Back in the saddle again!

The first week of December brought us one night of lecture and then production starts on our first documentary. Our class was setting up and shooting B-Roll footage on our doc. The class was led by Stephen. We took a table and put a bunch of personal artifacts on it trying to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. We then lit the table, set up the camera, and then set up a monitor. The new piece of equipment we used for this lesson was the slider. The slider is essentially a 2-3 foot bar that you set the camera on and it acts like a dolly. This is what it looks like. Very cool little tool. Makes your shots a little more dynamic.

Before we jumped headfirst into production the school organized a Mixer/Lecture on Thursday the 4th. The speaker was James Savoca, filmmaker and instructor at school, and he discussed making indie films and financing. According to Christopher, SFSDF Marketing Director, the Mixer was a huge success. There was turnout of over 100 people and I think they were expecting between 30-50. The above pic was from the lecture. It was great to make some contacts which is incredibly vital to the industry. It was also cool to have some of my friends come out and see what I've been up to. I am in the process of creating a Film Society/lecture series out at school where we will bring in Bay Area Filmmakers, let them screen their project, and then have a Q & A where we discuss the specifics of their career and getting the movie made. The group is called the Friends of Alfred Film Society and I presented it at the Mixer. We are trying to have our first meeting in Jan. or Feb. '09!

With production underway I ran camera for Adi and Nitin and then did lighting for Ephantus. Docs are interesting and a lot of times you are at the mercy of the set or the subject. We filmed on location and that was a first for us. It actually all worked out well. My documentary subject is Sue Pemberton. She is a friend who does whale and seal rescue up and down the coast and then is involved in the animal's rehabat the Marine Mammal Center. The center is closed to the public but we were allowed to film there. We sat down with her and did a one hour interview and then got some great B-Roll of her working with the animals in their tanks. it was great being that close and filming the animals.

My other B-Roll I captured was animals in their natural environment and then pics that Sue gave me. The pics are "graduation" photos of the animals that are successfully rehabbed and then released in to the wild. My day filming the animals at the beach was one of my favorite days so far. Jen and I loaded up the car and drove down the coast. We captured most of our footage at Moss Beach during low tide. They have a lot of Harbor Seals there. I did most of the shooting using a Figg Rig and a tri-pod. Driving up and down the coast, stopping at beaches, filming, eating and drinking good food.... it was indeed a good day.

The last day before Winter Break was classroom work with William. We had a test! Crazy... It was actually a little weird being tested. i know this is school, but in the months since school started we have yet to have a test. Viva La Art School! haha. Our test was a one-on-one with William where he tried to stump us using Final Cut Pro commands... I did pretty well.

Now I am off for a few weeks! Happy Holidays!!

The bird is in the oven...

Ahhh the week of Thanksgiving. Due to the holiday we have an abbreviated school schedule. Just two nights of class and the first was a work-at-your-own-pace Pre-Production Lab. We pretty much just goofed off this night and talked about docs for a minor part of the class. 

The second night was a completely different story. The class was led by a past studio who now works in the "industry." Daniel lights professionally and that is what he taught us. How to light. This is actually a rather elusive skill set to master. What Daniel had us do tonight was light three different rooms or "scenes." It was great practice. Which is what lighting boils down to, for me at least. Both the practice of setting up lights and training your eye to what looks the best. It is an art form and you will people talk about "painting with light." Good class tonight. 

Truth on film.

With our first project in the can we moved on to our next assignment. Documentaries. While I love watching them, I am not overly interested in making one. I do have the desire to make a concert doc. That would be wicked cool. 

Monday night's class was unique in the fact that this was maybe the first lecture we had regarding film history. We covered the history of documentaries starting with the Lumiere Brothers in 1904. Other documentarians that we discussed were: Robert Flaherty, Dziga Vertov, Leni Riefenstahl, The Maysles Brothers, Fred Wiseman, Barbara Kopple, Ken Burns, Michale Moore, Ross McElwee, & Mark Kitchell. Along with specific filmmakers we also covered Direct Cinema vs Cinema Verite, Post Modern Docs, and Reality TV. Being a huge movie nerd I enjoyed this lecture quite a bit. I could easily sit and discuss film for hours. Post lecture we watched Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line and followed that with a discussion of the film. Another first for us. 

Intro to Doc. Filmmaking was covered on Tuesday of this week. We covered both audio and video and where to place your subject and should they look at camera or off camera etc. Also covered was B-Roll. B-roll is defined as supplemental or alternate footage inter cut with the main shot in an interview or a documentary. A-roll consists of your subject talking and B-roll is video or the subject that your interviewee is discussing, to put it simply. 

The Documentary Treatment was our next discussion on Tuesday night. This is similar to writing a screenplay for a fictional movie. It is your outline of what you wish to cover . Your treatment, style, and intended audience. We have to prepare and turn a treatment in for approval in this project. This is the guidelines for our documentary:

-Portrait or a family member or friend. 

-One 10-hour shooting day. 

-Interview one person and shoot no more than a 60-minute tape. 

-Include B-roll. 

-Can be on location or at school. 

-Length= 5-7 minutes. 

Wednesday the 18th was a writing/development lab devoted to preparation of our doc. treatment. 

