Errrr...

So turns out Spring Break isn't gonna be as fun and laid back as I thought it was. 

I somehow need to come up with a script for Intro, a detailed plot point outline for Screenwriting, an essay for English, and four very special portraits for photo.

For intro, I want to write a script about two friends who suffer the consequences when they take their relationship to the next level. I'm having such a hard time feeling it out though. Like it's difficult to find places to start and end. I know for a fact that I need to have the actual moment in the movie, but I don't know if I show what their friendship was like before, and I don't really know what comes after

I have never been in this situation before, so I'm not really sure what the solution to just awkwardness is.  Maybe they talk about it...? idk. That sounds really weak, like there isn't a climax. Just they hang out, have sex, hang out uncomfortably, talk it out, hug. That sounds like a really shitty movie to me. Maybe she starts being interested in a new guy and her homie gets upset because he feels sexually threatened. There needs to be more results than just sexual tension. It just makes an anti-climatic movie. I need to feel out that third act more

Also I have four minutes tops in this movie, so there's a lot of exposition to happen as well as mucho externalizing. We don't have time to get personal

I need to print four portraits of people, which is easy except they need to have a background that reflects who they are. My current method of doing this is dissecting what words I use to describe my friends, and then finding visual representations of these words.  I'm trying to avoid things like hobbies and activities.  I did Chris Knight's portrait like this this afternoon. Chris likes to play paintball and eventually is gonna look for a career in animation. However, the words I use to describe Chris are words like aggressive, tough, blue collar, smart...So I had him lean up against his brothers worn camper (tough, blue collar), reading books and holding his laptop (intelligent and good with computers, pursuing a career there), with a "beware of dog" sign on the side of the camper (aggressive). I also had him look into camera to help solidify that aggressiveness is part of his lifestyle.  I don't really know what else to do, but my gut is telling me to capture Isaiah on film with his dad in church. It just feels right

I don't know how I'm going to handle the rest, but at least I've got a plan of what I need to be thinking about this next week. So much for getting a break. I've got to keep up with all my outside of school responsibilities (Devil's Co, volunteering at Mole-Richardson, trying to find the right girl, trying to get some money). This semester is tough. Can't wait till summer!

Summery of goals for spring break

1. Get laid (ongoing)

2. Finish plot points for Mafia phone feature

3. Get my driver's license

4. Kick it with EVERYONE

5. Watch complete works of Wes Anderson

7. Drink at least, but not limited to, 2 beers a day

8. Play Kings Cup at least twice (two different occasions)

9. Visit Venice at least, but not limited to, once

10. Catch up on AFI top 100

11. Watch Sam Raimi films

12. Jam at least, but not limited to, twice with either/and Natan and Mikey

if this sounds like a down-ass Spring Break, hit me up at any time

I'm fucking down for anything

My Celebrity Look-alike

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

The Last Samurai

moved me so heavily...

Just everything about it made me feel emotion, and it was exactly the right emotion at exactly the right time.  I want to be able to do that. I wonder how long until I get that kind of good. The exact point of every scene was spot on, the director knew exactly what the story was, and communicated it to everyone so clearly that there was no mistranslating it

John Toll, ASC, is such a great Cinematograher. Other than The Last Samurai, his movies include Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, Tropic Thunder, and Wanted. He is well known as being an outdoor DP, and his work on The Last Samurai really is the perfect example of why.  He told the story elegantly, and showed us some of the beauty of Japan at the same time. Every shot was breathtaking.  There was no impatient jonesing for the next cut, just full and happy satisfaction with each landscape. I've found that he photographs sunsets very well. I wonder what kind of technical process he goes through to get those results like the ones in The Last Samurai.

All shit aside from Tom Cruise, he a fucking amazing actor. His talent is so huge, he is often underestimated due to his good looks. I really gained a lot of respect for him after I saw Collateral. All the things he had to do to prep for that role...He was, for all intents and purposes, Vincent. Every single thing that Vincent said was motivated by a moment in his life. Even if it wasn't on the screen or in the script, Tom Cruise had to know every bit of backstory and incorporate it into that character.  Not many actors can do that so entirely.

So yea, The Last Samurai is done. I can move on to watching something else now. lol

I think either Touch of Evil or The Man in the Iron Mask is up next for me. Theres so many I have to watch...

Ultraviolet...

...is so bad!

omg I mean it looks really really awesome, but the script is waaay weak and it takes itself too seriously.

