You'll Find A Way

SO!

Haha.

This has been my baby for the past two days so I am kind of taking a deep breath writing this.

For the past... countless years... I have been trying so hard to express myself.

For the very first time,

I would say this video just about cuts it.

Something I found out while editing this:

I do not have attention deficit disorder.

I gotta admit, I had my suspicions. I haven't paid attention to just about anything for longer than a few minutes at a time the entire time I was a student.

So... sixteen and a half years.

(I know, I know, Mom. Grad school is different.)

But when I started editing this video, I felt more passionate...

than I can even explain.

My heart was racing.

The amount of focus I put into this proves that I, in fact, can no longer make the ADD excuse.

Even though I loved it so much when I put off studying.

I picked the theme of being lost.

Well, not just being lost.

Forcing myself to find my way.

I have no idea how to get the job I want.
But... I'm going do it.
I'll find a way.

Haha Okay now for the video.
Hope you guys like it as much as I do!

p.s. Gramma Linke loves it. ;)

The quality on here isn't quite as good as YouTube's.. Check it out here if you want to see it clearer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5mEjQXpPRM

The Pier

Hola,

I ran down to the pier today for a quick shoot... 

And by quick I mean I was so freezing that my hands could only take about ten minutes of the wind on the lake.  But I think that ten minutes was really worth the vid.

My vision for this was to have a reminiscent vibe.

To all the Lakesider youth out there, I know you can relate to this.
We have all been back here for a weekend, a holiday or even the entire winter, and the memories of summer come flooding back.  

The infamous pier.

Where I literally spent my entire childhood.
Going back and forth from the baby pool to the beach all day/every day, the metal ramp that's impossible not to run on because it burns, the weird warm section that dead fish always get stuck in but you play in it anyways because it feels like you're in a cave, 

& the obscene amount of seaweed that is, for some reason, irresistible to people... Haha.

Pier dives.

This ritual actually didn't happen to me until summer of '06.  The summer we all got our anchor tattoos.  One minute, you're hanging out with your friends, the next you're running barefoot through Lakeside in the middle of the night, pretending like the rocks don't hurt your feet.

Before you know it, you're holding hands with whoever you're with and jumping into blackness.
As you wait for the water to hit you,
you realize:
This is the best night of summer.
Then you have to spend like ten minutes taking turns trying to get up the ladder without laughing.  One thing makes you laugh and you're back where you started.  Slipping around on the first bar they put up way too high.  That thing is impossible.

Every time I come back in the winter, the pier is a wildly peaceful tundra,
silent and lonely as a ghost.

But... 

It's beautiful.  

So here is the video... I don't have much of a deep explanation for it... Other than it felt great to edit something that didn't have any boundaries.  I had so much fun doing this.

I am very pleased that there was a song that fit the feel of the footage and could actually double for the title. Haha.

Anyways,

I hope you like it!

"God is in the water of the lake; he is also in the cracked bed of the lake when the lake has dried up." -Mansur al-Hallaj 

(Thank you Megan Melville for sharing this quote with me.)

The Leap

Hey guys.

I really want to give you all the details about the contract I signed yesterday.
First, I'm going to explain the video I made tonight.  

So, as you all know, I am currently trying to find my way after graduation.

  I got all of this great advice from amazingly intelligent people, and I wrote it all down and I read and reread all of the notes of names and places they told me to look.  

For some reason, I keep holding myself back from actually making those phone calls. 

To put it bluntly, I'm scared to make those calls.

I'm scared to put myself in a vulnerable position.  I'm scared to get shut down... several times.  I'm scared that I will never find my place.  I'm scared that I'm not good enough, smart enough, passionate enough... I'm scared I won't get there.  I'm just scared.

To my friends who graduated before me and already have these great full-time jobs... I gotta hand it to ya, I am so proud of you guys.

It takes a lot of courage to make that leap.  

I see how brave you all are, and the only thought in my head is, "It has to be my turn next."

The contract I signed is for a beta testing job. It can be done from home and allows me to get paid to sit on my laptop all day, which I do anyways.  The company is called FilmFolk, and I'm actually not at liberty to tell you much more than that. (I know right?  Crazy.)