Thursday brought us some fresh blood! A new instructor was introduced to us. His name is Darcell Walker and he spent a few hours with us covering audio. This was only our second in-depth audio lecture and it was incredibly informative and helpful. Darcel has a ton of experience in sound and is still currently working in the field. We spent a lot of time with learning lavaliers and portable sound mixers. Post lecture we took the camera and sound kits and recorded three scenes in three different locations while using both boom mics and lavs and adjusted for room sounds. It was a great exercise and showed us that we could capture great audio. 

The last lecture of the week was the Documentary Camera on Saturday. This was a rather intense day where we covered an array of items including: lenses (wide-angle, polarizing filters, promist filters), jib-arms, fig-rigs, and the slider. It's always a blast to get your hands on new "toys" that we will have at our disposal. I especially liked the fig-rig. This is is steering wheel-shaped camera mount which is named after it creator, director Mike Figgis. It is a handheld camera stabilizer that allows the operator a lot more freedom in moving the camera around the set. Stephen led this lecture and once again ran us through some much needed 3-point lighting exercises. 

Lots of ground covered this week...

Rough & Final

We got together as a class, both day and night classes, and watched our rough cuts on Saturday November 8th. It was great to see what the day class had been working on as we hadn't read their scripts or helped on their shoots. It wasn't just watching the rough cuts, we also held a group critique. After each film was screened 12 people gave their opinions on it. I was still at the point where I wasn't happy with my cut. It is a horror movie with some action in it. I had only been working on editing and had not done any work on soundtrack or sound effects. This had a completely negative effect on my film. The "hits" just weren't believable without sounds. 

With our final cut due on the following Saturday I spent a huge amount of time in the editing labs. First I finished off the video editing completely then I moved into adding sound effects. This was a lengthy process as you had to look through a"Sound Library" on the school's shared hard drive. Once you found sound which you think might work, you import it to Final Cut Pro, lay it into your short and then play it back. Of course there are a ton of different impact sounds and you can't really tell what will work best until you see/hear it. Having gotten my sounds in (hammer hits, kicks, glass breaking, door hits, etc.) I moved onto the soundtrack . William Davenport helped me with this as we really aren't learning this program yet. Same with the sound effects, you look through the library, pick a song, and lay it in. Another lengthy process, but essential to a film like mine. I was out at school every day this week spending hours and hours working on three minutes of film. Three minutes of a film that I have seen every frame countless times... Three minutes of film that I am tired of looking at. 

The final draft critique was once again a group effort. Where last week we spent our time critiquing coverage, this week we covered story, acting, and production value. It was a long day and rather brutal. Everyone picked apart everyone else's film. Some of the critiques regarding my short was that there wasn't enough character development with my main character and that it felt like a scene from a movie and not necessarily a complete short. These were completely valid and I felt the same. We discussed the lack of character development when I first started working on this project as it would be tough to add to a three minute short. Overall, I was really happy with my finished product. For a while every time I told myself that I wouldn't show it to anyone. haha. Now I am proud of it. Would I change anything? Of course I would. I would like to have the entire shooting day to do over... 

A few of us walked over to the Dogpatch Saloon for a post game analysis (read: drinking session). It was both cathartic and incredibly necessary to drink a beer! No rest for the weekend as we start our first Documentary Class in two days...

Music to murder to...

Spending endless amounts of hours in front of the computer while editing I've come to realize I really like to edit the non-dialog scenes while listening to music. What have you been listening to Bucky? The world wants to know! Well I will tell you. I've been listening to the same band that I listened to quite a bit while I was writing Death Rattle. That band would be Clinic. Specifically their album Walking With Thee. They have a very dark, atmospheric, and cinematic sound to them. This is a great indication of what they sound like: Harmony. After Walking With Thee I would recommend Winchester Cathedral. 

Not a whole lot else to report besides editing, editing, editing....

Final Cut Pro & Me.

Week seven of film school brings our journey to the editing/computer lab where I will be spending copious amounts of time over the next three weeks. At the beginning of the week we spent the first night going over three modules with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro or FCP is a digital non-linear editing system. Modules are training exercises for FCP. These modules take quite a bit of time and can be a little on the dry side. FCP is relatively easy to get started on but the program is just amazingly massive, overwhelmingly so actually, and will take years to master.

After learning some basics the first night, our second night we had a capturing lab where we took our raw footage and converted it to digital then uploaded it to our hard-drives and then imported it to FCP. Speaking of hard drives, we are required to have both a flash drive (at least 256 MB) and a hard drive (at least 250 GB with a 800 & 400 FireWire interface). I went with a LaCie hard drive. Capturing lab was great as this was my first opportunity to really look at my footage. I went through it all and made notes on each scene and labeled each scene in FCP then grouped them in bins for easy access. That alone took quite a long time.

The rest of the week was modules and editing. I spent a lot of time reviewing the footage before I put the first piece of footage in the timeline.

We did have a lecture on the last class of the week that I found both helpful and invigorating. The lecture was titled "Editing:Cinematic Language" and was taught by Stephen. We watched some great clips and dissected them. My favorite of the batch was a chase scene from Road Warrior, one of the Mad Max movies. It was just a badass scene and it was put together beautifully. The use of audio was impressive... it all tied into the lecture. At the end of the class he talked to us about having patience and staying motivated during the editing process. This was great to hear... as it is tough to keep working on the same footage for hours and hours.

