Lauren Hoffman (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} laurlaurhoffman) wrote,@ 2005-10-15 00:58:00 |
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Laur Marie H -- a Lauren Hoffman epilogue. (november 2012)
Ten years after she began keeping her online journal, Lauren Hoffman has secured a place for herself in the world. She tells the story best herself -- after all, she does tell stories for a living, with vivid colors and sweeping takes and scenes -- but she leaves out the harder times, the memories that affected her to make her the person she is now.
Letting go of Stoneybrook was harder than she'd imagined it would be. She found herself holding on to the memories, good and bad, especially when she was still in UConn. They filled her with doubt, and she almost gave up hope of getting into art school, when finally she received the acceptance letter she'd been waiting for.
A year after starting school in Savannah, Lauren's mother had a heart attack. She spent days in intensive care until finally she passed away from complications. Lauren would have wanted to take the rest of the semester off -- it was mid-October -- but her aunt Darcie told her not to. Despite her strained relationship with her aunt, Lauren began to understand her reasons for being the way she was. She finished the semester and was later grateful for her aunt's advice, as she would already have to take several summer courses as it was to graduate on time. From then on, when she went home, she and Darcie slowly but surely mended their rather broken ties. Lauren knew she would never feel as close to her aunt as she had to her mother, but she was glad to have family to fall back on. Later they would tell each other that Valarie, Lauren's mother, was always working too hard, ignoring her health in favor of theirs. Even though it wasn't true, Lauren would feel responsible for causing that, and she knew that her aunt thought the same about herself.
Lauren plowed through her courses, some more enjoyable than others, but all interesting and ultimately necessary for her to achieve her goal. Through projects and film festivals and friends, she met the people who would later form Hai Hai Art with her. She had a yearlong relationship with an interactive design and game development major. The relationship ended on good terms, and Lauren bounced back quickly, dedicating herself to her classwork and the projects she and her circle of friends were constantly working on.
By the time Lauren got her MFA animation, Hai Hai Art was ready to launch their first graphic novel, Ann Zhel, which would later be their first full-length animated film. It was well-received, and soon they were producing a longer-running comic book series and several shorts.
At present, the group are working hard on the Ann Zhel movie. Lauren still hasn't fallen in love, and allows herself to daydream about that when she has the time, usually early in the morning or late at night. She's happy where she is now, though, and believes that if she waits, good things will come, just like with everything that's already happened so far.
This is Lauren today.
haihaiart.com/laurmarieh/
whose section you're in: l.m. hoffman
Full name: Lauren Marie Hoffman
Commonly goes by: Laur
Current location: Princeton, NJ
Age: 27
Birthday: April 3
Hometown: Stoneybrook, CT
Natural hair color: Blonde
Eye color: Blue-green
Height: 5'7"
Weight: not to be disclosed ^~
Biography:
Or more like an autobio, ha. We all got together and decided we would write out our own pages, because third-person bios, while cool, aren't half as fun unless the person being spoken about is going off on random tangents. ^^ Anyway, you'll read the same thing on everyone else's page, so here we go.
So as I said up above, I'm Lauren, I go by Laur, and I sign my art Laur Marie H because it has a nice ring to it. I'm a native of Stoneybrook, Connecticut, which I'm sure the majority of you haven't heard of, but that's okay. It's a small town where you get to know people. Overall a good place to grow up. If you're a lonely little geek like I was, there are plenty of colorful, more interesting people to watch. I'll admit up front that I base some of my characters on certain people from my time there.
I graduated from Stoneybrook High School in 2004 and went on to spend the first semester of my college experience at the University of Connecticut. I can't exactly say I was happy there. I had a good time, but I knew I'd never get to where I wanted to go if I just settled. So I kept on applying, and on my third try, I got accepted to the Savannah College of Art and Design, also known as SCAD. There I met and fell madly in love with graphic design and color. I got loads better at drawing, developed a little style for myself, though I will confess that my skills pale in comparison to Macy's. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make, though, because I can make decent storyboards. That's what I'm here for, after all -- I'm directing! (Watch our movie! It comes out next April! ...watch it! Watch Ann Zhel! Watch it!)
I double majored in sequential art and animation and minored in graphic design. I stayed in SCAD for my graduate studies and got an MFA in animation. (What can I say? It was my dream school!) The group of us met there, actually. We were into the same sort of things, comics, manga, anime, the good old days of Disney animated movies. I'd taken Japanese while in UConn, and would you look at that, Hideo is Japanese! And that's the abridged version of how we came to meet. I think we were all a little buzzed the night when we came up with the name Hai Hai Art. Either that or just on a creative high. (Let's go with the second one for fun. ^^)
The jobs I usually fill in for HHA are concept developer, writer, storyboard artist, cover designer, and, most recently, director (go me!!). We all do things on our own, of course, so I have a few sketch pads full of rough character designs and pages from would-be comics. These are things we draw on during our developing phases or when we try to think of new ideas. Fun and crazy times are those, says I.
I am more than overjoyed that we've done so well together in such a relatively short amount of time. I believe a lot of it is due to how well we work together. We have a lot of respect for one another, and we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. As a group and as individuals we try to fill in those gaps and make sure everyone is on equal footing and enjoying the work we do. I can't imagine a better time doing what I love. All I can say is that I hope everyone who reads our graphic novels and comics and watches our films will love them as much as we love making them.
