Yesterday, we started editing, and I love it!
I've been excited about editing the whole year, and it's definitely all I thought it would be.
We get to edit on our own time, and we can spend as long as we want in the editing suites. We each get an editing suite, which is a room with two large screens, and we get to edit all day, every day. If we want to. Which mostly I do.
I'm editing a classmate's comedy about a woman who has sex with a person dressed up as a cigarette. It's a comedy. It's a little crazy.
But it's really fun to edit something I didn't make. It's really interesting, and fun to collaborate with the director.
Tomorrow we get to watch what we have so far and get comments from the professor. I'm so excited!
I can't wait to show everyone. I really would edit everyone in the class' movies if I had time.
I edited yesterday and today for around 8 hours each, and I realized, I could definitely do this as a job!
And it's almost like rewriting a story. So, who knows, if screenwriting doesn't work out, I can always try to be an editor! Or maybe I'll do both!
It is weird, though, being in the suite all day and not seeing light or anyone else. When I finally come out of the suite, or when I see another human being, it's the strangest feeling.
Back to my Batcave tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
D1s
As of Sunday, D1s were officially over. They were amazing! They were so much more fun and less stressful than I ever expected. I had a blast!
To bring you up to speed, Key Grip wasn't that bad. My gaffer and I loaded everything into the truck in 27 minutes, which is basically record speed, and basically means we're amazing. There's something about wrapping the Grip truck that's just so exciting.
It's one of these huge trucks, and all of the lights, flags, bounces, gear, the dolly, and anything and everything else you need to make a movie goes on.
Not the actors, though. Just the stuff.
Anyway, it usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to wrap the truck, and anytime I'm wrapping, I just get this rush of adrenaline. It's really the strangest thing, but I get really pumped up. So when we did this in 27 minutes, I was so excited.
We got the dolly up the ramp in, like, one push and from there on out, I was working in warp speed.
But moving on.
I finished out the D1 cycle doing production design on a science lab show, and it was very cool. We had this awesome Chemistry guy who came in and told us what would look normal. He also wrote all of these awesome equations and little virus pictures on the glass for us, brought in bright blue reagents and these crazy contraptions that spin around to mix up the fluid, and gave me a little cooler of dry ice to use. It was really amazing.
The day after that, I was script supervisor, which is the person who watches Video Village to see what the camera is filming, and keeps a record of how long the takes were, where the actors were looking, what the color looked like, how much of the script was covered, and more.
I like the job, but it turns out I'm not so good at it. It was fun, though, and I think I could get better with practice. Not that I'll be getting any more of that any time soon.
Anyway, it's amazing to think that I worked on 14 movies. I can't wait until the screening in December. It's so crazy to think about what I know now, that I didn't know a few months, or even weeks, ago.
I was looking at pictures from the set of Public Enemies when my mom and I went there in 2008. There's a picture of a guy carrying a huge light, and I wrote a caption on the photo, like, "A crazy, huge light!" And I looked at these photos the other day, and I totally knew what that light was. It was an HMI. And it's just nuts, because I've worked with those lights. I've set them up. I know what they do.
It's an amazing feeling.
That happens when I see behind-the-scenes photos of movies filming now, too. I just feel so educated.
When I watch movies now, it's really funny, because I notice all of the dolly tracking shots. I notice lighting and eye lines and I wonder how many set-ups they filmed for that scene, and I count the number of set-ups and different angles in each scene. It's the craziest feeling. But I really do feel like I appreciate movies so much more now.
It takes so much work to film a 3 minute film, I can't imagine what it takes to film a feature! But I really, desperately want to know, and I really, desperately want to do it someday.
Monday we start post-production and editing, which I'm incredibly excited for. I've never edited anyone else's work before, so it's going to be very interesting. I think it's going to be challenging, but I think I'll love it. I'll have nothing else to do for a week than sit in a room with three massive monitors and edit a movie.
What's better than that?
To bring you up to speed, Key Grip wasn't that bad. My gaffer and I loaded everything into the truck in 27 minutes, which is basically record speed, and basically means we're amazing. There's something about wrapping the Grip truck that's just so exciting.
It's one of these huge trucks, and all of the lights, flags, bounces, gear, the dolly, and anything and everything else you need to make a movie goes on.
Not the actors, though. Just the stuff.
Anyway, it usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to wrap the truck, and anytime I'm wrapping, I just get this rush of adrenaline. It's really the strangest thing, but I get really pumped up. So when we did this in 27 minutes, I was so excited.
We got the dolly up the ramp in, like, one push and from there on out, I was working in warp speed.
But moving on.
I finished out the D1 cycle doing production design on a science lab show, and it was very cool. We had this awesome Chemistry guy who came in and told us what would look normal. He also wrote all of these awesome equations and little virus pictures on the glass for us, brought in bright blue reagents and these crazy contraptions that spin around to mix up the fluid, and gave me a little cooler of dry ice to use. It was really amazing.
The day after that, I was script supervisor, which is the person who watches Video Village to see what the camera is filming, and keeps a record of how long the takes were, where the actors were looking, what the color looked like, how much of the script was covered, and more.