All Pro!

Somebody in my crew posted this on the door to the stage where I was shooting... obviously it's film school not grammar school.

The Lost Weekend....

I woke up the day after my shoot and it felt like I had ran a mini-marathon the day before. Not that I know what it feels like to run a mini-marathon, but I imagined that's what it would feel like. I was on my feet all day long, running from point a to point b or sometimes just running around lost... I did a lot of pre-production work and midday we realized we were running so short on time, due to my actress having to leave earlier than expected, we ended up throwing out most of my pre-production material . The shot list was the first to go, then we took the camera off the tri-pod and went hand held, then I starting removing scenes from the script on the fly. Hopefully this will add to the overall urgency of the film. Hopefully...

What was crazy about this weekend was that I began assembling my set at 1 o'clock on Thursday (furniture from home, carpets from the prop room down the street, etc.) and once that was completed we built a restaurant scene (see above) for Tyler's Friday shoot. We had to build walls (flats) and everything from the ground up. It actually ended up looking very believable. We did this on stage A which also contains the green screen. After a late night of building we shot Tyler's short on Friday. We started off the day with a skeleton crew due to everyone's works schedules so at one point I was setting up camera, lights, and audio. Tyler got a lot of coverage in his shoot and we even got to play with the jib arm. (see the above pic with the camera/crane). The jib makes camera movement look seamless.

That brings us to Saturday. My intense all day long shoot followed by a nice celebratory dinner at Serpentine with my lovely wife. Many Whiskey Smashes were consumed. Waking up early on Sunday was not fun. Why did I have to wake up early? I was DP for Adi's shoot. Another 12 hour day at school. Adi shot in black & white and was going for a Hitchcock-esque feel. The DP or Director of Photography works the camera as you can tell from the above pic of me and the camera. It was a cool shoot and we once again battled time.

I would love to say the we get a break after filming our shorts, but no, we start editing and learning Final Cut Pro tomorrow...

Right here, right now.

For better or worse.... my first day of directing was upon me. After a night of restless sleep I started off the day by swinging by Noah's for bagels and coffee for my cast and crew. Remember, craft services is required on your shoot. Speaking of cast & crew here is the breakdown:

Jo (character) = Heather

Intruder (character) = Ed

DP = Adi

AD = Tyler

Lighting = Nitin

Sound = Ephantus

Instructor = James

Craft Services = Jenny

Jenny would be Jenny my wife, she completely kicked ass and catered by shoot. Hawaiian Bar-B-Que, cookies, and beers! Awesome woman.

Back to the filming. As with all of the other shoots, it took forever to hit record. Lighting is incredibly critical and incredibly hard to get just right. At least for beginners such as us. Combine that with the fact that my first shot was a dolly shot. In a dolly shot the camera moves towards the subject. This requires laying dolly track and then setting up the camera on the dolly with the camera operator. You also need a cord wrangler and someone to push the dolly. So incredibly smart for me to make my first shot of all time a dolly shot, no??

Time management is a big part of your time and you are constantly racing the clock. Today was no exception. We started to run very short on time so we just pushed the tri-pod aside and hand-held the camera the entire rest of the day. Hopefully this will add to the overall effect of the film.

Everyone gave a 100 percent on the film and I couldn't be more grateful to them as it is a long day of hard work . I was stressed a big chunk of the day and none of my stress was from an exterior source which I guess is something to be incredibly happy about. Hah! Even though I was stressed all day the second it was over I missed it and I am already looking forward to my next shoot.

Some notes on the pictures. Pictures 1 & 3 three are both of studio B where I held my shoot. Before and after pics if you will.

Picture 2 is me at the monitor. You spend a big portion of your day at the monitor communicating to your crew on the set what needs to be done to make it look how you envision it and watching each take to make sure you captured what you needed/wanted.

Picture 4 is some props/costume from the shoot Death Rattle!!!! So dramatic...

There it is!

Holla at me if you're on my block!

Blocking is the movement of your characters and camera. The goal is to make the movement look natural and then place the camera in the best location to cover the action. This is what we were doing in the above pictures. Everyone meet Heather and Ed. Heather and Ed... everyone.

We got together to rehearse the short which entailed a script read through or three, blocking, and discussion of the short and characters. This was the first time we all met each other which was also another goal of us getting together.

Both Heather and Ed were consummate professionals all night. The scene we were rehearsing was pretty physical and they attacked it! They were all over the studio. On the ground, the bed, out the door. Good stuff. This night helped a ton and also it caused more re-writes for the script. My 9th re-write to be specific.

Adi, a classmate and the DP on my short, was able to pop in for the latter half of rehearsals. It was nice to have another set of eyes and to convey to him what I want to try and accomplish. Successful night all around.

Long days on the set...

