Artist Statement

Artist Statement
Roberto Moreno


Finding color in the dark and gloomy City of New York. The buildings, the street signs, its citizen’s clothes and attitude tend to sway to grays, blacks, dark shades, and dim undertones. My work is to discover color and bring it front and center. Color isn’t easy to find, it's a clever thing that is an expert at hiding. It likes to bury itself in places that you’ll never expect to find; in the streets, at the underground subway station, in your lover’s bedroom, a trashy dive bar, but its surrounds us everywhere in this murky and dim city.

Colors don't have to just be shade and dyes. It’s also the product of feelings, actions, and expressions that occur everyday. By being able to capture those colorful moments by using different mediums, like films and stills. I am able to artistically show the colors that randomly appear in New York City.

Artist Statement

                                                                                Artist Statement 

Art is something we come into contact with almost everyday of our lives. Wether its graffiti on building walls, paintings at a museum or even a creative picture posted on someones Instagram or Twitter. Art is apart of out culture and is something that can sometimes be taken for granted. I have never really considered myself an artist in the sense of creating something visually appealing for others to enjoy but more along the lines of being able to write something that others will be interested in . As a Media Major I have taken a few classes that have taught me a few skills that I never would of thought were necessary for me to learn because all I wanted to do was write. But now I am enjoying learning how the pictures we see and the movies we watch come together in such creative ways using skills that I can actually learn. 

I am not into creating the actual art pieces that I see almost everyday but more into the writing category of art. I feel that art can extend outside of a canvas, photo or display and can be translated into something so well written that the audience may not miss the actual physical piece. I use my writing to show my creative way of thinking. I may not be able to create a physical picture for my audience but I do like to think that I can help with creating the picture through my writing. Just how poets can express such great emotion that the reader can actually feel what they are trying to express or how a novel can describe a scene so well that the reader feels they have been transported to that exact moment they are reading, writers use their creativity to help readers paint their very own pictures. I consider being a writer being a type of artist because even though I am not there to help the audience create the art physically, I can help then create their very own art by using their imagination which is awaken by my writing. 

Artist Statement

A filmmaker has the power to create illusions and dreams. My work is to explore the new aesthetic ways on how the public view motion images. To explore these images we must know how to perceive them and analytically explain them, also how we view images in ways that are beyond our comprehension, and how images reflect our society and our world.  However, this work involves many techniques (cinematic compositions, editing, and sound) that are built around in filmmaking.
To create films I must first understand the viewer’s subjective point of view and look at in terms of voyeurism. This will allow my aesthetic work a combination of the world and the publics’ point of view together. But how often do viewers look at images, and see nothing, but moving pictures. People don’t often care about images. It is suppose to be the image that plays the viewers’ mind and not the other way around.

Artist Statement

Our universe is in a constant state of change. As humans we are both creators and subjects of change. We grow, we build, we destroy, we die, we decay. As a musician and filmmaker, I explore and reproduce the feeling of  such as life and death, fresh and rotten, new and decayed, young and old, etc.

In life's path we may experience sudden change that shakes our world and cracks our foundation. These moments strike us with violence, cruelty, and ruthlessness. In my music, I juxtapose calm, clean grooves with aggressive, dirty riffs to represent the sudden movement of a mood from bright to dark, as it happens in life. Not only do I represent this change of emotions with contrasting major, minor, and dissonant chords, but also with contrasting strumming patterns, contrasting dynamics and contrasting lyrics. I was born in Argentina but half of me is Bolivian. It is because of the latter half that I am greatly influenced by the folk music of the Andes region of South America. I incorporate the soul and pulse of Andean folk into my music, fusing it with the heaviness of rock and roll.

When making films, I've become obsessed with the aesthetics of decay. All in the universe is victim of time. All withers away, all crumbles, color washes out, points dull, etc. Juxtaposing such imagery of weathering with imagery of bright colors, flawless surfaces and strong structures creates a feeling of life passing by or a powerful and unavoidable claustrophobia of knowing nothing escapes the passage of time. For example a young boy with new bright colored clothes and shoes sitting by a homeless man in a cloak with swollen feet in a weathered subway station.

Taking examples from mine and other's lives, I recreate both positive and negative emotions through the use of sounds and images. These can lead the viewer or listener into reliving a moment in time or into observing or taking in an experience they have not yet lived,  dwelling on the fact that nothing remains the same.

Artist Statement

 I am an aspiring filmmaker hailing from Hell's Kitchen, NY. I started in film back in 2003 in this program named the Neighborhood Film Academy, which lead him to Downtown Community Television Center's (DCTV) Pro-TV program. At Pro-TV, I had the opportunity to co-produced the short documentary, "Voices: Hearing The Homeless", which screened at several festivals. In 2006, I won the HBO/New York International Latino Film Festival Future Filmmaker Award, which lead to four-year position at the New York International Latino Film Festival. Currently I am pursuing my Bachelors under the CUNY BA program and also working as a freelance video editor.

