Great Feelings ideas and storyboards

As promised, here are the drawings I made for my Great Feelings video. The first sketches are the initial ideas I had during my first brainstorming session.  (Remember: the challenge was to create a one minute video on your device of choice, with the theme Great Feelings, and elements drawn from a hat. The elements I drew were tree bark, and mirror.). Following the sketches are my storyboard; the inspiration for which came to me totally visually, in one large download. 

So often the things we say to ourselves in the mirror.  I struggle with this to the extent that I wrote a reminder on my bedroom mirror a while back: "I love myself".  Most likely everyone can identify with experiencing very great feelings, both positive and negative, while looking in the mirror.  And what if even natural, inanimate objects felt the same way?  Does a piece of tree bark which it had smoother skin?

From there, I was inspired by an Instagram account I stumbled across called Heal Yourself, Skeletor.  Most of the affirmations spoken by my two characters were found there.

Videos!

Hey friends!  Long time no see.  I have a couple of new videos to share.  The first I created for a challenge among friends.  The task: create a one minute video on your device of choice using elements drawn from a hat, and with the theme '"great feelings".  The elements I drew were mirror and tree bark.  Here is the result:

It's pretty absurb, and not meant to be taken too seriously.  I'm really pleased with it for a number of reasons.  1) It's the first video I've made that I wasn't it. 2) I shot and edited it myself using my iPad.  3) Another first: I created storyboards for this, which I'll upload in another post.  I hope you enjoy it.

The second video was written by my pal Neil, and directed by Jeremy.  It's about how dependent we have all become on our phones.

This was a lot of fun to shoot, and I hope you all enjoy it.  

If you like these videos and want to see more, or want to be supportive, please share them with your friends.  The more views we can get on Youtube the more likely that we can start to monetize some of our work, but for that we need exposure.  With that in mind, please also subscribe to our channel "EvilAlienPirateBooty" if you have a YouTube account, or don't mind setting one up.  I think if you use Gmail it's pretty easy.  And you won't get any spam or annoying messages, it just helps our channel look good, and for more people to see what we make.    Thank you all for reading, and also for watching.  xoxox

Chatty Cathy Goes to Yoga

Hi friends.  It sure has been a while since I've posted here.  But the theme of 2014 is getting shit done, so I've been putting most of my creative energies toward finishing Chatty Cathy Goes to Yoga.  It's been a little bit like herding cats, mentally.  Anyhow, here it is.  If you haven't already seen it, I hope you enjoy it.  If you have already watched it, get a life!  (Totally just kidding. Why not watch it again?)

I'll be updating this blog with my other projects.  However I'm using my Tumblr page more these days, as it's a bit more convenient to use as far as an online portfolio goes.  It's called Today I Did These Things

xoxox

Catherine

Mike and Lindsay

The first names I remember really liking - you know for my babydolls or imaginary playmates or maybe my persona in a game of pretend - were Mike, Lindsay, and Michelle.  Something about those mid-alphabet consonants just did it for me.  I think I liked Michelle because it sounded exotic to me; like the beach.  You know: Mi-shell.

One of my earliest memories is being out in the garden with my mom while she weeded the flower bed outside our playroom.  I remember trundling around the lawn pulling a red wagon after me.  The wagon was heavy and bigger than me and hard to pull.  It was filled with blocks - undoubtedly the sawed-off ends of two by fours from one of my dad's myriad projects.

Every so often I'd check in with my mom.  Any worms she found during her gardening she put aside for me.  Every time I made another round I put them in the wagon.  But first I had a big decision to make: what to name the worms?  Mike and Lindsay, obviously.  

I probably had like 25 worms in there by the end.  Once I took out all the wood blocks (which was probably a strenuous task for my little baby arms) and faced all those worms I had a dilemma - who was Mike and who was Lindsay?  How do you tell boy worms apart from girl worms?

I don't know why none of those worms were named Michelle.  Maybe they weren't exotic enough...

Iggy Motherfucking Pop

I never published this draft for some reasons, so here it is now, two years later! Xoxox:

On June 8th, one of my long-cherished dreams, one of those pinnacle moments of my adulthood arrived, and I saw one of my icons in concert.  Iggy Pop.  It's been a long time coming.

I originally got introduced to Iggy Pop by the roundabout way of glam-rock homage Velvet Goldmine.  I was super-obsessed with that movie in high school.  A lot of the music that, to this day, is a corner-stone of my musical taste, originates from discovery of that movie.  But let's be honest, this helped a lot too:

CURT WILD

Curt Wild is the character in Velvet Goldmine who's based (mostly) on Iggy Pop, played by Ewan MacGregor, and I was SO hot for him.  Watching a the scene in which he sings TV Eye, I now recognize that Iggy is FAR superior, but nevertheless, there's a part of my soul that's starry-eyed teenaged girl, hoping to see Curt Wild up there on stage, jacking glitter into the crowd.  

Throughout college I spent a lot of time listening to eighties music, David Bowie, and early punk/new wave.  My taste always leaned towards something a little more grungy than poppy, a little more dark and disonant, and, well, raw.  I spent a lot of my time in New Orleans in grungy dive bars with great juke boxes drinking cheap, strong gin and tonics.  That's where I rediscovered Iggy Pop.  

Now, to be clear, I'm no expert.  I've never been great with knowing albums back to front, A to Z, etc.  Although I can be really anal about some things, with music I tend to follow what I like and not worry about song titles.  By that I mean I'm no expert on Iggy Pop.  I've listened most to his (I think) solo stuff as Iggy Pop, but his band was (is) called The Stooges.  You should ask my friend Neil (he guest posted that great thing about hipsters!) if you want to know the ins and outs of what albums came out when, how many times the band broke up and who was in which iteration.  I don't know the history.  I just love the music and the aesthetic. 

And I think Iggy Pop is one cool motherfucker.  He hung out with David Bowie and Lou Reed and made awesome music and is so unashamedly himself.  It's awesome.  The man is the definition of rock star.  

The man is 66 years old and he still has it.  The show kicked ass.