30 for 30: January

Ladies and gentlemen, I am now 30. A grown up, technically speaking.

I have already completed four things from my list of 30 things to do in my 30th year! Here they are:
2. Steampunk Party!

patrick and myself in steampunk garb
Steampunk’d!

4. Host a masquerade party

Julie and Elliot wearing masquerade garb
Masqueray’d

 

25. go to a farm or petting zoo (with goats and llamas or alpacas)

A goat trying to eat my tote bag at the petting zoo
Ermahgerd!

 

And on my birthday, Patrick and I went to…
6. Disneyland!

Patrick and I at Disneyland
DISNEYLAND!

 

So that leaves just 26 items left. Here is what remains:

1. Swim with a Beluga (or some kind of up close and personal experience)
3. Get a scooter
5. Learn how to sail
7. Do laughing yoga
8. Learn how to drive manual
9. Indoor skydiving
10. Visit http://www.skyzonesports.com/ (caution: this site has auto play sound)
11. Have a Thanksgiving feast (not on Thanksgiving)
12. Kayak in Hawaii
13. Dim Sum Party!
14. Travel overseas (Hong Kong? Europe? Bali?)
15. Make and eat a pizza (being really ambitious here)
16. Get a goldfish!
17. Host a private screening of a movie in a theater (http://www.dickclarkproductionstheater.com/)
18. Screen an old movie (with a projector preferrably) and wear clothes from that era
19. Ride a train to a destination outside of L.A.
20. Visit a museum
21. Go on The Price is Right (kind of dreading this, actually)
22. Make a movie
23. Have a big Chinese family dinner gathering at parents’ house
24. Do a factory tour (of anything: donuts, tortillas, furniture, cars)
26. Celebrate at a barcade (Dave and Buster’s or other arcade/drinking/dining environment)
27. Learn CSS
28. Visit New Orleans
29. New tattoo in a new city
30. Go to Graceland

The Making of a Movie

One of my 30 for 30 next year is that I want to make a movie. This should be fun. I have a lot of friends who are in the industry and can offer advice and perhaps help with the making of the movie. The hard part is going to be the conception and writing.

The most difficult part for me right now is trying to decide who will be in my movie. I definitely don’t want to star in it. I think 10-15 years ago I would definitely have wanted to be in it but, I think, being a little wiser with age, I know I will 1.) not look good on camera, 2.) feel way too vulnerable being emotional on screen and to have to watch it later, and 3.) be so critical of my performance I could never get it right and this movie would never get made. Aside from that I think I am way more interested in the production and post-production work as opposed to the acting and writing anyway. To me, writing a screenplay sounds like years of work. I realize some people can spit them out (some great ones) in a few months but I don’t think I have that kind of imagination anymore. I think that kind of mind was hammered out of me around my early teens when I was told I would go study business in college.

Additionally, I can’t actually think of what type of people I would want to cast in my movie, or any actors I would want to work with. Therefore, I was thinking maybe this project might work better if I try to create a documentary, or some kind of stop motion animation film. I would like to capture emotion, but not through words, just through images and music. This thought amuses me because all my tattoos are words, I can’t think of any images that I’d like to have made permanent. I guess if I could tattoo music onto myself I probably wouldn’t want to do that either, because tastes and emotion (which I relate to music) can change so much. I guess words don’t usually change meanings – at least not too often.

But I guess the really important question I should answer first is: what kind of movie do I want to make?