USC Week 6/Last Day of School

This whole entire week we've been screening our project 2 and 3 films. I've truly enjoyed watching everyone of my classmate's films. It has been a pleasure being apart of such a unique and talented group of people all in one room. I'm really going to miss a lot of them because I forged friendships with a lot of them that I hopefully will last beyond this summer course. It was exciting to see the growth of so many beginning filmmakers like myself. I think some of them have a real knack for storytelling like Awa and Skyler. It's really sad to believe that my last day of class was today. It's so surreal to realize that 6 week have passed so quickly and yet, I feel so accomplished.

I'm so proud of myself and my classmates for making it to this point. I think our project 2 films we screened today were really symbolic of how well each one of us works with another and what we can attain as a group. This truly is an experience that I will never forget and when school starts in the next few weeks, I'm going to use all the tools I've been taught to make even more movies. A lot of sage advice has been spewed throughout this whole entire period, some of which I will live by for the rest of my life.

Thank you to everyone who has read and left comments on my blog. I will continue to write about my life's events as I start another semester at the University of San Diego.

Screening of A Change of Heart

My film, A Change of Heart, was shown today in class with overwhelming positive comments. Whenever a piece of work of mine is shown up on the big screen, I usually cringe and put my head down during the entire duration. After my film was shown, I stood up with 4 other of my classmates. A lot of the people asked bits and pieces of what I was trying to convey in my story and also they were helpful in their criticisms of my film. My professor said that I should've changed my location, something I totally agree. I should've chosen a location that looked more old and authentic to make it seem like it belonged to an old Chinese woman. Overall, I was pretty happy with the outcome and enjoyed watching some of my classmate's movies, in particular Skyler Wakil's, Infamy and Sarah Scialli's The Competition Sisters.

Only 2 more days until the class is finally done and 4 more days until I return to sunny San Diego for a much needed break until school starts up again. I've enjoyed my stay here at USC and have learned so much from my professor but also guest lectures and more importantly, my classmates. It was definitely worth coming here and hopefully I'll get better at perfecting my skills as a director, writer, and editor.

A Change of Heart

Yesterday was probably one of the most stressful and yet rewarding days of my life. I shot my last film, A Change of Heart, a project which I had imagined to shoot in 6 hours with plenty of time for retakes and breaks but managed to shoot in 2 hours with barely any rehearsals for every shot. My actors were great and I thank them for being there especially Tiffany, who had driven early in the morning to come pick me up to driving in traffic in an attempt to pick up my actor, and then finally driving back home to San Diego in preparation for her birthday party the next day. We had several setbacks, most notably, my lead actor's car being towed in the middle of downtown. However, we regrouped and I think we got several unique shots, due in credit to the wonderful work of my DP, Aaron.

I would also like thank Alex, the owner of the house we used and his niece and nephew who were so patient with us during the whole time. I believe the location we had was sufficient to convey my story that I would like to show the audience. The acting was really good and I was surprised at both Tiffany and Simon's skills because both weren't experienced in acting at all. It was a really fun project to be apart of especially being the director and being in charge of the whole project. This project I felt I was more prepared than my first film because I pre-planned a week and half before coming up with the idea and drawing the storyboard. I think my hard work will translate into a film that my classmates will appreciate and hopefully understand what I'm trying to relay to them.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this project. I'm so glad you guys were so patient with me especially with the things that happened yesterday. To my professor, I would just like to say even if you don't understand or like my film, I would just like to say it was one of the most precious experiences of my life. Although this may not be my career path, I learned a lot not only about filmmaking but also about myself and my abilities as a director.

USC Week 5

This past week was relatively easy going and relaxing to some degree. We didn't have school on Monday, which was a major plus for all of us. It enabled us to recharge our batteries and start moving forward with our final project. I've actually been working on my latest film, A Change of Heart, for the past week and a half so I feel fully prepared to give it my best shot as the final stretch approaches. I'm so thankful that my mother helped me find my location and that both my friends, Tiffany and Simon, graciously volunteered to help act in my film.

On Tuesday, our professor showed us the dailies from our Universal Studios shoot. The dailies from our film, Purgatory, were better than some of the other groups but not ones that could really convey the story we had wanted to tell in the first place. Some groups barely had any footage to even reprise a film and another group had everything going for them, perfect to a whim. Aaron and I will be in charge of editing and sound design, respectively, so hopefully we'll able to make our film the best it can be even with some minor changes to the plot and characters.

On Wednesday, we went to Universal Studios for the last time. It dawned on me how fast the program had flown and it made me sad. I cherished all the memories and guest lectures we had during our trips to Universal Studios. Our final lecturer for the program was a story editor and his main job is to read over scripts which seem suitable for actors/actresses. He was very giddy while telling us about his job and even mouthed over his opportunity to become co-producer to a movie which comes out today called The Collector. After lunch, we ventured of to post-production and visited numerous sites where people gathered to edit films, place sound effects and music, and combine it all to make a film.

Yesterday, class lasted for only a couple hours in which our professor answered our questions about what graduate schools we should apply to if we're interested in the film industry or how we're supposed to get started and what kind of tricks that the film industry pulls. It was a really interesting and animated morning. Afterwards, we had to fill out our evaluations for our professor and our SA.

