About Me (and this blog)
I started this blog a few years ago as a way to remember my days in film and theatre. Over time it became a little political and sometimes about social commentary and even ways to deal with my personal demons of the past.
Now the blog is about everyday life and focuses on how to live a healthy life with food and exercise. I know a lot of blogs have themes and are all about either food or travel or films. This is more about everything.
Who am I? My name is Andrew and I am in my Middle (late) thirties. I’m married with two boys and am pretty happy about that. If you read back far enough (May 30, 2011) you will see that at one point I was pretty fat and now I have become thin and in shape. I have a pretty detailed description of how it happened so I will leave it you to read up on. Feel free!
Grace
September 30, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Hi…I sneakily followed the link on my stats page to your blog.
Thank you for the compliments.
Also…I have to ask, I’ve often wondered if I should’ve gone to film school instead. Why do you say it turned you off to movies? I’d be grateful to hear your thoughts.
Andrew
September 30, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Very clever. Very clever indeed.
I found that film school made me so analytical that I found myself dissecting the movie and not enjoying it.
Added to that was the professors were too self-serving. My directing teacher was a very “love your actors” kind of person who demanded that after every take they all needed reassurance and hugs. While I always appreciate the actors, I felt that constant praise would be eventually ignored. Tell someone they are great once and they will take it to heart. Tell them they are great 500 times in a day and they will begin to become numb to the words.
There was also rampant drug use. I am not a saint or a big advocate for clean living but I chose not to do drugs and watching the teacher instruct students on the art of rolling a joint with one hand was very off-putting.
But mostly I loved to watch movies. I love to watch a long scene with images that make my eyes flicker and fill up with the beauty that appears before them. I love slow camera movements that take me into a picture and not just show me what I am seeing but allow me to feel it too.
I think I realized that I was a fan of film, not of film making. Or just the filmmaking that would allow me to graduate.
I still miss it and I may find myself back into it at some point. My theatre hobby allows me the creative output that I desire but I still think about film.
My greatest accomplishment is getting a piece into the AGO a very long time ago for a short film fest they had. I loved every aspect of that process from the smell of 16mm film in an old can to taking two 16 year old kids and working with them to create the characters I had in my mind. But that is for another blog post. Thanks for the idea!
Grace
October 1, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Thank you for responding.
People are fascinating.