Just having a GRAND ole time

After 3 hours of studying in the library for finals, I came home and read an e-mail that really made my day.

I got a $1,000 scholarship through USAC (my study abroad program)!!!! It's such a weird feeling, almost like finding a thousand bucks lying in the street. I don't know how I want to think about this...more money for traveling when I'm over there, 1,000 bucks closer to that Macbook Pro I've been wanting for so long... a trunk full of pudding cups, really the possibilities are endless.

This is the beginning of some new blogs that I'm going to be posting, and I'll also be creating a facebook group, cause really that's the best way to keep in touch with people these days. Instead of this being my USC/LA blog, it is now going to become my Prague blog. Whoa. That almost rhymes. I might have to think about changing the title of this blog....hmmmm....

Two favorite Bands. One Stage.

I haven't posted since summer, but someday people will start reading this again, and when they do, they need to watch this:



My two favorite bands, playing a song they wrote together, in Davis, my hometown. I was probably about 30 feet to the left of this camera. yes!

And....Cut!

Well, my time here in LA is done. But what a time it was. I'm all packed up and ready to leave beautiful (yeah right) South Central LA. We finished out time off together with a final Summer Screening of the best films from all the summer production classes. In one of the films a girl that was in an episode of Lost was the main actress. That was pretty cool. She was also at the screening and one of my friend's went up and confirmed that she was the girl from Lost. Then 2/3 of our class went over to the Santa Monica Pier for a late dinner at Bubba Gump's where a guy from our class was working. We all said our goodbye's and parted ways. Most of us are leaving for home today (Saturday). I'm one of the first to leave, but I'm pretty anxious to leave LA and get up to camp. I will miss the film world and all of the knowledge it gave me, but I look forward to getting back to NorCal. My final individual film will be up eventually. I want to show it to people in person before I post it on the net.

I feel completely satisfied with my class and my time here at USC. I had a big fear coming down here that I wouldn't get my money's worthy and that all the eggs I was putting into this basket weren't going to pay off. I was so wrong. I got so much out of this class and made some great friends and got so much experience. I wish I was going to a film school and got to take these kind of classes all the time, but I'll have to get a camera and start teaching myself. So Chico people, get ready to start being in my movies. I'll be getting a camera soon. (If anyone knows anyone with a decent video camera they are selling, let me know). I'll be writing more scripts. If I've learned anything, it's to get out there and do it. Get any experience that you can with whatever you've got. I may not go to USC, but I'm going to do the best with what I've got with my little Media Arts major. I wonder if going to Prague this coming spring will give me any good experience film-wise. I am taking a Czech-Film class. That should be really interesting.

I'll be at camp for the next weeks, so I won't really be posting much here anymore. It'll be a now and then thing. This blog will turn into my blog, not just a blog about my time at USC or about film. I will write about anything and everything! Thanks for reading all my adventures and thoughts here during the summer, it was fun to know that somebody, anybody was reading.

Quick note: Go see The Bourne Ultimatum. It rocks. Some amazing action that is near the top of my summer list.

Off to bed, then driving up the coast for 6 hours to my favorite place in the world- Santa Cruz and Frontier Ranch! Quasi is back!

Real quick

Before I go to sleep, a few things.

Good news: My camera isn't broken! Yes! We just had a minor malfunction that apparently fixed itself! Yes! This never ever happens to me! Finally a victory with electronics!

My final individual project was well received when it was screened today. People seemed to really like it and had fun with it. So I'm feeling great about that.

Only one more day of class! Today we screen the rest of our individual final projects, then we screen the Warner Bros. films! Then I get to see the free screening of The Bourne Ultimatum.... should be a great day!

I've already begin to start packing, it feels so weird. Feels like I just unpacked...my time here went by so fast, but yet it also feels like it was full and rich of experiences when I look back on it. Funny how time feels when you look back on it with a different perspective.

In 3 days I will have 8 kids under my responsibility in Scotts Valley...I can't even fathom this right now...

So exhausted, I'm going to sleep....

By the way...if you want some good music, check out the bands on the right of this page that I've been listening to lately. The more recent ones I've discovered are at the top.

We're changing history

Watch this:

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/mailers/073107/video/index.html

Yeah that is John Kerry, Barbara Boxer and all your other favorite senators. Pretty sure that is Ryan Gosling helping out the IC crew as well. We're making a difference. Sleeping outside, writing letters, standing up (or would it be laying down) for what needs attention, is finally making a difference. The movement is happening, the revolution is in full force.


Verse that matters the world to me right now: Philippians 4:13

My Commercial! (And my summer movie rankings)

Here is my commercial that I made for my class a few weeks ago. I mimicked a ONE campaign commercial, but used regular ordinary people instead of celebrities. We have just as loud of a voice if you ask me.



The version I made for class didn't have credits or the song at the end. Sorry about the audio being a little off...



I can't believe a week from now I will have a cabin at Frontier Ranch. Such a weird thought. This was a hard working, but good weekend. We shot my final project on Saturday all day with some actors, and it was a lot of fun. I think it turned out pretty well, we're going to edit it tomorrow, so we'll see. Then today we went to the Zemeckis center and shot Tony's project in front of a green screen all day! It was a long shoot, but good experience, I had never worked with a green screen before. Should be interesting to see how it turns out. I also went to Mosaic for the third and last time tonight. Erwin Mcmanus spoke, (apparently he's pretty famous) and it was great. It sounds cliche, but he spoke about knowing God rather than just knowing his reputation. He had a great metaphor: Our relationship with God is more than just downloading all the "information", it's about making the connection. Ha, that should resonate well with out tech friendly generation.

We are in the final week, which means that everything will be wrapping up. Tomorrow my final project should be finished, and by Wednesday our Warner Brother's projects will finally be finished. They are turning out great. I'll be sure to post all of them here whenever they find their way onto youtube. Thursday is our last day of class, when we are screening all of our final projects and Warner Bros. movies. Two of the execs that were with us the whole time at WB are coming to screen our WB movies, which is kind of nerve wracking, but exciting! After class I get to finish the program by getting to go to a free pre-release screening of The Bourne Ultimatum, which I am REALLY excited to see. I LOVE those movies. Friday is the entire summer program BBQ, where each of the classes from the summer program, (there are like 15-20 or so) submits ONE film that they feel is the best from the entire class. I wonder which one will be our pick... After all of that, I am driving to Santa Cruz to make a major transition from the Film capital of the world to the beautiful quiet mountains and up into the camp bubble. I've loved being surrounded by the film world, but I can't wait to get to camp! I can't wait to be able to breathe fresh air and get to see some old friends, and sing at campfire, and make fun of little kids... It's going to be a great two weeks and a great way to end the summer. But before that all happens, I'm going to make the most of my last week here!

Just cause I feel like it, I want to rank the summer movies I've seen so far, from best to worst, in my opinion. (Just because something is at the bottom doesn't mean it was a bad movie, it just means the others were better!)

