anyone come. We had 9 guys show up. So it was a fairly tiny game, but we all had fun playing paintball in the cold.

After the New Years, I spent two nights playing and beating two PS3 games with my good ol friend Matt Dedert. Oh, nothing compares to playing and beating a video game in course of one night. We played Army of Two and Conflict: Denied Ops. Army of Two rocked, but Denied Ops kinda fell short. But overall, it was still fun. I rarely ever play video games now adays so it’s nice to have the ability every once and a while to sit around and to do just that.

Now I’m back in Chicago and have been sitting on my ass doing nothing but catching up on TV shows and working on paintball editing projects. I have one week left till my January Session class starts (The Machine Room, yipeee!), so I’m trying to get in as much “me” time as possible. As a matter of fact I need to go… 24 is starting in a hour …and SAG, I love you, but please don’t deny me anymore Jack Bauer. I have been waiting for a year and a half for season 7 and I can’t wait any longer.

Peace.

OK, so this post is going to be all over the place since I haven’t blogged in such a long time. So bare with this ADD moment.

My group film, Zyrianka (in which I wrote the screenplay and co-edited) was one of the top three finalists in Columbia College’s Take One Film Festival! We didn’t win first, but we did have some good competition along side of us. However, in my opinion, any of us that should have won, didn’t. Below were the top five finalists:

• The Microwave / by Jason Servi
• The Old Man’s Road / by Adam Orton
• Tick Tock / by Aaron Fronk
• Zyrianka / by Golbon Eghtedari (group project)
• Breathe / by Matthew Silva

The film about a microwave that reproduces stuff is the film that won. It beat out our film about a grandfather who tells his granddaughter of how he grew up in a Siberian labor camp during WWII. I guess machines and stuff are more interesting these days. We were also up against Aaron Fronk. Many people may know him from FND films or from his many videos on You Tube. He made a hilarious film about how absurd reality TV has gotten.  I couldn’t get past the fact that it seemed like I was watching a short that was made for You Tube audiences but shot on 16mm film. However, the film certainly deserved to be there. It was well made and indeed hilarious. The film I actually thought was going to win, The Old Man’s Road, didn’t. In fact it only got the audience vote, which I thought was way off. That film deserved more than that.

Over winter break, I plan on finally creating a website devoted to my creative works. My portfolio if you will. When I have that up and running I will have my group’s film, Zyrianka on there as well for everyone to see.

Let The Right One In

You need to go see “Let The Right One In.” I saw this film yesterday. It is breathtaking. I would have to say it is by far my favorite vampire movie ever. Below is a trailer for it. It is only in 26 select cities I think. So check your local theaters to see if it’s showing. If you live in Chicago, then you should definitely go see it. I think there are a couple different theaters showing it here, so you have no excuse. However, I must warn that the trailer is a bit misleading. It really isn’t much of a jumpy, scary, thriller. It is just an excellent story, with excellent acting, and excellent cinematography.

Bolex In The Cold

I just realized something very strange today. I was looking at the statistics for this blog and they said that a number of people have found my blog while searching “bolex cold” and “bolex in the cold” in Google. I’m aware that I have slightly talked about the bolex camera on here, but this is just weird… Anywho, I figured that if people are in deed searching for tips on how to use the bolex in the cold, I might as well give them some. When you use a manually winding bolex when it is really cold out (like below 45 degrees Fahrenheit), it often slows down the motor quite a bit. This will make your film look like a Charlie Chaplin flick. My expert advice is to not shoot with it in cold weather. It’s old. Old things don’t move fast when they’re cold. Keep it warm.

So yesterday was quite a fun, but tiring day. I helped Maggie with her Production 2 final film out in the suburbs. The both of us decided that it would be best if I did the camera work and if she stuck to directing, script suping, etc. I have to say that it worked very well. We were ahead of schedule the whole day.

The day before, Maggie got word from her male actor that he was unable to be there, so she had to find someone at the last minute. Fortunately, she was able to find an actor, Michael Sugarman, through a friend and it worked out very nice. We were blessed with not just one good actor, but two good actors! The child actor did a superb job too! And her mother was very cool which definitely helps the whole film process run more smoothly.

Overall I think the film is going to turn out good. I just hope the film develops the way it should. We will see when we get it back from the lab!

Right now I sit at the film building with nothing to do but chill and browse the internet for two hours. I love moments like these in life. Not to mention, I am eating chocolate chip cookies from Subway. One would think that since I worked at Subway for six long fucking years that I would want to napalm them at the sheer smell of their food. However, I still love it. I don’t understand it. I guess it’s one of the great mysterious of the world.

Here is a randomly funny video from Andy McGaffigan, a favorite volgger of mine. Enjoy.

Mini Jimmy Stewart

So, I spent almost the entire weekend working on a future scenario paintball game called “Dogs of War”. I designed multiple graphic logos, maps, t-shirt designs, and sticker templates. I updated the paintball website (thornbusch.com) and put up all the scenario information including videos and pictures. I posted a new Thorn Busch Updates video on youtube, and redesigned my myspace to fit the scenario’s theme. And on top of that, I created a new registration form, including the online registration process through Paypal, which took forever.

Tomorrow I have to go to Columbia and edit all day… oh wait… It already is tomorrow.