Believe it

Yes, I’m back.  If there is one thing I’ve learned about film school, it’s that all other aspects of my life fall to the wayside.

We recently ended our second semester here at FSU. It’s really weird for me to realize I’ve been here almost 9 months. Film school seems to exist in a separate reality where twice as much happens in the same amount of time.  I know how that sounds, “Copponex, don’t be a dick. You make it sound like everyone else’s life is boring.”  False.  In fact, your lives are probably TWICE as interesting as mine.  But I honestly feel like I’ve been here in Tallahassee for two years.  It really does feel like that.

As a brief review, the semester went about like this:

4 weeks on set, 4 weeks of class, 4 weeks on set, 4 weeks of class. Track 1 had the exact opposite semester.  This somehow made all the difference because all we heard from them was how horrible school was.  Over in Track 2, we were having a great time.  I loved our workshops this semester.  Three in particular were extremely benefical to learning about film: Directing, Writing, and cinematography.

First off, our directing workshop was taught by Victor Nunez, you can check our his credentials here:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638033/

He was fantastic.  Our classes broke down into groups of 5 people working with him at a time.  The small groups focused around one person playing director for a day while everyone else filled out the camera, sound, and acting positions.  This was some of the most simplistic and logical instruction I’ve ever received.  Just even tiny things on why the camera should be farther back or why the beat of a scene should be held just a second longer.  He’s good.  Really good. And now I actually am starting to understand what it is a director does.

Our writing workshops were with Tim Long, our teacher from last semester.  He’s great at mechanics and the ball-busting, hair pulling details of writing a script.  Pages counts, beats, and keeping your screenplay “vertical” were things I would have never really encountered had I not taken that class.  I’m not entirely satisfied with his content choices, but his ability to keep your script on track is priceless.

Cinematography was with Rex Metz. His credits go for miles:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0582701/

Rex taught us a great deal about lighting and how a scene needs to be approached.  I’m still not quite sure what a good cinematographer does exactly, but I’m getting an idea.  Rex’s teaching is more stream of conscience than anything.  He just talks, points, and meters.  His old Hollywood stories are pretty ridiculous too…

I found that my weekend projects for my directing class hepled me the most with anything.  A lot of times, Clay, Bobby, BG, and I would go to an empty soundstage, set up some lights, and shoot something.  That is honestly the best way to support your education.  You can read books and sit in class for years, but until you set up a light and go, “Wow, that looks like total garbage,” you won’t know how to do anything.

Our D2’s are set to start filming on May 15th.  This is going to be a crazy nine weeks, for sure.  I’m staying level-headed about.  I don’t let things get to me like they did last semester.  I learned to take away from film school what I want to learn and what I feel is important.  Stressing over every detail gets you nowhere.  I’m excited about my script.  I’ll be using kids and teenagers and it will be a type of exaggerated reality, kinda like The Adventures of Pete and Pete.  We’re shooting our D2’s exclusively on the RED cameras.  We’ll how that goes since those things only like temperatures of about 65-72 degrees.  Hot, sticky summers in Tallahassee should prove… interesting.

Aside from that, I’d rather not bore you with school, if anyone is even left reading by this point.  I’m home this whole week before going back on Mother’s Day.  I will enjoy it and nothing will stop me.

I will now recite a list of things that make me happy to be alive:

1. Terminator Salvation – How excited am I for this movie? Only that I have been hoping for a war against robots since I was like ten.

2. Taylor Swift – I just, I can’t even explain how much I like her. Funny, pretty, writes her own songs.

3. Transformers 2 – I don’t care at all, in any way, whatsoever, what your opinion of the first one was.  That was pure enjoyment.  I can’t wait.

4. Butler, GA – You’ve heard me talk about the promised land my friend owns in South Georgia.  In a world of swine flu, fiscal irresponsibility, Bill Maher, film school, hipsters, and diarrhea, you can always turn to AMERICA.

America

5. My new Apartment – I’ll be moving in August 20th or so.  This will be the first time in my life that I have lived alone.  4th floor, furnished, by myself, big TV, awesomeness.  Come visit.

That’s all for now. Go to bed, it’s late.

Y’all behave.

The end of the River

I’m here, keeping my promises, as long as it took.  I just finished my first stint as a crew member on thesis.  My first job was as 2nd AC for the RED camera. For those of you who don’t know, RED is a “digital cinema” company started by Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley.  The RED camera has the ability to shoot extremely high resolution images with a framerate closely resembling the look of film.  The advantage is that the price is so drastically less than other professional cameras and that it takes many of the same high quality lenses and accessories you would use in cinematography.

