Let's make it better.

Ok, this year... was a lot of crazy stuff!
It was so "divergent" to say something. Yes, I know: readers' joke.
Talking about readers, I fell in love with books this year (december to be honest). I read, this last month, more books that I had read in my whole life!
I purchased a new computer. And that's the biggest gift from all this year!
I became a booktuber! ...I think that's the biggest craziness from all this year. But, I like it, a lot.
I Joined the "Document your life" project, and is so beautiful to catch every single episode of your life. It makes it like a movie.

I left you here the link to my first video. Just click on the image:

I had a job for five months. It was one of those jobs that makes you promise never to have a job again.
Yes, it was... in a call center.
I joined the filmmaking workshops! That was the biggest goal from all this year.
I wrote a script (a lot, in fact), and began to write a book. That I have a lot of hope on it. It promises to be something... you know what I'm saying.
I have the promise now of a new job on 2014, so I'm not going to be an unemployed for long.

I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts.

This was a year of crazy stuff, in fact.
I hope that you had a great year like... yeah.
Happy new year! And have a wonderful 2014, beautiful people.

See you later,
Jhonny.

Among other things...

This is other part of the woods, that I'm able to see from my backyard.

It's nice. A little intimidating, but nice. At least to take pictures of it.

I'm reading now the Hunger Games. Just in my way to finish Catching fire, and start Mockingjay.
I think is just matter of tonight, and I'll be there.

Everytime I see it, I can imagine Katniss hunting in the woods, and actually, want to explore my own part of woods. But I remember immediately that I don't have a bow with arrows, and a natural born talent to hunt.

Leave me taking pictures from my backyard.

I'm writting, too, but not another script; though. I'm writting a book.
I finished the script from my course, and I spent a lot time thinking what to write next. I wanted something epic, something unforgetable, undeniable for any producer. And I immediately thought in a historical drama. So I began to develop it in detail, because I want that to be as perfect as it could be, before I actually start to write it.

The ideas have been in my notebook for months. I know. I'm stuck. I'm going to recover that story sooner or later.

The thing is that, as I'm stuck in the script's part, and I wanted to keep writting something, I began to write a book. A kind of story that a script doesn't provide me the freedom to write.
I think it's a kind of fantasy-- no, maybe an epic fantasy, because... Now that I'm thinking right, I think it's a kind of dystopia. But, anyway, it's more complicated than that, because a dystopia requires-- never mind.

The sunset is so precious right now, and I need to finish Catching fire. Hey! Maybe that's why my story has that taste of dystopia... anyway, it's more complicated than that.

See you later,
Jhonny.

It was nice while it lasted.

I was hired to record a christmas party the last weekend. My job was to photograph the action through the event. But even that tends to get kind of boring.
Don't get me wrong, that's a great job and I love it. But it's really boring when there's no action to photograph... at all.

- Ok, kids, let's bring some fun to this party! -and I turn my head to the other side, because the kids and I know for sure that's going to take more than that comment to bring some fun to the party.

Then I see this wonderful scene. Two birds dancing between the branches of a tree, whereas the twilight paints the sky, slowly and beautifully. I want so badly to take a picture of it, but my camera is unable to reach that distance -if I didn't tell you, my camera it's not the best one when we're talking about distant scenes-, as if I didn't even know that. I just needed to try. It's too marvelous.

- Let's make groups of five! -The kids run, and I'm back to work.

See you later,
Jhonny.

Thinking in yellow

Finally the raining has stopped on my neigborhood. The trees began to bloom, and the beautiful yellow flowers -that I madly love in this season (if I can call it "season" here)- have return.

Just look at them.

I took this picture from my backyard. For some reason my neigborhood was built in middle of the woods, and I have now a great part of wood behind the wall at the end of my backyard.
This picture is just a little bit of what I'm able to see.
This is the part that I like the most.

The yellow flowers abound. I love it. I'm happy, and I feel that this is the perfect time to return writting my blog.

The weather is just ideal. This is my favorite time of the year. The sun is up high, warm but not so warm; and the light is just perfect. Everything seems waiting for the "clic" of my camera.

