Orientation Week

The first week has come to an end. The stated purpose was to bring everyone up to speed on the basics of filmmaking. We had workshops in Cinematography, using the Flat-bed editor, Lighting, Sound-Stage Protocol, performing camera tests, operating the Nagra (it's a reel to reel sound recorder). A lot of information and plenty of things that I'd never encountered before.

I think I said this before, but our first two projects, basically the work of this year, must be shot on 16mm film. The school is bankrolling the first one, the parameters of which being: 2 minutes or less, four hours to shoot it (yes, there will actually be a TA on the set with a stop watch timing us from the moment we open the Camera box), and it must be finished by the end of the first quarter. The twist is that we are on teams of 7. Each member of the team of 7 will rotate through 7 roles established by the school. The 7 rolls are: writer/director/editor, Director of Photography, Assistant Director, Assistant Cameraman, Gaffer (in case you don't know, s/he's the dude who sets up the lights), sound recordist, and boom operator. So by the end of the quarter, each of the team members will have served each of these roles once through the 7 projects being created. Further torquing of the lemon peel is that we have no control over who serves which role on our films. In other words, I can't request that Walter, who has been a Camera Operator in the real world, be my DP. It is randomly drawn, and randomly assigned. So, as you can imagine, this requires a great deal of trust on the part of each director, and it also requires motivation on the part of each crew member to perform well, and to be sure they know what they are doing. The person you are assisting is going to be on your crew, so you'll want to give them your best so that they will reciprocate on yours. I think this is a really interesting concept in the degree to which it strips a great deal of the control to make decisions from the director. It certainly incentivizes folks who don't have experience to learn their jobs and bring them up to speed. At the same time, it reminds me a bit of a "cooperative learning" approach that I encountered as a sophomore in high school in which strong students were paired with weak students to study together. The pair received the lesser of the two grades on each assignment. The idea was to encourage peer instructing, but it created resentment on the part of the stronger student toward the weaker student. In a sense, the stronger student was being penalized for something over which he had little control. Now, it is important to point out that the objective of this first project is not to create a great or even good product, rather, it is to go through this process 7 times in 7 different capacities so that we understand the mechanics and process of filmmaking, and develop trust with our cohorts at the same time. A noble goal, methinks, that is sure to be fraught with intense learning, which by it's very nature will be full of mistakes, snafus, and minor miracles. I'm looking forward to it.

I just purchased a book on the recommendation of Kai Barry, a fellow student, called Story by Robert McKee. This is the book that was referenced during the Spike Jonze film Adaptation, by the protagonist Charlie Kaufman as being the well-spring of all of the formulaic crap seen in the movies today. Don't believe the hype! At least according to Kai, it's a fabulous book on story structure, character development, and plot development. McKee talks about principles rather than rules, and manages to discuss a great many quirky or otherwise non-mainstream films in the the context of his principles. Since Nomad, the idea of writing a feature-length screenplay has been quite a block for me. I'd really like to have a couple of screenplays completed by the time I get out of school so I figured I'd start the process now. Anyway, as I go through it, I'll post my thoughts.

I went to the Santa Monica Promenade last night to see the new Sofia Coppola movie Lost in Translation. The promenade is an incredibly energetic place where performance artists set up every half block. It's very reminiscent of Boulder's Pearl Street, only it's even more frenetic: Breakdancers, jugglers, junk-drummers, rock-bands, folk guitarists, clowns, fire acts, and more. I'm looking forward to spending more time there.

Anyway, Lost in Translation was fabulous! I'd rather not say too much about it other than just encouraging you to go see it.