log line and short summary

I need a log line and a short summary for Ghost Tours. A log line is usually 25 words or fewer. A short summary is 100 words or fewer.

You've probably all ready it by now, or I can send you the latest if you'd like. So go ahead, try your hand at writing a log line in the comments. Or riff of the ideas I'm working on.

Ghost Tours officially starts pre-production

I met with my professor today. He thinks I'm ready to start pre-production on Ghost Tours, and I think so too. Yay! I'm emotionally ready to start for sure. I really like this script. I really think it could be a great film. So no pressure or anything, but it's going to succeed for fail based on my skill as a director. This is where I find out if I am as good as I think I can be. I'm really looking forward to starting work on it. Writing was fun, but it's time to take the writer hat off.

Good teaching means caring

I just met for a few minutes with my Cinematography professor and it reminded me just how much of a fantastic teacher John is. I gush about Debbie a lot because I find what I do for her particularly challenging so I would never get through without her guidance and encouragement. What strikes me about John is how much he cares about his students.

Plays are different from movies

I know, duh, right? I had a reading of Ghost Tours yesterday at a playwrights' workshop. There are a group of people at the Newburyport Actors Studio who workshop new or in progress works by their members every 3rd Saturday. A friend of mine was meant to be presenting some work, but she hadn't finished writing it so she let me take her spot. In the 4 hour course of the session we heard an entire 2 act play, my script which ran about 17 minutes, and 4 works in the 5-10 minute range. They do a reading and then discuss, but they warned me that as stage people they would find it harder to discuss a screenplay.

The views from above and below the line.

The Line, in movie making terms, is the line between creative people and craft people. You are "creative" if you've got a job like writer, producer, director, director of photography, production designer, actor. These are all creative decision-makers. You are "craft" if you have a job like Gaffer, Key Grip, Set Dresser, Prop Master, Assistant Camera, or any of the legions of worker bees in each of those departments.

Old Cemeteries

I'm a little bit stuck on my next scene for Enid. I know it's going to take place on a historical walking tour in a cemetery. And I know one of the things it needs to accomplish is explaining that Enid wasn't hearing ghosts in the fog on the beach, she was hearing seals. But I'm not sure what else, if anything, I need to do with it. While I was mulling it over I went and shot cemetery photos.

More Enid Photos

I did a little research this afternoon. Seriously, if I wasn't about to have a boatload of student loan debt I'd just stay at the Cape and be a writer. Enid's Wall may never make me a lot of money, but boy does it make me happy to work on it.

My current challenge is the script. I think I've got the revisions to the treatment done, or done enough that I can sleep on it anyway. But the script isn't just 10-15 pages, it's consecutive pages. So for this case, for me it's the first 15 pages. My problem is the scenes that are most vivid in my mind are not necessarily the ones that come next. If I were just working for myself I would put in placeholder scenes with only enough that I know what I need to accomplish, and I would only flesh out the ones that I really see.

Figuring out the skeleton

I'm going to gush for a moment because I doubt Debbie will ever see this. And if she does ever happen to stumble upon it I'll stand by what I say.

Creativity and Education

"If  you're not prepared to be wrong, you can never be creative."
                                                        -- Ken Robinson

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

I feel like I should know this guy, but I don't. This video is a bit longer than what I usually will post, but it was very interesting and I didn't notice the time.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break - when I spend 5 days ignoring the big pile of work that leads up to finals.

Representation

Of the 250 top grossing films 83.6% had a straight white male protagonist.

This is not a long read and it's an interesting look at the numbers.

Some ideas apply in lots of different ways

"If you want your prose to sound like poetry, treat it like poetry. There should be a rhythm to it…it can’t all be grand arabesques. In information architecture you can only have about 10% of the text deviate from the norm with bolding or italics without losing the effect of the highlighting. The showstoppers should underline the big thoughts, not hide them. You need the plainer prose to throw the pretty stuff into relief."

Found on a writing blog.

So I read this as part of a longer piece about how even when you have a "smart" character don't just throw in every big word you know. And it was all good, but what I was struck by was how much what she said sounds exactly like what I said to some students recently about why they have to have headroom in their sound design. If everything is just loud then when you need to have something be louder than the rest you have no room left to make it different enough to sound loud.

Lessons Learned

With my client last week we interviewed kids who had done oral histories as part of a class in the local community college. This is what one of them said he learned:

Enid research photos

Has anyone got time to proof read for me in the next 48 hours? Send me an email.

Don't know why I feel good

Last night and this morning I was completely freaking out. Tired, stressed, overwhelmed. And right now I feel great. And it's not like I was terribly productive today. 

All my lights work

And now you're thinking, what is she talking about? It's not a metaphor, I am actually talking about all my lights working. I dragged them out from their dusty haven under my bed, plugged them in and tested each one. The process made me oddly happy. I've been shooting with school gear for over a year now. And while it's all quality stuff, it's all well used by students, and, more importantly, last used by students. My gear is never touched by anyone other than me, or someone who has had me as a production teacher. It felt really nice to pull out all my kit and have everything rolled and packed properly and certain to work unless a bulb had popped.

Interesting and somewhat random things I've read

I'm reading a lot today. I have my exam for Line Producing on Tuesday so I'm trying to catch up on all the handouts for that class. At least I've got all the textbook stuff read. I also have a pile of reading for Adaptations: two sets of stories for workshops, plus a film that Debbie is going to talk about. Some interesting stuff is floating to the surface though, so here are a few quotes and ideas.

Glorious Failures

"You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished."
- Neil Gaiman
As found here.

What wonderful advice that is.