Ratatouille
Ocean's 13
Live Free or Die Hard
Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix
Transformers
Surf's Up
Spider Man 3
Shrek 3
Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End
Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer

Still need to see: Bourne Ultimatum, Rush Hour 3
Will wait for rental: Evan Almighty

Okay after writing that list, I realize how hard it was to make that list. It's hard to compare the animated movies to the big action blockbusters. I think Ratatouille's story was just amazing, and Pixar is always the cream of the crop. (except for Cars.) Die Hard had some amazing action, but I think it will be topped by Bourne Ultimatum. I would actually put Surf's Up higher, but something just isn't letting me... but seriously, not a bad movie, it was a lot of fun. Spider Man 3 wasn't as bad as a lot of people say it is, but the infamous "emo" scene, was definitely interesting. Fantastic Four was the worst movie by far, just a lame, lame story with bad acting. Pirates was the letdown of the decade, and was a trilogy that was clearly made just for the money, not for the story. The first one was so much better than the other two it's not even funny. Harry Potter was visually great, and had better acting than any of the others, but it was rushed, not very well directed, and left too much out from the book. Transformers: Great visual effects, fun action, story lacked a little, it relied to much on its visuals and action, but not too horribly. I think I liked Ocean's 13 better than most people. I think these movies are just genius, and witty and clever. This one was better than 12 and just below 11. 11 can't be topped, it's the classic original (of the new Ocean's.) I loved the "lets get even and get revenge" motive of 13, and the casting of Al Pacino.

So there you go, my very brief, quick summary of how I think this summer did for movies. Looking forward to see Bourne, Rush Hour 3, and The Invasion (since I saw some of the final sound mixing at WB) to finish out the summer movies.

If you are bored check out the new Will Smith movie trailer for I Am Legend that comes out on my birthday. Looks pretty good...

I Demand This!

http://eventful.com/demand/D0-001-000432917-9

One last hurrah!

Went to Target today, it felt a little like home for some reason...

I can't believe that I only have one week until my class is over at USC. A week from now, I will be packing up getting ready to leave to drive to Santa Cruz for two weeks of CAMP! Let me tell you, I love being in the film world, surrounded by the at that I truly adore, but I really am not a fan of living in South Central LA. I'm really getting tired of all the concrete, smog, traffic and general lack of green around here. And it's only been 5 weeks! I mean I know someday I'll be living in LA to pursue film as a career, but hopefully it will be in a different part of LA, like Burbank or Beverly Hills or something. (yeah right, like iIcould afford to live in those places...) So needless to say, I can't wait to get to beautiful Scott's Valley. Seeing the ocean and the forest is going to be amazing after living here. I can't even imagine sleeping in those cabins. I lie in my bed here and I hear traffic in the distance, cars zooming by, people yelling, the buzz of all the neon lights around me. I look forward to lying in a cramped sleeping bag in a bed to short for me surrounded by 8 little buggers (ahem, children) in the cool air listening to nothing but pure silence in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains... But hey, I'll enjoy what I've got while I'm here...

I am shooting my final project this weekend, which I am directing and I'm really looking forward to. I finished the script with Tony today, and I think it is turning out pretty good. It is a short, sweet little music video that should make you smile when you watch it. At least, that's the goal. I'm still trying to come up with a song for the video...so hopefully whatever I choose will fit the story well.

Sad news: My digital camera crapped out on me and I had to send it home so that it could get fixed, so no more pictures from around here... which, if you know me well, is very sad for me. Good thing this came at the end of the program after I had been to WB a bunch.

I should put posting my commercial here very soon, so look for that.

Allright, our last real day of class is tomorrow. We're starting off with another guest lecture from David Weitzer, the guy who did marketing for the original Star Wars, E.T. and Alien! So rad! (He's the guy who came up with the tag line "In space, No one can hear you scream." for the Alien movies... pretty sweet.) He's going to be talking to us about the marketing for our WB movies...so cool!

Ending and Beginning

It's 2 in the morning, I'm dead tired, and don't have the energy to write a full post here. I will write all about the WB experience and shoot later, but it was amazing.

Some things I have done recently:

Ate at the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove in Beverly Hills tonight, got some great pasta!

Saw the movie Sunshine which was awesome. Haven't seen a good space movie for a while...great CG and effects, I would give the story a B...not bad, but could have been better. Got to go for a free, got a friend with hookups, and the theater was amazing, leather seats, assigned seating and digital projection screen....booyah.

Watched our Dailies from Warner Brothers. Initial reaction: A little disappointed with the final product, but the amount I learned from the whole experience was invaluable. The process is more important than the results in this case...


I came up with a good story idea for my final project for this summer program. It is a romantic comedy music video. I love that I get to hit so many genre's at once! Finally I'm doing something light and funny as opposed to all this heavy dramatic violent stuff! More details about it later...but it looks like my car (Lola!) will be a major starring role in the film! Allright it is way too late and although we don't have class tomorrow, I sure have a lot of work to do to prepare for this little film of mine...

Warner Brothers Shoot: Day 1

I haven't been this tired in a long time. Yesterday I was running around all over LA and Burbank getting equipment for today's shoot, and I didn't get to go to sleep until 1:30 or so. That would be normal for me, if I wouldn't have had to get up at 5 am. That's bloody early, my friends. That's so early I'm not even hungry. I don't like waking up before the sun does, it's just not right. We left USC at around 7:30 and drove a huge coach bus with our whole class and all the actors and unpacked all of our equipment and took it to our sets at about 8:30. We started shooting at 9 or so. We started with our flashback scene, which is the only exterior (outside) scene in the whole movie. We got that out of the way, and started setting up and lighting our interior scene, in our amazing location, which is this great wide open set that looks like an abandoned building on the inside. It had wooden beams and rafters everywhere, and is really tall. It's a great mobster hangout area, which is why we chose to shoot there.

Our actor's looked amazing, and it was really great to get to see Tony's script come to life. I really enjoyed working with these particular actors, they were a lot of fun and seemed to have a great time. It was fun to goof around on the set with them, especially with the prop guns and money. Our actor, Cal, who is this Australian guy playing the "bodyguard" also is really good at makeup (which we found out on set today, which was a totally bonus) which really helped us out. He touched up all the guys and made them look great for camera, and as for our only actress, Sam, she did all of her own makeup, because, well you know, girls already know all that crap. Cal also was really into taking pictures all over the set, and when we were setting up shots or working on lighting or something, he would take pictures of the other actors "in character". Here are a few of his pictures that he sent us, we'll get the rest up later.



(Cal is the one in the upper right, Nevada Vargas in the middle playing "Marco Sarlone")

This is Michael Vitiello playing "Tommy Sarlone":



Here is our Femme Fatale "Gloria" played by Samantha Colburn.



Here's a shot from the exterior flashback scene with "Tommy" and "Gloria."



Here's a shot of our crew in a golf cart at WB at the end of today. We were exhausted, but still not ready to leave the lot!

Director: Anne (middle)
Writer/Gaffer: Tony (left)
Producer/1st Ad: Me (back right)
Sound: Armando (right)
Director of Photography: Oscar (back left)



Tomorrow is the exciting day, we are shooting the fight scene, and then some more action. I'll get a lot more sleep tonight, but first I have to go get some more supplies for tomorrow's shoot.

Random sidenote about today: The cast and crew loved juice boxes on set. It was amazing, they were all gone in about an hour. I thought it was hilarious, all these tough mobsters, drinking their little juice boxes in this huge abandoned warehouse. Stuff like that cracks me up....

I'll post later about tomorrow, and will get more pictures up... I'm having a blast, doing what I love... that's really all you need to know. ;)

Post Production and Fake Money

Today we went back to WB and got to scout our locations for where we will be shooting this weekend. We are shooting in this place called the "firehouse" with beautiful rafters and wooden beams going everywhere. It's going to be a great little hangout spot for our mobster characters. It's going to be a blast to shoot there. We got escorted around by the Director and Vice-President of Operations and WB (who have been helping us get around and do things the past 4 weeks). They are great guys and have a wealth of experience to share with us.

