For my birthday this year, my sister and her husband surprised me by flying in from Portland, Oregon. It was a really lovely birthday spent with family. My amazing fiancé Brad got me a new camera that I wanted and I used it to create a video diary of the day.
Video Diaries - A Revival
I’ve started to take some morning walks to start my day and it’s been life changing. It clears my head and helps me feel energized to start my day. It’s also had another positive effect, it’s inspired me to continue making new video diaries.
Here are two from my morning walks:
And here is one I made during a June weekend reuniting with my family at my cousin’s graduation party post-vaccine.
Eleanor & Christian's Wedding
My sister and her husband had a COVID wedding that neither of their families could attend in person, but we were able to watch via zoom. They recorded the zoom and had one extra camera setup to remember the event. Knowing that she wanted me to make them a wedding video, Eleanor filmed a few clips throughout the day and their honeymoon. I knew that Eleanor didn’t want a wedding video like many that are made today with slow motion shots and dramatic music, so I didn’t follow a lot of cliches. I also knew that they are both very connected to their families, so I tried to find ways to highlight the families where it made sense. This is the result:
The muse has been silent
I don’t know if it’s struggling through the covid pandemic or the many stresses of this year, but I’ve felt flat and uninspired recently. At times I’ve compared it to a flower that someone has burnt to the stem that can’t find a way to grow again. It’s been really hard for me because I feel like when I’m not creative, I’m not myself. I’m not sure how I am going to solve it, but I want to find my path back, especially so I don’t let 10 year old Olivia down.
Valentine's Day 2021
Every year I make a video for my boyfriend Brad chronicling our year together. This was one of the hardest ones yet because we didn’t go anywhere. I am still pleased with the outcome.
Thanksgiving 2020
I’ve had a really hard time being inspired lately. I’ve been trying a few things to get it back, but I did manage to go back to my original video diaries plan with this video.
Eleanor's 30th Birthday
For my sister’s 30th birthday I made a short video using clips from our childhood.
Montreal & Prince Edward Island 2019
Last summer Brad and I went to Montreal and Prince Edward Island to fulfill my dreams of seeing the the place that inspired the Anne of Green Gables series. It was a really amazing trip and I’m glad I took so much video. Editing this was another good escape from the present. Now just to go back to trying to create my own work again.
It's been a while
Things are pretty surreal in the world right now. Every day feels like a huge effort and there’s a constant feeling of stress in the pit of my stomach. In an attempt to take a brain vacation, I finally finished editing a video from my trip to Disney World with my sister last June. It’s been a good form of escapism and I’m sad to be finished. Luckily I have some footage from my trip to Canada too…
Yesterday
I lived in Cardiff, Wales from September 2015 to September 2016 while I was completing my MA degree in Myth, Narrative and Theory. At times, it was a difficult year for me because I struggled to make friends; people mostly stuck with people from the same country and there were very few Americans. Besides the lack of Americans, I had come to study abroad to have new experiences and interact with different cultures, so I didn’t just want to hang out with familiar people.
I still traveled as much as I could and tried to keep myself busy, but there is only so much time that you can entertain yourself alone. Therefore, I spent a lot of time in my room alone. This made me feel very isolated at times and I spent at least an hour of each day on the phone with my Mom.
The other thing that I would occasionally do, is film outside the window or record random audio snippets on my tape recorder. Without fully knowing it, I had constructed an interesting image of my own isolation. I started editing this together right after I moved away from Wales, but was never fully happy with the outcome. Last week at work, I came across a Welsh choir singing the national anthem of Wales and I remembered this unfinished edit. It randomly inspired me to finish the project and after a lot of searching, I found the original project file, made a few tweaks and finished it.
So here it is, a picture inside my own isolation during my year in Cardiff:
Mornings
Are rules meant to be broken?
I made another :30 second video diary and a :50 second one. As I was cutting the :50, I kept trying to pare it down so that it would fit with the :30 second limit I set for myself. But I liked the flow and the sounds and had trouble finding anything to delete. The ultimate goal was really to force myself to create more, which has definitely happened. So although most of the time :30 seconds works fine, in this case it didn’t. However I still want to try to restrict myself as much as possible and stick to the time limit because, in most cases, it still works.
My goal was one a month
I planned to only make one of these :30 video diaries a month, but I just made two more, so who knows. I think the bigger goal is to not get down on myself when I don’t make one. I’ve also decided to put these on their own page, so now they can be found on the “:30 Video Diary” page.
Tuesday July 30, 2019
I don’t think I will keep doing these daily, but felt inspired yesterday.
Trying out something new
I’ve always found that creating restrictions inspires some of my most creative moments. When I have access to everything I need to make something crisp and perfect, things don’t always turn out as interesting or impactful. I think I learned the most about creating art studying experimental film, because my professor restricted our work to 1:30 in length and enforced other restrictions based on the assignment. Lately I’ve been struggling to feel creative, so the other day I came up with this idea to create :30 video diaries, similar to the video diaries I made in my experimental class—except even shorter. If you are interested in the ones I made in my class, they can be found on the “experimental films” page and I’m including one down below as well. I’ve always admired the work of Anne Charlotte Robertson so slightly channeling her in this project.
I’ve made two of these :30 second diaries so far — one from my day exploring Governor’s Island in NYC and the other pieced together from random commute footage. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Disneyland Trip 2019
I went to Disneyland a few weeks ago with my sister and her fiance. They got a bit annoyed with me and all the video I was taking, but I think they were pleased with the result. I used mostly non-copyright/vlog music from soundcloud.
Music Featured:
Fading - DJ Quads
I Wanna Be Like You (Sim Gretina Remix)
Ride of Joy - DJ Quads
I Like To - DJ Quads
Valentine's Day
I’m not usually too sappy, but being low on cash this year, I made my boyfriend a Valentine’s Day video using footage I’d taken of him at different moments of our relationship. I’m not someone who puts a lot of stock in Valentine’s Day as a holiday, but I always think it’s nice to make something special for people you care about.
Storytelling Passions & Video Editing
A job I applied for asked me to provide them with a description of myself as a video editor and why I was passionate about editing. It had to be under a minute which was tough to pull off, but I finessed a short script and tried to portray everything that I feel about video editing into a tiny package. There’s so much more to say, but I think it’s a good description of my passion for creating content.
Golden Days
Recently, my parents got a new puppy and I have been helping them take care of her. It's been keeping me busy in between writing and looking for jobs. She is a very sweet and cuddly dog and I've been snapping pictures of her whenever I have a chance. They adopted her from a local rescue. She was said to be a "lab mix" but she definitely has a lot of different breeds mixed in. We named her Luna in honor of my lunar love and the connection to the moon goddess in Roman mythology.
Phases of Mahina - Streaming on Comcast XFINITY
Check out my film "Phases of Mahina" now streaming on Comcast XFINITY as part of the Pacific Islander shorts program.