BBQ Juice

Sounds a bit strange, doesn't it? Well it tastes even stranger! One of the Chinese students in my class, Kui, took a few of us to his favorite restaurant. We drove to San Gabriel. Apparently, there is a very large Chinese population there. He ordered everything for us, including this BBQ Juice. Obviously, it's not really BBQ Juice, but that's what my friend and I decided to call it after our first swig.

Kui told us that he ordered some juice for us to try. When the waitress brought it to the table, it looked like a pitcher of Coke. We took our first sip and looked at each other. We asked Kui what kind of juice it was, but he didn't know the name of the fruit in English. It was a sweet juice with a smoky finish. One of our other classmates told us that the fruit is mixed with several other juices and made into a concentrate. We took another sip and decided that it was not only mixed with other juices, but with liquid smoke too.

I wish I could remember all of the names of the dishes that he ordered for us, but alas, I do not. We had dumplings, soup, chicken, fish and some cold noodles. Everything was so delicious and spicy! He said that he would bring us back whenever we wanted, and we could try other things. He was excited to take us to a restaurant that had the cuisine of Northern China; he's from Beijing. He said that we should go to Beijing to film our "Semester 1" films. I was like, "If you're paying, then my passport is ready. I'm down." Haha. We'll see what happens.

Well...Today Sucked

I hope that I don't have to say this again during the next two years; but today sucked. I woke up, happy to take on the world, but that feeling didn't last forever.

In my acting class, our teacher asked us to bring in a scene that we wrote, and we would act it out in class. I took in a scene from the pilot episode of the tv show I wrote when I first left Philly. I was actually really excited about it. The teacher picked two students that I wouldn't have necessarily picked to do the scene, but I was still excited. The acting was not what I wanted, and I tried to direct the scene. The teacher stopped me and said, "I think this might just be a case where the writing is bad." Needless to say, that stung a little. So my jolly little mood quickly became not so jolly.

Then, in my directing class, we screened the movies that we shot over the weekend. We all went into this screening not feeling proud of our projects, and then our teacher just reiterated what we already new: our movies sucked. One by one he broke them all down and told us to redo them. It was just so disheartening.

So, worst day ever. And here's hoping that we never have another day like this one. I'm laying in bed, watching "Bad Teacher". This movie is lifting me up. :)

Pulled Over On Foot

This morning, my roommate and I were happily walking to school, when we came to a stoplight. Not just any stoplight, it was the last stoplight before we reached our destination. As we stood there at the light, we saw that there were no cars, and the light for the other side had already begun to turn yellow. So, rather than wait the 5 seconds, we opted to just cross the street. No sooner than we'd gotten to the other side, did we hear someone calling on a PA, "Miss, miss." Mind you, it was 9 in the morning, so I hear this voice and I'm wondering where it came from. I turned around out of pure curiosity. Had I known it was a motorcycle cop and he was talking to me, I certainly would have faked def and kept walking. He would have had to follow me. Instead, I turned around and he called me over. He was also calling my roommate back at the same time. (We'd split after we crossed the street, because we were heading to separate buildings.)

We both walk back over there, and I was seriously confused. We crossed in the crosswalk. What could he do to us? It wasn't jay-walking. He proceeded to explain to us about the large amounts of complaints that they get about people almost being hit at that intersection, AND then, he proceeded to write us individual tickets. The whole time, I was thinking, "Are you serious right now?" Who writes two students tickets for crossing the street?! And then, ANOTHER motorcycle cop shows up! I said to him, "Did you call for backup?!" The whole thing was so freaking ridiculous. And no matter what we said to him, he was dead set on writing us tickets. The best was that after he gave me mine, he started to work on my roommate's, and she says, "I just moved to this country. I didn't know." I almost burst out laughing, but that would have ruined her chances, so I held a straight face.

Needless to say, I'm gonna have to go to court to fight this thing. If you can turn right on a red light while driving, then surely you can cross the street on a red light if no cars are coming! When did I learn that it was illegal to cross the street if the crosswalk didn't say walk? In drivers ed? Or is it just common knowledge, and you don't know that until you get a ticket for crossing on a red hand. I just considered the hands and the walk to be guidelines, suggestions or recommendations. Apparently I was wrong!

