starting somewhere

Class today was just great :) How many people do you hear say that they got to spend a 
class watching videos about star wars AND ninjas?

My 'Star Wars Story' definitely goes back to my dad and my brothers. I spent a lot of friday nights watching multiple star wars films as a kid, trying to understand who the bad guys were, why this person went to the dark side, or why Luke didn't just marry Leia already. We played plenty of star wars related video games, built countless star wars lego sets, and got yelled at just about every afternoon when we fought in the basement and broke yet another plastic lightsaber. Star Wars for me was just another story I grew up with, just like Disney, or Harry Potter: they all inspired me and never failed to spark my imagination.

Growing up and being exposed to these classic films and their popularity definitely is what got me into making my own home videos. My best friend and I spent so many playdates making films of our american girl dolls and stuffed animals going on backyard adventures with a cheap little recorder. When I was thirteen, I got a video camera for my birthday, which started a minor filming obsession for a few years. I was constantly behind the camera, getting shots of my ridiculous, attention-loving younger siblings, or filming the tragedy and chaos that are family vacations. My family always let me follow them around, and sometimes they watched me sit on iMovie for hours as I 'edited' the footage. (I say 'edited' because it was more of just adding cool generic color effects and those swipe transitions). Today, I am so thankful for all the videos I made, because even though they are really awful, they're fun to watch and they perfectly captured some years of our childhood. I also made a legitimate movie with this cheap camera: it was about a dog that a mad scientist turned into a giant dog and it attacked the city. I went all out and made scripts, movie posters, and even made my brother sign a contract that said when he got mad he wouldn't be allowed to throw anything at me, because I was the director. After my movie debut didn't get the response I hoped for, I came out with a line of lego stop action films, where I stayed up late at night snapping picture after picture of legos moving. I had limited materials and no experience: but I was entranced by the magic of it all and just had a lot of fun. Just like those kids in 'The Climactic Death of Dark Ninja'. I so feel his pain. "We are crafting an epic!!!" was my mantra for everything. 


All of these films that I made were just the beginning of my love for digital media, and they were a true reflection of all of the movies I had grown up and been inspired by as a kid. Even if a lot of them make me cringe now: it was worth it, and we all have to start somewhere, right?