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I am so glad I got the opportunity to hear Marc Baird speak. Literally...I didn't know that live action movies use storyboards. I thought they were only used in animated movies and television cartoons. But after the presentation he gave, I can understand why. Visual cues make it so much easier to imagine the direction a movie is going to go.

Marc Baird is hilarious. Hands down one of the funniest people I've ever heard. It was obvious at the beginning of both presentations he gave us that he was a little nervous and unsure where to start, but give him a few minutes and he turns into a stand-up comedian who also happens to draw things.

I loved the way he discussed the transition from pen and paper to digital art. "Does it make it faster? Yes and no." Which is really true of all technology. when computers took off, everyone said that they worked so fast and they would make our lives easier and our work faster to produce. And by and large that is true. But just like Marc said, the technology also means it's possible to do more things--and so we take more time doing all those little extras that couldn't be done before. He also expressed a bit of nostalgia toward the old way of doing things--getting ink all over his hands. I think that can probably be said for a lot of things in our culture today too. Sure, being able to download books and newspapers digitally is great, but it's easy to miss the smell of a brand-new (or a very old) book when you first open it...and washing newsprint off my fingers was kind of a satisfying feeling.

I feel this way about television today too. We live in an age of DVR and internet TV, where the shows we want are literally a mouse click or button push away, 24/7. This is FANTASTIC. Trust me. But I still make it a point to park myself in front of the television at 9:59 every Monday night for Castle, just like I did as a kid, when my favorite shows would be on. There is something about that anticipation every week, that makes it important for me to experience the show right when it first airs, rather than downloading it or watching it on hulu later.

I loved the part of the presentation where he showed up the animated version of the 21 Jump Street freeway scene, and then compared it with the actual live-action sequence. It was really cool to watch the way a concept can evolve from "the page" so to speak, to the big screen. It makes me wonder what the original concept of some of my favorite Castle scenes looked like before they were filmed. also, I really desperately need to see the rest of 21 Jump Street now. so thanks for that.

All and all, I'm really glad I got to go to this shindig. Marc Baird was interesting, entertaining, and beyond funny, and being in the same room as someone who has been in the presence of some of the greatest directors in Hollywood is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, I always appreciate a good Sweeney Todd reference.