Into Dust

I shot my P1 Wednesday night. I haven't gotten on here to tell you all about it yet because it has been an sleep depriving situation and I wanted to be coherent as I wrote this.  So here is an hour by hour breakdown on how it all went.

Hour1:
I wake up at 8AM. I go through the morning routine as usual. I leave my sound kit at the apartment because I plan on coming back for supplies and don't want to lug it around all day. That will be a challenge though because I shoot in 14 hours and I don't have location permits finalized, homework to print out, work and classes to take of today. I pack food in my backpack in preparation of not having time to stop by Armando's for lunch as per my usual routine. I walk to campus.

Hour 2:
I arrived at work. If you didn't know I work in the Production Equipment Center at school. I pull equipment for orders and act as the repo man for people who don't return their stuff.So today I was pulling light kits for all the P1s including my own. I tagged it as mine and said I would pick it up at 5. I really don't want to carry this thing around. Heaviest kit ever.

Hour 3:
Still at work but got all the kits ready. I asked if I could take a quick break finish getting the permits finalized. They are super cool and let me. I am now officially allowed to shoot at the fountain tonight.

Hours 4-5:
Made some repo calls, surfed the web, found this picture also known as the best Zelda fan art ever.

Hour: 6:
Clocked out of work and found a secluded spot. I pop in my headphones and listen to this song as I write and organize my shot list for tonight. Now I know what I am doing tonight! Hooray sanity!

Hours 7-9:
I attend my writing class. I eat he trail mix bars to stay awake.

Hour 10:
I run and get my light kit before the PEC closes. I walk to my next class early so I can take care of some business. I want to know if I can leave early so I can prepare for my shoot tonight. Dominic stops by and delivers our camera and tripod. I am now carrying a large tripod, a decent size camera case, my backpack and a easily 70 pound 5 foot light kit. I set it all down and start calling UPS numbers to find my angel wings for tonight. Turns out the one dead spot in the whole cinema complex is right there. Thankfully Orlee- Rose was walking by offered to watch all my stuff as I found a signal and worked that out. Turns out my apartment building doesn't hold packages so since I wasn't there to take it UPS takes them to a warehouse and this warehouse closes at 7. I would have to skip class to get them and even then I would be cutting it close due to LA traffic. I decide I have permits for tonight and tomorrow and I can reluctantly film all the non-wing shots tonight, get the wings tomorrow and film those scenes tomorrow night.

Hours 11-13:
I attend my Fundamentals of Directing class. Peter Sollett says I did a good job with my cut considering the circumstances with noise. The rest of the class wishes me luck on my P1.

Hour 14:
John gives me and the huge equipment load a lift home.  I return to my apartment to see my roommate there. He was supposed to be at work.  Turns out he got a ticket for driving a California truck with a Florida license and the truck was impounded for the night. So since he was home when the UPS guy came by I have wings for tonight. Rejuvenated by this miracle I pack the food, the chocolate syrup (excellent blood for black and white films!) and a whole bunch of blankets. It's going to be a cold night.

Hours 15-21:
The wind has died down so it wasn't as cold as I expected at first but it slowly got chillier and by the end it was really bad. But it was worth it. the footage looks great. Sharon and Kevin were real troopers dealing with the cold and Mahin was a fantastic assitant. Here are some photos from set. Take note these are not screen captures.

Hours 22-24:
Sleep!

Hour 25:
I wake up with a slight headache and head back to work at PEC.

Hours 26-30:
Of course today would be one of the busiest days at work. I got a free burrito from some guy who stopped by to fill out an order though.

Hour 31:
I sit on a couch and beat the fire temple in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the DS as I wait for class. Nathan sees me and tells me he heard that my P1 is being talked about as the most visually exciting in our class.

Hours 32-35:
In Cinematography class we broke into two teams (picked 4h grade kickball team style) and in less than 3 hours write, produce, setup, light and shoot a scene based on a picture.  Each team amongst themselves would select 2 actors, a director, AD, DP, key grip, camera operator, and 1st AC. I was chosen as director and decided to have fun with this. I decided that the scene would be at a house party between a government spy and a vampire fighting over a potion that would allow vampires to come out in the sun.  The sheer lunacy in the scene went over well. We are doing another assignment like this next week. This time we are doing the steak scene from Raging Bull and I get to be Jake La Motta.

Hours 36-41:
I go home and watch The Office and Kevin Smith's Too Fat for Forty. Then I go to sleep.


On a final note I am coming home for Spring Break on the 11th. I want to see as many people as I can so I need you all to comment and tell me when you want to hang out so I can schedule it and see as many of you as possible. Pick your time slots for March 12th through March 18th.

The Goblet of Fire

I am on the road again.

My apartment in California for the last month and a half has been basically an air mattress, TV and computer. So my dad and I are driving the rest of my stuff out this President's Day weekend. The extra day off makes it possible. The only downside it trying to setup my P1 while on the road. Lots of things still need to fall in place. My actress might need to leave early for New York. Will my angel wings arrive in time? Location permits and light kit forms need to be finalized. So I am a little stressed about all that.

I went to a presentation Tuesday night by Bill Kinder. Bill is the head of post-production at Pixar. He spoke about the differences between editorial duties for live action and animation. Fascinating stuff and I would have gone to that seminar for just that but there was more. He talked about the PAID Editorial internship Pixar has each summer. In that moment that roomed turned into the Goblet of Fire. Why? There is only one spot. I am going to apply even with the crazy odds.

