The Reason Why Everything is Going Digital....

This post is going to be purely cathartic. I need to vent some.

So I had my film shoot this weekend. I had done a lot of preparations for it. I had re-written the script, secured locations, the cast and crew. Gone over the equipment with my lab instructor to make sure I knew how to load the cameras properly and what I need to do to get the desired effects (filters, etc). So the night before I made up the shot list. My producer was so pumped about our shoot. I was happy that we were well-prepared and everything should have gone fairly smoothly. However, I think we angered the film gods in some way. The first thing that had gone wrong was I left some equipment at my house, but since we had two hours til the crew showed up, it wasn't a problem, and we picked it up. we got the camera loaded, set up the lights for our second location since our first location was outside. We had the right filter, done light meter readings, blocked our actors and ran through some rehearsals. Our audio equipment comes with two batteries, both of them died right away. We found extension cords and worked it out. The mic we got wasn't working, but since one of our crew had one it wasn't a big problem. Our audio was good, I was pleased with the actors performances in rehearsal. We had good light outside. But when we went for our first take, the camera started making a sound that was just....wrong. I thought it might've been the way I loaded it. So we took the mag off the camera, I had it in the camera bag and put the film on a new mag, triple checked to make sure I loaded it right the second time. That held up production for an hour and one of our actors had to leave. I thought we might've been able to still get it since we still had light and an extra crew member that was going to fill in for the actor. But by the time we got the camera loaded, the camera did the same thing. It was making weird noises that didn't sound right. We lost the light, we couldn't even shoot anything and we couldn't do it the next day because we were all working on another shoot or had other things happening. So now I have to figure out what happened and reschedule everything. I kinda hope it was the camera, because I really felt like crap. The thing with directing is, the whole thing is on your shoulders, and even though we couldn't do anything about what happened, I still felt like I let my whole cast and crew down. Everybody took Saturday afternoon to come and help, when they didn't have to and we spent two hours preparing and setting up, only to have to take everything down again. This week is gonna be fun trying to figure out how to fix it. Now I need to make a sacrifice to the film gods and hope the film spirits come back. Now I understand why everything is going digital!

More ramblings to come........

School Crap

Hope everybody's having a good autumn so far.

Things are busy at school. Just finished a one take video based on someone else's script. I'll have it on the computer, so ask me for it next time you see me. I really liked how it turned out and it was a lot of fun to shoot. But, we got assigned our film assignment yesterday. We have less than a month to shoot and edit a 3-4 minute film. Since I was producer last project, I'm the director on this one. It should be a pretty quick and stressful month. But working on these projects is fun because I'm getting to know the people in my class better. The best part is I'm able to use my creativity. I'll write some more soon. Keepin it short tonight.

More ramblings to come......

Musings: Family

So I was thinking tonight about family.....

Our world moves too fast to keep up to everybody now. Think of how many family members you have sprawled all over the country and the world. When I was a kid, we spent so much time with my grandparents and cousins. But now as adults, my sister lives in the US and I see her once every year and a half. I have a cousin who lives in Australia and I see her once every five years. I see my other cousins I grew up with about every two years. My parents live 8 hours away. I miss the connection we had when we were growing up. I miss all my family. I also feel like I'm depriving my kids of that because they don't have that. None of my family lives here.

I think it's true that to know where we're going we have to know where we've been. I was thinking tonight about my other family. My ex is a part of my family whether either of us likes it or not. But I feel like we've reached a point where we've put the past behind us and have become friends. I think we also had to learn about healthy boundaries for us. It took some time, but we've both grown and our relationship changed. I think we were very unhealthy together, but I don't think that means that we can't be healthy with other people. If I didn't see where I'd gone wrong and what part I played, I'd be doomed to repeat it. I'm a lot less of a victim now and less dependent on him than I used to be. And that is making us all the better parents for it, I think. Family is what we make it. Sometimes you and your family can't keep as close as you once did. But that doesn't mean we don't love our family any less.

More ramblings to come....