Even you must be into you-ou-ou

Currently I’m sitting in the student lounge waiting for my second class (half hour from now).  Everyone in my camera group is asleep.  Ashley in a chair, Sid on the floor and Andrew with his head on the table.  Is the stress getting to them?  I feel it.  I’m not asleep because I can’t conk out in the middle of the day, but I feel the stress.  It’s only getting harder from here, shot after shot, story after story, day after day.

A side story that I have to record somewhere: My first outing with my fellow film production students was to ICA for an Anish Kapoor exhibit.  I was wearing this t-shirt I got from Old Navy.  ON didn’t have a very good collection this year. (HA! Like it’s high fashion or some shit).  The problem being that every shirt was retroy and they all had “Los Angeles” or “New York” on them.  Which is cool…if you’re from anywhere other than the Northeast, where the Celtics had just beat LA in the NBA Finals and where the Yankees are always hated.  That being said I did end up finding one shirt I liked: A white shirt with a black tv that’s screen was a pink swirl (like the stereotypical hypnosis swirl).  So here I am walking around the main exhibit room and one of the museum overlookers (minicurator? arthistorymajor?) comes up to me.  I try hard to shy away from the stereotype he was showing so I’ll just explain what he had on:  Black sweater, black skinny jeans, Black Chuck’s, and black horned rim glasses, I’m pretty sure he could fit into a size 1 (makes me a little jealous, I won’t lie).  So there he is, staring at my shirt, which makes me wonder a little bit because I didn’t think the shirt showed off my man-boobs, but that thought goes out the window when he starts squinting as if there’s some hidden meaning.  I’m convinced that if I could do a cartwheel I would be able to make that TV twirl, and have him under my control (tell everyone here how pretentious you are!  When I snap my fingers you’ll want to be a plumber!).  He’s ready to talk:

“What’s that?” [indicating my shirt]

“Uh, It’s just a shirt, nothing special” [I'm not trying to be a dick here, I just didn't know what to see to that]

[nodding, squinting] “Where did you get it”

“Old Navy”

[lack of squiting followed by...] “Ohhh” [steps back, nodding]

Fin.

Well, that’s it for now.

Also, your nails look tacky

A quick post to catch up and then some larger posts with information on classes, students and teachers.

I’m starting to get into the thick of things.  Screenplays are going to be due, filming is about to begin, and I’ve been assigned more reading than ever before.

There was a post I wanted to make earlier this week, it had nothing to do with school per se, but now I’ve forgotten what it was.  I’m hoping when I least expect it I’ll remember and be able to make the post, but as of now it’s lost.

3 Weeks have gone by and I have to say that I am enjoying the program a lot.  My classmates are amazing and each is unique (another post).  The classes have their ups and downs but I’m not as intimidated as I was.

Random acting moment:  I’m taking Acting for Writers and Directors.  The teacher is great and constantly speaks his mind about our performances.  During our first class we did “The Bus Stop Excersize”, where a student walks up to a bus stop (represented by a chair), waits for the bus, and then gets on the bus.  The characters back story and what they do while at the bus stop is the purpose of the excersize.  My first week I did a really simple one where I kept looking back at Mandi who was leaving and then I sat at the bus stop smiling as I thought about her.  The teacher hated it and called it safe, going so far as to suggest I go to an AA meeting so I have something more interesting.  This week he said we had to create a new character and include a prop.  This time I chose a black duffle bag and my character was a terrorist.  He didn’t hate it the first time I did it, but I didn’t have much action, just putting the bag down and waiting.  Once I told him exactly what I was doing he seemed interested and told me that my character needed to make sure he wasn’t getting caught.  He told me to do it again and this time I dropped the bag before looking around and then sitting, waiting for the bus.  He liked it a lot more this time, and said I could sit down.

Plans for the summer haven’t changed much.  Originally it was going to be a feature film, but I haven’t really had a chance to write much so this may get changed to some shorts.  I have a bunch of people willing to help out, so I’m really excited.

I think that’s it for now.  The update on classes coming soon.

With my eyes on the horizon

My posts have been few and far between.

I’ve been traveling.  First I flew out to Missouri spent 10 days, and then spent another 4 driving home to Maine with Mandi (my girlfriend, and a story for another time).  Then I stayed at home for a few days and drove to New York to go to one of my best friends wedding.  I was a bridesmaid(person) and to balance it out, the groom had a female groomsman.  It’s been a crazy 3 weeks since leaving, and that’s another entry.

