As my second film project at BDFI gets underway, I find myself reflecting constantly on the first. After editing for the past few weeks, I’m getting pretty tired of it. In fact, I’m starting to hate it. All the problems stand out and the good stuff seems to have faded. I want to start over and fix the script and the framing and the lighting and the continuity and the editing. I’m wondering if I even want to show it to anyone. Then I screened it.

I showed it to a few of my cycling buddies at my home last weekend. I had to. I’ve been telling them about this project for weeks now and even had them read the script while it was in development. They demanded a screening, ready or not. And… what do you know, they enjoyed it! OK, so they’re my friends and they probably would have enjoyed anything about cycling, especially with beer and food. But still, real people were seeing my work for the first time and they reacted to it. They laughed. They wanted to know more and see more. And, of course that’s what filmmakers live for… to communicate, affect and touch others and to provoke thought and dialog. Maybe that seems obvious, but I can tell you that there is nothing purer than the inspiration and motivation you get from a viewer reaction, especially a positive one. It’s like pulling off a big magic trick. I’m motivated to do better. I’m hooked.

On to the next project!

For this second project, I am really struggling with the script because
the characters are foreign to me. I don’t know them so I don’t know how
to write them. I’ve spent many hours on the script more than my first
one, but I’m not going to give up on this one. What really helps is
constructive feedback. When the class read my script for Patrick, I
really got great feedback that will help advance my script because it
addressed the story. Writing this script also reminds me of what I really
want to write about. I want to film raw, human interactions and emotions
– the heart of the matter. After shooting and editing my first project, I
can now appreciate it for what I was trying to achieve. I remember
getting so sick and tired of looking at it, but now I don’t mind it as
much anymore. It’s actually kind of good.

This week has personally been a rough one for me but being at BDFI
reminds me of what I really love most and I forget about everything else
when I’m here. Although producing is what I really want to do with the
film/TV industry, I love learning everything from cinematography to
acting here. I think it really helps me to develop as a knowledgeable,
well-rounded filmmaker. Debbie Brubaker came in on Tuesday and shared
with us her experience in producing film. She was very down to earth and
shared a lot of valuable experience, and her story reinforced my desire
to produce.
Working on my first film project, I first seemed overwhelmed with the task
but it is coming together nicely. I got a great producer and I’m learning
a lot from her at the same time. Fellow students no matter what class
level are so willing to help each other out. Scriptwriting seems daunting
since I haven’t creatively written anything for about 6 years, but I got
positive reviews from Wednesday’s class. I’m glad that everyone liked it,
but I wish that I’ve gotten more critical feedback so I could’ve changed
more of my script and really improve it. I don’t know if it’s as solid as
everyone think.

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.

This semester has been amazing! I have never enjoyed being in school so much! Everyday when I walk through the beautiful gardens I think how lucky I am to be going to BDFI. I have learned so much this semester and I still have so much further to go, I can’t wait.

I finished my first project a couple of weeks ago and I am just finishing up the editing. I had so much fun with it. At first I was stressed that I couldn’t get it done the way I envisioned it and I was having difficulty with people’s schedules and I wasn’t sure if I could really pull it off. Then I realized that even if my idea failed I would still learn from it and it was supposed to be fun. I wanted to make sure everyone on my set had a good time and felt valued and that was what was most important. Everyone on my shoot said they had so much fun and we all worked really well together. I couldn’t have been happier because that’s exactly what I wanted.

I am in the script development and casting process of my 2nd project now. For some reason I am having a harder time with this project and I know it’s going to be a challenge until the end. I am having a harder time writing for the characters than I did with my last one. The idea is solid in my head and on script, but getting inside the characters heads and writing for them has been more difficult than I anticipated. The other thing that is harder for me is my location is outdoors in a park. This offers up many more obstacles than shooting indoor. The first is lighting, outdoors you cannot control the lighting other than with bounce cards and screens. Sound is another big issue since I am shooting in a park and most parks have a lot of noise and people. There are many more challenges to outdoor that I’m not even going to go into, the list goes on. At the same time I am very excited about this next one. I am auditioning Thursday and I’ve gotten a lot of responses now I will just see if I can juggle their schedules so I can try to audition as many of them as I can. I must say casting is probably my least favorite part of the process. I feel like I’m buying horses and checking their teeth and hooves. I don’t like having to judge people. I don’t know maybe I’ll get used to it. I do like it when you got an awesome performance and you know you’ve found the best person for the role and you can move to the next step.