The first two thesis movies being shot by the second-year students were shot on the RED.  So, we were essentially guinea pigs.  The school had just bought these things late last semester.  Instead of downloading and reloading film rolls, you offload the footage from the RED hard drive to two other separate hard drives.  This data is so GIGANTIC that it takes a good amount of time to offload it.  In one day we shot 88 gigs of footage.  On top of that, I’m SUPPOSED to build a dailies reel each day in Final Cut, but then it takes like 2 hours to render that stuff.  Anyway, technical stuff aside, sometimes it’s a pain in the ass… plus you’re doing this on top of setting up camera, changing lenses, slating, etc.

The movie we were shooting was called The River, Wind, and Tree.  The script is fairly abstract and our director said she was inspired by a dream she had.  They specially requested a jib arm that the school owns, though it never seems to work when they build it.  Of course, the weight makes the grip truck “too heavy,” so they asked me if I could put it in my Pathfinder (which is actually my mom’s car I drove back down after Christmas).  The first three days we shot in Tallahassee.  Then, on Saturday, we wrapped early and drove about 90 miles east to the Suwannee River State park right outside Live Oak, FL.  This place was really cool… BUT FREEZING.  I’m still thawing.  I got so sick of being cold all day long. Some seriously nasty weather hit us Sunday afternoon.  It was cold, windy and rainy.  The sand was EVERYWHERE.  That night, the entire camera team took all the boxes back to the motel and blew and brushed the sand out of everything.

I didn’t really get to hear much of the inauguration.  Someone had it on their car radio at base camp, but we were working.

What I’ve got next is an assistant editing job.  I’ll be syncing the sound with the daily footage and probably helping develop my own rough cut.  The editor, Charles, is a second-year and is a super nice Dude.  We got along really well on set while he was camera-opping.  I’ve learned a lot about what goes into filmmaking.  Mostly, unless you are a director, the creative decision maker that drives the process, you are a craftsman who accomplishes one task to fulfill a vision.  This guy is good at pulling focus, this guy is good at sound, this guy is a good camera op.  This is where I think the film world and I don’t gel.  I love editing, mostly because it’s a creative constructive acitivity.  I like writing as well.  But all the production stuff inbetween is something that just isn’t for me… and it took me coming here and jumping into to realize this.  I feel it’s just as important to know what you don’t want to do along with knowing what you do.  I’m not sure what this means for my immediate future, and as of now, I’m not like unenrolling or anything.

This line of work is full of so many people who are EXTREMELY passionate about what they do.  They’re good at their jobs and they thrive on anything having to do with the film world.  I just can’t share that same enthusiasm in a lot of ways.  This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s certainly something to take note of.  While many people here are totally content with graduating and leaving for LA to work on set and working through the union system, I now realize that I can never see myself doing that.  Being a dirtector is very cool and it’s soemthing that most people want to do.  Obviously, very few do.

That being said, if film is calling your name, go for it.  A lot of you are really good at what you do.  I love movies and I love certain aspects of it, but I don’t think I’ve necessarily been called to do it.  Right now, kids are waiting to hear back from FSU and checking their email every day.  They live and breathe movies, they’ll keep trying to make things on their own, regardless of whether they get in or not.

I’m learning a ton of stuff this semester and we’ll see how I feel later on.  For now, I’ll just post some picture below of the shoot this weekend:

Y’all behave.

A New Year, A New Blog

Yes, believe it.  This is new.  You have not read this.  You have no idea what words come next.

First off, even if it’s fruitless, let me apologize for my blogging moratorium.  When I last spoke with you, I was feeling rather down, rather… outdone with film school.  The production cycle grew much more demanding in the following weeks and I simply just didn’t have it in me to sit down and write.  In fact, I didn’t have time to do anything.  All I had time to do was concentrate on getting through it.  And therein lies a downfall with film school: time.  Now, when you inquire to FSU about the program, you are instantly hit with a HUGE disclaimer: “You will have no life. You will not sleep. We own you. etc.” Ok fine, I pretty much knew what I was getting into.  What I began to realize, though, was that when I’m consumed with “assignments” and “jobs,” I feel absolute ZERO on my creativity scale.  I mean, zero.  I was the second to last person to shoot my short this past semester.  By that time, I had been a production designer, Dir of Photographer, producer, and nine other little jobs on set.. so I was completely shot on creativity for my movie.  I had a few ideas, but nothing I could even get excited about.  My film turned out ok.  It was rather short.  It looks good, I’ll say.  My DP, Brian, did a great job.  Everyone on set did a great job for me.  My movie doesn’t come across that well, and that’s my fault.  It was just hard to convey some stuff in 2 1/2 minutes.  I’m trying to figure out a way to post it on here. Keep an eye out.  It’ll be compressed, but that’s the best I can do now.  So, I do apologize to those of you who wanted to see it (Mac, Randall, Nathaniel).  If it makes you feel any better, I only showed about 5 people back in Marietta over the holidays.

