Inspirational Quote

Month 12

Mastery Journal 12: Business of Film

Let me very frank. This year has been an interesting one. When I began my Masters program at Full Sail, the first class I took was Mastery, which blew my mind. I began with so much gusto it was unbelievable, however, in month 3, I had to go to the hospital, which messed everything up, I left behind my classmates who I had grown so close with, and was forced to retake my third month with a group of strangers after a hiatus. This destroyed my confidence; I began the year of 2018, I was bursting at the seams with energy and confidence, but now I felt so terribly low. 

So the year went on, month 3 turned into month 4, and month 5 to month 6, and slowly I began to get more comfortable with my classmates who turned out to be so kind and creative. It was a mindset shift that did not occur overnight, but it did occur. Now in Month 12, I have learned so much about film-making, about the business, about art, and about myself, that ending this year feels surreal. 

Experiencing a major set-back as I did taught me a valuable lesson. It’s that you have to keep your head up. Attitude really is everything, and it’s easy to have a positive attitude when everything is going your way, but it’s the challenges that force us to grow. Being stuck in a hospital is one of these challenges that life throws at you, and it won’t be the only set-back that I face, but now I believe I’m better equipped to handle these challenges. 

Specifically in Month 12, the business of film, we learned a combination of useful knowledge about the film business, and also about how to get a job in that business. We participated in mock-negotiations for salary, debated which movies will do well at the box-office and why, and created résumés which will be used as we continue our respective searches for jobs. Peter Gordon, our knowledgable professor, would tell us things that were “not meant to depress us, but to keep our expectations realistic.” Where Month 1: Mastery was created to inspire us and give us important life lessons about honing your craft and working with people, Month 12: Business of Film was in part created to give us an understanding of the industry and how to prepare successfully. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn so much at Full Sail, for the guidance of my professor and those before him, for my classmates and friends who were so welcoming and are so inspiring with the work they’ve done, and for my family who have been so supportive this year.

Mastery Journal: Post Production

This month at Full Sail was an interesting one. For me, it began with a decision to become the editor for our class’ thesis film, Insh’allah, something that was a lot of responsibility. I thought to myself, sure, I like editing, and I want to be an editor in the future, so let’s do it! My classmates seemed happy that someone stepped up to edit the film, and I was grateful that everyone was so appreciative. However, this meant that I had to learn Avid, which was certainly very difficult.

The program Avid is a complex one, but slowly I learned my way around the timeline and learned different tricks to maneuvering the software. It was amazing to see the film come to life from so many disjointed chunks. I appreciated the way the class was structured, where each week was a new level of edit to be submitted. Each week that passed, the film got better and better. Beginning with an Assembly edit and moving on to finer and finer cuts was an effective way to go about the process of editing. Also, in this month, I learned a lot about editing as a subject. Pacing is crucial for scenes, and the emotional inertia of a film is more important than continuity, or utilizing ALL the footage that was shot.

Rob was an amazing, personable, and knowledgable instructor and I’m grateful we got to learn from him for a month. Through him, I learned very much about story and breaking down what is actually going on and being told to the audience in every single scene. The process of editing is about looking for key information being conveyed to the audience, finding the necessary beats, and then trimming the fat. I am proud of the final product that I submitted today to the sound team and I look forward to seeing what is done with the picture lock.

Mastery Journal Production

This month, my cohort and I began Production, and continued preparing for our 4 day film shoot of Elijah Edmund’s Insh’allah. Everyone was a bit nervous for the big day(s), but it all came together so well that all my high expectations were met. From my end, a lot of the work involved making sure the call sheets and the sides were up to date before we began shooting. This included going through several different iterations as things changed, and schedules got updated. Even up until the day of shooting this was the case.

Once we did begin shooting, the call sheets were to be updated further still as the shooting schedule changed and different crew members signed up or dropped out. Taylor Merced also worked on the call sheets, and when we began shooting, she took care of finalizing the sides. My job as 2nd assistant director was one that involved making sure the talent was happy. I had no problem doing this, in fact, I felt it to be a very important one as our talent was one of our film’s key assets. This included me being sort of a waiter as well as a general helping hand. Using the walkie-talkies and the lingo that comes with them made all of us feel more official, and I believe encouraged efficiency on set. I certainly took my role very seriously and it was amazing to see everyone else working so hard as a team. For the months that I’ve been apart of this cohort we have all had the same goals, but it was only until thesis began shooting that I could tangibly see that group effort of getting things done. It is always amazing when a project comes together as planned. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the footage and editing it together into a finished product.

