Beating frustration

Word choice is an eternal problem for me. If I try to write naturally, I tend to overuse certain words, phrases, cliches, whatever endlessly. Currently, I usually just try to slam everything onto paper (...or computer, or iphone) as fast as I can, then go through and tweak stuff until it sounds right. Often this still isn't satisfactory though, and I have scrapped more stories because I was unable to express what I desired than I care to think about. But, like many weaknesses, I wonder if this could potentially be spun into an asset or strength.

Progress Report 3.6.2011

Howdy everyone, hope you all have been having a great week, the weather has been great (at least in Austin!) and Spring Break is coming up for those less fortunate among us who are still in school.

Mike - I have mainly been studying for mid-terms but managed to post a quick abstract on a film I have been writing here and would love some criticism, ideas or whatever comments you would like to make since it is my first real attempt at writing a film and is a major chance for experimentation. I have been working on scene cards but my drawing skills are pretty poor, so I will have one of my more adept friends help make those presentable sometime soon! I have also been plotting out a couple of other things to do on a rainy day with Justin , namely experimenting with woodblock or linocut printing of images I take around Austin (here's a link to his blog post on the topic.) I have never done anything like this, but have always had a fascination with manual printing of this sort (seeing original prints in the old Edo museum in Tokyo probably had something to do with it), and figure it would be a good excuse to explore my city a bit more. That's it for me this week, I hope to have some pictures and concrete stuff to show you by next week; I've been working on getting things prepared this weekend as we spring clean, and I am very excited to finally start putting some ink to paper.

Justin - Progress on the art has been slow -- haven't had as much time to work on it as I would have liked, but the screenshot shows you what I'm working with now. The subtle lines you see in some of the taextures actually animate to give the look of each frame being drawn by hand -- an effect that needs to be seen in motion. I also totally reworked my level select menu to better suit mobile platforms and am currently tweaking the physics to be a bit friendlier. I also have background objects procedurally placed (clouds seen in screenshot) and drift around.

Taylor - This week I'm posting a painting I have been working on, It's mostly finished but I want to go back in and tweak a few more things. I need to even out the eyes on the figure and work on some more detail of the dog on the left. I have been seeking critique from as many different sources as I can and I think I'm going to loosen up my style a little. I feel that I am getting bogged down worrying too much about small details, where the end product winds up taking much longer than I would like and in some cases just looking muddy. I also want to experiment with a more varied color palette.

Detail of the dog on the right.

Christina- I am working on a few new clothing designs this week, in hopes of having some new custom clothing to wear to SXSW and the Etsy meeting down in Austin. Ill definitely post some pics of the results. I finished a new shirt earlier this week, photos are in my previous post!



(3/7/2011 edit: Happy Birthday Mondrian! -mike)

Rough conceptual of movie script

I have been toying with the idea of writing a movie for awhile now. This semester I have finally entered a Japanese film class that has really altered my readings of movies and has made me even more enamored with the older styles of shooting films that have often gone by the wayside in this day and age with the advent of fancy tricks and a comprehensive backlog of films to cherry-pick inspiration from. I'm not sure I ever actually intend to make this movie beyond writing the script, but I am trying to write it in a way that it could be produced with little capital to begin with and using average people as actors, rather than professionals (inspired by the amazing Italian neorealist director Vittorio De Sica). Comments, critiques, criticisms, ideas are all welcome. I have something written for each of the scenes listed below, but they are simply too rough to post at the moment.

Team Progress Report - 2.25.2010

One of the primary reasons this group has come together has been to track the progress of our projects over time and with that, get extra motivation to be more active and gain a valuable opportunity to assist each other's work. We have decided to do weekly progress reports to showcase our efforts to create and to show you all what we have been accomplishing. Considering this is our first such post, there probably will not be as much to share but you can expect these progress reports to become a major cornerstone of our group.

Justin - I'm working on creating some final textures for my iPhone game fishMoto. I found some nice surface textures on bittbox that I'll be using to enhance my game textures. I'm also in the middle of redesigning the main character and I think it's looking good -- I hope to share the results sometime next week!

Mike - Been busy with school the past week and probably will continue to be busy this upcoming one, so I intend to take advantage of this weekend to get a project or two rolling. First will be the storyboard for a script I have been working on. I plan on playing with different time frames and cutting those together in interesting ways so it will make a lot more sense if I have major scnes on something like notecards that I can move around. Should I finish this, I want to get the darkroom and makeshift studio set up in my garden shed.

Taylor - Recently I have just been working on a portrait of a friend, I'll post some progress pics soon! At the same time though I'll be looking for more subjects to paint!

Christina - This week I have been going back and forth between an under-painting for a commissioned piece, and designing a new tshirt made of salvaged thrift-store tshirts. Here are some snapshots:

Some designs for future ideas and the shirt Im currently sewing.

Set in the NY Stock Exchange. Architecture is a new thing for me to paint so its a pretty good exercise.

an introduction: Mike

I am a 23-year old resident of Austin, TX and currently an undergrad at the University of Texas studying the Japanese language. I grew up in Southern California, moved to the suburbs of Houston when I was 15 and finally settled down in Austin to go to university four years ago. While Japan and its culture are probably my greatest passions, I consider my interests varied and have found myself working more and more on my writing and my photography in particular.

I have been very interested in photography, particularly film photography, since getting my first camera (my dad's old olympus) when I graduated. Here's a picture I took a couple of years ago while studying in Tokyo. I hope to get some newer photos on here as soon as possible (now that I have access to film scanners, I have absolutely no excuses). I've also recently acquired a digital camera after mentally torturing myself for years over the idea and plan on using that extensively around town.  With the SXSW music festival coming up in three weeks or so, you can expect a slew of pictures from my end.