Guess what, I’m a sophomore now. Literally so much has happened since the last time I wrote here.
I thought that in honor of throwback thursday I would reopen this very informative ( and somewhat therapeutic ) bloggy blog blog.
Some things that have happened since the last time I wrote on this blog:
I took screenwriting and loved it
I officially started answering the question “What do you want to do in the entertainment industry?” with “I want to be an Assistant Director.” So that’s good.
I started making film jokes as my primary sense of humor. Which is sad.
I moved in to a house off campus with a screenwriting major, a creative producing major, and a narrative television major.
I worked on set as a Boom Operator and now have very toned arms (kinda)
I grew five inches (<– That one is a lie)
Anyway! I just was being freakishly nostalgic today and wanted to post my Chapman Application video here. Cause hey, I’m so happy I’m here right now. Dodge (#1 film school in the nation (says me)) is my favorite.
So Super Bowl Sunday is in two days, that means it’s time for Oscar Picks!!!! YAY!!!!
Okay Academy, here come the wildly uninformed musings of an undergraduate film student. Lets do this.
To start off the evening, I thought I might express my excitement over the fact that Ellen DeGenerous is hosting this year… I am extremely excited that Ellen is hosting this year!!! That means my boyfriend might actually watch. (He likes Ellen, don’t tell anybody)
I thought I’d just take a quick moment to point out the Ellen Oscar Trailer thing.
Mmmmm, nice. Catchy tune, I like all the people and the cinematoWHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING! Literally, it’s like they got a focus group together and they were all like…
Focus Group Person #1: You know what this distinguished award show really needs, an arbitrary dance number with a butt-load of people that come out of nowhere in tuxedoes that is mildly reminiscent of the music video ‘Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit’ from the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother.
Focus Group Person #2: That’s a great idea. Lets Have Ellen look mildly unenthusiastic and confused walking in the front of the pack. Wait, shouldn’t we mention the oscars at some point?
Focus Group Person #1: Nay. They’ll be wearing Tuxedoes. Everyone knows the only place a person would ever wear a tux, is to the Oscars.
Focus Group Person #2: You should run for Congress, my friend.
All atrociously out of place trailers aside, I’m really excited that Ellen is hosting. I think she is fantastic, charismatic, and lovable and I am excited to tell everyone around me to shutup during her opening monologue because I actually care about dumb award show jokes.
Okay, on to the real picks. Here is the PDF document I got off the ABC Oscars site. I filled it out so ya’all could see my picks along with the other nominees (and of course all of the categories nobody cares about).
Before I jump into specifics I’d like to point out a few things about some of the listed categories.
Things I know absolutely nothing about:
Documentary Anything
Foreign Language Anything
Live Action Short Film
Visual Effects
The Movie Philomena
Don’t ask me anything about these categories. I will undoubtably say something stupid. As far as visual effects go, I once thought I could tell good from bad. Then I got to film school. Turns out I know nothing. So don’t ask.
Things I Can Speculate About:
Makeup and Hairstyling
Costume
Score
Production Design
I can’t pick a winner with any confidence in these categories. I am almost consistantly wrong with my guesses. I don’t know any more or less about these subjects since I got to film school (well, maybe production design, but not really).
Things I Have a Working Knowledge Of:
Direction
Screenwriting
Sound
Cinematography
Editing
Acting
I understand what makes and breaks these subjects. This year I am supremely hindered the fact that I haven’t actually seen all the movies up for best picture.
Things I Am an Expert On:
Ha
Haha
I’m an Undergraduate Freshman in Film School
Okay, so here’s the thing. I wasn’t that interested in going to see some of the top Oscar flicks this year. I don’t know weather it was laziness or not finding the movies appealing, but I haven’t seen all of them. I REALLY WANT TO SEE ‘HER’. But I haven’t gotten a free moment yet. It’s kinda killing me slowly.