I have mixed feelings towards this program but at the end of everything, I've learned a great deal about the film industry in several aspects. I've also been taught many life lessons not only from my professor but from our guest lecturers, which I will keep locked in my mind for a very long time. Only one more week to go until I return home to San Diego. It's only recently hit that I've in Los Angeles for the past month. Boy, does time really fly by.

Universal Studios Shoot

This weekend has certainly been eventful. It was highlighted with our filming at Universal Studios on Saturday. My day started out by waking up at 6:30 and helping Aaron pack drinks and food for our actors/actresses. It took us about an hour to load everything into a ZIP car, which our producer (thank you, Jake) managed to rent. All of us arrived in front of the SCA building around 7:00 and started unloading and loading all of our things onto the bus. Our whole crew and cast met up with one another and introductions were thrown out. Around 8:15, our SA yelled out that we were about to leave.

We got to Universal Studios around 9:00 and started unpacking all of our things and taking them to our specific location. It took us about 4 or 5 trips to bring everything to our location. We started rehearsing and finally managed to film around 9:30. The weather the whole day was unbearable but that was the least of our concern. The whole cast and crew especially our director and DP were running a bit slow and by 11:30 were a little behind schedule. We managed to film 13 out of the possible 46 shots we had arranged before lunch.

After lunch, we were on immediate overdrive and started just having one rehearsal for every shot. Our pace picked up rather quickly and we managed to get 15 shots in 2 hours. Still, our crew especially between our producer, director, and DP started to quarrel over the pacing and speed of everything. As the time reached around 2:00, everything seemed to be settled and everyone was working well together. However, on one particular segment, our DP accidentally dropped the camera and one of the lenses popped out of its socket. Fortunately, our film wasn't severely damaged. It took us a little while to regroup after that but we managed to stand strong once again.

Shooting ended around 4:00 when all of us started packing all of our belongings as well as props and extra water and food back to the bus. We left Universal Studios around 4:30 and arrived back at USC at 5:00. It was one of the most tiring and arduous days of my entire life but hopefully what we captured on film made up for it.

USC Week 4

Hey everyone, I seriously am terrible at updating so I apologize for that. This week has been fairly stressful, not only for me but for my entire group. We've been currently finalizing our script for our film, Purgatory, auditioning actors/actresses, storyboarding, creating shot lists, buying food for our cast & crew, and much, much more. I have to say, a collaborative group project has added more pressure on my part because for our group to be successful, we all have to do our jobs. So here's a day by day update on what we've done so far:

Monday- We auditioned around 12 people for 5 hours for 4 parts in our movie. It was one of the most fun and most tedious things I've ever done. We had one of the best auditions to ever be recorded on video and hopefully the rest of the class agrees once we show it to them. : )

Tuesday- We spent almost 5 hours together finalizing the script. We threw out ideas as well as put forth the comments that our classmate's had to improve upon our movie.

Wednesday- We all went to Universal Studios, a weekly ritual and we were introduced to the writer of Rent as well as the show Jericho. He was probably one of the best people to come to lecture our class. Besides telling us his upbringing, he gave us some of the most sage advice that I will definitely take to heart. In the afternoon, we spent about 2-3 hours scouting our locations. We were assigned Mexican street and we took loads of photos at different angles trying to pinpoint where we shall place the camera once we begin shooting on Saturday.

Today- We went to Universal Studios getting props for our movie and then we went to Goodwill to pick up some clothes for our actors to wear. After we were all done, Aaron and I went to Denny's where we both gorged a burger and steak respectively. One of the most taxing days I've had thus so far.

USC Week 3

The week has finally concluded and I have so many things to update you on. On Monday and Tuesday, all of us screened our project # 1 films we had been working on for the past couple of days. It was such a hectic and arduous weekend especially for me, not experienced in shooting a film. I was stressed out shooting my film but most of all editing. I have something to say to the makers of AVID: "What in the world were you thinking when you invented this program"? I spent about 7-8 hours just trying to figure out how to edit but most of all, trying to create titles and credits for my film. I screened my film on Tuesday and to the surprise of myself, most of my classmates thought it was a fairly good movie. When I read the comments that were written by my classmates, I saw that the majority of them thought it was a movie that wasn't too complicated and was very easy to follow. My teacher, Don Zirpola was also supportive and gave me a lot of sage advice about what I should I improve on for my next film.

On Wednesday, we met Jim Bissel, the production designer for such movies as 300 and Jumanji. He gave us an overview and a descriptive account about what he actually does and what steps he takes in preparation for developing sets for his movies. He showed us a reel of 3 movies he had partaken and showed us step by step the different stages from beginning to end. I would rate him as one of the better lectures we've had, second only to Joel Cox. We also were shown the lighting and gripping department and had a short tour of what kind of lighting Universal Studios offers to television as well as film. All in all, it was a really productive day except for the food, which caused me to have a stomach ache by days end.

On Thursday, we traveled to Zemeckis and were given a lesson about the cameras we were going to use for project #2. Our instructor for the day, Raul Fernandez gave us the rundown about the cameras (16mm) we would be using for our projects as well as teaching us how to put film into each of our cameras. It was really interesting seeing the intricacies about how a 16mm camera works. Besides the camera, we were given a light meter, a tripod, a battery pack, spools of film, and caps for the lenses. In the afternoon, we were given a lesson about lighting and how lighting has an affect on particular subject depending on where you position your lights. It was a very educational day and definitely was a great way to end the week.