Digital Workflow.

When I was a kid, I always got excited about the first day of school. New binders, blank covers for my textbooks that will ultimately get graffiti'ed on within the first 2 weeks, and seeing my friends again. I think I lost that excitement for the first day of school when I got into high school. Last night was the start of the fall semester, and I have to say that I'm feeling that same excitement. Going to school for personal enrichment is like going to school as a kid. I am taking Evan Donn's Digital Workflow class, and I'm really excited about it. I realized after my Edinburgh Festival Fringe excursion that my film making skills absolutely suck. My goal in this class is to learn a thing or two about camera angles, lighting, and audio. I cannot depend solely on my editing skills anymore. I really need to know how to film! Hopefully, I will be able to pick up these skills after this class is done. The semester long project? Voila:

"Your primary project this semester will be to produce your own video series. For this series you can choose any topic, style and genre you wish; it can be fiction or non-fiction but it must have a consistent topic or theme which carries across all episodes. You will need to produce 5 episodes this semester (one every 3 weeks), and each episode should be no shorter than 2 minutes and no longer than 3. You must have the rights to all materials used in your videos for this class. This means that any video, photographic or music elements must either be original or used with permission. We will discuss creative commons licensing in class and I will provide a variety of links to cc licensed material online which you may be able to use in your projects."

Five 3 minute videos, every three weeks? Boy oh boy. For my semester long project, I am going to make five 3-minute 48 hour film projects. I'll have the class pick the character, prop, line of dialogue, and genre, and every three weeks I will produce my 3-minute film. I will do my best to step out my comfort zone and experiment with new camera angles and lighting. I guess I should probably invest in some good microphones as well. I am going to take this class seriously because I really want to do things right. Like I said, I cannot depend solely on my FCP skills anymore. I really need to become the film jack of all trades.

What A Crazy Summer

This has been the most unconventional and unpredictable summer of my life. The only thing I had on my schedule was to participate in this little thing called The 48 Hour Film Project and take a couple of classes. It never donned on me that "Urgent Care," would change the course of my whole summer. Well, these three months are officially over and the fall semester is here. I wasn't planning on signing up for Evan Donn's Digital Workflow class, but because of everything that had occurred this summer, I rearranged my schedule to fit this class in. I'd also like to point out that I am over the limit in credits at The College of San Mateo, so I had to "negotiate" with the powers that be at CSM to let me enroll. All worth it. Below is a time line of this crazy summer.

• May 20, 2007 - Tony signs up The Evan Donn School of Film in the 48 Hour Film Project. Tony calls the team “It Donned On Me.”
• June 15, 2007 - It Donned On Me conceives “Urgent Care.”
• June 16, 2007 - The crew is introduced to Lynn Ruth Miller, the 73 year old star of this 48 Hour Film Project. Tony and Lynn Ruth hit it off right away.
• June 27, 2007 - Tony and Lynn Ruth's chemistry ignites even more at the “Urgent Care” premiere at The Embarcadero Theater in San Francisco.
• July 09, 2007 - Tony and Lynn Ruth meet for lunch. Tony agrees to help market Lynn Ruth’s comedy act. Lynn Ruth invites Tony to Scotland.
• July 24, 2007 - Tony books plane ticket to Edinburgh, costing him 50,000 mileage points.
• July 26, 2007 - Visa announces that IT DONNED ON ME was chosen to participate in the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational on the basis of our 48 Hour Film Project "Urgent Care."
• August 10, 2007 - IT DONNED ON ME signs up for the San Jose 48 Hour Film Project.
• August 15, 2007 - "Doggie Style," IT DONNED ON ME's sophomore effort, has its official screening in San Jose.
• August 17, 2007 - Tony flies to Scotland for The Edinburgh Festival Fringe to film The Lynn Ruth Miller documentary.
• August 28, 2007 - Tony enrolls in Evan Donn's Digital Workflow class.

Not A Happy Camper

It's no secret that I am not a fan of camping. Who am I kidding, not being a fan is putting it mildly. I hate camping. I hate having to sleep in a tent out in the woods and not being able to plug my MacBook Pro into a socket. I don't rough it. My idea of camping is a motel room off the Las Vegas strip. I really really hate camping, yet I always seems to find myself in this predicament. The problem is that I made a promise to the girls that I would go with them, and I am not one to go back on my word when it comes to the family. I absolutely despise it when family members flake on each other, so I would never do cancel out after making a commitment.

Normally, I would just deal with it, but this time around, it was hard. I really wanted to be in San Jose with the IT DONNED ON ME team working our 48 Hour Film Project #2. However, I made that commitment to my family and I was not going to back out. The good news was that my Treo was able to pick up a signal so I was able to communicate with my team via phone and text message. While everyone else was doing all the boring camping stuff, I moved to the side of my tent and called my team members. When I lost signal, I text messaged them. I wanted a minute by minute update. My team knew felt my antsiness in the woods, so my executive producer texted back with the following faux required elements:

Genre:
Super Hero Musical

Character:
Kandy Kane, Hooker

Prop:
A Biplane

Line of Dialogue:
"And your little dog too!"

Ha ha, very funny Evan Donn. Can you imagine my frustration? I swear, I wished this San Jose Film Project had been any other weekend but this one. I could have flaked, but I would have never heard the end of it from my sister. The sad thing is that if the tables were turned, she would have dropped out and not cared about how it affected others. I'm not like that. I made a promise to the girls and I was not going to break it. It is unfortunate, but it is what it is. I swear, my nieces are the only thing keeping me from regretting my decision of going camping this weekend. In any case, at about 7pm, Evan texted me the real requirements. Once I got that information, I brainstormed ideas and continued to text the IT DONNED ON ME team until the wee hours in front of the camp fire. I may not physically be there for San Jose, but I will do everything I can to contribute to this project, even if it means racking up three digits worth of roaming charges!

Genre:
Holiday Film

Character:
Don or Dawn August, PR Specialist

Prop:
Peanut Butter

Line of Dialogue:
"I feel a little embarrassed."