This is an awkward phase. I am trying to clean up the editing on my last project while, at the same time, create a new world for the second project.

The rough draft for my next screenplay is due in a couple of days and it’s hard to conjure up new characters while still focusing on the old ones, but I think I can pull it off. We will the results when after I turn in my rough draft to Fred Ritzenberg (our screen writing teacher) on Wednesday.

So I feel like I’m spread a little thin, but I also think my work is paying off. All in all, it is a challenging and rewarding experience.

A new semester at Berkeley Digital Film Institute and another production under my belt. I spent alot of time writing and rewriting my script, not to mention all the time I spent working with my producer Peter Burns on putting the production together. After lots of planning and prep we finally had the actors, location, and crew scheduled and ready to go. I got almost an hour and a half of sleep the night before production. We spent a day in prep for the shoot with just the crew and setup and it paid off, despite my lack of sleep we had a great day of production. My crew (Jodie Martinson, Jules Kobelin, Marcelina Cravat, Tasha Isolani, Rob Dewitt, Karen Dea, Peter Burns, Liz Devon) were fantastic. They’re hard workers and gave me all they could to help me realize my vision for this project. Thanks, guys and gals. I couldn’t have done this one without all of you.

I had decided about a year ago that I wanted to attend film school. I began looking at different ones all over the country, trying to find the ones that I felt would suit me best. I discovered Berkeley Digital while looking in a film magazine that listed film schools around the world. I thought that Berkeley sounded like an interesting program so I decided to find out more.

I finally decided that the schools I was going to apply to would be Berkeley Digital, LA Film, Vancouver Film School and NYFA. My choice was quickly narrowed down when I got accepted a little too quickly for my liking to NYFA.

I decided to really get a feel for the schools I would need to come and visit them. So my mom and I traveled down to California to look at the schools. After seeing both of the schools (LA and Berkeley) my preference was quite easy. The atmosphere and people at Berkeley digital were much more fitting to me. The small class sizes and intimacy was an immediate plus it made me feel very welcome! Also the fact that we got to sit in on a class really made me get a feel for the school. I’m not saying LA Film school was bad but I felt that LA Film had more of the University feel to it, large class sizes, and silly projects, both of which I have defiantly had enough of. I feel that film school should be a place where you can come and show your work and have a supportive background of students and professors.

I am extremely excited to start in September and get this film dream of mine started!
Stefani Kleinberg

Peter Burns writes:
My kids are growing us with me immersed is filmmaking. They are often inquisitive about how movies are made and why. During one family discussion, my wife told my 5-year old daughter that our life is like a movie. My daughter asked, “Who watches us?”

Peter Burns writes:
Much of what Patrick described in his February 25 primer lecture on music videos is terrific fuel for the Q&A part of Chris Milk’s upcoming visit. Check out Chris Milk’s stuff at www.chrismilk.com.

Peter Burns writes:
Patrick introduced us to music video history starting with the U.K. and ending up in New York at MTV and their fight to provide MTV access across America. He talked about how at the time, MTV as a new medium was an untapped way into the film industry, but all of corporate America was adamant that it would amount to nothing – how most of the older generation did not think of singer-songwriters as artist that should be seen at all. He ended with Michael Jackson’s shrewd move to break the mold and use American directors and not Brit directors. He then segued into how to get started in music videos and proceeded to break down how to work with bands, what types of bands to seek out, band dynamics and what to watch out for or what to plan for. He gave a creative process to writing a treatment and how to behave in meetings or what to demand regarding treatments. A key part of the treatment development process is breaking a given song down into its key parts and aligning that with visual images. He referred us to www.nigeldick.com for treatment samples. While there is much more to being a music video Director/Producer, this was an inspiring insight into how BDFI student, with our knowledge of coverage and production, can become music video players. I’m looking forward to subsequent lectures on this segment of the industry. Also of note is that there are basically two types of music videos: [1] the classic narrative (ala Chris Milk or David Fincher) and [2] the quirky, off the wall, art-direction oriented stuff (ala Michael Gondry or Spike Jonze).

Peter Burns writes:
Create assets while in film school. It’s the only time the student will have the time and gear and other resources to do so along with the support to make assets that are 100% in his or her own voice. Once we’re out working in the industry, there is limited time. We will often have to shoot in spare time, on weekends when others want to influence the work. While in film school, we have the luxury and actually get strokes for producing assets in our own voice. We can package assets that have the flavor of our essential idea without needing funding to do so. As production savvy students, we can express an idea that someone might by into.

Peter Burns writes:
I returned to Mike’s Berkeley Hills location and ran into Pascal Faivre (lead actor) as he was leaving on his way to Jim Jarrett’s Meisner class in San Francisco. I asked Pascal how it went and he was tired but pleased, “it went very well, really very well.” He and Ted Barker (lead actor) had fun. Everyone on the crew seemed pleased – Mike especially. We were 3-4 months on this story and it was very gratifying to have it “in the can.” Rob Witt told me about the shooting – one shot in particular which Mike and I had kicked around a week prior. It was a dolly push that transitioned to a crane-up, but we did not have a jib arm in the budget. Mike and I discussed hand holding on a doorway dolly. Rob ended up executing exactly that way, except what he did differently was to cradle the camera in his arms while it was still on a collapsed tripod. The length of the closed tripod legs gave him more to handle like a rifle. Rob also pulled focus on the shoot, something he’s getting really good at. Rob’ll be DP-ing for Chirae on her next project as well. Ted Barker (actor) returned my call and left a message about how well the shoot went from his perspective. He said that it was an efficient shoot and Mike seemed to be getting everything he wanted. Ted’s looking forward to the final product. He and Pascal are clear to work with me on the pick-ups for my third project.