Answers, Answers, Answers
1. Name and your URL address for your class blog.
Paul Feduccia (I go by Tony), and my class blog is PaulsDigitalMediablog.blogspot.com
2. What’s your major? What year will you graduate?
I'm a theatre major, and I will be graduating in 2016. I'm a sophomore.
3. Why did you choose a photography class (or photography as a major), and what do you hope to learn from school in general and this class specifically?
I hope to become more creative and ambitious in my life. I choose this class because I've always been interested in photography and cinematography. I for the longest time wanted to be a film director.
4. What are your goals after graduation? Please list your goals in reverse order, starting five years out, then three, two, one, and six months.
I would like to be involved in theatre and film making projects and maybe publish a book in five years ( I know this is rather ambitious, but I would like to live my life creating art for others to enjoy and I have many ideas for where to start). In three years I would like to have moved to a bigger city and have joined a theatre group, maybe started a novel. In two years I would like to have graduated College and have my degree. In one year year I would like to have started personal projects and learn more about film making and creating novels. In six months I would like to make good grades and have furthered my education in regards to the arts.
5. What artists, musicians, photographers, writers, movies, books have influenced you/your work?
I would say, in terms of movies, American Beauty is high up there, I love the chaos of the family it focuses on and all of normality is shown as a shroud to cover up the more controversial elements of each character's lives, where as the one character that is shown as weird has the calmness and appreciation for life without repressing what he truly loves. I have a love for the musical group Queen, their energetic music and changing styles are so enthusiastic and iconic I find it hard not to love them.
6. Where do you get information about current national and international events?
I get my information mostly on the internet. I avoid major news outlets like the plague. To be honest they are just shameful in how they capitalize on sensationalized news and extreme political discourse. It appears that they get half their facts wrong and misuse statistics at any chance they can just to fill a 24 hour time span. To be honest I tend to get my news mostly from Philip de Franco on youtube.com. He tends to be informal in nature, but he at least cites his sources well and makes sure to get his facts right.
7. Are there any important websites that you are referencing for art/photo competitions and/or information?
No
8. What museums and/or galleries have you been to in the past year?
I went to the Dallas Museum of Art, last August.
9. Have you had any photo projects and/ or training in the past?
I've done a couple of films for Theatre classes, they were mostly amateur in quality, but not many photos.
10. What is the value of art for the artist?
Art is subjective so it depends on the artist. I would imagine its pretty valuable to the artist as a means of self expression. It can be One's stamp on history, or just a personal footnote One wishes to leave behind.
11. What is the value of art for the audience?
Yet again art is subjective. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as the saying goes. Some people can look at art only as mindless entertainment that they can use to avoid from going insane during their lifetime, or Art can be a fundamental of One's soul and their outlook on life as a whole, it just depends on the viewer and the art in question.
12. Is photography a vocation or an avocation?
Vocation. I guess it could be an avocation but I think that is a flawed way to look at the arts in my opinion.
13. What is your passion?
Living and creating. I love all forms of art. I particularly love films both artsy and simple action films. I can't deny my love and admiration for video games. I know many people don't view games as an art form, but that is just plain ignorance.
14.What are you afraid of? What makes you uncomfortable?
Spiders. Seriously they are demons spawned from the most sadistic human being to have ever lived nightmares. Also heights.
15. Do you have a passport? What traveling have you done or would like to do?
Yes! I've been to Rome and the Vatican before. On the way home we also stopped by Amsterdam. I would love to visit Florence, or any part of Sicily at some point. Also I have a huge love for Japanese culture, and would love to visit Japan and England at some point.
16. Why did you sign up for this class? What do you hope to learn from it?
I signed up for this class, because I have an immense love for photography and cinematography mostly born from my days as a film buff. I occasionally study cinematography text books on my own time. There is something about the way that warmer lighting accents the texture of objects such as a brick wall that can bring a magical representation of a protagonist's feelings into the fore front of the audience's mind. Or how clever editing can super impose a sense of pace that can drive a story in such a manner that the audience finds themselves clinging to the edge of their seat. I love fantasy and how art can portray reality in such an abstract manner as to give a deeper more subjective meaning to a object, setting, or character that a viewer can relate to on an emotional level.
I hope to learn some fundamentals of photography that I haven't quite understood such as composition or lighting. I also would hope to learn how to use software such as adobe Photoshop and light room.