Let the unintelligibly ramblings continue…
My vote for Best Picture is 12 Years a Slave. I cried my eyes out at this movie. I felt real solid emotion. I was engaged in the story the entire time, and the cast’s performance was impeccable. I really think the front runners for Best Picture are 12 Years and American Hustle, if you look at Golden Globe wins and other nominations. I picked 12 Years because (wait for it…) I didn’t like American Hustle. That’s right. I said it. I thought that the trailer was more interesting than the movie. The acting was great and the story was fine, but the stakes were too low and I checked my phone several times throughout the film. American Hustle was a paradigm to me. It’s easy to pick out performances and elements of the production that were laudable, but that didn’t stop me from being bored. I know many people who think I’m a lunatic for feeling this way about American Hustle (including my parents), but I also know people who agree with me. I don’t know anyone who left 12 years a slave, and was like “Meh, it was okay. I only cried my eyes out, and drafted a plan to kill Michael Fassbender. All in all it was decent.” No one said that. That is why 12 Years a Slave is my choice for Best Picture.
The next ones will be shorter, I promise.
My pick for Best Actor was Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mr. Kinky Boots made me cry my eyes out and feel his pain. If he doesn’t win, I’ll be sad. There are some amazing Actor’s nominated, (Let’s just be honest, DiCaprio and Dern got a nod) and I wouldn’t be shocked if he lost (I mean c’mon, Matthew McConaughey looked like he was on the edge of death). But, I’d be sad. I think Chiwetel deserves it.
My Pick for Best Supporting Actor is Jared Leto. He played his role beautifully.
My Pick for Best Actress is Amy Adams. However, everyone keeps telling me about Cate Blanchett’s performance in Blue Ivy, a movie I haven’t seen yet, and I think I could possibly change my vote. I love Cate Blanchett. I also only mildly enjoyed Amy Adams performance.
My vote goes to Jennifer Lawrence for best supporting actress. I love her. I love her so much.
As Far as Original and Adapted Screenplays go, I think 12 Years will win adapted, and I currently hold American Hustle as my vote for Original. However, I haven’t seen Her yet, and I might change my vote.
Now I will talk about Gravity. I am deathly afraid of Space. It freaks me out. I don’t even like talking about space. I don’t think any horror film ever made could terrify me the way that gravity did. For that, I think it’s grounds for some serious awards. First off, I think that Gravity should win for Visual Effects. I told you not to ask any further on the matter. More importantly, if Gravity doesn’t win for Sound Mixing, I will cry. I also think it should win for sound editing. All in all the sound MADE that movie and should be recognized for it. (Quick tidbit for those who don’t know, Sound Editing is the collection of sounds created and used in a film [gunshots, footsteps, chatter inside a restaurant, you name it], and Sound Mixing is the placement of those sounds in the world of the film. Basically, the editor collects the ingredients, and the mixer mixes them together. Simple.)
I don’t know what to do about cinematography. I have only seen Gravity from the lineup. So I vote Gravity by default. Bummer. I at least like to be informed when I lose.
I really did admire the editing in American Hustle. I voted as such.
I believe that Frozen should win for best Animated Feature. Frozen is the most progressive Disney princess film, and I think that counts for something. As far as the other nominees go, I haven’t seen two of them, sequels rarely win, and The Croods had Nick Cage in it. Frozen has my vote.
I’m tired now, so I am going to go to bed. No doubt, I will change my list before the awards. I will check in with everyone after the Oscars. I will probably be irrationally emotional. In other words, it should be a fun post. Maybe I’ll live tweet again. We’ll see.
This is going to be a shockingly short post for the amount of experience I gained over the last few weeks. I don’t know why I felt inspired to write this in the middle of the night, but hey, why not.
So this month is Interterm at Chapman University (otherwise known as January term which makes a lot more sense) and that means it’s time to cram in an entire semesters worth of learning into one month. Three credits, one course, three hours a day, four to five days a week. This period is a great time to kick those pesky GEs to the curb. I, unfortunately/fortunately, was unable to enroll in any of my preferred courses and ended up enrolling in a class I was actually interested in.