Slow and steady wins the race

This is remarkably relevant to my last post, come to think of it.

For my Adaptations class someone is doing The Tortoise and the Hare. We're workshopping it on Tuesday so we have to read the original, read the treatment, and in theory read the pages of the script she's got done (in this case, because she is going first and has less time than later people, she doesn't have to have script pages done yet). Then we write up a 1/2 to 1 page feedback for her. I really like what she's doing with it, but that's not my point at the moment.

Before you click the link above and remind yourself of the story, what do you remember?

It's only the first

How is it only the first and yet I look at November and think I'm in trouble?

Night Shoot

So tonight was the big class night shoot for my cinematography class. It's slightly odd being the TA because I wanted to just jump in and do things and had to hold back so that the current kids get the chance to do things. It went very well for them, but the sound is going to be awful. There were endless helicopters. It seems like every media outlet has brought their own to cover the game, or maybe the anticipated craziness after. Some of the kids were talking about wanting to go out after the game to join the action. And one kid had checked out a camera and was "getting ready for the riots." It's the downside of being in a media program. They all want to get the story and I worry that they might get themselves hurt.

I don't even like baseball

But the mood in the neighborhood is infectious. Everyone stopped to get some version of the rainbow photo, and they are all convinced it is a good sign for the Series. And you know what? My car is parked, people are happy, there is no reason for me to be cranky. I might as well go out and enjoy it.

what to do when you don't have a production class

It was a bit weird having no production class this term. After working on 5 films of my own and working on about 15 others since we were all helping each other out all the time over the course of the first year, having nothing to work on was weird. And before school I always had a  project on the go at some stage. So when Sam passed my name along to a guy who wanted to produce a short and needed a team I said sure why not.

Media Studies, what do you think?

So it's time to think about signing up for my last semester of classes. 4 or 8 credits (I can pick) needs to be "thesis" so that I have time to do the pre-production for my film. So then I get 2 or 3 classes that can be whatever I want. But then I discovered today that over the course of the 2 years I have to take 2 electives in Media Studies in addition to the Masterworks class I took the first semester. I was thinking only one. So two from below. What do you think?

I promised you a happy post

I had a meeting with my thesis advisor yesterday to go over the last draft of Ghost Tours - the one that I posted here. He really gets what I'm trying to do and had some great ideas about how to get it there. It was a really energizing meeting. We were both very excited about the possibilities. I left his office excited to get back to writing. Of course I couldn't because I had class last night. And I've got homework for tonight that I must do before I allow myself to go back to GT. But, if you haven't read the draft at the above link then don't. The next one is going to be different again.

How long before every little thing stops setting me off?

I am very sad.

Feels like a first draft all over again

A couple of weeks ago I met with Charles and he gave me feedback on Ghost Tours. Some specific things, but also some broad things. Namely: What's Sarah's real struggle? What is it that she wants and who/what is keeping her from it? Because it's fine for me to say the world is a magical place and she's missing it because she's too focused, but that's not actually something she wants. That's something I want, for her to open her eyes to the amazing things around her.

A fun short

My screenwriting professor recommended this to me. I don't remember what we were talking about that made her think of it. It was just the two of us hanging during the break in class.

What makes a good book?

The answer to this question is different for everyone of course. I like that I'm doing a lot of reading this term. And I don't even mind that I like some books better than others; that's inevitable. Right now I'm reading A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. Once I get it done I'll watch the movie. I'm hoping I like the movie better than the book, but I'm frankly not holding out a lot of hope. In fact if someone plopped this book down on my desk and said, "We'll hire you to adapt it." I would have no idea where to begin. I'm just over half way through and I have to make myself keep reading.

Not a new thought, but well said

I should be moved on to A Single Man by now for my Adaptations class, but I'm still lingering on Shawshank Redemption because a) I like that movie a lot, and b) there is so much good bonus material. I'm listening to the director's commentary and he's talking about a scene in the mess hall about half way through the film. There are a lot of people talking, but he didn't have a lot of time to shoot it. So rather than shoot each individual who speaks they did a long drifting take that slowly moves in to just the two main characters.

"I thought that was such an elegant solution. And not just a great concession to the amount of time I had to shoot it, but also just a more positive creative solution. Sometimes when you have to make those decisions under duress you wind up doing more elegant things than you would have otherwise if you had all the time in the world to shoot it. And I have Roger Deakins [the DP] to thank for that lesson. It was a wonderful learning experience working with him." -- Frank Darabont (writer/director)

When casually watching you won't even notice that shot. If anything you'll notice that it starts with a lot of people talking, but when it gets to the heart of the matter and it's really just the two of them you will only see the two of them and you see them up close to really get into their eyes and their hearts. But probably most of you won't even notice that, you'll just be caught up in the story. Even I didn't notice it until it was pointed out. But once he said it I thought, oh, that was beautiful.

When you're shooting a film you have to sit down and make decisions for every image that people are going to see. To be so elegant that nobody sees the effort you put into it is really the goal.

Sound design and Production design

So this afternoon I'm watching Barton Fink for my sound design class. I get why this was on the list for that class, but what I'm really noticing - besides the fact that's it's 4x3 instead of 16x9, probably because it's set in 1941, because certainly in the 90s people were shooting widescreen - is the production design. The sets, the props, the costumes are all perfect. Once you've got that environment it practically shoots itself. At least from a visual standpoint. I'm finding the story a bit slow, to be honest.

It's for school, honest

I dropped a bit of money today on "school supplies." A new hard drive for editing class, some new camera and sound cards just because you never have enough and I was in the right store, and a set of surround sound speakers. I'm taking a sound design class, I have to have decent speakers. Yes? Seriously, yes. But I still feel like I'm getting away with something.