Last week I was part of a script reading focus group with our screenwriting teacher Fred. I learned so much from reading the script. It was a beautiful script and it was written in a way where the writer did the work of the director, editor and the actors and he did it in very few words. Any director reading that script would know exactly how to shoot that scene and exactly what it looks like. The editor would know just where to cut by the way he would parallel visuals to make the perfect transition of scenes. He did the work of the actors in the way he wrote the character and the action lines to where the reader could see the performance and how the characters would react emotionally. It made me realize how much more there is to screenwriting. I am going to try to adopt some of those techniques as I go and strive to get to that level.

One of the things I love most about BDFI is the students and instructors. Our school is made up of such talented and genuinely nice people I feel so lucky to have met and worked with. All of the students are so nice and will help you whenever they can. Whether it’s in the editing suites or on your shoot people are down to help. Our instructors are awesome and really fun. I have learned so much from each and I look forward to what’s in store for next semester.

It’s been almost 3 months since I started at the school and I am working on my second film project now. It’s been very intense. Why I say that? I say that because, personally, I realized that film making isn’t just another career, but it’s a life. I feel that I’ve become more in tuned with the under-current of human emotions that runs deep inside of all of us. In order to create characters, your key ingredient is to tap into that. I see the characters that I create become alive in my script and film.

It’s incredible to walk in these characters’ shoes. I’m grateful to have around the faculty and the senior students of the school. Their unwavering support and willingness to nurture the members of the school is priceless. Also, I have a new respect for people who write scripts and work in the film productions. It takes so much hard work and synchronized team coordination. You just can’t do it if you are half serious.

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

This week, I got my chance to be DP (director of photography) when I worked on the set for my classmate Loan. We had a good crew, good actors and a fun script, so we were off to the races. We created the set in our sound stage here at BDFI and had all of the lights and equipment at hand without having to drag everything to another location, which was nice for a change. Also, now that I’ve seen the results of shooting several other projects, I’m becoming more aware of camera work and lighting strategy. My goal was to nail the angles and framing and make sure that we got the camera positioned as accurately as possible for each shot. I think we did that… or at least improved on previous efforts.

Figuring out how to get the right amount of light from the right angles and make it look natural is an art, and I suspect one that will take a while to learn. Things that look good to the eye, look way different on screen. Our brains ‘fix’ these problems in real life and we don’t notice, but the camera is stupid, so you have to tell it what to do. This requires learning to over-ride what your brain sees to understand what the camera is really seeing, then figuring out how to compensate for that from shot to shot. There’s nothing like getting on the set and doing it. As we’re all finding, the big learning experiences come from trying to figure things out yourself, without an expert around to guide you and instantly answer all of your questions. (Question of the evening: ‘Should we move that key light, or not?’) Fall down, get up, try again. We’ll see what happened in the edit room!

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.

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.

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!

Good stuff from Patrick this past Monday on directing and how important it is to be the leader, troubleshooter and decision maker. It’s a subtle art that requires juggling many things at once and being flexible yet decisive so that everyone on the set knows what’s happening and what’s expected. We reviewed some of the recent issues that we were encountering with our upcoming shoots and discussed how some tough situations were handled. Good learning experience for all.

I also started reviewing my footage from my shoot last week. The exposure and sound were good, as was the acting, but the position of the actors in the frame was not ideal and I learned a few good lessons about what to look for when setting up the frame. (Good to make these mistakes now and learn from them.) Although we spent some time on this in earlier classes with typical booth scenes, where the actors face each other, my set was a little different with the actors side by side. One of the interesting things about shooting a side-by-side dialog is that all the shots have both actors faces in the frame, which requires less editing and potentially fewer cuts. This also enables the viewer to focus on either actor, giving the effect of a more natural dialog.

