Here we go...
After a long hiatus I am back. After long periods of not writing in this journal I begin to think to myself that I don't need it anymore. But I constantly think about the lost private thoughts that I don't share with anyone else and how I think that they are important to document. As I fade to nothing in the course of my life, these meager pages will preserve what essence I was privately made of.
So how have I been. I've been biting at the bit. Exhausted as usual and for little to show for it as usual. My greatest achievement last semester was my production of my zombie film. If anyone is curious here is a fun link to a trailer that I made for it using the behind the scenes footage:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hMjZmEUWjAc
But this film really came with lasting impressions both good and bad. Firstly, everyone on my set really enjoyed themselves and I've come to know that my films are as much of a spectacle to watch as they are to make. Laura lovingly tells me that "When you're on a Brandon Doo shoot you have no idea what to expect."
But here is where the sore comes in... In a jam for actors I asked Noriko if any of her friends would be interested. I got her and two of her friends interested in being in it but after they realized how over sexed the zombies were going to be they dropped out all at once including Noriko. It was another scramble to get actors with less then a week till we shot. Luckily I am a resourceful man with many friends, but Noriko and I were on funny ground. I really was too busy to care but Noriko would later tell me that she didnt like the state of our friendship. We also did an extensive job of wallpapering the flats used for the film. There is no rule against wallpapering or altering the flats in anyway as long as they are not destroyed. Right away after the shoot word gets around that some fanatical filmmaker is destroying flats. Fingers get pointed at me and I have to serve "detention" and clean up all the flats. One shoot was delayed from shooting when they realized that they could not use the flats with wall paper and I was all to blame. Too bad that they couldn't use the forty other flats we never touched. The same group of filmmakers also painted the same number of flats green which I in turn had to paint white. I spent a whole day building, decorating, and lighting my set. Again too bad they spent twenty minutes.
I really see no problem in what I had done and am standing by my stubborn beliefs all the while taking my punishment with a smile.
The fall semester begins to end and all my classes are looking good. Weimin my cinematography teacher really likes my project which really makes me happy because she tore me to shreds on my last project. She pulls no punches and I wanted to please her. Her last comment is, "I really don't like the kind of movies you guys make but this one is really well done."
The semi annual Collective at the Coppola film festival comes around and as usual I am featured. But theis time I am involved in a record six of sixteen films featured! And nice juicy roles too! Two director credits, two DP credits, one effects credit and one actor credit. It has been an overwhelmingly busy semester and this is how it pays off. I showed both Tazer and my trailer for the zombie film. I was dissapointed with how Tazer was recieved but I never madethe film for cheers and laughs, but for a disturbing story which is what I think went over well. The zombie film trailer though was a huge success. Also Noriko was there and made it up to me for dropping out on the zombie film.
The rosters for the advanced production classes are posted. Ever eager to check out my standings for what I was hoping to be an exceptional last semester before I graduate, I hurried to find them as soon as they were posted. To my utter dismay which came as confusion, dismay, frustration, anger and then rage, I found that neither did I have no classes but was on no wait lists as well. The next day I found Ray, the man both in charge of the lists and my previous "discipline." I asked him why I was in the situation that I was in expecting that it was because of a further and ridiculous disciplinary action. He seemed confused too though and helped me look into it.
Winter break begins and I head to Turlock all the while trying to keep in contact with Ray who takes over two weeks to get back in contact with me. Turlock was very very un eventful. Which made me sad. I was sad when no body called me to hang out. True I never called anyone but hell they should call me right?! I only called one person, Christina. She was home from her church thing which she was on for the greater part of the semester. She never even picked up her phone. I'm just so sick of my situation in Turlock. It seems that none of my old friends want to hang out and when we do it feels forced and routine. The only person I keep up with barely is Nancy. I try to call her once a week to let her know that I care about her. She was my last turlock friend to stay active with this LJ. I wish she would read this and know how much I care about her. Nancy has always said that she doesnt like calling people. But it would delight me to no extent if she called me, even if it didnt sound like I was joyful to hear her.
For New Years I was back in SF, unable to bear another holiday without the company of friends. I spent it with Noriko and Ben and some of Noriko's friends. Noriko is really pretty, but I think I'm over her. I got drunk and didn't make a pass at her. I was proud of myself.
I finally hear back from Ray who is speaking with Goldner, the directing teacher from where the problem is found to have originated. Apparently, Golder mistook me for another student that was graduating the semester before. Seeing that I was graduating and that I wouldnt need any classes for Spring semester, Goldner removed me for the application forms all together, thusly sealing my fate of shit. Goldner apologizes to me but where the fuck am I supposed to put that apology?! I really hated the school then, but as usual I know that it is useless to dwell in shit and better to trudge through it. My entire career at this damned department I have been struggling uphill against a current with a smile. I have also advocated, partly to build up my own esteem for enrolling in it. Joe and Phil would always tell me how we would all have to graduate, move to LA, and proudly wear SFSU apparel on the shoots. After this huge blunder that will virtually ruin my last semester here, I thought about quiting, transfering, or taking off for a semester. It is that severe. But trudge I shall.
