nabil laoudji

poetry, prose, design thinking & entrepreneurship

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A Walk Through Buffalo New York

July 18, 2010 by Nabil Leave a Comment

On June 2nd I walked the streets of Buffalo New York armed with a camera and a question: what are the values that will make people want to pack up their bags and move to Buffalo New York today?

As I knocked on doors and interviewed strangers across the city, I found a complex story about crime, nepotism, charity, a strong sense of community, and entrepreneurs who are breathing new life into the economy.

For a glimpse into Buffalo, and perhaps by extension the many cities in America’s “rust belt” that are finding their footing in a new global economy, I offer “Buffalo Walk.”

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: buffalo, business, charity, crime, ethnography, nepotism, new york, rust belt

A Fortnight in Hollywood

July 16, 2010 by Nabil Leave a Comment

Over the last two weeks I’ve had some eye-opening experiences across the three dimensions of storytelling on which I’m focusing this summer.

On storytelling via open mic, I’ve started a standup comedy workshop with the esteemed Leslie Wolff, and have audited a class by Judy Carter, a standup comedian who, ironically, is focused on bringing comedy into the business world. Lesley and Judy have very different approaches to standup: whereas Lesley encourages her students to talk about themselves and do so via story, Judy says, “nobody cares about you” and encourages her students to keep their material about their audience, and structured in a way that is more focused on a punchline. Either way, the more I workshop standup with my classmates, and attend comedy nights around LA, the more I realize that standup is special in that it’s one of the few areas of successful, popular entertainment that is not technology-driven. Standup is still (mostly) one girl or guy with a mic, a stage, and an audience.

On storytelling via improv, I performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater with my colleagues from my 101 class at UCB. Given that everything we performed was made up on the spot, it was amazing to see how everyone’s nerves melted away while we found our groove as a group. On my own performance, while one of my skits landed well, some others did not and I feel that I’m still being too cerebral when it comes to how I enter a scene. I need to really let go a la “jump and the net will find you.” Some of my friends from the class and I rented a theater in Culver City this afternoon and hopefully will be practicing as a group for the rest of the summer.

On storytelling via film, I’ve spent the last two weeks learning the ins and outs of Final Cut Pro, Apple’s professional editing suite. It’s incredibly powerful (and built sort of like Microsoft Excel but for video) and I’m excited about the control that it offers above and beyond the Apple iMovie editing suite (which I used for my first couple videos). I’m just putting the finishing touches on my first movie from the roadtrip, titled Buffalo Walk. It is a 9 minute piece that tries to answer the question: “what are the values that will make people across America want to pack up their bags and move to Buffalo NY today”?

Finally, this week I had a chance to drop in on the set of Matt Walsh’s new movie, the High Road. Besides getting some cool insight into the brains of director Matt Walsh and his actors (including Rob Riggle, of Daily Show fame), I also got to play an extra in a scene (I’ll be the guy at the Cadillac Jack’s diner counter during the chase scene). Off we go-

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Filed Under: Stream Tagged With: buffalo, film, final cut pro, improv, standup, ucb

36 Hours in Buffalo

June 2, 2010 by Nabil 2 Comments

First full day of interviewing / story-gathering is complete. I feel encouraged, anxious, ecstatic, and exhausted. Encouraged because I feel that I was able to access a super diverse cross-section of a new-to-me city. This bodes well for my remaining stops. Anxious because I feel that given my lack of training I may be (okay, am) making super basic and easily correctable mistakes (e.g. framing faces incorrectly in shots). Ecstatic because hey even if I’m making mistakes I’m finally actually doing it. Exhausted because, well it’s been a long day.

My interviews today included:
– Nookie, a grandfather, carpenter, and hilarious rapper
– Chris, a new manager of one of the most important stores in East Buffalo — a covered market that is at the heart of urban entrepreneurship (and will soon host a rooftop garden)
– Chris II, a Cornell-educated white collar consultant who went against the grain and left Washington DC for Buffalo
– Gary, a man who supplies Hollywood with some of the best custom-made hats money can buy
– Albert (below), a 76 year old father of 14 boys who told me a great story about stealing a whistle as a child (and his mother’s retribution)

I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to edit and upload the video (likely once I arrive in LA), however to put a face to a name, I’ve upload some snapshots into the Photo album (see toolbar above).

Tomorrow: Detroit (via Canada).

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Filed Under: Stream Tagged With: buffalo, community, experiment, rebirth, values

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