After that, we got our final tour at WB, the post production tour. We toured the Foley sound room (where they create and record sounds with all different kinds of things and toys and materials to recreate certain sounds), the orchestra room (where they record live orchestra's for movies' scores and such), the ADR room (where they record actors talking if they need to rerecord their voices in post, the same rooms that actors record their voices for animated movies), and multiple mixing rooms. The best part of the tour was when we walked into this huge room with a screen the size of a movie-theater screen, with sound proof walls, and a top of the line state of the art sound system. There was a HUGE mixing board, and we were told that the guys in there were putting he finishing touches on the new Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman movie, The Invasion. We got to watch the first 7-8 minutes of the movie, and it looks amazing. I have never heard sound that was that good in a movie before. It's not that the movie had the best sound, it was just the room we were in. I was hoping the producer, Joel Silver, would be there, because he might be my favorite Producer in the biz, after producing the Matrix trilogy and countless other awesome films. (IMDB him if you want to know....)

Once I got back home, Tony and I went to the prop house 15 miles away and got some nice fakes money (two fad wads of hundreds) for our shoot. Now we have two very realistic prop guns and fad wads of cash...trouble could definitely follow if we aren't careful.... hehe. Tomorrow we have tons to do, rent folding chairs, coolers, organize our craft services (food) for the two days of shooting, get actor release forms, do a rehearsal/read through with the actors, go get a dolly and 30 feet of track, go to Burbank to get our mat box, make fake blood, go over our shot lists and call sheets....and I'm probably forgetting a few things. Tomorrow is the last hard day of pre-production, and then the fun stuff begins. Saturday I have to wake up at like 5:15 am! If you know me at all, you know this is not good news for me. We are leaving USC at 7:30 for WB, and starting to shoot at 8:30 or 9 all the way until 3:30. It's going to rock! We will be so exhausted by Monday, but will hopefully have great films to show for it! It sure is a good feeling to be exhausted at the end of the day doing something that you love. I hope all of you figure out whatever it is that will do that for you...I can't believe I'm 19 and already know what I want to do. I mean not have a lot of the means of money that a lot of people to do accomplish things, but at least I've got a bit of a head start!

Alright time to get some sleep before I start losing it again!

We have our actors!

I'll write more on it later, but we have been casting the last two days and have finally decided on our 4 main characters for our short film, A New Don. We are filming this weekend at Warner Brothers, which is definitely going to be the highlight of my time down here. The rest of the week is preparation for this weekend and our shoot. We have to get props, costumes, all kinds of forms and permits signed, catering, lighting and sound equipment, set design stuff and more just in a matter of days. This is "hell week" but is the most fun week. We are working from like 9-9 every day, but we all are loving it. I mean hey, this is what I signed up for, and I'm loving every second of it. I'm getting so much good experience. I've even met some amazing people. Yesterday we met some guy who claimed to be in the new Will Ferrell movie, "Semi Pro" and was working on a script with Ice Cube. Who knows if this guy was legit, but it was cool to talk with him with some other people for like 30 mins. Anyways, I need to get some sleep, I am exhausted already and it's only Tuesday! I'll keep you all posted on the progress...just be very excited for our film, it's going to be awesome.

SF+RK-Love

This made my day.

McG,Disneyland, Casting

The last few days have been pretty awesome. We went to Warner Bros. again and met McG (this is what he goes by and is known by, pronounced" Mc GEE), the Director of Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 and We Are Marshall. He is director and executive producer for a show called "Chuck" coming out this fall on NBC. It's about a guy who works for a store like Best Buy and is in the "Geek Squad" by day and turns into James Bond by night. Should be interesting, since it is technically a one hour drama. He was even nice enough to take us onto the set that is being built for it! It looks just like a best buy, except all green instead of all blue. McG is such a great guy, he was really excited to meet us all and get to talk with him. He is also Directing a movie due out next summer which sounds pretty cool. He said that he was just going over the movie with the screen writer for Little Miss Sunshine, who was 2 floors above us! He also showed us Zack Snyder's parking spot. (Director of 300). McG is such a charismatic, witty and clever guy. I learned a lot from him, and it was inspiring to know that someone made it into the biz that didn't go to film school! He went to UC Irvine. He then did a few music videos and somehow met Quentin Tarantino who was his "in" into Hollywood, and helped him get on his feet by getting signed to Direct Charlie's Angels. Anyways, McG is awesome, keep your eye out for him, I'm sure he will be making some great stuff in the next few years.

We went to Warner Bros. and toured the Wardrobe department which was fantastic. Look at the pictures here:

http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035817&l=c207b&id=29904207


There were TONS of costumes and clothes of all kinds. This was a small warehouse full of costumes that have been accumulated for 100 years. There were costumes from The Last Samurai, Alexander, and obviously tons of other movies. We got a great behind the scenes tour, it's hard to describe it all, so just check out the pictures!

The next day, we went to Disneyland! 11 of us left at about 7:45 in the morning and drove 25 miles to Anaheim. It was an amazing day, probably the least amount of waiting I've ever done at the park, which was amazing since it was a Friday in the summer. We went on every single main ride at the park except for the Matterhorn which I wasn't too bummed about missing. The new Finding Nemo subs are pretty cool, not amazing, but worth seeing once. I saw the fireworks and Fantasmic for the first time in a lonnnng time, which were both amazing. I have to say, the fireworks I saw yesterday were probably the best I've ever seen in my life. Hands down. Just amazing. I can't even believe they do that every night. I got chills multiple times they were so good. Especially with the synchronization to the music, it just made the whole event spectacular.

Here are some of the pictures I took during the day. I didn't take that many considering most of it I've seen already...

http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035818&l=a963b&id=29904207

It was overall a great day, we stayed until abotu 12:30 AM and we were EXTREMELY tired at the end of the day, but hey, we got our money's worth! We all got a well-deserved break.

Back in the film world, we only have one week until we shoot at Warner Brothers! We now have our crews for our Warner Bros. shorts, now we have to cast actors and get everything planned. I have to get a permit for our fight scene and another permit for the prop guns that we need. I actually like being a producer a lot more than I thought I would. I like being in charge of so much! I have to go hire a makeup artist for blood and stuff, and to touch people up in between scenes so they don't have too much shine on their faces. I also have to get a stunt choreographer, and some props for the fight scene, so we can make it look realistic when people get punched and shot.

Today I e-mailed 38 different actors for 4 different roles, and so far about 6 have responded. We are having auditions on Monday and Tuesday, and I'm really excited to get to be a part of the audition process. I can't believe the amount of power we have! Some of these actors have a lot of experience. One of them has been on 24, Cold Case, Reno 911, just to name a few. Obviously not with a huge role or anything, but the experience is great! I can't wait to show you all pictures of the actors when we cast them.

I have an incredible amount of work to do in one week. Our final draft of the script will be done on Monday, and then it's off to get everything ready for shooting this Saturday and Sunday. We will have a read through with our actors for a rehearsal the day before, on Friday. We go back to WB again on thursday to get a tour of the post production labs too, which should be a lot of fun.

Okay I need my one day of sleeping in for this week...hasta luego!