On top of this I'm balancing winter session taught by a grad student who has no business teaching, and I'm ADing another graduate student film that ranks high for worst shoot I've ever been on. I just really hate the script and the director. I really like everyone else on the set. First of all we're pushing 10-12 hour days for five days and we're only getting one meal a day. It's really just not in the budget. (union shoots get a guaranteed one meal every six hours) The director is a dirty, lesbian, orphaned, pot smoking hippy, and her script is her miserable life reinacted. For three days on set I noticed she never changed her clothes. She takes one or two weed breaks throughout the shoot everyday and her house reeks of cat piss and weed. On top of this she asks for ridiculous things that wastes our time and is completely unusable. Constantly she asks for sound recording without anything t sync it to. I try to tell her that the sound she gets is unusable for the most part but she insists and I waste the crews time. Other times she has us record things that can be easily retrieved from sound libraries. Amazingly I was the only on with sound experience so i ended up giving people crash courses in sound recording etiquette and procedure.
But we had a great crew. Charlie the DP was fun, joking, but needed to not operate the camera because he was overwhelmed with work. Alex the 1st AC was my cinematography TA and already commanded much of my respect. the shoot let me get to know him better and get on a first name basis. Yazu was great all round 2nd AC. I only know three good ACs now and two are Japanese guys that I really like. The other is Satski! Laura was there and helped me not go crazy as I bounced sexual jokes off of her. And Karen was there. I think I impressed her. That is important. Being on set with her made me think that maybe I should ask her out again. She thinks I'm bearable! It's a quality I highly admire in women. O yeah and Karuna was there. She's that really hot Asian actress, and I think she either has the hots for me or know's that i think shes hot and plays it up to confuse and dominate me. I can never trust actors.
My highlight included working with children! It was my first time working with an 11 year old and I had a real fun time acting like a clown to keep her energy up. I also force fed her gatorade and other sugar drinks when the day began to wear long. Her Dad was also there but we became good friends despite the force feeding.
Overall I really enjoyed the shoot. It would have been perfect if I had a different director, we had a camera operator, and we didn't have to shoot in that cat piss, weed smelling house for four days!
So how have I been. I've been biting at the bit. Exhausted as usual and for little to show for it as usual. My greatest achievement last semester was my production of my zombie film. If anyone is curious here is a fun link to a trailer that I made for it using the behind the scenes footage:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hMjZmEUWjAc
But this film really came with lasting impressions both good and bad. Firstly, everyone on my set really enjoyed themselves and I've come to know that my films are as much of a spectacle to watch as they are to make. Laura lovingly tells me that "When you're on a Brandon Doo shoot you have no idea what to expect."
But here is where the sore comes in... In a jam for actors I asked Noriko if any of her friends would be interested. I got her and two of her friends interested in being in it but after they realized how over sexed the zombies were going to be they dropped out all at once including Noriko. It was another scramble to get actors with less then a week till we shot. Luckily I am a resourceful man with many friends, but Noriko and I were on funny ground. I really was too busy to care but Noriko would later tell me that she didnt like the state of our friendship. We also did an extensive job of wallpapering the flats used for the film. There is no rule against wallpapering or altering the flats in anyway as long as they are not destroyed. Right away after the shoot word gets around that some fanatical filmmaker is destroying flats. Fingers get pointed at me and I have to serve "detention" and clean up all the flats. One shoot was delayed from shooting when they realized that they could not use the flats with wall paper and I was all to blame. Too bad that they couldn't use the forty other flats we never touched. The same group of filmmakers also painted the same number of flats green which I in turn had to paint white. I spent a whole day building, decorating, and lighting my set. Again too bad they spent twenty minutes.
I really see no problem in what I had done and am standing by my stubborn beliefs all the while taking my punishment with a smile.
The fall semester begins to end and all my classes are looking good. Weimin my cinematography teacher really likes my project which really makes me happy because she tore me to shreds on my last project. She pulls no punches and I wanted to please her. Her last comment is, "I really don't like the kind of movies you guys make but this one is really well done."
The semi annual Collective at the Coppola film festival comes around and as usual I am featured. But theis time I am involved in a record six of sixteen films featured! And nice juicy roles too! Two director credits, two DP credits, one effects credit and one actor credit. It has been an overwhelmingly busy semester and this is how it pays off. I showed both Tazer and my trailer for the zombie film. I was dissapointed with how Tazer was recieved but I never madethe film for cheers and laughs, but for a disturbing story which is what I think went over well. The zombie film trailer though was a huge success. Also Noriko was there and made it up to me for dropping out on the zombie film.
