I know it's been a while since a post, and I'll do a real one tomorrow but for now, I'd like to just say a few things about film school that I really dig that have been surprises.
Excuses - it has never taken a lot to convince me to waste a whole day watching TV/Movies, and it's not that I normally feel all that guilty, but film school has made that so much easier. All I have to do is pay the littlest bit of attention to camera movement, story structure, acting, basically anything going on on the screen and I instantly get to call that homework.
Bottled Water - we always have to have this stuff around. you need water for auditions and shoots. It's like the least you can do; that and snacks, but they're less omnipresent. I only drink bottled water now, just because it's awesome and available.
Prestige - it's not like people are super impressed or anything, but USC is a big deal, at least to some. If they knew what we really did I'm sure it'd be a very sobering experience. Not that we don't get to do cool stuff, but you always imagine it to be way crazier than it is, right? At any rate, when people ask me what I do, I usually receive a positive reaction. It is cool.
Events - I guess it should have been expected, but there are a bunch of cool things we get invited to as film students: free screenings, Q&A sessions, movie marathons, etc. Granted, most of it is stuff only film geeks would be into, but still it's rad. Also, taking a friend from outside the film school is pretty cool; it's like the tiniest bit of juice we can show off.
Reading - Not just the film reading, which is generally useful. We are encouraged to read outside material; magazines, newspapers, novels, whatever. They even tell us to watch people, become observers. It makes sense, and I've been doing some of it for a while. But, when someone just tells you to go do that kind of stuff, that it's important to your future work, well it's kinda license to just dive in.
There are a bunch of other things that are semi-unexpected, but those are some biggies. Maybe I'll do another list of something or other sometime.
Expect a real update tomorrow. For now, I'm off to 'study' Indiana Jones.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Editing
First project is done, at least for me. Groups A and B have now shot, C to shoot this weekend. This week is supposed to be for us to edit our recently shot footage, however, what it seems like is it's time for most people to edit their Directed Scene from a few weeks ago, while simultaneously trying to edit what they just shot.
I wouldn't call it a breakneck pace, but it's certainly just fast enough to make sure we aren't doing anything besides working on our projects, sleeping, and eating. Of course, I'm sure some would tell you it is completely a breakneck pace. It all depends on who is where in their projects.
Shooting this weekend went well. I haven't even reviewed the footage yet (yeah, I know) but I think it's going to work out. By work out, I mean it'll turn into a movie that makes sense. We'll see after the edit how well it works out. But, the shoot was fun...or so I'm told. Honestly, we started shooting at about 9:30 in the morning and stopped at about 4:15 pm and the whole thing felt like maybe 30, 40 minutes tops when I was doing it. That's not even all that much of an exaggeration.
My actors were great. They both had a great sense of humor which made everyone feel better I think. I like it a lot more when the actors can joke around a little while I'm trying to make sure we get what we need shot wise. For those out there that want to make their own movies, I can't say how critical a shot list is, especially if you have an even remotely complicated scene.
Let's see, Group A screened their project 1's yesterday. It was pretty varied. I'm not going to sit here and cast judgment about other people's projects, but I will say that in general the shot composition was amazing in most everyone's and the camera we all used just shoots beautifully.
The real big news is that Project 2 is coming up really, really soon. Group A is shooting Halloween weekend, and pitching next week. Which means I'm pitching the week after that.
Time to get to work.
I wouldn't call it a breakneck pace, but it's certainly just fast enough to make sure we aren't doing anything besides working on our projects, sleeping, and eating. Of course, I'm sure some would tell you it is completely a breakneck pace. It all depends on who is where in their projects.
Shooting this weekend went well. I haven't even reviewed the footage yet (yeah, I know) but I think it's going to work out. By work out, I mean it'll turn into a movie that makes sense. We'll see after the edit how well it works out. But, the shoot was fun...or so I'm told. Honestly, we started shooting at about 9:30 in the morning and stopped at about 4:15 pm and the whole thing felt like maybe 30, 40 minutes tops when I was doing it. That's not even all that much of an exaggeration.
My actors were great. They both had a great sense of humor which made everyone feel better I think. I like it a lot more when the actors can joke around a little while I'm trying to make sure we get what we need shot wise. For those out there that want to make their own movies, I can't say how critical a shot list is, especially if you have an even remotely complicated scene.
Let's see, Group A screened their project 1's yesterday. It was pretty varied. I'm not going to sit here and cast judgment about other people's projects, but I will say that in general the shot composition was amazing in most everyone's and the camera we all used just shoots beautifully.
The real big news is that Project 2 is coming up really, really soon. Group A is shooting Halloween weekend, and pitching next week. Which means I'm pitching the week after that.
Time to get to work.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Blogging instead of working
Quick catchup, then I have to sleep.
This weekend was noteworthy in that it was the first weekend for people in my production class to shoot Project 1. As mentioned before, we're divided into A's, B's, and C's; I'm a B, the A's shot this weekend, and I helped in shooting one.
His project was very different from mine. He shot a documentary, which, while I am a fan of, I have no real idea of what goes into the production of a film of this genre. Let me say I think it went very well, and I think the end product will be very successful. However, let me also say that given the limitations of this first project, it was a little crazy to attempt.