To bring you up to date with the events that are surrounding me by now: I'm reading. A lot.
I purchased like ten books for this christmas -that I didn't wait to open- and joining them with my old books, I'm in wonder-book-land.
I finished my script, the one for my script writting course, and I keep writing. But I want to leave that part for another post.
By now, I'm happy to come back here... where I can post a yellow flower picture taken from my backyard, and talk about anything in special.

See you later,
Jhonny.

Night out

Prompt courtesy of Velvet Verbosity‘s 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Sainted".

A night amid a Bistrot, while a musical group soaked the air of lounge music… a jazz that intoxicates body and soul.

A flute, a couple of conga drums, and a guitar. What else could be asked?

Oh, sainted music that reaches my soul and make background for my dreams, over and over again.

A cup of red wine, surrounded by good company, and heaven touched the earth  as far as I'm concerned.

The greatest nights are unplanned. All is a surprise. Everything is unexpected and new. Nothing is under control. The world is young again.

See you later,

Jhonny.

I feel wiser!

Prompt courtesy of Velvet Verbosity‘s 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Dusky".

I understand that “dusky” refers to something characterized by little or inadequate light; something shadowy.

It is mainly related to hair color and skin.

Well, I feel today a little poetical, and I want to use it to describe this photo.

Some days ago (in a middle of my scriptwriting) another bird was singing, and if you read my “Blackbird...” post, you already know why I said another. It seems that I hear a lot of birds while I’m writing.

The thing is that I took a picture of this bird, and it just seems to me… a little dusky.

The red wedding...

Ok, let's begin with this.

The red wedding, it's an episode of Game Of Thrones. The last one they premiered.

It was... shocking.

I don't know if you do watch this series, or you read the books, or you just joined the club recently. If you saw the last episode, you were all the last scene with your mouth open... like a hippo!

It was so sad, unexpected, and  painful, that I could only stay silent.

It was so logical that I could not even understand how didn't I expect that!

But at the same time, it was so sublime. It was so perfect. The whole moment was so well developed, so well thought, so perfectly created... that I stood in silence and accepted it all.

I just thought: Genius.

I took this picture above a few months ago. I was in a middle of a photoshoot, and the model created this "balloons fantasy world". I loved it, but the day was like really windy, and it was a really hard photoshoot to make. But it ends pretty well.

In one of those moments, when the balloons decided to take a fly between the light breezes, one of them (the photo's one) ended on the water, but amidst all that creepy situation. And I just thought: one misstep, and you die. And that was all about the red wedding.

Robb Stark was a balloon in a middle of a windy day.

He was so immature, and inexperienced on the war business, that he was easily to take by the breezes of his bad choices.

First: he gave his word -A KING'S WORD- to Walder Frey of marrying one of his daugthers if he gave his army to the King in the north.

Second: he marry Talisa, ignoring his promise.

Third: Catelyn frees Jaime Lannister and causes a disguised civil war inside Robb's army.

Fourth: Robb executes Lord Karstark after he murdered two captive Lannister boys... that nobody cares about them anyway.

Fifth: Robb realizes that he can't win the war without the Frey's men, and decides to offer an apology giving his uncle as redemption for his offense.

Sixth: all the Starks enter the lion's dent, and are killed... in the most cruelly way possible.

What was the mistake? 

Robb Stark failure to his word... a king's word. He was selfish, and that's it.

A whole house paid the failure of a single man. No, I'm wrong. They paid the failure of an immature king. Blinded for a selfish love... deprived of the light of wisdom.

Only one thing can be said with entire truth after the red wedding: 

All things, good or bad... overtakes us.

See you later,

Jhonny.

Blackbird...

I must begin this saying that I'm in the middle of a homework. I have to write the profile of the lead character from my script (the one I will begin to write). The profile consists in the early life of my character, and all the main life events that brought him to the events that I will put him through the film. And honestly... I'm stuck.

So let's talk about this black bird here.

