Back
Cinema School Log
February, 2004
Tuesday, February 10th � Had my first day of Cinema 6 today: Introductory Cinematography. The teacher is a fascinating French fellow named Jean-Pierre Geuens. Teaches at USC also, I believe. His website is here. He has a wonderful style; very funny, very personable, very involved with each individual student. But he also has a strange philosophy about film. He thinks film is dead�which is true, at least to some extend. He also seems to think that the look is practically the least important thing. Which I vehemently disagree with, of course. But it should be a very interesting class. We did get a chance to go over the light meters again. Some people have forgotten a lot. That�s scary. He doesn�t take any prisoners, though; people will fall by the wayside, no doubt about that. I also had a very confidence/ego boosting experience. Right before class started, I was standing on the second story, looking down at people walking around below me. Professor Stempel, from last semester�s history classes and from this semester�s upcoming screenwriting class, walked by me. on his way to starting his own class. I acknowledge him with a nod and a "Hi, professor,� and thought nothing of it. After taking a few steps past me, he stopped, and came towards me. Then he said "You did something last semester that only one other person in my 30 years of teaching here has ever done.� Of course, that freaked me out a bit. So I asked what I had done, somewhat tentatively. He answered: "You got a perfect score on the documentary class final." My head is huge now.
Wednesday, February 11th � Today we got a chance to view one of the worst things I have ever seen: our first editing project, Carrie�s Cone. An eight minute roll of 16MM film, with some of the most poorly conceived images imaginable. So, a great exercise. For example, the opening shot has �Carrie� pushing open a door. In every other angle, she pulls it open. Great. What a mess. However, we also spent a fair amount of time learning how to use the old flatbed editors. And that way really pretty cool. Can�t wait to get started. Of course, I have to wait, since Saturday is my assigned day, and they�re closed this weekend because of the holiday. First couple of weeks are going to be really intense, I think. But then things should settle down.
Thursday, February 12th � First day of screenwriting. Going to be a great class, for sure. Stempel instructed us to call him �Tom,� because �we�ll be much more familiar by the time this is all done.� Cool! For our first assignment, we need to come up with 5 one-line ideas for short scripts. I have 3 after the drive home. And I really, really like two of them. One of them is probably going to be too long, but I may get to write that one next. (Our first script is supposed to be 5-10 minutes. Our second one can be from 10-30.) There�s going to be a lot more personal interaction with him, which is good. And the class is also going to be an hour shorter than scheduled. Also good. Can�t wait to get started. One quick aside: there are some non-English speakers�or people that are very close. I would have thought that it would be really hard to take a screenwriting class in America. But I guess not.
Monday, February 16th � President�s Day. No classes.
Tuesday, February 17th � Today we spent pretty much the whole class dealing with portrait lighting. Interesting enough stuff. I need to start thinking about light more. It was cool to watch Geuens, because he obviously knew what things were going to look good before he even started lighting them. He also is extremely good at picking models out of the student crowd who can show exactly what he�s talking about. (I have not been privileged to take the hot seat as of yet�) An amazing amount of knowledge. His style tends to be a bit extreme for me�I�m more of a naturalist. (Of course, some of that may come from the fact that he mostly lights for film, not video. And film needs more light.) We talked a lot about light kits, as well, since we�re going to need to use some for our next slide project. Next week, we have to turn in Slide Project #1. We�ll look at everyone�s in class, I think. They�ll get graded�and we�ll also start taking light meter tests. Not exactly sure what that means, but I think I have the light meter concept down. I�d just like to start using one.
Wednesday, February 18th � No class today, just lab time to work on Carrie�s Cone. I spend about two and a half hours looking at the footage, logging it, and deciding what to do with it. It�s a mess. I had figured out exactly what I wanted to do when I realized that one key scene had Carrie switching hands�quite frustrating. But that�s why it�s a great exercise. Once I finally separated all the shots, I sat down and tore through about half the shot. Took me about 45 minutes. So, if I can find an open room before screenwriting tonight, I should be able to finish off, no problem. Then, I would have my Saturday back. That�d be great.
Thursday, February 19th � More screenwriting, although I spent the first hour or so at LACC finishing off my editing project. All done now, so I should get Monday off. Nice! Took me about half as long as professor Obern said to expect, so I feel slightly ahead of the curve. I may have used too many shots, though. Carrie�s Cone #2 might be a bit tricky to cover completely�As for screenwriting class, it was very interesting. We spent most of the time watching our student shorts. Interesting exercise, indeed. Nearly all of them � mine included � have serious story-telling problems. They tend to be just scenes, instead of stories. We did get to watch one done by a German girl, I think. It was awful. Totally incomprehensible, or at least totally misleading. I thought I knew roughly what it was about, but then I found that it was far more disturbing and twisted than I had previously thought. But there is no way I would ever have been able to figure it out on my own. I must try never to make something like that. Its hard when you look at your own film for so long, you start to lose track of how others will see it�but I don�t ever want to make something like that. Also, got my story ideas back from Stempel�he didn�t care for most of them all that much, but gave me my two favorites to work on.
Monday, February 23rd � Lab time for Carrie's Cone #1. Which I have already finished. So I'm at home with my family. Probably sleeping.
Tuesday, February 24th � First serious setback today. OK, not so serious, but still frustrating. I went to pick up my slides from Longs today. The slides that I had to turn in this evening for my first assignment. And they didn�t have them. OK�not a huge shock, but I was a bit disappointed. So, I asked them when to expect it. They called the lab. And the lab said March 8th. WHAT? That was a lot more disturbing. I�m going to try and get it back, because I can take it to a place in LA that will do it in a day. Sheesh. Anyway, the professor said that it was no big deal, and to just bring them in when they�re done. For class, we watched a bunch of completed projects. Some pretty interesting stuff. I was only really impressed with three or four of the slides, though. So I�m not in over my head yet. And I passed the light-meter test. Which puts me in the top 75% of the class. Great.
Wednesday, February 25th � Turned in my first Carrie�s Cone assignment. Then we spent the whole class looking over Gunsmoke, and learning how to sync up the rushes. Lots of fun, actually. Editing this scene is going to be a blast. But it�s also going to be very time-consuming. And the bookstore somehow lost their reels. So we�re going to have to wait for some time to get the actual films. Not good. Especially since I need to shoot my second Cinematography project this weekend. Getting pretty crazy. Second half to the semester is quite a bit easier, though. Also, got my story treatments in to Tom, so I should be able to get started on the actual scripts next week. At least I�ll be ahead somewhere.
Thursday, February 27th � Yay! The bookstore found their Gunsmoke reels. Or at least Professor Obern did. When I went down there, it took them about 10 minutes to figure out what I was asking for and then to find it. Messy. But I got to mark out the slates and ends of all the picture shots. Gonna start on the sound on Saturday, I think. If I can get is synced up by the end of Saturday, I�ll be ahead of the game again. Which is important, since its going to be a bear to cut. Obern says its far and away the hardest thing we do all semester. Nice to look forward to the second half of the semester. In screenwriting, we talked about treatments. And then Tom had me do the first pitch. I was the only one with a finished treatment, since I had given it to him yesterday. He also said that it was an excellent example of a treatment. So that made me feel real good, too. Not too many comments about it, other than the fact that people liked it. And one girl didn�t think teenagers would like classical music. Humph. Then, there were probably about 5-7 other pitches made. Mostly boring, in my opinion. One or two that could be very interesting, though. Should be fun to watch them grow. Met another guy from New York, too. His name is Frank. He does not remind me of Alex at all. That�s a good thing.