The limits placed on us are somewhat strange, and, to be honest, have never been adequately or clearly explained. As near as I can gather the rules are as follows:
5 minute maximum for the finished film.
No sync dialogue (meaning you can't have an actor actually read a line. you can however have voice over, sound effects, sound from the set, and I'm sure some other sneaky ways to use sound).
We are limited to our 8 gigabyte SxS which translates to about 28 minutes of footage on our cameras (these cameras, rather than shoot on tapes or dvds or any other format, shoot on sony SxS cards which are extremely cool and extremely expensive, coming in at about $500 for our 8 gig)
Now, most people, after seeing that the SxS card is basically analagous to a USB drive or Flash card (in that it can be unloaded over and over again onto any computer that has an SxS reader hooked up to it) realize just how cool these cards are, essentially providing the user with unlimited footage as long as he/she is willing to dump the data every so often. However, USC has specically told us that we are allowed to only use our card to load once for this shoot. Initially, the rational could be that they want us to practice for when we only have 25 mins worth of film to shoot on, but that thinking seems to fall apart because USC also strongly encouraged us to use the in camera review method to delete bad takes off our cards.
Several of the other students have expressed confusion and even down right anger over this somewhat paradoxical policy. However, there's little to do about it. So like it or lump it is my approach. I don't think it'll matter a huge amount in my shoot, but I know for a fact it affected my friend's. If there's one thing documentaries seem to require is the ability to just let the camera roll. I'm not saying this policy made my friend's movie impossible, but it sure made that day of shooting super intense. We'd sneak off to a quiet corner or his car every so often to run through the takes and delete what we thought wasn't useable. I didn't envy him.
Today was actually pretty awesome. The morning session consisted of a lecture from one of the inventors of THX, Tom Holman. Dude, also named 5.1 sound, which many people have in their homes. 5.1 is apparently a misnomer; a more acurate name would be 5.005. This is for reasons which I do not understand, except that the subwoofer is the .1 but is really not .1 but rather .005, if that makes any sense. What was great though, was he brought amazing original cuts of Star Wars and Raiders which we got to watch on the glorious screen at Norris Theater. The cuts had obviously seen better days but it was still amazingly cool to see them. There's a lot to learn about sound, and apparently USC is pariticularly know for our sound. Something worth thinking about if you're into sound...
Alright, auditions in the morning, editing in the evening, and I'm beginning to feel sick...
Shooting this weekend.
This weekend was noteworthy in that it was the first weekend for people in my production class to shoot Project 1. As mentioned before, we're divided into A's, B's, and C's; I'm a B, the A's shot this weekend, and I helped in shooting one.
His project was very different from mine. He shot a documentary, which, while I am a fan of, I have no real idea of what goes into the production of a film of this genre. Let me say I think it went very well, and I think the end product will be very successful. However, let me also say that given the limitations of this first project, it was a little crazy to attempt.
The limits placed on us are somewhat strange, and, to be honest, have never been adequately or clearly explained. As near as I can gather the rules are as follows:
5 minute maximum for the finished film.
No sync dialogue (meaning you can't have an actor actually read a line. you can however have voice over, sound effects, sound from the set, and I'm sure some other sneaky ways to use sound).
We are limited to our 8 gigabyte SxS which translates to about 28 minutes of footage on our cameras (these cameras, rather than shoot on tapes or dvds or any other format, shoot on sony SxS cards which are extremely cool and extremely expensive, coming in at about $500 for our 8 gig)
Now, most people, after seeing that the SxS card is basically analagous to a USB drive or Flash card (in that it can be unloaded over and over again onto any computer that has an SxS reader hooked up to it) realize just how cool these cards are, essentially providing the user with unlimited footage as long as he/she is willing to dump the data every so often. However, USC has specically told us that we are allowed to only use our card to load once for this shoot. Initially, the rational could be that they want us to practice for when we only have 25 mins worth of film to shoot on, but that thinking seems to fall apart because USC also strongly encouraged us to use the in camera review method to delete bad takes off our cards.
Several of the other students have expressed confusion and even down right anger over this somewhat paradoxical policy. However, there's little to do about it. So like it or lump it is my approach. I don't think it'll matter a huge amount in my shoot, but I know for a fact it affected my friend's. If there's one thing documentaries seem to require is the ability to just let the camera roll. I'm not saying this policy made my friend's movie impossible, but it sure made that day of shooting super intense. We'd sneak off to a quiet corner or his car every so often to run through the takes and delete what we thought wasn't useable. I didn't envy him.
Today was actually pretty awesome. The morning session consisted of a lecture from one of the inventors of THX, Tom Holman. Dude, also named 5.1 sound, which many people have in their homes. 5.1 is apparently a misnomer; a more acurate name would be 5.005. This is for reasons which I do not understand, except that the subwoofer is the .1 but is really not .1 but rather .005, if that makes any sense. What was great though, was he brought amazing original cuts of Star Wars and Raiders which we got to watch on the glorious screen at Norris Theater. The cuts had obviously seen better days but it was still amazingly cool to see them. There's a lot to learn about sound, and apparently USC is pariticularly know for our sound. Something worth thinking about if you're into sound...
Alright, auditions in the morning, editing in the evening, and I'm beginning to feel sick...
Shooting this weekend.
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