Course Meets: Monday through Friday 10:00am to 2:00pm
We are happy to announce the 2014 Interterm Location Film Production. As part of an ongoing effort to introduce our students to new and innovative film technologies and the particular aesthetics and practices these have spawned, we have designed the 2014 Location Film class to focus on the creative use of the Xsens Motion Capture technology or Green Screen technology. The objective of the course will therefore be to produce two or more short movies that effectively use these technologies to tell compelling and original stories.
The Motion Capture film(s) will include a character that has been digitally generated using the Inertial Motion Capture technology by Xsens<http://www.xsens.com/en/general/mvn>. This motion capture technology is a flexible system that is fully portable and can be used at both indoor as well as outdoors locations.
The course and accompanying productions will be team taught and supervised by Roy Finch (rfinch@chapman.edu)
The class will consist of a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and supervised productions.
The class will begin on Thursday January 6 and end on or about February 1, 2014. Enrollment in the class will be open to students of all disciplines.
I bolded the sentence at the end of the first paragraph to point out how little I understood the sentence. You see, I thought that the short movies we would be creating would be more along the lines of the visual storytelling projects we had been creating over the past semester. I was very wrong. The Professor, Roy Finch, wanted the projects to be Thesis Level. We were given a 5,000 dollar budget for each project, and we were told to arrive with an idea of what position we wanted to hold on a set.
Alright, here is where the lesson comes in. I know it may be the same moral from a past post, but it’s especially prevalent now. It even comes with my honest to goodness anecdote.
My friends and I sat down in class on the first day. Right off the bat two different creative teams pitched their short films to the rest of the class. (I found this confusing because I thought I would be hearing a lecture right about now on the history of green screen technology and it’s uses. I brought a notebook and everything. Apparently this class was going to be a lot more hands on than I thought.) Apparently we REALLY WERE splitting up into crews and hard core producing films. Anyway, I was immediately taken with the plot of the short Mr. Bananas, which is a comedic story about a little girl’s stuffed monkey who gets tortured by her evil older brother. Kind of a mix of Toy Story, Ted, and The Godfather, but I digress.
I knew I wanted to work on the set of Mr. Bananas, and I wanted to work as an Assistant Director. From this point I made one very right move, and one very wrong one.
As soon as we were released to shmooze with the directors and producers, I went straight for Trevor and Andrew, the team from Mr. Bananas, and stated my experience from working on a few sets. I told them I was very organized, confident, and good at multitasking. I’d like to think I stated my case rather well, if I do say so myself. HERE IS WHERE I MADE MY WRONG MOVE. Having worked on two film sets where the 1st AD was at least a Junior standing, I was aware that the 1st position was not one held by Freshmen. However, I was also unaware that the class was comprised of a shocking amount of Freshman, and that I has significantly more experience on set than a lot of my peers (that is ANY experience on set). So, I ASKED if I could hold the position of 2nd AD, a job that I was very familiar with from apprenticing a friend of mine, and working as a 2nd 2nd (if you recall from earlier posts).
The Bad news:
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE. I was given the position of 2nd AD. The 1st AD job was given to a friend of mine who had conveniently left out that he had never worked on a Dodge film set before, and was unaware of the duties and responsibilities of the 1st. He merely pointed out that he was interested in working as an Assistant Director.
I was so angry. So very very mad. But not at my friend. I was angry at myself for selling myself short of my goal. I assumed that I wasn’t ready for the 1st position. I was afraid that I would be looked down upon as a freshman who didn’t know what they were doing. I was a coward, and I had to deal with paying the price for that. Oops.
I had to stew in my bad decision for about 4 days.
The Good news:
My friend Rachel, who was working as the short’s script supervisor, let the information slip to Trevor, the director, that I had more experience. She also gave me a bit of a recommendation, as she knew about my past performance from being in my Visual Storytelling class. I did not prompt her into tattling. I hadn’t even expressed to her a feeling of dissatisfaction with my initial job.
