Redemption Stage

For as long as I can remember, music brought more color to my life than the coloring books I scribbled in with crayons. With the amount of hours that I stayed home to tinker around with my guitar, it was no surprise that I learned and picked up music faster than my peers. When I saw this art form incorporated into cinematic arts through films and documentaries, I knew that my heart was pulling me towards this field. However, all the blood, sweat, and tears that I dedicated to music certainly did not go to waste. The great knowledge and skills that I acquired from my music teachers as well as my gift in music has allowed me to create visual arts in a completely different level and perspective. Music sets the tone and enhances emotive perception in movies; without a good audiological foundation, making a breathtaking and captivating film is not easy. I am constantly motivated to utilize my abilities and gifts to the maximum to produce the best kind of content that I possibly can.
I still remember the feeling of seeing a photo taken on a professional DSLR camera for the first time— a wave of speechlessness and emotion overtook my body. I never thought life could look more beautiful than it already did, and the camera’s ability to do this boggled my mind. I craved to learn more about the way the low aperture made a gorgeous buttery bokeh the subject of the piece.
During my freshman year, I had a close friend who was well immersed into photography. One day, he took out his massive, captivating Canon DSLR, and began to take portraits of me. After about five minutes, we ended our mini photoshoot session, and like any other teenage boy, forgot about this and went on with our day. I didn’t give much thought to the pictures he had taken of me until a week or so later when he approached me with my printed photos in hand. The moment I laid eyes on the first few pictures, I was genuinely amazed— not at how I looked in the photos, but the different photography techniques my friend had executed. The perfect mixture of bewilderment and shock was what instantly captivated me into the world of photography. That day when I got home, I looked for my old family camera and began to do research on it. I learned as much as I could about shutter speed, iso, frame rate, aperture, white-balance, etc., and watched as many Youtube videos as I possibly could. My love for this started just with photography, but as I learned how this cooperated with movement and music, videography began to amaze me more and more. Videography took over my world and changed the way perceived the things around me.
I never gave much thought about why I loved capturing shots of subjects so much, whether it be through photography or videography— I just did it because it made me the happiest. As time went on and I gained more experience with the cinematic arts, I realized that the reason I want to create artwork for others is that I want others to also experience the great astonishment and wonder that I felt when I first laid eyes on that portrait. The mere idea that I can capture a moment in time and create a medium in which it would be remembered forever still baffles me to this day, and I strive to do this to the best of my ability. Being able to hold something in your hand, whether it be an actual print of a picture or a video through your phone, creates a feeling of security, ownership, and an indescribable bond that one feels with a piece of art.
As a creative filmmaker, my goal is to use the ideas that constantly flood into my mind to create works of art that people will be able to treasure in their memories. To do this, I want to be exposed to different areas of film such as the movie, wedding, commercial, and music industry, to name a few. I know that I have a unique way of seeing things in the world, and I want to be able to take advantage of all the mental and physical skills that I have. I not only want to tell my own story, but also want others to be able to tell their story as well.