That being said.  Let’s recap some things.  Most importantly, there has been a major change in my life.  Her name is Jennifer.  She is the most wonderful thing to have ever happened to me and I’m so happy to be able to call her my girlfriend.  Literally, the week I went to Panama City (as you saw in the pictures) I worked on set on some BTL positions (”Below the line,” just a refresher).  It was my turn to be gaffer, which means I’m in charge of setting up all the lighting on set according to what the DP has in his cinematographic plan.  We were shooting at a local video store called Video 21. (Kinda like Tallahassee’s version of Vision Video for my Athens crowd). As I was setting up the giant 2,5K HMI light, I was talking to myself in some stupid voice, because I messed something up.  Suddenly, I heard a snicker behind me.  There, was this redheaded girl laughing at me.  She suddenly got embarassed when I saw her and said, “Sorry… I thought that was funny.” And walked away.  From there, throughout the day, I began talking to her more and more.  I know it sounds really lame to say I “met one of the actress on set.” But since I was the gaffer, I had to take light meter readings allllll day long, RIGHT in front of the actresses’ faces.  So, I mean, I had an excuse.  I found Jen funny, interesting, beautiful, and friendly all at once.  I shared some of my “Munchies” with her (for those of you who don’t know, it’s a snack food grand slam of Doritos, Sun Chips, Pretzels, and Cheetohs). She chose to eat the cheetohs beacuse she said when she was a kid, she liked them cause they “matched her hair.”  Here is a picture of me right after Jen laughed at me as I set up the HMI.  I emailed this to some of my friends because I always wear tons of UGA stuff on set.  Notice the sweet black and red Under Armour batting gloves.

Douche

Anyway, fast forward over two months later, and we are inseperable.  She is the girl I always knew had to be out there.  She does and says all the right things.  I’m not one to talk about private things, but I figured my blog would merit a little mention of her… plus, she’ll be involved in some things I mention in the future.  She has made film school so much more tolerable.  It’s a wonderful escape from the insanity.

Moving on.  I finally got to film my movie on November 16th.  I chose to shoot at the house where David Bishop shot his film during the first week of production.  The Cordero family was nice enough to let all of us back into their home again.  I always knew Mac and Randall would be coming down to help out on set, but as I was working with my actors on the back porch, Steve and Whitney showed up too!  It was awesome for them to come down.  We even got to go to the FSU/BC game.  Here is a pic of us tailgating.

My shooting day started early, 7:00am.  I planned my short to be relient on 3 major dolly shots, with some close-ups inbetween.  Well… the first dolly shot took FOUR HOURS to set up.  I’m thankful my crew was willing to work to get it right.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but I did get a few comments on my peer evaluations about how much we were waiting around.  Whoops.  But in all honesty, I think it’s one of the best looking shots out of all the D1’s.  Just my personal opinion.  It was a 50′ dolly shot, so I mean, it took some practice.  Mac, Randall, Steve, and Whitney were good sports.  I think it was rather boring for them though.

The premise of my movie was from a script I picked about a house wife who sings a song to herself about the ingredients she’s going to use to kill her husband.  Originally, I was going to put it to music, but I couldn’t find a band in time.  During my crew drill, I used a group of extras to pose as the band and repeat some of the actresses lines as a refrain.  I decided to keep this concept and use them as sort of a “Greek Chorus” of sorts, reacting to the action but not being acknowledged by the characters.  Anyway, that lead to me dressing them in either white or red & black to represent some sort of conscience.   I also liked the concept of making it like a 50’s style sitcom.  In the film I added a laughtrack and some Americana sounding music.  Akil was my production designer and he ROCKED IT.  Every detail fit the theme.  The wardrobe, the props, everything.  Here are some screenshots below.