The lowlight, Our WB story progresses

I guess I haven't actually written about it here, and I feel like I should. On Sunday we were shooting Tony's commercial before I was going to head to church, (so we were in a little bit of a hurry) and we started with the interior scene. We were shooting this hilarious snickers commercial, where I got to be the main character (again!) and after we lit the living room, we shot all of the interior scenes. Once that was done, all we needed to do was get a shot across the street at the infamous dollar store. I was going to go straight to church from there, so I said, "Hey lets drive so we don't have to carry all the equipment." I jumped in to drive, and right before Tony and Armando (the other actor in the commercial) got in the car, Tony (who had the camera) set the camera down on the roof of my car, helped Armando put the tripod in the tripod bag, and then jumped in the car. We got over to the dollar store (honestly like 20 seconds later) and Tony immediately said, "Hey where is the camera?" right when he got out of the car. I said, "What do you mean where is the CAMERA?" He said that he set it on the roof of my car, and we all realized immediately what had happened. I told him to run back over across the street to go and assess the obvious damage that the camera had taken. I drove back over, and the camera was GONE. No pieces, no nothing. We checked everywhere. Under the cars, in the gutters, across the street, in the apartment, back over in the dollar store parking lot, down the street, I mean EVERYWHERE. So, in a matter of about 90 seconds, the camera was set on the roof of my car, we drove off, it fell, and BAM someone came by and stole it. We have no idea how badly it was damaged. What peeves us is that by some miracle, it may not have been completely smashed and broken. It also annoys me that we couldn't find any pieces or anything to confirm our suspicions that somebody stole it. I actually saw a cop across the street and went and talked to him about it and he told us that it would be considered lost property and would not count as a theft. Now, Tony had to file a little report with USC telling what happened and he is still waiting for the response on whether he only has to pay 500 bucks (cause the insurance on it has a 500 dollar deductible). I'm a little worried the insurance company will file this under negligence, and consider is lost property and not pay for it. If that's the case, Tony has to pay the full price for the camera, which is somewhere around 3-4 grand. What made things worse is that the BIG battery was on the camera, and his tape with his commercial in it. So he lost his project, but luckily our professor was gracious enough to let him re shoot it this weekend. So needless to say, that was the low point of our experience here...but we're trying not to let it bother us too much.


As for better news, all of our crews have directors! Today all the wannabe Director's pitched for whatever story they wanted, then the producers and writers collaborated (Tony and I talked over a nice Taco bell lunch) and chose a Director. Then the producers (me!) had to get up and tell the class who they chose. Now I know how those judges on reality shows feel. It was hard telling people that they didn't get the job, but it was also really fun to tell someone that you loved their pitch and they got the job. Very interesting to be on the other side for once. Our director is this girl Anne, who goes to film school in Chicago and is a really talented cinematographer and editor with a solid amount of experience and a great vision. She is our director, I'm the producer, and tony is the writer. We still need to re-write the script, assign the rest of our crew, hold auditions to cast our actors, and so on. Everyone is really excited about the story and getting to shoot on the Warner Bros. lot. The story is a gritty Film-noir action story. Right now the working title is "A New Don." I'm pretty sure it would get an R rating for the violence and language it has, which is interesting, but hey, I didn't write it. I'm really looking forward to casting our actors, it will be a lot of fun to bring the story to life, step by step. This weekend is really our last weekend before we are SUPER busy, thus why we are trying to go to Disneyland on Friday. Tonight I'm having dinner with our writer and Director to talk specifically about the story and things we need to get done.

Anyone seen Harry Potter yet? I'm looking forward to seeing it soon if I can...it looks amazing...

Commercial screenings

New photos added to this album:

http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035419&l=f0f8e&id=29904207

We screened the commercials today and mine was received a lot better than I thought it would be. The sound wasn't as much of an issue as I thought it would be, the only problem was that my rhythm and pacing was a little off. The overall quality of all of the commercials from the class was way higher than our last project, which was pretty cool. A lot of the skills from people really came out during the editing stage this time around. It was really clear which people had edited a lot before and used a lot of effects in post production before. It was a pretty cool feeling to edit something entirely myself using Avid (which is what most of Hollywood uses today). I don't have my commercial and a way to get it on my computer or else I would post it here, so I'll do that as soon as I can.

Tomorrow we have people pitching to direct, which should be fun, since Tony (writer) and I (producer) get to help make the choice for who we want to direct our story.

This Friday we are all thinking about going to Disneyland because our friend Tom might be able to get us (or at least some of us) in for free via his Dad's friend who works there... which would be AWESOME! I haven't been in a few years, and I want to see what's new, including the new Finding Nemo Subs!

Commercial

Quick post: My commercial is done! I officially edited an entire project on Avid, the same program that they use to cut movies in Hollywood! It turned out allright, I think I could have done a little better, but it's not bad for the amount of time I had to work on it. It was a fun learning experience. I'll post it on youtube as soon as I have a way to get it on my commercial. We are screening them as a class tomorrow. I'm a little worried about the sound, it changes a lot throughout the commercial, constantly going up and down. I did my best to balance it while editing, but we'll see how much people notice.

Allright off too bed, after a long day of editing and filming my friend Asaf's commercial. Great guy, he bought 6 of us dinner after we all helped him with his commercial... I don't know anyone that generous. Shoot.

Accidents, Commercials, Hard Rock

So I haven't posted in a few days, cause the business picked up again. First things first, we need to talk about what happened to me a few days ago. I'll just show you, then I'll explain it:

(click on the picture to make it bigger)






Okay, so I ATE it on my longboard. I was turning left onto a busy street, and since I was being impatient, I was turning into the bike lane on the wrong side of the street, this car coming towards me was turning sharp, and so I swerved to avoid getting wrecked by this car, and I must have hit a pothole or lip or something and ATE it hard. I landed on my chest, skinned my elbow and both knees. It was pretty rad. I was laying there on the pavement looking back to see if the idiot driver who was speeding around this corner at me, would have kindly stopped to see if I was okay. Did they? Nope. I hate LA. The people here suck. Now I know what it felt like to be that guy in the bible who just had people walking by him after he had been beaten up. I picked myself up, saw I was bleeding, and realized I was going to be late to class if I went back home, so I said screw it, I'm going to campus, I went into class, showed my teacher (and the whole class, unfortunately) that I had some minor flesh wounds, and then my SA, Edward, forced me to go down the the health center, which I did. I felt like a little kid all over again. I had skinned my elbow and knees for CRYING out loud. I didn't need a freakin band-aid. I just needed to go clean myself up in the bathroom. But, I wanted to be able to come back into class, so I went down to the health center, which luckily was right across the street. Then I remembered why I hate hospitals. You have to sign all this PAPERWORK before you actually can get medical freakin' assistance. So I'm bleeding signing all this paperwork and finally I go in and get cleaned up and bandaged. The whole process only took like 30 mins, but if you knew how much I was paying for this class, 30 mins of class is valuable and expensive!

Allright, so yesterday I shot my commercial. I think it turned out to be pretty good. I wanted to do a funny commercial but I couldn't come up with any good ideas, so I chose to do a more serious one on a topic that is important to me. I'll post the finished product here, after I edit it and finish it tomorrow. I've got some pictures from the shoot too, I'll post those with it. We shot it in my apartment and it took a few hours, because we had like 10 people in it. It was great, my apartment looked like a mini sound stage with all the lights set up around the camera with all my actors. I'm a little worried about the sound because the microphone (we found out at the end of course) was set wayyyy low, so it may not sound great. I think I may have an idea around that though, so we'll see what happens.

Last night after we were done filming we decided we all wanted to go out for dinner, so we finally ended up picking Hard Rock Cafe. Little did we know it was at Universal Studios so when we got there we were pleasantly surprised. There was a concert going on outside, and after waiting 45 minutes to get seated and walking around looking at all the craziness that was happening, we got seated. We found out that our waiter is a struggling screenwriter, and after we told him that we were all USC film students, we had a good conversation with him. He gave us his e-mail, telling us, "If you all want to get out of that crappy neighborhood, e-mail me and maybe you can all come over," which I thought was interesting. So after having a 12 ounce New York Steak, I couldn't believe I was still hungry, and then I realized that some friends told me about this supposedly amazing cookie place right next to UCLA called "Diddy Reese." I figured some cookies sounded great, convinced everyone we needed to go, and then we finally found our way there. (Yes, our entire evening revolved around food.) We got there, and it was just like people had described it to me, famous, long line and delicious. I was a little disappointed because we were told by our waiter that they serve the cookies warm, and ours weren't. So that was sad, but the place still rocked. Another thing I'm mad about: The area that UCLA is in is AWESOME. It makes me mad that USC is in such a crappy area, and these public school kids get this awesome area. USC is like a little luxurious embassy in the middle of the ghetto. Yuck. Anyways, last night was fun, I'm not seriously injured, I finished shooting my commercial. Now I'm off to help out a ton of people with their commercials before I go to church in downtown LA at the Mayan theater tonight at 7. If you ever are in LA and want to go to a great progressive church with AMAZING music, check out church at the Mayan. It rocks.

