Two Years! (Part Two: Successes and Failures)

When pursuing a creative career, it’s difficult to define success and failure… just getting into a known person’s network is actually a great accomplishment, but not one that registers on anyone’s radar but your own. Selling a screenplay or making a film is obviously a success, but then if they bomb, you might have been better off if no one had ever seen them.

In school, it’s easier to define success – they give you grades. On your own, in life, you set your own benchmarks and have to honestly grade yourself.

In my not-so-unbiased opinion, I consider my No MFA Project a success. Of course, though, there are things I would have done differently. So here we go, part 2 of my two-year summary: what was great, and what I would have done differently.

What Was Great:

I feel short and sweet bullet points suffice for this section. The things that worked well speak for themselves. One thing I do want to especially point out though, for anyone pursuing a career in this industry – and that includes actors, who have a harder time than anyone else getting work – learn filmmaking skills. Being able to produce yourself is the key to showing yourself, getting attention, and having a real conversation starter with other people in this business.

That being said, here’s my list of "great":

-The amount of writing I got done

-The contacts I made (best found attending a film festival and taking a few one-off courses)

-The films I completed, and winning two awards for my first short film

-Learning filmmaking.

-Getting paid filming jobs (another place to meet people)

-Now being brought on to a few major writing projects 

What I would have done differently:

1. I pushed myself a lot, but would have pushed myself even more, particularly with completing more short films this past year. My issue was indecisiveness in choosing the script for my next short. A producer gave me the advice that, with two shorts under my belt, I was ready to do a short version of a would-be feature-length film, and to find a “name” person to star. His reasoning was that the piece could then be shopped around to studios, who would pay attention because of the star, and quite possibly opt to make the feature. This was great advice. However, I got so hung up on finding the “perfect project,” I stalled and didn’t make a third short. Looking back, I should have just kept on filming whatever I wanted to film so that I had ever more on my reel and learned more about the craft.

2. Maybe this sounds presumptuous, but I would have quit my job even sooner. I was there for more than three years and the last year and a half contributed very little to (or perhaps even took away from) my personal growth, development, and confidence. The sooner I got out, the sooner I felt like I found myself, started churning out more and more projects, and learned the things I needed to learn.

3. Networked more. It’s only been in the past three months that my networking has really exploded – and in the past three months I’ve been brought on to a TV series, asked to do the script for an independent feature film, and found interest in some of my stage play ideas. My recent status as social butterfly is owing to several factors: meeting people at the film festival; being lucky enough to connect with a supportive producer who then introduced me to a wide variety of film and broadway professionals; the fact that there have been a ton of industry holiday parties I was lucky enough to hear about, and the decision not to miss a single one. If I was starting all over, I would have sought out networking opportunities every week.

4. Overall, being more structured. The challenge to working at home and not being in school is the fact that no one is giving you structure and no one is checking up on you. It’s easy to procrastinate by running errands, watching TV, etc. While I was actually rigid about working every day, I still feel there was more time that could have been used productively. I would actually write myself out a daily schedule with weekly goals in the future.

The good news is, even though I’ve passed the two year mark (the length of an MFA program and technical end of the No MFA Project), my progress isn’t going to stop. I can take all of the above and apply it to my future. Which brings me to…

No MFA Project for Life.

Education shouldn’t stop with the end of school, and of course, it’s not going to stop for me at this point in my life. Doing this project has opened my eyes to all the possibilities for making a creative career a reality. The career is creative – the approach needs to be, too.

I’m going to keep going, keep learning, keep meeting people, and most importantly… keep writing. And sharing all my progress with you, up to the moment when, finally, I see my work on the big screen and my books in a bookstore.

Hope you’ll stick around for what’s to come.  :) 

Two Years! (Part One: Four Original Goals)

Well, actually, two years and a week… on December 1^st, 2012, I hit the two-year mark with the No MFA Project (which, in theory, means it's completed, since a typical MFA program is two years long.)

I’m willing to argue that in the past two years and one week, I’ve made as much progress as I would have if I’d been in an MFA program – if not more.

I want to look waaay back at the four key goals I set for myself in December 2010 to see how I’ve stacked up.

1. LEARN FILMMAKING SKILLS. 

Done! Nowadays, if you’re aspiring to be a screenwriter, this is essential - you need a calling card. Top dramatic writing MFA programs agree, which is why they give screenwriting students the option to take filmmaking courses and require short films (often by partnering them with film students) to be completed before graduation.

I learned about filmmaking in a course at the Digital Film Academy that cost $3,000. An added bonus was being able to use their film equipment for free for the next year. I used it for paid film gigs and personal projects alike.

I had hoped to finish a short film in the first year of the No MFA Project, which didn’t happen, because I did need at least minimal training first. Once I took this inexpensive and fabulous class, I completed two shorts within the second year of my self-made program.

2. CONNECTIONS WITH ALUMNI AND OTHER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS.

Even people who think school is stupid will often cave and apply when they decide they need an alumni network to get ahead in life.

What I found is that, just by attending networking events and taking several one-off courses, I’ve amassed a network that’s as helpful if not more so than what I would have expected of an MFA program. I hold an MA in publishing – and after $50k left that school without any real community to speak of. I now have passionate people wanting to collaborate on projects and move our careers forward. Earlier today, I attended a table reading of a sizzle reel for a TV series. (I wrote the sizzle reel script.) A producer I met through the DFA created the series and is working to get it picked up by a network. He brought me onto the project as lead writer.

3. PITCHING SCRIPTS.

This was something the Tisch MFA career center claimed to do for students.

Granted, the school has connections, but isn’t the best person to present your idea you? I tried to get practice doing this by attending the Screenwriter’s World Conference last January and pitching to different production and management companies. Four out of four went ahead and requested my screenplays, so I’m confident in my pitching skills. (I’ve been planning to do a post on how to pitch for a long while, and promise it’s coming soon!)

4. SHEER TIME TO WRITE/COMPLETE PROJECTS.

A huge plus of going back to school is that your time will be devoted to writing and not sucked away by a crappy job. In my first year doing No MFA, I completed one screenplay while also working full-time. Things sped up in the second year when I left that job. I’ve now completed a second screenplay, a novella, a bunch of articles and short scripts, and a major revision of a screenplay I’d written years earlier. (Also, the two short films.) Yes, I had to quit my job to get all that done… but I would have had to quit to do an MFA anyway, and then I would have been buying time - literally.

This past week, I was offered a job at a cool film, art, and fashion publishing house. I’m grappling with whether or not to take it since, now that I’m doing so much writing, I don’t want to screw it up by having to re-adjust to a fifty-hour work week and, essentially, be too exhausted to write. (Of course, it would be nice to have the extra income for buying film equipment, since my DFA membership will expire in two and a half months!)

