My First Day of Film School Ever!!

Things I've learned today: The scene in Jaws where there's a big shark head coming through a boat was filmed in one of the crew members' pool. Blue gels over lights make it look like day time. And film school is really fun. 

I only had two classes today, but I think I'm really gonna like this. I actually had both classes on the same subject: BTL. I had BTL Lab, which is "Below the Line," which means those people on the crew who make less money than the director, producer, cinematographer, and actors (not BLT Lab, which is what I wrote in my planner).

In the lab we learned about lighting (a person on the set who does the lighting is called a Gaffer). I was a little terrified for the class, because I never learned how to do lighting, and in my one digital cinema class in my undergrad, my professor gave us lights and told us to use them, but didn't tell us how. But it turned out okay. 

The class went from 2:15 to 6, and the first half was a whole lot of information, half of which I probably won't remember until I hear it again or reread my notes. The other half was hands-on, where we got to set up light stands and put lights on them and put up silks to help filter the light and stuff like that. 

We didn't get to turn the lights on, because they take up a whole lot of power (some were 250 watts and there were 15 of us in the class!), but at the end of class our instructor showed us an example of a giant light with different filters and screens, and it was really cool. 

Oh! I also learned that if you put a blue gel over this huge light and move it, the shadow behind the light looks like rippling water shadows. So that's pretty neat.

My night class was also BTL, but it was basically an info session on every position in the film industry and what each person does, which was very, very interesting. And my professor was Reb Braddock, the Associate Dean of the school, and one of the guys I interviewed with two years straight, and he's really, really cool. He knows so much, and he's really funny. So I think that any class with him will be great.

We also learned about the steps of setting up a scene, which we'll be doing for our short films in about eight weeks. There are nine steps that you have to complete before you film each scene. Which is precisely why a three minute film will take thirteen hours to shoot.

Welcome to the film business, everybody!

I think it's gonna rock.

Oh, and how could I forget? SCREENWRITING TOMORROW!