I like the job, but it turns out I'm not so good at it. It was fun, though, and I think I could get better with practice. Not that I'll be getting any more of that any time soon.
Anyway, it's amazing to think that I worked on 14 movies. I can't wait until the screening in December. It's so crazy to think about what I know now, that I didn't know a few months, or even weeks, ago.
I was looking at pictures from the set of Public Enemies when my mom and I went there in 2008. There's a picture of a guy carrying a huge light, and I wrote a caption on the photo, like, "A crazy, huge light!" And I looked at these photos the other day, and I totally knew what that light was. It was an HMI. And it's just nuts, because I've worked with those lights. I've set them up. I know what they do.
It's an amazing feeling.
That happens when I see behind-the-scenes photos of movies filming now, too. I just feel so educated.
When I watch movies now, it's really funny, because I notice all of the dolly tracking shots. I notice lighting and eye lines and I wonder how many set-ups they filmed for that scene, and I count the number of set-ups and different angles in each scene. It's the craziest feeling. But I really do feel like I appreciate movies so much more now.
It takes so much work to film a 3 minute film, I can't imagine what it takes to film a feature! But I really, desperately want to know, and I really, desperately want to do it someday.
Monday we start post-production and editing, which I'm incredibly excited for. I've never edited anyone else's work before, so it's going to be very interesting. I think it's going to be challenging, but I think I'll love it. I'll have nothing else to do for a week than sit in a room with three massive monitors and edit a movie.
What's better than that?
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Camera Team Weekend
I still have one more show of the weekend, but I think I might hate it, because of my job. So, for now, I'll go on about Director of Photography and 1st AC.
DP was the job I was originally most worried about. Lighting terrified me. But after Crew Drills, I thought it was really fun. And as it turns out, it is really fun.
I was DP on Friday, and it was definitely one of my most favorite jobs on set. I told my cinematography professor what kind of lighting I wanted, and he told me how to get it. It worked out perfectly, and I couldn't stop smiling when I turned the camera on and looked through it. I was so impressed.
I also had a blast framing shots, riding on the dolly, and doing crazy camera stuff. This crazy dolly shot the director, Kendall, came up with was so much fun, and our directing professor told her it was cool, so that was really exciting.
I had a great working relationship with Kendall. She and I got along so well, and nothing went wrong. Literally, nothing. All day long, everything was great. The set was so much fun, and I was really proud of my camera work.
I can't really describe how great DP was. If I were a production student, I think I might be a cinematography specialist. Oh, and now I'm noticing all of these amazing shots and lighting in movies. I went to see Skyfall the other day, and I kept thinking, "Look at that great OTS!" and "Those lights are so great!"
Film school will do that to you, I guess.
Today I was 1st Assistant Camera, which is pulling focus. We did this awesome dolly shot-- yes, I do just love all dolly shots-- where we pushed in really slowly. I pulled focus on it while standing on a sidebar and kind of surfing along on the dolly.
I was able to keep the focus detector green and yellow the whole time until the very end. It was great, because it's really difficult to get the focus detectors green and yellow. Even when in focus, they are still usually red. So that was awesome.
More to come! Although we're almost done with D1s. Next Sunday will be my last day of work on set, but I'll be working Monday on my roommate, Dana's set, as well, as official set photographer/volunteer.
Stay tuned to find out how horrible Key Grip was, which I'll be doing tomorrow.
DP was the job I was originally most worried about. Lighting terrified me. But after Crew Drills, I thought it was really fun. And as it turns out, it is really fun.
I was DP on Friday, and it was definitely one of my most favorite jobs on set. I told my cinematography professor what kind of lighting I wanted, and he told me how to get it. It worked out perfectly, and I couldn't stop smiling when I turned the camera on and looked through it. I was so impressed.
I also had a blast framing shots, riding on the dolly, and doing crazy camera stuff. This crazy dolly shot the director, Kendall, came up with was so much fun, and our directing professor told her it was cool, so that was really exciting.
I had a great working relationship with Kendall. She and I got along so well, and nothing went wrong. Literally, nothing. All day long, everything was great. The set was so much fun, and I was really proud of my camera work.
I can't really describe how great DP was. If I were a production student, I think I might be a cinematography specialist. Oh, and now I'm noticing all of these amazing shots and lighting in movies. I went to see Skyfall the other day, and I kept thinking, "Look at that great OTS!" and "Those lights are so great!"
Film school will do that to you, I guess.
Today I was 1st Assistant Camera, which is pulling focus. We did this awesome dolly shot-- yes, I do just love all dolly shots-- where we pushed in really slowly. I pulled focus on it while standing on a sidebar and kind of surfing along on the dolly.
I was able to keep the focus detector green and yellow the whole time until the very end. It was great, because it's really difficult to get the focus detectors green and yellow. Even when in focus, they are still usually red. So that was awesome.
More to come! Although we're almost done with D1s. Next Sunday will be my last day of work on set, but I'll be working Monday on my roommate, Dana's set, as well, as official set photographer/volunteer.
Stay tuned to find out how horrible Key Grip was, which I'll be doing tomorrow.
