Welcome 2.0

One of my very first blog posts was about how I'd recently learned a new technology--the animated movie-making software at xtranormal. It's been nearly eight months, and in that time, I have not advanced at all in my knowledge of that technology. In fact, looking over the new "Welcome" movie that I just made for my Literature and Cinema class, I notice how similar that "movie" is to my first effort:

In a half a year, all I have taught myself how to do is make bald men stand amid blank chroma key mattes and talk and gesture awkwardly. To boot, I apparently don't understanding continuity editing at all--I haven't seen that many alienating jump cuts in a single minute of film since that car scene from Breathless.

So I haven't grown as a filmmaker. This fact was clearest to me when I stumbled upon this short film made by a recent Rockhurst U graduate and soon-to-be super-famous person:

 

Both a brilliant film and a world-class morale boost, no?

Dear incoming and future freshperson, take my advice: Watch this film, a lot. Bookmark it and re-watch it whenever you feel the duress of demanding professors and the strain of your own lofty professional ambitions.

If I'd only seen such a film when I was a freshman, I'd have had fewer bouts of alienation, or I'd at least have been inspired to make better movies.

Happy fall!