Douche

Once production was over, editing began.  We were assigned to our editors and they were assigned to us.  I edited Smitha’s movie about zombies and a priest who doesn’t let a woman in the door.  It actually turned out to be pretty good.  Smitha then edited my movie and did a great job.  It was nice to hang out in the post hallway and just go at your own pace.  The editors had 5 days to lock the edit before the directors came in to do sound design on their films for two days.  Then, on the 8th day, you tweaked color and did a final lock down.  We had our premiere on Dec. 12th and it was a blast.  All the D1’s pretty much turned out great.  I was really impressed by some of them.  We had an after party at a local bar and that was NUTSO.  Bobby, Stephen, and Kate made up an award called the “Noley.”  They basically just took WWC wrestler action figures and painted them gold.  It was great.  They gave out awards for different aspects of the D1’s.

I guess I’ll quit for now.  I plan on blogging again, so I’ll have many more stories.  I will say this:  At the end the semester, we lost three people.  Two were dismissed and one left on their own.  Pretty crazy.  It was a turbulent semester, to say the least.  There are just certain things I don’t want to publish on the internet.  Now we’re back, and divided into two tracks again.  All the writers are off in the theatre department working on plays this semester.  The 2nd year’s have begun picking their crew for thesis.  I’m in Track 2, so I start on thesis first.  Track 1 has already started class.  I’m kinda waiting around to hear when the thesis movies start.  I basically don’t have much to do, which is a rarity.  It’s good though, because I came down with Bronchitis this past Friday and am now on three prescriptions.  It’ll give me a chance to get on my feet again.

That’s all for now.  My new favorite quote is, “I don’t know what’s worse, my life or your blog.” ~Chris Ward

Y’all behave.

A nice dose of Apathy

So, I’m sitting here on a loading dock somewhere on the FSU campus.  Today is my day to be 2nd AD, which essentially means I sit by craft services and make coffee.  No big deal.  Kinda like it.  Last weekend was the first cycle of shooting.  It started off pretty hectic for me.  I was producer, which is a major pain in the ass.  So much paperwork.  I’ve gone ahead and scratched off producer from my list of things. I was also script supervisor and Best Boy Electric.  Neither job is that bad.

I don’t have any Above the Line positions this week, so I was able to take it easy.  On Wednesday I had to get up early to help Kate go scout a location.  I got back to my house around 9:20AM and had nothing to do.  SO… I decided to start driving.  I looked at Google Maps and wanted to head South toward the beach.  If I took 98, it circles down to the beach and then heads back northwest, up toward Panama City.  Needless to say, I ended up in Panama City four hours later.  Along the way, I stopped to enjoy the view.  It was nice to just drive, listen to the radio and remember that there is a world outside of Tallahassee.  I hadn’t left Tally since I got here in August.  I will say that it made me very apathetic when I came back.  I was able to be back for a meeting at 6:00pm for the upcoming shows this weekend.  And Dude, I didn’t care about ANYTHING.  Not the best attitude to adopt.

Recently I’ve grown very tired of certain things pertaining to film school: the compressed amount of time, the lack of clarity, the egos of certain classmates.  I laugh about it mostly.  Sometimes, though, you look up and take yourself out of a certain scenario and go, “Man, am I paying tuition to put up with this bullshit?”  Sound harsh, I know.  I’m not angry, just sort of reached that limit.  I know that after this semester things tend to calm down.  I’ve also heard some of the second years complain about how they literally have NOTHING to do this semester.  They’re supposed to be prepping for the Thesis projects, but some of them have said how they feel like they’ve paid tuition for no reason the last few months.  they have like 3 classes a week and an occassional writing meeting.

That same nagging question comes up at times like these: “Could I be doing the same thing if I had just up and moved to LA and used some contacts for a job?”  You never know.  I have learned SO MUCH in the last two months. I’m certainly not saying that this hasn’t been a huge learning experience.  And I would never claim to know anything more than someone else.  I don’t feel like film school is beneath me.  I’ve heard some people allude to that and that’s just total BS.  Everyone here has room to learn and grow.  What gets in the way here is attitudes coupled with a very unforgiving curriculum. There have already been so many clashes in personalities, it’s ridiculous.  And truthfully, there isn’t a reason for it.  No one will get along with everyone.  I figured that would be something we would have learned by our 20’s.  But it’s become very apparent that certain people refuse to see anything another way or tolerate someone else’s shortcomings.  I feel like I’m back in middle with the way some people act.  I don’t like the fact that, as a class, we can still be in a position to “get in trouble.”  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  I’m 25 years old.  I feel like I’m on some reality show where they purposely grouped us because they want fights.  Maybe I’m just in a bitchy mood… maybe not.