Two thumbs up

We showed our first editing assignments in class tonight. The teacher really liked mine. And as he's a very accomplished editor that meant a lot to me. Sadly I can't post it here for you because it's entirely copyrighted stuff. So it's fine for a class assignment, but not for showing. We took the animated film Metropolis and cut it against any piece of music that we wanted. He thought it was subtle and funny. It didn't feel all that subtle to me, but I'm happy he thought so. Anyway if you want to see it let me know and I'll put it someplace you can download it.

A good week in spite of the tooth

I mean really, when I spent Sunday reading the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and then last night reading the screenplay for Shawshank Redemption you can't call homework a hardship. Lately I've been full of ideas for Adaptations. Part of that is Debbie being good at asking the right questions to get me excited about the ideas I have. I was talking to her about Dupin vs Holmes and she thought I'd have fun adapting a detective story. She also didn't discount Holmes just because it's been done a lot lately. Though she also liked the hook that makes me interested in The Mystery of Marie Roget. Then I told her about the Cape story I'm considering. She said, "That sounds perfect for you, but you should write it as a short so that you can actually shoot it." Except I'd been thinking I should write it as a feature and it could be the first feature I shoot. Too many ideas, not enough time. No, that's not true, all the time in the world. I won't stop shooting movies when I graduate. 

The good and bad of this week

I feel like I was really productive this week. I just pawed through all my syllabuses and updated my to do list for the next 10 days and I'm not behind on anything yet. Though there is plenty of reading and watching in my future.

So, good things that happened:

Some days I feel like a poser

Maybe I shouldn't admit that in a public place. It might be that no one but the family is reading this now, but it is still public. I don't think it's entirely bad to admit though. I signed up for the screenwriting class because I knew it would force me to stretch and grow, so it's not that unexpected for me to admit that I'm slightly out of my depth.

Sound Design might be the winner

Had my 4th class today, Sound Design. I think this is going to be my favorite class for the semester. It's a technical class, so slightly more suited to my temperament than the writing class. It's project based so it will involve a lot of fun stuff like running around with a mic and recorder to create sound effects. And for homework we'll be watching (listening to) films like the Lord of the Rings, and Wall-E. I should go to Best Buy and get myself a decent pair of speakers.

I think this class will just be fun, but also I think there's a lot to learn. It's a long time since I took Fritz's radio 1 and radio 2 classes. The physics of microphones hasn't changed, but all the digital tools are new. I'm really looking forward to this one.

The down side of being pathologically organized

I had my first editing class tonight, so that's 3 of the 4 so far. I think it will be a good class. He's clearly a knowledgable and experienced editor. And I even think he has a plan. He certainly has a syllabus, and he's been doing this particular class for a while. But his approach, this evening anyway, felt very random. I doubt it was actually random. Maybe I'm too used to taking (and giving) software training classes. Even when I've had trainers who weren't very good - which was rare, but has happened - they were organized. I suppose it's the difference of teaching 3-5 straight days vs 13 weeks in a semester. In a 5 day class of mine that ends up being about 30 hours of instruction, and our semester it's 39 hours so it's not that big a difference. But because it stretches over months instead of a week I think it will end up being much more laid back. Or at least this instructor feels rather laid back. And slightly rambling. I'll just have to get used to it. Maybe I'll even end up liking it. Just right now it is so against the grain.

He's treating this as an advanced class because we've all taken production courses already where we were required to edit with Avid. But those were production courses so there was only just enough editing instruction to get us through getting our projects done. We all can manage a rough assembly and he really shouldn't need to be doing things like teaching us how to make in and out points. And he didn't, and nobody needed him to. Yet I would still just once like for someone to do things like walk me through the interface and make sure I know what things are called so that when I'm trying to look things up I'm using Avid terms rather than Final Cut or Premiere terms. I suppose it won't kill me to just sit down and go through every page of the text instead of using it as a reference as the instructor suggested.

Life as a TA

I have 2 classes today, but in neither am I a student. When I went to Ithaca College most everyone was there with an assistantship so we all had teachers we were assigned to as soon as we arrived. At BU unless you get the Comm 100 TA job you don't TA until 2nd year. Is that better or worse? Well financially it's worse. But here, because they wait until they know you and what you can do, you get jobs that are a good fit. At IC I was doing data entry for a professor's research. That's a common thing, but so much less fun than helping out production classes. 

Now I'm doing the grad production 1 class and the undergrad cinematography. The first will let me get to know the new first year MFA students. The second lets me work for John Hoover. I loved taking the class from him in the spring. I am certain to keep learning from him. And he has worked in New England for 30 years so he's very well connected. He is someone I want to impress. 

Films we talked about this term

I want to keep a running list of films that get mentioned in classes this term that I want to remember to see either right away or eventually. Check back periodically if you're curious. I'll keep adding to it.

And We're Back

First day of school today. I had 2 classes: Screen Adaptations, and Line Producing. You probably have a good idea what the first is, and only sort of an idea of what the second is. I think I'm going to like them both though, so I'll blather a bit about each.

You never really know

School starts next week. I'll be taking a writing class again. A) it's a stretch and that's good for me. B) I love Debbie and wanted an excuse to take a class with her again. I haven't really written anything in a while though so here's a little warm up exercise I did.

Back in Maine

I got invited back to the Workshops in Maine to teach an advanced editing class. This time I'm trying to make a point of actually seeing things a little bit. They put me in another gorgeous house. This time I'm in the village of Rockport. The workshops themselves are sort of half way between Rockport and Camden, though when I biked in this morning it's less than 2 miles.