More on this crossroads to come, but if I do wind up taking the job, that ‘sheer time’ element will be out of my equation, and I’ll be blogging on how to strike a balance between pursuing a creative career and having a day job.

Check back soon for Part Two of this post, where I’ll talk about the No MFA Project’s greatest successes and failures, what I would have done differently, and what’s yet to be accomplished!

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So, tomorrow, it will have been an official two years since starting the No MFA Project - and this past month has been the busiest yet in terms of who I've met and deals that are in the works. I fully plan on giving all readers the total low-down on the No MFA Project, what it has been from start to finish, and what lies ahead...

But first, friends - it's been a busy, busy week, so the two-year update will actually be coming in on 'two years and two days.' In the meantime, enjoy the weekend, and remember - there's no excuse for excuses! Get out there and follow your dreams, MFA or No MFA.

Documentary Encounters

It was a fast and furious five days, but I was able to edit down hours’ worth of footage into a 13 minute, 33 second ‘ghost-umentary.’ At least, a ghost-umentary is what I’m calling it… ‘Otherworldly Encounters’ started as a collection of true ghost stories and ended as more of an argument that an ‘otherworld’ does exist all around us.

I loved every minute of working on this project, despite the time crunch. During the month of October, I interviewed real New Yorkers – including one professional medium – about supernatural experiences they’d had within the five boroughs. Despite not sleeping much this past month, I was thrilled with how sincere (and sincerely bone-chilling) these interviews were. Rather than simply present a series of ‘ghost stories,’ as had been my original intention, I instead wound up piecing together a mini-documentary whose goal, really, was to convince viewers that experiencing something supernatural is actually pretty natural in the grand scheme of things.

My aim had been to finish this video right before Halloween, which, incidentally, also wound up being right before Hurricane Sandy struck New York. That being said, the focus this week definitely shifted away from releasing this short under the most perfect possible conditions.

I’ll be doing what I can to try and drive up the number of views in the coming weeks, though, and while I’m at it – feel free to watch, comment, share, like, and enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/52363683

A few final notes on the experience of making something in the documentary style…

This was my first time doing something in this genre, and right off the bat, I can tell you that in the battle of documentary vs. narrative, they both have their pros and cons. With documentary, it’s ok for the editing to be a little choppy. You don’t have to stick to a perfectly planned-out script. You also have an easier time filming, since setting up one chair with lighting for the interviewee is typically sufficient.

On the flip side, though, without a script, a documentary can be very hard to nail down. The ending of ‘Otherworldly Encounters,’ in particular, gave me a lot of trouble. The ending I finally used was the third one I created. Likewise, there were a lot of great stories and one-liners that didn’t make the final cut simply because there was no good way to include them without going off on big tangents.

Overall, though, I learned that I loved working in the documentary style. It’s amazing the kind of emotion and history people will give you when talking about their real lives. I loved feeling how I used to feel when I was working on a paper in college and had a ton of great sources to pull from: like I had the power to piece their most valuable insights into one, super-valuable final product. 

I definitely see more documentary in my future.

The Perils of Filming Ghost Stories (...Right Before Spending a Long Weekend Alone)

Fresh off the glory of WilliFest, I was feeling extra-inspired to get more filming done. I was particularly inspired by an article I read about how to score a high number of viewings on Vimeo… the article detailed the exact right time to post your film, among other things, to help it get a lot of hits. (See article here.)

So I started to think… what short could I make within the next few weeks that I could post to get a lot of hits? What might be happening this month that would interest people?

HALLOWEEN.

Ok, brilliant – I decided I would interview people with ghost stories and put a segment together for Halloween. Interviewing people on camera, as opposed to orchestrating the filming of a narrative short, is comparatively easy. I would just need to book a room at the DFA, set up some creepy lighting, and rattle off a list of questions to my interviewees about their supernatural experiences.

It went great. I was thrilled with how my lighting turned out. The interviewee I had on my first night of filming was super generous with the details he was willing to discuss… the interview itself was juicy. I went home thinking I had gold.

One problem.

The next morning, I had to head to Pennsylvania to do four overnight stays with a dog. (Yeah, remember when I bought that pet care business back in May?) Said dog’s house is set back from the road, surrounded by woods, and ‘my’ bedroom when I stay there is in the basement.

I stayed there once before over the summer, with no problems whatsoever. But this time was different. This time, every time I had to go to bed, I was faced with absolute terror.

All because my interviewee’s story, about how as a teenager he had seen a demon in the woods near his house, had gotten under my skin… and I kept expecting to see one myself around every corner in this dark, silent mansion. (‘Mansion’ is not an exaggeration.)

It didn’t help that the house’s plumbing routinely made noises that sounded like doors opening and closing in other parts of the house.

And it really, REALLY didn’t help that, on my last night there, by which time I was desperate for sleep, the dog (who never EVER barks) began barking hysterically inside her crate up in the kitchen at exactly midnight, begging to go into the yard where she proceeded to flip out even more, and then taking over an hour to calm herself back down.

I returned to NYC yesterday and was as grateful as I’ve ever been to fall into a deep, peaceful sleep, feeling ‘safe’ in my own apartment and with my husband by my side. Now I just hope that I can manage to edit my footage, alone in my apartment during the day, in time for Halloween… and that the end product is worth it!

Also, of course… I hope I can get through the remaining interviews I still have to film!

WilliFest!

Just over a week ago, the Williamsburg International Film Festival was in full swing, and yours truly was in attendance! It was an amazing event, and more than your typical film festival since it also included a concert series, street fair/block party, and more.

It was the first film festival I ever attended, and I was so honored to be there on the strength of my film. Going made me wish I had attended film festivals long ago, even before I had any movie to show. I feel like I learned more about networking, financing, and actually making a film HAPPEN in four days at the festival than I could have from any book, lecture, or class.

To quickly recap the events, I went to opening night and was automatically thrown into a world of people who love story and film as much as I do. I had worried about meeting others, since I was entourage-less, and making the most out of the opportunity to network.

I didn’t need to worry.

Each person was so excited to talk about both their project and my project that starting conversations was easy. What’s more, everyone was there to network, so making connections was far simpler than I had thought. By the end of opening night, I had watched the first few movies with two new film-maker friends from Minnesota, then went out to dinner with three others who had come all the way from Australia. (Industry Magazine was also present and I’m pictured twice on their website at the opening gala, http://industrym.com/willifest-2012-press-gala/, third one in on the second row and second one in on the bottom row.)

The second day, I hunkered down to watch six straight hours of short films in three two-hour blocks, of which my film was in the second block. As the student film category got under way, I quickly felt my confidence and excitement take a hit. Student films? I couldn’t tell them apart from the regular short films which had screened just before. They were so sleek, so polished and professional… I knew that my short had a strong story and that the actors had delivered amazing performances, but still… by the time mine came on and I heard how rough and ragged the sound was compared to the others, I wanted to melt into the floor.