What discourages me though is the fact I’m not exicted about the next two years or so.  I’m sort of dreading it in a way.  I wonder if everyone just goes through this.  i’m really excited about directing.  Really excited about the crew coming down to help out from Atlanta.  I’m also exited about possibly get a chance to shoot the Coke Young Filmmakers conest thingy.  But school? Ehhhh, not so much.

Hmmm, let’s see.  Nothing else really to say.  I’ve been able to keep up with my shows, thank God for NBC.com.  Finally talked to my brother for the first time since I left.  That was cool.  My Dad stopped through on Sunday to bring me some stuff from home (fog machines for set and my guitar for my room).  I almost forgot I had a Dad.  It was awesome to see someone “from the outside.”  It literally feels like I’ve been here for a really long time.  Like, years.  No joke. We hung out at On the Border for a while and then he had to head on to Jacksonville for work.  I’m pissed I’ll be on set all day for Halloween.  I’m pissed I won’t be able to go to Butler and see everyone there.  I’m pissed there isn’t a Halloween party at all up there.  There is one down here, but since we’re on set all day, it’ll be hard pressed to go.

Ok, I’m sure you’re happy you read this little whine-fest.  I’ll post some pics below of my driving adventure, in case you haven’t seen them on Facebook.

Cool 50’s retro beachside stop

Pump Pump Pump- Git it Git it!

News from the front lines

UGH

UGH

Ok, first off, producing blows.  I ignorantly listed producing as “second” on my list when entering film school.  Thought about it: OUT.  Too much paperwork with too many details that I’m bad at remembering.  I’m producing here in the first cycle of D1 projects.  This is actually a good thing, because it’ll be nice to get it over with.  I feel like I spend hours a day but don’t ever feel accomplished.  There isn’t anything tangible, minus some paperwork stuff.  Calling people isn’t fun and tracking down signatures isn’t fun.

I’m producing for Akil, which is a blessing.  I think some other people are having a much harder time producing for their respective directors.  We’re using Akil’s family office for our location.  That cut out the whole “location hunt,” THANK GOD.  Mostly, I just don’t like paperwork, and I’m probably being a sissy.

On another note, I finished up crew drills last week.  That was one of the craziest weeks ever.  It SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED on some days, but other days were great.  I certainly don’t like every job on set.  I was the last person scheduled to direct my drill for the week.  Man, I LOVE DIRECTING.  Kate was my producer and was able to score me about 8 volunteers.  They served as stand-ins for all the parts I was thinking of having for my actual shoot in November.  We only got four hours, but it went so WELL.  I was loving every second of it.  I designed a long tracking shot that moved in to reveal some action and then moved out to reveal some more.  That probably wasn’t the best way to describe it, but hopefully one day I can post the dailies on here to show you what I mean.  The second-years said I did a really good job and that I looked like I was having an awesome time.  I really appreciated it.  I’m super excited about my actual shoot in November.  I also might have some of the guys come down for Atlanta to help out on set.  It’s going to be KICKASS!!!

We start going on set this Friday.  Once that starts, it’s on.  We don’t let up for 5 weeks straight.  It’ll be tiring, but a good time.  I’m a little concerned about being the Best Boy Electric.  You know, don’t want to blow up anyone.

I’m sorry I can’t seem to post on here as often as I’d like.  School is quite demanding, and I’ll have some serious recaps and COMPLAINTS here soon.

I saw Body of Lies this weekend.  Not so bad.  Pretty typical.  Not groundbreaking.

I’ll post some pics below of the recent film school exploits:

Kate posing while they set up dolly shots

Silking a car to shoot outside, cuts out glare

Clay and Chris about to perform a scene in said car

Akil getting his handheld on

A view from the catwalk of Kate’s shoot on Soundstage B

Setting up for a shot on Kate’s set

Kate trying to look Directorish

MY FIRST SET!!! Tiffany setting up her RECIPE FOR MURDER

Little closer on Mrs. Hassler during my crew drill

The essence of ME these days

I look even more destitute in this

The eye of the storm

Tomorrow is the last day of crew drills and I’ll have a moment to stop my head from spinning.  This week has been RELENTLESS.  I learned a ton but it wasn’t easy by any means.

I’ll write later in the weekend, but I wanted to post the video for that “Super Villain” application that Dan and Jacob had me perform in for the Dr. Horrible blog.  It turned out to be pretty hilarious, I think.  They had a cut out a lot of footgae because it was supposed to be under 3 minutes.  I think they’re making an extended version sometime soon, but here it is:

FINALLY

Ok, yeah, I know, I’m a promise breaker, a deadbeat dad of blogging.  It took me a week to to get this one to you.  I apologize.  But I only wanted to write about stuff when it was new and important.  There have been some redundant things lately.