Have some photos.

The final report

It was a great week, but I will admit it took a lot out of me. I barely left the couch all day Sunday even though it was a beautiful day.

Friday was FANTASTIC

I just wish I'd had my laptop with me so I could have typed it up while I ate dinner or something, while it was all still fresh in my head. Because I feel like now no matter what I write it won't truly capture the energy and buzz I had going yesterday.

Workshops today

Today was 2 workshops and a trip to the airport and no actual films. The workshops were very good though.

Our Screening

Yay!!! We had our screening last night.

DIY Distribution: apparently it's a misnomer

Got home too late last night to post about yesterdays film stuff. That will happen again tonight too, but maybe morning is a better time for this anyway. We did 2 things yesterday.

Filmmaker Relations

One of the best things about the Woods Hole Film Festival is how well they foster discussions among filmmakers. They encourage filmmakers to come, or maybe just the wonderful summer local does that. And then once they get everyone here they do well giving us opportunities to hang out and chat. There are official things like yesterday's breakfast and today's Quick Stop. And there is also just being in a small town and bumping into people all week long.

Breakfast with the stars

In terms of the festival I was really only there for the breakfast. It was a filmmakers only thing and it was very nice. It was at the home of ... I bet she's a board member of the festival. Anyway, the kind of place on a private road where you have to tell the security guard whose house you're going to. I remember the house from when I was here with Passing actually. It was another lovely spread, but what was really great about it is that it's filmmakers only so you really get a chance to meet and talk with people. It's easy enough to start a conversation because it's pretty safe to walk up to almost anyone and say, "So what's your film about? And when do you screen?" I handed out my business card to 3 new people today. And one of them, the one from my favorite film of last night (sorry Debbie) is going to start work on a feature film in September part of which will be set in Boston. I told him yes, absolutely, get in touch.

Recovery Part 2 - The Cape

I'm back at the cape. It was fantastic having mom and dad take care of me for the last month, but it also feels very good to be well enough to be on my own. Though only sort of on my own since Jim and family are at the house. The diet that mom and I have so diligently followed for the last 2 weeks crashed and burned last night. There is nothing even phase 2 compatible much less for the last 2 days of phase 1. But there is also no room in the kitchen for me to go shopping. We had pizza for dinner. I will start again on Monday.

The Road to Recovery

It's done. Done is good. And now I will keep feeling better a little at a time. It went pretty well as far as these things go. I'm uncomfortable any time I'm not just sitting still. And I walk around hunched over like a question mark. But having read about all the symptoms I could have had before and all the things that could go wrong during and after, really this is a breeze. They gave me the good drugs so I'm alright. Though the drugs do specifically say that they impair mental faculty so don't hold me to anything.

Going under the knife

I'm heading back to Boston tomorrow to have the surgery on Tuesday. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about that. Relieved that the wait is finally over, certainly. Not scared. I think I've been running around so much this month that it doesn't entirely feel real. I've had so many trips to that hospital for appointments that it doesn't feel any different even though it's very different. I more than half feel like I should be biking to get there. I do wish it could have all happened more quickly. The more time I have to think about it the more I think about it.

Anyway, don't know when I'll feel like posting again, or when I'll have anything interesting to say. Recovery is going to be a lot of sitting around while my abdomen heals up. I don't think that will be exciting for anybody. In about a month I'll be heading out for the Woods Hole Film Festival where Killer is screening. I'll definitely have a lot to say about that. And then two weeks later it will screen again at We Like 'Em Short in Baker City Oregon. I won't make it to that but I am more than a little pleased to say that it's screening nationwide. 4 states so far and counting.

Living in an artists' colony

I am in Maine for the week teaching my Final Cut X class. The Maine Media Workshops is a place to go to take week long classes on topics related to photography and film/video. The classes on offer this week are: Portrait Lighting Techniques, Creativity and Invention in Photoshop, The Large Format Narrative Portrait, Designing Interactive Publications, Camera Operator, Final Cut Pro, DIT on Set, The Director's Craft, plus the 2nd week of Four Week Film School. We all eat 3 meals a day together under the tent so in addition to my own students I've had a chance to meet students and instructors from the other classes as well. So I'm surrounded all day by creative and happy people. It's really kind of fantastic.

Pre-Op

The pre-op appointment was kind of boring except for the 3 vials of blood that they had to do a lot of poking to get. It's the 4th time I've had blood drawn in the last 2 months and this chick had a hard time finding a useful vein. I'll admit I'm not an easy one, but ouch.

Art imitating life

I am really looking forward to my adaptations class in the fall. One of the shortcomings I tend to have is thinking up story ideas in the first place. If this class can help me to find existing ideas and make them film-worthy that seems like a good thing for me.

What the MRI told us

Here's the first thing I noticed about today's doctor. He was cute, and younger than I am, though not by much. But when did I get old enough for specialist doctors to be younger? Anyway, I would be totally crushing on him except A) he's married, and B) I'm not likely to ever see him again. We shall call him Dr. S.

Pictures for the fun of it

Here are a couple of the pictures that I've been taking while down here at the Cape. They're not award winning photos, but taking them make me happy.

(Also I got the week of teaching in Maine, and I have a confirmed surgery date of 6/25.)

A post from the Cape

The trampolines are open. Nothing says summer to me more than that. Not even the end of classes.

A quiet week

It was a quiet week once Monday passed. I suppose I should enjoy it while I can. I selected which of the screenwriter's scripts I want to use as my second script for the thesis proposal. I don't want to post it here since it's not mine, but if anyone wants to take a look let me know. The blurb for it is "A package with the words "Live Fish" arrives on Odette's desk. As Odette tries to find the box's owner, she bonds with the fish forcing her to rethink her bland corporate lifestyle." It's quite funny and if we can find the right office location for it I think we can have a lot of fun with it.