I had noticed that on other student films, there were long lists of crew members, whereas in my case, there were just three other folks helping me. Also, during the filmmaker Q&As, I quickly realized that every other filmmaker had had a budget ranging from a few hundred dollars up to about ten thousand. When it was time for my own Q&A, I had to report into the microphone that I had spent a grand total of $0 on my film.

Despite being slightly embarrassed by this, it was also an inspiration… what an amazing chance to find out exactly how people went about financing and organizing these teams of people to put together these great films! I used the opportunity over the next few days to find out as much as I could about how to do this myself.

My story has a very happy ending. Two days, two panel discussions, one big party, and countless screenings later, it was time for the awards ceremony. I was thrilled to find out that my short actually took one of the prizes, the Certificate for Achievement in Short Film.

Being accepted into Willifest and then having also received one of the prizes has been so encouraging… while I was starting to stall a bit on the filmmaking side of things, I now have huge incentive (and enthusiasm) for tackling another project!

 

The Speed of Write

How Fast Do You Write?

I was reading a chapter in William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screentrade (which, by the way, is a great book on screenwriting by one of the all-time great screenwriters… also the man I heard was secretly responsible for Good Will Hunting, but you can draw your own conclusions on that) about the speed of writing and it prompted me to do this post.

Every writer seems to have his or her own thoughts about how quickly writing should happen. Some sit every day and force the words while other wait for inspiration to hit and, when it does, write for hours or even days straight. Personally, I’ve tried approaching writing every which way, but have found that if I break with a project I’m writing – that is, if I wind up having to take more than a day or two away from it for whatever reason – it most likely goes off the rails. Once I’m onto a book or a screenplay, I have to basically commit to working on it each and every day until it’s finished. For short stories and short scripts, I have to do them in one sitting.

Goldman says in his book that there’s a certain energy to starting and then getting through the work as quickly as possible and that the energy translates into the finished product. I would agree with that, especially when it comes to screenwriting.

I’ve always done a good amount of preparation before starting a new screenplay. I’ll have character bios and a decent outline ready to go.

Now, I’m in the outlining module of the ProSeries, and we are on our 6^th draft of our outlines. I’ll repeat, 6^th draft! It makes what I used to do to ‘prepare’ look as professional as a gorilla in a tie. For each pass, we’ve focused specifically on one element of our screenplays, until we’ve been as thorough as possible.

There is something to be said for the ‘just start with a loose idea and inspiration will come approach’… but what I’m finding is that inspiration will strike even in the outlining phase, and in the outlining phase, it’s easy to revise. Things can be moved around, reworked, or flat-out changed at little cost to your time. This doesn’t mean that you might not be struck by some new idea to add in later, when you’re writing, but it does mean that the overall foundation of your story is going to be solid enough that A) You’ll have a better chance of finishing and B) It’s going to have a sound storyline that won’t take years of revision to fix.

I think the real benefit of all the outlining, though, is that by the time I get to the writing phase, I’m going to be able to get through all the writing quickly, with a completed screenplay in a matter of weeks. And I agree with Goldman in that there’s an energy, once you start writing, that you don’t want to lose. Stepping away for days or weeks at a time pretty much guarantees that you will lose that energy. The more prepared you are before beginning, the less likely that is to happen, because you always know what’s coming next in your story, how you want to handle it, and how you want the audience to feel.

***Now for a few quick, exciting updates! This past week I had two great pieces of news. First, my short story ‘Not There’ was accepted for publication in the January 2013 edition of All Things Girl, an online literary magazine and print anthology series (www.allthingsgirl.com). Second, my short film, Chance, is an official selection of the Williamsburg International Film Festival, which is taking place in Brooklyn from Sept. 20-23!

I’ll keep you all posted on both the scheduled show-times and the release of the short story!

 

The Quest for High Concept

This summer has been about getting re-focused on screenwriting. I spent a lot of last year learning film-making and getting a better grasp of the industry while working on a novella instead of a script. Since the end of May, though, I’ve done a complete rewrite on a screenplay, and have now started a program the focuses on selling your screenplay: the ProSeries. This six-month course is all about screenwriting from a marketing point of view, with an eye toward getting a screenplay sold or optioned by the end of six months and often through the company that sponsors the class (bonus for them!).

So far, I’m impressed with the ProSeries. It’s intense - averaging one project per day – but over the course of six months, teaches 300 skills for creating sellable screenplays. It’s also cheap ($850 for the whole six months and then life-long membership in their contacts-loaded ProSeries alum.) This is far more helpful and direct for a student’s career than any MFA program.

I started three weeks ago and thus far, the focus has been concepts, concepts, concepts. While I’m not at liberty to divulge any of the copyrighted course material, I will tell you that we brought into the course a list of ten original ideas – which have now been put through the mill of various marketing formats and other concept elevating processes – to generate anywhere from 50-100 totally new concepts. One of these will hopefully achieve elusive ‘high concept’ status. (I’ve generated 77 concepts total, maybe having three that are close to high concept.)

‘High Concept’ is that thing which, once you really have it, you’re going to sell your screenplay. I find that most people don’t really know what it is, though. It’s not simply a good idea, or an idea that you love, or even a big-budget idea. A high concept consists of three things, regardless of budget:

1. It’s unique.
2. It has a wide audience appeal.
3. You can say just one line and see the entire movie.

A word on ‘unique’: this doesn’t just mean a unique spin on an old idea, or something that’s somewhat different from other movies… Unique means thoroughly, completely hasn’t been seen before, yet can still fit in with the 2^nd and 3^rd criteria above. And, yes – a lot of screenplays that are not truly high concept might still get sold… but not with the same gotta-have-it fanfare that a high concept will.

Most of my original ideas were borderline high concept, but needed a bit more development. After having reworked them, I narrowed my 77 down to a new, higher-brow group of ten. Then the real fun began.

Going through the script consulting/production company that the ProSeries is associated with, my ideas along with my fellow members’ ideas have now been ‘tested,’ meaning that we each got a batch of ideas and had to either call or meet up with trusted friends (people who liked movies but who are not professional writers or actors) to pitch them those ideas in one line and get their reactions.

Results were really, really interesting.

One of the things I found most fascinating was how different people’s tastes are. I knew my clear favorites… but they were not everyone else’s clear favorites. I also had people rank their #1 and 2 choices out of the 10… and if I base my final results off of what got the most ‘likes’ versus what had the most #1 and 2 rankings, I get different results.

My next step was analyzing feedback on my ideas to determine which are my top 2. Then, (this afternoon!) I’m having a call with my screenplay coach with the goal of finding something she agrees can be pitched to production companies as high concept. (Her background: she pitches regularly to 59 production companies out in L.A.) Once we pinpoint that elusive idea, I’ll spend the next couple months writing it.

