Preparing
for the Pitch
The 508 semester at
USC Film school
#13 in a series of 16
18nov2000
Fade up & zoom in.
Wendy has been playing detective, asking around about
Tania,
the
upperclassman
who she's teaming with, to 'pitch' for a film they hope to make next semester
(546).
Wendy has heard nothing but good
things about
Tania. The consensus from her TA's
& other students is that Tania is one of the best filmmakers in her class. Everyone
seems to think she's certain to be one of the four students selected to direct a 546
film next semester (out of 10 pitching for the 4 available positions).
Luke,
one of Wendy's classmates, worked with Tania over the summer. He congrat-
ulated Wendy on being selected by Tania to be her producer, and said, "Tania's great.
You're gonna love working with her."
Wendy's TA (Ed) told
her that Tania had also been
inquiring about her.
He told Wendy,
"I gave you two thumbs up."
It seems that reputation has suddenly become an important factor in determining
who
works with whom. Last semester (507), during the pairing process for
508, partner
selection criteria was primarily social.
In other words, students were most concerned
with who
likes who, who parties with with who, etc.
In the upper divisions, it seems that social alignment is no longer a key
determinant
in deciding how students group together. In many cases,
students grouping together
to make a film don't even know each other. Rather, filmmakers prefer someone who
"has their shit together,"
and someone who's willing to work hard. Personality takes
a back seat to competence.
***
Wendy's has a touch of a bug. The all-night shoots with Lisa
(some until 9AM) are
beginning to take their toll.
Working all night long wastes for the next couple of days.
She has trendy dark circles under her eyes. Some shoots take
place on the (cold)
streets.
It seems that Wendy has some degree of influence with Tania. If Tania gets selected
to direct her 546, Wendy may talk to her about an editing position for Lisa. Lisa
is a
good editor, and works hard. Tho Wendy wishes Lisa would come to the shoots
more
organized & prepared, change her mind less often, and get her some help on
the shoots,
like she got for for Lisa during the shooting of Liliana. Yet despite a
challenging semester,
and disagreements, they still love each other, and are committed to making the
best
possible film.
***
A pattern is developing. Last semester, Wendy made 5 movie shorts, all
by herself.
This semester, she makes two movie shorts, with a partner (Lisa).
Next semester
(546) she'll work with a dozen people, on a single
film. The ability to work with others
and function as a team plays an increasingly important role as
the students progress
thru the program.
The 546 pitch is this Monday. So, in the midst of shooting Lisa's film,
titled
The
Love
Manifesto
(Fri/Sat/Sun), Wendy must also prepare for her part of the pitch. She's
been
assigned a full plate. If Tania gets selected, Wendy will most likely spend her Xmas
break
making preps to produce Tania's film.
Areas of responsibility have been
assigned for the pitch. Wendy will be in charge of
Location
& Casting.
Dennis,
the other Producer, will handle Scheduling
& Budget.
Wendy said he's been kicking butt. She's happy he's on the
team.
Tania gave Wendy first pick of the areas she wanted to
handle. Director & Producers
pitch together (Tania, Wendy, Dennis) to a panel of
5 faculty members, headed by
Mary Jensen, the head of 546. The head of each 546 dept sits on the selection
board.
One from Cinematography, one from Editing, one from Directing,
one from Sound, and
Mary Jensen represents Producing. One student representative also sits on
the selection
panel.
***
For the pitch, Tania put together a 4-pg
proposal. A copy will
be given to each member
of the selection panel. Wendy posted a copy of the
proposal
here.
Tania's script was written by a girl named Miriam Kim. There were two
possible scripts
under consideration. Tania selected the one written by Miriam. Wendy read both
scripts,
& agreed that Tania made the correct choice.
The story is titled Dreaming
of Being Jane. The story's concept is not new, but the girls
hope
to do it in a new way. Wendy is especially excited about the dream
sequence.
