go to sleep, little baby
So here I am, almost to Thanksgiving. Sort of. Two more weeks. It's all gone by insanely fast, but I suppose that's what happens when they hardly give you time to sleep let alone think about what day or month it is. I'm finally getting to the point with the people at AFI where I feel like I actually have friends, and that is a gigantic relief. There are a lot of really great people here, and I didn't realize it at first because I was spending so much time in preproduction with only the people on my Cycle 1 team. And they are (mostly) great, too, but being on crews every weekend in the four weeks since my project shot has been really helpful as far as getting to know people goes. The cinematographers are pretty much uniformly awesome, and every weekend I get to know a new chunk of the other people, depending who's on the crew.
The set that I'm on this weekend is absolutely nuts, but in a good way. It's basically a romantic comedy action movie with this guy chasing after a girl and doing tons of stunts and things. We had breakaway glass on Saturday, a zipline scene yesterday, a SWAT team scene with falls and stuff today, and who knows what's going to happen tomorrow... plus hardly any shots have just been on the regular old tripod; they've all been on the dolly or steadicam or jib or handheld. They put a lot of extra money into this movie, I think, but it's going to pay off, because the footage they're getting is great. Plus, I get to play with a remote controlled follow focus when the camera is on steadicam, which was all day today and part of yesterday and much of tomorrow, so I'm a happy girl because I have a new toy.
Also, side note: tomorrow there will be a clown on set whose name is "Laffy Pants" and whom we are supposed to address as such. Just ponder that for a moment, and then try to imagine me keeping a straight face while asking Laffy Pants if he can stand on his mark so I can get focus to him. Hmm.
So on Halloween I went over, after set, to Sarah and John's house and saw all sorts of old Northwestern people: Sarah, John, Deirdre, Eileen, Sarah's sister Eleni, Aaron Holzman, Mike Ciceti, Robert Cosnahan (who goes to AFI too, in the second year), and Susan Park. Weird! It was like Halloween freshman year in CRC, except with alcohol. We went to Santa Monica Boulevard, which they close off much like the Castro back home, and basically just walked around. It was a long walk from their apartment, but worth it. Walking around made feel like I was actually in a city, as opposed to the ugly urban sprawl that is LA. Anyway, it was really nice to hang out with non-AFI people, people who know me on an entirely different level and who I'm just naturally comfortable around, you know? And after I left their house I met Will at a bar because he wanted to show me his new and improved Linus costume (from Peanuts... last time he was Linus the costume was kind of lame), so it was a whole bunch of good friends all in one night, and it was refreshing, even if I didn't get very much sleep.
One of the best things about AFI is that every week they bring in a filmmaker to present a film and do a Q&A session afterwards. The directors of Little Miss Sunshine came, Christopher Nolan came and brought The Prestige, Stephen Shainburg brought Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, and last week Jean-Pierre Jeunet came and showed Delicatessen, which was his first feature from 1991, but is still really good, and it was just great to listen to him. He was pretty hilarious; I can't possibly describe it, and Tim I know you're going to hate me, but his imitation of Wong Kar Wai upon their meeting was priceless. Anyway, this Wednesday DAVID LYNCH is coming and showing Inland Empire, which is his newest film that's just coming out. DAVID FRICKIN' LYNCH. He of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and all the others. He's an AFI graduate, so I kind of suspected he would be coming, but still... I am so incredibly excited I can hardly stand it. Gah!
Oh, by the way, my Cycle 1 project got reviewed fairly well by Bill Dill. Well, "fairly well" compared to most of the other films that have shown in Bill's class thus far. He was a little rushed for time on critiquing mine, so he didn't get to go into all the bone-crushing detail he probably would have liked to go into on it, but he said that despite all the problems with the story and technically, with the lighting and stuff, we at least tried to visually convey the arc of the story. He was not all praiseworthy, and the things he said were very helpful. I'm just kind of amazed he didn't completely rip it to shreds. So anyway. That went well, and now it's over, and I'm glad.
And now it's time for bed, because I have a 6am call time, and I'm completely exhausted. I've been exhausted for pretty much five weeks straight now. It's starting to get to me a little bit, but I also love it, so I suppose it's worth it. I would just like to have a day off or something. I'll have a day off in two weeks, for week 7, but I told my friend Richard I could maybe help him out for a couple days... we shall see. If I'm too tired I won't do it.
