Archive for the ‘Boise’ tag

Can’t sleep so I’ll think

It’s not too hard for my own thoughts to get the best of me. Lately I’ve been thinking more about the upcoming changes in my life and in some ways it’s getting a little silly.
I’m back into nocturnal mode, I had that 9 to 5 thing going for a while but I’ve been doing some other work recently and that means I can stay up as late as I want. I can work on projects at night, I can stay up and watch movies or read. When I lay down to sleep there is no rush to get rest and wake up… and that just leaves me alone with my own thoughts. You can only analyze a situation so many times, you can only weight your options for so long, until you just start twisting things to bits in your mind.
I get to finally be free of college in February and then the world is my oyster. Where I go and what I do is completely up to me… and therein lies the problem.
A good friend gave me some worthy advice, that the decision on where I go and what I do when I graduate should be completely about what is best for me. It is good advice because there is truth to it, but I’m not sure it’s the whole story. It’s great to think that a decision like that should be made for one’s self. It obviously effects me the most, but at a certain point the mature way of making a decision like this is to consider those around you.
I’d love to be closer to Boise, my family and friends are closer to there and I’d be great to be able to drop in on Boise for a weekend whenever I wanted. Portland has some good opportunities, it’s a more favorable climate and the drive between there and B Town is no big deal, I also happen to adore Portland. A city like Austin would be fun, there is a lot of good work and it’s a very unique and hip city. Vancouver looks better every time McCain moves up in the polls… plus I’ve always thought that expatriate has a nice ring to it (Yes Dad I’m mostly kidding). LA provides an almost certainty of work, and I do know some people there now. Working on features in LA also does your resume a lot of good, even if you swept the studio floor for a big budget movie people elsewhere go nuts when they see it on your resume. PHX is the easiest and most complicated option. I’ve done the whole, move a city where you know no one thing and honestly I’m not cut out for it. I’m lucky to have the friends and roommates I have here, going to a completely new city again doesn’t sound so great. There is some work here, but it’s not great and especially the way the economy is going, it’s not steady. There are some great people here though, and one special one in particular. It’s not smart to make a decision based completely on those around you, but it’s silly to think that you can make it based solely on yourself. No man is an island.
At the moment it looks like I’ll be staying here for a while after I graduate. My VFX Reel could use more work then I currently have time for, and I guess if I can’t make it here I can’t make it anywhere. I’m not living in LA for the rest of my life so I’d better get use to corporate videos and local spots before I get too ahead of myself.

Today’s soundtrack is obviously not Colin Hay, but it is his song (If you’re reading this on Facebook try the “view original post” button). Evidently a few tours ago Dashboard Confessional put out an EP of covers and it’s simply amazing. Feel free to download it here, it’s basically out of print so I’m calling it fair use… though it’s not like I’ve ever really respected copyright laws anyway.

Take it easy and wish me luck on sleeping :)
David Hildreth

A movie I liked, another that’s ok and other fun opinions

I saw No Country For Old Men a few days ago, and after having a few days to mull it over I think I’m ready to call it the best movie I’ve seen this year. There was a lot in the movie to think about and while I certainly don’t worship the brothers Coen they have really done a masterful job of telling this story. As is often true, I wasn’t sure of my opinion when the movie ended, but I did know that I liked the ending. The guys sitting in front of us didn’t, I guess things weren’t wrapped up as tightly as they would have liked. It did end abruptly and generally unresolved, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good ending. From the reviews I read the ending was most people’s biggest problem, others didn’t like the seemingly senseless violence. Which I’m not a huge fan of, but thats pretty much what the movie was about. So if you are willing to watch a complex movie and pay attention to the characters definitely go see No Country For Old Men, it’s worth $9.

