2/6
Week Five
Wendy
said this last film pushed her beyond where she's been before, in several
different ways - sign of growth, perhaps.
Speaking
of growth, she ran into a few students, now seniors, from undergrad days. A few
of them were mere kids last time she saw them. They're now directing
their own projects. Was remarkable for Wendy to see how much these kids had grown - so much so,
that they didn't even look like the same people -> especially one little, Latino
girl named Maria, who looked timid & unsure of herself before -> now
confident & in-control.
About
the last film, I'm supposed to mention a problem
-> Wendy had an actress bail on her at the last minute. Actually, she never
showed up, never called, nothing. Won't mention any
names <ahem> Michelle <ahem>. That's why the reason the
intent/purpose/goal aspect of the film was lacking.
Wendy's classmates have had similar probs with actors & actresses bailing on them. The Harvard girl, Jennie, had a pro actress show up, see the video camera and say, "Oh, I can't do video. My agent won't let me. I can only do film." The actress called her agent. The agent said, "Don't do it." Actress picked up her things and left Jennie high and dry. Last Wendy heard, Jennie was still searching for a replacement. If I were her, I'd ask around if anybody knew where I could rent a motorcycle, buy a roll of duct tape, tape the camera to the handlebars, then dust off my old, Rolling Stones albums. =D
The
rapid schedule for the projects means that unforeseen problems have greater
impact, sometimes devastating.
Heard
rumors that USC may be getting some new, high-end cameras & Avid editing systems.
Speaking of the
Blair Witch, one comments from Wendy classmates on
her last film was, "Your cuts were great, like in the Blair Witch. Wendy
thought
that a left-handed compliment - kind of like, "You're not as dumb as you
look." =D
Two new
projects under consideration for film 3:
1.
another massage-based piece - similar to BodyMind (her best effort as an undergrad,
shot on black
& white super-8). If she's able to get Kellie again, then she'll be able to
use/inject some of the Super8 film footage as, perhaps, flashbacks or special
effect. Could be a neat effect.
2.
A semi-humorous piece about casting titled Auditions for Vandel .. which
will not only consist of a bunch of Van's (her brother) friends trying to
act like Van or instructing an actor how to act like Van, but also
inject lots of humor about all the things that can & do go wrong with a shoot.
Wendy finally
had a chance to settled down a bit. She's been running ever since starting
school. Having to pump out those first 2 films so fast took
its toll. She finally got a breather yesterday.
After
the last update, Wendy
received several letters of encouragement, which were much appreciated.
Will
leave you with a note she got from her TA yesterday (copy-n-paste):
Wendy
- thanks 4 the email. I am familiar with that camera from my TV days, but this
is the first that I've seen it projected. Looks gorgeous.
As
for the character bit - I think you've come up with great situations for feeling
- and it's clear to me that U don't really need film school for technical aspects, but to perfect your storytelling.
The
absolute hardest thing to do is CREATE feeling -- there are many tricks.
I
think the problems you faced in your first two films is this - the first
one needed some more specific character traits that made her more REAL - i.e.
something that we could understand and relate to that we hadn't seen before. I
think the problem with your second film was that we didn't have a context for
anything. It was hard to equate what we saw with any personal feelings of our own
- i.e. Stand by Me works because we all know what it's like to be a lost little
boy, etc.
I
could talk for hours about this stuff -- it's no big deal right now.
Clearly
you're are one of the most talented people in the class. I think you have what it
takes to be tremendous. Make your character's real and put them in situations that we
can relate to - even if it's not directly. This will come in time. Your first
two films are some of the best first two 507's I've seen.
Rock
on
KEV
Next -> Film 3
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