I highly recommend that if you’re going to spend a few months working on a script to first see if you can’t improve the overall concept and then see if people respond well to the concept before devoting your time… More often than not, your first choice might not be what appeals to others, and if you’re just starting out, you need that first script to SELL! (Write your love projects later.)

TA'ing at the DFA

So in addition to the many random things I’ve been doing lately, I’ve become a teaching assistant at the Digital Film Academy. Not too much to say about this, except that it’s interesting to be on the other side of the desk. It’s actually a good set-up for me, since I get to basically re-take classes I had a few months ago while helping the teachers out. (Also in consideration: I might be buying one of the DFA’s official cameras. The little video camera I currently have is excellent for what it is, but it wouldn’t be up to par on a film set. We’ll see!)

I actually worked as an adjunct teacher at two universities prior to getting my publishing job, and I really do miss it sometimes. Teaching is enjoyable, and I luckily am comfortable talking to a class. (A plus for someone in a creative field, as they often wind up doing some teaching in their careers to help make ends meet.) It’s been fun to hear about what the students are planning for their short films, which they’re actually shooting now… it’ll be really interesting to see those short films at the next screening in a few months, and to find out who’s the next Director’s Choice Award winner from this new crop of filmmakers!

Equally interesting is analyzing students’ personalities. True, we all get the chance to observe other people’s behavior every day, but for some reason, a classroom atmosphere makes it extra clear – who takes charge; who takes charge, but with an attitude; who doesn’t expect to have to work; who wants to work but is too shy to step forward and do it… I think a heightened awareness/recognition of these traits can help us to hone our own traits however we want. A great part of teaching (or even just being a teaching assistant) is that you step into that role of the one in charge, the one who knows what’s going on… a role we should all be putting ourselves in every day.

This was just a short post, but I'll be back soon with what I've been learning these past few weeks about creating high concepts for your screenplays!

Film Education - PERSONA

So, as part of my No MFA program, I’m doing something film schools everywhere do – pumping my student (aka, me) full of a lot of ‘great, game-changing’ movies. My Netflix queue is now a mile long, filled with movies I’ve been told I need to see for my ‘film education.’ Today’s flick: Ingmar Bergmann’s horror classic, Persona.

The fact that I just finished watching it an hour ago, have already read about four online analyses of it, and am now rushing to do this blog post (when I haven’t posted on other movies I’ve watched), should give you an idea of the effect it had on me.

It’s not that I completely loved the movie.

It’s that I was completely, thoroughly disturbed by it.

Also, it’s that I disagree with a lot of the interpretations I’ve read online. Granted, it’s very complex and touches on a lot of themes, and any number of interpretations could be valid. But everything I was reading seemed to agree on two things that I completely disagreed with, so I have to state my point of view.

Before getting into that, though, let me give you the basic premise of the film… a renowned actress, Elisabet, suddenly goes mute. Whether this is by choice or a true affliction is up for debate. For her treatment, a doctor recommends that Alma, her nurse, takes her to a beachside home where the two of them will stay alone together for a period of time. Throughout the film, the nurse basically winds up losing her marbles, eventually begging the patient to speak with her.

The first thing that most all viewers seem to feel which I completely disagree with is that Elisabet is cruel. One psychoanalysis online even went so far as to say she’s incapable of caring for anyone but herself and rejuvenated only through others’ suffering. She will not acknowledge Alma as a human being.

But I completely disagree. At the start of the film, we see Elisabet’s desperation. She cries both when she is alone and when she sees a monk burn himself in protest on the news. She’s also afraid. During one super-uncomfortable, looooong stretch, she stares directly into our eyes, pleading with us silently to help her. (I had to fast-forward it, it was so unnerving. I also had to fast-forward two other scenes that included disturbing imagery, one of which is only thirty seconds into the movie; it may be the first time I was ever so uncomfortable with a film that I had to fast forward.)

True, Elisabet seems to recover bit by bit at the beach… but the root of her problem, as stated by her doctor, is that she’s realized nothing she can do or say can capture the truth of life; it is all pretend. Therefore, she decides to do and say nothing. I didn’t think she was trying to be cruel to Alma. I just felt that not even Alma’s pleas seemed sincere or genuine - that nothing anyone could say seemed real to Elisabet. Most people online also feel that Elisabet's profession as an actress shows her narcissism - I just felt it reinforced this idea of everything being make-believe.

The second thing that everyone but me seems to agree on is that Alma’s big speech at the end is truly revealing Elisabet’s past and not Alma’s. (By extension, everyone seems to believe that these are two separate women.) I’m not convinced that either of these is true.

First, Alma had no way of knowing all the things she claims are Elisabet’s history. Elisabet hasn’t told her and, even though Elisabet’s husband shows up briefly (and sleeps with Alma, believing her to be his wife,) I don’t think he’s shared (or could possibly have known) all the details Alma goes into, either. Furthermore, I think it entirely possible that these two women are supposed to be the same woman, stuck in an internal war with guilt and the struggle to understand life.

At any rate, it is brilliant film-making, and, according to what I read, this film includes the first-ever instance of the awesome face-merge shot in cinema:

TADA! This is two women in one.

It was beneficial to watch and I have a feeling it will have me thinking for quite a while… but, if you rent it, be warned: by the time I got through it, my first thought was: “Thank God, I survived it.” I was completely relieved it was done.

The Fine Art of Revision

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… revision has never been my strong suit. In fact, I’ve never really revised. Sure, I’ve read through the first draft, maybe changing commas and a couple of lines, but never got into the deep, intensive work that is true revision - which is why I finally justified forking over some cash to take a screenplay revision course at Columbia University.

Granted, the course was pricey… pricier than I would have liked. (Since I haven’t been billed yet and might possibly get a small discount, I haven’t yet posted the final charge in my expenses section!) I entered thinking there was nothing I could get from 6 weeks that would actually justify the cost, and telling myself that I was doing it more to report back to all of you on my experience… what surprised and delighted me, though, is that I found the course to be absolutely worth it.

This super-intensive workshop required a total reworking of an already finished screenplay.  I speak for everyone in the class when I say we started off feeling like:

And ended feeling like:

Everybody loved it: but the intense rewrites, workshops, and massive amounts of required reading left everyone exhausted and dazed by the last class (yesterday).

I brought Left, a feature-length dramatic script I wrote in grad school, to work on. It won Emerson’s Evvy Award back in 2005 and, in true go-getter fashion, I hadn’t touched it since. I never imagined how much richer the script could become since, having the award in hand, I already considered it to be pretty great. My eyes have been opened.