It felt really good to be recognized by a peer for doing good work.
However…
The Lesson:
You won’t always have someone to vouch for you. If you want to get what you want, you have to reach out and take it. Don’t sell yourself short or let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. I almost missed out on an invaluable experience because I was too nervous to speak my own worth.
This probably wasn’t one of my more fun blog posts. But it sincerely needed to be written.
Pretending like you have seen movies you haven’t actually seen.
I literally can not stress how necessary this skill set it. It’s vital. At least 8 times a week you will run into some classmate, fall into a conversation about movies, and run into the brick wall comment that is “What? You haven’t seen Blankity Blank Blank? My goodness you haven’t lived!”
Upon checking your pulse, you realize you totally have lived as your fellow student-friend-thing-character recounts the highlights of the film (and since this is film school, at least somewhere in the recap the speaker will make a lightly pretentious comment about the cinematography, use of creative narrative devices, lighting, etc). After this wonderful conversation has happened >100 times, one usually realizes that it’s easier to pretend like you have seen the movie. Be warned, there is very little that will make you look “stupider” than being caught in this lie. Here are some simple steps to take in pretending like you have actually seen a movie.
1. Assess the situation
If you are talking to one person, odds are they will try and converse with you about specific aspects of the film. This makes this scenario the most dangerous. However, single humans have a tendency to rant for longer about certain films. Therefor, you have more to gain by subverting the “I haven’t seen that movie” conversation.
If you are talking to a group of people, you have more opportunities for camouflage. Safety in numbers and all that. In these situations, you can just nod and smile when faced with the impending movie conversation without participating.
2. Acquire Knowledge
I haven’t seen Captain Phillips yet. “You haven’t seen the most recent ‘Tom Hanks saves a lot of people’ movie? What is wrong with you?” I know. Film School Heresy. I’ll get to it eventually. Anyway, I hate talking about this movie with my peers because they are insufferable about it, and nothing makes them feel better than having seen a film you haven’t seen. So, in order to avoid the impending hell, I did some research on the movie
Use Wikipedia – You aren’t using it on a research paper, so you’re in the clear on this one. Here you can find the complete film synopsis. You won’t be able to quote anything verbatim, but at least you will know who was in the movie.
Rotten Tomatoes – Read reviews. Do it. It’s worth it. Knowing what film was good and which film was bad is an essential part of a conversation. A quick check of the metascore will give you most of the information you need of what specific aspects of the film were good or bad.
The Trailer – Trailers are like mini movies. I can watch them for days. Being up on the most recent film trailers gives you enough surface knowledge of each film to get by on a basic conversation. You probably won’t be able to discuss the heightened emotion in Meryl Streep’s acting performance, but you probably won’t get caught knowing NOTHING about the film.
Of course you should use IMDB and other such wonderful sources, but I find them better for post-viewing sources.
3. Be Vague
You haven’t seen the movie. Don’t guess. Make overarching broad statements that may pertain to any film. Stuff like…
Yes, the film had an interesting use of light and shadow.
That one actor was particularly notable. You know? The one with hands.
I really enjoyed the climax of the film. I thought it had the most tension of the entire movie.
The protagonist was a generally multifaceted character.
It wasn’t as good as Silence of the Lambs.
4. Divert the Subject
Whatever you do, do not linger on the subject too long. Get out of there fast. There is a distinct limit on how long you can fake a conversation before you get caught. Don’t push your luck, you’re not that good. Find a way to switch the subject fast.
Talk about an upcoming assignment or event.
Talk about a different movie that you have seen. Maybe one with the same actor to use as a bridge.
Ask them about their day/last meal/roommates health/most recent mistake.
Disarm them by making a pretentious comment like, “It wasn’t Black and White, French, with subtitles, so how good could it have been?”
Start Crying.
Run.
5. Be Straight with Them.
If all else fails, honesty is always the best policy. Keep your wits intact and claim you are going to see it soon. Accuse them of spoilers and promise that you are merely postponing the conversation for another day.
