International Yarn Bombing Day June 10, 2011
Dino Foxx and Billy Muñoz take a break from the Yarn Dawgz installation at the Pearl Brewery to do a quick freestyle rap.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Women and Their Work Fiscal Sponsorship
The Yarn Graffiti Documentary is now fiscally sponsored by Women and Their Work, a local non-profit that serves women artists.
For those of you who are not familiar with it, fiscal sponsorship refers to the practice of non-profit organizations offering their legal and tax-exempt status to a film production engaged in activities related to the organization's missions. This means that if you donate money to the documentary, your donation will now be tax exempt, plus 8% of your donation will go to Women and Their Work. (All checks must be made at to Women and Their Work.) It's win / win for everyone.
We are really happy to be partners with a wonderful organization such as Women and Their Work. Women's connection to knitting
and crochet is one of the things that keeps come up in the documentary. We're all thrilled to have the support of an organization that does such wonderful things in the community. Make sure to LIKE Women and Their Work on Facebook.
For those of you who are not familiar with it, fiscal sponsorship refers to the practice of non-profit organizations offering their legal and tax-exempt status to a film production engaged in activities related to the organization's missions. This means that if you donate money to the documentary, your donation will now be tax exempt, plus 8% of your donation will go to Women and Their Work. (All checks must be made at to Women and Their Work.) It's win / win for everyone.We are really happy to be partners with a wonderful organization such as Women and Their Work. Women's connection to knitting
and crochet is one of the things that keeps come up in the documentary. We're all thrilled to have the support of an organization that does such wonderful things in the community. Make sure to LIKE Women and Their Work on Facebook.Thursday, January 26, 2012
absence makes the heart grow fonder
You might be asking yourself what the Yarn Graffiti Documentary team has been up to lately. Are they still making the movie?! Let me put your mind at ease and tell you, Yes we are. We haven't been traveling but we have been busy working. Behind the scenes, we are writing grants, planning for future shoots, staying in touch with subjects, organizing footage and working on a work sample.It has been over a year since this project started but we still have a long way to go. Hang in there and keep letting us know what you think, sending us tips on neat projects and liking us on facebook. Especially let us know if you know of anything crazy being planned for International Yarn Bombing Day 2012.
Remember that documentaries take a long time to make and anything worth doing it worth doing right. And even if you think we're going at a grandma's pace, know that grandmas make really amazing things when they finally finish a project.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
New Year's Resolution
Happy 2012! I don't think the world is going to end anytime soon so we might as well keeping living and doing what we do. It's a new year with new goals. I'm not going to bore you with my personal resolutions of weight loss, spending more quality time with my mom, break dancing and increased bike riding. We're not here to talk about that. As far as the Yarn Graffiti Documentary goes the goal for the year is to wrap up primary production. To wrap up production the Yarn Graffiti Doc team is working around the clock to get money to finish this movie. Another big resolution is to make sure to keep all of you updated through this blog. I've let this blog fall to the wayside. I promise to stay on top of this.
The holidays were good to me in strange way, (I love my family) but bad for the documentary. For 2 weeks I didn't really think about it. I'm happy to be back to normal life where I think about this documentary all day long like a monkey on my back.
I'm back to work on the doc! More coming soon.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Tamale Cup
Went down to SA to hang out and shoot with the Yarn Dawgz... again. They were doing an installation at the Tamale Festival in the Pearl Brewery. I was a little unclear on exactly what Dino, Billy and Sasha had in store but I was game.
One thing to know about San Antonio (and Austin to a certain degree) is that San Antonio loves having street festivals.
Sometimes it feels like there's a street festival every weekend during the nice seasons of Texas. Even though it's December, it's still pretty nice outside in Central Texas. The Tamale Festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday. The fest celebrates local traditions associated with the holidays and feature cooking demonstrations, food from the roasting spit, and more than 30 vendors boasting traditional, sweet, vegetarian and other tamale varieties. The festival concludes with the River of Lights celebration, caroling, and music and entertainment for the entire family. (All proceeds benefit the Culinary Institute of America and local charities.) Why not have a festival celebrating tamales.
The Yarn Dawgz was going to be doing a public installation of a table, chairs, and dining set inspired by Mexican Serape blankets that would later be sold at the Melissa Guerra Tienda de Cocina. It was pretty relaxed shoot. I was mostly interested in film the Yarn Dawgz just hanging out and knitting. Dino had some work to do back at Jump Star so it was just Billy and I for most of the morning and early afternoon. After several hours, it became obvious the the installation was not progressing fast enough. Once Dino and Sasha showed up, I took a small break and walked around the festival. I am a people watcher so I relished in walking around all the fest's activity. I was super hungy but was completely overwhelmed by all the options. I honestly didn't even know what line I was in but I ended up getting two Tamale Cups, which is a tamale in a cup. I brought one back to Billy and we joked about the concept of tamale cup. He even dubbed "Tamale Cup" as my new nickname. I can't remember why.
