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Cinema School Log
March, 2004
Tuesday, March 2nd � Today I received enough information to destroy almost anyone�s movie-watching experience. What a great class. We watched multiple scenes from several different movies, and Professor Geuens would freeze the picture from time to time, asking us to identify where the lights were for each shot. Really interesting stuff; shows how little continuity there really is in major studio films. To be fair, a lot of those decisions are made consciously, though. Some of them, however, are just mistakes. We got to watch a scene with Clint Eastwood where he walks down a Western street during the day, and he has two shadows. Or, a scene from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance where the lighting is just a complete mess. Very interesting stuff. Luckily, its not stuff you would tend to notice unless you were very familiar with the film, and could watch is very slowly, without sound. So, I can still watch movies.
Wednesday, March 3rd � Tons and tons of Carrie�s Cone projects today. Ugh. People tend to make the same kinds of mistakes; continuity is a real problem. Plus, some people don�t seem to make any effort to match on action at all. Strange. After this, I know several mistakes I made. And I think mine is pretty solid. I�ll know next Wednesday, when we get our grades back. And when we have to turn in Carrie�s Cone #2. I�m going to have some serious coverage problems, I can see that already.
Thursday, March 4th � Got a chance to read my script draft. Quite well received, and there was a pretty lively discussion afterwards. Some people wanted more payoff. I don�t really want to give it to them, so we�ll see. Tom said that he likes its subtlety. Also, he thinks it does a fine job of using words to describe actions. I�m going to re-work it slightly, and pass it in again next Wednesday. Which reminds me�way too much dialogue at the beginning. I didn�t recognize this when I wrote it, but when I had to read it out loud to the class, it was obvious.
Monday, March 8th � Saturday was very productive. So I�m at home tonight. With my kids. Playing baseball, probably. Spring training fever is upon us.
Tuesday, March 9th � Watched more films today, and examined them for various reasons: art direction, thematic lighting, and other stuff. Great fun. I have to start doing this at home, although I�m not sure how excited Sarah would be about that. Of course, the second-best part of the class was when he showed the entire climactic scene from Searching for Bobby Fischer. I had forgotten how much I love that movie. And I also had no idea that it was Conrad Hall. That man sure knew how to duplicate the look of American nostalgia. Wow. Plus, I got to correctly identify a bunch of stuff Professor Geuens was looking for. Reminds me a lot of Mrs. Gustin, that�s for sure. He�s looking for a very specific answer, using very specific words. And if you give them, he loves it. Best part of the class was that I got my slides back. I was very apprehensive, especially since so many people had complained about his grades the class before. And, mine had been late. But he gave me an A-, and his comments said: �Nice, gentle approach. Good sensibility to contrast, color, and texture.� Yay! Maybe I am artistic after all.
Wednesday, March 10th � Things were crazy today. I left a bit early to get to ITech to get my Gunsmoke picture and sound coded. (That�s getting little matching numbers printed on both reels, so I can get them up, and they will still be in sync.) It�s a 40 minute process. So, I headed pack out to take a little drive up Clearwater Canyon until the project was done. But that wasn�t a great idea. Apparently, a lot of people in LA use the Clearwater Canyon Drive instead of the freeway. Massively busy. So, took be more than 40 minutes in all. Then, I found out that he wouldn�t take a check. So I had to go find an ATM. Then, there was horrible traffic on the 170 freeway. So, I was pretty sure I was going to be late. Which was bad, because I needed to get there by 6:00 to give Tom my revised screenplay. Somehow, I did get there by 6:00. Don�t ask me how, I have no idea. Passed in my script. Got to Cinema 11 on time, and spent the next 3 hours either listening to lectures about editing, or watching scenes and noting the editing. Pretty interesting stuff, although no one in the class seems to listen to Professor Obern. They area always asking the same questions, or asking questions about stuff that came up in the classes they skipped out on. A bit irritating. Also interesting to note that editing is very intuitive, and requires a fair amount of common sense. That�s pretty much all that is required. Oh. Also, the right footage. I think its definitely the right move to take editing before moving on. Then I know what the editors need.
Thursday, March 12th � Headed down to A & I first to pick up my slide project for Cinematography class. A bit disappointed, but there as some good things in it. Biggest problem is getting used to having things look different on film. I�ll figure it out, though. Definitely a question of experience, at least somewhat. Then, I headed down to Screenwriting class. Things went well. Got my script back, and Tom is pleased with it. He�s done with it, in fact. Time to move on to the longer short. We also got a chance to listen to more strange, mostly depressing story ideas. I think my life has been sheltered. Or I�m just not as cynical as I thought. The people are getting much more familiar with each other, though, and that�s a good thing. Very relaxed atmosphere, which is fun.
Monday, March 15th - Spent all night editing Gunsmoke. Very close to finished with my final cut. End is a bit rough, though. And I'll need to work on the sound, still. But no reason to think I'll need to come in on Saturday any more. This is pretty much done.
