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?