What it do? What it do? I finally got to do what I came out here to do. Make a movie. In between prepping for my shoot, I crewed on three of my classmates films. Anne, Ephantus, & Nitin. I did sound for two and was DP for another. DP is Director of Photography. Sound is okay but kind of boring after a while. Basically with sound you stand off to the side of the actors and hold a pole with a microphone attached to it. Always wearing headphones you let the director know if you captured sound or any other unwanted noises during a take. It's super easy to zone out so I kept reminding myself to stay in the present. DP is another story altogether. You are the camera man all day and it is incredibly collaborative with the Director. You are always communicating his needs/wants and your response. It's your job then to let the actors know when they are in frame and what you need from lighting on the set. I had a blast being the DP and it was a great learning experience. I definitely need to train my eye for capturing a shot. Where's the best place to set the camera, should you move the camera during a shoot, what angle should you use, etcetera, etcetera??? I had a blast running sound as well. Hell, it was just cool to be around a movie being made.

The days were definitely long. On average, close to eleven hours for three days in a row. By wrap on day three I was tired as all hell.

When I wasn't shooting wasn't crewing or working or sleeping, I was at work on my upcoming shoot. Picking crew members, planning props and room layout, talking to my actors, choosing food, emailing my instructor constantly with questions (which I am sure they adore), rewriting my script... Etc. Lots to do in little amounts of time. It will be here in just a few days.

*the two pics of above were from Nitin & Ephantus' shoots respectively.

Pre-Production, Pre-Production, Pre-Production.

Can you guess what we continued with in this weeks of class? Getting in to Film Festivals! Nah, it was pre-production which meant working with actors, team logistics, storyboarding, labs both writing and pre-production (which is now officially the word of the day), and intro to sound. 

Intro to sound was a great day. We worked with the day class and essentially had a dry run for our shoots. The class entailed us dragging out the equipment, setting up a set with lights and audio writing and filming a scene. From start to finish in the span of a few hours. I worked with Jimmy and Chris who are two funny dudes from the day class and we made a short about an asshole (me) who wouldn't get off the phone in the computer lab. Milena ran class to day and she is another one of instructors who does a lot of focus on editing. She is a great and easy going presence in the studio. 

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lecture entitled Working With Actors which James ran point on. Another great lesson. One director and two actors. The director hands the actors a script that  they've never seen before and the work it over... and over... and over. From one dry line read to almost where it is filmable. This is where the director really lets the actors know what he or she wants out of a scene and this is where the actors bring their ideas about their characters to the big dance. Give and take and communication . Creating trust and an avenue of communication that will continue up until filming. 

In regards to my film... Death Rattle!!  (ominous ain't it?) I spent time this week rewriting and casting. Both the actors I sent my script to and that I asked to be in my film accepted!! Heather Parsons and Edward McCloud will play Josephine and the Intruder respectively. I couldn't be happier to have these two in this project with me. 

I've been drawing inspiration/straight-ganking ideas from these films while writing & setting up shots: High Tension (Haute Tension) and bit o' The Shining. Peep 'em if you haven't seen 'em. 

Around June around October...

A few weeks into school we were informed that Fog City Pictures, the film production company associated with SFSDF, was having their world premiere of their latest film at the Mill Valley Film Festival and the students were invited to the screening, Q&A, and after-party. The movie is called Around June and was written and directed by James Savoca who is one of my instructors out at school. The movie stars Samaire Armstrong, Oscar Guerrero, Jon Gries, and Brad William Henke. There is a (really poor quality) picture above of the Q&A, from L to R: Brad William Henke, Jon Gries, Jeremiah Bimbaum (producer & co-founder of SFSDF), James Savoca, & a staff member from MVFF. It was both cool and surreal to be at a premiere and see and speak with the cast and crew of the film. The premiere was sold out and seemed to be a success for Fog City! It was mos def. sweet to meet the guy who played both Lazlo (thanks for the movie trivia answer Pat!) in Real Genius and Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite...

Boards of Stories

According to The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide For The Digital Age "a storyboard is made for a scene, each shot is drawn as one or more still images, noting camera and actor movements." Being that my drawing sucks donkey ass I elected to take pictures for my storyboards. Obviously I needed some help with that so I recruited some friends*, filled their bellies full of food and alcohol, threw an axe in the mix, and the rest is history. Some of the above pics I am using for storyboards (pics 1 & 4) the others I threw in cuz' they make me smile. To get a feel for the piece we did a screenplay read-through, which helped immensely to hear a male and female read the parts, and then we cast my film by watching the audition tapes and discussing my shortlist of actors. Surprisingly enough, my shortlist vibed with everyone else. I plan on doing this from here on out with an ever expanding and revolving group of friends.

*Jamie Keith, JT Forbus, & Beru pictured.

62 Actors!

Not everything at filmschool is right brained. Is right brained the creative side? If not, then not everything at filmschool is left brained. The beginning of our third week began with a lecture on Pre-Produciton. Essentially making a movie is broken down into three parts. Pre-Production, Production/Filming, Post-Production. As I mentioned, pre-production was our focus. Before we shoot our first film we have to generate a pre-produciton package for our film. A bible or a battle plan. By the time it is complete it will contain the following:
-Lined Out Script.
-Shot List.
-Breakdown Sheets.
-Storyboards.
-Call Sheet.
-Overhead Diagrams of Camera Blocking & Lighting.
-Shooting Schedule.
-Crew Rotation List.
-Log Sheet (to be filled out on day of shoot)

We spent a big chunk of our week generating our production packages and reading through and revising our scripts. Writing is re-writing! We did a lot of work-shopping on our scripts and I love this process. Sit around in a big group and spitball ideas about yours and others projects. As long as you stay on track I find that this is incredibly productive.

