Thesis 2.0

This summer I interned at Zoic Studios in Culver City and Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank. Although they were very different, both led me to the same conclusion - my current thesis project was taking me down a path that I was not fully committed to.

With "Megahertz," roughly 80% of my time would have been spent on very specific and technical parts of filmmaking that I have very little interest in. I saw myself with a mediocre project that would quickly be forgotten. Since this realization I have been developing a new project that is far more innovative, and challenges what I'm capable of in a direction that I'm excited to take.

At it's core is a series of matte paintings. With the environments that these will create I will 1) create a film, 2) exhibit stills in a gallery, 3) compile all of the artwork into a picture book, and 4) author a website.


1) The film will be the focus of this thesis. As this idea has not yet been approved by the faculty, the structure of the film is still being molded, but here are my initial thoughts:
-The images will be photorealistic, but inspired by work that isn't. I'll be studying traditional animated films from Disney, Dreamworks, and other studios to inspire environments that appear to exist, but are in fact as purely created and heavily designed as a still from, say, The Prince of Egypt.
-The film will be similar in structure to Koyaanisqatsi. The images alone will tell a story unique to how it is perceived by each viewer. I'll be working with a composer to arrange a score that helps guide that experience.
-I would like to convey specific moods through composition, color, music, etc., but, again, not a specific story. The intention behind this is to rely upon the power of sight and sound to invoke an emotional response. Whether or not that happens will gauge the success of the project.

2) The gallery will include high quality, framed prints of the imagery from the film. The score will accompany the pieces subtly in the background. I hope to create a similar experience for the viewer as the film has, but in doing so gain an understanding of the ways in which the inherently different context changes one's perception.

3)The purpose of the picture book is to openly show the process that goes into making these images in addition to opening another dimension for the story to exist in. With a film the director controls the pace at which the audience experiences the images. However with this type of book the role is reversed, and the viewer controls the pace at which they flip the page and subsequently experience the story that these images tell. I find the implications of this experiment to be worth exploring as the integrity of an image to the mood or story that it is attempting to display will be put to the test.

4) The project's website won't be so much a portfolio as it will be an interactive experience. My knowledge of making websites is limited to Dreamweaver, but with the help of others I hope to recreate the film on a level that involves input from the viewer more directly. Ideally it would allow the viewer to explore each environment as if they were in it, but with budget and time limits this might prove to be too difficult - we'll see.


I feel that this project is much better suited to the ways in which the film industry is changing, and will allow me to further explore this while simultaneously contributing to it. While I will always love film - there's nothing more satisfying than watching a great film - I want to take the time that I have here at USC to create work that doesn't just exist on a screen, but that encompasses a greater variety of formats. This is central to USC's core beliefs - as film students we're required to study subjects unfamiliar to our major - and in doing so the idea is that we enrich ourselves and the work that we produce. That's the reason why I came to USC, and the reason why I feel so strongly towards approaching my thesis as I now am.