First Cali Halloween

I had my first Halloween weekend in Cali! My classmates and I decided that since we haven't had a chance to really do anything, that we would go big for Halloween weekend. Well, of course we don't know where to go or what to do. So we asked some of the people who work at the school for their suggestions. We ended up hanging at one of my classmate's apartments until about 11, and then we grabbed a cab and went to Hollywood.

I was the only person in our group of eight who was dressed up. I was wearing my afro wig and my lime green and white terry cloth, warm up suit. I had my knee high socks on and my converse. I was mighty 70s, if I don't say so myself.

So we were walking down the street, not knowing where we should go, when I saw two bouncers. You know me; I look for opportunities to present themselves. The rest of the group was walking past these guys, but I stopped and asked them about the bar. I asked if there was a cover charge, and the guy said, "Normally. But it's free for your group." Done and done. A guy stopped us at the door and asked if we paid, and the bouncer said that we were on the house. One of my classmates told me that he was going to view me differently from now on. Not sure what that means, but, Okay. We ended up having a great time in the lounge.

Saturday night, some of the acting students rented out a room for karaoke in Korea town. So we caught a cab down there and did some singing. I was a vampire, schoolgirl. I love my fangs, and will probably wear them every opportunity I get. A few of us left karaoke and went to a club at the W Hotel. We got there and the line was terrible, not to mention that the club was maxed to capacity. So we decided to go to the lounge in the hotel. Do you know that these people had the nerve to say that on regular days there is no cover, but because it was a special occasion, the cover was $50. Yeah right! So we walked back to the front and were trying to figure out what to do, when this guy walked up to me and asked me to come with him. I looked at him for a second and realized he was just walking 10 feet away. So I went. And he handed me three wrist bands. He told me that he and his friends had just come out of the lounge and they just wanted to pass their wrist bands along to someone else. So we popped them right on and walked right in to the party. CRAZY! That place was ok. It was not $50 worth of fun, but it was worth the $0!

Today, I am laying in bed, and doing about 12 hours worth of homework. I really want to clean my apartment, but I don't know when that's going to happen. I know that you're thinking it could have happened this weekend if I would have stayed in, but I needed a break. Haha. It was worth every minute of it! Hopefully I finish this homework at a reasonable hour. I have a couple of Netflix to watch.

Yesterday was AMAZING!

Yesterday was super, fantastic! Not that all of the other days haven't been, but yesterday was just a blast. We filmed on one of the Universal Studio backlots again, but this time we were divided into bigger groups. Our class had previously been divided into quarters, but we were divided into halves. There are 15 of us, so one group of 8 and one group of 7. My group was the group of 7.

Our assignment was to improv a "mockumentary". A mockumentary is a mock-documentary.

We had to create a new culture and interview people in the culture. We all acted in it, co-wrote it, and co-directed it. We just had the most fun coming up with ideas and running all over the place to film it. It didn't even feel like school. And granted, we've been making movies all along, but for some reason, this was different. We were all discussing how much fun we had, and we decided that it was because it was OUR project. We were all equally invested in it, which made being in the crew feel different, and it made every aspect of it different. Not to mention, that it was a comedy. I've been doing dramas this whole time. So doing something light like this was a nice change of pace.

Now we have to get together and edit it. That part might be difficult; there will be 7 people throwing out their input on putting it together. We'll see how that goes. Haha.

Halloween weekend! There apparently is a huge parade in West Hollywood on Monday night. I'll be going to that and letting you know about it.

Contact Scare

I just had a scare that I lost my contact in my eye. Sunday night, after a long day of filming, I came home and my eye was itching out of control. You may not know this about me, but I'm slightly addicted to rubbing my eye when it itches. For some reason, once I start rubbing, it is almost impossible for me to stop. Being exhausted must have caused me to forget that I was wearing contacts. Normally, when I'm wearing my contacts and my eyes itch, I have a delicate way of rubbing my eye. This eye rub was FAR from delicate. I attacked my eye like someone would if s/he had been handcuffed for years with a major itch and couldn't scratch. The rub must have lasted a good five minutes, and it felt euphoric. Later that evening, I headed to the bathroom to take my contacts out, and I couldn't find the one in my left eye. I looked in the mirror and didn't see anything. I was calm about it. I figured that I would go to bed, and when I woke up in the morning, the contact would resurface. Guess who's theory did not come true!