Mastery Journal: PreProduction

PreProduction was an interesting month that taught me a lot about this step in film production, as well as a lot about the film business as a whole. Dino, as an instructor, is someone with regular experience in this business, so it was good to hear from him as a professional. He gave us an introduction to all areas of film production and did a good job of scaring us into shape. With next month being the moment of truth that we had all been preparing for, it was a good thing that Dino impressed upon us the importance of everything we were doing. It was kind of daunting, at first, but as the month progressed, I started to see things coming together as our team worked to create a plan for our thesis project, Inshallah.

It was interesting to see our team working together on this, since we’ve been together since day 1, essentially. There were moments that I was discouraged about how things are going to turn out, like when we had one of our locations drop out. However, I had and have great faith in Constance McIntyre, our producer, who found another location that we can film at. Certainly there have been ups and downs. Nothing could have been accomplished if our team wasn’t working together on this. Everyone had a job for prepro, just as everyone has a job this month during production, and we are all instrumental in one way or another.

I am grateful that I have been selected to work as the 2nd Assistant Director on this project. I feel I can be helpful to my team and help the 1st AD as she makes sure the film is running on schedule. Certainly I can learn a lot in this position. I am also very grateful that my team (class) is working through our difficulties and is optimistic about our project. I too am confident that we will produce a meaningful, impactful film.

Mastery Journal: Month 7

This month, my cohort and I took entertainment and communication law a class taught initially by Davey Jay and then by Victoria Hernandez, both experienced professionals in the field of entertainment law. It was particularly helpful to have instructors who knew first-hand the ins and outs of this field, as compared to someone who only knew it in theory. This made for our lessons to be filled with helpful anecdotes and stories about legal cases that one of our instructors had worked on. 

One of the assignments this month was our IP Issues in Production paper in which we looked at a project we had worked on, and identified issues of concern. In doing this, I learned a great deal about intellectual property law and how it might affect me. Even though the type of work that I plan on doing is smaller in scale than works that are more liable to be sued, I still believe I benefited from having to go through important legal rules about things. 

Another assignment we had was a case study in which we looked at an actual case from the entertainment world that dealt with copyright. We were asked to discuss different aspects of the case and in doing so I believe I learned a lot. One thing I learned was the reasoning behind copyright law in regards to fair use and why it exists. It exists to give creative artists breathing room to use existing works in new, transformative ways, such as in documentaries. This was reassuring to me because I have used a lot of other people’s work in transformative ways, so I am happy I have a defense now. 

While in other classes, we learned more about the creative side of film-making, be it with writing or with creating visual projects, this class taught us about the hard facts of reality and some pitfalls to avoid. I appreciate this opportunity and I think Full Sail’s Film Production MFA would be incomplete without it. Thank you for this month, Victoria, good luck with the next!

Mastery Journal 6: VST

The first day of this month hit me like a ton of bricks. I was overwhelmed with anxiety for the high expectations placed on us with our assignments. Each assignment was a heavy load, and I knew I would have to be very diligent with time-management in order to get all of it done. The rumors of the intensity of this month were no joke. Not only did we have to produce a Narrative Short Film, an Emotion Video, a Story-in-a-photo photograph, and a replication photograph, but we also had to participate in a class ahead of us thesis. However, just as Van was expecting a lot out of us, he also had a lot of faith in us. He told us that he had not failed anyone for not getting their assignments done yet, and this gave me reassurance. 

The narrative film was an interesting experience for me, it made me both nervous and proud and other emotions over the course of the assignment. First it began with an idea I had had in months prior; an alcoholic talking to a representation of his alcoholism. Then there was a script written, then casting, which in itself was a grueling, but rewarding process. The actors we picked were just the right fit for the roles, and when we eventually filmed them, they performed excellently. 