I want to express to you the unique and real experience that I had while sitting in on a class at the Berkeley Digital Film Institute this last monday 06/23/08. I’ve been a avid film fan for the last 20 years and want to take my home films to the next level with a goal of becoming a Producer/Director of quality films.

What I found was a caring and realistic approach to what is only offered at a post-graduate level for Directors and Producers that is distilled into a 16 month program. This particular class size consisted of 9 creative thinking people ranging in ages from their 20’s to 50’s. This was a remarkable group that not only cared about their own projects but took a concerned and thoughtful interest in those of their classmates projects as well. This was a complete and utter surprise to see such a level of knowledge taught in such a nurturing way. No egos were involved; just the love of the project.

This is a school that not only provides upper level knowledge but promotes this in a very attentive and loving environment; with such a small sized class the students are thrown into the realm of understanding the very importance of cooperation needed to complete their projects.

As a result of this experience; I have decided to become a part of this program.
Michael Hurley

Creating a film is really quite an amazing process. First you get this idea in your head for a movie, then you mess around for a while writing and rewriting scripts, casting, location hunting, pulling together a crew and developing a plan. At some point it all comes together and you get out and shoot. We’re also learning HOW to do all of this on the fly, which means, of course, that we barely know what we’re doing as we’re doing it. Somehow it all works out and, like riding a bike, you find your balance and suddenly there you are cruising along, camera, crew and actors in motion, shooting the actual film. What a trip!

I had only heard of BDFI about 8 weeks ago, and here I am directing my first film… actors are speaking my script, camera people are filming and there I am, in the middle, trying to say ‘action!’ with some conviction, so that it seems like I know what I’m doing. Good thing I worked on a couple of other film sets in the past week or so, standing for hours holding up a flag to control the lighting. As dull as that sounds, it did give me the opportunity to watch the process up close and get at least a few hours of experience by osmosis before getting behind the wheel. Amazingly, this worked quite well and I actually felt like the team and I, as green as we were, had significant confidence that we could pull this off and get good results. Nothing beats learning by doing.

Our set was out on a horse farm behind the Berkeley Hills, on a quiet idyllic dirt road under a massive live oak. My characters were two bike racers out on a training ride who stopped to take a break under the tree and have a little chat. We had a small crew of 7 and minimal equipment, since we were filming under full battery power and sunlight. Starting early, at around 6:30am, to catch some good morning light and stay out of the heat (which eventually got into the mid 90s) we had a quick breakfast and got set up and started shooting almost right on schedule at about 8:30. At about this time, our beautiful, tranquil set started going berserk with sound… the birds and bees got louder, the horses snorted and stampeded around, jets flew over every few minutes and it seemed as though a local helicopter training school started class right above the Berkeley Hills, circling endlessly. Ambient noise continued to torture us throughout the day, but we made it through and wrapped on schedule, exhausted, but also exhilarated, and looking forward with hope that our efforts result in something worth viewing.

Quote of the day (overheard from Anthony as he was holding the boom mic): ‘Right now, I’m a frickin’ airport for flies.’

Photos of the shoot can be see here

This week I will be shooting my first project! I am very excited and I hope I can get it all done in time. Last week I finished casting and my actors are great! I really lucked out and got two amazing actors that are exactly what I was looking for. This next week is going to be a lot of rushing around and getting everything ready for rehearsals, location, costumes and all the other little details. We are also going to be pitching our ideas for our next project this week, so we are jumping right into the next one before we are finished shooting. It’s good that they keep us busy, I know it will make me better at multi- tasking and organizing my time.

Last week was amazing we had two guest speakers. First we had Debbie Brubaker, who was awesome. She is one of the most prolific women producers in the bay area and she had a lot of great advice and wonderful stories to share. It made me realize how much producers have to be responsible for, it’s so much work! It really gave me a lot of respect for her and the work she does to learn how much she has to know and go through to see a project through until completion. Then we also had Randy Quaid and his wife come to our school with their movie project they have been working on with a few of our Senior students. It was a very experimental film and was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was interesting to see people’s different styles of filmmaking and learn about their process.