Today, when I woke up and my contact was still "lost", I started to get a little nervous. Mind you, it has now been TWO days since the contact went missing. I was sitting in class thinking that if someone else told me this happened to them, my first question would be, "Have you seen a doctor?" So then I began to get paranoid that my contact was lost behind my eye and become infected and I would lose my eye. I asked my Cinematography teacher to look up optometrists in the area. I called one and he said that it was impossible for my contact to go behind my eye, and if it was "lost" under the lid, then I would know. Psshh. What does an optometrist know? So I googled it, "Can a contact be lost in your eye?" And do you know what google said? The same thing as the other guy. CRAZY! But just to be on the safe side, I will be flushing my eye out with eye drops again.

Movie Making Madness

I haven't had actual class since last Wednesday, because we are working on our 8 week films. Thursday was a pre-production day, and Friday, we began production on my project. We shot on Friday from 4pm to 11pm, and then we filmed on Saturday from 10am to 7pm. They were pretty long days, but I had a fantastic time!

There was a scene on Friday, where the couple wakes up in the middle of the night, to find that the wife has had a miscarriage. On my pre-production day, I purchased chocolate syrup and poured it onto a blanket, thinking that it would harden and my actress could just lay on the puddle. I'm filming in black and white, so i didn't need anything red; chocolate syrup will come off as blood on film. Well, day of, i touched the chocolate, and it hadn't hardened. It was sticky, instead. So she laid down on the sticky chocolate syrup puddle, and when the actor bent down to scoop her up, he lifted, and she stuck to the puddle. Can I tell you that all of the crew was on the floor laughing and crying?! The poor actors just stood on the plastic bags I'd placed on the floor, as chocolate dripped off of them. They looked borderline horrified, as they watched us try to catch our breaths and compose ourselves. It was one of the most disgusting things I'd ever seen. Easily top five grosses moments ever. One of my crew mates said to me, "you really put your actors through a lot." I felt so bad. But I feel as though we my crew and I have a strong bond with these particular actors now.

Sunday and Tuesday we filmed on a crew mate's movie. That was a lot of fun too. I just remembered thinking that I could really get used to this. I am so happy right now; it's almost incomprehensible. It is definitely indescribable. I'm so glad I finally took the steps to do this.

We'll do some more filming this week and then it's back into the classroom on Monday. In the meanwhile, because I filmed my movie on film, instead of with a digital camera, I have to have my film processed. Normally we just turn it in at school, and it magically appears to us in digital form. My directing teacher told us that if we wanted, we were able to sign up to watch our film be processed and correct any coloring issues. This process is called a Supervised Telecine. When we drop it off at school, it's Unsupervised. So, I called and set up an appointment. No one else in my class seemed to express interest in doing this. But what I found was that with the amount of film I shot, and with my student discount, it's actually CHEAPER for me to do the supervised. Now, I don't know about you, but I get to sit in, have them make corrections, AND pay less. Sounds like a terrific deal to me. That's scheduled for Friday morning at 11. Super excited!!!!

Alright, I'm about to do some recommended reading: Directing Actors. I'll let you know how the rest of the filming and the telecine go. Bye!

Guess Who I Met!

I saw Damon Wayans again at school today. My buddy, Atoki, was talking to him, so I planned to just casually walk by and be incorporated into their conversation. But I ended up missing them talking. A friend and I were talking about how sad we were that we missed our opportunity to talk to him, when Atoki offered to introduce us. What?! We were so excited! I actually skipped over there. Atoki introduced Jimmy and then walked off. I commented on that by saying, "thanks for introducing me." That's when Damon looked at me and said, "what's your name?" He shook my hand, and then asked me if I was in the acting program. We talked for a couple of minutes, and then he had to return to class.

