2/3
Week Four
Visual part of film #2 is done -> an 8-min audio/visual interpretation of a section from Dante's Divine Comedy. Only the audio remains unfinished, & she loves doing the audio. The project seems to come together with audio, with the addition of music tracks & sound effects - all keyed to the visuals. She has a professional-quality audio-editing program that should give her an advantage over those who have to use Premiere to cut their audio.
Each film
gets better. Seems like this latest project takes a her a significant step beyond
anything she's done in the past. Perhaps it's merely more ambitious. hard to
tell until it's all done. There's nop audio yet, but so
far, it looks interesting -> deeper, more layered, textured, emotional, &
of course One-take Jonathan did a great job.
She
eats
at the computer, face glued to the monitor. I managed to drag her off to the
Jacuzzi once each day, but that's about it. Even at the Jacuzzi, she's thinking
about her film.
Had
originally planned to do the picture portion on Saturday, and complete the audio on Sunday. But
visual part took longer than anticipated - seems like everything in
production takes longer than anticipated. Now she'll have to edit the audio on Wednesday,
which is tight, cuz she shows film Thursday. If anything goes wrong Wednesday
(computer crashes, etc.), she may not have time to fix.
She's in another universe when editing her films - some distant galaxy. For example, I say things like,
"Honey,
the kitchen's on fire." Her response -> "Okay."
I come home & say, "Honey, I wrecked your car today." Her response
-> "Okay."
The phone rings. I answer. It's a wrong number, but I say, "That was Lani, she's
pregnant." Response -> "Alright."
New
assignment in the Acting/Directing Actors class: she has to ACT in 2 scenes and
DIRECT 1. Prof said each scene should take 4-8 hours to prepare. Students
are feeling overwhelmed. She heard other students
saying things like, "This is like boot camp."
The
Acting/Directing class is her second favorite after Production
itself, where
she makes/shows/views films. Wendy talked to her Acting prof back when
classes first started, and introduced herself after class. She told him how she
has experience in the Healing arts, which employ psychological principles,
& that directing actors seemed to be a similar extension of psychology ->
time
warp to today -> she called her Acting prof with a few Qs about her scene .. & he told
her he just read a quote from Elia Kazan (famous director who I've never heard
of) that said, "Directing turns
psychology into behavior." He remembered their conversation. {Kazan
directed A Street Car named Desire with Brando & is famous for old, emotionally-charged
films.}
Wendy
has zero acting experience. A few students in her class have tons of acting
experience. Those with the most acting experience were 'drafted in the first
round' for class projects. For the first 3 projects, she teamed up with one guy who has
acting experience & another who doesn't.
One
cool
concept she shared with me is about mapping the structure of a film's emotional intensity.
Films that 'work' have similar emotional-intensity structures. Those that
doesn't, do not. Prof said emotional-intensity structure is a vital, although not
obvious, component of films that work.
Her
sound class is very technical, with lots of technical terms, & Wendy's not
the most technical person. But I'm kind technical, & have been able to help
her with some of the more techie stuff. The other day, she started her audio-editing
program, & up popped one of those helpful tips on how to use the program
better. She reads it out loud to me. It was chock full of techical-sounding terms.
Then she looked over & said, "Ya know what's scary, is that I almost
understand that." =D
For English
class, Jahmar
had to write a paper about The Coolest Person I Know. He wrote about Wendy,
saying how his mom was going to graduate school at USC,
studying & making films. He's proud of his mom. Wendy was touched. Same day, she
got an email from Lani at UC Santa Cruz, saying, "You're my idol,
mom." Think I saw a happy tear.
Update:
midnight Wednesday, she's still not done. "But I'm close," she
says, always pushing it to the edge (she has to show it tomorrow).
Can't
wait to see it on the TV. Sound is finished. She merely has to import the audio
back into Premiere & put
everything out to tape, which she'll take to school with her.
I
think she's happy with how film #2 turned out, cuz a few times today, I heard
her say (in her best
Muhammad Ali impression), "I'm a baaaaad man."
Next -> Film 2 Report Card
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