1/08
More
First Impressions
Two things surprised her most:
1.
Diversity of the class. They come from everywhere - not just from the US,
but from all over the globe, with equally diverse backgrounds, not just Film.
2.
How articulate her classmates are. She was impressed by their speaking
skills when they stood
up & told about their educational backgrounds & how they got to USC.
Only
two others have kids. Doug has 2-month old baby, & Stacy has a 9-yr old daughter. Most,
not all, have some kind of background in
Film/Cinema/Art, even if only extracurricular/hobby. Roughly 50/50 male/female mix -
maybe a few more men.
Class
will be broke into 3 groups, 17 or so in each group.
USC
will supply students with Sony TRV-900 (3-chip) DV camcorders. Wendy has her own
camcorder - Canon GL1.
We're
still waiting on the (pre-ordered) real-time editing card (Matrox RT2000) ..
delayed from way back in October .. now they're talking Feb. That'll make a big diff for
her editing - make it go faster.
USC
is using Macs, with Adobe Premiere (Wendy uses Premiere on PC-based system) .. and loan
students 9-gig hard drives for their projects. 9-gig is standard SCSI drive size, so
I'm guessing they're SCSI's. 9 gigs is enough drive space
Most
surprising is that she'll have two semesters of Production classes that are 6 units each,
but these are preparatory classes - in other words, they don't count toward
the 40 units req'd to graduate! Dang. And these are the hardest classes, where they'll
make 5 DV (digital video) projects (all by themselves) the first semester, &
two 16mm film projects (with a partner) the second semester. They had her whole schedule already planned for her.
She
wanted to trade to a new class by a prof (Dr. Casper) she had last year
(undergrad) who's
gonna be teaching about Star Wars. Rumors flying that GL (gee-el, they didn't say
his actual name) might drop in, as Dr. Casper is buddies with George Lucas - a
graduate of USC himself. You know he'll be dropping in - just a matter of when.
But
if she takes that class, she'd have to drive 4 days a week, and it's the driving
that takes a toll on her.
One
other class caught her fancy - taught by the head of USC's writing prgm, David
Howard. She read his book Tools of Screenwriting and loved it. She's been talking about trying to get
into his class since reading his book. But again, this would add an extra day of
driving an extra day each week.
She
has (only) 3 classes:
1. Production -> 6 units, the big/main one, which doesn't even count toward the
40 units req'd for graduation. This course includes making 5 DV shorts of 5-8
mins per, where she'll do the writing, directing, filming/taping/recording &
editing, and also a class on Acting & Directing Actors, where she'll
be directing her fellow classmates & they'll direct her - on scenes of the
director's choosing. And another class on Audio, which she loves.
2. Screenwriting Fundamentals (2 units)
3. History of International Cinema: Silent Film Era (2 units). This course will
take her from the beginnings of Film, to when sound/audio was introduced.
She
said walking around campus yesterday was one of the greatest feeling in her
life, & that she felt the support of all the peopel that helped make her dream a
reality.
Right
now she's off doing one of those 'healing' things, at the Doubletree hotel up in Costa Mesa .. with Silvana who organized the all-day
event.
Hope she gets all the healing she needs, cuz come bright & early Monday morning, the race is on.
Next -> e-cinema
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