I mean it tries!

it honestly tried to have a plot. But everything is so exagerated that in the end, it just doesn't work.  Nobody's gonna buy into it, and you can just feel the writer making it happen.  it clunks along from one fight scene to another, and the fight scenes just aren't good enough to save it

I'd rather see Milla Jovavich be hot and kill bad guys in a movie with a plot, like THE FIFTH ELEMENT, or RESIDENT: EVIL. Those movies kicked ass! 

A REAL mystery

I've noticed my dress clothes have begun to go missing, it's really really wierd

Well, first off, I have a favorite tie

That's probably a little strange in and about itself

but it's gone missing, along with two belts, one vest, and one half pair of jolly roger dress socks

I'm pretty concerned, cause dress clothes cost me a and I expect them to last for a long time. It's pretty upsetting that they don't. I can never find them when I need them. I also can't find them when I don't need them, but by then I'm not looking.

I had a nice silk tie. I miss you little buddy. Come back to papa...

btw, loving my clothes this much doesn't make me a homosexual

and there wouldn't be anything wrong with me being one anyway,

but I'm not

I just like wearing nice clothes.

2-9, 2009. Army jacket, Blue jeans

So me and Jess broke up

it wasn't anything unpleasant, I just told her that it wasn't working, and she just kinda understood.

It worked out.

She's not upset or anything

we're just gonna move on.

I kinda asked her if she'd be down for friends with benefits

and she kinda sounded down

it's a vague area, but who knows...

we could both use something to carry us into the next relationship.

Big Bear Shoot

So yea

Big Bear is really awesome!

I'm working on an independent feature called "Silent Night"

I don't know if it's gonna be a great movie, but it sure is great to be on set again and the crew and cast I'm working with are pretty great

I don't think I had this much fun at ICF.  All we do is shoot movies, eat, sleep, and drink. This morning call time was 5AM. We wrapped that night about 10PM.  I'm totally exhausted, my feet hurt, I don't get to shower a lot, and I'm bailing on a lot of other responsibilities. And I feel great about it.

I feel a little strange. Some of the students there are graduates or senior students at Fullerton. And a lot of them are interning as PAs

I'm an 18-year-old, college freshman who barely drives and is a little clumsy. I'm a grip. I'm not far up the totem pole, but I outrank the PAs.  I really hope this leads to me getting jobs in the future.

The DP is SUPER awesome. He's this guy Ian, and he's pro. He really knows his shit and he knows so many little tricks. I'm learning a lot just by following him around and doing what he says.  Me and Erik can almost tell what he is going ask for, we get all the shit ready.  Then he'll go and do something crazy and make the shot even better.

Hopefully I'll be able to take these experiences and chock them up to good times and general filmmaking experience.  I just wish I could think better. Like more creatively. I really feel inadequate in that way. I feel like I just don't have the storytelling ability to  really use my technical knowledge to it's full potential.

I hope to be putting up more blogs and pics from Big Bear before I leave for sure on Sunday. It doesn't give me much time.

Its the 21st Century

Just cause your far, doesn't mean you have to be distant...

Big Bear

I am super-stoked to be going up to Big Bear next week for an all-expenses paid trip to make a movie!

Lindsey Rappaport, fellow ICF alumni and cinematographer is giving up her gig in Big Bear as a crew-person to go back to school at Chapman.  So is the rest of the crew for that matter. So me and my friend Reggie are heading up there Sunday morning to fill in and do whatever they need. And plus we get to live in a cabin in Big Bear for a week, so that's cool too!

Also, apparently they have spared no expense on booze.

Every night, they get fucked up and celebrate. They just set a later call time the next day. Sounds like my kind of set. lol. Thats probably why they're running a week late, but w/e. 

Every night they pick up rum, vodka, and beer.  I'm gonna light sets and kill my liver doing it!

woot!

I'll let you know how it goes later. I need to wake up early to see Franz Ferdinand tomorrow

Therapy

I'm currently playing therapist

This girl I know is suffering from Bulimia and is very lonely. She has also been raped, and is used constantly for sex

I am not at all properly trained for this

I hope I don't fuck her life up

She wants to be an actress but her family won't let her.

I told her to do it.

She has nothing to lose anyways...

Religion

Ok

for years and years, my friend Isaiah talked me into going to church with him.  Not like church-church, but more like youth group. 

He didn't have to push me to hard, I love to learn and I looked at this as an opportunity to learn about religion.

Now I'm not really a Christian, and the church Isaiah belongs to has been becoming more and more conservative and extreme, taking Isaiah and the group of people I hung out with more extremely conservative. Now this year with all the elections and controversy, I find that I'm a little out of their circle. 

