‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.’
Henry David Thoreau
I first read this quote on a photograph that was given to me by my friend Julie Anna back in 2008. The photo was taken atop a hill overlooking the New Zealand countryside. It brought a rush of excitement that made me want to take dynamic inspirational photos and video of other countries and cultures. It reminded me of what I was really passionate about and what I really wanted to do. However, for the next year and a half that photo would hang on my wall while I played video games and watched countless movies.
Growing up I’d always wanted to be in the movie business. It started, of course, with watching films such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. The real desire came when I saw the movies FX and FX2. I knew that becoming a special effects artist was my calling. Little did I know as a kid, in order to achieve that goal I would need to learn a lot about chemistry, physics and be quite handy with tools. While I’m not completely mechanically inept, I wouldn’t say I’m a guy who can get things fixed. After all, that’s what money is for. Pay someone else to do it, right? So with this new information, I decided that maybe becoming a special effects artist wasn’t my calling…. Read more…