I walked back into my classroom telling my classmates that they could shake the same hand that touched Damon Wayans'. My teacher then said, "Edrei, am I going to get complaints about you talking to celebrities?" I responded, "I only speak to people who want to be spoken to." Haha! I love that he is doing the 8 week program. When Shaq came to my school in August, he did a private program where he didn't interact with any of the students. Dam0n is in a regular classroom with other students.

Well, I don't have class again until October, 24th, because we're filming. I'll let you know how it goes!

102% = A+

I had my first test today! That's right, grad students take tests, and this grad student aced it! Our cinematography teacher told us last week that we would have a test today over the Arri S camera. Naturally, we all groaned. We're filmmakers. Filmmakers don't have to take tests. Our films are all the proof that you need that we've been paying attention and learning. The teacher emailed us a review sheet, and then I scheduled a review session, just to make sure I milked his brain. Unfortunately, I only got 2 out of 3 of the bonus questions right, so I didn't get the perfect score of 103%. Either way, your girl still has an A+ average in grad school!!!!!

Ready for some more big news? Damon Wayans is doing an 8 week filmmaking program at my school. I saw him today. We've been told several times that we're not allowed to approach celebs at school. However....if he hadn't been in a full fledge conversation, I maybe might have gone up and started talking to him. Maybe.

After the Damon spotting, I had another celeb sighting. Gary Oldman was standing outside of the school building, smoking a cigarette. I didn't have anything to say to him, but it was nice to know that if ever I wanted to see a celebrity, all I have to do is go to school!

This upcoming weekend, I will be shooting my 8-week film project. I think I've only been in school for 5 weeks...but maybe by the time we're all done filming and editing, it will be 8 weeks. Pretty exciting stuff.

My MacBook and Me

As you know, my MacBook arrived over the weekend. Since then, we have been inseparable. I'm reminded of the doll that came out in the 80s: My Buddy. I walk around singing the song from the commercial, but I replace "my buddy" with "my MacBook". It goes, "My MacBook, my MacBook, wherever I go, he goes. My MacBook, my MacBook...my MacBook and me." We're so happy together!

I got out of class today at 1pm, because we were supposed to be editing today from 1pm to 11pm. But guess who was already done editing because they did it from the comforts of their own home last night. Me! I was up until 2am editing. I couldn't stop! My movie was coming together so nicely, I just had to finish it. I had the tv on, I was eating and talking to my friend; all of which are huge no-nos in the editing lab at school. This laptop is easily one of the best investments EVER.

The movie that I shot over the weekend is a music video. We don't have any restrictions on what kinds of movies we make; we just have to make sure we meet the requirements. The first movie that we made was to not exceed 1 minute, and it was only supposed to be one shot. It's called a mise-en-scene. With it being one shot, there are no cuts. The camera can follow the action, but there is no cut to this view or cut to another view. What you see is what you get. Our next project was to do an exchange. We had to get all of the shots to make the story go together. Let's just say that was a learning experience. My people just ended up in places. Haha. I won't make that mistake again. The next film was the continuity film. We had to tell a 3 minute story that happened in real time. That one turned out pretty good. The one that I shot over the weekend is my favorite so far. Maybe it's because we got to finally put sound on our films....and I really like the song that I ended up using. Yay!

I was trying to post my first film on here, but after waiting 10 minutes for it to upload, I tried again, and finally decided that I will have to post somewhere else. Sorry! I really wanted to share with you. I'm gonna try and post it on my Facebook fan page.

People are Trying to Make Me Snap!

My goodness! Why have I already had a crazy day already?! I went to bed last night super excited that I would finally get a chance to sleep and wake up when my body felt well rested. I don't have my first class today until 4pm. Exciting! I know. So, I woke up around 9am, and went to the gym for the first time since I moved out here. It felt good to get my workout on. I ran two miles on the treadmill and then came back to my apartment and did my ab workout. After that I was ready to take on the tasks that I'd been needing to get to, but just didn't have the time.

I made a list of places to contact:

Student Loans - I hadn't gotten a chance to get them deferred yet.