The professor for this course, Jessie Keyt, was amazing (you can check out her credentials here, just scroll down to her name), but what really put this workshop over-the-top was the other students. Two of them already have financing for their films, and they all have background with filmmaking and writing. Their input and advice on everything from character to structure were invaluable.

The best technique I picked up from this class, though, is to start your revisions with your outlines. Not all screenwriters start to write from an outline (although they probably should) but whether you start with one or not, make sure you have one after your first draft is done. Then, after a re-read of the script, look to the outline to start adding in what you felt the script lacked. Start your rewrite by rewriting your outline – then follow it when you go back into your script. Trust me, this is a billion times easier, both practically and psychologically, then starting a revision/rewrite in the script itself.

After this incredibly exhausting adventure, my big plan is to take two weeks off from Left. Then, I’ll go in for another rewrite (having just done a rewrite throughout the six week course), which I then am so lucky to be able to send to the professor and the other students from this class to get their feedback once more. I’m determined to whip it into way-better-than-average submission shape before the year is out.

As an aside, I was able to speak with the professor on the pros and cons of going all-in on MFA programs, and she was actually the first to say not to do it unless you have a fellowship to pay for it.

If instead you put up the full MFA program amount, you could wind up feeling like this:

My First Paid Film Job!

(Assuming you don’t count script-writing gigs I’ve have in the past!)

Last Saturday I had my first official paid film job, which was set up through the DFA. It wasn’t on a film set, but actually at a silent film screening downtown. The two films that were shown were the drama Battleship Potemkin and the comedy The General. I was very impressed by both, devastated and delighted, respectively:

                                                               Buster Keaton = Hilarious

                                                       Battleship Potemkin = My soul is crying

I forget who it was that said it, but in a documentary I saw, someone said if sound had come into movies just a few years later, there would have been far greater breakthroughs in cinematography. I’m inclined to agree, since relying only on image, these silent films have done amazing things.

Basically, my job consisted of shooting b-roll footage – outside the theater, people arriving, ushers taking tickets, popcorn popping, etc. – and then filming the Q&As after each film was shown. I was at the theater for about five hours but, given that I watched the movies, I really filmed for about two hours out of the five, making my three-figure salary not too shabby. I loved getting the freedom to wander around and shoot things that I found interesting, and to brainstorm what might be useful to the editors for the final promotional video.

But it wasn’t all popcorn and fun.

I couldn’t use a tripod, which meant using a shoulder mount to film. A shoulder mount is a device that balances the camera on your shoulder. There are handlebars in the front for you to keep it steady.

By the end of the day, my shoulder felt absolutely destroyed. It’s no mystery why you usually see big guys doing these kinds of jobs, instead of, well – me. Walking around with the camera and being able to shift it when I needed to wasn’t so bad – but filming the Q&As, both of which were almost 40 minutes, was excruciating. Sitting in one of the audience seats, toward the front, I had to remain perfectly still and balanced for the entire stretch of time. Additionally, things moved along quickly – Q&As would start before the lights even fully went up. There was no time to figure out a solution for balancing the camera on a chair or armrest before things were underway and the camera had to remain still for the rest of the shot.

If I were to have another job like this in the future, I’d insist on having something to balance the camera on besides myself. But, all in all, this was a great experience, and it felt good to be working and making contacts in the film world.

And, even though my camera apparently grazed right over him as I was taking shots of the crowd (he was in sunglasses and a hat, after all!), Matt Damon was there.

                                                                He was not posing like this.

Random Updates...

It’s been a few weeks, so I just wanted to catch you all up on a few random things that have been going on.

For starters, I got a new computer! Not just any computer – directly from the DFA and fully loaded with all the necessary filmmaker software. I got a good deal since it’s used, but it’s in great shape. Now I can do editing and make DVDs from home, instead of having to go back and forth from the school, which is a big time saver.

I will be at the school tomorrow, though, to pick up some film equipment – for my FIRST EVER PAID FILM JOB! Yep. New York’s QUAD Cinema is holding silent film screenings tonight and tomorrow, and I’m going to be filming the crowd and the Q&A sessions after tomorrow’s event. What with the recent success of The Artist, they felt it was time to have a film-school-esque discussion on silent films!

For more info:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/news-features/Quad_Classics_May_2012.html#.T77G8O1Qbk5

The other cameraman you’ll see there, if you go, is another member of my former DFA class. DFA truly doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to helping their students find work! This is actually the second job they’ve put me up for. The first I actually turned down since it was mostly a receptionist job, but it was with a DVD company and a legit, full-time, benefits-and-all position – not bad.

If you’re wondering how I plan to feed myself in the future (aside from obviously hoping to get more film and writing gigs) my craziest piece of news is that my mother and I pooled our funds this month and went in together to buy the pet care business (Tails Around Town) she’s been working for for the past three years. The original owner recently had twins and was looking to get out. Random though it may seem, I’m thrilled with the decision. This business basically equals a very flexible part-time job for me, which is perfect for balancing with my more creative endeavors. I’ll be doing mostly invoicing and other administrative tasks from NYC, as the business is actually run on Philadelphia’s Mainline – but I will occasionally be making the journey to do some pet visits and overnights myself.

For more info on us, you can visit the below website… we haven’t updated the owner info on there yet, but you get the idea.

http://www.mainlinedogwalking.com/

Definitely thinking of adding a pet video section to the website. :)

My final bit of random news is that last Sunday The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article I wrote about our wedding in India in their Travel Section! I made a little bit of money off of it, and it’s another publication to add to the resume, so I'm pretty happy.

I’ll be back soon with details on how tomorrow’s filming goes!

Universal Thumbs Down: DVD Seminar Review

If you’re like me and trying to get an education on your own, you might find yourself on Netflix, searching ‘filmmaking’ to see if there are any seminars or DVD courses to help you out. The #1 choice that will come up is John Russo’s Filmmaking Seminar.

I was really excited to get this DVD, since this is one of the guys who did Night of the Living Dead and the description claimed it would teach the viewer all about independent horror filmmaking (my favorite genre). Also, it lists this DVD as being from 2008. All I can figure is that this was the year when it was transferred onto a DVD, since the actual copyright you’ll see on the video is 1993, and it really looks like it was shot in the ‘80s. (Mullets ahoy.)

My advice to you is that this particular seminar is not worth the four and a half hours you’ll need to watch it. (Granted, I still have about an hour to go, but I predict the last hour won’t be much more thrilling than the first three and a half.)

Not that it was a complete waste of time. Hearing filmmakers talk about making their first films is inspiring, and I have picked up a few tips about film law and marketing – although nothing too distant from what I knew already. Here are my main grievances with this DVD:

1. Like I said, it’s from 1993 even if they say 2008, and it mainly focuses on making movies to sell directly into rental stores, which nowadays are pretty much obsolete.

