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.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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.
(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.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
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!
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!
Monday, July 2, 2007
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:
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.)
Sunday, July 1, 2007
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!!!!
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!!!!
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