Next up was a lecture on Directing 101! Shots, reasoning/psychology of shots, shooting dialogue, storytelling, working with actors, blocking, etc. The meat and potatoes (a term I hear a lot at school) of being a director on a film shoot. This was another jam-packed lecture.

The big deal this week was AUDITIONS!! On Thursday night we all met out at school and 62 actors came out and auditioned for us. Sixty-Two! How the process worked was that the actor would walk in, place his/her headshot on a table, say their name and then give a line-reading of their choice. It was a long and surreal night. Just after three weeks of filmschool and now we are supposed to know enough to cast actors for our current and future films. If we saw someone we liked but couldn't use for this project we were encouraged to write a project for that actor for the future. The actors ran the gamut from just starting out to having their SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Card and years of theatre (note: snobby spelling) experience. I left school with a general idea of who I wanted for my short but needed some more input...

To wrap up the week we worked on a coverage exercise. We took a scene of two actors playing chess and having a conversation and we filmed it from all angles in order to capture everything we needed which is coverage. We set up the set from nothing on the stage to everything including camera, monitors, audio, lighting, props, etc. It really felt like a culmination of our knowledge thus far. Once we got the stage ready it took us 90 minutes to capture all the angles on a 45 second scene. It really is amazing how long it takes to film anything. No wonder feature films take a month to film (on average). Milena, our instructor, took our footage and edited the scene three different ways and played them back for us. This was to show us how much editing can affect the tone of a scene and also what to do and not to do.

In three weeks I will be doing this same thing on my first short... It will be here too quick.

Life ain't nothing but pitches and lighting...

I met the beginning of week 2 with a bit of trepidation. You see, the first night of class we had a pitch session for our first short film. Up until two days prior I had nothing. Nada, nathan, zil, zilch... Then I read an article in the paper about some loud "booms" awakening people in a San Jose neighborhood and based a short story on that. I took the beginning and added a more sinister story and viola, my first pitch. I was still nervous about it. Little did I know but we green-light our own pitch as a group. The group was moderated by James. We would present our pitch, vote as a group whether or not it should get the green-light to be made into a short, and if it doesn't then we vote whether or not the idea of the story could be worked into a short.

Our pitch had to be presented in both sentence and paragraph form. Here is my sentence pitch:
In the middle of the night, a woman must fight for her life against a madman who just smashed his way into her bedroom.

Nice & simple right? 2 characters, 1 room. (notice the 2 girls 1 cup set-up I just left you...) So what did the group think? I got the green-light! Not without notes of course. As it was, there wasn't much character development, just a plot driven story. Woman wants to survive encounter.

This brings us to the next class which was Screenwriting. This was an excellent class which taught us the basics of a screenplay. We take that knowledge and couple it with our short-story and make magic happen. Sounds easy enough...

A writing lab here, a camera review there, then boom! Lighting lecture and lab gets dropped on our collective asses. I really don't think my pen left my pad for hours. I took 12 pages of notes over lighting for film then we took said knowledge and set up lighting 6 different ways: Rembrandt, Short Loop, Broad Loop, Split, Rim/Backlight, & Paramount/Glamour/Butterfly. But do you want to know what I really learned today? I have no desire to do lighting for a living.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Already behind...

(picture note: keep reading for an explanation)

No dear reader (all 1 of you), do not be worried. I am not falling behind in school, just this blog. I had intentions of posting every other day, if not daily after class.... bbbbuuuuutttt school has gotten busy. My new goal is now weekly which puts me behind still. By a couple of weeks. (I'll just back date this post and no one will know any different) Enough BS, on with the show :

The first Thursday of class was a lecture of "Shot Terminology." This covered both still and moving shots. Your perspectives, close-ups, zooms, pans, tilts, dolly, punch, OTS, POV, ROTS, Two-Shot, Three-Shot, 4-Shot, establishing shot, close-up, wide shot, roll focus, choker, dutch angle, etc. Ya' know... the normal stuff. I really liked the way this lecture was set up, because the instructor, Stephen, would teach us about the shot and then show us an example from a movie. Very effective way to learn.

Much to our surprise, when we hit the 90 minute mark from the end of class, Stephen stopped class. Told us to set up the camera, and editing in camera, to make a short film using as many shots as we could. This lil' film would be written, directed, acted, and shot as a group. First week of class and we are already filming. Granted, the finished product was the equivalent of a fresh steaming pile of dog poo, it was still very cool. Great little exercise. Our film was about how each of us arrive to class, very edgy Oscar worthy stuff. Once finished we were to hold on to the film until Saturday when Stephen would play it back for us and critique it....

...fast forward to Saturday. Stephen ripped it apart.

Post critique. we had a picture composition lecture. This was fantastic and it really helped me frame my shots. How we tackled this assignment was that we were given digital cameras, ran around for an hour taking pics, brought our best three and they were critiqued. Post critique, we jumped right into the lecture (Rule of Thirds rocks, straight-up yo) and then we were sent back into the field to find another three shots. Everyone drastically improved with their newly acquired knowledge. Unfortunately, my first three pics are lost in the ether or matrix or space. But I do have my final three. Enjoy your first glimpse at genius (please note the sarcasm).

