I discovered Karen Abad when I randomly Google searched "Fairfield, CA filmmakers". A Myspace profile with her name was near the top of the list, so I decided to check her out. Karen's Myspace this is where I found out how talented she is. I just had to have her help on my feature, and she agreed, so she is now slated to be the Director of Photography on my feature No Ambition this summer. I decided to ask some questions to get to know her more.
Josh Harris: So what do you do with your life right now?
Karen Abad: Currently, I am a graduate student at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. I am pursuing a MFA in Motion Pictures + Television with an emphasis in cinematography. Most of my time is devoted to filmmaking but I also enjoy hanging out with friends and doing a lots of arts and crafts.
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JH: Where were you born and how long have you lived in Fairfield?
KA: I was born in the Philippines and lived there until I was around 4 or 5. After that, I lived in Saudi Arabia for 8 years before I moved to Fairfield for 8th grade. I have lived here since then (1998) except for the last four years where I lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan during college.
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JH: Wow, you've been all over. You've done a lot of projects, but what's the most interesting project you've worked on (or top 3 projects)?
KA: The most interesting project I've ever worked on was the Spring 2007,
Compass Academy 24 Hour Film Festival in Michigan. Typically, when
doing the time-restricted film festivals, my group of friends and I
stay in the local area to utilize our immediate surroundings to save
time. However, for this particular film festival we decided to make a
5 hour drive and a 45 min ferry ride to Mackinaw Island. Since it was
the last time we would work together, we wanted something to challenge
us and push our limits, as well as have fun with one another. When the
film festival started, we spent about two hours brainstorming ideas,
and making phone calls to possible actors. We shot some underwater
footage at our school that night around 11PM and then got into the car
and drove off. On the road, we had a complete editing set up in the
car with speakers and adapters for my laptop. While we drove to the
island, I edited the footage we had just shot and color corrected it.
When we got to the ferry area at around 5AM we did location sound
recording and sunrise footage. The entire time on the ferry was spent
shooting and we immediately utilized the island as much as we could.
On the entire ride home back the Director and I captured and edited all
of our footage. We got back to Grand Rapids and laid the project off
to tape and turned it in 2 minutes before it was due. It was the most
intense situation to make a film in, but also extremely fun. Here is a
link to the final product: http://www.virb.com/karenabad
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JH: Sounds like a lot of fun. So let's ask something opposite. What do you like least about making movies?
KA: The thing I dislike most about making films is not being taken as seriously because I am a female filmmaker in a male dominated industry.
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JH: I have a feeling you aren't going to have maybe problems with people taking you seriously as a filmmaker. You are amazingly talented. With that said, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
KA: I honestly have no idea, but hopefully, whatever it may be, I want to be having fun.
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Sounds like a great idea :D If you want to check out more of Karen's work, go to http://myspace.com/karenabad or http://youtube.com/karenabad.
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