As the afternoon progressed on, Dino and Sasha worked diligently on the table and chairs. I felt a little bad filming instead of helping so I decided to help out a little bit. I'm not sure where most documentary filmmakers feel about the relationship between the filmmaker and the subjects. I'm starting to think I'm too close to the Yarn Dawgz. I'm fine with it but I wonder what others think. I personally have never yarn bombed. I knit like a madman but I don't bomb. I'm trying to stay an observer in that world. So all I did for the Yarn Dawgz was knit. I didn't do the actual installation.
In the end, they didn't finish the installation but I got some great footage.
One thing to know about San Antonio (and Austin to a certain degree) is that San Antonio loves having street festivals.
Sometimes it feels like there's a street festival every weekend during the nice seasons of Texas. Even though it's December, it's still pretty nice outside in Central Texas. The Tamale Festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday. The fest celebrates local traditions associated with the holidays and feature cooking demonstrations, food from the roasting spit, and more than 30 vendors boasting traditional, sweet, vegetarian and other tamale varieties. The festival concludes with the River of Lights celebration, caroling, and music and entertainment for the entire family. (All proceeds benefit the Culinary Institute of America and local charities.) Why not have a festival celebrating tamales.The Yarn Dawgz was going to be doing a public installation of a table, chairs, and dining set inspired by Mexican Serape blankets that would later be sold at the Melissa Guerra Tienda de Cocina. It was pretty relaxed shoot. I was mostly interested in film the Yarn Dawgz just hanging out and knitting. Dino had some work to do back at Jump Star so it was just Billy and I for most of the morning and early afternoon. After several hours, it became obvious the the installation was not progressing fast enough. Once Dino and Sasha showed up, I took a small break and walked around the festival. I am a people watcher so I relished in walking around all the fest's activity. I was super hungy but was completely overwhelmed by all the options. I honestly didn't even know what line I was in but I ended up getting two Tamale Cups, which is a tamale in a cup. I brought one back to Billy and we joked about the concept of tamale cup. He even dubbed "Tamale Cup" as my new nickname. I can't remember why.
As the afternoon progressed on, Dino and Sasha worked diligently on the table and chairs. I felt a little bad filming instead of helping so I decided to help out a little bit. I'm not sure where most documentary filmmakers feel about the relationship between the filmmaker and the subjects. I'm starting to think I'm too close to the Yarn Dawgz. I'm fine with it but I wonder what others think. I personally have never yarn bombed. I knit like a madman but I don't bomb. I'm trying to stay an observer in that world. So all I did for the Yarn Dawgz was knit. I didn't do the actual installation.
In the end, they didn't finish the installation but I got some great footage.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Feelin' a bit Woolly headed
Back in September Magda Sayeg was contacted by an advertising company to make a commercial based off the British saying "Feelin' a bit Woolly headed" and using that to make a knitted a play-on-words. Magda worked with the Ad Firm and local knitters to help conceptualize the ad.
After months of hard work, the commercial is done, just in time for flu season.
After months of hard work, the commercial is done, just in time for flu season.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Taggin'
I just spent the weekend filming with the Yarn Dawgz of San Antonio and I am filled with filmmaking adrenalin. I even called John on Friday night at like 3:30 am which means it was technically Saturday morning and said "I LOVE DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING! I want to do this FOREVER" on his voicemail. I vaguely remember this, he had to remind me.
One rule of documentary filmmaking is that nothing ever goes as planned so be prepared.
The plan was:
* Friday night film B Roll of the Yarn Dawgz, shoot Dino and Billy doing stuff for JumpStart at First Friday.
* Saturday film the installation at Blue Star and shoot one interview.
* Sunday film the other interview and get pick up shots. If time get scenic B Roll of San Antonio
I was a little nervous about the Friday shoot because I would be filming on my own in a very crowded area. John is in Portugal, Spencer is busy with school and Taylor is working. First Friday is an awesome San Antonio South Town tradition where all the art galleries and local shops open their doors to the city and have a big party on the First Friday of the month. It was going to be hard to be a one woman crew but I was up for the challenge.
I got to Jump Start around 4pm because of all the traffic on I-35 from Austin, thankfully before all crowds showed up on South Alamo Street in the Blue Star Art complex. I put mics on Dino and Billy and just started filming them in their natural element. Jump Start was preparing for a window performance of a graffiti artist taggin' a boxcar. I wasn't really sure what I was in for but was excited by whatever it was going to be.
The guys also took me around the complex to show me an old installation that they wanted to take down. It was great to see the decay of an installation. It was faded and kind of gross, (which is awesome). I'm starting to think that the rot of an old installation can somehow be an ending to the documentary itself. I shot the guys deinstalling the piece before getting swallowed by the twilight Blue Star crowd.
The guys got back to work while I absorbed the environment. When it was show time everyone in Jump Star was running around like crazy. Thankfully they were doing two shows so that I should get different shots of the performance. I was blown away by the show. It starred Cros, the other initial Yarn Dawg (who actually lives next door to Billy and Dino). It was about a graffiti artist sneaking around and tagging a boxcar and then being chased by the cops, only to have one of the cops tag a bench herself. It was really beautiful and powerful. I love live performances and theater. Nothing I could write or film could really capture just being there.