Speaking of genius, I have no idea how to move the pics below the post, so they are at the top. Genius indeed.

100 monkeys locked in a room with 100 typewriters...

Wednesday night's class brought us a new topic and a new instructor. James Savoca. James is from New York and while he lived there, he transitioned from playwright to independent filmmaker which he is still active with and his next film is premiering at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October. The title of the film is Around June. You can see James' reel here. He will be our writing instructor for the year, and if our first class is any indication of what that will be like... it is going to be intense. We covered tons of ground and it was all interesting and helpful. It was a basic storytelling lecture that covered plot, action, characters, writer's tools, tension, etc. It was one on those classes where my pen never left my notebook. Always writing. We ended the class with James telling us that we will be pitching our first short film to him on Monday. This is the guideline for that film:

-3 pages maximum. 

-2 characters maximum. 

-1 major location, with 1 "B" location. 

-shot entirely on campus. 

-50% must use lights. 

Along with the pitch which he wants in both one sentence and one paragraph form we were also assigned a character sketch. 

Thursday nights class had us back Stephen and back with the camera. We covered Shot Terminology which included camera movements, perspectives, and angles. When there was about 2 hours left, Stephen surprised us an assignment. Starting right then the 5 of us were to write, film, and edit (in camera) a short film using as many of the ideas that we covered in class. This would be the only time we would do this as a group the whole year. It went off relatively smoothly but did have the usual speed bumps of everyone wanting their voice heard. We all worked together really well though. My shot was a "truck" shot. Being that we didn't have access to a truck, which allows the camera to move, I held the camera and sat in a rolling chair while two of my other classmates pulled me down a hallway. It came off okay all things considered. Stephen is going to critique our film on Saturday. That should be interesting...

In the beginning....

Two days into the program and I haven't been kicked out yet!

The first night of class involved the always pleasant round-robin meet and greet. This and the class following was led by Stephen Kopels who is the co-founder of the school. He got his start behind the camera as a war photographer in Vietnam. From there he went to work on a ton of different projects in many fields ranging anywhere from PBS to Sanford & Son to Boxing on HBO. There are five students in the evening program, which is evidently a small class. From what we were told this small size was due in part to the current financial crisis in America, particularly the problems in dealing with getting a loan.

After spending a little while talking about ourselves we were given an overview of the program and then took a brief look at the syllabus. It looks and feels as if we are starting off slow but will be building up to a full blown fever pitch right quick.

Our first official lesson started the first night in class and dealt with HDV Camera Basics 1. We built upon what we learned during our second night with a lecture called... can you guess it?? That's right, HDV Camera Basics 2. First we started off with the basics related to any and all cameras: focus, aperture, camera stands, etc. Then we moved into more film based cameras specifically digital cameras. Our first three projects will be filmed on the Sony HVR-Z1U. At the end of each lecture we had plenty of hands-on time where we had to set up the camera, stands, monitor, and then connect all three. After which we broke everything back down. The first night I felt just like baby Huey pushing buttons... and I pretty much felt that way the second night as well. Last night we did have some objectives that we were to complete on our own with the camera: setting the time code to a specific hour and correcting the white balance. Both of which were incredibly easy. Thankfully.

Some random things I learned:
-A clapper at the beginning of a shot is used to sync sound.
-Never say you will fix it in post. Fix it while filming.
-Always film 30 seconds of color bars at the beginning of every tape.

Why does that lion have dreads?

I received an e-mail from Tammy who is the Operations Manager at SFSDF. It was a blanket e-mail that went out to everyone in the Fall program and it mostly dealt with financial options and deadlines and it was also a personal introduction. Evidently she is also from the first class to graduate at SFSDF. After reading the e-mail I called her to discuss paying for the first month of school and once we got payment out of the way she gave me a list of items I will need before I start. It is as such:
-1 External Hardrive: In the range of 500 megabytes to 3 gigabytes. Will be used to store our projects.
- 1 mini Maglite- approx. 6 inches. To be used on set during days which we are filming.
-1 pair Leather Gloves-Used for handing equipment which will include lighting that will be hot.
-Gaffer's Tape. Evidently this is blue and we will be using it on set. Will post a pic once I purchase it.
- 1 Carabiner -or- Fanny pack. This will hold all of your items together while on set. She called it a hip pack. To-may-toh, to-mah-to... it's a fanny-pack so I am sure I will go the carabiner route.
- 1 Note pad. For jotting down memos or ideas that will lead me to wealth and stardom.

Evidently I can get almost everything from JCX Expendables, a film supply store in the Mission. It's been a while but it looks like it is time for some back-to-school shopping...

T-Minus 30 days...