My goals are several: one is to be either a working writer or video editor. The second is to own my own company, specializing in production, post-production or distribution. The reason why I’m aiming to run my own company is because one of the difficulties I have with my own work is getting a solid audience to view my work. I know that also tends to be a difficulty for a lot of my peers. Nothing pains me more than to see a great project go to the wayside, because they lack the resources to make it happen. I would love to be able to help other friends and colleagues find the resources and audience they need when they don’t have these elements readily available.

Personally, I like to write comedies, specifically sitcoms (I love Larry David's work) and humor writing (similar to Dave Barry), even though I’m looking to expand genres. In my work, I tend to explore the issues of Latino Identity and Masculinity, primarily because these two issues have affected me personally. I want my work to allow people to question these two issues and their roles in society. 

I truly look forward to getting familiar with my classmates and their work! 

Very excited to see what we produce! 

Artist's Statement

My work is in film - a passion started way back when I was 3, and saw animation for the first time - The Nightmare Before Christmas, if we're to be specific. Then, something gestated in me about being somehow outside of a norm - boxes were boring, but so fascinating to me. From then on, I started an interest in human interaction - specifically, the way we talk, who we talk to, and how we do it - not to mention our reasons as to why. Non verbal communication is my primary focus in film - how a mere look can convey more than a book. I prefer showing this minute conflict under grand pretenses - to show that life is large and grand to those who are living, even in the simplest of circumstances. 

If I were to list influences, I would point you to the works of John Cassavetes and Xavier Dolan, as well as Chasing Amy-era Kevin Smith. Additionally, I'd also point to the world of comics. Specifically, John Romita and Steve Ditko - their design greatly influenced my work. I believe this is because they could create drama from the everyday, with careful control and beautiful imagery - their style became almost as, if not more influential than, the aforementioned directors. 

My prior filmography, in part, can be found at this address. I believe that the images there will represent me as an artist better than anything I can write here. 

Artist Statement

     Growing up in the late 90's/early 2000's, I was naturally inclined to watch MTV's popular show at the time, titled "Total Request Live."  This show was absolutely amazing. Besides for the fact that it frequently brought on popular artists for interviews and fan interactions, most importantly it aired the top ten music videos requested on that day. This show was popular at a time when MTV was primarily known for music videos, hence the name "Music Television." I remember logging onto my AOL slow dial up service to go to MTV.com and request my favorite videos at the time. It made me so excited to actually see them on tv later that day. At that time, there was no youtube, so the only way for me to watch music videos was by tuning in everyday. Although I enjoyed watching my favorite videos, nothing excited me more to hear that they would be premiering a new video later in the episode.

    Nowadays, MTV is known for drama and reality tv shows not even closely related to music at all. That part is not important though, what is important is that this show "TRL" was the inspiration for my interest in writing, producing, and editing music videos. With the invention of Youtube and other internet video sharing platforms, as well as the addition of cheaper professional equipment (DSLR cameras with 1080p Video mode for example), Music videos have only grown and evolved to a point of being very common.
               Music videos give the fan a true visual to the musical piece. It brings the song to life and creates a whole new world around the song. I will never forget some popular music videos I grew up to, for example Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" or Ludacris' "Stand up". Both of these music videos included a creative implementation of humor to accompany the song.
              This is all great, but you are probably wondering "Why comedy music videos though?" I have always been a jokester and I grew up making parody's of my favorite songs. Often replacing words or letters in the chorus to make an entirely different song.
                   As i got older, new artists such as The Lonely Island and Weird Al Yankovic began to create music videos with the video in mind when recording the song. This led to even more entertaining videos such as "I Jizzed In My Pants" and "White and Nerdy." At that time I knew that comedy through the medium of music videos was my passion. I knew that this was now an established genre with demand and competition and that I was suited to compete at a high level in this newfound medium.
         I started out making amatuer videos on a $99 flipHD camera I got, to instrumentals of famous songs. I would download these insturmentals and record covers using a built-in USB mic that projected decent audio recordings. When making my music videos, I would place the camera facing me, on a table. I would then press play and run to my position and start rapping on the camera. I would then edit the videos using consumer software such as the standard Apple iMovie.
                 After about a year of doing this, I had generated some buzz with cover to a Tyga song called "Far Away." I wrote a cover to it called "High Holidays". The concept of the song was that on the Jewish High Holidays, I would smoke all day while "they" fasted and prayed. It was quite humorous and provocative and I knew I had found my niche in the comedy rap game.
                As I returned to school after taking off a semester (to focus on these amateur videos), I knew that I would need to major in film and start networking to meet people who could help me start producing professional quality music videos. In the past year I have met some amazing people who have helped me chase this dream. The most important people I have met are VFX guys. They are the ones that make my videos come to life and allow each of my versus to be illustrated effectively.

 To date, I have produced 2 very funny anf professional videos. The first one was titled "Let's Just Tan" and it was a satire about over-tanning during the summer and not doing anything else (no job or class, just tanning all day).  The second Music video, which I am releasing early next week is titled "The Walk of Fame" and it makes fun of the popular term amongst singles called "The Walk of Shame." In this music video I AM the one that sleeps by a FEMALE and therefore I must go through with this walk the next morning, however I am unashamed and that is where all of the humor comes into play.

   Within the next year I look forward to continuing to learn, meet new people, and expand on my music video production abilities.

-Ethan Kaplan