It was singing so beautifully this morning that I could only get up from my computer and look at it.

It was a grey morning, by the way. I love the grey mornings, they're so quiet and calm. For a reason that I have not had the pleasure to know, when the mornings are grey and cloudy, the people change. Suddenly they make silence, lower the TV volume, and turn off the radios.

I just love that!

I take the chance to walk on the street, down to the park, and hear all that exquisite silence.

The people can't avoid the power of the rain. It brings peace... and no one can't refuse it.

Except this bird.

I know that it's not a blackbird because there is not blackbirds on America, but it is black. The facts are the facts.

So, when I walked out to the porch with my camera and saw this black bird singing so loudly and precious, I stood there for a while... just hearing it's music, and suddenly I remembered this Beatles song "Blackbird (song that I love). And immediately I realized that I have never understood it's meaning!

Google say that it was about the civil rights. And then I thought: ok, it makes sense because it was all about the black people rights, thus is why they choose the "Black"-bird as the lead character.

But then I though: and what's all about the "singing in the dead of night"? Which part plays this sentence at the civil rights? And then they say "into the light of the dark black night". Why did they specify the color of the night? Dark black...  it's just for poetry or it has a real meaning? 

And "the light". They said that it was a "dark black" night. It wasn't a normal night, It was a DARK BLACK night! Then... where is the light on a night darker than usual? I'm probably losing my imagination sense, but this confuses me. Why are they so obsessed with the night? 

And then I remembered my homework.

The black bird continues with it's singing and I take the picture, amidst all this stupid thinking ... still stuck.

See you later,

Jhonny.

Welcome to the new age

Prompt courtesy of Velvet Verbosity‘s 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Age".

I already began my scriptwriting course, which is more like a workshop, because we began to write in the same moment the course started.

I love this course!! And the greatest part is that I’m learning so much about all the steps “prior to” actually begin to write a script.

This is an all new experience for me, and I’m in heaven right now!

Of course this workshop implies a lot of work, but I love it. I’m actually enjoying it.

All I can hear in my mind right now is: “Welcome to the new age”.

See you later,

Jhonny.

At the edge of the river

Lying down, at the edge of the river... thinking.
Thinking about what I did, what I do.
What I'm doing wrong... what I'm doing right. Do I did something right?
Yeah, I remember some of those.
The water flows so silently, but I can hear it's music, though.
That soft melody... that peaceful sound that make me close my eyes and forget my thoughts.

What I was thinking?
I don't care any more.

Lying down at the edge of the rive... in a middle of a magical orchestra.
I don't care any more if I can't find the pathway back.

Totally obsessed with Game Of Thrones!

Have been two and a half years since these series invaded our homes. And I was totally caught by it.
I enjoy every episode of Game Of Thrones!!! It's so intriguing, and intelligent, and very well produced!!!
Every episode of these HBO series it's like watch a movie. The backgrounds, the costumes, the SOUNDTRACK!
I could be talking about this for hours, but I must get to the point.
I have always been certain on this fact: the books are always better than the movies.
In the case of Game Of Thrones, I honestly thought that being it a "series", it would embrace all the book's details, and little conversations, and everything. Because they make these "One hour long" episodes, and at the end are 10 episodes by season. So, how long has to be a book to leave things back, if you have ten hours to develop it?

But I was wrong.

One day I was watching a video-blog on youtube from this "Game Of Thrones obsessed girl" (more than me), and she just said a quick sentence... that changed all my perspective about the HBO series. She said:

"I really love the books, because they show you the characters thoughts and you really know their feelings, and what they want to do and why."

And my brain collapsed by a second.
Like really? With all those hours in audiovisual content, there are more things that I could know?? What the hell?!

I HAVE TO BUY THOSE BOOKS!!!

So, two weeks later, here is my collection of books "A Song Of Ice And Fire". And I really, REALLY, love them. They, in fact, have those great and hugely explaining thoughts that the HBO series don't provide.
And those are the same thoughts that make you to say: oooohhh, I understand now! That's why!