2. For a video-turned-DVD that’s all about the art of filmmaking, I have to say: it looks HORRIBLE. Aside from looking as though it was filmed in your mom’s basement, with the door to the laundry room left ajar just behind the speakers (or a room full of random debris at best), I’m about 90% sure that the speakers were filmed on one day and that all the footage of an audience watching and reacting to them was filmed separately. The shots of the audience are never positioned so that you see the speakers and audience at the same time. The audience is also sitting in a white room with film equipment and harsh overhead lighting, while the speakers are in front of a dark brown wall with soft lighting.

3. OK, camera angles: if you’re going to have your speakers sit just in front of the open door to your mom’s laundry room, just angle the camera so you can’t see the sliver of the open room on the left-hand side of your frame.

4. For all the horny guys out there, the makeup and special effects speaker brings up a fake latex torso of a naked woman and keeps it on ‘stage’ as he speaks… to his credit, it’s super life-like… against his credit, you don’t really learn how to make anything like it for your own special effects purposes, and it really annoyed me, just because I thought it was so gimmicky and unnecessary to have a pair of boobs next to him on the table.

5. Finally, the word boring is taken to new heights. I know it’s just a filmed seminar/panel, but there’s gotta be some way to jazz it up. Even a laundry room fire could only help.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to rant about this so much, but it really is a disappointment. Does anyone out there know of a quality filmmaking course available on DVD? Particularly if it’s more modern and talks about digital filmmaking?

If not, maybe the time has come to make one!

Film Fests and Script Supervising

The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, but well worth it.

For starters, I did get my submission off to the Williamsburg Film Festival in time… fingers crossed, they post their film lineup in August.

I’m going to keep on with submissions, and my next stop is the Stony Brook Film Festival… this one’s actually free to submit to, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot. It’s due by May 1^st, so I plan on shipping out my entry by tomorrow.

Submitting to Williamsburg was $30, which I’m not including in my tally of how much I’m spending vs. what I would have spent for an MFA since, well… that $100k MFA wouldn’t have covered the cost of submitting to film festivals anyway!

In further news, I wound up taking the DFA’s two-day Script Supervisor course as my free class for having won the Director’s Choice Award. All I can say is that script supervising might be the hardest job in the filmmaking industry (an industry in which each job I’m exposed to seems harder than the last!)

Basically, the script supervisor is responsible for continuity in the film. You’ve probably all seen movies where one moment something’s there and the next it’s not, and you realize it’s a mistake? For instance, we watched a clip from Devil Wears Prada, and noticed that during the scene where Andy has dinner with her father, he actually takes his glasses off three times – in a row. They keep magically appearing back on his face. A script supervisor should prevent this from happening.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong. A script supervisor needs to literally be able to watch a scene with any number of people and report on every detail of that scene, while doing five other things simultaneously and giving instructions to all other departments on how to keep things consistent in terms of lighting, clothing, makeup, you name it.

We were given an exercise in which three people were passing around drinks and cigarettes in a scene – and, as there’s only ever one script supervisor on a film, that means one pair of eyes needing to note exactly when each of those characters sips, puffs, passes, and exactly how they’re holding themselves while they do it. Meanwhile, the script supervisor’s also lining the script according to who the camera is facing, timing the scene, and filling out reports on each take.

If you’re not getting a sense of how impossible a job this is, I suggest trying it by having some friends read a one page scene, just once, while you do the above. See how much you catch. (Was her coffee cup facing forward or back? How far down was the cigarette burned? What word did he lift his arm on? Did she step into her jeans with her right foot or her left?)

I have a new-found respect for script supervisors, and for our amazing teacher, who is actually the head of the board of script supervisors here in NYC. I seemed to have a knack for it, so she said she’s keeping me in mind for the future… although, truthfully, it’s a career that might just be too difficult to pursue!

If you’ve ever considered it, though, know that script supervisors make good money – over $1,000 a day.

And one final note on this: even without any plans to become a script supervisor, this course is valuable. Particularly for directors and actors, who might not give any thought to how things need to be done the same way, take for take, so that it doesn’t wind up being a mess when edited together. Having taken this course, I have new skills to take to my next shoot.

Free Classes

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The Screening and Directors' Choice Award

I'm so excited you would think I won the Oscars.

Last night, I went to the Digital Film Academy's Short Film Screening at Anthology Film Archives. (By the way, AFA is a pretty cool place. I'm thinking of getting a membership, especially since it offers the opportunity to meet lots of first-time directors when they screen their features.) At any rate, I was incredibly nervous as the lights went down and the short films began to roll. Every time one ended, I had a dizzy sensation, knowing that mine might come up next.

But, as the night wore on, I began to calm down - and seriously enjoy - all the other short films! It was actually a wildly entertaining evening, and everyone who submitted a short film should be thrilled with what went up on the screen.

Toward the end of the screening, it finally happened - the little production company logo I had created for myself flashed onscreen, and I knew my movie was about to begin.

I can't even describe the rush I felt seeing it up on the big screen, or how I was still glowing this morning. Yes, seeing it large made me really see some things I want to fix: it's dark enough to warrant some color correction (which I'd hoped to avoid) and the volume needs to be adjusted a bit... but, as I listened to the audience react, laughing where I wanted them to laugh, gasping when I wanted them to gasp, and, finally, applauding at the end, I was so full of joy that I could have danced out of that theater.

And then, the icing on the cake - the director of the school notified me this afternoon that my short film had won the Directors' Choice Award for the screening. (At which point I did actually dance for joy, in my apartment. Again, you would have thought it was an Academy Award.)

Right now, I'm feeling incredibly encouraged, and fueled up for more filmmaking. I plan to spend next week at the DFA doing the color correction and volume-adjusting that last night showed me I needed. Then, I plan to submit the film to the Williamsburg Film Festival, which has a student film category, and the deadline is next Saturday, April 21st.

Just two days ago I talked about wanting to see the landmarks on my new path. This was a pretty awesome one!

My 30th Birthday and My First Screening

Yesterday, April 9^th, was my birthday! My 30^th birthday, and that’s a pretty big one. As I do every year, I took a large chunk of the day to write in my journal, reflect on what’s happened in the past year, and think about what I’d like to have happen in the next.

All in all, 29 was a majorly pivotal year for me. Aside from the obvious – I got married – my life also drastically changed when I quit my job, finally leaving behind a situation that had made me so unhappy to pursue things I’m passionate about. This was actually the defining move of the year, as it has been the decision that has really changed everything. (With all due respect to my husband, I had felt as if we'd been married in our hearts for a long while.) 

While 29, I also finished a full-length screenplay, a few short screenplays, a novella, and a short film. And, of course, I learned all about making films, which had been a life-long dream of mine.

