I feel like I haven’t been in my own house, or slept in my own bed in a couple weeks. A few good weekends will do that to you I guess.
I got to go to Mexico last weekend and LA the one before. Mexico was a great time, Marco’s mother and step-father own a condo in Puerto Peñasco, what people around here call Rocky Point, and rent it out to tourists. Who knows how long Marco had been pitching the idea but he finally got permission to take a few friends down and stay for the weekend. It was crazier then most of my weekends but a lot of fun. To sum it all up I’ll just say that we ate toxic hot dogs, saw the sun set, walked on the beach, drank at a swim up bar, went dancing, saved Marco from some ugly girls, saw a prostitute that was probably a dude, got offered cocaine and then paid off some Federales. If you want the rest of any of those stories feel free to ask, it’s more fun to just give the headlines though :)
Photos from Mexico can be seen at the beginning of this album.
The weekend before we went west to see a friend who works at an effects house in Santa Monica and pickup some footage for a pilot Marco is helping out on. Five of us crammed into one car and made the drive friday night resisting the casinos in Palm Springs on the way. We navigated the maze of freeways and ended up in North Ridge at Demitre’s apartment. I wont tell you what he said he pays for the place, but the pictures below should give you a sense of how big it was… just imagine 6 guys sleeping there. That is one part about living in LA that wouldn’t be so awesome, although I’ve really warmed up to the idea of moving there. I don’t think I’m going any time soon and there are many places I’d rather go but as graduation gets closer the promise of work there seems better and better. Hearing stories about 80 hour work weeks, three hour commutes and less than lavish pay, doesn’t exactly excite me, but the projects you get to work on and the experience you gain sounds worth it.

I got some good news on tuesday, I’ve landed a steady editing gig for the next few months and maybe more. Freelance work as been harder to come by lately and the stability that this should bring will definitely keep me in Arizona for a while. The company produces concert DVDs for a well known heavy metal act and I’m going to be editing their next release. This should be a great opportunity to gain some more experience in film style editing and a chance to do some motion design and DVD work. I’d tell you more but while I haven’t signed an NDA yet they seem a bit squeamish so just know that it’s legit and I’m pretty excited about it.

I’m hoping this gig means some piece of mind about my near future and maybe will help to show that my decision to stay in town next year was a good one. There are many reasons I’m staying but this really helps validate it.

Recently I’ve been listening to more of The Beatles, everyone knows their singles but it had been a long time since I had really listened to a few of their albums. The last track of Abbey Road hit me hard about a month ago and inspired me to make something. It worked out that so I could turn it in as an assignment and it ended up good enough that it’l be seen on my reel. It’s an example of motion graphics typography, a style that has really become popular over the last few years. It can be seen in a recent batch of Ford truck commercials for example. This piece is set to Her Majesty, a track that wasn’t even suppose to be on Abbey Road. It was literally picked up off the cutting room floor… and it’s simple tune and complex words remind me of her.

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I’m cutting away on three new reels, I don’t have anything to post but I will shortly. My motion design reel will be the first done, the VFX reel is made up of projects not yet polished enough and my editing reel is just an idea, I have no idea what it will look like.

Take it easy, I’m taking it extra easy for a while.
David Hildreth

Working all day and going to school all night gets old pretty fast. A whole lot faster then I remember to be honest. A lot of things have changed since I last talked about my job, but it’s all changed for the better. The guy who hired me up and quit about a week later, and everything I had worked out with him went with. So I’m just freelancing for Mission E now, which is going to work out better anyway. I’ll still be making a decent amount of money but I’ll have some time off now and then. Which I’ve recently discovered, I need.

I went and saw The Visitor last saturday. It’s definitely the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. It’s about an older guy who’s life has gotten pretty plain. He is sent to New York for a conference and goes to the apartment he’s kept there for decades only to find an immigrant couple living there. He ends up befriending the man who teaches him how to play the Djembe. After a misunderstanding in the subway the man is arrested and since he isn’t a legal citizen put in an INS detention center. The man’s mother comes to New York and builds a relationship with the older man while they try to fight the man’s deportation. It’s playing in Scottsdale and I’m sure will be at The Flicks at some point, it’s a must see. Also, I swear that Steve Nash was sitting behind me in the theatre, even though the person I went with didn’t believe me :p

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin came to town on friday. I almost didn’t go to the show but I’m glad I did. I’m pretty sure that if the show wasn’t all ages the band wouldn’t have gotten in… they all looked straight out of high school. The set list was a combination of their first two albums and their encore was “I am Warm and Powerful” probably my favorite. If you haven’t heard em, check em out, they are a good time.

