What does something old, something new, something borrowed, and Contact Cold and Flu have to do with each other? Unfortunately for me, it meant having a three-week struggle with the flu and an allergic reaction to medication prescribed for said flu. I’ve got to tell you, that’s a serious momentum killer. Instead of throwing my all into the new website’s launch, I found myself huddled under covers accompanied by a sad dog that wasn’t getting his daily walks in.

There is one thing to be said about being laid out by a short-duration illness, and that is you get a lot of TV time in. For 21-days I got to do little more than nap and watch some of my favorite stories splash across my screen. There was Marc Webb’s 500 Days of Summer with it’s charming comedic punch in the gut; As Good As it Gets with Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt; I Love You, Man; Adventureland; and Pirate Radio.

Not only do all these films feature a quirky and unusual love story, but they’re all strongly bound to music. Film and music are two completely separate art forms and yet two of the most commonly fused together that we take for granted. Like chocolate and peanut butter, both mediums support each other in ways that can be comforting and sweet, or incredibly intense, so much so that we find ourselves weeping over fictional characters. If used incorrectly, it also has the ability to make a scene completely flop.

If there’s anything I love more than film, it’s music; oftentimes I will find myself lost in a song thinking about what kind of scene I’d film in conjunction with it. Although a good amount of videography happens on the fly, a good filmmaker is constantly thinking of the final product… the way a video is going to come together after the cutting room floor is a mess. To me, the soundtrack is the heart and soul to any movie. It can breathe life into a place that was only hanging on before, and I think that’s what those movies did for me in those seemingly bleak weeks. They comforted me, made me laugh, inspired me, and seemed to give me a little more strength every day. Even if that strength was merely borrowed, I was grateful for every minute of it.

I’m back on my feet now with a fresh dose of inspiration and excitement. I’m chock-full of ideas for new frames and techniques that I can’t wait to try out.

This web site has been discussed for years so to say that it’s been a long time in the making would be a bit of an understatement. After an exhaustive process of searching through scores of templates, cursing out cascading style sheets, creating a site and then ripping it up, starting another site scrapping that one and starting over, again; we proudly present to you the new Harborview Studios web site.

This site isn’t only a place where you’ll get to know about the studio and what we create but it’s a place where you’ll get to know a little more about my process, bits and pieces of my inspiration, and some of the silly stuff that comes out of my own life. After all, the little moments in life are what tell a story. It’s in the little things where we all find love.

Speaking of love, Cindy (the undertaker of this web process) would like to express her undying gratitude to her dear friends Karl Stier of Watershed Media and Jim Hill of Digital Quill Design:

To Karl, who provided Zen-like guidance in design concept and an uncanny wit about recognizing when to fold my hand; I owe you many shots of tequila and a wide variety of divine cupcakes. Thanks for being there when I needed a boost of realism and self-confidence. To Jim, who endured my unending frustrated calls and emails, providing expert knowledge of CSS and who never once made a quip about being reminded of the reasons why he designs sites for people and not with people. I owe you countless lattes and many thrown Scrabble games.

Not only did you both lend me your professional talents, but you always have an endless supply of friendship on tap, all of which I am profoundly grateful for. So, who wants a cupcake because I’m starving.