Creative Inspiration

        There are many people who inspire my creativity, most of them being musical artists and television/movie producers/directors. I am in video production and when I am making something that requires creativity I am not much of an initial idea person, I can’t make the initial spark but I can fan the flame and make an idea grow. I watch a lot of movies and television and enjoy watching movies, critiquing them and trying to predict what will happen, as well as pick up interesting shooting techniques and camera angles. Since my two favorite things are music and films/television, I find inspiration in Dave Matthews, Judd Apatow, and the Coen Brothers. Dave Matthews because I spend a large majority of my “music listening time” listening to Dave Matthews and his band. Similar story with Judd Apatow and the Coen brothers, I enjoy their work so I spend a lot of time watching their films.

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band has always been one of my favorite bands and continue to produce music that I really enjoy, and their live performances are incredible. I play a few instruments myself, pretty half-assed if I say so myself, but watching and listening to them perform is something truly unique and makes me want to play like they do. The performance on stage has a way of making the audience CONSCIOUSLY listen to the music, see the lights, and watch the performers, while SUBCONSCIOUSLY making the crowd feel the music and sway and dance with the groove. I have only personally been to 2 Dave Matthews Bands concerts but each of them was amazing and I plan on seeing them many times in the near future. I spend a good deal of time listening to Dave Matthews, Dave Matthews Band, and more recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, another amazing guitar player, whom Dave often tours with.

Judd Apatow

            Judd Apatow has only recently become a significant figure who I look up to. His movies are hilarious and almost everything he has done I have thoroughly enjoyed. I would love to work in comedy someday with my Video Production degree, and he has accomplished so much. Judd Apatow has a real talent for producing movies and has produced some of my favorite movies of the past 6 years, Pineapple Express, Superbad, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, including many more. He’s incredible at putting talented people together to collaborate and make something unique and hilarious. The things they produce show great use of TEXT AND SUBTEXT, utilizing irony, double-entendre and a ton of sarcasm. The sarcastic, dry humor is my favorite kind of comedy so I am drawn to his movies.

The Coen Brothers

            I enjoy watching many of the Coen brothers works, and a few of their films have made it in to my list of favorite movies, including The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and more recently their rendition of True Grit. The Coen brothers produce, write and direct all of their own stuff which I admire a great deal. To have that much responsibility on a project and to be able to deliver successful films time and time again is impressive. Their re-make of True Grit was especially incredible. A week prior to seeing the movie I rented the original one from 1969, starring John Wayne. The story was almost identical, but the way it was produced made it a much better film. The utilize TENSION AND RELEASE in many of their films, True Grit in particular.