Calligram

    Dear myself, but twenty years into the future. I hope that you are living in a comfortable position with the decisions and choices that I have made for us. Unfortunately, I do not know if I am doing right by you (us) or not, but we really are trying our best here. What we are doing at the moment is attending the University of Tampa is the pursuit of a Film and Media Arts Bachelor's Degree. You are a lot less aimless than what you used to be, but still undecided in a career path. I know that a career in directing is certainly a dream, but recently you have been interested in a career in film restoration. What led you on this path is your interest in the Criterion Collection. We started collecting their films back in 2021 after learning about the Godzilla Showa Era Discs. Watching film has always been a lovable hobby with us, but once we shifted into discovering the foreign market our worldview changed. We’ve seen films from all over the world like Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the Soviet Union, South Korea, and obviously the United States. You have also made a Letterboxd account to help log all of the films you have watched. The top four in your selection are Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Chappie, The Lighthouse, and Alien. I hope that you still appreciate the art of film as we do now. We love getting people into genres they otherwise would not view and leaving our comfort zones to explore new things. For example, art house films are something that sound pretentious and scholarly, but in reality, they are just films that tell a deeper meaning that resonates and sticks with the audience. The more people who appreciate cinema the better because that benefits the film market as a whole. That is ultimately our main goal. Theaters are such an integral part of the movie going experience and seeing them go would be absolutely devastating. We want to make films more accessible to a wider range of audiences. Film restoration and directing are going to be the pathways to that goal. By exploring “older” films and bringing them into a new age and showing a different generation how something was made is exhilarating. On the other hand, making something with a collaborative team that can be watched for the rest of time is both daunting and respectable. I know that whatever we will do or have done will have been the right choice. I will be seeing you in the future.

My inspiration for this project would be my passion for film. I wanted to incorporate what film means to me while also discussing what makes the artform worth it. I tried to include what I would want to use my degree for which helped me pick my item: a film reel. This works because if I choose to go into directing, I would like to shout my movies on film. If I choose to go into restoration, then I know I would be cautiously handling film constantly.