The Festivities

The Time Out
                 I started this blog with full intention of using it to adapt the everyday life of a Full Sail student and an aspiring filmmaker. Kind of like a daily journal type thing, it's been awhile since I've even touched it though. It's been pretty busy lately, like really busy. I guess I have some explaining to do.

The Editing and Visual Effects
                This class is actually very enjoyable. I came in with a mild knowledge of Final Cut Pro and no knowledge for the rest of the suite. We still haven't touched After Effects but we'll get there. We learned pretty much the whole program from linking to stippling to audio transitions/effects and video transition/effects. In the labs for editing, which take place late at night, we have been editing our DCI project: "The Final Slice." I find it troubling the usual way of editing these instructors implore us to do. Which begins by getting picture lock, which is when all the video is cut perfectly but not audio/music/ ect. I don't like this because my rare editing style was to edit to the music.
                 So I haven't finished a rough cut of the video, haven't made picture lock, I am over 3/4's through the editing of the clips, the audio (including foley, ambience, and narration) but I have yet to apply the score. So I plan on finishing, or at least getting closer tonight in lab.



The Unit Production Manager
                As I said before I was given the position of Unit Production Manager of our documentary about the great Glen Rogers. The UPM is a very tough position, I have been slowly building up the wrap book and keeping good communication through Gmail with my group. We have yet to title the project but that will come soon enough. We had a Documentary Lab where we rotated positions of directing, DPing, Script Sup, Cam Op, ect. So at one point I was a director and at one point I was a Production Assistant. It was interesting, and a good exercise, I got a 98% on it all.
                 Just keeping everyone updated and alert here, while it is a more responsible position I am still loving that I'm more involved with this project than I was with The Final Slice, and I am going to continue beyond the class to personally push this project into local Film Festivals. One step at a time, let's hope the production goes well.


The Full Sail Writer's Group
                 I recently had a Writing Group meeting where I got to critique a fellow students screenplay I read and my  1st act of a screenplay was critiqued as well. I am passionate about this story I have concocted and my hopes are to have a rough draft of the feature by next wednesday. Not holding my breath there though, the critical response was mostly aimed toward my structure of the first act, said I should introduce the characters more subtly. I am working on that know independently and hope that this next critical response is a bit more positive.


The Break Into Production
                  I have a little extra loan money since I accidentally overpaid an extra month on rent last time. So I am going to use 85 dollars of that to contribute to the entry fee of the 24 Hour Film Festival. I have talked to some people who are definitely interested. Basically what that is is that we have 24 hours to write, film and edit a 3-5 minute short film. We will be given the topic there. I just hope that the May classes don't contradict my chances into entering this contest. These classmates I have picked out are very talented and put in the right position I think we could be a real serious competitor toward the competition.

The Florida Film Festival
                 Getting off my ass from watching Lost is hard, but my passion for film runs a little warmer. The Enzian is hosting the Florida Film Festival this week and tonight I saw a film titled "Wuss" it was very dark and malevolent, but at the same time it had a great story structure. I was impressed really, I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the films this week. Welp it's 8:36 Pm on a Saturday, so that means!!!! PARTY!!! I wish, Got a lab 9pm to 1am gotta go.
                

The Introduction - 4/4/2011

THE BEGINNING

            I finally did it. I started one of the most egotistical blogs on the planet. Just playing, truthfully my reason for creating Wade's World is for those people out there curious about the life of a person who moved far away, keeping a long distance relationship and leaving family and friends to pursue a career behind the camera in filmmaking. I am about halfway to receiving my Bachelor's Degree at Full Sail University and I have learned more about film then I could ever have imagined. I no longer watch  movies the same because I constantly ask how they did that, or problem solve in my head to figure out how. 

THE ISSUES

             I get pretty personal sometimes, but I am a genuine person. I can safely say that I currently am holding no grudges against anyone. What might make this blog appealing to you all is the issues and problems behind this lifestyle choice. Well me and my classmates at Full Sail are constantly tested by will are passion for the job. Two classes are completed each month, which means 2 finals and 2 midterms a month. Sometimes its hard to schedule all that in, so we usually have 4 hour intervals of class mostly every day and some late nights, including 1am - 5am and 5am to 9am labs.

               We all suffer from a severe lack of sleep. Filmmaking is Problem-Solving. So through this blog I will discuss my adventures with my fellow classmates solving such problems. I also have times that I struggle from being homesick, but I mostly miss my girlfriend, her name is Tara Montgomery, we have dated a year and three months now, eight of those months being long distance. She currently attends Marshall University in my hometown of Huntington, West Virginia and has plans to move down here with me in the summer to attend Valencia Community College. 

THE SITUATION OF TODAY

              I'm not going to bore you with some cliche' biography of myself, I am the least interesting person. So I'm going to get right down to my first segment of today, April 4th 2011. One year from now I will be graduating with a Bachelor's Degree. I slept about four hours last night, not to bad anything above four hours is usually ideal. I just had one class today, it was a lecture for Documentary Filmmaking 1. Last month we had a class called Digital Cinematography 2 where we did our first class production, a short film titled "The Final Slice." I was the Gaffer for the production, not and ideal position, but I'm not complaining. Well its working similar to this class, for DCI (Digital Cinematography) we had our first month, which was February to go through the stages of pre-production. Then we shot the film in two 12 hour days in March. We are currently Editing the film in our Editing and Visual Effects (EVE) class. 

             Where was I? Oh yeah! Documentary Filmmaking (DFM) we recently picked positions in our group for our upcoming production, and our plot outline. Diego's idea beat mine out by a little, a biographical take on the life of Glen Rogers a man who currently owns the Boom Art store specializing in pop art on furniture. This man has also worked for SNL and was a clown for The Wringling Brothers. So I was more than content with the idea. I was given the position of the Unit Production Manager (UPM) which is a pretty big role. I basically put together the Wrap Book which contains the Treatment, Contact List, Specific Dates/Times, Talent Releases, ect. Making sure all these papers are properly filled out is my responsibility, I am the link between the crew and our producer.

            Today's discussion in class was about that paper work and we were told of our shoot days, which can be picked out of three days when we come back from Spring Break in May. These instructors are also urging us to go hard with our post production on this project, something I am good at. After this film is complete and edited I will make sure it hits up as many local film festivals as it can.  We then concluded our class with a film titled "Murderball" a very intriguing documentary about the sport of murderball played by paraplegics. I loved it, an amazing film. I went and got lunch at Moe's afterwords then came home tired, and ready for a nap. I just finished my homework for DFM and now I will nap and then prepare for a class and lab worth of EVE tomorrow. Stay Tuned!