Unconventional Formats

i often call these works experimental and people question my word choice, so i am calling these my unconventional formats. they are things i create just out of a need to express, observe, or learn something. i often film these myself, and although camerawork is not my forté, they all showcase my storytelling fortés, even when i take breaks from narrative work.

I was not sure how i was going to eternalize a brief moment i spent following balloons in the sky. After looping Peter and the Wolf's "The Lightness" (I do not own rights to this music.) for a whole weekend in November 2012, I found a way to express myself through a time of heartache. For those who want to "synchronize [their] heart[s] with the rest of the world."

After a running injury kept me off my feet in 2010, my friend Lauren and I began going to Barton Springs in the early mornings before work. We discovered the world of Barton Springs lap swimmers, and taught ourselves to swim by observing their technique. Before we knew it, we were in swim caps, goggles, and ear plugs, swimming a mile with ease, singing in the shower rooms, and helping clean the pool every time we had the chance. The pool is a unique place where we were able to exercise, but we always made it a point to squeeze in "play time" in order to not miss out on the magic outside of the imaginary lanes Barton swimmers have to draw.
I do not own the rights to the song "Zebra" by Beach House. I chose it because it was the first song I sang (in my head) underwater to provide a swimming rhythm while I trained myself to swim.

Footage captured on my iPhone the weekend of our dear Tia Nena's funeral in 2019.

I had an unhealthy obsession with daytime. Sometimes it felt that as though once the day was over, there would be nothing left. Sunset meant that any unfinished business may never get finished or that fun was cut off. When daylight savings time went into effect in the fall of 2012, this anxiety came stronger than ever. It was extremely difficult to function. I told my sister what was happening to me, and she told me that I needed to find something about the nighttime that made me look forward to it. I saw that what differentiates the night from the day is that people turn lights on when darkness approaches or has arrived; so I began collecting lights. The intention was to compile them to a song that best described how the end of 2012/beginning of 2013 left me feeling. I put the footage away for a year since my filming began. (Footage was collected from October 2012-March2013.) In November 2013, my Lights experimental video was revisited and completed. Here it is: to everyone needing a little light in their dark days.

A Winning Video for 2014 Nalip Media Summit Video Challenge. I make up slogans for years instead of new year's resolutions. in 2014, my slogan was Focus and Forward in Fourteen. When I saw the theme for that year's Nalip Media Summit Challenge, I knew it was a beacon, calling me to a weekend of advancement in my craft out in Los Angeles. #whatmovesusforward

My grandmother was and continues to be my muse and the muse of so many that encountered her in her lifetime. She passed at the age of 87 in 2015, but blindness, the lack of mobility, and alzheimers had taken a lot of her from us just a couple of years before. She could not remember who we were and sometimes who she was, but even though she had lost most ability and memory, she never stopped singing. She remembered even the most lyrically complicated hymns and continued sharing her faith and love for God through them. Her favorite song, heard many times in this video was a song called "Viviendo por Fe" (Living by Faith). Besides singing, the three words she continually said with full confidence and ability (and in the end in just a whimper) were, "FUERZA, VALOR, y FE." It means "Strength, Bravery, and Faith" - the three perfect words to describe who this mystical matriarch was. I always like to marvel at how my grandmother did it alone - without a spouse and disconnected from her family and her country. But I stand corrected through my grandmother's singing. She lived by faith, and God was always with her.

UNCONVENTIONAL FORMATS

Music Videos

Commercial Work