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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.