Who am I? What defines me, and what, in turn, do I define in my own terms? I see the world from behind the veil separating imagination from reality, thoughts from actions. As a creative person, I draw not only from my own emotions and experiences, but from my ability to empathize and put myself in situations others have faced. I notice small details that most people overlook, take the time to appreciate them, and utilize the memories and feelings in my art. I enjoy writing, I play violin, drums, and some guitar, I love cinematography, graffiti, graphic design, anything creative.
Inspiration 1: MGMT - Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w12DgDnTWho
This, in my opinion, is the best MGMT song from their album Oracular Spectacular, although I know a lot of people would disagree with me. It's one of the top played songs on my iTunes, due to the fact that it's usually the first song I play when I want to relax and think creatively or work on a project. Inspiring is not a word that truly encapsulates the talent of MGMT--perhaps the words breathtakingly awe-inspiring would do them more justice. From start to finish, this song (and its "spectacular" album) takes the listener on a journey. Throughout the music, tension and release is used flawlessly; the music seems to have a story of its own, apart from the lyrics. Each verse ends by increasing volume, slowing the tempo, and drawing out a word before the tempo and instrumentals suddenly pick back up while the volume decreases. At 2:30, the song completely shifts, changing melody and eliminating vocals. From this point until the end is simply incredible, filled with a steady relaxing drum beat and a slow repeating guitar rift mixed with electronic sound effects that give the listener the feeling of floating through space. When I listen to this portion of the song, I feel like I can look at my life and life in general from an outsider's point of view, like an alien, and capture its impression on me as a whole.
Inspiration 2: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert / Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaMiVDZu_T4
The Simple Math music video...it's been around for a couple months now, I have watched it an unhealthy number of times, and I still haven't gotten tired of it. The song is amazing by its own right, but the collaboration of Manchester Orchestra and the Daniels yielded a music video that cannot be called anything less than brilliant. Genius lyrics and a superb visual narrative invoke feelings of nostalgia that I have never experienced in such a powerful way from a video. At the start of the video, we see a man driving along an empty country road, then swerving to avoid a deer, leading to a car crash. As soon as the car starts to barrel roll, the film slows down drastically while the color scheme shifts from bright and realistic to a much warmer, yellow tint. This contrast is used to differentiate between reality and the crash victim's life flashing before his eyes as the car rolls. A simple edit like this achieves so much: the way we perceive the images when the lighting is warmer and more relaxing normally puts us in a tranquil mindset, which adds even more to the contrast at a deeper level. The man is dying, or at least on his way to being seriously injured, yet is flashing back to fond significant memories. Although the video depicts several different memories, they all share this color editing, maintaining affinity. Toward the end of the video, the man awakes in a hospital bed as the colors snap back to the scheme used in the beginning to depict reality, before he realizes he is still not in reality. The editing of this video, the cinematography, the narrative, and the song itself have all inspired me to think of new shot angles and ideas for lighting/color manipulation.
Inspiration 3:Darren Aronofsky - Requiem for a Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuzNohk5cYw
Requiem for a Dream is perhaps the most personally inspiring film I have ever watched. Although I do need to watch Trainspotting again. Anyway, I've grown up exposed to a lot of addiction around me, including hard drugs. This movie really strikes me at a personal level and reminds me of a lot of things I've seen and people I've known. Apart from its artistic mastery of cinematography and its phenomenal eerie score, the story is presented with a myriad of subtext to read into. While the text is a narrative of four different characters sinking into hard drug addiction, the subtext throughout the story is that addiction can manifest in many different forms. For example, Ellen Burstyn's character, before becoming addicted to amphetamines, was clearly just as addicted to television and her self image. Aronofsky brilliantly and subtly shows us that all interests or indulgences we pursue must be pursued in moderation. Another example of less significant, but interesting text vs. subtext can be found during a scene in which Jared Leto is shown against a wall waiting for people to buy heroin from him: the walls behind him say "shoot for the stars" and a quote about balloons. These would normally not be significant parts of the set, but Aronofsky plans every detail, and both quotes are euphemisms for heroin.