After a crazy long day I was exhausted but my adrenaline was still pumping through my veins. Billy and Dino invited me out to the Strip. Now I'm from San Antonio but I haven't lived there for 8 years so I didn't know what the Strip was. There's a delightful area of Main Street in San Antonio, called the Strip, that has become populated by gay clubs. It was awesome. I'll leave out the details of the night but it included some food at Luther's Cafe accompanied by a Drag Queen singing Adele (actually better than Adele sings), some drinks and dancing at a place everyone refers to as Gay Bennigans. I was feeling good. I logged my footage and was in bed by 4am.
Saturday I met up with Dino and Billy at Blue Star to shoot their installation.
I suited up (put my equipment on) and the guys got ready. As we're filming, Billy and Dino notice that their knitted pieces don't fit the poles like they thought. They discussed the options. They looked around the complex to see if their pieces could fit anywhere else. In the end it started to rain and they decided that they would not do a project that they didn't feel 100% proud of. I went back to the guy's place which turned out to be a yarn bombed sanctuary. Billy even walked me down their street to show me all the stop sign posts he's done. We were running out of time because Dino and Billy were going to perform a song for their friend's birthday later that night. We called it a day and planned to meet on Sunday.
On Sunday I got a call from the guys who had to cancel because of family stuff. I was feeling so good from the stuff I got on Friday and Saturday that I didn't even feel sad about it. I could always get their interviews another time. Plus I can come back to shoot the finished installation.
One rule of documentary filmmaking is that nothing ever goes as planned so be prepared.
The plan was:
* Friday night film B Roll of the Yarn Dawgz, shoot Dino and Billy doing stuff for JumpStart at First Friday.
* Saturday film the installation at Blue Star and shoot one interview.
* Sunday film the other interview and get pick up shots. If time get scenic B Roll of San Antonio
I was a little nervous about the Friday shoot because I would be filming on my own in a very crowded area. John is in Portugal, Spencer is busy with school and Taylor is working. First Friday is an awesome San Antonio South Town tradition where all the art galleries and local shops open their doors to the city and have a big party on the First Friday of the month. It was going to be hard to be a one woman crew but I was up for the challenge.
I got to Jump Start around 4pm because of all the traffic on I-35 from Austin, thankfully before all crowds showed up on South Alamo Street in the Blue Star Art complex. I put mics on Dino and Billy and just started filming them in their natural element. Jump Start was preparing for a window performance of a graffiti artist taggin' a boxcar. I wasn't really sure what I was in for but was excited by whatever it was going to be.
The guys also took me around the complex to show me an old installation that they wanted to take down. It was great to see the decay of an installation. It was faded and kind of gross, (which is awesome). I'm starting to think that the rot of an old installation can somehow be an ending to the documentary itself. I shot the guys deinstalling the piece before getting swallowed by the twilight Blue Star crowd.The guys got back to work while I absorbed the environment. When it was show time everyone in Jump Star was running around like crazy. Thankfully they were doing two shows so that I should get different shots of the performance. I was blown away by the show. It starred Cros, the other initial Yarn Dawg (who actually lives next door to Billy and Dino). It was about a graffiti artist sneaking around and tagging a boxcar and then being chased by the cops, only to have one of the cops tag a bench herself. It was really beautiful and powerful. I love live performances and theater. Nothing I could write or film could really capture just being there.
After a crazy long day I was exhausted but my adrenaline was still pumping through my veins. Billy and Dino invited me out to the Strip. Now I'm from San Antonio but I haven't lived there for 8 years so I didn't know what the Strip was. There's a delightful area of Main Street in San Antonio, called the Strip, that has become populated by gay clubs. It was awesome. I'll leave out the details of the night but it included some food at Luther's Cafe accompanied by a Drag Queen singing Adele (actually better than Adele sings), some drinks and dancing at a place everyone refers to as Gay Bennigans. I was feeling good. I logged my footage and was in bed by 4am.
Saturday I met up with Dino and Billy at Blue Star to shoot their installation.
I suited up (put my equipment on) and the guys got ready. As we're filming, Billy and Dino notice that their knitted pieces don't fit the poles like they thought. They discussed the options. They looked around the complex to see if their pieces could fit anywhere else. In the end it started to rain and they decided that they would not do a project that they didn't feel 100% proud of. I went back to the guy's place which turned out to be a yarn bombed sanctuary. Billy even walked me down their street to show me all the stop sign posts he's done. We were running out of time because Dino and Billy were going to perform a song for their friend's birthday later that night. We called it a day and planned to meet on Sunday. On Sunday I got a call from the guys who had to cancel because of family stuff. I was feeling so good from the stuff I got on Friday and Saturday that I didn't even feel sad about it. I could always get their interviews another time. Plus I can come back to shoot the finished installation.
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