What Inspires Me

I love hearing what inspires other artists. As for me, I spend A LOT of time looking at other people's work. The form doesn't matter; film, photography, print, web, or music. I feel I have something to learn from all these wonderful art forms. Of course, I see a lot of stuff the does not inspire me. But that's ok. We all come from a different place in expressing our art.

Now there are a few that stand head and shoulders about the rest. A few that move me to tears...and here they are. I guess I could call these "The Torrie Awards". Here is what moves me:

Motion Graphics: I get a lot of inspiration from the mo-graph world. These guys are on the cutting edge of technology and can make anything look surreal and beautiful. But absolutely my favorite piece of mo-graph continues to be the opening titles from HBO's dumped series "Carnivale" created by A52. I feel like a puddle of mush inside every time I see this piece and think, "Now THIS is the level of excellence I want to attain somday."


Film-making: There is a guy named Mark Allen and I love love love his stuff. He makes Michael Parks' paintings come to life. His imagery it totally bizarre and haunting but oh so rich and luscious! I love his use of costume, makeup, color, light, composition... everything. He also composed the music on this piece. He is just one step beyond in my book. (click pic to see film)

I have favorites in other categories but will save that for another post. These two pieces are my above-all favorite inspirations. They remind how far I still have to go in my own artistic journey.

Dusting off the Camera

I recently dusted off my camera and started shooting again. This is a big announcement from me. Except for a few corporate clients, I haven't shot anything in 5 years. The reason? Well, it seems I developed some negative associations to my camera. I didn't even realize this. But every time the idea of shooting came up I would cringe and feel conflicted inside.

Recently I had this great idea for a short film. That's when I realized my camera aversion needed to be dealt with. It was pretty easy to trace my disdain for shooting back to my beginnings in the world of wedding videography. I spent 5 years of my life running around sweating like a pig with 30 pounds of gear on my 100 pound frame. The microphones and the headphones never worked correctly and the company I worked for wouldn't replace them. I always felt cardiac arrest coming on when hoping to Goodness the gear would work each time. Also there were the micro-managing bosses to deal with. Also, all this time I was busting my behind while being totally discredited by the "Real Production People". For some reason "they" do not see event videography as high-quality production. (sounds like another blog post coming on.)

So all these things conspired to make me hate my camera. I can't believe I've harbored this anamosity for 5 years. Hesitantly, this week I began shooting my upcoming short. It took some time to get re-acquainted with my camera, but I think that slowly I am learning to like her. It helps when I can shoot on my own terms... and use equipment that works :)