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!