Who is TheNorm?

I've been talking about movies, and the art of making movies, for quite some time now. So much so that I think I overlooked an important thing. I have given my thoughts and feelings about movies to my readers (and YouTube subscribers) with enthusiasm and care. Except, what I failed to remember was, just like any movie, the audience, or in this case the readers, need a reason to care. In other words, I have asked you to take my words without knowing who I am or why I put my voice out there in the first place. Well, today, I'm going to break the ice. Here is who I am, what I want, and why I ask that you hear what I have to say about movies, making movies, and anything else movie related that is on my mind.

Movies have always been a part of my life. My parents took me to the movie theaters on a regular basis. Some of my best childhood memories took place in the folding seats of the movie theater. Two of them include the day my mother took me to see the first Tim Burton Batman film on opening day, and when my father and I saw Batman: Mask of the Phantasm in theaters. You know? I just realized that two of my fondest movie memories are related to Batman. How about that?

My artistic passion began in theater. When I was 16, my mother signed me up for a voice lesson. When I arrived to class, I discovered that the teacher was holding a parent/participant meeting for the local youth theater. Given that she had to cancel her voice lesson with me, she offered me a role in the play. Despite not having much theater experience under my belt at that time, but wanting to get something out of the canceled lesson, I said yes. Soon I was in rehearsal for a show called Double Date. A set of two one-act plays written by Horton Foote about the dating scene in 1930s South. That was when the acting bug bit me.

At first, I fell in love with the environment. I found myself surrounded by like-minded people who all got along and treated each other with respect and encouraged each other to try new things and not be afraid of your true self. As a child, I found myself cast aside as the designated "loser" or "weirdo." Like many artists have. So, to have found a place where I no longer had to be afraid of who I was, and be around others like me, meant the world to me. I knew that I wanted to spend every possible second in this place.

I continued to participate in that same youth theater program for years. Upon graduating high school, I auditioned for and got accepted into the Foothill College Theater Conservatory. A two-year training program for aspiring actors. Those were, so far, the best two years of my life. Every day felt like magic. The plays we would read and contemplate in dramatic literature class, the beautiful and surreal discoveries from our Mask workshop, and the joy of hands-on creation in make-up class, there was never a dull moment in this program.

Upon graduating the conservatory, I continued to do theater, though I started participating less and less as time went by. I was interested in doing more film acting. As, even then, I still had a strong passion for the movies. There was just one little problem. I couldn't find real film acting gigs. Every project I auditioned for, communicated to producers for, even spoke in person to students for, just never fell through. At first, I thought it was just not meant to be, but I was determined to get some film acting on my resume.

At some point, I suspected that the problem was with me. I thought that maybe because of my theatrical training, I was approaching the film world incorrectly. So, I took it upon myself to learn more about filmmaking. Believing that if I had a better understanding of what goes on behind the camera, I might do a better job in front of the camera. Thus began my journey as a filmmaker.

I took a few classes at De Anza College and participated in an extensive training program at the New York Film Academy, but the vast majority of my knowledge of filmmaking has been self-taught. I observed a lot of tutorial videos on youtube, particularly those of Indie Mogal and Film Riot. I have even been fortunate enough to have participated on set for a couple of big films as a behind-the-scenes documentarian. I have also acted in a few student films that had access to an entire studio.

Like my experience with theater, I fell in love with the environment and the like-minded people. Over time, I learned what it was about cinema that truly made me appreciate it as an art form, and what makes it stand out from live theater. Both film and theater are powerful artistic mediums that allow escapism and offer compelling stories, but movies, at least in my opinion, have a certain edge over live theater. Everyone has their own interpretation of this phenomenon, but for me personally, it's the sheer chaos of creation. Having a plan, running into roadblocks, having to work around it, and especially discovering that someone else's idea of how to tackle something is actually better than what you had originally thought. Made all the more intense when you remember that how you cut the film is exactly how it's going to be for rest of its life, so you need to ensure that it's as pristine as it can be. It's that kind of unexpected collaboration that makes movies a little bit more magical to me.

Over time, I became just as enthralled with making movies as I was with performing in theater. Eventually, after making some short films with my friends, and participating in a few 48 Hour Films, I discovered that my strongest passion was, surprisingly, cinematography, the art of lighting and camera techniques. Cinematography allows me to apply my theater training to the film set. As, in my opinion, the camera is the most important character in a movie's story. The camera is not just a device which observes the events of the story, nor is it merely a vessel for the audience. The camera is a character. It has feelings about the proceedings and is just as curious as you are.

As my passion for movies and filmmaking continued to grow and make me utterly overjoyed, my understanding of the business side of movies made me only depressed. I have come to identify the mainstream Hollywood system as an artistic business that has too much business and not enough art. Yes, as a business it has to make money to survive, and yes, they still occasionally have an excellent movie that reminds us why we fell in love with Hollywood in the first place, hence why I haven't given up on them entirely just yet. Even so, in my honest opinion, they can still do better with their products and can truly afford to return to form by taking risks more often. The reason they keep making more Transformers movies, a series that has spent its whole existence doing the exact same thing over and over again with no variety whatsoever, is because they keep making lots of money. So the studios simply do more of the same thing, utterly terrified to take any risks, and continue to assume that we don't want anything different. At least, that seems to be their impression.

Speaking of the Transformers movies, earlier this year, before the release of the fifth Transformers film directed by Michael Bay, he came out and said that we were going to see it anyway and it was still going to make lots of money, even though we were going to hate it. This assumption that we don't want variety, and that we are so ignorant and apathetic as not to demand it, makes me sick. As an artist, and as a film enthusiast, I want to break this ugly assumption that we as an audience don't know any better. Because we are smarter than they think we are.

Therefore, if we want Hollywood to start putting more money into better movies, then the best way to do so is to see the films we are interested in while they are still in theaters. Waiting for them to arrive on Netflix is not likely going to ensure more quality content from Hollywood. That is why I decided to review movies and why I humbly ask for your attention. Because by sharing my experience and personal taste as an artist and a film enthusiast with all of you, we as an audience can encourage better movies from Hollywood.

Let's take back Tinseltown together.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you for reading.