We have just entered week eleven, or twelve…despite the amount of weeks, it has been a good amount of time since our first week of class. Many changes have occurred since the beginning. I like to think I am more aware of the industry and movie elements in general. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I know more than I did, which is an accomplishment in itself.

Stories and screenwriting. It’s not as easy as it looks or sounds. Having a great idea does not mean it will make a great story. There are a lot of elements which go into a script. For instance, the characters must have a character arc, which basically means they must change over time. Having a character stay linear, is not what most would call, unique or interesting. Although, I must say on rare occasions it works. However, it is recommended the character do something out of the ordinary, surprise the audience, so to speak. I struggle with the surprise aspect of the character. I know my character; she is the epitome of me, but what is out of the ordinary? Can anyone really say? To think outside the box, to really be creative, is something I still am in the process in developing. Fred, our screenwriter instructor, is a very helpful resource, however, I feel there is only so much that can be taught.

This quality just comes naturally for some people, others just need to work extra hard. My next project, which I’m excited about, is going to be shot this coming Saturday. The story mocks the concept of religion and how one enters the “heavenly kingdom.” The traditional St. Peter has been transformed into a feminist woman, who I have named St. Petra. The story revolves around a recently deceased businessman who tries to enter heaven but whose name is not found on the heavenly list. St. Petra, who has done this job for many many many many years, sees this as just another sinner who is trying to con his way into heaven, in the end finding he was on the list the entire time. This comedy, although very light and fun, has had its share of problems. Alex, my male character, always seems to be underdeveloped next to the snarky Petra.

No matter how many times I revise this script, Alex just seems to come short of close to being strong. I have accepted this, and realized that is who he is. He is a business man, who has his way with the ladies, but is no match for the “all knowing,” strong minded saint. I have a wonderful cast, Francis Lansang (Alex), and Nsa Ntuk (Petra), to go along with a wonderful crew. With my organizational skills, and knack for getting lucky, I have high hopes that this shoot will run smoothly. Especially because of the fact I have Ryan Emanuel, who has a skill with the camera, and other great people with me on the set.

I was admitted into a Masters of Journalism program in Vancouver. Thiss meant my time at BDFI was at its end. With sadness (but with excitement for my next foray), I told Joel, who has become such a good friend and a creative pal to me, and Patrick that I would be taking off soon to distribute my finished documentary, work and save some money, and to start my 2 year program in the fall. Then I told my other classmates and the teachers. I hate goodbyes!

Patrick seemed genuinely happy for me. I told him how important I thought the experience and work I was doing at the BDFI was in my application, and how I was sure it was a very important part of my new school’s decision to admit me into what I’m told is a fairly competitive program. He and I both agreed that this would not be the last we saw of each other and I told him that I plan to be in touch with my classmates and the school regularly. Who knows what is just hidden around the corner?

My last few weeks at school were so busy. While I wanted to spend time saying goodbye to Berkeley and my Berkeley pals, I found myself more often than not still locked in the editing rooms, tweaking this or that, burning copies, organizing files…I even squeezed in one last shoot for a project I need to edit in the next few weeks and send back to my classmates for their critiques before the end of their semester.

What do I miss? The rest of Dan’s sound class. What a bummer! Sharif’s jokes and his always enjoyable editing class. Patrick’s pressure to do more, work harder. My classmates’ continued ideas, pitches, challenges…I miss all of that.

I premiered my documentary in Edmonton, Alberta to members of the Canada Youth Climate Coalition (a nation-wide coalition of youth environmental NGOs banded to confront with climate change challenges). Granted, this was a sympathetic first audience for my doc about the impacts of Alberta’s oil sands boom and a group of young people who are biking over 1300 km across the province to learn about them (check out the film’s soon to be available website: tothetarsandsfilm.ca), but the reception was incredible. A standing ovation!!! And since then, I’ve been receiving daily emails from people interesting in purchasing their own copy for their family, organizing screenings across the country. The big pay-off for all of those editing hours.

In the next month or so I’ll begin to find out if the film has been admitted into the film fests to which I submitted. I will be absolutely thrilled (surprised, too) if it is included in the programming for these festivals. Thank you BDFI! This film would be only a shadow of what it is were it not for the community, teaching, resources, even building at BDFI.
More to come as the next month unfolds. Excitement!

Jodie Martinson

Tonight was my first time getting to direct. I’ve directed real people during shoots before but never actors. It was fantastic! I like that role. I think what really made it a fantastic was that one of our instructors emphasized letting your crew take care of everything and just focus on working with the talent. I felt a picked a great team to work with, felt so supported.

Film school is getting better and better. I’m happy with the bar that is set here. I hope everyone else is.
I’m starting to feel more that this is totally possible, this filmmaking. I feel I’m on the right track.

Oy, the pain of filmmaking. It’s hard to believe all the problems that appear on film when you start editing. Camera angles are slightly off, actions aren’t the same from take to take, lighting changes as the shoot progresses, colors are funky, sound levels don’t match, helicopters and planes fly over, dialog deviates from the script at random, there’s no good alternate take, the boom mike dips in the frame, the lens is dirty, the characters now seem funny when I thought they were serious… on and on, all supposedly to be fixed in editing.

I’ve now spent 4 or 5 sessions editing my film, Roadside Realizations, and I’m feeling like I should re-title this project ‘Film School Realizations’! The problems of turning a story into a script and a script into a film are now becoming blindingly clear as I traipse back and forth through the footage I shot, trying to find the gems and put the pieces together. It’s as if someone gave me a puzzle of a thousand pieces, but the puzzle parts come from many different puzzles and don’t really fit together. I’m also wielding Final Cut like a blunt machete as I try to figure out the best way to hack the film together, but our brilliant Final Cut Jedi master, Sharif is guiding us and hopefully I’ll one day be handling this thing with finesse.

After 4 hours of editing today, I finally had to stop, mainly because I just couldn’t stand to look at and listen to it anymore (a common experience amongst my classmates and likely, most film editors.) Now that I’ve taken a deep breath and had a little break from it, I can say that this part of the filmmaking process is a huge learning experience and I’m just starting to understand what it’s going to take in future projects to hone the script and get great film, so that I have something worthy to edit. Editing really exposes the art form.

If we can grasp it, we have incredible power in this media to mess with the viewer’s emotions and take them wherever we want them to go. The most fascinating aspect is that you can’t really tell what the full effect is going to be until the final cut is screened for fresh eyes. That’s a mystery that awaits us all.

Today we spent class reviewing an outstanding variety of scenes that Sharif, our editing teacher, collected to demonstrate subtext. In the first and most blatant example, from Annie Hall, the characters’ meaningless chit chat about art and photography is contrasted with their real thoughts - Woody’s sexual interest in Annie and Annie’s self-consciousness - which is provided in subtitles to a very funny effect.

In other scenes, the subtext was exposed in the characters faces or in the surrounding elements in the scene or even in odd blocking of the characters in the scene. Some of these scenes demonstrated the amazing ability of superb actors (well directed) to deliver subtext in unbelievably subtle facial expressions, often while barely muttering a word. Subtext comes through the character’s actions and can often make the dialog between the characters virtually irrelevant.

The lesson to be learned is that good performances can often be obtained by directing actors to understand the motives of their characters and the subtext being conveyed in a scene. All this is really timely for the scripting of my second film, which is currently making its way from my head to paper, and will rely heavily on subtext. Great stuff, Sharif!