Blogging via my Blackberry. Not looking forward to West Texas.
-Scarlet Rebel

Fundamentals of Directing

First of all, I am not changing my metaphors, Editing is still Potions, but it is resembling the Harry Potter version of having several Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. So far here at USC I have had classes with 4 different editing professors. Here they are and what they have edited:
Phillip Neel: Boston Legal, Twin Peaks, Ally McBeal, Remington Steele and currently Human Target
Tom Porter: Golden Girls
Normyn Hollyn: Heathers
Reine Claire- Assistant editor Assassins, Space Jam

Yes, this movie.

I worked on 4 Fundamentals of Directing projects this weekend.I was boom operator for two of them. I provided location for another and then I shot my own.  Lesson learned from all this: don't shoot yours in a parking garage on campus on a Friday night. I am praying I have decent enough audio to cut together a scene I am proud of.  It was a challenge for me and my actors but in the end we decided to try and use it to our advantage. My scene was from "All The President's Men" and we decided to try and make it a scene about paranoia.  Every time a loud distraction came by, or which there were many, I had my actors look quickly around and act as if they were being discovered. It should work.

My P1 is coming around the corner.  It is about a man who gets into a car crash and is clinging on to life but needs to let go.  An angel comes to comfort him in his final moments. It is shot in all black and white and at night.  Luckily it is a silent film so that should help because (see prior problem) it takes place on campus and I have to shoot on Friday.  I already found an excellent source of music for my piece. I am getting an original song from the band Gemeni.  If you are not familiar with them, check them out. They are simply amazing.  If you live in Orlando, go see them live because they have shows almost every weekend.

Gemeni

 

 

Steve is working on getting a sizeable upload of the Boston Legal scene and I will also post my Directing project after I edit it this week.

My P1 has been approved

Lots of news, so little time to post. 

Quick points:

1. My P1 has been improved and approved.
2. My Fundamentals of Directing project shoots this Friday.
3. Steve is converting our Boston Legal cut into a smaller file so you all can see it.

I'll post more news later when I have more time.

Happy Chinese New Year

I finally did it. I am not allowed to answer questions in my cinematography class anymore.

 

In all honesty, I am not trying to brag.  I am fortunate to have worked with a lot of the equipment on the indie features over the summer.  That combined with my eagerness and enthusiasm of being at the Hogwarts of film making have turned me into Hermione Granger.  I wasn't called out as an "Insufferable Know-It-All" but the above statement is true. I am still learning a lot and it's great! So today in Transfiguration (That means we are studying lighting which tranfigures the scene into something cinematic- I am not letting this metaphor die.) I got to finally understand F stops and how it effects exposure, the one thing that continued to escape my comprehension.  I am very excited.   

In Potions (Editing) my Boston Legal  cut came out pretty good but since it was a first draft they are having us all tweak it for next week. So that will be the one that I post on the private Vimeo page for you to see. It was a great experience. I had edited with a partner before coming here but it was always so frustrating for multiple reasons.  This time was different thought. Steve and I banged it out in just a couple of hours and we agreed on a lot. We seem to have the same vision for the pacing and timing of cuts.  It was also clear from the dailies that William Shatner is so "over the top" ridiculous that, as one fellow student put it, "it's a miracle he has a career". 

Steve and I are working on a project called Lotus.  It is very complex and will take a long time to explain so I won't get into details here but I want to say we are very excited.  Our TA in that class is very hard to impress but over dinner he told us that the idea was golden and not to waste it on a 546 project. 

As far as my P1 film goes I had an idea and pitched it my writing class yesterday.  I discovered that this idea needs some work.  The class was very helpful with the constructive criticism and I have gone back to the drawing board to iron out the details.  One thing is clear, I want to start off in black and white. I know the mood and look I am going for.  Yes, this probably is working backwards but I think I can formulate a story for the elements I have at hand.  I want my film to look something like this:

Oh and it happens to be Chinese New Year.  Like I said before we are a very eclectic class from all over the world so I am off to a party to enjoy some home cooked meal that I probably can't spell right.  Night!

I love film school.

So Sunday morning I woke up and it was cold. I bundled up and at first did not feel like working out.  That plan changed as it started to rain and I booked it over to church.  From there my day just got more exciting. I had to go through security on Jefferson because of the SAG awards were being held right next door to the Zemeckis center where I was working on a 546 graduate film called Volcano Girl.  I helped out in the grip and electric department for a few hours and the headed back through even more security because the event had just started.  Then that night we I went to a little documentary screening party for a great doc called "The Five Obstructions" which was about a film challenge between Jorgen Leth and Lars Von Trier (Dogville, AntiChrist).

Jorgen Leth

Today between my theory and directing classes I edited a scene from an episode of Boston Legal with my friend Steve. Very enjoyable exercise due to the fact that the production value and acting was better than some of the previous exercises (James Spader beats David Caruso any day) I had in my undergraduate years. Later that night, my directing professor Peter Sollet (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) offered to set up a workshop next week with some of our actors. I signed up right away.  I hope that I get selected as it would be a great opportunity.

I will post again when I have a link to my Boston Legal cut.  It will be on a private Vimeo account as I can't publicly release it due to copyright but as you are my family and friends you will get the password to the page.