Sunday, March 20, 2011

Brendan's statement

When I went home for my freshman summer of college I suddenly gained an enormous amount of time.  Without the burden of available friends. a job, or places to go, I did what anyone in my situation would do--make a movie with Lego people.  I did all the voices myself, distinguishing the ladies with a fairly pronounced falsetto.  All of this occurred while my parents were away so I could rant and rave and use all the profanity I preferred.  (For realism's sake of course).

When I returned to school, the movie was a hit (at least among the people I knew well enough to humor me).  With this experience in hand, and under the looming deadline for declaring a major, I picked film studies.  The more I thought about it the more I had always enjoyed movies.  Since I was a kid I wanted to be Marty McFly or Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker.  Considering that wasn't exactly possible, I figured I might as well try to craft the kind of stories I thought were the Iliads of our era.

To be able to relate a good story--one that sticks with people throughout their entire lives--is a pretty amazing thing.  To do that on a mass scale and for fabulous profit is beyond even that.  As an artist I hope to create interesting things from nothing.  And if doing that keeps me from pushing papers no one will ever give a second thought to, so much the better.