I feel like this was really the year when I got onto the right path. Now, I want 30 to be all about starting to see the landmarks on that path.

One such landmark is my first screening, which is happening tomorrow night at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City (32 Second Avenue, at 2^nd Street). The event goes from 6-8pm, and showcases a number of shorts, including mine. It will be my first chance to really see how people react to my movie, and I’m excited and nervous. 

I’ve also just about made myself crazy these past few weeks, running back over to the DFA to try and tweak the film again… and again… and again every time I noticed something wrong. (FYI, as a film editor, every time you watch the film, you'll find something wrong.) I almost completely lost it when I realized just ONE word (one!) was out of synch with the movement of my actress's mouth, and that I had to make another journey to fix it and burn DVDs all over again... but I'm happy to report she's now synched, and that I've decided to relax and accept that, for now, the film is what it is!

If you get the chance, I would love to see you at the Anthology Film Archives tomorrow night! (Tickets just $5.) And be sure to vote for Chance as your favorite film of the night!

www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

Done and Done!

Did you notice? The change made to my project tracker, over on the right-hand side?

I’ve had to switch from calling it  “Writing Project Tracker” to just “Project Tracker,” and yeah… add a section for completed films.

Last week was a huge deal for me. I finished the novella on Thursday, which wound up being a very emotional event. The ending turned out quite different than I’d originally planned and definitely more upbeat. It’s funny, since I’m generally a very upbeat person, that my writing is usually pretty dark. This novella was no exception – but it uncharacteristically took a turn for the best, right at the end.*

Then, on Friday, after eight straight hours in the editing lab and with only fifteen minutes to go until the DFA closed for the night, I finished my short film. (Let me just note that editing is a VERY addictive process – you could literally just go forever and ever if you wanted to.)

Now, I realize that I’m living in an age where a lot of people, and a lot of kids younger than I am, know how to create short films. It’s the era of YouTube, when anyone can post a video. But, in my case, despite being born into a technology-prone generation, all this stuff has always seemed like Greek to me. Last Friday, I achieved something I wanted to achieve since I was little, something I put off for years and years, always finding excuses not to try.

And now it’s done. I made a film, and I know all I need to know about making another. And I will make another.

I. Am. Elated.

Is it perfect? No. Will I probably make some changes before it’s screened? Probably. But it’s a tangible, finished product that taught me everything I set out to learn about film-making… and made me interested in learning even more.

*As far as writing goes, of course, I’m now eager to start a new project. However, I received some words of wisdom from my husband this past weekend: “perfect the one you have before starting something new,” and this is advice I plan on taking. Starting tomorrow, after this mini, three-day breather from projects, I’ll be diving into revisions – with an aim to get the novella submitted to prospective agents by June.

Almost There!

So, I am into the home stretch with film class! Final, edited short films are due this Friday.

It’s been thrilling to watch the film take shape, and has made me look forward to the next short I will do: mainly because, having filmed in Grand Central Station, I had very little control over things like light (we weren’t allowed to set up lights) and sound (acoustics varied greatly depending on how the mike was pointed, making sound editing pretty choppy).

           

I have really enjoyed the editing process, though. Yes, it is incredibly time consuming: I averaged about an hour per minute of edited film just to get a rough cut, then who knows how long I spent scrubbing the footage even further. Now that I’m involved in editing, I’m noticing continuity mistakes even in my favorite movies that I probably never would have noticed otherwise. Overall, I think my second short will be much better than my first, not just because I’ll have more control, but because I’ll better know what kind of coverage I need to get in each shot to help make editing an easier process.

One thing I find funny is that, at first, I actually ‘over-edited’ – there were more cuts back and forth between my actors than there needed to be, sometimes cutting right over an emotional moment when I just needed to rest for a beat and let things sink in. I find this funny because I think I’m a bit like that in life – rushing to fill a pause or a silence when, really, it’s ok to have them – and that it translated into my film editing. Now I’ve gone back and removed some of these cuts, and overall, am pretty well pleased with the editing. What remains is adding music, recording and inserting a short voice-over, and continuing to do what I can do to smooth out the light and sound issues.

Almost there!

In writing news, I am almost finished writing the first draft of a novella I started on February 15^th. (Well, if I can still call it a novella now that it’s about a hundred pages and counting.) I have two ‘scenes’ left to write and expect to be done by either tomorrow or the day after, depending on how I balance it with my time in the film lab. This novella, for me, marks a return to prose writing after recently focusing more on scripts. It has actually been a very soothing and encouraging process, and hopefully is the beginning of balancing script writing and prose writing on a regular basis.

My Deep, Dark Past

I have a confession to make. My short film – the one I’m now editing at the DFA – is not my first film. Don’t panic – there’s no secret ‘adult’ entertainment in my past. But there is something almost as embarrassing: a two-hour attempt at a feature film that I made my senior year of college.

In college, I founded the Independent Theater Club (or IT). The whole purpose of IT was for students to write the scripts that were being performed, so that the issues would be related to our experiences. My first venture, a one-act play called Lovers, Loners, and Those Who Live, was actually a success. It was a simple recipe: one set, in a small theater-style classroom, and 4 actors, 2 of which carried the stage for the majority of the time. (These were the very talented Dara Connelly and Kelly Bolton! Seriously, these girls should both be in Hollywood.) We rehearsed like crazy for two months and, when the big weekend arrived, we were ready. The actors were phenomenal, the story resonated with college students and visiting parents alike, and we felt like the toast of the town.

God knows what made me think I could jump from that to doing a feature film, when I knew virtually nothing about filmmaking. What I did know was a fellow student, the awesome Christina Raggio, who knew about film editing with Bela Viso. I also knew that the school’s film equipment was lying around virtually untouched. I remember clearly thinking that it would be so much easier to do a film than a play: instead of the nerve-wracking experience of hoping everyone remembers their lines and hits their marks in front of the audience, everything would just be captured on film, guaranteed to be the same everytime.

Which would be fine: if ‘the same’ didn’t mean playing the same mess more than once.

In the spring semester of my senior year, I set to work on casting and shooting Beginning-of-Life Crisis (and, I’m sure, of torturing my poor editing expert, Raggio). In a mere two and a half months’ time, the film debuted, back in the same theater-style classroom as the play. Things I remember: Raggio arriving with the final tape just about 10 minutes before we were supposed to show it, having worked on it right up until that moment; the film having to actually be on two tapes, since we’d run out of time to combine them; the sound on the second tape being completely fuzzy; me, hiding out in the hall as the tapes played, too embarrassed to show my face.

We hadn’t used boom mics – or any mics, aside from what was on the camera. I hadn’t dreamed up interesting shots, which I now know to do at least once per scene for the sake of variety; instead, every scene was shot in the same standard way – looking first at one person, then the other. (I don’t even remember doing close ups? Hopefully there were a few.) And, of course, I’d only allowed about 10 weeks for a project that should have taken 10 months, minimum. Remember, this was a full, two-hour movie, and we were full-time students with a lot of other things going on. Even 10-minute student films take a few weeks to polish.