Roughly one month from today and I will begin Film School. I noticed some changes to the school's curriculum the other day. The biggest being that I will be writing/directing five projects not 3. Here are the details of what to expect straight from the horses mouth.
"The Digital Filmmaking Program is an intensive, hands-on program designed to prepare students for a career in the motion picture industry. The innovative curriculum is taught by award-winning filmmakers and is project-based, with students creating five (5) of their own movies and working on a professional feature-length motion picture.
Over the course of the year, every student will create:- One 3 to 5-minute narrative fiction film- One 3 to 5-minute documentary film- One 4 to 6-minute “challenge” film (either documentary or fiction)- One 30-second commercial with special effects- One 8 to12 minute thesis movie in any genre and:- Crew with professionals on a feature-length motion picture
Students learn the art and craft of filmmaking and work in a variety of genres – fiction, commercials and documentary. The class is structured around small production teams in which students produce their own movies and crew on team member projects. In this way, students get personalized instruction, maximum experience with the equipment, and create material for their demo reels.
SFSDF is proud to be a small school, with only two new class starts a year, in March and September. Unlike other film schools that have a “conveyor belt” mentality and start a new class every month, our class sizes are limited in order to offer students maximum access to both equipment and instructors. Our mission is not to turn out large numbers of students with little knowledge – it is to train a small group of passionate students and prepare them for entering the professional world of filmmaking.
SFSDF student movie projects are strategically designed to allow students to build their skills in an organic and increasingly challenging way. After completing their first own film projects movies and crewing on as many as 25 of their teammates movies, student have the skills and confidence necessary to crew on a feature-length digital motion picture. SFSDF is the only film school in the country offering students this valuable and unique experience.
On the movie set, students fill in key crew positions and continue to develop their craft by working side-by-side with professional crew members from San Francisco and LA. During the course of filming, students rotate through two feature production departments and receive credit on the finished film. This on-set experience allows students to gain critical real-world knowledge and invaluable contacts in the movie business.
Students that successfully complete this Program receive the three essential tools for launching their career--a demo reel built from their best work, motion picture credits including work on a feature film, and contacts in the industry. Students enter the filmmaking program at SFSDF as students and leave as professionals"

Tell me what you think...

I was at a dinner party last week and the topic of my acceptance in to film school came up which seguewayed into working in film in general. We talked about the father of one of our dinner hosts who happens to be a screenwriter. While he wasn't at the dinner, she did have one of his screenplays which she handed to me and said, "tell me what you think." I have to admit, it was kinda cool that someone handed me a screenplay as somewhat of an authority in the field but let's not shit ourselves, at this point in my life I have no business doling out advice on screenplays. I am just a regular joe with an unhealthy obsession with film. How unhealthy you may ask? Today is August 3rd. Since January 1st I have watched 207 films. 207!!?!?! Moderately ridiculous. Granted I have read screenplays and books on screenplays and filmmaking in the past but still, just a guy who is interested in the industry. And everything I've read about people handing you screenplays without going through proper channels (i.e. agent, production company, etc.) says to not accept them. I'm sure it boils down to preventing further lawsuits dealing with the misappropriation of ideas. That's the way the industry works. Also, if I ever refer to myself as "working in the industry," please take me out back and shoot me. So what about the screenplay that I was handed? I was so jet lagged from vacation that I left it sitting on their counter. I am a boob.

Are you ready for the summer?

I've created a self-imposed Summer Reading List in preparation for school. It is as follows:

Screenplays:

Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman

Blood Simple by Ethan & Joel Coen

Chinatown by Robert Towne

Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson

Miller's Crossing by Ethan & Joel Coen

Natural Born Killers (The Original Screenplay) by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino

Raising Arizona by Ethan & Joel Coen

Rushmore by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson

Books on Screenplays:

Screenplay by Syd Field 

The Screenwriter's Workbook by Syd Field

Story by Robert McKee

If I have time before the beginning of school I also have some rejected screenplays. Michael Chabon's Spider-Man 2 script and Frank Darabont's script for the new Indy film. This list coupled with my installing of Final Draft on my laptop should help with my formatting and writing of screenplays. Hopefully...

Chutes Too Narrow??

I'm trying to keep this blog from being one of those things where I'm writing in my bedroom late at night while listening to the Shins on my Ipod. Example: Dear Blog, feelings, tears, blah, blah. Having said that, today is my birthday and this is the first one in the last few years where I wasn't kicking myself for not being more productive with my life. Usually I wake up and thoughts of regrets and "why am I still in this job" fill my head. Today felt different as I know Film School (and hopefully a step towards happiness with my j-o-b) is right around the corner. 

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming:

Dear Blog, there was the cutest wittle dog on the J-Line today. It set my heart all aflutter...

Quiet on the set!!!

After I received my acceptance letter I called to set up my meet and greet with Leah Koppels as soon as possible. I was a little too excited. The meeting was set for Wednesday the 30th of April at 2 PM. After a mental battle as to what to wear (It's film school so no suit and tie but I want to be taken seriously so not shorts and flip flops...) I opted for freshly polished shell tops, jeans, and a long sleeve all-black Ben Sherman button-up. With my Timbuk2 black shoulder bag I felt like I was ready to take on the world or at the very least deliver messages on my bike.

Walking in to SFSDF I was hit with a barrage of "Quiet on the set!!" It started down at the far end of the building and it was relayed down the hall. It was both surreal and comical at the same time. The current class was filming one of their projects and it was interesting to feel the electricity in the air. I'm shown to a seat and in just a few minutes Leah greets me. We move to her office and the paperwork begins. 

