UPDATE: I Am Now Using Everything Within Stan Winston School Working on "The Time Machine"

A recap of my Stan Winston School experiences, and how I am actually using everything i picked up right now

When I went to school the first time around, the big university setting, I KNEW I wasn't going to use any of it. This isn't the university's fault but mine: someone with any entertainment career goals does not have much to gain from studying most of the options available in traditional academia.

I knew going into Stan Winston School classes that:

- I was a music/science person learning to use an artistic side of my brain. Yikes!

- I needed to do this if my goal was to be like Peter Jackson and James Cameron on the filmmaking side. Shhh...that doesn't mean giving up on my fav music businessman, Mr. Zimmer...why not combine all of it, in style, learning?

- It looked like I would mess up a lot before getting anything right. This happened. Not seen in photographs. ;)

- How awesome was it you could bypass all the standard film school stuff right into learning about science fiction and horror FX?

- No way could it be gimmicky because actual film professionals recommended it.

Where I am now: working on remaking H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE! Now, this means taking a long time, getting my 14 year old self's script redone by my 35 year old self, gathering folks, and figuring out how to go from here to there, when I am a newer name in filmmaking and prior to my third feature film this year, people primarily thought of me as an animation filmmaker.

Sometimes, you have no choice but to go ahead throwing yourself into pursuing what you really care about. As someone who has had chronic health problems, this morning really looking back at some of my old photographs like "Wow, I look so ill in that one, and no one noticed?" please, do follow what you love. Chase down the genres you love, make your movies you love. If it takes you five years to pull it off, it does, but in the words of a fellow who's agreed to help me out on my films when I need him and yes one is THE TIME MACHINE, "However long it takes is however long it takes."

Without further ado, what you've been waiting for. Yes, I really do use everything. No, I am not self designing my own FX but I need to know how to translate what is in my head onto paper and descriptions for me to make that happen. For things like the theatrical contact lenses I want in my movie, pulling photographs out has been a great help. My digital lookbook I am compiling is filled with makeup ideas, realistic makeup thoughts on brands and application for the non-scary actors, settings, scattered notes to myself on what I want in the pursuit of perfection, locations I want so specific to pulling this off, weaponry I want for the bad guys and good guys, the science in the science fiction of it all, the clothing ideas, all of it, it's my heart worn on a digital sleeve.

My life goes around like a wheel. What has happened is for me to get taken by a digital distributor in 2021 I love called AWAL, where I am very happily a film score composer/music producer releasing lots of material and eventually more, I had to have proven myself as a filmmaker and in other respects to my passion for creating work with an entertainment value. I strongly feel Stan Winston School's "homework assignments" helped showcase my passion when I posted them on social media and, ooooh, drew stuff!

Friends, it's coming right back full circle because thanks to my passion for film scoring, since the end of 2021 with this whole "Nicole IS a real composer" and finally being taken seriously by my worst critics within film scoring/music production, I am now able to be taken seriously when I tell everyone how my life passion is making THE TIME MACHINE and future films within the science fiction/adventure genre. My life calling has long been this genre. Thank you for helping out with that, Stan Winston School! Pulling off a huge achievement is going to be lots of work in the future. I'll do it.

I appreciate my time with all of these FX lessons because it's really helped me speak in the language of special effects necessary to help bring people along when I ask, "Do you want to come with me on the crew and make THE TIME MACHINE when I get the financing and everything arranged for it?" To me, that's an achievement, and what I do value so much with these digital lessons is they are affordable and accessible to people, the two points I feel are a must in everything I ever do privately and publicly with brands I love, makeup products, music products, everything. We have to mention how some of these lessons dig into the value of women on screen in action/adventure cinema. The FX lessons mention women a fair amount and include female teachers...which is awesome because a misconception people have in this genre is how women don't like these types of movies. Female students take these classes in pretty high numbers which you can see from the live sessions. Everything is super inspirational.

With the directing actors in monster suits lessons, how to write monster stories, hands on crafts, spray painting, drilling, start to finish, you really have a great time. I would be lying if I didn't say from the moment I began I was itching, "When can I finally use everything?" We are every so often told things from beyond however you want to call it, from above, from God, from the universe. Several times this year, things have been "told" to me after decades of life. I am supposed to bring in a time of action/adventure movies heavily starring women in roles that could have been written for men, I'm meant to act in work when I forever thought it was strictly film scoring/directing for me, my first big movie is supposed to be THE TIME MACHINE, and I needed to start working on being a screenwriter. My action/adventure movies will have a great mix of straight and LGBTQ female characters. I am supposed to work within the Spanish language at times in my screenwriting. Imagine all of this hitting you in the face every few weeks coming to you and how beautiful it feels with your life coming together as you turned 35. That happened to me. Weird as you can call it, whatever one calls it, it is real proof of something greater in this world past humanity. My movies are meant to make women fall in love with the action/adventure genre and want to direct/act/work within it, like going to see Lord of the Rings did for me when I was 14.

Right now, I'm a Midwestern gal with bills to pay like everyone else, working hard one day at a time because I always regret that my 20's were largely lost to not getting my diabetes under control and the health consequences from that. Tomorrow, I am going to be like the Hollywood men who are the career loves of my life. So much will have gone into that and without a doubt, one of those things that will have helped me so much is Stan Winston School!