Apple Support - a program I installed on my computer wasn't working.

Insurance Company - every since I left my job, I've been paying for COBRA, but wasn't really sure if it was effective.

So I called Apple Support first, just because I'd been trying to install this program since Sunday, when I actually got the computer, and it kept telling me that I had to register the software. Then every time I tried to register the software, it gave me an ERROR message and wouldn't let me proceed. I was already fed up with Apple, because I hate iTunes. And as I was speaking with the woman in tech support, i was trying to keep in mind that she had nothing to do with iTunes refusing to sync the music in my music folder. And I was doing just fine, until I could hear the frustration in her voice from me being an incompetent Mac user. I tried to explain to her that I've only had the computer for a couple of days, but I could tell she wasn't interested. She gave me ANOTHER tech support number and rushed me off the phone. Fine. I didn't need her.

Then I called the next number. This guy started off pleasant, until he realized how technologically un-savvy I was, and then I could hear the annoyance in his voice. What is wrong with people in customer service?! Why did you take a job where people were going to be calling you and asking you dumb questions about computers. If you wanted to be doing rocket science, then go do that. Don't take your frustration out on me. I paid good money for Apple Care. Anyway, he walked me through what I needed to do, and I was on my merry way. A little perturbed, but on my way.

Next, I called the student loan people. I'd gotten a letter from my previous carriers, who told me that they gave me to someone else. I was a little sad, but whatever. That letter came in July...and then I never heard from the new people. The old Edrei wouldn't have cared, but the new Edrei has AMAZING credit and almost couldn't sleep at night, thinking about what this could be doing to my great score. So I called them. The first indicator that they weren't on top of their game, was that when I entered in my zip code, it told me it didn't match. So then I entered in another one, and got the same response. I wondered where they thought I lived. And sure enough, when I got a live person, the first thing he asked was if I was still in Philadelphia. I asked why I hadn't received any statements, and he said that they had been mailing them to my address but it was inactive. So I said, "Why didn't you call me? You're sending important things to an address I'm no longer at, and no one thought to call me?" The he thought he was going to catch me in a lie, because he said, "how did you pay your balance in July?" I said, "I gave it to Citibank and they sent it to you." He said, "Oh." Then he asked if I wanted to pay the current balance. I told this guy at the beginning of the conversation that I was back in school and needed deferment paperwork. I could have just hung up on him when he asked me that. He agreed to send me the paperwork, after he told me that he couldn't find my school on a list. Whatever.

Anyway. I'm better now. I'm gonna chill for a bit and then get ready for class. I'm learning how to do some new things in editing today. I'm glad that I got my computer just in time to be able to edit from the comforts of my own bedroom. Woohoo!

Edrei Hutson - Wedding Officiant

I'm back from Denver and ready to update you. It was such a great trip! I know that I miss my friends, but I never realize how much until I see them. It was so great to see them, even if it was just for a couple of days. We are such a tight knit group, that everything just falls into place when we're together.

For those of you who don't know, I went to Denver to officiate my buddy's wedding. Patrick and Rachel asked me if I would officiate, and I said that I would. It was especially easy since they had gone to the courthouse and gotten married in December, so I didn't have to get certified, since they were already married. I was pretty excited about it, and actually got nervous when I was doing it. Despite me having some game time nerves, everyone told me that I did a great job. So, I'm guessing that I might have. Another indicator could have been that people were asking me how many weddings I've done, and then another set of friends said that they wished they would have had me do their wedding. Haha. That was a nice ego boost.

So, I got back from Denver last night and arrived at my apartment, only to find my crew still here filming. Yes, my classmates were using my apartment as their movie set while I was gone. It seemed only fair to let them do so, considering that the four of us have been using my place every weekend. Why should that change just because I was out of town? They left around 11pm, and then they were supposed to be here at 9:30am. By 10:30, everyone was here. We finished my shoot at 5pm and started my other crew mate's at 6pm. We finished his around 10pm. It was an incredibly long day. Let me rephrase that, it was an incredibly long weekend. But that's okay, because not only did I arrive to my crew being here, my MacBook Pro was also waiting for me when I got home. I've been playing around with it in my free time. And by free time, I mean the time in which I should be sleeping, because otherwise there is no free time. I'm loving this thing! And now I can edit my movies from home, so I don't have to do it in the computer lab. Woohoo! I'll start posting my films this week. I hope you guys enjoy! See, I'm playing on it now, and I should be sleeping. I have to be at school at 8 in the morning. Early! Good night.