I’ve just finished casting, putting together a film crew, and finding
a location for my first short film. I am just so excited! Without
BDFI, I would be sitting in some film theory class, discussing what
film making is all about rather than having hands-on instruction from
day one. Just last week, 2 major events were happening at BDFI: 1)
private viewing of Randy Quaid and his wife’s project (Randy is so
tall !), 2) an open discussion with a local bay area producer,
Debbie Brewbaker who’s working on Banjanmin Bratt’s project. It’s so
awesome!!! You are not an outsider, but an insider of the film
industry.
Yesterday, I had my first rehearsal. It was incredible, working with
the actors to make the characters and scene come alive, especially
with the costume on. I can almost taste the successful end. I was so
exhilarated I couldn’t go to sleep. Today, my classmates and I got
together and conducted an impromptu pre-production planning meeting
with the crew. It just makes me realize how all this is real to
becoming a Producer/ Director. I can’t describe how wonderful it is to
do what you are born to do. I am fortunate to have such a nurturing
place to grow my dreams.

This week we were hit by the first big wave of auditions and the reality that our scripts might actually turn into films. Everyone jumped in and helped and it was fun to do all the different roles, from greeting the actors to reading scripts to directing and doing the camera work. It’s fascinating to see real people breathe life into the words that we wrote and how different the characters can be depicted by different actors. You also start to see where the script is working or not. I got lots of ideas and feedback from my auditions and it seems like I’m practically rewriting the whole script now.

The other really cool thing about this week was a couple of special guests that Patrick brought in. We got to meet Debbie Brubaker, one of the top producers in northern California, and hear what it’s like to be a serious film producer. It’s pretty mind boggling, actually, when you hear her talk about the million dollar budgets (for SMALL films!) all the crews, equipment, actors and especially the unions and how she worked her way from the smallest film jobs up to the top of the heap. On one hand, producing sounds very removed from the creative side of film making, with all the effort that goes into developing the budget and managing the people. On the other hand, she clearly shares in the thrill that a producer has of being involved in every aspect of making an idea into a movie. The producer role is one of the harder movie making roles to understand, but after meeting with Debbie and hearing her stories, it’s much clearer why this is the role with the most responsibility and the biggest rewards, and why it’s not for everyone. Great stuff.

The second special guest of the week was actor Randy Quaid (brother of Dennis) and his wife Evi, who directs and produces. Randy is a veteran actor of hundreds of films including an Oscar nominated performance in The Last Detail (1973). I also discovered that he was in Midnight Express, Missouri Breaks and Paper Moon, a few movies from the 70’s that I really enjoyed. We were treated to a special screening of some early cuts of an avant-garde art film project that Evi is working on with Randy… very interesting and great for pushing our notions of the creative limits film in new directions.

This week at B.D.F.I. was very exciting for me. To begin, we started the
week learning about sound and how to operate a boom microphone. Opposed
to the strictly visual nature of the program thus far, this was a welcome
change of pace in addition to being immensely informative. Patrick cut
his teeth in the business as a sound tech, so having all that experience
relayed onto us was very cool. Antoher big event of that week the stands
out in my mind is the guest lecture with Debie Brubaker. Having one of
the most respected producer’s in the bay area come in is a testament to
the pull B.D.F.I. has in the bay, as well as the amazingly close-knit
relationship shared by entertainment professionals here. Debie was very
cool and laid back. It was refreshing to see someone in her position that
is so cordial and polite. Just goes to show that good things do happen to
good people. Antoher amazingly cool person in the industries elite that
we had the pleasure of meeting this week was Randy Quaid. He and his wife
came by to show part of an independent feature that they’de been working
on during their recent vacation to Texas. It was edgy, dark, and twisted,
so naturally I liked it right away. Randy’s acting was fantastic.
Going further, it was a chance for many of us to see him in a
totally different light and attaining a whole new range than he had ever
previously attempted. It was exhilarating to see an actor of his
reputation still willing to take chances and explore that recluse,
shakespeare spouting, fur wearing degenerate artist in himself. I’d have
to say it was a pretty amazing week here at B.D.F.I. and it makes me
wonder what’s in store for us next week.