Other than that I ordered my textbooks for the fall to get a jump on reading. And yesterday I went to the new Star Trek film. No it wasn't the best film ever. Yes I enjoyed it a lot. I almost wonder if it will be up for discussion in my Blockbusters class that starts next week.

I think I'm going to head down to the Cape for a few days before class starts. Mostly because I can. The weather is going to be nice for long walks in the conservation lands, sunsets on the beach, and spending the time in between reading textbooks on the back deck, where I can be outside without walking down 4 flights of stairs and being worried that I'll need to pee again as soon as I get there.

On the director track

I'm going to tell you my day chronologically because while my committee meeting was in the morning it still wasn't the first important thing to happen.

TMI

This week has been stressful. Not because of the end of the semester - finishing the film on Tuesday, screening it last night, having my committee review meeting next Monday morning - that's all to be expected at the end of the first year of school. It's the health thing (giant fibroids that I've been referring to as my basketball, if there's anyone not up to date). But even that wasn't stressful in the way that I think other people might have been stressed. There was no need to think it might be cancer so I wasn't worried about the diagnosis. It was just that until I got my official diagnosis I couldn't really make any other plans. Earlier in the semester I had gotten myself all worked up about squeezing every ounce of experience I could out of my time here and I put all sorts of irons in the fire to try to get meaningful work for the summer. Now suddenly I can't work all summer and don't know what part of the summer I might be able to work. I hate not knowing and not being able to plan. Being a pathologically organized person that little cloud of chaos in my life was making me crazy all week.

Writing for television

We have a series at school that they call cinemateque that is screenings with discussions held about 6 times each semester. Everyone in the department is required to go to at least 2. I think I did 4 this term because they're really quite interesting most of the time. The last one of the semester was on Friday with a woman who writes for television. We screened episodes from 2 very different shows that she's written for and then had a great Q&A with her. One of my friends asked what she talked about and after I realized there's probably several friends who might find this interesting.

I'm not sure what to do with myself

Yesterday was the last day of classes. How did that happen? Wasn't I just whining about packing my house up? On the other hand, I've shot 6 short films, written about 10 short scripts (some of them very very short), learned to use Avid, played with lots of different cameras, so I suppose that's a year's worth of things.

Log line for Take Out

On Wednesday I have to have a log line for Take Out for class. A log line is 1 to 2 sentences that describe the film in a teasing sort of way that doesn't give away the ending. It's most often used for programs and website at screenings. So if there are several blocks of shorts and you want to pick which one to see but you've never heard of any of them, you look at the titles and the photos and read the log lines to see what sounds good to you.

My log line for Killer is: Sometimes waiting for the bus can be the most dangerous part of your day.

Anybody have any good ideas? The comment section is open for brainstorming.

An award winning film

So I had a good weekend. I didn't network nearly as much as I should. It was the closing night party before I really started talking to people. That seems about typical for me: 4 days to break the ice. But in the meantime I saw a lot of good films, many of them under 5 minutes which is the qualification for being a short short. On Saturday though, I left after the afternoon screenings because I was having dinner with Mom and Dad. Dad asked me what I was missing by having dinner with them and I said the Jury Awards and then 2 more screenings. He asked why I didn't want to stay for the awards and I said I wasn't in competition so whatever. (Passing was in competition for a Jury prize at Woods Hole and they had asked me to send extra DVDs to give to the jury judges.) Then the next morning I was checking Facebook and the festival had listed the award winners so I looked.

Killer won for best short short.

One week left

I only have 2 big things left to do in the next week.

1) I have to finish Take Out. Sam thinks it needs a better title. I know I will never come up with a better title, but if anyone has a sudden inspiration feel free to share it. He said what about even Take Away, but I said that sounds too British. He thought it was a bit too generic and didn't say enough about what kind of film it was. Apart from potentially changing the title though, I think it's coming along very well. I'm at picture lock. John has a copy and is working on the score. I'm starting the rest of the sound design. And then I'll do color correction. Though in fact we get finals week to work on it as well. My last class is Wednesday the 1st, but we have until the 6th to turn in the copy for screening on the 8th.

2) I have to write an 8 page paper for Thesis Prep. That's not a lot of writing since she wants it double spaced, but it will take a lot of thought. We had one on one meetings with Mary Jane instead of a regular class today. We could ask her about the paper. I got one point clarified. Apparently the boys haven't even read the directions yet. Mostly we talked about my latest version of Grandpa's Getaways. She started out with "How much do you really want to pitch this for your thesis?" And I said I'd rather pitch the one I wrote for Debbie's class. She was relieved by that.

2 dozen people and the ice cream truck

Do none of them know what "Shelter in place" means?

I'm OK

I live in an information free zone really. Sitting at home all day, writing my script, prepping for a presentation I have to give on Wednesday. On my to do list for the day was to go to campus to practice with some gear that I have to use for a class project on Wednesday evening. I was putting it off because this morning I looked at the map of the Boston Marathon and realized that it was going right between me and campus.

Around 3 I figured it would be just straggler runners so I should be able to find a way across.

There was also a daytime baseball game today (are they called matinees in baseball?) so between the two events my neighborhood was packed with people. I was expecting that, but I hate crowds so even being prepared for it didn't help my state of mind while wadding through all those people who were mostly just standing around trying to figure out where to go.

