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.