Allright off to more shoots, hope you all have a great weekend.

I am a Producer!

That's right, I got the job of producer! Not that it was exactly difficult, there was no one else pitching to produce the story that I was going for... so I was pretty much a shoe in. The reason I say pretty much a shoe in, is because some of the other people pitching to produce the other 3 stories also had no competition, but they weren't guaranteed the job because they didn't do very well. Fortunately, I learned my lesson after not doing so well when I pitched last time. I was prepared this time, had researched the script, talked about it with the writer, thought about some ideas and visions I had for the script, thought about the budget, and where I want to take this story. I had to pitch in front of the whole class and was asked some tough questions, but this time I was ready for them. Edward, who kind of had the role of Simon from American Idol (being that he is tough and hard to please, but he does it to make you better) asked me questions like, "Why do you want to produce?", "What will you bring this film?", "Why is this film different, why should I see it?" You've got to know your story and have thought ahead to answer questions like that. The first part of my pitch was a little shaky, but once he started asking the specific questions, I was on a roll. My professor, Daniele, was satisfied and said, "Allright well I think you've got yourself the job" at the end. All the other producers have to pitch again with their writers to make sure that they are on the same page and know their stories better. Now I get to work with my writer, Tony, and begin our first re-write on the script and get ready for the Director pitches next week. The only small regret I might have from this whole experience is that I won't get to direct at warner bros. which would be amazing. However, Producer has a lot of responsibility and control, and I'm going to gain a lot of good experience from this. I'll get plenty of chances to Direct, but not to many to get to actually produce. Daniele has said that she is trying to replicate the actual industry through the process of making these WB films as close the real thing as possible. As producer, I'm in charge of organizing things, making a schedule and getting the cast and crew to follow it, staying within our budget, and generally making the lives of everyone easier. The producer isn't quite as "creative" as the Director is, but has a ton of important responsibilities to get done, and though I would rather be Director, I feel like my personality and traits naturally will make me a good producer. I'm good with plans, organizing, schedules and leading people to achieve a goal. All in all, I'm looking forward to this process. And hey, I'll get to Direct our "individual projects" once we are done with this one, so it'll be a little taste of everything.

This weekend we are shooting our 30 second commercials, and we finally get to edit and use cuts! I think I have my idea for what I'm doing, but this time I'm not going to post what it is until it is done and finished! You'll just have to wait and see... Time to get to sleep, we have a full day of class tomorrow since we didn't have class on the 4th! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Birthday America

First off, Firework suck in LA. The smog smothers them making them difficult to see, and there are WAY too many people to make the experience enjoyable. Something huge needs to happen around here to get people to move out of here. There are just too many people. And it makes the sky nasty. Yech. Of ALL days for it to be overcast, the sky chose 4th of July. Our goal today was to go to the beach since we had class off, but by the end of the day it was actually a little CHILLY outside! Ridiculous! We drove to Santa Monica because the girls wanted to do some shopping, which I was okay with because we saw Transformers so it seemed like a fair deal. I feel like I could write an entire blog about just that movie but I won't. I will say this: It was very entertaining and another great action movie by Michael Bay, but honestly, if I have learned one thing from my class at USC, it is this: Films are all about the story. Transformers was not. It was about awesome actions, Shia Labeouf and some really cool stunts and special effects. I feel like I need to call this trend the "300 effect" or something. The movie was fun to watch and visually very entertaining, but left me yearning for a little more from the story. This seems like a typical American movie for millions of Americans to watch on their independence day. Well enough about that....

While we were in Santa Monica, we saw a car crash happen right next to us in traffic trying to get to the beach! It was a pretty hard rear end, the guy's front bumper came off, he backed up, and drove over it...and from our point of view it completely looked like a hit and run which seems really stupid to me considering how many cops were around and how slow the traffic was going....what a "clown" as Tony would say. (gotta love the Canadians and their lingo).

About our picks for the four warner bros. stories. Mine didn't make it. Actually the musical got the most votes, but because of many logistical and time/financial reasons we had to lose that project because it just wasn't feasible for our class to do. My story didn't get enough votes, which after having a while to process and think about, I'm actually cool with. This means I get to pitch to produce or direct, which is actually what I would rather do (than writing) anyways. I'm pitching to produce my friend Tony and his story tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'll know if I got the "job" or not, but I'll post as soon as I know.

This weekend we are shooting our 30 second commercials, so that should be fun. I'm having trouble coming up with a good idea for a commercial and a product to sell, so if you have a good idea...let me know!

Allright I'm going to go prepare my producer pitch, hope you all had a great 4th of July! And to all of you that got to go to Sea bright Beach in Santa Cruz to see the mayhem: I envy you!

Nothing yet...

Here's the new pictures from my second day back to the WB studios:

http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035003&l=5e05d&id=29904207

We got an even more behind the scenes VIP tour today, it was really cool, got to see a TON of props and the paint and drapery/linens department. There is just some really amazing tiny details that go into films that no one has any idea about, but are so important. Today we learned all about production design, we saw everything from chairs, to paint to background mats. We had a guest speaker after lunch who was the Production Designer for X-files and is currently the PD for Cold Case. She was really cool and had a lot of great info to give us. I don't know why we had a PD speak to us, since this is a Directing/Producing class, I would really like to get a visit from one of those. I know we aren't going to get Spielberg or anything, but is would just be more relevant to what we all are learning. But hey, it was interesting, and I learned a lot about a role that I will be working with in the future.

Some random things I've learned since I've been here:

• Don't take anything personally. Any criticism anyone gives to you is only to help make you and your story, or your craft/skills better. They aren't bashing you as a person. Once you walk out the door, leave everything that was said behind. Professional and personal lives are separate.
• Try and try again. If someone doesn't like your idea, either move on or rework. As cliche as it is, get back on the horse. The more time you spend on the ground moping, the quicker you fall behind.
• Whatever work you are doing, put all of yourself into it, even if it isn't exactly what you would like to be doing. For example, if you are Cinematographer when you would rather be Directing, put everything into. Learn to be the best Cinematographer you can, it will help you later. Film making is all about being a jack of all trades. Learn all aspects of film that you can.
  
• Again I know it's a little "Pursuit of happyness-y" but, if you've got a dream, don't let go of it. Period. Go get it. A few big studio execs told us this. So it ain't just some cliche hogwash. It's true. We were told today that odds are, out of our 22 person class, at least half will probably realize that we aren't cut out for the industry, that we don't have the passion for it. Which is okay, that means we're meant for something else. (But of course, I don't believe that I'm one of those people. After my experience so far, I feel like everything has just reinforced my passion for this business.)

Okay so I don't know the results of the pitches yet, we find out tomorrow right as class starts at nine. I don't want to go into it right now, but I don't feel good about my pitch. A lot of my story's weaknesses were exposed during the pitch (things I hadn't really noticed before) and I just didn't feel good about it afterward. Some of the other pitches were really good too. 2 of them were horrible, so it was really 4 out of 6, and honestly, if i had to guess, I don't think I'm going to make it. I'm already thinking about if I would rather pitch to produce, or put all my eggs in one basket and pitch to direct. We'll see...