I’m thankful for unpredictable teachers: I may have no idea ever how you are going to respond to my film, but as long as it’s never what I expect, I always live in constant fear that you will hate it. It’s become a rather driving force to work hard on my film. So, Thanks.
I am thankful for the Hall Common-room: Many an essay is written in this room. Since we are all in the same class, writing the same paper, on similar topics, the common-room has become the essential think tank of the dorm. Also the word common-room makes me feel like I’m living at Hogwarts. So thanks.
I am thankful for Foodie Call: Foodie call is a local business that will deliver food to your dorm room, or Dodge, until 3am. Amazing delivery business absolutely essential to my survival. THANKYOU!
I am thankful for the writing center: My writing sucks, thanks for telling me to my face. thanks.
I am thankful for my Actors: Otherwise known as people who live in my hall. You people are subpar actors at best, but you are always there, and for that I salute you. Thank You from the Bottom of my Heart.
I am thankful for the Universe: Thank you.
I am thankful for my Weird (environmental science major) Boyfriend: Thank you for listening to my ridiculous rants on various film techniques and “what happened today in visual storytelling” and yada and yada and yada. You constantly put up with my near constant rambling. Your patience in unmatched. Thanks Baby.
I am thankful for Finals: Shocker right. I am thank for what finals signify, the Final moment in a class. After they are over, they are over. Over. Done. So yea, I’m thankful for finals, sue me.
The real secret to succeeding in the film industry (or so I’ve been told because I obviously haven’t) is Networking. The old, “ya gotta know somebody to be somebody thing.” Cry.
Anyway, at Dodge College there are a few simple tricks that can help:
Creative Producing Majors! (everyone assumes since the Film Production students are Directing and Shooting the film that they call all the shots, that’s not entirely true because a lot of the crew is put together by the people organizing the entire shabang, and that would be the Producers)
Ask! If you have an upperclassman film friend, chances are they get on sets. Ask them to put you on a set at a Production Assistant.
Make Friends on Set! Do it! Even if you aren’t interesting at all, put on your big boy pants and pretend you are worth having around. It’s easier to be on sets once you have already been on one.
Join an Organization on Campus! I joined a sorority. A lot of my film peers were all like, “Why are you doing that? You’re going to be so busy with just Dodge?!?!” Well jokes on them because I have made a bunch of fantastic film school connections and friends through my main girl, Annie, (who I will be thanking in my first Oscar acceptance speech) because she got me on my first set.
If you want to be on set it’s pretty easy.
To the freshman in my hall complaining that it’s impossible,
A couple of weeks ago Midterms began here at Chapman University. At roughly the exact same time, as if on cue, I got the flu.
Now some of you may be calling me an idiot for not getting a flu shot, well the joke is on you. I got one of those silly vaccinations. Apparently the flu shot is only 60% effective. That’s a D! Which, due to my illness, is the grade I will be getting on most of my midterms. (That is a joke. I actually have done pretty dang well on my midterms so far by working my butt off.)
Anyway, I have managed to keep this cold going pretty well because apparently all of my teachers got together and mapped out the midterms so they fall one right after the other. This combined with other film related obligations means that I have had either some huge test to study for or some crazy film assignment to produce ALL THE TIME!
I have been pretty much blowing my brains out of my nose for about three weeks now with varying levels of intensity. Let me point out the obvious real quick as well… when you are sick, the last thing you want to be doing is studying the effects of classical conditioning on comprehensive learning for you Psych 101 class. You want to curl up watching some random netflix instant pick because that sort of mind-numbing relaxation is about as much as your germed out mind can really handle. I barely have the strength to get my 100 lb frame out of my lofted bed, let alone the strength to bike ten minutes across campus to take a test on “why do we care about the use of Dutch Angles in post-classical film”. To be honest, at this point, I don’t care. I just want to be well again.
