Wendy's film,
titled Liliana, screens
this Saturday (28th). No classes the rest
of this week, as students focus on finishing
their 16mm projects.
Audio is all that remains. Wendy is editing
her own soundtrack (at USC) every
day/night. She hates working with Mag tape. After
working with digital audio
(on her PC), Mag tape is tedious. It kills the creative
flow. She says, "You just
want to get the tracks on there & be done. It's not even fun" It takes forever
to do
even the simplest things.
The
soundtrack is pieced together roughly, except for the scoring sessions,
with her composer +
guitarists. The recording session will take place tomorrow
at the Steven Spielberg Scoring Stage.
The sound
should
be easy to wrap up, once she has the (scored) music track.
Sound has always been one of her strengths .. but she's always edited digitally.
She has 7 tracks of audio to mix
- the max allowed. Editing with Mag tape, you're
only able to hear two audio tracks at a time. So you can never be sure how
your
final project will sound. (You can also see the video track.)
Friday is mix day,
the last day before the screening. No time to recover if
something goes wrong.
With digital audio, she can hear +
edit
an unlimited number of tracks (at the same
time). The only downside to editing digitally is the time it takes to capture
the files,
putting the on the hard drive. Once they're there, she's free, in Creative Nirvana.
***
There is a great digital vs analog debate. The argument goes something
like this:
With film (analog), you put more thought into
everything you do, including each
cut you make.
The logic is that, besides co$ting more, if you screw up, or decide your last cut
doesn't work quite how you planned, or if you simply change your mind, there's
no magic Undo button .. like you have with digital.
Cut+paste
is much easier than cut+splice. Analog/film adds a soberness to
filmmaking,
because each poor decision (shots, cuts) is accompanied by a
more painful penalty.
Question begging to be asked are:
1. Does
digital's ease-of-use mean an editor will put less thought into each
decision?
2. Does putting
more thought into each decision make a person more creative?
3. Does digital technology hinder or enhance creativity?
The old school forms
the majority of those in the analog camp. There's a whole
industry of people who learned and know analog. Digital threatens an end to their
way of life .. or, at least, threatens to put them on the steeper slopes of the digital
learning-curve, which can be intimidating for those who think in analog terms.
Most alarming
for them is how rapidly digital technology is accelerating, riding a
powerful wave of bang-for-your-buck appeal. Only recently (the last decade) has
digital technology moved with any force into audio & video, offering filmmakers an
increasingly
attractive alternative. Digital technology promises to make cinema
less dependant upon
finances.
What Wendy is painfully aware of is that digital technology allows the filmmaker to
accomplish much more, much more quickly, for far less money, and perhaps most
importantly, it allows the artist to stay
in the creative flow better than analog
technology. She can try (and undo) 20 things digitally in the time it takes to do
one with analog.
USC seems to be
pushing digital technology.
***
Wendy signed up for next semester's classes. 3 major options/paths at USC:
She's wants to major in
Film. She's most jazzed about the idea of working on a big
feature,
where she'd have more time to plan each shot & cut.
The Interactive media field is wide open .. for those who want to blaze new trails.
She already has a
good deal of experience with digital technology, but feels it's
still be too early to commit to a purely digital focus.
Things in digital
technology change fast. Knowledge becomes obsolete overnight.
She doesn't want to pour tons of time & energy into
something that may ancient
history before the ink on her diploma dries. She's heard that people with Italian
leather checkbooks await graduates with a background in that area.
She had a (undergrad) class based around Macromedia Director,
and came away
unimpressed and disappointed. She felt she could've got the same information
from working
thru a tutorial (at home), and not had to pay USC tuition for it.
(We have Director v8.0.)
Television is supposed to be
lucrative field, but it doesn't excite her as much as
Film does. She's willing to work hard to get
what she wants. But, if Film is a dying
dinosaur, she
doesn't want to jump in with both feet.