It’s all confusing right now.  The School -> PA -> Asst. Editor -> Asst. Director -> Director (not exact) route has never felt like my way.  I want to go the festival route: Make movie -> Get into one or more of Sundance, Cannes, ISA, NY Critics, LA Critics, Toronto, Telluride -> Sell distribution rights -> Profit.  How?  It’s this odd mix of luck, skill, experience, brilliance, that you don’t know about until you look back on your story (of how you got there, not the film itself) and realizing what you did to make it all turn out.

Next summer, less than a year from now, I’m making a movie, a feature, 90+ minutes of risks and money and tears.  I don’t have a script, and I don’t know if it’s going to be film or video, but it’s my goal.

I’ve lost interest in writing more today, thinking about the screenplay I’m writing and ignoring this.  So I’ll go for now.

Going to film school

There’s still a month and a half until school starts so not much is going on. To kill the time, and prepare everyone for the journey (including myself), I’ve decided to write on topics that surround my going to film school. In this case I’m talking about how I ended up going to Boston University.

The story of how I realized I wanted to become a filmmaker will have to wait for another post. I mean, this shit’s already boring enough, why would I want to lump it all into one post? Like a first sexual experience, just a little at a time…

I realized that the cubicle world wasn’t for me. Lots of drab gray fabric walls and whirring computer fans day after day. I think that was the big problem day after day. When you’re in school, or you’re working a job that isn’t a 9-5 every week is different, things get changed up, but in this case it was one week after another. The fact that some days the job I was doing was different didn’t change the fact that I was still sitting at that fucking desk. So, after 4 months there (graduated in May ’08, started the job in June) I started the school application process.

I didn’t really have a first choice, or any choice. I just wanted to be in school doing something different than computer science. I’m big into independent film and I love the DIY approach (okay, I’ll make this part quick, because I realize explaining all of this will make for a long ass post), so some may ask “why didn’t you go out and make your opus and just fuck the film school? Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quintin Tarantino, fuck, they all did it, why can’t you?”

For two reasons:

1) I have no friends. This isn’t completely true, but the amount of friends that live anywhere near me, and want to be in/help on one of my movies is very short. I’m really lacking actors in my life. So I was kind of on my own, and I don’t do too well of that. I like having a supporting cast.

2) I can’t write. Maybe this is getting better, but if you look at the three indie staples about, they could all write, I cannot. So school is part learning screenwriting, and possibly part collaborating with someone who can put pen to paper but wants nothing to do with a camera.

With that said, and understood, I applied. I told myself that if I didn’t get into any of the schools this year, then I was going to work on my portfolio and apply again next year. Off I was, applying to Boston University, Florid State University, and San Francisco State University, with no hope of getting into any of them. I got two rejections, and one acceptance. BU was the only school that didn’t ask for a film, and the only acceptance. Maybe I should rethink this filmmaking thing… They did ask for 3 pieces of writing and a photo story, so I was still surprised when I got the acceptance. You read their description about a photo story or a “creative narrative about yourself” and you hope that they see your creativity and position in the work you hand in. Well, BU did…or they were lacking applications, who knows? That’s where I’m going, head to head with my Film Production I teacher, Bob Arnold (a post for another day).

It didn’t take much to put me on this course. The money is steep, but I would much rather say I tried and failed than make $25k a year at a job that makes me want to kill myself. I have to say that I, personally, didn’t like the job, but others do, and as a company they are great to work for.

Fuck that now, I’m going to college.

At the time of this writing I have 5 days of work left, and 44 days until the first day of school.

Holy shit.

3200 miles

That’s the distance from Farmington, Maine (where I got my bachelors) to South Portland, Maine (where I grew up and worked post Farmington) to 640 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, Massachusettes (where I will be getting my masters, and the reason for this blog) to The Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California (where they’ve held the Oscars since 2002). The whole trip is more symbolic than anything, a literal road map of where I have been and where I want to go in my life.

So, loyal reader join me as I blog about my time at Boston University’s College of Communication as a Film Production graduate student. I won’t go into details about life before now, but the needed information will be given (the people in my life, the things that I have done, that shitty movies I have made). Post your comments and criticisms and I will be sure to disagree as it is what the internet was created for (as well as easy access to porn).