So, to start with, this was a our last week of “class.”  Yes yes, we have reached the six week marker and it’s time to get down and dirty.  This last week pretty much just hit on some last minute things we need to know for being on set.  It seems as though the teachers are just having to pick and choose what to tell us because there is an overwhelming sense of there not being enough time…ever… for anything.  Can you believe it’s October already?!

On Monday, we met with the Dean.  Yeah man, the MAIN Dean about how the student body should represent itself with the administration.  We elected class representatives for each track.  My classmates were kind enough to nominate and elect me for track 2 and Clay for Track 1.  That was quite a privalege, so, thank you, Track 2.  That being said, Clay and I now have a special handshake, wear film school lapel pins, and earmark serious amounts of cash on the back end of production reports so that everyone gets paid.

The pool of scripts we have to pick our D1 shoots from was released last Friday.  Everyone has been pretty stressed and consumed by what one they’ll pick.  The second year writing students were commissioned to write 7 scripts each, each dealing with one of the seven deadly sins.  Each script is supposedly written within a different genre.  I’ll admit, some of them are not quite up to snuff.  I think the writers themselves will admit that.  But there are some with really interesting ideas and concepts.  We, as the director, are allowed to contact the writer with requests and notes as a type of rewrite.  We are not allowed to change the intentions of the writer or the essential qualities of the narrative thread.  What we are allowed to change is dialogue and address the logistical concerns of the script (location, gender, etc).  For instance, a script I like takes place in a grocery store, but I don’t see myself being able to secure that location any time soon, especially since most grocery stores are uptight and don’t really ever close.  So, I have requested to change the location of the script.  I emailed my writer…haven’t heard anything back.  Of course.

We were assigned actors to be in our projects.  I don’t if you remember, but a few weeks back I told you about the group of actors we met in our acting class.  Yeah, it’s them.  I’m very happy with the two actors that were assigned to me.  I’m also happy that my D1 is scheduled on the second to last day of the cycle, so I essentially have 7 weeks before I shoot, which I will really hope to take advantage of.

Matt and I drove around the outskirts of town this past week to do some location scouting.  It gets pretty rural pretty fast here in Tallahassee.  We found a lot of nice old towny-type places about half an hour from downtown.  We’re not allowed to have a location farther than 30 minutes away from the film school.  He are some pics of the places we found.

Cool tree in the middle of a field... This thing seriously had like a 100ft. spread

Creepy abandoned Texas Chainsaw building

The “crew assignements” were just sent out to us on Thursday evening, about 7 days later than they were supposed to be, but no big deal, I suppose.  A lot of us were freaking out at first, but I thikn everyone is in control now.  It was just a little unnerving to not know when and with whom you’re shooting which would therefore determine the where and what you’re shooting.  For your particular D1, you serve as the director.  You have three other people who will be on your “Above the Line” team, meaning the creative forces behind your project.  Everyone rotates through and gets a chance to fulfill every single role on set.  For my D1, I have Kate as my producer (awesome), Akil as my production deisgner (awesome), and Brian as my director of photography (awesome).  On the camera team, Brian will be heading up Clay as 1st Assistant Camera and Smitha as 2nd AC (Awesome, awesome). As producer, Kate will also serve as my 1st Assistant Director, so she will be in charge of the set.  The one and only Dade Flavors will be my 2nd Assistant Director and will be in charge of the base camp, which is like way to much awesome in one place.  All in all, it’s shaping up to be an, you guessed it, awesome Prodcuction.

I’m a little concerned as to my performance on other peoples’ projects.  I guess being director of

An example of deep-ass focus from Citizen Kane... thanks a lot, JAYE

photography is a little scary.  I’m Jaye’s DP, so, Jaye, if you’re reading this, I’m going to try and kick a lot of ass for you because I heard you want to do all deep focus Citizen Kane type stuff which means I’m going to light anything and everything to maintain that depth of field because I’m not Gregg Toland.  That was one of the most film school kid statements I’ve ever made, and I apologize for that.  Framing shots is no problem, but I am a little concerned about knowing when and what to light.  But I refuse to be a negative Nancy, because that’s a girl name and I’m a guy.  BUT, I do have Dade Flavors and Stephen as my camera crew, and that’s all I need for a bode of confidence.  Together, with our powers combined, we’ll knock Jaye’s project out of the park, all whilst singing the smoothest R&B classics from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  Trust me, Jaye, you’re going to have the smoothest set of all.  I mean, Dade flavors! Good God, that’s smooth.