In very quick succession I got 2 texts. One from my nephew Frank and one from my classmate Aaron both saying exactly the same thing "You ok?" I answered Frank, "My neighborhood is a zoo and I'm annoyed, why do you ask?" And I answered Aaron, "Why wouldn't I be? You're the second person to ask me that." And so simultaneously they were the ones to tell me about the explosions at the marathon.

Awful stuff. I've got the Post up now which is saying 22 injured and 2 dead. But to be clear, when I got to the nearest point of the route to my house it happened to be the 40km mark. Which Google tells me is 24.8 miles. So near the end relatively, but not near enough for me to even be aware the explosions had happened. Didn't hear anything. Didn't see anything. Didn't feel anything. Thinking about it, there was an increase in sirens, but I had chalked that up to the race generally.

I asked a cop where's the nearest place to cross because I still have homework to do, but he said nowhere, we're asking everyone to move away from the course. So I came home. The cell towers are overloaded so I can't call anyone. I thought this might be a good way to reassure everyone at once.  If anyone thinks to look.

Incremental improvements

One of the things that Mary Jane said when we workshopped Grandpa's Getaways was that I needed to decide what the tone of the piece should be. It was skating the line between serious and funny and so not quite succeeding at either. She also gave me homework to watch spy movies not just to help me decide, but to help me know what that decision would look like.

Let me tell you a story

We've been doing these exercises in getting down to the heart of a story using film language. What can you see? What are they doing? Even though I have a draft of Grandpa's Getaways already, and in fact it's draft number 7 or 8, I want to back up and try to tell the story using Jan's technique before I do revisions to the script and turn it in again for Mary Jane.

It is actually turning out to be very hard to do and is taking me quite a while. I haven't read the script in a month or so and I'm not letting myself open it up now. The current script doesn't matter. What matters is what story am I trying to tell? It's not good to just say I'm trying to practice making a spy story. Scenes with no meaning are boring even if they're cloaked in espionage and chases and stuff.

I can't seem to take all the language out. But then people talk to each other. It's part of what they do. But I keep aiming for if this were in a foreign language would you still know what's going on? I used to watch Spanish language soap operas at the laundromat in Takoma Park and even though I don't speak a word of Spanish I usually knew pretty much what was going on. Not by what people said, but by how they said it.

That went well

I am not going to jinx myself by making any assumptions, but I had all three of my interviews and I feel like they went very well. Really, I would be a good candidate for them; I've got experience but I am also willing to work for peanuts. They pay weekly, but I bet if you worked it out hourly it's not much better than minimum wage. A couple of them asked why I put Teaching Assistant as my first choice when my other choices pay slightly better. The answer I told them was the absolute truth: I have something to offer, but there will also be tons to learn. The job editing students' work or the other job in the marketing department producing videos for the website are variations of things I've done. They're getting teachers in with real Hollywood experience and I've never had a chance to work with people like that before. It's the nut I've never managed to crack. So even if I only sort of break even on the summer because I'll have to pay for housing, I think I will professionally come out way ahead. Can't make any assumptions. You never have the job until you've signed the I9. I will keep looking and talking to people and such. But I think I have a good shot at this. And I think it will be exhausting and fantastic if I get it.

If you don't hear from me again I'm lost in the wilds of Maine

So I drove up today (and up and up and up) to Rockport, Maine in order to interview for a summer job at the Maine Media Workshops. In my head I thought, yeah, it's up the coast in Maine. Oh my god I was driving forever. I have arrived safely and in the daylight, but there's no one here. Not like I made a mistake and came on the wrong weekend or something. I think tomorrow there will be plenty of people. There were lots of envelopes in the late arrivals box where I got the key to my room. But in the meantime it's dead and spooky.

Also everyone who went south for the winter in Maine hasn't returned yet. In fact I passed by a lake that was still half frozen. Spring has definitely not sprung. But I was still sort of thinking it would be like Cape Cod in the off season. Quiet and half shuttered up, but with clear signs of civilization. Not so much. There is an awful lot of nothing up here. I'm hoping that when I wander out for dinner I'll be able to find more of a town than most of the towns I passed through. Maybe my problem was never getting off the highway on my way up here. I suppose you could cross the Cape on route 6 and not realize there was life.

I found town.

I love my directing class, except...

I am learning so much in that class. And also it's a lot of fun. The problem is school doesn't wait for me to learn it before moving on.

First cut of Take Out

I'm not posting it, I've just been working on it. I haven't got the rhythm at all right yet. It feels rushed and a bit jerky to me. It's only coming in around 4 minutes at the moment and I had been expecting 5. It might get a bit longer, but probably more like 4.5. Which is fine. Shorter is usually better. You don't want anything in your story that doesn't need to be there. It just feels a little odd to me because I'm used to things coming in long and needing to get trimmed down. I can't tell at the moment if it's a sign that my writing and shooting is getting better - tighter and more focused. Or if I'm just rushing and not shooting enough coverage.

Trying to keep my energy up

I knew this was going to be a difficult week, and it is. I had a long day of shooting on Sunday, a long night of shooting Monday. Then up early for meetings Tuesday morning and then class Tuesday night. Up early for class on Wednesday and all the stress that day entailed when my actress sent me an email at 9am saying she had a fever and wouldn't be able to make it. Though in the end Wednesday went very well. I found a last minute replacement actress who did a fine job, our group presentation in Thesis Prep and the discussion that ensued was really interesting. The shoot for Cinematography went well enough that I got an email from John the next morning saying good job. And there was a potential incoming grad student who was sitting in on that class who I sat and talked with for a while after. She was nice, I hope she comes next year.