My first USC film!!!!

Here is the film we made today, I was able to post it so quick because there was no editing involved! It had to be under a minute, with no sound or cuts and we only had 3 takes to do it! I hope you enjoy it!

Off to prepare my pitch for tomorrow at WB!

MY STORY MADE THE TOP 8!!!!!

We all voted yesterday and submitted our top 3 pitches, and Edward e-mailed out the 8 finalists, and I MADE IT! That means today is a very busy day. I am the lead actor in my friend Tony's one minute short, then I am shooting my short (with Jamey Playter!!!) and then I have to prepare my pitch in-depth, because tomorrow we are going back to the Warner lot and pitching out ideas in front of the entire class. These pitches are going to be a lot more in depth and detailed, so I better get ready! This is my chance!!!! YES!

Oh, I went to Hollywood last night with some friends and we walked down the Hollywood walk of fame and went to the Chinese Grauman's theater...here are the pictures:

http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034864&l=3fb82&id=29904207

We got a nice expensive italian meal which was nice after a long week of hard work. Allright well I've got a lot of work to get done, so I'll update after I film!!!!

The plain and simple truth

Had my first time off since I've been here to really relax tonight, took FOUR people to In-n-out who had NEVER been (one from Norway, another from Oregon, another from Canada and another from Maryland! The girl from Norway was the only one that didn't like it. She said she likes McDonald's better! This is an OUTRAGE!!!!) Then we went an saw Diehard which was SO SICK! Best action movie I've seen in a long time. This was just straight up stunts and action for 2 hours and I loved it. Some of the best stunts I have ever seen. It never stops, just 2 straight hours of adrenaline which I was completely in the mood for.

Tomorrow we have our editing tutorial and then finally have some time off. I'm shooting my one minute film on Monday and just cast my actor whom some of you may know (she used to be an intern in Chico and is an actress living in the LA area.... :) )

Well I need to get to bed, need to be alert to learn how to edit on Avid (which is what the use to cut in Hollywood, so it's going to be pretty intense.)

I am eating, sleeping and LIVING film! What did I do with my first time off? Relax? Well, yeah...by watching a FILM! Yeah!

Warner Brothers lot!!!! Pictures finally!!!!

Pictures: Warner Bros: http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034739&l=c63cf&id=29904207
My Apartment: http://csuchico.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034741&l=bf7fd&id=29904207


Here's my address in case you want to write me:

870 W. Adams Blvd. #41
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Write me! I don't hear much from the outside world!

So I went to the Warner Brothers lot today and it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E-! I got to see all the sound stages (not inside all of them) and a ton of sets, the little museum they have, and the prop room.
So first we got the little public tour. Our tour guide was this little guy who reminded me of Michael J. Fox. You could tell he loves his job, he was very knowledgeable about the lot and had a lot of enthusiasm. He showed us all of the sound stages, including the 3rd biggest one in the world, where they filmed Poseidon and The Perfect Storm. They can fill it with a ton of water with this HUGE tank they have underneath the stage. Later we saw a ton of props from all kinds of movies, big stuff little stuff, cheap stuff, expensive stuff... I asked him about stuff from The Matrix (if you know anything about me, you know why) and he showed me some stuff lying around (like some statues that were used in the 2nd and the 3rd film that I actually recognized). He showed us Martin Sheen's desk from The West Wing, and we got to see the batmobile from Batman and Robin and Trinity's motorcycle from The Matrix 2 and 3. We stopped to go into this little museum they have for tourists, and they had some stuff from 300. Towards the back I could see two shiny gold objects that looked familiar. Upon further inspection I realized I was staring at the ACADEMY AWARDS FOR BEST PICTURE: THE DEPARTED. Ridiculous. The other Oscar was for Happy Feet. So cool. I couldn't believe that the were in the back just behind a plastic case...doesn't WB have some kind of awesome trophy case for this? And why doesn't The director or someone get the actual award? Maybe WB gets it for the museum for a while or something... Another highlight was getting to see the "recreated" Friends set, which was amazing. They said it was the same set, just moved different a different place more accessible to the public. The only downside to our tour was not getting to see any big productions going on. This is because it is summer, when most big movies are being released, not filmed. Most sound stages were in the process of construction, building the new sets for TV shows for the fall or new film productions. The one big movie, you may have heard of with some guys like Spielberg, Lucas and Ford (should I now include Labeouf in that list?) is going to be filming here at some point. A lot of props had tags (props have tags so the props crew no which sound stage to move them to) with the word "genre" on them, which apparently is a code word for the Indiana Jones 4 film. It's apparently still WAY down on the DL and they don't want people to know anything about it...so they don't even tag it as IJ4. We heard it is possible that some filming may be happening in a few weeks when we are back to do some shooting.

After having a burrito (which actually wasn't way over priced like I was expecting) and talking about film ideas with classmates and our Student Assistant Edward (who is a 3rd year grad student at USC originally from London) we went and got the VIP tour of some of the sets that we will get to shoot on.


The Director of Operations of WB actually walked us around and showed us a bunch of sets. We saw sets for a Jungle, Suburban type homes, a bunch of Gilmore Girls sets, the sound stage for Studio 60, the set for Two and a Half Men, and a bunch of others. The set that I really want to film on is an exterior called "Henessy St." where some of the Batman movies were filmed. The alleyway fight scene with the jetpacks from Minority Report was filmed there to. If I'm lucky enough to have my story idea picked to be chosen as a movie, or chosen to Direct a film, I just may get to shoot in the same place as STEVEN SPIELBERG. Oh we also happened to see a little bit of shooting going on, some guys were filming this dude doing this minor stunt, he was jumping out some window backward onto this nice big pad and there were filming him from above. It was pretty cool to see...

After seeing all of the sets we went back and worked on the ideas we had for our stories. This was the most stressful part of my time here. We were sitting in this big conference room at one of those huge tables that seats like 30 people. Apparently when they were filming Ocean's 13 at WB, this room was used as a little poker room for the cast so they could develop their chemistry and camaraderie. Pretty cool I was in the same room as that cast. Anyways, we all started pitching our ideas, I had one that I thought was pretty cool, I don't know how well it went over, I didn't feel too good about it right away, but some guys told me afterwards they liked it. Basically, here's how it goes: Everyone is pitching ideas tonight and tomorrow and e-mailing them to the class, our Student Assistant Edward, and Daniele our professor. Daniele and Edward are narrowing them down to 8, and then the class votes and chooses four to film at WB. So here's what I'm nervous about. The "golden triangle" is Director, Producer, Writer. I REALLY want one of those jobs. I'm pitching my idea, and would love to work on the crew and help shoot a movie that was my original idea, considering I may never get an opportunity like this again. If I don't get an idea picked, then I REALLY want to direct (just like the rest of the class). You have to pitch this to Edward and Daniele, and they pick the four directors. Basically you have to show them why you should Direct whatever film. If I can't do that I want to Produce, which I think I would be really good at, because its basically organizing logistics and getting the machine running. (The director is the engine, the writer designed the car, and the producer is like the gas and the oil. All are necessary...but different. Hey, I kind of like that analogy...) There are other cool parts that the crews (the crews for the four films are 6 people each) have, like Director of Photography (the guy who shoots with the camera), cinematographer (lights stuff) picture editor, sound editor, marketing... But this opportunity is SO huge and I don't want to be stuck with anything outside of the big three. I'll have my chances in the future, but not anything like this, for a LONG time. So...basically wish me luck, and hope I don't get screwed.