I saw this about a week ago and found it really interesting, not to mention that I love the way the interview was shot. (FYI: As always the linked video won’t show if you’re reading this on Facebook)

Summer is almost here and Tempe is once again quiet. ASU is now out for the summer and while that means that the streets are no longer gridlocked, it does mean that it’s not going to be in the 90s for much longer. It also means that I won’t get to see some good friends for a couple months. I’ve almost forgot what it’s like to have a summer vacation. I’ve moved past that I guess, although sometimes I think it would be nice… that is until I lookup my graduation date.

Take it easy, you know I will
David

I’ve talked a little about the upcoming election but I’d like to now make my position clear. I support Barack Obama for president. I do so for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is because I see something different in him. I like the above cartoon because I think it shows a difference in attitude between generations. Barack Obama’s message is mainly just hope, at the heart of his campaign is the idea that we CAN fix our countries problems. I really do believe that it’s time for us to look inward and begin to work on social issues. Say what you want about our role as world police, but I think that it’s time to turn our efforts and money back towards our own shores. Healthcare, social security and our economy have been neglected and I think that a real change in the White House is what is needed to fix our problems. “Socialized” medicine is a must, our government could very well be headed for bankruptcy but it’s citizens are guaranteed it without healthcare reform. I hate how pessimistic people are about it though, how can you change something if you don’t believe it can be done? A lot of the people I’ve talked to say they don’t want socialized medicine because they don’t believe the government is competent enough to run it. They don’t want the government telling them when and where to see a doctor, they don’t want to lose their perceived control of their health. It doesn’t take more then a few minutes of research to find out that in other countries (like Canada or the UK) people aren’t assigned a doctor, they don’t have to go though miles of red tape to visit the emergency room. Doctors make good wages and the overall quality of care is, by virtually every study done, a lot better than it is in the US. There is a lie in our country that says that publicly funded medicine is bad, it’s been around for more then half a decade and it’s time for it to be stopped. We have government run police and fire departments, federal mail delivery and even television, people just don’t like to think about it that way. If something as important as a local police department is overseen by a city, county, state and federal bureaucracy why do we then not trust our government to run our healthcare system? We are basically the only 1st world country without it and our overall standard of living and life expectancy is far worse then most of Europe. We spend more then anyone and get the least in return.

The header of Barack Obama’s website says “I’m asking you to believe not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours.” I’ll take that over someone who has only failed in the past, someone who changes his story to get elected, someone who brings up tragedy to scare up votes or even someone who’s ideas sounds good but are without substance.

This is Barack Obama’s response to the 2008 State of the Union address, I think it does a great job of showing who he is. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing skip ahead to about 4:00 and watch until the end. He’ll be here in Arizona on 1/30/08 and I’m looking forward to going and hearing him speak.

I’ve seen quite a few movies since I last posted. One was of course Cloverfield, which I loved. I think you can really tell a lot about someone’s taste in film by their opinion of that movie. Some others were There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Lives of Others. I should have seen The Lives of Others like a year ago, it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 and has been on DVD and Blu-Ray for a while. I really enjoyed it, it’s about a man who works for the East German secret police and how he gets involved in the lives of people he is suppose to be spying on. I highly recommend it, it’s no surprise it’s gotten all the attention it has. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was also very good, it’s about a man who has a stroke and is paralyzed from head to toe. His only means of communication is to blink, and with the help of others he writes a book. The movie is more about making the book and how the man felt as he lay helpless in the hospital. There are excerpts of the book in the movie but I am excited to read all of what he wrote. The movie is a french film so finding it in a theater might be a bit tough, but it’s definitely worth driving across town for. There Will Be Blood was incredible, people have been calling it the director’s masterpiece and I can only agree. It’s a dark drama about an oil man, who’s greed and competition ruins everyone around him. It’s a must see, just be ready for it, you do feel every minute it’s two hour running time.

It’s day 2454 of the job hunt (ok I made that up, I’m currently too lazy to open up iCal) and things are still going alright. I’ll probably start working something next week to pay some bills, but I’m not giving up on an editing position yet. I have some new leads and I’ve recently tweaked my demo reel a bit so we’ll see what happens. I’m also, once again, trying to get on work study. Hopefully now that I am a little further removed from my old job I’ll meet the requirements. I am also mulling over getting a stipend from my student loan. I can not begin to describe to you how amazing it has been to just focus on school. Is it worth about $6,000? I’m not sure yet, but when you figure I’m going to owe an embarrassing amount of money anyway, I might as well milk that 20 year payment plan for all it’s worth.

I’m not sure if many of the people who read this have ever gone through a photoshop tutorial, but in my years of interneting this is definitely the best and most educational series I’ve come across. You Suck at Photoshop is a real step forward in tutorials, the host is lovable and confident and he always gets across exactly what you need to know. There are three other episodes, and I highly recommend watching them all. The third is one of the funniest and probably the most accessible. enjoy ;)

Until the next time I’m bored enough to write here,
David