“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” - Galadriel
Growing up, my dad moved around a lot and rarely had a television. Because of this, he and his siblings grew up holding movies and television shows in such high esteem, that whenever a tv was on, all 6 of them would cram themselves in front of it and watch with almost unblinking eyes. On the opposite side of this: my mom always had a tv. And because she was an only child with two working parents, she always had the television running.
Add these two together, and you get my sister and I. We always had a tv growing up (even though we never had cable) and we developed a deep appreciation and admiration for movies like our father and his siblings.
Going back to the quote I added. If you’ve ever watched (or read) Lord Of The Rings, then you probably knew where that quote was from. If not, just know that Lady Galadriel said this to Frodo as he was leaving the safety of Lothlórien and began to doubt himself. Whenever I start to doubt myself or become overwhelmed, I like to think about Frodo and Galadriel. But that’s not why I added this quote. I added it because it’s forever burned into my memory, along with the rest of the films
My parents first let me watch Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003) when I was four years old. Of course I had to close my eyes when Shelob (the giant spider) appeared on screen, but everything else was deemed suitable for my impressionable mind. My sister and I watched those movies over and over again until we actually broke our dvd copies! We would watch them at home, we would watch them at sleepovers, day and night, waking or (in some cases) sleeping. They were our favorites! They still are. But one day, after watching it for probably the ten thousandth time, I realized there were bonus features. Including, but not limited to, “behind the scenes”. And it opened a whole new world!!
After discovering this, I watched those “behind the scenes” clips as much as I did the movies. I was entranced, enamoured, and fascinated by how my favorite movies were made. But I couldn't stop there. I watched “behind the scenes”, “how it’s made”, “bloopers”, documentaries, anything I could get my hands on that showed me the inner workings of movies. Not just for Lord Of The Rings, but for every movie I’d seen; and I still do! I love seeing how things were put together for a film. I read about them. I watch videos on them. Even the majority of the blogs I follow on social media platforms are about how certain movies were put together!
Growing up with my music major mom and my engineer dad, I was always a little nervous that they’d want me to go into one of their fields. But, boy was I wrong! Telling my family I wanted to major in film and one day be a director has been both a blessing and a curse. They supported me every step of the way, and they still do! They love that I wanted to go into this field. But on the other side of that, I get nonstop questions about every movie we watch: “Sydney! How’d they do this?”, “Syd! How’d they do that?”, “Syd! Can you tell me what they used for this?”.
I’ve been lucky enough to have such a supporting family when it comes to my obsession with film, but their undying support gets to be a bit much sometimes.
I live in and grew up in Poway and went to Poway schools. I’ve taken three other cinema courses so far and I wanted to take film criticism because I want to know how to further dissect and analyze movies. I want to be able to argue the good and the bad in any film.
I fell head over heels for the film industry, and I’m still in love. And, honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.