We talk tuition. It's a one year intensive program. Class is five days a week with outside classroom work expected. The grand total is right at thirty thousand. They allow a payment program where you break it up into twelve payments or you can apply for a Sallie Mae (damn you dirty whore and your high rates Miss Mae!!) loan. I think we are going to go the payment plan route. In addition to tuition you will also have to spend roughly one thousand dollars on the following: videotape, grip & gaffer tools, craft services, and other materials. 

Grips "move things around, place props, build scaffolds and other rigging for cameras or lights." A gaffer is the senior electrician on set. Craft services is buffet style drinks and snacks for your crew. I was actually happy with this. The day you are directing you are required to feed your cast and crew. Right on!

There are ten people in my program and we will be writing and directing five films. When we aren't working on our own project we will be crew on another students project. Along with student films,  we will also crew on professional films. SFSDF created their own production company, Fog City Films, and they have already completed two films. Whatever films that are in production we will work on and be credited in the film.

While we were working on our paperwork Leah filled out all of her forms in purple ink which I thought was hilarious and moderately cool. You would never see the admissions staff at IU fill out paperwork in purple ink. I like it. We obviously discussed more but it all leaned towards the mundane-everyday aspect of school. I won't bore you. Well, I won't bore you more than I already have.

Can I have the envelope please?

Dear Robert, 

Congratulations! You been accepted for admission into SFSDF's Digital Filmmaking FALL 2008 Program. We have you scheduled for the NIGHT program starting September 15, 2008. This one year intensive program is designed for students with a passion for learning the craft of digital filmmaking and planning to pursue a career in the movie industry. 

Please schedule an appointment with Leah Kopels, Admissions Representative, as soon as possible to register for class and complete the enrollment process, which holds your seat. T0 set up an appointment please call xxx-xxx-xxxx.

On behalf of the entire faculty and staff at SFSDF, I extend a warm welcome and best wishes for your success. This promises to be a wonderful program and we look forward to all the exciting and wildly creative movies you will be making.

Sincerely, 

Leah Kopels

Admissions Representative

Ground Control to Major Tom.

Still no word back re: my application. I went on-line and found an etiquette website that stated it was appropriate to call after waiting 10 days. I called the admissions department, left my name and number, and haven't heard anything back. Don't know if that is good or bad. 

So it begins.

I've applied to film school. One film school. All my apples in one basket. I sent off my application today to the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. (www.sfdigifilm.com) I've dabbled with screenplays for years but never completed one. Knowing my behavior and general lack of drive I probably never will unless there is some outside pressure weighing on me. Thus film school. I weighed the options of taking my admission money and buying a digital camera package and making my own films on the weekend vs. taking the money and going to school. The reasons why I choose school are: a. I'm lazy, b. I need structure at times, c. I don't know the first thing about filming, editing, recording, sound, etc. This isn't the route that Sam Raimi or Tarantino went but this is the best way for me. 

My application package contained the following:

-Completed application. (downloaded from their website)

-Profile. (see below)

-Letter of Recommendation. (My friend Jamie wrote this. She was also one of my past co-workers)

-$45 fee.

-College transcripts. (IUPUI)

This is a copy of my profile:

   Growing up in the Midwest, one didn't go to film school. Especially if you came from three generations of plumbers as I did. It just wasn't practical or realistic, or so I thought. Knowing what I know now, I would have gone straight into film from High School. Instead I started working in a local Emergency Room and then sort of fell into nursing. Got my degree, got a career, and eight years later here I am. I always knew that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in that field. It's not as if I'm disappointed or ashamed with my choices Because I learnt many life lessons, skills, and gained perspective and a certain level of maturity from my time spent in the hospital. Plus, I met my wife in Nursing School and I would never complain about that. It's just that I'm not passionate about my job. What I am passionate about is film.

   As far back as I can remember I've been watching movies. It all started with Star Wars which is still my favorite to this day. I love the magic, the escapism of cinema. Obviously, growing up in Indiana, I was only exposed to American studio films, but as I got older I broadened my scope. Today I watch any and every movie I can get a hold of: Foreign, Documentaries, Animated, Art House, Summer Blockbusters, Romance, Drama, Martial Arts, Westerns, etc. It really is a piece of me and I am ready to make it a bigger part of my life. For years I've toyed around with screenplays and ideas for movies but without any direction they've just stayed in my desk. With each passing year I've become more involved in bringing those stories to fruition, but I don't have the tools. 

   This brings me to SFSDF. I saw an ad for your school in a local paper and then attended one of the weekend Open Houses. While I was there I found out about your Pizza & Knowledge nights. After attending two of them, I knew I was more than ready to make this change in my life and that I wanted SFSDF to help facilitate that change. I want to be involved in the business of film making. Period. I'm old enough to know what that entails and the uncertainty involved with it. I not only welcome the challenge but look forward to it. I am excited about exploring the creative side of my personality. I am excited about working side-by-side with other creative individuals who share the same love of film as I do. I am also excited about the business aspect of film. I know that it is a business and a tough one to get into at that and I look forward to that challenge as well.

   I can honestly say that I would make an excellent addition to your program and I hope this profile conveyed how much I am looking forward to attending your school. A forward thinking digital film school that is in step with the constantly changing world of cinema. A school that will help me realize my potential and achieve my goals. Come September 15th, I can't think of anywhere else I would rather be than in class at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking.

Nothing left to do but wait...