Meanwhile, I have to come up with an idea and film a one minute silent continuous (no cuts) film this weekend. So needless to say I'm kind of busy. Tomorrow we have a 3 hour tutorial on how to use the cameras, Saturday we have a 3 hour tutorial on the editing stations. I'm CRAZY busy, but I love it. This is the life I want, and as much stress and pressure there is in this business, this is what I love. I don't think I could be this busy absolutely ALL the time (I haven't even plugged in my TV yet, which, if you know me, is nuts.) So there you go, there's what I'm up to for the moment, now, I've got to go develop my idea, I'll keep you all posted. Cross your fingers.

Monday we go back to WB again, so that's pretty cool. Alright, annnnnnnd SCENE!

Cinematography, Haircuts and Pitches

Just got back from getting a haircut in south-central LA. Actually, it was an enjoyable experience. The haircut was 14 bucks, and that sucked, but you kind of start to expect prices to be that high around here. The guy that gave me the haircut was really cool, he asked me if I went to USC and it was interesting to say "yes" but hey its the truth. Told he I was taking a film class and we started talking about film and how it stereotypes people poorly a lot of the time. He was telling me how he thinks its stupid that black people (he's a black dude) are always basketball players or in barber shops in movies (this was while he was cutting my hair, but it was at supercuts, not at a barber shop). It was the most unique and detailed haircut I've ever gotten, and he was extremely fast. Usually I'm terrible and don't tip, but I gave the guy a few bucks for the conversation and quality. Another interesting LA experience to look back on...
Okay so on to film stuff that is a little more exciting than getting a hair cut... I gave my first pitch today! I stayed after class for an hour to wait for my appointment with my Professor, Daniele. First big mistake I made: I was late. I was hanging with my Norwegian friend Annette, talking to her about life in Norway and America, and I lost track of time and once I finally looked at my phone to see what time it was it was 5:05, 5 minutes past my appointment. I rushed over to the Lucas building on my longboard and made it there 3 minutes. I still had 7 minutes (according to the schedule) to talk to her about my idea... so needless to say I got down to business quick. She seemed to go with my idea and helped me develop it a little bit. I've got to say it was a little nerve racking telling my story idea to an actual director. She helped me out and pointed me in the right direction. Now I've got to polish the story up and made it complete with three acts and all. I think I've got something pretty good, but it will be a challenge to bring it down to a 5 minute short. I won't go over the whole story now, but its the same one that I posted about last week before I came down to LA. It basically has to do with a guy who steals things for the poor, needy and the sick to help them out. And NO this is not Robin Hood. I actually haven't seen Robin Hood (okay fine I saw it when I was like 6, and I honestly could not remember what it was about when I came up with my idea.) I'll post more about the idea as it gets developed.
Today in class we had another 3 hour lecture about characters, then the usual hour long lunch break, then we met back outside and had a guest lecturer teach us all about lighting and cinematography and some composition. We even did a few practice shoots using "boom cards" and reflectors. We learned about shooting in open sun and shadows too. I really liked out guest lecturer, Eric, who teaches at USC and is a free-lance DP (Director of Photography.) He was really helpful and a really nice guy, wasn't all cocky like a lot of people in the business are. He genuinely wanted to teach us what he knew and wasn't in a hurry to ditch us for more important things.
So all in all, I'm really enjoying my time here. It's weird hardly being at home. I get up at 8, board to class at 8:45 and haven't been back home earlier than 5 yet. So needless to say I'm crazy busy, and spend most of my free time doing homework (which I actually kind of like doing...kind of strange.) We all had to read different scripts and I just finished up the script for Malcolm X, not bad, but not the best. You should try it some time, reading scripts is a lot quicker than reading a book, and really interesting since it is all dialouge. And it's free! Go here: www.scriptcrawler.net to read ANY script for free!
Allright I promise to post pictures as soon as I can, I still need to take pictures of campus, my apartment and the area. We are going to the Warner Brothers studio tomorrow and I will try to take as many as I can there, and hopefully I'll see Yakko, Wakko and Dot and get a picture with them. Allright time to get down to tonight's homework!
Keep in touch, I have no idea what's going on outside of LA right now!

Day 1: Orientation, Syllabus, Lots and Lots of Signatures

Woo boy. Today was exhausting! Today started with my Dad and I running around trying to figure out how to get my housing keys and how to move in to my apartment. We ran out of time and I had to run over to campus and go to orientation, which ended up being about 2 hours. It was mostly pretty boring except for when they started talking about using firearms or animals or minors in our films, kind interesting stuff to be lectured on, but quite kinda boring after that starting repeating it. Not that this is a surprise, but there is a LOT of red-tape in this business. Hiring actors, doing stunts, using animals or other kinds of props, shooting at certain locations, man you better be in for the time and paperwork, because it is a tedious process. Once you get it down though, seems like it is generally pretty quick and routine, but still very important.
Then after orientation I got my USC ID Card which makes me feel pretty official around here. I can use any of the facilities I want, which is pretty rad. Right after that, I rad into an old friend from high school that I knew went to USC, but wasn't sure if he was here for the summer. Lo and behold, there he was: Dan Tkach! Haven't seen him for like 2 or 3 years, so it was pretty cool to get to see him. We'll definitely hang out this summer.
Class met at one in the George Lucas building. Our class meets in a small screening room (basically a tiny movie theater.) We were in there from 1-5 with pretty much no break. That's tough, especially when you aren't into the interesting stuff yet and just are going over the class and the syllabus and all that. Surprisingly, I wasn't bored, because I was so dang excited! It was great to meet other people from the class too. Our class is like the freakin' United Nations, it's pretty cool. My professor is 67 and is French with a decent accent, our Student Assistant is a black dude from England with a GREAT accent. I love it. They both pronounce "schedule": "shhhedjoole." It's fannnntastic.
There are also people I met from Norway, Poland, Israel, Asia (can't remember which country) and people from all over the US (Oregon, Maryland, LA (duh) ) There are 3 kids that are high schoolers, most people are my age, and a few people that are like 25-27 or so and one guy in his 30's. Seems like for the most part, I'm not too far behind in experience. Everyone seems to have the same high amount of desire and passion for film, and have just a little of experience, like me! So not too intimidating like I thought it was going to be!
I also found out that we will be going to the Warner Bros. lot every Thursday! We are going to get the VIP and professional tours and probably get to meet some pretty cool people while we are there. My first assignment: to read the entire Malcolm X script. Tonight. Okay, not happening, because after class got out, I hadn't even begun to unpack, was starving and it was already 5pm. I'm finally all finished moving in, have groceries, and can start reading my scripts (which I have to do online....) but now it's time to go to bed since I have class at nine!
Well that's most of today, I'll update later about my apartment, and roommates and such. Oh: my roomie is not 28, but one of my suite mates is. My roomie is 21, and his name is Jerry. Okay it's late, I need to sleep!

10 things I've learned since being in LA

I'm sitting in our motel room about to go to sleep. Tomorrow I start my film class down the street at USC. Oh baby. But first, some things I've learned since I've been in LA.

1) I kind of already knew this, but it looks like someone pooped on the sky here.
2) Don't eat at Sizzler.
3) I'm really beginning to not like Robin Hood.
4) USC's campus is a-mazing.
5) If you are hungry, don't settle for sizzler, you can wait 30 more minutes. You'll thank yourself later. Seriously.
6) As much as I don't like the Lakers, Staples Center looks pretty awesome.
7) Driving by the Graumans Chinese Theatre will probably never get old for me. (That's the one with all of the famous "stars" on the ground.
8) Dead rats on the sidewalk=really nasty.
9) I apparently live on Adams Boulevard. Not sure how I feel about this one yet.
10) LA is a tad bigger and a little different than Davis/Chico.