Don't get me wrong, they are great people, and they're never offensive.  But I find that they keep trying to convert me and change how I feel about stuff like gay marriage.  When I joined facebook groups supporting Barack Obama and rising up against Prop 8, I found that my opinion and and my values are apparently not in line with what God thinks and believes. 

I have been finding that every conversation I have with Isaiah eventually comes back to religion and eventually to how I'm not leading my life right.  

What can I say? I love sex. I love booze. I love people who smoke pot. I love being able to vote democrat and think liberal. I love favoring evolution.  

I guess I'm going to H-E-double hockey sticks.

Isaiah

Idk.

I have a lot of feelings and thoughts on this matter, so I'm sure this won't be the last post on this subject.

Bogey

I want to watch more movies with Humphrey Bogart.

Bogart is a real man, a man's man.

He's a lover and a fighter, and is a symbol of the film noir anti-hero

I've seen him in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. I've seen him in the African Queen and Sahara.

He made 76 movies before his death in 1957.

I think I should go ahead and watch more of them.

God bless you, Bogey

Allergies

I think I have allergies

I've been feeling a little under the weather and anyone who's kicked it with me for the last while knows I've had a mean ass cough

hopefully I'll be able to get some medication for it and be back on my feet.

I need to work out, I feel fat

Almost one

It's almost one in the morning...

Jess' kid is screaming bloody murder...

He won't sleep, so she won't sleep, which means I don't sleep....

damn, that kid can cry.

At first it was really scary just seeing Josh get worked out in the daily kind of upset he gets.  And even when he was happy, him giggling was a really sharp sound and it alarmed me.  But I got used to it. Jess says I've got "paternal instincts". For those of you who dropped out of school, that means mean ass daddy skillz

this is something completely different. It's like all he wants to do is just be difficult.  It breaks my heart to see a kid cry, and I wish there was more I can do to help....

Rocky Horror Picture Show

I like the Rocky Horror Picture Show

a lot more than I really like to admit

so shhhhhhh.....

I went last night and had a great time

it was the first time I had ever been in a tortilla fight

I pray it won't be the last

cause that was flipping sweet!

Spaceship life...

It must be boring to live on a spaceship...

The only thing to do is sleep and eat.  Like cabin fever. Maybe you'd get TV, but that turns to infomercial shit around 1am or so. Needless to say, you'd get sick of reruns pretty fast.  

My homie Travis has been under house arrest for the past three weeks. He's got the whole anklet and all.  Can't leave the house. It's like a very comfortable prison.

-Can't go to the movies

-Can't go to concerts

-Can't go to Chinatown

-Can't go a-fishing

-Can't go outside his house

That's pretty fucking lame. I've been texting him this whole time. He's losing his mind, just a little bit. 

I would too

I need to be outdoors a certain amount. 

I need to breathe fresh air

 to walk around,

to be alone with my thoughts.  

Lame as that sounds, a house is a prison on the mind. 

My best moments of inspiration have all been when I'm outside, just walking around.

I can't imagine what he's doing this whole time. I think I'd sleep most of it away. At least he can go on myspace and google shit.  Contrary to popular belief, the internet is a poor substitute for real life, however.  I'm sure he'd rather be talking to me in person as opposed to leaving me comments on my profile.

TRAVIS

January 9th, 09-Grindhouse Shirt, blue jeans

I did my first Mole-Richardson volunteer job today. I did alright, didn't fuck up and look dumb...

...I was talking to some of the guys there about working. A lot of the other volunteers are college grads, who are working in the Industry. One of the guys worked for Panavision, but got laid off since the economy's bad.

And right now the economies always bad for movies. January is a sucky time to be trying to find work, cause nobody's making a movie in January. Not to mention the SAG strike on the horizon. It's just a bad time to be wanting money.

I've been looking for at least a project to do for the past couple of weeks. I miss making movies. I miss putting lights up high and pushing crab dollies. I can't wait to get back to filmming something. My big goal is to be DP. Nobody wants me as a DP since I didn't work with them over the summer. None of the people I worked with over the summer are likely to want to work with me again. hahahahaha

Their loss


I really love being at Mole-Richardson. All the lights and set, it's really a fun place to be. Probably one of my favorite places, to be honest. I can't be alone in thinking that. ASC's gonna be there Valentines Day for their Award ceremony, and cinematographers keep coming there to run their film tests.

I was talking to a woman who was an 1st AC. Those are the people who assemble the camera on set, pull focus, and make sure everything gets put back right. She was saying a good way to go and just play with cameras is to contact rental houses and just ask if I can come in and mess around. You tell them your a student filmmaker, and they'll let you hang out for free. I might do that. I want to learn how to pull focus and put the camera together...