Next semester's 546 film will be 12 mins long - much better than the 508's she's
working
on this semester, which are limited to 5 mins, much too short to develop
a meaningful
storyline.
Wendy heard from TAs & other students that the
biggest negative to making a 546 is
that profs get too involved, and can ruin the
movie. Tania & Wendy want to go into
the film with a well-developed plan, giving profs minimal opportunity to get involved.
Wendy feels a sense of serendipity with Tania. The whole thing
came together so easily
and naturally.
Tania took Wendy to the athlete's cafeteria (on
campus) for lunch last week. Wendy
has been at USC for 3 years, but didn't know about the cafeteria, which has
better
and healthier food than the other
places on/near campus. It surprised her that she
hadn't heard about the
athlete's cafeteria before.
Wendy says it's the best kept
secret on campus.
She told me, if her dad
& brother were still alive, she take them both there for lunch,
cuz they're
both huge USC footballs fans. They'd both love it. She wonders if her
dad
(USC alumni, dentist) knew about it, or ever ate there .. if he ever sat in the chair
she
sat in.
***
Lisa's film is ~3/4ths done. They've shot 11 rolls. Only 2 remain. They
might actually
be done shooting this weekend. If not this weekend, then Tuesday at
the latest.
Next weekend is the official pick-up weekend, but Lisa will
be out of town. Wendy
has edited all the footage developed so far.
This is a crunch weekend for Wendy. In addition to shooting Lisa's film
(Fri/Sat/Sun),
she also has to complete her part of the 546 pitch (by Monday).
The pitch is expected
to last 20 minutes.
Wendy also has a 12-page
script due Monday, that she hasn't started yet. (She'll
start today.) The
prof for this class sent students little love notes (emails), saying,
"You've used all your excuses. I don't want to hear how you were on the
set all
weekend. If your papers are late, they'll be graded a full letter
lower." Wendy is
stressing.
Speaking of stress, two days ago, while she was backing out of the driveway,
I
noticed her right-front tired was half flat. On closer inspection, I found a a
nail.
She was in a hurry cuz she had to get to
school by 5PM, to pick up the film for
a scheduled shoot, before the store closed.
She was already running late. I
wouldn't let her take the car. She got mad, like it was my fault.
She
wanted to put air in it at the gas station down the street, & fix it later.
I said,
"There's no way you're driving that car to LA." Long story
short, we had to take
everything out of her car (camera/lighting equipment)
& put it in mine. She complained
the whole time. I could've saved her life, but she gave me nothing but grief. The next
day, I
had four new tires put on her car.
***
During the long, weekend shoots, she's been staying at George's place, in
Venice.
George, a friend of her brothers, and long time friend of the family, lives less than
2 blocks from Lisa's (v. convenient after shooting all night long).
She's gonna give George's girlfriend a
massage this weekend (in addition to all the
other things she has to do), to
reciprocate for George being so hospitable.
Wendy just called to say she just shot her first split-screen. That's were
they block
off the left side of the camera lens (with small piece of
black cardboard), and shoot
a certain scene. Then, rewind the film, & block
off the top half, and re-shoot a diff-
erent scene.
If it works right, you
get two different scenes - on left and right of the screen -
that somehow
relate-to/contrast/play-off each other. You can also do a top/bottom
split
screen. She won't know if it worked until the film comes back from the
developer.
***
Zarena
finally got to see the
film
she made. Wendy said all her (male)
classmates
were walking around with their tongues hanging out, saying things
like, "Uh, er,
your actress is very pretty."
Wendy was
editing this week, in same room with the 2 girls
(partners) that were
bickering. Every 5 minutes they'd start arguing about something,
saying things like,
"Why did you do that? I
already told you I didn't want you to do that." It was a
little distracting.
Wendy
loves editing. It's where creative juices flow most freely.
Fade to black.
Next ->
Editor's
position accepted
Previous ->
Producing
a 546
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