Me as DP, framing up a shot.
DP on the dolly!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I Love This.
I had a great weekend. After I was 1st AD, I got to spend the whole day in the forest making and clacking slates. Then I got to spend all day at my house doing sound. And it was really great. This probably marks the best weekend of D1s for me, because it was all fun.
Sunday, when I was sound at my house, it started pouring, so we had to run outside and rain-rig all of the cables and all of the furniture we had outside. Yes, we had made an exterior living room because we had to move stuff out of the real living room so we could make a movie set.
But rain makes everything better, and it makes all memories more memorable. So we were all running around in the rain, soaking wet. But laughing. And it was just wonderful.
So anyway, what I'm thinking is, you know that saying, "If you love what you're doing, you'll never work a day in your life"? Well I think that's totally in my future.
Because I've been working 13 hours a day on set, and it doesn't feel like I've been working at all. I mean, I know it's technically school, but it's really like work you don't get paid for. Work you pay for, actually.
But I was thinking about this Sunday when I had done all of the jobs that require the most standing time. My feet hurt, my back was killing me, and I was exhausted. But I couldn't even complain.
Seriously. I didn't even want to complain. The fact that my body hurt so badly was funny. It made me happy. Because I just love this.
And then to think that next semester I'll get to write a feature and a play...well, that's just more happiness on the horizon. Oh, and it's in London.
So, anyway, what I'm trying to say is, it's a great feeling knowing that what you want to do with your life is what you really want to do with your life. Because I feel like I could do any movie-related job for 15 hours a day and never, ever complain.
And that must be the greatest feeling ever.
Sunday, when I was sound at my house, it started pouring, so we had to run outside and rain-rig all of the cables and all of the furniture we had outside. Yes, we had made an exterior living room because we had to move stuff out of the real living room so we could make a movie set.
But rain makes everything better, and it makes all memories more memorable. So we were all running around in the rain, soaking wet. But laughing. And it was just wonderful.
So anyway, what I'm thinking is, you know that saying, "If you love what you're doing, you'll never work a day in your life"? Well I think that's totally in my future.
Because I've been working 13 hours a day on set, and it doesn't feel like I've been working at all. I mean, I know it's technically school, but it's really like work you don't get paid for. Work you pay for, actually.
But I was thinking about this Sunday when I had done all of the jobs that require the most standing time. My feet hurt, my back was killing me, and I was exhausted. But I couldn't even complain.
Seriously. I didn't even want to complain. The fact that my body hurt so badly was funny. It made me happy. Because I just love this.
And then to think that next semester I'll get to write a feature and a play...well, that's just more happiness on the horizon. Oh, and it's in London.
So, anyway, what I'm trying to say is, it's a great feeling knowing that what you want to do with your life is what you really want to do with your life. Because I feel like I could do any movie-related job for 15 hours a day and never, ever complain.
And that must be the greatest feeling ever.
Friday, November 2, 2012
1st AD
Today I was 1st Assistant Director on set, and it was really amazing! It was, by far, my most favorite job in production so far. I got to run the set and make sure we were on schedule and pretty much be the director's wing-man. So that was pretty cool.
Actually, really cool. It was the best set I've been on so far, with the best director I've worked with so far, who just happens to be one of the writers. Because we rock. Woo woo.
We had an awesome time, and we were doing a comedy about cats, so that was great.
I just felt so in my element today. It was the first job that I actually thought I was good at! I was very confident about my performance. It was great.
I loved that I was like the director's best friend today. Anything the director needed, I was there to get it for him. My whole purpose was making sure he got all of his shots. And I got to lead people. It was great. It took me back to NAE, which was, once again, such good preparation!
Tomorrow we're shooting in a national park which, by the way, has poison ivy! Cool, guys!
And apparently not everyone reacts to poison ivy. I wouldn't know, because I've never rolled around in it. But I guess I'll find out.
So tomorrow we're outside all day and I get to slate!! Another of my favorite things! This week is basically the best week ever. And Sunday I get to do sound for my roommate, and guess where we're filming? My house! Yes!
Best weekend ever.
And after this weekend, we're officially half-way through! Time flies!
Actually, really cool. It was the best set I've been on so far, with the best director I've worked with so far, who just happens to be one of the writers. Because we rock. Woo woo.
We had an awesome time, and we were doing a comedy about cats, so that was great.
I just felt so in my element today. It was the first job that I actually thought I was good at! I was very confident about my performance. It was great.
I loved that I was like the director's best friend today. Anything the director needed, I was there to get it for him. My whole purpose was making sure he got all of his shots. And I got to lead people. It was great. It took me back to NAE, which was, once again, such good preparation!
Tomorrow we're shooting in a national park which, by the way, has poison ivy! Cool, guys!
And apparently not everyone reacts to poison ivy. I wouldn't know, because I've never rolled around in it. But I guess I'll find out.
So tomorrow we're outside all day and I get to slate!! Another of my favorite things! This week is basically the best week ever. And Sunday I get to do sound for my roommate, and guess where we're filming? My house! Yes!
Best weekend ever.
And after this weekend, we're officially half-way through! Time flies!
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