Horror

le squash witnesses a pumpkin carving. insomnia ensues.

Happy Halloween

me as a pignata and my classmate, adam, as a squid...

Alternative

boo velvet cake at our favorite silver lake sandwich joint, forage. it tasted like yellow birthday cake :)

Pignata

finished my pignata (pig pinata) halloween costume :)
the dark eye holes make me look like a costumed molester :(

Rest in Peace

beans ate buttman's similarly-dressed pumpkin friend. see HERE. beans is a very bad boy.

Fee-Fi- Fo-Fum

thumbnails. (thumbnails = super-rough, teeny-tiny storyboards.) thaaaaat's right folks. i've FINALLY settled on an idea. it doesn't involve a pinata (my friend jeff is going to take the pinata character over), but it does involve buttman and wife aka "the butters"... mehehe. excited!!!

Hello, Dolly

this is me trying my very best to look professional while working as a dolly grip on a live-action shoot for class last week. i wasn't fired. niiiiiice.

Upgrade

buttman finds an ginormous brain.
unfortunately, he hasn't got space for the upgrade.

If I Only Had a Brain

...thought the gummy bear. (photo plucked from HERE.)

It's All Subjective

buttman's neighbor does not approve of his halloween costume.


buttman's similarly dressed friend takes offense.

Buttman

still trying to figure out what my thesis film is going to be all about. i want to keep it simple, but i also want it to be brilliant. not easy to do. grr.

doodling hasn't helped much during my brainstorming process, so i decided to go ahead and start sculpting stuff for fun. one of today's creations? this lil' guy. buttman. he probably won't be making the cut for my thesis, but i thought i'd introduce him anyway...

Woah.

charley bowers, wild oysters (1941) via kirsten lepore. ambitious old-school stop-mo... now if only i dug the story.

Made with Love

tried an award-winning chocolate-chip cookie recipe yesterday. it involved instant pudding mix! i think the mix definitely helped keep the cookies chewy, but they were still a tad too fluffy for my liking... i like my cookies slightly crispy on the outside, yet chewy on the inside. will continue to experiment...

really wanted to bake a giant heart-shaped cookie, but i knew better...

I Die

This past Friday, for five whole minutes, I was not a waste of space. *gasp* I screened my film for Matt Groening... WITH Matt Groening. No need to tell me. I already know. I am a very lucky girl...

As my short played, I held my breath. Dear God, it's me, Margaret, er, Debra. It's me, Debra. Please, let Matt laugh. If he does, I will have succeeded. If he does... Holy-shit. (Mind my language.) My prayers were answered! For he did. Laugh, that is. And it didn't even sound forced.

After the show, the filmmakers got to meet him. (6 films, 7 people.) Matt could not have been kinder. He shook my hand. He shook le cub's. Matt wasn't afraid of cooties...

He gave each of us his "stalker card" (business card). Alexis and I are totally going to forward him our favorite Youtube videos. Kittens, Inspired by Kittens will be the first that I send. Am kidding, of course. Kinda. Sorta.

But in all seriousness... Meeting Matt meant more to me than he could possibly imagine. After the screening, he provided each of us with invaluable feedback. The cherry-on-top of an already unbelievable sundae. Matt loved Mortimer. A "scene stealer" who deserves his own show documenting his adventures. I sat in the audience, speechless... "I DIE!" I thought. Of sheer joy and bliss...

On a side note, I've decided to name my the Nikon D70 "Matt." It's the least I could do. Photos from the event to come. I just need to figure out how to work "Matt"...

Gushing

screened my short for matt groening with matt groening.
details to come :)

Pignata

my halloween costume is in the works. some of my animator friends and i are dressing as a group of pinatas. this is a shot of me in my work-in-progress pignata costume. yes, i look very happy and proud when i wear it. photos of the finished product to come!

Dejavu Much?

in the rare case that you were wondering... yes, the man i've been thumb-nailing is the same guy i practiced flash on last year. he'll be modified for my thesis film. OHM 2.0, if you will. (OHM = old hairy man.)

Break it Down

thumb-nailing. i luuuurve this stage of the animation process. because you can't possibly go wrong...

Music to My Ears

my new favorite song, "apple wagon" HERE. i'm going to play it on repeat until beans cries.

Dog Gone It

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet." - Edith Wharton
Pity he can't help me brainstorm better ideas for my thesis film.
In such a rut... Ugh.

Lights, Camera, Action

production stills from my lighting class. live-action shoots are hard work.

Need a Hand?

lovin' halloween-themed food postings HERE. meat hand recipe HERE.