The rosters for the advanced production classes are posted. Ever eager to check out my standings for what I was hoping to be an exceptional last semester before I graduate, I hurried to find them as soon as they were posted. To my utter dismay which came as confusion, dismay, frustration, anger and then rage, I found that neither did I have no classes but was on no wait lists as well. The next day I found Ray, the man both in charge of the lists and my previous "discipline." I asked him why I was in the situation that I was in expecting that it was because of a further and ridiculous disciplinary action. He seemed confused too though and helped me look into it.
Winter break begins and I head to Turlock all the while trying to keep in contact with Ray who takes over two weeks to get back in contact with me. Turlock was very very un eventful. Which made me sad. I was sad when no body called me to hang out. True I never called anyone but hell they should call me right?! I only called one person, Christina. She was home from her church thing which she was on for the greater part of the semester. She never even picked up her phone. I'm just so sick of my situation in Turlock. It seems that none of my old friends want to hang out and when we do it feels forced and routine. The only person I keep up with barely is Nancy. I try to call her once a week to let her know that I care about her. She was my last turlock friend to stay active with this LJ. I wish she would read this and know how much I care about her. Nancy has always said that she doesnt like calling people. But it would delight me to no extent if she called me, even if it didnt sound like I was joyful to hear her.
For New Years I was back in SF, unable to bear another holiday without the company of friends. I spent it with Noriko and Ben and some of Noriko's friends. Noriko is really pretty, but I think I'm over her. I got drunk and didn't make a pass at her. I was proud of myself.
I finally hear back from Ray who is speaking with Goldner, the directing teacher from where the problem is found to have originated. Apparently, Golder mistook me for another student that was graduating the semester before. Seeing that I was graduating and that I wouldnt need any classes for Spring semester, Goldner removed me for the application forms all together, thusly sealing my fate of shit. Goldner apologizes to me but where the fuck am I supposed to put that apology?! I really hated the school then, but as usual I know that it is useless to dwell in shit and better to trudge through it. My entire career at this damned department I have been struggling uphill against a current with a smile. I have also advocated, partly to build up my own esteem for enrolling in it. Joe and Phil would always tell me how we would all have to graduate, move to LA, and proudly wear SFSU apparel on the shoots. After this huge blunder that will virtually ruin my last semester here, I thought about quiting, transfering, or taking off for a semester. It is that severe. But trudge I shall.
On top of this I'm balancing winter session taught by a grad student who has no business teaching, and I'm ADing another graduate student film that ranks high for worst shoot I've ever been on. I just really hate the script and the director. I really like everyone else on the set. First of all we're pushing 10-12 hour days for five days and we're only getting one meal a day. It's really just not in the budget. (union shoots get a guaranteed one meal every six hours) The director is a dirty, lesbian, orphaned, pot smoking hippy, and her script is her miserable life reinacted. For three days on set I noticed she never changed her clothes. She takes one or two weed breaks throughout the shoot everyday and her house reeks of cat piss and weed. On top of this she asks for ridiculous things that wastes our time and is completely unusable. Constantly she asks for sound recording without anything t sync it to. I try to tell her that the sound she gets is unusable for the most part but she insists and I waste the crews time. Other times she has us record things that can be easily retrieved from sound libraries. Amazingly I was the only on with sound experience so i ended up giving people crash courses in sound recording etiquette and procedure.
But we had a great crew. Charlie the DP was fun, joking, but needed to not operate the camera because he was overwhelmed with work. Alex the 1st AC was my cinematography TA and already commanded much of my respect. the shoot let me get to know him better and get on a first name basis. Yazu was great all round 2nd AC. I only know three good ACs now and two are Japanese guys that I really like. The other is Satski! Laura was there and helped me not go crazy as I bounced sexual jokes off of her. And Karen was there. I think I impressed her. That is important. Being on set with her made me think that maybe I should ask her out again. She thinks I'm bearable! It's a quality I highly admire in women. O yeah and Karuna was there. She's that really hot Asian actress, and I think she either has the hots for me or know's that i think shes hot and plays it up to confuse and dominate me. I can never trust actors.
My highlight included working with children! It was my first time working with an 11 year old and I had a real fun time acting like a clown to keep her energy up. I also force fed her gatorade and other sugar drinks when the day began to wear long. Her Dad was also there but we became good friends despite the force feeding.
Overall I really enjoyed the shoot. It would have been perfect if I had a different director, we had a camera operator, and we didn't have to shoot in that cat piss, weed smelling house for four days!