A Day in The Life: Behind The Scenes
Hello.
If you had read my previous journal post in June (wow, time flies!) I was excited about an upcoming professional video shoot with the majorly talented Alayna Erhart.
A little recap: Alayna and I met for the first time in January 2020 and we immediately hit it off. We were going to do brand and studio related video before the pandemic hits. Of course, things shifts over the year 2020, I guess a worldwide pandemic does that. My mentality and attitude around what is meaningful to me has also radically changed. At first I was excited about going through the format of Q&A, telling people my story about what I do so they would hire me for their exciting projects. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy and am grateful for commercial/client work. I have been very much fortunate that I never had to deal with extremely difficult clients/work situations in the past 2 years of running my own studio. What I have been wrestling with is the meaning of work for myself. I have been struggling with capitalism and the way the world works, especially in America. Work or getting hired to do work is no longer what is forefront on my mind. What is surprisingly hard is that now I don’t really quite know exactly what should be forefront. I keep thinking maybe there’s no should. Maybe “I should do xyz” is the trap. But then that goes against everything I have build my life around over the past 15 years.
I have been raised and trained to be as productive as I can possibly be. And I’m not going to lie, I really enjoy the guidelines and rules around being a “productive member of society”. There’s an inherent rush and pride for a job well done, to be deemed as a hard-worker, to be praised for my ability to work and push myself. But what if - just what if - what it means to be productive has radically changed for me? Then, what would this video Alayna and I really want to make be about?
That was an important question I was asking myself on and off throughout 2020 and early 2021. Alayna and I had Zoom chats (naturally) we would speak about videos, philosophy, books to read. Quite a few of them actually became my favorites: (Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, The Magical Language of Others by E.J Koh, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 이민진 and the list goes on…) We spoke about what it is like to be women and to be women in the creative industry. How we feel about the way the ground is moving and shifting underneath us each year we mature into our adulthood. We marvel at some of the stuff we were able to do during the pandemic, the kind of solace we find in this hard time in humankind history and we mostly spoke about what it would be like if we don’t have the constraint of “selling a product/service/expertise” in this particular video we want to make. Instead of this video being solely about me, we wonder if we can infuse more of Alayna in this as well. During our talks, we got to a point where we decided we should make this video reflect what 2020 has taught me about joy in creating, in savoring each day and in that idea the pieces started falling into place. We created a “perfect” day in the life of myself as an artist and equally as important, Alayna’s magic in creating beautiful moving images.
So, without further ado, the video itself:
The “perfect” day in the life
6:00 a.m. morning coffee and quiet journal in my studio corner. I like to meditate in immersive music and writing before I start my day and I make it a point to do so every day. I am an avid collector of (mostly) paper as a form of mementos. I decided to collage them in my journals to make them more permanent rather than have them live in storage boxes. Every morning I am accompanied by Jasper’s pitter patter paw sounds on the floor and he would sit underneath my drafting table while I journal.
3:00 p.m. After going through emails/on the computer work day (not shown in video) I head out for work at a coffee shop. Something I’ve always enjoyed doing pre-pandemic and hope to pick up again after we fully get through this pandemic. At a coffee shop I get to put on my playlist, podcast and do some sketching and ideation. Sometimes I’ll reward myself with anything I want to explore creatively and sometimes I’ll do client work that aren’t restricted/under NDA.
5.00 p.m. I make a point to draw everyday, even if they are just a form of doodles or brain-dump. In the summer we get the joy of setting up a picnic blanket and enjoying the sweet short summer we have here in the PNW.
7.00 p.m. At the end of his work day, my partner, Juan and our pup Jasper comes to wherever I end up to enjoy this before heading home to cook or pick up delicious food from local places. Alayna had this lovely idea of us flying a kite as a little happy family. I decided it sounded magical and painted a custom kite. I’ve never flown a kite before in my life and I didn’t think I would get the hang of it but hey, it is the magical perfect day after all and I somehow learned how to get the kite off the ground. 🪁
a few BTS (behind the scenes) stills:
This was a perfect day filled with conversations in between shoots, scouting spots for the golden lights, summer air and a sweet collaboration between two creatives.
I am going to gush about Alayna a bit before I conclude this journal entry.
I adore Alayna as a human being. Alayna brought with her a kind of sweet low-key enthusiastic joy that I find so soothing and calming. She is professional and a great communicator throughout our long voyage in finally getting this video shot and out into the world. I think she has spoiled me in the fact that my first experience being the focus of the camera was so smooth and comfortable. She truly captures in this video what I feel is true to me as an artist and as a person. On top of all that, she managed to capture Jasper in the cutest possible moments that we know we will cherish. Alayna, you’re an absolute joy.
& with that, i’ll awkwardly sign off. Until next time. xoxo.