Matt Sanders’ birthday was today and we all went and grabbed BBQ and then bowled at the student center on campus.  (I know, a bowling alley on campus.  Who’d a thunk?)  It was a blast.  I went running last night and woke up this morning a sore foot.  It’s weird, it’s not like my ankle or a tendon or anything.  It’s the middle of the side of my right foot.  It doesn’t hurt to touch it.  It only hurts when I walk on it, like it’s bruised…but it’s not.  By the end of the night tonight, I was hobbling.  It also hurt my bowling game, because I didn’t even break 100.  I at least usually bowl like a 105.  I’m semi-pro.

Dr. Horrible

I don’t know if anyone of you have ever seen this Dr. Horrible’s sing-a-long blog or not.  It was created by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) and it stars Neil Patrick Harris as a shitty super villain trying to complete his application into the League of Evil.  It’s pretty funny.  They sing a lot of songs and it’s pretty ridiculous.  Anyway, Dan and Jacob LOVE IT.  Turns out, Joss Whedon and co are holding a competition to find the best submissions for super villains to be included on the release of the DVD.  They (Dan and Jacob, not Joss) asked me to be their super villain and we shot it today.  Not gonna lie, things got a little out of hand.  They have some really funny moments in the scripts, complete with props and such.  They’re really into this.  I won’t blow the surprise, because I’ll be posting the video soon, but my name is “Brainstorm” and I seek to destroy the movie industry from the inside by making really really crappy movie pitches. I rifled off a few for them and it was funny, my favorite idea being a Biblical Noir called Frankincense and Myrrhder.  Yeah, I know, I’m pretty amazing.  I also wear a green police light on my head (get it, greenlight?).  Anyway, so look for that soon.  Hopefully they’ll win.  A good many of us in the MFA program were in it.  Here’s the link if any of you are interested:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28327/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog-act-one

It also hit me here at the six week mark about how I’m not at home anymore.  These past 7 weeks have been a tornado.  I just started reaching my limit with school and stuff all week.  I just couldn’t seem to muster the interest or the energy to really hit school hard.  I have been going so strong since we started, but I’m definitely glad classes are over.  I found myself staring out the window a lot, wondering what everyone back in Marietta was doing.  Since I got a new iPhone (thanks again, Dad) I finally got a new pair of earphones.  I can’t believe I left every pair in my desk back home.  I started using my ipod again.

AFI

That really takes me out of it too.  I mean, I’m not using it during class, but I do between classes.  AFI’s album Decemberunderground has been top of my list recently.  Not sure why.  I used to think AFI was some stupid emo band, but their albums, especially this one, have a nice amount of depth to them.  There is a relaxing amount of melancholy and nostalgia with this album.  Something about it seems 90’s to me, kinda reminds me of middle school.  So, if you’re looking for something to listen to, check that album out.

We start “crew drills” this coming week. That essentially means that we spend every day from 8AM-9PM doing test runs of how things will go on set.  Every person has a chance to act as the director.  Ideally, they want you to have your actual actors there to run through it, but, since actors can’t exactly skip classes and we didn’t know until tonight when our “drill” was, we might have to go with stand-ins.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to find one.  This whole process is really getting a little squirrely.  But this certainly isn’t the forum for me to complain.  I simply roll with it… like Steve Winwood.

I guess that’s all I got for now.  This week should prove to be one giant circus, no doubt.  Hope all is well in your land.

Y’all behave.

P.S.- Really getting done with Facebook.  I’m tired of people using their status’ as some one-shot politcal platform, and pretty much just losing interest in it all together.  I might consider deleting my account… Thoughts?

Message from beyond

A decent size blog is coming soon.  We’re finishing up our final week of actual class, so once it’s over, I’ll have a lot more time to write and a little more time to write it.  I got an iPhone too!  So I’ll have some pictures to post too.

Hope all is well with you in blog land.

Little Saturday Morning Post here…

My weeks are getting busier, for sure, so that’s why I’m having a hard time posting as often as I’d like.  That being said, let’s get it to it.

