*LOUD SHRIEK*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !




I have 5 assignments due in the coming 2 weeks... how cool!!!


1st is my 30 sec video for Foundations of Film & TV Production

then my response/critical analysis of 2 out of 10 of narrative mode choices (700 words in total, so about 350 words each, Mary-Anne who's my favourite tutor this semester says she'll give us a 375 word leeway, which is even better)

then another Foundations of Film & TV Production Doco (Documentary) Proposal

then Part A of my Film History essay (of 1000 words) on a film style (i've picked German Expressionism)

then another doco proposal but this time for Media Writing

then finally Part B of my Film History essay (of also 1000 words) on a film from that film style....


GOD HELP ME... but first let me help myself.


I called Navroz today, my boss, and got the next two weeks off work so i can concentrate on perfecting my assignments then handing them in on time.

But i'm still working tomorrow (Saturday) then the following Monday to Wednesday. Hardi Har Har...



FYI (for your information),

I've got my rough cut (which is also my director's cut) down for Good Samaritan, but it's 00:00:01:53, which is too long, i need to get it down to 00:00:00:30. Showed it to my tutor today, he says all i really need to concentrate on is "cutting on action" (which is pretty hard to explain, so i won't). Basically it doesn't matter if the story doesn't make sense or if there is a story at all. But he allowed me to use effects to brighten up my picture cos like i said the lighting was shit, and later on told me i would be marked down for lighting. It doesn't really matter to me, i made my first film and i'm happy with it regardless of the grade. Might be a dumb thing to say considering i do need the grade to be a good one, but for some reason, in this industry, i feel as long as i tried my best to convey the mood and tone, then i'm happy with myself.

Plus, i spent 9 hours capturing my rushes and editing it into sequence, from 6.40pm right after class on Wednesday til 3.40am Thursday morning.

For some reason there's a major connection between me, Nad and staying up late on Wednesday nights... Because we did the same for Mike's experimental shoot (where they couldn't stop giving each other a hard time) and we did the same for my editing session.

She wasn't there at 6.40pm, but around 7.10pm, i called her after i got slightly freaked out by this image of an old lady holding a woven basket by the side of a stream on the mini tv screen of the tape deck and the playback screen (which i later on found out at 3.40am, was actually the final image of another student project once he/she quit our of AVID as i quit our of AVID with jay's face still on the screen). AVID is the industry standard editing program. She came at around 8pm, hung around for awhile to try and help me capture my rushes because i wasn't familiar with AVID at all, in fact this was my first time using it alone. We had been taught the extreme basics in the editorial the week before easter break, but it was so basic, that it wasn't helpful. Haha... Then Nad left to get back to helping her group members shoot their film, then later on came back to check on me and tell me she was going home to get her work (a script breakdown) and have a quick bite before she'd join me back there in the editing tutorial room.

She came back awhile later, but way before then there was another guy who came in to do his editing so i wasn't so creeped out sitting there alone in that tutorial classroom... cos campus is so empty and eerie at night, it freaks me out.

You must be wondering why i decided to edit so late. The thing is, at the time, a rough cut of our clip was due today-Friday (which was earlier this afternoon) in class.

And i actually woke up early Wednesday at around 9am to eat and hopefully get there by 10am to start editing, but i had neglected the fact that i had to book personal/individual editing suites with the stupid coupons on the cover of our tutorial workbook. I actually didn't think it would be so full. I thought i could just walk in and capture my rushes, but boy was i wrong!!! I went up to the suites on the 3rd floor straight away, and only one was taken, but i didn't walk straight into the available empty ones, i went down to the Equipment Loans Centre to check if i could book one at that moment and get to work... But nope, the guy told me they were ALL FULLY BOOKED til 11pm that night. So i agreed to 11pm-1am. These silly little coupons we're given only allows us 4 hours in the editing suite/s for this whole 30 sec project. Nad agrees it's stupid and told me they actually didn't have those last year. Anyway, that was my first 2 hour coupon gone for editing that night. But because i knew i was gonna have trouble with AVID, i asked if the tutorial classrooms were free and the times that they would be free. I was told it would be free after 3pm that afternoon til 10am the next morning. I said thanks and left.

I didn't go at 3pm cos i had class from 4pm to 7pm that day (we're still talking about Wednesday here). But thanks to Mary-Anne who could get everything over and done with in our tutorial as quickly as possible that was supposed to last for 2 hours, we could leave at around 6.30pm.

I thought about going home to take a shower and get a jacket cos it was quite cold, but then decided to just drop by Subway for take-away and get straight to work. And so that was what i did in the end.

Anyway, my main point is Nad wasn't a big help with AVID but she was great company and gave me great feedback on my rough cut.
Why wasn't she a big help with AVID?
This is because last year, this project was different, it was a 1 minute group project instead of a 30 sec individual one. So according to her, a few of her more dominant group members hogged most of the important stuff, like operating the camera, being the director and editing the vid. So she didn't really learn much because she couldn't do anything or didn't do anything, rather. But she still tried her best to help me.

I am really grateful to her for helping me on my shoot and also accompanying me at the creepy-ass edit classroom til 3.40am, before we parted ways to go home and SLEEP!! She said likewise. And also said she would've fell asleep if she did her script breakdown at home. So i guess we helped each other stay awake by talking occasionally and working together in the same room. She brought her music cds too, which was great, helped keep us awake... Amazingly we finished at the same time-3.40am, and so we could leave together.

Without her there, i would've left much much earlier and wouldn't have gotten much done. I doubt i would've had my rough cut ready either. Plus at least i had her with me to "experience" my frustration with AVID. Part of the reason it took me soooo damn long was because it wouldn't capture my rushes (raw footage) properly. It kept stuffing up, and i had to capture a few frames manually and not in a batch. It was because i broke the time code when i was filming by rewinding the tape to rewatch the recorded footage on shooting day... It's kind of hard to explain, basically it gave me many problems, and a few times, i actually almost gave up on it... But perseverance paid off. I'm glad i stuck with troubleshooting and kept reading the tips in the "Help" menu. At least now i know the DOs and DON'Ts of both filming and editing. When you have to do things yourself, you really learn a lot.

Anyway, that's my life so far... my hectic life... Oh, and by the way, the next level of screenings for Departure and other student films is on the 21st of April, wasn't on the 17th, so i'm still awaiting news on our win or non-win... suspense is killing me...

I actually got an email from campus movie fest (which is the event organiser), because i'm registered under "team members" for Departure on the webpage with the rest of the crew, and the email was about reserving tickets for the screening this Saturday night (which is sometime tomorrow), and in my head i was thinking: I WISH!!! WISH I WAS THERE!!! Haha... what a waste. But oh well...

Thanks for reading and thanks for caring!!