That being said I also saw something very different a couple of weeks ago. Southland Tales is Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly‘s second movie… and man is it complex. I loved Donnie Darko, it’s strange and deep, I’ve seldom had as much fun as I had discussing that movie with people. However, a while after Donnie Darko came the Director’s Cut, which is awful. Southland Tales is basically every bad part of the director’s cut of DD stretched out to three hours. Southland Tales was very long, and I felt every minute of it. The story has lots of characters and lots of dialogue and while it is insightful and funny there was just too much. About an hour into the movie about 10 people in the theatre had already walked out, which is a mistake because if they had stayed for the whole things they might have liked it. Despite it’s length and how tedious the story felt the end wrapped everything up into something that was satisfying. I liked the movie, it’s not the best thing i’ve seen in a while but I liked it and will see it again. The movie could have been so much more though, and that is frustrating. First off the first half of the plot was told in a series of three comic books… I didn’t know this and because I can’t find them for free I still haven’t read them. Expecting your audience to already know half the plot is a mistake. I don’t care how much advertising they could have done for the comics (there was basically none) most people aren’t going to read them before seeing the movie. The second big problem with the movie was what made me hate the Director’s Cut of DD… titles. Kelly used full screen titles to explain plot and breakup the three acts, which is un-needed in a movie and really just made me want to hate the convoluted plot. If the plot of your movie needs to be explained in such a blunt manner you’re story needs to be simplified or shortened.. that’s pretty much it. If you get a chance go see Southland Tales, but it’s probably better to just wait for the DVD.

In other news I’ve finalized my holiday travel plans. I’ll be in Boise from December 20th until January 7th so if you’ll be in Boise too let me know and we’ll hang out. While it’s nice here in Tempe it’l be fun to experience some weather again, maybe even some snow if I’m lucky.

Everyone should also go and check out www.synthar.com. There you’ll find an awesome band who just put out their first record… which you should purchase. I’ve only listened to it once through, so I’ll maybe talk about it later but It’s really solid stuff from some hard working artists and there are no record companies involved… you can’t go wrong with that.

Laters,
Dave

The wind when it blows it is older than Rome

I’ve been listening to Bright Eye’s Cassadega almost religiously lately, track 9 hits me just right.

My trip to Boise was interesting at best. It was nice to be home and see my family but as selfish as it is that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t all that the trip was suppose to be and as childish and backwards as it is I feel cheated that everything didn’t workout. I had to come back early because of a rule I didn’t know about at school and somehow I just feel like all this bull shit isn’t how it was suppose to work out.
I had some pretty big plans for the rest of this week and now I’m just wasting my time in Tempe.

It’s late so I’m a little emo about it, I’m sure I’ll soon be over it.

My resume got completely overhauled today. It looks good now and with the approval of some people at school who were helping me with it, it’s now good enough to send out.
So the job search really gets going I guess, there are some good opportunities out there and I’m willing to wait for the right one.

Part of my schedule now is that I’ll have weekends free, which is great because I get to do something I haven’t actually done in a while… Go to church. I’ve had a bible study but it’s not the same. My spirituality is a part of my life that I’ve quickly learned can’t simply be ignored or put on the back burner.
As I’ve grown up I’ve really begun to understand more about how people arrive at their own beliefs, and no matter if it’s fate or opportunity or my environment my spiritual side is something that must be attended to and I’m glad I’ll be able to do that properly now. There is a cool church that my roommates go to that I am anxious to check out and I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I am also excited about just being around more like minded peers.

The Chess project is going well, it’s still very much in pre-production, but there is headway being made. The drawings I’m getting back from Luke are great and my 2d animator seems anxious to get started. So hopefully I can figure out how to get the rest of this thing made.

Like I said a few weeks ago my Resume now includes a link to this page so I’m going to be making some changes in the next few weeks to make it more stranger friendly. I would also like to add a feature that allows for each of my posts to have a soundtrack. I listen to music all day, every day… I’m glad to say that my life has a soundtrack and my posts should too.

Incase you are wondering the soundtrack to this post is the aforementioned Clease Song

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