#calarts

is anyone left here on tumblr? i've been absent here for a *while* (years. fucking Y E A R S). i miss it here. i truly do. i'm on substack. i've only written there a few times. i honestly should've just came back here, but such is life.

i truly do miss it here. a lot of the friends i've made as an adult were made here (and twitter). if anyone is still here from when i was 19 and sharing as if this wasn't a public forum: thank you. i'll be 37 next month and i need y'all to know i've been online for a thousand fucking lifetimes and in everyone of them, i have been far too open.

if you've followed me here and not on the other platforms, here are some life updates:

-i went to grad school and received my mfa from calarts (is anyone surprised?) -when i walked across the stage and my friend photographed me, i cried and said, "what the fuck. i actually got my mfa?! this was so stupid of me!!! i can't believe i did that!!!" reader: it wasn't stupid in a "i regret this" sort of way. i was in shock that i had spent years avoiding the inevitable, applied to the only program i wanted to attend, was accepted and made work respected enough to walk across that stage. -i'm a photography professor (go figure!) -i'm still making photographs -i'm still living in los angeles -i eventually made it over to europe (paris, london and amsterdam)

-i've been commissioned by publications that you may or may not have heard of. -i've photographed people you may or may not have heard of. -thanks to one of the publications i was commissioned by, i was part of a team who are pulitzer finalists and that's a sentence i never thought i'd say. -the highlight of the last decade has been teaching students how to give a fuck about the work they make. -life at (almost) 37 is as confusing as life at 25 (or whatever age i became less present here).

looking at the life i documented here...wow.

again if anyone is still here, please get back in touch with me. we're adult-adults now and that's wild. i'm going to try my best to reacquaint myself with this platform. if you're on instagram, let's be friends there. real fucking friends, not whatever the fuck is happening where no one is social anymore. email me. text me. the world is on fire and i miss seeing y'alls art.

xo, c🌷

Guys is it just me or was the CalArts season 2026 fantastic?

I just love the short films that were shown, plus the opening was A REAL MASTERPIECE!

After attending their friends’ seemingly perfect wedding, Christine is forced to confront the future of her own relationship when her hopelessly romantic boyfriend, Alex, proposes. When Christine cannot bring herself to say yes, Alex gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up right now.

THE STORY

They Won’t Last is a dark-ish romantic comedy about Christine, a marriage-averse woman who discovers that her boyfriend, Alex, intends to propose after they attend a friend’s seemingly perfect wedding. When she confronts him, he gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up.

The film was inspired by a period in my life when I was fresh off the demise of my first serious relationship and living alone next to a couple who had the loudest, pettiest arguments I had ever heard. Between screaming matches at three in the morning, accusations of cheating, and getting a dog to save the relationship, they were obviously not healthy together. Still, they remained a couple for as long as I lived next door and always made up by having the most expository, descriptive sex one could be forced to overhear in the middle of the night on a weekday.

It made me wonder: Were they together because even a toxic relationship felt better than being alone? At the time, I was very much alone and, honestly, very lonely so I was like maybe that's the trade off.

THE PROCESS

This was my thesis film at the AFI Conservatory. I come from an animation background and work as a story artist, so I storyboarded the entire film before we created our first shot list.

From there, my DP and I went to the location and shot video storyboards with volunteer stand-in actors. We wanted to test whether what I had drawn would actually work in the space and cut together the way I imagined. While we were there, we workshopped the blocking with the stand-ins and explored how their movement would affect the camera.

We used a lot of Steadicam and carefully planned the camera movement, blocking, and performances to reflect the shifting power dynamic between Christine and Alex.

I based much of our blocking and staging approach on David O. Russell’s American Hustle. While studying the film, I noticed that its Steadicam shots often functioned as multiple moving masters that could be cut together. One take might move from a wide shot into an over-the-shoulder, while another version of the same setup might move from a wide into a single.

The blocking was designed around the edit. A shot could transition from an over-the-shoulder into a single from the same angle, but the audience would never see the repositioning because the film had cut to the reverse angle during the move. It was clear that they knew where the cuts would happen before designing the blocking and camera movement.

I shamelessly stole that technique after studying how they did it.

Camera: ARRI Alexa Mini Lenses: Cooke lenses Visual and lighting references: American Hustle and Wild Tales

THE BUDGET

The final budget was approximately $50,000.

We raised the money through matching grants, art auctions, and the generosity of friends and family.

Like most student films, one of the biggest challenges was making the scope of the story work within the time and money we had available. We had a 4 days to shoot. 3 days in the hotel room and 1 in the ballroom.

THE LESSONS

One of the biggest things I learned was how intentional you have to be when using camera movement. Because the film relied heavily on Steadicam and longer moving shots, every shift in blocking, timing, and performance had to be carefully coordinated.

During editing, I learned how to kill my darlings. There were moments I had written that were funny on their own, but they negatively affected the pacing of the short. As much as I liked them, the film was better once I removed them.

We also had scheduling issues with a few core collaborators, which affected communication on set. I had to learn how to keep things calm, protect the environment for the actors, and still make sure I got what I needed from the team.

"Draw goddammit!" Long Live Corny! Tribute to Corny in BallPoint: Based on a drawing I did of Corny in 2006! (Now) 20 years AGO?!?

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PG 174 New_SketchBook_JeauxJ.

November 2024 - April 2025.

-Jeaux Janovsky