...go see our movie! ^^
*laur marie h
Ten years after she began keeping her online journal, Lauren Hoffman has secured a place for herself in the world. She tells the story best herself -- after all, she does tell stories for a living, with vivid colors and sweeping takes and scenes -- but she leaves out the harder times, the memories that affected her to make her the person she is now.
Letting go of Stoneybrook was harder than she'd imagined it would be. She found herself holding on to the memories, good and bad, especially when she was still in UConn. They filled her with doubt, and she almost gave up hope of getting into art school, when finally she received the acceptance letter she'd been waiting for.
A year after starting school in Savannah, Lauren's mother had a heart attack. She spent days in intensive care until finally she passed away from complications. Lauren would have wanted to take the rest of the semester off -- it was mid-October -- but her aunt Darcie told her not to. Despite her strained relationship with her aunt, Lauren began to understand her reasons for being the way she was. She finished the semester and was later grateful for her aunt's advice, as she would already have to take several summer courses as it was to graduate on time. From then on, when she went home, she and Darcie slowly but surely mended their rather broken ties. Lauren knew she would never feel as close to her aunt as she had to her mother, but she was glad to have family to fall back on. Later they would tell each other that Valarie, Lauren's mother, was always working too hard, ignoring her health in favor of theirs. Even though it wasn't true, Lauren would feel responsible for causing that, and she knew that her aunt thought the same about herself.
Lauren plowed through her courses, some more enjoyable than others, but all interesting and ultimately necessary for her to achieve her goal. Through projects and film festivals and friends, she met the people who would later form Hai Hai Art with her. She had a yearlong relationship with an interactive design and game development major. The relationship ended on good terms, and Lauren bounced back quickly, dedicating herself to her classwork and the projects she and her circle of friends were constantly working on.
By the time Lauren got her MFA animation, Hai Hai Art was ready to launch their first graphic novel, Ann Zhel, which would later be their first full-length animated film. It was well-received, and soon they were producing a longer-running comic book series and several shorts.
At present, the group are working hard on the Ann Zhel movie. Lauren still hasn't fallen in love, and allows herself to daydream about that when she has the time, usually early in the morning or late at night. She's happy where she is now, though, and believes that if she waits, good things will come, just like with everything that's already happened so far.
This is Lauren today.
haihaiart.com/laurmarieh/
whose section you're in: l.m. hoffman
Full name: Lauren Marie Hoffman
Commonly goes by: Laur
Current location: Princeton, NJ
Age: 27
Birthday: April 3
Hometown: Stoneybrook, CT
Natural hair color: Blonde
Eye color: Blue-green
Height: 5'7"
Weight: not to be disclosed ^~
Biography:
Or more like an autobio, ha. We all got together and decided we would write out our own pages, because third-person bios, while cool, aren't half as fun unless the person being spoken about is going off on random tangents. ^^ Anyway, you'll read the same thing on everyone else's page, so here we go.
So as I said up above, I'm Lauren, I go by Laur, and I sign my art Laur Marie H because it has a nice ring to it. I'm a native of Stoneybrook, Connecticut, which I'm sure the majority of you haven't heard of, but that's okay. It's a small town where you get to know people. Overall a good place to grow up. If you're a lonely little geek like I was, there are plenty of colorful, more interesting people to watch. I'll admit up front that I base some of my characters on certain people from my time there.
I graduated from Stoneybrook High School in 2004 and went on to spend the first semester of my college experience at the University of Connecticut. I can't exactly say I was happy there. I had a good time, but I knew I'd never get to where I wanted to go if I just settled. So I kept on applying, and on my third try, I got accepted to the Savannah College of Art and Design, also known as SCAD. There I met and fell madly in love with graphic design and color. I got loads better at drawing, developed a little style for myself, though I will confess that my skills pale in comparison to Macy's. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make, though, because I can make decent storyboards. That's what I'm here for, after all -- I'm directing! (Watch our movie! It comes out next April! ...watch it! Watch Ann Zhel! Watch it!)
I double majored in sequential art and animation and minored in graphic design. I stayed in SCAD for my graduate studies and got an MFA in animation. (What can I say? It was my dream school!) The group of us met there, actually. We were into the same sort of things, comics, manga, anime, the good old days of Disney animated movies. I'd taken Japanese while in UConn, and would you look at that, Hideo is Japanese! And that's the abridged version of how we came to meet. I think we were all a little buzzed the night when we came up with the name Hai Hai Art. Either that or just on a creative high. (Let's go with the second one for fun. ^^)
The jobs I usually fill in for HHA are concept developer, writer, storyboard artist, cover designer, and, most recently, director (go me!!). We all do things on our own, of course, so I have a few sketch pads full of rough character designs and pages from would-be comics. These are things we draw on during our developing phases or when we try to think of new ideas. Fun and crazy times are those, says I.
I am more than overjoyed that we've done so well together in such a relatively short amount of time. I believe a lot of it is due to how well we work together. We have a lot of respect for one another, and we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. As a group and as individuals we try to fill in those gaps and make sure everyone is on equal footing and enjoying the work we do. I can't imagine a better time doing what I love. All I can say is that I hope everyone who reads our graphic novels and comics and watches our films will love them as much as we love making them.
...go see our movie! ^^
*laur marie h
