Monday 28 January 2013

Ah, being 19 again...


Life-management tips I learnt from my 19 yo classmates

Be on facebook. All the time. Use capital LETters randomly.
Iphones are too expensive and Samsung rules. 
Everybody 3 years older is OLD.
It's ok not to pick up your phone if you're supposed to be at school. If you are hanging out with your friends tired, take some time off and come back when you feel better!
Take acid and watch a movie. Then, you will "know the structure of the world"(sic)
Do follow your school's twitter
Speak about penises and add LOL just after.
Talk enthusiastically about all your school projects. 
Don't forget to mention how X didn't lift a finger LOL.
Make movies about consumerism, schizophrenia, depression, how the mind works... Not about mafia or revenge.
Stalk your friends on facebook. It's called friendship. 
What, Google +?
Discover sex and get a lot of it.
Don't come out yet.
Go less and less to school. 
Eat more and more liquid stuff until your diet stabilizes at 2 pints per day. 
Buy gifts for your friends with your parents' money. 
Be more mature than expected.
Be less mature than expected. 

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Tarantino is bold

It's all about Tarantino these days. Though those who have seen it already say it's not that good I can't wait to see Django Unchained and I keep reading as much as I can about Tarantino until the 19th of January. So, this list of Tarantino's boldest moments made me laugh... I agree with the Melanie thing, but still unsure that it is a good idea for him to be in his movies... I don't think he is in Django.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Art is theft*



For Christmas I received a book about the creative process: Steal like an artist. It is Austin Kleon's collection of advice - 10 of them, beautifully presented - on how to be creative. Stuff he learnt the hard way, and wishes he had been told when he was 19, basically. It's interesting because it doesn't only apply to the art world. Definitely useful for brand valuation too. 

The two things he says I loved - and agree with! - were:
-Steal like an artist. In my school, they call it "research, research, research".  Good to know that even in the art world talent is nothing without hard work. 
A few quotes about that: 
"Steal from anywhere than resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination" Jim Jarmusch
"What is originality? Undetected plagiarism" William Ralph Inge
"The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from" David Bowie
-The second thing is that apparently being angry and curious is a good thing (that's hidden in the book, you need to read it through too see that). Being angry pretty much all the time, I say this is a good thing (James disagrees)

He also suggests to write fan letters to the artists you love, so I am going to write to Lena Dunham.

Another book about the creative process, more detailed, is Julia Cameron's The Artist Way. Basically, it's the creatives' self-help bible. It's not only that she used to be Scorsese's wife or wrote for Miami Vice**. She also worked a lot with blocked artists and created a "path to become unblocked". 
She had two great tools, the morning pages and the artist dates, that are detailed here. Yes, it looks all spiritual and hippie but it works!

*It is not me who says that, it's Picasso. 
**1 episode - apparently she then made enough money to independently finance her movie "God's Will"...

Friday 4 January 2013

An afternoon with Mike Figgis



Not long ago, a girl at LCC organized a lecture from Mike Figgis, who happens to be her uncle, to raise money for her major project (note for later: that girl is smart, and it is a good start to be the daughter of someone. Would my doctor uncle interest anyone?). 

I didn't know the guy (on my defense, he describes himself as "getting down the Hollywood food chain"), but managed to sneak in anyway. He spoke about his life, and gave good advice on directing. So here are the few things I learnt from him:

-Learn how to use a camera, "it is your brush" (also known as: There is a love affair going on between the actors and the camera crew and you want to be involved)
-Get music education
-Understand light. Take a day off, go out and make some shots then look at them
-My favorite: No comfort food at lunch time during shooting. Noone can focus after fish and chips
-And the one, truest and scariest: you are not here to be loved. Sometimes, you will need to be diva, and you will be loathed for that. 
Now, having been fed with the "two brains is better than one" and "we're all in this together" philosophy during my business years, I find this very hard to make mine. I should write later on that. 

And finally, a quote he started with:
"I thought: it can't be that difficult. It wasn't".