And with this exquisite lesson, I leave you this conclusion.
"The books are always better than the movies... and series".

See you later,
Jhonny.

Drawing... is not a good sign

I must begin this post saying that I'm not a great cartoonist. I almost don't draw at all. This is just a hobbie... my favorite hobbie.

The thing is that I only practice it on REALLY BORING TIMES.

If you see me drawing, sure yourself that I'm dying slowly in my chair.

I draw when a class is too frustrating. I draw if I can't hear the teacher's voice. I draw if I already know what the teacher is saying, 'cause he didn't remember that he explained the same thing a million times. I draw when I don't understand a heck about the current class, but at the same time I don't have any interest into do it. I draw when my friends (the closest ones) don't assist college, and I don't know what to do with my free time. I draw when I have to sit at the last chair because I was late. I draw when the current class is too boring for me, or my brain doesn't hits the desire to let that all absurd information get in. I draw when I feel outcast. I draw when I fall in love. I draw when my soul leaves the entire room.

So, taking one of these multiple reasons... I'm screwed. Because from this moment, I already know that the class where I was doing this... will be my dear friend in summer class.

See you later,

Jhonny.

A hard patient...

Prompt courtesy of Velvet Verbosity‘s 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Lackluster". 

-Hi Samuel, how’re you doing today?

-Really depressive.

-Why?

-I just feel… lackluster.

-lackluster? With that do you mean emotionless?

-Yeah.

-Don’t you feel any happiness today?

-No… not at all.

-Well, let’s begin a little exercise. You will lie down, and enter in a fantasy with me, in wich you gonna interpret glowing things. Are you ready?

-Ok.

-Perfect. Now, you are a great lighthouse. You’re really bright. Can see it, Samuel, how do you feel now?

-Burned.

-… ok, let’s try another thing. Now you’re the sun! Big, powerful, glowing, warm and timeless. How do you feel?

-Lackluster.

My weird collections... and mission accomplished

In a previous post, I showed you my "radioactive" bedroom table. Seriously, let's be honest, you could get close to it and hear the Imagine Dragons song:

"I'm waking up to ash and dust, I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. I'm breathing in the chemicals..."

But, in the same post, I made a commitment to clean it up. So, I'm glad to show you now the results.

So, mission accomplished!!
Clean it was really hard. Only this table, was a dust factory... and I'm allergic to it. So you can figure it out in the state I finished.
But I'm proud of the results. The clothes went to the closet, a ton of paper moved to the garbage, and the things that were to memorial for me found their place in the trunk of memories. And suddenly, I meet all my weird collections again. All the collections that were hidden under that huge mess that was my bedroom.
And I smiled like a child who found his old buzz lightyear deep in the closet.

One of them, is that group of juice bottles. That's my favorite juice. My breakfast juice.
When I met it, I just began to collect all the different bottles that I was buying. Don't ask me why.
There is also my National Geographic magazines, and I include them in my "weird collections" because -and  this is a bit embarrasing for me- I only buy them to see the pictures.

Yes, I know. That sounds like a kid's attitude.

But the thing is that I find the National Geographic's photos TOO AMAZING! That magazine has the best photographers of the world! And sometimes, the articles are like pretty long and complicated -boring- for me. So, I just enjoy the pictures.

Another collection that I have, are this boxes here.

These are the boxes that survived the last cleaning.
I have this mania of keeping boxes. They just have to be colorful, with too many letters, or just have any inusual feature for me, and I will keep it.

Finally, a few months ago, I found this particular soda bottle. It was pretty vintage style, and I fell in love with it.
I began to buy them, and collect them as well. But my mom knew that it would become in another weird collection of mine, so she said to me "You will find a use for those bottles, or I will take them to garbage".
And that sentence was her ultimatum.
So, when I found them again, I remembered her warning, and I had this pretty idea.

I turned them into "One cent's saving bottles"!

My goal is get them totally full, and change them to begin the cicle again.

So, the thing is that I'm pretty happy about my room clean. And as the same Imagine Drangons song says:

"Welcome to the new age"

An age that I hope continues clean... and free of dust allergies.

