End of Week Two

It's already starting to blur.

The days are bleeding into each other too quickly. I think it's a combination of factors that are causing this: One, the classes are long which takes huge chunks of the day away and because they are so interesting and have so much information, they tend to pass very quickly. Two, there are always things to do outside of class that are either directly related to helping us become better filmmakers or are just super interesting for filmmakers (examples are today I attended an Auditioning Seminar and last night I attended a screening of The Fly with Cronenberg doing Q&A before the screening). Three, I have taken to sleeping waaay too much, and finally, Four, I also seem to be fond of wasting away the rest of the day watching TV and movies reassuring myself that it's all "research" when really I should be getting life stuff done.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm going to try to wake up on time more, and waste less time in general.

Yesterday, we had another Cinematography class. We actually got to handle 16mm Cameras (the Arri-S for those of you who are camera nerds). These are old, old mechanical cameras; they have hard metal bodies, cool lenses, and sound like a model train set when running film. To me, it was a really crazy experience. It was so fun exploring, hands on, the cameras, learning to load film and how to focus lenses properly. We won't be using film cameras until next semester but I'm glad we're getting to handle them now. Several of the other students seemed blase about the cameras but it was my first experience so I was grinning like an idiot most of the class.

Today, was another round of Directing class. We learned what our projects would be in the course. The first project is an intensive scene break down from an existing script. Today we each selected a script to read through and select a scene from. The idea is to take that scene and answer a series of questions about it. Here are the questions:

1. What are the preceding circumstances for each character that the actors/director would have to be aware of before the scene begins? (You can't answer this without reading the entire screenplay).
2. What is the expectation of each character as the scene begins?
3. What is the intent/function of the scene as a whole?
4. Whose scene is it and why?
5. What's at stake in the scene?
6. What is each character's overall intent in the scene?
7. Define (i.e. draw lines) the beats in the scene. Indicate what the change in action is for either or both characters in the margins. REMEMBER: don't do any of this on the original script. Make a copy of the pages in the scene you're working on.
8. Looking over the beats, what would you choose as the most critical single action taken by each character during the course of the scene?
9. What is the turning point in the scene? This often translates to the most critical beat in the scene.
10. How is the scene resolved? i.e. How have things changed at the end of the scene from what they were at the beginning?

We've discussed what most of these questions are getting at in class, and have already done much briefer analysis on other scenes.

Like I said, we were allowed to choose our screenplays from a list, as best as I can remember the list consisted of the following films (I'm bound to miss several):

The Aviator
Being John Malkovich
Cold Mountain
Crash
Erin Brockovich
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Juno
Hotel Rwanda
Finding Neverland
Fried Green Tomatoes
Before Sunrise

I know there were a bunch more but my memory must be seriously shot because I cant remember any others, but you get the basic idea; they are all well written, character driven films. Which makes sense.

We were instructed not to pick a film we knew backwards and forwards, for the simple reason that that would completely derail the exercise of breaking down a scene. I chose The Aviator, which is a film I remember seeing in the theater and very much enjoying, and then never seeing again. Though, now that I'm told I can't watch it, I have the overwhelming desire to do so.

The rest of the projects are also script related, project two is for us to take a scene from the script we chose and stage it with actual actors. Several of the films are clearly difficult to pull off in regards to production values, but the thrust of the assignment is understanding of the scene and our ability to direct, not creating a perfect illusion. I imagine if one wanted, one could stage even an elaborate scene from say, Hotel Rwanda, with nothing more than cardboard and some gifted actors.

Also, during the latest Directing class, we discussed Auditioning in detail. There were a lot of very strange yet very useful tips on just the basic protocol of running an audition and how to deal with and interact with actors. There's a lot to be learned in this area, for me especially. I've never held an audition, never dealt with a real actor, and honestly, I'm kind of freaking out because of it. The one thing I do notice is that direction is based on the very basic premise of "What is the character trying to accomplish in this Film/Scene/Beat?" We have been told, and read in our assigned texts, that one must direct actors with action verbs. You don't tell someone, do this line angry, do that line sad; instead you have to sit down with the script and work out what exactly you think each character wants at each moment of the script (and I say think because there are a variety of interpretations, even among a class of 15). You then can tell the actor things like, Do these lines like you're persuading her to give you the book, or now you're demanding she give you the book, and to her you say something like you're taking a stand against him or you're guarding the book. Each is a specific action that can be acted, rather than just adding random emotion to a scene without understanding intent.


The classes are all piling on information, and all of it's useful. However, I am noticing there's a constant battle here at USC. I feel like we get a great deal of infromation that is intended for much, much later in our careers as film makers, and then additionally, information about how to handle our first projects. Rarely is the information overlapping. Maybe it's just because I'm neurotic, but I am beginning to feel underprepared for my first project already. I need to find a location (with a business ower that's agreeable and cheap if not free), set up auditions with possibly a 2nd audition to pair up my main two actors, learn to use the camera, and all the regular production stuff (write, plan, direct, etc.) I guess the best way to go about it is to just start going to professors directly and asking questions. I'm not even sure if my idea is doable, considering it needs a location away from campus.

I'm glad we are often taught what the real world situation would be in regards to many aspects of filmmaking, and I'm sure we'll figure out our first films much moreso in the coming weeks. I just wish every class somehow had an extra hour where they told us stuff specifically geared for our own films. I guess it's another learn by doing scenario, and I'm getting more and more comfortable with that being the case.

Alright, this is getting more poorly written by the sentence. I'm off to bed and hopefully up at a resonable hour.