Such a Busy Bee!

Since I last wrote, I have been super busy! I know, I know, I say that all the time. My crew filmed four movies this weekend; all were at my apartment. We started at 9am and went until 9:30pm. Then we started again at 10:30 Sunday morning, and finished at 8pm. Believe me when I say that my poor body just didn't even know what to do with itself. I was so exhausted! And then we had to be back at school at 8:15am on Monday. So yes, no weekends for us!

But even before that, on Friday afternoon, we got to go to a screening of Twister and the Q&A session that followed. The director, De Bont, came and spoke to us. He also worked on Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Speed, and many other films. Before he became a director, he was a cinematographer. He told us this crazy story about working on a film with Melanie Griffith and some other actress, whose name I don't remember, and a whole bunch of lions. Apparently, they had built some sort of pit for him to lay in and film, while the lions just walked over him. Well, one of the lions decided to turn back. Melanie Griffith and the other actress had a scene that was screaming, so when De Bont started to scream as he was being attacked by a lion, no one even noticed. He said the lion pretty much scalped him and he spent the next week in the hospital with 238 stitches in his head. Crazy!

There was a screening and Q&A last night for Toy Story, but I just knew that if I didn't take the night off and relax, that I would kill over and die. One of my classmates told me that Toy Story originally was rated R, but that they had to tone it down for the kiddies. Luckily, my school records all of the Q&A sessions, so I can check it out in the library.

I'm off to Denver tomorrow for my buddy's wedding, but I'm filming my movie on Sunday, when I get back. More to come!

The Spike Lee Room

The LA campus of New York Film Academy is made up of three buildings. All of my classes are usually in the "brick" building, but last night, my teacher chose to hold class in a room with a built-in-set in the glass building. So my classmates and I were all on our jolly way to the class when something amazing caught our eyes. The Spike Lee Room. I guess I should tell you that all of the rooms are named after directors, editors, actors, writers and such. And guess what! You have corresponding classes in those rooms. So, we have writing classes in a room named after a writer. Yep, you get the picture. Anyway, so we saw the Spike Lee Room, and it was the most spectacular thing ever! For those of you who have seen MTV Cribs, just imagine the most amazing theatre room. Well, that was what this was. Three rows of comfy chairs and a big screen. Now listen to this:

My teacher was teaching us a new lighting system, and showing us how to create a moonlight effect. He then broke out "Jurassic Park", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Kill Bill 2". These three movies have spectacular moonlit night scenes. So my teacher was putting on the first movie, and there seemed to be some kind of trouble with the DVD player. And much like in undergrad, when someone would always ask the teacher if we could have class outside, I took the DVD trouble as a cue. I blurted out, "can we watch the movies in the Spike Lee Room?" "Sure. Let's do that," my teacher responded. And just like that, I was the most popular girl in school. We rushed into the theatre room and everyone was fist bumping me and saying, "good call, Edrei." Pretty freaking amazing!

Today, we edited our films from this weekend. I'm about to send an email to my directing teacher to see if we can screen those films in the Spike Lee Room.

Tomorrow, we film on the "Europe" back lot at Universal Studios! Woohoo!

Cinematography, Directing and Editing...Oh My!

Guess who has been one busy little bee and hasn't been able to update you on the going ons. If you guessed Edrei, then you are correct! When we last left off, I was so excited to have my first go at cinematography that I was practically bursting at the seams. I would like to tell you that my first experience was everything that I had dreamed it would be, and more; but alas, I cannot.