Time for sleep. Then housing registration at 8 AM. Then first day of class, starting with orientation...yippee!

My first story idea

So I had my first story idea. Well, my first good story idea that I feel I could actually develop into something serious. I got it immediately when I woke up this morning, I was half conscious. I think the idea may have started off as a quasi-dream and then morphed into me thinking about it, and then me thinking, "Wait, this is good!" Luckily I have my new moleskin journal sitting right by my bed. I will share it here later, once I submit it and all. I'm not sure how smart it would be to post a movie/short idea on the internet for everyone to steal...you greedy thieves. Haha, I'm just kidding, I'm just waiting for it to be fine tuned a little before I post it!
As a class we are voting on the five best story ideas, and then we will developing them into films. These five films will be shot on any of six Warner Brothers sets on the WB lot. I have the one in mind that I want for my idea, so hopefully the class will like it enough and vote it as one of the top five. You have no idea how bad I want to have an idea developed into a short this summer. Because if you are the writer, the story originator, people have to come back to you and ask you how you visioned x or y in whatever part of the movie. I would still enjoy developing someone else's idea, this is what I will probably be doing for years and years, but this summer is my chance to get an idea out there and be creative with it! So hopefully, I'll get my chance! Here are the sets if you want to look at the six sets that we have to choose from:
http://cinema.usc.edu/uscwb/WBShoot.html

Class is less than 2 days away! I'm leaving for LA at 7 in the morning tomorrow! Next time I update, I'll show pictures of my dorm/apartment!

And......cut!

Why I want to be a Filmmaker

Just a little something I wrote recently...check it out:

By Steven Ormsbee

6/6/07

This question hit me while I was watching FOX’s “On the Lot” reality show where prospective amateur filmmaker’s are competing for a one million dollar movie deal with DreamWorks and to work for Steven Spielberg. I realized I needed to write down why I wanted do make motion-pictures so bad, and why I was so envious of the “final fifteen” and the chance they were getting on this silly reality show.

I realized my dream to become a filmmaker spring of my freshman year (which was only a little over a year ago) but I had never really thought about why I really wanted to do this with my life. How do I know that this isn’t just some phase or fad that I’m going through? How can one really be so sure that they know what they want to do with the rest of their life? I think one of the reasons that I wanted to go into film was because nothing else appealed to me. There weren’t any subjects in school that really drove me while I was in high school. I didn’t want to do anything with science or math, or English or history, so I just decided that I would wait until I was in college to find what I was interested in. Last spring, I asked myself the hypothetical question, “If I had the means to do anything, what would it be”? I decided that I would rather be a filmmaker than anything else. I then thought: “Wait why can’t I be a filmmaker?” No one was stopping me, but myself. My entire life I’ve taken the “easy” way out of things, and I didn’t want to do that with my career. I didn’t have to settle for something less than what I was absolutely passionate for. Believe me, I know how stacked and competitive and hard-to-break-into the film industry is, but that wasn’t going to stop me from pursuing my passion. I never thought I would try to work and compete in one of the most competitive industries on the planet, yet here I am.

Now there is more to me wanting to make films than simply because I just wasn’t interested in anything else. That would be pathetic, and I would question someone if that was the only motivation they had to make films. This was one of those things that had been in me a long time, I just didn’t realize it. Throughout high school I always wanted to mess around with a camera and shoot my friends playing basketball, or just being stupid doing whatever. I was never really able to put any of my ideas into action because I didn’t know how to edit. I didn’t have any programs to do any editing, and I hardly knew anything about shooting either. All I knew was that I wanted to film cool things and put music on top of them. When I went off to college, I knew that I wanted to do something either with journalism, music or film. Journalism went out the window quick because I didn’t want to write for a living, and I realized music was just my hobby, and I didn’t know enough to pursue this as a career. Film was something I viewed much more seriously.

I want to make films because films are our society’s “stories around the campfire.” We don’t sit around fires and tell stories like our ancestors did long ago, now we all gather before the silver screen to have stories told to us. Films tell the stories of life. They tell stories of hope, disaster, love, pain, forgiveness, sorrow, joy, revenge, etc. People identify with the characters in film. Films speak to people, they have spoken to me. Films let people dream. They let people escape from the pain of their lives. For a few hours someone can escape from their world and join the world of a few other characters. Films invite people to become superheroes, bank robbers, international spies, witty poets, computer hackers, archaeologists, aliens, sports champions, the president, a famous rock star and anything else their imagination is big enough for. Films don’t have a limit. Anything can be done, especially with the technology of special effects that we have today. Any story can be told. I believe that films can change lives, and that they will. Film is more than just entertainment for two hours; it is a tale, a journey, a story. Films have more than what is just on the surface. Films let people imagine. Films help people to remember. Films show people how to hope.

Films have changed the world. One of my favorite documentaries, Invisible Children, started a movement that is changing the world and saving lives in Northern Uganda. Without this film, thousands of lives wouldn’t have been saved. A movement of thousands of people started because of the courage of three young filmmakers from southern California to fly to Africa to film the horrible events in Uganda. These are the kind of people that inspire me. Film informs people about situations that are going on around the world. The camera is not just an instrument, but a portal to somewhere else, whether it is in the past, the present or the future. To me, film is not just some thin strip of transparent cellulose triacetate covered with a photographic emulsion and perforated along both edges intended for the recording and reproduction of images (courtesy of dictionary.com) but a way to transcend the gap between cultures, between races, between generations, and to tell stories that come deep from someone’s imagination, or even from past events that are reenacted on the big screen.

Whether I make it into Hollywood to direct feature films, work as an independent artist, become an editor for a studio, a cinematographer for Discovery Channel, or travel the world making documentaries, I will be living my dream. I will be making films. I will transcend people’s expectations, I won’t take no for an answer, and I will show you how I see the world through the lens of my camera. The world is a beautiful place, and I want to capture it in motion…

And so it begins...

I guess the adventure has begun. I got my first official e-mail from my Directing/Producing Warner Brothers class at USC. Apparently there are 26 people in the class and judging by the names there are a lot more girls than I expected. (yessssss) Ahem, anyways. I am now officially excited because the program looks AMAZING. We do multiple projects through the 6 weeks including each person making a one minute silent short, a commercial, 2 short films, breaking down a script, and then each person makes their own individual film throughout the entire course. We also get to shoot on the Warner Bros. lot. Check it out: http://cinema.usc.edu/uscwb/WBShoot.html

Here is my class website if you want to see what I will be doing: http://cinema.usc.edu/uscwb/Welcome.html

I'm currently trying to brainstorm story ideas, because for the Warner Brothers shoots 5 "story ideas" will be picked (by vote from the class) and as a class we will develop the stores into scripts and then shoot them! My professor already is accepting story ideas, so if you have anything clever let me know.

I can't wait to get down to USC! The class starts June 25th and goes through August 2nd and I'll be constantly updating with pictures and as much info as possible. And of course, if I'm able, anything I make will be on youtube! I have extremely high expectations for this summer program, there is nothing I've wanted to do this badly before, probably because I know this is where my true passion and desire lies. Some people have heard that I'm taking this class and say "Oh that sucks you have to take summer school", but honestly I've never once thought of this as summer school, because I get to do something I've dreamed of doing for years! A lot is going to happen this summer, I'm going to meet a lot of new people, learn all about film from practically every aspect (we even get to act in some of the short films!) and live with a 28-year old roommate. Needless to say, there should be some good stories to tell when it's all said and done. But this is just the beginning, check back regularly for updates. Enjoy summer, kids!