So it begins!

I received an email today from the Vice Chair of the Film Department welcoming the students to the program and laying out some preperatory work we need to do for the courses.

The courses are as follows:

Directing the Actor, for which I need to read Friendly Enemies: The Director-Actor Relationship by Delia Salvi, pages 1-135 of On Method Acting by Edward Easty, and On Directing by Harold Clurman. In addition, I am to bring four or five two-person contemporary scenes from a published screen play or play.

Film Production Workshop: I need to come with some ideas for a short two-minute film.

Writing the Short Screenplay: I need to show up with some ideas for a six-page screenplay that will be shot during the winter quarter. They recommend having two to three characters and no more than three locations. "Challenge yourself artistically, while keeping the logistics of production as simple as possible." Apparently this short is the major project of the first year.

The email also describes the Technical Orientation Week that begins on September 15. Apparently, we'll be using this time to acquaint ourselves with our classmates, the faculty, and the facilities.

While I'm excited to start everything, I'm particularly interested in the Directing the Actor course. In the work that I've done up to this point, I think my greatest weakness is working with actors, which is due to the fact that the projects I've been apart of have been small and required attention to all of the technical details, leaving little time for the nuances of the performances.

So, this evening, I'm off to the Tattered Cover to find the books.

Yeehaw!