But I am really excited!  It makes me feel like I will have one of those jobs where you get to test video games all day, but instead of video games, it's something I can actually do.

Thank goodness because I can't even play Mario Cart to save my life.

So there you have it everyone! It's a job.

An experience.

A responsibility.

 A step towards learning how to make that leap into the working world.
I'm starting to get that:

You never know where those steps in the dark will lead you,
you just have to have the courage to find out.
I hope that will help you understand the thought behind my video. 

Hope you enjoy it!

The Contract

Bonjourno!

(I know, I say it Inglourious Basterds-style in my head, too.)

I had a Skype interview last week with an Australian (yes, I had to mention that...) and it went pretty great.

I got to go on and on about the things I've done in my field and how much I love working in film.  

The great thing about interviews is that it's basically a freebie when it comes to bragging about yourself.  A whole thirty minutes dedicated to you talking about the fantastic things you've done.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a pretty great way to think of it.  

So that's what I did and I guess it worked out because guess what!

He sent me a contract yesterday.

So I read over my very first contract outside of college and I was really super excited about it.

I had a lot of thinking to do afterwards and I actually documented my brainstorm session and made a very short and extremely normal video to show you. 

This one is just for fun guys.

Find out if I signed the contract by watching below.

                              

The Lake

Bonjour! 

I found some news out yesterday that is a little tiny setback with my job search.
As said in the vid, I'm not considering it the end of the world.  

If anything, I will have some quality time in the place that inspires me the most.  

Well, don't want to ruin it... 

So I hope you like the edit! 

Simple, but I think it tells the story.

Thanks for watching!
p.s. I let the song run because it's one of my favorites...

Ma Belle Famille

Hey guys!

I have finally gotten the courage to make my plunge into virtual vulnerability, and I am extremely excited to get into the blogging community.  I have always admired the amount of creativity that can be expressed and shared in it and I hope to branch out, become involved, and grow to eventually have a place and a voice.

My ultimate method of voicing my own creativity has always been through editing film.  Essentially, it doesn't matter whose footage it is.  Whether it's my own, something my mom has taped on a family vacation, or something that just needs edited,

I love finding the good stuff, chopping it up, and piecing together a story that can be portrayed with beauty and grace.  

I mean, I could sit at my computer for hours, forget to eat, and edit a video that may last all of three minutes. 

But for those three minutes...

Someone will have seen a part of my heart poured out in a sequence.  

My one problem?  

I have no footage.

The moment I opened up my HD Flip Cam my mom's boyfriend Tom gave me for Christmas, I knew I had my chance to get the footage I need so that I could practice editing. 

 A camera ready to film anytime, anywhere?  

Dream come true. 

I might be a total amateur, but if I could just get that practice I need to be able to express myself and show people that I do have a passion for the film world, maybe I can get a job 

and ultimately...

 be a part of something.

Now that it was Christmas vacation, my entire extended family was traveling across the country to come spend time with us. I thought of it as the perfect opportunity to get footage of some of the people who have created my life to be full of beautiful memories with moments that I will never forget.  I was extremely happy to be able to put this together and share with them how I view our family when we all get together.

And to whoever else sees this,  

Thanks for watching!

(p.s. I apologize for the lack of quality... I WILL figure this thing out... but after hours of trying to post this video, I'm going to have to take what I can get.  & if anyone has any tips on uploading good quality videos, please let me know. Thanks!)

Music: 

Frank Sinatra - Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Michael Buble - I'll Be Home For Christmas

Mumford & Sons - Awake My Soul

The Beginning

I have now been a college graduate for over a month, 

and to put it bluntly, I am failing at finding a career.  

I keep asking myself, "Will I find my place in the film industry?  

Is this ever going to work out for me?" 

Immediate answer: 

"Not like this. 

Not at this standstill."  

So I'm creating this blog... 

To discover, to relate, to get inspired, to share...

Next to come: A video I edited of my family and I... just to give you a small dose of who I am.