I feel like my icons are somewhat odd, or at least the American ones, since they are not very recognized to many people that I personally know, but I feel like they have impacted my life and what I plan to do with my life the most, even more/so than people that I have actually met.
My first inspiration is Merian C. Cooper, a film director most known for his film ‘King Kong’ (1933). He also pioneered color filmmaking in the 50s, revolutionizing how we watch movies forever. He is a man who, in a lot of aspects, revolutionized American film. I was raised watching classic films and was inspired to become a filmmaker. Merian C. Cooper was an incredibly smart, incredibly creative person, who first joined the filmmaking rush in the early 1900s, with his films of animals. He was always inspired by his surroundings, which led to his films like King Kong, and this is Cinerama (a film that mixed new technology and amazing shots of the world and of nature to provide the first realistic film experience, taking people all over the world). Both films revolutionized the way that people watched movies.
I guess a guy like Cooper is an Icon. If you ask any old film buff (including me) who Merian C. Cooper is, you'd get a direct answer. He is an Icon, not a well known icon, but as far as his work goes and his innovations, I still consider them magic.
My second inspiration is a personnel friend of mine, Hunter Moskowitz. I knew him since I could remember, pretty much, he was a good friend of my brother. He passed away last June. He had the most influence on my life, compared to any of these other icons.
On a Personal level, he was an incredibly good friend. Almost like a brother, pretty much a brother. He was the reason I chose HTHMA over the other two HTH schools, he was the reason why I decided to adventure into the realm of filmmaking when I was 13, he was the reason I did a lot of things, and the reason why I didn't do a lot of things. When I found out, it really hurt me where I lived.
On an icon level, he is, to me at least, a huge Icon. His creativity allowed him to do and create images on the screen that I've never seen done before. He was also able to write things so out there that it could be regarded as experimental, but it wasn't like that. He was a good filmmaker, and a good friend, and an American Icon to me, and still is, and still will be.
John Lennon, of Beatles fame, only lived to be 40, and as much of an impact that he had on American culture, you’d think a Beatle fan like myself would have rode the Lennon train, or at least see some concerts, if I were my age or older in the 60s-late 70s. But I don’t think so. Lennon (and all the rest of the Beatles) were notorious for using LSD and other strong hallucinogens to make them ‘creative’ for their music. A lot of times they drew in a ‘drugee’ crowd. I don’t condone doing drugs, especially mind altering ones.
John Lennon’s lyrics are still an inspiration to me, even though when you grind out the glamorous icon image to what he was, an amazing artist who practiced drugs, I don’t think he is anything like me. His lyrics inspired my thoughts and feelings, which is odd, because when I really researched Lennon, who he was, what he liked, what he did, I found that he wasn’t an Icon to me, but his lyrics were.
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