I was all set to be the Director of Photography (DP), on my classmate's film. I woke up early Friday morning and was at her apartment by 8:00 AM. She explained her scene to me and then I followed the actors with the camera. Everything seemed great...excluding the weight of the camera. I was filming with the Arriflex S, and that thing was like a tank. So heavy! I was sore the next day, but that's getting away from the story. So everything was planned out. I knew what I was supposed to be capturing on film, and I was ready. We started rolling, and about 30 seconds in, my right eye began to fail me. I had my left eye closed, but I was unable to make out the images through the lens. It was as if my eye had become exhausted and just gave up. So after she called "cut", I had to explain to her that I wasn't sure what I'd captured, because I wasn't able to see. She was very patient and seemingly understanding. So we tried again. And I'll be darned if the same thing didn't happen! I felt so terrible!!! All I wanted was to do a good job, and here, I'd single handedly ruined my classmate's film. The best way for me to explain it would be that as the film runs through, it's blinking at 24 frames per second. This blinking caused my eye to blink. With all of the blinking going on, it was impossible for my eye to focus on a person, because the film was throwing it off. It was ridiculous.

The next day, Saturday, I got to get up bright and early to go film at Universal Studios. We filmed on the same lot where they filmed Back to the Future. It was amazing! The whole time, I kept thinking, "I'm on the Back to the Future lot. Wow." I was the director of my first project. It was a guy who stumbled and dropped a bunch of things, and a woman approaches to help him pick the stuff up. The guy immediately falls in love, only to discover the woman is wearing an engagement ring. I don't know y'all; I may be a natural at the directing thing. I absolutely loved it. I was completely in my element.

On Sunday, I directed another film in my apartment. You guys didn't believe me when I said I have school seven days a week. And the teachers weren't playing when they called this first semester boot camp. Any way, I directed a project in my place yesterday. It was so perfect! I say this, but I haven't seen any of the footage. But in my mind, my actor was spot on, so I'm super hopeful.

Today, I had my first editing class, and then I was thrown into editing my project from Saturday. Yeah. It's hands on. You learn by doing. I'm a firm believer in that. Guess who is an editing mastermind! You guessed it: me! I love editing. I put my little movie together from the other day and it seems alright. Sure, it's not my best work; the Fish Tank was pretty great, but I didn't direct or edit that. I directed and edited this. I was at school from 8 AM to 10 PM today, and I didn't even mind. That let's me know something. I'm so freaking excited about all of the stuff that I'm learning!!!!

1st Screenwriting Class

Up until now, I had only had Directing and Cinematography classes. But today, I had my first Screenwriting class! It was so exciting! It's really fun to find out that my teachers are legit. The teacher was asking us what our plans were for our shoots this weekend and one by one, he added to the ideas and turned them from mediocre to amazing. Then, one of the guys in my class looked up his IMDB, and he has a serious feature film under his belt. Crazy! Now we're all inspired to look up the others. Haha.

Tomorrow will be our first time filming. I don't know if I told you that if we aren't directing our own films, then we are crew on our classmates films. So tomorrow I am DP (director of photography), also know as a cinematographer for my classmate's film. I seriously have the potential to mess her film up! Remember that I told you guys that I don't love cinematography. But as long as I capture her vision, then things should be alright. After we shoot her film, then I am AC (assistant camera) on another film. My job there is to basically be the right hand of the DP. So if the film is out of focus, that's my fault. If the film is not properly slated, that's my fault. The only thing I am not in charge of tomorrow is lighting. However, I will be in charge of that on Sunday, and then I get to direct my film on Sunday!

We checked out our equipment today for the weekend films and I just felt this overwhelming surge of excitement. I'm serious that it is taking everything for me to not just jump up and down on a regular basis. I can't wait to finish my project and post it so you can see!!!!!!

Class Days 4 and 5

I love my school! Don't be surprised if you hear that often. I'm finding that my school is like a "Please Touch Museum".

Yesterday, my class went to Griffith Park to play with cameras. The ideas behind the exercises were to ensure that everyone learned how lighting and focus worked. I know that I had my mind blown when my teacher started to talk about measuring distance and pulling focus and all of this other stuff that sounded like some mambo jumbo. Let's just say that I was sitting in my Cinematography class wondering if I would ever be able to figure out how to get a subject in focus. I don't know about you, but I just assumed that the camera would auto focus. Don't regular video cameras do that? After spending 4 hours filming in the park, I decided that cinematography is not for me, and that I obviously made the correct decision when I decided I wanted to direct.