In order to get well, I will be needing these 8 things:
Another bottle of NyQuil because I finished mine, and drugs are expensive
Chicken Noodle Soup
My teddy bear, Philbin
An in house attendant to get me things that I can’t immediately reach from my loft bed. (Because my roommates have officially given up on me)
10 hours of uninterrupted rest
People to stop knocking on my door asking to borrow nail clippers, my copy of PostModern Theory, my backpack, etc…
A have now fallen far enough behind to be epically chasing the deadline, up until all hours getting whatever is due done right under the wire. Cramming every night and sleeping whenever I can.
I was also wildly misguided in thinking that I would only have one midterm in every class. Apparently my psych teacher is having a fun psych experiment in which he hypothesizes that his students will never ask him why we have already had two midterms.
My favorite things are the classes that not only give you a test, but also a assign a six page paper. A six page paper that is due the same day as the test.
My Dad has this saying that he used to say to me when I has stressing out. This is a phrase he coined when he was in college. I won’t tell you where he went but it rhymes with Shmanford. Anyway the phrase is…
You never catch up, the quarter just ends.
God I wish I was on the quarter system cause I got quite a trek until the end of the semester.
Whew. Okay, all done with the rant on midterms. Thank you for letting me indulge in this therapeutic blog post, it was essential.
This post wasn’t very film-y. Well next weekend I’ll be on set on location. So that should lead to some fun posts to look forward to.
Without any doubt, at this point in the semester I have made a bunch of little mistakes around the film school that don’t really get me in any trouble, they just make me look like an idiot. Fun, right? After the aforementioned mistake occurs, I receive this look…
Some of the stupid mistakes I have made:
Not remembering close toed shoes and having to make the fifteen minute walk back to my dorm room in order to get them.
Using the wrong side of my key card when trying to open an editing lab. (Asked the lab assistant for help and was subsequently very embarassed)
Tried to export a project to a Bluray, didn’t work, so I asked a lab assistant and was using the completely wrong program. (Same lab assistant)
Tripped on the main staircase.
Never watched Breaking Bad. (Film School heresy apparently)
Talking about the movie All the President’s Men, called it All the King’s Men. Two very different films, felt like a dumb-butt.
Broke the 180 degrees rule. (I knew better. So much shame.)
Locked my key card inside an editing bay. (Crying, so much crying)
Actually gotten lost.
So yea, I don’t know what I’m doing.
So I had to make a film for my Intro to Visual Storytelling (FTV 130) class. The assignment was to make a 2 minute dream sequence about a fear or desire you have. I thought that it might be funny to make a parody of our class and the fear of showing your film in front of a group of your peers (which is what we do in FTV 130) and having them hate it. This is a genuine dream I have had. In order to film the project, I had to film in my classroom on a Sunday. Not knowing what to do exactly I asked my teacher, who is an adjunct professor who has never taught the FTV 130 class before, he said I should check with this professor, who then said I should fill out a room request form. I filled out a room request, then I was told to talk to the safety manager. Who I couldn’t find. I eventually found him and he told me all these complex things that I already forgot. After all of this was said and done, I felt pretty boss. I felt all knowlegeable and awesome cause I filled out paperwork and got stuff done. Sunday, I get to the classroom and the door’s locked. Go figure. Not sure what to do, I call my orientation assistant, Hannah the Junior, and ask her what to do. She turns out to be a Dodge TA and has a key card that unlocks most of the doors.
As she comes to help me, I complain about how much work I had to do to get this room booked for this hour on Sunday and all of the people I had to talk to and all of the paperwork I had to fill out and blah, blah, blah. She was all like, “You totally didn’t have to do any of that.” I was like, “Dammit!”
The video worked out, it’s super weird and pretty interesting and if I could I would post it on here. But I can’t.
To re-quote my grandpa,
“It’s important to learn form your own mistakes, but it’s cheaper to learn from the mistakes of others.”
I tell you my own inadequacies because I care about you all, and I want you to succeed. I really do. I believe in you all… kinda. Good luck.
Shmise-en Scene 