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.