See you later,

Jhonny.

Afternoon highway

From college to home, there's an "one hour and half's road".
A road that I have to pass four days a week. But I kinda love it.
I always have to take it at twilight hour. I LOVE THE TWILIGHT. It's my favorite part of the day.
So, I take out my phone, and enjoy the highway. The afternoon highway.
I put my headphones on, and the music completes the atmosphere.
Suddenly, the "one hour and half's road", turns into a "half hour's paradise"... and beautiful phone pictures.

See you later,
Jhonny.

At least once, dude!!

Prompt courtesy of Velvet Verbosity‘s 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Misbehavin'". 

-Do you see that girl?

-Yes... why?

-I talked to her about you.

-Really?! What did you say?

-That you wanna talk her after the meeting.

-Alone?

-Of course, dude! And she agreed. C'mon, it's your chance.

-Ok...

The meeting ends. The man reaches the girl as planned. 

Minutes later, the girl laughter can be heard in the hallway. The friend can't help himself, and begins to spy. The girl have a cartoon of her on hands.

-Thanks.

The girl leaves the room. 

-You don't even kiss her, right? I really want to catch you misbehaving! At least once, dude!!

Super 8... and mavelous music

I want to begin this post by saying that you have to click on it to see it completely.
Yes, maybe you knew it... but maybe not. So, if you are reading this without click on the post (title, picture, letters, whatever), and let a little window opens up with the entire post, you will not be able to read it completely, or even leave a comment. 'Cause this is just a preview.

Now, let's begin with this post.
Last week, our photography teacher gave us a lesson about "film's formats". He spoke -between one thousand topics completely differents, and far away from the main title- about the 35mm film. That was the first film's format that was created by the Lummiere brothers. And all of us were like "yeah, I know that", because the last year, we spent like six months talking about them. But don't rush, incredibly, all I can remeber is that they are the fathers of cinema.
The new thing about that class, was the fact that I didn't know that the japaneses were the ones that took the 35mm film, and began to cut it.
They started with the 17.5mm film, to reduce costs. That was the "official half" of the 35mm film. But it was unsuccessful. So they just left it at 16mm.
But they weren't satisfied!
So they took that 16mm film, and cut it. Bringing to world the 8mm filmstrips. The Super 8 films.

Being these last ones the cheapest ones, and the ones that everybody prefered to have for home-tapes, indie films, or just to have a video camera. 

But, besides all this history, while the teacher continued talking, I just was thinking about the Steven Spielberg's film "Super 8".
Do you saw it?
I love that movie! And the main reason is this group of "filmmaking addicts" that he presents. The group had it's director, cameraman, boom operator, actors and makeup artist! They were an amazing -and pretty young- indie production team. That catched me right away.
Sadly, my mom doesn't share with me this obsession. She didn't like the movie so much. But there's just one thing that she totally loves as me. It's soundtrack.
We, literally share the sentence: that music is marvelous!
I have this great attraction for the films soundtracks. To me, that's the better part of the movie. And it goes to the point were no matter if the movie sucks... LIKE IT REALLY SUCKS. If the music touches my soul, I will see it twenty times. No matter how awful are the dialogs, or photography, etc..
There is a lot of soundtracks that I love, but In the photography class, I was just thinking of this one. And suddenly I remember this scene. In fact, is the only scene of the movie where my mom leaves everything to see it. She could be on the kitchen, taking out a suffle, but when she hears the scene's theme, "letting go" (yeah, I already know all the tracks names), she runs to the living room, and sits beside me.

The entire town it's freaking out by the alien spaceship above the water tank, and the metallic things flying all around in the air. Suddenly, the kid finds his father, and they hug each other really tightly. But, the alien scene is so fantastic that they have to watch. And, like magic... his locket is up in the air. But immediatly he takes it. And the locket opens.
Father and son, can't avoid to take their eyes to the woman's picture. His wife... his mother. 
And the music reaches its peak.
The kid opens his hand, and the locket flies to the water tank. Between all this marvelous moment.
And in the very second  when the locket touches the water tank, it explodes. And the spaceship takes fly to the stars.