One of the challenges of this month’s narrative film was the fact that there was a short fight sequence involved. I had done fight scenes before, but it had always had a comedic bent to them, but this I wanted to be serious. I am proud of our efforts, but I believe the final product could have been done better. The punches just did not seem to connect. The fight scene and the rest of the film was not my best work, but Alexis and I worked hard on it all the same. 

Another assignment this month was our story-in-a-photo photograph. I got an idea from looking at one of the walls of my apartment and contacted Ramon and his wife to be used as models. I had Ramon pose as a robber and his wife posing as the victim placed in a way that divided the frame in two. The other photograph assignment was where we had to replicate a photo from the internet as best as we could. This was very difficult (actually impossible) for me, because I had to show a fish floating in a wine glass. It proved to be impossible because any lighting that I used would cast a stark reflection. 

Overall, this month was an experience I won’t forget, and I believe I learned valuable work and time management skills by having to turn in all assignments on the last day. If I could do this over again, I would have gotten my photograph assignments done earlier so I could have more time to devote to my video assignments.

Month 5: Experimental Film-Making Mastery Journal

�� For month 5 of my journey here at Full Sail University, my classmates and I took Experimental Filmmaking. This was a class that I found very interesting, as much of it dealt with one of my favorite subjects, which is art film, and the meanings behind directorial choices in films. We were also tasked with creating our own films and encouraged to go outside the box, and try new things this class. This culminated in multiple short films as well as four unique flipagram videos. The flipagram videos themselves were great in that they were, in my opinion, like a film equivalent of a writing prompt for writer’s block. Don’t shoot for perfection, just get started shooting. It is nice we are given a class with fewer (if any) boundaries so we could explore creatively. 

  I believe that I achieved two of my three goals in this class which were gain an understanding of unorthodox and avant-garde film-making techniques and to film an artistic short film that reaches viewers on an emotional level and is not disorienting. I am proud of my short film Passage, and will seek to improve upon the film art style of taking pleasant still-shots and arranging them in an artistic way. However, my third goal was not reached, which was to gain knowledge of emerging technologies. This goal may have been inappropriately assigned to month 5 so I am not beating myself up over it. 

   Overall, my experience was very positive in this class. I learned a lot, and got experience working on very different projects. I also learned some valuable technical knowledge about lighting and utilizing and distributing power on a set. If this class was an experiment itself, I consider it a success. One thing I am curious about is I would like to know the instructor’s favorite art film so I could watch it. Thank you for being our instructor this month, JP!

Mastery Journal 4

For the fourth month of my time here at Full Sail, I took Directing Talent, with Alan Gorney. This class taught me many things, mainly how to deal with actors on a set to get the desired result. We also did a fair amount of critical analysis of student films, which was good in that it helped me temper my expectations for what was actually possible for a student thesis film. By far the area that helped me grow the most was when we got a chance to direct three of our own scenes in the soundstage. 

Professor Gorney taught us different techniques on working with actors, trained and not, including what not to do. For a long time, in my own works, I had been giving line readings to my actors. Worse still, I had been telling them how to configure their expressions to match the emotions I had been trying to achieve. This, I learned, was a way to quickly lose respect in the eyes of the actor. When I was tasked with being a director, I found just how difficult it was to manage talent, but I also learned that it helped to use the techniques Professor Gorney taught us. The technique I found most useful was the ‘As if’ scenario, through which the director asks the actor to perform as if they were in a specific scenario. 

I believe I have accomplished two of my three goals I had for this class, which were to improve my social intelligence to better work with my peers, and to train to become a better director. I did not get a chance to learn about budgeting, but that I believe, comes later. Overall, I had a great experience, and I’m grateful for the experience also because I got to know my classmates better, and I learned that I am a decent actor as well. 

Good luck with your next class, Alan!

2.4 Mastery Journal Post

Real is good. Interesting is better.

Stanley Kubrick to Matthew Modine during the filming of Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Feedly Screenshot

Business Card : Logo #1

Papaly Screenshot

LinkedIn Profile Screenshot

Kubrick studying various options for the Starchild scene in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’