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Cinema School Log
May, 2004
Tuesday, May 4th � There was no �Tuesday traffic� today, so I finally turned in my film project, although it was a week late. GP was still showing them in class, actually, so everyone got to see it. Great. It turned out OK, although far from spectacular. He was apparently expecting it to be somewhat of a story. Although he had made it clear from the assignment that no story would be required. Maybe I missed something.
Wednesday, May 5th � I finished off both of my computer editing projects today. That was pretty easy, actually. Except I had a really hard time figuring out what sort of music to use for the Bank Robbery. I should probably go with some techno/rock junk. But its against my artistic religion, so I think I�ll use the old standby: Holst�s Mars, from the Planets. It probably won�t really fit with the mood of the piece, but I�m got my principles!
Thursday, May 6th � I passed in a couple of feature film ideas today: one about a college professor, one about my uncle, and one about a murderer. Tom didn�t seem to care for them too much. His objection to most of them was that he had seen that sort of thing a thousand times. Didn�t think they were too original. At first, I was wondering what exactly to do about that, but then I started to realize something: I�m not sure I want to be original. I don�t like incredibly forced stories about incredibly bizarre things that will hardly ever actually happen. Of course if they happen once every 10,000 years, a film about them will be pretty original. But so what?
Monday, May 10th � No editing class again today, because of the separate editing groups. And because I�m done anyway.
Tuesday, May 11th � A strange thing happened today. I went down for my Cinematography class, hoping to get a camera for the weekend. Over the last week or so, I got all my stuff planned out for what I want to shoot. And when I want to shoot it. Then, in class, everyone wants a camera on the weekend - for the first time. And after that, Professor Geuens says he can�t guarantee any cameras being available for shooting on the last week. So, in desperation, I had to get a camera today. Meaning I will have to shoot either Wednesday or Thursday. And get the camera back by closing time on Thursday. Should be pretty tense. Hopefully, I can still get what I want. But I think I�ll probably have to improvise some. I�ll just chock it up under a �good learning experience.� Whatever that means.
Wednesday, May 12th � No editing class again today, because of the separate editing groups. And because I�m done anyway. (Actually, that first part doesn�t apply. But cutting and pasting is easy.)
Thursday, May 13th � Today was crazy. I filmed all day, with somewhat mixed success. I decided to use reversal film, because I�m cheap. And so is reversal film, at least compared to negative stock. Got a fair number of the shots I wanted, and used up 3 roles of 16MM film. Then, I took my actor (my sister) home, and headed down to the film development place. And to drop off my equipment, too. I was tired, so I decided to just skip today�s screenwriting class. Especially since I�m already completely done with the stuff I am required to do. And I don�t much care to give exactly the same criticism to every odd comic thing people do. But then, the fates punished me. I got a flat tire on the I-5 freeway. That was not at all fun. And my spare was flat, too. So, I got to wander around in LA looking for tires. (Or maybe the fates were with me. I could have gotten a flat around 11:00 at night. That would have been significantly worse, seems to me.)
Monday, May 17th � No class.
Tuesday, May 18th � Today we finished up Geuens� lectures for Cinematography class. There was some really interesting stuff about depth of focus, and then some boring stuff about film stock itself. But I�m getting ahead of myself. Before class, I picked up my developed film from Thursday�s debacle. Have no idea how it came out, although I suspect a lot of it is underexposed. B & W reversal film has a pretty unforgiving characteristic curve. That�s one of the things I learned from the second part of class, unfortunately.
Wednesday, May 19th � Today we watched a whole bunch of Bank Robbery and Hawaii 5-0 stuff. Spent all class doing it, in fact. I�d have to say that people seem to be better at the computer editing. More imagination, or something. Or maybe its just that they don�t have to worry about the technical part of things, so they can just concentrate on the artistic stiff. They all seem to be a bit too attached to effects, though. Especially Slo-Mo and then speeding stuff up. Which I personally hate more than almost anything else in film. Well, I guess there are things I hate a lot more. But not effects.
Thursday, May 20th � Finished cutting up my Cinematography project today, which got me to screenwriting class a bit late. It worked out OK; the project, that is. . Some is underexposed. But mostly I had a problem with too wide a range of contrasts. Reversal film can only take about two stops either way�everything else is either all black, or all white. No details in the shadows or highlight areas. I can�t believe people actually shoot on this stuff on purpose. I guess its mostly used for music videos, which I hate anyway.
Monday, May 24th � Today was another editing class, although it was pretty much all lecture. Interesting, but nothing particularly new; mostly just going through the filmmaking steps again. People ask a lot of odd questions�I�m particularly amused when someone repeats the question Obern just answered. Not everyone is listening, it seems. He is very patient about it, though. More patient than I would be, that�s for sure. Still, people are generally having a good time, it seems. And although its already stuff we�ve mostly heard before, repetition is the best
way to really cement it in your memory, so no real complaints.
Tuesday, May 25th � We watched everyone�s final projects in Cinematography class today. Or at least most of them. There were a few very fine ones. There were a whole bunch with drugs and killings. And I showed mine, but it was hard to get any kind of read on the reaction. I was bored, so I shouldn�t really expect all that much from the class, I guess. It ended up just being a walk in the woods, pretty much. There was some interesting stuff visually that turned out pretty well. But it was sort of like watching a camera test or something. Next time I�ll really try to use the depth of focus more. And I need to remember that the light meter really just averages out the light without telling you what any particular light value is. Some of my underexposure definitely came from this. All in all, though, I�m much more comfortable with being able to get what I want on film. And JP was fun to have as a teacher.
Wednesday, May 26th � Today was the last day of lecture for the editing final. I think its gonna be pretty basic, when all is said and done. We got to watch the end of Silver Streak, though. And a couple scenes from The French Connection, which was nice. I appreciate the editing in that film more than when I watched it first, that�s for sure. But I still don�t like the film that much. And we seem to be watching a bunch of train crashes�I wonder what Professor Obern is up to. Hmmm�
Thursday, May 27th � Skipped class today. Fatigue is starting to set it. I think I�m going to try and get myself one more night off a week next semester. Four nights a week is hard, and it�s a lot harder when there�s a lot of busy work to do. But it�s a good tired feeling, because its been a very productive semester, I feel.
Monday, May 31st � Memorial Day. Stayed home. Was grateful.