This happened in 2004, and the experience of it was so exhausting and traumatic that I didn’t really touch filmmaking again until November 2011, even though it always interested me. Now, in my DFA course, I see everything that I did wrong back then… but, surprisingly, my course is also showing me just how much was accomplished, with limited resources, and I feel a new pride in that 2004 film.

The fact is, a group of girls who knew basically nothing about filmmaking actually FINISHED a full-length film in just over two months! Rather than be embarrassed that the film wasn’t more polished by the time we showed it, I’m actually amazed at how decent it WAS. Granted, I haven’t watched it in years – it’s in a bag under my old bed at my parents’ house, and I’ve been afraid of seeing it again – but I remember certain scenes clearly, and they were not bad. The audience laughed at some of the jokes and basically liked the story. Technical things like the sound were a mess – but had we known more about sound, this flick would actually have been passable.

What’s more, the spirit and enthusiasm of everyone who participated in the project made the process positive, which is more than can always be said for working with a 100% professional and trained group.

Taking this DFA course has brought up memories of ‘my deep, dark past’ with Beginning-of-Life Crisis. But, more than anything, it’s made me see that it wasn’t so dark after all. Everyone involved should actually feel a genuine pride in what we were able to put together.

(On a final note, I’m happy to report that, almost 8 years after my graduation, IT still exists and is going strong!)

  

Good Reading

I get really inspired by reading articles or books about other writers, and to that effect, I want to do a plug for Dennis Brown's Shoptalk. I actually found this book five years ago, for sale on a sidewalk just outside of Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. - yet only started to read it recently. I couldn't put it down. It consists of interviews with playwrights/screenwriters, a producer - and Tennessee Williams' mother.

Brown has a true gift for drawing out writers of all personality types and getting them to talk about both the process of writing and the ups and downs of their careers. Granted, the book is mostly devoted to writing for the theater (and, since the book was published in the '90s, it's a theater from several decades back) - but most of the playwrights have also written for the screen in their careers; the two writing tracks do a lot of overlapping. Finally, even though the business world in the book is from a few decades ago, the insight into the writing process remains timeless.

At any rate, I just finished reading the book this morning, and definitely recommend it to all writers. It has greatly inspired me to write, write, and write some more. Now that my film course is almost at an end (we're now into film editing, with just two weeks of class to go!) I'm re-entering a very devoted writing phase, and am planning to churn out multiple scripts in the next few months. Who knows? Thanks to Shoptalk, one of those scripts may even be for the stage.

Someone Else's Shoot

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to another major educational force this past week, which has been helping out on the film shoot of one of my classmates. My own shoot was an invaluable experience, since it forced me to plunge head-first into finally having to manage the images on the camera and the direction. But this past weekend, I served as an extra pair of hands on a classmate’s shoot, and found that, without the pressure of being the director, I was able to gain more valuable (and calm) experience operating the boom microphone, the camera, and the lights. Since he was filming at the DFA, there were no restrictions on lights and sound like I had at Grand Central, so there was more room to experiment.

After this past week of filming, I feel way more comfortable with the camera. I know more about its functions (particularly color-correcting a scene when the white balance doesn’t quite do it), how to hold the camera to achieve certain shots, and how to set up the sound. I’m really looking forward to my next shoot, which will likely be in April. I have two short scripts ready to go, and both are set in locations that allow more control over the set-up.

If you’re interested in learning filmmaking, the best advice is to jump right in and start! That’s really the only way to start to understand how it works. Shoot me an email if you’d have an interest in helping out on one of mine: nomfaproject@gmail.com.

Auditions and My Shoot

A lot has happened in the last three weeks! For starters, I was in India for 10 days getting married for the second time to the same man. (It was an absolutely incredible experience.) Also, I selected my actors for my short film, held rehearsals (on either side of the India trip) and then, today, had my film shoot.

Overall, I don't think the short film is going to be all that spectacular when completed. I'm sure that's bad for me to say, but I'm being realistic - it was my first film shoot, and I have a lot to learn. I'm taking this particular shoot as just a major learning experience, so that I can move onto my next shoot with more confidence and better organization.

To give you a brief overview of everything, the auditions were great. Having invited about 16 actors and actresses, I had a final turnout of 11, which I was told was good. This surprised me, since I envisioned New York actors to be somewhat desperate for parts and auditions. What I learned is that serious actors often have so many auditions lined up in a day, in addition to a 'day job,' that some auditions may go by the wayside - and I'm sure auditions for unpaid student films would be more likely to get cut from their schedule than others.

Overall, the talent was good. Yes, I had one goofy moment where I realized one actor, who forgot what he was auditioning for, had actually applied to audition twice, using two different names and two different headshots in order to get two timeslots - but for the most part, everyone was professional and enthusiastic. I taped the auditions, to review later, but pretty much knew who my picks were by the end of the day.

My rehearsals felt awkward to say the least. Again, as a first-time director, I was a bit unsure of myself, which I think hurt things. The first rehearsal, a basic read-through just a few hours before my flight to India, in order to give some emotional notes, was fine. But once I returned from India, the rehearsals unraveled. Jet-lagged and frazzled with two days before my shoot, I think my instructions were unclear. To add to my angst, my actress, though super-talented, was reluctant to rehearse fully and wanted to save her juice for the actual shoot. Being a bit unsure of myself, I didn't know what to say to coax her into a more thorough rehearsal, which would have put my mind at ease. She said to trust her, and I did - and it actually all worked out because, at today's shoot, she was brilliant.

I barely slept last night due to my nerves over the shoot, and struggled to come up with a clear shot list. Of course, once the camera's set up at a certain angle, it's best to shoot all the necessary dialogue from that angle - even if it means jumping around in the script. (For instance, one camera set-up was the same on page 2 as on page 5, and it would have been good just to film both those pieces together.) While I tried to plan for this in my shot list, it didn't really pan out, and we basically wound up doing the entire script in order, which I'm sure wasted some time and energy.

Happily, though, we completed everything involving the actors today, even though I'd also scheduled for tomorrow. Now, all I need to worry about tomorrow is getting some basic shots around Grand Central to include in the film. This is a huge relief, since I'd worried about going over-schedule. Instead, I'm a day early.

Now, exhaustion is completely taking over, and I'm getting ready to crash. I'm proud of my actors and my crew, which consisted of two of my classmates and an assistant from the DFA, and think we probably all pulled together the best footage we could under the circumstances. My next adventures are going to come in post-production, when I try to correct for both the horrible light and sound in Grand Central - hopefully with decent results!