Shape of Things to Come

woah. found this sculpture on ffffound.com.
wouldn't this critter's head shape (the one on the left) make for a great pinata?

Ah-Ha Moment

Hungry Eyes

working on character designs for my yet-to-be-fully-developed thesis film. am inspired by the designs of vintage toy selection that i've been browsing on etsy. these eyes. me likee.

Treat, Please

halloween is around the corner, and this year, me and some pals plan to dress up as pinatas! the construction of said pinatas will, most likely, be taking place next week. should be fun carving up cardboard and gluing on painted newspaper. perhaps we will capture the process and then project the happenin' event for the world to see... and by world, i'm referring to all five of you who follow my brain farts.

Sight for Sore Eyes

is that a butthole?!? *gasp* eh, no, debra. that's just a tramp stamp. either culver city muralists need to get their act together or i need to pluck my head out the gutters.

happy friday.

Meh.

new computer programs (like maya) overwhelm me.


long periods of alone-time underwhelm beans.


pup and i are in dire need of low-brow entertainment to unwind.
salvaging this evening with some fashion-filled gossip girl.

top: painting available on 1stdibs.com
center: doodle by me
bottom: plucked from ffffound.com

Unholy Matrimony

banksy and the simpsons pair up. awesome.

Fast Food

le husband and i have discovered a hole-in-the-wall sushi joint that serves up sushi combos (as pictured) for $9.95. such a bargain! (not pictured, the minimalist salad.) sushi don in valley village is wonderful. the fish is uber-fresh, and the service is incredibly fast. and gosh, if the food there is good enough for glee's ab-blessed mike chang (aka "the other asian") it's good enough for us. (he, too, was enjoying a sunday meal at 2pm.)

Nook-Nook

who's there?
loft.
loft who?
loft you.
er, yeah. okay. i'm lame.

but gosh, seeing photos like this make me miss my loft.
isn't the nook in this top left photo just so wonderful?
like an adult, indoor treehouse, if you will.
this nook belongs to these guys.
fitzhugh's brooklyn home is so swoon-worthy that it was featured on the selby.
i'm jealous.

Rock You

this dannijo necklace with dangling geode bits is a dream come true. this piece of jewelry will literally rock my world.

available on net-a-porter.
bottom photo plucked from ffffound.com

That Thing You Do

i want to start handwriting my blog. (i want to do lots of things.) we'll see how that goes. clearly am not off to the best start. typing this entry and all...

pictured: me and kathy goofing off at smog shoppe before i walked down the aisle

Beat It

inspired by the guys and gals at confetti system, i just might have to incorporate a pinata into my thesis film. pinatas for halloween. pinatas for my thesis. yes, i'm serious.

Neato

Helpless from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

i'm really into the works of photographer massimo vitali, so you can only imagine how freakin' excited i was when i discovered the photography and even cooler, the videography, of keith loutit!

keith loutit's film making style is totally rad. (apologies for the lack of fancy vocabulary to more properly convey my feelings.) he creates an illusion of miniaturization through photographic techniques and a play on playback speed. the end results are awesome scenes of the ordinary that take the form of scaled down stop-mo animation. neato is right.

Time After Time

shit's piling up. will soon be hitting the fan. i'm nervouses. i'm convinced that beans doesn't just get nervous. he gets nervouses. extra syllables. extra smells. hope i don't emit smells.

Ahh...

richard ehrlich's homage to rothko. more here.

Hello? Is Anyone Home?

like the scarecrow from the wizard of oz, i am in need of a brain. (pictured is an old storyboard from an animation in which the main character chases her brain.) tuesdays are particularly difficult when my mind is off...


try sitting through five hours worth of seminar discussions on cinema and architecture theory with a bunch of well-read peeps. it's like swimming amidst sharks. ones that don't speak english.


my bruised ego...

pictured. top: an old storyboard panel of mine; center: image plucked from ffffound.com; bottom: an old doodle of mine

Thursdays

le husband returns on thursdays. counting down the days...

photo plucked from ffffound.com

We'll Always Have Paris

paris fashion week has been taking place, and i've been eagerly stalking the shows from the comfort of my home. thank you, style.com for all the show uploads and tommy ton postings. if i ever get to go... i think i will encrust myself in fabulousness. glitter. no, sequins. no, glitter. no, BOTH!

pictured: giovanna (of course) in marni. i'm jealous.

Breakfast of Champions

buttered 12-grain toast with a farmer's market egg cracked in the hole I cut out with a cookie cutter.
(i really enjoy eating the toast hole...)
pair with a see's chocolate.


like pigs to a trough (made of cardboard while at Buddy System Studios)... i finished my meal before i even had a chance to publish this post. nom.