#tiger vision

   As time can reveal, my website has not been recently updated with any sort of text, details, or importantly, video content. I hate to think that it is only because of school, work, family, ext., but the reality of my absence from my own production website is the relative fact that I have been beaten by resistance. The very procrastinating spirit that envelops all of my thoughts and ideas. It provokes my conscious mind to believe that watching a pointless youtube video or mindless game is more important to relieve my "teenage" stress than completing my significantly important assignments and more importantly, the stories that I wish to share with the world. 

Of course this does not mean that I have been lurking in the dark cave that is my computer room, but I have created some descent content over the past school year that has received some high recognition (which I will detail later in my rant).

In the past school year, I joined Archer High School's first broadcasting class that was filled with numerous ambitious students hoping to create a show worth watching themselves. As we began to conceive concepts and ideas for the show, I began to realize the grand potential that was presented before me. My class could redefine what a "student production" could be! Given the right tools for the job, it was a great possibility, but of course with every revolutionary idea, comes difficulty. With a conservative staff, every episode that we aired to the school had to be monitored by an administrator to ensure that it was presentable to the student body, and our own "Tiger Vision" staff was not prepared for the technical challenge of producing a "redefined" production. Most of our early work was...well..I am sure that you can imagine, but I was truly proud of my fellow classmates at the end of the year (including myself) of how far we have all come. You can watch all of the episodes we created from the second semester at http://vimeo.com/channels/tigervision . I am looking forward to my senior year to continue to push the rest of the staff and myself to reach our full potential, recreating our culture's view of a high school show,and strive to become more professional.

With all of my recent creations and contributions to the show,I find that I am never satisfied with my work. I can hardly watch any of my own films without screaming in my head, OH MY GOSH WHY DID I DO THIS!! or WHY DIDN'T I HAVE A BETTER ANGLE HERE! For example, I thought that the first Janice Parker short was very decent. My classmates and I made a good idea into reality by portraying actors feeling through music instead of dialogue, and it worked rather well. Then students and the Tiger Vision staff begged me to continue the series that I wanted to leave open ended. Although I could have said no, I had the amateur belief that I could continue an unplanned series. I began to add dialog to unestablished characters and attempted to end each episode with continuing suspense to keep the school wanting more. I will admit that it was my first series attempt, but the rest of the series and short episodes were unnecessary. I could have finished the series in three episodes instead of 5. Along with the failure of the JPMP series, I felt like I have lacked focus on the most important element of a short, story. Many of my recent projects have felt empty. They have little characterization, motivation, and every other ation that can be apart of filmmaking. My future goal, as it always has been, is to fail forward. To adventure forward in this high expectation culture of media, Look over my past train wrecks and avoid making the same mistake twice and instead, make new mistakes that I never dreamed of. Despite my destructive self criticism, not everyone has felt the same way about my work.    

As I mentioned earlier, a few of my videos have received national recognition! I submitted my short film, Reaction, into the 2011 Get Green Video Contest, and although I was not a contestant in the contest. My video was passed along to Red Willow Films that produces a national teen show, Eco Company, that discusses "green" solutions and making a difference in our ecosystem, and they wanted to give my video a chance to be on Eco Company! But unfortunately, this was in May, and I have still not heard back on whether or not I my short will be in the show. I also submitted for of my shorts, Slaughter House 5, Beloved, Janice Parker Must Pay Episode 1, along with Reaction into the Georgia Student Media Festival! SH5, Beloved, and Reaction proceeded past the County level and to the State level with high scores and JPMP was left out of State by only ONE point (out of 100, 95 to move onto State:). Then Reaction and Beloved both moved on to the INTERNATIONAL level with high scores, and Slaughter House 5 only left behind with another close margin! Now, I am awaiting the results of the festival, but I will take advantage of the opportunity to go to the actual festival itself and sit in on some summit sessions in Jacksonville Florida! 

To anyone that read most or all of my rant, THANK YOU SO MUCH! You are the reason why I continue to follow my dream! Of course I can not make you read this entire essay and not give you some news! This July I am helping to produce and co-direct a short for the GSLT group at my school, and it is going to be a homage to the AMANDA SHOW!! Fun right?

Now, I have learned that the best way to beat resistance is to do less talking (in this case, typing) and instead DO!! But...

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