3Ws – Lucas Papaelias

What do you create?

i create theatre and music, many times simulatenously… but these days, i’ve been creatively invested the most in making roadPorn.

roadPorn is the experience of music and byway melding into one, bound by the common expression, “the journey is the destination”. LPfunK Inc., my production company, produces roadPorn music videos & simulated road-trip movies by tracing the convergence of rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic vibrations with the visual component of HD / p.o.v. scenic road footage. the result is an engaging, educational, and sensory-stimulating, kinetic viewing experience, which can induce a hypnotic and therapeutic effect on the viewer. as the speed of the footage will vary based on the soundtrack, roadPorn is akin to a simulated adventure in time-travel. for more info, check out: http://www.roadporn.net/

Why do you create?

Full participation.

when i am being creative, i feel like i am fully participating in my life. Whether it be editing a roadPorn video, or working on a new song, or in the problem-solving process of the staging or script analysis of an original theatre piece, the creative process is the ultimate participation in the experience of the things i enjoy doing the most.

i have had the good fortune of being a part of the original creative process of many new theatre pieces and on-camera productions. The film School Of Rock and the Broadway musical Once are two actor/musician-based stories that have been definitive moments of my career. The main thing i can remember feeling in common, in the making of both, was a harmony in the creative process… the elements that were brought together had the right chemistry, the right balance… even when we came upon challenges, I always had the feeling that we were doing it “right”, so to speak. i can’t say exactly why, which i guess is the point. You just know it when it is happening.

Though the traveling and shooting of the actual footage is the key element in making roadPorn, it is the editing process, when i am putting together a video, that is actually the most exciting. What i’ve noticed is that while i am editing, i have to trust the same instincts for timing and sensitivity that i use as a comic character actor. Granted, it happens in a completely different venue, without an audience (or anyone else) present, but the end goal of serving the piece, or serving the story, is the same.

What do you consume?

i consume the sunrise, documentaries, open roads… i consume New York Magazine, Grantland.com, and the NY Times. i love bacon & eggs, avocados, grapefruit, coffee… tapping into new styles of music is always inspiring. i’m not much for computer games, though i love playing Tetris on the subway on my smartphone. i love going to check out new plays and musicals. i consume the shows of the golden age of television, such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and most recently The Knick, a show on which i play a recurring guest star role and know how the story shapes up… and yet still can’t stop watching (even after i told myself i would not watch it).