Her strategy is
to pursue Film, while keeping a foot in the doorway
to
Interactive New Media (take a few classes). Ultimately, she hopes
she'll
be able to synergistically combine her knowledge from both fields.
Film is USC's strongest suit. First
Look is an
event where industry
heavyweights
view USC student films. One student asked the administrator if there was a First
Look for Interactive new media. He replied, "Well, you
could send a CD of your work
to a company". That did not go
over well.
***
Wendy had her
cast party last Thursday night, at El
Cid restaurant in Hollywood
(Sunset blvd). It used to be recording studio. She treated her cast to a Flamenco
show (her film contains Flamenco
dancing). She wanted to do something special for
them, more than beer + pizza. They've
become like family. She loves the way they
understand her, her
characters, & her story.
She got tipsy (2 margaritas). She'd
been holding everything in while finishing the
film. It didn't take much
for her to cut loose. She wanted to go out dancing with
Zarena &
Zarena's
friend after leaving El Cid, but I squashed that idea.
I met people that I'd only heard
about, like Lejla.
I expected her to look older.
She looks you deep in the eye when talking. Lejla brought along her sister, who's
a
Film school student at cross-town rival UCLA.
Lejla's dad
came along, too. He works in Japan, securing funds to help rebuild his
war-torn country of Bosnia. Lejla's sister said, "You never think it could
happen to
your country. When we were growing up, we never had the
slightest idea there
would be a war."
Lejla said, "Wendy is a
nourishing director. She makes you want to give your best.
She was rubbing
my shoulders between takes. These other directors can kiss my
babushka."
The whole way home, Wendy said, "Did you hear what they
said about me? They
said I'm a nourishing director, that I make them want to give
their best. The next
time you write an
update, I want you to put that in there." =)
Hector the horse trainer
arrived first. Tan, athletic, strong, gracious. I
couldn't help
but hear the rumors flying across the table how Hector
& Zarena would make a great
couple. Hector has also worked selling
boats & as a tennis pro. Boats, horses, tennis.
I told him, "I
think I see a pattern, Hector." =)
Lisa + Valerie (girl with
the purple
velvet couch) showed up next. When I met Valerie,
I said, "I know
you. I recognize you from a video I saw last week on Atom Films - you're
the person with the purple velvet couch." She laughed and said,
"Two! purple velvet
couches." She said the Atom Films video was screened at First
Look.
Little Judy showed up wearing an adorable white dress. She looked like a
little princess.
She
sat between her mommy & daddy, and is even prettier
in person than her headshot
indicates.
Zarena was
there, too. She passed on tickets to the Latin Grammies to come to
the
cast party. It wouldn't have been the same without her, as she's the star.
Zarena
brought her girlfriend with her. It seems that all of Zarena's friends speak with a French
accent .. or at least the ones I've met.
We stood outside the restaurant afterwards, and talked for
a hour. I overheard the
girls planning to ride horses again. I told Hector how they got in trouble
for riding the
horses hard, and then bringing them back to the stables
dripping. Hector said, "You're
lucky they didn't keep your
deposit." The
girls
said, "But Hector, the horses wanted to
run the whole time." (yeah, right)
Louie
couldn't make it. It's a long drive
from Santa Ana, and hard for him to be away
from his grandbabies. We missed
him.
***
Lisa is starting her
16mm project: The Love Manifesto. She doesn't want me to post
her script yet, cuz it's not finished. She held auditions Sunday, and thinks she may
already have her lead actress.
Lisa + Wendy had their first script conference for Lisa's film
(with
prof + TA).
It's the first time the girls have seen the lighter side of Helaine/prof. She was sick
with a bad cold when classes first started. Only now is she
finally feeling better.
Helaine joked, "You can always tell which student just
finished their movie & which
is just starting, cuz one is smiling
real big and the other is not." Wendy's feels that
writing, producing & directing is much harder than
shooting & editing .. altho she
has yet to shoot & edit 16mm.
Fade to black.
Next -> Work-print
screening
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-> Picture
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