And we are like crying, and sobbing! It's the film's greatest part.
My mom leaves the living room completely satisfied, and we say in unison: it's my favorite part! 

See you later,
Jhonny.

You have to clean!

I don't know if you have seen "Ramen girl".
Do you?

Well, my mom loves that movie, and every time the TV puts it on, she watches it. And I do as well. We only have one familiar TV, and when somebody controls the situation, everybody has to follow that path... at least until the movie ends, and the battle begins again.

Well, after the twenty times I had saw it, I have been really impressed with a particular scene from the film.

It's this part when she is cleaning up everything, and the japanese character gets really irritating, and begins to bother her. And, as every human would do, she gets really upset and the shouting begins.
She says that she's tired of cleaning. She cleaned the floors, the bathrooms, the windows, the tables. EVERYTHING! And the worst thing of all, was the fact that she was there because she wanted to learn how to make ramen. And this japanese chef had her cleaning the whole place. 
Fortunately, the japanese chef understands her, and he tries to say something nice and deep, but he choose the word "clean". He, sadly, takes his dictionary, and say: "You have to clean..." But he really didn't finish his sentence, because he doesn't know the other words. And, obviously, she freaks out.

"CLEAN?!- You say I have to clean? I'M SICK OF CLEANING! I want to make Ramen!"
The thing is that she ends up leaving the place, and the japanese chef feels really powerless, because he wanted to teach her a lesson, but he didn't find the words.
The girl arrives home, even upset, but when she open the door, her place it's a mess. A REALLY HORRIBLE DISASTER. And she understood.

I have to clean up my life.

That part of the movie gets me really deep. And it's true. Before beginning anything on our lives, we have to be sure that everything on it it's clean up. The first thing to do, before the big first step, it's clean up ourselves, our issues, our problems, our complexes, our bad habits, our weaknesses, our EVERYTHING!
And she understood that very clearly. How can I begin to learn a technique so hard like cook ramen, if my life is such a mess? And, diligently, she began to clean. Like her sensei said.

So, been told all of this, I show you my bedroom.

Yes, it's pretty ironic after all that history I just told you. And that's only the table, because if I show you the rest of the room, probably blogger would shut me down by inappropriate content.
But, the thing is that I understood it too... like, in this right second.
This blog will not be a simple thing for me. This blog will be a life project for me, and that's really big and important. So I don't want to begin this with my life being a disaster. So I decide to pay attention to this lesson, and I will begin with my bedroom (wich has been like this since last year). Just as the "Ramen girl" did. And then follow up with everything else.

See you later... and wish me luck.

My first frame :D

Hi. 

You really will not believe me, but I don't know what else to say... and I'm at the beggining of my first post.
This must be the worst way to begin a blog. But well, I'm here already.

I'll like to begin this explaining you something. I'm Panamanian, that means I'm latin... what means I speak spanish.
But, surely, you must be asking yourself: hey, but why this guy is writting in english?
Well, this is like a "language skills" project... or proof. Whatever.
I really want to become a full bilingual professional, and this is a pretty way to make it.
But, besides being a "language" proof, it's a life project.
On my personal data, you could find what this means... what's the metaphore behind the "Filmstrip" title. But it's in spanish, and before you quit about trying to read it, don't worry. I added a translater on this site, it's just on the right side of this blog. You just have to choose "english", and immediately you will read it perfectly... well, like "google translater" perfectly.

Returning to the subject, this is a "Life project". And what's about?
Well, I'm on college. I'm studying social communications, the production industry, to be specific. But, with the sole purpose to becoming a filmmaker!

Besides all that emotion... that's really hard to become here, on Panama. Like really hard. It's like an illusion, more than a dream. And this blog will be my "Becoming..." journal.
Yeah, that sounds pretty little weird. But, I really hope that you could understand what I mean to say with it.

So, I think this is fine for my first post here. The first frame, from my filmstrip, that I share with you. 
See you.