Tuesday, March 16th � Interesting cinematography class again. We started off by watching a couple of short clips from submarine movies: Das Boot, I think�and then Crimson Tide. Compared the differences in lighting technique, and how it would fit with the story. We also watched the opening scene from The Godfather. Great scene. Great lighting. But absolutely no continuity. Then, as a special bonus, we got to watch an hour long lecture by Vilmos Zsigmond, DP for Close Encounters, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Ghost and the Darkness. Very helpful stuff. Its really amazing to watch him walking around with his light meter, but never really using it because he already knows what everything is. We spent the rest of class talking about the camera, how it works, and stuff like that. Interesting, but not much more than what I had seen in Cinema One last year. After class, I finished off my Gunsmoke cut. Pretty happy with it. Need to add about 3 reaction shots, and then fix the sound. Should be no problem�
Wednesday, March 17th � Today, I had the privilege of watching another round of Carrie�s Cone stuff. Or maybe I should say torment. On the whole, the second versions were better than the first version. This time around, each person only had to critique one film, though, instead of all of them. Had to be more detailed, as well. And, of course, I got what was probably the worst one. A horrible set of splices, to be sure. And, we�re supposed to grade them as well. So, I gave a bad grade. Trying to make sure that they fix the splice problem for the sound project. If they have bad splices there, its ruined. Course, we don�t have our names on them�that�s good. Don�t want someone to get upset with me.
Thursday, March 18th � Got to pitch one of my ideas today, for the longer short this time. Tom picked the suicide story and the cynical girl one. He likes the cynical one a lot more. Says that the suicide one has been done too much. (I have an idea that would make it different, but I doubt he�ll pick it to go to script.) That�s OK, though. I�m starting to get attached to this other idea. When I pitched it to the class, I had a very hard time convincing them that I did not intend to have the girl and the old guy become romantically involved. Took me a very long time. And I don�t think I really convinced anyone. Not exactly sure why everyone has to be so cynical. I like to be cynical, but in an optimistic way. Not straight cynicism. Oh, well. Guess I shouldn�t be surprised, though, especially given the stories these kids tend to be interested in.
Monday, March 22nd � Didn�t go down today. Hope to finish up my editing tomorrow night. And I�m so close to the end, it seemed unnecessary. Got to see my family, instead. Way more fun. Dominic is developing a pretty decent jump shot�
Tuesday, March 23rd � More cinematography today. Everyone passed in their portrait slides, and we went through them one by one. There were a few great ones, mostly done by professional photographers. Most of the others were drab; pretty flat. When my first one came up, Professor Geuens expressed some mild praise. When the second one came up, he absolutely loved it, and talked about it for the longest time of pretty much any we had seen so far. And then, when the third one came up, he disliked it almost as much as he had liked the first. So I figure I�m averaging out to just about�average. He was absolutely right about the last one, too. So, all part of the learning experience. After the slide section of class, he spent about 45 minutes showing everyone how to load a 16MM camera. The K3, actually. A wind-up camera. Good stuff. I�ll be shooting a project on it shortly. Probably over Easter Break. After class, I tried to get into an editing room to finish up Gunsmoke. The place is packed; no luck. Maybe tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 24th � I�ve had more fun editing on other days. This one was a mess. When I got down there, Terry was using our group�s room, so I went next door. The flatbeds over there were full, too�except for one that didn�t have a bulb. So, I used that one, since I mostly needed to do sound work anyway. Course, that made it hard (er�impossible) to tell if it was synced up. So, after I got done with that, I had to wait until another guy got done with his flatbed, and then jump in on that one. Then, it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how the sound worked on that one. Finally, got stuff done, though. I�m ready to pass it in. The really scary thing is that there are people who are just starting to cut�Yikes!
Thursday, March 25th � Got my treatments back from Tom today, and he said to go ahead with the Flannery story�just as I had suspected. Course, the treatment is starting to look less and less like the inspiration, but I think that�s OK. Other students read treatments and scripts; some interesting, some not. There seemed to be a strange infatuation with language, and with oddly adult situations. Bleh for me, but oh well.
Monday, March 29th � Today I passed in my Gunsmoke project. With about half the other students. Lots of people fell by the wayside with this one, it seems. Although we won�t know for sure until next Wednesday. If they pass it in by then, it�ll be half off. After that, they�ll pretty much have to write it off. We spent some time listening to Professor Obern discuss different editing techniques and jobs. And we got to watch a few scenes from some films, and dissect them. Sort of looking ahead to the paper we have to write on a particular scene. A solid class, overall, and I got a chance to talk with Professor Obern afterwards; he definitely recognizes me now. We talked about the fact that its sad people don�t use flatbeds much. Looks like I�m getting into this just in time to have everything go away.
Tuesday, March 30th � Got my slides back today. A- again, which really surprised me, since he had disliked the last one so much. Guess he liked it more than it sounded. Or maybe he was just giving me a good grade for being a good sport while he was trashing it. The rest of the class was spent talking about the K3 a bit more, and going over aspect ratios. Next time we meet, we get a mid-term exam. I have no idea what to expect.
Wednesday, March 31st � Cesar Chavez day, so there were no classes. I got a chance to play some basketball (for the first time in a couple months�) Played badly, but had a great time anyway.