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!