Don't compare yourself to anyone else

I think I was getting a little complacent. I was looking at the boys, and even some of the second year students for those that I know at all, and thinking I'm ahead of the curve. Specifically where it comes to summer work and how it affects career planning. I'm going up to Maine next week for the job fair at the Maine Media Workshops, and I had sent off an email and resume to Tim at Central Booking earlier in the month. I've been asking all the second years "what did you do last summer?" and I asked John (cinematography), Sam (prod 2) and Mary Jane (Thesis Prep) what they recommend.

How to Pass a Test

I have done more writing in this production program than I ever expected. Here's the up side: I seem to be getting better and faster at it.

Shoot Day 2/Lessons Learned

Actually I'll probably keep the lessons learned bullet list running as I work through post on this because sometimes you don't learn the lessons until you're trying to cut it together.

I think today went really well, though I haven't started looking at the footage yet. It's still copying to the hard drives for backup and then Avid will need to transcode it. Then I'll start looking through it. I have 6 weeks to get through post, so I don't have to rush to edit, but I'd rather get a first pass done sooner rather than later in case I really do need to do a pick up on something. I'm not expecting to, but you never know.

Take Out Shoot Day 1

Today was a very good day. I am watching the rushes now. Well, as soon as Avid finishes transcoding, so I have a few minutes to gush about my good day. We've all worked together now on several projects and so we know each other's strengths and weaknesses and know where to trust each other.

Can we just start shooting

I'm ready and so I'm restless.

Do not fear the SAG office

Half of my cast for Take Out is union. I had some union actors in Killer as well, so I've been through the process with the office here just a few months ago. Lots of people sort of fear using SAG actors, but when you're still a student there's really no need. When I used SAG before I was a student the paperwork was really intimidating and overwhelming. I didn't have to pay anything, but I had all the same forms to fill out that any big budget studio film would have. Now that I'm a student that paperwork is drastically simplified. So it's still a bit tedious and time consuming, but it's not hard and the people at the office are very friendly and willing to talk you through it.

Feedback on Grandpa's Getaways

I was a little nervous about presenting this in class because when I did the one paragraph pitch the professor was not very encouraging about it. But it was still the best idea I had going, and I very much wanted to get feedback on it and be able to work on it in a class environment. I like it now - and enough other people liked it that I had a good cast and crew lined up for it before I ran out of time - but how much better could it be both as a script and as a film if I actually had support from my professors? Can we take what would have been a good film and make it great?

Feedback on Catch Me First

I started this as a response to Karen's comment on the last post and then realized I have more to think about than just a comment.


That assignment was the same professor, but a different project as Snowman Baseball. The snowman photo was more of a composition assignment. This was find an existing photo and tell the story assuming this image is the fulcrum point in the story - the moment when change occurs for one or more of the characters.

In class yesterday I got official feedback on the snowman story and unofficial "pitch it in class and then discuss" feedback on this story. In both cases the professor was kind of lukewarm. This story is too sweet and has no conflict. And that's a valid comment really.

In any case I've already moved on.

I'm on fire

I have been so productive in the last 48 hours.

The Director's Cut

Or maybe I should say it's the writer's cut. Anyway, I showed Good News/Bad News (aka the pregnant couple story) in class last Wednesday. I got a bunch of little detail-y feedback from the professor on the production, which I can't do anything about now, and on the edit which I can. So I've been working on re-cutting it before I post it for you to look at.

All those details are fine, but then there's this: at the macro level I didn't communicate what I was intending. The professor looked at the scene and said wow, what a bitch! She's really mean, why is she toying with him so much? I responded that she's not meant to be toying, she's meant to be reassuring. So we looked at my classmates - all guys - and asked what they thought and they all agreed with the prof. I asked them again later when the prof wasn't around because of course that's going to affect what you'll say even if you don't intend it to. They said, well, we knew what you meant because we'd talked about it before ever shooting, but now that he points it out, yeah, she does seem mean.

The rest of the location challenge

If I had more time I would keep working on this, but I need to settle on the images so that I can come up with story ideas for them. We only really have to have a story for 1 of the 4. I've got my 2 page script for the snowman story done. I do still have to do the "one page paper identifying, as specifically as possible, the ways your composition forces the action - and ultimately reveals elements of your characters' persona." which is next on my to-do list. 

Location Location Location

We have our next challenge exercise for Thesis Prep this week. Here's the assignment:

Find 4 different locations, 2 exterior and 2 interior. Each location should have one of the following four elements as a dominating feature:

• Deep space 
• Diagonals
• Back lighting
• Symmetry

Note: Deep Space does NOT mean lots of space. It refers to the audience's sense of an exit on the Z axis. Note: Diagonal must be an organic feature of the scene; no tipping the camera to achieve the diagonal!

Compose a single photograph of each location. Upload to the class server. These photos must be taken specifically for this challenge. Then, pick one of your compositions and write a short 2 page script (or treatment) for a scene taking place in that location. You should have a total of three characters. Finally, write a short, one page paper identifying, as specifically as possible, the ways your composition forces the action - and ultimately reveals elements of your characters' persona. In other words, explore how your location, as conveyed through your composition, connects the audience to your characters.

The Blizzard

In DC they call this Snowmageddon. In New England they call it Winter.

(More added after lunch walk.)

First Draft

All right, it's just the very first draft so assume that it needs a lot of work and give me all the suggestions and comments you have. But I sat in the cafe in question and wrote this out this afternoon. It will hopefully become my Production 2 final project. There is an 8 minute cap but that doesn't mean it has to be 8 minutes, just up to 8. This should come in around 5 which is a good length.

Here's the PDF.

And I've got no ideas on a good title, so help brainstorming that would be much appreciated.

