Updated Ramblings

About a month ago we had our 2 week project. I was one of the producers. I loved it. Dan and I went around got locations, food, did scheduling etc. For 2 weeks I didn't sleep. it was worth it. The only thing that bothered me was that there were certain people who wouldn't to their work and I had to keep riding their asses. That annoyed me. I hate when people are unprofessional. I've calmed down a lot since then, but at the time everything they did pissed me off. But besides them everything else went "swimmingly" as Dan would put it. I miss the project. There were so many things I would do differently. Now were back into our normal one week cycles. this week we watched Hero. Our assignment is art direction. I'm director.

I am looking forward to my thesis. I want it to be the best project I have ever worked on. My thesis is about alcoholism. I have this trap that I fall into where every time I write a script or story, some character is an alcoholic or becomes one. I don't know why. I hope this doesn't mean I'm a hack. I know I'm nowhere near as good as Tennessee Williams, but he always wrote about alcoholics and he was a great writer. I like my story though. I don't know if it will get approved though. I will probably have to make some changes.

We had Thanksgiving. We celebrated on Friday because that's when all our company was here. Sean's brother hitchhiked his way into Sedona and slept on our couch for a week. He's nice, but left his scent on our couch. Sean's girlfriend also came along with Matt, a friend from Iowa. Sean's cousin and her friend visited along with Mike. It was nice to see them again although I'm pretty sure I pissed Sean's girlfriend. I don't know what I did, well maybe I do. I was being an ass to everyone, but I'm always like that. I'm very catty. And my cattiness and overt sexuality are heightened when under the influence. I won't go into detail except that I was obnoxious to say the least. I pissed people off more that usual.

On a sad note, Robert Altman passed away. He will be greatly missed. He was a one of a kind filmmaker who made films on his own terms and had as many failures as he did winners. I admire him. He is someone I look up to. My condolences go out to his family and friends.

Hypocrite

I am a hypocrite.

Last Sunday during lunch I was with my friend, Mike. He was going to eat at Subway and I was going to join him. I, having packed my lunch, ate during the movie we were evaluating. So we were sabout ready to go when the founder of the school and our teacher for the day, Mr. Gordon offered to take us to lunch at Picazzo Pizza. We went.

We arrive and it is time to order. I had already eaten and wasn't hungry. I didn't think I should order anything because I wouldn't have been able to eat it. I just couldn't shove more food down my gullet. So I ordered nothing, which I could tell offended Mr. Gordon. Well, maybe not offended, but surprised to say the least. I drank water.

I felt horrible afterword. It was incredibly rude of me to not order any food after he generously offers to take us to lunch and pay. I felt like a real asshole. I should have at least ordered a salad. The rest of the day I couldn't face him. I am incredibly rude.

This is what makes me hypocritical. . .

A couple weeks ago Mr. Gordon had some students over to his house for pasta which he made himself. The pasta was quite delicious. Mike, the guy listed above, did not eat pasta. he had the excuse that he wasn't hungry and had eaten a lot. So he only had a little bit of pasta. The next couple weeks everyone in the class gave him a hard time for it, especially me.

I did the same thing at the restaurant that he did at Mr. Gordon's house. I criticized him for being rude by not eating food that was offered to him while I did not eat food when he offered to pay for a meal at a restaurant.

I am a hypocrite.

Hmm. . .

I am attending the Zaki Gordon Institute in Sedona, AZ. It's been pretty good so far. I live with a friend of mine. I've met some new people and I really like this place. I consider myself a filmmaker. It is after all my desired profession. I moved out here in August and began classes in September and it has been non-stop ever since. But I wouldn't want it any other way.

I live with my friend Sean who right now is having his own little Lord of the Rings marathon. He's watching all three extended editions. I can't sit through them. No offense to any fans, but could those movies be any more boring? I will admit they are well shot and have great sets and costumes, but they go on forever. They just never end. Elijah Wood is a good actor. I do like him. "Green Street Hooligans" was very good.

Every week in school we are given different assingments. On Sunday we watch and analyze a film. Every time we watch a movie a scene is picked out either because of the theme or the way it's shot, and we have to create our own scene based upon that scene. This week we watched "The Big Lebowski." Our assignment from that film was to build a character in a scene. We had ot have broad characters and show the atmosphere of the setting. We used the introduction of Jesus as the template. That night we each wrote a scene using the format of the Lebowski scene. On Monday we get with our groups and read the scripts we wrote. We are in groups of 4. One person is producer, one director, one is camera, and the other is sound. We rotate every week. I was sound. I assisted our producer in pre-production. Tuesday is production day.

Our scene ended up being about a pizza contest. Three friends were sitting in the pizza parlor discussing the constest while "Georgio," the current champion and runner of the contest taunts John, a contestant. That is a basic synopsis. The difficulty of this shoot was that we were assigned to shoot night for day. Luckily Micah, an instructor, whose parents own the Dairy Queen let use their location as the pizza parlor. We shot after it closed. It was a fun shoot even though we didn't leave until 12:30 AM. I was sound, so I held the boom mic. Easy job, but after a while that pole can get kinda heavy. But, it is worth it in the end.

Wednesday, we review footage. We watch all the group's footage and evaluate it. I like this process. We get to talk about how the shoot went, what we did right, what we did wrong, what we'd do differently, etc. It is very helpful.

Thursday, today, we edited. Editing is a fun process. It can be tiring, but if you are working on something you enjoy, it can be a blast.

Tomorrow is my day off. Friday is the one day we get off. Sometimes we get Saturday off, but usually there is a workshop so we go to that.

Every week is a new cycle. This was our fourth, so next week we do a class project. Everyone in the class workd together to make a short. Then we break into new groups for 4 more weeks. After that is second semester where we make our thesis films. Mine is about a lonely boy and his imaginary friends and how he comes to face his reality.

Wow. I never thought I'd actually write this much.

I saw "The Departed" last weekend. Amazing. Scorcese's best in years. The whole cast was terriffic. I'm not a big Mark Wahlberg fan, but wow. Leonardo Di Caprio's best work. The script, the acting, the music, the direction, the editing was all damn near perfect. This is not to be missed. I'd see it again, but I trying to be tight with my money since I don't have a lot to spend.