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.