You know, the popular software for writing screenplays is called Final Draft. I find that kind of ironic. Your draft is never really final until the cameras start rolling.

Good News/Bad News

So this weekend I shot the scene exercise about the couple trying to get pregnant, which for the moment has the working title Good News/Bad News. We did that yesterday and I think it went very well. I've only skimmed the footage so far, but the actors were fantastic. I get such a charge out of hearing something I've written performed by people who can really act. We workshop things in class sometimes, but it's so not the same.

The other Zap photos

So we played the zap game, as it were, in class yesterday. The idea was you showed the photo and then everyone shouted out the first thing it make them feel/think. I did show my small dog one first but also showed these three as well because I was expecting the small dog one to kind of fail. Ultimately it wasn't the best of the images, but it also worked because for the teacher it was the first thing she said.

So if you want to play the game shout out what you think for these three.

I'm glad I'm not an actor

The auditions last night were great. We had bad weather, which probably hurt us. Only about half the people who said they were coming actually showed up. Lai is having a problem because he didn't get anyone reading for him. Aaron got one perfect person for each part. Ehsan's script is still a little up in the air, but I think he's got some interesting people to pick from. I think Jorge is ultimately going to go with friends, but it was still a good exercise for him. He had a couple people come out and read for him but they were both about 10 years older than he was hoping for. And me? Well I'm having an embarrassment of riches.

The First Zap

I was out doing homework for Thesis Prep while walking the dog. Here's the assignment.

Challenge A The First Zap. With this challenge we determine what the audience sees with a given shot, versus what the filmmaker HOPES the audience sees, upon initial viewing. To this end, take 3 photographs of three different images that compel us, the viewer, to register the image PLUS its qualifier at the same time. In other words, you want us to see: Big Tree, not just Tree. Official Building, not just building. Neurotic Mother, not just Mother. Red car, not just Car. You get the idea. More explanation in class.

I am not a fast reader

This is not actually news, but I feel like I'm noticing it more. I like the book I'm reading for class this weekend (Producing and Directing the Short Film) much better than pretty much any of the books we read last term. I feel like last term most of the reading I did was for Film Studies and frankly half way through the term I stopped reading those books. Not because they weren't interesting, they were a bit. But they were dry and it was taking forever to get through them, and they were covering the same stuff that his lectures did and his lectures were very engaging. I liked the books for screenwriting, come to think of it. And I only skimmed the production book because it was all stuff I knew.

Auditions

We put out a casting notice for all 5 of our short scenes. Well I was putting one together for mine and told the guys I'm booking a room and putting out a notice anyway so if you want in send me your summary and character breakdown. They all did because they're not stupid, I was doing a bunch of work for them. And I don't really mind since it was no more work than just doing it for myself.

But now I've realized that yes it is. Because I put my email as the contact and since we don't have the room reservation confirmed yet - I put in the request but I'm still waiting to hear - told them to let me know if they were  planning to come so I could tell them where once I know. And I still wasn't thinking that was going to be much. Well, the notice went out yesterday afternoon and so far we've got 22 people coming for a total of 10 roles.

I'm a little worried about our 3 hour block of time being good enough. We will need to be very organized on the day. And none of us have ever really done auditions before so we're all just faking it. I really hope that's going to be a topic of conversation in at least one of our classes this term.

Director vs Director of Photography

So this question got posed in my earlier post about the lack of women cinematographers:

hate to sound naive but... whats the difference between cinematographer and director? 

And answering it will also give me the chance to talk about my 4th class which I haven't mentioned yet which is Advanced Directing. I find it kind of entertaining that they call it Advanced Directing since none of us have had beginning directing. Unless they count all the stumbling around self taught directing that we've all done on our films so far.

Monet or Degas?

For Cinematography we have an assignment to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, select a painting with a landscape orientation (so similar to how our cameras shoot) and then do a 1 page write up about what you see that's interesting and why you picked it - a clinical look and a personal look.

I found it entertaining to wander around the MFA this morning for homework. I had a really hard time picking though. I managed to only take pictures of 7 paintings (we have to have a copy of the painting along with the write up). And now I've narrowed it down to 2.

where are the women?

For Cinematography we are going to have to do a report on a cinematographer of our choice. As I'm not the kind of person to memorize crew names of films, I don't really know any apart from Haskell Wexler from last term's film studies presentation. So I've arbitrarily decided I want to pick an American woman working in fiction film. WHY ARE THEY SO HARD TO FIND?

Prompt me please

I'm not a writer, not really. And I knew that. Part of picking BU was that they had screenwriting MFA students that I could befriend. That hasn't quite gone as planned yet. I only saw them in my film studies class last term and that wasn't the kind of class where you get to know people, it was all just lectures. And now they aren't in any of my classes so I'm not sure how to find them.

And we're back

First day of classes. I woke up to snow. I love snow in theory. I don't so much like it when I'm biking to campus. Fortunately the roads were clear enough (Mom), but the freezing rain stinging my eyes was unpleasant. But I am happy to report that my waterproof pants and my waterproof boots held up well so I think I'm actually ready for the winter. And I'd still rather have a cold winter than a hot summer.

But anyway, classes. It was good to see the fellas this morning. Everyone seemed refreshed, happy, and ready to go. I know I am. I think we all took a look at what's on the line up for the next few months and thought this is going to be fun, let's have at it.

Creativity Will Begin Promptly at Three

Someday I'm going to use that post title as a film title. It was something that we used to joke about when I worked at the Kennedy Center, the idea that in schools art class happened at a certain time and that was the only time students are allowed/encouraged to be creative.