Korina Valenzuela

Singer/songwriter, David Bazan performed a few songs at Writers Week on Thursday.

David Bazan

Singer/songwriter David Bazan performed Thursday in front of LHS students. Bazan had first come out onto the stage and said “Hold on, I’m going to play a song.” From there, Bazan performed his song “Hard to be,” while playing his guitar. Bazan then went on to discuss his life as a singer/songwriter, as well as discussed what the process of writing songs and performing them live. All the while, he told short stories about his life and how it evolved to his career today. He had performed with the band Pedro the Lion until he discovered he wanted to be a solo artist. He then performed two more songs throughout the show, one of which was called, “When They Really Get To Know You.” Overall, Bazan ended Writers Week on a good musical note.

Andy Schmidt

Andy Schmidt, brother of LHS English teacher Mr. Schmidt, presented during Writers Week on Thursday. Schmidt shared his experiences about working with Marvel and other publications; he also gave advice designing stories.

He talked about how stories need to have not an idea (Schmidt gave the idea of transforming robots from the action movie series Transformers), but it also needs to have a goal or plot.

Schmidt also talked about various forms of media and how he decided which form of media to use for different stories; he talked about considering the various pros and cons to the different forms of media.

In addition, Schmidt talked about his job. He explained how he helps build characters, design world and markets various kinds entertainment  for companies. He discussed several projects he has worked on before, and how he related those stories to the tone of the time.