So intense. Four more weeks until the semester is over.

I can’t stop watching movies now without deliberately trying to forget everything I learned at BDFI. I notice all the shots, exposures, mistakes, continuity, etc. in a film I see. I appreciate the writing now that I know almost everything is written! I had this experience before when I first took film production classes at community college. But this is so different. I can see the directors/producers getting bummed out WHILE I’m watching their movie. I feel the pain. I needed more coverage, more takes, more guts in my execution of the story, better dialogue, etc.

We’re doing our second project, a 3 minute scene. And I feel my writing has improved so much. I trust my instincts much more, I’m comfortable with script formatting and I feel now that I have some of the basics, I have so much room to grow as a writer.

Whatever wimpy-ness I have around being a filmmaker is being dragged out of me…I feel supported and concerned at the same time.

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.

Happy 4th people! So, update: whoever couldn’t make it to Erica’s shoot totally missed out! It was awesome! For the first time at BDFI, I really felt the collaboration part of filmmaking on a shoot. Having started about 5 weeks ago, I felt like most of my time was spent adjusting to a new city, culture, people and film school in general.

Last night at Erica’s shoot, we did 10 set ups in about 7 hours. We had fantastic performances from the actors so we just ended up doing 2 takes per shot! I’m really happy from what I saw—I think Erica’s going to have fun in editing. Ryan DP’d and did a great job of lighting. My role was makeup and shot logging. We wrapped at two in the morning but I had so much energy. I think I felt useful so I wasn’t tired, whereas if I feel like I’m just another hand on the set, I’d just be bored.

I digress…I just watched “There Will Be Blood” and “Wanted” recently. I’m seeing the movies now in a way I haven’t before, instead of just being a passive audience member or geeking out on frame composition and lighting. I feel like I can now watch movies and learn about the ways they create from just learning the basics in class. It’s even more exciting because I know enough to start attempting imitation. It’s a really awesome feeling.

I am fried! And totally excited! Today I got the encouragement I didn’t know I needed to write the story that’s been in my face for the last year. I wrote plenty of treatments easily, I hadn’t written a script before or really knew what went into the creation of one. But having sat around a few discussion on story and character development, I feel pretty empowered to play and see what happens.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I happy we’re keeping it simple and basic for this first scene shoot and that the focus is mostly on story and direction. I can’t think anymore…must sleep…wake early tomorrow and write…