Paul Newman

First off, Paul Newman died last night at the age of 83.  He was a really successful salad dressing entrepreneur for those of you who don’t know.  He was also nominated for 10 Academy Awards in his life time too, and won once for his role in The Color Money, a film, I’ll be honest, I have never seen.  It’s strange to see Hollywood icons steadily disappear, these juggernauts who used to be the face of the industry.  Now, there is a generation of people, myself included, who were never really familiar with his work, or at least had not rushed out to see a Paul Newman movie.  It’s just mainly cause of age.  That, and he had really taken to being part-owner of a stock car racing team and being a philanthropist in the twilight of his life.  I guess maybe I have some Paul Newman movies to watch now.  If you have any personal faves, feel free to let me know.

As far as film school is concerned, we’re really starting to gear up here for our D1 projects.  Next week is the last week of actual class.  We’ve been assaulted with information since we got here.  Now, we actually have to use it.  After we’re done with class, we have a week of what they call “crew drills,” which is essentially you learning from the second year MFA’s and professors on a real set environment.  This should be a little nerve wracking.  We had an exercise the other day in Directing where we were to set up lights and camera for a closeup of one person in a two-person dialogue scene.  After that, we had to set up another over the shoulder shot for a second person.  Then, a wide shot.  What Reb was doing was showing us how clunky it is to light fr a scene in a close-up and then try and move the lights for a wider shot and such.  When you film a scene, you typically want to shoot from the outside in.  Meaning, you need to light the entire scene first, and from there you can move in to the close ups and such without having to adjust the lights much after that.  On a film set, it’s all about time.  You have a specific schedule of shots you plan to shoot and if you’re not being efficient with how you set up, you’re going to blow the whole schedule.  If you blow the schedule, you don’t get as many shots or coverage of the scene.  If you don’t have as many shots, you’re stuck in the editing with whatever you have.  There is no way out of it.  Everything in film is like this assembly line and one little snag has ripple effects way down the line.

For our D1’s, the whole point is just to get through with a some semblance of a movie on the other side.  They’re only going to be 5 minutes long.  We pick our scripts from a pool of shorts written by written by writing students based on the 7 deadly sins.  They vary in genre: horror, comedy, thriller, drama, etc.  We get 1 or 2 actors assigned to us, and we might have to cast smaller roles to fill out the script.  It’s pretty much just a test to see if you can even handle making a movie.  Our MFA class has two tracks of 15 people each.  You only make the movies with your track.  Each person gets one day to direct their project with everyone else in the track filling out the crew positions.  We rotate through every position on set, from Above the Line positions (Producer, Director, Director of Photography, Production Designer) to Below the Line positions (Key Grip, Gaffer, 1st AD, 2nd AD, 1st AC, 2nd AC, etc).

I’ll be honest, I have no idea how this is going to go.  I keep having this vision, like I said, of showing up to the location and no one having any idea where to start.  It’s going to be fine.  I think everyone is a little concerned.  Our track has had a few clashes of personalities lately and we need to make sure there isn’t like “an incident” on set.  I’m not expecting to make a groundbreaking movie here, I just want my set to be calm and fun.  No yelling or screaming.  Let’s just shoot something and hope it goes well.  The cool thing is we get our films assigned to the other track for editing.  So, we’ll have a completely objective opinion about what works and what doesn’t.  This will be a big help when you are dealing with a very complicated dolly shot you spent 3 hours on doesn’t fit into the overall feel of the film and it needs to be cut.  You would want to keep it becsause you’re attached.  The editor will say, “this blows, lose it.”  I mean, this could be good and bad.  So, maybe I’ll cut together a directors cut with some commentary for the DVD.

Ok, I started this blog in the morning, but then I left ot eat some Qdoba with Dave and Matt.  We saw Eagle Eye after that.  Not bad, kinda long.  It was a fun movie nonethelsess.  Then we had a little Back to the Future Part II.  Not sure I like Part II as much as the first but it is so cool.  They really had a fun time splicing in new scenes into the old ones.  That was really awesome.

I guess I ran out of things to say.  I’ll have more of an update in a few days.  Some things to look forward to this week: We have to interview as a rockstar in our acting class.  I’m Ozzy Ozbourne.  That should be fun to play.  I’ll just bumble my way through it.  Then on Friday night we have the rockstar performances.  Every person has to perform a song from their respective rockstars and it’s going to be an all-out party.  I think that will be fun.

Pretty upset that UGA lost to Alabama.  But at least we lost to a ranked team, USC, looking at you.

By the way

Hope you like the new layout.  I thought it looked pretty sweet.  The picture at the top is actually from set when Matt took a pic of the monitor when we were shooting stuff in cinematography.  I know I know, I’m pretty much awesome.