My sophomore year independent study, Emotion in Film, focused on how filmmakers use different visual tools to evoke emotion and how these tools can be used to manipulate the emotional experience of the audience. I watched a lot of different films and did several exercises in narrative photography and short form filmmaking. During that independent study, I realized that I was less interested in live action filmmaking and screenwriting and was actually more interested in animation and digital and technical aspects of filmmaking. I realized that my background in computer science provides a lot of helpful experience for this type of filmmaking.
The fall of my sophomore year, Danielle Feinberg from Pixar came to speak at STAB. I had an aha moment as I listened to her describe her job. She talked about how working as a lighting designer combined her love for visual art with her love for coding and computer science. Her presentation made me think about a coding project I had done freshman year where I simulated grass. I had never fully realized why I found that project so intriguing and why I was willing to put in way more time than the assignment called for to get it working. Hearing Danielle Feinberg talk about how she used camera apertures to bring Wall-E’s eyes to life, or how she lit the jellyfish in Finding Nemo made me realize that I’m fascinated by the overlap between storytelling, art, science, and math. With this independent study, I want to explore the natural world through the lens of math and computer science. I want to see if I can accurately replicate natural forms through algorithms and digital simulations.
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