Back to San Francisco in 16 days and counting!
-Cam
P.S. Saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazhakstan last night, and it was so freakin' funny I can't believe it. It's not as good as Borat is on the show because of the long format, but still: SO FUNNY. More in a review soon.
The set that I'm on this weekend is absolutely nuts, but in a good way. It's basically a romantic comedy action movie with this guy chasing after a girl and doing tons of stunts and things. We had breakaway glass on Saturday, a zipline scene yesterday, a SWAT team scene with falls and stuff today, and who knows what's going to happen tomorrow... plus hardly any shots have just been on the regular old tripod; they've all been on the dolly or steadicam or jib or handheld. They put a lot of extra money into this movie, I think, but it's going to pay off, because the footage they're getting is great. Plus, I get to play with a remote controlled follow focus when the camera is on steadicam, which was all day today and part of yesterday and much of tomorrow, so I'm a happy girl because I have a new toy.
Also, side note: tomorrow there will be a clown on set whose name is "Laffy Pants" and whom we are supposed to address as such. Just ponder that for a moment, and then try to imagine me keeping a straight face while asking Laffy Pants if he can stand on his mark so I can get focus to him. Hmm.
So on Halloween I went over, after set, to Sarah and John's house and saw all sorts of old Northwestern people: Sarah, John, Deirdre, Eileen, Sarah's sister Eleni, Aaron Holzman, Mike Ciceti, Robert Cosnahan (who goes to AFI too, in the second year), and Susan Park. Weird! It was like Halloween freshman year in CRC, except with alcohol. We went to Santa Monica Boulevard, which they close off much like the Castro back home, and basically just walked around. It was a long walk from their apartment, but worth it. Walking around made feel like I was actually in a city, as opposed to the ugly urban sprawl that is LA. Anyway, it was really nice to hang out with non-AFI people, people who know me on an entirely different level and who I'm just naturally comfortable around, you know? And after I left their house I met Will at a bar because he wanted to show me his new and improved Linus costume (from Peanuts... last time he was Linus the costume was kind of lame), so it was a whole bunch of good friends all in one night, and it was refreshing, even if I didn't get very much sleep.
One of the best things about AFI is that every week they bring in a filmmaker to present a film and do a Q&A session afterwards. The directors of Little Miss Sunshine came, Christopher Nolan came and brought The Prestige, Stephen Shainburg brought Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, and last week Jean-Pierre Jeunet came and showed Delicatessen, which was his first feature from 1991, but is still really good, and it was just great to listen to him. He was pretty hilarious; I can't possibly describe it, and Tim I know you're going to hate me, but his imitation of Wong Kar Wai upon their meeting was priceless. Anyway, this Wednesday DAVID LYNCH is coming and showing Inland Empire, which is his newest film that's just coming out. DAVID FRICKIN' LYNCH. He of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and all the others. He's an AFI graduate, so I kind of suspected he would be coming, but still... I am so incredibly excited I can hardly stand it. Gah!
Oh, by the way, my Cycle 1 project got reviewed fairly well by Bill Dill. Well, "fairly well" compared to most of the other films that have shown in Bill's class thus far. He was a little rushed for time on critiquing mine, so he didn't get to go into all the bone-crushing detail he probably would have liked to go into on it, but he said that despite all the problems with the story and technically, with the lighting and stuff, we at least tried to visually convey the arc of the story. He was not all praiseworthy, and the things he said were very helpful. I'm just kind of amazed he didn't completely rip it to shreds. So anyway. That went well, and now it's over, and I'm glad.
And now it's time for bed, because I have a 6am call time, and I'm completely exhausted. I've been exhausted for pretty much five weeks straight now. It's starting to get to me a little bit, but I also love it, so I suppose it's worth it. I would just like to have a day off or something. I'll have a day off in two weeks, for week 7, but I told my friend Richard I could maybe help him out for a couple days... we shall see. If I'm too tired I won't do it.
Back to San Francisco in 16 days and counting!
-Cam
P.S. Saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazhakstan last night, and it was so freakin' funny I can't believe it. It's not as good as Borat is on the show because of the long format, but still: SO FUNNY. More in a review soon.