Today, we went to the Universal Studios props and wardrobe building. It's one of the largest in the country and houses anything that Universal Studios has used on a film or television set since 1912. If I wanted to make a movie with a gown from Gone with the Wind, and have ET wearing it - I could do that. Crazy! This place was so gigantic. And it had everything you could ever imagine, and all so organized. Despite it being well organized, I still started to feel overwhelmed by how much it reminded me of something like the world's largest thrift store. I could just imagine how I might find myself spending hours sorting through item after item. I'm not going to get ahead of myself. I'll stress out about shopping there when the time comes. In the film that I'm making this weekend, I already have all of the props that I need. Yay!

Loading Cameras and Casting Calls

The second day of school was even more exciting than the first!

I had my first Cinematography class and we learned how to load an Arriflex S camera with 16mm film. Just as I suspected, I was a natural. I loaded that camera like Forrest Gump loaded that gun. If the teacher would have asked, "Edrei, why did you load that camera so fast?" I would have responded with, "Because you told me to." And then if he would have said, "Edrei, are you a genius?" I would have said, "Why yes, yes I am!"

After that class was over, there was an open casting for the MFA Acting students. Let's just say that I have a whole new respect for Casting Directors. That job is HARD! I've been several auditions, and the decision was easy to me; pick me. Clearly I'm the best for the job. But when you see 40 different people, there are those who stand out, and those who don't make any type of impression. And it's just like everyone always tells you: you remember the beginning and the end, but the middle seems to fade away. So I remembered the group that auditioned first and the group that auditioned last, but those two in the middle, not so much.

I get to film my first project next weekend, and before I went to bed last night I didn't have a clue. But the crazy thing is that I knew that when I woke up this morning, I would know exactly what my project was going to be. And you know what? I did. I woke up with the clearest vision for this project. I don't know how many times I can say it, but I'm so excited!

Sinus Infection and the First Day of School

Well hello everyone! I'm blogging from sunny California. And as you can tell by the title, today was my first day of school, and I'm sick. Sad face! But not to worry, I was able to drag myself out of bed and rush into class 10 minutes late...covered in sweat. Not exactly the first impression I was hoping to make, but, what can you do?

I received my class schedule yesterday, and boy do they have us working like dogs! For those of you who don't know, I am enrolled in a two-year, accelerated MFA Filmmaking program at New York Film Academy. Everyone always says, "New York Film Academy? But it's in LA?" The answer is, "Yes. And yes." There is a campus in New York, the network is through there, the financial aid is through there other stuff is through there. The LA campus is just the sister campus; the popular, pretty sister campus.

Much like they promised me when I was contemplating enrollment: I will be at school Monday through Friday, some days until 9 or later, and my weekends will be filled with making films. In the first 8 weeks of class, I will have made 4 short films. The teachers explained that this time is considered "Boot Camp". And I believe it. You know me though, I'm looking at my schedule wondering when I'm going to be able to eat. I brought a sandwich today and one of my classmates told me that I was smart for that. I just nodded. I already knew.

I'll be the first to admit that the class schedule had me nervous at first. Mind you, there is zero amount of structure to the schedule. There is no pattern whatsoever. No Monday is the same, nor is any week. I will have to reference the schedule everyday. Like I said, I was nervous. I very much enjoy structure in my life. However, when I moved past the dates and times and started to look at the classes I'm going to take, I could not help from smiling. I'm taking:

Director's Craft

Cinematography

Screenwriting

Digital Editing

Acting for Directors

Film History

How exciting is that?! I'm in LA learning how to make movies!!! It takes everything in me to keep from breaking out in Tourrete's type outbursts. That's a lie. Being sick makes it very easy to not have sudden outburst. This little chick has a low energy level. Well, this illness is getting the best of me. I'm going to have to cut this short and lay down. See you later!